The Encaledus Ocean(s)

Long have humans searched for signs of extraterrestrial life in the cosmos. In the fifty years that we have spent scouring our solar system, only few evidences have been found which support the theory of little green men outside of our world. The most concrete finding which backs this is the discovery of a liquid water ocean on Enceladus, a small moon of Saturn, about 500 kilometers in diameter. This is because of many reasons, which I will explain in the following passages.

Enceladus is Saturn's 6th largest moon, and is about a tenth of the size of Titan, Saturn's largest moon. Enceladus was discovered in 1789 by William Herschel, who also discovered Uranus. Little was known about the icy moon until the Cassini spacecraft took close range photographs of the surface in 2005. Amazingly, the photographs revealed geysers and cryovolcanoes spewing water and ice hundreds of kilometers into the air, some even escaping out into space, contributing to the rings of Saturn. The jets of water also contained silica particles, which are created in hot temperatures. Firstly, scientists were baffled with these findings, however, they soon realized that there must be a liquid water ocean under the thick layer of ice which coats the moon. Tectonic activity and friction caused by gravitational pull heat up the core of the moon. Small vents much like the ones found on ocean floors on Earth are likely to exist on Enceladus. They hint at the fact that there is a source of heat within the celestial body, and that many of the same processes which occur on Earth are not isolated cases. This is particularly exciting to scientists and ET - hopefuls, as geological activity is the catalyst of life on Earth, and seeing it happen elsewhere in the solar system shows that the green men of our imaginations could well be reality. If creatures were to exist in the warm oceans of Enceladus, they would probably look like tube - worms, and simulate a hydrothermal vent ecosystem, as are seen on the bottoms of oceans on Earth.

All in all, the finding of the planet wide ocean on Enceladus, an icy moon, shows how life could possibly be sustained anywhere, no matter the limitations of the area. A true underdog story, that such a barren wasteland as pictured below is the greatest lead that we have to finding extraterrestrial life.

The icy world of Enceladus

Citations

"Enceladus - In Depth." NASA Solar System Exploration. N.p., n.d. Web. 24 Jan. 2016.

http://www.latimes.com/science/sciencenow/la-sci-sn-enceladus-global-ocean-water-cassini-nasa-20150916-story.html

Ebola Vaccine Now Available!

West Africa End 2015 Ebola Free

December 30th, 2015

By: Carol Pearson

Reviewed by: Ashley Kim

 The start of 2015 began hopefully in finding an effective Ebola vaccine and ended in glory. This article in the VOA (Voice of America) celebrated the success of the now safe and efficient Ebola vaccine, VSV-EBOV(see Fig1), as well as much rejoicing for the now Ebola-free countries: Liberia, Sierra Leone, and Guinea! Although these countries weren't the only ones in Africa to be hit with this deadly virus, it was most serious in these regions.

Earlier in 2015, other articles, such as this one from the World Health Organization commented on  how the results from the Guinea Phase III efficiency trial for VSV-EBOV was shown to be decidedly effective. John-Arne Røttingen, Director of the Division Infectious Disease Control at the Norwegian Institute of Public Health and Chair of the Study Steering Group, explained that "... by vaccinating all people who have come into contact with an infected person you create a protective 'ring' and stop the virus

from spreading further. This strategy has helped us to follow the dispersed epidemic in Guinea, and will provide a way to continue this as a public health intervention in trial mode." VSV-EBOV was developed by the Public Health Agency of Canada and licensed to NewLink Genetics, Merck & Co. and the Canadian and US Governments financially supported a continuation of trials and research.

According to the World Health Organization (WHO), a vaccine is made of weakened or killed forms of the microbe that causes the disease. This weaker form triggers the immune to destroy and remember, so the next time the immune encounters this virus, there will be no trouble of fighting it.

Other vaccines, such as ChAd3-ZEBOV, NewLinkGenetics, and MerckVaccines USA are also being tested, as well as other treatments and devices.

However, back to the main article. Although Liberia, Sierra Leone, and Guinea are Ebola free, Pearson agrees with Dr. Bruce Aylward, the WHO's special representative for Ebola, that "...the coming months would be 'absolutely critical.'" Meaning, future Ebola outbreaks must be prepared for and kept under control.

When the Ebola pandemic started two years ago, everyone was completely caught off guard and devastated. Around 11,000 people were taken away by Ebola across ten countries. Yet, here we are, two years later with a vaccine. All over the world, several countries took the time and effort to create this vaccine and are still trying to develop further effective treatments. The World Bank Group has also given $1.62 billion to help these three countries to recover and improve, especially in health. This kind of news always makes me feel that if only people helped the people in this way, the world would make much more progress in the future.

Other Resources:

World on the verge of an effective Ebola vaccine - July 31, 2015

Ebola vaccine works, offering 100% protection in African trial - July 31, 2015

(This article has a rather misleading title, but admits to vaccine needing further trials at this time)

Ebola vaccines, therapies, and diagnostics - October 6, 2015

Citations

"World on the Verge of an Effective Ebola Vaccine." WHO. N.p., 31 July 2015. Web. 17 Jan. 2016.

Enserik, Martin. "Ebola Vaccine Works, Offering 100% Protection in African Trial." Science. N.p., 31 July 2015. Web. 17 Jan. 2016.

"Ebola Vaccines, Therapies, and Diagnostics." World Health Organization. N.p., 6 Oct. 2015. Web. 17 Jan. 2016.

Pearson, Carol. "West Africa Ends 2015 Declared Ebola-free." VOA. N.p., 30 Dec. 2015. Web. 17 Jan. 2016.

"Vaccines." WHO. N.p., n.d. Web. 17 Jan. 2016.

Artificial Skin - Ana

I've been reading many articles lately and found two that especially caught my eye. Both of the articles are regarding improving prosthetic's to give amputees a more accurate and life like sense of touch. Now researches believe that in the not very distant future, using a two-ply of flexible, thin plastic they will be able to enhance prosthetic limbs so that they could feel the sensation of touch, as if it were the real thing (see figure 1).

Multiple research teams have long worked on restoring touch to people with prosthetic limbs. So far the researchers at Stanford University were able to send signals to the brain tissue of mice, which closely mimicked the nerve messages of touch sensors in human skin, by creating electronic sensors. Another breakthrough happen two years ago, when researchers at Case Western Reaserch University in Cleveland, Ohio, gave people with prosthetic hands a sense of touch  by wiring by wiring pressure sensors on the hands to perpheral nerves in their arms. Although, a rudimentary sense of touch has been restored with those previous advancements, the sensors and signals used are very different to the ones being used now, the ones sent by mechanoreceptors which are the natural touch sensors in the skin. That difference being, that when mechanoreceptors sense pressure, they send a stream of nerve impulses; the more pressure, the higher the frequency of those pulses is (see figure 2). However, the previous tactile sensors have been analogue devices, meaning that with them more pressure produces a stronger electric signal, alternatively to a more frequent steam of pulses.

Zhenan Bao, a professor at Stanford University, made it clear that "having the ability to build a synthetic skin that can mimic the function of touch" will have many upsides among the being "the ability to not only restore the sense of touch medically but also enable tremendous opportunities to inspire new electronic material development, new forms of electronics" them ranging from automobiles, to wearable electronics. However, while reading these articles I couldn't help thinking that there was something more this research could possibly lead to. Which includes the group of people affected by this development; and whether that group was only limited to amputees. So, I started thinking if third degree burn victims would also be able to benefit from this, if they could be able to also feel in their burned area(s) again; seeing as they have no feeling in those area(s) anymore, because of the damage done to their nerve endings.

Figure 1:   

A photograph of the skin with flexible artificial mechanoreceptor insets.
Credit: Bao Research Group, Stanford University

Figure 2:

    A video of  Zhenan Bao talking about Artificial Mechanoreceptors

   for intuitive touch

              Credit: Bao Research Group, Stanford University

Word Count without citations: 450

Works Cited:

• "Prosthetic Limbs Could Have Artificial Skin That Really Feels." Popular Science. N.p., 20 Oct. 2015. Web. 14 Jan. 2016. <http://www.popsci.com/better-artificial-skin-for-mind-operated-prosthetics>.
• Newbern, By Elizabeth. "Artificial Skin Could Give People with Prosthetics a Sense of Touch." LiveScience. TechMedia Network, 06 Nov. 2015. Web. 14 Jan. 2016. <http://www.livescience.com/52693-artificial-skin-creates-sensation.html>.
• "Sensors May Soon Give Prosthetics a Lifelike Sense of Touch." Science. N.p., 15 Oct. 2015. Web. 17 Jan. 2016. <http://www.sciencemag.org/news/2015/10/sensors-may-soon-give-prosthetics-lifelike-sense-touch>.
• "Burns." Johns Hopkins Medicine. N.p., n.d. Web. 14 Jan. 2016. <http://www.hopkinsmedicine.org/healthlibrary/conditions/dermatology/burns_85,P01146/>.

Should human gene editing be stopped?

Should Human Gene Editing be Stopped?

Should Human Gene Editing be Stopped? International summit on Human Gene Editing- 1st of Dec. - 3rd of Dec. 


In 2015 a discovery was made called "Electroporation". Electroporation creates a electrical field, which practically makes small holes in membranes to allow CRISPR to deliver to cell interiors. CRISPR is part of a normal bacterial process, it is a man made bactaria that can be used for gene driving (CRSIPR cuts the target cell, the cell repairs the damage by replacing the original cell with an altered version). CRISPR has been in a wide range of organisms, generally food or animals, for example bakers yeast, mosquitoes, fruit flies. In October according to sciencenews.org, there was a record of the most genes edited at once, they edited 62 genes that removed viruses that were in the pig DNA to make pig organs safer for human transplant. The Chinese also in October edited dog genes using CRISPR that resulted in the dog having more muscular thighs. There has also been plans on hatching mosquitoes incapable of carrying malaria!

CRISPR is being used because it is a cheap, fast and simper to use then previous methods of gene editing, it first became known in 2012. In 2015 with the new discovery of “Electroporation", they can easily edit human genes as well. Some say that this is good because they could with this method develop a cure for muscular dystrophy, sickle –cell disease and cancer, just to name a few. In China they announced that they recently attempted to use the system to edit human embryos that were nonviable (meaning thought not possible to edit), this experiment was partially successful. When this was announced many people who work in this field called for a temporary prohibition of editing human germline. In early December an international summit organized by the U.S. National Academies of Sciences and Medicine, the Chinese Academy of Sciences and the United Kingdom’s Royal Society, debated whether it is ethical to edit human genes. U.S. Rep. Bill Foster said; “We’re on the verge of a technological breakthrough that could change the future of mankind, and we should not blindly charge ahead.” 

Bibliography- 
"Year in Review: Breakthrough Gene Editor Sparks Ethics Debate." Science News. N.p., n.d. Web. 15 Jan. 2016. 
"Scientists Debate Ethics of Human Gene Editing at International Summit."The Guardian. N.p., n.d. Web. 16 Jan. 2016. 
"Genome Editing." Genome Editing. N.p., n.d. Web. 16 Jan. 2016. "Event Review: International Summit on Gene Editing." Humanity Media. N.p., n.d. Web. 17 Jan. 2016.

{420 words}

Meeting the Martians?

In 2015, NASA confirmed that water is present on today's Mars. Scientists have discovered a phenomenon called the 'recurring slope lineae' which are dark streaks seen on the surface of Mars (see fg. 1)

Figure 1. The dark streaks on the left are the 'recurring slope lineae' which flow downhill and are believed to have been formed by seasonally flowing water.

These streaks appear in the warmer seasons as they seem to flow down the slopes of the Red Planet, and disappear in colder seasons. Seen on various locations on Mars, the streaks would appear when the temperature was above -23 degrees Celsius. 'Recurring slope lineae' are often viewed as being related to water. Hydrated salts have been found on the slopes of Mars, and scientists believe that they (along with liquid water) play a vital role in the formation of these streaks. The water on Mars contains more salt than water on Earth. Just as salt on roads on Earth is used to speed up the process of melting ice and snow,  the hydrated salts on Mars would lower the point on which the water would freeze. Scientists say that the flow is most likely a shallow one, with just enough water on the surface to form the dark streaks (see fg. 2)

Figure 2. 'Recurring slope lineae' found on the Garni crater on Mars

 "We found the hydrated salts only when the seasonal features were widest, which suggests that either the dark streaks themselves or a process that forms them is the source of the hydration." said Lujendra Ojha of the Georgia Institute of Technology (Georgia Tech). Observations from the CRISM (Compact Reconnaissance Imaging Spectrometer for Mars) showed the existence of hydrated salts on many places were the lineae were located, but only when the dark streaks were wide enough. The scientists also looked at the same 'recurring slope lineae' locations when the streaks weren't as wide, and they found no hydrated salts.
One of the main reasons as to why scientists (along with the rest of the world) are exited about the discovery of water on the Red Planet is because the existence of water could bring us closer to the discovery of life on Mars. Probably not life as in the aliens that we expected to meet, but something similar to a microbe. We know based on what happens on Earth, life tends to exist wherever there is water. That is why NASA is sending its next rover in 2020 to look for evidence of past, and potential future life on Mars.

Word count without citations: 433

References:
Redd, Nola Taylor. "Water on Mars: Exploration & Evidence." Space.com. N.p., 07 Oct. 2015. Web. 13 Jan. 2016.
Wilhelm, Mary Beth. "NASA Confirms Evidence That Liquid Water Flows on Today’s Mars." NASA. NASA, 28 Sept. 2015. Web. 17 Jan. 2016.

Is This the End to the Deadly Ebola Outbreak?

There were many major events in 2015 which were science related, but one that really stood out was the new vaccine against Ebola, which was proven to be 100% successful. According to The World Health Organization, the fatal illness is passed on from wildlife to humans and spreads in human population with human-to-human transmission. In the most recent outbreak, the virus did not only spread through the villages of Central Africa but also to other areas around the world.

In December of 2013, the Ebola virus disease broke out, starting in Guinea. Although it was not the first outbreak (but the 26^th one), it spread in different parts of Africa. The virus spread in West Africa, Sierra Leone and Liberia. But this time, there were also a few cases in the United Kingdom, United States, Spain and Sardinia. This caused many doctors and other medical workers such as nurses to get affected by the harsh virus.

Around a year after the virus spread human clinical trials began, testing possible vaccines on patients. There were many vaccines that were possible candidates, like the ChAd3-ZEBOV, developed by GlaxoSmithKline in collaboration with the US National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, STRIVE (aka Sierra Leone Trial to Introduce a Vaccine against Ebola) are another group working together to find a solution to this deadly virus. But as The World Health Organization states, none of the vaccines are currently licensed but were still proven to be triumphant in December of 2015.

Figure 1: Ebola vaccine human trials start in Liberia

A vaccine developed by NewLink Genetics and Merck Vaccines USA in collaboration with the Public Health Agency of Canada, named VSV-EBOV, seemed to be something different. CNN stated the VSV-EBOV is highly effective and that “the results so far on this trial show 100% efficacy”. After being tested on 7651 residents and 1200 first class workers like nurses or other medics in Sierra Leone, Guinea and Liberia. The vaccine has proven itself to be both safe and sufficient.

While I was reading all these articles and posts, I thought to myself, how do these vaccines work? What do they do? Well, I honestly think that the medical industry is quite complicated to understand. According to what Kendall Costello stated on DOGOnews, here is the simplest way to explain how the vaccine works; VSV-EBOV is basically “a weaker form of the virus”. The vaccine is genetically modified to behave like the virus itself, and lets the immune system know how to fight the virus if the body is ever infected by Ebola.

After more than 11,000 deaths, and many failed vaccines, the countries of the world had many different ways of dealing with both preventing and ending Ebola. From blood transfusions to man-made antibodies or even antiviral drugs, I believe that the VSV-EBOV is one of the greatest developments. This vaccine has is a major life changer for many people around the world.

(Word count without citation: 497)

Citation:

"Ebola Virus Disease." World Health Organization. N.p., Aug. 2015. Web. 17 Jan. 2016.

"Ebola Virus Epidemic in West Africa." Wikipedia. Wikimedia Foundation, n.d. Web. 17 Jan. 2016.

Spark, Laura Smith-. "Ebola Vaccine 'highly Effective' in Trials - CNN.com." CNN. Cable News Network, 3 Aug. 2015. Web. 17 Jan. 2016.

Gallagher, James. "Ebola Vaccine Is 'potential Game-changer' - BBC News." BBC News. N.p., 31 July 2015. Web. 17 Jan. 2016.

Costello, Kendall. "Breakthrough Ebola Vaccine Provides Hope for West Africa." DOGOnews. N.p., 31 Aug. 2015. Web. 17 Jan. 2016.

Global Ocean Covers Enceladus

Throughout history, humans have been striving to find otherworldly life outside of Earth. Excitingly, according to an article from NASA, evidence from NASA’s Cassini spacecraft prove that the buried ocean of Enceladus, one of Saturn’s moons, could be a great place to search for extraterrestrial life. Since a decade ago, geysers spurting near its southern pole have been proof for scientists’ suspicions that Enceladus has a smaller sea. However, after Cassini passing Enceladus over twenty times and its several close passes over the south polar region, the collected gravity data is evidence that there is an underground ocean that covers the whole globe. Researchers have analyzed more than seven years' worth of images of Enceladus taken by the spacecraft and noticed that the moon slightly wobbles as it orbits around Saturn; the icy crust is not frozen to its interior, therefore a global ocean must exist(See Figure 1).

This finding has a huge impact on the science field, for now that humans have one more key to finding life outside of Earth, we can search further about the possibility of extraterrestrial life existing out there. It is exciting to hear that already, “deep-dive discoveries we can make with long-lived orbiter missions to other planets” are being considered and planned, according to Carolyn Porco, Cassini imaging team lead at the Space Science Institute.

In addition, this could be a potential solution to Earth becoming untenable due to global warming or the continuously growing world population, since once scientists find otherworldly inhabitants on Enceladus, there may also be a chance of humans being able to live on it, along with Mars.

The idea of a global ocean on one of Saturn’s moon, Enceladus, might not seem like a great deal, but it surely does open the door to many crucial things such as further research of extraterrestrial life and a new destination for human beings.

Figure 1. Illustration of the interior of Saturn's moon Enceladus showing a global liquid water ocean between its rocky core and icy crust. Thickness of layers shown here is not to scale. Image credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech

Citations:

Witze, Alexandra. "Year in Review: Global Ocean Spans Enceladus." Science News. N.p., 15 Dec. 2015. Web. 15 Jan. 2016.

Dyches, Preston. "Cassini Finds Global Ocean in Saturn's Moon Enceladus." NASA/JPL. N.p., 15 Sept. 2015. Web. 15 Jan. 2016.

The 2015 Nepal Earthquake catastrophe was inevitable?

Author:Nikola Lalic
Date:14/1/2016

April 2015 was a troubled time for the small country of Nepal,located in the middle of the worlds greatest mountain range,the Himalayas.However, no one would have anticipated that one ordinary day would lead to a terrible disaster, in which nearly 9,000 people were to be killed and hundreds of thousands were to be left homeless,in a matter of only minutes.The cause was a powerful, 8.1 on the Richter scale, earthquake, with its epicenter being only 80 kilometers from the country's largest city, and capital, Kathmandu.However, the great question that many scientists now pose is whether this terrible event could have been, at least to some extent,stopped.Seismologist James Jackson from the university of Cambridge in the UK claims to have an answer.

Jackson begins his interview with the "Huffington Post" by claiming:"it was a nightmare waiting to happen".Though the last major quake in Nepal happened in 1934,killing more than 10,000,the very position of Nepal and its cities is dangerous, as it lies in the middle of the Himalayas,a very turbulent seismic sector of the world.Therefore, Jackson claims that such a disaster was bound to happen, sooner or later,which it unfortunately did.However, somewhat contradictory to his previous statement,Jackson also states that the earthquake itself does not kill many people,but instead buildings and objects are the lethal ones.In that case,why did almost 9,000 people die that tragic day? "The consequences are very much man made",Jackson continues.He claims that the way that people build in Asia,and the overall poor infrastructure in Nepal are the main reasons why buildings collapsed and killed such a vast amount of people.If we examine it closely, it is clear that Nepal, like many countries in Asia, is unfortunately very poor,and the average income per person is only 2,300$ a year,leaving large amounts of Nepali's living in poverty.Due to that,buildings in cities tend to be very poorly built,and are not strong enough to withstand any major seismic activity.Furthermore,the city of Kathmandu,which was the main "casualty" of this earthquake,has one of the highest growth rates in the world,growing at a stunning 6.5% in terms of population,and also has one the highest population densities in the world,simply adding to the potential vulnerability of the city.

Jackson closes of by saying that unfortunately,such a disaster was inevitable,and with that I would personally agree to as well, as the Nepal earthquake was,in my opinion,a inevitable event.Essentially,Kathmandu and the surrounding cities were a "tempered bomb",and were exposed to danger all along.That fateful day, on the 25 of April, the "perfect" conditions were created for a major scale disaster,which unfortunately unfolded and created this tragedy.Adding on to the issue, experts are now of afraid of the many economic issues that might occur as a result,because the earthquake itself caused approximately 5,000,000,000 dollars of damage.The only logical solution to the issue would be something very un-realistic,that is to completely change the infrastructure in large cities such as Kathmandu,but such feats would require massive sums of money.Mass rioting,food rationing,and homelessness might become an everyday topic in Nepal,all because of poorly built structures and poverty.

Figure 1: An example of the destruction caused by the earthquake in Kathmandu

Word count: 500

Sources:
- http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2015/04/25/nepal-earthquake-2015-prediction_n_7144748.html
- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/April_2015_Nepal_earthquake

At Least Two More Planets in Our Solar System-2015 Discoveries

There might me at least 2 planets that might be as big as the Earth or bigger- although they

haven't been discovered yet-  orbiting around our sun at the edge of our solar system far beyond Pluto..

This is one of the most important scientific discoveries done in 2015.

Professor Carlos de la Fuente Marcos, the lead scientist from the Complutense University of Madrid (UCM), quoted: ''This excess of objects with unexpected orbital parameters makes us believe that some invisible forces are altering the distribution of the orbital elements of the Etno, and we consider that the most probable explanation is that other unknown planets exist beyond Neptune and Pluto. The exact number is uncertain, given that the data that we have is limited, but our calculations suggest that there are at least two planets, and probably more, within the confines of our Solar System.''System.''

According to scientists, the proof that those planets might exist comes from the observations of a belt of space rocks known as ''extreme trans-Neptunion objects'' (Etnos). Etnos are space rocks distributed randomly with paths that have certain defined characteristics beyond Neptune. However a dozen of those bodies have a completely unexpected orbital value, suggesting that they are being influenced by the gravitational pull of something further in space still unseen.

Astronomers have spent decades debating whether a hidden planet beyond Pluto remained undiscovered.  One problem is that the theory goes against predictions of a computer simulation of the formation of the Solar System, which states there are no other planets moving in circular orbits beyond Neptune. 

However a recent discovery of a planet-forming disk of dust and gas situated more than 100-200 astronomical units from the star HL Tauri suggests planets can form long distances away from the center of a solar system and this distance is so far away that it would be very difficult or even impossible to detect these using currently available instruments. 

*(An astronomical unit, the distance between the Earth and the Sun, is the equivalent of 93 million miles).

This discovery suggests that the knowledge and understanding of our solar system, might be limited or wrong, and that there are definitely a lot things we need to discover yet.