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diederichcaryn31

WASHINGTON ? A small comet survived what astronomers figured would be a sure death when it danced uncomfortably close to the broiling sun.

Comet Lovejoy, which was only discovered a couple of weeks ago, was supposed to melt Thursday night when it came close to where temperatures hit several million degrees. Astronomers had tracked 2,000 other sun-grazing comets make the same suicidal trip. None had ever survived.

But astronomers watching live with NASA telescopes first saw the sun's corona wiggle as Lovejoy went close to the sun. They were then shocked when a bright spot emerged on the sun's other side. Lovejoy lived.

"I was delighted when I saw it go into the sun and I was astounded when I saw something re-emerge," said U.S. Navy solar researcher Karl Battams.

Lovejoy didn't exactly come out of its hellish adventure unscathed. Only 10 percent of the comet ? which was probably millions of tons ? survived the encounter, said W. Dean Pesnell, project scientist for NASA's Solar Dynamics Observatory, which tracked Lovejoy's death-defying plunge.

And the comet lost something pretty important: its tail.

"It looks like the tail broke off and is stuck" in the sun's magnetic field, Pesnell said.

Comets circle the sun and sometimes get too close. Lovejoy came within 75,000 miles of the sun's surface, Battams said. For a small object often described as a dirty snowball comprised of ice and dust, that brush with the sun should have been fatal.

Astronomers say it probably didn't melt completely because the comet was larger than they thought.

The frozen comet was evaporating as it made the trip toward the sun, "just like you're sweating on a hot day," Pesnell said.

"It's like an ice cube going by a barbecue grill," he said.

Pesnell said the comet, although only discovered at the end of November by an Australian observer, probably is related to a comet that came by Earth on the way to the sun in 1106.

As Comet Lovejoy makes its big circle through the solar system, it will be another 800 or 900 years before it nears the sun again, astronomers say.

___

Online:

NASA's Solar Dynamics Observatory: http://1.usa.gov/upZJgS

U.S. Naval Research Lab's Sun-grazing comet website (video, photos at bottom): http://bit.ly/sfAAN5

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/topstories/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20111216/ap_on_sc/us_sci_death_defying_comet

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diederichcaryn31

The judges are not ready to crown Melanie Amaro X Factor champion just yet.

Following one of Chris Rene's two performances last night, Nicole Scherzinger and Paula Abdul jokingly argued about whether or not he looks like $1 million on stage... or $5 million the grand prize that will be awarded to next week's winner.

Does Rene have the best voice in the competition? No. But his spirit "transcends across the universe," according to Scherzinger. That, or he's just very good looking, right, ladies? Watch Chris cover "Fly" and "No One" now:

Chris Rene - Fly

Chris Rene - No One

Source: http://www.thehollywoodgossip.com/2011/12/chris-rene-transcends-the-universe-on-x-factor-semifinal/

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diederichcaryn31

MEXICO CITY ? Mexico's government has publicly apologized for failing to protect the rights of an indigenous woman raped by soldiers in 2002.

Interior Secretary Alejandro Poire offered what he called "the most sincere of apologies" to Valentina Rosendo on Thursday.

Rosendo is a Me'phaa Indian who took her case to the Inter-American Court of Human Rights after failing to get justice in Mexico.

She was washing clothes in a river in southern Guerrero state when eight soldiers approached her and asked her about a suspect. When she said she didn't know anything, two soldiers beat and raped her.

The Costa Rica-based court last year ordered Mexico to apologize and have civilian authorities investigate. Federal prosecutors are now in charge of the probe.

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/latam/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20111216/ap_on_re_la_am_ca/lt_mexico_human_rights

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diederichcaryn31 · ScienceDaily (Dec. 14, 2011)

ScienceDaily (Dec. 14, 2011) ? Researchers at Queen's University have identified a new mechanism that could potentially explain why the body's immune system sometimes fails to eliminate cancer. The new findings shed light on the possible cause of immune resistance in cancer cells, and indicate that nitroglycerin, a relatively safe and low-cost drug used for more than a century to treat angina, may be effective for managing certain cancers.

"This discovery may lead to new approaches for the treatment of patients with certain forms of cancer," said Charles Graham, a professor in the Department of Biomedical and Molecular Sciences who lead the Queen's research team with Robert Siemens of the Department of Urology and Kingston General Hospital. The researchers looked at the role that hypoxia, or low oxygen content in tissues, plays in the ability of some cancer cells to escape detection, and subsequent destruction, by the body's immune system.

They discovered that hypoxia in a cancer cell is linked to the overproduction of a key enzyme, ADAM10, which makes the cell resistant to attack by immune cells. However, when cells were treated with a nitric oxide mimicking agent such as nitroglycerin, hypoxic conditions were overcome and the cancer cells lost their resistance to an immune system attack. The results indicate that nitroglycerin could potentially be used to boost the body's natural immune response to cancer.

The research leading to these findings is funded by the Canadian Institutes of Health Research (CHIR) in partnership with the Terry Fox Foundation Training Program in Transdisciplinary Cancer Research.

The discovery builds on the Queen's team's 2009 findings related to the role of nitric oxide in suppressing tumour growth in prostate cancer. The researchers conducted the first-ever clinical trial using low doses of nitroglycerin to treat prostate cancer.

More than 10 patents have been issued to Queen's research discoveries involving the the use of nitroglycerin and similar compounds in cancer treatments. PARTEQ Innovations, the technology transfer office of Queen's, has licensed some of this intellectual property to Nometics Inc., a Queen's spinoff company, which is developing products and therapies based on this and related research.

The study results have been published online and in an upcoming issue of the American Association of Cancer Research peer-reviewed journal Cancer Research.

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The above story is reprinted from materials provided by Queen's University.

Note: Materials may be edited for content and length. For further information, please contact the source cited above.

Journal Reference:

I. B. Barsoum, T. K. Hamilton, X. Li, T. Cotechini, E. A. Miles, D. R. Siemens, C. H. Graham. Hypoxia Induces Escape from Innate Immunity in Cancer Cells via Increased Expression of ADAM10: Role of Nitric Oxide. Cancer Research, 2011; DOI: 10.1158/0008-5472.CAN-11-2104

Note: If no author is given, the source is cited instead.

Disclaimer: This article is not intended to provide medical advice, diagnosis or treatment. Views expressed here do not necessarily reflect those of ScienceDaily or its staff.

Source: http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2011/12/111214130003.htm

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diederichcaryn31

WASHINGTON ? U.S. military officials said Monday they are concerned that Tehran may have an opportunity to acquire information about the classified surveillance drone program after one of the stealthy aircraft crashed in Iran while patrolling in western Afghanistan.

But experts suggested that even if the Iranians have found parts of the unmanned spy plane, they can probably glean little from it. Because it likely fell from a high altitude, there may be very few large pieces to examine.

The RQ-170 ? known as the Sentinel ? has been used in Afghanistan, particularly along the border, for several years. The U.S. Air Force has just "a handful" of them, said defense analyst Loren Thompson, with the Virginia-based Lexington Institute.

"I think we're always concerned when there's an aircraft, whether it's manned or unmanned, that we lose, particularly in a place where we're not able to get to it," Navy Capt. John Kirby, a Pentagon spokesman, told reporters Monday.

U.S. officials have acknowledged that the military lost control of one of the stealthy drones while it was flying a mission over western Afghanistan. Iran's official IRNA news agency has said that Iran's armed forces shot it down.

U.S. officials have rejected that claim, saying there are no indications the Sentinel was shot down. In either case, officials said this would be the first Sentinel lost by the U.S.

Analysts, however, played down any serious impact of the drone ? or pieces of it ? falling into Iranian hands.

"This is an aircraft that evades radar because of its shape and because of the special material used," said Thompson. "It won't enable the Iranians to build a stealthy unmanned aircraft."

Analysts said that stealth technologies ? primarily the low-observable shape and the materials used ? are fairly well known, but often hard to replicate. The Sentinel, made by Lockheed Martin, has a swept-wing shape, much like the B-2 stealth bomber. And it's been called the "Beast of Kandahar" because of its use in Afghanistan.

"They were designed to be silver bullets that could go places that other manned or unmanned aircraft would not be able to go. It specifically is designed to be very difficult for enemies to track and target," said Thompson. "This is a high-flying unmanned aircraft that malfunctioned and then fell to earth. It's likely to be broken up into hundreds of pieces."

John Pike of the Globalsecurity.org think tank said the Iranians already have all the data on the drone's external shape, "and there is nothing particularly unique about this configuration."

He said the key to America's success with the stealthy aircraft is the fuel efficient engines, which give it the ability to stay aloft for days rather than hours.

"Are we going to stop flying them? No. Was it a secret we were flying them? No," said Pike. "Did Iran shoot it down? Probably not. Because Iranian air defenses are not very good, and it is a good stealth vehicle. And did Iranian hackers hack into it and bring it down? No. It's just too hard to do."

The Sentinel gained notoriety earlier this year when officials disclosed that one was used to keep watch on Osama bin Laden's compound in Pakistan as the raid that killed him was taking place.

____

Associated Press broadcast reporter Sagar Meghani contributed to this report.

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/iran/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20111205/ap_on_go_ca_st_pe/us_us_iran_drone

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