Archive | Life Sciences | Armed with Science

Inspiring Future Leaders STEMS From Innovative Thinking

Filed under Education & Culture, Life Sciences by jtozer on May 8, 2012 at 11:05 am {no comments}

Ms. Mariam Cocker, from Eleanor Roosvelt High School in Maryland, takes the controls of an F-35 Simulator, instructed by Lockheed Martin Fighter Demonstration Center.

The 317th Recruiting Squadron, based at Joint Base Andrews, Maryland, recently started a program to inspire innovation and creativity in Science, Technology, Engineering and Math (STEM) programs. They challenged students in Washington D.C., Virginia and Maryland schools with a simple question: Why are STEM careers important to our Nation?

The squadron received an overwhelming response. Recruiters reached out with the Air Force STEM 2020 Challenge contest to hundreds of schools in the region. Upon learning of the program, counselors and teachers in Middle Schools and High Schools responded by posted the contest on their social media sites and web pages.

It went viral from there.

The 317 RCS received submissions from schools all over the DC, Virginia and Maryland area. Eventually, 20 outstanding essay writers were selected in April, and given “golden e-vites” to spend the day learning about innovation in the Department of Defense. They were each allowed to bring a parent with them. “This is the Willy Wonka” of STEM programs,” stated MSgt Buffy Brown, Air Force STEM 2020 coordinator.

Essay contest winners were invited to Washington D.C. for a day of innovation and exploration. They received insider tours of the Pentagon from senior strategy members assigned to the Joint Staff and Air Staff.

I believe we refer to this as the VIP tour.

(more…)

Better Than GPS – Going Where No Electronic Map Has Gone Before

Filed under Life Sciences, Technology by jtozer on May 7, 2012 at 7:12 am {no comments}

Keep right at the fork. Take the first exit at the roundabout. Recalculating. Destination on the left.

Ultimate cosmic directional power, yet the parking garage sends you into retreat. Sigh. (Artist Interpretation of GPS satellite; image courtesy of NASA)

Admit it, you read those words in the voice of your handy GPS. Mine’s named Stella. She enjoys making abrupt decisions with wild abandon and no regard for my personal safety. Yet I totally rely on her, so I allow her to treat me this way. That’s a sign of the times. We’ve abandoned maps in lieu of little devices that give us step-by-step instructions, leading us to our destination.

Even if that means you end up taking knee-jerk driving commands that make you look like you’re operating a car full of bees.

Still, as cruel as Stella is to me, I still rely on her for many things, so when she decides to give me the cold shoulder – for example, we go through a tunnel and she loses direction – it sends me spiraling into a directionless panic.

So, since knowing where you are going is sort of an important thing for service members, what are the troops down range doing when they go through a tunnel?

When the maps aren’t enough and the GPS is recalculating, who you gonna call? The Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency!

There’s a theme song in there, I just know it.

(more…)

Stopping Cancer Before It Starts

Filed under Life Sciences by jtozer on May 4, 2012 at 7:04 am {no comments}

Honduran Dr. Jose Mejia, left, and Col. George Peoples, Mobile Surgical Team, work together to perform surgery on a Honduran boy at Santa Teresa Hospital in Comayagua, Honduras. (By Air Force Staff Sgt. Bryan Franks)

An Army doctor has helped develop a vaccine that he believes will prevent cancer, or at least its recurrence.

The drug NeuVax began phase III clinical trials Jan. 20, which Col. George Peoples said could lead to its Food and Drug Administration, or FDA, approval. Peoples is chief of surgical oncology at the San Antonio Military Medical Center when he’s not traveling the world to provide surgical expertise or working to try and find a cure for cancer.

He is currently deployed to Honduras.

The phase III clinical trial for NeuVax will involve at least 700 breast cancer patients at 100 sites in the United States and abroad. The trial is titled PRESENT, Prevention of Recurrence in Early-Stage, Node-Positive Breast Cancer with Low to Intermediate HER2 Expression with NeuVax Treatment.

Participants will receive one intradermal injection every month for six months, followed by a booster inoculation every six months thereafter. The primary endpoint is disease-free survival at three years.
(more…)

Looking for Uranium In All The Wrong Places

Filed under Life Sciences by jtozer on May 3, 2012 at 7:39 am {no comments}

Dr. Jose Centeno, director of the Joint Pathology Center’s Biophysical Toxicology and Depleted Uranium/Embedded Metal Fragment Laboratories, demonstrates the variety of shrapnel pieces removed from service members and veterans. (DOD photo by Terri Moon Cronk)

Military doctors here are examining shrapnel taken from service members and veterans, looking for depleted uranium and other metals.

The Joint Pathology Center’s Biophysical Toxicology and Depleted Uranium/Embedded Metal Fragment Laboratories branch is analyzing the embedded fragments and providing second opinions at military and Veterans Affairs medical centers to treat those who had retained shrapnel.

“Our goal is to improve the care of wounded warriors,” said Army Col. (Dr.) Thomas Baker, interim director of the Joint Pathology Center, the umbrella organization for the lab.

“We advise [doctors] how to follow up and what treatment is needed” to mitigate the potential effects of uranium and other metals, he said.

The lab analyzes all combat-associated metal fragments taken from DOD personnel that might pose a long-term health risk, such as depleted uranium, which can contribute to kidney damage over time, Baker explained.

The lab also develops laboratory capabilities in metal toxicology to support the Defense Department, The Pathology Center and VA and Army programs that require exposure assessment to depleted uranium, embedded fragment analysis and analysis of certain metal alloys, officials said.

The only one of its kind in the United States, Baker said, the lab keeps a registry of the fragments for future re-evaluation. The register now includes 600 specimens.

(more…)

Stop, Hey, What’s That Sound?

Filed under Energy, Life Sciences by jtozer on April 27, 2012 at 7:44 am {no comments}

By Jessica L. Tozer

Sorry, can you speak up? I can’t hear you over the sound of those deafening JET ENGINES.

WHAT? UNSCREW THE BOLT? WELL, OKAY THEN...(Photo by Pfc. Kevin Crist)

The deafening roar of supersonic aircraft can cause hearing damage to sailors and Marines on flight decks, so the Office of Naval Research (ONR) is funding a new project to help reduce jet noise.

“The noise problem falls into two categories: noise exposure on the flight deck and noise impact on the communities surrounding air bases,” said Dr. Brenda Henderson, deputy manager for the Jet Noise Reduction project, part of ONR’s Noise-Induced Hearing Loss (NIHL) program. “We’re funding the development of tools that we’ll need to help control jet noise in tactical aircraft.”

Hearing loss is not uncommon for service members, so combating this problem could mean more than keeping the jets at a comfortable indoor-voice level.

(more…)

Measuring Arctic Ice

Filed under Earth Sciences, Life Sciences, Technology by jtozer on April 15, 2012 at 7:34 am {no comments}

The NRL team, using a specially equipped de Havilland DHC-6 Twin Otter aircraft (similar to aircraft shown), collect data to aid in the validation and calibration of data captured by the ESA Cryosat-2 satellite. (NASA Glenn Research Center)

Scientists from the U.S. Naval Research Laboratory Marine Geosciences Division are assisting NASA, the US Army Cold Regions Research and Engineering Laboratory (CRREL) and the European Space Agency (ESA) in developing more accurate monitoring and sustainable forecasting of Arctic sea ice.

Recent dramatic changes in the characteristics of the Arctic sea ice cover have sparked interest and concern from a wide range of disciplines. The demand for an improved ability to monitor and forecast changes in sea ice cover is driven by diverse and varying priorities to include socioeconomics, maritime safety and security, and resource management, as well as basic research science.

Satellites provide an important and cost effective platform for instruments designed to monitor basin-wide changes in the volume of ice cover and snow pack depths. The primary focus of NRL and NASA is to collect data to aid in the validation and calibration of these data sets to further optimize instrument suites and the development of predictive sea ice models.

“Our project takes direct aim at this issue by targeting the largest identified contributors to errors in sea ice thickness measurements from airborne and satellite-based instruments,” said Joan Gardner, NRL geologist. “Central to our work is the rare opportunity for a multi-scale approach to mapping the snow depth and sea ice thickness distribution using the most comprehensive set of in situ data collected to date.”

(more…)

Stop that ‘Dam’ Noise: ONR, Engineers Tackle Noise at Hydroelectric Plants

Filed under Featured, Life Sciences by jtozer on April 10, 2012 at 7:14 am {no comments}

By Tammy J. White, Office of Naval Research

(Photo courtesy Bill Johnson, U.S. Army Corps of Engineers)

Using research designed to protect warfighters from noise-induced hearing loss in the naval environment, the Office of Naval Research has joined the Bureau of Reclamation and U.S. Army Corps of Engineers to turn down the volume at the nation’s power plants.

ONR will lend its extensive expertise in noise-induced hearing loss (NIHL) to help identify noise sources and propose engineering controls at dams and hydroelectric plants nationwide as part of the interagency agreement.

“The Navy in general, and ONR in particular, is leading the curve when it comes to understanding the dangers of noise,” says Kurt Yankaskas, a program manager in ONR’s Warfighter Performance Department. “It’s a serious problem not only in the Navy and Marine Corps, but across modern society.”

The added project scope results in $14,000 in additional federal funding, bringing the total to $109,000, to evaluate and seek new controls for protecting plant workers from hearing damage sustained on the job.

Noise is a research area ONR knows all too well.

(more…)

Top 10 facts about the International Ice Patrol

Filed under Earth Sciences, Life Sciences by glenn.selby on March 13, 2012 at 7:50 am {no comments}

A Coast Guard C-130, based out of Air Station Elizabeth City, N.C., flies past an iceberg in the waters near Newfoundland, Canada. U.S. Coast Guard photo by Petty Officer 1st Class Brandon Brewer.

1. When was the International Ice Patrol formed?

Shipping areas in the North Atlantic have always been hazardous to navigate. The hazards of the North Atlantic captured global attention in April 1912 when the RMS Titanic sank after it struck an iceberg. The incident prompted maritime nations with ships transiting the Grand Banks off Newfoundland, Canada, to establish an iceberg patrol in the area. Since 1913, the U.S. Coast Guard has been tasked with the management and operation of the patrol. Except for the years of World Wars I and II, the ice patrol has been active each ice season since its inception.

2. What are the specific duties of the ice patrol?

Their mission is to monitor the iceberg danger near the Grand Banks of Newfoundland and provide the iceberg limit to the maritime community, including ice and current conditions.

(more…)