news sciences

Bye bye winter sky

This image was shot on a cold and windy night around full moon at an observing site in Austria. The intense moonlight turned the night sky blue and brightly illuminated the fast moving clouds overhead. Image via Project NIghtflight.

From our friends at Project Nightflight, who wrote:

Winter is over! Sometimes the weather gives the opposite impression, but if you look at the night sky these days the change is already becoming clear. The next few weeks are the last chance to observe Sirius, Orion and the Hyades in the evening sky. Then we say goodbye to our old friends of the winter skies. As the winter constellations are already low in the west in the evening hours, the cold nights come to an end and spring is finally in the air.

Bottom line: Project Nightflight photo of late winter sky in Austria.

from EarthSky https://ift.tt/2Gou0j8

From our friends at Project Nightflight, who wrote:

Winter is over! Sometimes the weather gives the opposite impression, but if you look at the night sky these days the change is already becoming clear. The next few weeks are the last chance to observe Sirius, Orion and the Hyades in the evening sky. Then we say goodbye to our old friends of the winter skies. As the winter constellations are already low in the west in the evening hours, the cold nights come to an end and spring is finally in the air.

Bottom line: Project Nightflight photo of late winter sky in Austria.

from EarthSky https://ift.tt/2Gou0j8

News digest – cutting chemo, ovarian cancer drug, Scottish waiting times, and… a new human organ?

Chemotherapy courses after surgery could be halved for some colon cancer patients, according to a new study. We reported on results showing that 3 months of chemo is as effective as 6 months for some patients, and came with fewer side effects. The Independent also had the story.
More than 5,000 cancer patients in Scotland have waited longer than the target time for treatment over the last 5 years, says the Mail Online. We think it’s an unacceptable situation. The stats show cancer services in Scotland are struggling to cope and a plan of action is urgently needed. The Scotsman covered this too.
A drug developed by our scientists at Newcastle University has been approved for ovarian cancer patients by the European Medicines Agency. The drug is for whose cancer cells carry a faulty BRCA gene. The drug will need to be reviewed by the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence before it can be made routinely on the NHS. ITV News has more.
More than 80% of NHS hospitals in England are failing to test bowel cancer patients for the genetic condition Lynch syndrome, reports BBC News. The condition increases the risk of some cancers, and testing can help guide treatment and suggest whether family members may be at risk.

And finally

Have scientists found a new human organ? New research has identified fluid-filled compartments beneath the skin and lining the lungs, blood vessels and muscles. It’s been named the interstitium, and the team that made the discovery believe it may act as a “shock absorber”. They also think cancer cells might use the compartments to move around the body. Check out New Scientist and the Evening Standard for more.

Michael

from Cancer Research UK – Science blog https://ift.tt/2GkOa1A

Chemotherapy courses after surgery could be halved for some colon cancer patients, according to a new study. We reported on results showing that 3 months of chemo is as effective as 6 months for some patients, and came with fewer side effects. The Independent also had the story.
More than 5,000 cancer patients in Scotland have waited longer than the target time for treatment over the last 5 years, says the Mail Online. We think it’s an unacceptable situation. The stats show cancer services in Scotland are struggling to cope and a plan of action is urgently needed. The Scotsman covered this too.
A drug developed by our scientists at Newcastle University has been approved for ovarian cancer patients by the European Medicines Agency. The drug is for whose cancer cells carry a faulty BRCA gene. The drug will need to be reviewed by the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence before it can be made routinely on the NHS. ITV News has more.
More than 80% of NHS hospitals in England are failing to test bowel cancer patients for the genetic condition Lynch syndrome, reports BBC News. The condition increases the risk of some cancers, and testing can help guide treatment and suggest whether family members may be at risk.

And finally

Have scientists found a new human organ? New research has identified fluid-filled compartments beneath the skin and lining the lungs, blood vessels and muscles. It’s been named the interstitium, and the team that made the discovery believe it may act as a “shock absorber”. They also think cancer cells might use the compartments to move around the body. Check out New Scientist and the Evening Standard for more.

Michael

from Cancer Research UK – Science blog https://ift.tt/2GkOa1A

The people that make radiotherapy possible: Part 3 – oncologists

This entry is part 11 of 11 in the series Radiotherapy

So far in this new 3-part series we’ve heard from Kim, a therapy radiographer who is helping run one of our clinical trials, and Cora, who took part in the research. In the final instalment, we hear from Dr Omar Al-Salihi, an oncologist at Guy’s and St Thomas’ NHS Foundation Trust in London, who is treating patients in this study.

I kick myself out of bed in the morning knowing that each working day will be different.

I’m part of a team that treats rare tumours including childhood cancers, adult brain tumours and sarcomas (tumours of muscles and bones). The rarity of these tumours, together with the complexity of their locations in the body, means that great care is required in planning the delivery of radiotherapy as part of the treatments.

Moving, improving and empowering

For sarcomas of the limbs, surgery and radiotherapy can cure the disease. Before or after surgery, radiotherapy is used to reduce the risk that the tumour will come back around the area it was removed from, where this risk is highest.

A photograph of cancer doctor Omar Al Salihi

Dr Omar Al-Salihi at work

Radiotherapy plays an important part in curing patients, but can also come with longer-term side effects, like limb swelling and increased risk of bone fractures. There is also a very small risk of second cancers caused by the radiotherapy itself (you can read more about this here).

All these unwanted effects arise as a result of healthy tissues receiving unintended doses of radiation that can’t be avoided completely. We have become much better at reducing the exposure of these tissues over the years with the use of more modern radiotherapy machines, such as linear accelerators, backed up by powerful computers that allow fine-tuning of the treatment. Clinical trials have been vital in making this progress, continually moving the field forward, improving treatment and empowering patients.

This is where the IMRiS trial comes in!

From a team, for the individual

We have all been very lucky to be part of this nationwide radiotherapy trial. IMRiS aims to use highly advanced radiotherapy techniques to allow more accurate ‘sculpting’ of radiation dose around the tumour while avoiding healthy surrounding tissue, such as bones and joints, as much as possible.

For patients enrolled in this study, we hope that cure rates will be as good as or even better than previously recorded using standard radiotherapy treatment. But we also hope that people’s limb function will be better in the long term, as well as seeing fewer of the other unwanted effects from the radiotherapy.

We have found this study incredibly fulfilling, from the early days after it was first set up and meeting with other researchers, to the ongoing recruitment of patients into the trial. We have worked as a team – doctors, radiographers, physicists and technicians – to ensure that each individual patient gets the best treatment plan for them. Moreover, the enthusiasm of our patients to be part of this study, even though it inevitably means they have to give up more of their time, particularly in the follow-up process, has been incredibly humbling for all of us! By being part of this study, we have worked closer as a team to give our patients the most novel, technically advanced treatments for their cancers.

We hope it has also empowered our patients to be part of something exciting and new that will further our ability to give people the best possible treatments.

Omar

from Cancer Research UK – Science blog https://ift.tt/2uu2XkS

This entry is part 11 of 11 in the series Radiotherapy

I kick myself out of bed in the morning knowing that each working day will be different.

Moving, improving and empowering

Dr Omar Al-Salihi at work

This is where the IMRiS trial comes in!

From a team, for the individual

We hope it has also empowered our patients to be part of something exciting and new that will further our ability to give people the best possible treatments.

Omar

from Cancer Research UK – Science blog https://ift.tt/2uu2XkS

Moon in Virgo March 30 and 31

On March 30 and 31, 2018, the nearly full or full moon shines in front of the constellation Virgo the Maiden. The moon will turn full in Virgo on March 31; it’ll be our second full moon of this month, and the second Blue Moon of 2018. In addition, this upcoming Blue Moon is the Northern Hemisphere’s first full moon of spring and the Southern Hemisphere’s first full moon of autumn.

From around the world on March 30 and 31, watch for the bright moon to shine in the vicinity of the star Spica from dusk until dawn. Spica is a 1st-magnitude star and the brightest star in the constellation Virgo. The moon and Spica light up the eastern sky as darkness falls, climb highest up for the night around midnight and then sit low in the west at dawn.

Classical illustration of the constellation Virgo the Maiden, via constellationsofwords.com. The star Spica is sometimes said to represent an Ear of Wheat held in the Maiden’s left hand.

With the exception of Spica, the constellation Virgo is faint, and it’s large and rambling. Look for its stars when the moon moves away. Chart via the IAU.

Want to know when the moon will turn precisely full? It depends on where you live worldwide. The moon will reach the crest of its full phase – when it’s 180^o opposite the sun in ecliptic or celestial longitude – on March 31, 2018, at 12:37 UTC. That’s 8:37 a.m. EDT on March 31.

In other words, from North America, the moon you’ll see before Saturday’s dawn is more full than the moon you’ll see that evening.

Translate UTC to your time.

From the western part of North America and Hawaii, the moon will be above the horizon at the instant of full moon before daybreak March 31. The moon turns precisely full at 5:37 a.m. Pacific Daylight Saving Time, 4:37 a.m. Alaskan Daylight Saving Time and 2:37 a.m. Hawaiian Standard Time

Worldwide map via EarthView. The map shows the day and night sides of Earth at the instant of full moon (2018 March 31 at 12:37 UTC). The shadow line at right depicts sunrise (moonset); and the shadow line at right represents sunset (moonrise).

Those living in eastern Asia, Indonesia, Australia and New Zealand will see the moon at the instant of full moon sometime after sunset March 31. Click here to find out the time of the full moon for your area, remembering to check the moon phases and moonrise and moonset boxes.

Or … just look in the sky. For all of us around the world, the moon will appear plenty full as it lights up the nighttime for the next few nights.

from EarthSky https://ift.tt/2pSK0CR

Classical illustration of the constellation Virgo the Maiden, via constellationsofwords.com. The star Spica is sometimes said to represent an Ear of Wheat held in the Maiden’s left hand.

With the exception of Spica, the constellation Virgo is faint, and it’s large and rambling. Look for its stars when the moon moves away. Chart via the IAU.

In other words, from North America, the moon you’ll see before Saturday’s dawn is more full than the moon you’ll see that evening.

Translate UTC to your time.

Or … just look in the sky. For all of us around the world, the moon will appear plenty full as it lights up the nighttime for the next few nights.

from EarthSky https://ift.tt/2pSK0CR

Game of Drones: Computers To Help Navy Recruit Unmanned Systems Operators

The Navy is developing a new tool to identify individuals with the right skills to be drone operators. What's the technology? A computer game.

from https://ift.tt/2J3CayZ

Researchers find a galaxy without dark matter

The ghostly galaxy NGC 1052-DF2 is exceedingly diffuse. See the distant galaxies behind it? The galaxy is missing most, if not all, of its dark matter. The Hubble Space Telescope’s Advanced Camera for Surveys acquired this image, which is via NASA, ESA, and P. van Dokkum, Yale.

In recent decades, the invisible, mysterious substance known as dark matter has been considered the most dominant aspect of any galaxy. Astronomers think that dark matter is needed to form galaxies. That’s why they are so surprised to find a galaxy with no (or very little) dark matter. The finding challenges astronomers’ standard ideas of how we think galaxies come to be. A Yale-led research team made the discovery while peering at the distant galaxy NGC 1052-DF2.

These astronomers say the finding has broad implications for their understanding of the universe. A March 28, 2018 statement from Yale said:

It shows for the first time that dark matter is not always associated with traditional matter on a galactic scale, ruling out several current theories that dark matter is not a substance but merely a manifestation of the laws of gravity on cosmic scales.

Astronomer Pieter van Dokkum at Yale is lead author of the new study, which is published in the peer-reviewed journal Nature. He said:

We thought that every galaxy had dark matter and that dark matter is how a galaxy begins.

To make this discovery, the team used a telescope invented by van Dokkum and built with co-author Roberto Abraham of the University of Toronto. It’s called the Dragonfly Telephoto Array. The galaxy had been cataloged previously, but the researchers said they noticed it looked very different in Dragonfly images. Co-author Shany Danieli, a Yale graduate student, commented:

It looked like a diffuse blob sprinkled with very compact star clusters. I love working with the Dragonfly telescope, as it shows us faint structures that no one has even seen before.

The researchers then used the W.M. Keck Observatory in Hawaii to measure the motions of 10 very dense groupings of stars called globular clusters. They found that the clusters were moving at relatively low speeds — less than 23,000 miles (37,000 km) per hour. Stars in galaxies containing dark matter move at least three times faster. Van Dokkum explained that, using the new motion measurements, the researchers calculated NGC 1052-DF2’s mass. That’s when they realized that this galaxy was very, very different from other galaxies. Van Dokkum said:

If there is any dark matter at all, it’s very little. The stars in the galaxy can account for all the mass, and there doesn’t seem to be any room for dark matter.

I spent an hour just staring at the Hubble image. It’s so rare, particularly these days after so many years of Hubble, that you get an image of something and say, “I’ve never seen that before.” This thing is astonishing, a gigantic blob that you can look through. It’s so sparse that you see all of the galaxies behind it. It is literally a see-through galaxy.

Bottom line: The galaxy NGC 1052-DF2 appears to have no dark matter. It confounds astronomers’ theories of the universe, which says galaxies need dark matter to form.

Source: A galaxy lacking dark matter

from EarthSky https://ift.tt/2pPJMfY