With all the increasing information about Mars, it is but fitting that NASA starts scouting for proposals that would further pursue Mars missions and studies. On Monday, they have narrowed down the search to two, which are proposals for future robotic missions. Included in the objectives of these proposals are the study of the red planet's atmosphere, climate and potential habitability.

According to Mary Cleave, associate administrator for NASA's Science Mission Directorate, NASA headquarters, Washington, "These mission selections represent unprecedented future research that will lead further advancing our knowledge of [Mars'] climate, and atmospheric composition."

The two finalists for the mission search are:

• Mars Atmosphere and Volatile Evolution mission, or MAVEN: The mission would provide first-of-its-kind measurements and address key questions about Mars climate and habitability and improve understanding of dynamic processes in the upper Martian atmosphere and ionosphere. The principal investigator is Bruce Jakosky, University of Colorado, Boulder. NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, Md., will provide project management.

• The Great Escape mission: The mission would directly determine the basic processes in Martian atmospheric evolution by measuring the structure and dynamics of the upper atmosphere. In addition, potentially biogenic atmospheric constituents such as methane would be measured. The principal investigator is Alan Stern, Southwest Research Institute, Boulder, Colorado. Southwest Research Institute, San Antonio, will provide project management.

Each will be granted an initial funding of approximately US$ 2 million for a nine-month implementation feasibility study. From these two proposals, NASA will then select by late 2007 the one that will be pursued for full development as a Mars Scout mission. The chosen one will then have a budget of no more than US$ 475 million, and may be ready for take-off by 2011.

Here on Earth, the common notion is that a lake is a body of water surrounded entirely by land. But imagine a lake on Saturn's largest moon, the Titan. The planet itself being so far away from the Sun, it comes as no surprise that the temperature there would be much lower. On Titan, it is 90 degrees Kelvin, in fact.

Surely, this has an effect on the kind of elements present there. If you are to think that nothing else but a body of water can be a lake, then you are highly mistaken. Because on Titan, over 75 lakes ranging in size from about a mile and a half to 40 miles across have been detected, and they are not filled with water. Instead, cradled in the lakes as liquid is methane. Here on Earth, it is a form of gas. But out there, it's clearly liquid.

Dr. Ellen Stofan of the Proxemy Research in Washington DC, as well as a member of the Cassini Radar team explains this as being caused by the really low temperature on the moon. They also believe that the lakes have another kind of hydrocarbon compound of some sorts in them, called ethane.

Interestingly enough, although the chemistry is apparently different on Titan, the lakes' behaviour do resemble their Earthly counterparts. Says Stofan, "The methane-ethane would become transparent, the way water is on Earth, it would be behaving like water, the lakes could have small waves on the surfaces." What also got them into thinking that these are, in fact, lakes is the way that other channels feed into then, their shapes, shorelines, and all of those geological aspects of the lake.

The team's discovery is featured in this week's journal "Nature".

Traditional robots have been (and still are) controlled by remote control, a set of pre-programmed movements, or a set of algorithms to create a so-called "intelligent" robot with it's own personality.

However, scientists at the University of Washington have been working on a new way to control a gadget fan's best friend - not through technology but using the immense power of human thought. The technology is proving to be a huge success with an alleged 94% accuracy between the thought commands and the robot's movements. Of course, this isn't an episode of "Star Trek" - the commands the robot can accept are currently limited to moving forward and taking an object from one place to another.

Rajesh Rao, the leading researcher on the project at the University of Washington, said, "It suggests that one day we might be able to use semi-autonomous robots for such jobs as helping disabled people or performing routine tasks in a person's home."

This is certainly one robot that would make a real change in the home for the better, and not in the style of the film "I, Robot." Hopefully this technology will advance further. Rao sees a bright future for this technology and is looking forward to the robot accepting more complex commands and tasks.

Watch the video here.

At 1 p.m. EST on December 6th, Wednesday, NASA will be bringing some big news to us folks here in the blue planet about their new findings on the red planet, Mars.

This important finding will be brought to us from the ever-reliable Mars Global Surveyor. Now, the agency just announced last week that the spacecraft's mission just might be at its end. Could this announcement signal the final hurrah for this seasoned spacecraft? We don't know. We'd have to tune in to find out.

The panelists will include the following bigwigs:

• Michael Meyer -- Lead Scientist, Mars Exploration Program, NASA Headquarters, Washington
• Michael Malin -- President and Chief Scientist, Malin Space Science Systems, San Diego, Calif.
• Kenneth Edgett -- Scientist, Malin Space Science Systems
• Philip Christensen -- Professor, Arizona State University, Tempe, Ariz.

The Mars Global Surveyor holds the longest running service and the most productive of any spacecraft ever sent to Mars. Scientists will continue to analyze the data gathered from the mission.

For those who wants to catch it live, the briefing will be held in the NASA Headquarters auditorium at 300 E Street, S.W. in Washington. It will also be aired live on NASA Television, as well as on www.nasa.gov.

Humans have toyed with the idea of cloning eversince the concept was invented. In the past few years, though, cloning has become a controversial issue. There are three main cloning types: DNA Cloning, Reproductive Cloning, and Therapeutic Cloning. Each are very different in the way the end result is/will be achieved.

The last type, Therapeutic Cloning, in which embryos are cloned from isolated stem cells, have been getting biologists' attention. Many argue that "cloning" must be dropped from its name as it is deceiving. Instead, biologists would like to call this type of cloning "somatic cell nuclear transfer" (SCNT).

This renaming may take an interesting twist as it may increase the disapproval rate to therapeutic cloning. Kathy Hudson and her colleagues at the Genetics and Public Policy Center in Washington, D.C. conducted a sample survey in which the results show the general public approving cloning over the new title, SCNT.     

Face it: trust is essential in building any relationship. Be it in politics, work, or even pulling of massive online heists, you'll need trust. Here are a few quick ways to gain and maintain trust - even if you might not deserve it.

Seem like someone people trust - this is the obvious first step according to Harvard Business School negotiations professor Deepak Malhotra. Give out references, show off your Friendster or Multiply testimonials, ask friends to give in good word. As always, perception is everything.

Go Slow - keeping things casual allows you and your client/target/mark to get to know each at a comfortable pace. Comfort doesn't lower the chances of doubt.

Propose setting milestones - if for example the person you're dealing with isn't willing to go all the way with you, offer a short term non exclusive deal first or something like that. Bottom-line is, go out of the way to prove your competency first. Your victim, er, I mean partner, will feel more comfortable committing to an exclusive agreement with you.

Read the full article to get more tips and tricks when it comes to swindling... er, I mean convincing people around you to give you their trust.

Researchers at the University of Washington School of Medicine in Seattle are excited over an experimental cancer drug that slowed down muscular dystrophy in mice. Although still preliminary, he researchers called it "very dramatic and impressive.”

 

There are a number of muscle-wasting diseases which are all incurable including Duchenne muscular dystrophy - the most common form found children. In Duchenne muscular dystrophy, the lack of a muscle protein known as dystrophin causes muscle weakness that lead to breathing problems. Patients usually die in their teens or early twenties.

The drug called trichostatin A (TSA) was being tested on skin cancer in mice when researchers noted that it affected the production of a molecule known as follistatin. Follistatin can indirectly cause muscle growth and counteract the deterioration caused by faulty dystrophin.

One advantage of TSA is that it can be taken orally in simple pill form unlike gene therapy. However, unlike gene therapy, TSA must be taken continuously. Right now, the potential side effects of long-term TSA use are still unknown.

Popeye and other fans of spinach won't find this news delighting. The Food and Drug Administration of the United States have issued out a warning against this leafy green veggie as it is suspected to be a carrier of the E. coli virus.

Following the outbreak that has so far killed one person and making ill nearly a hundred more, the company Natural Selection Foods (carrying Earthbound Farm and other brands) has voluntarily recalled their products containing spinach. The FDA, however, stressed that the bacteria had not been isolated in Natural Selection Food products but that the connection was established by patient accounts of what they had eaten before falling ill.

According to the warning, people should not eat any prepackaged spinach, whether sold in bags or clamshell boxes. Because the exact extent of the contamination is yet unknown, it is best to avoid spinach altogether for now. And washing contaminated spinach won't get rid of the virus, either, though thorough cooking can kill it. But still, it's indeed better to be safe than sorry, so why bother risking it?

Of the nearly 100 victims of the virus, 29 have been hospitalized, with 14 of them having kidney failure. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, as of Friday the outbreak had grown to include at least 19 states namely: California, Connecticut, Idaho, Indiana, Kentucky, Maine, Michigan, Minnesota, New Mexico, Nevada, New York, Ohio, Oregon, Pennsylvania, Utah, Virginia, Washington, Wisconsin, and Wyoming. Wisconsin accounted for about half the cases, including the single death.

The E.coli has several strains, with most strains being harmless and thriving in the intestines of healthy animals as well as humans. The particular strain that produces a toxin and can thus cause sever illness is the E. coli 0157:H7. Infection can be had by eating meat, especially ground beef, that is rare or undercooked. Drinking unpasteurized milk or juices, and drinking or swimming in sewage-contaminated water can also cause infection. The bacteria also lives in an infected person's stool and may be spread from person to person.

While most healthy adults can recover completely within a week, there are some, regardless of age, who develops a form of kidney failure, which often leads to death.

Officials encourage those who has gotten sick after eating raw packaged spinach to consult a doctor. "At this point, we are focused on the issue of the spinach. As we learn more, as we go further, we will alter or change that recommendation (avoiding spinach)," said Dr. Andrew von Eschenbach, acting commissioner for the FDA.

According to the National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH) the use of antidepressant medications may induce suicidal behavior in youths.

In fact, the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has required anti-depressant medications formulated for children and teens to carry a black box warning which states that these pharmaceutical products were found to increase the risk of suicidal thinking and behavior in children and adolescents with major depressive disorders.

The reports have sent many physicians and parents to turn to alternative traditions to help kids cope with mental and emotional distress. A number of medical doctors are mixing alternative techniques into their approaches in order to help these children.

Some practitioners have not ruled out the use of psychiatric medication in some cases, but reserve them only as a last resort. Those who do use medications in combination with other alternative strategies say dosages can be kept low and get patients off the drugs more quickly.

Michael Cantwell, a pediatrician at the Institute for Health and Healing at the California Pacific Medical Center says understanding what's going on in both the patients' bodies and their lives - what they eat, relationships and events in their families - is the key to working effectively with depressed or anxious children.


Read More about this topic after the Jump!

According to Jennifer Bailey of the University of Washington, the saying that "History repeats itself" applies to grandma right here, and the repeat is disturbingly three-fold.

In a three-generational study conducted by Bailey's team, they found that substance use carries over to the next generations of the user. This is not a new finding as we see in different societies, where vices are inherited by the succeeding generations of the individual. However, the study's findings suggests that not only will our sons or daughters inherit our substance usage, but also down to our grandchildren.

Bailey and her team used data from the Seattle Social Development Project (SSDP) for their Intergenerational Project wherein 808 respondents who had a biological child were followed from ages 10 to 27. Bailey's team studied the respondents' substance use and behavioral problems as well as those of their parents and children, who ranged from 1 to 13 years of age.

What they found was that children with attention problems and stealing during adolescence were also the ones whose grandparents smoked, used marijuana, or drank in binges. The behavioral problems at the adolescent phase (ages 13 to 14) were linked to substance use at a later age (15 to 18) and into early adulthood 'till age 27. These results were reported in the Journal of Abnormal Child Psychology.

Furthermore, the 27-year-olds who used certain substances also had children with behavioral problems. 43 percent of cigarette smoking-grandparents was linked specifically to cigarette smoking among their children. Bailey says, "Children of smokers, heavy drinkers or marijuana users are more likely to have behavior problems when they are young, and consequently more likely to have drug problems themselves as they get old," Bailey said in a university statement. "These children then grow up to be adult substance users, whose kids have behavior problems and the cycle is repeated."

Bailey says that this study is significant because we don't realize that not only is our specific vice inherited by our children and grandchildren, they also become prone to drinking heavily and drug abuse. However, she reminds us that their study is not deterministic in any way, that children of substance users are destined to end up the same way, but rather that these children become more prone and likely to acquire the same habits and vices that their parents/grandparents had.