science
Apollo 7 astronaut Walter Cunningham dies aged 90
Walter Cunningham, the last surviving astronaut from the first successful crewed space mission in NASA’s Apollo program, died Tuesday in Houston. He was 90.
NASA confirmed Cunningham’s death in a statement but did not include its cause. His family said through a spokesman, Jeff Carr, that Cunningham died in a hospital “from complications of a fall, after a full and complete life.”
Cunningham was one of three astronauts aboard the 1968 Apollo 7 mission, an 11-day spaceflight that beamed live television broadcasts as they orbited Earth, paving the way for the moon landing less than a year later.
Cunningham, then a civilian, crewed the mission with Navy Capt. Walter M. Schirra and Donn F. Eisele, an Air Force major. Cunningham was the lunar module pilot on the space flight, which launched from Cape Kennedy Air Force Station, Florida, on Oct. 11 and splashed down in the Atlantic Ocean south of Bermuda.
Read: NASA Orion capsule safely blazes back from moon, aces test
NASA said Cunningham, Eisele and Schirra’ flew a near perfect mission. Their spacecraft performed so well that the agency sent the next crew, Apollo 8, to orbit the moon as a prelude to the Apollo 11 moon landing in July 1969.
NASA Administrator Bill Nelson said Tuesday that Cunningham was “above all” an explorer whose work also laid the foundation for the agency’s new Artemis moon program.
The Apollo 7 astronauts also won a special Emmy award for their daily television reports from orbit, during which they clowned around, held up humorous signs and educated earthlings about space flight.
It was NASA’s first crewed space mission since the deaths of the three Apollo 1 astronauts in a launch pad fire Jan. 27, 1967.
Cunningham recalled Apollo 7 during a 2017 event at the Kennedy Space Center, saying it “enabled us to overcome all the obstacles we had after the Apollo 1 fire and it became the longest, most successful test flight of any flying machine ever.”
Cunningham was born in Creston, Iowa, and attended high school in California before enlisting with the Navy in 1951 and serving as a Marine Corps. pilot in Korea, according to NASA. He later obtained bachelor’s and master’s degrees in physics from the University of California at Los Angeles, where he also did doctoral studies, and worked as scientist for the Rand Corporation before joining NASA.
In an interview the year before his death, Cunningham recalled growing up poor and dreaming of flying airplanes, not spacecraft.
“We never even knew that there were astronauts when I was growing up,” Cunningham told The Spokesman-Review.
Read: NASA says spacecraft succeeded in changing asteroid’s orbit
After retiring from NASA in 1971, Cunningham worked in engineering, business and investing, and became a public speaker and radio host. He wrote a memoir about his career and time as an astronaut, “The All-American Boys.” He also expressed skepticism in his later years about human activity contributing to climate change, bucking the scientific consensus in writing and public talks, while acknowledging that he was not a climate scientist.
Although Cunningham never crewed another space mission after Apollo 7, he remained a proponent of space exploration. He told the Spokane, Washington, paper last year, “I think that humans need to continue expanding and pushing out the levels at which they’re surviving in space.”
Cunningham is survived by his wife Dot, his sister Cathy Cunningham, and his children Brian and Kimberly. In a statement, Cunningham’s family said, “the world has lost another true hero, and we will miss him dearly.”
Top 11 Major Medical Science Innovations in 2022
2022 was a year full of inventions and innovations. Last year there have been considerable strides in almost all spheres of the scientific periphery. From efficient renewable energy to life-like robots, the year tested the limit of possibilities. Perhaps some of the most considerable progress has been made in the field of medical sciences ranging from improved diagnostics to path-breaking cures. Here is our pick of the 11 best medical science innovations of 2022.
11 Most Significant Innovations in Medical Science in 2022
PSMA Diagnostics for Efficient Prostate Cancer Diagnostics
Prostate cancer has been a growing concern in men’s health over the last few decades. About 13% of the total male population is at risk of prostate cancer, with people over 65 being the primary patients. It is also common among non-Hispanic races and poses serious complications if not treated at the nascent stage.
The conventional diagnosis uses bone and CT scanning, which might often fail to detect the cancer-forming tumor at the early stage. But a new diagnosis using Prostate Specific Membrane Antigen or PSMA, which is predominantly found on the surface tissue of the tumor has been discovered. This will allow accurate diagnostics at the onset which will dramatically reduce later-stage complications.
Read More: 10 Greatest Female Scientists of All Time
New Breakthrough in LDL Cholesterol Reduction
High cholesterol level in the blood has been the leading cause of cardiovascular diseases across the globe. Studies showed that LDL or Low-Density Lipoproteins were the leading cause of hypercholesterolemia which is the root of different cardiovascular complications.
Until recently, statins were considered the best medication for treating hypercholesterolemia and it requires regular administration. But a recent breakthrough in LDL research has shown inclisiran to have a better effect in reducing the LDL level in blood. The drug was first approved in 2019 and went on as a regular administrative drug in 2022. Compared to statins, inclisiran requires only two administrations per year for effective reduction.
Improved Treatment for Type 2 Diabetes
Diabetes has been a serious problem in the US as well across regions across the globe. The seemingly incurable disease has to be controlled with a strict diet to keep the blood sugar level low. The long-traditional method of controlling type 2 diabetes has been to inject external insulin to make up for the lack of physical production. In most cases, it requires daily administration under the skin.
But a recent breakthrough study suggests that instead of injecting external insulin, glucose-based insulinotropic polypeptide and glucagon-based peptide can be administered to stimulate the pancreas to naturally produce insulin. Moreover, this drug can be administered once every week.
Read More: How Can Artificial Intelligence Improve Healthcare?
Treatment of Postpartum Depression
Postpartum depression is a serious maternity-related problem. Even though the registered cases of the same are low. That is because in most cases, the issue is overlooked and remains undiagnosed. Especially in underdeveloped and developing countries.
If untreated, postpartum depression can cause stress-related mental illness as well as physical harm. A breakthrough study on postpartum depression shows that there is a new therapy. It uses neurosteroids to stimulate the brain away from depression. The therapy is a 60-hour long procedure that needs to be administered after the onset of the first sign.
Breakthrough Treatment for HCM
Hypertrophic Cardiomyopathy is a rare yet deadly disease relating to the cardiovascular system of the human body. The disease is often linked to genetic conditions that cause the head muscles to respond irregularly to natural stimuli. And that results in overdriving or spasming the heart.
To this day, there has been no formal cure to treat the problem. Most of the drugs administered are secondary recessive measures for similar cardiovascular problems.
But this new therapy consisting of several treatments using beta blockers, anticoagulants, and other chemicals aims to halt the progression of the disease. While it still won’t be able to cure the disease, it will be able to drastically reduce the progression of the same.
Read More: Successful transplant of pig's heart into a human body for the first time
Motor Movement for Severe Paralysis
Every year, around a quarter to half a million people suffer from some form of paralysis globally. This astounding number not only renders the patient immobile at times but also causes physical deterioration over time.
A group of scientists has come up with a neural signaling process to give back some form of voluntary motor functions to severely paralyzed patients. The technology uses implants to understand brain signals and convert them to motor functions for the paralyzed part using external gear. Currently, the groups are working with hand and body movement.
Micro Robotics for Endodontic Diagnostics
It's fascinating how no two humans in this world have the exact same dental structure. Yet the diagnostics of endodontic treatment doesn’t even go beyond the genders. This seemingly singular diagnostic method is coming to an end thanks to micro robotic applications in the process.
Studies showed that microrobots can be inserted in the root canal without secondary incisions to get a better idea and depth of the problem. Doctors will then be able to tailor patient-specific treatment approaches which were not available before.
Read More: Jute Sanitary Napkins: Bangladeshi scientist Farhana Sultana got awarded for eco-friendly innovation
Optical Fiber Imaging for Alzheimer's Diagnosis
Alzheimer's is still one of those diseases without any cure. Scientists are still trying to understand the underlying cause and the effect it has on the brain on long time progression.
The American Institute of Physics has recently developed an optical fiber imaging system to better understand how Alzheimer's progresses. Doctors now have the highest resolution imaging of the brain to study progression while applying this least invasive method.
Vaccine of Malaria
While the world recovers from the grappling consequence of the pandemic, the scientists at Oxford University have successfully invented a vaccine for one of the leading causes of child mortality in the world, malaria.
The preliminary trial run was conducted on children in Burkina Faso with results suggesting an 80% success rate in preventing the disease. This vaccine which is slated to go on mass production this year would be the single biggest advancement in reducing child mortality in central Africa.
Read More: Telangana's 'Medicines From The Sky' project utilizes drones in health care
Sebum Test for Parkinson’s Diagnostics
Diagnosing Parkinson’s disease follows a long and tedious process that often requires highly invasive procedures. But thanks to the newly developed technology, scientists can now use the sebum produced from the Sebaceous glands to efficiently identify Parkinson’s disease.
Sebum is basically oil secreted from under the skin. Scientists have found that over 500 components of the sebum differ between a regular person and a Parkinson’s patient. The process is not only efficient but also ensures as little invasion in diagnostics as possible.
mRNA Vaccine Research
RNA is a primary component that is used to understand the effect of disease and potentially create a vaccine for the same. Without effective understanding, separation, and purification of RNA, it would take scientists years to come up with a potential cure for any new disease.
Thanks to the ongoing research, we are finally in the next generation of the mRNA vaccine identification process. This technology has been aggregated more by the effective invention and application of the Covid 19 vaccines. With this technology, scientists will now be able to create vaccines or cures for potential new diseases at a much faster rate.
Read More: Top 10 Most Exciting Innovations of 2022 in Technology
Final Words
The year 2022 saw some great advancements in the field of medical sciences. Even though the world is still combatting the effect of the Coronavirus, it is the concerted effort of innovations and technology that has helped to reduce the impact. Besides Covid-19, innovations in different streams have led to more effective diagnosis, cure, and vaccination than was possible before.
So far, we have reviewed 11 pioneer innovations in medical science in 2022. Hopefully, in 2023, medical research will bring more advanced inventions for the greater benefit of human beings.
Alzheimer’s drug approval ‘rife with irregularities’: Probe
The Food and Drug Administration’s contentious approval of a questionable Alzheimer’s drug took another hit Thursday as congressional investigators called the process “rife with irregularities.”
The 18-month investigation by two House committees detailed “atypical collaboration” between FDA regulators and a company it’s supposed to oversee -- Aduhelm manufacturer Biogen. The probe also cited Biogen documents saying the company intended to “make history” when it set what investigators called an “unjustifiably high” initial price of $56,000 a year for the drug.
The criticism comes as the FDA is expected to decide whether to approve another new Alzheimer’s drug in January. Thursday’s report urged the agency to “take swift action” to ensure that any future Alzheimer’s approvals aren’t met with “the same doubts about the integrity of FDA’s review.”
Read more: Drug slows Alzheimer's but can it make a real difference?
The FDA and Biogen issued statements Thursday defending the Aduhelm approval process.
In 2021, the FDA overruled its own independent scientific advisers when it approved Aduhelm even though research studies failed to prove it really helped patients. Biogen had halted two studies after disappointing results suggested the drug wasn’t slowing Alzheimer’s inevitable worsening -- only to later contend that a new analysis of one study showed higher doses offered an incremental benefit.
The FDA argued the drug’s ability to reduce a hallmark of Alzheimer’s, a buildup of plaque in the brain, suggested it was likely to slow the disease. Backlash was immediate as three FDA advisers resigned in protest and the agency’s then-acting chief called for an internal investigation. Eventually Medicare refused to pay for the drug -- even after the yearly price was dropped to $28,000 -- unless patients enrolled in clinical trials to prove if it indeed slowed cognitive decline.
Thursday’s report said FDA and Biogen engaged in an unusually high volume of phone calls, meetings and emails, some of them not properly documented. In addition, the regulators and company spent months working together to prepare a briefing document for FDA’s advisers that didn’t adequately represent substantial disagreement within the FDA about how to handle Aduhelm, the report said.
Read more: Alzheimer's Disease: Symptoms, Causes, Preventions
The investigators recommended that FDA take steps to restore trust in the approval process that include properly documenting interactions with drugmakers. They also urged manufacturers to take into account advice from patient groups and other outside experts on fair drug pricing.
In a statement Thursday, FDA said the Aduhelm decision “was based on our scientific evaluation of the data” and that the agency’s own internal review found its interactions with Biogen were appropriate. But it said it plans to update guidance on Alzheimer’s drug development and will review the investigation’s findings.
In its own statement, Biogen said: “Alzheimer’s is a highly complex disease and we have learned from the development and launch of Aduhelm” but that it “stands by the integrity of the actions we have taken.”
Satellite launched to map the world’s oceans, lakes, rivers
A U.S.-French satellite that will map almost all of the world’s oceans, lakes and rivers rocketed into orbit Friday.
The predawn launch aboard a SpaceX rocket from Vandenberg Space Force Base in California capped a highly successful year for NASA.
Read more: NASA Orion capsule safely blazes back from moon, aces test
Nicknamed SWOT — short for Surface Water and Ocean Topography — the satellite is needed more than ever as climate change worsens droughts, flooding and coastal erosion, according to scientists.
“We’re going to be able to see things that we could just not see before ... and really understand where water is at any given time,” said Benjamin Hamlington at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California.
About the size of an SUV, the satellite will measure the height of water on more than 90% of Earth’s surface, allowing scientists to track the flow and identify potential high-risk areas. It will also survey millions of lakes as well as 1.3 million miles (2.1 million kilometers) of rivers, from headwater to mouth.
The satellite will shoot radar pulses at Earth, with the signals bouncing back to be received by a pair of antennas, one on each end of a 33-foot (10-meter) boom.
It should be able to make out currents and eddies less than 13 miles (21 kilometers) across, as well as areas of the ocean where water masses of varying temperatures merge.
NASA’s current fleet of nearly 30 Earth-observing satellites cannot make out such slight features. And while these older satellites can map the extent of lakes and rivers, their measurements are not as detailed, said the University of North Carolina’s Tamlin Pavelsky, who is part of the mission.
Perhaps most importantly, the satellite will reveal the location and speed of rising sea levels and the shift of coastlines, key to saving lives and property. It will cover the globe between the Arctic and Antarctica at least once every three weeks, as it orbits more than 550 miles (890 kilometers) high. The mission is expected to last three years.
NASA and the French Space Agency collaborated on the $1.2 billion project, with Britain and Canada chipping in.
Read more: Nasa issues second image of ‘Pillars of Creation’ taken by James Webb telescope
“What a spectacular, truly spectacular, launch,” said NASA program manager Nadya Vinogradova-Shiffer. “It is a pivotal moment, and I’m very excited about it.”
Already recycled, the first-stage booster returned to Vandenberg eight minutes after liftoff to fly again one day.
It’s the latest milestone this year for NASA. Among the other highlights: glamour shots of the universe from the new Webb Space Telescope; the Dart spacecraft’s dead-on slam into an asteroid in the first planetary defense test; and the Orion capsule’s recent return from the moon following a test flight.
NASA Orion capsule safely blazes back from moon, aces test
NASA’s Orion capsule made a blisteringly fast return from the moon Sunday, parachuting into the Pacific off Mexico to conclude a test flight that should clear the way for astronauts on the next lunar flyby.
The incoming capsule hit the atmosphere at Mach 32, or 32 times the speed of sound, and endured reentry temperatures of 5,000 degrees Fahrenheit (2,760 degrees Celsius) before splashing down west of Baja California near Guadalupe Island. A Navy ship quickly moved in to recover the spacecraft and its silent occupants — three test dummies rigged with vibration sensors and radiation monitors.
NASA hailed the descent and splashdown as close to perfect, as congratulations poured in from Washington..
“I'm overwhelmed,” NASA Administrator Bill Nelson said from Mission Control in Houston. “This is an extraordinary day ... It's historic because we are now going back into space — deep space — with a new generation.”
Read more: NASA's Orion capsule reaches moon, last big step before lunar orbit
The space agency needed a successful splashdown to stay on track for the next Orion flight around the moon, targeted for 2024 with four astronauts who will be revealed early next year. That would be followed by a two-person lunar landing as early as 2025 and, ultimately, a sustainable moon base. The long-term plan would be to launch a Mars expedition by the late 2030s.
Astronauts last landed on the moon 50 years ago. After touching down on Dec. 11, 1972, Apollo 17′s Eugene Cernan and Harrison Schmitt spent three days exploring the valley of Taurus-Littrow, the longest stay of the Apollo era. They were the last of the 12 moonwalkers.
Orion was the first capsule to visit the moon since then, launching on NASA’s new mega moon rocket from Kennedy Space Center on Nov. 16. It was the first flight of NASA’s new Artemis moon program, named after Apollo’s mythological twin sister.
“From Tranquility Base to Taurus-Littrow to the tranquil waters of the Pacific, the latest chapter of NASA’s journey to the moon comes to a close. Orion back on Earth,” announced Mission Control commentator Rob Navias.
While no one was on the $4 billion test flight, NASA managers were thrilled to pull off the dress rehearsal, especially after so many years of flight delays and busted budgets. Fuel leaks and hurricanes conspired for additional postponements in late summer and fall.
In an Apollo throwback, NASA held a splashdown party at Houston’s Johnson Space Center on Sunday, with employees and their families gathering to watch the broadcast of Orion’s homecoming. Next door, the visitor center threw a bash for the public.
Getting Orion back intact after the 25-day flight was NASA’s top objective. With a return speed of 25,000 mph (40,000 kph) — considerably faster than coming in from low-Earth orbit — the capsule used a new, advanced heat shield never tested before in spaceflight. To reduce the gravity or G loads, it dipped into the atmosphere and briefly skipped out, also helping to pinpoint the splashdown area.
Read more: NASA’s newest moon rocket lifts off 50 years after Apollo
All that unfolded in spectacular fashion, officials noted, allowing for Orion’s safe return.
“I don't think any one of us could have imagined a mission this successful," said mission manager Mike Sarafin.
Further inspections will be conducted once Orion is back at Kennedy by month’s end. If the capsule checks find nothing amiss, NASA will announce the first lunar crew amid considerable hoopla in early 2023, picking from among the 42 active U.S. astronauts stationed at Houston’s Johnson Space Center.
“People are anxious, we know that,” Vanessa Wyche, Johnson's director, told reporters. Added Nelson: “The American people, just like (with) the original seven astronauts in the Mercury days, are going to want to know about these astronauts.”
The capsule splashed down more than 300 miles (482 kilometers) south of the original target zone. Forecasts calling for choppy seas and high wind off the Southern California coast prompted NASA to switch the location.
Orion logged 1.4 million miles (2.25 million kilometers) as it zoomed to the moon and then entered a wide, swooping orbit for nearly a week before heading home.
It came within 80 miles (130 kilometers) of the moon twice. At its farthest, the capsule was more than 268,000 miles (430,000 kilometers) from Earth.
Orion beamed back stunning photos of not only the gray, pitted moon, but also the home planet. As a parting shot, the capsule revealed a crescent Earth — Earthrise — that left the mission team speechless.
Nottingham Trent University astronomer Daniel Brown said the flight's many accomplishments illustrate NASA's capability to put astronauts on the next Artemis moonshot.
“This was the nail-biting end of an amazing and important journey for NASA’s Orion spacecraft," Brown said in a statement from England.
The moon has never been hotter. Just hours earlier Sunday, a spacecraft rocketed toward the moon from Cape Canaveral. The lunar lander belongs to ispace, a Tokyo company intent on developing an economy up there. Two U.S. companies, meanwhile, have lunar landers launching early next year.
Oldest DNA reveals life in Greenland 2 million years ago
Scientists discovered the oldest known DNA and used it to reveal what life was like 2 million years ago in the northern tip of Greenland. Today, it’s a barren Arctic desert, but back then it was a lush landscape of trees and vegetation with an array of animals, even the now extinct mastodon.
“The study opens the door into a past that has basically been lost,” said lead author Kurt Kjær, a geologist and glacier expert at the University of Copenhagen.
With animal fossils hard to come by, the researchers extracted environmental DNA, also known as eDNA, from soil samples. This is the genetic material that organisms shed into their surroundings — for example, through hair, waste, spit or decomposing carcasses.
Studying really old DNA can be a challenge because the genetic material breaks down over time, leaving scientists with only tiny fragments.
But with the latest technology, researchers were able to get genetic information out of the small, damaged bits of DNA, explained senior author Eske Willerslev, a geneticist at the University of Cambridge. In their study, published Wednesday in the journal Nature, they compared the DNA to that of different species, looking for matches.
The samples came from a sediment deposit called the Kap København formation in Peary Land. Today, the area is a polar desert, Kjær said.
But millions of years ago, this region was undergoing a period of intense climate change that sent temperatures up, Willerslev said. Sediment likely built up for tens of thousands of years at the site before the climate cooled and cemented the finds into permafrost.
Read more: Section of destroyed shuttle Challenger found on ocean floor
The cold environment would help preserve the delicate bits of DNA — until scientists came along and drilled the samples out, beginning in 2006.
During the region's warm period, when average temperatures were 20 to 34 degrees Fahrenheit (11 to 19 degrees Celsius) higher than today, the area was filled with an unusual array of plant and animal life, the researchers reported. The DNA fragments suggest a mix of Arctic plants, like birch trees and willow shrubs, with ones that usually prefer warmer climates, like firs and cedars.
The DNA also showed traces of animals including geese, hares, reindeer and lemmings. Previously, a dung beetle and some hare remains had been the only signs of animal life at the site, Willerslev said.
One big surprise was finding DNA from the mastodon, an extinct species that looks like a mix between an elephant and a mammoth, Kjær said.
Many mastodon fossils have previously been found from temperate forests in North America. That’s an ocean away from Greenland, and much farther south, Willerslev said.
“I wouldn’t have, in a million years, expected to find mastodons in northern Greenland,” said Love Dalen, a researcher in evolutionary genomics at Stockholm University who was not involved in the study.
Because the sediment built up in the mouth of a fjord, researchers were also able to get clues about marine life from this time period. The DNA suggests horseshoe crabs and green algae lived in the area — meaning the nearby waters were likely much warmer back then, Kjær said.
By pulling dozens of species out of just a few sediment samples, the study highlights some of eDNA’s advantages, said Benjamin Vernot, an ancient DNA researcher at Germany’s Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology who was not involved in the study.
“You really get a broader picture of the ecosystem at a particular time,” Vernot said. “You don’t have to go and find this piece of wood to study this plant, and this bone to study this mammoth.”
Based on the data available, it’s hard to say for sure whether these species truly lived side by side, or if the DNA was mixed together from different parts of the landscape, said Laura Epp, an eDNA expert at Germany’s University of Konstanz who was not involved in the study.
But Epp said this kind of DNA research is valuable to show “hidden diversity” in ancient landscapes.
Read more: Zombie ice from Greenland will raise sea level 10 inches
Willerslev believes that because these plants and animals survived during a time of dramatic climate change, their DNA could offer a “genetic roadmap” to help us adapt to current warming.
Stockholm University's Dalen expects ancient DNA research to keep pushing deeper into the past. He worked on the study that previously held the “oldest DNA” record, from a mammoth tooth around a million years old.
“I wouldn’t be surprised if you can go at least one or perhaps a few million years further back, assuming you can find the right samples,” Dalen said.
Drug slows Alzheimer's but can it make a real difference?
An experimental Alzheimer’s drug modestly slowed the brain disease’s inevitable worsening, researchers reported Tuesday -- but it remains unclear how much difference that might make in people’s lives.
Japanese drugmaker Eisai and its U.S. partner Biogen had announced earlier this fall that the drug lecanemab appeared to work, a badly needed bright spot after repeated disappointments in the quest for better Alzheimer’s treatments.
Now the companies are providing full results of the study of nearly 1,800 people in the earliest stages of the mind-robbing disease. The data was presented at an Alzheimer’s meeting in San Francisco and published in The New England Journal of Medicine. U.S. regulators could approve the drug as soon as January.
Read more: Coronavirus can destroy the placenta and lead to stillbirths
Every two weeks for 18 months, study participants received intravenous lecanemab or a dummy infusion. Researchers tracked them using an 18-point scale that measures cognitive and functional ability.
Those given lecanemab declined more slowly -- a difference of not quite half a point on that scale, concluded the research team led by Dr. Christopher van Dyck at Yale University.
That’s a hard-to-understand change, but measured a different way, lecanemab delayed patients’ worsening by about five months over the course of the study, Eisai’s Dr. Michael Irizarry told The Associated Press. Also, lecanemab recipients were 31% less likely to advance to the next stage of the disease during the study.
“That translates to more time in earlier stages” when people function better, Irizarry said.
But doctors are divided over how much difference those changes may make for patients and families.
“It is unlikely that the small difference reported in this trial will be noticeable by individual patients,” said Dr. Madhav Thambisetty of the National Institute on Aging, who noted he wasn’t speaking for the government agency.
He said many researchers believe a meaningful improvement would require at least a difference of a full point on that 18-point scale.
But Dr. Ron Petersen, an Alzheimer’s expert at the Mayo Clinic, said the drug’s effect was “a modest one but I think it’s clinically meaningful” -- because even a few months’ delay in progression could give someone a little more time when they’re functioning independently.
The trial is important because it shows a drug that attacks a sticky protein called amyloid -- considered one of several culprits behind Alzheimer’s -- can delay disease progression, said Maria Carrillo, chief science officer for the Alzheimer’s Association.
“We all understand that this is not a cure and we’re all trying to really grasp what it means to slow Alzheimer’s, because this is a first,” Carrillo said.
But any delay in cognitive decline early on could be meaningful for “how much time we have with our loved ones in a stage of disease where we can still enjoy family and outings, vacations, bucket lists,” she said.
Amyloid-targeting drugs can cause side effects that include swelling and bleeding in the brain, and lecanemab did as well. One type of this swelling was seen in about 13% of recipients. Eisai said most were mild or asymptomatic.
Read more: Successful transplant of pig's heart into a human body for the first time
Also, two deaths have been publicly reported among lecanemab users who also were taking blood-thinning medications for other health problems. Eisai said Tuesday the deaths can’t be attributed to the Alzheimer’s drug.
But Mayo’s Petersen said if lecanemab is approved for use in the U.S., he’d avoid prescribing it to people on blood thinners at least initially.
And Thambisetty said the death reports raise concern about how the drug may be tolerated outside of research studies “where patients are likely to be sicker and have multiple other medical conditions.”
The Food and Drug Administration is considering approving lecanemab under its fast-track program, with a decision expected in early January. If approved, it would be the second anti-amyloid drug on the market.
Nearly all treatments available for the 6 million Americans with Alzheimer’s — and millions more worldwide — only temporarily ease symptoms. Scientists don’t yet know exactly how Alzheimer’s forms but one theory is that gunky amyloid buildup plays a key role, although drug after drug that targets it has failed.
In a contentious move last year, the FDA approved the first amyloid-targeting drug, Biogen’s Aduhelm, despite lack of evidence of better patient outcomes. Insurers and many doctors have hesitated to prescribe the pricey drug -- another reason experts have anxiously awaited word of how well the newer lecanemab may work.
If the FDA approves lecanemab, patients and their families will need a voice in deciding whether it’s worth the hassle of IV infusions and the risk of side effects for the chance of at least some delay in progression, Petersen said.
“I don’t think we’re going to stop the disease in its tracks” with just amyloid-targeting drugs, he added, saying it will take a combination of medications that target additional Alzheimer’s culprits.
Researchers are preparing to test lecanemab with other experimental drugs, and how it works in high-risk people before they show the first signs of memory problems.
Section of destroyed shuttle Challenger found on ocean floor
A large section of the destroyed space shuttle Challenger has been found buried in sand at the bottom of the Atlantic, more than three decades after the tragedy that killed a schoolteacher and six others.
NASA’s Kennedy Space Center announced the discovery Thursday.
“Of course, the emotions come back, right?” said Michael Ciannilli, a NASA manager who confirmed the remnant's authenticity. When he saw the underwater video footage, “My heart skipped a beat, I must say, and it brought me right back to 1986 ... and what we all went through as a nation."
It's one of the biggest pieces of Challenger found in the decades since the acciden t, according to Ciannilli, and the first remnant to be discovered since two fragments from the left wing washed ashore in 1996.
Read more: Nasa issues second image of ‘Pillars of Creation’ taken by James Webb telescope
Divers for a TV documentary first spotted the piece in March while looking for wreckage of a World War II plane. NASA verified through video a few months ago that the piece was part of the shuttle that broke apart shortly after liftoff on Jan. 28, 1986. All seven on board were killed, including the first schoolteacher bound for space, Christa McAuliffe.
The underwater video provided “pretty clear and convincing evidence,” said Ciannilli.
The piece is more than 15 feet by 15 feet (4.5 meters by 4.5 meters); it's likely bigger because part of it is covered with sand. Because there are square thermal tiles on the piece, it’s believed to be from the shuttle’s belly, Ciannilli said.
The fragment remains on the ocean floor just off the Florida coast near Cape Canaveral as NASA determines the next step. It remains the property of the U.S. government. The families of all seven Challenger crew members have been notified.
Read more: NASA says spacecraft succeeded in changing asteroid’s orbit
“We want to make sure whatever we do, we do the right thing for the legacy of the crew,” Ciannilli said.
Roughly 118 tons (107 metric tons) of Challenger debris have been recovered since the accident. That represents about 47% of the entire vehicle, including parts of the two solid-fuel boosters and external fuel tank.
Most of the recovered wreckage remains buried in abandoned missile silos at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station. The exception is a left side shuttle panel on display at Kennedy Space Center's visitor complex, alongside the charred cockpit window frame from shuttle Columbia, which broke apart over Texas during reentry in 2003, killing seven astronauts.
Far less has been recovered of Columbia — 42 tons (38 metric tons) representing 38% of the shuttle. The Columbia remains are stored in converted offices inside Kennedy’s massive hangar.
Launched on an exceptionally cold morning, Challenger was brought down by eroded O-ring seals in the right booster. Columbia ended up with a slashed left wing, the result of foam insulation breaking off the external fuel tank at liftoff. Mismanagement was also blamed..
A History Channel documentary detailing the latest Challenger discovery airs Nov. 22.
Nasa issues second image of ‘Pillars of Creation’ taken by James Webb telescope
The US space agency Nasa has issued a second image of the famous "Pillars of Creation" taken by the new super space telescope, James Webb, reported BBC.
This week we get a rendering of the active star-forming region as seen by Webb's Mid-Infrared Instrument (MIRI).
Last week, it was the observatory's Near-Infrared Camera (NIRCam) that was highlighting this remarkable location some 6,500 light-years from Earth.
The pillars lie at the heart of what astronomers refer to as Messier 16 (M16), or the Eagle Nebula.
They are the subject of intense study. Every great telescope is pointed in their direction to try to understand the physics and the chemistry in play as new stars are birthed in great clouds of gas and dust.
Webb, with its 6.5m-wide mirror and high-fidelity sensors, is the latest, biggest and best space observatory to take in the scene.
What's interesting about the new MIRI picture is the choice of wavelengths used to display the pillars.
Ordinarily, astronomers might filter the light to make the dusty columns go very largely translucent, so that their interior, nascent stars can be seen in greater detail. This is what the NIRCam image did: it emphasised the thousands of young blue stars that are present.
And MIRI is capable of taking this approach on another step. But on this occasion, the filtering has selected those wavelengths at which the dust itself actually glows.
"Defying expectations that mid-infrared observations let you see through dust, this stunning image shows that they're also great for studying dust and complex molecules made to glow by the intense light of nearby hot stars," explained Prof Mark McCaughrean, the senior advisor for science at the European Space Agency.
Some of the complex chemistry this helps accentuate involves polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons, PAHs. These are very carbon-rich compounds. You find them on burnt toast and in the exhaust from motor vehicles. PAHs produced by stars are thought to enrich the carbon content throughout the Universe.
MIRI was developed in a collaborative effort between scientists and engineers from 10 European countries, led by the UK, and Nasa's Jet Propulsion Laboratory.
Its co-principal investigator is Prof Gillian Wright.
"It's simply thrilling to see how well MIRI is performing. It's producing radically new science information - stuff we've never had before," the director of the UK Astronomy Technology Centre told BBC News.
"What we see in this new image is akin to the 'skin' of the pillars, if you like. You can see filamentary structures which are where the stars are starting to burn through the dust. And you can see regions that are dark - they're so dense and cold that they're not even lighting up for MIRI."
James Webb is a collaborative project of the US, European and Canadian space agencies. It was launched in December last year and is regarded as the successor to the Hubble Space Telescope.
NASA says spacecraft succeeded in changing asteroid’s orbit
A spacecraft that plowed into a small, harmless asteroid millions of miles away succeeded in shifting its orbit, NASA said Tuesday in announcing the results of its save-the-world test.
The space agency attempted the test two weeks ago to see if in the future a killer rock could be nudged out of Earth’s way.
“This mission shows that NASA is trying to be ready for whatever the universe throws at us,” NASA Administrator Bill Nelson said during a briefing at the space agency’s headquarters in Washington.
The Dart spacecraft carved a crater into the asteroid Dimorphos on Sept. 26, hurling debris out into space and creating a cometlike trail of dust and rubble stretching several thousand miles (kilometers). It took consecutive nights of telescope observations from Chile and South Africa to determine how much the impact altered the path of the 525-foot (160-meter) asteroid around its companion, a much bigger space rock.
Before the impact, the moonlet took 11 hours and 55 minutes to circle its parent asteroid. Scientists had anticipated shaving off 10 minutes, but Nelson said the impact shortened the asteroid’s orbit by 32 minutes.
“Let’s all just kind of take a moment to soak this in ... for the first time ever, humanity has changed the orbit” of a celestial body, noted Lori Glaze, NASA’s director of planetary science.
Apollo astronaut Rusty Schweickart, a co-founder of the nonprofit B612 Foundation, dedicated to protecting Earth from asteroid strikes, said he’s “clearly delighted, no question about that” by the results and the attention the mission has brought to asteroid deflection.
The team’s scientists said the amount of debris apparently played a role in the outcome. The impact may also have left Dimorphos wobbling a bit, said NASA program scientist Tom Statler. That may affect the orbit, but it will never go back to its original location, he noted.
The two bodies originally were already less than a mile (1.2 kilometers) apart. Now they’re tens of yards (meters) closer.
Neither asteroid posed a threat to Earth — and still don’t as they continue their journey around the sun. That’s why scientists picked the pair for this all-important dress rehearsal.
Planetary defense experts prefer nudging a threatening asteroid or comet out of the way, given years or even decades of lead time, rather than blowing it up and creating multiple pieces that could rain down on Earth.
“We really need to also have that warning time for a technique like this to be effective,” said mission leader Nancy Chabot of Johns Hopkins University’s Applied Physics Laboratory, which built the spacecraft and managed the $325 million mission.
“You’ve got to know they’re coming,” added Glaze.
Launched last year, the vending machine-size Dart — short for Double Asteroid Redirection Test — was destroyed when it slammed into the asteroid 7 million miles (11 million kilometers) away at 14,000 mph (22,500 kph).
“This is huge feat, not only in achieving the first step in possibly being able to protect ourselves from future asteroid impacts,” but also for the amount of images and data collected internationally, Daniel Brown, an astronomer at Nottingham Trent University in England, said via email.
Brown also said that it’s “particularly exciting” that the debris tail can be seen by amateur skygazers with medium-size telescopes.
Team scientists cautioned more work is needed to not only identify more of the countless space rocks out there, but to ascertain their makeup — some are solid, while others are rubble piles. Scouting missions might be needed, for instance, before launching impactors to deflect the orbits.
“We should not be too eager to say one test on one asteroid tells us exactly how every other asteroid would behave in a similar situation,” Statler said.
Nonetheless, he and others are rejoicing over this first effort.
”We’ve been imagining this for years and to have it finally be real is really quite a thrill,” he said.