Asteroid to Just Squeeze Past Earth

Astronomers are tracking an asteroid about the size of an aircraft carrier that on Tuesday will pass by Earth, within the moon's orbit, in the closest approach of such an object in a generation. The 1,300-foot-wide asteroid, known as 2005 YU55, poses no hazard, experts at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory said. They are monitoring the spinning space rock by radar as it nears and eventually speeds past Earth at a distance of 201,000 miles. The asteroid is going 29,000 miles per hour, according to astronomers at the University of Arizona. It is the first time since 1976 that an asteroid has come so close to Earth, and the first time astronomers have ever had this much advance notice. By astronomers' calculations, the asteroid is expected to make its closest approach to Earth at 6:28 pm EST Tuesday. The asteroid is too dim to be seen with the naked eye and its gravity is too weak to affect tides or earthquake activity, said experts at the National Aeronautics and Space Administration. Its most important effect may be the adrenaline it has generated this week among the planetary astronomers tracking it through NASA's Deep Space Network antennas, the Arecibo radio-telescope in Puerto Rico and hundreds of telescopes world-wide

"This is an extraordinary opportunity to look at an extremely important type of asteroid," said Donald K. Yeomans, head of NASA's Near-Earth Object Program Office, which tracks these objects. "A small army of astronomers are pretty excited about it." Among the oldest objects in the solar system, such carbon-rich asteroids may hold water and important ores, as well as clues to the molecular origins of life on Earth. They also may become humankind's next destination in space, if current plans by NASA for a manned mission to an asteroid come to fruition. "These objects may one day be the fueling stations and watering holes for interplanetary travel," Dr. Yeomans said. The solar system harbors millions of asteroids, but only a few are known to cross Earth's path, like the gigantic object that struck the planet some 65 million years ago, part of a chain of events that led to the demise of the dinosaurs. That impact left a crater 110 miles wide in Mexico's Yucatan Peninsula, suggesting the original object was six miles or more in diameter. By that standard, 2005 YU55 is a medium-size asteroid, among about an estimated 19,500 comparable space rocks between 330 feet and 3,300 feet wide believed to have orbits around the sun intercepting Earth's, according to NASA's most recent tally released in September. Some, like 2005 YU55, are rich in organic chemistry, but many are stony or more metallic. Only about a third of them have been located so far. The asteroid 2005 YU55 was first detected six years ago and until now, researchers knew little more than its precise orbit. Previous observations suggest it is a fairly symmetrical stone sphere, darker than the color of charcoal, and rotates once every 18 hours. NASA radar astronomers picked up its track on Friday and were immediately able to narrow its position to within one kilometer—50 times better than their previous best estimate. "We pinged it," said Marina Brozovic, a planetary radar astronomer who is leading the Jet Propulsion Laboratory's team at NASA's Goldstone radar installation that is following the asteroid. "It's there." During the next 48 hours or so, the astronomers expect to map the asteroid's surface and refine their knowledge about its orbit enough to predict its precise path well into the future. "We will probably know centuries ahead where it is going to be," said Dr. Brozovic. "We don't want any surprises." It will be 2028 before another asteroid comes so close to Earth, when the asteroid 2001 WN5 passes at a distance of about 143,000 miles. The fly-by of 2005 YU55 offers astronomers an opportunity to rehearse their target acquisition and tracking techniques, in the event that an asteroid is ever discovered on a collision course with Earth. "We would like to know more about them in case one was found on an Earth-threatening trajectory," Dr. Yeomans said.

Drinking milk helps you shed weight

Drinking milk regularly could help you shed weight, finds a recent study. In a two-year weight loss study, milk drinkers had an advantage over those who skipped the milk, reports the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition . Researchers led by Danit Shahar from the Ben-Gurion University of the Negev in Israel, found that adults who drank nearly two glasses of milk daily, which provided the highest Vitamin D levels at six months, lost more weight after two years than those who had little or no milk or milk products -- nearly six kilograms weight loss, on average.

More than 300 overweight men and women aged 40 to 65 years, took part in the study following low-fat, Mediterranean or low-carb diets for two years, according to a Ben-Gurion statement. Regardless of diet, researchers found participants with the highest dairy calcium intake six months into the study (averaging about 580 mg daily- the amount in nearly two glasses of milk) lost about six kilograms at the end of the two years, compared to about 3.5 kg for those with the lowest dairy calcium intake (averaging about 150 mg, or about half of a glass). Beyond calcium, the researchers also found that Vitamin D levels independently affected weight loss success and in line with previous research, milk and milk products were the top contributors to Vitamin D in the diets of the study participants. Despite the potential health benefits, many Americans are still not getting the recommended 400 international units (IU) of Vitamin D daily -- the amount in four glasses of fat free or low-fat milka

Don’t make Facebook and Twitter your emotional gutter.

Your online interaction could cast long, dark shadows offline. Don’t make Facebook and Twitter your emotional gutter.
There is a set of guidelines to follow in a relationship, and then there is another set to be followed when exposing your personal life on a social-networking site. A breach of these could result in the shocking tragedy of Malini Murmu, the 23-year-old IIM student who committed suicide after reading her former boyfriend's tactless status update: "Feeling super cool today. Dumped my new ex-girlfriend. Happy Independence Day."

The onus of Malini's actions does not rest solely on her ex-boyfriend's keyboard happiness; there is more to the matter than meets the eye. However, this is an immense cause of concern about the far-reaching effects social-networking sites can have on people's lives. Especially since people tend to have more 'courageous' online personalities than offline ones.

Clinical psychologist Alina Philip says, "Much like the media, social networking sites reach everybody. Therefore, we need to follow ethics and be extremely sensitive to what goes up on them. "

Admit it
As much as social networks allow us to stay connected with people across the demographics, they are partly superficial.

And we get to be pretentious. Most status updates and pictures are to show how witty you are, how much fun and interesting your life is, how deep you are - basically a concentrated effort to dictate a perception of the unique snowflake that is you.

While there is nothing wrong in this, tread carefully when relationships with others are involved. Making and maintaining relationships need effort, time and direct communication - and all of it invested offline.

Clinical psychologist and psychotherapist Varkha Chulani, says, "There's a fine line between sharing of information and emotional exhibition." "Love you darling. Muah", "Thanks for last night", "We need to talk" and "I think your sister is fat" does not need to make it on the Wall. These conversations are best had person to person. And if this is not the kind of thing you would say to his/her face, it makes it all the more cowardly to say it online.

Like Philip says, "Would you go to the middle of Azad Maidan screaming that you have broken up? Then why publicise on Facebook? Your personal space is your personal space. Respect it. Do not make a mockery out of it. Maintain the sanity of your relationship."

This extends to changes in relationship messages. From Single to Taken to It's complicated, it's less of sharing of good news and more of hungering for attention. Wouldn't it be wiser to decide on the status of your relationship after you've finished fighting and decided mutually on it?

Also announcing the cementing of your relationship through status change can be awkward if you have not had 'the talk' offline first. Otherwise ABC is happily 'in a relationship' with XYZ, but XYZ hasn't really changed her status from Single.

Be a suit
Taking office gossip and team rivalry online will not reflect well on your resume. Even here, it is better if you solve your problems face-to-face rather than resort to vague sarcastic comments on their status messages and photos.

And no matter how bad your day has been, don't bitch about a client or boss on your blog and Twitter. You may have a friend who knows a friend, who knows the boss. Besides, your future employers could be online and they will think twice about hiring a person with no discretion.

Keep it positive
A rule of thumb is to announce only the positive - a new job, a celebration or new degree. Steer clear of washing dirty linen in public. Do not talk about your bad day at work or your unpleasant marriage. Remember: 500 friends of friends do not need to know.

Pictures have ceased to be snapshots for posterity and grown into frames of exhibitionism. And here you need to be more careful. What seemed funny when you were drunk and in college, will not be as ticklish when you land a job, or when you wake up sober. When the pictures are of somebody else, the responsibility is greater.

You do not know what could land a friend or colleague into trouble and it is best to avoid uploading any picture or video that brings even a shadow of doubt. Happy smiling family pictures may be boring, but they are less likely to land you in a lawsuit.

Pictures of you with your arm around a bikini-clad babe, or shirtless dude after a break-up point less to you being cool and more to you being lame. "This reflects that you are providing solace to yourself that you have a good life, while revealing emotional instability," says Chulani.

Turmeric, a natural born cancer killer

Researchers at UCLA's Jonsson Comprehensive Cancer Centre have found that curcumin, the main component in the spice turmeric, suppresses a cell-signalling pathway in human saliva that drives the growth of head and neck cancer.

The inhibition of the cell signalling pathway was also correlated with reduced expression of a number of pro-inflammatory cytokines, or signalling molecules, in the saliva that promote cancer growth, said Dr. Marilene Wang, senior author of the study and a Jonsson Cancer Centre researcher.

"This study shows that curcumin can work in the mouths of patients with head and neck malignancies and reduce activities that promote cancer growth," Wang said.

"And it not only affected the cancer by inhibiting a critical cell signalling pathway, it also affected the saliva itself by reducing pro-inflammatory cytokines within the saliva," she added.

The study was published September 15 in Clinical Cancer Research, a peer-reviewed journal of the American Association of Cancer Research .

Britain to recycle diapers into roof tiles

British babies use around three billion disposable diapers every year. Now a new recycling plant has opened in the country where these nappies would be turned into roof tiles and construction tubes.

Over half million tonnes of waste from disposable diapers is generated in Britain every year.

An average British baby uses 6,000 before being trained to use the potty. Each disposable diaper takes around 500 years to decompose, says the Daily Mail.

A Canadian company -- Knowaste -- has stepped forward to recycle around 36,000 tonnes of diapers at the first recycling facility of its kind in Britain.

The plant opened in West Bromwich, around 165 km from London.

The waste diapers will be collected from hospitals, nursing facilities and child care nurseries.

The company said the products would be sterilised and highly valuable plastic and fibre will be recovered.

These can then be used for making new products like roof tiles or plastic components and fibre-based construction and commercial tubes.

water on moon

PASADENA, Calif. -- NASA scientists have discovered water molecules in the polar regions of the moon. Instruments aboard three separate spacecraft revealed water molecules in amounts that are greater than predicted, but still relatively small. Hydroxyl, a molecule consisting of one oxygen atom and one hydrogen atom, also was found in the lunar soil. The findings were published in Thursday's edition of the journal Science.

NASA's Moon Mineralogy Mapper, or M3, instrument reported the observations. M3 was carried into space on Oct. 22, 2008, aboard the Indian Space Research Organization's Chandrayaan-1 spacecraft. Data from the Visual and Infrared Mapping Spectrometer, or VIMS, on NASA's Cassini spacecraft, and the High-Resolution Infrared Imaging Spectrometer on NASA's Epoxi spacecraft contributed to confirmation of the finding. The spacecraft imaging spectrometers made it possible to map lunar water more effectively than ever before.

The confirmation of elevated water molecules and hydroxyl at these concentrations in the moon's polar regions raises new questions about its origin and effect on the mineralogy of the moon. Answers to these questions will be studied and debated for years to come.

"Water ice on the moon has been something of a holy grail for lunar scientists for a very long time," said Jim Green, director of the Planetary Science Division at NASA Headquarters in Washington. "This surprising finding has come about through the ingenuity, perseverance and international cooperation between NASA and the India Space Research Organization."

From its perch in lunar orbit, M3's state-of-the-art spectrometer measured light reflecting off the moon's surface at infrared wavelengths, splitting the spectral colors of the lunar surface into small enough bits to reveal a new level of detail in surface composition. When the M3 science team analyzed data from the instrument, they found the wavelengths of light being absorbed were consistent with the absorption patterns for water molecules and hydroxyl.

"For silicate bodies, such features are typically attributed to water and hydroxyl-bearing materials," said Carle Pieters, M3's principal investigator from Brown University, Providence, R.I. "When we say 'water on the moon,' we are not talking about lakes, oceans or even puddles. Water on the moon means molecules of water and hydroxyl that interact with molecules of rock and dust specifically in the top millimeters of the moon's surface.

The M3 team found water molecules and hydroxyl at diverse areas of the sunlit region of the moon's surface, but the water signature appeared stronger at the moon's higher latitudes. Water molecules and hydroxyl previously were suspected in data from a Cassini flyby of the moon in 1999, but the findings were not published until now.

"The data from Cassini's VIMS instrument and M3 closely agree," said Roger Clark, a U.S. Geological Survey scientist in Denver and member of both the VIMS and M3 teams. "We see both water and hydroxyl. While the abundances are not precisely known, as much as 1,000 water molecule parts-per-million could be in the lunar soil. To put that into perspective, if you harvested one ton of the top layer of the moon's surface, you could get as much as 32 ounces of water."

For additional confirmation, scientists turned to the Epoxi mission while it was flying past the moon in June 2009 on its way to a November 2010 encounter with comet Hartley 2. The spacecraft not only confirmed the VIMS and M3 findings, but also expanded on them.

"With our extended spectral range and views over the north pole, we were able to explore the distribution of both water and hydroxyl as a function of temperature, latitude, composition, and time of day," said Jessica Sunshine of the University of Maryland. Sunshine is Epoxi's deputy principal investigator and a scientist on the M3 team. "Our analysis unequivocally confirms the presence of these molecules on the moon's surface and reveals that the entire surface appears to be hydrated during at least some portion of the lunar day."

NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif., manages the M3 instrument, Cassini mission and Epoxi spacecraft for NASA's Science Mission Directorate in Washington. The Indian Space Research Organization built, launched and operated the Chandrayaan-1 spacecraft (a articl from nasa)

Keep your wedding from turning into a financial funeral

The average wedding now costs the bride, groom and their families a stonking £25,000 – that’s more than many of us earn in a year. But declaring your love needn’t mean financial ruin if you use a little invention and imagination.

The venue
A fairy-tale castle or Jane Austen style country house might be every bride’s dream wedding venue but consider your personalities and shared passions.
Perhaps you’ve always loved your parent’s garden or your husband-to-be is mad on motors. ‘Wedding venue’ doesn’t have to mean a glittering lake dotted with pure white swans and often brides forget their priorities when arranging the perfect wedding. Think carefully and you may realise that you’d be just as happy with bangers and mash in the local like Kate Winslet who enjoyed just that at her first wedding.
Don’t write off that Caribbean beach wedding either. When the guests are whittled down from 100 to 10 and the grand reception becomes a beach BBQ, savings of thousands can be made as the bride and groom relax in the sun.

The dress
For most brides their wedding is the one and only time a single item will set them back more than £1000 – ridiculous when you consider that a wedding dress is worn only once.
Many high street retailers, most famously Monsoon, offer affordable wedding dress alternatives while websites such as www.thedressmarket.net sell second hand and sample dresses at incredible prices – no-one will ever know that you’re not wearing new.
However, if you’ve always dreamed of a handmade dress consider taking your honeymoon BEFORE your wedding. The cost of having a dress handmade in Thailand or Hong Kong can be as little as £200 including materials. Likewise suits and bridesmaids dresses can be created from measurements provided by your wedding party.

The food & drink
In an ideal world your guests will feast on caviar and sup champagne. In reality food and drink bills make up one of the biggest expenses of any wedding.
Swap champagne for sparkling wine, cava or prosecco – few guests will know the difference – and introduce a pay bar, standard at most weddings nowadays.
Hog roasts, BBQs, picnics and buffets meanwhile are a relaxed and cheap alternative to a sit-down meal and presented upon tables decorated with posies of wild flowers (cheaper than roses and orchids) make for a sweet and stylish look.

The cake
If you can’t rope a willing auntie in to baking and icing the cake of your dreams avoid marzipan bankruptcy by simply buying three plain iced fruit cakes of increasing size from your local bakery or supermarket, adding pillars and decorating with flowers matching the bride’s bouquet. Pure class for just a few pounds.

The photographs
Who needs a pricey photographer taking over your day when everyone you know will be feeling pretty snap happy? Provide a couple of easy-to-use digital cameras for guests to make use of or offer each a CD to download their photos on to before sending to you. It’s the candid shots that will tell the story of your day better than any posed portraits.