February 1, 2016


News Clips For The Day


http://www.cbsnews.com/news/john-kasich-catches-a-break-in-new-hampshire/

John Kasich catches a break in New Hampshire
By JACQUELINE ALEMANY CBS NEWS
February 1, 2016

Photograph -- Republican presidential candidate Ohio Gov. John Kasich speaks during a campaign stop at the Derry-Salem Elks Lodge, Sunday, Jan. 31, 2016, in Salem, N.H. (AP Photo/John Minchillo) AP


MANCHESTER, N.H. -- John Kasich is staking his entire campaign on New Hampshire and perhaps for the first time this election cycle, he had the entire Granite State political world to himself this weekend - and was loving it.

Camped out there, Kasich waltzed his way through his 82nd, 83rd, 84th, 85th, and 86th town halls in the state Saturday and Sunday. While Chris Christie and Jeb Bush - two Republican governors also focused on surpassing expectations in New Hampshire -- were rolling the dice on Iowa, Kasich seized the moment to cement his status as the true candidate of the New Hampshire establishment.

The Ohio governor is in second place in the polls in New Hampshire, behind Donald Trump and only slightly ahead of Cruz, Bush, and Marco Rubio.

Getting a three day head start in the "other" first in the nation voting state, Kasich made five stops in which he spoke highly and frequently of his recent endorsement by The New York Times.

Perhaps the first Republican to hug and kiss an endorsement from that newspaper, Kasich thanked it repeatedly and honed in on one sentence in particular. "And Mr. Kasich is no moderate," the editorial read. "As governor, he's gone after public-sector unions, fought to limit abortion rights and opposed same-sex marriage."

Kasich also received the endorsement of the Boston Globe and "seven out of eight newspapers in New Hampshire," per his own count. He emphasized the endorsements to voters with the same empathetic finesse he weaves into other centrist pitches that can be unpopular with conservatives.

"Then sir, yesterday, I got endorsed by The New York Times," Kasich told a crowd during a town hall in Salem on Sunday.

"A couple days ago, I was in my room, and I thought about all of this and I cried," he continued. "It's amazing to come from where I came from and have these wonderful things said about me."

Speaking to reporters after his Salem event, Kasich repeated that it "was a lovely editorial where they said, 'Kasich's certainly not a moderate but he knows how to get things done and bring people together.' I like that."

One reporter tweeted that Christie's camp did not even accept a meeting with the paper's editorial team that serves as a popular punching bag for Republicans on the trail.

The New Jersey governor's team later circulated an email with the subhead: "The New York Times' Endorsement Further Proves That John Kasich Is A Liberal's Idea Of What A Good Republican Should Look Like." And earlier this week, America Future Fund, a conservative Super PAC, released an ad branding Kasich as "an Obama Republican," after highlighting his support of Common Core, Medicaid expansion and tax increases.

When he wasn't being asked about The New York Times, the self-proclaimed "Prince of Light and Hope," who has pitched himself as an optimistic consensus builder determined to keep his moral high ground by running a positive campaign, was questioned about his campaign's own dabblings in negative approaches.

On Friday in Manchester, the Bush and Kasich New Hampshire teams clashed after the Kasich campaign gathered for a news conference outside Bush's Manchester office, with Kasich's team protesting it called the pro-Bush Super PAC's mud-slinging campaign tactics, holding up signs that read, "Stop Lying Jeb."

Kasich seems to have a reserve of venom for Bush and Right to Rise, veering from a discussion in Plymouth earlier in January about the heroin epidemic to note that, "Jeb, Mr. 'I- play- on- the- high- ground' -- he's bringing his negativity and his trash."

Literature that Kasich staffers pass around to voters at town halls features a page that reads, "Jeb Bush Can't Buy Momentum Like This."

In Keene on Saturday, Kasich told reporters he'd stick to his positive message, but defended his campaign's attacks.

"You want to come after me, O.K., well, we're not going to sit back and take it," he said.

"I'm a McKees Rocks boy -- you know -- if you come into our town and beat us in football, you know, we'll break all the windows on your bus. That's just the way it works."

In response to yet another attack ad running in Iowa from the same pro-Bush Super PAC - a state Kasich has been glaringly absent from -- Kasich gleefully told reporters he was "surprised to see that they were worried about me in Iowa."

"Well, they got like a hundred and ten million dollars," Kasich said. "They've spent $40 or $50 million trying to sell Jeb in a positive way -- that didn't work. So now he's playing whack-a-mole. And he's just beating everybody that pops up. So I was totally amused to find out that I've spent $140,000 in Iowa and he's spent $40 million and they're beating me up in Iowa. Fantastic."

One name strikingly absent from Kasich's conversations over the weekend: Trump.

Kasich is attempting to thread together a coalition of the same elusive voters Trump is after: independents. The difference between the "independent" voters Kasich and Trump are attempting to woo, however, is seen in their differences on ideaological voters. Trump is aiming for the non- ideological voters, while Kasich is attracting independents who "care about politics and don't like polarization but actually have a politically ideology that is pretty well developed," Dante Scala, a political science professor from the University of New Hampshire, told CBS News in an interview.

Kasich has taken to telling audiences there are three lanes -- "the establishment lane, the anti-establishment lane, and then there's the Kasich Lane," going so far as to call himself an "independent guy" during a stop in Keene on Saturday. "The Republican Party is my vehicle, but it has never been my master," he told the crowd.

However many of the voters in Bow on Sunday were still deciding among the three Republican governors.



“He emphasized the endorsements to voters with the same empathetic finesse he weaves into other centrist pitches that can be unpopular with conservatives. …. The New Jersey governor's team later circulated an email with the subhead: "The New York Times' Endorsement Further Proves That John Kasich Is A Liberal's Idea Of What A Good Republican Should Look Like." And earlier this week, America Future Fund, a conservative Super PAC, released an ad branding Kasich as "an Obama Republican," after highlighting his support of Common Core, Medicaid expansion and tax increases. …. Kasich has taken to telling audiences there are three lanes -- "the establishment lane, the anti-establishment lane, and then there's the Kasich Lane," going so far as to call himself an "independent guy" during a stop in Keene on Saturday. "The Republican Party is my vehicle, but it has never been my master," he told the crowd. However, many of the voters in Bow on Sunday were still deciding among the three Republican governors.”


I like the fact that he – though he stresses he is not that Republican bad word “moderate” – is no far-rightist, either in economic issues dealing with the poor and with educational issues, nor in those divisive tactics that Trump loves so much like speaking hatefully about religious and ethnic minorities. He has in fact almost declared himself an Independent. If things go as they have down the path with some of the other RINOS, he may be nudged ungently out of the party. The Democrats don’t tend to do that. There’s no loyalty test among us, and some Dems in the past have done immoral or illegal things without being “drummed out.” I’m not going to vote for a Republican, but if Kasich or Jeb Bush, both of whom seem to have some “enlightened” ideas, should become president I would be less afraid for our society than if a Tea Party member were to win.




http://www.cbsnews.com/news/cries-of-oh-my-god-heard-on-moving-amtrak-train/

Cries of "oh my God" heard on moving Amtrak train
CBS NEWS
February 1, 2016

Photograph -- Crack is seen on Amtrak train that was hit by mystery objects at least one of which passengers speculated could have been a bullet while traveling through Pennsylvania on evening of January 31, 2016 @TAYLORLORENZ


NEW YORK -- Amtrak says it's trying to find out what hit one of its trains and cracked a window as the train was traveling from Washington to New York Sunday evening.

According to the rail line, unidentified objects were thrown at an Acela Express train in Bridesburg, Pennsylvania at around 7 p.m. It had 201 passengers. No injuries were reported.

Taylor Lorenz, 30, of Park Slope, Brooklyn, was sitting just a few seats down from the damaged window.

"There was this great boom. Sounded like a tray table drop. Like really hard and strong and loud," Lorenz told CBS New York.

She said Amtrak police came on board to investigate when the train stopped at the Metropark station in New Jersey.

"Oh my God, something hit the train," she continued. "And immediately everybody looked at it and said, 'Oh my God, it's a gunshot," Lorenz said. "Is that a bullet in there? What's going on?"'

But on Sunday night, Amtrak said it didn't know what struck the train and cracked the window.

Lorenz said one thing that struck her is something the conductor said.

"He said that it looked like something like that had happened before," Lorenz said.

The incident comes on the heels of a deadly Amtrak Derailment last May, when a dispatcher reported that the train had been hit by a rock or shot at. That train was also an Acela heading to New York.

The National Transportation Safety Board was scheduled to release more information about that crash Monday.



I hope the authorities do find who is doing this. It is too much like the two half cracked snipers who killed in the range of ten or more shootings along I-95 and the DC Beltway several years ago over a period of several weeks. That much blind hostility is probably beyond any effective mental health treatment, so I’m not sorry that they were stopped completely, one being given six life sentences and the other the death penalty.

Beltway sniper attacks
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

The Beltway sniper attacks were a series of coordinated shootings that took place over three weeks in October 2002 in Maryland, Virginia, and Washington, D.C. Ten people were killed and three other victims were critically injured in several locations throughout the Washington, D.C., metropolitan area and along Interstate 95 in Virginia. The rampage was perpetrated by John Allen Muhammad (then aged 42) and Lee Boyd Malvo (then 17), driving a blue 1990 Chevrolet Caprice sedan. Their crime spree began in February 2002 with murders and robberies in the states of Alabama, Arizona, Florida, Georgia, Louisiana, Texas, and Washington, which resulted in seven deaths and seven injuries, bringing the ten month shooting spree total to 17 deaths and 10 injuries.[1]

In September 2003, Muhammad was sentenced to death. One month later, Malvo was sentenced to six consecutive life sentences without the possibility of parole. On November 10, 2009, Muhammad was executed by lethal injection at the Greensville Correctional Center near Jarratt, Virginia.



http://www.cbsnews.com/news/caught-on-tape-miami-citizen-gets-cop-to-apologize-for-speeding/

Citizen gets video of cop apologizing for "speeding"
CBS NEWS
February 1, 2016

Photograph -- A police officer being filmed by Claudia Castillo in Miami, Florida, on January 31, 2016. CLAUDIA CASTILLO VIA CBS MIAMI


MIAMI -- Police officers are usually the ones pulling over speeding drivers but the tables turned in Miami after a woman stopped an officer for speeding, recording it all on video.

"I've been following an officer since Miller," narrated Claudia Castillo as her cell phone recorded moving traffic from her car's dashboard.

Castillo followed the Miami-Dade Police officer Friday afternoon. She told CBS Miami he blew past her going east on Miller Drive, which has a 40 mile-an-hour speed limit.

She followed him on the 826 northbound, then the 836 eastbound. Castillo eventually caught up to the MDPD officer as they approached I-95 in downtown Miami. That's where she finally got the officer's attention and they pulled over on the exit ramp to N.W. 8th Street.

Suddenly the familiar, stern questions were being asked at the car window. Only, the officer wasn't the one asking them.

"The reason why I pulled you over today... I just wanted to know, what's the emergency," asked Castillo.

"I don't know how fast I was going. But I can tell you this, I'm on my way to work right now. I don't believe I was speeding," the officer replied as he stood at Castillo's passenger-side window.

"I thought you had some kind of emergency, is everything fine?" he asked her, explaining why he stopped when she flagged him down.

"Everything's fine," she replied. "Just your speeding."

The officer was apologetic, saying, "I'll be sure to slow down then."

Castillo spoke to CBS Miami about the video.

"The cop drove past me so fast my car shook," Castillo said. "And I got upset. I started speeding up and I stopped at 80."

"He's been driving wrecklessly," Castillo said. "He was going about 100 miles-an-hour 'cause I was hitting 80 and I could not catch up to him."

Since posting the video online, Castillo said many people have left both supportive and negative comments. Some were offensive and insulting, calling her names and telling her to get a life. Others applauded her actions and thanked her for holding the officer accountable.

In a statement, Police Director Juan Perez said:

"The Miami-Dade Police Department will have the officer's immediate command staff investigate the matter, once the officer and citizen are identified. The appropriate course of action will be taken at that point."

"I'm sure he's a nice guy but nobody's above the law," Castillo is heard on the video as she pulled right behind the police patrol unit on the exit ramp.



"The cop drove past me so fast my car shook," Castillo said. "And I got upset. I started speeding up and I stopped at 80." "He's been driving wrecklessly," Castillo said. "He was going about 100 miles-an-hour 'cause I was hitting 80 and I could not catch up to him." Since posting the video online, Castillo said many people have left both supportive and negative comments. Some were offensive and insulting, calling her names and telling her to get a life. Others applauded her actions and thanked her for holding the officer accountable.”


People used to say “the pen is mightier than the sword,” but now we should perhaps say the camera instead. This is the second story almost like this. I do think some folks are taking advantage of the police brutality stories to put the shoe on the other foot. I’m not against it, though, because even in my young days police were known or being abusive, financially corrupt and just downright bullying. The cops that get caught doing those things should be strongly disciplined so that they will serve as examples to others on the force. I’m glad to see that in this case, the officer was polite and admitted he was in the wrong.




http://www.cbsnews.com/news/california-teen-with-perfect-ap-math-score-invited-to-white-house/

Calif. teen aces AP calculus test, scores White House invitation
CBS NEWS
February 1, 2016

Photograph -- Cedrick Argueta, 17, got a perfect score on his AP calculus exam and an invitation to the White House. CBS LOS ANGELES


LOS ANGELES -- A Lincoln Heights teen got a perfect score on the AP Calculus exam and then scored an invitation to the White House, CBS Los Angeles reports.


Cedrick Argueta, 17, is the son of a Salvadoran maintenance worker and a Filipina nurse, was one of only 12 people out of the 302,531 students who took the advanced placement test to score every single point, according to the Los Angeles Times.

Among his admirers were President Obama, who tweeted Sunday morning, "Cedrick; way to go on your perfect score! How about you come by the next White House science fair?"

Argueta has not said whether he'll take up the president on his offer. He wants to attend CalTech in the fall, according to the Los Angeles Times, and his family is hoping he gets a scholarship.

To celebrate their son's achievement, the Arguetas took Cedrick to Roy's, his favorite restaurant in Pasadena, for a large pork shank, The Times reported. Waiters there also treated him to a free souffle.



“Cedrick Argueta, 17, is the son of a Salvadoran maintenance worker and a Filipina nurse, was one of only 12 people out of the 302,531 students who took the advanced placement test to score every single point, according to the Los Angeles Times. Among his admirers were President Obama, who tweeted Sunday morning, "Cedrick; way to go on your perfect score! How about you come by the next White House science fair?" Argueta has not said whether he'll take up the president on his offer. He wants to attend CalTech in the fall, according to the Los Angeles Times, and his family is hoping he gets a scholarship.”


Impressive! 12 out of 302,531 according to my calculator is .003966535%. He’s concerned about getting a scholarship, but I don’t think he needs to worry. He certainly should take a vacation and visit the President. As they used to say in my day, “lighten up!”




http://www.cbsnews.com/news/virginia-college-student-gets-zika-virus/

Virginia college student gets Zika virus
CBS/AP
February 1, 2016

WILLIAMSBURG, Va. -- University officials in Virginia say a College of William and Mary student contracted the Zika virus while traveling in Central America over winter break.

The university said in a news release that the student is expected to recover and isn't experiencing symptoms.

The school also said that after consulting with its own health and wellness team and the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, it believes there is no health risk to anyone on campus.

The student is the second person in Virginia to contract the virus, reports CBS Richmond, Virginia affiliate WTVR-TV.

Zika is a mosquito-borne virus that has been linked to severe birth defects. The most common symptoms are fever, rash, joint pain and conjunctivitis. The virus has spread rapidly across Central and South America. There is no vaccine yet.

The virus has spread to at least 24 countries, and the World Health Organization estimates that 3 million to 4 million people across the Americas will be infected with the virus in the next year, says WTVR.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention is warning pregnant women against travel to those areas; health officials in several of those countries are telling female citizens to avoid becoming pregnant, in some cases for up to two years.



“The university said in a news release that the student is expected to recover and isn't experiencing symptoms. The school also said that after consulting with its own health and wellness team and the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, it believes there is no health risk to anyone on campus. …. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention is warning pregnant women against travel to those areas; health officials in several of those countries are telling female citizens to avoid becoming pregnant, in some cases for up to two years.”


So far no cases are from American soil, but among Florida, the Gulf Coast and even places like The Carolinas where there are significant acreages of wetlands, I expect infected mosquitoes to show up soon at this rate, especially if humans who are carrying the virus increase in numbers here. There are not only zillions of mosquitoes in Central and South America, but probably a high number of infected humans as well. I wonder if there could even be an animal that is prey to mosquitos and carries the virus, like the Ebola and AIDS viruses. I’ll try to find future articles and post them here.




http://ktla.com/2016/01/30/mother-hears-sons-donated-heart-beating-inside-girl-who-received-transplant/

Mother Hears Son’s Donated Heart Beating Inside Girl, 4, Who Received Transplant
POSTED 7:19 PM, JANUARY 30, 2016, BY TRIBUNE MEDIA WIRE

Photograph -- Heather Clark, right, and Esther Gonzalez, center, became emotional as Clark listened to the heart -- donated by her deceased son -- beating inside 4-year-old Jordan Drake. (Credit: Donate Life Arizona)
Photograph -- Heather Clark's son, Lukas, is seen in a photo provided by Donate Life Arizona.


Heather Clark was given the extraordinary opportunity to listen to her son's heartbeat for the first time in nearly three years -- by placing a stethoscope against the chest of a young transplant recipient.

Clark faced an unthinkable tragedy in 2013 when she lost her 7-month-old son, Lukas. She chose to donate his organs and saved the lives of three children, including 4-year-old Jordan Drake.

In November, Clark made contact with Jordan's family. She wrote about it on Facebook:

"I would like to share something with all the amazing Lukas supporters. Today I have been in contact with a beautiful family. This beauty (Jordan) is the girl who has Lukas heart beating in her. One day I will meet her and squeeze her so tightly! Thank you to her mom and dad who allow me to be a part of their lives. This is the best Christmas present I could have asked for."

On Friday, Clark was given the opportunity to meet Jordan at Phoenix Children's Hospital and listen to her son's heartbeat for the first time in three years.

Clark wrote: "One week from today I will be listening to Lukas' heartbeat once again. I will be holding Jordan in my arms showering her with love and kisses!"

Jordan's mother, Esther Gonzalez, was anxious about meeting Clark for the first time.

"I'm not going to say anything. I'm just going to hug her. I think I have run out of words at this point,” Gonzalez said, moments before the encounter. “Hugging ... I don't have anything else to say.”

Donate Life Arizona shared photos of the emotional meeting on Facebook. The group also captured the reunion on video.

"Amid the unthinkable grief of losing her son Lukas, Heather made a decision that saved three lives,” the nonprofit said in a statement. “Jordan received Lukas' precious heart when she was just 18 months old. Yesterday, Heather heard her son's heartbeat for the first time in nearly three years.”

Dr. John Nigro of Phoenix Children’s Hospital, who recovered Lukas’ heart and performed Jordan’s heart transplant, also attended the get-together.



I clipped this story because of its’ human interest value. It’s great to find something as good as other stories are bad. This is like those people who find their twin from whom they were separated at birth. It plucks on my heart strings.



http://www.nasa.gov/feature/goddard/2016/nasa-engineers-tapped-to-build-first-integrated-photonics-modem

NASA Engineers Tapped to Build First Integrated-Photonics Modem
TECHNOLOGY
Jan. 29, 2016

Photograph -- A new-fangled modem that will employ an emerging technology called integrated photonics will be tested as part of NASA’s Laser Communications Relay Demonstration mission.
Credits: NASA
Photograph -- NASA laser expert Mike Krainak and his team plan to replace portions of this fiber-optic receiver with an integrated-photonic circuit, whose size will be similar to the chip he is holding. The team then plans to test the advanced modem on the International Space Station.
Credits: NASA/W. Hrybyk


A NASA team has been tapped to build a new type of communications modem that will employ an emerging, potentially revolutionary technology that could transform everything from telecommunications, medical imaging, advanced manufacturing to national defense.

The space agency’s first-ever integrated-photonics modem will be tested aboard the International Space Station beginning in 2020 as part of NASA’s multi-year Laser Communications Relay Demonstration, or LCRD. The cell phone-sized device incorporates optics-based functions, such as lasers, switches, and wires, onto a microchip — much like an integrated circuit found in all electronics hardware.

Once aboard the space station, the so-called Integrated LCRD LEO (Low-Earth Orbit) User Modem and Amplifier (ILLUMA) will serve as a low-Earth orbit terminal for NASA’s LCRD, demonstrating yet another capability for high-speed, laser-based communications.

Data Rates Demand New Technology

Since its inception in 1958, NASA has relied exclusively on radio frequency (RF)-based communications. Today, with missions demanding higher data rates than ever before, the need for LCRD has become more critical, said Don Cornwell, director of NASA’s Advanced Communication and Navigation Division within the space Communications and Navigation Program, which is funding the modem’s development.

LCRD promises to transform the way NASA sends and receives data, video and other information. It will use lasers to encode and transmit data at rates 10 to 100 times faster than today’s communications equipment, requiring significantly less mass and power. Such a leap in technology could deliver video and high-resolution measurements from spacecraft over planets across the solar system — permitting researchers to make detailed studies of conditions on other worlds, much as scientists today track hurricanes and other climate and environmental changes here on Earth.

The project, which is expected to begin operations in 2019, isn’t NASA’s first foray into laser communications. A payload aboard the Lunar Atmosphere and Dust Environment Explorer (LADEE) demonstrated record-breaking download and upload speeds to and from lunar orbit at 622 megabits per second (Mbps) and 20 Mbps, respectively, in 2013.

LCRD, however, is designed to be an operational system after an initial two-year demonstration period. It involves a hosted payload and two specially equipped ground stations. The mission will dedicate the first two years to demonstrating a fully operational system, from geosynchronous orbit to ground stations. Once NASA demonstrates that capability, it plans to use ILLUMA to test communications between geosynchronous and low-Earth-orbit spacecraft, Cornwell said.

An Exceptional Terminal

Laser expert Mike Krainak

ILLUMA incorporates an emerging technology — integrated photonics — that is expected to transform any technology that employs light. This includes everything from Internet communications over fiber optic cable to spectrometers, chemical detectors, and surveillance systems, to name just a few.

“Integrated photonics are like an integrated circuit, except they use light rather than electrons to perform a wide variety of optical functions,” Cornwell said. Recent developments in nanostructures, meta-materials, and silicon technologies have expanded the range of applications for these highly integrated optical chips. Furthermore, they could be lithographically printed in mass — just like electronic circuitry today — further driving down the costs of photonic devices.

“This technology will enable all types of NASA missions, not just optical communications on LCRD,” Cornwell added.

“We’ve pushed this for a long time,” said Mike Krainak, who is leading the modem’s development at NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland. “The technology will simplify optical system design. It will reduce the size and power consumption of optical devices, and improve reliability, all while enabling new functions from a lower-cost system. It is clear that our strategy to leverage integrated photonic circuitry will lead to a revolution in Earth and planetary-space communications as well as in science instruments.”

In addition to leading ILLUMA’s development, Krainak serves as NASA’s representative on the country’s first consortium to advance integrated photonics. Funded by the U.S. Department of Defense, the non-profit American Institute for Manufacturing Integrated Photonics, with headquarters in Rochester, New York, brings together the nation’s leading technological talent to establish global leadership in integrated photonics. Its primary goal is developing low-cost, high-volume, manufacturing methods to merge electronic integrated circuits with integrated photonic devices.

NASA’s Space Technology Mission Directorate (STMD) also appointed Krainak as the integrated photonics lead for its Space Technology Research Grants Program, which supports early-stage innovations. The program recently announced a number of research awards under this technology area (see related story).

First Step in Demonstrating Photonics

Under the NASA project, Krainak and his team will reduce the size of the terminal, now about the size of two toaster ovens — a challenge made easier because all light-related functions will be squeezed onto a microchip. Although the modem is expected to use some optic fiber, ILLUMA is the first step in building and demonstrating an integrated photonics circuit that ultimately will embed these functions onto a chip, he said.

ILLUMA will flight-qualify the technology, as well as demonstrate a key capability for future spacecraft. In addition to communicating to ground stations, future satellites will require the ability to communicate with one another, he said.

“What we want to do is provide a faster exchange of data to the scientific community. Modems have to be inexpensive. They have to be small. We also have to keep their weight down,” Krainak said. The goal is to develop and demonstrate the technology and then make it available to industry and other government agencies, creating an economy of scale that will further drive down costs. “This is the pay off,” he said.

Although integrated photonics promises to revolutionize space-based science and inter-planetary communications, its impact on terrestrial uses also is equally profound, Krainak added. One such use is with data centers. These costly, very large facilities house servers that are connected by fiber optic cable to store, manage and distribute data.

Integrated photonics promises to dramatically reduce the need for and size of these behemoths — particularly since the optic hardware needed to operate these facilities will be printed onto a chip, much like electronic circuitry today. In addition to driving down costs, the technology promises faster computing power.

“Google, Facebook, they’re all starting to look at this technology,” Krainak said. “As integrated photonics progresses to be more cost effective than fiber optics, it will be used,” Krainak said. “Everything is headed this way.”

For more Goddard technology news, go to http://gsfctechnology.gsfc.nasa.gov/newsletter/Current.pdf

Lori Keesey
NASA Goddard Space Fight Center

Last Updated: Jan. 29, 2016
Editor: Lynn Jenner



“The space agency’s first-ever integrated-photonics modem will be tested aboard the International Space Station beginning in 2020 as part of NASA’s multi-year Laser Communications Relay Demonstration, or LCRD. …. Once aboard the space station, the so-called Integrated LCRD LEO (Low-Earth Orbit) User Modem and Amplifier (ILLUMA) will serve as a low-Earth orbit terminal for NASA’s LCRD, demonstrating yet another capability for high-speed, laser-based communications. …. Such a leap in technology could deliver video and high-resolution measurements from spacecraft over planets across the solar system — permitting researchers to make detailed studies of conditions on other worlds …. It will use lasers to encode and transmit data at rates 10 to 100 times faster than today’s communications equipment, requiring significantly less mass and power. …. In addition to communicating to ground stations, future satellites will require the ability to communicate with one another, he said. …. One such use is with data centers. These costly, very large facilities house servers that are connected by fiber optic cable to store, manage and distribute data. Integrated photonics promises to dramatically reduce the need for and size of these behemoths …. “Google, Facebook, they’re all starting to look at this technology,” Krainak said.

WORDS:

Integrated_circuit (Wikipedia) -- An integrated circuit or monolithic integrated circuit (also referred to as an IC, or a microchip) is a set of electronic circuits on one small plate ("chip") of semiconductor material, normally silicon.

A photon is an elementary particle, the quantum of light and all other forms of electromagnetic radiation. It is the force carrier for the electromagnetic force, even when static via virtual photons. (Wikipedia)

Photonic devices are components for creating, manipulating or detecting light. This can include laser diodes, light-emitting diodes, solar and photovoltaic cells, displays and optical amplifiers.


“…. Its primary goal is developing low-cost, high-volume, manufacturing methods to merge electronic integrated circuits with integrated photonic devices.” Faster and faster communication is immediately appealing –Google and Facebook are already exploring this – and is understandably an absolute need in communicating across large areas of outer space. Photons, microchips, integrated circuits all are familiar terms, but I didn’t know a definition for any of them before today. If a photon is a form of light, could it travel at the speed of light? When I was young I was taught that is the fastest possible speed at which anything can move.

I love my computer, but I know very little about how it works, nor do I really want to – mechanical, I’m not. However, I’m glad to see what is probably a revolutionary idea being tested in the real world. I’m also glad that it’s an international project. I would hate for our too recently gained cooperation between nations such as Russia and China, which are many times in a largely hostile competition with us, to remain intact. When we stop talking we are doomed. Some in this country fear “one world government,” but it seems to me that without continuing to forge positive links it might become plausible to some minds that to “eliminate” a rival with a nuclear bomb is a good idea! That would be a very sad way for life on earth to end. If humans are as bright as we tend to think we are, we mustn’t let that happen.




http://www.npr.org/sections/health-shots/2016/01/29/464703705/variations-in-a-gene-provide-clues-about-schizophrenia

Variations In A Gene Provide Clues About Schizophrenia
KATHERINE HARMON COURAGE
January 29, 2016

Photography -- C4 proteins (green) are seen at the synapses in a culture of human neurons. (Heather de Rivera/McCarroll Lab/Harvard via AP)
Heather de Rivera/AP


Schizophrenia might be linked to a gene that tells the immune system to destroy too many connections in the brain, according to the results from a massive gene-focused research effort.

Scientists at Harvard University and the Broad Institute studied the genomes of 64,785 people around the world and found that those with the debilitating psychiatric disease were much more likely to possess mutations of a common gene, according to the findings published this Wednesday in the journal Nature.

People with schizophrenia — more than 21 million worldwide — tend to have less gray matter and fewer connections in their brain than healthy peers. But scientists aren't sure why. The research, for the first time, suggests that variations in a gene called complement component 4, or C4, for short, could be important. The gene had previously been known to help the immune system target infections.

A mutant form of the gene makes proteins that tag an excess number of brain synapses for destruction. This explanation meshes neatly with the tendency of schizophrenia to arise during adolescence, a period during which even healthy brains are busy pruning lots of connections.

Today schizophrenia patients are treated with antipsychotics, which can help reduce some symptoms but don't address the underlying disease or its related cognitive impairment. But the identification of a key genetic factor, may help the search for therapies. Of course, the path from a gene to an effective drug is long and not guaranteed.

Neuroscientist Beth Stevens, one of the authors on the new paper, is an associate professor of neurology at Harvard and a 2015 recipient of a MacArthur Foundation "genius grant." I talked with Stevens about the work. Here are highlights from our conversation, edited for length and clarity.

What has made the search for the causes of schizophrenia so challenging?

We knew about the region for a long time based on genetic-association studies. But there are a lot of genes there, and no one gene had been identified as explaining this risk before. When [co-author] Steve [McCarroll] came to me with preliminary data to support the genetic link with C4, I was very excited because my lab had been studying the role of other immune-related proteins in brain development—in particular synaptic pruning. We had made some progress in understanding what proteins do in normal development. And given that schizophrenia is thought to be a neurodevelopmental disorder, this is really exciting. With the evidence that there was some synaptic loss, it led to the hypothesis that maybe this genetic link could be related to pruning. We were also fortunate enough to bring in a third lab, Michael Carroll, who is an immunologist who has been studying C4. So to really make progress in a question like this, it takes that kind of an interdisciplinary approach.

Is C4 involved in normal, healthy synapse pruning as well?

We know it's necessary for pruning the developing mouse brain. But we do not know [about its role in humans] like we know for the mouse.

With the involvement of the immune system in this synapse pruning, could schizophrenia be classified as an autoimmune disease?

No, this is not autoimmune. What this is showing us is that a gene that happens to be an immune system gene is involved. The last decade has shown that there are a lot of immune-related genes that are expressed in the normal healthy brain. They're repurposed in the brain to do important things—during development especially. And we have evidence that this is a gene and a pathway that is expressed in the brain and is playing a normal role in the brain.

What do these findings suggest for new treatment possibilities for schizophrenia?

Understanding how this pathway normally works in the developing brain will give us new insights into developing therapies. You have to be able to manipulate things in a specific way, in the right place—and that's not an easy thing to do, especially during development.

Are there drugs that could be applied or reworked to treat schizophrenia on this genetic level?

Emerging work from my lab and others is suggesting that this pruning pathway may be a more general process that could lead to synaptic dysfunction and loss in other diseases. The hope is if we understand its role in schizophrenia, it could provide insights into other diseases. For example, in other neurodegenerative diseases there may be some common pathways.

Do you think that some day, knowing about this aspect of schizophrenia, the disease could even be prevented?

There's a clear need for biomarkers in schizophrenia and other diseases. You really want to catch them early and think about early treatments. We're looking into ways to find biomarkers. That's something that I think will make a huge impact.

Katherine Harmon Courage is a contributing editor for Scientific American and a freelance journalist. Her next book, Cultured (Penguin Random House, 2016) is about the microbiome and diet. Follow her on Twitter: @KHCourage.


INFO FROM THE NET

Biomarkers (short for biological markers) are biological measures of a biological state. By definition, a biomarker is "a characteristic that is objectively measured and evaluated as an indicator of normal biological processes, pathogenic processes or pharmacological responses to a therapeutic intervention."Oct 7, 2014

gene therapy, noun
the transplantation of normal genes into cells in place of missing or defective ones in order to correct genetic disorders.

What is the process of pruning in the brain?
By the time an infant is two or three years old, the number of synapses is approximately 15,000 synapses per neuron (Gopnick, et al., 1999). This amount is about twice that of the average adult brain. As we age, old connections are deleted through a process called synaptic pruning.

Synaptic pruning
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Synaptic pruning or axon pruning is the process of synapse elimination that occurs between early childhood and the onset of puberty in many mammals.[1] Pruning starts near the time of birth and is completed by the time of sexual maturation in humans.[2] At birth, the human brain consists of approximately 86 (± 8) billion neurons.[3][not in citation given] The infant brain will increase in size by a factor of up to 5 by adulthood. Two factors contribute to this growth: the growth of synaptic connections between neurons, and the myelination of nerve fibers; the total number of neurons, however, remains the same.[4] Pruning is influenced by environmental factors and is widely thought to represent learning.[4] After adolescence, the volume of the synaptic connections decreases again due to synaptic pruning.[4]



“Scientists at Harvard University and the Broad Institute studied the genomes of 64,785 people around the world and found that those with the debilitating psychiatric disease were much more likely to possess mutations of a common gene, according to the findings published this Wednesday in the journal Nature. …. tend to have less gray matter and fewer connections in their brain than healthy peers. But scientists aren't sure why. The research, for the first time, suggests that variations in a gene called complement component 4, or C4, for short, could be important. The gene had previously been known to help the immune system target infections. …. This explanation meshes neatly with the tendency of schizophrenia to arise during adolescence, a period during which even healthy brains are busy pruning lots of connections. …. When [co-author] Steve [McCarroll] came to me with preliminary data to support the genetic link with C4, I was very excited because my lab had been studying the role of other immune-related proteins in brain development—in particular synaptic pruning. …. We were also fortunate enough to bring in a third lab, Michael Carroll, who is an immunologist who has been studying C4. So to really make progress in a question like this, it takes that kind of an interdisciplinary approach. …. The last decade has shown that there are a lot of immune-related genes that are expressed in the normal healthy brain. They're repurposed in the brain to do important things—during development especially. …. Understanding how this pathway normally works in the developing brain will give us new insights into developing therapies.
…. The hope is if we understand its role in schizophrenia, it could provide insights into other diseases. …. There's a clear need for biomarkers in schizophrenia and other diseases. You really want to catch them early and think about early treatments.”


Most of what I see in this article is given without many clear-cut conclusions. Maybe they don’t know them yet. It’s all about process and not about results. Still I got some things which I had never heard before. The brain apparently has more synapses at birth and in the toddler years “pruning” begins, which is thought to be related to learning. This sounds to me like a process of selective pruning having to do with adjusting our neurons to our growing knowledge of the physical world. Kid burns her hand, and then avoids the candle flame. I do know about very young kids that they are constantly exploring everything, a process by which they discover what’s pleasant and what’s painful and the difference between the two. If you’ve ever taken care of two year-old children you know what a handful they are, and the constant need to protect them from harming themselves. Could it be that this directly causes pruning to occur in relation to their experiences?

At any rate, schizophrenics end up with fewer synapses than they should have, which may be due to the C4 gene being overzealous. I learned years ago that schizophrenics usually score lower on IQ tests. Could that be related to the lesser number of synapses? It would be interesting to know whether other IQ issues are related to the number of synapses. I wonder, also, if the C4 gene in schizophrenics, which is also involved with immunity to diseases, could possibly be mistaking a nerve cell for a disease organism and "pruning" it. Whatever, the possibility of using gene therapy to treat the disease is being considered. I do hope they can find a way to treat it early and stop the process of degeneration. When schizophrenia is severe it is extremely debilitating, though doctors have had good luck with drug treatments. All brain and other mental health issues interest me greatly, partly because there are several instances of them in my family. There are in most families, of course, but it’s a personal concern to me.