THE HUNT FOR LIFE BEYOND EARTH
NASA are about to attempt to send a spacecraft to drill deep into Jupiter's ice moon Europa searching for microbial life. Water is the key and research on Earth in the Arctic and Antarctic several Kilometers below the surface have proven life can exist in the most unlikely of places. Sulfur loving microbial live has also recently been found in deep caves systems in Mexico. These slimes resemble primordial life from the early Archean that have also recently been found in WAs mud stones. The remains of Hadean Earth. 4 billion years ago. Nasas Jet Propulsion Labs are attempting to send the next craft to Jupiters moons using a space launched system (SLS) that will reduce travel time to 2.4 years from the existing 6 year travel time. Much faster than previously possible.
ONE OF THE OLDEST QUESTIONS MAY BE ANSWERED IN OUR LIFETIMES. ARE WE ALONE?
Astrobiologist Kevin Hand prepares to deploy a rover beneath the ice of Alaska's Sukok Lake. When a probe finally reaches Europa, its search for life may be modeled on trial runs like this. And with the powerful SLS rocket NASA is designing, he says, "we could potentially get to Jupiter and Europa very quickly."
BY MICHAEL D. LEMONICK PHOTOGRAPHS BY MARK THIESSEN
An electronic signal travels from NASA's Jet Propulsion Lab in Pasadena, California, to a robotic rover clinging to the underside of foot-thick ice on an Alaskan lake. The rover's spotlight begins to glow. "It worked!" exclaims John Leichty, a young JPL engineer huddled in a tent on the lake ice nearby. It may not sound like a technological tour de force, but this could be the first small step toward the exploration of a distant moon.
More than 4,000 miles to the south, geomicrobiologist Penelope Boston sloshes through murky, calf-deep water in a pitch-dark cavern in Mexico, more than 50 feet underground. Like the other scientists with her, Boston wears an industrial-strength respirator and carries a canister of spare air to cope with the poisonous hydrogen sulfide and carbon monoxide gases that frequently permeate the cave. The rushing water around her feet is laced with sulfuric acid. Suddenly her headlamp illuminates an elongated droplet of thick, semitransparent fluid oozing from the chalky, crumbling wall. "Isn't it cute?" she exclaims.
These two sites—a frozen Arctic lake and a toxic tropical cave—could provide clues to one of the oldest, most compelling mysteries on Earth: Is there life beyond our planet? Life on other worlds, whether in our own solar system or orbiting distant stars, might well have to survive in ice-covered oceans, like those on Jupiter's moon Europa, or in sealed, gas-filled caves, which could be plentiful on Mars. If you can figure out how to isolate and identify life-forms that thrive in similarly extreme surroundings on Earth, you're a step ahead in searching for life elsewhere.
Scientists at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) inspect a probe like one that might someday travel beneath the ice of Jupiter's moon Europa.
It's difficult to pin down when the search for life among the stars morphed from science fiction to science, but one key milestone was an astronomy meeting in November 1961. It was organized by Frank Drake, a young radio astronomer who was intrigued with the idea of searching for alien radio transmissions.
When he called the meeting, the search for extraterrestrial intelligence, or SETI, "was essentially taboo in astronomy," Drake, now 84, remembers. But with his lab director's blessing, he brought in a handful of astronomers, chemists, biologists, and engineers, including a young planetary scientist named Carl Sagan, to discuss what is now called astrobiology, the science of life beyond Earth. In particular, Drake wanted some expert help in deciding how sensible it might be to devote significant radio telescope time to listening for alien broadcasts and what might be the most promising way to search. How many civilizations might reasonably be out there? he wondered. So before his guests arrived, he scribbled an equation on the blackboard.
That scribble, now famous as the Drake equation, lays out a process for answering his question. You start out with the formation rate of sunlike stars in the Milky Way, then multiply that by the fraction of such stars that have planetary systems. Take the resulting number and multiply that by the number of life-friendly planets on average in each such system—planets, that is, that are about the size of Earth and orbit at the right distance from their star to be hospitable to life. Multiply that by the fraction of those planets where life arises, then by the fraction of those where life evolves intelligence, and then by the fraction of those that might develop the technology to emit radio signals we could detect.
Astronomer Frank Drake helped found the science of astrobiology in the 1960s by searching for radio broadcasts from alien civilizations. Now 84, he's got a new target: flashes from alien light sources. "We know how to do SETI much better these days," he says. "Our biggest challenge is coming up with the funding."
Frank Drake Formula
The Drake equation, formulated in 1961, estimates the number of alien civilizations we could detect. Recent discoveries of numerous planets in the Milky Way have raised the odds.
The final step: Multiply the number of radio-savvy civilizations by the average time they're likely to keep broadcasting or even to survive. If such advanced societies typically blow themselves up in a nuclear holocaust just a few decades after developing radio technology, for example, there would probably be very few to listen for at any given time.
The equation made perfect sense, but there was one problem. Nobody had a clue what any of those fractions or numbers were, except for the very first variable in the equation: the formation rate of sunlike stars. The rest was pure guesswork. If SETI scientists managed to snag an extraterrestrial radio signal, of course, these uncertainties wouldn't matter. But until that happened, experts on every item in the Drake equation would have to try to fill it in by nailing down the numbers—by finding the occurrence rate for planets around sunlike stars or by trying to solve the mystery of how life took root on Earth.
It would be a third of a century before scientists could even begin to put rough estimates into the equation. In 1995 Michel Mayor and Didier Queloz of the University of Geneva detected the first planet orbiting a sun like star outside our solar system. That world, known as 51 Pegasi b, about 50 light-years from Earth, is a huge, gaseous blob about half the size of Jupiter, with an orbit so tight that its "year" is only four days long and its surface temperature close to 2000°F.
Nobody thought for a moment that life could ever take hold in such hellish conditions. But the discovery of even a single planet was an enormous breakthrough. Early the next year Geoffrey Marcy, then at San Francisco State University and now at UC Berkeley, would lead his own team in finding a second extrasolar planet, then a third. After that, the floodgates opened. To date, astronomers have confirmed nearly two thousand so-called exoplanets, ranging in size from smaller than Earth to bigger than Jupiter; thousands more—most found by the exquisitely sensitive Kepler space telescope, which went into orbit in 2009—await confirmation.
None of these planets is an exact match for Earth, but scientists are confident they'll find one that is before too long. Based on the discoveries of somewhat larger planets made to date, astronomers recently calculated that more than a fifth of stars like the sun harbor habitable, Earth Like planets. Statistically speaking, the nearest one could be a mere 12 light-years away, which is practically next door in cosmic terms.
That's good news for astrobiologists. But in recent years planet hunters have realized that there's no reason to limit their search to stars just like our sun. "When I was in high school," says David Charbonneau, an astronomer at Harvard, "we were taught that Earth orbits an average star. But that's a lie." In fact, about 80 percent of the stars in the Milky Way are small, cool, dim, reddish bodies known as M dwarfs. If an Earthlike planet circled an M dwarf at the right distance—it would have to be closer in than the Earth is to our sun to avoid being too cold—it could provide a place where life could gain a foothold just as easily as on an Earthlike planet orbiting a sun like star.
Moreover, scientists now believe a planet doesn't have to be the same size as Earth to be habitable. "If you ask me," says Dimitar Sasselov, another Harvard astronomer, "anywhere from one to five Earth masses is ideal." In short, the variety of habitable planets and the stars they might orbit is likely to be far greater than what Drake and his fellow conferees conservatively assumed at that meeting back in 1961.
A microbe retrieved in 2013 from Lake Whillans, half a mile beneath the Antarctic ice, reveals life's ability to take hold even in the most extreme environments. TRISTA VICK-MAJORS AND PAMELA SANTIBÁÑEZ, PRISCU RESEARCH GROUP, MONTANA STATE UNIVERSITY, BOZEMAN
That's not all: It turns out that the range of temperatures and chemical environments where extremophilic organisms might be able to thrive is also greater than anyone at Drake's meeting could have imagined. In the 1970s oceanographers such as National Geographic Explorer-in-Residence Robert Ballard discovered superheated gushers, known as hydrothermal vents, nourishing a rich ecosystem of bacteria. Feasting on hydrogen sulfide and other chemicals dissolved in the water, these microbes in turn feed higher organisms. Scientists have also found life-forms that flourish in hot springs, in frigid lakes thousands of feet below the surface of the Antarctic ice sheet, in highly acidic or highly alkaline or extremely salty or radioactive locations, and even in minute cracks in solid rock a mile or more underground. "On Earth these are niche environments," says Lisa Kaltenegger, who holds joint appointments at Harvard and the Max Planck Institute for Astronomy in Heidelberg, Germany. "But on another planet you can easily envision that they could be dominant scenarios."
The one factor that biologists argue is critical for life as we know it is water in liquid form—a powerful solvent capable of transporting dissolved nutrients to all parts of an organism. In our own solar system we've known since the Mariner 9 Mars orbiter mission in 1971 that water once likely flowed freely on the red planet. So life might have existed there, at least in microbial form—and it's plausible that remnants of that life could still endure underground, where liquid water may linger. Jupiter's moon Europa also shows cracks in its relatively young, ice-covered surface—evidence that beneath the ice lies an ocean of liquid water. At a half billion miles or so from the sun, Europa's water should be frozen solid. But this moon is constantly flexing under the tidal push and pull of Jupiter and several of its other moons, generating heat that could keep the water below liquid. In theory, life could exist in that water too.
In 2005 NASA's Cassini spacecraft spotted jets of water erupting from Saturn's moon Enceladus; subsequent measurements by the spacecraft reported in April of this year confirm an underground source of water on that moon as well. Scientists still don't know how much water might be under Enceladus's icy shell, however, or whether it's been liquid long enough to permit life to exist. The surface of Titan, Saturn's largest moon, has rivers, lakes, and rain. But Titan's meteorological cycle is based on liquid hydrocarbons such as methane and ethane, not water. Something might be alive there, but what it would be like is very hard to guess.
Mars is far more Earthlike, and far closer, than any of these distant moons. The search for life has driven virtually every mission to the red planet. The NASA rover Curiosity is currently exploring Gale crater, where a huge lake sat billions of years ago and where it's now clear that the chemical environment would have been hospitable to microbes, if they existed.
Penelope Boston of the New Mexico Institute of Mining and Technology and the National Cave and Karst Research Institute captures a drop of biofilm from the Cueva de Villa Luz ("cave of the lighted house") in Mexico. The viscous goo—dubbed a snottite—harbors bacteria that derive energy from hydrogen sulfide within the toxic cave. Life-forms in such extreme ecosystems serve as earthly analogues for organisms that might thrive in extraterrestrial environments.
A cave in Mexico isn't Mars, of course, and a lake in northern Alaska isn't Europa. But it's the search for extraterrestrial life that has taken JPL astrobiologist Kevin Hand and the other members of his team, including John Leichty, to Sukok Lake, 20 miles from Barrow, Alaska. The same quest has lured Penelope Boston and her colleagues multiple times to the poisonous Cueva de Villa Luz, a cave near Tapijulapa in Mexico. Both sites let the researchers test new techniques for searching for life in environments that are at least broadly similar to what space probes might encounter. In particular, they're looking for biosignatures—visual or chemical clues that signal the presence of life, past or present, in places where scientists won't have the luxury of doing sophisticated laboratory experiments.
Take the Mexican cave. Orbiting spacecraft have shown that caves do exist on Mars, and they're just the sorts of places where microbes might have taken refuge when the planet lost its atmosphere and surface water some three billion years ago. Such Martian cave dwellers would have had to survive on an energy source other than sunlight—like the dripping ooze that has Boston so enchanted. The scientists refer to these unlovely droplets as "snottites." One of thousands in the cave, varying in length from a fraction of an inch to a couple of feet, it does look uncannily like mucus. It's actually a biofilm, a community of microbes bound together in a viscous, gooey blob.
The snottite microbes are chemotrophs, Boston explains. "They oxidize hydrogen sulfide—that's their only energy source—and they produce this goo as part of their lifestyle."
Snottites are just one of the microbial communities that exist here. Boston, of the New Mexico Institute of Mining and Technology and the National Cave and Karst Research Institute, says that all told there are about a dozen communities of microbes in the cave. "Each one has a very distinct physical appearance. Each one is tapping into different nutrient systems."
One of these communities is especially intriguing to Boston and her colleagues. It doesn't form drips or blobs but instead makes patterns on the cave walls, including spots, lines, and even networks of lines that look almost like hieroglyphics. Astrobiologists have come to call these patterns biovermiculations, or bioverms for short, from the word "vermiculation," meaning decorated with "irregular patterns of lines, as though made by worm tracks."
Microbe-rich biofilms—referred to as snottites—drip from the sunless walls of Cueva de Villa Luz in Mexico. Living off sulfur compounds, the microbes in turn feed midges that live in the cave.
It turns out that patterns like these aren't made only by microorganisms growing on cave walls. "It happens on a variety of different scales, usually in places where some resource is in short supply," says Keith Schubert, a Baylor University engineer who specializes in imaging systems and who came to Cueva de Villa Luz to set up cameras for long-term monitoring inside the cave. Grasses and trees in arid regions create bioverm patterns as well, says Schubert. So do soil crusts, which are communities of bacteria, mosses, and lichens that cover the ground in deserts.
If this hypothesis holds up—and it's still only a hypothesis—then Boston, Schubert, and other scientists who are documenting bioverms may have found something crucially important. Until now, many of the markers of life astrobiologists have looked for are gases, like oxygen, that are given off by organisms on Earth. But life that produces an oxygen biosignature may be only one kind among many.
"What excites me about bioverms," says Boston, "is that we've seen them at all these different scales and in all these wildly different environments, and yet the characters of the patterns are very similar." It's highly plausible, she and Schubert believe, that these patterns, based on simple rules of growth and competition for resources, could be literally a universal signature of life. In caves, moreover, even when the microbial communities die, they leave the patterns behind. If a rover should see something like this on the wall of a Martian cave, says Schubert, "it could direct you where to focus your attention."
At the opposite end of North America, the scientists and engineers shivering at Sukok Lake are on a similar mission. They're working at two different locations on the lake, one next to a cluster of three small tents the scientists have dubbed "Nasaville," and the other, with just a single tent, about a half mile away as the crow flies. Because methane gas bubbling from the lake bottom churns up the water, ice has a hard time forming in some places. To snowmobile from one camp to the other, the scientists have to take a curving, indirect route to avoid a potentially fatal dunking.
It was the methane that first drew the scientists to Sukok and other nearby Alaska lakes back in 2009. This common hydrocarbon gas is generated by microbes, known collectively as methanogens, that decompose organic matter, making it another potential biosignature astrobiologists could look for on other worlds. But methane also comes from volcanic eruptions and other nonbiological sources, and it forms naturally in the atmosphere of giant planets like Jupiter as well as on Saturn's moon Titan. So it's crucial that scientists be able to distinguish biological methane from its nonbiological cousin. If you're focused on ice-covered Europa, as Kevin Hand is, ice-covered, methane-rich Sukok Lake isn't a bad place to get your feet wet—as long as you don't do it literally.
COLD CASE Astrobiologist Kevin Hand talks about the rover and its trial run in Alaska.
Hand, a National Geographic emerging explorer, favors Europa over Mars as a place to do astrobiology, for one key reason. Suppose we do go to Mars, he says, and find living organisms in the subsurface that are DNA based, like life on Earth. That could mean that DNA is a universal molecule of life, which is certainly possible. But it could also mean that life on Earth and life on Mars share a common origin. We know for certain that rocks blasted off the surface of Mars by asteroid impacts have ended up on Earth. It's also likely that Earth rocks have traveled to Mars. If living microbes were trapped inside such spacefaring rocks and survived the journey, which is at least plausible, they could have seeded whichever planet they ended up on. "If life on Mars were found to be DNA based," says Hand, "I think we would have some confusion as to whether or not that was a separate origin of DNA." But Europa is vastly farther away. If life were found there, it would point to a second, independent origin—even if it were DNA based.
Europa certainly seems to have the basic ingredients for life. Liquid water is abundant, and the ocean floor may also have hydrothermal vents, similar to Earth's, that could provide nutrients for any life that might exist there. Up at the surface, comets periodically crash into Europa, depositing organic chemicals that might also serve as the building blocks of life. Particles from Jupiter's radiation belts split apart the hydrogen and oxygen that makes up the ice, forming a whole suite of molecules that living organisms could use to metabolize chemical nutrients from the vents.
The big unknown is how those chemicals could make it all the way down through the ice, which is probably 10 to 15 miles thick. The Voyager and Galileo missions made it clear, however, that the ice is riddled with cracks. Early in 2013 Hand and Caltech astronomer Mike Brown used the Keck II telescope to show that salts from Europa's ocean were likely making their way to the surface, possibly through some of those cracks. And late in 2013 another team of observers, using the Hubble Space Telescope, reported plumes of liquid water spraying from Europa's south pole. Europa's ice is evidently not impenetrable.
This makes the idea of sending a probe to orbit Europa all the more compelling. Unfortunately the orbiter mission the National Research Council evaluated in its 2011 report was deemed scientifically sound but, at $4.7 billion, too expensive. A JPL team led by Robert Pappalardo went back to the drawing board and reimagined the mission. Their Europa Clipper probe would orbit Jupiter, not Europa, which would require less propellant and save money, but it would make something like 45 flybys of the moon in an attempt to understand its surface and atmospheric chemistry, and indirectly the chemistry of the ocean.
All told, Pappalardo says, the redesigned mission should come in at under two billion dollars over its whole life span. If the mission concept goes forward, he says, "we envision a launch sometime in the early to mid 2020s." If that launch takes place aboard an Atlas V rocket, the trip to Europa will take about six years. "But it's also possible," he says, "that we could launch on the new SLS, the Space Launch System, that NASA is currently developing. It's a big rocket, and with that we could get there in 2.7 years."
BRUIE (Buoyant Rover for Under-Ice Exploration) crawls along the underside of the surface ice in a test in Sukok Lake. Bubbles of methane and other compounds signal the presence of life below.
The Clipper likely wouldn't be able to find life on Europa, but it could help make the case for a follow-up lander that could dig into the surface, studying its chemistry the way rovers have studied Mars's. The Clipper could also scout out the best places for such a lander to set down. The next logical step after a lander—sending a probe down to explore Europa's ocean—could be a lot tougher, depending on how thick the ice is. As an alternative, mission scientists might try to reach a lake that may be entirely contained within the ice near the surface. "When that undersea explorer eventually does come to fruition," says Hand, "in evolutionary terms, it'll be like Homo sapiens to the Australopithecus we've been testing in Alaska."
Frank Drake is still looking for extraterrestrial signals—a discovery that would trump everything else.
The relatively crude rover Hand and his crew are testing at Sukok Lake crawls along under a foot of ice, its built-in buoyancy keeping it firmly pressed against the frozen subsurface, sensors measuring the temperature, salinity, pH, and other characteristics of the water. It doesn't look for organisms directly, however; that's currently the job of the scientists working on another aspect of Hand's project across the lake, including John Priscu of Montana State University, who last year extracted living bacteria from Lake Whillans, half a mile under the West Antarctic ice sheet. Along with geobiologist Alison Murray, of the Desert Research Institute in Reno, Nevada, and her graduate student Paula Matheus-Carnevali, Priscu is investigating what characteristics frigid environments need to make them friendly to life and what sorts of organisms actually live there.
Useful as the study of extremophiles is to contemplating the nature of life beyond our planet, it can only provide terrestrial clues to an extraterrestrial mystery. Soon, however, we will have other means to fill in missing parts of the Drake equation. NASA has approved a new planet-hunting telescope known as the Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite. Scheduled to launch in 2017, TESS will look for planets around our nearest neighboring stars, finding targets for astrophysicists searching planetary atmospheres for biosignature gases. The James Webb Space Telescope, scheduled for a 2018 launch, will make those searches far easier than they are today— although recent observations with the Hubble, including the discovery of clouds on a super-Earth known as GJ 1214b, make it clear that nobody is sitting around waiting for the Webb.
Listening for life.
Some astrobiologists are even investigating a possibility that sounds more like science fiction than science. All of the focus on biosignatures and extremophiles assumes that life on other worlds, like life on Earth, will be built from complex molecules that incorporate carbon as an essential part of their structures—and use water as a solvent. One reason is that carbon and water are abundant throughout the Milky Way. Another is that we don't know how to look for non-carbon life, since we don't know what biosignatures it might leave.
"If we limit our search this way, we could fail," says Harvard's Sasselov. "We need to make an effort to understand at least some of the alternatives and what their atmospheric signatures might be." So Sasselov's group at Harvard is looking at alternate biologies that could plausibly exist on distant worlds, where, for instance, a sulfur cycle might replace the carbon cycle that dominates terrestrial biology.
In the background of all this research is the project that got astrobiology started more than half a century ago. Although he's technically retired, Frank Drake is still looking for extraterrestrial signals—a discovery that would trump everything else. Though Drake is frustrated that the funding for SETI has mostly dried up, he's excited about a brand-new project that would try to detect flashes of light, rather than radio transmissions, from alien civilizations. "It's wise to try every possible approach," he says, "because we're not very good at psyching out what extraterrestrials might actually be doing."
Michael Lemonick's latest book is Mirror Earth: The Search for Our Planet's Twin. Mark Thiessen shot our story on the solar system in the July 2013 issue.
Society Grant: Penelope Boston's research was funded in part by your Society membership.
source: http://www.nationalgeographic.com/astro ... f3512220=1
Prospecting for other economic minerals in situ
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Titanic : women and children first
Presented here are personal interviews with survivors and their relatives, and biographies of the women and children as well as the male passengers and crew with whom they had contact. The passengers' own voices are recorded in diaries, letters, and newspaper stories. Each passenger section (first class, second class, and third class) is introduced with a brief overview on the conventions of society at the turn of the twentieth century, when survival in life, as on this doomed ship, depended too often on social class. Also assembled here are fascinating color photographs of recently recovered artifacts, linked to their owners wherever possible, as well as period postcards, advertisements, and pictures. This book contains the most up-to-date passenger list yet published; a chart of the women and children who perished or were saved presented by class; and a comprehensive index which make this not just a moving chronicle of a uniquely painful event but also an invaluable resource.


Inventor’s Shape Generator is a new approach to design lightweight, structurally efficient parts in Autodesk Inventor. It provides an intelligent strategy for maximizing part “stiffness” based on the constraints you specify.
Worried about component weight? Shape Generator removes unnecessary pieces of geometry and optimizes your model to your specifications. The technology is integrated into Autodesk Inventor, making it simple to incorporate into your existing design process. Shape Generator produces a 3D mesh that can be used to guide your design refinement, meaning it’s best used early when designing. Let’s look at how to include Shape Generator in your design process today.
The image above illustrates how Shape Generator can become part of your design process.
- The first step is to create a ‘build volume’ or approximation of the part model. The model should constrain requisite contact points, such as the two pin locations, and the contact surface where force will be applied. (See #2 for these locations)
- With the build volume defined, you can specify preserve (keep out) zones (the process will not modify these zones when creating the guide shape), and apply constraints and forces the part may encounter in use.
- With the design criteria specified, you will run a Shape Generator Study and receive back a mesh in response to the criteria. The Shape Generator removes excess material and gives you a generalization for how your product may look at the end of the refinement process.
- The mesh serves as a guide for making modifications to the build volume model. Your edits transform the model from an approximation into a design.
It’s important to note that Shape Generator is not supported for assemblies or multi-body parts (single parts which contain multiple bodies).
Try it for Yourself
Autodesk Inventor users and experts have created numerous Guided Tutorials for users to learn at their own pace. These are available on the “Get Started” tab in your Inventor window. To open:
- Click the “Tutorials” icon on the “Get Started” tab
- Locate the Shape Generator tutorials in the gallery of Installed Tutorials.
What is your experience with this? Share your use of the tool in the comments below.
Shape Generator was introduced to Inventor in the 2016 R2 release of Inventor and drastically improved in 2017’s release. To learn about what’s coming to the next release of Inventor from Inventor Product Manager, Loren Welch, register for Autodesk Virtual Academy.


How Eric Lefkofsky is Using Technology to Curb Cancer
Cancer is a complex disease which has now affected a significant percentage of the world’s population in a way. Advances in research have shown cancer to be a genetic disease which can be fought well at a molecular level. This means that there is a set of unique genetic formation for a cancer patient as well as cancer.
Since the fight against cancer has trickled down to a molecular level, data is very crucial if this precision medicine is to succeed. One of the leading labs in data collection is Tempus Labs Inc. The co-founder is a billionaire businessman Eric Lefkofsky whose goal is to help with personalised treatments for cancer patients.
Serving as the CEO of the company he has been quick to add to his team an array of cancer doctors and formed partnerships with more than half of the major academic medical centers.
Even though Eric is a renowned investor in the online marketplaces, his motivation for helping in treatments for cancer came from a personal encounter. A close family member of his was diagnosed with breast cancer some years back.
In his quest to seek treatment in hospitals, he noticed that the medical centers did not have the required data to assist them. They were little informed on modern technology. He aims to address this challenge to help other millions of people out there who could be in a similar situation.
Tempus is a technological company that was founded to assist oncologists to make more informed decisions based on data analytics. In the past, healthcare data of a cancer patient was not being kept in a way that other oncologists can refer to in the future. This situation meant the data was there but owned by just a few medical centers.
This information is very crucial to other physicians in the diagnosis of cancer patients. To solve this problem, the firm is building the most extensive library in the world for clinical and molecular data for cancer patients. They will then create a system that will allow access for various parties.
With this kind of data researchers and other medical practitioners will be able to compare the current situation with others in the past to see what did work and what failed in the past. This data based analysis will enable one to make a more informed decision.
In their mission to ensure they achieve their goal, Tempus has partnered with most community hospitals and the National Cancer’s Institute cancer centers. They also offer other services such as image recognition, DNA and RNA genomic sequencing of tumors, pathology, and immune system characterization of patients. With over 400 employees the company recently surpassed $1 billion in worth attaining a unicorn status. As more data is being collected on the various cancers, researchers will be able to study them on a molecular level to gain a better understanding which will lead to improved treatment methods.
Eric Lefkofsky attended Univesity of Michigan for his undergraduate and later attained his Juris Doctor from the University of Michigan Law School. Before founding health startup, he had helped develop many successful companies such as Lightbank, Groupon, Uptake Technologies and Echo Global Logistics. He is also the author of Accelerated Disruption and lectures part-time at the University of Chicago Business School.


Research team discovers fossils at 730 meter water depth
Stromatolites are among the oldest fossils with 3.5 billion years. Up to now, however, lime deposits have only occurred in shallow seas with water depths of up to ten meters. The lime layers can only grow if microorganisms that carry out photosynthesis are involved. A study by geoscientists from Germany, Austria and the USA shows that with the help of light-independent microbes that carry out chemosynthesis, stromatolites can also grow to a water depth of 730 metres on the seafloor. Tobias Himmler from the MARUM - Center for Marine Environmental Sciences at the University of Bremen and his team of authors have now published their results in the journal Geology.


The nature and expanse of technological innovation required for green steel ventures to succeed is not unique. The decarbonisation of heavy industry has several moving parts that must prove their reliability individually and as a synchronised sum. However, there are several reasons to argue that green steel has a brighter future than conventional steel.
First, various steel companies have produced fossil-free steel already. The challenge of deploying these solutions at an industrial scale is sizable, but we expect it to lessen in the 2030s through an iterative process.
Second, the policy and regulatory frameworks will become conducive in the coming years, given the government’s pledge to carbon neutrality. Nonetheless, local opposition towards new renewable energy plants will test the resolve of developers for years to come.
Finally, public funds are available to lower the financial risk of green steel developments. Sweden’s HYBRIT is among seven projects selected by the EU for a Euro 1.1 billion investment. More importantly, the superior economics of green steel will stimulate the flow of low-cost capital. That in turn will aid developers to expand production and maximise economies of scale through the 2030s and 2040s.
When can green steel compete with conventional steel on cost?
The research shows a strong case for green steel to reach cost parity with conventional steel this decade, under the right conditions.
Researchers compare the baselines of natural gas- and green hydrogen-based direct reduction (DR) and electric arc furnace (EAF) processes in Sweden. Notably, Sweden has shielded its steel industry from the high carbon tax of US$130/tonne. Expanding the carbon tax net to the industry will shoot the cost of conventional steel by 20-30% at the stroke of a pen.
The analysis signals substantial cost reduction potential for green steel, driven chiefly by two factors: higher carbon prices and lower LCOH. The criticality of the former is evident from the fact that a CO2 price of US$100/tonne benefits green steel producers by US$85/tonne through carbon credits.
For the latter, a combination of onshore wind and ALK may yield an LCOH enabling green steel to have superior economics in the 2020s across carbon price scenarios of US$50, US$100 and US$150/tonne. High CO2 prices and a sustained reduction in the cost of offshore wind and electrolysers will improve the case for offshore wind in the 2030s.
Low-cost wind power allows developers to produce green hydrogen at competitive rates. The levelised cost of hydrogen (LCOH) modelling shows green hydrogen costs falling as low as US$1/kg by 2030. Cost drivers differ for different electrolyser types, and engineers see alkaline electrolysis (ALK) as a strong contender for preferred adoption in the 2020s and 2030s. – As the proton exchange membrane (PEM) has a 25% higher capex, ALK will benefit from economies of scale faster.
Further capex reductions in both techs will improve the commercial attractiveness of green hydrogen for the steel industry.
Are the economics enough to secure the future of green steel?
Given the novelty of the proposed technologies, developers have to overcome a host of technical, regulatory and commercial challenges for hydrogen to play the desired role. They have yet to demonstrate the viability of storing hydrogen securely and economically at the envisaged level. And the usage of hydrogen as a feedstock for fossil-free steel has yet to be tested at an industrial scale.
Similarly, the intermittency and seasonality of renewables demand a diverse set of power sources for optimum utilisation of hydrogen electrolysers.


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The past five decades amount to mind boggling progress in IC design and manufacturing technology. In this period, we have gone from the inception of ICs to now what literally amounts to the integration of systems of systems on chip. Whereas experts debate the continued evolution of ICs according to Moore's law beyond the next decade, the advent of the complex integration of multi-physics systems is just in its infancy and is predicted to grow exponentially in the coming years. Designing and manufacturing complex ICs is of course a feat in itself. Testing and testability has often been taken for granted as a necessary (not to say evil) requirement. But who wants of an IC that cannot be duly tested, to ensure quality and reliability, especially when deployed in life-critical applications? Test technology, along with design technology has had to make enormous and rapid progress over the past half-century. Here, we highlight some of the key elements of IC test technology. We briefly mention some directions and challenges and opportunities for test technology in the near future, especially as multi-physics integrated systems of systems continue to emerge and progress on the volume production curves.


Modern Geophysics In Engineering Geology
Geophysical surveying methods play an important role in the site investigation process. During the past decade considerable progress has been made in the development of geophysical equipment incorporating microprocessors and data loggers. This has been accompanied by corresponding advances in the computer software available to process, interpret and display the geophysical data obtained in a survey.The selection of a geophysical method for use in a specific geological environment requires close collaboration between the geophysicist and the civil engineer and engineering geologist. In this book many examples of the successful integration of geophysical surveys into the site investigation process are described. The authors are drawn from many different countries and the case histories presented clearly indicate the importance of geophysical methods in the construction history in a world-wide context.
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Download the following pdf files for notes on english terms and writing literary terms (from grades 8-12) parts of speech elements of poetry writing tips writing introductions notes for writing from ubc: effective titles quoting effectively instructions: how to format a mla bibliography& footnotes/endnotes on ms word. Keystage 4 interactive worksheets for year 11 english help your child get ahead with education resources, designed specifically with parents in mind year 11 english topics at a glance exam preparation for non-fiction texts 11 try worksheet. English – exams and examination reports students and teachers should note that, with the introduction of a new study design, the following examination papers are not necessarily a guide to the current vce examination in this study year past exam papers examination reports. If you’ve started the cycle this year, you will have already chosen your gcse subjects the percentage of students who achieve a-c grades can vary greatly between subjects 65% of students who sat the old english language exam achieved an a-c grade while 76% of english lit students achieved the same grade. Exam english home page we also produce mobile apps to help you prepare for english exams business practice tests for business exams bec and bulats grammar and vocabulary use this site to study all the grammar and vocabulary you need to pass english exams.
1st year english complete notes very easy and and poems important questions -answers and important synonyms with meanings free download to get through /pass annual exams ( guess) related posts you should see: mr chips important questions answers 2nd year english notes september 11, 2014 2nd year english notes: modern prose & heroes. Beginning next thursday, up until you leave, we are holding an am drop-in session for year 11 students who want a space to complete some english homework/revision prior to starting the day. Download cbse revision notes for cbse class 11 english core hornbill the portrait of a lady hornbill the portrait of a lady english core for cbse class-11 online tests, videos, question papers, notes, online quiz and complete study material for free to use. Download from here: pair of words:- ===== ignore tags ===== adamjee notes of english for.
Exam preparation year 11 1 exam preparation the essentials 2 cautionary tales 3 “ i left my revision until the last minute – i figured i worked better under pressure – look at me now. Music (option) year 9 (form 3) curriculum guidelines year 10 (form 4) curriculum guidelines curriculum guidelines (theory, listening, performance) (in these guidelines please note that the form 1 and 2 curriculum are no longer valid. Ccssela-literacyrl11-1210 by the end of grade 11, read and comprehend literature, including stories, dramas, and poems, in the grades 11-ccr text complexity band proficiently, with scaffolding as needed at the high end of the range. Advice and information on 11 plus english essay writing preparation with samples and tips the essay test may be as little as 20 minutes or as long as 50 minutes, and may be factual or fiction with very limited time for planning an essay in the 11+ a child must learn to make rough notes on all of these points within a very tight.
On the exam for all english a courses, you’re asked to write an essay (or essays) that incorporates examples from the novels you read you’re also asked to interpret text (typically poetry, though sometimes an excerpt from a book) that you read for the first time the day of the exam. Cheat sheets are sample data, equations, rule sheets that you're allowed to take into certain written wace exams to help you remember key elements, theories any key study notes all cheat sheets have been sourced from the school curriculum and standards authority. This guide will cover all aspects of the comparative text analysis components for years 11 & 12 of the new english study design that has been implemented across units 1 to 4 vce english & english language teacher resources 2018 (study maps), text summary notes, trial exam papers, targeted evaluation tasks (tets) for school-assessed.
Exam papers year 12 – hsc english mathematics science hsie visual arts pdhpe esl drama year 11 - preliminary year 11 - preliminary sections: english mathematics science hsie please note: don’t forget to use your school’s name and address in the order. Gcse revision tips if you’re determined to get as many top grades as possible when you open your gcse results, you may be searching for better ways to revise for your exams to make sure you get therenothing beats hard-work, especially when it comes to studying, but there are ways you can guide your brain to remember information easier which supports your ability to learn. Cbse class 11 physics solved sample question papers, ncert text book answers, revision notes and guess papers for free download, online practice tests in mcq format for cbse, iit jee, aipmt, neet and other entrance exams along with high quality free videos. Consultation survey now available for draft hsc examination specifications stage 6 english, mathematics, science and history courses bostes | board of studies teaching & educational standards nsw stage 3: note-making year 11 – year 12.
11th class fsc part 1 english online test preparation english is the main and compulsory subject is being taught in school and universities it is the language basically like to the grammar composition and english literature is the main section of the literature. English – study material & notes home / study material & notes / english – study material & notes from civil services point of view it’s necessary to prepare english for mains language paper in upsc ias exam. Terms you will need to use and remember when taking your english final. Just a simple checklist for year 11 students to mark off how confident they are with the different styles of writing needed for the wjec exam.


Volume II, No. 4, Summer 1975
Spinning is the process that takes wool fibers of from four to six inches in length and twists them together into a smooth strong, permanently twisted thread. This thread or yarn can then be spun with one or two other threads to form two or three ply yarn, or, if the desired thickness, can be used without plying in knitting, crocheting, weaving or sewing. Before factory made clothes and yard goods were available much of the family's textile needs were made with this carding and spinning process.
Most of the spinning wheels in the Ozarks were the big walking wheels or the smaller sit-down treadle wheels. But for a beginner today an inexpensive and simple machine for learning to spin is the drop spindle. Carl Lee made us several of these simple wheels to learn the basic process. After mastering this, it is much easier to learn to spin on the bigger wheels.
The drop spindle is quite simple. It is made of wood with two parts--a tapered stick about as thick as your finger and a smooth rounded piece that encircles the stick. (see diagram #1) When you twirl the spindle, the rounded end is the weight that is necessary to hold down the yarn and keep the spindle circling to spin a yarn of consistant thickness. At the smaller end of the stick there is a notch provided to hold the yarn from slipping off.
Begin with some already spun yarn or string. Tie it on the spindle at the rounded end, wrapping it around the stick from the biggest end toward the smaller to the notch. At the notch tie the yarn in a half hitch. The notch will hold the half hitch from slipping off. Take the end of the yarn that is hanging loose and fray the very end by pulling and untwisting the yarn.
Now take a carded rolag and overlap the frayed end of the yarn with an end of the rolag and twist slightly with your fingers. You should be sitting or standing at this point with the spindle hanging free.
Diagram # 2 Before learning to spin with a complicated wheel, many beginners prefer to learn with a drop spindle.
Now place one of your hands on the base weight and twirl it clockwise. Then put one hand below the other so that the lower hand is pinching or holding the fibers in the rolag to keep them from twisting until ready as the spindle twists the yarn toward it. At the same time the upper hand should be pulling a portion of the connected rolag, stretching and smoothing the wool out. (see diagram # 2) When you have stretched a small section of the wool to the desired thickness, then slip your pinching hand upward. This allows the fibers below the hand to twist or be spun. When the yarn has spun up to the hand, the newly spun wool should look like spun yarn. You will continue these two motions until you reach near the end of the rolag, stopping when necessary to keep the spindle turning. As you spin, the spindle will drop lower and lower. When it reaches the floor, it is time to wind onto the spindle shaft the yarn you have spun. Just slip the tied yarn down the stick to the bottom by the weight and begin winding. When you have finished winding up what you have spun, you make another half hitch. You repeat all the steps from the beginning, fraying the end of the yarn and spinning the spindle and winding layer on layer until the spindle begins to look like a ball with a stick in it.
It takes a lot of practice to get a smooth even yarn. Do not be discouraged if the yarn is thick and thin at first, or if the spindle wants to unwind as quickly as you wind it up, or if the wool breaks causing the spindle to drop to the floor. Just begin over patiently. Tell yourself that if I learned to do it, you can, too!
Some people spin with this method entirely. Before investing in a wheel, we'd recommend practicing with this until you can spin easily, for if this discourages you, think how much more coordination and skill is involved with a wheel.
THE WALKING WHEEL
The walking wheel is more complex than the drop spindle, more expensive and difficult to make or obtain and is much more difficult to move around. But it is quicker and more efficient.
It is made of wood usually with beautifully carved spokes in a wheel about four feet in circumference. The spindle has a pointed piece of steel that turns, causing the yarn to twist. A driving or tension band usually a leather band or a cord, runs through a groove that is cut all the way around the wheel and runs over to a groove by the spindle causing it to turn. This is balanced on a tripod-type stand which raises the spindle to a comfortable working level about waist high. This type of spinning wheel is among the oldest used in the Ozarks and was used for many years before that. These wheels will last for years and years if taken proper care of, but will warp and get out of line easily. Most old spinning wheels found in attics and old sheds are not at all satisfactory for spinning because of the improper balance due to misuse.
The wheel is called a walking wheel because the spinner is continually walking back and forth with the yarn she spins. Pioneer women could walk up to twenty miles a day from corner to corner in their cabins while spinning their yarn.
To begin the spinning process, fasten a loosely spun yarn or string to the spindle. Old timers found that wrapping the spindle with a corn shuck before beginning helped in slipping the ball of spun yarn off the spindle.
The walking wheel needs to have the best carded rolags possible. The evenness of the yarn is primarily determined by the condition of the rolags used. The evenness of the yarn will get better as you go along by practicing pulling the wool out evenly before it spins.
To begin the actual spinning, stand with the wheel on your right side as you face the spindle. Connect a rolag on the frayed end just as you would with the drop spindle. Turn the wheel slowly clockwise with your right hand as you run your left thumb and finger quickly down the entire length of the rolag stretching it out as far as it will go. You should be backing up as you pull it out. Now drop the rolag which should be real loose and fluffy and about five or six feet long. Walk up to the spindle, take the rolag with finger and thumb of the left hand and start again, only this time hold the rolag tighter. The faster you turn the wheel, the tighter it will spin the yarn. As you turn the wheel with the right hand, control the amount of twist and desired thickness with the thumb and finger of your left hand as you slowly back away. Stop before you come almost to the end of the rolag. Turn the wheel counter-clockwise to wind up the spun yarn on the spindle. To do this you will need to walk a few steps toward the spindle. Add a new rolag to the unspun end of the yarn and begin again. Walking back and forth like this is repeated with every rolag that is spun.
Making two ply yarn
The thing to watch is to keep the wool coming off the point of the spindle, for the wool is twisted right at the point.
THE SIT-DOWN WHEEL
The sit-down wheel is the most complicated of the three but can be used with little difficulty after practice. It is much faster than the walking wheel, allowing a spinner to spin continuously without stopping if enough prepared rolags or wool is within reach. A good spinner can spin wool without carding, thus eliminating a time consuming job. The thickness of the yarn can be regulated easier, allowing the spinner to spin a very thin and regular thread. Also the two to three foot wheel is much smaller than the walking wheel, making it easier to move and to tuck out of the way in the house. Some spinners say the sit-down wheel is not tiring to spin with, but it is just what a person gets used to.
The basic principle of the two wheels is the same. There is a wheel with a driving band which turns the spindle. Both are supported by three legs. The sit-down wheel, however, is operated by a foot pedal which turns the wheel round and round. The spindle is more complicated and turns at a much faster pace. It has no visible point but spins the yarn by rotation of the spindle shaft. The driving band also winds up the spun yarn onto a bobbin, thus eliminating a step. (see diagram #3)
The yarn is threaded through the spindle eye onto guide hooks on a flyer which winds the spun yarn on a bobbin. As with the walking wheel, it takes coordination of left foot and both hands to achieve a steady rhythm. Each spinner has to develop her own speed and rhythm.
The process of spinning with this wheel begins with fastening a spun yarn or string onto the bobbin, next positioning it through the guide hooks on the flyer and then threading out through the spindle eye. You can use any kind of hooked wire or metal for a threading guide. Once you have threaded it through, the end of the wool should be frayed. Overlap the wool rolag and twist slightly as before. With extra rolags handy and sitting comfortably in a straight chair facing the spindle eye, you are ready to begin spinning.
With your right hand turn the wheel clockwise enough to get it started as you pump your foot on the treadle. Both hands are necessary in spinning on this wheel.
Hold the rolag with the thumb and forefinger of the left hand close to the spindle. This hand holds the wool from being wound onto the bobbin until ready, feeds it into the spindle eye, and controls the thickness of the yarn. The right hand farther away from the spindle pulls the wool out about three or four inches to the desired thinness. Then the left hand slips down the rolag toward the right hand, allowing that portion of wool to be spun. Then both hands now together move toward the spindle allowing the rotating flyer to wind the yarn onto the bobbin. All this time you keep a steady rhythm with the foot pedal. The machine is adjusted with enough slack that the spinner can hold the yarn from being wound into the spindle eye and onto the bobbin until ready.
Repeat all the steps from the beginning over and over with a steady rhythm, pumping all the time. When you come to the end of the ro-lag, add another and continue.
The steps outlined here are helpful for a beginning spinner to understand the rhythm. These steps are not obvious with an experienced spinner whose wool seems to flow effortlessly into the spindle and who does not stop spinning to add new rolags.
The sit-down wheel is not only the most complicated, but, because it spins so quickly, is also the hardest to learn how to coordinate all body movements. We recommend practicing with the foot pedal without any yarn to learn the rhythm unless you have used the old fashioned treadle sewing machines. Then practice with spun yarn to learn how to control its feeding onto the bobbin. Take it one step farther and spin with two already spun yarns, plying them together to get accustomed to the twisting. Once you have mastered controlling the wheel so that it continues to turn in one direction with regular rhythm and after you have learned the process of pulling out the wool and allowing it to spin on the drop spindle, you should not have too much difficulty putting all the movements together on the sit-down wheel.
Do not be discouraged if you spend most of your time at first re-threading the wheel or if the product is full of thick places. With patience and practice you will eventually spin an acceptable yarn. I did.
[Ed. Note: Carl and Carol Lee of Ozarks Oaks Farm, of Eldridge, Missouri, do custom shearing, make wheels and spindles and give spinning lessons. We are grateful to them for help on the series on shearing and spinning.]
Copyright © 1981 BITTERSWEET, INC.


Amino acids are well-known for its support for muscle growth. But have you heard about its connection to heart health?
A published study from the University of East Anglia suggests eating high levels of certain amino acids can result in having a lower level blood pressure and less arterial stiffness.
Arterial stiffness is the term used to describe the elasticity of arteries. Hardening or stiffening of the arteries can lead to arteriosclerosis which is associated with the increased risk of heart attack or stroke.
In other words, the study suggests that the approach is good for the heart and cardiovascular health. It is even good as quitting smoking or exercising. Not that an individual should continue smoking or stop exercising. They are simply spreading a newly discovered way that is as beneficial as adopting other lifestyle habits that lower the risk of heart disease. For instance, reducing salt intake, smoke quitting, and taking part in physical activity.
Researchers studied the data from TwinsUK, the biggest UK adult twin registry.
The participants who consumed the highest amount of amino acids had significantly lower blood pressure and arterial stiffness. Interestingly, they even found out the certain protein food source that can improve blood pressure and arterial stiffness.
The participants who eat plant-based sources had significantly lower blood pressure while participants who eat animal sources had lower levels of arterial stiffness.
Meaning to say, the research also suggests that including a combination of animal and plant protein foods into the diet has benefits. This is very positive as these foods are not just delicious but also provide a whole wealth of nutrients and phytochemicals.
What are amino acids?
Amino acids are the building blocks of protein. Meaning, it is the organic compound that combines to form proteins. They are found in meat and plant-based proteins and is significant for repairing and healing wounds, especially muscles, skin, bones, and hair. Furthermore, they help remove waste products connected with metabolism.
There are three categories of amino acids: essential, nonessential, and conditional.
Nonessential and conditional amino acids are not mentioned in the research to have any relationship in having a healthy heart. But just for your learning, here is a brief knowledge.
Nonessential amino acids are synthesized by the body. Meaning to say, they cannot be acquired through eating some foods. The nonessential amino acids are alanine, asparagine, aspartic acid, and glutamic acid.
On the other hand, conditional amino acids are considered not essential except when you get ill and have extreme stress. Belongs to this group are arginine, cysteine, glutamine, tyrosine, glycine, ornithine, proline, and serine.
The essential amino acids are referred to by the professionals as EAAs. They are the amino acids that are acquired through eating as they cannot be made by the body. The essential amino acids are histidine, isoleucine, leucine, lysine, methionine, phenylalanine, threonine, tryptophan, and valine.
You can have EAA by consuming foods with proteins.
Sources of Amino Acids
You can find animal protein from eating dairy products such as yogurt, milk, meat, cheese, seafood, and eggs. Many plant foods also contain protein but the difference is the level of protein that you can get from specific plants. Vegetarians combine different plant foods to make sure that they can get the complete protein the body is needed.
Actually, there are plant-based protein foods that are considered complete protein (the term used to describe a food that is complete of the 9 essential amino acids). These plant-based foods are soy, quinoa, and buckwheat. Other plant-based foods that consist of proteins are legumes, nuts, and seeds. However, these are incomplete proteins.
If you need any ideas, you may try these suggestions to get more plant proteins into your menu.
- Have at least one night per weak of a vegetarian meal.
- You may substitute half the meat in your bolognaise with lentils and kidney beans.
- Have a whole grain toast and put a can of baked beans on top it. Add some wilted spinach and mushrooms for extra plant nutrition. Serve it for breakfast.
- If you are serving steak of fish fillet, you can make a side dish by adding a can of borlotti beans to sautéed greens.
- Use Quorn in making a bolognese. Mince it and use as a substitute for meat. Quorn is a vegetable protein meat substitute that you can find in the freezer section of the supermarket.
- Replace meat or seafood with a stir fry, marinated tofu.
- Try to substitute mashed potato with mashed chickpeas. Simply mash a can of chickpeas with a little extra virgin olive oil, garlic, plenty of black pepper, and a pinch of salt.
- Use cannellini beans, garbanzo beans, and chickpeas in making a three bean salad. Add diced red onion, tomato, and flat leaf parsley. Then add a simple olive oil and vinegar dressing with cracked pepper.
Amino Acids and Heart Health
Now that we know the correlation between amino acids and heart health, let’s talk about one of the amino acids and specific heart benefits.
Arginine is a natural amino acid. If you missed in which category it belongs, it is one of the conditional amino acids.
Arginine is promoted for heart health mainly because it needs to synthesize nitric oxide. Nitric oxide is a very potent substance that causes dilation of blood vessels. In one recent study, arginine supplementation prevented vascular dysfunction associated with the consumption of a high-fat meal. The dose was 6 grams per day for 10 days.
A recent review of arginine studies concluded that the main benefit of arginine supplementation is to improve the clinical symptoms of various diseases associated with vascular dysfunction as well as to restore vascular function itself.


1- Determine learning objectives
This is the initial phase where you need to identify the behaviours you want your students to exhibit and work on encapsulating these behaviours in an overarching higher order thinking schema.
2-Teach through questioning
The importance of integrating questions into instruction is uncontested. Thought-provoking questions help students explore learning from different perspectives. The art of posing well-formulated questions is regaled by a set of techniques, some of which are included in this wonderful poster: Questions A Critical Thinker Asks.
3-Practice before you assess
This is where hands-on learning activities are called for. To consolidate their understandings and therefore increase the retention rate of information taught, students need to utilize all components of active learning such as simulation, experimentations,rehearsing…etc
4- Review, refine, and improve
Students’ feedback that you can garner either formally or informally constitute the backbone of your teaching procedure. It provides you with insights into areas that students need help with and also informs your teaching objectives and methodology. There are a variety of tools you can use to collect feedback from your students, check out the 8 Practical tools to easily gather students feedback.
5- Provide feedback and assessment of learning
As you need students feedback to help you inform your teaching methodology, students too need your feedback. They need to learn how they are learning and assess their overall achievement. One way to do this is to provide them with grading rubrics for self-assessment. Here are some other resources to help you provide better feedback to your students:


Some three billion people around the world rely on polluting stoves and open fires to cook the family meals. Not only are these methods inefficient, the harmful smoke exposure can increase the risk of contracting a range of diseases such as lung cancer, pneumonia and stroke, contributing to nearly four million deaths a year1).
To help address the problem, ISO has developed a series of International Standards and related documents for cleaner, safer cooking solutions that will provide a platform for new and existing technologies to develop and grow. These include an International Standard on laboratory testing, a technical report on sector-specific vocabulary and a technical report for benchmarking lab testing measurements. Two of them have just been published, with the third due to be released later this year.
Ranyee Chiang, Chair of the committee that developed the standards and former Director of Standards, Technology and Fuels at the Global Alliance for Clean Cookstoves, said this is a positive step for the industry.
“Progress has been made, but with a global issue affecting three billion people, we must have ambitious goals,” she said.
“These standards will help to motivate and mobilize designers and companies to raise the standards of cookstoves and accelerate the market for new technologies that benefit consumers.”
ISO 19867-1, Clean cookstoves and clean cooking solutions – Harmonized laboratory test protocols – Part 1: Standard test sequence for emissions and performance, safety and durability, is the first ever International Standard for the testing of biomass cookstoves. Based on terms and definitions from ISO/TR 21276, Clean cookstoves and clean cooking solutions – Vocabulary, a new technical report establishing precise terminology for cookstove technology and testing, it specifies laboratory measurement and evaluation methods for the particulate and gaseous air pollutant emissions of cookstoves.
It will soon be joined by a Part 3 setting voluntary performance targets for cookstoves based on laboratory testing, which is due to be published in the coming months. Together, they will provide a useful portfolio of test protocols and laboratory measurement procedures to test the performance of cookstoves under controlled laboratory conditions.
The documents were developed by ISO technical committee ISO/TC 285, Clean cookstoves and clean cooking solutions, comprised of some of the world’s leading specialists from the clean cookstoves and fuels sector, with special expertise on testing, design, business and policy.
Learn more about the cookstoves challenge in this inspiring TEDx talk:
1) WHO: Fact sheets


The term mattpainted pottery was first used by A. Furtwängler and G. Loeschke in their classification of pottery from Grave Circle A in Mycenae (Furtwängler and Loeschke 1879, 2; Idem 1886, 54 ff.). It quickly gained wide use in research as the designation for a category of pottery with dull, lustreless, that is, ‘matt’ painting. 1 In the course of time different chronological and technological appearances accumulated under this very flexible nomen. The spectrum ranges from the wheel-made and handmade polychrome ware of Middle Helladic southern Greece, to handmade pottery of the Late Bronze Age – with bichrome and monochrome ware in West Macedonia and monochrome ware in Central Macedonia – and the Iron Age phenomenon of mattpainted handmade pottery in Epirus and Albania.
The importance of mattpainted pottery lies foremost in the key role assigned to it by archaeologists regarding the question of ethnic movements in central and northern Greece during the Bronze Age.
Hence, R.J. Buck (1964, 280) saw the emergence of mattpainted pottery as evidence of an immigrating people known at the time as the “Minyans”, and F. Matz linked their derivation with the essential ethnogenesis of the Greeks themselves (1962, 162). 2 Similarly, the derivation of mattpainted pottery is seen in close association with the “Illyrian people” in Albania. Thus, Prendi explains the appearance of mattpainted pottery in the Devoll valley as the continuous indigenous development of the Illyrians, which would predate that in Macedonia and Epirus and – emanating from Albania – would have influenced these regions. 3 N.G.L. Hammond (1967, 390), on the contrary, connects the dissemination of mattpainted pottery with immigration of the Dorians and postulates a movement of transhumant shepherds from Epirus through Macedonia. J. Vokotopoulou (1986, 255 ff.) views Late Bronze Age mattpainted pottery in Macedonia as the result of a migration of “Macedonian tribes” from central Greece to the north and northeast.
The merging of the many different geographical and chronological categories of pottery in one term has led to confusion, on the one hand, while, on the other, it implies an intentional or unintentional contextual association of all. De facto not every piece of pottery with dull, lustreless, i.e. matt painting can be assigned automatically to the category of mattpainted pottery. And in any case, it should be distinguishable from mattpainted pottery through the terminology. 4
In the Late Bronze Age the distribution of mattpainted pottery extends from Kamenska Čuka in Bulgaria in the north to the Devoll valley of Albania in the west, and to the Argolis and Laconia in the south of Greece (fig. 1). An analysis of the similarities and differences in this pottery reveals that the existence of microregional groups which can be defined on the basis of their specific characteristics. The determining factors thereby are: shape, decoration, style of decoration, date and duration.
A total of eight different stylistic groups in Late Bronze Age mattpainted pottery have been discerned in Greece and the Balkans thus far, which can be divided into the following microregions (fig. 2) 5: the Chalkidiki (fig. 3), the Gulf of Thessaloniki to Langadas basin (fig. 4-5), the lower Axios valley (fig. 6-7), the middle Axios- or Vardar river valley (fig. 8), the Iannitsa basin 6 (fig. 9), the region along the Aliakmonas river 7 (fig. 10), the Devoll valley (fig. 11) and finally central Greece (fig. 12).
Proceeding from the present state of publications, groups 1 (Chalkidiki) and 8 (Gulf of Volos to the Sperchios valley) represent the oldest secure evidence of mattpainted pottery in the Late Bronze Age. This category appears at the Toumba of Olynthos (Prehistoric Olynthos) for the first time in layers 8 and 7, that is, during the period LH I to LH IIA. 8 At sites of group 8 and possibly group 2 (Toumba Thessaloniki) the Late Bronze Age mattpainted pottery can be linked directly and without interruption to the Middle Bronze Age.
Group 3 likewise begins during the early Late Bronze Age, when basing upon the results from Kastanas. Mattpainted pottery is first evidenced there in layer 18, which must be dated prior to LH IIIA (Jung 2002a, 218 f.) and – in view of the local unpainted pottery – can be correlated with layers 7 and 6 in the Toumba of Olynthos (Horejs, in press). Information as to the time at which mattpainted pottery begins in group 5 must await the final publication of finds in Angelochori 9; however, the analogies present there together with those in Kastanas and Prehistoric Olynthos point towards an early beginning of mattpainted pottery. Group 6 along the Aliakmonas river first appears in LH IIIA late; group 4 on the middle Vardar valley likewise dates to a developed phase of the Late Bronze Age. The beginning of mattpainted pottery in group 7 cannot be determined as yet.
The problem of the origin of Late Bronze Age mattpainted pottery has remained unsolved since the contrary theories of A. Hochstetter (1982) and J. Vokotopoulou (1986, 255 ff.) appeared c. twenty years ago. In the following both theories and their essential points will be discussed briefly.
Hochstetter (1982) explains Late Bronze Age mattpainted pottery as an imitation of the Mycenaean pottery in southern Greece and bases this view upon the following arguments.
1. The chronological dissolution of mattpainted pottery by the local production of Mycenaean pottery
2. The absence of direct chronological ties to Middle Helladic mattpainted pottery in central and southern Greece
3. The lack of similarities between Late Bronze Age mattpainted motifs and those of Middle Helladic motifs
4. The presence of many similarities between Late Bronze Age mattpainted motifs and Mycenaean ornamentation
5. The appearance of mattpainted pottery on the whole with its light coloured clay and fine brush painting should be understood as an imitation of Mycenaean pottery.
Vokotopoulou (1986) traces Late Bronze Age mattpainted pottery in northern Greece directly to its Middle Helladic forerunners in central and southern Greece, who entered Macedonia as migrating tribes. Her principle arguments are:
1. Late Bronze Age mattpainted pottery in Macedonia does not display any ties to local pottery repertories.
2. The category mattpainted pottery appears prior to the first Mycenaean imports in the region.
3. Similarities between mattpainted and Middle Helladic motifs are present.
The ensuing contemplations on the genesis of Late Bronze Age mattpainted wares commence with evidence of the chronologically oldest groups. This is found in the regions of the Chalkidiki (group 1) and the Gulf of Volos to Sperchios valley (group 8). A further coastal site with group 2 is found in Toumba Thessaloniki, where this category already appears at the beginning of the Late Bronze Age.
In the Thessalian group 8 a continuous and uninterrupted development of Middle Helladic mattpainted ware is attested in the Late Bronze Age, until LH II at least, with clear links to older prototypes. In turn, this Thessalian group reflects numerous connections with the oldest mattpainted pottery in the Chalkidiki, which are definitely datable to LH I to LH IIA (Horejs 2007; eadem, in press). The correspondences extend beyond simple similarities in ornamentation and apply to vessel shapes as well as compositions in decoration, the entire structure of patterns and its syntax as well. Here without any doubt a direct link between the earlier Late Bronze Age mattpainted wares in northern Greece to the Middle Helladic tradition in Thessaly is manifest.
Ties between Late Bronze Age motifs and Middle Helladic mattpainted pottery are found foremost in Thessaly. 10 Precisely the ornaments that Hochstetter (1982, 212 fig. 6) draws from the canon of Mycenaean patterns were already applied to Middle Helladic mattpainted pottery (fig. 13). The standing triangle with simple hatching, cross-hatching or in concentric order, aligned in a row as the main motif is widespread and attested, for example, on Middle Helladic vessels 11 in Lianokladi (Wace and Thompson 1912, 182 fig. 132,c; 126,g.h), Aidniotiki Magula (Maran 1992, pl. 144,7), Pefkakia phases 6 late and 7 (Ibid. pl. 107,12; 125,1) as well as Asine (Nordquist 1987, 167 fig. 34). Likewise, the standing triangle with a spiral as end ornament was known long before Mycenaean pottery, 12 as for example in Lianokladi (Maran 1992, pl. 147,2). The stemmed spiral, defined as characteristic of LH IIIB, is well-known on Middle Bronze Age vessels in Lianokladi (Wace and Thompson 1912, 184 fig. 131,a), Melitäa (Bakalaki 1959, 89 fig. 13; 91 fig. 15) as well as Grave В in Grave Circles B in Mycenae (Mylonas 1972, pl. 27,γ). Similarly, the so-called “starfish” motif, which Hochstetter dates to LH II by means of comparisons with Mycenaean pottery (Hochstetter 1982, 212 fig. 6), finds older parallels, for example in Grave Г in Grave Circle B in Mycenae (Mylonas 1972, pl. 50,γ). The same applies to the spiral rapport, 13 the hatched lozenge 14 and the hanging concentric garlands, 15 all of which can be observed on mattpainted vases of the Middle Bronze Age and long before Mycenaean pottery.
Accordingly and without exception, all of the motifs that Hochstetter traces to Mycenaean pottery have older forerunners in mattpainting traditions of the Middle Bronze Age (fig. 13). This also pertains to motifs of hanging triangles aligned in a row and wavy bands in different variations that are actually far more frequent in early Late Bronze Age mattpainted pottery. Thus, we find evidence of the first (hanging triangles) in Eutresis (Goldman 1931, 171 fig. 240,4) and Asine (Nordquist 1987, 172 fig. 50,5). Examples of the use of the second (wavy bands) are present in Bounarbaşi (Maran 1992, pl. 145,15) and Eutresis 16. Even exact analogies in ornamental composition in combination with wavy bands can be observed, for example the double-bladed saw with a central band from Grave Γ in Grave Circle B in Mycenae (Mylonas 1972, pl. 114,β), which is the same as the pattern on a globular kantharos in Prehistoric Olynthos (fig. 14). Finally, the characteristic motif on Late Bronze Age vessels consisting of vertical and horizontal fringed bands is likewise already present in mattpainted vessels. 17
The similarity between the entire appearance of Late Bronze Age mattpainted and early Mycenaean pottery as postulated by Hochstetter is, in my opinion, problematic. The differences in the whole compositional syntax 18 can be best determined in the examples of early Mycenaean pottery found in a settlement in the vicinity of Prehistoric Olynthos and Kastanas. Located on the Sithonia peninsula of the Chalkidiki, Toroni is the only settlement that has yielded a larger amount of Mycenaean pottery that can be dated to LH I to LH II (Cambitoglou and Papadopoulos 1991, fig. 22–23), whose decoration, ornaments and composition do not compare with Late Bronze Age mattpainted pottery. The argument of the light coloured surface with fine dark painting for mattpainted vases could just as well apply to an imitation of “dark on light-ware”, the “lustrous decorated ware” or many other coeval categories of painted pottery in the Aegean.
Finally, there is still the question regarding a chronological and contextual dissolution of mattpainted pottery by Mycenaean local production, as can be observed in Kastanas. In Toumba Olynthos mattpainted pottery is not replaced by Mycenaean pottery; instead, it appears alongside the other starting with layer 7, and possibly they are used together in a mixed set as of layer 4 (Cp. Horejs, in press). Similarly, Toumba Thessaloniki and the settlement at Apsalos also display continued use of mattpainted ware in great numbers long after Mycenaean pottery appears there for the first time. Lastly, the necropolises along the Aliakmonas river attest the coeval use of mattpainted pottery and Mycenaean vessels together as a mixed set, which clearly speaks against a contextual dissolution of mattpainted pottery by Mycenaean pottery. Contrary to Vokotopoulou’s opinion, there does indeed seem to have been a strong relationship between Macedonian mattpainted pottery and local tradition, which is clearly expressed in the choice of vessel forms. The majority of the spectrum of mattpainted vessels was adopted directly from the local Late Bronze Age pottery (Cp. Horejs, in press), a fact that in my opinion contradicts her theory of immigration.
Based upon vase shape, decoration and decorative style, Late Bronze Age mattpainted pottery in the Northern Aegean can be divided into a total of eight microregional groups, of which the regions of the Chalkidiki, the Gulf of Volos to the Sperchios valley and possibly the lower Axios river are the oldest of the groups and date to the early Late Bronze Age. A direct chronological and geographical link to the older Middle Helladic mattpainted pottery is confirmed by group 8 in Thessaly. The characteristic main motifs as well as the numerous, but less frequent ornaments can be traced singly or in combinations of patterns to Middle Bronze Age mattpainted wares (Horejs 2003). Contact to central and southern Greece with accompanying imports and imitations of all categories of pottery is attested by Minyan ware and Minyan imitations, at least in Prehistoric Olynthos, in the earlier layers 14 to 10 (Horejs 2007).
In my opinion, mattpainted pottery should be seen in the association, in which after the disappearance of the categories of Minyan imitations mattpainted ware was taken into the local repertory in Macedonia and adapted to local traditions. Late Bronze Age mattpainted pottery in the north derives from Middle Helladic mattpainted pottery technologically, morphologically and through its ornament and compositions of patterns. As a possible contact zone the Gulf of Volos comes into view, where the most numerous analogies can be observed. The oldest Macedonian mattpainted pottery is, thus, not a product of a people who migrated from central Greece to Macedonia, but rather the result of a long, extant and apparently continued contact with regions in central and southern Greece. Techniques, ornaments and compositions were adopted and transferred to local traditional pottery. And so a specific north Greek category of pottery emerged at the beginning of the Late Bronze Age, whose origin is located in Middle Helladic central and southern Greece.
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1 Bulle 1907, 15; Wace and Thompson 1912, 21 f.: “Mattmalerei. This is the name usually given by German archaeologists to a ware that is sometimes known as Pre-Mycenaean geometric”.
2 Cp. also the theories of immigration at the beginning of the Middle Helladic Period in Schachermeyr 1954, 1489 ff.
3 Prendi 1982, 228. His hypothesis bases upon the fact that he can recognise a “cultural break” only at the beginning of the Bronze Age in Maliq IIIa. Accordingly, all of the following events must be continuous and autochthonous. For example, in Prendi’s opinion the derivation of matt-painted pottery can be explained as being from a local spectrum. Therefore, this pottery cannot have originated from elsewhere; it is an indigenous “Illyrian element” (ibid. 187 ff.).
4 Cp. Zerner 1983, 109.
5 For a detailed description of the individual groups with references for all sites as well as the definition of formative elements and factors, see Horejs, in press.
6 See also Liana Stefanis contribution on this web-site.
7 See also Georgia Karamitrou-Mentessidis conribution on this web-site.
8 For the dating of the individual settlement phases, see Horejs 2003; eadem 2007; eadem, in press.
9 See Liana Stefanis contribution on this web-site with new material.
10 Problems concerning the lack of regional definitions and publications of the entire Middle Helladic mattpainting have already been discussed somewhereelse (Horejs, in press). The region of the Gulf of Volos and the peninsula Magnisia definitely represent an individual group and should be distinguished from other regions, such as Aegina (Maran 2007).
11 Opposite Hochstetter 1982, 212 fig. 6, who connects the ornament with Mycenaean pottery dated to LH IIIA.
12 Opposite Hochstetter (ibid.).
13 For example, Grave B in Grave Circle B, Mycenae: Mylonas 1972, pl. 27,γ; Grab Γ: ibid. pl. 42,α; Grab Δ: ibid. pl. 66,γ.
14 For example, Lianokladi: Maran 1992, pl. 146,8.9; Wace and Thompson 1912, 183 fig. 128. – Bounarbaşi: Maran 1992, pl. 145,14. – Aegina-Kolonna IX: Siedentopf 1991, pl. 33,151. – Eutresis: Goldman 1931, 174 fig. 242,7.
15 For example, Aegina-Kolonna X: Siedentopf 1991, pl. 17,82–84. – Grave Γ in Grave Circle B: Mylonas 1972, pl. 52,α; 53,β1. – Eutresis: Goldman 1931, 173 fig. 241,4.
16 Goldman 1931, 153 fig. 211,8.10; 168 fig. 235,4; 169 fig. 238,1; 171 fig. 240,3.5; 173 fig. 241,3.
17 For example, in Lianokladi: Maran 1992, pl. 147,2. – Bounarbaşi: ibid. pl. 145,16. – Pefkakia (phase 6 early): ibid. pl. 67,4.
18 Likewise, Jung points out very explicitly the differences in decoration syntax between Mycenaean and mattpainted pottery, in which absolutely no similarities are recognisable (Jung forthcoming).


When a cow or calf dies unexpectedly, you may debate whether to call a veterinarian. A necropsy is the right thing to do, but will it be worth the expense?
The answer is almost always yes, said Dr. Glenn Songer, microbiologist at the University of Arizona.
“My belief is that diagnostic investigation should be a priority, even if you think you know exactly what is going on,” reported Songer to attendees at a Clostridium perfringens Type A symposium during the Western Veterinary Conference in Las Vegas, Nev. “Diagnosis is the only way to know the true cause of death. You need this information to prevent future losses, especially with emerging diseases like C. perfringens Type A infection.”
C. perfringens Type A produces alpha toxin and is implicated in deadly gastrointestinal diseases, such as abomasal ulcers and hemorrhage in calves. Some speculate that it is involved in the pathogenesis of hemorrhagic bowel syndrome (HBS) in cows.
There is much confusion surrounding C. perfringens Type A, as C. perfringens Type A and Type C cases in calves will look almost identical in histopathology. Diagnostic follow-up work needs to be done in every case.
The first step in obtaining an accurate diagnosis is to call a veterinarian as soon as possible after a death. Samples must be from an animal that died very recently. “The best specimen for necropsy is a typically affected, untreated calf,” said Songer.
An accurate diagnosis also involves good communication. Your veterinarian will submit a field necropsy report along with tissue samples to the diagnostic laboratory. He or she will want a complete history of the case. The diagnostic lab requests information such as the breed, type of operation, age of animal, clinical signs, treatments, if other cases have been observed and if any other diseases are occurring in the herd.
Songer urged producers to be diligent. “Don’t stop with one calf,” said Songer. “Focus on the herd. I know it’s costly, but the answer lies with diagnostics. Losing animals is much more expensive than necropsies and diagnostics. The more animals we look at, the more we learn and the sooner we can control this disease.”
If diagnostic results suggest C. perfringens Type A, Songer recommends developing a management strategy with your veterinarian. For example, HBS cases may be addressed by correcting nutritional and environmental factors that are promoting clostridial overgrowth.
Currently, only one cattle vaccine has demonstrated reasonable expectations of efficacy against alpha toxin. Clostridium Perfringens Type A Toxoid is available under conditional license from Novartis Animal Health US, Inc. The product can be given to pregnant or non-pregnant animals, and has been demonstrated to be safe in calves as young as one month of age.
“Work with your veterinarian to develop a preventive management program,” urged Songer. “You probably won’t eliminate every death, but there are steps you can take to minimize losses. Your veterinarian can help you determine if options like vaccination will work in your operation.”
Novartis Animal Health researches, develops and commercializes leading animal treatments that meet the needs of pet owners, farmers and veterinarians. Headquartered in Basel, Switzerland, Novartis Animal Health conducts business in 40 countries and employs about 2,700 people worldwide. For more information, visit www.livestock.novartis.com.