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92-year-old
Sky Diver Still Finding Adventure
From
Yahoo.com --
 Taking
a 13,000-foot plunge from an airplane will earn most jumpers a
certificate. Instructor Paul Peckham Jr. knew that wouldn't be
enough for 92-year-old Jane Bockstruck.
Peckham, a former
Air Force
combat controller, cut the parachutist wings he had sewn 30 years
ago on his own helmet bag and gave them to Bockstruck — who
celebrated her birthday this month with a flawless, 120-mph free
fall in front of her children, grandchildren and
great-grandchildren. For Bockstruck, it was just another in a string
of adventures in her full life. She has traveled around the world,
been married seven times and loves to boast that she kidded with
John Wayne
while working as a seamstress on the set of "True Grit."Her family
is used to her independent spirit but thought she was nuts when she
suggested sky diving.
"I don't know what gave me
the idea, but I thought, 'I guess I'll jump out of a plane.' Then I
stuck with the story and did it," said Bockstruck, who lives in the
western New Hampshire town of Swanzey. "But it's scary. It's scary
mostly when you get up there getting ready to go out the door."
Peckham said he has seen
people much younger balk at the prospect of sky diving.
"She knew exactly what she was doing," he said. "I'm sure she was
nervous and anxious and possibly a little afraid. She went ahead and
did it. I call that courage."
A Gene to
Change Kidney Aging
from
Science Daily
--
 A
gene has been associated with human kidney aging, according to
researchers from Stanford University, the National Institute on
Aging, the MedStar Research Institute, and the HudsonAlpha Institute
for Biotechnology.
In work published on
October 16 in the open-access journal
PLoS Genetics,
the investigators claim that their approach, which combines
sequential transcriptional profiling and eQTL mapping, can be
applied to any phenotype of interest to help find other genetic
associations.
Kidneys age at different
rates, such that some people show little or no effects of kidney
aging whereas others show rapid functional decline. Determining
genetic factors associated with different rates of kidney aging
contributes to the understanding of molecular mechanisms underlying
the human aging process. Although family studies have shown that
genes play a role in longevity, it has proven difficult to identify
the specific genetic variants involved, until now.
The researchers, led by Dr.
Stuart Kim, first used genome-wide transcriptional profiling to
determine that 630 genes change expression with age in kidney
tissue. Next, they determined that 101 of these age-regulated genes
contain DNA variations among individuals that associate with gene
expression level. These 101 genes were tested for association with
kidney aging in a combined analysis of two populations selected to
study normal aging: the Baltimore Longitudinal Study of Aging and
the InCHIANTI Study. One gene that encodes an extracellular matrix
protein (MMP20) was revealed to be significantly associated with
kidney aging, providing the first gene association with kidney
aging.
Power
Plastic
from
Positive
News.com --
 Imagine
each and every surface under the sun covered with a film that
captures light and transforms it into electricity; an office window
that directly powers your computer, or a parasol that runs a laptop,
allowing you to email from the beach. What about a sun roof that
keeps your electronics ticking over while you drive, a canvas cover
that recharges your electric car or a tent that turns a reading
light on and warms up your sleeping bag after the sun goes down?
Rick Hess, who runs innovative solar company, Konarka, is
justifiably proud of his company's latest creation, because it will
do all of these things. Invented by the firm's co-founder and Nobel
Prize winner, Dr Alan Heeger, 'Power Plastic' is a light, thin,
flexible, energy-generating sheet. It converts both indoor and
out-door light into direct electrical current - a solar panel that
rolls up like camera film. "Soon, you might not even need
batteries," Rick Hess says. "We can put this stuff anywhere!"
Power Plastic is made up of several thin components: a
photo-reactive film, a transparent electrode layer, a plastic
substrate and a protective skin, yet it is only five millimetres
thick. The sheets can be 60 inches wide and any length, just like
when a newspaper is printed on a continuous roll of paper. Its
bendiness means that everyday items, even clothes, could be turned
into power sources.
Unlike other photovoltaic technology, Power Plastic sheets are
organic, free of toxic materials and therefore 'green'. Their easy
application means they create complete energy independence wherever
they go. Power will no longer be limited to rigid, outdoor,
large-scale panels, nor will the consumer have to wait years to see
a return on their solar investment.
Konarka, aptly named after the Hindu Sun God, recently teamed up
with Arch Aluminum & Glass, to integrate Power Plastic into the
development of light-harvesting windows. The idea is destined to
become popular among homeowners who do not want to spoil the look of
their roofs or who live in listed properties.
The product also comes in a range of colours to give architects free
scope to design it into any type of glass surface, even laminated,
security or sound proof. Of course, the process of installing new
windows is much less intimidating for a homeowner than the idea of
fitting an expensive solar rig on the roof. In fact, accessible
power generation could soon be rolled out to an unlimited audience,
especially remote or grid-less regions of the developing world. It
could even, one day, turn every resident into a supplier of excess
power to their national grid - an abundant renewable source of
global energy, eradicating the demand for fossil fuel alternatives
altogether.
Man Sees
Virgin Mary in Football-sized Rock
from the Merced
Sun Star--
 Nobody
can say why the Virgin of Guadalupe would appear on a hunk of rock
formed millions of years before the birth of Jesus. But David Nunez
says the image is unmistakable -- a bluish-black stain on the
football-sized rock outlines what looks like the Holy Mother.
Nunez’s father found the
partially buried boulder while looking for landscaping rocks in an
Oakdale, Calif., orchard. Nunez and his father, Jesus -- both
Catholics from Merced -- insist that it's hard to dispute that the
image resembles the famous image of the Virgin of Guadalupe.
"Everybody thought it
looked like a turtle shell, but once he brought it home, we saw a
figure on it," Nunez recalled. Friends have called it a miracle.
Father Harvey Fonseca, of
Livingston's Saint Jude Thaddeus Roman Catholic Church, isn't so
sure. He recalled a time when a window featured streaks that also
seemed to mimic the Virgin Mary.
"People see what they want
to see," said Fonseca, who hasn't examined the rock. "It's usually
just a coincidence when something looks like something else. For me,
it would have to be a great likeness. Then again, God is the one who
makes mineral formations, so if he chooses to have an image appear
on a rock, he can do it."
The rock is a 14-pound
caramel-brown and chalkboard black hunk of gneiss, a banded
metamorphic rock that started out as sandstone and shale, according
to Rob Rogers, a professor of geology at Cal State Stanislaus in
Turlock. Rogers didn't examine the rock in person, but reviewed
several photos e-mailed to him.
The original sandstone and
shale were deeply buried and subjected to high levels of heat and
pressure, probably when today's Sierra were formed between 40 and
140 million years ago, Rogers said. The rock's rounded edges suggest
that it was moved by water from the mountains into the Valley,
probably during a flood event in the last 3 million years, he added.
The Virgin of Guadalupe is
said to be an image of Mary, the mother of Jesus Christ. According
to Catholics, Mary appeared to a Mexican peasant named Juan Diego in
the 16th century. To prove it was a miracle, her image then formed
itself on Diego's cloak. People say that appearances of the image
since then indicate some kind of religious sign. Historically,
appearances of the Virgin of Guadalupe are associated with hope and
healing, said Max Hallman, a professor of humanities at Merced
College.
"With all the economic
problems and stress in our area, some may interpret it as a hopeful
sign," he said. Like Fonseca, however, Hallman points out that
people will see what they're inclined to see.
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