Volume V Issue 7
July 2009 |
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 Flu
Vaccine Via Microneedle Patch
 Flu
vaccine delivered through skin patches containing microneedles has
proven just as effective at preventing influenza in mice as
intramuscular, hypodermic flu immunization. A team of researchers at
Emory University and the Georgia Institute of Technology believes the
new microneedle skin patch method of delivering flu vaccine could
improve overall seasonal vaccination coverage in people because of
decreased pain, increased convenience, lower cost, simpler logistics
over conventional hypodermic immunization. The patches used in the
experiments contained an array of stainless steel microneedles coated
with inactivated influenza virus. The patches were pressed manually into
the skin and after a few minutes, the vaccine coating dissolved off
within the skin. The researchers found that the microneedle vaccinations
induced strong immune responses against influenza virus that were
comparable to immune responses induced by the intramuscular, hypodermic
immunizations. Other advantages of the microneedle patches could include
more convenient storage, easier transportation and lower dosage
requirements.
 Explore
careers in medicine and
engineering...
NOAA
Sends Teachers to Sea
 The
National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration's (NOAA)
Teacher at Sea program
provides a unique environment for learning and teaching by sending
kindergarten through college-level teachers to sea aboard NOAA research
and survey ships to work with both scientists and crew. Then, armed with
new understanding and experience, teachers bring this knowledge back to
their classrooms. Perhaps the greatest payoff of NOAA's Teacher at Sea
program is the enthusiasm for learning more about our ocean planet
generated between teachers and students. Since its inception in 1990,
the program has enabled more than 500 teachers to gain first-hand
experience of science and life at sea. The teachers enrich their
classroom curricula with a depth of understanding made possible by
living and working side-by-side, day and night with those who contribute
to the world's body of oceanic and atmospheric scientific knowledge.
Find
out more about career paths in
science...
High
School Diploma No Longer Enough
 According
to recent data from the Bill &
Melinda Gates Foundation, today only 71% of students earn a high
school diploma, fewer than six in 10 minority students graduate with
their peers, and many graduates are unprepared for college. The
Foundation says that "Success in the 21st century demands skills,
attitudes, and abilities that require more than a high school diploma.
Yet today only about half of all Americans have a college degree or
certificate, a number that drops to about 20% for Hispanics and African
Americans. It is no longer enough to say more young people are accessing
college. For the sake of their future and our country's future, we have
to make sure more young people go on to complete college. We have set an
ambitious goal for ourselves and the nation: double the number of young
people who earn a postsecondary degree or certificate by the time they
reach age 26. The "Postsecondary Success" plan points out that while our
rate of high school graduates going to college continues to rank among
the highest in the world, most students will never complete college.
Only about half of U.S. college students graduate within six years. The
rate for low-income students is closer to 25%, and only about 20% of
African-American and Hispanics aged 25-34 have earned some kind of
postsecondary degree.
And among community college students, the graduation rate is estimated
to be 38%.
Find
out about 170+ careers in science,
engineering, math, and healthcare at www.careercornerstone.org. Many of
the profiled fields require a two year
associate degree for
preparation...
Degree
Profile: Medical Records Technicians
 Every
time a patient receives health care, a record is maintained of the
observations, medical or surgical interventions, and treatment outcomes.
This record includes information that the patient provides concerning
his or her symptoms and medical history, the results of examinations,
reports of x-rays and laboratory tests, diagnoses, and treatment plans.
Medical records and health information technicians organize and evaluate
these records for completeness and accuracy.
Technicians assemble patients' health information, making sure that
patients' initial medical charts are complete, that all forms are
completed and properly identified and authenticated, and that all
necessary information is in the computer. They regularly communicate
with physicians and other health care professionals to clarify diagnoses
or to obtain additional information. Technicians regularly use computer
programs to tabulate and analyze data to improve patient care, better
control cost, provide documentation for use in legal actions, or use in
research studies. Some medical records and health information
technicians specialize in coding patients' medical information for
insurance purposes. Medical records and health information technicians
also may specialize in cancer registry. Medical records and health
information technicians generally obtain an associate degree to be
prepared for this field, which currently offers a median income of about
$29,290 a year.
Find
out more about a career as a
medical records and
health information technician...
Google
Earth Aids in Fossil Discovery
 A
limestone countertop, a practiced eye and
Google Earth all played roles in
the discovery of a trove of fossils that may shed light on the origins
of African wildlife. The saga began when University of Michigan
paleontologist Philip Gingerich, an authority on ancient whales, learned
of a whale fossil from Egypt that had been discovered in a most
unconventional way. At a stonecutting yard in Italy where blocks of
stone from around the world are sliced up for countertops, masons had
noticed what looked like cross-sections of a skeleton in slabs cut from
a huge hunk of limestone imported from Egypt. These turned out to be
fossilized remains of a whale that lived in Egypt 40 million years ago,
when the region was covered by ocean. Gingerich wanted to visit the site
where the limestone was quarried, but the exact location was something
of a mystery. Instead of setting out blindly across the desert,
Gingerich sat down at his computer and clicked on Google Earth. On his
virtual expedition, Gingerich followed bluffs, and looked for roads in
the area that might lead to quarries. Finally, about 75 miles east of
Sheikh Fadl, he came across a road that traveled north to a deeply
pocked area that just had to be a cluster of quarries. Then, he traveled
to the location and found his google search was on target -- he found a
large quarry operation blasting out blocks of limestone.
While scanning the scene,
something caught his eye: bands of red in the white limestone walls of
the quarry. He quickly realized the red bands represented layers of
loose soil that were blown into ancient caves. "Suddenly it dawned on
me: There should be animals preserved in that sediment, too, because
caves often act as traps," Gingerich said. When he searched at the base
of one rock outcrop, there were tiny bones everywhere. The bones and
teeth---remains of small mammals that lived in the early Miocene Epoch,
some 18 to 20 million years ago---are the first small mammal fossils of
that age to be found in Egypt. They may even represent some of the first
mammals to migrate from Asia to Africa when the land bridge between the
two continents first formed.
Find
out more about careers in science...
President
Inspires Next Generation of Scientists & Engineers
 During
a speech this spring at the National Academy of Sciences, President
Obama announced a National Science Foundation / Department of Energy
collaboration that addresses the need to "spark a sense of wonder and
excitement" in the nation's young people to pursue careers in science
and engineering. As part of President Obama's "New Energy for America"
plan, the Administration will provide the opportunity for thousands of
American students to pursue careers in science, engineering, and
entrepreneurship related to clean energy. These young men and women will
invent and help commercialize advanced energy technologies such as
efficient and cost effective methods for converting sunlight to
electricity and fuel, carbon capture and sequestration, stationary and
portable advanced batteries for plug-in electric cars, advanced energy
storage concepts that will enable sustained energy supply from solar,
wind, and other renewable energy sources, high-efficiency deployment of
power across the so-called "smart grid" and carbon neutral commercial
and residential buildings.
 Among
the efforts recommended include individual fellowships to graduate
students involved in clean energy research, integrative graduate
training programs involving clean energy, research experiences for
undergrads in energy, and technician education to improve education for
young Americans who will become technicians in clean energy fields,
focusing on two- and four-year college programs. In addition, focused
Research in K-12 Science Education Strategies and Innovative Technology
Experiences for Students and Teachers will address how students learn
about science and technology, evaluating immediate challenges in primary
and secondary schools and envisioning science education as it could be
in future decades. More details are
online.
Find
out more about careers in science
and engineering...
The
Cosmos in a Coffee Cup
 A
Duke University professor and his graduate student have discovered a
universal principle that unites the curious interplay of light and
shadow on the surface of your morning coffee with the way gravity
magnifies and distorts light from distant galaxies. They think
scientists will be able to use violations of this principle to map
unseen clumps of dark matter in the universe. Light rays naturally
reflect off a curve like the inside surface of a coffee cup in a
curving, ivy leaf pattern that comes to a point in the center and is
brightest along its edge. Mathematicians and physicists call that shape
a "cusp curve," and they call the bright edge a "caustic," based on an
alternative dictionary definition meaning "burning bright," explains
Arlie Petters, a Duke professor of mathematics, physics and business
administration. "It happens because a lot of light rays can pile up
along curves." Drawn by the mathematically-inclined artist Leonardo da
Vinci in the early 16th century, caustics can be seen elsewhere in
everyday life, including sunlight reflecting across a swimming pool's
surface and choppy wave-light patterns reflecting off a boat hull.
"Mother Nature has to be creating these things," Petters said. "It's
amazing how what we can see in a coffee cup extends into a mathematical
theorem with effects in the cosmos."
Find
out about careers in physics
and mathematics...
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