Category: Points of Information

Very brief descriptions, with appropriate links, of current or recent news items.

Human bones taken to ISS for long space flight experiments.

11:13 pm

Human bones were part of the cargo on board the Soyuz capsule launched to ISS today.

“The fragments of human bones will be used to study the causes and dynamics of decalcination of bone tissue in a long space flight,” the head of the experiment, Tatiana Krasheninnikova told Itar-Tass. The problem of decalcination is a headache for medics responsible for spacemen’s health. Researches in this area are conducted by scientists from many ISS member states. However it is impossible to take sample of spacemen’s bones, only their urine is being examined, and a complete picture of dynamics of changes in human bones is not clear, she noted.

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NASA Inspector General notes continuing worries about the Mars Science Lab

10:29 am

A NASA Inspector General report issued today [pdf] notes continuing worries about the Mars Science Laboratory, scheduled for launch later this year.

Remaining Unresolved Technical Issues: Although Project managers have overcome the majority of technical issues that led to the [2009] launch delay, as of March 2011 three significant technical issues remain unresolved. . . . Because of technical issues related to these three and other items, Project managers must complete nearly three times the number of critical tasks than originally planned in the few months remaining until launch. [emphasis mine]

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Whistle-blower claims his accusations cost him his job

9:21 am

A whistle-blower from a Wisconsin research lab claims his accusations cost him his job.

After months of friction that culminated in his openly questioning the reproducibility of data published by his supervisor, a postdoc at the University of Wisconsin–Madison’s zoology department was presented with three options. The department’s chairman said he could wait to be fired, resign voluntarily or accept a “gracious exit strategy” that would give him time to prepare a paper for publication, if he dropped his “scientific misconduct issues”.

When geneticist Aaron Taylor objected that the third option sounded like a “plea bargain” meant to discourage him from pressing his concerns about the lab’s data, the chairman, Jeffrey Hardin disagreed. But Hardin also said: “I think you’d have to decide which is more important to you.” He later added: “You have to decide whether you want to kind of engage in whistle-blowing.” [emphasis mine]

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Cruise passengers tell of seven-hour security ‘revenge’ nightmare

11:51 am

The abuse of power: Cruise passengers tell of seven-hour security “revenge” nightmare, forced on them by U.S. immigration officials.

But when a handful of them questioned whether the lengthy security checks at the port were strictly necessary for a group of largely elderly travellers officials were not amused. Although they had already been given advance clearance for multiple entries to the country during their trip, all 2,000 passengers were made to go through full security checks in a process which took seven hours to complete.

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