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Planetary Resources Press Release

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE May 23, 2013 *** Media Alert *** Media Alert *** Media Alert *** Planetary Resources Opening the Space Frontier to All

WHAT: Planetary Resources’ team of engineers who have designed, built and operated spacecraft throughout the Solar System, including all of the recent U.S. Mars landers and rovers, are now developing the most advanced space technology ever and will make it publicly accessible. A diverse group of supporters, including Virgin’s Sir Richard Branson, actor Seth Green, Star Trek’s Brent Spiner (Data) and Rob Picardo (The Doctor), Bill Nye the Science Guy, futurist Jason Silva, and MIT astrophysicist Dr. Sara Seager, have joined forces with Planetary Resources to make access to space widely available for exploration and research.

On May 29 at 10:00 a.m. PDT in Seattle, and also streaming live, please join Planetary Resources’ Peter Diamandis, Eric Anderson and Chris Lewicki, as they, along with vlogger Hank Green, announce an unprecedented project that will change the way humanity explores the cosmos. Program Highlights:

Gives students, teachers and the public access to the most innovative space observation technology ever built

– This technology would have cost US$100M+ to build and launch less than a decade ago; and today, it will be controlled by students around the world to explore the cosmos.Offers the opportunity for the public to directly participate in cutting-edge citizen science and discovery

– Delivers a resource to thousands of institutions and researchers in need of greater access to space to further their work and rate of scientific discovery.
Invites the public to participate in Planetary Resources’ asteroid mining mission – Anyone with an interest in space can play a role in opening up the Solar System for human activity.

WHEN: Wed., May 29, 2013 10:00 a.m. PDT WHO:
Peter H. Diamandis, M.D., Co-Founder & Co-Chairman, Planetary Resources, Inc.
Eric Anderson, Co-Founder & Co-Chairman, Planetary Resources, Inc.
Chris Lewicki, President & Chief Engineer, Planetary Resources, Inc.
Hank Green, Internet personality, VlogBrothers
WHERE: Great Gallery at The Museum of Flight 9404 East Marginal Way South Seattle, WA 98108 Event will also be streamed online.

RSVP: Media are invited to attend in-person or view the live stream. Live stream details for the press will be provided upon request. CONTACT: Stacey Tearne
stearne@planetaryresources.com +1 202-256-7917 ADDITIONAL EVENT: Later in the day at 3:30 p.m. PDT an additional live streaming event will occur at the Museum of Flight with Brent Spiner, Hank Green, Chris Lewicki and other Planetary Resources members. This event will be in group discussion format talking about the announcements from earlier in the day. We invite the press and the public both in person and via live stream to attend this event, engage and ask questions. The live stream for this event will be accessible from the following URL.
http://www.planetaryresources.com/livestream/

The above URL will allow access to both events during the day, however all media outlets are required to RSVP with Stacey Tearne for a direct access press link for submitting questions during the morning event. About Planetary Resources: Planetary Resources, Inc. was founded in 2009 by Eric Anderson and Dr. Peter H. Diamandis. Their vision is to establish a new paradigm for resource utilization that will bring the Solar System within humanity’s economic sphere of influence. The company will conduct low-cost robotic space exploration beginning with the Arkyd Series of space missions that will identify the most commercially viable near-Earth asteroids. These initial missions will assist the company in enabling the retrieval of raw materials from these select asteroids, including water, precious metals and more.

Planetary Resources is financed by industry-launching visionaries, three of whom include Google’s CEO Larry Page & Executive Chairman Eric Schmidt; and Ross Perot, Jr., Chairman of Hillwood and The Perot Group; who are committed to expanding the world’s resource base so humanity can continue to grow and prosper for centuries to come. Some of the company’s partners and advisors include the Bechtel Corporation; film maker and explorer James Cameron; former Chief of Staff, United States Air Force General T. Michael Moseley (Ret.); and Sara Seager, Ph.D., Professor of Planetary Science and Physics at MIT. For more information, please visit www.planetaryresources.com.

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Amazing NEW Periodic Table video!

If the Animaniacs and Science had a child, this would be it! Every element of the Periodic Table, sung, in order!

Australian Museum Volunteer Portal

The Australian Museum in partnership with the Atlas of Living Australia (www.ala.org.au) has created a crowdsourcing website that allows volunteers to assist the museum in transcribing its collections, anywhere anytime.

· The Biodiversity Volunteer Portal (http://volunteer.ala.org.au/) is where volunteers can transcribe specimen labels, field notes, and expedition diaries.

· Volunteers on the site say they feel that it is a rewarding experience knowing that the information they capture becomes accessible to scientists, conservation agencies and government departments across the country who can then work together to better understand, manage and conserve our precious biodiversity.

We are seeking…

… dedicated detail oriented people who are willing to join the community of volunteers who are helping with the daunting task of digitising the Museum’s large natural history collections.

Get involved …

… go to http://volunteer.ala.org.au and start transcribing historical labels and field notes now.

sau cool

http://youtu.be/oSCX78-8-q0

32,000-Year-Old Plant Brought Back to Life—Oldest Yet Feat may help scientists preserve seeds for the future. Rachel Kaufman for National Geographic News Published February 21, 2012 The oldest plant ever to be regenerated has been grown from 32,000-year-old seeds—beating the previous recordholder by some 30,000 years. (Related: “‘Methuselah’ Tree Grew From 2,000-Year-Old Seed.”) A Russian team discovered a seed cache of Silene stenophylla, a flowering plant native to Siberia, that had been buried by an Ice Age squirrel near the banks of the Kolyma River (map). Radiocarbon dating confirmed that the seeds were 32,000 years old. The mature and immature seeds, which had been entirely encased in ice, were unearthed from 124 feet (38 meters) below the permafrost, surrounded by layers that included mammoth, bison, and woolly rhinoceros bones. The mature seeds had been damaged—perhaps by the squirrel itself, to prevent them from germinating in the burrow. But some of the immature seeds retained viable plant material. The team extracted that tissue from the frozen seeds, placed it in vials, and successfully germinated the plants, according to a new study. The plants—identical to each other but with different flower shapes from modern S. stenophylla—grew, flowered, and, after a year, created seeds of their own. “I can’t see any intrinsic fault in the article,” said botanist Peter Raven, President Emeritus of the Missouri Botanical Garden, who was not involved in the study. “Though it’s such an extraordinary report that of course you’d want to repeat it.” Raven is also head of National Geographic’s Committee for Research and Exploration. (The Society owns National Geographic News.) read more

32,000-Year-Old Plant Brought Back to Life—Oldest Yet

Feat may help scientists preserve seeds for the future.

Rachel Kaufman

for National Geographic News

Published February 21, 2012

The oldest plant ever to be regenerated has been grown from 32,000-year-old seeds—beating the previous recordholder by some 30,000 years. (Related: “‘Methuselah’ Tree Grew From 2,000-Year-Old Seed.”)

A Russian team discovered a seed cache of Silene stenophylla, a flowering plant native to Siberia, that had been buried by an Ice Age squirrel near the banks of the Kolyma River (map). Radiocarbon dating confirmed that the seeds were 32,000 years old.

The mature and immature seeds, which had been entirely encased in ice, were unearthed from 124 feet (38 meters) below the permafrost, surrounded by layers that included mammoth, bison, and woolly rhinoceros bones.

The mature seeds had been damaged—perhaps by the squirrel itself, to prevent them from germinating in the burrow. But some of the immature seeds retained viable plant material.

The team extracted that tissue from the frozen seeds, placed it in vials, and successfully germinated the plants, according to a new study. The plants—identical to each other but with different flower shapes from modern S. stenophylla—grew, flowered, and, after a year, created seeds of their own.

“I can’t see any intrinsic fault in the article,” said botanist Peter Raven, President Emeritus of the Missouri Botanical Garden, who was not involved in the study. “Though it’s such an extraordinary report that of course you’d want to repeat it.”

Raven is also head of National Geographic’s Committee for Research and Exploration. (The Society owns National Geographic News.)

read more

Why Do We Cry?

Ever wonder why your face leaks when you’re sad or emotional? Find out why we cry! 

Common East-coast fern This colorful collage is actually a closeup of the common East-coast US fern,Polypodium virginianum. This image was created using a laser scanning confocal microscope by Igor Siwanowicz of Howard Hughes Medical Institute. It took third prize in the 2012 Olympus BioScapes Digital Imaging Competition. Siwanowicz’s earlier macro photography included startling images of insects fighting each other. Siwanowicz is a Polish photographer and research specialist Howard Hughes Medical Institute who has bred his own insects and photographed them extensively. “My [research] project involves describing the neural circuits responsible for generating pray capture behavior in dragonflies, but I find it irresistible to study other morphological adaptations that make those insects such formidable predators,” he explains. read more

Common East-coast fern

This colorful collage is actually a closeup of the common East-coast US fern,Polypodium virginianum. This image was created using a laser scanning confocal microscope by Igor Siwanowicz of Howard Hughes Medical Institute. It took third prize in the 2012 Olympus BioScapes Digital Imaging Competition.

Siwanowicz’s earlier macro photography included startling images of insects fighting each other. Siwanowicz is a Polish photographer and research specialist Howard Hughes Medical Institute who has bred his own insects and photographed them extensively. “My [research] project involves describing the neural circuits responsible for generating pray capture behavior in dragonflies, but I find it irresistible to study other morphological adaptations that make those insects such formidable predators,” he explains.

read more

It looks almost human… Parasitic wasps like this one can parasitise all life stages of insects such as beetles, bees, flies and cicadas. A wasp egg will hatch inside a host, and the parasitoid larva will feed on the body before eating its way out of the dying or dead host when it’s old enough for the outside world.Photo credit: Nikola Rahme. See more:http://bit.ly/15azNDn 

It looks almost human… Parasitic wasps like this one can parasitise all life stages of insects such as beetles, bees, flies and cicadas. A wasp egg will hatch inside a host, and the parasitoid larva will feed on the body before eating its way out of the dying or dead host when it’s old enough for the outside world.

Photo credit: Nikola Rahme. See more:http://bit.ly/15azNDn 

About as wide as a human pinky nail when fully grown, the immortal jellyfish (scientific name: Turritopsis dohrnii) was discovered in the Mediterranean Sea in 1883. But its unique ability was not discovered until the 1990s.How the Jellyfish Becomes “Immortal”Turritopsis typically reproduces the old-fashioned way, by the meeting of free-floating sperm and eggs. And most of the time they die the old-fashioned way too.But when starvation, physical damage, or other crises arise, “instead of sure death, [Turritopsis] transforms all of its existing cells into a younger state,” said study author Maria Pia Miglietta, a researcher at Pennsylvania State University.The jellyfish turns itself into a bloblike cyst, which then develops into a polyp colony, essentially the first stage in jellyfish life. read more

About as wide as a human pinky nail when fully grown, the immortal jellyfish (scientific name: Turritopsis dohrnii) was discovered in the Mediterranean Sea in 1883. But its unique ability was not discovered until the 1990s.

How the Jellyfish Becomes “Immortal”

Turritopsis typically reproduces the old-fashioned way, by the meeting of free-floating sperm and eggs. And most of the time they die the old-fashioned way too.

But when starvation, physical damage, or other crises arise, “instead of sure death, [Turritopsis] transforms all of its existing cells into a younger state,” said study author Maria Pia Miglietta, a researcher at Pennsylvania State University.

The jellyfish turns itself into a bloblike cyst, which then develops into a polyp colony, essentially the first stage in jellyfish life.

read more

Synthesizing Organs By Hidetaka Suga, Yoshiki Sasai, RIKEN Center for Developmental Biology Although not typically grouped together in the same category, stem cell technologies share a major goal with synthetic biology: the fabrication of new organs. Early last year, Sasai and colleagues generated a retina in a 3D culture of embryonic stem cells (ESC), and now, they’ve “grown” a portion of a pituitary gland in a “dish.” The key to constructing a hormone-producing gland? Assembly two adjacent layers of epithelial sheets (i.e., ectoderm and neuroectoderm), and then a pituitary primordium, called the Rathke’s pouch, forms at their interface. Image: (Left) The natural organ: Sagittal section of developing Rathke’s pouch (red) in the mouse embryo on E12. The pituitary primordium (i.e., the Rathke’s pouch) is labeled red with antibodies to Pitx1, while the hypothalamus is green via Rx antibodies. (Right) The engineered organ: Rathke’s pouches (green and white) self-formed in an ESC aggregate on culture day 13. Green, white, and red are derived from antibodies for Lim3, Pitx1, and Tuj1, respectively. Dapi stains nuclei blue in both images.

Synthesizing Organs

By Hidetaka Suga, Yoshiki Sasai, RIKEN Center for Developmental Biology

Although not typically grouped together in the same category, stem cell technologies share a major goal with synthetic biology: the fabrication of new organs. Early last year, Sasai and colleagues generated a retina in a 3D culture of embryonic stem cells (ESC), and now, they’ve “grown” a portion of a pituitary gland in a “dish.” The key to constructing a hormone-producing gland? Assembly two adjacent layers of epithelial sheets (i.e., ectoderm and neuroectoderm), and then a pituitary primordium, called the Rathke’s pouch, forms at their interface.

Image: (Left) The natural organ: Sagittal section of developing Rathke’s pouch (red) in the mouse embryo on E12. The pituitary primordium (i.e., the Rathke’s pouch) is labeled red with antibodies to Pitx1, while the hypothalamus is green via Rx antibodies. 
(Right) The engineered organ: Rathke’s pouches (green and white) self-formed in an ESC aggregate on culture day 13. Green, white, and red are derived from antibodies for Lim3, Pitx1, and Tuj1, respectively. Dapi stains nuclei blue in both images.