An unmanned NASA rocket designed to help develop a new space taxi service to the moon streaked through the sky on Wednesday on a successful two-minute test flight. The 327-foot (100-meter) Ares 1-X rocket, currently the world’s tallest, blasted off at 11:30 a.m. EDT (1530 GMT) from a modified space shuttle launch pad at Cape Canaveral in Florida.

The slim white craft powered into the blue sky over Florida on a column of flame and smoke. “That was just unbelieveable, that was fantastic. I’ve just got tears in my eyes,” Kennedy Space Center Director Bob Cabana told the launch team.

NASA said it was the first time a new vehicle has launched from the complex since the first space shuttle liftoff in 1981. Firing its motors for just over two minutes, the Ares 1-X rocket flew to an altitude of 28 miles (45 km) and reached a speed nearly five times the speed of sound. It parachuted back down into the Atlantic Ocean, where it was to be recovered by a NASA ship.

The new demo rocket is the centerpiece of a $445 million NASA program to verify designs for vehicles intended to replace the agency’s retiring space shuttles. The space shuttles are due to be retired next year after six more missions to complete the space station.

In addition to ferrying astronauts to the International Space Station 225 miles (360 km) above Earth, the booster is intended to be part of a system to fly astronauts to the moon and other destinations in the solar system.

“BALANCING A BROOMSTICK”

Ares 1-X’s motor was made by Alliant Techsystems Inc as part of a $1.8 billion Ares development contract for NASA. Ares 1-X was outfitted with more than 700 sensors to monitor pressures, vibrations, temperatures and speeds as the rocket plowed through the atmosphere. The modified shuttle booster is wider at its forward part than at its base and had a simulated Orion capsule perched on its front end.

“It’s like balancing a broomstick on the tip of your finger,” said deputy mission manager Jon Cowart. Ares 1-X may end up being the only Ares series vehicle to fly. Among the strategy options presented to President Barack Obama’s administration by an independent review panel was one proposing to scrap Ares 1 and hiring commercial firms to taxi astronauts to the space station.

Instead, NASA would focus on developing a heavier-lift rocket needed to carry cargo and vehicles to the moon and other destinations beyond the station’s orbit. But NASA says the Ares 1-X test flight is important no matter what happens. “What’s most critical is that we learn something,” Hanley said. “That’s what we’re here for.” By Irene Klotz

Women dread a diagnosis of endometrial cancer, but those who drink at least two cups of caffeinated coffee a day may have a lower risk for this cancer of cells lining the uterus. Coffee drinking seemed to particularly protect overweight and obese women, study co-author Dr. Emilie Friberg, at the Karolinska Intstituet in Stockholm, Sweden, told Reuters Health by email.

Friberg’s team twice surveyed 60,634 Swedish women about their coffee intake – when they enrolled in the Swedish Mammography Cohort study between 1987 and 1990, and again in 1997. During the 17 years, on average, that the researchers followed patients, 677 women – about 1 percent — developed endometrial cancer. The average age at diagnosis was 67.

In the overall study group, those who daily drank 2 or more cups were significantly less likely to develop endometrial cancer, compared with those who drank fewer cups of coffee. Each additional daily cup seemed tied to a 10 percent lower risk for endometrial cancer, after allowing for age and other factors potentially tied to endometrial cancer risk among all the women.

However, they observed the strongest effect among overweight and obese women, who, Friberg’s team notes, have “the highest risk for endometrial cancer.” Each additional cup of coffee seemed to decrease endometrial cancer risk by 12 percent among overweight women and by 20 percent among obese women, Friberg and colleagues report in the International Journal of Cancer.

The investigators suggest that coffee may affect blood sugar, fat cells, and estrogen, all of which play a role in endometrial cancer. However, they write that the current findings should be confirmed in other populations. In particular, “a study also including de-caffeinated coffee would make it possible to separate the effect of coffee and caffeine,” Friberg said. By Joene Hendry, Yahoo Daily News

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People who are super obese and those with the most chronic health problems face an increased risk for dying within a year after weight-loss surgery, a new U.S. study has found.

The research involved 856 men and women who had bariatric (weight-loss) surgery at 12 Veterans Affairs medical centers between 2000 and 2006. They averaged 54 years old and had an average body-mass index (BMI) of 48.7. BMI is a measurement based on height and weight, and a BMI of 40 or greater is considered class 3 or morbid obesity.

About 36 percent of the group was considered super obese, with a BMI of 50 or higher. In addition, 8 percent also had such chronic diseases as diabetes and heart disease.

During the follow-up, 54 people died, including 1.3 percent who died within 30 days of their surgery, 2.1 percent who died within 90 days of surgery and 3.4 percent who died within a year, the study found.

Those who were super obese and those with co-existing chronic diseases had the highest risk for early death. Super obese people accounted for 30 of the 54 deaths and had 30-day, 90-day and one-year death rates of 2 percent, 3.6 percent and 5.2 percent, respectively. People with co-existing health problems had death rates of 1.5 percent after 30 days, 5.8 percent after 90 days and 10.1 percent at one year.

The chances of dying after bariatric surgery may be greater for people who are super obese, according to the researchers, because the added abdominal fat makes the procedure more difficult, wound complications and blood clotting are more likely and they’re more apt to have obesity-related illnesses.

“The results of this study should inform discussions with patients with regard to the potential risks and benefits of bariatric surgery,” wrote co-author Dr. David Arterburn, of Group Health Research Institute in Seattle, and his colleagues in their report, published in the October issue of Archives of Surgery.

“These findings also suggest that the risks of bariatric surgery in patients with significant comorbidities, such as congestive heart failure, complicated diabetes and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, should be carefully weighed against potential benefits in older male patients and those with super obesity,” they concluded. Yahoo DailyNews

What most people know about the use of life insurance is to simply provide for survivors when the ability to support them has evaporated due to untimely death. A lump sum death benefit can pay off existing debt and provide a replacement income stream, whether it be short or long-term. Providing life insurance to care for your family’s needs is the most basic of estate plans. But what really is estate planning with life insurance and what benefit does it bring? Well, it is a process used to insure that your assets go where you want with as little tax or liability as possible during life or at death and having an estate plan is one of the most important ways to protect and pass on your hard-earned assets.

Worldwide demand for a safe and secure food supply is growing with plant breeding at the forefront of sustainability discussions; however many research programs have seen their funding decrease due to the erosion of traditional public or formula grants. Researchers are now turning to other sources for funding for their domestic and international plant breeding programs.

Stakeholders from public and private sectors of the plant breeding community will share their perspectives on the current funding landscape during the symposium, “Building a Strong Financial Base for Sustaining a Healthy Plant Breeding Community,” on Thursday, Nov. 5, from 7:55 to 10:50 am in Room 321, David L. Lawrence Convention Center. The event is part of the 2009 Annual Meetings of the American Society of Agronomy (ASA), and Crop Science Society of America (CSSA), and Soil Science Society of America (SSSA) in Pittsburgh, PA.

Symposium presenters will discuss successes in public-private partnerships; commercialization strategies now driving public programs; the impact of foundations in targeted support for cultivar development; and national and global programs that may help build capacity and provide public support:

David Bergvinson, Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, will discuss the organization’s Crop Improvement Grants, which allow farmer-preferred and adapted crop varieties to reach small-hold farms in regions of Asia and Africa. From basic research through to delivery, the foundation has developed broad and innovative partnerships to achieve sustainable food production worldwide.

Steve Rhines, The Samuel Roberts Noble Foundation, Inc, will discuss the non-profit’s outreach to farmers and ranchers through education, consultation, and research. The foundation’s contributions to the improvement of forage crops for agriculture and livestock production systems has enhanced agricultural productivity regionally, nationally, and internationally since its inception in 1945.

Robyn Stevens, National Corn Growers Association (NCGA), will discuss the organization’s past and present efforts to influence legislation and increase funding for plant genome research. The NCGA continues to advocate for significant increases in agricultural research funding, but needs the help of both public and private sector scientists to make their voices heard in legislature.

Donn P. Cummings, Monsanto Company, will discuss the need for cross-functional training in plant science, in order for the industry to achieve genetic gains and meet worldwide food needs. Monsanto has forged many partnerships to help rebuild and fund Plant Breeder education programs in the US and sustain the nation’s large and diverse plant breeding workforce.

Stacy A. Bonos and William Meyer, Rutgers State University, will discuss the many innovations of the Rutgers Turfgrass Program over the last half century. The organization has continued to grow and expand. It now operates as a self-sustaining center for turfgrass research and exploration, funded through its cultivars’ licensing royalties.

Ed Ready, United Soybean Board (USB), will discuss efforts by the organization to increase soybean crop yields through genomic tools and plant breeding. The USB has a funding structure in place to evaluate which research projects will best contribute to crop improvement goals that include mitigating the impact of crop stressors, increasing yield, and improving composition to meet end-users’ needs.

Daryl Strouts, Kansas Wheat Alliance (KWA), will discuss the structure of KWA, an organization comprised of public and private sector industry stakeholders aimed at furthering wheat variety research. The group is funded through the commercialization of new wheat varieties developed at Kansas State University. KWA manages the sublicensing of these varieties to wheat seed producers and protects the intellectual property rights associated with the varieties. Revenue from the program is funneled into future wheat research. redOrbit