Sci-Tech News Briefs for October 17, 2008

The Hubble Space Telescope was in the final stages of recovery on Thursday after NASA successfully bypassed a faulty computer and resurrected an 18-year-old spare from orbital hibernation. The telescope was back in automated mode, rekindling connections between its instruments and the computer. Science observations were expected to resume Friday morning.

The British Association of Dermatologists said an unexplained rash on people’s ears may be caused by too much mobile phone use, Reuters reported. The group, citing published studies, said the rash affected people who develop an allergic reaction to the nickel surface on mobile phones after spending too much time on the devices.

Monkeys taught to play a computer game were able to overcome wrist paralysis with an experimental device that might lead to new treatments for patients with stroke and spinal cord injury. The device monitored the activity of a brain cell and used that as a cue to stimulate wrist muscles electrically. Researchers found it could even use brain cells that normally had nothing to do with wrist movement, said study co-author Chet Moritz.

Scientists have uncovered what they are calling the oldest full-body impression of a flying insect, possibly an ancient mayfly. “[The fossil] captures a moment in time over 300 million years ago when a flying insect just happened to land on a damp, muddy surface leaving almost a perfect impression of its body behind,” said researcher Jake Benner, a paleontologist at Tufts University in Massachusetts.

The technical problem that forced the shut-down of a huge particle collider built to probe the origins of the universe was a faulty electrical connection between two of the accelerator’s magnets, CERN said on Thursday. The European Organization for Nuclear Research (CERN) was forced to shut down the biggest scientific experiment ever conducted last month only 10 days after starting up its Large Hadron Collider (LHC) because of a helium leak in its tunnel.

Rocket-powered racers received the go-ahead this week from the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) to soar at over 20 venues across the United States. This certification marks the first time ever that the FAA has approved a production-scale rocket-powered aircraft for exhibition flights, the Rocket Racing League announced on Tuesday.

A planet called WASP-12b is the hottest planet ever discovered (about 4,000 degrees Fahrenheit, or 2,200 degrees Celsius), and orbits its star faster and closer in than any other known world.

A flexible disk-shaped solar array was deployed successfully by NASA and Alliant Techsystems (ATK) as part of a technology risk-reduction project expected to aid development of the U.S. space agency’s Orion Crew Exploration Vehicle. The 5.5-meter-diameter solar arrays weigh half as much as traditional rigid-panel solar arrays, according to ATK, and are nearly identical to those that will provide power to Orion during its missions.

New observations of Mars’ moon Phobos show the object is more like a pile of rubble than a single solid body. Phobos, the larger of Mars’ two moons (Deimos is the other), is an enigmatic satellite and scientists still aren’t 100% sure how it formed, or where its material came from.

Medical researchers have learned that E. coli, one of the main culprits behind severe food poisoning disorders, thrives in beach sands. E. coli is one of the main species of bacteria that live in the lower intestines of mammals, including humans. On average, one person excretes billions of them in a day. Pathogenic strains of E. coli can cause vomiting and diarrhea. In their normal bowel habitat they cause little problem, in fact, the bacteria is quite essential in digestion and fighting other bacteria that may invade the intestinal tract. Outside the bowel, however, the little germs can become quite deadly.