Excitement has been growing in recent months over the approach of Comet ISON.  Like other comets, this chunk of rock and ice is following a long, elliptical orbit around the Sun, and like other comets, when it nears the Sun later this year, its trailing stream of dust and vapor will catch the sunlight and become a long, luminous, tail. Many astronomers are predicting that when this celestial traveler sweeps by later this year, it could turn out to be the comet of the century.
 
Comet ISON was discovered Sept. 21 by two amateur astronomers in Russia, using a reflecting telescope at an observatory of the International Scientific Optical Network. The stargazers then named the new comet after the network’s acronym, ISON. It’s officially known as C/2012 S1.
 
Dennis Bodewits, an astronomer at the University of Maryland who has been keeping a close eye on ISON, explains that excitement about its approach has been building as observers worked out the comet’s trajectory:
 
“We started seeing Comet ISON by the end of last year, when it was really far away from Earth and the Sun, and it was already really clearly active. And people started reconstructing its orbit and figuring out what was up with this comet. If you do this and you reason forward in time, we think that this comet will be really bright by the time it gets close to the Sun.”
 
Bodewits and other astronomers following ISON recently used resources such as NASA’s Hubble Space Telescope and the Swift satellite to get a good look at the comet as it makes its way through our solar system. Bodewits says he was especially eager to learn how big the comet’s nucleus is.
 
“And this is important to know whether it will survive its close approach to the Sun.  If you have a very big object, it’s more likely that some of it will remain once it flies by the Sun.  The reason why you have to do that now is because as it becomes more active there’s this giant cloud of dust and gas that you cannot see through and you cannot see the nucleus directly. This is a problem that we always have with comets.”
 
So how big is ISON’s nucleus? Bodewits surmises that it’s not very large.
 
“What Hubble found is that the comet was smaller than they could see. That means that it’s at most four kilometers, or two and a half miles, in diameter, which means that it’s relatively small.”
 
ISON is classified as a Sun-grazing comet, since its calculated elliptical trajectory will bring it very close to the Sun before it is flung back into deep space by the Sun’s gravity.
 
“It’s a fresh comet from the Oort clouds, where comets reside and when this orbit was done it was also clear that this comet will get within two solar radii off the surface of the Sun, which is really close to the Sun.”
 
Since ISON will be flying so close to the Sun, Bodewits says there are concerns that the powerful gravitational forces could cause the comet to break apart.
 
“As for now we simply don’t know what will happen. And, that’s one of the things that make this comet so unique. We never see comets that appear this far away. We can then follow it all the way in until it gets so close to the Sun and we’re all speculating on whether it will survive or not or break up as it does. So, this is another opportunity for us to learn more about the internal structure of comets.”
 
Astronomers believe ISON is going to put on a spectacular display this November, possibly becoming so bright that it will be visible in the daytime sky. Bodewits says ISON is already gearing up for the show:
 
“If a comet is very active, which means it produces a lot of gas, it will kick up a lot of dust and that dust then makes it a spectacular comet. ISON is far away from the Sun, but it is already kicking up a lot of dust, both literally and figuratively.”
 
The excitement over ISON follows a number of recent comet sightings, each of which generated lots of advance media buzz, but few of which lived up to the hype. One exception came six years ago with Comet McNaught, which was also known as the Great Comet of 2007.  Astronomers say the comet was the brightest that had been seen in over 40 years.
 
But then there were disappointments, such as Comet Kohoutek back in 1973, which  had been hyped by the media as the comet of the century. Kohoutek sputtered out after its arrival and was considered by most to be a total let-down; possibly because it started to break up during a close approach to the Sun just before its Earth flyby.  Comet Kohoutek became the butt of many comedians’ jokes back then.
 
And Halley’s Comet, one of the best-known and well-documented celestial visitors, returned to much fanfare in 1986, but because its orbit took it twice as far from Earth as during its celebrated 1910 visit, Halley’s appeared only dimly in the night sky.
 

Marijuana reported to ease
levels of sugar in the blood


Marijuana has been used for centuries to relieve pain, improve mood and increase appetite. A new study finds that the herb also has a positive effect on blood sugar levels, suggesting it could be helpful in diabetes control.

Researchers analyzed data collected from more than 4,600 patients who completed a drug-use questionnaire and provided blood samples. Nearly half had never used marijuana, about 2,000 others had used it in the past and the rest were current users.

Participants who reported using marijuana in the previous month had the lowest levels of fasting insulin and the highest levels of the so-called good cholesterol — indicators of a lower risk for both diabetes and heart disease.

The study also found the marijuana users tended to have smaller waistlines. Large waist circumference, typically associated with obesity, is linked to diabetes risk.

Although the U.S. government banned marijuana in 1937, its social use has continued, with an estimated 17.4 million Americans reporting regular or occasional use of the drug. Two states recently legalized recreational marijuana, and nearly half the states and the District of Columbia have legalized or decriminalized medical-use marijuana, for patients suffering from glaucoma or the effects of chemotherapy or HIV/AIDS.

This new study, appearing in The American Journal of Medicine, highlights the need for more research into the short and long-term effects of marijuana in a variety of clinical settings.


Pope warns faithful to remain
open to a changing world


Pope Francis warned the Catholic Church to not close in on itself, urging the faithful to be open and present in a new and changing world. He spoke at a Mass to mark Pentecost Sunday attended by more than 200,000 people.
   
The church should ask itself daily whether it is resisting new challenges and remaining "barricaded in transient structures which have lost their capacity for openness to what is new," he said.
   
"Newness always makes us a bit fearful, because we feel more secure if we have everything under control," Francis said in his homily in front of a packed St. Peter's Square, adding that change can bring fulfillment.
   
The Pentecost Mass marks the day the church says the Holy Spirit descended on Christ's apostles, or disciples, and is regarded as the birthday of the church.
   
Francis warned of the threat of an institution which is "self-referential, closed in on herself," and spoke of the courage to "take to the streets of the world" and reach "the very outskirts of existence."
   
Later he toured the square in an open-top white vehicle, greeting cheering crowds and kissing young children.
   
Since his election in March as the leader of the world's 1.2 billion Catholics, Francis has been urging church leaders to go out into their communities and help the poor and suffering, rather than focusing on internal politics.
   
Morale among the faithful has been hit by a widespread child sex abuse scandal involving Catholic priests and in-fighting and careerism in the church government or curia.
   
The 76-year-old former cardinal Jorge Bergoglio of Buenos Aires has given clear signs he will bring a new broom to the papacy, favoring humility and simplicity over pomp and grandeur.
   
He has set up an advisory board of cardinals from around the world to help him reform a Vatican administration which has been held responsible for some of the mishaps and scandals that plagued the eight-year reign of his predecessor Benedict.
   
At a vigil on Saturday evening, Francis said Catholics must become courageous and seek out the people who need help the most rather than sitting around, dissecting theology.


Obama administration official
denies knowing about IRS


A senior Obama administration official says the White House had no knowledge of misdeeds being committed by America’s tax collecting agency. This is one of several scandals engulfing the administration. 

The Internal Revenue Service has admitted to singling out conservative political groups for heightened scrutiny in recent years.  The IRS is a politically-independent agency within the Treasury Department, which is headed by a member of the president’s cabinet.  And so the question arises: did the White House know of improper IRS behavior before an independent investigator’s report was released earlier this month? 

White House senior adviser Dan Pfeiffer says no. “The first that the White House was made aware of it was from the Treasury Department a few weeks ago.  And not the details of what happened, not the results of the investigation, but that an independent investigation was about to conclude," he said.

Speaking on CBS’ Face the Nation program, Pfeiffer said the White House had a hands-off approach to the probe. “You have a cardinal rule, which is you do nothing to interfere with an independent investigation and you do nothing to offer the appearance of interfering in an investigation.  So we, I feel like we handled this the appropriate way," he said.

White House assurances do not satisfy Rep. Paul Ryan, a Republican who was Mitt Romney’s runningmate in last year’s presidential contest.

“What we do now know that, for roughly two years, the IRS was targeting Americans based on their political beliefs," he said. "So we are going to continue this investigation to get to the bottom of this: who knew?  When did they know?  Why did they do this?  How high up in government did it go?”

Speaking on the Fox News Sunday television program, Ryan dismissed last week’s assertion by the IRS’ former acting commissioner that the targeting of certain political groups constituted errors and poor customer service.

“People deserve a government they can trust, that is honest, impartial.  To try and suggest that this is just bureaucratic snafus —  we already know that that is not true," he said.

In addition to the IRS scandal, Congress has been probing the administration’s actions during and after last year’s attack on the U.S. diplomatic outpost in Benghazi, Libya, that killed four Americans, including the ambassador, and whether the Justice Department acted properly in secretly seizing phone records from the Associated Press.


Single ticket sold in Florida
is winning in Powerball


Millions of people across the U.S. have been waiting anxiously to hear the results of a record U.S. Powerball lottery drawing late Saturday worth $590.5 million.

Lottery officials said early Sunday, there is a winner. A single winning ticket was bought at a store in Florida. The winner has not yet come forward.

The grand prize, accumulated over two months of drawings that did not provide a winner, surpassed the previous record Powerball payoff of $587.5 million set in November.

The lucky winner matched five numbers picked from machines holding 59 white balls, and a special Powerball pulled from a machine filled with 35 red balls. The chances of winning were one in 175 million.

The largest lottery jackpot in U.S. history was a $656 million prize split among three winners in the national Mega-Millions lottery in March of last year. The world's biggest lottery prize was Spain's El Gordo, which divided $3 billion among thousands of winners last year.


Two different approaches
seen as malaria control 


Two new medical discoveries are raising hopes of containing malaria, the mosquito-borne parasitic disease that each year infects more than 200 million people and claims an estimated 660 thousand lives.  Meantime, the World Health Organization is warning about dire consequences if a drug-resistant form of malaria spreads beyond southeast Asia.

Artemisinin has helped cut global malaria deaths by more than 25 percent over the past decade. But now, in parts of Southeast Asia, this drug no longer works. And the World Health Organization's Shin Young-Soo warns of serious setbacks if drug resistance continues to spread. 

"The truth is, that malaria will beat us all unless we do more than what we are doing now, and we do it better," said the physician.

Controlling malaria involves a range of strategies: using insecticidal bed nets to prevent mosquito bites, spraying insecticides, preventive treatment for children and pregnant women, and controlling or changing mosquitoes, or the malaria parasites they carry.

The World Health Organization says that in the last 10 years, 20 countries have brought the disease under control. At a U.S. congressional hearing, Mark Dybul executive director of the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria, said the world is on course to end malaria. Costa Rica has reported that it is close to eliminating the disease.

"We've had so much success over the last 10 years that you've heard about, that high-transmission areas are becoming much more confined," said Dybul.

Dybul said global efforts have led to better treatment and more effective control of the mosquito that carries the parasite.
 
Dr. Anthony Fauci, at the US National Institutes of Health, points to promising research that involves introducing a strain of bacteria into the mosquito.

"It's a bacteria that infects the mosquito, and what it does is it interferes with the developmental process that the malaria parasite goes through in the mosquito in its life cycle," said Fauci.

And once the bacterium is in the mosquito, it's passed down to succeeding generations. The hope is, these malaria-proof mosquitoes eventually will replace those that can carry the parasite. 

"Which means, if you can get this out there among populations of mosquitoes in different regions of the world in different countries, it could have a profound effect on the control of malaria," said Fauci.

The true test, of course, will come when mosquitos infected with the bacterium are released into the wild. Dr. Guowu Bian is the Michigan State University scientist who led this research.

"I hope in a few years, maybe three or four years, our mosquito can go to the field," he said.

Another promising line of research involves manipulating the mosquito's genes. Right now, the anopheles mosquito has no defense against the malaria parasite. If scientists can change its genetic makeup, the mosquito's immune system could repel the organism.

Meanwhile, the clock is ticking as the malaria parasite becomes immune to the world's front-line drug against the disease.


Burglars reveal motivations
in selecting their targets


One way to understand what motivates and deters burglars is to ask them. Researcher Joseph Kuhns of the the University of North Carolina did just that.  The criminologist led a research team that gathered survey responses from more than 400 convicted offenders that resulted in an unprecedented look into the minds of burglars and provided insight into intruders’ motivations and methods.

The study, “Understanding Decisions to Burglarize from the Offender’s Perspective,” was funded by the Alarm Industry Research and Educational Foundation, under the auspices of the Electronic Security Association, the largest trade association for the electronic life safety and security industry.

"This study broadens our understanding of burglars, their motivations and their techniques," Kuhns said. "It also helps us to understand gender differences in offending motivations and techniques. By asking the burglars what motivates and what deters them, we believe this research can help people better understand how to protect themselves against these crimes and help law enforcement more effectively respond.”

The researchers delved into the decision-making processes and methods of 422 incarcerated male and female burglars selected at random from state prison systems in North Carolina, Kentucky and Ohio. This investigation explored offender motivation, target selection considerations, deterrence factors, burglars’ techniques, and gender differences in motivations, target selection and techniques.

Findings included:

• When selecting a target, most burglars said they considered the close proximity of other people, including traffic, people in the house or business, and police officers; the lack of escape routes; and signs of increased security, including alarm signs, alarms, dogs inside, and outdoor cameras or other surveillance equipment.

• Approximately 83 percent said they would try to determine if an alarm was present before attempting a burglary, and 60 percent said they would seek an alternative target if there was an alarm on-site. This was particularly true among the subset of burglars who were more likely to spend time deliberately and carefully planning a burglary.

• Among those who discovered the presence of an alarm while attempting a burglary, half reported they would discontinue the attempt, while another 31 percent said they would sometimes retreat. Only 13 percent said they would always continue with the burglary attempt.

• Respondents indicated their top reasons for committing burglaries was related to the need to acquire drugs (51 percent) or money (37 percent), which was often used to support drug habits. Only one burglar indicated interest in stealing firearms, which is a common misperception.

• About half reported burglarizing homes primarily, while 31 percent typically committed commercial burglaries.

• Most burglars reported entering open windows or doors or forcing windows or doors open. About one in eight burglars reported picking locks or using a key that they had previously acquired to gain entry.

• About 12 percent indicated that they typically planned the burglary in advance, 41 percent suggested it was most often a spur of the moment event, and the other 37 percent reported that it varied.

A considerable portion of the research dealt with differences between male and female burglars. For example, men tended to plan their burglaries more deliberately and were more likely to gather intelligence about a potential target ahead of time. Women appeared to be more impulsive overall, engaging in spur-of-the-moment burglaries.

Women also indicated a preference for burglarizing homes and residences during the afternoon, while men tended to focus on businesses in the late evenings. Drug use was the most frequently reported motive given by women, at 70 percent, while men cited money as their main motivation.

In one consistent finding across males and females, alarms and surveillance equipment had similar impact on target selection. However, female burglars were more often dissuaded from attempting a burglary if they noticed signs suggesting that a particular location was protected by alarms.

Photo by Marilynn Pinney