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Space-inspired garden takes top prize at UK's Chelsea Flower Show

05-31-2007 · European Space Agency (ESA)

Sarah Eberle, designer of "600 Days with Bradstone," consulted with ESA human spaceflight experts to perfect her award-winning garden.

Keywords: space-inspired, garden, top, prize, chelsea, flower, show, space, inspired

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Space-inspired garden takes top prize at UK's Chelsea Garden Show
05-31-2007 · European Space Agency (ESA)
Sarah Eberle, designer of "600 Days with Bradstone," consulted with ESA human spaceflight experts to perfect her award-winning garden.
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Why does the world appear stable while our eyes move?
02-14-2008 · EurekAlert!
Whenever we shift our gaze, attention is directed to a new target. This shift in attention causes a brief compression of visual space, according to a study published Feb. 15 in the open-access journal PLoS Computational Biology. Researchers show a direct correlation between visual perception and eye movement control.
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Hubble sees 'Comet Galaxy' being ripped apart by galaxy cluster
03-02-2007 · EurekAlert!
The NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope, in collaboration with several other ground- and space-based telescopes, has captured a galaxy being ripped apart by a galaxy cluster's gravitational field and harsh environment. The finding sheds light on the mysterious process by which gas-rich spiral-shaped galaxies might evolve into gas-poor irregular- or elliptical-shaped galaxies over billions of years. The new observations also show one mechanism to form the millions of "homeless" stars seen scattered throughout galaxy clusters.
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Researchers explore medicine in the final frontier
11-03-2006 · EurekAlert!
Preliminary findings from a University of Florida study show there is little difference in the dose of general anesthesia needed to anesthetize patients in weightless or normal gravity environments. It's a step forward, but just one of many hurdles researchers face in trying to establish proper medical protocols in space.
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Virtual voyage from Spaceport Paris-TrocadÃ©ro
06-12-2007 · European Space Agency (ESA)
...3, 2, 1... Liftoff! On Friday, 15 June, join a voyage to space at the Place de TrocadÃ©ro in a 90-minute 4-D multimedia space show that will captivate the whole family. The free event begins at 21:30 and is sponsored by ESA and France's Centre National d'Etudes Spatiales.
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People at genetic risk for Alzheimer's age mentally just like noncarriers
01-07-2007 · EurekAlert!
Australian researchers say that a genotype that heightens the risk for Alzheimer's disease does not contribute to cognitive change during most of adulthood. The largest study of its kind has found that carriers and noncarriers show the same type and extent of normal age-related cognitive declines, decades before carriers start to more often develop symptoms of dementia. The findings suggest that the higher-risk genotype acts only in later years to layer disease on top of normal aging.
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Planck satellite shows its beauty
02-01-2007 · European Space Agency (ESA)
Today, ESA's Planck satellite has been on display for media gathered in Cannes. The press event took place by the facility of Alcatel Alenia Space, Prime Contractor for building the satellite. Special guest was George Smoot, Nobel Prize for Physics in 2006 for his research on the Cosmic Microwave background.
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ESA Space Show at Paris-TrocadÃ©ro
06-14-2007 · European Space Agency (ESA)
...3, 2, 1... Liftoff! On Friday, 15 June, join a voyage to space at the Place de TrocadÃ©ro in a 90-minute 4-D multimedia space show that will captivate the whole family. The free event begins at 21:30 and is sponsored by ESA and France's Centre National d'Etudes Spatiales.
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Mice stressed in simulated weightlessness show organ atrophy
09-03-2007 · EurekAlert!
A ground-based, experimental model used to simulate astronaut weightlessness in space has provided Rutgers scientists an opportunity to study the effects of stress on immune organs. The new study demonstrated that osteopontin is required for the atrophy of immune organs brought on by the stress resulting from hindlimb unloading.
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Advance in understanding of blood pressure gene could lead to new treatments
02-04-2007 · EurekAlert!
Research by scientists at UCL (University College London) has clearly demonstrated for the first time the structure and function of a gene crucial to the regulation of blood pressure. The discovery could be important in the search for new treatments for illnesses such as heart disease, the UK's biggest killer. In a paper published online today in Nature Medicine, the team, led by Professor Patrick Vallance and Dr James Leiper, UCL Department of Medicine, reveal the role of the human gene dimethylarginine dimethylaminohydrolase (DDAH), showing that loss of DDAH activity disrupts nitric oxide (NO) production. NO is critical in the regulation of blood pressure, nervous system functions and the immune system. The role of DDAH is to break down modified amino acids (Asymmetric dimethylarginine (ADMA) and monomethyl arginine (L-NMMA)) that are produced by the body and have been shown to inhibit NO synthase. These molecules accumulate in various disease states including diabetes, renal failure and pulmonary and systemic hypertension, and their concentration in plasma (the fluid component of blood) is strongly predicative of cardiovascular disease and death. In a healthy human body, the majority of ADMA is eliminated through active metabolism by DDAH. Scientists have hypothesised that if DDAH function is impaired, NO production is reduced, and that this could be an important feature of increased cardiovascular risk. To examine this pathway in more detail, the researchers deleted the DDAH gene in mice. These mice went on to develop hypertension, or high blood pressure. They also designed specific inhibitors (small molecules) which bind to the active site of human DDAH. These small molecule inhibitors also induced hypertension in mice, confirming the importance of DDAH in the regulation of blood pressure. Dr Leiper, UCL Medicine, said: “These genetic and chemical approaches to disrupt DDAH showed remarkably consistent results, and provide compelling evidence that loss of DDAH function increases the concentration of ADMA and thereby disrupts vascular NO signalling. “There has been considerable scientific interest in this pathway and the role of ADMA as a novel risk factor, but so far there's been little evidence to support the idea that it's a cause of disease, rather than just a marker. Genes and their pathways are crucial to our understanding of cardiovascular disease and a better understanding of DDAH-1 could lead to important new treatments. “It could help us to establish if genetic variation predisposes certain people to these diseases, or whether environmental factors exert some of their effects through modulation of DDAH activity. “Our research also shows that this pathway could be harnessed therapeutically to limit production of NO in certain situations where too much nitric oxide is a bad thing; for example, hypotension and septic shock. These are some of the biggest problems in intensive care medicine and there is a huge unmet need for drug treatments.” The study, which was carried out at UCL's Rayne Institute, was funded by grants from the British Heart Foundation, the Wellcome Trust and the Medical Research Council. Professor Jeremy Pearson, Associate Medical Director of the British Heart Foundation, said: "The unexpected finding in the 1980s that a simple gas, nitric oxide (NO), is made by cells in the blood vessel wall and is a powerful control of blood vessel relaxation led to the award of the Nobel Prize in 1998 to its discoverers. "More recently, there has been increasing evidence that impairment of NO production is likely to be an important factor in the development of heart and circulatory disease, but the mechanisms responsible are not fully understood. "This study suggests for the first time that the loss of the activity of the enzyme DDAH-1 leads to reduced NO production and may cause heart and circulatory disease. These findings are likely to be important in the search for new ways to optimise the health of our blood vessels." ### Notes for Editors 1. For more information, please contact Ruth Metcalfe in the UCL Media Relations Office on tel: +44 (0)20 7679 9739, mobile: +44 (0)7990 675 947, out of hours: +44 (0)7917 271 364, e-mail: r.metcalfe@ucl.ac.uk2. 'Disruption of methylarginine metabolism impairs vascular homeostasis' is published in the February issue of the journal Nature Medicine. Advance online publication is embargoed to 18.00 GMT (13.00 US Eastern) Sunday 4 February 2007. Journalists can obtain copies of the paper by contacting the UCL Media Relations Office.3. The study was funded by the British Heart Foundation, the Wellcome Trust and the Medical Research Council. About UCL Founded in 1826, UCL was the first English university established after Oxford and Cambridge, the first to admit students regardless of race, class, religion or gender, and the first to provide systematic teaching of law, architecture and medicine. In the government's most recent Research Assessment Exercise, 59 UCL departments achieved top ratings of 5* and 5, indicating research quality of international excellence. UCL is the fourth-ranked UK university in the 2006 league table of the top 500 world universities produced by the Shanghai Jiao Tong University. UCL alumni include Mahatma Gandhi (Laws 1889, Indian political and spiritual leader); Jonathan Dimbleby (Philosophy 1969, writer and television presenter); Junichiro Koizumi (Economics 1969, Prime Minister of Japan); Lord Woolf (Laws 1954, Lord Chief Justice of England & Wales); Alexander Graham Bell (Phonetics 1860s, inventor of the telephone), and members of the band Coldplay.
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