Pictures and Information from the Stratolaunch Press Kit

The Stratolaunch press kit has 11 pages

Stratolaunch Systems, a Paul G. Allen project, is developing an air-launch system that will revolutionize space transportation by providing orbital access to space at lower costs, with greater safety and more flexibility. Delivering payloads in the 10,000lbm class into low earth orbit, the system allows for maximum operational flexibility and payload delivery from several possible operational sites, while minimizing mission constraints such as range availability and weather.

The air-launch system is made up of four primary elements: a carrier aircraft, a multi-stage booster, a mating and integration system, and an orbital payload. Initial efforts will focus on unmanned payloads; however, human flights will follow as safety, reliability, and operability are demonstrated.

Carrier Aircraft

The carrier aircraft, built by Scaled Composites, weighs more than 1.2 million pounds and has a wingspan of 385 feet – greater than the length of a football field. Using six 747 engines, the carrier aircraft will be the largest aircraft ever constructed. The air-launch system requires a takeoff and landing runway that is, at minimum, 12,000 feet long. The carrier aircraft can fly over 1,300 nautical miles to reach an optimal launch point.

Paul Allen, Spacex and Burt Rutan are teaming up for Stratolaunch

Cosmiclog MSNBC - software billionaire Paul Allen and aerospace guru Burt Rutan are teaming up with SpaceX and other top-flight rocketeers to create an air-launched orbital delivery system. They say the venture will require the construction of the largest aircraft ever flown.

The new venture is significant for the revival of the Allen-Rutan partnership, with the addition of California-based SpaceX and Alabama-based Dynetics as suppliers.

Other players include Gary Wentz, a former chief engineer at NASA, who will serve as Stratolaunch's CEO and president; and former NASA Administrator Mike Griffin, who is on the board. "We believe this technology has the potential to someday make spaceflight routine by removing many of the constraints associated with ground-launched rockets," Griffin said in the news release.

The Stratolaunch systems website is here. It may be down as it is getting overloaded with hits

Stem cells will soon be harvested to create any type of human cell

Induced Pluripotent stem cells are human cells that can become any kind of cell. During the past several decades, the technology for harvesting stem cells has increased to the point where several different functional human cell types can now be created using stem cells. Within the next decade, virtually every type of cell in the human body will be harvested using pluripotent stem cells. The Cellular Dynamics corporation is at the forefront of this technology. In an interview with Sander Olson, Cellular Dynamics Vice-President Chris Parker describes how this new technology could be used to treat a wide variety of diseases, and how the frenetic pace of innovation within this field could even increase.



Chris Parker


Question: What are induced pluripotent stem cells, and why do they hold so much potential?

Pluripotent stem cells are stem cells that can differentiate into any type of cell in the human body. In contrast, adult stem cells have already chosen their differentiation path - so an adult cardiac stem cell can only turn into a type of cardiac cell. We derive induced pluripotent stem cells by taking blood samples from patients and extracting CD34+ cells from the blood. These cells are induced by a reprogramming process to a pluripotent stem cell state, at which point they can be differentiated into any cell type. Thus far we have made about a dozen different cell types, but plan to eventually have the capability to make any cell type found in the human body in any quantity desired. We are currently selling these cells as research tools, but this technology will eventually be used for a plethora of applications.


Question: How exactly does this process work?

We inject two or three plasmids containing the genes discovered to cause reprogramming into an adult cell, like skin or blood, and the plasmids reprogram the cells to turn into induced pluripotent stem cells. Importantly, the presence of these plasmids is transient; that is, they do their job of reprogramming and then leave the cell without manipulating the cell’s DNA. During early development, human stem cells follow three distinct developmental pathways to form the primary germ cell layers: mesoderm, ectoderm, and endoderm. These three germ cell layers then further differentiate to become all the tissues in the human body, and CDI has made cells from each of these germ layers. Researchers have created dozens of different types of terminally differentiated cells as proof of principle from iPSCs, including heart cells, neurons, liver cells, retinal epithelial cells, muscle cells, blood cells, skin cells, and more.

Question: How many different types of cells does Cellular Dynamics currently offer?

We currently offer four cell types - cardiac cells and endothelial cells are available to customers today, neurons will be commercially launched this month, and hepatic cells will be available next year. These cells are fully functional. Within the next five years, we will be producing the majority of human cells that are of research interest. Within the next decade, we expect to be able to make all types of cells in the human body.


Question: And these could be cells from any individual?

Yes, we would simply take a blood sample from any individual, and from that single sample we could derive any cell type, in any quantity desired. Moreover, the cells are neither aged nor diseased. We have actually made fully functional stem cells from a 92 year old woman.


Question: At what point will doctors be able to inject these differentiated cells directly into a human body?


Clinical trials are already in place whereby these cells are injected directly into the human body. For example, Geron has put embryonic stem cell-derived neurons into individuals with spinal cord injuries. The difficulty is in understanding the effect of these cells. Continuing research will ensure that we have a better understanding of the effects, which will allow us to treat a wide variety of diseases.


Question: So it is only a matter of time before an individual suffering from liver failure will be able to have stem cell derived hepatic cells injected into their liver?

There are three main challenges to that scenario. First, one must find a way to get the cells to the affected organ - simply injecting the cells via syringe may not be the best way to do that. Second, the cells need to be grafted onto the organ. Third, the underlying problem with the organ needs to also be addressed. So implanting new beta cells into a patient suffering from type 1 diabetes, which is an auto-immune disease, won't help because the body will simply attack those new cells as well.


Question: Is there a risk that these stem cells could start dividing and turn cancerous?

That is a risk, since this process involves extensive cell manipulation. We are doing numerous animal studies to ensure that this doesn't happen. We are doing myriad tests to ensure that these cells do what we program them to do and no more.


Question: Cellular Dynamics injects plasmids (snippets of DNA) into cells in order to turn genes on and off. How exactly does this work?

A plasmid is bacterial machinery that is replicating DNA. Plasmids are specifically designed to produce gene products that in turn trick the cell into reprogramming itself back to a pluripotent state. Previously retroviruses, which would integrate into the human cell DNA, were used to inject DNA into cells, and this has been one of the major concerns related to using iPSC-derived cells as cell therapy. Plasmids do not integrate into the DNA and eventually disappear from the cells, eliminating the risk that foreign DNA will induce additional transformation of the cells. To date, eight gene products or transcription factors have been identified, as well as other small molecules and proteins, that can reprogram cells. We use six of these gene products and have also boosted the efficiency of the process, so that we only need to use tiny amounts of material to begin with.


Question: What is "forward programming"?

Forward programming involves directly turning a cell from an induced pluripotent stem (IPS) cell into a non-proliferating, terminally functioning cell without taking the cell through a series of intermediary steps. A similar method is transdifferentiation, which involves directly turning an already terminally differentiated cell into another terminal cell type. However, these concepts are further out and may take a decade to perfect.


Question: What role do stem cells play in degenerative diseases?

Our bodies have normal turnover to replace lost cells, by using adult stem cells to change into the appropriate cell type. As we age, the process slows down, making us susceptible to degenerative diseases. Many companies are focused on regenerative therapeutics - looking for molecules that could accelerate this adult stem cell to terminal cell transition more efficiently.


Question: What role could IPSCs play in treating cancer?

One of the reasons that bone-marrow transplants fail is that we don't get sufficient cells after ablation into the individual to regenerate the entire blood system. With IPS cells, we have the potential to eliminate the rejection and create an unlimited quantity of autologous needed cells. We could literally dose a patient with their own bone-marrow cells, giving a much higher chance of curing the disease.


Question: The field of molecular biology is advancing quite rapidly. How long can this pace of innovation continue?

I think it will continue at the current pace, if not increase. It took fifteen years to sequence the first human genome. Now we can sequence a human genome within a day, and we will be able to know all genetic aspects of that individual within a very short time. DNA was the operating system of genetics. Stem cells will be the new operating system for understanding biology. There is still quite a bit of guessing in drug development, and the process is inefficient and cumbersome. Stem cells provide another tool to derive insights into the remaining mysteries of biology.

Question: Gene therapy was once touted as having the potential to transform medicine, but is now little more than a niche field. Are you concerned that stem cell treatments might not live up to their potential?

Gene therapy was huge in the mid 1980s and 1990s, but all it took was one person to die to devastate the field. As a result, the funding evaporated and the researchers left to pursue other options. The field of gene therapy isn't dead but it is moribund. We need to be careful to ensure that we rigorously test to make sure that all research is safe, ethical, and conforms to scientific standards.



Question: Where will the field of bioengineering be in 2021?

By 2021 there should be thousands if not millions of IPS lines created from individuals. We won't simply be making cardiac cells in a petri dish, but will be actually growing organs such as hearts and livers. We aim to replace organ donors by having patients grow their own organs. Eventually, elderly patients will have their failing organs replaced by younger organs. It is not an exaggeration to say that stem cell technology will utterly transform the field of healthcare within the next several decades.

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Quantum PageRank Algorithm Outperforms Classical Version

A quantum version of Google's famous search algorithm could one day make web searches faster

Giuseppe Paparo and Miguel Martín-Delgado at The Complutense University in Madrid reveal a contender- a quantum version of the original algorithm.

This approach is motivated by the progress being made towards quantum networks in which information is stored transmitted and routed as quantum bits, or qubits, rather than as classical bits. In this world, the information stays in superposition of states, dramatically changing the way it can be processed.

Trillion-frame-per-second video

By using optical equipment in a totally unexpected way, MIT researchers have created an imaging system that makes light look slow.

MIT researchers have created a new imaging system that can acquire visual data at a rate of one trillion exposures per second. That’s fast enough to produce a slow-motion video of a burst of light traveling the length of a one-liter bottle, bouncing off the cap and reflecting back to the bottle’s bottom.

Media Lab postdoc Andreas Velten, one of the system’s developers, calls it the “ultimate” in slow motion: “There’s nothing in the universe that looks fast to this camera,” he says.

Ripples of Waves: A time-lapse visualization of the spherical fronts of advancing light reflectected by surfaces in the scene.

Picosecond Camera for Time-of-Flight Imaging

Slow art with a trillion frames per second camera

How will the world look with a one trillion frame per second camera? Although such a camera does not exist today, we converted high end research equipment to produce conventional movies at 0.5 trillion (5· 10^11) frames per second, with light moving barely 0.6 mm in each frame. Our camera has the game changing ability to capture objects moving at the speed of light. Inspired by the classic high speed photography art of Harold Edgerton [Kayafas and Edgerton 1987] we use this camera to capture movies of several scenes.

Quantum Dot OLED for paper thin displays

OLED (organic light emitting diode) displays have been getting market share with thinner displays than LCD, lower energy usage and are competitive on cost. Quantum dots(QDs) are a new alternative form of light emitting technology and incorporating them into OLED displays brings many added benefits.

• Better colour purity : the colour produced by QDs is a considerable improvement over competing OLED technologies, which provides for an improved viewing experience for the end user.

• Added flexibility : QDs are soluble in both aqueous and non-aqueous solvents, which provides for printable and flexible displays of all sizes, including large area TVs (QD TV™)

• Improved lifetime : QDs are inorganic; as such they offer the potential for improved lifetimes when compared to alternative OLED technologies.

UK Nanoco are producing a full colour range of displays using our proprietary quantum dots including cadmium free dots. Nanoco, the company is now cooperating with unnamed Asian manufacturers (it’s been speculated that this includes Sharp, Sony, LG, Samsung and others) to bring quantum dot displays to the market place in the next three years.

White House get Nuclear Regulatory Commission Chairman Jackzo to Apologize

Idaho Samizdat - Nuclear Regulatory Commission Chairman Gregory Jaczko has issued an apology via the White House to the other four commissioners who jointly signed a letter complaining about his management practices.

A hearing by the House Oversight Committee scheduled for Wednesday December 14 will not see the fireworks that were expected as a result of the heated accusations that were exchanged today between committee chair Darrell Issa (R-Calif) and Rep. Ed Markey (D-Mass) on the MSNBC TV network. Their verbal fireworks threatened to derail any effort to contain the conflict.

Now, it is more likely that the hearing will include acts of contrition and pledges for better communication among the five commissioners. Skeptics think it won't last much longer than the late night news coverage, but stranger things have happened in DC.