Stardust@home

March 31st it is! More details soon. Dan

Thursday, March 31, 2016, Telecon report. There were two of us in his discussion, Dr. Westphal and Evelyn (SmithES). I will make a very amateurish attempt at giving a report, since it was an interesting chat with Dr. Westphal. I wanted to comment on it from my point of view.
The Foils program is going very well--with 130 searchers who have completed 400,000 searches! I was interested in that info, because in all of the hundreds of craters I think I've added to my Events, there are few "agreements" listed beside them. One movie, (5507886V1) just has 5 agreements---which indicated to me that the searchers might be very few. Apparently, not so! I'm excited about the Alzheimer's program, and Dr. Westphal said more info is coming about that.
Also, the other two subjects were of major interest. Ceres, the largest asteroid we know of in the Kuiper Belt, has been a delight and surprise to astronomers. There are a number of interesting features on that asteroid so far, including bright white spots on its surface, which scientists are analyzing. Latest results suggest that these might be salts left behind as ice vaporized from the surface by sublimation. This has been observed in comets before.
PLUTO---my favorite planet, has been demoted, of course. But, closer observation has provided surprises, as well. It is not a barren, inactive piece of rock. Instead, Pluto displays dark red surfaces along with a surprisingly wide variety of other geological landforms. Since Pluto is located deep within the Kuiper Belt, it never was a part of our Solar System. Therefore, it was removed from the list of planets. More info is coming about both Ceres and Pluto. The full recorded conversation can be found here. SmithES, Evelyn, ERSTRS

Thanks a million Evelyn, just perfect! And so sorry we had to move this to April 1st too. Wasn't meant to be an April Fool's joke at all either Until the next one! Dan

Thank you so much for report...

Hi Everyone.

Sorry for the late notice, but please join us tomorrow April 21st if you can for our regular monthly telecon. The start time as usual is 11am US Pacific, and the call-in number is 1-866-740-1260. When prompted, please enter the passcode 6422969 followed by the # (pound) key. If you need a number from outside the US, please enter 6422969 at the website here to retrieve the correct international toll-free phone number to dial. You can also check your own corresponding time using the World Clock converter.

As far as our agenda - we may be able to demo some of the new Alz@home website and search interface for the Alzheimer research citizen science project we've been asked to collaborate on. Also, if you have specific questions you would like to submit, please do so here/now.

Until tomorrow!

Dan

Oh, shucks, Dan, I have another appointment and will miss tomorrow's broadcast. Would you please post the info about the Alzheimer's study? I am very interested in that. Also, if you have more to report on FOILS, I'd like that, too. Thanks, Evelyn

I also have a conflict. Will try to call in if possible, but unlikely. I would echo Evelyn's comments on items of interest, including how Dr. Westphal's visit to Cornell went and the Alzheimer's alpha site status.
Mike C.

Thanks Andrew for the update video about the Cornell project.
For me at least it was very blurred, and together with the small size of the demo shots very little was visually interpretable, but I got the gist.

I don't get the zebra thing though. Are we thought too infantile to appreciate linear movement of objects in a straight (or even twisted) tube? The animation is very poor anyway. Please get rid of it.
And do the black lines indicate the blood cells passing through, the gaps between them, or other cellular detritus passing through? I'd like to know exactly what I'm looking at.

Presumably half of the examples will be from normal mice in order to make any statistical sense - yes? Flow in a proportion of normal tiny capillaries is known to 'stall' for short periods anyway, so we need to know what the normal range is before comparing with the AZ group. Or do Cornell already have data about the 'normal' situation in unmodified mice?

Sorry to be pernickety, but these things are as important as is the affliction of Alzheimer's itself.
John

Hi Everyone,

Due to scheduling conflicts, there will be no Telecon for the month of May 2016. Thank you for your understanding, and we hope to speak with you all in June!

Dan
On behalf of the Stardust@home team

Greetings Everyone!

Please join us for this month's Third Thursday Telecon on Thursday, June 16, 2017. As usual, the start time is 11am US Pacific and the call-in number is 1-866-740-1260. When prompted, please enter the passcode 6422969 followed by the # (pound) key. If you need a number from outside the US, please enter 6422969 at the website here to retrieve the correct international toll-free phone number to dial. You can also check your own corresponding time using the World Clock converter.

This week will focus on future funding efforts for continuing Stardust@home, as well as the latest status on the Alz@home project. However, if you have specific questions you would like to submit, please do so here/now.

Thanks much - we're looking forward to our next conversation with you all!

Dan

Dear Dusters,

Unfortunately we need to cancel this month's telecon. Dr. Westphal is dealing with some other urgent matters, but promises much to report next month. Thanks for your understanding and continued participation in these calls. We look forward to the next one indeed!

Dan

Hi Everyone.

Sorry for the late notice, but please join us tomorrow August 18th if you can for our regular monthly telecon. The start time as usual is 11am US Pacific, and the call-in number is 1-866-740-1260. When prompted, please enter the passcode 6422969 followed by the # (pound) key. If you need a number from outside the US, please enter 6422969 at the website here to retrieve the correct international toll-free phone number to dial. You can also check your own corresponding time using the World Clock converter.

As a special treat tomorrow, Dr. Juan Carlos Martínez Oliveros will discuss a brand new citizen science project for the August 21, 2017 total solar eclipse that the Space Sciences Lab is about to launch in partnership with Google. Called the Eclipse Megamovie, the project will be a first-of-its-kind citizen science project focused on a one-time and relatively brief natural phenomenon. Tune into our telecon tomorrow to learn more!

Dan

Dear Dusters,

Please join us for this month's Third Thursday Telecon on Thursday, Sep 15, 2017. As usual, the start time is 11am US Pacific and the call-in number is 1-866-740-1260. When prompted, please enter the passcode 6422969 followed by the # (pound) key. If you need a number from outside the US, please enter 6422969 at the website here to retrieve the correct international toll-free phone number to dial. You can also check your own corresponding time using the World Clock converter.

This week Dr. Andrew Westphal will update us on the latest status of the Alz@home project for Alzheimer's research, and how you can continue to help us improve and test the project's online tools before they are launched publicly. We hope you can join us!

Dan

Dan, the last recorded Telecon I could listen to (via the News page) was in June. How can I listen to those in July, August & now September which haven't been posted there? Were they not recorded?

John

Hi John. Sorry about that! July was cancelled last minute. The August recording release has been delayed because we're waiting on someone else's approval, but will be out soon, and the Sep one just happened today but needs editing, hopefully by next week. Thanks for your patience! Dan