Stardust@home

thank you caprarom !
We are waiting...

I'm waiting, too, guys. Haven't been able to join you live lately, and Caprarom has peaked my interest. Evelyn (ERSTRS, SmithES)

Not sure, but I think we're awaiting Dan's return from vacation to post the last discussion. I'm reluctant to spill the beans myself; rather you get it straight from Dr. W. - hopefully soon. Mike C.

caprarom wrote:Fellow dusters, I just want to encourage you to listen to Dr. Andrew Westphal's brief but very interesting update from the September 17th telecon as soon as it's posted. There's an especially intriguing surprise toward the end. Best regards, Mike C.

Unfortunately, I wasn't on this call and Dr. Westphal forgot to hit the record button, so no recording regretfully. However, I'm now extremely intrigued about this surprise myself and will try and get a story to post here asap. Thanks for the heads up Mike!! Dan

NO THIRD THURSDAY TELECON THIS MONTH! We waited, obviously, until the very last moment, but Dr. Westphal has been called to jury duty, and thus is unavailable for tomorrow's monthly telecon. To make up for it, we'll try to make next month's telecon all the more interesting. ([img]Now%20that's%20an%20interesting%20challenge%20I'm%20going%20to%20have%20to%20explain!)[/img] Plus Dr. Westphal is giving a talk this coming Saturday at UC Berkeley, and I think it's going to be video taped, so I'll try and post that for you all too. In addition, a summary of last month's call will be posted fairly soon since we do not have our usual audio recording. Thanks for your understanding and patience on this! Dan

OK, Dan. I could post a synopsis myself, but it would be more appropriate coming from the team, I believe. Make sure to ask about the Cornell connection.

I did just get off the phone with him, though I'm only seeing your hint now. His first guess was Foils@home, which will be up and running very soon. But I didn't think that was it, so his second guess, and this sounds like it's on target, is that Stardust's virtual microscope (VM) will soon be converted (though minimally) for an Alzheimer's research project, and that we'll be looking for volunteers for that project as well - probably in the not too distant future! Was that it? In any event, we'd appreciate this group's help in that project. Also, we won't be able to call you dusters in that arena. Probably need more info though on what we'll be looking for - perhaps bad neurons or cells - I'm not sure! But we'll announce this more formally soon. Should be interesting no matter what Dan

Yes, Dan, Cornell was the main item. Briefly, what Andrew shared was:
- The JSC finally started scanning new tile so we should have 'fresh meat' for stardusting soon.
- Foils@Home was about ready to launch.
- He shared some IS dust modeling info from work by Bruce D----. I didn't catch the last name, figured I'd get it on the replay. Perhaps Andrew can cover it again next month? Slow capture speeds (<10Km/s) were one item of particular interest.
- A team of biophysicists at Cornell studying beta amyloid plaque formation in Alzheimer disease wanted to learn more about microcapillary blockages in the brain. They were at a loss as to how to do that. Then they became aware of the Stardust@home project and contacted Dr. Westphall, who agreed it seemed a good fit. Rather neat that we'll be able to use the same technique both for searching for ISPs and to study microcapillaries in the brain! Andrew thinks the latter should be easier for us.

Hey, this is great news! (beta amyloid plaque formation in Alzheimer disease) I am definitely interested in joining their Team, researching Alzheimer's Disease! If you are submitting names to them, please include mine. Ted and I are residents in a Retirement community, (edgewoodsummit.com) so we know folks with various stages of this disease in our Memory Care Unit. Thanks for joining this very important research program! SmithES, Evelyn, ERSTRS.

Good news about the tile and foils. But I'll have to get my eyes screwed back in (having had cataracts and lens implants, but with complications, so still not quite right).

Good also to have confirmed that basic research like S@H can have applications elsewhere, like the Cornell project.
As it happens, my older Professor brother researched capillary physiology (in the UK and San Diego), and our mother suffered and died in distressing manner from Alzheimer's.
I, and I guess he, would be up for any project to help.

Please keep us informed, Dan

John

Hi Everyone,

With all the news on new initiatives, we wanted this month's Third Thursday Telecon to focus on those items in particular, specifically Foils and the work on a new Alzheimer's project that is underway. So please, get your questions ready and join us this Thursday (Nov 19) at 11am Pacific Time with Dr. Westphal and others from the team. The call-in number remains the same - 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 hereto retrieve the correct phone number to dial. You may also want to double check your corresponding timezone time here.

Thanks - we look forward to speaking with you soon!

Dan

is possible some reports about the last "Third Thursday Telecons" ?

I see that it's posted now, Eagle, top item on the "From the desk of ... " page. There was discussion of foils and Dr. W. demonstrated a couple test movies from the Alzheimer's project whose site should soon be ready for beta testing. Mike C.

Thans Mike, I see now...

Hi Everyone.

Unfortunately there will be NO Telecon this month. I'm recuperating from some outpatient surgery and Dr. Westphal is at the 2015 Annual Fall Meeting of the American Geophysical Union. The call and his report next month will focus on revelations and updates shared at that meeting. Until then, please enjoy this recent presentation by Dr. Westphal at UC Berkeley: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IOWJ8Ik ... e=youtu.be

All the very best for the holidays from the Stardust@home team!

Dan