The Eagle has landed"

Thirty-nine years to the day after Neil Armstrong radioed "The Eagle has landed" from the Sea of Tranquility, NASA on Sunday turned its eyes toward the moon, gazing both forward and backward in time.

For the next three days, Silicon Valley will be the base for planning humankind's return to the moon, as more than 400 scientists from around the world assemble at NASA/Ames Research Center for a conference on what type of science should be done when astronauts revisit Earth's nearest neighbor.

It could happen in the decade after NASA retires the space shuttle in 2010 and begins flying a new generation of rocket booster. And it won't be a temporary visit, NASA officials and scientists said Sunday. The United States, they said, needs to focus on creating a permanent presence on the moon, using it as a training platform for missions to Mars and beyond.

"We're going back, and this time we're going to stay," S. Pete Worden, director of NASA/Ames, said in remarks opening the lunar science conference. "This is the first step in settling the solar system."

The conference, hosted by the newly created NASA Lunar Science Institute at NASA/Ames, doesn't start officially until today. Sunday's event at Moffett Field was a celebration for all those who remember exactly what they were doing on the historic day Apollo 11 landed in 1969, and for the generation who hadn't been born yet - those who might take the next steps on the moon.

officials wrestled with the philosophical and technical questions of a return to the moon, scores of kids got a chance to build and fly their own paper rockets and to re-enact their own version of an upcoming NASA/Ames robotic mission that will crash a rocket into the moon to try to discover if there is water there.
NASA also showcased a new generation of scientists, people in their 20s and even younger who are already working on reaching the moon or Mars.

Young scientists

Mary Beth Wilhelm of Fremont is just 18 and won't begin studying physics and astronomy at Cornell University until the fall. But Sunday, the NASA/Ames research assistant spoke on a panel of young NASA experts about the return to the moon.

Wilhelm noted that the far side of the moon would be an excellent place to build a radio telescope, and she weighed in the value of human explorers over robotic probes.

"A human can do in a minute what it takes a robot a day to do on Mars," she said.

American astronauts last visited the moon in 1972, and there are huge questions - both of technology and politics - about how and when astronauts will return. For now, NASA is focused on building the powerful new rocket boosters that could reach the moon and beyond.

Chris McKay, a planetary scientist at NASA/Ames working on the Constellation program - the name of the next generation of human-operated spaceflight - said the space agency needs to develop a whole new culture, along with the new hardware.

"I would argue that long-term planning has been something that NASA has not been very good at," McKay said in a speech to about 200 scientists and members of the public. "We are going to the moon to stay - and to stay means 50 years."

McKay said the return to the moon should imitate the way scientists have explored Antarctica, using an international base at the South Pole as a permanent outpost for scientific exploration.

Before NASA attempts the even more difficult, expensive and remote journey to Mars, the space agency will first have to learn how to do things like grow plants that can recycle human waste in the low-gravity, radioactive environment of the moon, he said. NASA also will need to learn more about how people function and relate in the most remote place where humans have ever lived.

On the moon, NASA can learn "how we get 10 people to live together productively on another world," McKay said.

Moment in history

But as the world's top lunar scientists begin wrestling at NASA/Ames this morning with questions ranging from what kind of astronomy could be done on the moon to the chemistry of lunar dust, the 39th anniversary of Apollo 11's touchdown was a time to remember its historical footprint.

Andrew Chaikin, whose book "A Man on the Moon" was the basis for an HBO television miniseries, asked the audience to recall the sense of wonder people felt at the Apollo voyages.

"This was something that was in the culture; science fiction was becoming reality," Chaikin said. "This was one of the great moments of the 20th century, not just the '60s."

Cambridge researchers have discovered that measuring activity in a region of the brain

Scientists have discovered that people with OCD and their close family members show
Obsessive Compulsive Disorder Linked To Brain Activity
under-activation of brain areas responsible for stopping habitual behaviour.
Cambridge researchers have discovered that measuring activity in a region of the brain could help to identify people at risk of developing obsessive compulsive disorder (OCD). As the current diagnosis of OCD is based on a clinical interview and often does not occur until the disorder has progressed, this could enable earlier more objective detection, and intervention.

The scientists have discovered that people with OCD and their close family members show under-activation of brain areas responsible for stopping habitual behaviour. This is the first time that scientists have associated functional changes in the brain with familial risk for the disorder.
Obsessive compulsive disorder is a debilitating condition that affects 2-3% of the population at some point in life. Patients suffer from recurrent intrusive thoughts (obsessions) that are distressing and hard to suppress. Examples include fears of contamination, or that something terrible will happen to a loved one. They also suffer from repetitive rituals (compulsions), which are often designed to neutralise these thoughts. Examples include hand-washing and checking gas hobs. These symptoms cause distress and can occupy hours during the day, interfering with quality of life and the ability to work.
Although OCD tends to run in families, genetic factors responsible for this heritability are not known. Genes may pose a risk for OCD by influencing how the brain develops.
Dr Samuel Chamberlain at the University of Cambridge's Department of Psychiatry used functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) to measure brain activity in the lateral orbitofrontal cortex (OFC). Located in the frontal lobes the lateral OFC is involved in decision making and behaviour.
Volunteers were asked to look at two pictures on a screen, each image had a house and a face superimposed. The volunteers were asked to use trial and error to work out whether the house or face was the correct target. Volunteers pressed a button to indicate which image they believed to be the target and feedback of 'correct' or 'incorrect' was given on the screen. After the correct target had been identified six times in a row it changed so the volunteer had to learn again. fMRI was used to monitor their patterns of brain activity throughout.
Fourteen volunteers without a family history of OCD, 14 people with OCD and 12 immediate relatives of these patients took the picture test. Later comparison of fMRI images of their brain activity throughout showed under-activation in the lateral orbitofrontal cortex and other brain areas in both the OCD patients and their family members.
Dr Chamberlain, who led the study, explains, "Impaired function in brain areas controlling flexible behaviour probably predisposes people to developing the compulsive rigid symptoms that are characteristic of OCD. This study shows that these brain changes run in families and represent a candidate vulnerability factor. The current diagnosis of OCD is subjective and improved understanding of the underlying causes of OCD could lead to more accurate diagnosis and improved clinical treatments.
"However, much work is still needed to identify the genes contributing to abnormal brain function in those at risk of OCD. We also need to investigate not only vulnerability factors, but also protective factors that account for why many people at genetic risk of the condition never go on to develop the symptoms."