Forward camera view from Opportunity as the rover attempts to
climb up a slope toward the wall of Victoria Crater.
Photo by NASA/MER/Opportunity.Is there life on Mars? Well, that investigation is still ongoing–but from a cybernetic perspective, the surface of Mars is literally crawling with it: in the form of robots!

Four years after their planned three-month tour of duty began, NASA’s Mars Exploration Rovers (MER) Spirit and Opportunity roll doggedly on like a pair of aged, dusty desert prospectors looking for gold. In this case the "gold" is evidence for past water on Mars, and signs of that seem to abound.

What sparked this blog for me was the announcement of the plan to send Opportunity out of the depths of Victoria Crater, the half-mile impact crater that the rover has been exploring for almost a year now. Last September, when it was decided to send Opportunity into Victoria to get a close-up view of the sedimentary rock layers exposed in the crater walls, there was a lot of talk about this expedition possibly being the rover's last–it almost sounded like the robot was being sent into its own grave, its final resting place on Mars. After all, the rover had already operated ten times longer than what it was designed for!

What did Opportunity's year-long sojourn yield? By examining the multitude of exposed sedimentary layers, it is believed that those layers were probably originally laid down by wind (not a surprise on Mars, which even today is a world of wind-blown dust: dust devils, sand dunes, planet-wide dust storms). But there are also clues written in the rocks that the layers of sediment have been modified by the action of water.

One particular thing Opportunity has discovered are rock features dubbed "fins." These fins are raised edges around rock boundaries that are rich in the mineral hematite–a mineral that often forms in the presence of water. Opportunity found hematite on Mars early in its exploration, which supports the speculation that at least that rover’s region on Mars (Meridiani Planum) may have harbored at least shallow and intermittent bodies of water in the past.

The "fins" may have been formed when water dissolved away areas of sediment and then "filled in the holes" with deposited minerals–forming a kind of "fossil" of what was once an empty space.

When I lived in Northern Arizona, I remember driving across the plains east of Flagstaff and finding long, wide ridges of what looked like sandstone, snaking across the dusty desert like enormous gopher trails. I learned that these were the fossil remnants of what were stream beds: the streams formed deposits of sand and mud in their bed, which over time hardened into sandstone and mudstone. Later, the softer surrounding soils and sands eroded away, leaving the hardened stream beds as raised ridges of rock–dry evidence in a dry desert of past liquid water action. Though this is not the same process that formed the fins on Mars, it is analogous.

But now Opportunity's mission in Victoria Crater is done, and NASA is making plans to have the robot crawl back up the slope and exit the crater at the same place it entered last September. It will continue its mission by examining "cobbles"–small, loose stones on the surrounding planes, some of which were probably ejected by meteorite impacts in Mars' distant past.

Spirit, on the other side of the planet in Gusev Crater, is also still alive, and is making ready to do a bit more roving after a Martian winter of relative inactivity. With one of its six wheels no longer functioning, Spirit will limp along and continue prospecting–next stop: some white, silica-rich material that may have formed in hot water.

Scientists have used gene therapy to make insulin-producing cells in a mouse's pancreas
Insulin producing cells (like the ones shown in green) have
been made in a mouse's pancreas. Photo credit by Masur.
A new study out in Nature shows how to turn one kind of pancreas cell into an insulin-producing islet cell. This research is an important step in finding a cure for Type 1 diabetes.

People get Type 1 diabetes when their bodies attack and destroy their own islet cells. These people can't make insulin anymore and so have to inject it. The best cure would be if scientists could replace the old islet cells with new ones. This is what the researchers in this study set out to do in mice.

The researchers made islet cells directly in a mouse’s pancreas. They did this by using gene therapy to reprogram one type of pancreas cell (an exocrine cell) into islet cells.

All cells share the same DNA. What makes each cell type different is which genes are on (or have been on in the past). Proteins called transcription factors are a big part of this programming.

The authors reasoned that they might be able to directly reprogram one kind of adult cell into another by adding the right mix of transcription factors. They couldn't just add transcription factors though. Instead, they added transcription factor genes*.

Finding the right transcription factors was not simple. There are thousands of these things scattered throughout our DNA.

The researchers narrowed the list of possible candidates down by looking at those that were found in the pancreas. And then they further narrowed down the candidates by mutating these transcription factor genes and looking for effects on pancreas development. Nine transcription factors made it through these tests.

By testing different combinations of these genes, the authors were able to find a cocktail of three that turned an exocrine cell into an islet cell. These new cells looked and acted like islet cells. And what is also important, the new cells stayed islet cells even after the transcription factors were gone.

One of the big problems with gene therapy is that eventually the body recognizes the viral DNA as other and shuts it down. So the best gene therapies are the ones like this–the hit and run kind.

This is all very promising but the procedure is nowhere near ready for prime time yet. One problem, of course, is that mice aren't people. What worked in a mouse might not work in a person.

An even bigger problem is that the created islet cells are scattered here and there throughout the pancreas. Islet cells work best in clumps (as they exist naturally). So scientists will need to figure out how to get them to clump together.

* Transcription factors are proteins and like all proteins, their instructions are found in genes.

Congratulations to jalbersmead!

Flickr photo community member jalbersmead (John Albers-Mead) will be collaborating with KQED staff on our next 2-minute YPOQ segment for broadcast and web distribution. It will air on November 18, 2008.

His wonderful set of tidepool images from Fitzgerald Marine Reserve in Moss Beach wowed our KQED QUEST editorial staff. His winning submission did a wonderful job of expressing a sense of locale, with a passion for nature, via a process that captures something unexpected and essential.

In his own words:

"Going to tide pools is like a treasure hunt that changes by the minute. The colors, textures, smells, movement, and general feeling of life makes this one of the places where I feel connected with the world."

This was a very difficult decision to make for us – we hope to do more YPOQ calls in the future. If you wish, you may leave your submissions open and we will consider them again in the next round. Sincere thanks to all who participated.

For those of you who are interested in entering the future, sign up for our email newsletter to get an announcement for the next submission call, or head on over to our Flickr photo group for KQED QUEST.

It's hard to imagine the scope and breadth of the Great Garbage Patch that lies in the North Pacific Gyre in the Pacific Ocean between the West Coast and Hawaii. It's estimated to be about double the size of Texas. Most people think of it as an island of trash, but that's not accurate. It's floating debris – about 80 percent of it plastic, according to Charles Moore of Algalita Marine Research Foundation – that is caught between ocean currents. And that debris is getting thicker and thicker in the water.

The current flows eastward at the bottom (southern end) of the Gyre, and westward along the top (northern edge) of the Gyre. And another current runs northward right along the West Coast. In the center of all of those currents is the Gyre, and that's where all the debris drifts. It's like the center of a hot tub where bubbles tend to form. Because of all of the garbage in the Gyre, Moore says it’s "like a toilet bowl that never flushes."

So it's not a matter of this giant area getting any bigger. The concern is that the area will become much denser with plastic, given the increasing amount of plastic and other detritus going into our ocean. Plastic doesn't biodegrade, but it does degrade into smaller pieces, and those pieces are making the water in the Gyre a lot thicker and soupier. Right now, Moore says, there are places in the Gyre where plastic bits outnumber plankton 6 to 1.

There are five Gyres in oceans around the world, and data is just starting to be collected on how much trash and plastic are in all of them. Moore pegs the estimated amount of plastic in the North Pacific Gyre at 3 million tons.

What can be done about it? Biologists and environmentalists all have similar suggestions. Make less trash. Bring your own cup to the coffee shop. Use paper to-go containers at restaurants. Bring your own reusable bags to the grocery store. Recycle plastic containers. Try not to use single-use plastic water bottles. And volunteer for a beach cleanup, since the trash washing up on the beaches is pretty constant.

Listen to the Sea of Plastic radio report online, and find additional resources and links.

I've been a cheerleader for compact fluorescent lamps (CFL) in this blog and will abandon the technology in a millisecond. When it comes to technology, my loyalties are short lived. I'm writing this from Asilomar State Park in Pacific Grove, California, during the American Council for an Energy Efficient Economy (ACEEE) bi-annual Summer Study on energy use in buildings. Early in the week, the plenary speaker and a 2008 ACEEE Champion of Energy Efficiency, Philips Lighting's Kevin Dowling, Vice President for Innovation in Solid State Lighting, turned my head from CFLs to light emitting diodes (LEDs), my new little darling, hero, and true lighting love.

Philips Lighting was the first manufacturer to commercialize CFL bulbs in the 1970s, and has long been an innovator, as well as being the largest manufacturer of lighting products in the world. "We aren't even near the limits to this technology," said Dowling. Technically, solid-state lighting, or LED lighting, is ready to be the next big thing after CFLs. The challenge that remains is making LED lighting affordable and ubiquitous. That is a challenge when you consider that today's incandescents work in 1880s-style fixtures. Dowling proved it in a backroom of the Smithsonian in Washington D.C. And in the progressive Pacific Northwest, after 15 years on the market, CFLs have achieved only 8% market penetration.

But LEDs are an easy sell. Compared to incandescent lights, which produce 10–12 lumens per watt (lpw), and fluorescents, which produce 90-100 lpw, the best LEDs produce approximately 100 lpw, have the potential to reach the 150–200 lpw level, can last 35 years and don't release any mercury into the environment. History has shown that the cost of LED technology has decreased, while performance has increased– both exponentially. Dowling expects LED lighting performance to continue increasing 35% per year while the price decreases about 20% per year, and that in 24-36 months LED lighting will reach the level of linear fluorescent lights in light output per watt of energy use.

LEDs have evolved from mostly lighting that attracts attention to lighting that illuminates. LEDs can produce a range of color temperatures, from cool to warm. It has been installed in the Old North Church in Boston to rave reviews from the curators of the historic church. Legislation is supporting the evolution of the lighting technology. Legislation and guidelines will raise lighting efficacy to at least 45 lpw by 2020, according to Dowling, making LEDs an easy choice.

Goodbye CFLs, it was good while it lasted.

photo by Andrew McCormick, Graphic Designer at the Academy
Lately my whole focus has been on September 27, 2008. The last four years of my life as well as the lives of other staff at the California Academy of Sciences has been in preparation for opening day. It is now 38 days and counting until the Academy opens its doors once again and all those years of work can finally have a culmination. The building is a flurry of constant activity and I've decided to dedicate the next few blogs to highlight some of the activity behind the closed glass doors and the spot that has gotten the attention of staff the past few weeks has been the swamp tank.

The swamp tank was an iconic feature of the old academy complete with a seahorse railing. It has been recreated with some additional touches. There is now a viewing window from the aquarium level so guests have the opportunity to either look down at the swamp's inhabitants or get eye level with them in the aquarium. For months, we have seen this tank filled and drained to test water quality. Last week the tank was filled and readied for animals.

Two large coolers were brought in filled with water and specimens. A host of aquarium staff took turns catching catfish and crayfish out of the coolers and transplanting them into the swamp by way of ladder. The swamp tank has no entrance so the only way to get animals transplanted in the tank is either ladder or crane. The crane has been tested numerous times with weight bags for larger animals. Last week the crane transported live cargo for the first time. The alligator snapping turtles were given a physical on the floor, complete with cutting of toenails and then were hoisted into the tank by crane. As exciting as it was seeing the turtles and fish acclimate to their new home, staff came out in bunches before noon today to see the final additions.

Two alligators came in the back entrance of the Academy around 11am this morning. They were individually carted in wooden crates. The female was taken out of her box first with many aquarium staff on hand for safety. The Academy vet and animal health staff gave the alligator a quick physical and herded her back into the wooden box for final transport. Her box was then fitted onto the crane by half of the attending staff while the other half of staff readied the male alligator for his physical. The male came out fighting and it took quite a bit of staff to restrain him. Staff let out a collective yelp when seeing him, as he is an albino alligator and the white of his skin was striking.

After both physicals, the alligators were housed back in their crates & they were hoisted one by one into the swamp. An alligator handler was waiting in the tank to steer the crates and coax the alligator out of it once it was set down. He unhooked two of the ropes securing the crane and lifted up the back of the crate so each alligator could slide easily in to the water. The female went into the water with no hiccups but the male took more coaxing. Even with lifting the back of the crate, he wasn't budging initially. But with a steep incline for the crate, he eventually slipped into the water. Collective cheers and clapping occurred when both alligators were in the tank. The audience of staff had been safely watching the whole episode from the catwalks above the tank. All in all, the whole transport from truck to tank took two hours.

By the time I was ten years old I knew the old California Academy of Sciences building by heart. After countless birthday parties, field trips and family outings, my brother and I, along with our sugar-filled urchin gang of friends and cousins, could have led tours of "the Aquarium."

There was the sunken swamp pit where we would crowd to the railing in hopes of seeing the alligators move. Around the other side were the strange amphibians and reptiles, where we would sidestep from window to window until we came upon the two-headed snake. There was the dark aquarium, were we could pretend to be underwater explorers, "diving" with sharks and electric eels and glow-in-the-dark fish. Then off to the planetarium to watch the pendulum swing, waiting impatiently for it to knock over a peg. We would go on a safari through African Hall with its dusty old stuffed lions, gazelles and giraffes, eat lunch in the courtyard and climb up on the smooth Bufano statues. Over 30 years later, I can close my eyes and see the whole place as it was. Glorious.

Nostalgia can be a pretty tough critic. When the California Academy began the process of replacing the old building in Golden Gate Park, I had little hope that they would "do it right." I had watched powerlessly as an incongruously stark copper "aircraft carrier" replaced the classical De Young Museum across the way. What would happen to "my" beloved aquarium?

My fears were somewhat alleviated as I watched the new Cal Academy building taking shape. In QUEST’s television story about green building, we learned about the living roof and other cool stuff. Still I reserved judgment until I could see it for myself.

When we got our behind-the-scenes tour, it blew me away. On the outside, while clearly modern in design, the building still flows well with the botanic surroundings. It looks like it belongs there, incorporating classic architectural elements harkening back to the cherished old Academy and maintaining a synergy with the other buildings in the park. On the inside the Cal Academy is very different from the place I see when I close my eyes. There is a new rainforest housed in what looks like a grand bio-dome. There is also a new planetarium, aquarium and natural history museum. While expanded and brilliantly redesigned, I think ten-year-old me would immediately recognize this place. They saved many of the iconic touches that made the old place so special to me.

For example, I had not realized how much impact something like a railing could make. But for a small boy rushing to see the alligators at the old aquarium, the first thing he would encounter without really realizing it would be that brass seahorse railing. They saved it and now countless more children will lean over those lined-up seahorses to look below at the alligators. They also saved the old pendulum; recreated African Hall much the way it was and they assured me the Bufano statues would have a home there. All these things fit in seamlessly with the beautiful new surroundings filled with light. I only wish the two-headed snake was alive to see it all.

Watch the "Cal Academy Comes to Life" TV Story online, as well as find additional links and resources.

It's challenging to report on an illness such as autism, which scientists and doctors are only beginning to understand (the disease was described in the 1940s) and over which there is so much debate.

There is even disagreement around the question of whether or not there has been a real increase in the number of children being diagnosed with autism in California. In our TV segment, we interview psychologist Ron Huff, director of clinical services at the Alta California Regional Center in Sacramento. In the mid-1990s, Huff sounded the alarm about an increase in the number of reported cases of autism in California. (Through California's 21 regional centers the state's Department of Developmental Services offers services to children and adults with developmental disabilities).

"In 1996 I asked the Department of Developmental Services to pull some raw data off of their statewide electronic information system. And when I saw that data it was obvious that there were a lot more kids in our system with autism than anyone else had expected,"Huff told QUEST. "By 1999 the (California) legislature decided to have the department do a formal study of the number of people who were entering the system with autism. So we looked at about 11 years of data and recognized that there was a 300 plus percent increase in the number of kids coming in with autism."

Since then, researchers have vigorously been debating whether or not there is a true increase in the number of cases. Huff believes that at least part of the increase is a true increase, in other words, that not all of the increase can be explained by factors such as more accurate diagnosis of autism, increased awareness or better availability of services. But other researchers like Kaiser Permanente epidemiologist Lisa Croen feel there isn’t enough information to conclude that even part of the cases are due to a true increase.

"Unfortunately, I don't think we really have the data, and no one really has the data right now to answer that question adequately," she told QUEST. But in her view, whether or not there's a true increase, there is indeed a crisis afoot. "It goes without question that there are definitely more people being diagnosed with autism today than ever before and that is a really big public health crisis. Estimates across the country are that one in 150 children at about 8 years of age will have a diagnosis of autism. So whether or not the increase, or how much of this increase, is really due to a true increase in occurrence, the question now is what’s causing this and what are the risk factors and that’s what we really have to concentrate on."

The research looking into factors other than genes is just beginning. The Centers for Disease Control have launched a large epidemiological study called SEED that seeks to answer the question of what the environmental causes of autism are. When researchers talk about "environmental factors" they mean this very broadly. These factors include, for example, the age of the parents. For our TV story we filmed Meghan Wallace, a four-year-old with an autism diagnosis who is participating in SEED. In Northern California, Kaiser Permanente is overseeing the research. Both children with and without autism are being enrolled. "There really has never been a large, robust, well-designed epidemiologic study that can adequately study the many possible risk factors for autism spectrum disorders," said Lisa Croen, who is one of the principal investigators on SEED.

At the same time, U.C. Davis' M.I.N.D. Institute is carrying out a smaller study into the causes of autism. It's called MARBLES and it’s funded by the EPA and the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences. By studying pregnant women, MARBLES principal investigator Irva Hertz-Picciotto hopes to find out if there are any risk factors for autism that happen during pregnancy. In our TV story, we followed M.I.N.D. Institute personnel as they visited one of the families in the study. They had followed the mother through her pregnancy and delivery and were now taking samples from her six-month-old boy. The researchers collected everything from his dirty diapers to dust from the family's rug. In between, they asked the mom about her family's use of pesticides and cleaning products.

Hertz-Picciotto's research stemming from another M.I.N.D. Institute study has already pointed to a connection between autism and pesticides. In May of 2008, she and her colleagues reported at the International Meeting for Autism Research in London that mothers of autistic children were twice as likely as mothers of children who didn't develop autism to report that they had used household insecticides and pet shampoos for fleas or ticks. They reported using these products during a period between three months before conception and the first year of the child’s life. Other risk factors are also starting to emerge. A study by Lisa Croen and colleagues reported that paternal and maternal age are risk factors for autism. "What we found was for every 10 years of increase in the age of a mother or a father, the risk of autism went up by about 20 or 30%," Croen told QUEST.

Both the SEED and the MARBLES studies are looking at the question of whether or not childhood vaccination is a risk factor for autism. This is another issue that we talk about in our TV story. Concerned about guaranteeing that infectious diseases don't reemerge, public health officials at agencies like the CDCs state that research doesn't bear out an autism-vaccine connection. But UC Davis' M.I.N.D. Institute is taking a more nuanced approach to the question. Based on new findings by their researchers showing that the immune systems of autistic children are different than those of typically developing children, the Institute suggests that a small number of children may respond to vaccines in an atypical way. They quickly add that there isn't yet a way to determine who those children might be. Studies like SEED and MARBLES might help elucidate this and other questions about what remains a mysterious disease.

Watch the "Autism: Searching for Causes" TV Story online, as well as find additional links and resources.

How much water does it take to produce a steak? How much water does a leaky toilet waste? Test your water knowledge in this quiz.

Watch the "QUEST Quiz: Water" TV Story online, as well as find additional links and resources.

Scientists have created a mouse that doesn't get as fat on a high fat diet.

You read that right. In a new study out in Nature Neuroscience, scientists tinkered with a single gene in a mouse and made it less likely to get fat. Finally I can eat as many Double Stufs as I want without worrying about gaining weight. If scientists can turn what they've learned into a pill, that is.

How'd the researchers do it? By changing one part of the mouse's brain, the hypothalamus. One of the hypothalamus' many jobs is body weight regulation. So it was a logical place to start.

The scientists couldn't go in with a wrecking ball and tear the hypothalamus apart. It is an important part of the brain with lots of different duties. They needed to something pretty subtle so the mice would survive but be thinner.

What they did was to keep certain cells in the hypothalamus from being able to release a neurotransmitter called GABA. This was enough to make a mouse better able to maintain a lower weight.

This study suggests that GABA's normal job in the hypothalamus is to keep mice (and probably us) from burning too much energy. Makes sense in the wild. But is quite a pain in my cubicle.

Now, we can't go changing human genes (at least not yet). But perhaps scientists can come up with a pill that will do the same thing. A pill that keeps AgRP neurons from releasing GABA in the hypothalamus.

This is as hard as it sounds. But now that scientists know what to do, pharmaceutical companies will be able to apply all of their firepower to solving this problem. Given the potential market, if anyone can find a medicine for restricting weight gain using this finding, they will.

Before I get too excited, though, I want to see what happens to these mice as they age. Burning calories makes free radicals which damages DNA which causes aging and can cause cancer. Perhaps burning more calories this way might generate more free radicals.

Of course even if it does, maybe we could just take the pills with cranberries or some other anti-oxidant. Or maybe Nabisco can make an Oreo laced with antioxidants…