Children of the 1980s, you remember "Pretty in Pink." Molly Ringwald's bizarre home-sewn prom dress. "His name is Blane? That's a major appliance, that's not a name!" ?"What's this? We don't have a candy machine in the boys' room!" "WHAT ABOUT PROM, BLANE?"
The 1986 John Hughes classic came out 27 years ago Thursday, meaning that had Andie Walsh (Molly Ringwald) actually stayed together with either rich pretty boy Blane McDonnagh (Andrew McCarthy) or (our preference) quirky best friend Duckie Dale (Jon Cryer), they might even have kids of their own by now. Possibly adult kids. Maybe even a grandkid.
Everett Collection
"Pretty in Pink" came out 27 years ago Thursday.
Some say "Pretty in Pink" pales next to some of Hughes' other work, such as "Sixteen Candles" or "The Breakfast Club," but there's no doubt it's made its mark on pop culture. Years ago, Jon Cryer told TODAY.com that he's played Alan Harper on "Two and a Half Men" for years, but when he walks down the street, fans who recognize him never yell "Alan!" They always yell, "Duckie!"
In 2012, Jimmy Fallon asked Cryer if the beloved character couldn't be resurrected for a "Duckie Holiday Speclal." Cryer wasn't so sure, pointing out the innate uncoolness of his alter ago. "People forget that Duckie wore lederhosen!" he admonished.
And when McCarthy's memoir came out last fall, TODAY anchor Savannah Guthrie asked him if he felt it was true that Duckie was better for Andie than his own character of Blane. "That is an outrageous theory," McCarthy joked.
It's famously known that "Pretty in Pink" was supposed to end with Andie leaving Blane and ending up back with Duckie, her faithful, fashionable friend. But that ending was reportedly rejected by a test audience (someone find these people and interrogate them about what they were thinking), so Andie got the "happy" ending with richie Blane.
And perhaps that's as it should be. As much as we support Duckie's eternal faithfulness and fire, a 2012 TODAY.com poll showed that a slight majority of readers chose Blane over Duckie anyway. So let's pretend they're content, whoever and wherever they are. And happy anniversary.
Duckie or Blane? Take our new poll, and tell us what you think on Facebook.
LOS ANGELES (AP) ? A woman who smoked a cigarette through a hole in her throat to illustrate her struggle with nicotine addiction in a California public service advertisement has died of cancer, health officials and her family said Wednesday.
Debi Austin died Feb. 22 at Valley Presbyterian Hospital in Van Nuys, according to family friend and spokesman Jim Walker. She was 62.
Austin first appeared on television in 1996, telling viewers she began smoking at age 13 and could never quit. In a quiet, halting rasp, Austin told the camera, "They say nicotine isn't addictive," before inhaling from a lit cigarette held to a hole in her throat.
"How can they say that?" Austin asked viewers, as cigarette smoke wafted from the hole.
Called a stoma, the hole in her throat allowed her to breathe after her larynx was removed at age 42.
The TV spot was "the most-recognized and talked about California tobacco control ad," according to the state health department.
"Debi was a pioneer in the fight against tobacco and showed tremendous courage by sharing her story to educate Californians on the dangers of smoking," said Dr. Ron Chapman, who heads the health department. "She was an inspiration for Californians to quit smoking and also influenced countless others not to start."
Four months after the ad, Austin quit smoking ? halting a two- to three-pack-a-day habit. She fought various forms of cancer for the rest of her life. She starred in other ads and spent the rest of her life advocating against the use of tobacco.
"True to Debi's spirit, she was a fighter to the end and leaves a big hole in our hearts and lives. Debi will be remembered fondly by those who love her to be caring, courageous, very funny and always there to offer advice or lend a hand," the family's statement said.
Contact: Christine Pulliam cpulliam@cfa.harvard.edu 617-495-7463 Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics
Imagine a sphere more than 2 million miles across - eight times the distance from Earth to the Moon - spinning so fast that its surface is traveling at nearly the speed of light. Such an object exists: the supermassive black hole at the center of the spiral galaxy NGC 1365.
Astronomers measured its jaw-dropping spin rate using new data from the Nuclear Spectroscopic Telescope Array, or NuSTAR, and the European Space Agency's XMM-Newton X-ray satellites.
"This is the first time anyone has accurately measured the spin of a supermassive black hole," said lead author Guido Risaliti of the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics (CfA) and INAF - Arcetri Observatory.
This research is being published in the Feb. 28 issue of the journal Nature, and featured in a NASA media teleconference on Feb. 27th.
A black hole's gravity is so strong that, as the black hole spins, it drags the surrounding space along. The edge of this spinning hole is called the event horizon. Any material crossing the event horizon is pulled into the black hole. Inspiraling matter collects into an accretion disk, where friction heats it and causes it to emit X-rays.
Risaliti and his colleagues measured X-rays from the center of NGC 1365 to determine where the inner edge of the accretion disk was located. This Innermost Stable Circular Orbit - the disk's point of no return - depends on the black hole's spin. Since a spinning black hole distorts space, the disk material can get closer to the black hole before being sucked in.
Astronomers want to know the black hole's spin for several reasons. The first is physical - only two numbers define a black hole: mass and spin. By learning those two numbers, you learn everything there is to know about the black hole.
Most importantly, the black hole's spin gives clues to its past and by extension the evolution of its host galaxy.
"The black hole's spin is a memory, a record, of the past history of the galaxy as a whole," explained Risaliti.
Although the black hole in NGC 1365 is currently as massive as several million Suns, it wasn't born that big. It grew over billions of years by accreting stars and gas, and by merging with other black holes.
Spin results from a transfer of angular momentum, like playing on a children's swing. If you kick at random times while you swing, you'll never get very high. But if you kick at the beginning of each downswing, you go higher and higher as you add angular momentum.
Similarly, if the black hole grew randomly by pulling in matter from all directions, its spin would be low. Since its spin is so close to the maximum possible, the black hole in NGC 1365 must have grown through "ordered accretion" rather than multiple random events.
Studying a supermassive black hole also allows theorists to test Einstein's theory of general relativity in extreme conditions. Relativity describes how gravity affects the structure of space-time, and nowhere is space-time more distorted than in the immediate vicinity of a black hole.
The team also has additional observations of NGC 1365 that they will study to determine how conditions other than black hole spin change over time. Those data are currently being analyzed. At the same time, other teams are observing several other supermassive black holes with NuSTAR and XMM-Newton.
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Contact: Christine Pulliam cpulliam@cfa.harvard.edu 617-495-7463 Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics
Imagine a sphere more than 2 million miles across - eight times the distance from Earth to the Moon - spinning so fast that its surface is traveling at nearly the speed of light. Such an object exists: the supermassive black hole at the center of the spiral galaxy NGC 1365.
Astronomers measured its jaw-dropping spin rate using new data from the Nuclear Spectroscopic Telescope Array, or NuSTAR, and the European Space Agency's XMM-Newton X-ray satellites.
"This is the first time anyone has accurately measured the spin of a supermassive black hole," said lead author Guido Risaliti of the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics (CfA) and INAF - Arcetri Observatory.
This research is being published in the Feb. 28 issue of the journal Nature, and featured in a NASA media teleconference on Feb. 27th.
A black hole's gravity is so strong that, as the black hole spins, it drags the surrounding space along. The edge of this spinning hole is called the event horizon. Any material crossing the event horizon is pulled into the black hole. Inspiraling matter collects into an accretion disk, where friction heats it and causes it to emit X-rays.
Risaliti and his colleagues measured X-rays from the center of NGC 1365 to determine where the inner edge of the accretion disk was located. This Innermost Stable Circular Orbit - the disk's point of no return - depends on the black hole's spin. Since a spinning black hole distorts space, the disk material can get closer to the black hole before being sucked in.
Astronomers want to know the black hole's spin for several reasons. The first is physical - only two numbers define a black hole: mass and spin. By learning those two numbers, you learn everything there is to know about the black hole.
Most importantly, the black hole's spin gives clues to its past and by extension the evolution of its host galaxy.
"The black hole's spin is a memory, a record, of the past history of the galaxy as a whole," explained Risaliti.
Although the black hole in NGC 1365 is currently as massive as several million Suns, it wasn't born that big. It grew over billions of years by accreting stars and gas, and by merging with other black holes.
Spin results from a transfer of angular momentum, like playing on a children's swing. If you kick at random times while you swing, you'll never get very high. But if you kick at the beginning of each downswing, you go higher and higher as you add angular momentum.
Similarly, if the black hole grew randomly by pulling in matter from all directions, its spin would be low. Since its spin is so close to the maximum possible, the black hole in NGC 1365 must have grown through "ordered accretion" rather than multiple random events.
Studying a supermassive black hole also allows theorists to test Einstein's theory of general relativity in extreme conditions. Relativity describes how gravity affects the structure of space-time, and nowhere is space-time more distorted than in the immediate vicinity of a black hole.
The team also has additional observations of NGC 1365 that they will study to determine how conditions other than black hole spin change over time. Those data are currently being analyzed. At the same time, other teams are observing several other supermassive black holes with NuSTAR and XMM-Newton.
###
[ | E-mail | Share ]
?
AAAS and EurekAlert! are not responsible for the accuracy of news releases posted to EurekAlert! by contributing institutions or for the use of any information through the EurekAlert! system.
CARSON CITY, Nev. (AP) -- An initiative pushed by the state teachers' union and other labor groups will get a hearing before a Nevada legislative panel on March 5.
Democratic Assembly Speaker Marilyn Kirkpatrick on Monday said the measure will be considered during a joint hearing before the Senate and Assembly taxation committees.
Backers of the initiative gathered more than 150,000 signatures to send the margins tax proposal by state lawmakers. Legislators have until March 15 to enact it or it will automatically be put to voters in 2014.
The proposal seeks to impose a 2 percent margins tax on businesses grossing more than $1 million. Supporters say it would raise $800 million a year for K-12 education.
Critics say it doesn't guarantee more money for education and argue it could hurt businesses.
As far back as we know, animals have been home to microbes. Scientists have known for some time that these tiny tenants have the ability to make humans powerfully sick, while others are vital to maintaining the body's normal flora and fauna.
Collectively, the microbes inside everyone make up the "microbiome" ? what microbiologist Martin Blaser of the NYU School of Medicine defines as "all the organisms that call us home, that live in us and that interact with each other and with ourselves."
These teensy creatures, from bacteria and fungi to protozoans (mostly single-celled animal-like organisms), have a surprisingly rich story to tell. Here are five fascinating facts about the critters that call your body home.
Your body has more microbes than human cells The human body is teeming with microbes. A number that gets bandied about is that there are 10 times as many bacterial cells as human cells inside you. While no one's bothered to count them, "the exact number doesn't matter as much as the idea that there are certainly more bacterial cells in our body than human cells," Blaser told LiveScience. As humans have evolved, these microbes have evolved with them. A whole lot of viruses call humans home, too.
And 2013 marks the end of the Human Microbiome Project, a five-year effort involving hundreds of scientists to catalogue the microbiome of human beings. [Image Gallery: Belly Button Bacteria]
You are born bacteria-free With all these bacteria living inside, it seems natural that humans would just be born with them. Not so. According to Blaser, people are born without bacteria, and acquire them in the first few years of life. Babies get their first dose of microbes as they're passing through their mother's birth canal. (Of course, babies born by Caesarean section?don't acquire their microbes this way. In fact, studies show that C-section babies have a markedly different microbiota from vaginal birth babies, and may be at higher risk for certain types of allergies and obesity.)
A baby acquires most of its microbiome by the age of 3, Blaser said ? during a time when the baby's metabolic, immune, cognitive and reproductive systems are undergoing extensive development.
Bacteria can be good and bad for you You're probably aware that while some germs can make you sick, others are important for keeping you healthy?and fending off infections. Sometimes, the same bacteria can do both.
Consider Helicobacter pylori, the bacteria responsible for causing stomach ulcers. The bacteria were once found in the majority of the population, but their prevalence has steadily been decreasing, and today only about half of the world's population has it. Most of them do not have symptoms, but a small number develop painful ulcers in an acidic part of the digestive tract (a finding that earned a Nobel Prize in Medicine in 2005).
Helicobacter?infections are treatable with antibiotics, but there's a twist: Blaser and colleagues have found the absence of Helicobacterappears to be associated with diseases of the esophagus, such as reflux esophagitis and certain cancers of the esophagus. In other words, Helicobactermay be bad for our stomachs, but good for our throats. Though not all scientists agree, "There's a big body of evidence that Helicobacter has both biological costs and biological benefits," Blaser told LiveScience. [Tiny & Nasty: Images of Things That Make Us Sick]
Antibiotics can cause asthma and obesity Penicillin was a major breakthrough when Alexander Fleming discovered it in 1928. Antibiotics have enjoyed widespread popularity ever since, but antibiotics overusehas given rise to deadly strains of antibiotic-resistant bacteria, such as Methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA).
Now, there's some evidence that antibiotics also increase the risk for developing asthma, inflammatory bowel disease and obesity.
Of course, there are times when antibiotics are necessary. "I would never withhold antibiotics from a very sick child," Blaser told LiveScience. Nevertheless, he said, many common childhood ailments, from ear infections or throat infections, go away by themselves.
(Store-bought) probiotics are overrated The recognition that bacteria can be good for you has spawned something of a craze in probiotic supplements, consisting of live microbes purported to bestow health benefits. Many people take them after a course of antibiotics. But do they actually work?
"The concept of a probiotic to help re-establish our baseline microbiota after an antibiotic is a good concept," Blaser told LiveScience. "But the idea that, of all thousand species in our bodies, taking a single species that comes from cow or cheese is na?ve." Current probiotics are very well marketed, Blaser said, but there's not much benefit. He does think medicine will one day develop probiotics that will be used to treat illness, but as of now, "it's a very young field," he said.
Follow LiveScience on Twitter @livescience. We're also on Facebook?and Google+.?
Copyright 2013 LiveScience, a TechMediaNetwork company. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
Jan. 30, 2013 ? There's a wobbly new biochemical structure in Burckhard Seelig's lab at the University of Minnesota that may resemble what enzymes looked like billions of years ago, when life on earth began to evolve -- long before they became ingredients for new and improved products, from detergents to foods and fuels.
Seelig created the fledgling enzyme by using directed evolution in the laboratory. Working with colleague Gianluigi Veglia, graduate student Fa-An Chao, and other team members, he subsequently determined its structure, which made its debut December 9 as an advance online publication in Nature Chemical Biology. Lab tests show that the enzyme (a type of RNA ligase, which connects two RNA molecules) functions like natural enzymes although its structure looks very different and it is flexible rather than rigid. Seelig speculates the new protein resembles primordial enzymes, before their current structures evolved.
Seelig and Veglia are professors in the College of Biological Sciences, where Fa-An Chao is a graduate student. Both faculty members have appointments in the Department of Biochemistry, Molecular Biology and Biophysics and Seelig is member of the BioTechnology Institute. Veglia also has an appointment in the Department of Chemistry in the university's College of Science and Engineering.
While a handful of groups worldwide are developing artificial enzymes, they use rational design to construct the proteins on computers. Instead, the Seelig lab employs directed evolution. "To my knowledge, our enzyme is the only entirely artificial enzyme created in a test tube by simply following the principles of natural selection and evolution," he says.
Rational enzyme design relies on preconceived notions of what a new enzyme should look like and how it should function. In contrast, directed evolution involves producing a large quantity of candidate proteins and screening several generations to produce one with the desired function. With this approach, the outcome isn't limited by current knowledge of enzyme structure.
"Just as in nature, only the fittest survive after each successive generation," Seelig explains. The process continues until it produces an enzyme that efficiently catalyzes a desired biochemical reaction. In this case, the new enzyme joins two pieces of RNA together.
"It's kind of like giving typewriters to monkeys," he says. "One monkey and one typewriter won't produce anything clever. But if you have enough monkeys and typewriters, eventually one of them will write 'to be or not to be'." The lottery provides another analogy. "If you buy more tickets, you're more likely to win," Seelig says.
Like all proteins, the new RNA ligase enzyme is a chain of amino acids folded into a 3D structure, but the resemblance stops there. Natural enzymes, like all proteins, are made from alpha helices and beta strands. Seelig's artificial enzyme lacks those structures. Instead, it forms around two metal ions and is not rigid. "Compared to enzymes we know from nature, the artificial enzyme has a rather unusual structure and dynamics," Seelig says.
For decades, naturally occurring enzymes have been tweaked by industry to make industrial processes and products more effective. The ability to create enzymes from scratch using a natural process opens the door to a vast array of new products that provide business opportunities and improve quality of life without harmful environmental effects.
Going forward, Seelig plans to create enzymes with useful applications while he continues to explore the underlying basic science of enzyme structure and function, aiming to learn more about the origin of enzymes and how proteins evolve.
"Enzymes have always fascinated me," he says. "It's rewarding to do work that has practical applications yet provides the opportunity to better understand how life on earth evolved."
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The above story is reprinted from materials provided by University of Minnesota.
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Journal Reference:
Fa-An Chao, Aleardo Morelli, John C Haugner III, Lewis Churchfield, Leonardo N Hagmann, Lei Shi, Larry R Masterson, Ritimukta Sarangi, Gianluigi Veglia, Burckhard Seelig. Structure and dynamics of a primordial catalytic fold generated by in vitro evolution. Nature Chemical Biology, 2012; 9 (2): 81 DOI: 10.1038/nchembio.1138
Note: If no author is given, the source is cited instead.
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Public release date: 27-Feb-2013
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