ScienceCache

Vol. 172
May 28, 2004

UNIVERSITY ASTRONOMERS HELP DISCOVER YOUNGEST PLANET YET
Astronomers have found evidence for what could be the youngest planet ever detected, a world no more than a million years old circling a distant star. The finding was one of three discoveries from the Spitzer Space Telescope announced yesterday by NASA. The critical infrared “eyes” of the infrared telescope were designed in part by physics and astronomy professors Judith Pipher, William Forrest, and Dan Watson, a team that has been among the world leaders in opening the infrared window to the universe. It was Forrest and Pipher who were the first U.S. astronomers to turn an infrared array toward the skies: In 1983 they mounted a prototype infrared detector onto the university telescope in the small observatory on top of the Wilmot Building on campus, taking the first-ever telescopic pictures of the moon in the infrared, a wavelength of light that is invisible to the naked eye as well as most telescopes. The effort attracted colleagues and supporters, culminating 20 years later in the launch of the Spitzer Telescope and in yesterday’s announcement of the possible discovery of the toddler planet. The team detected water and other prebiotic chemistry in the “planetary construction zones” around five other young, sun-like stars in the constellation Taurus, 420 light-years from Earth. “We've seen the building blocks of habitable planets for the first time unambiguously” in stars that will turn out like our sun, says Watson. The planet cannot be seen directly, but the infrared eye of the space telescope showed a clear hole in the disk of dust orbiting a very young star. Similar holes have been associated with planets around other stars, but none has been so dramatically young.
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STRONG PLAYS ROLE IN LANDMARK HEART FAILURE TRIAL
A nationwide clinical trial of more than 1,600 heart failure patients showed that when medicines are combined with the use of a pacemaker-type device that resynchronizes both sides of the heart, hospital stays and death rates drop significantly. Strong’s Cardiology Department was among 128 centers nationwide, and the only site in the Finger Lakes region, to take part in the research, which was published last week in the New England Journal of Medicine. “This research opens up a new avenue for heart failure patients,” says Chang-seng Liang, professor of medicine and one of the lead investigators in Rochester. “The heart disease process is very complex, and treating patients is not a one-size-fits-all proposition. Being able to offer this gives us more options.” The three-year study was the largest ever designed to measure death and hospitalization rates in congestive heart failure patients. Participants were divided into three groups: those who received optimal heart failure medications only, those who received devices with a pacemaker component, and those who received devices with a pacemaker plus defibrillator component. The patients who received devices had a 19 percent or 20 percent reduction in death rates and hospitalizations.
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‘ EXTREME’ FUSION COMES TO ROCHESTER
A new fusion science center is coming to the university, making its home at an institution that already has one of the leading fusion groups in the world at the Laboratory for Laser Energetics. The U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) is providing $5.5 million for the project, called the Fusion Center for Extreme States of Matter and Fast Ignition Physics. The center will help develop an understanding of extreme states of matter using a new method to achieve fusion. Currently, facilities like the university's Omega laser, the most powerful laser in the world, produce fusion by striking a small pellet of hydrogen with laser beams that use 100 times as much power in a billionth of a second as the entire nation's power grid. The laser both compresses and heats the pellet, producing fusion. Scientists in the new center will explore what happens when the “heating” and “compression” components are separated, by firing on the pellet twice with lasers of different power and duration – first compressing the pellet with the current Omega laser, then heating it with an ultrafast burst from the new beam facility, Omega EP, currently under construction. The new center, in conjunction with the newly enhanced Omega laser, will make new experiments possible, such as modeling the very young universe, understanding the quantum world, and studying complex laser-matter interactions. “We're very excited to be chosen to lead the way into the next generation of fusion generation,” says Riccardo Betti, professor of mechanical engineering, who will direct the center. “We'll be able to achieve energies far more intense than even the very core of the sun, and learn much about how matter itself acts under such conditions.”
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RADIATION COMBO BOOSTS BRAIN CANCER SURVIVAL RATES
People with cancer that has spread to the brain – about 40 percent of all cancer cases – live longer and enjoy a better quality of life if they are treated with a combination of radiation techniques, according to research conducted in part at the James P. Wilmot Cancer Center. The study, which appeared last week in The Lancet, shows a 33 percent increase in survival for patients with a single brain metastasis who receive whole-brain radiation therapy followed by stereotactic radiosurgery. These findings have helped increase treatment options for people with metastatic disease. “This is the first data to demonstrate the benefits of using radiosurgery for the treatment of brain metastases and we’re pleased to show that the therapeutic benefits for patients,” says Michael C. Schell, a study author and medical physicist with the Robert J. Flavin Shaped Beam Surgery Center at the Wilmot Cancer Center. The Wilmot Cancer Center had six patients enrolled in this 55-center study, coordinated by Radiation Therapy Oncology Group, the nation’s largest cooperative radiation research group. The center is charting even greater survival rates for patients with metastatic disease with the use of shaped-beam stereotactic radiosurgery, which delivers high-dose radiation with pinpoint precision.
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NEW WAYS TO HELP PATIENTS MAKE DECISIONS ABOUT TREATMENT OPTIONS
Suppose a patient is faced with whether to continue or stop a treatment. The patient’s values, fears, understanding of science and mathematical odds, and many other factors make the decision complex and the doctor’s input crucial. In last week’s issue of the Journal of the American Medical Association, a team from the medical center offers a five-step blueprint for physicians on how to present the facts in a consumer-oriented medical world. The JAMA article presents typical dilemmas and provides words that physicians can use to communicate more effectively. It even points out how word choice can be misleading: “There’s a 90 percent chance that it won’t help,” for example, means something different than, “There’s a 10 percent chance it will help.” Lead author Ronald M. Epstein, professor of family medicine and psychiatry, says no guidelines exist for discussing medical evidence with patients. “Informed patients are more likely to participate actively in their care and make wiser decisions. Being able to communicate well with patients transforms the relationship from one that is physician-dominated to one that is a real partnership,” says Epstein, who directs the university’s Center to Improve Communications in Health Care.
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