Word: morgane
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...Open University's Planetary and Space Sciences Research Institute in Milton Keynes, England, Pillinger and his colleague Geraint Morgan have built upon research they originally did for the Beagle project in order to create a diagnostic tool with the potential to save countless lives. Their device - about the size of a microwave oven - may not look like much, but it detects tuberculosis (TB), the highly infectious, hard-to-diagnose disease that often infects the lungs and kills more than 1.5 million people worldwide each year...
Turning space technology into a clinical tool took some ingenuity. Starting in the 1990s, Pillinger, Morgan and other researchers from the institute have worked to shrink a sophisticated piece of lab equipment used to identify and analyze matter: a gas chromatograph mass spectrometer (GCMS). Their challenge was to make the device - sometimes the size of a small car - light enough and sturdy enough to be sent into space. Pillinger always planned to look for terrestrial applications of the mini GCMS once their space research was done, and at Wellcome's request, Morgan began in 2005 to design a version that...
...GCMS researchers are confident that their device will diagnose the disease more effectively. It works by breaking apart a sample into ions, which it can then precisely identify based on their mass. Morgan and Pillinger's device is designed to search for particles from the distinctive waxy coating on the TB's cell wall...
...spawned from space design could also help planetary researchers justify their funding. "People always tell you space missions produce spin-offs," says Pillinger. But, in reality, they yield few applications in everyday industry. With portable GCMS, "Everywhere we go, people say, 'I can see an application for it.'" Indeed, Morgan and his team are now building GCMS units to test for drugs in breath samples, bladder cancer in urine samples, pollutants in reservoir water, and more. And Pillinger? He's cut back on work since being diagnosed in 2005 with progressive multiple sclerosis. But his eyes have never left...
...corps members in the program teach in low-income schools for two years in an attempt to close the achievement gap of American education. This year, Harvard applications to TFA have increased 100 percent, more than twice the national increase. To encourage participation in TFA, prestigious firms like JP Morgan and McKinsey and Company now allow graduates to defer job offers for two years in order to teach with TFA. But few follow through with their business aspirations. “It’s a very small portion of our actual alumni who are in business, around four percent...