Jan 28 2000
From The Space Library
Space News for this day. (1MB PDF)
NASA announced that the Food and Drug Administration had cleared for diagnostic use a new technology to fight breast cancer, originally developed at JPL. OmniCorder Technologies, Inc. had built the device, called the BioScan System, using a sensor developed by JPL researcher Sarath D. Gunapala. Gunapala had originally developed the sensor, named the Quantum Well Infrared Photodetector, to locate hot spots in fires and volcanoes. When researchers had learned that the increased blood flow surrounding cancerous tissues often raises skin temperatures slightly, medical scientists realized that doctors could use the technology to conduct noninvasive screenings, helping to detect breast cancer. The new device had charted temperature changes as slight as 0.027°F (-18°C) from one area of the body to another, making it a promising tool for doctors and cancer researchers.
NASA released the research results of astronaut John H. Glenn Jr.'s historic 1998 voyage aboard Shuttle Discovery. The report detailed the 88 experiments conducted on Mission STS-95, the most of any Shuttle mission. NASA responded to some critics, who called the mission a publicity-driven flight with little scientific value, disclosing that Glenn himself had participated in 10 experiments during the mission. After becoming the first American to orbit the Earth in 1962, Glenn had returned to space 36 years later to achieve another record the oldest man to fly in space.
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