Posts tagged discovery
CU Boulder researchers uncover new target for cancer research
0October 25, 2012
In a new paper released today in Nature, BioFrontiers Institute scientists at the University of Colorado Boulder, Tom Cech and Leslie Leinwand, detailed a new target for anti-cancer drug development that is sitting at the ends of our DNA.
Researchers in the two scientists’ laboratories collaborated to find a patch of amino acids that, if blocked by a drug docked onto the chromosome end at this location, may prevent cancerous cells from reproducing. The amino acids at this site are called the “TEL patch” and once modified, the end of the chromosome is unable to recruit the telomerase enzyme, which is necessary for growth of many cancerous cells.
“This is an exciting scientific discovery that gives us a new way of looking at the problem of cancer,” Cech said. “What is amazing is that changing a single amino acid in the TEL patch stops the growth of telomeres. We are a long way from a drug solution for cancer, but this discovery gives us a different, and hopefully more effective, target.”
Nobel Prize winner Tom Cech
Cech is the director of the BioFrontiers Institute, a Howard Hughes Medical Investigator and winner of the 1989 Nobel Prize in chemistry.
Co-authors on the study include postdoctoral fellows Jayakrishnan Nandakumar and Ina Weidenfeld; University of Colorado undergraduate student Caitlin Bell; and Howard Hughes Medical Institute Senior Scientist Arthur Zaug.
Telomeres have been studied since the 1970s for their role in cancer. They are constructed of repetitive nucleotide sequences that sit at the ends of our chromosomes like the ribbon tails on a bow. This extra material protects the ends of the chromosomes from deteriorating, or fusing with neighboring chromosome ends. Telomeres are consumed during cell division and, over time, will become shorter and provide less cover for the chromosomes they are protecting. An enzyme called telomerase replenishes telomeres throughout their lifecycles.
Telomerase is the enzyme that keeps cells young. From stem cells to germ cells, telomerase helps cells continue to live and multiply. Too little telomerase produces diseases of bone marrow, lungs and skin. Too much telomerase results in cells that over proliferate and may become “immortal.” As these immortal cells continue to divide and replenish, they build cancerous tumors. Scientists estimate that telomerase activation is a contributor in up to 90 percent of human cancers.
To date, development of cancer therapies has focused on limiting the enzymatic action of telomerase to slow the growth of cancerous cells. With their latest discovery, Cech and Leinwand envision a cancer drug that would lock into the TEL patch at chromosome ends to keep telomerase from binding there. This approach of inhibiting the docking of telomerase may be the elegant solution to the complex problem of cancerous cells. Cech, a biochemist, and Leinwand, a biologist, joined forces to work on their latest solution.
“This work was really made possible by the fact that our labs are so close,” Leinwand said. “My lab was able to provide the cell biology and understanding of genetics, and Tom’s lab allowed us to explore the biochemistry. We have a unique situation at BioFrontiers where labs and people comingle to make discoveries just like this.”
Leinwand is the chief scientific officer of the BioFrontiers Institute and a professor of molecular, cellular and developmental biology.
Researchers at the University of Colorado have a significant history in developing marketable biotechnologies. Cech founded Ribozyme Pharmaceuticals Inc. Leinwand co-founded Myogen with CU professor Michael Bristow, Hiberna and recently launched MyoKardia (http://www.myokardia.com/about.php).
The BioFrontiers Institute is an interdisciplinary institute housed at the Jennie Smoly Caruthers Biotechnology Building at CU-Boulder. The institute is dedicated to training the next generation of interdisciplinary scientists through its IQ Biology Interdisciplinary Quantitative Biology Ph.D. program. For more information about BioFrontiers visithttp://biofrontiers.colorado.edu
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CU study: Nurture trumps nature in study of oral bacteria in human twins
0October 11, 2012
A new long-term study of human twins by University of Colorado Boulder researchers indicates the makeup of the population of bacteria bathing in their saliva is driven more by environmental factors than heritability.
The study compares saliva samples from identical and fraternal twins to see how much “bacterial communities” in saliva vary from mouth to mouth at different points in time, said study leader and CU-Boulder Professor Kenneth Krauter. The twin studies show that the environment, rather than a person’s genetic background, is more important in determining the types of microbes that live in the mouth.
Dr. Kenneth Krauter is the lead researcher on the project
For the new study, doctoral student Simone Stahringer sequenced the microbial DNA present in the saliva samples of twins. She and the research team then determined the microbes’ identities through comparison with a microbe sequence database. Saliva samples were gathered from twins over the course of a decade beginning in adolescence to see how salivary microbes change with time.
After determining the oral “microbiomes” of identical twins, who share the same environment and genes, and the microbiomes of fraternal twins who share only half their genes, the researchers found the salivary microbes of the identical twins were not significantly more similar to each other than to those of fraternal twins. “We concluded the human genome does not significantly affect which bacteria are living in a person’s mouth,” said Krauter of CU-Boulder’s molecular, cellular and developmental biology department. “It appears to be more of an environmental effect.”
Krauter said while the twin data from the oral microbiome study indicates that genetics plays a more minor role, it’s possible the genes still affect the oral microbiome in more subtle ways — an effect he plans to further explore.
Mouth bacteria. According to scientists, about 100 trillion microorganisms inhabit surfaces and cavities of our bodies,
A paper on the subject was published online Oct. 12 in the journal Genome Research. Other co-authors included doctoral student William Walters of MCD Biology, Jose Clemente and Rob Knight of the chemistry and biochemistry department, Robin Corley and John Hewitt of the Institute for Behavioral Genetics and Dan Knights, a former doctoral student in the computer science department.
The researchers also found that the salivary microbiome changed the most during early adolescence, between the ages of 12 and 17. This discovery suggests that hormones or lifestyle changes at this age might be important, according to the team.
Stahringer said that when several pairs of identical twins moved out of their homes and, for example, went off to college, the oral microbes they carried changed, which is consistent with the idea that the environment contributes to the types of microbes in the saliva. “We were intrigued to see that the microbiota of twin pairs became less similar once they moved apart from each other,” Stahringer said.
Krauter said there appears to be a core community of oral bacteria that is present in nearly all humans studied. “Though there are definitely differences among different people, there is a relatively high degree of sharing similar microbial species in all human mouths,” he said.
A DNA sequencing chart
The authors say the new study has established a framework for future studies of the factors that influence oral microbial communities. “With broad knowledge of the organisms we expect to find in mouths, we can now better understand how oral hygiene and environmental exposure to substances like alcohol, methamphetamines and even foods we eat affect the balance of microbes,” said Krauter.
The saliva samples used in the new study came from the university’s Longitudinal Twin Study and Colorado Adoption Project, which have involved hundreds of identical and fraternal twin pairs. Researchers also are analyzing additional frozen saliva samples collected during their studies for another project assessing possible relationships of oral bacteria to drug addiction, he said.
CU has a strong research focus on the human microbiome. In a 2011 study led by the Washington University School of Medicine and involving CU-Boulder, researchers found the diversity and abundance of gut microbes in animals varied depending on whether they were carnivores, omnivores or vegetarians. Knight is a member of a national research team funded by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation to look at the gut microbes of normal and malnourished infants and children around the world in search of novel microbial therapeutics.
In 2012, some 200 researchers from the NIH-funded Human Microbiome Project, including eight CU-Boulder researchers, mapped the microbial makeup of healthy humans for the first time. The study involved nearly 250 healthy U.S. volunteers and targeted 15 to 18 individual sites on the body harboring microbial communities.
Other recent studies involving CU researchers included one that found the delivery methods of babies have a big effect on their individual microbiomes, and second that showed women have a greater diversity of hand bacteria than men. Another showed personal bacterial communities living on the fingers and palms of individual computer users can be matched up with bacterial signatures on the computers and computer mice they recently used, a potential new tool for forensic scientists in the future.
According to scientists, about 100 trillion microorganisms inhabit surfaces and cavities of our bodies, which amounts to roughly 10 microbes per human cell.
Genome Research is an international, peer-reviewed journal that focuses on research that provides new insights into the genome biology of all organisms, including advances in genome medicine.
Funding for the study was provided by National Institutes of Health grants HD-010333 and DA-011015.
For more information on CU-Boulder’s MCD Biology department visit http://mcdb.colorado.edu/. For more information on Genome Research visit http://www.genome.org.
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Fourmile canyon blaze yields new insight into climate change, CU scientists say
0August 27, 2012
CU-NOAA study provides first direct evidence of
heat-trapping effects of wildfire smoke particles
When the Fourmile Canyon Fire erupted west of Boulder in 2010, smoke from the wildfire poured into parts of the city including a site housing scientists from the University of Colorado Boulder’s Cooperative Institute for Research in Environmental Sciences and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.
Within 24 hours, a few researchers at the David Skaggs Research Center had opened up a particle sampling port on the roof of the building and started pulling in smoky air for analysis by two custom instruments inside. They became the first scientists to directly measure and quantify some unique heat-trapping effects of wildfire smoke particles.
“For the first time we were able to measure these warming effects minute-by-minute as the fire progressed,” said CIRES scientist Dan Lack, lead author of the study published today in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.
The researchers also were able to record a phenomenon called the “lensing effect,” in which oils from the fire coat the soot particles and create a lens that focuses more light onto the particles. This can change the “radiative balance” in an area, sometimes leading to greater warming of the air and cooling of the surface.
While scientists had previously predicted such an effect and demonstrated it in laboratory experiments, the Boulder researchers were one of the first to directly measure the effect during an actual wildfire. Lack and his colleagues found that lensing increased the warming effect of soot by 50 to 70 percent.
“When the fire erupted on Labor Day, so many researchers came in to work to turn on instruments and start sampling that we practically had traffic jams on the road into the lab,” Lack said. “I think we all realized that although this was an unfortunate event, it might be the best opportunity to collect some unique data. It turned out to be the best dataset, perfectly suited to the new instrument we had developed.”
The instrument called a spectrophotometer can capture exquisite detail about all particles in the air, including characteristics that might affect the smoke particles’ tendency to absorb sunlight and warm their surroundings. While researchers know that overall, wildfire smoke can cause this lensing effect, the details have been difficult to quantify, in part because of sparse observations of particles from real-world fires.
Once the researchers began studying the data they collected during the fire, it became obvious that the soot from the wildfire was different in several key ways from soot produced by other sources — diesel engines, for example.
“When vegetation burns, it is not as efficient as a diesel engine, and that means some of the burning vegetation ends up as oils,” Lack said. In the smoke plume, the oils coated the soot particles and that microscopic sheen acted like a magnifying glass, focusing more light onto the soot particles and magnifying the warming of the surrounding air.
The researchers also discovered that the oils coating the soot were brown, and that dark coloration allowed further absorption of light, and therefore further warming the atmosphere around the smoke plume.
The additional warming effects mean greater heating of the atmosphere enveloped in dark smoke from a wildfire, and understanding that heating effect is important for understanding climate change, Lack said. The extra heating also can affect cloud formation, air turbulence, winds and even rainfall.
The discovery was made possible by state-of-the-art instruments developed by CIRES, NOAA and other scientists, Lack said. The instruments can capture fine-scale details about particles sent airborne by the fire, including their composition, shape, size, color and ability to absorb and reflect sunlight of various wavelengths.
“With such well-directed measurements, we can look at the warming effects of soot, the magnifying coating and the brown oils and see a much clearer, yet still smoky picture of the effect of forest fires on climate,” Lack said.
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“Hysteria” about the Singular Most Popular Sex Toy
0June 23, 2012
“Singular Most Popular Sex Toy”
“Hotshots” looks at a movie!
Hysteria is about the invention of a device that is widely used, but not commonly discussed, and when it is, usually there are snickers and Monty Python nudges of “Know what I mean? Know what I mean?”
And I am not talking about the candy bar.
The word “hysteria” comes from the Greek word meaning a woman’s womb, and in the 1800s when it was used to mean a psychoneurosis marked by emotional excitability and disturbances of the psychic, sensory, and visceral functions leading to behavior exhibiting overwhelming or unimaginable fear or emotional excess, doctors in England believed that behavior in women was caused by their uterus, and the way to treat them and to cure that behavior was to apply stimulation to the woman’s organ.
What I don’t understand is why any woman paid a doctor to treat her that way for the all-purpose catchword of hysteria would go back to him and pay him again for treatment when she could just treat herself at home for free.
All puns intended.
The story begins in 1880 in London, and Hugh Dancy plays Dr. Mortimer Granville.
Dr. Granville interviews for the job as assistant to Dr. Robert Dalrymple, who asks Dr Granville, “But tell me, Doctor, what do you know of hysteria?”
Dr. Dalrymple says that the work of treating women for hysteria is tedious and boring, but Dalrymple is London’s leading specialist in women’s medicine, and his waiting room is always full of women waiting to be treated by him.
Know what I mean? Know what I mean?
Dr. Dalrymple has two daughters, Emily and Charlotte, who is played by Maggie Gyllenhaal, and they, too, are doctors. Emily lives at home and is a phrenologist, or a scientist who feels the bumps on someone’s head, which determines the person’s mental faculties and character.
Charlotte, however, is at odds with her father, because she is always borrowing money to keep her Settlement House in the East End open, where she treats poor people and many women and children. When we first meet Charlotte, she is having an argument with her father and storms out of his office, slamming every door behind her.
Hysteria takes too long to get started, could use some good editing, but eventually gets around to the discovery of the singular most popular sex toy.
I’m Dan Culberson and this is “Hotshots.”
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CU team discovers ancient road
0October 5, 2011
CU-BOULDER TEAM DISCOVERS ANCIENT ROAD AT MAYA
VILLAGE BURIED BY VOLCANIC ASH 1,400 YEARS AGO
A University of Colorado Boulder-led team excavating a Maya village in El Salvador buried by a volcanic eruption 1,400 years ago has unexpectedly hit an ancient white road that appears to lead to and from the town, which was frozen in time by a blanket of ash.
The road, known as a “sacbe,” is roughly 6 feet across and is made from white volcanic ash from a previous eruption that was packed down and shored up along its edges by residents living there in roughly A.D. 600, said CU-Boulder Professor Payson Sheets, who discovered the buried village known as Ceren near the city of San Salvador in 1978. In Yucatan Maya, the word “sacbe” (SOCK’-bay) literally means “white way” or “white road” and is used to describe elevated ancient roads typically lined with stone and paved with white lime plaster and that sometimes connected temples, plazas and towns.
“Until our discovery, these roads were only known from the Yucatan area in Mexico and all were built with stone linings, which generally preserved well,” said Sheets of CU’s anthropology department. “It took the unusual preservation at Ceren to tell us the Maya also made them without stone. I’d like to say we saw some anomaly in the ground-penetrating radar data that guided us to the Ceren sacbe, but that was not the case. This was a complete surprise.”
The sacbe was struck almost dead-on by the excavators of the 3-meter by 3-meter test pit, said Sheets, with the full width of road visible. In order to follow the sacbe, two subsequent test pits were excavated to the north and confirmed the sacbe had a minimum length of at least 148 feet long — about half the length of a football field.
The sacbe appears to be headed toward two Ceren ceremonial structures less than 100 feet away — buildings that were unearthed in Ceren by Sheets and his team in 1991. One structure is believed to have been used by a female shaman. The adjacent community ceremonial structure contained evidence — including the bones of butchered deer, a deer headdress painted red and blue and a large alligator-shaped pot — that large quantities of food and drink were being prepared and dispensed to villagers in the town plaza during what Sheets believes was a crop-harvesting ceremony.
“We know there was a celebration going on when the eruption hit,” said Sheets. “And we’ve found no evidence of anyone going back to their houses, gathering up valuables, and fleeing, because all the household doors were tied shut. We think people may have left the plaza and run south, possibly on the sacbe, because the danger was to the north.”
Radiocarbon dates from Ceren indicate the eruption occurred in roughly A.D. 630, and CU researchers have even pinpointed the month and time of day the fiery mass of ash and debris from the Loma Caldera volcano rained down on the town from less than a third of a mile away. Sheets believes the eruption hit at roughly 7 p.m. on an August evening because of the mature corn stalks preserved in ash casts, the fact that the farming implements had been brought inside, the sleeping mats had not yet been rolled out, meals had been served but the dishes were not yet washed, and corn was set into pots to soak in water overnight.
Sheets said it is logical that the villagers in the plaza might have used the white sacbe as an emergency route to flee the destruction of the volcano in the dark of night. “How far they might have gotten, I don’t know,” said Sheets. “It would have been a footrace. I think it is very likely we will find bodies as we follow the sacbe southward in future excavations.” To date, no human remains have been found at the village.
Sacbeob, the plural of sacbe, had strong practical, political and spiritual connotations in the Pre-Columbian Yucatan, said Sheets. Some were fairly long — up to 40 miles — while others stretched less than 50 feet. Because of the high level of preservation at Ceren, the researchers can see hand marks of farmers who were repairing the edges of the sacbe.
While there is speculation the Ceren sacbe may have led to the Maya center of San Andres roughly three miles to the south, there is no evidence of that yet, Sheets said.
While some refer to Ceren as “The New World Pompeii,” Sheets is quick to point out the differences. Pompeii was an affluent Roman resort community with multi-story concrete houses, stone streets and marble statues, while Ceren was a modest farming community. Because tiny particles of hot, moist ash blanketed Ceren and packed the thatch-roofed structures, gardens and agricultural fields, the preservation of organic materials is greater than at Pompeii, where dry, pea-sized particles rained down in the Mount Vesuvius eruption of A.D. 79.
Sheets has visited Pompeii, and researchers from Pompeii have visited Ceren, analyzing the similarities and differences at the sites. “When they tell me they wish they had this kind of preservation level at Pompeii, I tell them I wouldn’t mind finding a marble statue or two at Ceren,” said Sheets.
The Ceren preservation is so great that researchers have found marks of finger swipes in ceramic bowls, human footprints in gardens hosting ash casts of plants like corn and manioc, thatched roofs, woven baskets and pots filled with beans. Researchers have found the remains of mice that lived in the thatched roofs of kitchen areas, and entomologists have even been able to discern that two species of ants inhabited the village, Sheets said.
While much of the Maya archaeological record points to rigid, top-down societies where the elite made most political and economic decisions, there is evidence of some autonomy at Ceren, including divergent choices by farmers regarding crop cultivation techniques that were discovered this summer, said Sheets. He believes a community building with two large benches in the front room may have hosted village elders when it came time to make community decisions at Ceren.
In addition to Sheets, the 2011 team included CU-Boulder graduate students Christine Dixon, Alexandria Halmbacher and Theresa Heindel, University of Cincinnati Professor David Lentz, University of Cincinnati graduate student Christine Hoffer, Celine Lamb from the Sorbonne in Paris and 23 local Salvadoran workers. The 2011 field season was funded by the National Science Foundation.
“Students on the project are essential,” said Sheets. “They put up with less than ideal living conditions and they do valuable work, sometimes pursuing their own research paths based on discoveries they make at the site.” Since 1978, more than 30 undergraduate and graduate students have worked under Sheets at Ceren, including 14 who have received or are pursuing master’s or doctoral degrees.
“When I first heard about Ceren, I immediately wanted to know more,” said master’s degree candidate Theresa Heindel, who came to CU-Boulder after graduating from the University of Wisconsin-Madison and who spent the 2011 field season assessing crop cultivation in Ceren’s agricultural fields that were frozen in time by ash. “We don’t see this type of cultivation anywhere in Central America, and we don’t see this level of preservation anywhere in the world.”
In 2009 Sheets and his team discovered a previously unknown Maya agriculture system at Ceren — intensively cultivated manioc fields that yielded at least 10 tons of manioc shortly before the eruption 1,400 years ago. It was the first and only evidence of intense manioc cultivation at any New World archaeology site and Sheets and others believe such large manioc crops could have played a vital role in feeding indigenous societies living throughout tropical Latin America, he said.
Sheets has collaborated with the National Science Foundation, the National Geographic Society, the Smithsonian Institution, the Getty Conservation Institute and a number of universities since 1978. The 10-acre Joya de Ceren Archaeological Park was declared a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 1993.
“When the radiocarbon dates on the thatched roofs came back in 1978, I saw the rest of my professional life. I knew I did not need to look for any more new archaeological sites,” said Sheets. “There is well over a century of research still to be done at Ceren — in some ways we’ve only scratched the surface.”
A video news story on Ceren is available by going to http://www.colorado.edu/news/ and clicking on the story headline.
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CU cancer test goes for the bucks
0September 20, 2011
SUVICA INC. OF BOULDER TO COMMERCIALIZE
CU-BOULDER CANCER SCREENING TECHNOLOGY
SuviCa Inc. of Boulder and the University of Colorado recently completed an exclusive license agreement for a CU drug screening technology to identify novel therapies for cancer.
The patented drug discovery tool, developed by CU-Boulder Associate Professor Tin Tin Su of the molecular, cellular and developmental biology department, uses a genetically modified Drosophila fruit fly model to screen for compounds effective against various types of cancer, either alone or in combination with existing therapies.
The screening technique will be used to identify new clinical candidates using a methodology that is both time efficient and cost-effective. Because it uses a whole-animal screening model, the technique can more easily eliminate drug candidates with undesired toxicity.
“SuviCa looks forward to advancing Dr. Su’s technology in order to find better ways to treat cancer patients and to build a world-class business in the Front Range region,” said Judy Hemberger, SuviCa’s chairman and CEO.
“We are excited about the commercial possibilities for the drug screening technology developed by Dr. Su, which has already been used at CU to identify promising therapeutic candidates,” said Tom Smerdon, director of licensing and new business development at the CU Technology Transfer Office, or TTO.
SuviCa recently received funding from Colorado’s Bioscience Discovery Evaluation Grant Program, an initiative launched in 2007 by the state of Colorado’s Office of Economic Development and International Trade to provide early-stage, matching seed grants to enable the development and commercial validation of promising technologies that are licensed from Colorado research institutions.
SuviCa also has received a grant from the Internal Revenue Service through the Qualifying Therapeutic Discovery Project Program aimed at small businesses. Current and future efforts will focus on identifying and optimizing additional lead compounds to enter into formal clinical testing.
SuviCa Inc. is an early-stage cancer drug discovery and development company co-founded by Su, who now serves as its chief science officer. Judith Hemberger, a former co-founder and COO of Boulder-based Pharmion, has joined the senior management team as chairman and CEO.
Working in close collaboration with scientists at CU-Boulder, the University of Colorado Anschutz Medical Campus and Colorado State University, SuviCa is pursuing a promising discovery process based on several small molecules initially identified using its proprietary screening technology and targeted to a distinct cellular process. SuviCa researchers hope to discover and develop novel drugs used as standalone therapies or to prevent tumor recurrence following treatment with a variety of approved anti-cancer therapies.
CU’s TTO pursues, protects, packages and licenses to business the intellectual property generated from research at CU. The office provides assistance to faculty, staff and students, as well as to businesses looking to license or invest in CU technology.
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Capt. Underpants sues the city Again! Here we go Boulder
1September 13, 2011
In a recent phone call from Seth Brigham to Boulder Channel 1 news , he said that he had retained famed civil rights attorney, David Lane, and planned on suing the city of Boulder for arresting him again. Below is tonights email from Brigham and court documents for discovery. (In full disclosure David Lane is the personal attorney of Jann Scott and Boulder Channel 1 in matters of civil rights violations by the city of Boulder. Seth Brigham has been a columnist for Boulder Channel 1 and has produced videos for us)
Atty David Lane
Seth Brigham aka Capt Underpants
My lawyer requested all evidence from the prosecutor and from the police department files, has or had, three weeks ago!
The prosecutor has refused to release all the evidence! Nada, nothing.
Tom Carr is essentially the supervisor to the prosecutor.
My case is open, the charges have not been dropped.
My lawyer is filing a motion this week, but, I think one should wonder about our “Justice System” in Boulder and the ethics of our City Attorney, Tom Carr.
Why is it necessary? What is our City Attorney afraid of?
He was one who wrote up the most draconian Press Release concerning my arrest, and the charges against me regarding the “incident” on June 3rd, 2011.
A defendant may file a motion requesting a subpoena to call forth all witnesses and evidence that could favorably determine the outcome of the case, at no cost.
George Thomas, a professor of criminal procedure at Rutgers Law School in Newark, said he has not heard of a case where prosecutors denied a defendant all access to probable cause and doubts such a practice would be found constitutional.
He said the U.S. Supreme Court has ruled that probable cause must be present before a defendant can be arrested.
He said it is only logical that the defense should be able to challenge the adequacy of the probable cause.
And, I, Seth Brigham, have always maintained that I was arrested without probable cause, and, in fact, the police we’re abusing their positions, had no probable cause to question the homeless group, ID them and do background checks. And, in any case, I did not obstruct any police investigation.
For all of Tom Carr’s harsh rhetoric and lies concerning the case, no wonder he fears to release evidence yet received by my attorney, for example, taped interviews of two witnesses and photographs of the scene.
He is full of himself and was reckless with his statements. He spoke to my attorney in response to my attorney’s “upset” over the unethical nature of his Press Release.
He said he would not apologize or correct his statements in any way. I feel a need to redeem my name.
I’ve been able to find at least four witnesses that seem to have a recollection of the arrest much like mine.
The prosecutor, who told my lawyer that this deferred prosecution had no bearing on a possible civil suit I might pursue in the future, I find it disconcerting that she will now not cooperate.
TOM??? Do you have a response as to why you are circumventing my rights?
Seth Brigham
3383 Madsion Avenue #W225
Boulder, Colorado
80303
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MUNICIPAL Court, city of boulder, state of Colorado Court Address: 1777 – Sixth Street, Boulder, CO 80302 Court Phone: 303.441.1842
Plaintiff: THE PEOPLE OF THE CITY OF BOULDER, by and on behalf of, THE PEOPLE OF THE STATE OF COLORADO, vs. Defendant: SETH RUBIN BRIGHAM |
COURT USE ONLY |
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Attorney Name: Philip Bienvenu, 206 UCB, UMC 311 Boulder, CO 80309-0206 Attorney Reg. #: 10412 Attorney Phone: 303.492.6813 Attorney Fax: 303.735.5398 Attorney Email: bienvenu@colorado.edu |
Case Number: CR-2011-0009268-GE Division Courtroom |
MOTION FOR DISCOVERY |
Defendant in this case agreed to a Deferred Prosecution on 8-17-11. The following week, Defense Counsel informed the City Prosecutor that we wished to move forward with further discovery, in particular any contents of the case file maintained at the Boulder Police Department, whether or not those materials had yet been turned over to the City Prosecutor’s Office for its file. We are aware that such a separate file is routinely maintained in Municipal Court Criminal cases and the materials sometimes not turned over until the eve of trial. We were informed by the Prosecutor Ms. Michels that she considered the case files and materials no longer discoverable because the Deferred Prosecution is in effect. Defendant’s position is that the case has not been dismissed and is in fact subject to reopen on the Prosecution’s judgment call. There is nothing precluding continuing investigation and preparation for possible trial by either party to the case. We therefore maintain that discovery rights have not been waived or abandoned by the Defendant and should be honored as with any pending case not yet dismissed. The only way the Prosecution could cut off further discovery rights under the case would be full dismissal, which has not happened. Delaying discovery burdens and prejudices Defendant’s right to prepare for possible trial and to be ready should that eventuality become necessary. There can be no claim of prejudice or unfair burden on the Prosecution if this request is granted, because these are just rights the Defendant has in any pending criminal case, and concomitant duties of the Prosecution in any pending criminal case.
We therefore ask the Court to Order continuing discovery of all relevant materials in the case, including all material in the Police Department’s case file, including photos, interview tapes and/or notes, and all materials.
Respectfully,
_______________________________
Philip Bienvenu #10412
Attorney for Defendant
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STRONGEST EVIDENCE YET INDICATES ICY SATURN MOON HIDING SALTWATER OCEAN
0June 22, 2011
Samples of icy spray shooting from Saturn’s moon Enceladus collected during Cassini spacecraft flybys show the strongest evidence yet for the existence of a large-scale, subterranean saltwater ocean, says a new international study led by the University of Heidelberg and involving the University of Colorado Boulder.
The new discovery was made during the Cassini-Huygens mission to Saturn, a collaboration of NASA, the European Space Agency and the Italian Space Agency. Launched in 1997, the mission spacecraft arrived at the Saturn system in 2004 and has been touring the giant ringed planet and its vast moon system ever since.
The plumes shooting water vapor and tiny grains of ice into space were originally discovered emanating from Enceladus — one of 19 known moons of Saturn — by the Cassini spacecraft in 2005. The plumes were originating from the so-called “tiger stripe” surface fractures at the moon’s south pole and apparently have created the material for the faint E Ring that traces the orbit of Enceladus around Saturn.
During three of Cassini’s passes through the plume in 2008 and 2009, the Cosmic Dust Analyser, or CDA, on board measured the composition of freshly ejected plume grains. The icy particles hit the detector’s target at speeds of up to 11 miles per second, instantly vaporizing them. The CDA separated the constituents of the resulting vapor clouds, allowing scientists to analyze them.
The study shows the ice grains found further out from Enceladus are relatively small and mostly ice-poor, closely matching the composition of the E Ring. Closer to the moon, however, the Cassini observations indicate that relatively large, salt-rich grains dominate.
“There currently is no plausible way to produce a steady outflow of salt-rich grains from solid ice across all the tiger stripes other than the salt water under Enceladus’ icy surface,” said Frank Postberg of the University of Germany, lead author of a study being published in Nature on June 23. Other co-authors include Jürgen Schmidt from the University of Potsdam, Jonathan Hillier from Open University headquartered in Milton Keynes, England, and Ralf Srama from the University of Stuttgart.
“The study indicates that ‘salt-poor’ particles are being ejected from the underground ocean through cracks in the moon at a much higher speed than the larger, salt-rich particles,” said CU-Boulder faculty member and study co-author Sascha Kempf of the Laboratory for Atmospheric and Space Physics.
“The E Ring is made up predominately of such salt-poor grains, although we discovered that 99 percent of the mass of the particles ejected by the plumes was made up of salt-rich grains, which was an unexpected finding,” said Kempf. “Since the salt-rich particles were ejected at a lower speed than the salt-poor particles, they fell back onto the moon’s icy surface rather than making it to the E Ring.”
According to the researchers, the salt-rich particles have an “ocean-like” composition that indicates most, if not all, of the expelled ice comes from the evaporation of liquid salt water rather than from the icy surface of the moon. When salt water freezes slowly the salt is “squeezed out,” leaving pure water ice behind. If the plumes were coming from the surface ice, there should be very little salt in them, which was not the case, according to the research team.
The researchers believe that perhaps 50 miles beneath the surface crust of Enceladus a layer of water exists between the rocky core and the icy mantle that is kept in a liquid state by gravitationally driven tidal forces created by Saturn and several neighboring moons, as well as by heat generated by radioactive decay.
According to the scientists, roughly 440 pounds of water vapor is lost every second from the plumes, along with smaller amounts of ice grains. Calculations show the liquid ocean must have a sizable evaporating surface or it would easily freeze over, halting the formation of the plumes. “This study implies that nearly all of the matter in the Enceladus plumes originates from a saltwater ocean that has a very large evaporating surface,” said Kempf.
Salt in the rock dissolves into the water, which accumulates in a liquid ocean beneath the icy crust, according to the Nature authors. When the outermost layer of the Enceladus crust cracks open, the reservoir is exposed to space. The drop in pressure causes the liquid to evaporate into a vapor, with some of it “flash-freezing” into salty ice grains, which subsequently creates the plumes, the science team believes.
“Enceladus is a tiny, icy moon located in a region of the outer Solar System where no liquid water was expected to exist because of its large distance from the sun,” said Nicolas Altobelli, ESA’s project scientist for the Cassini-Huygens mission. “This finding is therefore a crucial new piece of evidence showing that environmental conditions favorable to the emergence of life may be sustainable on icy bodies orbiting gas giant planets.”
The Huygens probe was released from the main spacecraft and parachuted through the atmosphere to the surface of Saturn’s largest moon, Titan, in 2005.
The Cassini spacecraft is carrying 12 science instruments, including a $12.5 million CU-Boulder ultraviolet imaging spectrograph designed and built by a LASP team led by Professor Larry Esposito.
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April 18, 2011 MIT PHYSICS NOBEL LAUREATE FRANK WILCZEK TO GIVE CU-BOULDER’S GAMOW LECTURE
0April 18, 2011
by Boulder Channel 1
in News
April 18, 2011
MIT PHYSICS NOBEL LAUREATE FRANK WILCZEK
TO GIVE CU-BOULDER’S GAMOW LECTUREMassachusetts Institute of Technology Professor Frank Wilczek, who shared the 2004 Nobel Prize in physics, will give the 46th George Gamow Memorial Lecture at the University of Colorado Boulder on Tuesday, April 26.
Free and open to the public, the talk is titled “Anticipating a New Golden Age: A Vision and Its Fiery Trial at the Large Hadron Collider.” Wilczek will describe the Large Hadron Collider, or LHC, and how it will test new phenomena and ambitious ideas. The talk will be held at 7:30 p.m. in Macky Auditorium and is intended for a general audience.
The LHC sends protons and charged atoms whizzing around a 17-mile underground loop located on the border of France and Switzerland at 11,000 times per second — nearly the speed of light. Located at the European Organization for Nuclear Research, the collider can smash particles together at energy levels seven times higher than the previous record by such accelerators.
Scientists are using the LHC to attempt to recreate conditions immediately following the Big Bang, searching for answers about mysterious dark matter, dark energy, gravity and the fundamental laws of physics. The experiments may even shed light on the possibility that other dimensions exist, according to physicists.
Wilczek says future generations may view the LHC as the defining symbol of our culture, analogous to the pyramids of Egypt. The LHC project involves roughly 10,000 people from 60 countries, including more than 1,700 scientists, engineers, students and technicians from 94 American universities. Roughly 10 faculty, postdoctoral researchers and graduate students from CU-Boulder’s physics department have been involved in LHC research and development.
Wilczek shared the Nobel Prize in physics with David Gross and David Politzer for the discovery of asymptotic freedom in the theory of the strong interaction, research he conducted as a 21-year-old graduate student at Princeton University.
Wilczek has received numerous awards, including a 1982 McArthur Fellowship “genius grant,” the 2005 King Faisal International Prize for Science and the 2003 Lilienfeld Prize of the American Physical Society. He is a member of the National Academy of Sciences and the American Academy of Arts and Sciences.
The George Gamow lecture series started in 1971 and honors the late CU-Boulder physics professor who was pivotal in developing the big bang theory of the creation of the universe. He also was known for his many books popularizing science.
For more information on Wilczek and his work visit the Colorado Arts and Sciences Magazine at http://artsandsciences.colorado.edu/magazine/2011/04/nobel-laureate-to-deliver-gamow-lecture/.
-CU-
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Titanic Sinks in North Atlantic 1500 feared drown; developing
0April 15, 2011
by Boulder Channel 1
in News
Titanic Sinks Four Hours After Hitting Iceberg; 866 Rescued By Carpathia, Probably 1,250 Perish; Ismay Safe, Mrs. Astor Maybe, Noted Names Missing
Biggest Liner Plunges to the Bottom at 2:20 A.M. RESCUERS THERE TOO LATE
Expect to Pick Up the Few Hundreds Who Took to the Lifeboats.
WOMEN AND CHILDREN FIRST
Cunarder Carpathia Rushing to New York with the Survivors.
SEA SEARCH FOR OTHERS
The California Stands By on Chance of Picking Up Other Boats or Rafts.
OLYMPIC SENDS THE NEWS
Only Ship to Flash Wireless Messages to Shore After the Disaster.
Special to The New York Times
| RELATED HEADLINESCol. Astor and Bride, Isidor Straus and Wife and Maj. Butt Aboard
“RULE OF SEA” FOLLOWED Women and Children Put Over in Lifeboats and Are Supposed to be Safe on Carpathia PICKED UP AFTER 8 HOURS Vincent Astor Calls at White Star Office for News of His Father and Leaves Weeping. Franklin Hopeful All Day Manager of Line Insisted Titanic Was Unsinkable Even After She Had Gone Down HEAD OF THE LINE ABOARD J.Bruce Ismay Making First Trip on Gigantic Ship That Was to Surpass All Others |
CAPE RACE, N.F., April 15. — The White Star liner Olympic reports by wireless this evening that the Cunarder Carpathia reached, at daybreak this morning, the position from which wireless calls for help were sent out last night by the Titanic after her collision with an iceberg. The Carpathia found only the lifeboats and the wreckage of what had been the biggest steamship afloat.
The Titanic had foundered at about 2:20 A.M., in latitude 41:46 north and longitude 50:14 west. This is about 30 minutes of latitude, or about 34 miles, due south of the position at which she struck the iceberg. All her boats are accounted for and about 655 souls have been saved of the crew and passengers, most of the latter presumably women and children. There were about 1,200 persons aboard the Titanic.
The Leyland liner California is remaining and searching the position of the disaster, while the Carpathia is returning to New York with the survivors.
It can be positively stated that up to 11 o’clock to-night nothing whatever had been received at or heard by the Marconi station here to the effect that the Parisian, Virginian or any other ships had picked up any survivors, other than those picked up by the Carpathia.
First News of the Disaster.
The first news of the disaster to the Titanic was received by the Marconi wireless station here at 10:25 o’clock last night (as told in yesterday’s New York Times.) The Titanic was first heard giving the distress signal “C. Q. D.,” which was answered by a number of ships, including the Carpathia, the Baltic and the Olympic. The Titanic said she had struck an iceberg and was in immediate need of assistance, giving her position as latitude 41:46 north and longitude 50:14 west.
At 10:55 o’clock the Titanic reported she was sinking by the head, and at 11:25 o’clock the station here established communication with the Allan liner Virginian, from Halifax to Liverpool, and notified her of the Titanic’s urgent need of assistance and gave her the Titanic’s position.
http://justin.tv/wwmoggy03
The Virginian advised the Marconi station almost immediately that she was proceeding toward the scene of the disaster.
At 11:36 o’clock the Titanic informed the Olympic that they were putting the women off in boats and instructed the Olympic to have her boats read to transfer the passangers.
The Titanic, during all this time, continued to give distress signals and to announce her position.
The wireless operator seemed absolutely cool and clear-headed, his sending throughout being steady and perfectly formed, and the judgment used by him was of the best.
The last signals heard from the Titanic were received at 12:27 A.M., when the Virginian reported having heard a few blurred signals which ended abruptly.
The largest passenger steamship in the world, the Olympic-class RMS Titanic was owned by the White Star Line and constructed at theHarland and Wolff shipyard in Belfast, Ireland. She set sail for New York City on 10 April 1912 with 2,223 people on board. The high casualty rate resulting from the sinking was due in part to the fact that, although complying with the regulations of the time, the ship carried lifeboats for only 1,178 people. A disproportionate number of men died due to the “women and children first” protocol that was enforced by the ship’s crew.
Titanic was designed by experienced engineers, using some of the most advanced technologies and extensive safety features of the time. Adding to the ironic nature of the tragedy is the fact that the liner sank on her maiden voyage. The high loss of life, the media frenzy overTitanic‘s famous victims, the legends about the sinking, the resulting changes in maritime law, and the discovery of the wreck have all
RMS Titanic was a passenger liner that struck an iceberg on her maiden voyage from Southampton, England, to New York City, and sank on 15 April 1912. She hit the iceberg four days into the crossing, at 23:40 on 14 April 1912, and sank at 2:20 the following morning, resulting in the deaths of 1,517 people in one of the deadliest peacetime maritime disasters in history.
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Boulders Big Head Todd & Monsters wake up Shuttle Crew “Live”
0March 8, 2011
(16:47)
More Space Shuttle Discovery Videos:
http://www.nasa.gov/multimedia/videogallery/index.html?collection_id=14554&media_id=70058841
