EPA Administrator Lisa Jackson kicked off the conference with remarks at the Stanford Graduate School of Business.

By MacKenzie C. Babb
IIP Staff Writer
Washington,
06 February 2012

More than 400 global policymakers, development chiefs and technology leaders have gathered in California for a three-day conference to discuss using connection technologies, like the Web and mobile phones, to advance sustainable development in the fields of health, the environment, agriculture and economic growth.

The February 2–4 conference at Stanford University, “Rio+2.0: Bridging Connection Technologies and Sustainable Development,” was sponsored by the U.S. government in preparation for the upcoming United Nations Conference on Sustainable Development in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.

“As Rio+20, the 20th anniversary of the 1992 Earth Summit, approaches in June, we have a chance to learn lessons, build partnerships and put in place innovative strategies that can reshape the economic and environmental future of our entire planet,” Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Lisa Jackson said February 3 during her conference keynote address. She added that the collaboration offers “the rarest of opportunities to truly change the world and make a difference that will benefit billions of people.”

Jackson called on participants at the conference to find creative ways to apply existing and cutting-edge technologies to advance sustainable development around the world.

She said communications technologies, such as the Internet, SMS and mobile phones, have proven effective in helping underserved communities around the world gain access to information, better jobs and an improved quality of life.

“In my travels as administrator, I have been to parts of the world where it seemed like everyone had access to a cellphone, but not everyone had access to clean water,” Jackson said. “The opportunities are there to use that technology to make a difference.”

She said connection technologies have the potential to bring together stakeholders from across the spectrum, helping governments, nongovernmental organizations, the private sector and individuals share information about sustainable development.

The administrator added that new technologies allow laws, regulations and compliance assistance to be made available on the Internet and on mobile phones and also simplify the process of reporting environmental violations and corrupt practices.

“Through broad public and private collaboration, made possible through new technology, we can show the world how to build 21st-century urban communities where the environment, health, social inclusion and economic prosperity all go hand in hand,” Jackson said.

She was joined at the conference by several State Department leaders, including Under Secretary of State for Economic Growth, Energy, and the Environment Robert Hormats; Assistant Secretary for Oceans and International Environmental and Scientific Affairs Kerri-Ann Jones; and Senior Advisor for Innovation Alec Ross.

Other U.S. government participants included Deputy Under Secretary of Agriculture for Research, Education and Economics Ann Bartuska; the U.S. Agency for International Development’s Senior Counselor and Chief Innovation Officer Maura O’Neill; and Chair of the White House Council on Environmental Quality Nancy Sutley.
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Former first ladies Nancy Reagan, left, and Laura Bush at a 2005 display of red dresses for the heart health awareness campaign that year. First ladies donated all the gowns.

By Charlene Porter
IIP Staff Writer
Washington,
February 2,  2012

Cardiovascular diseases (CVDs) are the greatest single global killer, the cause of 30 percent of all deaths worldwide, according to the World Health Organization (WHO). Members of the U.N. General Assembly in 2011 resolved to emphasize public awareness of this health risk in their home countries and advocate healthier lifestyles that can prevent CVDs.

The United States urges citizens to take responsibility for heart health with the annual recognition of American Heart Month every February, as declared by presidential proclamation.

President Obama’s proclamation January 31 called heart disease a “staggering health problem” with one in three American adults affected by some form of cardiovascular disease.

“This month, let us rededicate ourselves to reducing the burden of heart disease by raising awareness,” the proclamation said, “taking steps to improve our own heart health, and encouraging our colleagues, friends, and family to do the same.”

CVDs are a group of disorders of the heart and blood vessels. Heart disease and stroke are the most widely occurring, but arterial disease in the arms and legs and pulmonary embolism are also included in the group.

Both the WHO and U.S. health agencies have emphasized that these diseases are caused largely — 80 percent, according to WHO — by lifestyle behaviors that individuals have the power to improve: high blood pressure, high cholesterol, diabetes, obesity, physical inactivity and tobacco use.

On the global scale, the WHO is emphasizing the severity of CVDs in the developing world. “People in low- and middle-income countries who suffer from CVDs and other noncommunicable diseases have less access to effective and equitable health care services which respond to their needs (including early detection services),” a WHO fact sheet says.

The dangers of heart disease and other CVDs in the developing world ranked high on the list of concerns when the U.N. General Assembly held a special session on noncommunicable diseases (NCDs) in September 2011. The session convened around the belief that NCDs not only adversely affect individuals and families, but that they contribute to a downward spiral of poor health, inability to thrive and sustained poverty.

The special session ended with U.N. member states committing to reduce risk factors, create health-promoting environments, strengthen national policies and health systems, bolster international cooperation and partnerships and promote research and development. The delegates pledged to work with the WHO and other international organizations toward those goals. As the assembly adopted this political declaration, Secretary General Ban Ki-moon said, “We can do more than heal individuals — we can safeguard our very future.”

AMERICAN HEART MONTH

In 2012, the U.S. National Heart, Blood and Lung Institute will enter a new decade of its February campaigns, The Heart Truth, which alert women to their risk of CVDs. Heart attack long was thought to be a greater health concern for men in the United States, and only in recent years have women realized that they too are at high risk.

The Heart Truth and its centerpiece symbol of the red dress have been important in raising awareness and media coverage over the last decade. Joining the U.S. government in the cause, the fashion industry — including designers, models, and celebrities — is a partner in National Wear Red Day, marked on February 3 this year, when tens of thousands of participants suit up in red apparel as a symbol of their concern about cardiovascular disease.

With pink as their signature color, breast cancer survivors celebrate their cure with a balloon release before a ball game on the field of the Oakland (California) Athletics.

By Charlene Porter
IIP Staff Writer
Washington,
February 1, 2012

The United States joins the Union for International Cancer Control (UICC), the World Health Organization and a host of other players in recognition of World Cancer Day February 4, an event to raise awareness of one of the leading causes of death worldwide.

Cancer, in its many forms, took 7.6 million lives in 2008, the last year of comprehensive data available. Deaths attributed to cancer are expected to top 11 million in 2030, according to the World Health Organization (WHO). Lung, stomach, liver, colon and breast cancer cause the most deaths each year. WHO says as many as 30 percent of all cancer deaths are brought on by the risks we take in life.

A main objective of World Cancer Day is to warn people about those risks, all of which are within the individual’s power to control: high body mass index, low fruit and vegetable intake, lack of physical activity, tobacco use and alcohol use.

The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) says on its World Cancer Day Web page, “Research suggests that one-third of cancer deaths can be avoided through prevention, and another third through early detection and treatment.”

The 2012 recognition of World Cancer Day is the first since the global community took an important step forward in combating cancer and other noninfectious diseases last year. The U.N. General Assembly held a special session on noncommunicable diseases in September 2011 to engage governments in taking actions to reduce occurrence of diseases such as cancer, cardiovascular disease and diabetes. Raising awareness about noncommunicable diseases is especially important for developing countries, where half the world’s cancer occurs but where public health infrastructure is least prepared to detect and treat disease before it becomes irreversible.

CDC reports that it has joined the International Agency for Research on Cancer, the UICC and other organizations in a project to close the cancer data gap in developing world nations. The Global Initiative for Cancer Registry Development in Low- and Middle-Income Countries (GICR) will help produce sound data on the occurrence of cancer as a step toward prevention.

“The need is pressing to expand the coverage of population-based cancer registries,” according to WHO documents, “in order to obtain more complete and reliable data to guide cancer control interventions.”

Cancer registries are a base for epidemiological research in a given country as they keep detailed data on the types of cancer and the characteristics of their occurrence. Experts are able to review this data and detect patterns that can be further analyzed to produce prevention measures.

Cancer registries in the United States describe 80 percent of the cancer cases that occur, but in South Asia registries capture data on only 4 percent of cases, and in Africa 0 percent.

Another CDC message for World Cancer Day is that prevention starts in childhood with the introduction of good health habits regarding diet, exercise and weight control. Playful, energetic children who want to stay outside are also vulnerable to severe sunburn. “Just a few serious sunburns can increase your child’s risk of skin cancer later in life,” reports CDC.

The CDC is also trying to raise awareness about the human papillomavirus (HPV), a common virus that can be passed between partners during intercourse, as a principal cause of cervical cancer and a possible cause of vaginal and vulvar cancers. A vaccine is available to prevent HPV, and the CDC recommends it for girls 11 and 12. Girls and women 13 to 26 years old are also advised to get the vaccine if they did not do so at an earlier age.

Health Secretary Kathleen Sebelius is a principal advocate for the Obama administration's Global Health Strategy.

By Charlene Porter
IIP Staff Writer
Washington  DC,
January 09, 2012

If the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) is going to protect the health of American citizens, it must look beyond national borders and work to improve health on a global basis. HHS Secretary Kathleen Sebelius explained her agency’s expanded world view in a speech to a Washington-based nonprofit organization devoted to health policy issues.

The secretary delivered the remarks after the release of a Global Health Strategy, the first such plan crafted by HHS, which serves as the parent agency to frontline research and care agencies such as the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the National Institutes of Health.

“In a world in which the flow of people and goods stretches across the globe,” Sebelius said January 5, “our only chance to keep Americans safe is if our systems for preventing, detecting and containing disease stretch across the globe too.”

The strategy works in tandem with two related policy announcements from the Obama administration. The White House outlined a Global Health Initiative in 2009, pledging to assist other nations in strengthening their health systems. In September 2010, President Obama addressed the U.N. General Assembly and urged the global community to come together to prevent, detect and fight all biological dangers, including pandemic, terrorist threat or treatable disease.

The United States has a long record of assisting other nations in solving health problems and providing leadership in massive disease-eradication efforts for smallpox and polio. But Sebelius said the nation has self-interest in collaborating with other countries to find treatments and cures for conditions and diseases that threaten people everywhere.

“Everywhere I’ve traveled as secretary, from Paris to Moscow to Beijing to Nairobi, health leaders are trying to solve the same problems as us,” Sebelius told her audience at the Kaiser Family Foundation. “And it’s not just dealing with chronic diseases. Topics from rising health costs to the shortage of primary care providers have become typical agenda items in my meetings with my international colleagues.”

Sebelius said the Global Health Strategy will put particular focus on improving the health of women and girls, based on the fact that women serve as the best messengers to spread knowledge of health habits and disease prevention to their communities.

Unlike many policy areas in which protracted negotiations may be required for nations to reach agreement, Sebelius said, she sees an eagerness for participation from her counterparts in other nations. “When the discussion turns to tackling our biggest health challenges, there is a broad consensus that nations must work together.”

Collaboration in pursuit of solutions to health problems — whether it is development of a new drug or understanding an unknown disease — will benefit people everywhere, she said. “And a healthier world is one in which every nation will have more productive workers, longer lives, and larger markets for its goods and services.”

In Tinh Bien, Vietnam, a woman undergoes an exam at a clinic providing AIDS treatment with sponsorship from the U.S. Agency of International Development.

By Charlene Porter
IIP Staff Writer
Washington DC,
January 05,  2012

An international research team has developed a vaccine that provides some protection for monkeys against the simian immunodeficiency virus (SIV), and the discovery may light the path to a vaccine candidate that will protect humans from HIV.

The research demonstrates that “scientists are homing in on the critical ingredients of a protective HIV vaccine,” according to an announcement January 4 by Harvard University, which is among the supporters of the Ragon Institute, an institution expressly created in 2009 to bring fresh approaches to the pursuit of a vaccine against HIV, the virus that brings on AIDS.

The U.S. Military HIV Research Program (MHRP), Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center (BIDMC) and the pharmaceutical company Crucell Holland B.V. were also partners in the collaboration. The National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID) joined the other institutions in providing backing for the work.

This is the first research effort to show partial vaccine protection in a test with animals, and it also demonstrated that novel combinations of different vaccines — rather than a single vaccine alone — administered to rhesus monkeys can achieve that protection. Monkeys don’t develop disease when exposed to HIV, so closely-related SIV offers the best testing ground for a vaccine that might ultimately be administered to humans.

The group used a “prime boost” vaccine technique developed over the last decade that involves a two-stage immunization process, administering different vaccine formulas several months apart. After they administered a second vaccine, the “boost,” the researchers injected the monkeys with SIV.

This regimen resulted in a more than 80 percent reduction in the per exposure probability that the monkeys would become infected.

“This study allowed us to evaluate the protective efficacy of several prime-boost vaccine combinations,” said Dr. Dan H. Barouch of BIDMC, “and these data will help guide the advancement of the most promising candidates into clinical trials.” As BIDMC’s chief of vaccine research, Barouch led the study.

The researchers also analyzed the type of responses mounted by the monkeys’ immune system. They found that animals produced different antibodies in response to each of the vaccines administered. Attacking the SIV cells differently, these antibodies achieved their most significant level of protection when monkeys’ immune systems mounted defenses against both the envelope protein that makes up the outer coat of SIV and the virus’s capability to replicate after infecting the host.

Those distinctly different immune system responses “likely reflect fundamentally different requirements to block establishment of infection compared with controlling viral replication after infection,” said Colonel Nelson Michael, director of the U.S. MHRP at Walter Reed Army Institute of Research.

These findings produce enough positive evidence to push the research to the next phase, according to statements by the partners. The collaborators plan to move to the first phase of clinical testing in which vaccine candidates will be administered to humans at trial sites in the United States, East Africa, South Africa and Thailand. Participants in the research still caution that results in animal testing cannot be projected forward as an outcome of future human testing. Medications always must move through three phases of clinical testing for both efficacy and safety before they are even submitted to regulators for approval.

These positive results in vaccine research come after the 30th anniversary of the identification of the virus. It was an occasion that led the U.N. General Assembly (UNGA) to reaffirm its commitment to addressing the global epidemic of HIV/AIDS at a special session in New York. On the sidelines of that event, U.S. officials expressed optimism about multilateral partnerships against the disease and the prospect of finding an effective vaccine that could stop HIV contagion.

The United States is the single largest donor in the huge global effort to combat the disease. On World AIDS Day December 1, the White House released the latest statistics on the numbers of lives touched by U.S.-backed programs, including:

• 3.9 million people receiving lifesaving anti-retroviral treatment.
• 9.8 million pregnant women receiving HIV testing and counseling.
• 13 million people receiving care and support, including more than 4.1 million orphans and vulnerable children.

An AIDS patient is treated in this South African clinic that is partially funded by the President's Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR).

By Charlene Porter
IIP Staff Writer
Washington,
14 December 2011

Moving swiftly to implement the findings of successful research has saved lives and slowed the global pandemic of HIV/AIDS, according to a U.S. leader in the campaign, Ambassador-at-Large Eric Goosby.

Dr. Goosby, the U.S. global AIDS coordinator, spoke December 13 to an audience at the National Institutes of Health, which has been a world leader in scientific breakthroughs about HIV/AIDS and ways to combat it. “The link between knowledge generation and rapid deployment in the epicenter of the epidemic makes for a powerful combination,” Goosby said.

That approach will lead the world to an AIDS-free generation, Goosby said, a goal President Obama set in a World AIDS Day message December 1.

The President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR), first funded by the U.S. Congress in 2003, has worked for broad distribution of the medicines and methods that have tamed the global pandemic. In 2003 only 50,000 people in sub-Saharan Africa had access to antiretroviral (ARV) drugs, the cocktail of medicines that research discovered will arrest HIV and allow a person to live a reasonably healthy life. Now, Goosby said, almost 4 million receive this treatment through PEPFAR.

Treatment programs run by the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria have also expanded in the hard-hit nations, with 3.3 million now receiving medicines through that internationally backed funding mechanism.

The HIV/AIDS pandemic began as a problem for medical science to solve, but over time, social and economic consequences of widespread disease emerged as threats to the stability of the worst-affected nations. Goosby said expanding treatment has also helped to ease some of those broad social problems.

“For every 1,000 people we support on treatment for one year, we avert the orphanhood of 449 children,” Goosby said. “That is another dimension of the concept of treatment as prevention.”

One of the earliest studies that demonstrated the effectiveness of AIDS treatment as a preventive measure came in 1994, Goosby said, when a study showed that treatment of HIV-positive pregnant mothers could prevent the transmission of the virus to their infants. Within months of that finding, AIDS specialists developed guidelines for treating pregnant mothers with ARVs.

The practice of treatment-as-prevention has also been proven effective among couples in which one partner is HIV-positive and the other is not. Earlier onset of treatment for the HIV-positive partner leads to a lower likelihood of transmission of the virus to the other.

Expanded treatment and expanded prevention programs have been important in PEPFAR’s almost eight-year history, but Goosby said the program is also dedicated to public health diplomacy. It isn’t just about the lives that are saved today.

“Improving public health requires creating a lasting, durable improvement in the capacity of our partner countries to address their needs,” Goosby said. The history of foreign assistance programs does not show that aid alone can create that capability.

“We are also supporting the development of capable leadership, good governance, peace and stability and sensible economic and social policies,” Goosby said. Those goals are harder to achieve than the distribution of drugs and medical technology alone. “But we want our impact to last, and there really are no shortcuts,” he said.

As PEPFAR works to improve health care systems in partner countries, the program also aims to help develop the next generation of leaders who will work on an array of issues including both health and development.
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Only a few buildings survived the tsunami's wallop in Minamisanriku, seen here in November eight months later. Few towns inside the tsunami zone have begun rebuilding

Washington,
07 December 2011

Data collected from U.S. and French satellites have led to confirmation of a “merging tsunami,” the monster wave that slammed the northeastern Japanese coastline last March.

Scientists made the discovery using radar satellite data that captured the motion of at least two wave fronts that day. The fronts merged to form a single, double-high wave far out at sea. Ocean ridges and undersea mountain chains pushed the waves together, making a wave capable of traveling long distances without losing power.

Scientist Y. Tony Song of NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California, and Professor C.K. Shum of Ohio State University discussed their findings at the American Geophysical Union meeting in San Francisco December 5.

“It was a 1 in 10 million chance that we were able to observe this double wave with satellites,” Song said. He is the principal investigator in the NASA-funded study.

Researchers have suspected for decades that such “merging tsunamis” might be possible, and the superwaves were even thought to be involved in tsunami disasters of the past. But in the vastness of the world’s oceans, the phenomenon had never been spotted before.

“It was like looking for a ghost,” Song said. “A NASA–French Space Agency satellite altimeter happened to be in the right place at the right time to capture the double wave and verify its existence.”

Three satellites actually passed over the building wave in the Pacific Ocean on March 11. All three had radar altimeters on board, devices that measure sea-level changes within a few centimeters.

“We can use what we learned to make better forecasts of tsunami danger in specific coastal regions anywhere in the world, depending on the location and the mechanism of an undersea quake,” Shum said.

Up to now, hazard maps attempting to predict likely spots for a tsunami strike have used only topographical data near a particular shoreline. This study suggests that scientists might be able to make better predictions if they survey much broader undersea topography, even subsea ridges and mountains far from shore.

“Tools based on this research could help officials forecast the potential for tsunami jets to merge,” Song said. “This, in turn, could lead to more accurate coastal tsunami-hazard maps to protect communities and critical infrastructure.”

Teens in the Dominican Republic rally in support of AIDS prevention

By Donna Miles
IIP American Forces Press Service

Washington,
01 December 2011

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President Obama marked World AIDS Day with a predicition that an AIDS-free generation may be within reach if funding and commitment are sustained.

By Charlene Porter,
IIP Staff Writer,
Washington ,
01 December 2011

President Obama celebrated World AIDS Day December 1 with a promise to broaden U.S. support for programs delivering life-saving drugs to patients with HIV infection worldwide.

In a Washington ceremony attended by prominent officials and activists who battle the disease, Obama offered thanks and congratulations for their efforts, just as he challenged them to maintain their commitment to work toward an AIDS-free generation.

“Today, we come together as a global community, across continents, faiths and cultures, to renew our commitment to ending the AIDS pandemic once and for all,” Obama said, speaking on the campus of George Washington University.

The president also boosted the goals of the United States’ global AIDS program, the President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR).

“Today, we’re setting a new target of helping 6 million people get on treatment by the end of 2013,” Obama said. “That’s 2 million more people than our original goal.”

When the United States first launched PEPFAR in 2003, increasing the availability of AIDS treatment to control the progression of the disease was a key objective. At that time, the program goal was to broaden drug delivery to 2 million people with HIV infection. In the most recent fiscal year, the Obama administration reports that the original goal has almost doubled, with 3.9 million people receiving anti-retroviral therapy.

PEPFAR began by targeting HIV/AIDS in 15 countries with serious epidemics. Now 30 nations are engaged in bilateral partnerships with the United States to address their epidemics. Regional plans are also in place in the Caribbean, Central Asia and Central America.

In his World AIDS Day speech, Obama also challenged other nations to boost their commitments and contributions to the fight against the disease. Nations that have made financial pledges to the Global Fund to Fight HIV/AIDS, Malaria and Tuberculosis need to meet those pledges, he said, and countries that have made rapid progress in expanding their national economies, such as China, now need to “step up as major donors.”

Former President George W. Bush, who proposed and won adoption of PEPFAR and the $15 billion of funding that made it work, joined the Washington event by teleconference from Tanzania, one of the countries that has benefited from the program. He said World AIDS Day is an occasion to celebrate success. “We went to a clinic and held a little baby that five years ago would likely have died or contracted AIDS. Nothing more joyful,” Bush said.

Tanzanian President Jakaya Kikwete also joined the Washington audience via teleconference. He said thousands of his citizens are alive today who otherwise would have died, and currently more than 740,000 people are receiving anti-retroviral therapy, which suppresses the virus. Kikwete also described the support given to the Tanzanian medical sector. Training and equipment provided by the United States and other international donors have improved the country’s capacity to test, diagnose and treat disease.

“We have made achievements, but there are still gaps. Some of the gaps are huge,” Kikwete said. “We need to continue to work together to save lives.”

Like Obama and Kikwete, Bush urged the American audience to continue its international support for AIDS programs in Tanzania and other nations, even though the United States is mired in high unemployment and a slow recovery from recession. “When you go through budgetary struggles, it seems like to me, the best thing to do is to set priorities and focus on that which is effective,” Bush said. “There is nothing more effective than PEPFAR.”

In his speech, President Obama appealed to the U.S. Congress to sustain its budgetary support for PEPFAR and for increased commitments in domestic efforts to contain HIV/AIDS. While the rates of new infection have declined dramatically in many places, he said, that is not so for several demographic groups in the United States, notably young homosexual African-American men. The president said he hopes to devote more funding to U.S. programs that provide care for HIV patients and provide AIDS drug assistance.
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The Sample Analysis at Mars (SAM) instrument for the Mars Science Laboratory will study the chemistry of rocks, soil and air.

By Charlene Porter
IIP Staff Writer

Washington,
23 November 2011

 

The U.S. space agency is set to launch an unmanned mission to Mars November 26, and while the Mars Science Laboratory (MSL) will leave Earth’s orbit alone, the craft represents 40 years of research and analysis conducted by generations of scientists trying to better understand life in the universe.

MSL will spend eight months flying to Mars. When the spacecraft arrives, it will deliver a mobile laboratory to the surface of the planet, a rover called Curiosity. The rover will be set down at a specific place on the Martian surface where scientists think conditions will reveal the planet’s geologic history. Orbital observations made by previous unmanned missions have identified a crater — which scientists have called Gale Crater — where surface features are like those on Earth that have been created by water.

Curiosity will spend almost two years gathering and analyzing rock and soil samples from Gale Crater, trying to detect whether planetary conditions were at one time favorable for sustaining microbial life and preserving any clues in the samples that point to life forms.

At a November 22 briefing, the director of NASA’s Astrobiology Program, Mary Voytek, said MSL will be searching out “habitability” on the Martian surface.

“One of the ingredients of life is water,” she said. “We’re now looking to see if we can find other conditions that are necessary for life by defining habitability, or what it takes in the environment to support life.”

A principle underlying this work is that any life form is made of the minerals and elements that also comprise its environment. Pan Conrad, a principal investigator of Mars samples, said the molecules and components of Martian soils will also be the stuff of any life forms discovered there. “If there has ever been a biosphere on Mars, or any other celestial object for that matter, it’s going to exhibit the characteristics of those environments.”

Conrad also said scientists must remember to keep an open mind. “We can’t say with any definitive knowledge that we could recognize life somewhere else in the solar system, or beyond the solar system, without being able to unbolt all the assumptions and experiences we have looking at Earth life.”

Jamie Foster, a professor of microbiology and cell science at the University of Florida, will be looking at the data Curiosity collects for signs of microbial life forms. On Earth, she said, we’ve come to understand how ancient microbial life forms interacted with Earth’s elements and left “signatures” in these elements that help us better understand what kind of life forms they were. Rock samples from Mars might contain similar signatures of microbial life forms, Foster said at the briefing.

“If we can understand the environmental parameters or the biologic potential of how life might have formed on Mars, we can correlate that with our studies of modern examples of past life here on Earth,” Foster said, broadening our understanding of how life came to be on the planet and in the solar system.

Studying the stuff of Mars at the molecular level will also serve as a starting point for developing a space colony on Mars. If scientists know what elements are available as building blocks, they’ll be better able to design the systems astronauts would need to survive there.

Members of the scientific panel resisted when reporters asked for speculation on what they might find. Conrad said she is only certain that the MSL mission is going to provide a lot of data that will allow scientists to learn a lot about Mars, its environment and its potential to support life. “We’ll learn lots about the chemistry of that environment, and that should help us have new ideas that are not so Earth-centric,” she said.

NASA has set the launch for November 26, but if some unexpected problem emerges, the launch opportunity extends to December 18. After the craft arrives at the Red Planet in August, it will have a primary mission lasting one Martian year, which is almost two Earth years.

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