NASA
has developed a ‘space drink’ in order to protect the astronauts from
radiation.
The drink also has the ability to reduce wrinkles and reverse signs of aging, within four months, according to researchers.
A team of researchers at Utah University
conducted a human trial to finally arrive at the conclusion the
concoction, also called as AS10, noticeably brings reduction in wrinkles, sun damage and blemishes after being consumed for four months.
Researchers took the visa
photographs of 180 participants at the initial stage of the trial.
Photographs reveal the condition of the skin below the surface, making
use of various types of light exposure.
After
participants consumed two shots of AS10 a day, for four months, researchers again took their photographs.
After analyzing the photos, researchers found wrinkles have reduced by 17%, and UV spots reduced by 30%.
AS10 was developed by NASA mainly as a nutritional supplement
for astronauts with the aim of protecting them from high levels of
radiation beyond the Earth’s atmosphere.
Radiation particles are responsible for forming reactive oxygen species
(ROS) by altering the oxygen
molecules within the body.
ROS, or ‘free
radicals’ damage cells during a process called oxidative stress, a process linked to various
diseases, including Alzheirmer’s and cancer.
In addition, the toxic molecules are considered great contributors to the aging process of skin.
To counter the damages, the drink was developed with nutritional
ingredients including combination of fruits like cupuacu (a cacao plant
family fruit from Brazil), acai, acerola, yumberry, and prickly pear.
These fruits provide necessary vitamins
and phytochemicals, compounds known for blocking the adverse
effects of radiation.
Some other ingredients include green tea, pomegranate, grape and various vegetables.
“Think of them as little Pac-men, taking
bites out of molecules essential for cell function,” said team research leader, Dr Aaron Barson.
He added, “The skin is the first body tissue to be exposed to UV rays and
we know it is sensitive to oxidative stress.
"Our study shows skin greatly
benefits from a reduction in stress.
"The effects of oxidative
stress on the skin can be quickly modified, and can heal itself after AS10 treatment.”
AS10 is considered a skin enhancer, largely because the antioxidants
present in large quantities in the drink protect against the oxidative
stress, thereby enabling the skin to naturally repair itself.
Antioxidants neutralize ROS by getting attached to them before they cause damage.
Antioxidants in the drink enable it to reverse signs of aging.
(Upside: You might be stressed but your skin is unblemished.)
There are a handful of odors present in people the bugs prefer not to,
ahem, bug (some assumed to be related to stress) and researchers are
hoping to synthesize those chemicals to create a natural, highly
effective repellent.
(What I got from my mother: wanderlust, a near-obsession with eating, a
near-religious belief in buying quality footwear, and a standing
invitation for mosquitoes.)
In particular, mosquitoes love uric acid,
steroids and cholesterol, all of which can be secreted by the skin and
detected by the insects from a 50-metre distance.
With increasing concern about the transmission of serious illness
through their bites (Remember that West Nile scare? Not to mention the
near-global concern about malaria?) it's even more important to keep
those little bloodsuckers at bay.
Wat's a girl to do?
When it comes
to body chemistry, much is out of our hands.
You can try to limit
stress, steroids and alcohol, but if you're type O, that's your
lot.
If you're heading out into the woods, consider a more gentle,
natural repellent, instead of loading up on chemicals.
Neem oil (which is
used in Mexico and India) is a great natural solution and can be
applied directly to the skin.
Tim
Horton's locations at some hospitals are losing money - taxpayer money -
because they are paying employees far more than employees make at other
locations .
At St. John's Health Sciences Centre, Newfoundland's largest hospital, Tim Hortons lost $260,000 last year.
It's the fourth year in a row the beloved Canadian coffee chain failed to make a profit.
People are still lining up for coffee and treats, but the loss is due to money going out.
While most Tim Horton's in the country employees start at minimum
wage, those serving coffee at the hospital were making $28 an hour -
that's $20 an hour, plus employer costs and benefits - which devoured any
possible profit margins.
"Let me tell you why the hospital franchise loses money," Vickie Kaminski, Eastern Health's president and CEO, told reporters
on Tuesday.
"We charge you a buck-ninety-four for that large coffee,
but we insist the staff pouring the coffee are Eastern
Health staff, and they get paid $28 an hour.
"No Tim Horton's pays that."
The Timmy's outlet opened in 1995, with the expectation it would earn enough profit to cover the salaries of at least
seven nurses.
The hospital owns the coffee shops, meaning that the Tim Hortons are
funded by provincial healthcare dollars.
The money being lost is
taxpayers'.
Tim Hortons might be costing Canadians money, but at least they come
in handy sometimes.
At the Royal Columbian Hospital in B.C. last March,
the in-hospital Tim Horton's became a makeshift ER, thanks to massive overcrowding.
Earlier this month, Tim Hortons reported
higher first-quarter earnings than last year, but because of higher
operating costs, the profit still fell short of market forecasts.
Lawsuits slam 'all natural' claims from Tropicana orange juice, to chips and icecream...
By Jessica Gresko
– 11 hours ago
By Jessica Gresko, The Associated Press
WASHINGTON - Orange juice maker, Tropicana, markets
its brand as "fresh from the grove", but a series of lawsuits, nationwide,
claim the company's juice is so heavily processed, it shouldn't be called
"natural".
In some 20 lawsuits, the first one filed in
New Jersey, lawyers claim the company adds chemically engineered
"flavor packs" to its juice, making it taste the same, year-round.
Today, lawyers will come together in Washington to argue before a
panel of judges about where the lawsuits should be heard, as a group.
Tropicana declined to comment, but said in a statement it is committed to full compliance with labeling laws and to
producing "great-tasting, 100 per cent orange juice".
The orange juice lawsuits are just the latest disputes
over "all natural" claims.
Over the past several years, a number of
major national brands have been attacked for what consumers have called
deceptive labeling. Tostidos, SunChips, Snapple, and Ben & Jerry's
ice cream, have all faced similar attacks.
Lawsuits have become common enough the Grocery
Manufacturers Association, which represents more than 300 food and
beverage makers, held a panel discussing the topic as part of a
conference in February.
Lawyers representing food and beverage companies told their clients to be wary.
Part of the problem, lawyers agree,
is, consumers are looking for healthier products, and companies
have responded by creating and branding their products as "all natural".
The Food and Drug Administration, the agency that
oversees packaged food labeling in the United States, has no definition
of what counts as "natural".
As long as a food labeled "natural" doesn't
contain added color, artificial flavor or synthetic substances, the
agency doesn't object.
That's not enough guidance, some lawyers said.
"The whole "natural" issue is a mess," said Michael
Jacobson, executive director of the Center for Science in the Public
Interest, a Washington-based food safety and advocacy group that helped
get the makers of 7UP and Capri Sun to stop making "natural" claims about
their products.
Jacobson and others say the FDA's lack of guidance has left lingering questions.
One question has been, whether a product with high
fructose corn syrup, which is made by processing corn, but does not occur
naturally, can be labeled 'natural'.
That was the issue in a 2007 lawsuit
over Snapple drinks.
Snapple says it no longer uses high fructose
corn syrup in products marked "all natural"; and a New York judge
ultimately ruled in Snapple's favor and closed the case last year;
other lawsuits are still questioning the use of the term.
Many "all natural" lawsuits are still in their infancy,
said Kellie Lerner, a lawyer involved in the orange juice
litigation, and closely following "all natural" cases.
Lerner said, like
the orange juice lawsuit, other similar lawsuits have sought class
action status, where one or more consumers sue on behalf of all people
who bought the product.
The lawsuits could get dismissed or go to trial, but
companies could agree to settle with consumers and offer product
vouchers or rebates.
The company that owns Ben & Jerry's, and Breyers
ice cream, for example, settled "all natural" lawsuits for $7.5 million,
earlier this year, providing customers who bought flavors like "Chubby
Hubby", and "Chunky Munkey", cash rebates of up to $20.
The ice cream
company also agreed to change its packaging, something
lawyers involved in the orange juice lawsuit want, too.
"I'd like them to modify their marketing so
consumers can make informed judgments on their purchases," said
Stephen A. Weiss, a lawyer involved in one of the lawsuits against
Tropicana.
The Tropicana lawsuits are partly the result of a 2009
book about the orange juice industry, Alissa Hamilton's "Squeezed: What
You Don't Know About Orange Juice".
Hamilton, a doctoral student at Yale
when she started researching orange juice, spent five years learning
about the industry, interviewing Tropicana employees, growers, farmers,
and others.
Hamilton, who consulted with one of the firms involved
in a Tropicana lawsuit, said she would like to see Tropicana be clearer
in its labeling, and stop using words such as "fresh", ''natural", and
"pure".
"It's not simply orange, it's complicated orange," she
said.
"I'm just trying to advocate for more honesty, more
transparency."
Before Wednesday, very few people would have recognized the name, Luka Rocco Magnotta.
It wasn't uttered at dinner tables, or splashed across the
front pages of newspapers, and didn't conjure horrible
images of bloody crime scenes, or dismembered body parts.
Despite this, the man behind that name had found a modicum
of Internet fame over the past several years; although perhaps not the
kind he was hoping for.
Luka Rocco Magnotta's digital footprints, some allegedly left by the
29-year-old himself, and others, created by a select group of people from
all over the globe who have long believed him to be dangerous, are
ubiquitous, often bizarre and sometimes disturbing.
A quick Google search of "Luka Rocco Magnotta" turns up links to chat
rooms, Facebook pages, pornographic imagery, YouTube videos, a personal
website, even an (unverified) Twitter account - all connected to
the man who seems to have taken on multiple personas and names as he
struggled to build a career as a gay porn star, then became the
subject of an international campaign to have him thrown in jail.
A group of people who have spent over a year using Facebook to
attempt to track him down and hand him over to police named Magnotta
"the kitten vacuumer".
Animal rights activists around the world mobilized, beginning in 2010,
to identify him after a video surfaced allegedly showing Magnotta
placing two kittens in a plastic bag, then vacuuming the air out,
suffocating the animals.
Two more videos, also depicting the torture and
killing of cats, have also been linked to Magnotta.
At one point, a
$5,000 reward was offered to bring him to justice.
On Wednesday, as Magnotta's digital legacy became the subject of
intense scrutiny, the administrators of a Facebook group, dubbed "Find
the Kitten Vacuumer for Great Justice", re-leased a statement.
"We are patiently waiting for more information on the case and have
faith in the Montreal police," it reads.
"Members of this group have
spent over a year searching for this individual ...
"Information gathered
by group members was passed onto the authorities in Canada, and we were
informed that they were actively working on locating the person seen in
the videos hurting animals."
The administrators said they would not be commenting further while the investigation is ongoing.
The exhaustive online efforts to locate Magnotta may have fuelled
some of his own alleged Internet writings, in which he defends his
reputation and com-plains about "cyber stalking" and "media propaganda".
"I do not feel the necessity to address the specific accusations made
in the posts, since they are so far from my character responding to
them will give them more credibility than they will ever hold," reads a
post on his website Luka-Magnotta.net.
The square-jawed but some-what effeminate Magnotta, who often appears
semi-nude or nude in online photos, has also claimed others were
impersonating him on the Internet, and "hoax websites are created
using my image and name, posing as me to seem more believable in respect
to the type of audience these website have."
In an article on another site purporting to be an interview with
Magnotta, the self-styled male model is described as "a James Dean lover,
and had cosmetic surgery to look like his idol."
The piece claims he
had to change his appearance, and was nervous to answer his door and
phone.
Another bizarre article, allegedly written by Magnotta
himself, describes a six-step process for vanishing and shedding one's
former identity.
Magnotta has repeatedly complained, online, about "lies" linking him
romantically to infamous schoolgirl killer Karla Homolka,
released from prison, without conditions, in 2005.
On Wednesday, Montreal police said the two had dated.
A post on Magnotta's personal Facebook page reads, simply:
"Monsters, Demons and Ghosts, they live inside of us, they are
real, and sometimes they win."
mmuise@ montrealgazette.com
Allison Hanes and the Ottawa Citizen contributed to this report
The discovery of the chemical HBCD in store-bought peanut butter adds to worries about the chemical. Corbis
A common flame retardant showed up in a variety of store-bought foods, including meat, peanut butter and fish.
The discovery of the chemical HBCD adds to growing evidence our
food supply is full of unwanted chemicals, including flame retardants.
The study also draws yet more attention to growing concerns about a
ubiquitous class of poorly regulated chemicals that, according to
growing evidence, may be harmful to our health, the environment, and
wildlife.
Despite all the potential risks, flame retardants are also
possibly ineffective at resisting fires in many situations.
"What we're seeing are chemicals that can cause endocrine disruption, cause nervous system damage, cause reproductive
damage, cause developmental damage, cause cancer, in
some cases," said Arnold Schecter, a public health physician at the
University of Texas School of Public Health, in Dallas, who has been
systematically uncovering a wide range of chemicals in supermarket
foods.
"What I see, as the big picture is, now that
we're looking, we’re finding them in many of the foods we're looking at
-- not all of them, but in large numbers of them."
HBCDs are a group of brominated flame retardants that appear
frequently in home insulation materials.
They are more common in Europe
than in the U.S, but in previous work, Schecter found the chemical in
the breast milk of American women, as well as in various foods sold here.
There are dozens of chemicals manufacturers use to try to reduce
the flammability of all sorts of products, including furniture,
electronics, baby car seats, and carpets.
Based on their chemical
structures, flame retardants can fit into one of several categories, and
some
categories have raised more health concerns than others.
So far, two classes of flame retardants -- brominated and chlorinated
-- have sparked the most worry, Schecter said, partly because they
accumulate in human tissues and partly because they last for a really
long time.
After exposure, the human body can take up to 219 days to
break down just half of a dose of some of the most persistent versions.
Recent studies suggest we are constantly exposed to a variety of
flame-retardants.
House dust is full of the chemicals, which easily
leach out of treated foam in furniture and other household objects.
Studies have found these chemicals in animals, as well as in human blood,
urine, and breast milk.
One group of flame retardants, called PBDEs, commonly used in the United States, appear in breast milk at
higher levels in America than they do in Europe, where PBDEs are being
phased out.
To get a more detailed picture of which forms of HBCDs show up most
often in our food supply and which foods carry the highest loads, he and
colleagues bought 36 types of food from Dallas supermarkets.
They
picked foods that had tested positive in their previous work, including
fish, turkey, peanut butter, bacon, and beef.
The list was heavy on
fat-containing foods because HBCDs are fat-soluble.
In the new study, levels turned out to be highest in canned sardines,
fresh salmon, peanut butter, and tilapia, researchers report today
in the journal Environmental Health Perspectives.
Other foods that
tested positive at lower amounts included canned chili, and sliced ham,
turkey, chicken, and other deli meats.
Individually, none of the foods had high enough levels of HBCDs to be
of concern.
That doesn’t necessarily mean there’s nothing to worry
about.
"The levels are lower than levels any government agency
we know of has suggested as a do-not-exceed or dangerous or reference
dose -- that’s the good news," Schecter said.
"The thing that isn't good
news is, we are finding so many different toxic chemicals in food."
"What concerns me is, the limits recommended not to be
exceeded that government agencies put out are usually reviewed one at a
time from animal studies or cell culture studies or human
epidemiological studies," he added.
"I don't think we have a good feel
for what the toxicity is of these mixtures of chemicals found in our
food and in our bodies."
The new findings are useful, considering we know relatively little
about HBCDs, said Heather Stapleton, an environmental chemist at Duke
University in Durham, N.C.
Climate Change: Carbon Dioxide Levels In World's Air Reach 'Troubling Milestone'...
By By SETH BORENSTEIN 31/05/12
WASHINGTON -- The world's air has reached what scientists
call "a troubling new milestone for carbon dioxide", the main global
warming pollutant.
Monitoring stations across the Arctic this spring are measuring more
than 400 parts per million of the heat-trapping gas in the atmosphere.
The number isn't quite a surprise, because it's been rising at an
accelerating pace.
Years ago, it passed the 350 ppm mark many
scientists say is the highest safe level for carbon dioxide.
It now
stands, globally, at 395.
So far, only the Arctic has reached that 400 level, but the rest of the world will follow soon.
"The fact it's 400 is significant," said Jim Butler, global
monitoring director at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric
Administration's Earth System Research Lab, in Boulder, Colo.
"It's just a
reminder to everybody that we haven't fixed this and we're still in
trouble."
Carbon dioxide is the chief greenhouse gas, and stays in the
atmosphere for 100 years.
Some carbon dioxide is natural, mainly from
decomposing dead plants and animals.
Before the Industrial Age, levels
were around 275 parts per million.
For more than 60 years, readings have been in the 300s, except in
urban areas, where levels are skewed.
The burning of fossil fuels, such
as coal for electricity and oil for gasoline, has caused the
overwhelming bulk of the man-made increase in carbon in the air,
scientists say.
It's been at least 800,000 years – probably more – since Earth saw
carbon dioxide levels in the 400s, Butler and other climate scientists
said.
Until now.
Readings are coming in at 400 and higher all over the Arctic.
They've
been recorded in Alaska, Greenland, Norway, Iceland and even Mongolia.
Levels change with the seasons, and will drop a bit in the summer,
when plants suck up carbon dioxide, NOAA scientists said.
So the yearly average for those northern stations likely will be lower and so will the global number.
Globally, the average carbon dioxide level is about 395 parts per
million but will pass the 400 mark within a few years, scientists said.
The Arctic is the leading indicator in global warming, both in carbon
dioxide in the air and effects, said Pieter Tans, a senior NOAA
scientist.
"This is the first time the entire Arctic is that high," he said.
Tans called reaching the 400 number "depressing," and Butler said it was "a troubling milestone."
"It's an important threshold," said Carnegie Institution ecologist,
Chris Field, a scientist who helps lead the Nobel Prize-winning
Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change.
"It is an indication we're in a different world."
Ronald Prinn, an atmospheric sciences professor at the Massachusetts
Institute of Technology, said 400 is more a psychological milestone than
a scientific one.
"We think in hundreds, and "we're poking our heads
above 400," he said.
Tans said the readings show how much the Earth's atmosphere and its
climate are being affected by humans.
Global carbon dioxide emissions
from fossil fuels hit a record high of 34.8 billion tons in 2011, up 3.2
percent, the International Energy Agency announced last week.
The agency said it's becoming unlikely the world can achieve the
European goal of limiting global warming to just 2 degrees, based on
increasing pollution and greenhouse gas levels.
"The news today, some stations have measured concentrations
above 400 ppm in the atmosphere, is further evidence the world's
political leaders – with a few honorable exceptions – are failing,
catastrophically, to address the climate crisis," former Vice President
Al Gore, the highest-profile campaigner against global warming, said in
an email.
"History will not understand or forgive them."
Political dynamics in the United States mean there's no
possibility of significant restrictions on man-made greenhouse gases, no
matter what the levels are in the air, said Jerry Taylor, a senior
fellow of the libertarian Cato Institute.
"These milestones are always worth noting," said economist Myron
Ebell at the conservative Competitive Enterprise Institute.
"As carbon
dioxide levels have continued to increase, global temperatures flattened
out, contrary to the models" used by climate scientists and the United
Nations.
He contends temperatures have not risen since 1998, which was unusually hot.
Temperature records contradict that claim.
Both 2005 and 2010 were
warmer than 1998, and the entire decade of 2000 to 2009 was the warmest
on record, according to NOAA.
As the wife of Roddenberry, and given her ongoing relationship with Star Trek—participating in some way in every series during her lifetime—she was sometimes referred to as "the First Lady of Star Trek".
She and Gene Roddenberry were married in Japan on 06 August 1969, after the cancellation of the original Star Trek series.[1]
Barrett as the original "Number One" in Star Trek: The Original Series first pilot episode
In various roles, Barrett participated in every incarnation of the popular science fictionStar Trekfranchise,
produced during her lifetime, including live-action and animated
versions, television and cinema, and all of the time periods in which
the various series have been set.
Barrett was romantically involved with Roddenberry, whose marriage was
on the verge of failing at the time, and the idea of having an otherwise
unknown woman in a leading role, because she was the producer's
girlfriend, is said to have infuriated NBC network executives, who
insisted Roddenberry give the role to a man.[3]
William Shatner corroborated this in Star Trek Memories, and added, female viewers at test screenings hated the character as well.[4]
Shatner noted women viewers felt she was "pushy", "annoying",
and also thought, "Number One shouldn't be trying so hard to fit in
with the men."[5]
Barrett often joked, Roddenberry, given the choice between keeping Mr. Spock
(whom the network also hated) or the woman character, "kept the Vulcan,
and married the woman, 'cause he didn't think Leonard [Nimoy] would have
it the other way around."[6]
Her role in subsequent episodes of Star Trek was altered to that of Nurse Christine Chapel,
a frequently recurring character, known for her unrequited affection
for the dispassionate Spock.
Her first appearance as Chapel in film
dailies prompted NBC executive, Jerry Stanley, to yodel, "Well, well--look
who's back!".[3]
She would return years later in Star Trek: The Next Generation, cast as the outrageously self-assertive, iconoclastic Betazoid ambassador, Lwaxana Troi, who appeared as a recurring character in the series.
Her character often vexed the captain of the Enterprise, Jean-Luc Picard, who spurned her amorous advances.
Barrett later appeared as Ambassador Troi in several episodes of Star Trek: Deep Space Nine, where in stark contrast, she developed a strong relationship with Constable Odo.
She reprised her role as a shipboard computer's voice in two episodes of the prequel series, Star Trek: Enterprise.
She also lent her voice to various computer games and software related
to the franchise.
Barrett had also made a point of attending a major Star Trek convention each year, in an effort to inspire fans and keep the franchise alive.[1]
Barrett is also one of six actors (the others being Jonathan Frakes,
Kate Mulgrew, George Takei, Avery Brooks, and Michael Dorn) to lend their
voices to the CD-ROM Star Trek: Captain's Chair, reprising her role as the voice of the ships' computers.
On 09 December 2008, less than 10 days before her death, Roddenberry
Productions announced she would be providing the voice of the
ship's computer once again, this time for the 2009 motion picture relaunch of Star Trek.[1][7]
Sean Rossall, a Roddenberry family spokesman, said she had
already completed the voiceover work, approximately 04 December 2008.[1]
The film is dedicated to her, as well as to Gene.
Barrett and her husband, Gene Roddenberry, were honored in 2002 by the Space Foundation with the Douglas S. Morrow Public Outreach Award[8] for their work creating awareness of and enthusiasm for outer space.
Other roles
“
My mother truly acknowledged and appreciated the fact Star Trek
fans played a vital role in keeping the Roddenberry dream alive, for the
past 42 years.
It was her love for the fans, and their love in return,
that kept her going for so long after my father passed away.
After Gene Roddenberry's death, Barrett took material from his
archives to bring two of his ideas into production.
She was executive
producer of Earth: Final Conflict (in which she also played the character Dr. Julianne Belman), and Andromeda.
In a gesture of goodwill between the creators of the Star Trek franchise, and of Babylon 5 (some of whose fans viewed them as rivals),[10] she appeared in the Babylon 5 episode "Point of No Return", as Lady Morella, the psychic widow of the Centauri emperor, a role which foreshadowed major plot elements in the series.
Parodying her voice work as the computer for the Star Trek series, Barrett performed as a guest voice on Family Guy, as the voice of Stewie Griffin's ship's computer, in the episode "Emission Impossible".
When a defect is identified, the system responds with her recorded
voice announcing information to the train crew over the radio.[11]
Final voiceover work
Some of Barrett's final voiceover work was still in post-production,
to be released in 2009 after her death, as mentioned in the credits of
the 2009 movie (released on DVD) Star Trek, again as the computer's voice.
An animated production, called "Hamlet A.D.D." credited her as Majel Barrett Roddenberry, playing the voiceover role of Queen Robot.[12]
On 26 January 2009, Celestis said it would ship the
remains of Gene Roddenberry and Majel Barrett-Roddenberry into space the
following year, but the launch was delayed.
The couple's cremated
remains will be sealed into specially made capsules, designed to
withstand space travel.
A rocket-launched spacecraft will carry the
capsules, along with digitized tributes from fans.
The Roddenberrys'
remains will then travel ever deeper into space, and will never return to
Earth.[14]
The spacecraft is currently planned for launch in 2014.[15]
^ abSolow, Herbert F.; Justman, Robert H. (1996). Inside Star Trek: The Real Story. New York: Pocket Books. ISBN0-671-89628-8.
^Star Trek Memories, dictated by William Shatner and transcribed by Chris Kreski, which HarperCollins published, with the ISBN 0-06-017734-9, in 1993, made this claim in the chapter on "The Cage."
^William Shatner, Star Trek Memories, Harper Collins, 1993. p.65
Majel
Barrett-Roddenberry was an American actress and producer.
She is best
known for her roles as Nurse Christine Chapel in the original Star Trek
series, Lwaxana Troi on Star Trek: The Next Generation, ... Wikipedia
Chapel abandoned a career in bio-research for a position in Starfleet, in the hopes a deep-space assignment would, one day, reunite her with her fiancé, Dr.Roger Korby – a scientist of renown, incommunicado from his expedition to Exo III since 2261.
Chapel confessing her love for Spock
Even while she still sought to locate Korby, Chapel was deeply infatuated with the Enterprise's half-Vulcanscience officer, Spock.
While her attraction never interfered with her professional duties, it
was an ongoing source of tension and bemusement throughout the five-year
mission.
Initially, Chapel kept these feelings to herself.
When the Psi 2000 intoxication afflicted the crew of the Enterprise, Chapel admitted her love for Spock, who was shocked:
"I'm in love with you, Mr. Spock. You, the Human Mr. Spock...
the Vulcan Mr. Spock.... I see things... how honest you are. I know how
you feel.
"You hide it, but you do have feelings.
"Oh, how we must hurt
you... torture you."
Chapel insisted Spock address her by her first name, as opposed
to her title, which he resisted.
Chapel was unaware Spock's
inability to react to her emotionally was further complicated by his
betrothal to T'Pring.
Leading him to the ceremony
in which his fiancée rejected him in favor of a different suitor, Spock
underwent a period of intense emotional outbursts: a blood fever known
as pon farr.
Chapel characteristically doted after the Vulcan, preparing plomeek soup,
a traditional Vulcan broth.
The experience allowed them to discuss, if briefly, Chapel's confession of love.
Despite his acknowledged
inability to return her affections, he did refer to her as Christine, for
the first time.
Chapel's longing for Spock was well-known among crew members, and
noted openly by Captain Kirk and Dr. McCoy on a number of occasions.
During Spock's recovery, after a near-death experience on Neural, fellow medical officer, Dr. M'Benga,
caught Chapel tenderly holding Spock's hand while watching his recovery
on the medical panel atop his bed.
M'Benga was sympathetic, despite
Chapel's attempt to hide her feelings.
Chapel later pro-actively aided
Spock by secretly holding his consciousness to keep him from being
destroyed by Henoch.
Three years after confessing her love to Spock, Chapel finally
shared a kiss with him.
The situation was forced by
powerful telekinetics,
compelling Chapel to admit, despite her long-standing desire to be
close with the Vulcan, all she wanted to do, given the humiliation of
the situation, was "crawl away and die".
While in miniaturized state, Chapel assisted Dr. McCoy in mending Hikaru Sulu's broken leg; as she attempted to retrieve a microscope laser, she tripped into the lab fish tank and nearly drowned, before she was saved by Captain Kirk.
At some point prior to this, Chapel had acquired a titanium bracelet made by the metalsmiths of Libra, which she occasionally wore while on duty.
Chapel returned to the Enterprise at the end of its refit, as chief medical officer.
Upon the return of Dr. McCoy, during the V'Ger crisis, he explained to Kirk he was "going to need a top nurse, not a doctor who will argue every little diagnosis with me."
Chapel later performed medical scans on the Ilia probe, and assisted in reacquainting the probe with Ilia's former life.
According to the TMPnovelization, Chapel was supposed to be the Enterprise's chief medical officer, but the arrival of McCoy changed that, and Chapel was very pleased he was CMO and she wasn't.
By the latter half of the 2280s, Chapel held the rank of commander.
In 2286, she was stationed at Starfleet Headquarters, where she coordinated relief efforts while Earth was suffering a severe ecological "attack" from an orbiting space probe.
In his reference bookThe World of Star Trek (3rd ed., p. 28), writer David Gerrold reckoned the character of Christine Chapel "was obviously created specifically" to love Spock, and went on to say, "The
need to dramatize Spock's Vulcan aloofness requires a woman fall
in love with him, and be continually rebuffed.
"Hence, Nurse Chapel."
In early draft scripts of "The Naked Time", this character was known as Christine Baker, and Christine Ducheaux. [1]
The script of "What Are Little Girls Made Of?" includes the following description of Chapel; "She's
a strong, calm woman, very much in control of herself, which emphasizes
only more for us the flickers of emotions that do occasionally show
through."
Also, as scripted for that episode, Chapel's abandonment
of a career in bio-research was stated to have been specifically for a
position aboard the Enterprise, though this ultimately changed to being an assignment aboard a generic vessel. [2]
"It
was because of her love for Spock, and his occasional moments of
gentleness toward her, that Christine Chapel was largely disliked among
the Trekkies who adored Spock," explained David Gerrold.
"Female fans saw her as a threat to their own fantasies, and male fans saw her as a threat to Spock's Vulcan stoicism."
The fans who met Majel Barrett were often surprised by how beautiful she was.
Gerrold concluded, "They just couldn't see it in her as Chapel, because of the relationship between her and Spock."
Another difficulty was due to the role not being fleshed out, which frustrated Barrett herself, as well as the
show's producers, notably Robert Justman. (Star Trek Magazine issue 144, p. 14)
In Star Trek: The Animated Series, the voice for the character of Chapel was provided by Majel Barrett, reprising the role from TOS.
Christine Chapel was intended to be included in the ultimately aborted television series Star Trek: Phase II, in which her promotion to doctor was planned to be established.
The Writers'/Directors' Guide for that series said of the character, "Introduced
in Star Trek I as Nurse Chapel, her medical degrees have been accepted
by Starfleet, and she has returned to the U.S.S. Enterprise to serve as
McCoy's associate.
She is second in command of the ship's medical
section, and McCoy seems to enjoy passing on to her every duty he finds
too boring, irritating, or annoying to himself.
Yet, outside of Captain
Kirk, she is probably McCoy's closest confidante.
An expert in
psychotherapy, she has the unusual ability to teach patients how to use the
healing powers of their own bodies."
In character notes Gene Roddenberry wrote for Star Trek: The Motion Picture,
Chapel was mentioned in the note about Dr. McCoy, and described as
being influenced by the fact McCoy was dealing with a great deal of
pressure at the time of the film, even to the point of almost causing
him to suffer a nervous breakdown.
The section regarding Chapel said, "She must take on an overly large portion of the load of treating the sick, and is likewise subject to breakage."
(The Making of Star Trek: The Motion Picture, p. 102)
Majel Barrett was delighted, in The Motion Picture,
Chapel was promoted to doctor status, and she herself was not
required to ruin her hair by dying it blond to match her TOS appearances
as Chapel.
In the film, Barrett's portrayal of Chapel was partly based
on the description of the character from the Writers'/Directors' Guide for Phase II.
(The Making of Star Trek: The Motion Picture, p. 119)
Her appearance in The Motion Picture is in keeping with the fact long hairstyles were disallowed in that film.
(The Making of Star Trek, p. 142)
Little canonical information exists about Chapel's life outside of her career in Starfleet.
It assigns her original rank as a "brevet" (or provisional) ensign, and says she rose to become the director of Starfleet Emergency Operations by the time of her Star Trek IV appearance.
28 May 2012 
