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SPLASHDOWN CRAIGRUBADOUX—FLORIDATODAY A SpaceX Falcon 9rocket lights up the sky during a launch from the Cape Canaveral Air Force Station's Launch complex. By Marcia Dunn TheAssociatedPress CAPE CANAVERAL, FLA. A SpaceX capsule returned to Earth on Wednesday with precious science samples from NASA's one-year space station resident. Less than six hours after leaving the International Space Station, the Dragon cargo carrier plopped into the Pacific, a few hundred miles off the Southern Cal- ifornia coast. SpaceX reported a good splashdown, with three red-and-white striped para- chutes slowing the final de- scent. The Dragon had been at the station for a month, dropping off supplies as well as an experimental, in- flatable room that will pop open in two weeks. It was set free by the station's big robot arm. British astronaut Tim- othy Peake bid farewell to Dragon on behalf of the sta- tion's entire six-man crew. "Dragon spacecraft has served us well, and it's good to see it departing full of science," Peake radi- oed from 250 miles up. "We wish it a safe recovery back to Planet Earth." Nearly 4,000 pounds of items fill the Dragon, in- cluding blood and urine samples from astronaut Scott Kelly's one-year mis- sion. Kelly returned to Earth in March and has since retired from NASA. Re- searchers will use the medi- cal specimens to study how the body withstands long journeys in space, in prep- aration for an eventual mis- sion to Mars in the 2030s. Also on board: a space- suit that leaked water into an astronaut's helmet in January, forcing an early end to a spacewalk. Engi- neers want to examine the suit to see what might have gone wrong. It is SpaceX's first return trip for NASA in a year. A launch accident last sum- mer grounded the Cali- fornia-based company for months. SpaceX's Dragon is the only station supply ship that returns to Earth. The other capsules — Orbital ATK's Cygnus and Russia's Progress — are filled with trash and burn up on re-entry. It's the company's eighth return flight from the sta- tion since 2012. The Falcon rocket that launched this Dragon back on April 8 is now in a han- gar at Cape Canaveral, Flor- ida — awaiting another flight. Rather than getting dumped in the ocean as is customary for launch companies, the Falcon's first-stage booster flipped around after performing its job and flew to a verti- cal landing on a barge float- ing in the Atlantic. It was the first successful rocket touchdown at sea. A sec- ond booster touched down safely at sea last Friday fol- lowing a satellite delivery. SpaceX chief Elon Musk wants to recover and reuse his rockets to drive down costs. Sp ac eX D ra go n re tu rn s to Earth with precious science load The Associated Press GOODYEAR, ARIZ. A so- lar-powered airplane that landed in Arizona last week after a daylong flight from California is headed to Oklahoma next on the latest leg of its around- the-world journey, proj- ect officials announced Wednesday. The Swiss-made Solar Impulse 2 is scheduled to take off from Phoenix Goodyear Airport at 3 a.m. Thursday with a des- tination of Tulsa Interna- tional Airport. The aircraft took off from Mountain View in northern California in the early hours of May 2 and landed at the airport southwest of Phoenix 16 hours later. The Solar Impulse 2's wings, which stretch wider than those of a Boeing 747, are equipped with 17,000 solar cells that power propellers and charge batteries. The plane runs on stored en- ergy at night. It began its globe-cir- cling trip last year and flew from Hawaii to Moun- tain View last month. After Oklahoma, the plane is expected to make one more stop in the United States be- fore crossing the Atlantic Ocean to Europe or north- ern Africa, according to the website documenting the journey. The aircraft began its voyage in March 2015 from Abu Dhabi, the cap- ital of the United Arab Emirates, and made stops in Oman, Myanmar, China and Japan. The plane had a five- day trip from Japan to Hawaii and three-day trip from Hawaii to Cali- fornia's Silicon Valley. The crew was forced to stay in Oahu, Hawaii for nine months after the plane's battery system sustained heat damage on its trip from Japan. Organizers said the lay- overs give the two Swiss pilots — Bertrand Piccard and Andre Borschberg — a chance to swap places and engage with local commu- nities along the way so they can explain the proj- ect, which is estimated to cost more than $100 mil- lion. Piccard is scheduled to be at the controls for the Arizona-to-Oklahoma leg. The solar project be- gan in 2002 to highlight the importance of renew- able energy and the spirit of innovation. ROUND-THE-WORLD JOURNEY Solar plane on global trip headed to Oklahoma from Arizona By Mike Stobbe The Associated Press NEW YORK For decades, pregnant women and women who may become pregnant have been advised to take folic acid to help pre- vent certain birth defects. But a new study suggests it may be possible to get too much of a good thing — very high levels of the vitamin in mothers' blood at the time of childbirth was linked to higher risk of their children developing autism years later. Other research points to an opposite relationship between folic acid and au- tism, showing that adequate amounts of the vitamin at the time of conception can significantly reduce the risk. Indeed, some experts raised questions about the new research. They note the findings are prelimi- nary numbers, and based on a small number of fami- liesseenatonlyonehospital. Also, the analysis is based on measures of the vitamin in mothers' blood at the time of delivery, which may not reveal much about what was going on in the women's bodyatthetimeofearlyfetal brain development. Even the researchers themselves said there's no causetochangecurrentpub- lic health recommendations. "We are not suggesting any- one stop supplementation," said one of the researchers, M. Daniele Fallin of Johns Hopkins University's school of public health. But it raises an intriguing question that should be ex- ploredinotherresearch,Fal- lin said. Two outside experts agreed. "It's a finding that has plausibility," said Dr. Ezra Susser, a Columbia Univer- sity professor of epidemiol- ogy and psychiatry. He said other researchers have won- dered whether too much fo- lic acid can cause problems. The findings were pre- sented Wednesday at an au- tism research conference in Baltimore. Folate is a vitamin found in foods that is important in cellgrowthanddevelopment ofthenervoussystem.Asyn- thetic version, folic acid, is used in supplements and is used to fortify flour and ce- reals. Decades ago, researchers found certain levels of fo- lic acid could prevent ma- jor birth defects of the ba- by's brain and spine. In the early 1990s, U.S. health offi- cials began recommending that all women who might become pregnant should take 400 micrograms of fo- lic acid daily. And in the late 1990s, federal regulations began mandating that folic acid be added to flour, bread and other grain products. Those steps are consid- ered one of the great public health success stories of the last half-century. Officials estimate that 1,000 birth defects are prevented each year because of it. The new researchers fol- lowed 1,391 children who were born at Boston Univer- sity Medical Center in 1998 through 2013. About 100 of them were later diagnosed with an autism spectrum disorder. The researchers went back and looked at lev- els of folate and vitamin B12 in the blood of the children's mothers at the time of child- birth. They found that 16 of them had very high levels of folate, and 15 had extremely high levels of vitamin B12. Thoseareverysmallnum- bers of cases. But they repre- sentsignificantlyhigherpro- portions than were seen in moms whose children who didn't develop autism. If both levels are ex- tremely high, there is more than a 17-fold greater risk that a child will develop au- tism, the researchers said. Most of the moms in the study said they took multi- vitamins — which would include folic acid and vita- min B12 — throughout their pregnancy. But the research- ers say they don't know why some women had such high levels in their blood. It may be related to tak- ing too many supplements and eating too many forti- fied foods. Or there could be a genetic reason that caused some womentoabsorbmore folate than others. Or there couldbeacombination,they said. Many studies of autism focus largely on white chil- dren in middle- and upper- income families. This one drew mainly from low-in- come and minority families, the researchers noted. RESEARCH A study asks: Too much folic acid a cause of autism? MARY ALTAFFER — THE ASSOCIATED PRESS A bottle of folic acid is photographed, Wednesday in New York. The Associated Press SAN JOSE Police in San Jose shot and wounded a man as he allegedly hacked his mother with an ax in a city street. The San Jose Mercury News says the mother and 26-year-old son are both hospitalized in stable con- dition after Wednesday morning's violence (http:// bayareane.ws/23I4yJw). Police in the neighbor- hood for an unrelated car crash say they came upon the man chasing his mother with a large ax out- side their home. CRIME San Jose police shoot man allegedly hacking mother in street | NEWS | REDBLUFFDAILYNEWS.COM THURSDAY, MAY 12, 2016 8 A ★