DURHAM, N.C., May 8 (UPI) -- U.S. engineers say the world is moving closer to the day when robots will perform surgery with minimal or no guidance from a doctor.

Duke University researchers say their feasibility studies may represent the first concrete steps toward achieving such a space age vision of the future.

For their experiments, the engineers used a rudimentary tabletop robot whose eyes used a 3-D ultrasound technology. An artificial intelligence program served as the robot's brain, taking real-time 3-D information, processing it and giving the robot commands to perform.

In a number of tasks, the computer was able to direct the robot's actions, said Stephen Smith, director of the university's Ultrasound Transducer Group. "We believe this is the first proof-of-concept for this approach.

Given that we achieved these early results with a rudimentary robot and a basic artificial intelligence program, the technology will advance to the point where robots -- without the guidance of the doctor -- can someday operate on people.

The research appears online in the journal IEEE Transactions on Ultrasonics, Ferroelectrics and Frequency Control. A second study, published in the April issue of the journal Ultrasonic Imaging, demonstrated the robot could successfully perform a simulated needle biopsy.

PARIS, May 8 (UPI) -- The Ulysses observatory, a U.S.-European mission, has won an international award for the scientific productivity of the spacecraft, now orbiting the sun.

The European Space Agency and the National Aeronautics and Space Administration will receive the 2008 International SpaceOps Award for Outstanding Achievement from the International Committee on Technical Interchange for Space Mission Operations and Ground Data Systems, also known as the SpaceOps Committee.

The award will be presented during the SpaceOps 2008 Conference next week in Heidelberg, Germany.

The Ulysses spacecraft was launched in 1990 on a planned five-year mission; keeping the hugely successful spacecraft operating for more than 17 years has presented operations engineers on the ground with a series of unique challenges, the ESA said.

According to the SpaceOps Secretariat, the achievement award is presented for outstanding efforts in overcoming space operations and support challenges, and recognizes those teams or individuals whose exceptional contributions were critical to the success of a space mission.

The spacecraft was built in Europe, while NASA provided the radioisotope thermoelectric generator power source and the launch on board space shuttle Discovery in 1990. The scientific payload was provided by both U.S. and European investigators.

ST. LOUIS, May 8 (UPI) -- U.S. medical scientists have found a vulnerability they say can be used to make cancer cells easier to heat and radiate and, therefore, easier to destroy.

Washington University School of Medicine radiation oncology researchers found tumors have a built-in mechanism that protects them from hyperthermia, or heat, and most likely decreases the benefit of hyperthermia and radiation as a combined therapy.

The scientists found if they interfered with that protection, tumor cells grown in culture could be made more sensitive to hyperthermia-enhanced radiation therapy, a mainstay of cancer treatment.

Past research has shown that hyperthermia is one of the most potent ways to increase cell-killing by radiation, said senior author Associate Professor Tej Pandita. "But now we've found that heat also enhances the activity of an enzyme called telomerase in cancer cells. Telomerase helps protect the cells from stress-induced damage and allows some of them to survive.

We used compounds that inhibit telomerase and showed that cancer cells then become easier to destroy with hyperthermia and radiation used in combination, he added.

The findings are reported in the journal Cancer Research.

CAMBRIDGE, Mass., May 8 (UPI) -- U.S. medical scientists are urging caution in giving children anti-obesity drugs, saying the medications might interfere with neural development.

Researchers from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology's Picower Institute for Learning and Memory say the new class of drugs -- such as rimonabant (trade name Acomplia) -- work by blocking the same receptor cells in the brain that bind to compounds found in marijuana. Known collectively as cannabinoids, the compounds are also produced naturally by the body.

The scientists said they found blocking cannabinoid receptors in laboratory mice suppressed the adaptive rewiring of the brain that is an essential task of maturation.

Our finding of a profound disruption of cortical plasticity in juvenile mice suggests caution is advised in the use of such compounds in children, said Professor Mark Bear, lead author of the study.

The work is reported in the journal Neuron.