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I remember thinking to myself,
“God I hope I never need this

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technology.” [slightly tense
music]

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A Hubble science writer’s
personal experience

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with a life-saving Hubble
technology spinoff

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In 1997 the astronauts
will be going back to the Hubble

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Space Telescope. One of their
jobs will be to insert a new

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generation instrument called the
Space Telescope Imaging

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Spectograph. This instrument
contains highly advanced new

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digital imaging technology and
this same technology developed

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especially for Hubble is as we
speak being used in clinics and

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hospitals across this country in
a new breast biopsy system in a

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high-tech war on breast cancer.
My name is Ann Jenkins, I’m a

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science writer on Hubble Space
Telescope. This was one of the

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first stories I worked on as a
full-time science writer. The

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way it came about was I was
asked to document Hubble

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spinoffs, technology that was
originally developed for Hubble

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that was being used on Earth.
The new technology involved

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seeing into the breast tissue
from two different angles and

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pinpointing the suspicious
tissue and then bringing a small

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needle into the tissue to take
out a portion of the suspicious

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tissue to be biopsied. So this
saved the patient an open

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surgical incision, which was the
way biopsies had been done

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previously. When I was first
researching and writing about

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the technology, I thought, “Well
this is amazing. You know, the

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patient is going to have so much
less pain and so much less

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recovery time.” And then we did
a video a couple of months after

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the press release came out. When
we went to the hospital, it was

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to interview the doctor who had
been doing stereotactic breast

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biopsies, it was a very new
technology back then, there

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weren’t very many machines in
the area. And we saw the machine

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and I think the producer of the
video or maybe it was me who

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said, “Boy it would be nice if
we had a patient.” And then

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somebody looked at me and I
said, “Okay, I’ll be the

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patient.” While I was on the
table actually pretending to get

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a stereotactic breast biopsy, I
remember thinking to myself,

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“God I hope I never need this
technology.” >>Doctor’s

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offscreen voice: And when I fire
the gun you’re going to feel a

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little pinch. [sound of the
needle shooting out] Okay. How

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was that? >>Ann: I thought about
the technology a lot since

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working on the video and doing
the press release. It was one of

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our most successful spinoff
stories. And last year I had a

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routine mammogram. I’ve had
routine mammograms for a number

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of years now, and I was called
back. I didn’t think much of it

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because I’d been called back
twice before and it never

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amounted to anything. But this
time when I was called back the

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radiologist read the second
mammogram in real time and said,

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“You’ve got four little dots all
in a line and they’re very

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suspicious. You need to get a
biopsy.” When I found out I

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needed to get a stereotactic
breast biopsy, the doctor, the

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radiologist who first told me
was amazed that I knew what it

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was, and then I told him the
story of why I knew what it was,

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and that was because I had done
the research and written the

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press release and done the video
on it so many years earlier.

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Having researched the
technology, I think that made me

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a lot less nervous going into
the procedure. I knew what it

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was, and it actually performed
as advertised. It was extremely

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easy for me, I didn’t have much
pain, I had a fast recovery

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time, and I was very grateful
that I didn’t have to be put

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under and intubated and have an
open surgical incision. If you

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have to have cancer, this was
the best kind. It was caught

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extremely early, the procedure
that I had was very

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conservative, I didn’t even have
to have chemo. I had the

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surgery, I had radiation, and
now I’m on a drug for the next

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five or ten years. I will always
be an advocate for getting your

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mammograms early and often. I’ve
been a big fan of space

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technology ever since I was a
toddler. I actually have a scar

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on my chin from Apollo 13 from
when the capsule splashed down

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and I jumped up and the throw
rug slipped out from under me

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and I gashed my chin and had to
get stitches. So I’ve been a big

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fan all my life. I’ve worked on
Hubble pretty much my whole

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adult life. I’m of course very
fond of Hubble, it’s an amazing

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machine, and I am in awe of what
it’s done for humanity and also

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the technology spinoffs that
have been brought down to Earth

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that help people here on Earth
in ways that we never even

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expected when the technology was
originally developed for Hubble.

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www.nasa.gov/hubble 
@NASAHubble