The science story of the past week was the claim from Chinese scientist He Jiankui that he has created gene-edited human babies. Prof. He reports that two twin girls have been born carrying modifications of the gene CCR5, which is intended to protect them against future HIV risk.
It's far from clear yet whether the gene-editing that He described has actually taken place - no data has yet been presented. The very prospect of genetically-modifying human beings has, however, led to widesprea ...read more
Earlier today a M7 earthquake struck only 13 kilometers from Anchorage, Alaska. The earthquake was relatively deep, located ~40 kilometers beneath the surface. However, the city of Anchorage has experienced damage from the shaking. Anchorage airport has seen disruptions as the control tower was evacuated (and is apparently running out of a truck right now).
More importantly, a tsunami warning was declared for the coast of Alaska, so people are trying to evacuate the area. However, a P ...read more
Moon-bound
NASA's going back to the moon. President Trump signed a directive last year which ordered the agency to make plans for a lunar return, and today the agency took another step on that journey by announcing a slew of commercial partnerships aimed at getting payloads off the ground and moon-bound.
NASA Administrator Jim Bridenstine announced the nine companies that will be the first to participate in the agency's new Commercial Lunar Payload Services (CLPS) program.
The ...read more
Astrophysicist Marco Ajello at the Clemson Outdoor Lab. (Credit: Pete Martin/Clemson University)
Ancient Starlight
Astrophysicists estimate that our universe formed about 13.7 billion years ago, with the first stars forming when the universe was just a few hundred million years old. By peering back at the earliest days of stellar creation, scientists in South Carolina have measured all of the starlight ever produced throughout the entire history of the observable universe.
Scientists have been ...read more
ALMA observed the Cat’s Paw Nebula, picking up nearly 700 emission lines from molecules within the region (blue). This result shows more than 10 times the emission lines picked up by the Herschel Space Observatory (gray, inverted to better compare the two). (Credit: S. Lipinski/NASA & ESA, NAOJ, NRAO/AUI/NSF, B. McGuire et al.)
The Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array in Chile has been up and running since 2011. However, its initial incarnation involved only about one-third o ...read more
Author Vishay SinghPosted on Categories Discover Magazine
