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Gene-edited babies and cloned monkeys: China tests bioethics![]() Hong Kong (AFP) Nov 27, 2018 A Chinese scientist's claim that he created the world's first genetically-edited babies has shone a spotlight on what critics say are lax regulatory controls and ethical standards behind a series of headline-grabbing biomedical breakthroughs in China. University professor He Jiankui on Sunday said the DNA of twin girls had been altered to prevent them from contracting HIV, but his claims prompted a fierce backlash from the scientific community who not only cast doubt over the breakthrough, but also ... read more |
Making an eye for youKyoto, Japan (SPX) Nov 26, 2018 If you want to build an organ, such as for transplant, you need to think in 3D. Using stem cells, scientists for some time have been able to grow parts of organs in the lab, but that is a far ... more
China confirms first swine fever cases in BeijingBeijing (AFP) Nov 23, 2018 China's agriculture ministry on Friday confirmed the first cases of African swine fever in Beijing, a disease that has spread across the country despite efforts to contain it. ... more
Human images from world's first total-body scanner unveiledDavis CA (SPX) Nov 20, 2018 EXPLORER, the world's first medical imaging scanner that can capture a 3-D picture of the whole human body at once, has produced its first scans. The brainchild of UC Davis scientists Simon Ch ... more
Researchers a step closer to understanding how deadly bird flu virus takes hold in humansNathan, Australia (SPX) Nov 21, 2018 New research has taken a step towards understanding how highly pathogenic influenza viruses such as deadly bird flu infect humans. Researchers at Griffith's Institute for Glycomics and the Uni ... more |
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Use of monkeys for medical research hits all-time highWashington (UPI) Nov 5, 2018 Use of monkeys in medical research hit an all-time high in 2017, according to United States Department of Agriculture data. ... more
New generation of Latin American tech 'unicorns' making markMontevideo (AFP) Oct 31, 2018 Nubank is the online bank with the greatest number of clients outside of Asia. Fellow Brazilian startup 99 is a platform that connects 300,000 taxi drivers and chauffeurs to provide a competitive service in which passengers pay less while drivers earn more. ... more
How hibernators could help humans treat illness, conserve energy and get to MarsNew Orleans LA (SPX) Oct 29, 2018 Researchers gathered Friday to discuss the potential for hibernation and the related process, torpor, to aid human health in spaceflight at the American Physiological Society's (APS) Comparative Phy ... more
Ancient enzymes the catalysts for new discoveriesBrisbane, Australia (SPX) Oct 23, 2018 University of Queensland-led research recreating 450 million-year-old enzymes has resulted in a biochemical engineering 'hack' which could lead to new drugs, flavours, fragrances and biofuels. ... more
Nerve-on-a-chip platform makes neuroprosthetics more effectiveLausanne, Switzerland (SPX) Oct 24, 2018 Neuroprosthetics - implants containing multi-contact electrodes that can substitute certain nerve functionalities - have the potential to work wonders. They may be able to restore amputees' sense of ... more |
![]() Scientists grow functioning human neural networks in 3D from stem cells
New model helps define optimal temperature and pressure to forge nanoscale diamondsWashington DC (SPX) Oct 16, 2018 Nanodiamonds, bits of crystalline carbon hundreds of thousands of times smaller than a grain of sand, have intriguing surface and chemical properties with potential applications in medicine, optoele ... more |
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Russian Scientists Start Research on Impact of Zero-Gravity on HumansMoscow (Sputnik) Oct 11, 2018 The Russian Academy of Sciences' Institute of Biomedical Problems has initiated research on the influence of zero-G on the human body during flights to the Moon and back; around 20 people will engag ... more
China fines pharma firm $1.3 billion in vaccine scandalBeijing (AFP) Oct 16, 2018 Chinese authorities have slapped penalties totalling a whopping $1.3 billion on a pharmaceutical company over a vaccine scandal that fuelled public fears of domestically-made medicine, drug regulators said Tuesday. ... more
Biomaterials with 'Frankenstein proteins' help heal tissueDurham NC (SPX) Oct 17, 2018 Biomedical engineers from Duke University and Washington University in St. Louis have demonstrated that, by injecting an artificial protein made from a solution of ordered and disordered segments, a ... more
Discovering New Molecules for Military ApplicationsWashington DC (SPX) Oct 10, 2018 The efficient discovery and production of new molecules is essential for a range of military capabilities-from developing safe chemical warfare agent simulants and medicines to counter emerging thre ... more
A step towards biological warfare with insects?Munich, Germany (SPX) Oct 10, 2018 Owing to present-day armed conflicts, the general public is well aware of the terrifying effects of chemical weapons. Meanwhile, the effects of biological weapons have largely disappeared from publi ... more |
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Blast kills 22 near China factory in Olympic city Beijing (AFP) Nov 28, 2018
An explosion and fire near a chemical factory left at least 22 people dead and 22 others injured on Wednesday in a northern China city that will host the 2022 Winter Olympics, authorities said.
The charred and smoking remains of trucks and cars were scattered on a road as firefighters worked at the scene, according to images posted by state media on social media.
The incident near Hebei ... more |
Beijing's space navigation BeiDou program seeks to dethrone US-owned GPS platform Beijing (Sputnik) Nov 28, 2018
Beijing has poured $9 billion into a space program called Beidou in an effort to eliminate China's dependence on the US-owned Global Positioning System (GPS).
A navigational program based on satellites orbiting the globe would allow China to be self-reliant for location data used in smartphones, car dashboards, guided missiles and more, reports Bloomberg. Tensions between China and the US ... more |
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Prehistoric cave art reveals ancient use of complex astronomy Edinburgh UK (SPX) Nov 28, 2018
Some of the world's oldest cave paintings have revealed how ancient people had relatively advanced knowledge of astronomy.
The artworks, at sites across Europe, are not simply depictions of wild animals, as was previously thought. Instead, the animal symbols represent star constellations in the night sky, and are used to represent dates and mark events such as comet strikes, analysis sugge ... more |
Gigantic mammal 'cousin' discovered Uppsala, Sweden (SPX) Nov 26, 2018
During the Triassic period (252-201 million years ago) mammal-like reptiles called therapsids co-existed with ancestors to dinosaurs, crocodiles, mammals, pterosaurs, turtles, frogs, and lizards. One group of therapsids are the dicynodonts.
Researchers at Uppsala University in Sweden, together with colleagues in Poland, have discovered fossils from a new genus of gigantic dicynodont. The n ... more |
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China confirms first swine fever cases in Beijing Beijing (AFP) Nov 23, 2018
China's agriculture ministry on Friday confirmed the first cases of African swine fever in Beijing, a disease that has spread across the country despite efforts to contain it.
The disease was found on two farms in the Fangshan District in southwest Beijing where 86 out of more than 1,700 pigs died, the ministry said in a statement.
A special task force has since sealed off the farms for ... more |
Jack Ma, China's richest man, is a Communist Party member Beijing (AFP) Nov 27, 2018
Jack Ma, founder of Chinese tech giant Alibaba, is among the world's richest people but he has now emerged as a member of another club: China's 89-million-strong Communist Party.
The billionaire's Communist bona fides were revealed by the People's Daily, the party's official mouthpiece, in an article praising contributors to China's development.
He is not the first nor likely the last Ch ... more |
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New president to inherit a Mexico plagued with grisly violence Mexico City (AFP) Aug 7, 2018
In the middle of the street, corpses riddled with bullets. Underground, thousands of bodies heaped in clandestine graves. And in the mountains, drug gangs locked in armed conflict with the military.
These grim scenes have increasingly become the norm in Mexico, a country gripped by violence stemming from its war on drugs which since 2006 has seen more than 200,000 murders and 30,000 people g ... more |
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Brazil's diplomacy at risk of rupture with Araujo appointment Brasilia (AFP) Nov 23, 2018
Brazilian diplomacy is set to perform an abrupt 180-degree turn under new Foreign Minister Ernesto Araujo, chosen by far-right president-elect Jair Bolsonaro for his views favoring the US while turning away from China as part of a fierce opposition to multilateralism.
A little-known career diplomat who's never even held an ambassadorial role, the 51-year-old Araujo shares his new boss's pass ... more |
Universal laws in impact dynamics of dust agglomerates under microgravity conditions Nagoya, Japan (SPX) Nov 19, 2018
Everybody is familiar with granular clusters - while making a cake in the kitchen, you see that the flour forms clumps. Porous dust agglomerates - clumps of clumps of dust grains - are considered to be building materials in the formation of planets. But to reveal how planets are formed, the physical behaviour of these dust clumps has to be properly understood.
In particular, their response ... more |
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Google workers want plug pulled on plan for China search San Francisco (AFP) Nov 27, 2018
Google workers on Tuesday posted an open letter calling on the internet giant to abort plans for "a censored search" service in China or risk setting a dangerous precedent.
Google chief executive Sundar Pichai last month acknowledged publicly for the first time that the company is considering a search engine for China, saying it could offer "better information" to people than rival services. ... more |
Partial reopening of Baghdad's Green Zone delayed: official Baghdad (AFP) Nov 25, 2018
The partial reopening of Baghdad's high-security Green Zone to through traffic, planned for Sunday, has been postponed for several days, a government official said.
The enclave has been home to Iraq's parliament, government offices, United Nations agencies and western embassies since the US-led invasion that toppled dictator Saddam Hussein in 2003.
Earlier this week, Iraqi authorities be ... more |
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Three US soldiers killed in Afghanistan: NATO Kabul (AFP) Nov 27, 2018
Three US soldiers were killed and three wounded by a bomb in Afghanistan Tuesday, NATO said, with the attack claimed by the Taliban as the US tries to ratchet up efforts to engage the militants in peace talks.
NATO's Resolute Support mission would not immediately release any details about the identity of the soldiers, whose deaths took the number of American service personnel to die in the ... more |
Poland names coal companies partners for COP24 climate talks Warsaw (AFP) Nov 27, 2018 Poland on Tuesday named the EU's largest producer of high-quality coking coal among several coal-sector companies that it chose to partner with the UN's COP 24 global climate summit opening this weekend in the southern coal city of Katowice.
Polish Environment minister Henryk Kowalczyk told reporters in Warsaw that the state-owned JWS company along with coal-based energy companies PGE and Ta ... more |
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Floods ravage rice production in Niger's Diffa region Niamey Nov 26, 2018
Floods destroyed more than 400 hectares (1,000 acres) of rice in Niger's southeastern Diffa region, already beset by deadly attacks by Boko Haram jihadists, the local governor said.
Nearly 3,000 tonnes of rice worth 717 million CFA francs (more than one million euros, $1.13 million) have been lost as a result, Governor Mahamadou Bakabe said on state television late Sunday.
Grain defici ... more |
Odd bodies, rapid spins keep cosmic rings close Ithaca NY (SPX) Nov 23, 2018
Forget those shepherding moons. Gravity and the odd shapes of asteroid Chariklo and dwarf planet Haumea - small objects deep in our solar system - can be credited for forming and maintaining their own rings, according new research in Nature Astronomy.
"Rings appear around Saturn, Jupiter, Neptune and Uranus, but scientists found rings around Chariklo and Haumea within the last few years. C ... more |
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