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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 |
China scientist defends gene-editing babies as trial pausedHong Kong (AFP) Nov 28, 2018 The Chinese scientist who claims to have created the world's first genetically-edited babies defended the highly controversial procedure Wednesday, but announced a halt to the trial following an international outcry. ... more
ISS microbes should be monitored to avoid threat to astronaut healthLondon, UK (SPX) Nov 26, 2018 Strains of the bacterium Enterobacter, similar to newly found opportunistic infectious organisms seen in a few hospital settings, have been identified on the International Space Station (ISS). The s ... 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 |
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China mulls $720,000 fine for faking vaccine tests after scandalBeijing (AFP) Nov 12, 2018 Chinese vaccine manufacturers who falsify test results or break other rules could be fined up to $720,000 under a new law proposed after a scandal that fulled public fears over domestically made medicine. ... more
Regeneration science takes a leap forwardMedford MA (SPX) Nov 07, 2018 Researchers led by Tufts University biologists and engineers have found that delivering progesterone to an amputation injury site can induce the regeneration of limbs in otherwise non-regenerative a ... more
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 discoveries
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 |
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Scientists grow functioning human neural networks in 3D from stem cellsBoston MA (SPX) Oct 19, 2018 A team of Tufts University-led researchers has developed three-dimensional (3D) human tissue culture models for the central nervous system that mimic structural and functional features of the brain ... more
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
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 |
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Blast kills 23 outside China factory in Olympic city Zhangjiakou, China (AFP) Nov 28, 2018
A truck carrying combustible chemicals exploded at the entrance of a chemical factory in a northern Chinese city that will host the 2022 Winter Olympics Wednesday, leaving 23 people dead and 22 others injured, state media and authorities said.
The blast ignited other vehicles, leaving charred and smoking remains of trucks and cars scattered on a road as firefighters worked at the scene, acco ... 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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Hacking the aging code: Big data to the rescue Washington DC (SPX) Nov 28, 2018
Aging is the most important single factor behind chronic diseases and death. As "silver tsunami" approaches, healthcare and social protection systems face the looming crisis. By 2050, the global population of older persons is projected to more than double its size in 2015.
New article published in Frontiers in Genetics by MIPT scientist Peter Fedichev describes a strategy for systematic de ... more |
Mushroom enzymes help scientists make other organisms glow in the dark Washington (UPI) Nov 28, 2018
Scientists have for the first time isolated the biochemical pathway that allows fungi to glow-in-the-dark.
The ability to light up at night is called bioluminescence. Until now, scientists weren't exactly sure how organisms generate luminescence, but a rather ordinary brown fungus species, Neonothopanus nambi, one of 100 bioluminescent mushrooms, helped researchers solve the mystery. ... 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 |
The 'Chinese Pyramids' and the pole star Milan, Italy (SPX) Nov 30, 2018
The funerary complex of the first Chinese emperor of the Qin dynasty (3th century BC) is one of the most famous archaeological sites in the world. This is of course due to the discovery of the statues of the terracotta army, intended to accompany the emperor in the afterlife.
Much less known than the statues is the fact that tomb proper (still not excavated) lies beneath a gigantic, artifi ... 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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Trump sets up stormy G20 with Putin snub Buenos Aires (AFP) Nov 29, 2018
US President Donald Trump headed to Argentina Thursday for a fractious weekend of G20 summitry, cancelling planned talks with the Russian leader and boasting that his trade war with China was paying off.
Rumblings of resistance to Trump's assault on the international order were apparent as French President Emmanuel Macron said he would convene his fellow European leaders in Buenos Aires to f ... 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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New Zealand says Huawei ban not because it's Chinese Wellington (AFP) Nov 28, 2018 New Zealand denied Thursday that telecommunications giant Huawei was banned from a 5G network rollout because it is Chinese, saying the problem it faced was a technological one.
Wellington also dismissed suggestions its intelligence services came under pressure from allies in the "Five Eyes" spy network to bar Huawei amid fears about cybersecurity and its potential links to Beijing.
"It' ... more |
Iraq sentences former minister in absentia on graft charges Baghdad (AFP) Nov 29, 2018
Iraq's judiciary on Thursday sentenced a former trade minister and two other high-ranking officials in absentia to seven years in prison each on charges of corruption.
Investigators at the Integrity Commission said the three officials were found guilty of graft charges linked to rice imports, embezzling up to $14.3 million of public funds.
Its statement cited a decision issued by Baghdad ... more |
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War no option for India and Pakistan, says Imran Khan Katarpur, Pakistan (AFP) Nov 28, 2018
War is not an option for nuclear-armed rivals India and Pakistan, Prime Minister Imran Khan said Wednesday, adding that "friendship" was the only alternative.
The Pakistani leader was speaking at a ceremony breaking ground on a secure corridor for Sikhs in India to visit a shrine to their religion's founder in eastern Pakistan.
The opening, aimed at strengthening ties between the bitter ... more |
Indian firm presses ahead with controversial Australia coal mine Sydney (AFP) Nov 29, 2018
Indian mining firm Adani vowed Thursday to press ahead with the construction of a controversial coal mine in northeastern Australia, although the project will be dramatically scaled back.
Work on the Carmichael mine - which has attracted considerable controversy in Australia - could now get underway within weeks.
Adani said it would fund the multi-billion-dollar project itself, after a ... 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 |
NASA provides live coverage of OSIRIS-REx arrival at Asteroid Bennu Washington DC (SPX) Nov 30, 2018
NASA's Origins, Spectral Interpretation, Resource Identification, Security-Regolith Explorer (OSIRIS-REx) spacecraft is scheduled to rendezvous with its targeted asteroid, Bennu, on Monday, Dec. 3 at approximately noon EST.
NASA will air a live event from 11:45 am to 12:15 pm EST to highlight the arrival of the agency's first asteroid sample return mission. The program will originate from ... more |
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