Science & Technology

Russian and South Korean scientists reach initial stage in joint project to clone extinct woolly mammoth

Olga Gertcyk
The Siberian Times
Fri, 29 Jul 2016 00:00 UTC

South Korean specialist hails opening of new World Mammoth Centre in Siberia, dedicated to bringing beast back to life.

Cloning guru Professor Hwang Woo-Suk did not go into details of the progress made in restoring the extinct species after several thousand years of extinction, but made clear he expected to publish new research in scientific journals as soon as 'checks' are complete.

Speaking in Yakutsk - Russia's mammoth capital which is to host a pioneering new international centre dedicated to the creature - the controversial South Korean scientist confirmed progress in bringing the animal back to life after cooperation between experts from the two countries.

'As a result of tireless joint efforts, we have achieved what we call the 'initial stage' on our way to recovering the mammoth,' he said, thanking Russian president Vladimir Putin for his support for research in this field. 'At this stage, thorough scientific checks are under way.

'Once they are completed, we will publish the results in scientific journals.'

Comment: For more information on the catastrophes that caused the extinction of the mammoths and how millions ended up flash-frozen overnight, see: Of Flash Frozen Mammoths and Cosmic Catastrophes

Corrupt science: Chinese government finds hundreds of researchers guilty of engaging in peer-review fraud scam

Bob Grant
New Scientist
Mon, 31 Jul 2017 00:00 UTC

© BRYAN SATALINO
The Chinese government has found almost 500 researchers guilty of misconduct in relation to a recent spate of retractions from a cancer journal.

After a sweeping research misconduct investigation, China's Ministry of Science and Technology (MST) has found nearly 500 researchers guilty of engaging in a peer-review fraud scam. Announced late last week (July 27), MST's findings indicate that 486 scientific paper authors engaged, to some degree, in a scheme to nominate either fictitious or paid peer reviewers who would write positive reviews of their manuscripts.

"We should eradicate the problem from its roots," He Defang, director of MST's regulatory division in Beijing, tells Science.

MST is meting out stiff penalties to the guilty researchers. These range from suspending their research projects and canceling grants to rescinding promotions or even harsher retribution. "They will face punishment according to the Communist Party of China discipline regulations and the regulations on personnel from public institutions," He told Chinese news outlet Xinhua.

The nature of the scam is not unprecedented, with Chinese authors being accused of similar practices in the recent past.

Comment: Unfortunately such practices are rife within the scientific community. The failure of peer review is one of science's dirty "secrets."

Facebook updates its technology to better flag 'fake news' for it's readers

RT
Thu, 03 Aug 2017 21:18 UTC

Comment: When you control the flow of information, you control what people think.

Facebook is updating its technology to better flag "fake news" stories and send them to fact checkers. It will also post "related articles" underneath misleading or false stories, to help users make more informed decisions about what they read and share.

The social media giant announced in April that it was testing its "related articles" model, which is aimed at providing "easier access to additional perspectives and information, including articles by third-party fact checkers."

On Thursday, the site announced that the system was ready to be rolled out.

"Since starting this test, we've heard that Related Articles helps give people more perspectives and additional information, and helps them determine whether the news they are reading is misleading or false. So we're rolling this out more broadly," the company wrote in a statement.

'Glowing' water in exoplanet's atmosphere discovered by NASA's Hubble telescope

RT
Thu, 03 Aug 2017 19:33 UTC

A 'glowing' water atmosphere has been detected on an enormous super-hot exoplanet, offering the strongest evidence yet for a stratosphere on a planet outside our solar system.

Researchers using data from NASA's Hubble telescope observed hot water molecules on WASP-121b, a type of exoplanet called a 'hot Jupiter.'

This is the first time glowing water molecules were observed on an exoplanet - a planet orbiting a star outside our solar system - and indicates a stratosphere on an exoplanet, researchers said.

A stratosphere is a layer of atmosphere, in which temperature increases with higher altitudes. On Earth, it lies some 50km overhead.

Geneticist warns 'superior designer babies' born into the upper class could be just years away after DNA breakthrough

RT
Thu, 03 Aug 2017 17:13 UTC

'Superior' designer babies born into the upper class with genetically modified physical appearances and intelligence could be just years away, a British geneticist has warned, after scientists announced they had used gene editing to repair a mutation in human embryos.

In a world first, US researchers announced on Wednesday in the science journal Nature they had used the controversial gene editing technique, CRISPR-Cas9, to correct a mutation for a heart condition in embryos.

The technique could eventually let doctors remove inherited conditions from embryos before they go on to become a child. That, in turn, opens up the possibility of diseases like cystic fibrosis and ovarian cancer being wiped out entirely, researchers say.

Although the scientists only edited out mutations that could cause diseases, it modified the nuclear DNA that sits right at the heart of the cell, which also influences personal characteristics such as intelligence, height, facial appearance and eye color.

Earth Overshoot Day: Environmental groups say we have consumed more natural resources than the planet can produce

Rachel Revesz
The Independent
Thu, 03 Aug 2017 11:32 UTC

Humans have already used up their allowance for water, soil, clean air and other resources on Earth for the whole of 2017.

Earth Overshoot Day is on 2 August this year, according to environmental groups WWF and the Global Footprint Network.

The date, earlier this year than in 2016, means humanity will survive on "credit" until 31 December.

"By August 2 2017, we will have used more from Nature than our planet can renew in the whole year," the groups said in a statement.

Scientists reconstruct world's first flower

RT
Thu, 03 Aug 2017 13:06 UTC

Scientists have come up with a reconstruction of what they believe the very first flower on earth to be - and it resembles a magnolia or lily.

In a study published in the science journal Nature, researchers from the University of Paris-Sud and the University of Vienna recount their work in tracing the origins of flowers.

By constructing a complex ancestry using the "largest data set of floral traits ever assembled," the authors of the study say the evolution of blossoming vegetation can be traced back to one angiosperm floret.

Action-at-a-distance: Scientists surprised by discovery of planet-induced stellar pulsations

Jennifer Chu
phys.org
Tue, 14 Feb 2017 11:52 UTC

For the first time, astronomers from MIT and elsewhere have observed a star pulsing in response to its orbiting planet.

The star, which goes by the name HAT-P-2, is about 400 light years from Earth and is circled by a gas giant measuring eight times the mass of Jupiter - one of the most massive exoplanets known today. The planet, named HAT-P-2b, tracks its star in a highly eccentric orbit, flying extremely close to and around the star, then hurtling far out before eventually circling back around.

The researchers analyzed more than 350 hours of observations of HAT-P-2 taken by NASA's Spitzer Space Telescope, and found that the star's brightness appears to oscillate ever so slightly every 87 minutes. In particular, the star seems to vibrate at exact harmonics, or multiples of the planet's orbital frequency - the rate at which the planet circles its star.

The precisely timed pulsations have lead the researchers to believe that, contrary to most theoretical model-based predictions of exoplanetary behavior, HAT-P-2b may be massive enough to periodically distort its star, making the star's molten surface flare, or pulse, in response.

Comment: In other words, it's discharging its sun: the two bodies are acting as nodes in an electrical system, with current flowing through them. Btw, celestial objects don't need to be 'massive' to do that: comets are regularly seen to cause solar flares.

Comment: In light of this discovery, how difficult would it be to conceive a binary star system with the junior partner on a highly eccentric orbit 'discharging' its senior capacitor to send massive amounts of energy through the whole system?

Maybe they ought to think about what OUR sun is doing, and why it's doing it!

Solar minimum: The sun is getting quieter... and its rotation is slowing down

A pirating service for academic journal articles could bring down the whole establishment

Keith Collins
Qz
Fri, 28 Jul 2017 11:29 UTC

The subscription fees charged by academic publishers have risen so high in recent years that even wealthy American universities have said they can't afford them. When Harvard Library reported its subscription costs had reached $3.5 million per year in a 2012 memo, for example, it said the fees were "fiscally unsustainable," and the university asked its faculty to stop publishing research in journals that keep articles behind paywalls.

But regardless of where Harvard researchers have published their work since then, it's likely that all of it is currently available for free on Sci-Hub, a rogue pirating service for academic research. According to a new study, Sci-Hub contains 68.9% of all academic research. More to the point: 85.2% of all papers originally published behind paywalls are available on the website for free. And even if a given article isn't already available in Sci-Hub's repository, the site can quickly fetch it using donated credentials for services like JSTOR, Elsevier, and Sage.

Comment:

Gold nano-rods: A major breakthrough in cryogenic freezing

Sean Martin
Express
Wed, 02 Aug 2017 20:14 UTC

The possibility of being able to live forever just became one step closer as scientists proved that they can revive cryogenically frozen life.

Experts in the US have shown that they can preserve brains and bodies in a state of suspended animation where they freeze an individual to sub-zero temperatures and revive them at a time of choosing in the future.

Researchers have so far only achieved this in zebra fish embryos but it is a major breakthrough as 60 years worth of similar testing had proven unsuccessful.

The problem was when something is frozen, it expands and destroys cells, so experts had added an anti-freeze solution.

However, even with anti-freeze, there were significant issues during the defrosting phase.

Comment:

"The FDA has many decisions to make beyond just approving the drug, or not. It must decide whether pregnant women - and any other at-risk groups -...

prehistoric

Many people who are hesitant to be vaccinated for Covid-19 see the drug as a treatment or prophylactic for the disease, though so far there is no...

Good Optics

With mail in voting likely to become a thing, does it really matter any more? Stick a fork in us...this country is done.

Bezel Bub

Other comets coming sooner, although not quite as big. E.g. "Leonard" this December https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/C/2021_A1_(Leonard)

Tsidkenu

Tornadoes here in Aus too, as I reported here [Link]

Tsidkenu

Science & Technology

Russian and South Korean scientists reach initial stage in joint project to clone extinct woolly mammoth

Corrupt science: Chinese government finds hundreds of researchers guilty of engaging in peer-review fraud scam

Facebook updates its technology to better flag 'fake news' for it's readers

'Glowing' water in exoplanet's atmosphere discovered by NASA's Hubble telescope

Geneticist warns 'superior designer babies' born into the upper class could be just years away after DNA breakthrough

Earth Overshoot Day: Environmental groups say we have consumed more natural resources than the planet can produce

Scientists reconstruct world's first flower

Action-at-a-distance: Scientists surprised by discovery of planet-induced stellar pulsations

A pirating service for academic journal articles could bring down the whole establishment

Gold nano-rods: A major breakthrough in cryogenic freezing

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