Pig embryos that had been injected with human stem cells when they were only a few days old began to grow organs containing human cells, scientists reported on Thursday, an advance that promises — or threatens — to bring closer the…
Science
Incredible Animations Show Real Exoplanets Orbiting Their Stars – Gizmodo
The animations all come from direct imaging methods, meaning that the telescopes measure the Jupiter-sized planets directly. So-called “Hot Jupiters” are so young that they still emanate infrared light, said Wang. “They formed after the dinosaurs.” The top video shows…
Kim Stanley Robinson: Our Generation Ships Will Sink – Boing Boing
With the enormous successes of Star Trek and Star Wars, the idea was firmly planted in the popular imagination: if we survived as a species, we would be moving out into the galaxy. This awesome diaspora would mark our maturity…
NASA Goddard: “Here are a few of our top images of 2016.” – Twitter
Here are a few of our top images of 2016. To see more pix be sure to follow @NASAGoddardPix & our Instagram account: https://t.co/RFfzjDqpQT pic.twitter.com/e6iTlHkZnQ — NASA Goddard (@NASAGoddard) January 7, 2017 From: NASA Goddard on Twitter: “Here are a…
Britain Agrees to License “Three-Parent” Baby Approach – Scientific American
The technique involves intervening in the fertilization process to remove mitochondria, which act as tiny energy-generating batteries inside cells, and which, if faulty, can cause fatal heart problems, liver failure, brain disorders, blindness and muscular dystrophy. “Mitochondrial donation offers a…
Casey ex Australia: Confronting the Credibility Gap for Crewed Exploration of Mars
To what extent are we responsible for the credibility gap? We should know better than anyone that there are real challenges that can’t be wished away, that Mars is hard, and that “all you gotta do” doesn’t really cut it…
What NASA plans to do if an astronaut dies in space – 3tags
Since the body would need to be isolated within 24 hours to avoid contamination, it would be immediately placed into a GoreTex bag that would be inflated into a type of sarcophagus. Funeral rites would be performed very quickly, in…
Japan’s HD photos of the Moon are the coolest thing you’ll see today – Ars Technica
The Japanese space agency, JAXA, has previously released some of these photos into the public domain. But now the agency has released the entire dataset, including more than 450 images, the Planetary Society has reported. The newly available images include…
In the Dark about Dark Matter – Scientific American
The decaying theoretical underpinnings for simple WIMP models, paired with the growing list of empty-handed detection efforts, have led Feng and many others to propose that WIMPs are part of a more complicated picture: a hidden realm of the universe…
Weird orange crocodiles found gorging on bats in Gabon’s caves – New Scientist
As the team headed further into the caves, they made an unexpected discovery: in the deeper recesses, the older, dark-coloured males had become paler, turning a bright orange. Were they losing unnecessary pigment in a similar way to other cave-dwelling…