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by Marlowe HOOD Agence France-Presse PARIS, France (AFP) — Scientists used a portable device no bigger than a cellphone to sequence the most complete human genome ever assembled with a single technology, according to a study published Monday. The breakthrough, detailed in the journal Nature Biotechnology, brings us closer to the day when family doctors will order up genome scans during a regular check-up along with blood work, the authors suggested. “We are definitely approaching […]
by Michelle FITZPATRICK Agence France-Presse FRANKFURT AM MAIN, Germany (AFP) — German carmakers came under fire Monday following revelations they helped finance experiments that saw humans and monkeys exposed to diesel fumes that have been linked to asthma, lung diseases and heart attacks. The disclosures sparked widespread outrage, led by Chancellor Angela Merkel who strongly condemned the latest controversy to engulf the nation’s powerful but scandal-tainted auto industry. “These tests on monkeys or even humans […]
WASHINGTON, United States (AFP) — A map showing paths taken by users of an exercise tracking app reveals potentially sensitive information about American and allied military personnel in places including Afghanistan, Iraq and Syria. While some bases are well known to groups that want to attack them, the map also shows what appear to be routes taken by forces moving outside of bases — information that could be used in planning bombings or ambushes. The […]
BEIJING, China (AFP) — Chinese students spent 200 continuous days in a “lunar lab” in Beijing, state media said Friday, as the country prepares for its long-term goal of putting people on the moon. Four students crammed into a 160-square-metre (1,720-square-foot) cabin called “Yuegong-1” — Lunar Palace — on the campus of Beihang University, testing the limits of humans’ ability to live in a self-contained space, the official Xinhua news agency said. The volunteers lived […]
THE HAGUE, Netherlands (AFP) — Dutch police on Friday launched the country’s biggest ever DNA search, asking over 20,000 men to come forward as they seek to resolve the 1998 murder of a young boy. “Some 21,500 men will receive a personal invitation in February to voluntarily give DNA samples,” police said in a statement. “It’s the largest such DNA investigation in search of family ties ever carried out in The Netherlands.” Eleven-year-old Nicky Verstappen […]
by Fred Farine Agence France-Presse KOUROU, France (AFP) — Two commercial satellites have been placed in orbit by an Ariane 5 rocket but have yet to reach their correct position, Arianespace said Thursday after mission control briefly lost contact with the craft in a rare malfunction. The usually reliable European space workhorse blasted off at 7.20 pm (2220 GMT) from the Kourou Space Center in French Guiana carrying satellites for Luxembourg’s SES and the United […]
WASHINGTON, United States (AFP) — Technology won’t always save us. A man blindly following his GPS app has driven an SUV with two passengers on board into an icy lake in the northeastern state of Vermont, local police said. The trio — friends from out of state driving a borrowed car — escaped unharmed, local media and police in the city of Burlington said in their report of the January 12 incident. The unnamed driver […]
by Etienne Lamy-Smith with Kerry Sheridan in Miami Agence France-Presse BEIJING, China (AFP) — Scientists in China have created the first monkeys cloned by the same process that produced Dolly the sheep more than 20 years ago, a breakthrough that could boost medical research into human diseases. The two long-tailed macaques (Macaca fascicularis) named Hua Hua and Zhong Zhong were born at the Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS) Institute of Neuroscience in Shanghai, and are […]
MIAMI, United States (AFP) — SpaceX on Wednesday test-fired its Falcon Heavy rocket for the first time in a launch pad experiment aimed at giving its main engines a trial workout before blasting off in the coming days. Touted as the “world’s most powerful rocket,” the Falcon Heavy is designed to one day carry crew and supplies to deep space destinations such as the Moon and Mars. “Falcon Heavy hold-down firing this morning was good. […]
MIAMI, United States (AFP) — Two US astronauts floated outside the International Space Station on Tuesday for a seven-hour, 24-minute spacewalk to repair the orbiting outpost’s aging robotic arm, NASA said. During what NASA commentator Rob Navias described as a “textbook” spacewalk, NASA flight engineers Mark Vande Hei and Scott Tingle replaced a faulty latching end on the 57-foot (17-meter) Canadian-made robotic arm, called Canadarm2. The arm is used to grasp incoming cargo ships and […]
WASHINGTON, United States (AFP) – Facebook acknowledged Monday that widespread use of social media can be harmful to democracy, while pledging to work to minimize these risks. The world’s biggest social network’s comments were the latest response to persistent criticism for its role in allowing the spread of misinformation, reinforcing “filter bubbles” and facilitating harassment of dissidents and activists. “Now, we’re as determined as ever to fight the negative influences and ensure that our platform is unquestionably a source […]
WELLINGTON, New Zealand (AFP) — Aerospace company Rocket Lab said Sunday it had successfully fired a rocket into orbit for the first time from its New Zealand launch base. “Electron is orbital. Successful payload deployment,” the company tweeted. The Electron rocket, named “Still Testing,” took off from Mahia, on the east coast of the North Island, at 2.45 pm (0145 GMT) on Sunday and reached orbit eight minutes later. The 17-meter-long (55ft 7in) carbon-fiber rocket […]
