Gene sequencing for rapid diagnosis of tuberculosis and prompt initiation of correct life saving treatment

British scientists have made a world-first breakthrough in the diagnosis of tuberculosis using gene sequencing. The diagnosis can be made in days instead of months. This will enable the prompt treatment with the correct drugs. Researchers in Oxford and Birmingham say they can isolate different strains of the disease using a process called genome sequencing. …

Read more

Israel may have already used new F35s in January for missile strike in Syria

According to French newspaper Le Figaro, Israel has already put its tiny F-35 Lightning II fleet to use as early as mid-January of this year, having only taken full delivery of the first F-35s in their 75-strong order in mid-December of last year. Reporter Georges Malbrunot, Le Figaro‘s Middle East correspondent, the F-35’s supposed initial …

Read more

China will go from 1% solar power in 2016 to possibly 2.5% power generation from solar in 2020

China’s installed photovoltaic (PV) capacity more than doubled last year, turning the country into the world’s biggest producer of solar energy by capacity, the National Energy Administration (NEA) said on Saturday. Installed PV capacity rose to 77.42 gigawatts at the end of 2016, with the addition of 34.54 gigawatts over the course of the year, …

Read more

Cold War 2.0 update with 40 million Russian people involved in 4 days of civil defense drills

Russian authorities have stepped up nuclear-war survival measures amid a showdown with Washington, dusting off Soviet-era civil-defense plans and upgrading bomb shelters in their biggest cities Russia recently held its biggest civil defense drills since the collapse of the U.S.S.R., with what officials said were 40 million people rehearsing a response to chemical and nuclear …

Read more

New discovery in genetic research could lead to treatments for mitochondrial diseases

new study published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS) from the University of Missouri has succeeded in creating embryos with “heteroplasmy,” or the presence of both maternal and paternal mitochondrial DNA. This new innovation will allow scientists to study treatments for mitochondrial diseases in humans as well as the significance of …

Read more

Multiple modular fuselage airplanes

Switzerland’s Federal Polytechnic Institute have an aircraft design which is inspired by shipping containers and Thunderbird 2 but with multiple fuselages. The Clip-Air team though—they’re preparing to build a smaller 10-meter drone prototype soon. Clip-Air capsules would also be able to be transported by rail. They would be for lighter containers for passengers that would …

Read more

Moon found around dwarf planet Makemake in the Kuiper Belt so now all four dwarf planets (Pluto, Eris, Makemake, and Haumea) have confirmed moons

A Southwest Research Institute-led team has discovered an elusive, dark moon orbiting Makemake, one of the “big four” dwarf planets populating the Kuiper Belt region at the edge of our solar system. Makemake’s moon — nicknamed MK2 — is very dark, 1,300 times fainter than the dwarf planet. A nearly edge-on orbital configuration helped it …

Read more

DARPA $6.4M contract supports malaria research aimed at enhancing resilience

Investigators believe learning why malaria causes acute, potentially lethal disease in some humans and animals, while others are much more resilient or tolerant, could lead them to better intervention strategies for malaria and other diseases, including new and better drugs. The Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) and the Army Research Laboratory (ARL) are supporting …

Read more

Best ever planet formation images taken by Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array

High resolution images have been taken of a binary star approximately 450 light years away in the Scorpius-Centaurus association, a cluster of young stars containing objects similar to HL Tau. The images are part of Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array (ALMA’s) long-baseline campaign in 2014. (Long-baseline interferometry allows multiple antennas to act as one. The size …

Read more

Thailand is considering a polywell fusion project

According to the Thai Ministry of Energy’s Integrated Blueprint, up to 5 per cent of the country’s energy requirements will be met by nuclear power by 2036. Nuclear power has advantages over fossil fuels in terms of greenhouse gas emissions, yet the Fukushima disaster reminded the world of the dangers associated with fission plants – …

Read more

South Korea starts KF-X project to develop indigenous next-generation stealth fighter

South Korea officially kicked off its ambitious KF-X project to develop indigenous next-generation fighter jets to defend it airspace within the next decade. Despite setbacks last year in acquiring some key technologies for the fighters from the United States, the DAPA unveiled a detailed timeline for the project in cooperation with the Korea Aerospace Industries …

Read more