Lifeboat Foundation

A large crowd of monkeys has been filmed brawling over a pot of yoghurt in a street in Thailand. A fall in tourist numbers amid the Covid-19 outbreak has resulted in far fewer people offering them food. The video was filmed in Lopburi, a city north-east of Bangkok that is famed for its monkey population

How to stop the spread of coronavirus ► https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3jpXAMwRSu4

Continue reading “Hungry monkeys brawl over food as coronavirus hits tourism in Thailand” »

Doctors at the Casey Eye Institute at Oregon Health & Science University in Portland have announced the first-ever use of the revolutionary gene editing tool, CRISPR, inside of a person’s body. The tool was used to modify the genes responsible for a particular form of inherited blindness, and those responsible for the pioneering effort say there is real potential here to not only restore the patient’s vision, but open up a new line of medicines specifically used to target and alter DNA.

In an Associated Press report, which comes via NBC, the companies that make the treatment used in the procedure, including Cambridge, Massachusetts-based Editas Medicine and Dublin-based Allergan, highlighted the possibilities moving forward if the trial proves to be successful. Charles Albright, chief scientific officer at Editas, said that “We literally have the potential to take people who are essentially blind and make them see.”

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EVANSVILLE, Ind., April 17 (UPI) — As produce sales at grocery stores surge during the coronavirus pandemic, one item is selling particularly well — mushrooms.

During the last week of March, fresh mushroom sales were up 18 percent over the same time last year, compared to an 8 percent rise in overall fresh produce sales, according to the Chicago-based data and analytics firm IRI.

“We take heart in those numbers,” said Eric Davis, a spokesman for the Mushroom Council, an industry group based in Redwood Shores, Calif. “We take heart that we’re in that group of staple items. You look for bright spots during this time, and that is one for us.”

Could a sea creature with unusual regenerative powers show humans how to do the same? Tracey Logan reports.

A new scheme for cooling ${}^{87}$Rb to Bose-Einstein condensation uses only lasers, unlike the usual method combining laser and evaporation cooling.

“The main purpose of the stock market is to make fools of as many men as possible.”–Bernard Baruch.

Food from electricity, NASA’s attempt to create food from rocket fuel, and other brilliant and bizarre innovations in synthetic foods.

These solar sails could herald a new era of spaceflight in which spacecraft forgo the rocket motors they’ve relied on for decades.

Artist’s concept of LightSail 2 above Earth. Josh Spradling / The Planetary Society.

The production halt means that Tesla is not making any cars worldwide because its other electric vehicle assembly plant – in Fremont, California – has been idled because of the coronavirus pandemic.