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Feb 5, 2020

The Terrifying Science Behind the Locust Plagues of Africa

Posted by in category: science

With hundreds of billions of locusts tearing through farmland, it’s the worst outbreak to strike the region in decades.

Feb 5, 2020

Study claimed a GMO trial went horrifically wrong. The study’s authors disagree

Posted by in category: futurism

After scary news headlines, one study author said she didn’t get to read the final text.

Feb 5, 2020

Scientists Release Genetically Engineered Moths for First Time

Posted by in categories: bioengineering, biotech/medical, food, genetics, sustainability

The diamondback moth is a huge pest. It eats a variety of crops, but is largely resistant to insecticides, resulting in upwards of $5 billion in losses every year.

That could soon change, though, as an international team of researchers has created a strain of genetically engineered diamondback moths that could suppress the pest population in a sustainable way — and they just released them into the wild for the first time.

For the study, published Wednesday in the journal Frontiers in Bioengineering and Biotechnology, the researchers engineered the moths so that when the males of the strain mated with wild females, the female offspring would die during the caterpillar life stage.

Feb 5, 2020

The Stuff of Insect Nightmares: Genetically Engineered Entomopathogenic Fungi

Posted by in category: genetics

Insect-killing fungi are used to control insect pests worldwide. Scientists can genetically engineer them to be even more effective and suited for our needs.

Feb 5, 2020

The future of biotechnology

Posted by in categories: biotech/medical, futurism

One day we may live in a world without disease.

Feb 5, 2020

Scientist Warns Of Mini Ice Age As Sun Hibernates During Solar Minimum

Posted by in category: climatology

An expert warned that Earth might experience a mini ice age when the Sun hibernates due to its solar minimum cycle. According to the expert, the Sun’s hibernation and extremely cold weather could last for over three decades.

The solar minimum is a period in the Sun’s solar cycle that occurs every 11 years. During the solar minimum, sunspots on the Sun’s surface diminishes, leading to a weaker output from the massive star. On the other hand, during a solar maximum, the Sun emits more energy as its sunspots increase.

According to Valentina Zharkhova, a professor at Northumbria University’s department of mathematics, physics and electrical engineering, the Sun is about to enter a Grand Solar Minimum this year, which is like an extended version of the solar minimum. Instead of lasting for only a couple of years, the Grand Solar Minimum could extend for 33 years.

Feb 5, 2020

Permafrost Is Thawing So Fast, It’s Gouging Holes in the Arctic

Posted by in category: futurism

Normally, these terrains of frozen soil thaw gradually. But in some places, it’s thawing so abruptly that landscapes are collapsing in on themselves.

Feb 5, 2020

Yarn grown from human skin cells could be knitted into your body

Posted by in categories: biotech/medical, materials

A yarn-like material made from human skin cells could be used for surgery and complex tissue reconstruction without triggering an immune response.

Feb 5, 2020

Rocket Lab readies parachute tests for its rocket recovery and reuse program

Posted by in category: space travel

Rocket Lab is proceeding as planned with its efforts to recover and reuse spent rocket boosters from its Electron launch vehicle, and has completed its first prototype parachute for use in the recovery process. Rocket lab CEO Peter Beck announced last year that it would be aiming for reusability with the first stage of its rocket, using a system that includes the booster re-entering Earth’s atmosphere, then deploying a parachute to slow its descent so that it can be caught mid-air by a helicopter and returned to land.

Already, Rocket Lab has made good progress on its plan, with two tests under its belt of the guided re-entry par tof the process, including a launch in early December 2019, and one just last week. Now, Beck said on Twitter that the company is ready to move on to stage two, which is developing the parachute system that will deploy once the rocket has completed re-entry, to slow its rate of descent. Rocket Lab’s first parachute prototype is ready, Beck says, and the company will start testing it using low-altitude drops, as well as testing the capture process, beginning next week.

Stage 1 reusability: –Get through the “wall”✅. – – Now let’s slow it down. Rocket Lab’s first prototype chute is complete. The Low altitude drop and capture test program begins next week. pic.twitter.com/SBvqxoFABg

Feb 5, 2020

Maxar says last year’s unnamed GEO order is new Intelsat satellite

Posted by in categories: electronics, satellites

WASHINGTON — Maxar Technologies says the geostationary satellite order it disclosed in November without naming the customer is a high-throughput Intelsat spacecraft that will also carry a pollution sensor for NASA.

Intelsat announced Feb. 3 that it had selected Maxar to build Intelsat-40e, a satellite that will provide high-throughput coverage of North America and Central America.

Intelsat-40e will also carry NASA’s Tropospheric Emissions: Monitoring of Pollution (TEMPO) hosted payload under a NASA contract with Maxar.