Cartoon – Prime-Time Primates
“Turns out the rumors are true,”. Word has spread through the scientific community that “researchers in China have successfully edited the genomes of human embryos.” Those rumors were confirmed when a team from Sun Yat-sen University published laboratory results revealing that they had crossed an ethical red line, using a gene editing tool on embryos to modify the gene responsible […]
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The species of bacteria that dominate our guts may strongly affect whether we’re thin or fat. Researchers at Washington University collected samples of gut bacteria from pairs of twins in which one was obese and the other thin. Then they transplanted the bacteria into mice. The mice that received the bacteria from the obese twins became obese; the mice that […]
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The discovery of nine brains which were found along a street in the upstate town of Gouverneur, NY had residents turning their heads. However, authorities confirmed that they were believed to have been part of a collection for educational or research purposes. Criminal activity has been ruled out, but nobody seems to know how they got there. Local residents discovered […]
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WASHINGTON, D.C. During a press conference last month, NASA released a slew of odd sound recordings and video from the Messenger probe just moments before it’s impact on Mercury. Scientists are working to decipher the meaning of the data, but some agree that the recordings sound like human voices crying out in agony. The Messenger probe had been orbiting Mercury […]
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Beijing Fatter and sicker: Prevalence of type 2 diabetes has more than tripled in China over the past decade as Chinese people adopt a more Western diet and lifestyle. “China, unfortunately, has become the world’s capital for diabetes,” said Michael Rosenblatt, chief medical officer of pharmaceutical giant Merck. “The government is starting to pay more attention, as this is the […]
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An analysis of isotopes in marine fossils from around the world yielded the most complete record of Earth’s temperatures yet—and showed that the planet is heating up at a rate unprecedented in the past 11,300 years. Scientists say that if it weren’t for greenhouse gas emissions, a cooling trend that began 5,000 years ago after a shift in the planet’s […]
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Global warming hits plateau. . . What does that mean for the threat of catastrophic climate change? Why has the warming trend slowed? Climatologists aren’t sure. What they do know is that the average air temperatures at the earth’s surface have risen only about 0.2 degrees Fahrenheit since 1998—the hottest year of the 20th century—even as humanity has continued to […]
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When President Obama began lifting restrictions on travel, diplomatic and economic relations between the US and Cuba earlier this year, many Americans celebrated the fact that Cuban cigars and rum, among other things, would become more accessible. Now we hope for other things such as the Lung Cancer Vaccine that was discovered. For half a century, Cuban products have been rare in […]
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Scientists typically believe that dark matter behaves in a simple way: if one clump encounters another, the two interact solely through gravity. However, researchers have published findings which suggest that there’s more involved. They’ve noticed dark matter (the blue lines in the photo above) lagging behind a galaxy due to friction, hinting that there are factors beyond gravity at work. […]
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