Science & Technology

HONG KONG (AP) — A Chinese researcher claims that he helped make the world’s first genetically edited babies — twin girls born this month whose DNA he said he altered with a powerful new tool capable of rewriting the very blueprint of life.

If true, it would be a profound leap of science and ethics.

A U.S. scientist said he took part in the work in China, but this kind of gene editing is banned in the United States because the DNA changes can pass to future generations and it risks harming other genes.

WASHINGTON, Nov. 25 (Xinhua) -- U.S. researchers have developed a DNA vaccine that successfully held off Alzheimer's disease in animal tests. The vaccine, if proven safe and effective in human trials, could reduce dementia cases by half.

MOSCOW (AP) — The head of Russia’s Roscosmos space agency has said that a proposed Russian mission to the moon will be tasked with verifying that the American moon landings were real, though he appeared to be making a joke.

“We have set this objective to fly and verify whether they’ve been there or not,” said Dmitry Rogozin in a video posted Saturday on Twitter.

MOSCOW, November 23. /TASS/. Ruselectronics Group (part of the state hi-tech corporation Rostec) has developed a mobile super-computer with a capacity of 2.2 petaflops that can find applications in the defense and space industries, the Rostec press office reported on Friday.

"The 1.9x1.35x1m computing module allows reaching a record peak capacity of 2.2 petaflops for computers of such dimensions and a data storage volume of up to 2.2 petabytes," Rostec said.

ANKARA, November 22. /TASS/. Turkey is looking forward to getting the first batch of Russia’s air defense systems S-400, but at the same time stays ready to consider a good proposal for acquiring US systems Patriot, should it be made, Turkish presidential spokesman Ibrahim Kalin told a conference entitled Russian-Turkish Relations: Shaping an Image of the Future on Thursday.

MOSCOW, November 22. /TASS/. The Obninsk-based Technologiya Research and Production Enterprise of RT Chemcomposite Group (part of the state hi-tech corporation Rostec) has developed a carbon fiber load-carrying panel for the newest solar module of a promising spacecraft, Rostec said on Thursday.

NEW YORK (AP) — A nearly silent, drone-sized aircraft has shown it can fly, thanks to a scientist who was inspired by watching “Star Trek” as a child.

With neither propellers nor jets, the airplane gets its thrust by applying a strong electric field to the air. That general idea has been demonstrated at science fairs, but the new work shows it can power a free-flying airplane.

So can people look forward to traveling in planes that are almost silent and emit no air pollution?

CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. (AP) — For NASA’s InSight spacecraft, it all comes down to the final six minutes of a six-month journey to Mars.

The lander will enter the Martian atmosphere at supersonic speed, then hit the brakes to get to a soft, safe landing on the alien red plains.

After micromanaging every step of the way, flight controllers will be powerless over what happens at the end of the road Monday, nearly 100 million miles (160 million kilometers) away.

20 Nov 2018; AFP: NASA has picked an ancient river delta as the landing site for its uncrewed Mars 2020 rover, to hunt for evidence of past life on Earth's neighboring planet, officials said Monday.

Even though the Red Planet is now cold and dry, the landing site, Jezero Crater, was filled with a 1,600-foot (500-meter) deep lake that opened to a network of rivers some 3.5 to 3.9 billion years ago.

MOSCOW, November 18. /TASS/. Russia’s Progress MS-10 cargo spaceship has docked to the International Space Station (ISS) after a two-day flight, a spokesman for the missioncontrol center said on Sunday.

"The Progress MS-10 cargo spacecraft docked to the ISS in an automated mode at 22:29 Moscow time," the spokesman said, adding that the spaceship docked to the Zvezda service module.