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Biology Life on Earth

Is Cloning the Future of Genomics?

Plasma
Advancements in medicine allow us to live longer and healthier lives today than ever before. Science has shifted the way researchers look at their ability to alter cells in the human body. The use of technologies like cloning might not be as far off in the future as a way to synthetically create organs that match your own. Of course, if this never comes to fruition, it’s vital to know what other methods, such as preventative medicine, can do to protect you and your family. Here’s a look at how genomics, cloning, and the use of prevention can keep you well. Image: Unsplash

Almost every human condition can be linked back to your genes. The list of genetic conditions is lengthy. Diseases like muscular dystrophy, Crohn’s disease, birth defects like spina bifida, and some cancers just barely scrape the long list of ailments that can be passed from one generation to the next. And, it seems that many of us try to overcome our genetics at every opportunity. We work to live a healthy lifestyle, eat the right foods, limit stress, and get enough rest each day. What if there was a better way to protect yourself and those you love from your own genes?

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Solar System Astronomy Space Exploration

Solar System through the eyes of Hubble Space Telescope

Saturn photo by Hubble Space Telescope (March 22, 2004)
As NASA's Cassini spacecraft was hurtling toward a July 1, 2004 rendezvous with Saturn, the Hubble Space Telescope continued snapping breathtaking pictures of the solar system's most photogenic planet. This view, taken on March 22, 2004, is so sharp that many individual ringlets can be seen in Saturn's ring plane. Though Hubble was nearly a billion miles (1.6 billion km) farther from Saturn than the Cassini probe when this photo was taken, Hubble's exquisite optics, coupled with the high resolution of its Advanced Camera for Surveys (ACS), allowed the space telescope to take pictures of Saturn which are nearly as sharp as Cassini's wide-angle views of the full planet as it began its approach. Of course, Cassini would ultimately far exceed the resolution of Hubble during its close encounter with Saturn; indeed, Cassini's sharpness began to surpass Hubble's when it approached within 14 million miles (23 million km) of Saturn. Image source: "Cassini's Arrival" on the Hubble Space Telescope website. Image credit: NASA, ESA and E. Karkoschka (University of Arizona)

Hubble Space Telescope was launched on April 24, 1990, and entered service on May 20, 1990. Since then, it has observed all the planets in our Solar System, apart from Earth and Mercury. Earth is far better studied by geologists on the ground and specialized probes in orbit. Hubble can’t observe Mercury as it is too close to the Sun, whose brightness would damage the telescope’s sensitive instruments.

Here are the best images of the planets (except Earth and Mercury) and some non-planets of our Solar System through the eye of the Hubble Space Telescope.

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Technology Biology

Virtual Reality and its Benefits to Biotechnology

Virtual Reality (VR) and biotechnology
Virtual Reality (VR) can play a role in making the field more accessible and overcoming a number of limitations in terms of research.

Biotechnology is a rapidly developing field. Even though the field has been around for many years, today’s biotechnology applications are far more complex and relevant than ever before. The fundamental aim at the core of this field is to find viable solutions to meet human needs, in turn improving our quality of life.

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Solar System Astronomy

What if Ganymede was the Earth’s second moon?

Moon and Ganymede in the Earth's sky
The largest moon and also the largest non-planet in the Solar System, Ganymede has a mean radius of 2634.1±0.3 km (about 1636 miles, 0.413 Earths). For comparison, our Moon's radius is 1,737.1 km (1079 mi). What if Ganymede was the Earth's second moon? That's how it would look in the sky if it was at the same distance as the Moon.

Jupiter’s moon Ganymede is the largest and most massive of the Solar System’s moons. It has a mean radius of 2634.1±0.3 km (about 1636 miles, 0.413 Earths). For comparison, our Moon’s radius is 1,737.1 km (1079 mi). What if Ganymede was the Earth’s second moon? How would it look in the sky, if it was at the same distance as the Moon?

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Earth from Space Moon Landing Space Exploration

Amazing view of Earth from Apollo 9

Astronaut Dave Scott emerges from the Apollo 9 Command Module "Gumdrop" (cropped)
March 6, 1969 - With the Apollo 9 Command/Service Modules docked with the Lunar Module and earth in the background, astronaut Dave Scott opens the hatch of Gumdrop for his extravehicular activity. Astronaut Rusty Schweickart took the picture from outside the Lunar Module, Spider at approximately 249.5 kilometers (155 miles) above the Earth. The entire EVA lasted 37 minutes. (Apollo 9, AS09-20-3064) In simulations, Apollo 9 astronauts began to refer to the CSM as "Gumdrop", a name inspired by the CM's appearance while in the blue protective wrapping in which it was transported from the manufacturer, and the LM as "Spider", inspired by the LM's appearance with landing legs deployed. This is a cropped image. Full image source: Apollo Image Gallery

An amazing view of Earth from Apollo 9: on March 6, 1969, with the Command/Service Modules docked with the Lunar Module and Earth in the background, astronaut Dave Scott opens the hatch of CSM (“Gumdrop”) for his extravehicular activity (EVA) to test some of the spacesuit systems that will be used for lunar operations. Astronaut Rusty Schweickart took the picture from outside the Lunar Module, “Spider” at approximately 249.5 kilometers above the Earth. The entire EVA lasted 37 minutes.

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Space Exploration Mars Moon Landing

Space exploration is still the brightest hope-bringer we have

Apollo 11 launch (cropped)
The Apollo 11 Saturn V lifts off at 9:32 a.m. EDT July 16, 1969, from Kennedy's Launch Complex 39A. As of 2018, Saturn V launch vehicle still remains the tallest, heaviest, and most powerful rocket ever built. This is a cropped image. You can see the full image at: NASA The Apollo 11 mission, the first manned lunar mission, launched from the Kennedy Space Center, Florida via the Marshall Space Flight Center (MSFC) developed Saturn V launch vehicle on July 16, 1969 and safely returned to Earth on July 24, 1969. The Saturn V vehicle produced a holocaust of flames as it rose from its pad at Launch complex 39. The 363 foot tall, 6,400,000 pound (2,902,991 kg) rocket hurled the spacecraft into Earth parking orbit and then placed it on the trajectory to the moon for the humanity's first lunar landing. Aboard the space craft were astronauts Neil A. Armstrong, commander; Michael Collins, Command Module pilot; and Edwin E. Aldrin Jr., Lunar Module pilot. With the success of Apollo 11, the national objective to land humans on the Moon and return them safely to Earth had been accomplished.

I am one of the few African-American aerospace engineers who helped design the Apollo spaceships that took men to the Moon. My great-grandfather was a slave in Claiborne, Alabama, who used primitive tools to work the land. My father was born in Alabama before the Wright brothers made mankind’s first flight. He lived to see men walk on the Moon, twin robotic biology labs land on Mars, and a fleet of four space probes on their way to the stars. But many black people, like the late Reverend Ralph Abernathy, felt that the money used to make these amazing things happen would have been better spent on helping the poorest descendants of American slaves.

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Astronomy

This image of Antares is the best-ever photo of a star Beyond the Sun

This photo of Antares is the best ever captured of a star other than our Sun.
This photo of the red supergiant Antares is the best ever captured of a star other than our Sun. Image: Wikipedia

On August 23, 2017, astronomers have unveiled a photo that is the most detailed ever image of a star other than our Sun. The image of the red “supergiant” Antares has been constructed using the European Southern Observatory’s (ESO) Very Large Telescope Interferometer (VLTI) on Cerro Paranal (a mountain in the Atacama Desert of northern Chile).

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Space Exploration

6 spaceships parked at the ISS

6 spacecraft parked at the ISS
6 spacecraft parked at the ISS (June 2, 2019)

On June 2, 2019, the International Space Station (ISS) team published a photo on their Twitter account showing a total of six spacecraft parked at the orbiting laboratory.

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Life on Earth Astronomy Evolution People

Humans walking on two legs because of exploding stars, new study says

Evolution of bipedalism (walking on two legs)
As the forests shrank, it would have become harder and more time-consuming for individuals to find food. One theory, suggested by anthropologist C. Owen Lovejoy of Kent State University, says "a mutually beneficial arrangement evolved: males gathered food for females and their young and in return females mated exclusively with their providers. To be successful providers, males needed their arms and hands-free to carry food, and thus bipedalism evolved." Another theory considers the efficiency of upright walking. In the 1980s, Peter Rodman and Henry McHenry, both at the University of California, Davis, suggested that "...as forests shrank, hominid ancestors found themselves descending from the trees to walk across stretches of grassland that separated forest patches". The most energetically efficient way to walk on the ground was on two legs, Rodman and McHenry argued.

Walking on two legs is an evolutionary leap that led humans to conquer the world. But, why humans are walking on two legs? It’s still unclear. Now, according to a new study published in the University of Chicago’s Journal of Geology, the reason might be exploding stars a few million years ago.

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Mars Space Exploration

Fly over Mount Sharp on Mars with this NASA video

Mars Curiosity Rover Selfie
This self-portrait of NASA's Curiosity Mars rover shows the vehicle at the "Mojave" site, where its drill collected the mission's second taste of Mount Sharp. The scene combines dozens of images taken during January 2015 by the Mars Hand Lens Imager (MAHLI) camera at the end of the rover's robotic arm. The pale "Pahrump Hills" outcrop surrounds the rover, and the upper portion of Mount Sharp is visible on the horizon. Darker ground at upper right and lower left holds ripples of wind-blown sand and dust. Image: NASA.gov Some conspiracy theorists ask "where is the robotic arm?", "who took this photo?", "who holds the camera" etc. The view does not include the rover's robotic arm. Wrist motions and turret rotations on the arm allowed MAHLI to acquire the mosaic's component images. The arm was positioned out of the shot in the images, or portions of images, that were used in this mosaic. This process was used previously in acquiring and assembling Curiosity self-portraits taken at sample-collection sites "Rocknest" (PIA16468), "John Klein" (PIA16937) and "Windjana" (PIA18390).

NASA has published a video showing Curiosity Rover‘s (Mars Science Laboratory) proposed route on Mars’ Mount Sharp (Aeolis Mons), a mountain rising 5.5 km (18,000 ft) high from the valley floor. The animated video shows what it would be like to soar over Mount Sharp, officially Aeolis Mons, which the Curiosity has been climbing since 2014.

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