World News Roundup

ARAB TIMES, FRIDAY, DECEMBER 4, 2015

18INTERNATIONAL

Science

Discovery

‘Tools not ready’

Gene editinguse too earlyWASHINGTON, Dec 3, (RTRS):One of the scientists who discov-ered powerful tools for alteringgenes is not convinced the case hasbeen made for using the technologyon human sperm, eggs andembryos.

“The tools are not ready,” biolo-gist Emmanuelle Charpentiersaid in an interview on Wednesdayduring a global meeting on thetechnology.

Changes made in the genes ofhuman reproductive cells, knownas germline cells, would be passedalong to future generations. Several

groups havecalled for restric-tions on use ofthe technologyknown asCRISPR-Cas9,which hasopened newfrontiers ingenetic medicinebecause of itsability to modifygenes quickly

and efficiently.At the meeting, several

researchers presented potentialnear-term uses of the technologythat would require the editing ofgermline cells. They includeediting immature sperm cells toallow infertile men to father chil-dren.

ManipulationBut Charpentier, one of the sci-

entists credited with discoveringthe technology, said: “As of today,I’m in favor of not having themanipulation of the humangermlines.”

“As long as they are not perfectand ready, I think it’s good to havethis ban against editing thegermline,” said Charpentier of theMax Planck Institute for InfectionBiology in Berlin and UmeaUniversity, Sweden.

Charpentier and colleagueJennifer Doudna of the Universityof California at Berkeley did pio-neering work on developing theCRISPR-Cas9 system, a technolo-gy that can strategically delete spe-cific stretches of DNA and add ingenes.

She said she would need verystrong convincing about the imme-diate benefits of editing humangermline cells. “For the moment, Idon’t see any.”

Charpentier is a member of theGerman National Academy ofSciences, a country where researchinvolving germline editing isbanned.

RegulationsBut regulations vary. In Britain,

scientists can apply for a license toedit the germline. In the UnitedStates, researchers are banned fromusing federal funding for theresearch, but the work is permittedin private labs.

Such work has already takenplace in China, where a team ofscientists reported carrying outthe first experiment to alter theDNA of non-viable humanembryos.

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In the ruins of a medieval con-vent in the French city of Rennes,archaeologists discovered fiveheart-shaped urns made of lead,each containing an embalmedhuman heart.

Now, roughly four centuriesafter they were buried,researchers have used modern sci-ence to study these old hearts. Itturns out three of them bore tell-tale signs of a heart disease verycommon today.

“Every heart was different andrevealed its share of surprises,”anthropologist Rozenn Colleter ofthe French National Institute forPreventive ArchaeologicalResearch said on Wednesday.

“Four of these hearts are verywell preserved. It is very rare inarchaeology to work on organicmaterials. The prospects are veryexciting.”

One heart appeared healthy, withno evidence of disease. Three oth-ers showed indications of disease,atherosclerosis, with plaque in thecoronary arteries. The fifth waspoorly preserved.

“Only one heart belonged to awomen, and was totally degrad-ed, permitting no study,” saidradiologist Dr Fatima-ZohraMokrane of Rangueil Hospital atthe University Hospital ofToulouse.

One of hearts belonged to anobleman identified by an inscrip-tion on the urn as Toussaint Perrien,Knight of Brefeillac, who died in1649.

His heart had been removedupon his death and was later buriedwith his wife, Louise de Quengo,Lady of Brefeillac, who died in1656.

Her wonderfully preserved bodywas found in a coffin at the site,still wearing a cape, wool dress,bonnet and leather shoes with corksoles.

People watch on a video screen on Capitol Hill in Washington on Dec 2, as astronauts Scott Kelly (left), and Kjell Lindgren testify from the International Space Station before the House Science, Spaceand Technology Committee. (AP)

US astronauts testify from Space StationOn his 249th consecutive day inspace, US astronaut Scott Kelly toldCongress that what he misses mostis his friends and family on Earth andthe chance to experience nature.

Testifying from space before theHouse Science, Space and TechnologyCommittee on Wednesday, Kelly said it

has been helpful to be able to growthings in the International SpaceStation, where he is stationed for a fullyear. In August, the astronauts in thestation ate red romaine lettuce theygrew there. Kelly says they are nowgrowing flowers.

“There’s the nutritional aspect of it,

but also there’s the psychologicalaspect about having something elsegreen up here that’s living, that wecan take care of, that we can seegrow,” Kelly told the committee.

Kelly and fellow astronaut KjellLindgren testified for 20 minutesbefore the panel via live feed on

Wednesday. Members asked themabout space debris, their relationshipwith the Russian cosmonautsaccompanying them on their missionand even their dental health.

The two astronauts talked abouttheir current mission in terms ofpreparing for an eventual trip to

Mars. Kelly said he thinks it’s doablebut it rests on support from the gov-ernment, including Congress.

“It’s expensive and we have differ-ent priorities,” Kelly said. “But I thinkit’s a trip that is worth the investment.”

An occasional look at what CapitolHill is talking about. (AP)

This picture taken with remote point1 camera and provided by theEuropean Space Agency, ESA,shows the liftoff of Vega VV06 rocketcarrying LISA Pathfinder on Dec 3,from Europe’s Spaceport, Kourou

French Guiana. (AP)

Strange horn of Amidala found:What does a strange giraffe-like animalwith three horns atop its head and a set offangs that roamed Europe about 15 millionyears ago have in common with a prettyyoung queen from the “Star Wars” movies?

Plenty, according to the scientists whoon Wednesday announced the discovery inSpain’s Cuenca province of beautifullypreserved fossils of this creature.

They gave it the scientific nameXenokeryx amidalae, meaning “strangehorn of Amidala,” referring to the “StarWars” character Queen Amidala, playedby actress Natalie Portman.

The peculiar shape of Xenokeryx’slargest horn was “extremely similar to oneof the hairstyles that Amidala shows off in‘Star Wars’ Episode 1 when she is the queenof her home planet Naboo,” said paleontolo-gist Israel Sanchez of the National Museumof Natural History in Madrid. (RTRS)

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Fight for foodborne diseases: Atleast 600 million people, or 1 in 10 world-wide, fall ill from contaminated food eachyear and 420,000 die, many of themyoung children, the World HealthOrganization (WHO) said on Thursday.

Giving its first global estimates of pre-ventable foodborne diseases, a WHOreport called on governments and industryto improve inspections and control of thefood chain from the fields and farmyard tothe factory and the plate.

Space

Bid to measure effects of gravitational waves

Probe tests tech for detecting ripplesBERLIN, Dec 3, (Agencies): TheEuropean Space Agency launched arocket Thursday carrying two cubes ofgold and platinum almost a millionmiles from Earth so scientists can seehow they’ll behave in a freefall — at acost of more than $450 million.

What may sound like a frivolousenterprise is actually the prelude to afar more ambitious mission that hopesto measure ripples in space timecaused by black holes and other mas-sive objects lurking unseen in darkcorners of the galaxy. Also known asgravitational waves, these ripples werepredicted by Albert Einstein a centuryago but have never been directlydetected.

In order for that mission — tenta-tively scheduled for launch in 2034 —to succeed, the European SpaceAgency first has to test whether it canshield objects from external influenceswell enough to measure the minuteeffects of gravitational waves.

“We want to see whether we cancreate an environment in orbit that’sfree of interference, and where we canconduct these high-precision measure-ments,” said Michael Menking, seniorvice president for Earth observation,navigation and science at AirbusDefense and Space. The company isthe main technology contractor on theLISA Pathfinder mission.

The probe separated from the Vegarocket two hours after its launch fromESA’s space port in French Guiana at1:04 a.m. local time (0404 GMT)Thursday.

“We have a mission,” project scien-tist Paul McNamara said to cheers andhugs at the control rooms in Kourouand Darmstadt, Germany, after receiv-

ing the first signal from the spacecraft.By mid-January, the probe will have

reached an orbit about 1.5 millionkilometers (930,000 miles) fromEarth, where the pull from the planet’sgravity is balanced by that of the sun.The cubes — made from gold andplatinum to reduce their susceptibilityto magnetic fields — are then careful-ly released inside a box that shieldsthem from cosmic particles and otherinterference that might affect themeasurements performed by a sensi-tive laser. The laser is capable ofdetecting movements of less than 10

millionths of a millionth of a meter.“Our biggest enemy is the light

from the sun that hits the satellite andpushes it around,” said OliverJennrich, a scientist working on theLISA Pathfinder mission.

To counter this, the satellite usesNASA-supplied thrusters capable ofmaking tiny corrections to the probe’sposition to keep it in the right orbit andprevent the free-falling cubes fromcrashing into the inside of the box.

This should provide a near-perfectcosmic isolation chamber to measurethe effect of gravitational waves, said

Jennrich.❑ ❑ ❑

Orbital ATK on Wednesday counteddown to its first space launch since asudden explosion last year destroyed itsAntares rocket and cargo craft boundfor the International Space Station.Thursday’s planned liftoff of theunmanned Cygnus cargo ship uses adifferent rocket — an Atlas V made byUnited Launch Alliance — and isscheduled for 5:55 pm. The weatherforecast for launch was 60 percentfavorable, NASA’s weather officer said.

Hawaii Supreme Court denies telescope construction

Japan asteroid probe conducts Earth swing-byTOKYO, Dec 3, (Agencies): AJapanese space probe launched lastyear passed by Earth on Thursday toharness the planet’s gravitational pullto propel it toward a far away aster-oid in its quest to study the origin ofthe solar system, authorities said.

The explorer, named “Hayabusa2”, conducted an “Earth swing-by”and came as close as 3,090 kilome-tres (2,000 miles) above ground after7 pm (1000 GMT), before switchingits orbit to continue toward tinyRyugu asteroid, according to simula-tion data made available on a web-site managed by Japan AerospaceExploration Agency (JAXA).

The space agency will now spendabout a week analysing whether theprobe has gone into the correct orbit,according to local media, includingthe Mainichi Shimbun daily.

Hayabusa 2 was launched ayear ago aboard Japan’s main H-IIA rocket from TanegashimaSpace Center for its six-year mis-sion to bring back mineral samplesfrom the asteroid.

It is expected to reach Ryugu,named after a mythical castle in aJapanese folk tale, in mid-2018 andspend around 18 months in the area.

RobotsIt will also drop rover robots and

a “landing package” that includesequipment for surface observation.

If all goes well, soil samples willbe returned to Earth in late 2020.

Analysing the extra-terrestrialmaterials could help shed light onthe birth of the solar system 4.6 bil-lion years ago and offer cluesabout what gave rise to life on

Earth, scientists have said.The probe is the successor to

JAXA’s first asteroid explorer,Hayabusa — the Japanese termfor falcon — which returned toEarth in 2010 with dust samplesafter a seven-year mission.

Also:HONOLULU: The Hawaii SupremeCourt Wednesday invalidated apermit awarded for the constructionof one of the world’s largest tele-scopes on a mountain many NativeHawaiians consider sacred.

The court ruled that the stateBoard of Land and NaturalResources should not have issueda permit for the telescope before itheld a hearing to evaluate a peti-tion by a group challenging the pro-ject’s approval.

Foodborne diseases — caused by bacte-ria such as salmonella, viruses, parasites,toxins and chemicals — mostly cause tem-porary symptoms like nausea, diarrhoea andvomiting. They can also cause longer-termillnesses including cancer, kidney or liverfailure, brain disorders, epilepsy and arthri-tis, the United Nations agency said. (RTRS)

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Museum to open at Cairo airport:Egypt’s state news agency says a new

museum will open soon at the CairoInternational Airport.

Antiquities Minister Mamdouh el-Damaty tells the news agency Thursdaythat the museum, opening Monday, willhold 38 pieces from Egypt’s various his-torical periods.

El-Damaty tells the news agency themove will help boost transit tourism.

Battered by years of political turmoil,Egypt’s tourism sector took another blow

after the Oct 31 Russian passenger planecrash in the Sinai Peninsula that killed all224 people on board, mostly Russianvacationers. An investigation into thecrash, which Russia said was caused by abomb, is still ongoing.

Following the crash, the UnitedKingdom suspended flights to Sharm el-Sheikh, and Russia suspended all flightsto Egypt, also banning EgyptAir from fly-ing to Moscow. (AP)

Charpentier

Portman Damaty