25 articles from WEDNESDAY 6.11.2019

2019’s Allen Distinguished Investigators will focus on the mysteries of our cells

The Paul G. Allen Frontiers Group, a division of Seattle's Allen Institute, is making a total of $7.5 million in awards to its latest class of five biomedical researchers. The themes for this year's Allen Distinguished Investigators focus on stem cell therapies and single-cell interactions in their native environments. “The field of stem cell biology has the potential to change how we...

Bones of ape living 12m years ago point to genesis of upright walking

Bavarian fossils of likely common ancestor of humans and apes ‘put back start of bipedalism by millions of years’The distinctive human habit of walking upright may have evolved millions of years earlier than thought, according to researchers who uncovered the remains of an ancient ape in southern Germany.Excavations from the Hammerschmiede clay pit in Bavaria turned up fossilised bones...

Daniel Lobb obituary

My brother Dan Lobb, who has died aged 80, was a designer of optical instruments for spacecraft, working at the Scientific Instrument Research Association (Sira) in Chislehurst, Kent, from the 1960s onwards.Early on in his career, he became a designer of laser projector-based flight simulators, and spent a year in the US working at the Naval Research Laboratory, in Washington. Then, in the 80s...

What's Up - November 2019

Highlights of the November sky include how to watch as Mercury transits the Sun on Nov. 11, plus how to observe the regular dimming and brightening of the "Demon star," Algol, with your own eyes. News Article Type: Homepage ArticlesPublished: Wednesday, November 6, 2019 -...

'Innocence Is Shattered:' A Storied Mormon Family Reels After Mexico Murders

QUEEN CREEK, Arizona -- The message popped up on the family WhatsApp thread just after noon."Howie's wife and four kids have been killed," it said. "Christina and Donna and their kids are not accounted for. Were traveling with them."Aaron Staddon married into the diaspora of Mormon families who have long lived in the rural valleys of northern Mexico, and he shuddered when...

Sea levels set to keep rising for centuries even if emissions targets met

Generations yet unborn will face rising oceans and coastal inundations into the 2300s even if governments meet climate commitments, researchers findSea level rise is set to challenge human civilization for centuries to come, even if internationally agreed climate goals are met and planet-warming emissions are then immediately eliminated, researchers have found.The lag time between rising global...

Spaceflight and Rocket Lab will put a Japanese shooting-star satellite into orbit

Seattle-based Spaceflight says it's handling the pre-launch logistics for a Japanese satellite that's designed to spray artificial shooting stars into the sky. Tokyo-based ALE's spacecraft is just one of seven satellites due to be sent into orbit from New Zealand as early as Nov. 25, aboard a Rocket Lab Electron launch vehicle. It'll be the 10th Electron launch, earning the...

Boeing proposes lunar lander for NASA crews, rivaling Blue Origin (and SpaceX?)

Boeing says it has submitted its proposal for a lunar lander capable of putting astronauts on the moon by as early as 2024, joining a competition that includes Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos' Blue Origin space venture and most likely SpaceX as well. Today marked the deadline for submissions. NASA says it's aiming to select at least two proposed landing systems by January for further development....