Synthetic DNA research could lead to the creation of artificial life, Irish professor says
There's nothing to stop scientists creating artificial life, said an Irish scientist after a UK charity announced support for a project to create synthetic DNA.
The Wellcome Trust – a London-based charity that funds health research with legacy funding from deceased pharmaceutical magnate Henry Wellcome – is to provide £10m (€8.5m) for the new Synthetic Human Genome Project (SynHG). The news was first reported yesterday by the BBC.
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Irish Independent
a day ago
- Irish Independent
Synthetic DNA research could lead to the creation of artificial life, Irish professor says
There's nothing to stop scientists creating artificial life, said an Irish scientist after a UK charity announced support for a project to create synthetic DNA. The Wellcome Trust – a London-based charity that funds health research with legacy funding from deceased pharmaceutical magnate Henry Wellcome – is to provide £10m (€8.5m) for the new Synthetic Human Genome Project (SynHG). The news was first reported yesterday by the BBC.
RTÉ News
3 days ago
- RTÉ News
Astronauts from India, Poland, Hungary launched on first space station mission
A US commercial mission carrying astronauts from India, Poland and Hungary lifted off to the International Space Station Wednesday, taking people from these countries to space for the first time in decades. NASA retiree turned private astronaut Peggy Whitson was launched on the fifth spaceflight of her career. The astronaut team lifted off from NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Cape Canaveral, Florida, at about 7.30am Irish time, beginning the latest mission organised by Texas-based startup Axiom Space in partnership with Elon Musk's rocket venture SpaceX. Live video showed the towering spacecraft streaking into the night sky over Florida's Atlantic coast trailed by a brilliant yellowish plume of fiery exhaust. It marked the first Crew Dragon flight since Mr Musk briefly threatened to decommission the spacecraft after US President Donald Trump threatened to cancel his government contracts in a high-profile political feud between the two men earlier this month. Axiom 4's autonomously operated Crew Dragon was expected to reach the ISS after a flight of about 28 hours, then dock with the outpost as the two vehicles soar together in orbit some 400km above Earth. If all goes according to plan, the Axiom 4 crew will be welcomed aboard the orbiting space laboratory tomorrow by its seven current resident occupants - three astronauts from the US, one from Japan and three cosmonauts from Russia. Ms Whitson, 65, and her three Axiom 4 crewmates - Shubhanshu Shukla, 39, of India, Sławosz Uznański-Wiśniewski, 41, o fPoland, and Tibor Kapu, 33, of Hungary - are slated to spend 14 days aboard the space station conducting microgravity research. The mission stands as the fourth such flight since 2022 arranged by Axiom as the Houston-headquartered company builds on its business of putting astronauts sponsored by private companies and foreign governments into Earth orbit. For India, Poland and Hungary, the launch marked a return to human spaceflight after more than 40 years and the first mission to send astronauts from each of those three countries to the International Space Station. The Axiom 4 participation of Mr Shukla, an Indian air force pilot, is seen by India's own space programme as a kind of precursor to the debut crewed mission of its Gaganyaan orbital spacecraft, planned for 2027. The Axiom 4 crew is led by Ms Whitson, who retired from NASA in 2018 after a pioneering career that included her tenure as the first woman to serve as the US space agency's chief astronaut. She also was the first woman to command an ISS expedition and the first to do so twice. Now a consultant and director of human spaceflight for Axiom, she has logged a career total of 675 days in space, a US record, during three NASA missions and a fourth flight to space as commander of the Axiom 2 mission in 2023. The Axiom 4 mission was previously scheduled for liftoff yesterday before a forecast of unsuitable weather forced a 24-hourpost ponement.
The Irish Sun
3 days ago
- The Irish Sun
Never-before-seen dog-sized dinosaur that dodged 32ft flesh-eating giants and killer crocs found after 150 MILLION years
A "NEVER-BEFORE-SEEN" dinosaur that dates back 150 million years has been revealed – and is now on show in the heart of London. The speedy creature would've dodged 32ft flesh-eating giants and even crocodiles to survive in prehistoric 13 A brand new dinosaur has gone on show at the historic Natural History Museum in London Credit: Natural History Museum 13 The speedy creature would've darted around prehistoric Colorado, USA Credit: Natural History Museum / Bob Nicholls 13 At about a metre long, the dinosaur was the size of a very large dog Credit: Sean Keach Officially named Enigmacursor mollyborthwickae , the two-legged sprinter is available for free public viewing at the Natural History Museum from Thursday, June 26. The metre-long creature's fossilised skeleton is remarkably well-preserved, stretching over a metre long (3.2ft) – and about 50cm (1.6ft) tall. Visitors will be able to get up close to the early American creature, which lived alongside iconic dinos like Diplodocus and Stegosaurus. "What we're dealing with here is a new species of dinosaur that comes from Colorado in the western USA," said Professor Paul Barrow, of the Natural History Museum, speaking to The Sun at the grand unveiling. Read more on dinosaurs "It was discovered back in 2021 and we were able to acquire it thanks to an amazingly generous private donation, which allowed us to buy it for the museum." BACK IN TIME The dinosaur itself is believed to have not been fully grown. Normally the upper and lower parts of the creature's back bones would fuse together as the animal aged. But they weren't fully fused together, suggesting that the dino may have been quite young. Most read in Science And it certainly would've been surrounded by "At the time, Colorado would have been a floodplain," said Professor Susannah Maidment, of the Natural History Museum, speaking to The Sun. Walking With Dinosaurs: Official Trailer, BBC "It would have had a series or rivers coming down from high land to the west, and there would have been dinosaurs all over it. "Some of the most famous dinosaurs – thinks like Diplodocus and Camarasaurus and Brachiosaurus. "And so this little dinosaur would have been running around at the feet of those giants." GREEN MACHINE This particular dinosaur was a herbivore, meaning it mostly ate plants. 13 The remarkably preserved fossilised skeleton was found in a quarry Credit: Natural History Museum 13 Scientists have pieced together the fossils to reconstruct the dinosaur Credit: Natural History Museum But because flowering plants hadn't evolved yet, Professor Maidment told us, it "would have just been eating things like cycads and ferns". The dinosaur didn't need to move fast to eat – but it did need speedy legs to avoid being eaten. It lived alongside deadly predators, including "We know it's a very speedy little dinosaur," said Professor Paul Barrow. 13 It was previously thought to be a type of poorly-understood dinosaur called a Nanosaurus Credit: Natural History Museum 13 The official name for the new dinosaur is the Engimacursor mollyborthwickae Credit: Natural History Museum "It has very long hind legs – it walks on its hind legs only. "So its main defence against predators would actually have just been a speedy getaway. "And it's living at the same time as quite a lot of other large predatory dinosaurs. "Probably the most famous of which is a thing called 29 to 32ft ) in length – it's quite common at the time. A timeline of life on Earth Here's a brief history of life on our planet 4.6billion years ago – the origin of Earth 3.8billion years ago – first life appears on Earth 2.1billion years ago – lifeforms made up of multiple cells evolve 1.5billion years ago – eukaryotes, which are cells that contain a nucleus inside of their membranes, emerge 550million years ago – first arthropods evolve 530million years ago – first fish appear 470million years ago – first land plants appear 380million years ago – forests emerge on Earth 370million years ago – first amphibians emerge from the water onto land 320million years ago – earliest reptiles evolve 230million years ago – dinosaurs evolve 200million years ago – mammals appear 150million years ago – earliest birds evolve 130million years ago – first flowering plants 100million years ago – earliest bees 55million years ago – hares and rabbits appear 30million years ago – first cats evolve 20million years ago – great apes evolve 7million years ago –first human ancestors appear 2million years ago – Homo erectus appears 300,000 years ago – Homo sapiens evolves 50,000 years ago – Eurasia and Oceania colonised 40,000 years ago – Neandethal extinction 13 The Sun spoke to Natural History Museum experts Professor Susannah Maidment and Professor Paul Barrett, who discovered the new species Credit: Natural History Museum "But also a lot of speedy predators as well, and also some big crocodiles that could have taken out this guy." DIG IT The creature was first unearthed in 2021 from a commercial quarry. And it was thought to be a Nanosaurus, a "poorly-known" species that was first named in 1870s. The Enigmacursor was acquired from the David Aaron Ltd gallery with support from David and Molly Lowell Borthwick (after whom the dinosaur is now named). 13 The dinosaur would've lived between 145 and 150 million years ago Credit: Natural History Museum 13 It would've lived alongside giants like Diplodocus and Stegosaurus Credit: Natural History Museum And Natural History Museum scientists renamed it after analysing the specimen, confirming it as a species new to science. But there is still a mystery: exactly how fast the nippy little creature could run. "It was a two-legged dinosaur and so it had very small forelimbs actually," Professor Maidment told us. "But we don't really know how fast it would have run at all. "It probably might have been able to just about outrun us – but probably not much faster than that." 13 Analysis of the dinosaur revealed that it belonged to a brand new species Credit: Natural History Museum 13 Visitors can go to see the dinosaur at the museum for free from Thursday, June 26 Credit: Sean Keach 13 Scientists have been able to reconstruct what the dinosaur would've looked like based on its fossils Credit: Natural History Museum
