Heavenly Palace in orbit
China launched its first prototype science lab into space on 29 September. Called Tiangong 1, or Heavenly Palace, the 10.4-metre-long uncrewed lab is an important step in China’s plans to have a large, crewed space station orbiting Earth by 2020.
Cheaper DNA
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It’s not quite the much-anticipated $1000 genome, but some people will soon be getting their “exome” – the 1.5 per cent that codes for proteins – sequenced for just $999. Last week at the in San Francisco, of Mountain View, California, to participate in the project.
No disease please
It must be love: she’s boosting her immune system. When female fruit flies hear male courtship songs, they turn on immune system genes, apparently getting ready for potential infections (Proceedings of the Royal Society B, ).
‘Mad cow’ still lurking
The human form of mad cow disease is still at large in the UK, a study screening 13,878 people’s appendixes reveals. Four tested positive for variant Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease, which translates to 288 infections per 1 million people in England, the UK Health Protection Agency reports. So far, 173 people in England have died of vCJD.
Reusable rockets
Today’s space launch vehicles splash down in the sea or burn up in the atmosphere after use, taking millions of dollars with them. Upstart firm SpaceX wants to change that and last week said it aims to return its Falcon rockets to the launch pad for later reuse. The company’s aim is to ferry astronauts to the International Space Station.