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CRISPR gene-editing therapies need more diverse DNA to realize their full potential – Vox.com

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Medicine has entered a new era in which scientists have the tools to change human genetics directly, creating the potential to treat or even permanently cure diseases by editing a few strands of troublesome DNA. And CRISPR, the gene-editing technology whose creators won the Nobel Prize for Chemistry in 2020, is the face of this new normal.

CRISPRs novel harnessing of bacterial proteins to target disease-carrying genes has reshaped medical research over the past decade. While gene-editing itself has been around for more than 30 years, scientists can use CRISPR to edit genomes faster, cheaper, and more precisely than they could with previous gene-editing methods.

As a result, investigators have gained far more control over where a gene gets inserted and when it gets turned on. That in turn has opened the door to a new class of better gene therapies treatments that modify or replace peoples genes to stop a disease.

Last December, the US Food and Drug Administration approved the first-ever CRISPR-based therapy, designed to treat sickle cell disease. In February, the treatment, called Casgevy, gained approval from the European Commission as well. It joins the dozen or so pre-CRISPR gene therapies that are already available to patients. In early May, the first patients began to receive treatment

But theres a significant impediment to maximizing CRISPRs potential for developing novel therapies: the lack of diversity in genetics research.

For decades, gene therapy has been defined by both its enormous therapeutic potential, and by the limitations imposed by our imprecise knowledge of human genetics. Even as gene-editing methods, including CRISPR, have become more sophisticated over the years, the data in the genetic databases and biobanks that scientists use to find and develop new treatments are still riddled with biases that could exclude communities of color from enjoying the full benefits of innovations like CRISPR. Unless that gap is closed, CRISPRs promise wont be fully fulfilled.

Developing effective gene therapies depends on growing our knowledge of the human genome. Data on genes and their correlation with disease have already changed the way cancer researchers think about how to design drugs, and which patients to match with which drug.

Scientists have long known that certain genetic mutations that disrupt regular cell functions can cause cancer to develop, and they have tailored drugs to neutralize those mutations. Genetic sequencing technology has sped that progress, allowing researchers to analyze the genetics of tumor samples from cancer patients after theyve participated in clinical trials to understand why some individuals respond better than others to a drug.

In a clinical trial of the colorectal cancer drug cetuximab, investigators found retrospectively that tumors with a mutation in the KRAS gene (which helps govern cell growth) did not respond to treatment. As a result, clinicians are now asked to confirm that patients do not have the mutation in the KRAS gene before they prescribe that particular drug. New drugs have been developed to target those mutations in the KRAS gene.

Its a step-by-step process from the discovery of these disease-related genes to the crafting of drugs that neutralize them. With CRISPR now available to them, many researchers believe that they can speed this process up.

The technology is based on and named after a unique feature in the bacterial immune system that the organism uses to defend itself against viruses. CRISPR is found naturally in bacteria: Its short for Clustered Regularly Interspaced Short Palindromic Repeats, and it functions like a mugshot database for bacteria, containing snippets of genetic code from foreign viruses that have tried to invade in the past.

When new infections occur, the bacteria deploys RNA segments that scan for viral DNA that matches the mugshots. Special proteins are then dispatched to chop the virus up and neutralize it.

To develop CRISPR into a biotech platform, this protein-RNA complex was adapted from bacteria and inserted into human and animal cells, where it proved similarly effective at searching for and snipping strands of DNA.

Using CRISPR in humans requires a few adjustments. Scientists have to teach the system to search through human DNA, which means that it will need a different mugshot database than what the bacteria originally needed. Critical to harnessing this natural process is artificial RNA, known as a guide RNA. These guide RNAs are designed to match genes found in humans. In theory, these guide RNAs search for and find a specific DNA sequence associated with a specific disease. The special protein attached to the guide RNA then acts like molecular scissors to cut the problematic gene.

CRISPRs therapeutic potential was evident in the breakthrough sickle cell treatment approved by the FDA late last year. What made sickle cell such an attractive target is not just that it affects around 20 million people or more worldwide, but that it is caused by a mutation in a single gene, which makes it simpler to study than a disease caused by multiple mutations. Sickle cell is one of the most common disorders worldwide that is caused by a mutation in a single gene. It was also the first to be characterized at a genetic level, making it a promising candidate for gene therapy.

In sickle cell disease, a genetic mutation distorts the shape of a persons hemoglobin, which is the protein that helps red blood cells carry and deliver oxygen from the lungs to tissues throughout the body. For people with sickle cell disease, their red blood cells look like sickles instead of the normal discs. As a result, they can get caught in blood vessels, blocking blood flow and causing issues like pain, strokes, infections, and death.

Since the 1990s, clinicians have observed that sickle cell patients with higher levels of fetal hemoglobin tend to live longer. A series of genome-wide association studies from 2008 pointed to the BCL11A gene as a possible target for therapeutics. These association studies establish the relationships between specific genes and diseases, identifying candidates for CRISPR gene editing.

Casgevys new CRISPR-derived treatment targets a gene called BCL11A. Inactivating this gene stops the mutated form of hemoglobin from being made and increases the production of normal non-sickled fetal hemoglobin, which people usually stop making after birth.

Out of the 45 patients who have received Casgevy since the start of the trials, 28 of the 29 eligible patients who have stayed on long enough to have their results analyzed reported that they have been free of severe pain crises. Once the treatment moves out of clinical settings, its exact effects can vary. And if the underlying data set doesnt reflect the diversity of the patient population, the gene therapies derived from them might not work the same for every person.

Sickle cell disease as the first benefactor of CRISPR therapy makes sense because its a relatively simple disorder that has been studied for a long time. The genetic mutation causing it was found in 1956. But ironically, the same population that could benefit most from Casgvey may miss out on the full benefits of future breakthrough treatments.

Scientists developing CRISPR treatments depend on whats known as a reference genome, which is meant to be a composite representation of a normal human genome that can be used to identify genes of interest to target for treating a disease.

However, most of the available reference genomes are representative of white Europeans. Thats a problem because not everybodys DNA is identical: Recent sequencing of African genomes shows that they have 10 percent more DNA than the standard reference genome available to researchers. Researchers have theorized that this is because most modern humans came out of Africa. As populations diverged and reconcentrated, genetic bottlenecks happened, which resulted in a loss of genetic variation compared to the original population.

Most genome-wide association studies are also biased in the same way: They have a lot of data from white people and not a lot from people of color.

So while those studies can help identify genes of importance that could lead to effective treatments for the population whose genes make up the majority of the reference data i.e., white people the same treatments may not work as well for other nonwhite populations.

Broadly, theres been an issue with human genetics research theres been a major under-representation of people of African ancestry, both in the US and elsewhere, said Sarah Tishkoff, professor of genetics and biology at the University of Pennsylvania. Without including these diverse populations, were missing out on that knowledge that could perhaps result in better therapeutics or better diagnostics.

Even in the case of the notorious breast cancer gene BRCA1, where a single gene mutation can have a serious clinical impact and is associated with an increased risk of developing cancer, underlying mutations within the gene tend to differ in people of different ancestries, Tishkoff said.

These differences, whether large or small, can matter. Although the vast majority of human genomes are the same, a small fraction of the letters making up our genes can differ from person to person and from population to population, with potentially significant medical implications. Sometimes during sequencing, genetic variations of unknown significance appear. These variants could be clinically important, but because of the lack of diversity in previous research populations, no one has studied them closely enough to understand their impact.

If all the research is being done in people of predominantly European ancestry, youre only going to find those variants, Tishkoff said.

Those limitations affect scientists up and down the developmental pipeline. For researchers using CRISPR technology in preclinical work, the lack of diversity in the genome databases can make it harder to identify the possible negative effect of such genetic variation on the treatments theyre developing.

Sean Misek, a postdoctoral researcher at the Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard, started developing a project with the goal of investigating the differences in the genetic patterns of tumors from patients of European descent compared to patients of African descent. CRISPR has become a versatile tool. Not only can it be used for treatments, but it can also be used for diagnostics and basic research. He and his colleagues intended to use CRISPR to screen for those differences because it can evaluate the effects of multiple genes at once, as opposed to the traditional method of testing one gene at a time.

We know individuals of different ancestry groups have different overall clinical responses to cancer treatments, Misek said. Individuals of recent African descent, for example, have worse outcomes than individuals of European descent, which is a problem that we were interested in trying to understand more.

What they encountered instead was a roadblock.

When Miseks team tried to design CRISPR guides, they found that their guides matched the genomes in the cells of people with European and East Asian ancestry, whose samples made up most of the reference genome, but not on cells from people of South Asian or African ancestry, who are far less represented in databases. In combination with other data biases in cancer research, the guide RNA mismatch has made it more difficult to investigate the tumor biology of non-European patients.

Genetic variations across ancestry groups not only affect whether CRISPR technology works at all, but they can also lead to unforeseen side effects when the tool makes cuts in places outside of the intended genetic target. Such side effects of off-target gene edits could theoretically include cancer.

A big part of developing CRISPR therapy is trying to figure out if there are off-targets. Where? And if they exist, do they matter? said Daniel Bauer, an attending physician at Dana-Farber/Boston Childrens Cancer and Blood Disorders Center.

To better predict potential off-target edits, Bauer collaborated with Luca Pinello, associate professor at Massachusetts General Hospital and Harvard Medical School, who had helped develop a tool called CRISPRme that makes projections based on personal and population-level variations in genetics. To test it, they examined the guide RNA being used for sickle cell disease treatment, and found an off-target edit almost exclusively present in cells donated by a patient of African ancestry.

It is currently unclear if this off-target edit detected by the CRISPRme tool has any negative consequences. When the FDA approved the sickle-cell therapy in December 2023, regulators required a post-marketing study to look into off-target effects. Any off-target edits affecting a persons blood should be easily detected in the blood cells, and drawing blood is easier to do than collecting cells from an internal organ, for example.

The genetic variant where the off-target effect occurred can be found in approximately every 1 in 10 people with African ancestry. The fact that we actually were able to find a donor who carried this variant was kind of luck, Bauer said. If the cells we were using were only of European ancestry, it wouldve been even harder to find.

Most of these [off-target] effects probably wont cause any problems, he said. But I think we also have these great technologies, so thats part of our responsibility to look as carefully as we can.

These issues recur again and again as investigators hunt for novel treatments. Katalin Susztak, professor of medicine and genetics at the University of Pennsylvania, thinks one promising candidate for a future CRISPR therapy is a standout gene for kidney disease: APOL1.

Researchers identified the gene when they looked into kidney disease risk in African Americans. While genome-wide association studies turned up thousands of distinct genes increasing risk for people of European ancestry, in African Americans, this single gene was responsible for 3 to 5 times higher risk of kidney disease in patients, said Susztak.

The APOL1 variant is common among African Americans because it protects people from developing African sleeping sickness, which is spread by the Tsetse fly present across much of the continent. This is similar to the story of the sickle cell mutation, which can protect people from malaria.

The variant is maybe only 5,000 years old, so this variant has not arisen in Europe, Asia, or anywhere else. Just in West Africa, Susztak said. But because of the slave trades, West Africans were brought to the United States, so millions of people in the United States have this variant.

The variant also predisposes people to develop cardiovascular disease, high blood pressure, and COVID-related disease, which maybe explains why there was an increased incidence of deaths in African Americans during COVID than in Europeans, Susztak said. APOL1 is potentially a very interesting target [for CRISPR] because the disease association is strong.

A CRISPR treatment for kidney disease is currently being investigated, but using the tool comes with complications. Cutting the APOL1 gene would set off an immune response, Susztak noted, so they will have to somehow prevent undesirable side effects, or find a related, but editable gene, like they did with sickle cell.

An alternative RNA-based strategy utilizing CRISPR is also in the works. DNA needs to be transcribed into a messenger RNA sequence first before it can be turned into proteins. Instead of permanently altering the genome, RNA editing alters the sequence of RNAs, which can then change what proteins are produced. The effects are less permanent, however, lasting for a few months instead of forever which can be advantageous for treating temporary medical conditions.

And it may turn out that gene therapy is simply not the right approach to the problem. Sometimes, a more conventional approach still works best. Susztak said that a small molecule drug developed by Vertex which works similarly to most drugs except special classes like gene therapies or biologics to inhibit the function of the APOL1 protein has enjoyed positive results in early clinical trials.

Even with these limitations, more CRISPR treatments are coming down the pike.

As of early last year, more than 200 people have been treated with experimental CRISPR therapies for cancers, blood disorders, infections, and more. In the developmental pipeline is a CRISPR-based therapeutic from Intellia Therapeutics that treats transthyretin amyloidosis, a rare condition affecting the function of the heart tissues and nerves. The drug has performed well in early trials and is now recruiting participants for a Phase III study. Another CRISPR drug from Intellia for hereditary angioedema, a condition that causes severe swelling throughout the body, is slated to enter Phase III later this year.

As the CRISPR boom continues, some research groups are slowly improving the diversity of their genetic sources.

The All of Us program from the National Institutes of Health, which aims to find the biological, environmental, and lifestyle factors that contribute to health, has analyzed 245,000 genomes to date, over 40 percent of which came from participants who were not of European ancestry. They found new genetic markers for diabetes that have never been identified before.

Then theres the Human Pangenome project, which aims to create a reference genome that captures more global diversity. The first draft of its proposal was released last May. Another project called the PAGE study, funded by the National Human Genome Research Institute and the National Institute on Minority Health and Health Disparities, is working to include more ancestrally diverse populations in genome-wide association studies.

But at the current pace, experts predict that it will take years to reach parity in our genetic databases. And the scientific community must also build trust with the communities its trying to help. The US has a murky history with medical ethics, especially around race. Take the Tuskegee experiment that charted the progression of syphilis in Black American men while hiding the true purpose of the study from the participants and withholding their ability to seek treatment when it became available, or the controversy over Henrietta Lacks cervical cells, which were taken and used in research without her consent. Those are just two prominent historical abuses that have eroded trust between minority communities and the countrys medical system, Tishkoff said. That history has made it more difficult to collect samples from marginalized communities and add them to these critical data sets.

Where the research is being done, where the clinical trials are being held, as well as whos doing the research, can all have an impact on which patients participate. The Human Genetics & Genomics Workforce Survey Report published by the American Society of Human Genetics in 2022 found that 67 percent of the genomic workforce identified as white. Add in the financial burden of developing new treatments when using a reference genome, or a pre-made biobank from past efforts to collect and organize a large volume of biological samples, saves time and costs. In the race to bring CRISPR treatments to market, those shortcuts offered valuable efficiency to drug makers.

What this means is that the first-generation of CRISPR therapeutics might therefore be blunter instruments than they might otherwise be. However, if improvements can be made to make sure the source genomes reflect a wider range of people, Pinello believes that later generations of CRISPR will be more personalized and therefore more effective for more people.

Finding the genes and making drugs that work is, of course, momentous but ultimately, thats only half the battle. The other worry physicians like Susztak have is whether patients will be able to afford and access these innovative treatments.

There is still an overwhelming racial disparity in clinical trial enrollment. Studies have found that people of color are more likely to suffer from chronic illness and underuse medications like insulin compared to their white counterparts. Gene therapies easily rack up price tags in the millions, and insurance companies, including the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, are still trying to figure out how to pay for them.

Because its the pharmaceutical industry, if they dont turn around profit, if they cannot test the drug, or if people are unwilling to take it, then this inequity is going to be worsened, said Susztak. We are essentially going to be creating something that makes things worse even though we are trying to help.

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CRISPR gene-editing therapies need more diverse DNA to realize their full potential - Vox.com

Casino Hubs: 5 Airports That Serve Major Centers Of The Gambling Sector – Simple Flying

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Summary

Among all leisure destinations worldwide, few are as unique in their scope as gambling hubs, to which millions flock annually in search of luck at some of the world's largest casinos. As a result, passenger demand for these major centers for the gaming industry is extremely strong, and airlines are quick to compete on some of these lucrative routes.

The airlines serving gambling hubs often include a mix of low-cost leisure-focused carriers in addition to the long-haul legacy carriers one would expect. Equivalently, the large airports that serve as major gateways for these gaming areas are similarly massive and often service traffic from multiple continents.

Photo: Philip Pilosian | Shutterstock

Across the board, however, gambling hub airports have a uniquely large number of flights from leisure-oriented airlines and are less oriented toward business travelers. In this article, we will examine five of the world's largest gambling hub airports and what makes these facilities so special.

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Unarguably the world's largest gambling hub, Las Vegas attracts tens of millions of passengers annually from all corners of the world. The city is not only notable for the many casinos located across its famous strip, but is also host to a number of events and professional sporting teams. In 2024, the Super Bowl was held at the city's Allegiant Stadium, named for the popular hometown leisure airline.

Photo: ZikG | Shutterstock

The airport is among the busiest that serve any of the world's major gambling hubs and is, as one might expect, heavily bolstered by leisure-focused low-cost carriers. Nonetheless, there are a number of major international legacy carriers that also serve Las Vegas, such as KLM from Amsterdam Schiphol International Airport (AMS) and Virgin Atlantic from London Heathrow Airport (LHR).

In fact, passenger demand has been so overwhelming for Las Vegas that the city has begun the process of developing another airport. Nonetheless, this facility will not be operational until at least the mid-2030s.

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Atlantic City International Airport is a unique, small airport located in Southern New Jersey that serves not just the nearby gambling center of Atlantic City, but also the greater South Jersey region as a whole. The facility, which is also a joint operating base for the New Jersey Air National Guard, is also home to the 177th Fighter Wing's F-16 fighter jets.

Photo:Robin Guess | Shutterstock

The only commercial operator at the airport is, unsurprisingly, leisure-focused Spirit Airlines. Interestingly, however, is that the carrier serves a number of leisure destinations in the American Southeast from the facility, demonstrating a lack of interest in Atlantic City from major population centers.

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Located in Eastern Macau, this facility serves as the primary gateway to the largest gambling hub in Asia. The relatively small facility sees traffic from across the continent and serves as the primary hub for flag carrier Air Macau.

While a mid-size airline by Asian flag carrier standards, Air Macau does operate flights from the facility to over a dozen destinations across China and Southeast Asia. Most major Asian airlines operate nonstop flights from their hubs to this popular gambling destination, but the airport does lack service from major European, American, or Middle Eastern airlines.

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Arguably, the largest gambling hub in Europe is in the city-state of Monaco, where the legendary casino of Monte Carlo is located. The small nation, however, lacks a proper airport due to its small size and, as a result, relies heavily on nearby Nice Airport to serve as its primary gateway.

Due to its nearby proximity, a number of airlines operate nonstop services to Nice and market the nearby gambling destination. Many carriers also offer helicopter transfers to Monaco, notably including Emirates, which recently announced new connections via helicopter operator Blade.

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The second-largest airport in Nevada, RNO serves the greater Lake Tahoe area, and offers flights to dozens of destinations across the United States from all major airlines. The city, which is home to casinos, is a popular gambling destination nestled amid a picturesque alpine lake.

Photo: EQRoy | Shutterstock

The airport offers services to most major destinations in the Western United States, with a few nonstop flights to East Coast transportation gateways. For example, JetBlue operates seasonal service to the airport from its primary hub at John F Kennedy International Airport.

It is also important to note that not all traffic to RNO is driven by the gambling industry. The airport, like many others in the alpine west of the United States, serves a number of world-class ski resorts in the area.

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Casino Hubs: 5 Airports That Serve Major Centers Of The Gambling Sector - Simple Flying

MGM National Harbor gambling revenue down 10% – WTOP

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After Maryland casinos posted their fifth-best month ever for gaming revenue in March, gamblers pulled back in April.

After Maryland casinos posted their fifth-best month ever for gaming revenue in March, gamblers pulled back in April.

Total gaming revenue from the states six casinos fell 6.6% from a year earlier to $163.2 million last month.

Gaming revenue from slot machines and table games at MGM National Harbor led casinos with $68.1 million, though that was down 9.8% from a year earlier.

Baltimores Horseshoe Casino had $14.7 million in April gaming revenue, down 10.8% from a year ago. Live! Casino & Hotel at Arundel Mills had the smallest year-over-year decline, with $60.1 million in April gaming revenue, down 1.9% from April of last year.

April results were mixed at the states three smaller casinos, up 6% at Hollywood Casino, down 7.6% at Ocean Downs and down 20.6% at Rocky Gap Casino.

Casinos contributed $69.8 million to Maryland, with the majority of it going to the states education trust fund.

April figures were down from March, when the states casinos had a combined $178.1 million in gaming revenue.

Maryland Lottery and Gaming posts monthly and year-to-date gaming revenue figures and contributions to state programs online.

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MGM National Harbor gambling revenue down 10% - WTOP

France wants to use Greece’s air defense system for the Olympics, report says – POLITICO Europe

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If our allies ask for a specific period of time in this case the Olympic Games a specific assistance, which does not in any way affects the country's defense capability, this will be done, but always after coordination and consultation between the two sides, government spokesman Pavlos Marinakis told reporters during a regular briefing on Thursday. But we are always talking and I make it clear about a limited specific time period.

An official at the French embassy in Athens declined to comment.

This is the first time a report has emerged about France requesting air defense material for the Olympics. Until now, it has been reported that foreign police and military would be present during the Games.

Although not directly linked to Ukraine, the French request is seen as an indirect enticement to Athens to unlock part of its air defense in the general European effort to strengthen Kyiv.

The United States is expected to pressure further pressure Athens in this regard on Friday during a planned teleconference on Ukraines assistance during the Ukraine Defense Contact Group.

The Crotale air-defense system in question is French-built and was integrated into the Greek air force in 2003. It has a firing range of 11-20 kilometers and a maximum engagement altitude of 6 km. It is described as ideal for the purpose for which the French want it.

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France wants to use Greece's air defense system for the Olympics, report says - POLITICO Europe

Man had rare Covid infection that lasted 613 days, showed extensive mutations – South China Morning Post

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Researchers from the Netherlands have reported an extremely long Covid-19 infection in a man who died last year and warn of the emergence of more dangerous variants of the coronavirus.

The elderly man, who was immunocompromised due to previous illnesses, was admitted to a hospital in Amsterdam in February 2022 with a Covid-19 infection, according to a statement.

He was continuously positive for the coronavirus until his death in October 2023 for a total of 613 days.

Other cases of very long infections in people whose immune systems were unable to adequately fight the virus have previously been reported.

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The researchers led by Magda Vergouwe from the University of Amsterdam plan to present the results at a congress of the European Society for Clinical Microbiology and Infectious Diseases in Barcelona on April 27-30.

The case is also interesting for researchers because the coronavirus can change particularly strongly in such long-term infected people. This harbours the risk of variants of the virus emerging that can more easily overcome the immune systems of healthy people.

The researchers in the Netherlands repeatedly took samples from the man to analyse the genetic material of the coronavirus. They found a total of more than 50 mutations compared to the Omicron variant BA.1 that was circulating at the time, including those that would allow the virus to evade the immune defence.

Just 21 days after the man had received a certain anti-coronavirus drug, the virus also developed signs of resistance to it.

German with comically large number of Covid jabs 217 had no side effects

The man eventually died from a flare-up of one of his previous illnesses. As far as is known, he had not infected anyone with his mutated version of the coronavirus, also known under its scientific name Sars-CoV-2.

This case highlights the risk of new immune-evasive Sars-CoV-2 variants emerging in immunocompromised patients, the researchers are quoted as saying in the press release.

The extensive development of the virus in a single patient could lead to the emergence of unique variants, they warn.

It is important to closely monitor the evolution of the coronavirus in immunocompromised individuals. There is a risk that variants could emerge and spread in society that are less susceptible to the immune systems of healthy people, they added

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Man had rare Covid infection that lasted 613 days, showed extensive mutations - South China Morning Post

NASA announces major overhaul of ambitious Mars Sample Return mission – The Washington Post

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NASA announced Monday it is dramatically overhauling its highly anticipated but troubled mission to bring pieces of Mars to Earth, a move that experts say puts the project on life support. The space agency said it continues to support Mars Sample Return, but will operate the program under bare-bones budgets in the near-term while it seeks proposals for a faster and cheaper mission architecture.

The mission is an ambitious attempt to secure pristine chunks of the Red Planet that might help scientists reveal whether it ever hosted life. But the future of the project has been uncertain since last fall, when an independent review board produced a dire report saying the mission needed a management overhaul amid probable cost overruns and delays.

A 2020 report from the board had estimated sample return would cost $3.8 billion to $4.4 billion. Now the estimated cost over the lifetime of the mission is between $8.4 billion and $10.9 billion, with samples arriving on Earth in 2040.

That would put Mars Sample Returns price tag similar to that of the James Webb Space Telescope, a scientific and engineering marvel now observing the universe from a solar orbit about a million miles from Earth. The Webb took decades to get off the ground and gobbled up more of NASAs science dollars than anyone had hoped.

The estimated 2040 return date is unacceptable, NASA administrator Bill Nelson said Monday in a news briefing.

Its the decade of the 2040s that were going to be landing astronauts on Mars. Its also unacceptable that its $11 billion, Nelson said.

The costliness of Mars Sample Return comes at a time when NASAs science budget isnt sufficient to fund all the telescopes and space probes already underway or being planned. With congressional support for the mission unclear, NASAs Jet Propulsion Laboratory earlier this year laid off about 8 percent of its workforce.

Still, Mars Sample Return has been the top priority of the planetary science communitys decadal survey process, which elevates the most promising missions from the blizzard of proposals. But retrieving pristine scraps of Mars for laboratory analysis on Earth requires unprecedented technological feats. NASA and its partners, including the European Space Agency, cant simply send a spacecraft to the surface of Mars and expect it to blast off again and return to Earth. Instead, the mission calls for a fleet of spaceships operating as a team.

The Perseverance rover, which landed on Mars in 2021, has been collecting and storing samples of Martian rock and soil in Jezero Crater, where scientists believe a river flowed into a lake several billion years ago. The rover has separate funding from the sample return project.

I think its fair to say we are committed to retrieving the samples that are there, Nelson said.

The original plan called for NASA to send another vehicle to land on Mars and collect the samples from Perseverance. That lander will carry an ascent vehicle that will blast off Mars and carry the samples to orbit. There the material will be transferred to yet another spacecraft, a Mars orbiter built by the European Space Agency and charged with the task of hauling the samples back to Earth.

At the briefing, NASA officials called on the scientific community and industry to propose new ideas that use more existing, proven technologies and possibly a simpler process to retrieve the samples.

We are looking at out-of-the-box possibilities that could return the samples earlier and at a lower cost, NASAs head of science Nicola Nicky Fox said during the briefing.

G. Scott Hubbard, a Stanford professor who formerly led NASAs Mars program, said in an email he was pleased by the robust drumbeat of support for the mission expressed by Fox and other officials in a NASA town hall Monday. But he questioned whether a new architecture could bring down costs and speed up the mission.

[A] magic-wand solution that dramatically reduces cost or schedule without substantially increasing risk is hard to imagine, Hubbard said. I would be happy to be proven wrong.

Bethany Ehlmann, a planetary scientist at Caltech and president of the Planetary Society, said NASA needs to find the willpower to finish a job already started by Perseverance.

I am confident that we have the technological pieces to put sample return together. But when we choose to do things that are hard, we need to decide to do them and overcome the challenges together, Ehlmann said. What we need is the leadership and the commitment to do it.

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NASA announces major overhaul of ambitious Mars Sample Return mission - The Washington Post

Air Macau welcomes first of two wide-body aircrafts under plan to expand international network – Inside Asian Gaming

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Air Macau has announced that the first wide-body aircraft to bne introduced to its fleet this year has arrived in Macau.

The A330-300 landed in Macau from Hangzhou on Sunday morning and flew to Beijing that afternoon, having been leased from Air China.

Air Macau said it plans to introduce a second wide-body aircraft in the second half of this year to operate medium- and long-haul routes, and to add Middle East destinations as part of efforts to expand its European network.

The company first revealed in January that it would introduce two wide-body aircraft this year to complement the development of Macaus aviation industry.

Air Macau introduced its first wide-body aircraft, the A300-600R wide-body aircraft, in 2006 after which time it launched the Taipei-Macau-Shanghai route. However, in 2007 the aircraft was converted into a freighter.

There are currently 26 airlines operating out of Macau International Airport, with routes covering 23 destinations in mainland China, three destinations in Taiwan and 17 international destinations. The passenger market distribution is 46% from mainland China, 16% from Taiwan and 38% from international markets.

Macau International Airport Corporation Limited (CAM) said recently that it would invest more resources into creating incentives for airlines to operate international and medium- and long-haul direct routes.

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Air Macau welcomes first of two wide-body aircrafts under plan to expand international network - Inside Asian Gaming

VIDEO: Using ChatGPT and generative AI tools in journalism – Online Journalism Blog

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A few months ago I delivered a webinar for the European Data Journalism Network and DataNinja about the range of ways that journalists can use ChatGPT and other generative AI tools from idea generation and mapping systems to help with spelling and coding and what issues they need to be aware of.

The video is now available online and you can watch it below.

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VIDEO: Using ChatGPT and generative AI tools in journalism - Online Journalism Blog

Why is Elon Musk suing Open AI and Sam Altman? In a word: Microsoft. – Morningstar

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By Jurica Dujmovic

Potential ramifications extend far beyond the courtroom

In a striking turn of events, Elon Musk, Tesla's (TSLA) CEO, has initiated legal action against OpenAI and its leadership, alleging that the organization he helped found has moved from its original altruistic mission toward a profit-driven approach, particularly after partnering with Microsoft (MSFT).

The lawsuit accentuates Musk's deep-seated concerns that OpenAI has deviated from its foundational manifesto of developing artificial general intelligence (AGI) for the betterment of humanity, choosing instead to prioritize financial gains. But is that really so, or is there something else at hand?

Musk was deeply involved with OpenAI since its inception in 2015, as his concerns about AI's potential risks and the vision to advance AI in a way that benefits humanity aligned with OpenAI's original ethos as a non-profit organization.

In 2018, however, Musk became disillusioned with OpenAI because, in his view, it no longer operated as a nonprofit and was building technology that took sides in political and social debates. The recent OpenAI drama that culminated with a series of significant changes in OpenAI's structure and ethos, as well as a what can only be seen as Microsoft's power grab, seems to have sparked Musk's discontent.

To understand his reasoning, it helps to remember that Microsoft is a company with a long history of litigation. Over the years, Microsoft has faced numerous high-profile legal battles related to its market practices.

Here are some prominent cases to illustrate the issue:

-- In the United States v. Microsoft Corp. case, which began in 1998, the U.S. Department of Justice accused Microsoft of holding a monopolistic position in the PC operating-systems market and taking actions to crush threats to that monopoly. In April 2000, the case resulted in a verdict that Microsoft had engaged in monopolization and attempted monopolization in violation of the Sherman Antitrust Act.

-- In Europe, Microsoft has faced significant fines for abusing its dominant market position. In 2004, the European Commission fined Microsoft 497.2 million euros, the largest sum it had ever imposed on a single company at the time??. In 2008, Microsoft was fined an additional 899 million euros for failing to comply with the 2004 antitrust order.

-- In 2013, the European Commission levied a 561 million euro fine against Microsoft for failing to comply with a 2009 settlement agreement to offer Windows users a choice of internet browsers instead of defaulting to Internet Explorer.

In light of these past litigations, it's much easier to understand why OpenAI's CEO Sam Altman's brief departure from the company and subsequent return late last year - which culminated in a significant shift in the organization's governance and its relationship with Microsoft - was the straw that likely broke Musk's back.

After Altman was reinstated, Microsoft solidified its influence over OpenAI by securing a permanent position on its board. Furthermore, the restructuring of OpenAI's board to include business-oriented members, rather than AI experts or ethicists, signaled a permanent shift in the organization's priorities and marked a pivotal turn toward a profit-driven model underpinned by corporate governance.

The consequences of this power grab are plain to see: Microsoft is already implementing various AI models designed by the company in its various products while none of the code is being released to the public. These models also include a specific political and ideological bias that makes them problematic from an ethical point of view. This too, is an issue that cannot be addressed due to the closed-source nature of AI models generated and shaped under the watchful eye of Microsoft.

Musk's own ventures, like xAI and Neuralink, suggest he's still deeply invested in the AI space, albeit in a way he has more control over, presumably to ensure that the technology develops according to his vision for the future of humanity.

On the other hand, proponents of Microsoft's partnership with OpenAI emphasize strategic and mutually-beneficial aspects. Microsoft's $1 billion investment in OpenAI is viewed as a significant step in advancing artificial-intelligence technology as it allows OpenAI to utilize Microsoft's Azure cloud services to train and run its AI software. Additionally, the collaboration is positioned as a way for Microsoft to stay competitive against other tech giants by integrating AI into its cloud services and developing more sophisticated AI models????.

Proponents say Microsoft's involvement with OpenAI is a strategic business decision aimed at promoting Azure's AI capabilities and securing a leading position in the industry. The partnership is framed as a move to democratize AI technology while ensuring AI safety, which aligns with broader industry goals of responsible and ethical AI development. It is also seen as a way for OpenAI to access necessary resources and expertise to further its research, emphasizing the collaborative nature of the partnership rather than a mere financial transaction??.

Hard truths and consequences

While many point out that Musk winning the case is extremely unlikely, it's still worth looking into potential consequences. Such a verdict could mandate that OpenAI returns to a non-profit status or open-source its technology, significantly impacting its business model, revenue generation and future collaborations. It could also affect Microsoft's investment in OpenAI, particularly if the court determines that the latter has strayed from its founding mission, influencing the tech giant's ability to protect its investment and realize expected returns.

The lawsuit's outcome might influence public and market perceptions of OpenAI and Microsoft, possibly affecting customer trust and market share, with Musk potentially seen as an advocate for ethical AI development. Additionally, the case could drive the direction of AI development, balancing between open-source and proprietary models, and possibly accelerating innovation while raising concerns about controlling and misusing advanced AI technologies.

The scrutiny from this lawsuit might lead to more cautious approaches in contractual relationships within the tech sector, focusing on partnerships and intellectual property. Furthermore, the case could draw regulatory attention, possibly leading to increased oversight or regulation of AI companies, particularly concerning transparency, data privacy and ethical considerations in AI development. While Musk's quest might seem like a longshot to some legal experts, the potential ramifications of this lawsuit extend far beyond the courtroom.

More: Here's what an AI chatbot thinks of Elon Musk's lawsuit against OpenAI and Sam Altman

Also read: Microsoft hasn't been worth this much more than Apple since 2003

-Jurica Dujmovic

This content was created by MarketWatch, which is operated by Dow Jones & Co. MarketWatch is published independently from Dow Jones Newswires and The Wall Street Journal.

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Why is Elon Musk suing Open AI and Sam Altman? In a word: Microsoft. - Morningstar

Scientists Check Whether Space Telescope Could Detect Life on Earth – Futurism

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A pretty smart reality check! Planet Here

We have some truly epic news.

There is indeed life on Earth.

A team of American and European scientists have confirmed this not-so-surprising observation after they simulated the workings of a proposed space telescope, and then focused the telescope on Earth, treating it like a distant exoplanet to see if the instrument could pick up evidence of life.

In this kind-of-round-about way, the scientists can estimate the future performance of the space telescope, called LIFE or Large Interferometer For Exoplanets, when it's deployed into space to search for exoplanets that are similar to our own.

The scientists detailed the findings in a study published in The Astronomical Journal. Currently, there is no exact date when the LIFE telescope being overseen by the Swiss university ETH Zrich would start getting built, but this paper at least shows that its ambitions are viable.

The scientists created a synthetic version of Earth and had a simulated version of the telescope examine it for "biosignatures," or chemicals in the atmosphere that would indicate life such as nitrous oxide and methylated halogens.

"[T]hese biogenic gases is most consistent with a productive global photosynthetic biosphere," the scientists write.

The LIFE telescope, which would actually be made up of five satellites working in tandem, would operate by picking up infrared radiation in exoplanets' atmosphere. From this raw data, scientists hope they'd be able to calculate the chemical composition of the exoplanets' atmosphere.

The ultimate goal of the ambitious project is to study in further detail 30 to 50 exoplanets that are of similar size to Earth and see if there's is any glimmer of life in their atmospheres. Astronomers will be focusing their search on systems that are at most 65 light years away from us.

If LIFE is indeed deployed, it may go a long way towards answering one of the universe's biggest mysteries: are we alone?

More on space telescopes: James Webb Spots "Extremely Red" Black Hole

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Scientists Check Whether Space Telescope Could Detect Life on Earth - Futurism

Confidential Computing and Cloud Sovereignty in Europe – The New Stack

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Confidential computing is emerging as a potential game-changer in the cloud landscape, especially in Europe, where data sovereignty and privacy concerns take center stage. Will confidential computing be the future of cloud in Europe? Does it solve cloud sovereignty issues and adequately address privacy concerns?

At its core, confidential computing empowers organizations to safeguard their sensitive data even while its being processed. Unlike traditional security measures that focus on securing data at rest or in transit, confidential computing ensures end-to-end protection, including during computation. This is achieved by creating secure enclaves isolated areas within a computers memory where sensitive data can be processed without exposure to the broader system.

Cloud sovereignty, or the idea of retaining control and ownership over data within a country or region, is gaining traction as a critical aspect of digital autonomy. Europe, in its pursuit of technological independence, is embracing confidential computing as a cornerstone in building a robust cloud infrastructure that aligns with its values of privacy and security.

While the promise of confidential computing is monumental, challenges such as widespread adoption, standardization and education need to be addressed. Collaborative efforts between governments, industries and technology providers will be crucial in overcoming these challenges and unlocking the full potential of this transformative technology.

As Europe marches toward a future where data is not just a commodity but a sacred trust, confidential computing emerges as the key to unlocking the full spectrum of possibilities. By combining robust security measures with the principles of cloud sovereignty, Europe is poised to become a global leader in shaping a trustworthy and resilient digital future.

The era of confidential computing calls, and Europe stands prepared to respond. Margrethe Vestager, the European Commissions executive vice president for a Europe Fit for the Digital Age.

To learn more about Kubernetes and the cloud native ecosystem, join us at KubeCon + CloudNativeCon Europe in Paris from Mar. 19-22, 2024.

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European Space Agency Launches First Metal 3D Printer To ISS – Aviation Week

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A metal 3D printer could allow astronauts to make complex metallic structures in orbit, as well as at future Moon and Mars bases.

Credit: ESA

The European Space Agency (ESA) has launched what it says is the first metal 3D printer to be hosted on the International Space Station (ISS). While plastic 3D printers have been used aboard the ISS since 2014, a machine that prints stainless steel would be new and could allow astronauts greater...

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European Space Agency Launches First Metal 3D Printer To ISS - Aviation Week

A robot surgeon is headed to the ISS to dissect simulated astronaut tissue – Space.com

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Very soon, a robot surgeon may begin its orbit around our planet and though it won't quite be a metallic, humanoid machine wearing a white coat and holding a scalpel, its mission is fascinating nonetheless.

On Tuesday (Jan. 30), scientists will be sending a slew of innovative experiments to the International Space Station via Northrop Grumman's Cygnus spacecraft. It's scheduled to launch no earlier than 12:07 p.m. ET (1707 GMT) and, if all goes to plan, arrive at the ISS a few days later on Feb. 1.

Indeed one of the experiments onboard is a two-pound (0.9-kilogram) robotic device, about as long as your forearm, with two controllable arms that respectively hold a grasper and a pair of scissors. Developed by a company named Virtual Incision, this doctor robot of sorts is built to someday be able to communicate with human doctors on the ground while inserting itself into an astronaut patient to conduct medical procedures with high accuracy.

"The more advanced part of our experiment will control the device from here in Lincoln, Nebraska, and dissect simulated surgical tissue on orbit," Shane Farritor, co-founder of Virtual Incision, said during a presentation about Cygnus on Friday.

For now, as it's in preliminary stages, it's going to be tested on rubber bands but the team has high hopes for the future as missions to the moon, Mars and beyond start rolling down the space exploration pipeline. Remote space medicine has become a hot topic during the last few years as space agencies and private space companies lay plans for a variety of future crewed space missions.

Related: International Space Station will host a surgical robot in 2024

NASA's Artemis Program, for instance, hopes to have boots on the moon in 2026 plus, that's supposed to pave the way for a day on which humanity can say they've reached the Red Planet. And together, those missions are expected to pave the way for a far future in which humanity embarks on deeper space travel, perhaps to Venus or, if we're really dreaming, beyond the solar system. So to make sure astronauts remain safe in space an environment they're literally not made to survive in scientists want to make sure space-based medical treatment sees advancement in tandem with the rockets that'll take those astronauts wherever they're going.

A quick example that comes to mind is how, in 2021, NASA flight surgeon Josef Schmid was "holoported" to the ISS via HoloLens technology. It's sort of like virtual reality meets FaceTime meets augmented reality, if that makes sense.

However, as the team explains, not only could this robotic surgery mission benefit people exploring the void of space, but also those living right here on Earth. "If you have a specialist who's a very good surgeon, that specialist could dial into different locations and help with telesurgery or remote surgery," Farritor said. "Only about 10% of operating rooms today are robotic, but we don't see any reason that shouldn't be 100%."

This would be a particularly crucial advantage for hospitals in rural areas where fewer specialists are available, and where operating rooms are limited. In fact, as Farritor explained, not only is Virtual Incision funded by NASA but also by the military. "Both groups want to do surgery in crazy places," he said, "and our small robots kind of lend themselves to mobility like that."

The little robot doctor will be far from alone on the Cygnus spacecraft as it heads to the ISS; during the same presentation in which Farritor discussed Virtual Incision, other experts talked about what they'll be sending up come Monday.

For one, it'll have a robot friend joining it in the orbital laboratory a robotic arm. This arm has already been tested within the station's constraints before, but with this new mission the team hopes to test it in fully unpressurized conditions.

"Unplugging, replugging, moving objects, that's the kind of stuff that we did with the first investigation," said May Murphy, the director of programs at company NanoRacks. "We're kind of stepping up the complexity ... we're going to switch off which tools we're using, we'll be able to use screwdriver analogs and things like that; that will enable us to do even more work."

"We can look at even beyond just taking away something that the crew would have to spend time working on," she continued. "Now, we also have the capacity to do additional work in harsher environments we don't necessarily want to expose the crew to."

The European Space Agency, meanwhile, will be sending a 3D-printer that can create small metal parts. The goal here is to see how the structure of 3D-printed metal fares in space when compared to Earth-based 3D-printed metal. 3D-printed semiconductors, key components of most electronic devices, will be tested as well for a similar reason.

"When we talk about having vehicles in space for longer periods of time without being able to bring supplies up and down, we need to be able to print some of these smaller parts in space, to help the integrity of the vehicle over time," said Meghan Everett, NASA's ISS program deputy scientist.

Per Everett, this could also help scientists learn whether some sorts of materials that aren't 3D-printable on Earth can be 3D-printed in space. "Some preliminary data suggests that we can actually produce better products in space compared to Earth which would directly translate to better electronics in energy producing capabilities," she said.

Another experiment getting launched on Monday looks at the effects of microgravity on bone loss. Known as MABL-A, it will look at the role of what're known as mesenchymal cells (associated with bone marrow) and how that might change when exposed to the space environment. This could offer insight into astronaut bone loss a well-documented, major issue for space explorers as well as into the dynamics of human aging. "We will also look at the genes that are involved in bone formation and how gravity affected them," said Abba Zubair, a professor of Laboratory Medicine and Pathology at Mayo Clinic.

Lisa Carnell, division director for NASA's Biological and Physical Sciences Division, spoke about the Apex-10 mission headed up, which will see how plant microbes interact in space. This could help decode how to increase plant productivity on Earth, too.

Two of the other key experiments discussed during the presentation include a space computer and an artificial eye well, an artificial retina, to be exact. We'll start with the latter.

Nicole Wagner, CEO of a company named LambdaVision, has a staggering goal: To restore vision to the millions of patients that are blinded by end stage retinal degenerative diseases like macular degeneration and retinitis pigmentosa.

To do this, she and her team are trying to develop a protein-based artificial retina that's built through a process known as "electrostatic layer-by-layer deposition." In short, this consists of depositing multiple layers of a special kind of protein onto a scaffold. "Think of the scaffold almost like a tightly woven piece of gauze," Wagner said.

However, as she explains, this process on Earth can be impeded by the effects of gravity. And any imperfections in the layers can pretty much ruin the artificial retina's performance. So what about in microgravity? To date, LambdaVision has flown more than eight missions to the ISS, she says, and the experiments have shown that microgravity does indeed generate more homogenous layers and therefore better thin films for the retina.

"In this mission," she said, "we're looking at sending a powdered form of bacteriorhodopsin to the ISS that will then be resuspended into a solution, and we will be using special instruments, in this case spectrometers, to look at the protein quality and purity on the International Space Station, as well as to validate this process used to get the protein into solution."

Could you imagine if doctors would be able to commission a few artificial retinas to be developed in space someday, then delivered to the ground for implantation into a patient. And that this whole process could give someone their sight back?

As for the space computer, Mark Fernandez, principal investigator for the Spaceborne Computer-2 project, posed a hypothetical. "Astronauts go on a spacewalk, and after their work day, the gloves are examined for wear-and-tear,' he said. "This must be done by every astronaut, after every spacewalk, before the gloves can be used again."

Normally, Fernandez explains, the team takes a bunch of high-resolution photographs of the potentially contaminated gloves, then sends those images out for analysis.

This analysis, he says, typically takes something like five days to finish and return. So, hoping to solve the problem, the team developed an AI model in collaboration with NASA and Microsoft that can do the analysis straight on the station and flag areas of concern. Each takes about 45 seconds to complete. "We're gonna go on from five days to just a few minutes," he said, adding that the team also did DNA analysis typically conducted on the space station in about 12 minutes. Normally, he emphasized, that'd take months.

But, the team wants to make sure Spaceborne Computer-2's servers will function properly while on the ISS, hence the Cygnus payload. This will mark the company's third ISS mission.

"The ISS National Lab has so many benefits that it's attributing to our nation," Carnell said. "It creates a universe of new possibilities for the next generation of scientists and engineers."

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A robot surgeon is headed to the ISS to dissect simulated astronaut tissue - Space.com

Ax-3 astronaut snaps dizzying photo of ISS’s jam-packed interior – Space.com

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A new view from inside the International Space Station captures a dizzying number of experiments underway in orbit.

European Space Agency (ESA) project astronaut Marcus Wandt recently shared a photo he took while floating in the microgravity environment of the orbiting lab's Destiny module. Destiny is the International Space Station's primary research laboratory and is therefore home to a wide range of experiments and studies.

In the photo, which Wandt shared on X (formerly Twitter) on Jan. 25, the walls of the Destiny module are lined with various pieces of equipment and cords strung about to keep all of the tools tethered. Wandt's legs and feet can also be seen floating in the foreground of the photo due to the weightlessness astronauts experience inside the spacecraft.

Related: International Space Station at 20: A photo tour

The Destiny module has 24 equipment racks, which support various studies related to health, safety and humans' quality of life. The space station offers researchers a unique opportunity to conduct experiments in the absence of gravity, thus allowing them to better understand humans and the world in which we live.

"An astronaut's perspective," Wandt wrote in the X post. "How does this photo make you feel: relaxed, stressed, giddy or wanting to rearrange everything?"

Wandt launched to the space station on Jan. 18 as part of Axiom Space's Mission 3 (Ax-3). Joined by mission specialist Alper Gezeravc of Turkey, commander and former NASA astronaut Michael Lpez-Alegra (who has dual U.S. and Spanish citizenship), and mission pilot and Italian Air Force Col. Walter Villadei, Ax-3 carries Axiom's first all-European crew.

The four Ax-3 astronauts are living and working in orbit for up to two weeks. They are tasked with over 30 experiments spanning various fields in science and technology aimed at propelling advancements in human spaceflight and contributing to enhancing life on Earth.

While some may see Wandt's photo and think the inside of the module appears a bit cluttered without the force of gravity to hold all of the equipment neatly in place, others may feel relaxed by the idea of floating weightless through space. However, despite the apparent disorganization, astronauts are trained to maintain a high standard of cleanliness, to ensure the safety and functionality of the space station.

So, the question remains: How does this photo make you feel?

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Ax-3 astronaut snaps dizzying photo of ISS's jam-packed interior - Space.com

Lichen Survives on Outside of International Space Station Explorersweb – ExplorersWeb

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To ask if you could live outside the International Space Station (ISS) is rhetorical at best but could any living organism on Earth manage it?

One unassuming toughie did, and provided at least rough proof of concept that life could exist on Mars.

Lichen from Antarcticas McMurdo Dry Valleys survived 18 months on a platform attached to the outside of the ISSs Columbus module, Futurism reported. Though they emerged in worse shape than temperate lichens tested separately in Mars-like conditions, many still survived.

The International Space Station. Photo: NASA

The study authors focused on the success of the species in the Martian simulation.

The most relevant outcome was that more than 60% of the cellsremained intact after exposure to Mars, said Rosa de la Torre Noetzel of Spains National Institute of Aerospace Technology (INTA) and co-researcher on the project.

Survival in outer space itself was lower. Only around 35% of these lichens cells retained their membranes throughout the experiment.

Nevertheless, this is strong evidence that lichen is tougher than anything alive by many orders of magnitude.

For carbon-based life forms, outer space is in a word unsurvivable. In no particular order, space is:

However, repeated experiments have proven lichens resistance to these conditions.

In 2005, researchers placed lichens aboard a rocket and then attached them to a European Space Agency module outside a Russian satellite. They left them for 16 days, then brought them back home.

All exposed lichens, regardless of the optical filters used, showed nearly the same photosynthetic activity after the flight, the study said. These findings indicate that [most lichen cells] can survive in space after full exposure to massive UV and cosmic radiation, conditions proven to be lethal to bacteria and other microorganisms.

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Lichen Survives on Outside of International Space Station Explorersweb - ExplorersWeb

Sweden seeks to tighten NATO’s grip in Baltic Sea with 2 new submarines – POLITICO Europe

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KARLSKRONA, Sweden Theyve been on the drawing board for more than a decade, but in the heart of a vast assembly hall in a shipyard on the Baltic Sea coast, Swedens two new A26 attack submarinesare finally coming together.

Set for launch in 2027 and 2028, the 66-meter-long diesel-electric subs, named Blekinge and Skne after two Swedish counties, are designed to patrol NATOs eastern reaches under the Baltic Sea, tracking and countering Moscows maritime moves amid ever worsening relations between Russia and Europe.

The two are Swedens first new subs to be built since the mid-1990s and will join four older vessels in the Nordic states fleet.

We have a long history of building submarines, said Mats Wicksell, the head of Kockums, a business area of Swedish military equipment manufacturer Saab which is building the A26s. But this is still a big step forward for us.

The looming Swedish launches underscore a nascent subsea renewal in Northern Europe, where the Norwegian navy recently ordered four new submarines from Germanys ThyssenKrupp Marine Systems (TKMS). The Netherlands has received bids from TKMS, Saab Kockums and Frances Naval Group to build four submarines, while Denmark, which disposed of its fleet in 2004, recently suggested itmightreverse that move.

This expansion will partially bridge the gap to NATOs biggest European fleets, which are set for slight growth this decade, according to a report by Swedens Defense Research Agency. Six new French Barracuda class submarines are entering service and two further Type 212 subs will join an existing German fleet of six. The U.K.s fleet of Astute class submarines will total seven by the end of the decade and the Italian Todaro class submarines eight.

The European upgrades come amid a Russian PR drive about additions to its own fleet. In December, President Vladimir Putin posed on the dockside at Russias White Sea submarine production hub at Severodvinsk alongside two new vessels, the Krasnoyarsk and Emperor Alexander the Third.

The Russian navy will have 50 submarines in 2030, according to the Swedish report.

The U.S. submarine fleet is set to shrink slightly in numerical terms to 57 by 2030, but the continued introduction of the new Virginia class will serve to maintain and even widen America's technological advantage over its rivals during the same period, the Swedish report said.

Visited on a recent weekday, the Saab shipyard in the southern Swedish naval town of Karlskrona was humming with activity.

The partially built Blekinge was shrouded in scaffolding, while metal workers prepared further steel hull sections for highly skilled welders to later stitch together into a whole capable of withstanding blasts from mines and impact with the seabed. In another area, electricians threaded seemingly endless reams of wiring into high-tech interiors.

For Sweden, the long delayed new submarines they were initially supposed to enter service in 2018 and 2019 will be a shot in the arm in a rapidly deteriorating security environment.

Sweden has seenincursionsby an unidentified submarine in its territorial waters as well as explosions crippling the Russian-built Nord Stream natural gas pipelines in its maritime exclusive economic zone in 2022 and the severing of a subsea communications cable linkto Estoniain 2023.

Sweden reinstated conscription and remilitarized its strategically placed Baltic Sea of Gotland in the wake of Russias annexation of Crimea in 2014. Since the Kremlins full scale attack on Ukraine in 2022, it has boosted defense spending by 30 percent between 2023 and 2024 and applied to join NATO.

In early January, the Swedish government and the head of its armytoldcitizens to prepare themselves for war.

Theplan tolaunch the A26s has been a key pillar in Stockholms claim that it cancontributeto NATOs military strength,and isnt applying to join the alliance solely to benefit from its mutual defense guarantees.

Since the accession to NATO of the Baltic States in 2004 and Finland last April, the alliance has faced a headache over how to protect maritime supply lines to those states and restrict access to Russia in the event of conflict with the Kremlin.

Carl Gyhlenius, a Swedish former submarine commander and now a planner for the countrys navy, said he felt that NATO was getting a missing jigsaw piece with Sweden's NATO accession delayed by foot-dragging from Turkey and Hungary.

The Baltic Sea is hard to deal with if you don't have the necessary experience, and the fact that another country is joining NATO which has this as its backyard, with that regional expertise, that should ease operational problems, Gyhlenius said.

The Baltic is widely seen as a tricky operating environment because its varying salt levels affect sonar. It is also shallow and heavily trafficked, which increases collision risk.

On a recent visit to Stockholm, NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg praised Swedens defense industry saying it offered advanced technology across a range of branches addingthat the NATO accession of the Nordic statewill be a big advantagefor the alliance as it seeks to maintainits technological edgeoveritsrivals.

Swedens first submarine, called the Shark, was launched in 1904, and over the decades that followed the Swedish navyexpanded its underwater capabilities as part of its broader effort to mount a credible national defense as a neutral state betweenEast andWest.

Toward the end of the last century,Swedish engineers achieved a technical breakthrough with a system called air independent propulsion (AIP) which allowed Swedish submarines to operate for longer periods without surfacing, aiding their ability to evade detection.

Following the end of the Cold War, Sweden cut back on defense spending and its submarine program was largely on hold foradecade until 2010, when Defense Minister Sten Tolgfors announced a plan to build the A26.

Through this significant renewal, we are ensuring that the Swedish submarine fleet will continue to maintain the highest international class, he said. Modern submarines represent a significant obstacle to any actor who wants to use the Baltic Sea for anything other than peaceful shipping.

In the years since, the A26 project has been criticized for delays and cost overruns.

But its defenders say the wait and extra cost will be justified by the delivery of vessels tailor-made for Baltic Sea conditions at a time when control of that waterway is geopolitically vital.

In its promotional material, Saab notes that the dimensions of the A26 as well as its updated AIP system and new sonar-defeating hull design make it ideally suited to the Baltic.

It also has a new modular design, which will allow obsolete technology to be replaced with new systems more easily and a new portal toward the front of the boat will also allow easier interaction between the crew inside the vessel and divers or unmanned vessels operating outside, Saab says.

Kockums chief Wicksell said the A26 represents value for money because its combination of stealth and advanced weapons systems can help ward off foes and reduce the risk of a costly future conflict.

If I know there is something out there but I dont know where it is and I cant defend myself against it, that is a deterrent, he said.

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Sweden seeks to tighten NATO's grip in Baltic Sea with 2 new submarines - POLITICO Europe

British troops deploy to northern Norway ahead of huge NATO Arctic exercise – The Independent Barents Observer

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The bi-annual winter wargamepreviously known as Cold Response has changed its name to Nordic Response. While Norway used to be a lonely NATO member above the European Arctic Circle, Finland and soon Sweden are now in the team of allied countries protecting shared freedom and democratic values.

About 20,000 soldiers will participate when the exercise kicks off in March.

British soldiers are already heading north, the Royal Navy informs.

Camp Viking, some 65 km south of Troms, serves as hub for the British soldiers winter training.

The UK Commando Force remains the partner of choice for our Norwegian counterparts, and increasingly to new NATO member Finland along with Sweden, whose Special Operations Forces and Coastal Rangers will be working with the Royal Marines, says Spokesperson for the Commando Force, Major Ric Cole.

Together, and with US and Dutch involvement, we seek to develop a potent force capable of Defending NATOs Arctic flank, he says.

About 1,000 British troopers will be at Camp Viking. Those already in place face freezing training in temperatures down to minus 25 degrees Celsius, honing their survival skills.

The Brits will also fly in helicopters like the Apache fighting aircraft first tested in Arctic Norway back in 2019.

Against the backdrop of Russias invasion of Ukraine, Norway and European neighbors have raised concerns about Putins Arctic rearmament. Before Putin ordered full-scale war, NATO membership was not on the agenda neither in Helsinki or Stockholm.

A core element duringNordic Response is to train cross-border defense and movement of military hardware between the northernmost parts of Norway, Sweden and Finland.

Air forces will be active with about 100 aircraft. Outside the coast of northern Norway, over 50 submarines, frigates, corvettes, aircraft carriers, and various amphibious vessels will be active, the Norwegian Armed Forces informs.

14 countries take part in Nordic Response with a total of about 20,000 soldiers. Unlike previous NATO exercises in northern Norway, core areas of operations are moved north to the Alta, Lakselv area, with corresponding sailings by warships off the coast of Finnmark.

Although still hundreds of kilometers from the border with Russias Kola Peninsula, the signaling effect to Moscow is not to be mistaken.

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British troops deploy to northern Norway ahead of huge NATO Arctic exercise - The Independent Barents Observer

NASA and Russia will keep launching each other’s astronauts to ISS until 2025: report – Space.com

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NASA and Russia have agreed to keep launching American astronauts and Russian cosmonauts on each other's spacecraft, media reports suggest.

Roscosmos announced both it and NASA will continue the International Space Station launches with each other's crew members through at least 2025, "to maintain the reliability of the ISS as a whole," according to multiple reports including the Moscow Times.

A NASA spokesperson confirmed the agreement in an email to Space.com. "NASA and Roscosmos have amended the integrated crew agreement to allow for a second set of integrated crew missions in 2024 and one set of integrated crew missions in 2025," the spokesperson wrote. "For continued safe operations of the space station, the integrated crew agreement helps ensure that each crewed spacecraft docked to the station includes an integrated crew with trained crew members in both the Russian and U.S. Operating Segment systems."

NASA and Roscosmos have an existing agreement to launch crew members on each other's spacecraft, to allow for independent launch access for both nations and backup in case of trouble. Right now the manifest includes SpaceX Dragon for NASA missions, and Soyuz for Russia. (When Boeing Starliner is ready, presumably it will be included too for U.S. missions.)

The ISS is manifested to last until at least 2030, as most of the international coalition has agreed to stick with it. Russia will remain until 2028 or so, based on the most recent reports; the country is working on a different set of space plans in the future.

Related: NASA working to get private space stations up and running before ISS retires in 2030

Though NASA and Russia are the chief ISS partners alongside the European Space Agency, Japan and Canada, relations changed in 2022 when Russia invaded Ukraine to the condemnation of most of the world. Most space partnerships were severed with Russia aside from the ISS, which remains for space policy reasons.

Russia and NASA operate different segments of the space station with different operational responsibilities. They also send up cargo ships for resupply missions and interface with the crew in independent mission controls.

Since 2022, Russia has teamed up with China to launch a moon-facing alliance. NASA also has its own group, under the Artemis Accords, a coalition of 30-plus nations that themselves promise peaceful space exploration norms with a subset of countries also participating in moon exploration.

The Artemis Accords aim to put astronauts on the moon no earlier than 2025 with Artemis 3, and have already launched Artemis 1 (uncrewed) in 2022 around the moon. Artemis 2, with four astronauts on board, should launch around the moon in 2024 or so.

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NASA and Russia will keep launching each other's astronauts to ISS until 2025: report - Space.com

China struggles to rebound a year after lifting COVID restrictions – NPR

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An appliance market in Xi'an, China, where Jiang has a construction equipment rental company. He says economic conditions are worse now than during the pandemic, when he started the appliance business, and he isn't selling as much as he used to. John Ruwitch/NPR hide caption

An appliance market in Xi'an, China, where Jiang has a construction equipment rental company. He says economic conditions are worse now than during the pandemic, when he started the appliance business, and he isn't selling as much as he used to.

BEIJING On the northern edge of Xi'an, a 45-year-old man surnamed Jiang tells a typical story of dream-chasing in China's reform era.

He left his home village at the age of 18 to work in a diamond factory in southern China's Guangdong province, a manufacturing juggernaut. The pay was decent, he says, but after a decade he was restless. So he returned home, where he started a small construction equipment rental company.

Business was fine, he said, until state-backed competitors began attracting all the contracts. So he moved again, this time to the northwestern city of Xi'an, China's onetime imperial capital, now home to 13 million people.

"My hopes were big," he says, sitting in the back of the secondhand kitchen appliance shop that he runs with his family, surrounded by refrigerators, stoves and blenders. "Slowly, though, they have been obliterated."

A year ago, China lifted draconian COVID restrictions that were an anvil around the neck of the economy and placed unprecedented controls on a society that, for the previous four decades, had grown accustomed to expanding personal freedoms, not shrinking them.

Many expected the country to bounce back quickly, with economic growth reverting to a slower but respectable mean. That hasn't happened. And as 2024 approaches, there is a crisis of confidence in China that the authorities appear to be doing little to address, instead nibbling at the edges of policy and avoiding bold steps to revive the economy and regain public trust in policymaking.

Jiang is one of several people NPR recently spoke with to try to gauge the mood in post-pandemic China and highlight how things have changed over time.

For Jiang, who did not want his full name used for fear of possible repercussions for speaking candidly to a foreign reporter, economic conditions are actually worse now than during the pandemic, when he started the appliance business, he says. He isn't selling as much as he used to.

Like many in China who have been conditioned to avoid publicly criticizing the ruling Communist Party, he chooses well-worn rhetoric absolving the leadership when asked if he thinks policy might be to blame.

"Whatever the national policy, it's meant to do good for the country and the people. You can't deny that," he said. "But as they say: The higher-ups have their policies and the lower-downs have their ways of getting around them. ... Each policy that comes from the top is discounted on the way down, and then discounted again as it goes down line. The policies are definitely good, but when they get down to the local level, they've completely changed."

At this point, Jiang's ambition the same drive that, multiplied across hundreds of millions of people, fueled China's economic rise has been sapped.

In Beijing, Joerg Wuttke has had a front-row seat to China's spectacular rise. He first came to the country as a businessman from Europe 41 years ago.

"When I was coming in '82, people took pictures with cars and paid for the picture. And now we have 5 million cars in Beijing. So it's a completely different country, with upsides but also with it downsides," he said. (The Beijing government said that at the end of 2022 there were, in fact, more than 7 million motor vehicles registered in the city, and over 12 million drivers.)

Joerg Wuttke, then the European Chamber of Commerce president, at a press conference in Beijing in 2015. Ng Han Guan/AP hide caption

Joerg Wuttke, then the European Chamber of Commerce president, at a press conference in Beijing in 2015.

I first met Wuttke a little over 20 years ago, when our offices were in the same building near Beijing's Liangma River. China had just joined the World Trade Organization. The reform-minded Zhu Rongji was premier.

"It was a China which actually was very open and could sort of give us some indications of where we're heading, you know, to a more open, liberal society. Globalization would be coming into town," said Wuttke, who has been doing business here for most of the past four decades, and lobbying for European companies as head of the European Chamber of Commerce for part of that time.

Today, he says, the Communist Party has become more dominant across society than he thinks it was when he first came to China before reform and opening really started to take off.

"For Xi Jinping, it's clear ideology trumps the economy," he says of China's current leader.

He says that's underpinned an intrusion of politics into business.

Chinese leader Xi Jinping reviews the honor guard at the Great Hall of the People in November in Beijing. Florence Lo/Pool/Getty Images hide caption

Chinese leader Xi Jinping reviews the honor guard at the Great Hall of the People in November in Beijing.

"You have party cells coming up into Chinese private enterprises. You have a far more [and] stronger party awareness on TV or radio than it was maybe in '82. So, yeah, it's, it's more ideologically driven these days than it was 40 years ago," he said.

Combined with geopolitical frictions, Wuttke says it has become "far more complex" to steer any company in China.

In November, quarterly data showed that foreign direct investment in China contracted for the first time on record. Business confidence is down, and the real estate sector is struggling, underpinning weak consumer confidence. The future is less certain than it always seemed to be. The World Bank forecasts that China's GDP growth will slow sharply in the next two years.

"I think the opening-eye moment for me came in 2022," Wuttke says. It was a year when the government hewed for too long to an unbending and unforgiving zero-COVID policy that involved heavy travel restrictions, snap lockdowns and forced quarantines. Wuttke is leaving China, though he says his decision has nothing to do with current events.

In Shanghai, that policy turned a high school teacher into an exiled dissident.

Huang Yicheng taught Chinese language and literature in a northwestern suburb of the country's most cosmopolitan city. He says he was always in favor of the idea of more freedom, but as someone who grew up in China, human rights wasn't something he spent much time thinking about.

Huang Yicheng poses during an interview with Reuters in Hamburg, Germany, in April. He grew up in China and says he never really thought of leaving. But when Shanghai was locked down, he lost faith. Fanny Brodersen/Reuters hide caption

Huang Yicheng poses during an interview with Reuters in Hamburg, Germany, in April. He grew up in China and says he never really thought of leaving. But when Shanghai was locked down, he lost faith.

Instead, "if I could live normally, go to work, have some fun, be with my family, make some money, eat, then it'd all be fine," he said.

But in the spring of 2022, the omicron variant of COVID-19 arrived and the Shanghai government ordered its 26 million residents to stay home to stop the spread. A lockdown that the authorities said would last about a week stretched for two long months.

Huang says being forcibly confined to his home felt like living on an animal farm. He felt unsafe being locked in his apartment with no control, and no end in sight. "It was really scary," he said. "It didn't feel safe."

And it changed something inside him.

"Before the lockdown, I thought Shanghai would be fine," he said. "There was a lot of bad news about the pandemic, and I knew things weren't great, but I thought bad things could happen in other places but Shanghai still had hope."

When his city was locked down, he lost faith.

"I thought everything was fake. The security and order and freedom, it could all be taken away. So I had no faith in this government, in this political system."

Later that year, when protests erupted in Shanghai and elsewhere in China against the draconian COVID policies, Huang got involved. The demonstrations became known as the White Paper Revolution, because many participants took to brandishing blank pages of A4-size paper to symbolize all that could not be said publicly in China.

Protesters hold up blank sheets of paper and chant slogans as they march to protest strict anti-virus measures in Beijing on Nov. 27, 2022. Thousands of people demonstrated across China, waving sheets of white paper to represent the country's strict censorship. Ng Han Guan/AP hide caption

Protesters hold up blank sheets of paper and chant slogans as they march to protest strict anti-virus measures in Beijing on Nov. 27, 2022. Thousands of people demonstrated across China, waving sheets of white paper to represent the country's strict censorship.

"The white paper movement really made me feel hopeful," he said. "Finally, Chinese people were coming out to resist."

He joined a crowd at an intersection in Shanghai's former French concession neighborhood, where protests had taken place the previous night. Huang says he mostly hung back. But when police cleared protesters that night, he was grabbed, roughed up and briefly detained.

Months later, after lying low, he fled to Germany.

"I had never really thought of leaving. Really. I thought, if this country's not good, you don't necessarily need to leave it. You can stay and do some small things to make change," he said.

Instead, the pandemic changed him.

Back in Xi'an, a man whom NPR first talked with a year ago is settling into his new home.

Last year, Lee Shin was squatting in an unfinished apartment he had bought nine years earlier. It was on the 28th floor and there was no electricity.

"We used a tank gas stove, and we had to fetch bottles of water from downstairs," he said. (Lee Shin is a nonstandard Romanization of a nickname he asked NPR to use because police have pressured him not to speak publicly about the construction problem at his apartment complex.)

Not long after Lee bought the unfinished apartment, construction stopped when the property developer allegedly lost money in other investments.

The problem of unfinished apartment complexes is widespread in China and the projects are called lanwei lou, Chinese for "rotten tails."

This year, the building was finally completed and Lee and his wife could fully move in. But after so many years of uncertainty, it was a letdown.

"So when we got the key and opened the door, there was no feeling of excitement. When we went in, we just wanted to cry," he says.

Outside the apartment complex where Lee Shin and his wife finally moved in after years of delay. Not long after Lee bought the unfinished apartment, construction stopped when the property developer allegedly lost money in other investments. John Ruwitch/NPR hide caption

Outside the apartment complex where Lee Shin and his wife finally moved in after years of delay. Not long after Lee bought the unfinished apartment, construction stopped when the property developer allegedly lost money in other investments.

His life plans for an early wedding, for kids were set back by years. And home prices have been falling in China amid a slow-motion crisis unfolding in the property sector, driven in part by government policies. It's unclear how the authorities will manage the fallout from collapsing developers and falling home prices.

But now, finally in their new home, surely things were looking up for Lee and his wife?

He says he has more peace in his life, for the most part. But work is bad in his field of interior design because of the property downturn, and his ambitions have been tempered. Among other things, he says he does not want to have a child now.

"I don't have any aspirations, and I don't think I want to have any aspirations anymore," he said. "None of my wishes have come true."

Aowen Cao contributed reporting from Beijing.

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China struggles to rebound a year after lifting COVID restrictions - NPR

Supercomputer predicts Boxing Day results as both Liverpool and Manchester United get ready for action – Sportskeeda

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A supercomputer has predicted contrasting results for Manchester United and Liverpool as they take the field on Boxing Day in the Premier League.

According to Caught Offside, a supercomputer has predicted Liverpool to secure an emphatic 4-0 victory over Burnley at Turf Moor. The same computer has predicted Manchester United to once again drop points and pick up a 2-2 draw against Aston Villa at Old Trafford.

Both sides desperately need a win heading into their respective Boxing Day fixtures. The Reds have drawn their last two home games against United and then against Arsenal on Saturday, December 23.

Erik ten Hag's side, however, are in an even worse run of form in the Premier League. The Red Devils are currently winless in their last three league games and have failed to score a goal in each of those outings. They come into the game on the back of a 2-0 loss to West Ham United at London Stadium.

The two aforementioned fixtures are not the only Boxing Day games the supercomputer predicted. The computer also predicted wins for Nottingham Forest, Fulham, and Luton Town against Newcastle United, Bournemouth, and Sheffield United, respectively.

According to the aforementioned source, the supercomputer has taken various factors into consideration while making these predictions. Things like a team's record in past Boxing Day games, current form, etc. were all contributing factors for the predictions made.

Liverpool and Manchester United have had contrasting fortunes in the 2023-24 season so far. The Reds are in the midst of a title race with the likes of Arsenal, Aston Villa, and Manchester City.

The team from Merseyside are currently second in the table, having accumulated 39 points from 18 games. They are just one point behind league leaders Arsenal.

United, on the other hand, are struggling to secure European football of any flavor. At the time of writing, they are eighth in the standings, having picked up 28 points from 18 matches. Erik ten Hag's side are eight points behind Tottenham Hotspur who currently occupy the final Champions League spot.

Manchester United did secure a 0-0 draw against Liverpool at Anfield earlier this month. Jurgen Klopp's side dominated the affair with 69 percent possession and 34 shots in the game to United's six but still failed to make use of their chances.

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Supercomputer predicts Boxing Day results as both Liverpool and Manchester United get ready for action - Sportskeeda