Posted
by
samzenpus
on Sunday May 26, 2013 @07:02PM
from the hello-neighbor dept. 

An anonymous reader writes "Kepler may be down, but now NASA has another planet-hunting tool in mind.  The space agency is preparing the Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite (TESS) observatory in order to follow in Kepler's footsteps.  NASA has been searching for alien planets for several years now.  Learning about strange exoplanets such as enormous, hot 'Jupiters' and 'rogue planets' that actually cruise through space without a parent star certainly adds to the body of research concerning our universe.  Yet what scientists are really interested in are the Earth-like planets that may hold the potential for life." 

Posted
by
samzenpus
on Sunday May 26, 2013 @02:20PM
from the patient-zero dept. 

An anonymous reader writes in with another news story about how the bird flu may wipe us out. " A new bird flu that has killed 36 people in China can spread from ferret to ferret through the air.  A laboratory test showing airborne transmission of the H7N9 avian influenza virus between the animals has raised fears that the virus is poised to become a human pandemic. 
The H7N9 avian influenza virus emerged suddenly at the end of February and has infected 131 people.  A few patients may have caught the virus from other infected people, but no evidence has emerged that H7N9 can readily transmit from human to human." 

Posted
by
samzenpus
on Sunday May 26, 2013 @08:30AM
from the man-and-machine dept. 

First time accepted submitter ben saad issam writes in with news about a new biological transducer built by Israeli scientist. " Using only biomolecules (such as DNA and enzymes), scientists at the Technion-Israel Institute of Technology have developed and constructed an advanced biological transducer, a computing machine capable of manipulating genetic codes, and using the output as new input for subsequent computations.  The breakthrough might someday create new possibilities in biotechnology, including individual gene therapy and cloning."