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Swiss Scientists Discover DNA Remains Active After Space Journey and Re-entry
Zothecula writes: It may sound like the first chapter of a Quatermass thriller, but scientists from the University of Zurich have discovered that DNA can survive not only a flight through space, but also re-entry into the Earth's atmosphere and still remain active. The findings are based on suborbital rocket flights and could have considerable impact on questions about the origins of life on Earth and the problems of terrestrial space probes contaminating other planets.
Finally, after 50+ years of sending astronauts into space, proof that when they return, they will still have their DNA. Send the news to John Glen!
It's not contaminating, it's colonizing.
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Okay, but then we'd never get to space at all.
It may have been sterilized but a seagull can just fly over and poop on it.
As the rocket speeds out the atmosphere, it must initially flatten lots of bugs against itself.
How did anyone think we could send anything into space that wasn't crawling with earth-bacteria and other stuff, exactly?
I don't know the meaning of the word 'don't' - J
The billions of dollars spent on the space program should be spent feeding starving people and cleaning up the environment.
Firstly, prove to me that any money diverted from the space program will be 100% spend on your items AND prove that spending this money improves the condition for the entire human race, and we'll consider it.
Historically, we never divert to humanitarian aid at 100%, plus most times when money is earmarked for such programs, the money is siphoned off to feed pork-barrel local constituency programs.
Secondly, why can't the two programs coexist ? The paltry percentages of the US GDP spent on space exploration won't make a difference if the will to do such work isn't already there.
And finally, while I agree entirely that we need to be better stewards of this planet, it does not preclude us for investigation other locations, whether for scientific curiosity or for future human occupation.
If only we could fall into a woman's arms without falling into her hands
So what are you doing on Slashdot then? How can you spend time on this while people are starving?
Shouldn't you be feeding people?
Somebody make a shitty about it that's like a prequel to Aliens but most certainly is not a prequel to Aliens! [a-WINK!]
Also: mother-fucking space cobras [80s metal guitar riff]!!!
So they use a sounding rocket and paint it with a substance including DNA.
Launch the sounding rocket into a brief experience of no atmosphere & where some parts (but not all) of the rocket are heated to 1000 degrees.
Then, after recovery, they scrape the paint out of recesses like the screw heads.
Oh, gee so a brief exposure to no atmosphere, Zero G & no extreme temperatures doesn't destroy DNA? Who'd a thunk it?
Democracy is a sheep and two wolves deciding what to have for lunch. Freedom is a well armed sheep contesting the issue
Surviving the estimated 1000 degree centigrade reentry temperature is impressive. The rest of the test - a suborbital flight of 780 seconds - is less so. But I would have expected the seconds of heat to be more deadly to the DNA than light years of cold, so it's still interesting.
Gently reply
This news story is as boring as the movie 2001: A Space Odyssey..
I believe you are on the wrong web site for your personal proclivities. I suggest, perhaps, e! (or maybe Vogue, Elle or just the National Enquirer).
Faster! Faster! Faster would be better!
since it's a suborbital flight, that doesn't say much about deep space. sending it on a trip around the moon would be a better test. at least get out of the Van Allen belts and get into the cosmic radiation, before you can see if it actually does survive a trip through space.
The war machine actually kills people, destroys food and crops and wrecksthe environment actively. Why not start cutting there before you think about cutting space program money. Oh, and the war machine takes 100 times the funding, so it is much easier to cut there then from the space programs of various nations.
One day we'll find the answer...
Hmm, the humour and sarcasm seem to have been be lost on you.
I fully appreciate and expected the argument. I have no doubt in my mind that the human race collectively has been improved by the space program. I have no doubt as well that the money that was spent on humanitarian social programs also improved the human race. What I strongly oppose is the presumption that the elimination of the space program is required to increase funding for social programs. I know that the quest for knowledge has helped mankind (hell, just consider GPS alone). I also know that humanitarian aid has also helped humanity.
the incremental budgetary gain on these humanitarian programs will not benefit the human race more than the loss of the space program. Increase the budget for humanitarian programs by as much as you like, but don't do it at the expense of the space program.
Oh, and in regards to the where the space program money goes? The vast majority goes to salaries. For NASA, that would mean US based salaries spent in the US, which adds to GDP via the velocity of money. For "starving millions" I presume this would mean off-shore spending, and thus out of US GPD. How much of this money actually gets to food on the ground is a sad proportion, which makes thing even worse.
If only we could fall into a woman's arms without falling into her hands
DNA can survive not only a flight through space, but also re-entry into the Earth's atmosphere and still remain active.
We've known this since 1961! Okay, it was well wrapped in meat and metal, but still.
systemd is Roko's Basilisk.
How do you think it got here?
Try this one on for size: The money spent on space programs is 100% spent on earth.
People see the headline "$800 million spent on Mars probe" and somehow feel that that's $800 million that was packed in a suitcase and blasted into space. That's $800 million that was spent on jobs, either directly or indirectly. In comparison, keeping the money in a suitcase or a safety deposit box is ineffective.
And some of that $800 million gets returned in taxes on wages, and some of THAT tax money goes to aid programs. Putting the money in a suitcase would generate zero dollars for aid programs.
"Transparent" is a shit show that trades on every stereotype going. A man in drag is NOT a transsexual.
Yet another fact to support panspermia.
The problem with starving people isn't a problem of needing to throw more money at the situation as much as it is a problem of politics or power (e.g. local warlords preventing food shipments from reaching starving people so that the warlords can show how powerful they are). Even if you diverted 100% of NASA's budget to feeding starving people, you wouldn't solve the problem.
When it comes to the amount of money NASA spends, the 2013 US Budget shows that NASA is only 1.4% of the national budget. The biggest portions of the budget is defense at 52.7%. This blows away the second biggest portion, Department of Health and Human Services, which stands at 6.4%, If we cut defense to 50% of the budget, we would save 34 billion dollars. That money could be split between NASA, feeding the hungry, and improving the environment and everyone would win. (I don't think a 5% cut in the Department of Defense's budget would hurt them much.)
My sci-fi novel, Ghost Thief, is now available from Amazon.com.
Hmm, NASA budget is ~$18B. Are you really suggesting the military budget is $1.8T???
If so, you might want to reread the budget sometime. Hint: it's actually about 1/3 that.
If you want to see where the real money is going, try looking to the mandatory outlays (SSA, Welfare, that sort of thing). Hint: Mandatory outlays are about 2/3 of the total budget (130x NASA's budget).
"I do not agree with what you say, but I will defend to the death your right to say it"
Please explain you philosophy to Putin and ISIS. I'm sure they'll listen to you.
That's $800 million that was spent on jobs
Then it would follow that building refrigerators by the millions and dropping them into the sea would increase the economy, too. It will not.
1850 called and would like it's broken window fallacy back.
Unlike building and junking fridges, going into space increases both our scientific and our technical abilities. You probably wouldn't have a PC today if the race to the moon hadn't happened.
"Transparent" is a shit show that trades on every stereotype going. A man in drag is NOT a transsexual.
Another problem is that it's based on the fallacy that economics is a zero-sum game. And that physical money is a good analog of financial money. Both are false.
Another assumption is that feeding the starving is a reasonable approach. But population growth is exponential until a limiting factor is reached, and exponential growth cannot be sustained. Ever. So if you plan to "feed the starving multitude" you'd better have some plan in mind to feed twice that number of people in 20 years.
Personally, I think we are already beyond the sustainable capacity of the planet. We're emptying the seas of fish and the land of anything we can't eat. At some point we're going to crash, and crash badly. It would be highly deisreable if at that point there were some self-sufficient colonies elsewhere. But we are, to be optomistic, decades away from being able to do that.
I think we've pushed this "anyone can grow up to be president" thing too far.
Personally, I think we are already beyond the sustainable capacity of the planet.
Agreed. I think we passed it a long time ago, just like the point of no return on the federal deficit.
"Transparent" is a shit show that trades on every stereotype going. A man in drag is NOT a transsexual.
I suppose that communications satellites, GPS and terrestrial mapping don't feed a lot of people either.
Your ignorance IS astounding. You do understand that darpanet was also involved in the building of computers.
Integrated Circuits (ICs) were made possible by experimental discoveries showing that semiconductor devices could perform the functions of vacuum tubes and by mid-20th-century technology advancements in semiconductor device fabrication. The integration of large numbers of tiny transistors into a small chip was an enormous improvement over the manual assembly of circuits using discrete electronic components. The integrated circuit's mass production capability, reliability and building-block approach to circuit design ensured the rapid adoption of standardized integrated circuits in place of designs using discrete transistors.
A precursor idea to the IC was to create small ceramic squares (wafers), each containing a single miniaturized component. Components could then be integrated and wired into a bidimensional or tridimensional compact grid. This idea, which seemed very promising in 1957, was proposed to the US Army by Jack Kilby and led to the short-lived Micromodule Program (similar to 1951's Project Tinkertoy). However, as the project was gaining momentum, Kilby came up with a new, revolutionary design: the IC.
Newly employed by Texas Instruments, Kilby recorded his initial ideas concerning the integrated circuit in July 1958, successfully demonstrating the first working integrated example on 12 September 1958. In his patent application of 6 February 1959, Kilby described his new device as “a body of semiconductor material wherein all the components of the electronic circuit are completely integrated.” The first customer for the new invention was the US Air Force. The same US Air force that was involved with NASA in space missions.
When NASA was created in 1958, the Air Force program was transferred to it and renamed Project Mercury. The first seven astronauts were selected among candidates from the Navy, Air Force and Marine test pilot programs. On May 5, 1961, astronaut Alan Shepard became the first American in space aboard Freedom 7, launched by a Redstone booster on a 15-minute ballistic (suborbital) flight. John Glenn became the first American to be launched into orbit by an Atlas launch vehicle on February 20, 1962 aboard Friendship 7. Glenn completed three orbits, after which three more orbital flights were made, culminating in L. Gordon Cooper's 22-orbit flight Faith 7, May 15–16, 1963.
TLDR; the first use of Integrated circuits otherwise known as microchips WAS the space race.
Also, quit supporting laws that ban Homelessness and ban the feeding of the homeless. Finally, how much are you donating to the local homeless shelter? Not the Salvation army but the other shelter that doesn't have a corporation behind it. And How about that local food bank? Are you donating to that?
so NASA doesn't buy rockets from russia ? components from the far east ? raw materials from africa ?
and all of them ethically sourced you say and all taxes paid with none of it going into tax havens ?
and some completely unqualified assertions with no working , why you are spoiling us.
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