Medical first as doctors at Maryland Medical Centre in US transplant gene-edited pig heart into a human patient
In a medical first, US surgeons transplanted a pig heart into a human patient, and say he is doing well three days after the extremely experimental operation. A 57-year-old man with a life-threatening heart condition received a new heart from a genetically altered pig. While it’s too soon to tell...
Morocco beats Ghana 1-0 as Gabon sees off Comoros with similar margin in Africa Cup of Nations openers
Morocco’s Sofiane Boufal scored seven minutes from time to secure a 1-0 win over Ghana in their opening Group C match at the Africa Cup of Nations on Monday. Boufal hammered home from close range after a mazy run into the penalty area from Zakaria Aboukhlal, only to be checked...
Japan to speed up coronavirus vaccine booster shots, secure imported supplies of drugs to treat the disease
Japan’s Prime Minister Fumio Kishida has vowed to speed up coronavirus vaccine booster shots, secure imported supplies of drugs to treat Covid-19 and reorganise medical facilities to respond to the fast-spreading omicron variant. Kishida, who took office in October, said he had ordered strict border controls from November to buy...
Immunity against Omicron from breakthrough infection is a matter of timing – researchers
Good timing is a key to success – even for riding out the Omicron wave. Research from Japan suggests that Covid-19 vaccination followed months later by a breakthrough SARS-CoV-2 infection offers greater protection against the Omicron variant than do closely spaced vaccination and infection. The finding implies that countries that...
NASA’s outer space engineering wonder flawlessly unfurls its mirrors, sunshield to formally become a telescope
After several tense days of unfurling and clicking its various parts into place, the biggest and most sophisticated space telescope ever launched is now complete. On January 8, NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope slowly swung the last three of its 18 hexagonal mirror segments into position, locking them together into...
Reports: Flooding and negligent grassroots state officials will make 2022 South Sudan’s hungriest year ever
Nyayiar Kuol cradled her severely malnourished one-year-old daughter as they travelled for 16 hours on a crowded barge to the nearest hospital to their home in rural South Sudan. For months she had been feeding her four children just once a day, unable to cultivate because of disastrous flooding and...
Clueless Arsenal manager Mikel Arteta under blistering criticism after Gunners crash out of FA Cup
Arsenal boss Mikel Arteta has been criticised for fielding a weakened team against Nottingham Forest after his side were knocked out of the FA Cup with a 1-0 defeat to the Championship side. Substitute Lewis Grabban’s late winner gave the hosts a deserved third-round win against the slapdash Gunners, who...
Fatal accidents: Some universities in China don’t place enough emphasis on lab experience for students
Very few countries in the world keep detailed records on numbers of university lab accidents. But in many countries, deaths seem to be rare, except in China. In the United States, for example, the Chemical Safety and Hazard Investigation Board listed only one fatality related to a chemical incident at...
China has never learnt from Wuhan University accident as lab safety concerns mount after another fatal blast
Deaths caused by university lab blasts have some scientists in China concerned about a lack of oversight and standardised safety protocols, especially in teaching labs. The deaths of two people following a laboratory explosion at a Chinese university in October have raised alarm among researchers. The full circumstances that led...
Five new non-permanent members take up their positions on UN Security Council
The UN Security Council got five new members on Tuesday as Albania, Brazil, Gabon, Ghana and the United Arab Emirates formally took up the posts they won in an election in June. Gabon and Ghana each have been on the council three times before and the UAE once. The 15-member...
