The apocalypse has been postponed until further notice. After all of the recent media hype telling us that CERN’s Large Hadron Collider (LHC) would spell the end of the world, a simple technical fault and routine maintenance work due over the winter means that the experiment is being forced to shut down for the time being.
CERN’s director general described the setback as a “psychological blow” but also admitted that it wasn’t entirely unexpected as the machine has many different elements, some of which had never been used.
The LHC should be up and running again by spring, but the months between now and then will give groups such as Citizens Against the LHC more time to present their case against the collider from starting up again at all. Read more in the Guardian.
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As the US presidential election approaches Barack Obama has released an 11 page plan outlining aggressive investments in science and technology, including a doubling of funding over ten years at the National Institutes of Health (NIH).
Shortly afterwards 61 US Nobel science laureates endorsed Obama. 48 backed John Kerry in 2004, the Democratic presidential contender in the last presidential election but this the largest number of science Nobelists ever to make their voices heard during a presidential campaign.
To read more about Obama’s plans for science go to Nature.
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A Swiss daredevil with plans to become the first person to fly across the channel using a jet-powered wing has postponed his plans due to bad weather.
Yves Rossy – who refers to himself as Fusion Man – was hoping to jump out of a plane at 2,500 metres above Cap Blanc Nez, Calais, on 25th September.
Earlier in the week Rossy said “If I calculate everything right I will land in Dover. But if I get it wrong, I will take a bath.” Watch a video about Rossy at the Guardian.
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The BBC reported China’s third manned space mission this week, which will feature the country’s first spacewalk.
The Shenzou VII capsule blasted off on top of a Long-March II-F rocket from the Jiuquan spaceport in Gansu province, northwest China.
China’s president, Hu Jintao, met the three astronauts before lift-off to wish them success on the country’s riskiest space mission yet. “You will definitely accomplish this glorious and sacred mission. The motherland and the people are looking forward to your triumphant return”, the president said to the crew, who were dressed in flight suits and behind glass to avoid being exposed to germs.
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Although the gene that causes cystic fibrosis (CF) was discovered almost 20 years ago, progress towards conquering the disease has been slow, but the answer could lie with pigs engineered to develop CF, Nature reported this week.
The lungs of people with CF are normal at birth but become clogged with sticky mucus and are then vulnerable to infections over time. Traditionally scientists have looked at the lungs of mice with CF to try to understand how the disease progresses but their lings are a far cry from those of humans. For that reason Michael Welsh, a physician and molecular psychologist at the University of Iowa in Iowa City, was looking for a better animal after years of frustration with mice. Now, after five years, Welsh and his team have managed to breed piglets with a CF-like disease.
It is still early days but other researchers in the CF field are celebrating the pig’s arrival – “It’s a lovely piece of work, and it’s good to see it come to fruition,” said Richard Boucher of the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill
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And finally, take a look in the Telegraph to see new images released by the European Space Agency that show a unique three dimensional view of the best spot for a manned moon base, the “peak of eternal light”.