Scientists Find New Virus at Depths of Pacific Ocean
A team of scientists from China and Australia exploring the Pacific Ocean have found a new type of virus 8.9 kilometres below sea level.
They found the virus in sediments taken from the Mariana Trench in the western Pacific Ocean.
According to the scientists, the virus is part of a previously unidentified family of viruses that's distributed throughout the oceans, which the team is calling Suviridae (or 'Siphoviruses').
It's also a bacteriophage, which means that this virus uses bacteria to make more of itself and cannot make humans its host. They have named this bacteriophage 'vB_HmeY_H4907'.
Sep 22, 2023
OpenAI Launches DALL-E 3 Image Generator with ChatGPT Integration
OpenAI released the third generation of DALL-E, its latest AI art tool. DALL-E 3 uses OpenAI's chatbot- ChatGPT, to create more complex and carefully composed works of art by automatically expanding on a prompt to give the generator more detailed and coherent instruction.
DALL-E 3 allows users to make accurate prompts for generating desired images through ChatGPT's conversational interface. It also lets users refine a creation through prompts generated by ChatGPT. Text generating ability of the AI-chatbot removes some of the complexity required to refine the text that is fed to the program.
Sep 20, 2023
NASA's Parker Solar Probe Gets Closest to Sun
NASA's Parker Solar Probe marked a historic milestone by becoming the first spacecraft to fly through a coronal mass ejection (CME) directly from the sun — a colossal eruption which expels billions of tonnes of plasma.
The audacious probe that was launched in August 2018 now holds the distinction of being the closest human-made craft to the sun.
NASA's Parker Solar Probe spent two days at a mere 5.7 million miles (9.2 million kilometres) from the sun's scorching surface.
Sep 19, 2023
China Reportedly Develops 'Artificial Liver' That Works Outside the Human Body
Chin has reportedly approved clinical trials for a stem cell-based 'artificial liver'. This development offers hope for millions suffering from liver failure.
This bio-artificial liver, created by a team of Chinese researchers, operates outside the body, performing functions such as detoxification and protein synthesis typically carried out by the liver.
Currently, liver transplantation is the only effective treatment for liver failure. However, the treatment is often limited by a shortage of donors, complex surgeries, high cost, and finally, the need for lifelong immunosuppressants.
The stem cell-based artificial liver aims to support the diseased liver until it regenerates or a suitable graft for transplantation becomes available.
Aditya-L1 Begins Collecting Data
ISRO's Aditya L1 solar mission spacecraft started collecting data that will help scientists analyse the behaviour of particles surrounding the earth.
It said STEPS instrument, one of the seven payloads aboard Aditya L1, began measuring supra-thermal and energetic ions and electrons at distances greater than 50,000 km from Earth. The mission started 110-day journey toward Lagrange Point 1.
Sep 18, 2023
NASA's OSIRIS-REx Mission Set for Historic Asteroid Bennu Sample Return
NASA's OSIRIS-REx mission is set to create history on September 24, 2023, by bringing back samples from the asteroid Bennu after spending seven years in deep space. Asteroid Bennu is a potentially hazardous, near-Earth space rock that has a nearly 1 in 1,800 chance of colliding with Earth in the next 300 years. It makes a close approach to Earth every six years.
Launched in 2016, the spacecraft reached Bennu in October 2020 and successfully collected samples from its surface.
As NASA eagerly anticipates the landing, scientists are preparing for the spacecraft's return to Earth, which involves a high-speed entry into the Earth's atmosphere, followed by the deployment of parachutes to slow it down to a manageable 10 mph. The spacecraft will then head to Apophis, another potentially dangerous space rock, for a rendezvous in 2029.
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