Science & Tech

American Scientists have for the first time performed prenatal gene editing to prevent a deadly metabolic disorder in lab animals, offering the potential to treat human congenital diseases before birth. The study published on Monday, October 8, 2018 in the journal Nature Medicine described the proof-of-concept prenatal use of a low-toxic tool that can efficiently edit DNA building blocks in ...

Director-General, National Space Research and Development Agency (NASRDA), Prof. Seidu Mohammed, has said that the agency is partnering with over 30 tertiary institutions in Nigeria to sustain space engineering and technology. Mohammed revealed this to the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) in Abuja on Friday, September 28, 2018. “The space agency has the responsibility to collaborate with Nigerian universities and ...

Argentina on Friday, September 21, 2018 launched a new microwave imaging satellite to monitor natural disasters and soil moisture, in a long-term bid to bolster the farm sector. Agriculture is an industry that has historically been the backbone of the country’s economy. Scheduled to launch on a SpaceX Falcon rocket from Vandenberg Air Force Base in California on Oct. 6, ...

China sent a new marine satellite into orbit on Friday, September 7, 2018 to help improve understanding of maritime waters and climate change. A Long March-2C rocket carrying the HY-1C satellite took off at 11:15 a.m. from the Taiyuan Satellite Launch Centre in north China’s Shanxi Province. The satellite HY-1C will help monitor ocean color and water temperatures, providing basic ...

For the first time, scientists have directly observed definitive evidence of water ice on the moon’s surface, U.S. space agency NASA has said. Most of the newly found water ice lies in the shadows of craters near the moon’s polar regions, where sunlight never reaches, and the warmest temperatures never reach above minus 250 degrees Fahrenheit (about minus 157 degrees ...

Burning fossil fuels is the largest contributor to the declining level of oxygen in the atmosphere, according to the latest research by Chinese scientists. Scientists from Lanzhou University in northwest China’s Gansu Province studied fossil fuel oxygen consumption, human and livestock respiration, and fire. They found fossil fuel combustion comprised 60 to 80 per cent of total oxygen consumption over ...

The Nigerian Academy of Science (NAS) has called for increased awareness creation on the benefits of science to facilitate support for its development and application in the society. The NAS Administrative Officer (Communications), Ms Mobolaji Dasaolu, made the call in a statement in Lagos on Thursday, August 23, 2018. She said that such awareness informed the sustenance of the annual ...

The National Space Research and Development Agency (NASRDA) says “smart and precision agriculture’’ could be promoted through the application of space technology. Prof. Seidu Mohammed, Director-General of the agency, said this measure would go a long way to spur economic recovery and growth in Nigeria. He made this assertion on Tuesday, August 14, 2018 in Abuja at the “Annual Space ...

Minister of Science and Technology, Dr Ogbonnaya Onu, said President Muhammadu Buhari has approved the establishment of an agency on robotics and artificial intelligence (AI) for the southeast. Onu revealed this at a grand rally of the All Progressives Congress in Abakaliki, capital of Ebonyi State. The rally which received defectors from the Peoples Democratic Party, was attended by the ...

Gambian Minister of Environment, Climate Change and Natural Resources, Lamin Dibba, has called on the populace of the country to put up concerted efforts in curbing the negative impacts of pesticides and chemicals. He noted that his Ministry is aware of the health concerns resulting to local exposure to chemicals especially Persistent Organic Pollutants (POPs), and the impact upon women ...