The Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations estimates that between 20 and 40 percent of global crop production is lost each year due to plant pests and infections with microbial pathogens. According to the article, scientists found their first clue in tomatoes, which contain a class of proteins that behave differently from those … Read more
The International Energy Agency forecast this month that global oil capacity could exceed demand by 2030, leading to a bearish trend for oil prices. OPEC has not specified a timeline for production increases, but has said its actions will depend on market conditions. Oil prices, which are influenced by many factors other than supply and … Read more
Why do people live so long? A new study suggests that a mother’s care could be an important part of that. The Cornell University study says the reason humans and other primates live so long can be at least partially explained by the mother-infant relationship. Maternal care leads to the evolution of “long, slow lives,” … Read more
NASA’s Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter (LRO) has captured new images of the far side of the moon that have revealed the location of a Chinese spacecraft. The images obtained by the LRO on June 7 reveal the position of China’s Chang’e 6 sample return spacecraft, which was parked in the Apollo Basin. This geologically rich region … Read more
Russia is scouring China for second-hand machine tools using shadowy buyer networks, as the Kremlin races to acquire crucial equipment to boost weapons production. Moscow’s covert strategy for acquiring precision machinery, uncovered by investigators, seeks to circumvent increasingly restrictive Western sanctions and export controls aimed at hampering production for the military. The operations, which run … Read more
HELSINKI – China’s top space contractor has conducted a successful static fire test of a first rocket stage designed to take astronauts to the moon. A Long March 10 first-stage test article was fired in Beijing’s Fengtai district on Friday, June 14. The stage started normally, worked steadily and concluded on time, the China Academy … Read more
China has successfully tested a new engine system designed for its future moon missions, marking a major milestone in its ambitious space program. This ground test, conducted on June 14, 2024, is a crucial step toward the country’s goal of establishing a research base on the moon by 2030. The new engine system, consisting of … Read more
HELSINKI – China’s experimental reusable spaceplane has used a smaller spacecraft to test close-range operations and possibly even image the object. China launched its spaceplane for the third time via a Long March 2F rocket on December 14, 2023. The spacecraft launched an object into orbit, first cataloged by the US Space Force space domain … Read more
“For hybrid seed of the next generation productionthe use of male sterile lines with small grains to mechanically separate small hybrid seeds from the mixed crop is promising,” they said. The challenge was to find a gene that can cause a rice line to have a small grain size without reducing the number of seeds … Read more
HELSINKI – European-Chinese cooperation in lunar exploration could end despite successful cooperation in the ongoing Chang’e-6 mission. ESA delivered a payload for China’s Chang’e-6 complex sample return mission to the far side of the moon, which launched on May 3. The mission aims to collect and return samples from the far side of the moon, … Read more