Abram Leyzorek
9/25/18
Current Events
1. Science: Published on October 2, 2018, on the internet server arXiv was the discovery of a 300 km. in diameter “planet” called 2015 TG387 that orbits the sun at an average distance of sixty-five AU at a speed of 40,000 years per revolution, and was nicknamed the “Goblin” because it was improbably detected by the Subaru 8-meter telescope in Hawaii around Halloween in 2015; perturbations in its orbit indicate the existence of a much larger, even more distant “super earth” in our solar system, sometimes referred to as Planet X.
Date: October 2, 2018.
From: http://www.sciencemag.org/news/2018/10/newly-discovered-goblin-world-hints-presence-planet-nine.
Read more: https://carnegiescience.edu/news/new-extremely-distant-solar-system-object-found-during-hunt-planet-x.
2. Science: On October 2, 2018, researchers from a new French company specializing in biology announced at a meeting in San Diego, California, that they have developed a new method of writing DNA using modified forms of the enzymes, called polymerases, that naturally write DNA in living thigs that can create strands up to 150 nucleotides in length, which is 100 base pairs longer than was previously possible with similar methods and 50% the length of DNA strands that can be created using conventional chemical techniques, but whereas traditional DNA writing techniques have more or less reached their maximum potential, writing with polymerases has a lot of room for improvement and may one day make DNA data storage feasible, which would allow all of the world’s data to be stored in a space smaller than a suitcase.
Date: October 2, 2018.
From: http://www.sciencemag.org/news/2018/10/new-way-write-dna-could-turbocharge-synthetic-biology-and-data-storage.
Read more: http://news.mit.edu/2018/reading-and-writing-dna-George-Church-0131.
3. Science: Mexican President Elect Andrés Manuel López Obrador’s (AMLO) pick for science minister, Elena Álvarez-Buylla, is not a career politician like her male predecessors, but was a, evolutionary developmental biologist and professor at the National Autonomous University of Mexico (UNAM) when she was unexpectedly contacted by AMLO’s campaign and asked if she would except the position were AMLO to win; many people frown on her position against genetically modified crops, which she fears could the biodiversity of Mexican agriculture, and a position to AMLO asking him to pick another candidate has garnered 1,000 signatures.
Date: October 4, 2018.
From: http://www.sciencemag.org/news/2018/10/mexico-s-new-science-minister-plant-biologist-who-opposes-transgenic-crops.
Read more: https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.4161/gmcr.2.1.15086.
4. Science: Analyzing the immense data trove collected by the Cassini space probe when its mission terminated and it plunged directly into the planet Saturn has led to the finest ever measurement of the angle between Saturn’s rotational axis and it magnetic field axis which is one step in a decades long struggle to figure out how long days are on Saturn, something is trivial for terrestrial planets whose relatively unchanging surfaces can simply be observed, but for gas giants like Saturn, there constantly shifting atmospheres make this method unfeasible, so instead scientists turn to measuring the distinct radio wave signatures of the planet’s magnetic field and have used this method to accurately and precisely measure the day length on other gas giants, but Saturn presents a new problem which is that the axis of rotation of its magnetic field and its geographic rotation are only offset by a mere 0.0095 degrees, making accurate measurements of the magnetic field’s wobble almost impossible; most planets’ magnetic fields are offset considerably, such as that of Earth at eleven degrees, which is an essential feature for maintaining the magnetic field, So it is unknown how Saturn maintains a magnetic field in the first place.
Date: October 4, 2018.
From: http://www.sciencemag.org/news/2018/10/how-long-saturn-s-day-search-reveals-even-deeper-mystery.
Read more: http://science.sciencemag.org/content/362/6410/eaat5434.
5. Science Alert: A Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) funded effort to create gene-edited viruses that could be delivered via pestiferous insects such as aphids to crops suffering from drought, frost, blight, and other threats to crop security to change the plants’ chemistry and behavior in a single growing season to help them survive such events prompted Silja Voeneky, international law professor at Frieburg University, et. al. to publish a paper in the journal Science on October 5, 2018, arguing that there is a risk that other countries might see the project as an attempt to develop biological weapons that could be used to harm, not help, crops and view it as a violation of international laws against biological weapons, but others say such concern is uncalled for, including the program director, Blake Bextine.
Date: October 5, 2018.
From: https://www.sciencealert.com/pentagon-bioengineered-insect-army-crop-defense-or-bioweapon.
Read More: http://science.sciencemag.org/content/362/6410/35.
6. WLS-TV: A study published October 5, 2018, in the International Journal of Cancer analyzed results from sixteen separate studies and concluded that consumption of 25-35 grams of processed meat, e.g. bacon, ham, and hot dogs, per day leads to a nine percent increase in risk of breast cancer.
Date: October 4, 2018.
From: https://abc7chicago.com/health/study-bacon-processed-meats-linked-to-breast-cancer/4410683/.
Read more: https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1002/ijc.31848.
7. Al Jazeera: During a meeting on October 5, 2018, between Russian President Vladimir Putin and Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi to discuss nuclear energy, space exploration, and economics, the two leaders signed a deal that Russia will give its S-400 missile system for five billion dollars, despite the potential of sanctions from the United States; India and Russia are expected to sign up to twenty additional agreements on defense, trade, space exploration, and nuclear energy.
Date: October 5, 2018.
From: https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2018/10/india-signs-5bn-deal-purchase-russian-400-missiles-181005100903493.html.
Read more: https://www.army-technology.com/projects/s-400-triumph-air-defence-missile-system/.
8. Fox News: Senator Susan Collins (R-Maine) and Senator Joe Manchin (D-W.Va) both announced on October 5, 2018, their intention to vote for Supreme Court Nominee Brett Kavanaugh, who’s nomination to the Supreme Court now seems assured.
Date: October 5, 2018.
From: https://www.foxnews.com/politics/collins-manchin-say-aye-appearing-to-cement-kavanaugh-confirmation.
Read more: https://www.cnn.com/2018/10/05/politics/kavanaugh-nomination-vote-friday/index.html.
9. NPR: Jamal Khashoggi, a Saudi Arabian journalist, entered the Saudi Arabian consulate in Istanbul, Turkey, around October 2, 2018, to retrieve documents for his upcoming marriage to a Turkish woman, something that will never occur as he is believed by Turkish police to have been murdered premeditatively while inside the consulate.
Date: October 6, 2018.
From: https://www.npr.org/2018/10/07/655393080/mystery-deepens-around-missing-saudi-journalist-jamal-khashoggi.
Read more: https://www.spa.gov.sa/viewfullstory.php?lang=en&newsid=1823102#1823102.
10. CNN: U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo met with North Korean Supreme Leader Kim Jong Un on October 7, 2018, for two hours before flying to South Korea for a two-day visit where he told South Korean President Moon Jae-in that Kim Jong Un and he had had a “productive conversation.”
Date: October 7, 2018.
From: https://www.cnn.com/2018/10/07/politics/pompeo-north-korea-kim-jong-un-meeting/index.html.
Read more: https://www.nbcnews.com/news/world/after-meeting-kim-pompeo-says-u-s-north-korea-continue-n917506.
11. Science: Evidence for the what could be the first known exomoon comes from observations of the Hubble Space Telescope on the Kepler-1625 star system showing the transit of a possible exomoon belonging to the planet Kepler-1625b that is around the size of Neptune.
Date: October 3, 2018.
From: http://advances.sciencemag.org/content/4/10/eaav1784.
Read more: https://www.space.com/42023-possible-exomoon-discovery-pandora-endor.html.
12. CNN: U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations Nikki Haley, former governor of South Carolina, resigned her positions today for as yet unknown reasons.
Date: October 9, 2018.
From: https://www.cnn.com/2018/10/09/politics/nikki-haley-resignation/index.html. Read more: https://www.biography.com/people/nikki-haley-20939217.
13. Politico: A White House official reported on October 8, 2018, that President Donald Trump has ordered he Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to add regulations that would enable gasoline with a corn ethanol content of fifteen percent to be sold year round , a five percent increase from the current ten percent blends.
Date: Ocotober 8, 2018.
From: https://www.politico.com/story/2018/10/08/trump-ethanol-corn-831493.
Read more: https://www.afdc.energy.gov/fuels/ethanol.html.
14. Fox News: Researchers from the Australian National University aboard the Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation (CSIRO), the science agency of Australia, ship “Investigator” used “multibeam mapping” to reveal a chain of 3,000 meter tall seamounts rising from the 5,000 meter deep abyssal plain about 400 kilometers East of Tasmania that whales may use as a migration landmark.
Date: October 9, 2018.
From: https://www.foxnews.com/science/stunning-volcanic-lost-world-discovered-deep-in-the-ocean.
Read more: https://www.csiro.au/en/News/News-releases/2018/Scientists-uncover-volcanic-lost-world?featured=F29EDEB1728C4A92B579C7A5DC28BAD5 .
