A new joint collaboration between Tel Aviv University, Columbia University’s Medical Center, and the Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory (CSHL) has demonstrated that life events can effect the genetic heritage of an organism’s immediate descendants. The Columbia team was able to show that transgenerational memory is passed on through an organism’s short RNAs for at least three generations. “It … Read more
Posing as hundreds of models, celebrities, and professionally-photographed schoolgirls, and displaying profile descriptions taken from journalists, choreographers and other professionals, China has been caught using Twitter for a mass propaganda campaign aimed at spreading the Chinese government’s messages about Tibet, while Tibetans are denied free speech rights by the Chinese government. The propaganda campaign was … Read more
The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), in opposition to a proposed giant mine project in Alaska’s Bristol Bay, has initiated a set of regulations that industrial advocates such as US Senator Lisa Murkowski have termed a “Blueprint That Will Be Used Across the Country to Stop Economic Development.” “The EPA is being disingenuous in saying that … Read more
One of the world’s largest pulp and paper companies, Asia Pulp & Paper (APP), has been convinced to end all logging of natural forests. The Jakarta-based company, which has 14 major companies in Indonesia and China and an annual capacity of 18 million tons of paper and pulp products, has received an endorsement by Greenpeace, long … Read more
Two reports of the downing of a plane suspected to be Malaysian Air MH17 have been published by Russian news network LifeNews. The two television reports were aired before and after the identity of the Malaysian passenger plane was known, and reported conflicting testimonies by pro-Russian separatists active in Donetsk about responsibility for a plane crash … Read more
While the current global market for drones is expected to double to 11.6bn by 2023, America will most likely lose its current industry lead to other nations less hampered by export control regulations and Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) rules, according to a recent report by Stimson Center. “At the moment, the United States has the … Read more
According to a document made public by the UN recently, China was issued a “joint urgent appeal” earlier this year. China has responded to the appeal, confirming that at least six of the 10 Tibetan musicians were jailed on charges of separatism for singing songs supporting Tibetan culture and about the plight of Tibet under Chinese rule. … Read more
The US military will be scaled down in the next seven years, according to the plans of the US government, which is aiming to create an “affordable military” by 2021. A report published Wednesday by the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS), focused on coping with an across-the-board drawdown while still maintaining US security, has provided recommendations that would overturn the … Read more
Researchers testing the amount of plastic garbage polluting the earth’s oceans have discovered a mystery. Instead of finding evidence of the millions of tons of durable plastic garbage expected to litter the ocean surface, they found only tens of thousands. In the 1970s, the National Academy of Sciences estimated that 45,000 tons of plastic garbage … Read more
The UN will move toward a legal treaty that penalizes transnational corporations which violate human rights, after a vote at the 26th UN Human Rights Council (UNHRC) session last week. Key language included in the resolution includes a decision to “establish an open-ended intergovernmental working group on a legally binding instrument on transnational corporations and other … Read more
Two marine researchers have published a report on two prominent near-bottom fish species of the northern seas, looking at how the two species fared in the warming waters of the past decade. The researchers looked at Bering Sea walleye pollock and Atlantic cod, and proposed that the differences in how the two species fared may … Read more
A Pew Research study has found that 42 percent of Muslims in 15 locations think that suicide bombing and other forms of violence against civilian targets is at least occasionally justified in order to defend Islam from its enemies. The study was concluded in Spring 2014 and the results were published Tuesday by Pew Research as part … Read more