The submersible dropped from the ocean’s surface faster than I had expected. With a loud “psssssss” the air escaped from the ballast tanks and the small craft suddenly tilted forward.

Within seconds, aquanaut Robert Carmichael and I were enveloped by a vibrant shade of blue, watching streaks of sunlight pierce the water’s surface. Soon a large manta ray appeared from the darkness below, gently gliding toward our small craft before vanishing into the distance.

The dive took place off a coral atoll called St. Joseph in the outer islands of Seychelles on a mission to explore the Indian Ocean. This body of water is poorly studied and few scientists have ever ventured deeper than the maximum scuba depth of 100 feet.

For more than a month researchers from Nekton, a British-led scientific research charity, have been using submersibles to dive deep below the waves to document the ocean’s health.

We arrived at St. Joseph Island in the early hours of the morning, and this was the first submersible dive at the new site. The sea bed suddenly appeared beneath our craft, a landscape no one had ever seen before.

I quickly scribbled down in the mission report the depth and time at which we sighted the bottom: “165 feet, 1144 UTC.” Carmichael, a veteran of the sea, relayed the information to the surface via an underwater telephone. Its loud static noise would be a constant of our dive.

We moved across a seabed of rock and sand and scattered soft coral until a great darkness opened ahead. Carmichael lowered us over the side of an underwater cliff. Our target depth was 400 feet.

Oceans cover over two-thirds of the Earth’s surface but remain, for the most part, unexplored.

Their role in regulating our climate and the threats they face are underestimated by many people, so scientific missions are crucial to take stock of the health of underwater ecosystems.

Able to operate down to 1,000 feet, these manned submersibles give scientists a unique understanding of changes in habitats as sunlight diminishes through the different layers of ocean. We glided with the current as six cameras mounted around the craft recorded its journey. In the months to come, researchers at Oxford will comb through the footage frame by frame, noting each species encountered.

Suddenly a drop of cold water landed on my arm, triggering alarm. Water is best kept on the outside of a submersible. Carmichael quickly put me at ease: The difference in temperature between the water around us and our submersible had created a layer of condensation on the hatch. We quickly soaked it up with towels.

It was curiosity that drew Carmichael to the ocean. “I just wanted to know what was down here,” he said. “It’s stunning in so many ways.”

This curiosity has attracted mankind for centuries. “The human mind is naturally drawn to grandiose notions of supernatural beings, and the sea is the ideal medium for them,” wrote Jules Verne, author of “20,000 Leagues Under the Sea,” possibly the greatest submarine novel of all time, which opens with fears over a mysterious sea monster sinking ships and harvesting the lives of sailors.

Thirty years after reading the novel as a child, I’m sitting in a tiny glass bubble observing the underwater world like Captain Nemo on board the novel’s submarine, Nautilus. We are foreigners to this realm, objects of fascination for the reef shark that approaches us, as curious of us as we are of it.

Even in the 19th century, Verne feared the extinction of numerous species of marine life. The fears have been proven true. A WWF report found that marine vertebrate populations have declined by almost half since the 1970s.

Fishing is no longer the sole cause. Man-made pollution, global warming and the acidification of the oceans are new challenges.

As the oceans slowly soak up heat from the atmosphere, marine species will be affected in different ways. Some will adapt. Some will migrate to cooler waters. Others will disappear, leaving a gap in ecosystems that have existed for millennia.

“I came into the Indian Ocean hoping I’d see a giant Napoleon wrasse,” Carmichael said of one of the world’s largest reef fish. “Here we are, 35 days into the mission and I still haven’t seen one.”

Maybe we’re just not diving in the right places. Maybe the reality is bleaker.

As the surveys ended and the currents became too strong to fight, the surface vessel ordered our submersible to return to the surface.

With the lights off, we floated a few minutes in the semi-darkness before the sound of ballast tanks emptying marked our slow ascent. The dark blue water around us lightened.

“The oceans are all connected and important to the quality of life for all humans,” Carmichael said. “It’s worth protecting because the air we breathe and the food we eat and the oceans we swim in really do have a meaningful impact on everyone’s life.”

 
…

your ads here!

As recently as a half-century ago, young American students would spend many lessons writing curved loops and diagonal lines, as they learned how to write in cursive. Over the years, though, computer keyboards and voice to text programs have replaced pens and pencils, and made handwriting — especially cursive — less relevant. 

But it hasn’t disappeared. St. Luke Catholic School in McLean, Virginia, still teaches cursive. Several times a week, students work on their handwriting skills, clutching their pencils and pens as they practice forming neat loops and curls.

Teacher Grace O’Connor says eventually, all of them will have a style all their own. “The great thing about cursive is everyone has his own little spin to it, like, you know how to form your letters, but as you get older you, kind of, develop your own flow to your cursive writing, and it’s yours,” she says. “You can take ownership of it, which is really great.”

Cursive engages multiple senses

Cursive handwriting is emerging as a learning tool for students with dyslexia, a disorder that makes it difficult to read or interpret letters, words and other symbols.

Thirteen-year-old Joseph was diagnosed with dyslexia four years ago, when he was in third grade. “It was hard,” he recalls. “At first, I hadn’t known anything about it. So, I thought it was like the end of the world. So, I was, like, scared, but I had also known that eventually there would be a way for me to get past it.”

He’s “getting past it” with help from therapist Deborah Spear. She visits Joseph’s school several times a week for extra one-on-one practice sessions on cursive writing. 

Spear says practicing handwriting, especially cursive, helps these kids become better readers. The distinct curves and shapes are more likely to be retained in memory.

“We always teach the students that their hands will help them read,” she adds. “They’re very aware they learn through all of their senses. So, we always start with sky writing.”

For that, the students write a letter in the air with their fingers and name the letter at the exact same time they are writing it.

“We’re using the large shoulder muscle at that point,” Spear explains. “Then, we start with very large papers sometimes. So, we start to establish the gross motor movement before we let them hold the pencil, and they have to hold the pencil correctly. The other piece of it is that every handwriting letter is integrated into the letter’s name and that letter’s sound.”

In addition to handwriting, Spear finds that spelling is a useful learning tool. 

“So, when their spelling is smooth, they are integrating that sense in breaking a word down, then they’re able to read it back after they’ve been able to break it down,” she adds.

Why cursive?

Connecting the letters on paper helps students see each letter more distinctly, a benefit Spear says they don’t get from typing.

“Even if you’re able to touch type, just waggling the fingers is not the same as engaging the whole muscle of the arm in handwriting. When you wiggle your fingers, you’re not really differentiating between a ‘b’ and a ‘d’, for example, or an ‘m’ and an ‘n’. But when you’re handwriting, you’re making that distinction.”

Joseph says that’s exactly how practicing handwriting helped him read better and faster.

“When I do the handwriting motions, it’s like my hand remembers it,” he explains. “So, my brain starts remembering the letters and the words. Then, when I see these words, I remember the words when I’m reading. So, that helped a lot.”

Better writers, better students

Teacher Grace O’Connor says the extra handwriting practice helped the students gain confidence and perform better in class.

“I feel like they have a heightened sense of pride at their work from getting this extra help because it’s allowing them the opportunity to use strategies they’re learning one-on-one. So, they can be more confident in the classroom and working with the whole group on cursive writing.”

St. Luke staffer Kevin Cyrow says learning to write in cursive can help all students, not only dyslexic ones.

“A lot of memory issues are involved in it,” he says. “So, in order for a student to do well in a test or just remember things in general, it’s really important for them to write down. So I hope we’ll never lose it.”

Lessons for life, no matter how much they will use cursive handwriting in the years to come.
…

your ads here!

As recently as a half-century ago, young American students would spend many lessons writing curved loops and diagonal lines, as they learned how to write in cursive. Over the years, though, computer keyboards and voice to text programs have replaced pens and pencils, and made handwriting — especially cursive — less relevant. 

But it hasn’t disappeared. St. Luke Catholic School in McLean, Virginia, still teaches cursive. Several times a week, students work on their handwriting skills, clutching their pencils and pens as they practice forming neat loops and curls.

Teacher Grace O’Connor says eventually, all of them will have a style all their own. “The great thing about cursive is everyone has his own little spin to it, like, you know how to form your letters, but as you get older you, kind of, develop your own flow to your cursive writing, and it’s yours,” she says. “You can take ownership of it, which is really great.”

Cursive engages multiple senses

Cursive handwriting is emerging as a learning tool for students with dyslexia, a disorder that makes it difficult to read or interpret letters, words and other symbols.

Thirteen-year-old Joseph was diagnosed with dyslexia four years ago, when he was in third grade. “It was hard,” he recalls. “At first, I hadn’t known anything about it. So, I thought it was like the end of the world. So, I was, like, scared, but I had also known that eventually there would be a way for me to get past it.”

He’s “getting past it” with help from therapist Deborah Spear. She visits Joseph’s school several times a week for extra one-on-one practice sessions on cursive writing. 

Spear says practicing handwriting, especially cursive, helps these kids become better readers. The distinct curves and shapes are more likely to be retained in memory.

“We always teach the students that their hands will help them read,” she adds. “They’re very aware they learn through all of their senses. So, we always start with sky writing.”

For that, the students write a letter in the air with their fingers and name the letter at the exact same time they are writing it.

“We’re using the large shoulder muscle at that point,” Spear explains. “Then, we start with very large papers sometimes. So, we start to establish the gross motor movement before we let them hold the pencil, and they have to hold the pencil correctly. The other piece of it is that every handwriting letter is integrated into the letter’s name and that letter’s sound.”

In addition to handwriting, Spear finds that spelling is a useful learning tool. 

“So, when their spelling is smooth, they are integrating that sense in breaking a word down, then they’re able to read it back after they’ve been able to break it down,” she adds.

Why cursive?

Connecting the letters on paper helps students see each letter more distinctly, a benefit Spear says they don’t get from typing.

“Even if you’re able to touch type, just waggling the fingers is not the same as engaging the whole muscle of the arm in handwriting. When you wiggle your fingers, you’re not really differentiating between a ‘b’ and a ‘d’, for example, or an ‘m’ and an ‘n’. But when you’re handwriting, you’re making that distinction.”

Joseph says that’s exactly how practicing handwriting helped him read better and faster.

“When I do the handwriting motions, it’s like my hand remembers it,” he explains. “So, my brain starts remembering the letters and the words. Then, when I see these words, I remember the words when I’m reading. So, that helped a lot.”

Better writers, better students

Teacher Grace O’Connor says the extra handwriting practice helped the students gain confidence and perform better in class.

“I feel like they have a heightened sense of pride at their work from getting this extra help because it’s allowing them the opportunity to use strategies they’re learning one-on-one. So, they can be more confident in the classroom and working with the whole group on cursive writing.”

St. Luke staffer Kevin Cyrow says learning to write in cursive can help all students, not only dyslexic ones.

“A lot of memory issues are involved in it,” he says. “So, in order for a student to do well in a test or just remember things in general, it’s really important for them to write down. So I hope we’ll never lose it.”

Lessons for life, no matter how much they will use cursive handwriting in the years to come.
…

your ads here!

As recently as a half-century ago, young American students would spend many lessons writing curved loops and diagonal lines, as they learned how to write in cursive. Over the years, though, computer keyboards and voice to text programs have replaced pens and pencils, and made handwriting — especially cursive — less relevant. But, as Faiza Elmasry discovered, handwriting — especially cursive — can help dyslexic kids improve their reading. Faith Lapidus narrates her report.
…

your ads here!

Just 50 years ago, the Aral Sea, which straddles the nations of Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan, was the fourth largest lake in the world. But today it is mostly desert, and environmental groups are trying to save what is left. VOA’S Kevin Enochs reports.
…

your ads here!

Experts meeting in emergency session at the World Health Organization agree the Ebola outbreak in eastern Democratic Republic of Congo does not constitute a public health emergency of international concern.

The experts say the Ebola outbreak does not pose a global threat since the deadly virus has not crossed any international borders.  But they warn this is no time to sit back as the epidemic continues to spread.  It says efforts to contain the disease must be redoubled.

The assessment follows a warning issued Friday by top Red Cross official Emanuele Capobianco who expressed concern about a possible regional spread of the Ebola virus after a recent spike in cases in the DRC.

The recent spike in Ebola infections has seen the number of cases rise to 1206, including 764 deaths. The current upsurge has occurred in remaining epicenters of the disease in conflict-ridden North Kivu province, notably in Butembo, Katwa, Vuhove and Mandima.  

The WHO says these areas have been off limits because of insecurity, seriously hindering the Ebola response.  Because of the lack of access, Executive Director of WHO Health Emergency Program, Mike Ryan, says the WHO has fallen behind in starting vaccination rings.

“Vaccination is proving to be a highly effective way of stopping this virus.   But if we cannot vaccinate people, we cannot protect them.  We can also not get people out to Ebola treatment units.  If someone stays in the community with Ebola and begins to have diarrhea or bleeding, they will infect their families.  So, getting an Ebola patient to safe and effective treatment center is also very important,” Ryan said.

In the last few days, Ryan says aid workers have been able to get back into these Ebola-affected communities. He says they have been able to begin vaccinations and implement other crucial Ebola-control measures.

The current Ebola outbreak is the worst ever in DRC and the second largest recorded after the 2014 epidemic in West Africa, which killed more than 11,000 people.

The WHO expert committee recommends scaling up community dialogue and participation of traditional healers to lessen community mistrust and gain its acceptance.

Because of the high risk of regional spread, the committee advises neighboring countries to accelerate current preparedness and surveillance efforts.

The WHO is appealing to the international community to support its Ebola-control operation.  It says it desperately needs $148 million to keep the operation running until July.  It warns it will not be able to end the epidemic if it does not have the money to implement essential programs.

 

 
…

your ads here!

Experts meeting in emergency session at the World Health Organization agree the Ebola outbreak in eastern Democratic Republic of Congo does not constitute a public health emergency of international concern.

The experts say the Ebola outbreak does not pose a global threat since the deadly virus has not crossed any international borders.  But they warn this is no time to sit back as the epidemic continues to spread.  It says efforts to contain the disease must be redoubled.

The assessment follows a warning issued Friday by top Red Cross official Emanuele Capobianco who expressed concern about a possible regional spread of the Ebola virus after a recent spike in cases in the DRC.

The recent spike in Ebola infections has seen the number of cases rise to 1206, including 764 deaths. The current upsurge has occurred in remaining epicenters of the disease in conflict-ridden North Kivu province, notably in Butembo, Katwa, Vuhove and Mandima.  

The WHO says these areas have been off limits because of insecurity, seriously hindering the Ebola response.  Because of the lack of access, Executive Director of WHO Health Emergency Program, Mike Ryan, says the WHO has fallen behind in starting vaccination rings.

“Vaccination is proving to be a highly effective way of stopping this virus.   But if we cannot vaccinate people, we cannot protect them.  We can also not get people out to Ebola treatment units.  If someone stays in the community with Ebola and begins to have diarrhea or bleeding, they will infect their families.  So, getting an Ebola patient to safe and effective treatment center is also very important,” Ryan said.

In the last few days, Ryan says aid workers have been able to get back into these Ebola-affected communities. He says they have been able to begin vaccinations and implement other crucial Ebola-control measures.

The current Ebola outbreak is the worst ever in DRC and the second largest recorded after the 2014 epidemic in West Africa, which killed more than 11,000 people.

The WHO expert committee recommends scaling up community dialogue and participation of traditional healers to lessen community mistrust and gain its acceptance.

Because of the high risk of regional spread, the committee advises neighboring countries to accelerate current preparedness and surveillance efforts.

The WHO is appealing to the international community to support its Ebola-control operation.  It says it desperately needs $148 million to keep the operation running until July.  It warns it will not be able to end the epidemic if it does not have the money to implement essential programs.

 

 
…

your ads here!

For months, New York City has been fighting a measles outbreak in the Orthodox Jewish community. The mayor finally declared a public health emergency April 9 because measles continue to spread among unvaccinated children. Parents who refuse to vaccinate now face heavy fines.

Brooklyn is a borough in New York City known for its tight-knit, ultra-Orthodox Jewish community. Women wear long, modest dresses, and the men are recognizable in large-brimmed hats and long black coats.

Vaccine mandatory

About 100,000 Orthodox Jews live in Brooklyn. It’s in this community where measles has been spreading since an unvaccinated child brought the virus back from a visit to Israel last October. The inability to contain the outbreak prompted Mayor Bill de Blasio to declare a public health emergency.

“We have a situation now where children are in danger,” de Blasio said.

De Blasio ordered mandatory vaccinations in the Orthodox neighborhoods. Unvaccinated children will not be allowed to attend school, and their parents may face steep fines.

 

WATCH: Anti-Vaccine Parents Fuel Worst Measles Outbreak in 30 Years

Their religion does not prohibit immunization, and city health commissioner Dr. Oxiris Barbot says the duration of this outbreak is alarming.

“We’ve worked closely with the community religious leaders and schools to make sure that vulnerable people are kept safe during this outbreak and to challenge the dangerous misinformation that is being spread by a group of anti-vaxxers,” she said.

Schools honor emergency

The ParCare Community Health Network caters to Orthodox families. Gary Schlesinger is its chief executive. He told VOA that the private, religious schools these children attend will honor the terms of the emergency declaration.

“They were very clear that they will unequivocally deny any parent who does not vaccinate their children,” he said.

Schlesinger says about 100 families are solidly against vaccines because they mistakenly believe vaccines cause autism or even death. These are some of the same beliefs people in other, secular communities hold.

Safe vaccine

Dr. Camille Sabella at the Cleveland Clinic says multiple studies involving hundreds of thousands of children prove that the measles vaccine is safe.

“It really is an incredibly safe vaccine. We’ve been using it since the 1960s in this country, and it has an outstanding safety record,” he said.

There have been more than 400 measles cases in 19 states just this year, according to the Center for Disease Control and Prevention.

Health officials are concerned because measles outbreaks can also be a sign that children aren’t being vaccinated against other deadly diseases, as well.
…

your ads here!

For months, New York City has been fighting a measles outbreak in the Orthodox Jewish community. The mayor finally declared a public health emergency April 9 because measles continue to spread among unvaccinated children. Parents who refuse to vaccinate now face heavy fines.

Brooklyn is a borough in New York City known for its tight-knit, ultra-Orthodox Jewish community. Women wear long, modest dresses, and the men are recognizable in large-brimmed hats and long black coats.

Vaccine mandatory

About 100,000 Orthodox Jews live in Brooklyn. It’s in this community where measles has been spreading since an unvaccinated child brought the virus back from a visit to Israel last October. The inability to contain the outbreak prompted Mayor Bill de Blasio to declare a public health emergency.

“We have a situation now where children are in danger,” de Blasio said.

De Blasio ordered mandatory vaccinations in the Orthodox neighborhoods. Unvaccinated children will not be allowed to attend school, and their parents may face steep fines.

 

WATCH: Anti-Vaccine Parents Fuel Worst Measles Outbreak in 30 Years

Their religion does not prohibit immunization, and city health commissioner Dr. Oxiris Barbot says the duration of this outbreak is alarming.

“We’ve worked closely with the community religious leaders and schools to make sure that vulnerable people are kept safe during this outbreak and to challenge the dangerous misinformation that is being spread by a group of anti-vaxxers,” she said.

Schools honor emergency

The ParCare Community Health Network caters to Orthodox families. Gary Schlesinger is its chief executive. He told VOA that the private, religious schools these children attend will honor the terms of the emergency declaration.

“They were very clear that they will unequivocally deny any parent who does not vaccinate their children,” he said.

Schlesinger says about 100 families are solidly against vaccines because they mistakenly believe vaccines cause autism or even death. These are some of the same beliefs people in other, secular communities hold.

Safe vaccine

Dr. Camille Sabella at the Cleveland Clinic says multiple studies involving hundreds of thousands of children prove that the measles vaccine is safe.

“It really is an incredibly safe vaccine. We’ve been using it since the 1960s in this country, and it has an outstanding safety record,” he said.

There have been more than 400 measles cases in 19 states just this year, according to the Center for Disease Control and Prevention.

Health officials are concerned because measles outbreaks can also be a sign that children aren’t being vaccinated against other deadly diseases, as well.
…

your ads here!

New York City has declared a public health emergency amid an alarming spike in the number of measles cases among largely unvaccinated children. VOA’s Carol Pearson looks at why these parents are reluctant to vaccinate in the face of a serious measles outbreak.
…

your ads here!

New York City has declared a public health emergency amid an alarming spike in the number of measles cases among largely unvaccinated children. VOA’s Carol Pearson looks at why these parents are reluctant to vaccinate in the face of a serious measles outbreak.
…

your ads here!

Johnson & Johnson’s drug Balversa won U.S. approval as the first targeted therapy for advanced bladder cancer, the Food and Drug Administration 

announced Friday. 

The list price of the drug, known chemically as erdafitinib, will range between $10,080 and $22,680 for a 28-day supply, depending on the dosage, J&J said. 

Balversa is the first approved drug in a class known as FGFR inhibitors that targets growth factor receptors involved in cell growth and division.

The drug is approved for use in patients whose cancer has progressed during or after chemotherapy and have specific genetic alterations known as FGFR3 or FGFR2. Patients will be selected for therapy with Balversa using an FDA-approved companion diagnostic device that will identify the genetic 

mutations, the agency said. 

Bladder cancer is the sixth most common cancer in the United States, with the FGFR alterations present in about one in five patients. 

“We’re in an era of more personalized or precision medicine, and the ability to target cancer treatment to a patient’s specific genetic mutation or biomarker is becoming the standard,” Richard Pazdur, head of the FDA’s oncology products division, said in a statement. 

J&J shares closed up 0.5 percent at $135.98. Shares of Incyte Corp., which is also developing a FGFR inhibitor, closed down 2 percent at $79.40. 

The approval was based on a small 87-patient trial in which about a third of subjects experienced tumor shrinkage. The median duration before disease progression was 5.4 months. 

Common side effects of the drug include high phosphate levels, mouth sores and fatigue. The drug may cause serious eye problems, including inflamed eyes, the FDA said. 
…

your ads here!

The team behind the Israeli spacecraft that crashed into the moon moments before touchdown was working Friday to try and piece together what derailed the ambitious mission, which sought to make history as the first privately funded lunar landing. 

SpaceIL, the start-up that worked for over eight years to get the spacecraft off the ground, revealed that a technical glitch triggered a “chain of events” that caused the spacecraft’s engine to malfunction Thursday just 14 kilometers (8.7 miles) above the moon, making it “impossible to stop the spacecraft’s velocity.”

The main engine managed to restart soon after, but it was too late: the lander was on a collision course with the moon at 500 kilometers (310.7 miles) per hour. Radio signals from the spacecraft flat-lined as the scheduled touchdown time came and went, leading engineers to assume that the small spacecraft was scattered in pieces after slamming into the landing site.  

The crew said it would conduct comprehensive tests next week to better understand what happened.

Had the mission succeeded, it would have made Israel the fourth nation to pull off a lunar landing — a feat only accomplished by the national space agencies of the U.S., Russia and China. 

The failure was a disappointing end to a lunar voyage of 6.5 million kilometers (4 million miles), almost unprecedented in length and designed to conserve fuel and reduce price. The spacecraft hitched a ride on a SpaceX rocket launched from Florida in February. 

For the past two months, the lander, dubbed Beresheet, Hebrew for “In the Beginning,” traveled around the Earth several times before entering lunar orbit — a first for a privately funded lander. Israel can count itself among seven nations that have successfully orbited the moon.  

Although the crash dashed the hopes of engineers and enthusiasts around the world that had been rooting for the scrappy spacecraft’s safe arrival, the team emphasized that the mission was still a success for reaching the moon and coming so close to landing successfully.

Beresheet was about the size of a washing machine. It cost $100 million — more than the entrepreneurs had hoped to spend, but far less than a government-funded spacecraft. 

After getting its start in the Google Lunar XPrize Competition, which ultimately ended last year without a winner, Beresheet’s lunar voyage gained momentum over the years, coming to be seen as test of Israel’s technological prowess and potential key to global respect.  

“Israel made it to the moon, and Beresheet’s journey hasn’t ended,” said Israeli billionaire Morris Kahn, one of the project’s major sponsors. “I expect Israel’s next generation to complete the mission for us.”  
…

your ads here!

The team behind the Israeli spacecraft that crashed into the moon moments before touchdown was working Friday to try and piece together what derailed the ambitious mission, which sought to make history as the first privately funded lunar landing. 

SpaceIL, the start-up that worked for over eight years to get the spacecraft off the ground, revealed that a technical glitch triggered a “chain of events” that caused the spacecraft’s engine to malfunction Thursday just 14 kilometers (8.7 miles) above the moon, making it “impossible to stop the spacecraft’s velocity.”

The main engine managed to restart soon after, but it was too late: the lander was on a collision course with the moon at 500 kilometers (310.7 miles) per hour. Radio signals from the spacecraft flat-lined as the scheduled touchdown time came and went, leading engineers to assume that the small spacecraft was scattered in pieces after slamming into the landing site.  

The crew said it would conduct comprehensive tests next week to better understand what happened.

Had the mission succeeded, it would have made Israel the fourth nation to pull off a lunar landing — a feat only accomplished by the national space agencies of the U.S., Russia and China. 

The failure was a disappointing end to a lunar voyage of 6.5 million kilometers (4 million miles), almost unprecedented in length and designed to conserve fuel and reduce price. The spacecraft hitched a ride on a SpaceX rocket launched from Florida in February. 

For the past two months, the lander, dubbed Beresheet, Hebrew for “In the Beginning,” traveled around the Earth several times before entering lunar orbit — a first for a privately funded lander. Israel can count itself among seven nations that have successfully orbited the moon.  

Although the crash dashed the hopes of engineers and enthusiasts around the world that had been rooting for the scrappy spacecraft’s safe arrival, the team emphasized that the mission was still a success for reaching the moon and coming so close to landing successfully.

Beresheet was about the size of a washing machine. It cost $100 million — more than the entrepreneurs had hoped to spend, but far less than a government-funded spacecraft. 

After getting its start in the Google Lunar XPrize Competition, which ultimately ended last year without a winner, Beresheet’s lunar voyage gained momentum over the years, coming to be seen as test of Israel’s technological prowess and potential key to global respect.  

“Israel made it to the moon, and Beresheet’s journey hasn’t ended,” said Israeli billionaire Morris Kahn, one of the project’s major sponsors. “I expect Israel’s next generation to complete the mission for us.”  
…

your ads here!

A top Red Cross official says he’s “more concerned than I have ever been” about the possible regional spread of the Ebola virus in Congo after a recent spike in cases.

Emanuele Capobianco spoke by phone ahead of a key World Health Organization meeting in Geneva later Friday about whether to declare the Ebola outbreak in northeastern Congo an international health emergency.

Capobianco, head of health and care at the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies, cited Congolese health ministry statistics announced on Thursday showing 40 new cases over two days this week.

He called that rate unprecedented in the current eight-month outbreak.

He cites lack of trust about Ebola treatment in the community and insecurity caused by rebel groups that has hurt aid efforts.
…

your ads here!

A top Red Cross official says he’s “more concerned than I have ever been” about the possible regional spread of the Ebola virus in Congo after a recent spike in cases.

Emanuele Capobianco spoke by phone ahead of a key World Health Organization meeting in Geneva later Friday about whether to declare the Ebola outbreak in northeastern Congo an international health emergency.

Capobianco, head of health and care at the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies, cited Congolese health ministry statistics announced on Thursday showing 40 new cases over two days this week.

He called that rate unprecedented in the current eight-month outbreak.

He cites lack of trust about Ebola treatment in the community and insecurity caused by rebel groups that has hurt aid efforts.
…

your ads here!

As scientists get better at sifting through our past, more and more variations of human beings are turning up in archaeological digs. In the early 2000s there was the discovery in Indonesia of a tiny hominid called Flores man, this week an archaeologist says he has found the remains of another human cousin buried in a Philippine cave. VOA’s Kevin Enochs reports.
…

your ads here!

As scientists get better at sifting through our past, more and more variations of human beings are turning up in archaeological digs. In the early 2000s there was the discovery in Indonesia of a tiny hominid called Flores man, this week an archaeologist says he has found the remains of another human cousin buried in a Philippine cave. VOA’s Kevin Enochs reports.
…

your ads here!

An Israeli spacecraft lost contact with Earth moments before it was to land on the moon and crashed late Thursday, failing in an ambitious attempt to make history as the first privately funded lunar mission. 

The spacecraft lost communication with ground control as it was making its final descent to the moon. Moments later, the mission was declared a failure.

“We definitely crashed on surface of moon,” said Opher Doron, general manager of the space division of Israel Aerospace Industries. He said the spacecraft was in pieces scattered at the planned landing site. 

Engine shut down

Doron said that the spacecraft’s engine turned off shortly before landing. By the time power was restored, he said the craft was moving too fast to land safely. Scientists were still trying to figure out the cause of the failure. 

One of the inertial measurement units failed. And that caused an unfortunate chain of events we're not sure about,'' he said.The engine was turned off. The engine was stopped and the spacecraft crashed. That’s all we know.” 

The incident occurred in front of a packed audience that included Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and was broadcast live on national television.

The small robotic spacecraft, built by the nonprofit SpaceIL and state-owned Israel Aerospace Industries, had hoped to match a feat that has been achieved only by the national space agencies of three countries: the U.S., Russia and China.

If at first you don't succeed, try try again,'' Netanyahu said. He vowed to put an Israeli spacecraft on the moonintact” in the next two years.  

Scientists, who were giddy with excitement only seconds earlier, were visibly distraught, and celebrations at viewing centers across the country were dashed. 

President Reuven Rivlin hosted dozens of youngsters at his official residence. The children, some wearing white spacesuits, appeared confused as the crash unfolded. 

 

We are full of admiration for the wonderful people who brought the spacecraft to the moon,'' Rivlin said.True, not as we had hoped, but we will succeed in the end.” 

 

Launched in February

The failure was a disappointing ending to a 6.5 million-kilometer (4 million-mile) lunar voyage, almost unprecedented in length, that was designed to conserve fuel and reduce price. 

 

The spacecraft hitched a ride on the SpaceX Falcon rocket, launched from Florida in February.  For the past two months, Beresheet traveled around the Earth several times before entering lunar orbit.

The U.S. space agency NASA broadcast the landing attempt live on its dedicated TV channels, as well as online.

“While NASA regrets the end of the SpaceIL mission without a successful lunar landing of the Beresheet lander, we congratulate SpaceIL, the Israel Aerospace Industries and the state of Israel on the incredible accomplishment of sending the first privately funded mission into lunar orbit,” said NASA Administrator Jim Bridenstine. 

Every attempt to reach new milestones holds opportunities for us to learn, adjust and progress,'' he added.I have no doubt that Israel and SpaceIL will continue to explore, and I look forward to celebrating their future achievements.” 
…

your ads here!

Scientists have been monitoring what black holes do to the space around them for decades. Their immense gravity warps time and space in a way that Albert Einstein predicted and that researchers can see. But they’ve never seen a black hole until now. VOA’s Kevin Enochs reports.
…

your ads here!

Deadly floods in the U.S. that bear the fingerprints of climate change are prompting an exodus of workers from the Midwest, the world’s biggest professional social network, LinkedIn, said Wednesday.

The website, on which millions of U.S. workers maintain profiles, said data showed a spike in members changing their work location from areas flooded last month to cities in the Southwest and on the West Coast.

“When you look at the most real-time data that we have, and that’s our ‘job starts’, we’ve seen those come down quite a bit in the cities that have been hit,” said Guy Berger, chief economist at LinkedIn.

The finding emerged from a LinkedIn analysis of user-generated data. LinkedIn users can share their location and job information — such as when they start a new job — on their profile.

Hiring rates tracked through the platform dropped across the Midwest, LinkedIn said in its April U.S. workforce report, published Monday.

Omaha, Nebraska, and Fargo, North Dakota, registered among the most extreme decreases in hiring rates at nearly 8 and 14 percent respectively, it said.

The findings were based on the more than 155 million profiles of U.S. workers that are listed on the site, the company said.

The U.S. labor force — employed and unemployed people — totaled 163 million people last month, according to the Department of Labor.

Climate change had a hand in the record floods that have damaged crops and drowned livestock along the Missouri, Red and Mississippi rivers, especially in Nebraska, Iowa and Missouri, scientists have said.

Fargo was also among communities impacted, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration said.

LinkedIn’s workforce report said that it has noticed “migration trends” following other natural disasters, such as Hurricane Irma, which hit the U.S. East Coast in 2017.

Workers would likely move to such cities as Denver, Dallas-Fort Worth, Phoenix and Seattle, largely due to their proximity, affordability and growing economies, Berger predicted.

It was unclear how permanent the retreat of workers from Midwest areas that were recently flooded would prove to be, Berger said.

But a repeat of extreme weather events could lead to “a sustained bleed of talent,” he said.

A handful of American cities, from Duluth, Minnesota, to Cincinnati, Ohio, have begun promoting themselves as future havens for U.S. climate migrants as climate change is predicted to cause intense natural disasters elsewhere.
…

your ads here!

Fossil bones and teeth found in the Philippines have revealed a long-lost cousin of modern people, which evidently lived around the time our own species was spreading from Africa to occupy the rest of the world.   

It’s yet another reminder that, although Homo sapiens is now the only surviving member of our branch of the evolutionary tree, we’ve had company for most of our existence.

And it makes our understanding of human evolution in Asia “messier, more complicated and whole lot more interesting,” says one expert, Matthew Tocheri of Lakehead University in Thunder Bay, Ontario.

In a study released Wednesday by the journal Nature, scientists describe a cache of seven teeth and six bones from the feet, hands and thigh of at least three individuals. They were recovered from Callao Cave on the island of Luzon in the northern Philippines in 2007, 2011 and 2015. Tests on two samples show minimum ages of 50,000 years and 67,000 years.  

The main exodus of our own species from Africa that all of today’s non-African people are descended from took place around 60,000 years ago.  

Analysis of the bones from Luzon led the study authors to conclude they belonged to a previously unknown member of our “Homo” branch of the family tree.  One of the toe bones and the overall pattern of tooth shapes and sizes differ from what’s been seen before in the Homo family, the researchers said.  

They dubbed the creature Homo luzonensis.  

It apparently used stone tools and its small teeth suggest it might have been rather small-bodied, said one of the study authors, Florent Detroit of the National Museum of Natural History in Paris.   

H. luzonensis lived in eastern Asia at around the same time as not only our species but other members of the Homo branch, including Neanderthals, their little-understood Siberian cousins the Denisovans, and the diminutive “hobbits” of the island of Flores in Indonesia.  

There’s no sign that H. luzonensis encountered any other member of the Homo group, Detroit said in an email. Our species isn’t known to have reached the Philippines until thousands of years after the age of the bones, he said.   

But some human relative was on Luzon more than 700,000 years ago, as indicated by the presence of stone tools and a butchered rhino dating to that time, he said. It might have been the newfound species or an ancestor of it, he said in an email.

Detroit said it’s not clear how H. luzonensis is related to other species of Homo. He speculated that it might have descended from an earlier human relative, Homo erectus, that somehow crossed the sea to Luzon.

H. erectus is generally considered the first Homo species to have expanded beyond Africa, and it plays a prominent role in the conventional wisdom about evolution outside that continent.  Some scientists have suggested that the hobbits on the Indonesian island are descended from H. erectus.

Tocheri, who did not participate it the new report, agreed that both H. luzonensis and the hobbits may have descended from H. erectus. But he said the Philippines discovery gives new credence to an alternate view: Maybe some unknown creature other than H. erectus also slipped out of Africa and into Europe and Asia, and later gave rise to both island species.

After all, he said in an interview, remains of the hobbits and H. luzonensis show a mix of primitive and more modern traits that differ from what’s seen in H. erectus. They look more like what one what might find in Africa 1.5 to 2.5 million years ago, and which might have been carried out of that continent by the mystery species, he said.

The discovery of a new human relative on Luzon might be “smoke from a much, much bigger fire,” he said.

Michael Petraglia of the Max Planck Institute for the Science of Human History in Jena, Germany, said the Luzon find “shows we still know very little about human evolution, particularly in Asia.”  

More such discoveries will probably emerge with further work in the region, which is under-studied, he said in an email.  

 
…

your ads here!