FOUR NEW CRATERS HAVE BEEN SPOTTED BY SCIENTISTS IN THE YAMAL PENINSULA, IN SIBERIA

“Therefore hell hath enlarged herself, and opened her mouth without measure: and their glory, and their multitude, and their pomp, and he that rejoiceth, shall descend into it.”Isaiah 5:14 (KJV)

‘We know now of seven craters in the Arctic area,’ Professor Bogoyavlensky told The Siberian Times. ‘Five are directly on the Yamal peninsula, one in Yamal Autonomous district, and one is on the north of the Krasnoyarsk region, near the Taimyr peninsula.

‘Yamal’ in Russian literally means ‘the end of the world’. These craters are all located on the Yamal Peninsula.

‘We have exact locations for only four of them. ‘The other three were spotted by reindeer herders.

‘But I am sure that there are more craters on Yamal, we just need to search for them. I would compare this with mushrooms.

One expert estimated that the total explosive power of the craters has been the equivalent of about 11 tons of TNT.

‘When you find one mushroom, be sure there are few more around. I suppose there could be 20 to 30 craters more.’

Two of the newly-discovered large craters – also known as funnels to scientists – have turned into lakes, revealed Professor Bogoyavlensky.

‘It is important not to scare people, but this is a very serious problem.

‘We must research this phenomenon urgently to prevent possible disasters. source

(NTEB)

In a breakthrough, researchers led by an Indian-origin scientist, have shown that stem cells from the skin of two adults of the same sex can be used to make human egg and sperm cells.

Scientists at Cambridge University collaborated with Israel’s Weizmann Institute of Science and used stem cell lines from embryos as well as from the skin of five different adults.

Researchers have previously created live baby mice using engineered eggs and sperm, but until now have struggled to create a human version of these ‘primordial germ’ or stem cells.

Ten different donor sources have been used so far and new germ-cell lines have been created from all of them, researchers said.

The team has compared the engineered germ cells with natural human stem cells taken from aborted human foetuses to check that the artificially created versions of the cells had identical characteristics,The Times reported.

A gene called SOX17, previously considered to be unimportant in mice, has turned out to be critical in the process of ‘reprogramming’ human cells, researchers said.

“We have succeeded in the first and most important step of this process, which is to show we can make these very early human stem cells in a dish,” said Azim Surani, professor of physiology and reproduction at Cambridge, who heads the project.

“We have also discovered that one of the things that happens in these germ cells is that epigenetic mutations, the cell mistakes that occur with age, are wiped out,” said Surani, who was involved in research that led to the birth of Louise Brown, the world’s first test-tube baby, in 1978.

Jacob Hanna, the specialist leading the project’s Israeli arm, said it may be possible to use the technique to create a baby in just two years.

“It has already caused interest from gay groups because of the possibility of making egg and sperm cells from parents of the same sex,” he said.

The details of the technique were published in the journal Cell.

(THE HINDU)

North Korea appears poised to expand its nuclear program over the next five years and in a worst case scenario could possess 100 atomic arms by 2020, US researchers warned Tuesday.

And cutting-edge European companies could be unwittingly contributing to Pyongyang's suspect nuclear program with their equipment diverted to the isolated country via China, they said.

Unveiling the first results of what will be a 15-month study, Joel Wit, senior fellow at the US-Korea Institute at Johns Hopkins University, said some of their conclusions were very "disturbing."

Although North Korea's nuclear program remains shrouded in uncertainty, Pyongyang is currently believed to have a stockpile of some 10 to 16 nuclear weapons fashioned from either plutonium or weapons-grade uranium.

Using satellite imagery, North Korean media reports and their deep knowledge of nuclear programs, Wit, and renowned non-proliferation expert David Albright, have drawn up three possible future scenarios based on the progress made by Pyongyang from 2009 to 2014.

Those years, which followed the 2008 collapse of international six-party nuclear talks, were "banner years" for Pyongyang's nuclear program and missile systems development, Wit said.

"For these kinds of programs there have been developments that make it at least more possible to predict the future," Wit told reporters. "We're making our best guess about the future ... we're estimating the future, just like intelligence agencies do."

In the first scenario, Pyongyang would almost double its stockpile to about 20 weapons, including plutonium-based weapons which have been miniaturized sufficiently to be mounted on its Rodong-class medium-range ballistic missile, capable of reaching Japan.

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South Koreans watch TV news reporting North Korea's apparent nuclear test, in Seoul on February …

In the second, most likely scenario, North Korea continues its current trajectory and manages to produce 50 weapons by 2020.

It would also make significant advances in miniaturization technology enabling it to mount warheads on a new generation of intermediate-range ballistic missiles.

- 'Scary' -

In what Wit dubbed "the worst case scenario," the North Korean stockpile would grow more rapidly to 100 weapons and make "significant advances" in weapons designs to enable it to potentially deploy battlefield and tactical weapons.

"This is a pretty scary scenario, where we are seeing a dramatic expansion in North Korea's stockpile," Wit said.

North Korea carried out nuclear tests in 2006, 2009 and 2013. It also regularly launches missile tests, triggering international condemnation.

Despite a network of international sanctions, Pyongyang is able to acquire equipment, even from Western countries, which in some cases is bought by private Chinese companies and transported across the Chinese-North Korean border, Albright said.

"Just cracking down on the border could do a lot, and they (China) do very little now," said Albright, who exposed flaws in US claims in 2003 that Iraq had large stocks of nuclear and chemical weapons.

US lawmakers introduced legislation earlier this month that would widen sanctions by imposing harsher penalties on foreign companies doing business with Pyongyang.

But Wit said the sanctions regime was having little to no impact on halting North Korea's nuclear program.

South Korea and the United States said Tuesday they would launch their annual joint military exercises on March 2, setting the stage for a likely surge in tensions with the North.

Pyongyang had offered a moratorium on nuclear testing if this year's joint drills were cancelled -- a proposal rejected by Washington as an "implicit threat" to carry out a fourth nuclear test.

But Wit stressed Pyongyang could halt the nuclear tests and still carry on developing its atomic program.

"Nuclear tests have nothing to do with the number of weapons North Korea produces. Yet we're all focused on when's the next nuclear test," Wit said.

And he warned that Pyongyang could already "reliably blanket the entire region" with its missile stock, adding experts believe the country was capable of mounting nuclear warheads on the missiles.