Daily Archives: August 16, 2022


NASA to Roll Out Giant US Moon Rocket for Debut Launch

NASA’s gigantic Space Launch System moon rocket, topped with an uncrewed astronaut capsule, is set to begin an hourslong crawl to its launchpad Tuesday night ahead of the behemoth’s debut test flight later this month.  The 98-meter-tall rocket is scheduled to embark on its first mission to space — without any humans — on August 29. It will be a crucial, long-delayed demonstration trip to the moon in NASA’s Artemis program, the United States’ multibillion-dollar effort to return humans to the lunar surface as practice for future missions to Mars.  …


Looters Helped Return Stolen Antiquities to Cambodia, Researchers Say

After an extensive joint investigation by the United States and Cambodia, about 30 Cambodian cultural artifacts were returned to their homeland. As VOA’s Chetra Chap reports, it turns out that some of the people who looted the antiquities helped bring some of them back to the Southeast Asian nation. Videographer: Chetra Chap  …


What Is a ‘Vaccine-Derived’ Poliovirus?

New York health officials announced in July that an unvaccinated adult man from Rockland County had been diagnosed with polio—the first case of the life-threatening disease in the United States since 2013. The virus that causes polio was later detected in New York City wastewater, and city and state health officials now say the virus is probably circulating in the city. The virus identified in New York is a vaccine-derived poliovirus. Wild polioviruses were eliminated from most of the world and now circulate only in Afghanistan and Pakistan. But vaccine-derived …


Century-Old TB Vaccine Boosts Babies’ Front-Line Immune Defenses

The widely used tuberculosis vaccine also fends off a slew of unrelated infectious diseases, and its immune boost can protect newborns for more than a year, researchers in Australia have found. The bacillus calmette-guérin (BCG) vaccine for tuberculosis causes front-line immune cells to make long-lasting biological “marks” on their DNA, changing how they read genetic instructions for fighting off viruses, the researchers say. “The DNA is like the manual for the cell. It tells you what it can and can’t do,” study author and molecular immunologist Boris Novakovic of the …


Medical Investigator Rules Baldwin Set Shooting an Accident

The fatal film-set shooting of a cinematographer by actor Alec Baldwin last year was an accident, according to a determination made by New Mexico’s Office of the Medical Investigator following the completion of an autopsy and a review of law enforcement reports.  The medical investigator’s report was made public Monday by the Santa Fe County Sheriff’s Office along with numerous reports from the FBI on the revolver and ammunition collected after the shooting.  Prosecutors have not yet decided if any charges will be filed in the case, saying they will …