NASA's Planet Hunter Finds Its First Earth-Size World in "Habitable Zone"

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January 07, 2020

Dear Reader, NASA says its highly-anticipated successor to Hubble, the James Webb Telescope, is still set to launch in March 2021 despite a series of delays. This week, the agency also announced its planet-hunting spacecraft TESS discovered another potentially habitable world. In India, antivenom for snakebites need an upgrade. And lastly, testing CRISPR gene editing to treat an array of diseases in people is moving closer to reality.

Sunya Bhutta, Senior Editor, Audience Engagement @sunyaaa

NASA's Planet Hunter Finds Its First Earth-Size World in "Habitable Zone" The newfound exoplanet, known as TOI 700 d, lies just 101.5 light-years from Earth

Medicine Venomous Menace: Snakebite Treatments Are Failing in India The most widely used antivenom is not effective against the venom of several common snakes By Harini Barath

Medical & Biotech Quest to Use CRISPR Against Disease Gains Ground As the first clinical trial results trickle in, researchers look ahead to more sophisticated medical applications for genome editing By Heidi Ledford,Nature magazine

Space James Webb Space Telescope on Track for March 2021 Launch, NASA Says Despite numerous setbacks, the $9.7-billion observatory is still on schedule to revolutionize our view of the universe By Meghan Bartels,SPACE.com

Policy & Ethics The "China Threat" and the Future of Global Science Restrictions on U.S.-China collaborations could undermine research without enhancing security By Jenny J. Lee,John P. Haupt

Medical & Biotech Fighting Unfairness in Genetic Medicine DNA-based medicine needs more diversity to avoid harmful bias. One big research project is fixing that By Stephanie Devaney

FROM THE STORE Exploring Mars: Secrets of the Red Planet Our nearest planetary neighbor has been the subject of endless fascination and wide-ranging theories throughout history. Is there life on Mars? Was there ever life on Mars? What was the atmosphere like thousands or millions of years ago? From Percival Lowell, who built his own observatory so he could dedicate himself to studying the red planet, to NASA landing the car-sized Opportunity rover in 2012, this eBook traces Scientific American's coverage of the observation and exploration of Mars.

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QUOTE OF THE DAY "The world of space holds vast promise for the service of man, and it is a world we have only begun to explore." James E. Webb

WHAT WE'RE READING Australia's apocalyptic fires are a warning to the world By The Washington Post Autism heritability: It probably does not mean what you think it means By Spectrum Astronomers are getting better at detecting smaller, weirder worlds By The Atlantic

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