The pick of the science news
Camel joins the clone crowd
Scientists in Dubai this week claimed to have produced the world’s first cloned camel. Called Injaz, which is Arabic for “achievement”, the female, single-humped 30kg camel was born on April 8th after a 378-day gestation, according to reports.
Tests indicate that the baby is genetically identical to the adult animal from which DNA was taken to generate the clone at Dubai’s Camel Reproduction Centre.
The camel can now be added to the list of clones produced from somatic cells, a list which includes sheep, mice, goats, dogs, pigs and cows. Most famously, Dolly the sheep was cloned in Scotland 13 years ago, living until 2003, when she had to be put down because of lung disease.
Flying microbots going places
Is it a bird? Is it a plane? No, it’s a flying microbot, unveiled as the first of its kind in the world by a team in Canada this week.
The tiny remote-controlled robot levitates, powered by a magnetic field. Equipped with micro-grippers, it can gain access to and manipulate objects that are too small for humans to manage alone.
“It can enter virtually any space and can be operated in a sealed enclosure by a person outside, which makes it useful for handling biohazardous materials or for working in vacuum chambers and clean rooms,” says Prof Behrad Khamesee, of the University of Waterloo.
By numbers
230,539
The number of public votes to name a room in an International Space Station after US comedian Stephen Colbert. However, Nasa named it
Tranquility(eighth in the contest) and Colbert's moniker is to go on a treadmill instead
14.4
The percentage of adults with frequent mental distress (FMD) in Kentucky, compared with 6.6 per cent in Hawaii, according to new US research