I’d like to say that I’ve been quiet because it’s a slow news day, but it really isn’t. I’m a bit busy with work, but I’m mostly preoccupied by concerns, both local and abroad, natural and human. I’d give them all space here, but I don’t want this to become Eeyore World Daily.
Monthly Archives: April 2003
New hope for frozen zoos
The San Diego Zoo recently announced the first healthy clone of an endangered species, a Javan banteng. The clone is an early sign of success for the “frozen zoo” concept, where cells from endangered species are stored in hopes that cloned animals can be produced at a later time.
The process is still very inefficient, with 45 embryos and 30 cows required to give birth to a single banteng healthy enough to live past a few days. However, scientists at CRES are hoping that the process will provide greater genetic diversity to existing zoo populations.
Please hold…
Seven-headed programming
If you do any collaborative programming, there’s yet another reason to get a Mac with OS X. Hydra allows multiple users on a network (automatically detected by Rendezvous) to edit the same text file(s) in real time. The editor has lots of perks: syntax highlighting, spell checking, and functional bookmarks to name a few. The team is expecting to add scripting support in the near future. Oh, and its a free 600K download.
XCOR tests new rocket engine
Wow! It must be the week of X Prize related announcements. The latest is from XCOR, which successfully tested their new XR-4K5 engine on Monday. It’s just one stage in their plan to go suborbital and win the prize.