A US official stated that the Palau-flagged tanker MT Settebello ignored nearly 60 verbal warnings and military aircraft displays before being fired upon by US forces. The incident resulted in the deaths of three Indian nationals, prompting India to protest the use of lethal force.
Scientists have developed a new non-invasive maternal blood test, NIFS, capable of detecting thousands of serious genetic conditions in a fetus. This advanced sequencing technique identifies fetal DNA fragments in the mother's blood, potentially replacing invasive procedures like amniocentesis and offering earlier diagnosis for a wider range of disorders.
Kerala's new UDF Cabinet oath ceremony sparked a political row after 'Vande Mataram' was recited in full. CPI(M) criticized the move, citing religious references and secularism concerns, while BJP accused CPI(M) of insulting the national song and appeasing vote banks. A similar controversy occurred in Tamil Nadu over song sequencing.
J. Craig Venter, the pioneering geneticist who led the commercial race to sequence the human genome through his company Celera Genomics, has died at age 79. The J. Craig Venter Institute announced his death, stating he was hospitalized following unexpected side effects during treatment for recently diagnosed cancer. Venter pioneered the controversial whole genome shotgun method and was the first person to sequence and publish his own genome.
The GenomeIndia Project, launched in January 2020, has completed whole genome sequencing of 10,074 individuals from 83 population groups, revealing 180 million genetic variants including 44 million previously unknown to science. The project addresses the critical gap in global genetic databases, which are extremely Eurocentric, and identifies 38 genetic variants impacting drug metabolism for Indian populations. India aims to sequence 10 million genomes in the future.
