A solar-powered airplane finished crossing the United States on Saturday, landing in New York City after flying over the Statue of Liberty during its historic bid to circle the globe, the project team said. The spindly, single-seat experimental aircraft, dubbed Solar Impulse 2, arrived at New York's John F. Kennedy International Airport at about 4 a.m. local time after it took off about five hours beforehand at Lehigh Valley International Airport in Pennsylvania, the team reported on the airplane's website. Such a pleasure to land in New York! For the 14th time we celebrate sustainability," said the project's co-founder Andre Borschberg on Twitter after flying over the city and the Statue of Liberty during the 14th leg of the trip around the globe. The Swiss team flying the aircraft in a campaign to build support for clean energy technologies hopes eventually to complete its circumnavigation in Abu Dhabi, where the journey began in March 2015. The solar cr...
Their report, in the journal Nature Genetics, identified genes involved in how the body repairs itself. Ultimately the findings could contribute to a fertility or menopause test, or lead to new drugs. The Royal College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists said the results were important for those at risk of an early menopause. Most women go through the menopause between the ages of 40 and 60. However, what controls that timescale is not completely clear.Comparing the DNA of nearly 70,000 women allowed the researchers to identify the differences between those starting the menopause early and late. The team at Exeter and Cambridge universities showed that at least two repair mechanisms were involved.
The first is used when the eggs are being formed and the woman's DNA is being broken, rearranged and repaired. The second corrects damage, caused by factors such as smoking or alcohol, throughout a woman's life. Both would influence the number of viable eggs a woman has. Dr Murray said the findings could help develop new drugs: "We really don't understand the process of egg loss, the timing of it, so better understanding of the basic biology of losing eggs will help us with that. The researchers also found genes that controlled menopause timing were involved in both the age of puberty and the development of breast cancer.
Dr Edward Morris, a spokesman for the Royal College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists, said: "We have known for some time about the fact that an early menopause protects against breast cancer whilst a late menopause increases the risk. "It is reassuring that such a large study taking a genetic approach has clearly demonstrated this link. "In addition this study has shown that there may well be future possibilities not only to have a clearer understanding of the length of a woman's reproductive life, but possibly to find treatments in the future. This type of knowledge would be of particular importance in women with a high risk of early menopause."
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