India s space agency has launched its second lunar mission, a week after an earlier effort had to be called off. Scientists hope to make a soft landing on the moon s unexplored south pole. A rocket carrrying the the Chandrayaan-2 "Moon Vehicle" spacecraft blasted off for the moon at 2.43 p.m. local time (0913 UTC) on Monday. The Indian Space Research Organization (ISRO) rescheduled the launch after a "technical snag," believed refer to a helium leak, a week earlier. India s aim is to become the fourth country after the US, Russia and China, to land a spacecraft on the moon. Scientists at mission control center burst into applause as the rocket lifted off into clear skies. Aboard the rocket is an orbiter that will circle the moon for about a year taking surface images, and a landing vessel carrying a lunar rover named Vikram. Blast-off from the island of Sriharikota, some 60 kilometers (37 miles) north of the southern city of Chennai, appeared to go without a hitch this time around. "Every Indian is immensely proud today!," tweeted Prime Minister Narendra Modi. "Special moments that will be etched in the annals of our glorious history!" ISRO chief K. Sivan told The Hindu newspaper on Sunday that there was "no chance for any technical fault to arise now." "When the technical fault happened, we stopped the countdown, identified the issue, and rectified it." India s first lunar mission took place in 2008, when an orbiter scanned the surface with radar looking for signs of water. The country also aims to land a probe on Mars, having already become only the fourth nation to put a satellite into orbit around the planet.

US, Italian and Russian astronauts are set to blast off into space Saturday in a launch coinciding with the 50th anniversary of the Apollo 11 moon landing. Alexander Skvortsov of the Russian space agency Roscosmos, NASA s Andrew Morgan and Luca Parmitano of the European Space Agency will travel to the International Space Station at 1628 GMT from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan. The July 20 blast off comes on the same date that NASA s Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin landed on the moon in 1969, marking a defining moment in the so-called “space race” with the Soviet Union. Of the trio launching from the Kazakh steppe, only 53-year-old Skvortsov was alive at the time of the Moon landing. A veteran of two ISS missions, Skvortsov will be the flight commander for the six-hour journey from Baikonur to the ISS. Morgan, 43, is flying for the first time. Parmitano s only previous stint at the ISS lasted 166 days and saw him become the first Italian to carry out a spacewalk. Lucky and privileged Speaking at a pre-launch news conference in Baikonur, Parmitano, 42, said the crew were “lucky and privileged” to have their launch coincide with the Apollo 11 date, and indicated that they were wearing badges honoring the anniversary. Morgan paid tribute to the Apollo 11 landing as a “victory for all of mankind” but ducked a question on whether Russian cosmonauts would ever reach the Moon — the Soviet Union only ever sent unmanned missions there. NASA was “even more capable” of accomplishing great things when it did so “as part of an international cooperation,” Morgan said. Five decades after the 1969 moon landing, Russia and the West are still competing in space, even if the emphasis is on cooperation at the ISS. NASA no longer operates manned flights to the ISS leaving it wholly dependent on Roscosmos Soyuz program. But in recent times private companies like SpaceX and Boeing have bid to end the Russian monopoly on manned launches to the ISS, winning multi-billion contracts with NASA. President Donald Trump, meanwhile, has set an ambitious deadline to return astronauts to the Moon by 2024. The project — named Artemis — would be the first attempt to send humans to the lunar surface since the last Apollo landing in 1972. Some experts doubt if the deadline is realistic, given budgetary constraints and delays in developing the next-generation rockets and equipment needed for the journey. Skvortsov, Morgan and Parmitano all come from military backgrounds and posed together in uniform in the build up to the launch. Skvortsov joked that “two colonels will be taking orders from a colonel” when Parmitano becomes commander of the space station mid-way through his mission — a reference to the military rank the three share. The International Space Station has been orbiting Earth at about 28,000 kilometres per hour (17,000 miles per hour) since 1998.

Twelve astronauts have been on the moon thus far. And yet these lunar landings are often questioned. But who knows, maybe they re right and nothing is as it seems? No American has ever been to the moon. It s all just fake. The moon landings? Staged in TV studios, where the scenes weren t even properly lit. And then there were the amateur mistakes, such as the waving US flag. Pfffff. As if flags "wave" on the moon. Without an atmosphere. Fake. A political conspiracy by the Americans to show the Soviets, "Look, we got it, you don t. Our men are able to land on the moon, not yours." Earthquake machines and lizard people And while we re at it: In the wilderness of Alaska, a mysterious research facility is said to exist that can cause earthquakes. It s called HAARP, and it s also capable of various weather manipulations to terrorize the world. Enter "HAARP" and "earthquakes" into Google and marvel at the number of hits. Want another one? Here you go: Chemtrails, or the white stripes in the sky that we all think are just harmless contrails. In reality, however, airplanes spray chemicals on behalf of evil governments to change the weather, the climate and to poison us humans. And of course, the earth is flat — and hollow inside. And is actually ruled by lizard men. We all love conspiracy theories Are you laughing now? Or are you slowly getting angry? Such nonsense at DW? OK, then, well you re obviously not very prone to fall for conspiracy theories. Just how many people believe in absurd stories of this kind has not been put into numbers. Nor do we know whether today, in 2019, there are more of these people than before. In any case, crude conspiracy theories have become more visible through the internet and social media, psychologists say. Followers of these ideas feel supported, and they no longer feel they re part of a small minority. But scientific experiments also show that conspiracy theorists enjoy believing the most absurd things in order to belong to a supposedly exclusive, elitist circle of knowledge. Though psychological reasons behind why so many people still believe the moon landing was faked still need to be scientifically examined, the trigger was a strange book by the American Bill Kaysing. It was published in 1976 under the title "We never went to the Moon." And it was a success. Many people believed the absurd theses. Kaysing was not a scientist, technician nor an engineer. He was an author who wrote about agriculture, cooking or saving on tax payments. He came up with make-believe evidence to prove that moon landings actually never occurred. These are four of his most popular theses: 1. The waving flag Conspiracy theorists say: In the footage, the US flag that Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin rammed into the moon s regolith blows in the wind. But that is not possible, because there is no atmosphere on the moon. Science says: The flag did not flap. It only moved when the two astronauts touched it and rammed it into the ground. On Earth, the atmosphere quickly slows down such light oscillations. But on the moon — without atmosphere — the oscillations keep going for much longer. In addition, a cross strut was braced in the flag to give the impression it was blowing. 2. No stars in the photos Conspiracy theorists say: On the moon pictures, no stars are to be seen. So they were created in a studio. Science says: It s true that on the moon — without an atmosphere to disturb things — we have a fantastic view of the starry cosmos. But when the astronauts were on the moon, it was always daytime. One explanation is that the moon s surface, the lander and the astronauts were so brightly illuminated by the sun that the weak light of the stars was not to be seen. 3. The photos were too perfect Conspiracy theorists say: The Hasselblad cameras carried by the astronauts at chest height had no viewfinder. How could the astronauts take so many perfect photos with them? Science says: Not all pictures were perfect. There are numerous blurred images in NASA s archives. Only the most beautiful ones have been published. In addition, the astronauts had time to practice with the Hasselblad cameras on Earth. A special wide-angle lens simplified focusing and allowed larger image sections. 4. The shadows run diagonally Conspiracy theorists say: Some photos show shadows that do not run in parallel to each other. With the sun as the only light source, however, all shadows should run in parallel. But they don t. That s why spotlights must have been involved. Science says: Parallelism is always a matter of perspective. Parallel lines on a three-dimensional surface always appear as if they are converging if they are imaged two-dimensionally. Think of railway tracks. They seem to converge towards the horizon, although they are always guaranteed to be parallel. This is true on earth and also on the moon. Not enough yet? There are other points that moon landing deniers make about dust, radiation or shadows. But there is no reliable evidence to suggest a moon landing conspiracy. So the bottom line is: The moon landings took place, and not even the Soviets questioned it back then. And that meant something in the Cold War era. Also, a total of about 400,000 people worked on the Apollo missions. So there were enough witnesses, and one of them would have mentioned something at some point.

Fifty years after a mighty rocket set off from Florida carrying the first humans to the Moon, a veteran of the Apollo 11 crew returned to its fabled launch pad Tuesday to commemorate “one giant leap” that became a defining moment in human history. “We crew felt the weight of the world on our shoulders, we knew that everyone would be looking at us, friend or foe,” command module pilot Michael Collins said from the Kennedy Space Center. He and lunar module pilot Buzz Aldrin are the two surviving members from the mission that would change the way humanity saw its place in the universe. Their commander Neil Armstrong, the first man on the Moon, died in 2012 aged 82. The spacecraft took four days to reach the Moon, before the module known as the “Eagle” — whence the iconic phrase “the Eagle has landed” — touched the lunar surface on July 20, 1969. Armstrong emerged a few hours later, descending to the foot of the ladder, as he uttered the immortal line: “That s one small step for man; one giant leap for mankind.” Collins remained in lunar orbit in the command module Columbia, their only means of returning to Earth. “I always think of a flight to the Moon as being a long and fragile daisy chain of events,” the 88-year-old said at launch pad 39A, at the first of many events planned across the week. These include the return of Armstrong s suit to the Air and Space Museum in Washington after more than a decade of restoration work. The Washington Monument will be lit up between July 16 and 18 with a life-size, 363-foot (111-meter) projection of the colossal Saturn V rocket built by ex-Nazi Wernher Von Braun. Collins described how the mission was broken into discrete goals such as breaking free of the Earth s gravity or slowing down for lunar orbit. “The flight was a question of being under tension, worrying about what s coming next. What do I have to do now to keep this daisy chain intact?” Unlike Collins, Aldrin has remained relatively elusive and did not participate at Tuesday s launchpad event. Aging but active on Twitter, and often seen in stars-and-stripes socks or ties, the 89-year-old has faced health scares and family feuds, culminating in a court case over finances, which was settled in March. He is the second of 12 men to have set foot on the Moon, only four of whom are still alive. Coffee and music Collins has been fielding questions for half a century about whether he felt lonely or left out. “I was always asked, wasn t I the loneliest person in the whole lonely history of the whole lonely solar system when I was by myself in that lonely orbit?” he said. “And the answer was, No, I felt fine! “I would enjoy a perfectly enjoyable hot coffee, I had music if I wanted to. Good old Command Module Columbia had every facility that I needed, and it was plenty big and I really enjoyed my time by myself instead of being terribly lonely.” The Apollo 11 crew traveled with white mice that would presumably serve as a warning signal if the crew had been infected by a mysterious space illnesses. “Whether we had a wonderful successful flight or something that was a total disaster for humanity depended on the health of those white mice,” Collins said. After returning to Earth, the astronauts spent weeks in quarantine before embarking on a global tour. Collins said he was later offered command of the Apollo 17 mission, but turned it down to spend more time with his wife and children. First man, best spokesman? Despite being an introvert, Armstrong was the best spokesman among the crew, Collins said, making audiences feel like they had been along for the ride. “He was very intelligent, he had an extremely wide background of knowledge, scientific knowledge, historical knowledge.” No humans have returned to the Moon since 1972, the year of the final Apollo mission. President George H.W. Bush promised to do so in 1989, as did his son president George W. Bush in 2004, while pledging to also march forward to Mars. But they both ran up against a Congress that wasn t inclined to fund the adventures, while the tide of public opinion had also turned since president John F. Kennedy roused the nation to action in the 1960s. President Donald Trump has relaunched the race to re-conquer the Moon — this time with the first woman — and to journey onwards to Mars. But the deadlines (2024 and 2033 respectively) appear unrealistic and have caused turbulence within the space agency. Last week, NASA administrator Jim Bridenstine fired his head of human space exploration, likely due to disagreements over the Moon ultimatum. Separately, celebrations were held in Huntsville, Alabama, the birthplace of the Saturn V. The giant rocket was developed by von Braun, who came to the United States at the end of World War II with his team of ex-Nazi engineers and scientists. Under a giant Saturn V replica, 900 people dined with former astronauts and von Braun s children. Image: AFP / Brendan Smialowski A projection of a Saturn V rocket on the Washington Monument on the National Mall to commemorate the 50th anniversary of NASA s Apollo 11 mission to the moon

REHOVOT, Israel (Reuters) – Diners in some upmarket restaurants will soon be able to tuck into laboratory-grown steak, thanks to an Israeli startup that seeks to tap into consumer concerns about health, the environment and animal welfare. While lab-grown hamburgers and chicken are already in development around the world, Israel s Aleph Farms claims to be the first company to have developed steak in a laboratory and is in talks with some high-end restaurants in the United States, Europe and Asia to have it on the market in 2021. It plans initially to offer minute steak developed from a small number of cells taken from a cow, avoiding the need to slaughter the animal in the process or use antibiotics which can be harmful to meat eaters. Aleph Farms hopes to have its product on a limited number of restaurant menus from 2021 in a trial phase, aiming for an official launch in 2023, first in restaurants and then in stores. Its next product will be a thick steak with “the properties that we like and we all know,” said Neta Lavon, vice president for research and development. A serving of its minute steak – a thin slice of meat that cooks very fast – currently costs around $50 but Aleph Farms says it hopes to bring that down by 2021 to only a slight premium to current prices of steak offered in restaurants. Eventually it aims for mass production, bringing the price down further and making its steaks viable for sale in lower-priced steak houses. Didier Toubia, co-founder and CEO of Aleph Farms, said the company has ambitions to be one of the world s top three meat producers within 20 years, challenging market leaders like Tyson Foods, which has invested in another Israeli start-up developing cultured meat, Future Meat Technologies. Toubia, however, did not give a revenue target for its product. He set up the company in 2017 in partnership with Technion – the Israel Institute of Technology and foodmaker Strauss Group s incubator The Kitchen. In May it raised $12 million from investors including Cargill [CARG.UL], and has now raised $14 million to date. Demand for traditional meat substitutes is growing and analysts estimate the U.S. plant-based meat market, for example, could be worth $100 billion by 2035. The number of start-ups producing laboratory-developed meat has risen from four at the end of 2016 to more than two dozen by last year, according to market researcher the Good Food Institute. Dutch start-up Mosa Meat projects the cost of producing a hamburger will be about 9 euros ($10) once production scales up.

Nie Feng used to toss his rubbish outside his Shanghai flat without a thought while rushing to work, but saving China from a garbage crisis now requires him to consult a complex diagram each morning. On July 1, Shanghai launched China s most ambitious garbage separation and recycling programme ever, as the country confronts a rising tide of trash created by increasing consumption. But the programme is the talk of China s biggest city for other reasons as well: confusion over rules and fines for infractions, and thousands of volunteers inspecting citizens private garbage each day. Nie examines a wall-sized diagram saying fish and pork bones must be separated from each other, and from the plastic bag he carries them in. “It s for the good of our homeland, but we keep making mistakes,” said Nie, a trading company staffer, laughing as he struggled to separate the bag s contents into various bins. “We have to get this right before the fines really start.” Shanghai is piloting a programme set for eventual nationwide adoption in what would likely be the world s largest waste separation and recycling scheme — and it is desperately needed. With its 1.4 billion consumers, China is becoming swamped by trash. Every day, Shanghai s 25 million people alone produce around 26,000 tonnes –- equal in weight to the Statue of Liberty. The issue is straining municipal services nationwide and prompting unrest. Growing anger Last week authorities in the central city of Wuhan sent riot police to quell protests by thousands of citizens against construction of a waste incinerator. China is spending billions of dollars on waste-to-energy incineration plants across the country, but repeated protests have flared over fears they will emit toxins. Wuhan has shelved its plan, for now. China produced just 30 million tonnes of trash in 1980, but that soared to 210 million in 2017, according to World Bank figures. That is still less than the world s trash titan, the United States, which produced 258 million tonnes. But China is gaining fast and the World Bank predicts Chinese garbage could reach a staggering 500 million tonnes annually by 2030. Several factors are blamed, including rapid growth and the Communist Party s ongoing push to develop a domestic consumer economy to lessen reliance on the outside world. Led by the likes of Alibaba, Chinese e-commerce has exploded, producing billions of parcel deliveries annually with their associated packaging. The government indicated its alarm last year by banning certain imports of foreign waste that it used to accept for years for recycling, a move that has up-ended global garbage flows. “We need a really big push and I think the government realised that. There is really a sense of urgency,” said Alizee Buysschaert, founder and director of environmental consultancy Zero Waste Shanghai. With a phased national roll-out set to gain pace next year, Shanghai s experience has become one of the most talked-about topics in the country, though sometimes for the wrong reasons. Critics have taken aim at seemingly contradictory sorting guidelines and the limited daily hours during which dumping is allowed, which causes problems for those with irregular schedules. Chinese media reports also have indicated that a lot of garbage was still entering bins unsorted. Government officials declined AFP interview requests. So much rubbish Previous city-level sorting schemes have fizzled, but Buysschaert sees a difference this time. “The big shift is that it is much more centralized and it s incentivized now. That s really a game-changer because now everyone is talking about it and everyone is involved and on their toes,” she said. Authorities say strict sorting is crucial, making it far easier to separately process recycled items, hazardous waste, compost and biomass. But tempers have flared. Chinese media said a 33-year-old woman was detained last week for choking a volunteer sorting inspector unconscious during a rules dispute. Fines range from 200 yuan ($29) for household infractions to 50,000 yuan for businesses, though authorities are going easy on imposing them for now. The scheme is a business opportunity for others, with start-ups offering app-based garbage collection and sorting services. True to form, the Communist Party is pushing obeisance via a public campaign larded with red banners emblazoned with revolutionary exhortations such as “storm the citadel of trash sorting.” “We weren t used to it at first. It was really inconvenient,” said 67-year-old pensioner Zhou Shenzhu. But she has been won over by a noticeable reduction in flies and odor since sorting started, she says. “The propaganda on television says we face great harm if we don t separate.” “Shanghai has lots of people, and so much rubbish. So much!” Image: AFP / HECTOR RETAMAL Every day, Shanghai produces around 26,000 tonnes of garbage –- equal in weight to the Statue of Liberty

Lausanne- “Designing a smoke-free future” is the goal of Philip Morris International (PMI), said the company s Manager Market Campaigns & Initiatives, Anna Bodi, during a presentation for a group of journalists, Daily News Egypt included, at the company s Research and Development (R&D) centre in Switzerland. PMI aims to offer smoke-free alternatives that have the potential to reduce the risk of developing smoking-related diseases, as compared with continued smoking, Bodi added, explaining that this is why PMI decided to create an R&D centre in 2009. “We work on developing products that are satisfying to current adult smokers, so they can fully switch.”

Popularized by Disney’s ‘Finding Nemo’, the common clownfish may not see its eggs hatch if they are exposed to artificial light at night, researchers reported on Wednesday. Clownfish, and likely other coral reef fish species living in areas exposed to light pollution, might not be able to produce viable offspring, Emily Fobert of Flinders University in Australia told AFP. A wide range of animals and plants across the globe are exposed to light pollution, but scientists have only begun to study its impact on their development and behaviour. An estimated 23 percent of land surface — excluding the poles — is today exposed to so-called artificial light at night (ALAN). The correct functioning of most natural systems fundamentally relies on light days and dark nights, Fobert said. But the presence of ALAN can mask these natural light rhythms, and interfere with the behaviour and physiology of individual organisms. It can impact ecological systems as a whole, she added. Most research on light pollution has focused on terrestrial wildlife. But marine species are exposed too: 22 percent of the world’s coastal regions experience some degree of artificial illumination, Fobert said. Because it typically travels great distances in its larval phase just after hatching, the clownfish was a good subject for experiments testing the impact of light pollution. Baby clownfish don’t stay in the anemone where they were born — they can disperse and find a new home, ten to hundreds of kilometres away from their parents, Fobert explained. Visible to predators Once they choose a habitat, they remain for life. If they settle to an area that is exposed to light pollution, they most likely won’t be able to move away, she said. Clownfish eggs are often attached to the side of shallow-water rocks, which means — in an area, say, near a harbor with LED lights that penetrate seawater — embryos will be constantly exposed as they develop. To mimic such conditions in the laboratory, researchers monitored 10 breeding pairs of clownfish in separate tanks during a breeding cycle. Five pairs — the control fish — were exposed to light days and dark nights, much as they would in their natural habitat. The other five pairs were exposed to dim, overhead LED lighting at night, duplicating conditions found near coral reefs adjacent to human habitation. Both groups spawned as they would in nature, and had normal rates of fertilization. But the eggs in the ALAN tanks had a zero percent hatch rate. The results of our study suggest that ‘darkness’ is used as an environmental cue to trigger hatching at the right time, the scientists said in a statement. Under the constant glare of artificial light at night, hatching is not initiated . Even if they are not directly exposed to light when hatching, moving from their tiny eggs into the ocean environment under a spotlight is dangerous for another reason. Baby fish are extremely small and vulnerable, so it’s believed hatching after dark — when they are less visible to predators — improves their chance of survival, Fobert said. Image: AFP/File / GABRIEL BOUYS Popularised by Disney’s ‘Finding Nemo’, the common clownfish may not see its eggs hatch if they are exposed to artificial light at night

US space agency NASA said Thursday its new mission would explore Titan, Saturn s largest moon, using a drone lander called Dragonfly. The crewless craft with four propellers is slated to launch in 2026 and reach its destination in 2034. "What really excites me about this mission is that Titan has all the ingredients needed for life," said Lori Glaze, director of NASA s planetary science division.

A German court on Tuesday fined Facebook two million euros for not being transparent enough over the action it is taking to curb online hate speech. Under a new regulation that came in force on January 1, 2018, companies like Twitter and Facebook have 24 hours to remove posts that openly violate German law after they are flagged by users.

Vaccines against human papillomavirus (HPV) could wipe out cervical cancer within decades in wealthy nations, scientists say, after a major study showed a stark reduction in cancer-causing infections. Rates of genital and anal warts, precancerous lesions and infections have dramatically declined among young people since the implementation of HPV vaccination programs in high-income countries like Germany, the UK and Australia.

Due to the increasing developments of the internet, maintaining personal data has become very difficult. Hence, under the state s efforts to prevent illegal spreading of personal data over the internet, the country will apply data protection regulation in Egyptian Law. The data protection regulations were finally approved by parliament on Monday, June 17. The regulations are to protect data and privacy for all Egyptian citizens and European Union citizens in Egypt.

Children at German schools and kindergartens have been asked to think of possible names for an exoplanet and its star in the Camelopardis (Giraffe) constellation as part of celebrations for the 100th anniversary of the International Astronomical Union. A jury will choose five suggestions from the children and amateur astronomy groups, and these proposals will then be voted on from October 10 to November 10 in an online poll in which everyone in Germany can participate.

The e-commerce market is expected to grow rapidly, on the back of Egypt s number of online users, giving the country the top rank in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region, in terms of users, according to Admitad, MENA s most recent report. The report indicates that that the growth of e-commerce in Egypt will be impressive, especially that by 2030 more than 4,000 post offices are expected to open, and internet networks (5G) will be upgraded.

Social media giant Facebook Inc announced on Tuesday plans to launch a new cryptocurrency called Libra, scheduled for launch next year alongside the underlying blockchain-based network that will support it. Unlike Bitcoin – which is a speculative asset – Libra would be what is called a stable coin, a cryptocurrency that is backed by assets and securities, to avoid price fluctuations, in a bid that Libra would trade in the future on a global scale much like the United States dollar.

Due to the increasing developments of the internet, maintaining personal data has become very difficult. Hence, under the state s efforts to prevent illegal spreading of personal data over the internet, the country will apply data protection regulation in Egyptian Law. The data protection regulations were finally approved by parliament on Monday, June 17. The regulations are to protect data and privacy for all Egyptian citizens and European Union citizens in Egypt.

Lino Cattaruzzi, managing director of Google business operations in the Middle East and North Africa, said the improved investment atmosphere in Egypt and newly-adopted legislative measures encourages Google to reopen its office in Egypt. Cattaruzzi s statements came during a meeting with Minister of Investment Sahar Nasr, according to a statement issued by the ministry Sunday.

German high school student Isabel Lautesbach, 18, is just one of two girls in her 10-person chemistry class for students interested in STEM (Science, technology, engineering, and mathematics) careers ­— a ratio similar, she says, to her math and physics classes. Lautesbach s class average is only mildly smaller than the worldwide gender ratio in STEM fields. Women make up less than 30% of the world s scientific researchers, according to UNESCO data. They are less likely to hold senior authorship positions, make up small minorities of senior staff positions at universities and get paid less than their male counterparts, it reads, following decades of research pointing to a "gender gap" in STEM fields where women are given less representation.