In a major step toward creating artificial life, U.S. researchers have developed a living organism that incorporates both natural and artificial DNA and is capable of creating entirely new, synthetic proteins. The work, published in the journal Nature, brings scientists closer to the development of designer proteins made to order in a laboratory. Previous work by Floyd Romesberg, a chemical biologist at the Scripps Research Institute in La Jolla, California, showed that it was possible to expand the genetic alphabet of natural DNA beyond its current four letters: adenine(A), cytosine(C), guanine (G) and thymine(T). In 2014, Romesberg and colleagues created a strain of E. coli bacteria that contained two unnatural letters, X and Y. In the latest work, Romesberg’s team has shown that this partially synthetic form of E. coli can take instructions from this hybrid genetic alphabet to make new proteins. “This is the first time ever a cell …

Burning bricks made of dry chili, dung and water could stop endangered elephants raiding crops in Africa and Asia, reducing conflicts with farmers trying to secure harvests to feed their families, experts said Wednesday. Resin from crushed dry chilies irritates elephants’ trunks, acting as a repellent, said a study in northern Botswana, published in the journal Oryx. “This is an excellent non-lethal and low-cost opportunity for local farmers to keep elephants away from their crops,” Rocio Pozo, a researcher at the University of Oxford, said in a statement. The findings could help to protect elephants, whose population in Africa has plummeted in the last decade due to ivory poaching. Lines of chilies could be used to separate farms from elephant paths, teaching the animals which routes were safe to use, said Anna Songhurst, director of the Botswana-based Ecoexist and co-author of the study. Botswana has the largest population of African …

The largest genetic study of mosquitoes has found their ability to resist insecticides is evolving rapidly and spreading across Africa, putting millions of people at higher risk of contracting malaria. British scientists who led the work said mosquitoes’ growing resistance to control tools such as insecticide-treated bed nets and insecticide spraying, which have helped cut malaria cases since 2000, now threatens “to derail malaria control” in Africa. “Our study highlights the severe challenges facing public efforts to control mosquitoes and to manage and limit insecticide resistance,” said Martin Donnelly of the Liverpool School of Tropical Medicine, who worked on the study with a team from Britain’s Wellcome Trust Sanger Institute. Latest World Health Organization (WHO) data show that 216 million people were infected last year with the malaria parasite, which is transmitted by blood-sucking Anopheles mosquitoes. The disease killed 445,000 people in 2016, the majority of them children in sub-Saharan …

Facebook is giving disaster-relief organizations such as the Red Cross access to data on what users need and where they are as part of an expansion of tools available for relief and charitable giving. While Facebook users can already see individual pleas and offers for help during a crisis, relief groups will get a broader set of data similar to what Facebook sees. That includes real-time maps showing where people need help. Facebook is also expanding its fundraising tools beyond the U.S. and eliminating the fees it had been charging for people using its service to raise money for various causes. The company announced the new features Wednesday during its Social Good Forum in New York, a gathering for nonprofits and others using the site.   …

A coalition of nearly 40 advocacy groups said Wednesday they’re concerned about the Trump administration’s commitment to the global fight against AIDS so they’re urging senior members of Congress to make sure money for key prevention programs isn’t cut back. The groups wrote in a letter sent to Wednesday to congressional leaders that they have “profound concern” about the direction the Trump administration appears to be taking in the response to AIDS. “We are writing to sound the alarm,” said the letter, delivered just ahead of World AIDS Day on Friday. In a news release accompanying the letter, the groups said the Trump administration had called for an $800 million cut in the 2018 budget from efforts to combat HIV and AIDS. Those proposed cuts led the State Department to develop a new strategy for a program known as the President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief, or PEPFAR. While the …

The U.S. Drug Enforcement Agency is targeting opioid abuse in Appalachia by establishing a new field office in Kentucky to oversee a region ravaged by overdose deaths. Acting DEA Administrator Robert Patterson says the new Louisville field office will have a special agent in charge to oversee investigations in Kentucky, Tennessee and West Virginia. The agency says the new office will enhance efforts in the Appalachian mountain region and streamline drug trafficking investigations under a single office. D. Christopher Evans, an associate agent in charge in the DEA’s Detroit field office, will lead the new Louisville office. Overdose deaths were 65 percent higher among residents in Appalachia than in the rest of the country in 2015, a recent Appalachian Regional Commission study found. …

After decades of legal challenges and political battles that have pitted states against the federal government, U.S. wildlife managers on Wednesday finally adopted a plan to guide the recovery of a wolf that once roamed parts of the American Southwest and northern Mexico.   The plan sets a goal of having an average of 320 Mexican gray wolves in the wild over an eight-year period before the predator can shed its status as an endangered species. In each of the last three years, the population would have to exceed the average to ensure the species doesn’t backslide.   Officials estimate recovery could take another two decades and cost nearly $180 million.   The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service considered tens of thousands of public comments – from state lawmakers and business groups to independent scientists and environmentalists – as it worked to meet a court-ordered deadline to craft the recovery …

In a square in a poor eastern Tehran neighborhood known for its drug addicts and dealers, psychologist Atefeh Azimi draws another drop of blood from a worried passer-by’s finger.   She works on a nearby bench, where a sign next to her in English and in Farsi urges the public to receive free voluntary counseling and HIV testing.   But her worries, as well as those of her aid group called Reviving Values, are not confined these days just to those sharing needles to inject heroin that comes across the border from Afghanistan’s thriving opium trade.   Iran has seen a surge in the number of HIV infections spread by sex, especially among its youth. What’s more, authorities say many have no idea that they are infected.   That has led to growing uncomfortable questions in the Islamic Republic, where sex outside of marriage is prohibited and those who practice …

Many countries are moving toward eliminating malaria, among them Madagascar, Senegal and Zimbabwe. But a World Health Organization report warns that in other areas, progress has stalled. Malaria cases increased by more than 20 percent from 2015 to 2016 in eight African countries — including Rwanda, Nigeria and the Democratic Republic of Congo. At the same time, funding for malaria prevention and treatment has leveled off, reaching $2.7 billion in 2016, less than half of the 2020 target. “That amount of funding internationally has plateaued; possibly it has reached the realistic maximum now,” said David Conway, a professor from the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine. “And it has always been assumed, indeed it has been important that countries themselves should commit to funding malaria control. And I think the big opportunity now is for those countries to step up and realize that this is good value.” Overall, Africa …

For fans of the yeti, newly published genetic research on purported specimens of the legendary apelike beast said to dwell in the Himalayan region may be too much to bear — literally. Scientists said on Tuesday that genetic analysis of nine bone, tooth, skin, hair and fecal samples from museum and private collections attributed to the yeti, also called the Abominable Snowman, found that eight came from Asian black bears, Himalayan brown bears or Tibetan brown bears and one came from a dog. “This strongly suggests that the yeti legend has a root in biological facts and that it has to do with bears that are living in the region today,” said biologist Charlotte Lindqvist of the University at Buffalo in New York and Nanyang Technological University, Singapore, who led the study published in the scientific journal Proceedings of the Royal Society B. Lindqvist called the study the most rigorous …

Scientists say they’ve unearthed fossil remains of a sea cow that lived in the shallow waters off Southern California’s Channel Islands some 25 million years ago.   The fossil skull and rib cage were discovered this summer on Santa Rosa Island, in the Pacific Ocean about 50 miles northwest of Los Angeles, the National Park Service announced Tuesday.   Scientists say the remains may be from a previously unknown sea cow species but they won’t know for sure until the skull is analyzed by an expert.   Some fossilized remnants of at least from four other sea cows also were found nearby.   Sea cows are torpedo-shaped plant-eaters that graze in shallow waters and can grow up to 13 feet long. The only living species are the dugong and three types of manatee.   Two researchers from the U.S. Geological Survey found the skull and rib cage in a steep …

   A large iceberg broke off the Grey glacier in southern Chile, authorities said on Tuesday, adding that the cause of the rupture was unclear. Chile’s CONAF forestry service shared photos on social media of the enormous block of blue-white ice, which measured 350 meters (1,148 feet) long by 380 meters (1,247 feet) wide, as it floated free in waters of a glacial lagoon near the southern tip of the South American continent. Park officials at Chile’s Torres del Paine National Park, home to the glacier, said such ruptures were rare and had not occurred since the early 1990s. Torres del Paine is one of Chile’s most popular tourist attractions, famous for its mountain views and visited by more than 115,000 tourists annually, according to CONAF. …

Delays in the time between becoming infected with HIV and getting a diagnosis are shortening, helped by efforts to increase testing for the virus that causes AIDS, U.S. health officials said. The report, released Tuesday by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, found that 50 percent of the 39,720 people diagnosed with HIV in 2015 had been infected for at least three years, a seven-month improvement compared with 2011. Nevertheless, 25 percent of people diagnosed with HIV in 2015 were infected for seven years or more before being diagnosed. CDC Director Dr. Brenda Fitzgerald said the report shows the nation is making progress in the fight against HIV, but the gains are uneven, and challenges remain. “Too many people have HIV infections that go undiagnosed for far too long,” Fitzgerald said in a conference call with reporters. Shortening the time between HIV infection and diagnosis is key to prevention. …