These 15 Photos Show The News You Might Have Missed This Week
A meatball made from flesh cultivated using the DNA of an extinct woolly mammoth is presented at NEMO Science Museum in Amsterdam, on March 28, 2023.
On Tuesday, an oversize meatball made partly from the DNA of an extinct woolly mammoth was displayed at the NEMO Science Museum in Amsterdam. The meatball, which was not an early April Fools’ joke, was created using cultivated flesh in a lab. Why? Vow, an Australian cultured meat company, wanted to educate people on alternatives that are more sustainable than real meat. The woolly mammoth was specifically chosen because its extinction is thought by scientists to have been caused by climate change.
“We wanted to create something that was totally different from anything you can get now,” Tim Noakesmith, Vow’s founder, told Reuters. In something that’s like a scene from Jurassic Park, the meatball’s end result used sheep cells that were altered with one woolly mammoth gene. African elephant DNA filled in any gaps in the DNA sequence. The company stressed that no animals were killed to create the meatball, and it should be noted that this meatball is currently not for consumption.
“Its protein is literally 4,000 years old. We haven’t seen it in a very long time. That means we want to put it through rigorous tests, something that we would do with any product we bring to the market,” Noakesmith said.
Tragedy in Nashville
On March 27, three students and three adults were killed by a 28-year-old shooter at the Covenant School, a private Christian school in Nashville. “Our community is heartbroken,” the Covenant School said in a statement Tuesday. “We are grieving tremendous loss and are in shock coming out of the terror that shattered our school and church.”
A child weeps while on the bus leaving the Covenant School following a mass shooting at the school in Nashville on March 27, 2023.
Students from the nearby Harpeth Hall School pray while visiting a memorial at the entrance of the Covenant School in Nashville, March 29, 2023.
chAI
With AI being in the news for everything from impersonating Kendrick Lamar to a fabricated image of Pope Francis in a white puffer jacket, the technology can actually have some handy practical applications. In China, a solar-powered, AI-operated robot has been used to harvest tea leaves. Using two robotic arms, the machine searches for tea buds and uses clippers and a suction attachment to collect the tea leaves. AI enables it to identify leaves that are ready for picking.
“The technology is called deep learning in artificial intelligence. We need to first take many photos to tell the machine which targets it can pick, and when the photos are enough, the machine will learn by itself. The technology is also constantly improving,” said one of the robot’s developers.
A tea-harvesting robot powered by AI picks tea leaves at a Longjing tea garden in Hangzhou, Zhejiang province, in China, March 28, 2023.
The solar-powered robot uses AI technology to gather tea sprouts with automatic optical identification.
More from around the world
At least 26 people were killed earlier this week by a tornado in Mississippi, which cut power and destroyed buildings. It also brought golf ball–sized hail and 170 mph winds. The town of Rolling Fork, Mississippi, was basically leveled, with surreal images of the disaster being shared on social media. President Joe Biden toured the ravaged area on March 31, saying the federal government is “not leaving” until the area is stable.
March 30 marked Opening Day for the MLB, and in the Bronx, the Yankees crushed the San Francisco Giants 5–0. Before the game, the Yankees released a photo of rookie shortstop Anthony Volpe, who was making his major league debut, greeting his team with a huge grin.
A pickup truck rests on top of debris from Chuck's Dairy Cafe in Rolling Fork, Mississippi, on March 25, 2023.
Anthony Volpe of the New York Yankees is introduced before their game against the San Francisco Giants on Opening Day at Yankee Stadium, March 30, 2023.
A tower of Abu Dhabi Plaza sticks out of a blanket of thick fog in Astana, Kazakhstan, March 24, 2023.
Gold medallists Madison Chock and Evan Bates of the US with Japan's Shoma Uno, Kaori Sakamoto, Riku Miura, and Ryuichi Kihara at the World Figure Skating Championships at Saitama Super Arena, Saitama, Japan, on March 26, 2023.
Muslims during an evening prayer after breaking the fast during the holy month of Ramadan in Dhaka, Bangladesh, on March 27, 2023.
A protester caught in a cloud of tear gas during a mass rally called by the opposition leader Raila Odinga over the high cost of living in Nairobi, Kenya, on March 27, 2023.
A girl plays with pigeons at Piazza del Duomo in Milan, on March 29, 2023.
A wildfire at Khao Laem National Park in western Thailand, on March 29, 2023
A mascot from the 19th Asian Games Hangzhou 2022 visits a factory that produces silk scarves themed for the event in Hangzhou, Zhejiang province, in China, on March 30, 2023.
Sam Bankman-Fried, the former CEO of the bankrupt cryptocurrency exchange FTX who now faces fraud charges over its collapse, outside federal court in New York City, on March 30, 2023
