DNA Science Resurrects Extinct Species

 

Hello sunshine. Welcome to CNN 10. I'm CoyWire. It's Thursday April 10th. Happy Friday Eve and happy National Siblings Day

If you're in the US or Canada let your brother or sister know you love them today no matter how annoying they might be sometimes

Random thought Thursday

Why don't we call the toothbrush a teethbrush and why do doctors call what they do practice? Shouldn't they be pretty darn good at what they do by now all right we've got lots of news to get to and only 10 minutes to do it

So let's get to it. We begin today with an update on the sweeping tariffs that President Trump's administration has placed on trading partners around the world. As a reminder.

Tariffs are simply a tax placed on goods from other countries. They've been around for centuries and are often used to protect domestic industries and to generate revenue.

Now after last week's announcement President Trump says he is ordering a 90-day pause on all reciprocal tariffs. The exception is China who will actually see tariffs increased to 125%

These were announced in response to Chinese leaders declaring 84% retaliatory tariffs on US goods. US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said Trump's decision to pause these tariffs rewarded nations who chose not to retaliate amid a brewing trade war and will allow time to negotiate new trade agreements.

But the economic uncertainty resulting from the tariff back and forth are causing ripple effects on the wider global economy with some investors predicting a bear market which is a period where a major stock index like the NASDAQ or Dow Jones falls 20% or more from a recent high.

 

bear market【股】熊市

We've asked our Matt Egan to walk us through what happens during a bear market and explain how they've played out historically on Wall Street.

 

Markets are melting down and everyone is talking about a bear market

The NASDAQ is in a bear market. Now nearing a bear market. On pace for a bear market but what exactly is it?A bear market is a 20% drop from a recent high.

These steep market declines typically signal immense fear among investors about the health of the economy. Since 1929 there have been 18 bear markets for the S&P 500. The average drop about 37%

Some bear markets were less severe some more. Some of them like in 1990 were caused by war. Others were fueled by the bursting of asset bubbles like in 2000. The internet mania was a giant bubble. Toxic mortgages were to blame for the 2008 meltdown.

 

toxic mortgage 毒房貸（指最初透過合法交易產生，後來變得不值錢的債務，如引發全球金融危機的美國次級房貸）

 

A breathtaking plunge for stock markets. The Dow drops by 800 points. And a deadly virus crashed markets in 2020. This time, it’s self-inflicted.

 

self-inflicted [͵sɛlfɪnˋflɪktɪd] adj. 自己造成的；加于自身的

 

President Trump's trade war has freaked out investors around the world causing enormous losses in rapid fashion

 

fashion [ˋfæʃən] n. 方式

For now investors are selling first and they're asking questions later.

 

We go now to Britain's second largest city Birmingham which is facing a growing mess of a problem which includes rats as big as cats. That's what some residents are saying

Mountains of garbage bags they're piling up on the streets of Birmingham as garbage collectors are on strike over a pay dispute with the city council.

 

CNN's Anna Cooban went out to find out more about what has become this growing health problem because of rotting garbage and rat infestations

 

infestation [ɪnfɛsˋteʃən]  n. 大批出没；侵扰；骚扰

Birmingham is Britain's second biggest city home to over a million people. It was an engine of the country's industrial revolution during the 17 and 1800s. And you may know it as the setting of that little BBC series Peaky Blinders. Right now it's in the news for something else.

Trash! Mountains upon mountains of garbage bags are piling up outside people's homes and businesses because garbage collectors are on strike. The strike is over changes the city government wants to make to garbage workers pay and there is no end in sight

In some parts of the city people haven't had their garbage collected in weeks and that's posing a health hazard because with trash comes rats. Will Timms has been a pest controller here for 12 years and says he's never seen anything quite like this before.

My calls have gone up 50% with rodents. What kind of problems are people calling you up about? Rats gaining access to cars uh gaining access to the kitchens, air vents, getting underneath the beds. I've had people crying down the phone saying "I've got a rat. Can you come out now ?"

I caught one last week and it was over 22 inches in length from tip to tail and it wasn't fully grown. Look at this. See you can smell it. Look where it is

Oh right by a pharmacy. Right by a pharmacy. And there's a school there. How does it make you feel that all of the attention on Birmingham right now is about the bin strike? Birmingham's always in the news but some are bad at the moment and it just really isn't like that

Pop quiz hot shot

 

A NASA engineer is credited with inventing what popular toy ?

Slinky

Silly Putty

Super Soaker

Game Boy

 

If you said Super Soaker you are super smart

Former NASA scientist Dr Lonnie Johnson was working on a new idea for a heat pump.

He was inspired by a shooting jet of water leading to the invention of that popular summer toy

Now to news out of Washington DC where an unconventional pick to be the head of NASA faced questions from members of a Senate committee. President Trump nominated a billionaire CEO named Jared Isaacman to head the space agency

He's actually been to space twice paying to go aboard private SpaceX capsules including the world's first all civilian extended space flight. During the hearing Isaacman faced wide-ranging questions about how NASA's priorities might change under his leadership

And Isaacman was specifically asked how he would handle NASA's mission to focus on the moon versus interest in exploring Mars.

 

We don't have to make a binary decision of moon versus Mars or moon has to come first verse Mars. I think we could be paralleling these efforts and doing the near impossible which is exactly why the American uh taxpayers funded NASA in the first place.

 

binary [ˋbaɪnərɪ] adj. 由二部分构成的

parallel [ˋpærə͵lɛl] v. 與……相似，比得上

NASA's current Artemis program aims to return astronauts to the lunar surface and eventually create a permanent human settlement on the moon.

 

Our Jackie Wattles has more about Isaacman and what his nomination could mean for the future of space travel.

Welcome everybody to Crew Dragon Resilience. This tech billionaire could be the next head of NASA. Jared Isaacman, the CEO of tech payment company Shift4 has commanded and funded two private missions to space through SpaceX.

He's an unorthodox pick for an agency that is typically led by scientists, engineers, academics or public servants. So what does the choice say about where the agency may head under Trump here are some possibilities
 

unorthodox [ʌnˋɔrθə͵dɑks] adj. 非正统的

The first big question. Will NASA prioritize the moon or Mars?

 

A lot of NASA's focus since Trump's first administration has been on the Artemis moon program whose goals are to return astronauts to the lunar surface for the first time in more than 50 years.

The program has faced several setbacks and delays. And now this Trump administration which has seen substantial new support from SpaceX CEO Elon Musk may have its sight set elsewhere.

 

We will pursue our manifest destiny into the stars, launching American astronauts to plant the stars and stripes on the planet Mars.

 

manifest destiny 昭昭天命

stars and stripes 星条旗,美国国旗

 

Mars has been a longtime focus of Musk and Isaacman is his close ally. Some may say too close. His company, Shift4 payments, invested almost $30 million in SpaceX a few years ago

So will more NASA resources shift to SpaceX and by extension toward a Mars mission. NASA already relies heavily on commercial partnerships. For example the agency invests in both SpaceX and Jeff Bezos's company Blue Origin to develop human lunar landers, something Isaac men has criticized as a waste of money

Some of that funding he says could be put towards other scientific programs. Perhaps NASA's efforts to return a rock sample from Mars that may reveal if life existed there. An observatory to hunt for habitable worlds or other space-based telescopes

A lot remains unknown as 2025 kicks off with new leadership. And what direction the US takes could have a major impact on this modern space race.

 

Today's story getting a 10 out of 10

Three prehistoric dire wolves brought back from extinction. Dallas based company Colossal Biosciences revealed they created a hybrid species of wolf that died out thousands of years ago

 

dire wolf 恐狼

 

Howl, you might ask well the company says it took DNA from a 13000-year-old direwolf tooth and a 72000 year-old skull then cloned and altered the genes of a greywolf, the direwolf's closest living relative

That's a lot to unpack. The three pups are a hybrid species that appear to be similar to the extinct wolf.

 

unpack [ʌnˋpæk] v.【计算机】解压缩（档案）

 

The company says two male dire wolf pups were born last October and a female pup was born this January. That's doggone awesome and pretty cute

 

doggone [ˋdɔgɔn] adv. 极端地；非常地; damn

Colossal has also been working toward resurrecting other extinct species like the Mammoth, the Dodo and the Tasmanian tiger. Not sure how I feel about all this, if Jurassic and me. What say you?

 

resurrect [͵rɛzəˋrɛkt] v. 使复活；使复苏

All right it's time now for the best part of the show You

This shout out goes to Sam Barlow High School. I hear those Bruins up there have a good thing brewing in Gresham, Oregon. Rise up.

 

bruin [ˋbruɪn] n.（童话故事中的）棕熊；熊先生

 

And to Mr Sides and all of our friends at Harrington Middle School in Mount Laurel, New Jersey. Thank you for making us part of your day. I see you Gia

Make it an awesome one everyone. Get your minds right and shine bright. I'm CoyWire. We'll see you right back here tomorrow on

 

CNN 10