Reuters Science News Summary

Following is a summary of current science news briefs. Nuclear, climate threats keep Doomsday Clock close to apocalypse

A renewed nuclear arms race, rising greenhouse gas emissions and the emergence of state-sponsored disinformation campaigns have left the modern world as close to annihilation as it was at the height of the Cold War, atomic scientists said on Thursday. The Doomsday Clock, created by the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists as an indicator of the world's susceptibility to apocalypse, remained at two minutes to midnight for a second year running in what the scientists called a dangerous "new abnormal." Odd duckbilled sea reptile thrived after ancient global calamity

In shallow warm seas about 247 million years ago in what is now China, an oddball marine reptile flourished in the aftermath of Earth's worst mass extinction, possessing a duckbilled snout and unusually small eyes that made it resemble a platypus. Scientists on Thursday described fossils of the three-foot-long (one meter) creature, called Eretmorhipis carrolldongi, that boasted a head that looks too little for its body and weak vision that indicates it relied upon a sense of touch, not sight, to forage in murky water using its cartilaginous bill. China clones gene-edited monkeys for sleep disorder research

Chinese scientists have made clones of a gene-edited macaque to aid research of circadian rhythm disorders that are linked to sleep problems, depression and Alzheimer's disease, the official Xinhua news agency said on Thursday. It was the first time multiple clones had been made from a gene-edited monkey for biomedical research, the agency said. The clones were born at the Institute of Neuroscience at the China Academy of Sciences in Shanghai. Europe's Arianespace takes on SpaceX by cutting Ariane 5 rocket launch price

Europe's Arianespace is discounting the price of satellite launches with its Ariane 5 rockets as it competes against U.S. rival SpaceX for customers before the release of the cheaper Ariane 6 rocket next year, a senior executive said on Wednesday. Arianespace is aiming for the cost of launching the Ariane 6 to fall by around 40 percent versus the Ariane 5 through design changes and higher volume production, bringing its prices more in line with Elon Musk's SpaceX, Arianespace Managing Director and Head of Sales for Asia-Pacific Vivian Quenet said. Root and branch reform: Swedish scientist makes fuel from tree waste

Might tree roots, twigs and branches one day be used to power cars? That's what a Swedish researcher is hoping after developing a pulp byproduct that - on a modest scale - does just that. Chemical engineering scientist Christian Hulteberg, from Lund University, has used the black liquor residue from pulp and paper manufacturing to create a polymer called lignin.