Science News Roundup: Last woolly mammoth plagued by genetic defects and Solar Probe to launch on mission to map sun's poles

Following is a summary of current science news briefs.

The bitter end: Last woolly mammoths plagued by genetic defects

The world's last woolly mammoths, sequestered on an Arctic Ocean island outpost, suffered from serious genetic defects caused by generations of inbreeding that may have hampered traits such as sense of smell and male fertility in the doomed population. Scientists said on Friday that the genome of one of the last mammoths from Wrangel Island off Siberia's coast showed that the population was riddled with deleterious mutations. They resurrected genes from this mammoth in the laboratory to find clues about the demise of this illustrious Ice Age species.

Solar Probe set to launch on mission to map sun's poles

NASA and the European Space Agency are gearing up to send a new probe toward the sun to take a unique look at its blazing poles, an unprecedented view expected to help researchers grasp how the star's vast bubble of energy affects Earth and humans in space. The Solar Orbiter is due launch to space atop an Atlas 5 rocket from Cape Canaveral, Florida on Sunday at 11:03 p.m. ET (0403 GMT Monday), deploying an array of solar panels and antennas before setting off on its 10-year voyage to the sun.