Moment Elon Musk's SpaceX rocket erupts into huge fireball
The incident occurred as the rocket was undergoing preparations for its tenth flight test.
Footage captured the 36-rocket blowing up, leading to an enormous fireball.
SpaceX described the event as a "major anomaly" but confirmed that all personnel were safe and accounted for, with no hazards to nearby communities.
Watch the video in full above.
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Telegraph
an hour ago
- Telegraph
‘Fat jabs' for cats and dogs coming to a vet near you
Weight-loss treatments for pets are being created to help obese animals slim down. Veterinary versions of revolutionary GLP-1 drugs, such as Wegovy and Mounjaro, are being developed and tested by scientists. But while the human medicines are administered by injections once a week, the pet drugs would be delivered via implants. Early stage clinical trials in cats found that small doses of the drug exenatide, which works in a similar way to semaglutide and tirzepatide, is effective at reducing the animals' calorie intake and body weight. A study last year fitted five cats with an experimental subcutaneous implant, known as OKV-119, which released the weight loss chemical into the blood for 84 days. Analysis found four of five cats had a reduction in body mass of at least five per cent. This drug-delivery system trial is now being extended to dogs as part of a partnership between drug companies Okava and Vivani. If the trials are successful, the drugs could be available as early as 2028. 'What owners should expect to see is their pet eating appropriate portions without the previous food obsession – they'll still eat regularly and show interest in meals, just without the excessive begging, scavenging or gulping behaviour,' Michael Klotsman, the Okava chief executive, told The Guardian. He added that the medication should be viewed as an 'additional tool' rather than a first action for overweight dogs. Excess body weight can shorten lives of pets and reduce the quality of their life as well, with increased risk of cancers, arthritis, heart disease and other ailments. Some breeds are more prone to being overweight than others, with labradors among the most fat-prone of dogs. One in four labradors has a genetic fault in the POMC gene, which makes them 25 per cent slower at burning calories. The faulty POMC gene is also seen in two thirds of flat-coated retrievers, data show, and is linked to a heightened risk of obesity and being motivated by food. It is thought that around half of all cats and dogs in the UK are overweight, and scientists advise that owners worried about their pet's weight focus on regular exercise and not overfeeding. Snacks can quickly add up calorie intake and exceed a pet's recommended amount, especially in smaller pets, which need only a small amount of calories a day.
Daily Mail
2 hours ago
- Daily Mail
Scientists discover how to restore eyesight without laser surgery
Scientists are on the verge of developing a less invasive and more affordable, incision-free method to treat vision problems. Chemists in California stumbled upon the idea that vision issues could be addressed chemically, without the need for lasers. Their method could negate the need for LASIK, a quick laser eye surgery that reshapes the clear front part of the eye called the cornea to fix blurry vision, helping people give up glasses or contacts for nearsightedness, farsightedness, and astigmatism. LASIK permanently removes corneal tissue, but the method designed at Occidental College and the University of California, Irvine, chemically molds the cornea. Both fix vision by correcting the cornea's curve so that light focuses precisely on the retina. The team used a tiny electric current to lower the cornea's pH, making it more acidic. This loosened its collagen structure and made it moldable. A platinum lens designed as an ideal shape was placed over the cornea. As the tissue softened, it conformed to the lens's curve. Restoring the pH locked it into place. They tested the power of manipulating pH and fitting the plate in rabbit eyeballs in saline solution. The eyes consistently conformed to the plate, maintaining their shape 12 out of 12 times, and even showed signs of eliminating nearsightedness in two of them. In lab tests, the team used a saline-soaked rabbit eyeball to mimic conditions in real human eyes, and applied their pH-shifting technique. All 12 eyeballs successfully conformed to the desired shape of the template and, in 10 cases, deliberately modeled to mimic nearsightedness, the corneas adjusted to correct vision. Americans often treat vision problems, such as nearsightedness, farsightedness, and astigmatism, without surgery. Roughly 167 million people wear prescription eyeglasses, while 45 million use contact lenses. A healthy eye has a white outer part (sclera), clear front surface (cornea), and properly functioning internal structures that focus light perfectly on the retina. When the cornea is correctly curved, light bends precisely onto the retina for sharp vision. In impaired vision, such as nearsightedness, the cornea is too steep or flat, causing light to focus in front of or behind the retina instead. Reshaping the cornea through LASIK adjusts the cornea's curvature, which allows light to hit the retina properly and restore clear focus. LASIK is generally for those who want to do away with their eyeglasses and contact lenses. While the laser surgery is overall safe, it is not risk-free. Common short-term side effects include dry eyes, glare, especially at night, and rare complications like still needing glasses, healing issues with the corneal flap or corneal weakening over time, leading to lasting vision impairment. Most issues resolve, but some may need enhancement surgery or have lasting effects. Not everyone qualifies. Surgeons screen for thin corneas or other risk factors first. Now, researchers are exploring a way to reshape the cornea without having to make any incisions through a process known as electromechanical reshaping (EMR). 'The whole effect was discovered by accident,' said Brian Wong, a professor and surgeon at the University of California, Irvine. 'I was looking at living tissues as moldable materials and discovered this whole process of chemical modification.' Collagen-rich tissues, including corneas, rely on magnetic-like attractions between charged particles to hold their shape. Introducing a tiny electric current lowers the pH of the gel-like fluid surrounding its collagen fibers, turning rigid tissue temporarily soft. While the rabbit eye tissue was soft, Dr Wong and his partner, Dr Michael Hill, a professor of chemistry at Occidental College, applied the perfectly-shaped platinum plate to mold the cornea into a new shape. It did so in about a minute. When they restored pH, those attractions tightened, freezing the tissue in its new form. The work is still in its early stages. It is expected to begin a long process of detailed and precise studies in living animals, not just eyeballs in saline. The team will next explore how well EMR can treat common vision issues like nearsightedness, farsightedness and astigmatism. Dr Hill said: 'There's a long road between what we've done and the clinic. 'But, if we get there, this technique is widely applicable, vastly cheaper and potentially even reversible.' The team's findings were presented at the fall meeting of the American Chemical Society this week.
The Independent
2 hours ago
- The Independent
Could this be the alternative to LASIK surgery?
LASIK eye surgery has been performed successfully in the U.S. since the late 90s, helping nearly 40 million patients to improve their vision through a procedure that cuts into the eye using lasers. Some 600,000 of the Food and Drug Administration-approved surgeries are carried out on American adults each year. Now, researchers say they have come up with an alternative method that wouldn't need invasive incisions and could be cheaper. It uses a process called electromechanical reshaping, which helps to reshape the cornea using electrical current. The cornea is a dome-shaped, clear structure at the front of the eye that helps us to process images. Irregularly shaped corneas are the cause of nearsighted and farsighted vision and astigmatism, and LASIK fixes that by burning away tissue to reshape it. 'The whole effect was discovered by accident,' Brian Wong, a professor and surgeon at the University of California, Irvine, explained in a statement. 'I was looking at living tissues as moldable materials and discovered this whole process of chemical modification.' While the work is in its early stages, it could offer an alternative to LASIK. Although the surgery has been safely performed for nearly 30 years with rare complications, it has some limitations and risks. The surgeons say that cutting the cornea compromises the structural integrity of the eye. This procedure has yet to be performed in humans, but researchers previously used electromechanical reshaping to alter scars and skin in pigs and reshape cartilage-rich rabbit ears. Working with rabbit eyeballs, they constructed platinum 'contact lenses' that served as a template for the corrected shape of the cornea, placing them over a rabbit eyeball in a saline solution meant to mimic natural tears. After about a minute following a small electric charge to the lens, the cornea's curvature conformed to the shape of the lens. That happened in the same amount of time as LASIK, with fewer steps, no incisions, and less expensive equipment. Then, they repeated the step on 12 other rabbit eyeballs. Of those dozen, 10 were treated as if they had nearsighted vision, and the researchers found success. In others, they saw that their technique might be able to reverse some chemical-caused cloudiness to the cornea, which is currently only treatable through a complete transplant of the cornea. In the future, the researchers are planning tests on living rabbits, and looking at far-sightedness and astigmatism. Uncertainties in the team's scientific funding have put those plans on hold, but Michael Hill, a professor of chemistry at Occidental College, will present their findings this week at the fall meeting of the American Chemical Society. 'There's a long road between what we've done and the clinic. But, if we get there, this technique is widely applicable, vastly cheaper and potentially even reversible,' said Hill.
