Fear of budget cuts under President Donald Trump have fueled a movement to archive US government data before it disappears. The volunteer-run Azimuth Climate Data Backup Project, for instance, has already copied 19 terabytes of climate data from agencies such as NASA and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA).
Concerns that federal data could disappear from online servers may not be unfounded. Kathy Hart Weimer of Rice University told The Scientist that, when previous administrations cut the Environmental Protection Agency’s budget, “that caused some libraries to close. . . . Librarians who remember that are attuned to federal budgets. We want to make sure information is maintained so not only scientists can access the data, but the public as well.”
Researchers created the first synthetic bacterial organism in 2010, but it wasn’t until four years later that scientists synthesized the first eukaryotic chromosome. The ultimate goal—building a complete eukaryotic ...
