A vaccine for AIDS?

Well, something again has caught my eye, and this time it's in the medical field. http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/southamerica/brazil/10224574/Brazilian-scientists-to-test-AIDS-vaccine-on-monkeys.html

Yeah, you read that link right. They're planning to test an AIDS vaccine on monkeys coming this year. Now, let's take look at this a bit more.

Given the very scientific uninteresting name HIVBr18, this vaccine was developed by a team from the Medicine Faculty of the University of Sao Paulo, the Sao Paulo state Research Foundation (or FAPESP for short). The team has said that although the vaccine will not eliminate the virus in it's current state of development, it will keep the virus at a low enough level count to where the victim's immune system will not be compromised, nor will the virus become transferable. In short, the virus becomes almost inert. This research was initiated in 2001 by the gentlemen Edecio Cunha Neto, Jorge Kalil and Simone Fonseca. They hope to acquire a fair amount of funding to initiate the first clinical trials after these tests on the monkeys.

New Picture of the Andromeda Galaxy

Sorry for not posting in the last few days. Life got a bit busy, but for now while I sort out a few things and find something to cover, here's a short post for everyone to appreciate. May I present to you a brand new stunning photograph of the Andromeda Galaxy shown at the end of this post. http://io9.com/an-enchanting-new-photo-of-the-andromeda-galaxy-974863346

The photo was taken by the Hyper-Suprime Cam (a.k.a the HSC). The HSC has been developed to attempt to examine the expanding universe and the long-posed mystery of dark energy. This is the first image taken by the HSC to test its functionality. A bit more about the HSC can be found by clicking here.