Science News Roundup: Boeing's new Starliner set for first crewed flight to space station; Chicago museum acquires new specimen of famed Archaeopteryx and more

It has the best-preserved skull, vertebral column and soft tissues of the 13 known Archaeopteryx specimens, the museum said. Boeing's Starliner capsule set for first crewed space flight, to compete with SpaceX Boeing's new Starliner astronaut capsule was poised for launch on Monday night on a much-delayed first crewed test flight to orbit, as the company scrambles to compete with Elon Musk's SpaceX for a greater share of lucrative NASA business.

Following is a summary of current science news briefs.

Chicago museum acquires new specimen of famed Archaeopteryx

An exquisitely preserved fossil of the earliest-known bird Archaeopteryx, a pigeon-sized specimen revealing new anatomical details of a creature whose 19th century discovery lent support to Charles Darwin's ideas about evolution, has been acquired by the Field Museum in Chicago and will go on public display. The museum announced on Monday the acquisition of the fossil, which it said had been in the hands of a series of private collectors since being unearthed in southern Germany sometime before 1990. It has the best-preserved skull, vertebral column and soft tissues of the 13 known Archaeopteryx specimens, the museum said.

Boeing's Starliner capsule set for first crewed space flight, to compete with SpaceX

Boeing's new Starliner astronaut capsule was poised for launch on Monday night on a much-delayed first crewed test flight to orbit, as the company scrambles to compete with Elon Musk's SpaceX for a greater share of lucrative NASA business. The CST-100 Starliner with two astronauts aboard was due for liftoff at 10:34 p.m. (0234 GMT on Tuesday) from NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Florida, carried atop an Atlas V rocket furnished by the Boeing-Lockheed Martin joint venture United Launch Alliance (ULA).

Timeline: Boeing's new Starliner set for first crewed flight to space station

Two years after its initial unmanned journey to the International Space Station (ISS), Boeing's new Starliner astronaut capsule is set for its first crewed test flight on Monday night, following numerous delays. Boeing's Crew Space Transportation (CST)-100 Starliner spacecraft, developed in collaboration with NASA's Commercial Crew Program, is engineered to carry up to seven passengers, or a combination of crew and cargo, for journeys to low-Earth orbit.

People with two copies of a risk gene have genetic form of Alzheimer's, scientists say

People who carry two copies of the APOE4 gene are virtually guaranteed to develop Alzheimer's and face symptoms at an earlier age, researchers reported on Monday in a study that could redefine such carriers as having a new genetic form of the mind-wasting disease. The reclassification could change Alzheimer's research, diagnosis and approaches to treatment, according to the researchers, whose study was published in the journal Nature Medicine.

(With inputs from agencies.)