This week’s biggest stories
This week’s top story brings hope for millions of those who are unable to conceive. British scientists have revealed the role of ‘master gene’ in human embryo development. The study marks a first for the UK and could help uncover the cause of recurrent miscarriages and improve fertility treatments. Scientists used Crispr/Cas9 gene-editing tool to make precise cuts in DNA and deactivate a gene called OCT4. The study showed this gene is critical for the embryo to develop and the results could help produce more effective IVF treatment. Meanwhile, the WHO has warned over the paucity of new antibiotics. In a report it said the world was facing a global crisis of drug resistance as too few antibiotics were being made leading to too many infections becoming untreatable around the world. It cites the spread of multi-drug resistant tuberculosis (TB) that kills 250,000 people a year. The report calls for urgent investment and responsible use of existing antibiotics. Elsewhere, world’s top neuroscientists have launched an ambitious project to unravel the mysteries of brain. Experts from 21 labs in the US and Europe are to uncover how the brain makes decision: where, when, and how neurons take information from the outside world, make sense of it, and work out how to respond. Mind boggling stuff!
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Straight from the lab – top picks from our experts on the blog network
How biomolecules from deep time can help to reconstruct the tree of life | Lost Worlds Revisited
Biomolecules in the fossil record are a potentially rich source of information, if they are well enough preserved to be useful. While the consensus is that DNA degrades too readily to help us with anything more than a million years old (so of little use for most of our dead branches), a number of recent studies have shown that skin pigment molecules and even collagen may have been preserved in animal fossils for tens or even hundreds of millions of years. Similarly, long-lasting molecules in plant fossils could help to solve many of the mysteries in how extinct plant groups fit into the tree of life.
Why rejecting the modern world is a privileged fantasy | Brain flapping
Mark Boyle isn’t living in a more primitive world; he’s living in the modern world like everyone else, he’s just chosen to avoid most aspects of it because he’s fortunate enough not to depend on them for his life. Even so, he’s still utilising the advantages it offers, like established knowledge, and ways to communicate with a mass audience. I don’t care how dedicated you are to living a “more primitive” existence; unless you willingly cut yourself off from all of what the modern world offers with no way back, you are not living like our ancestors did. You’re just on an extended gap year.
Rupture within tectonic plate is probable cause of Mexico earthquakes | Notes & Theories
The two earthquakes occurred within just 11 days of each other and both were within the sinking Cocos plate. Preliminary calculations show that because the earthquakes occurred more than 600km from each other, the first rupture would have only increased stress on Tuesday’s ruptured fault by a tiny amount. So there is no immediate indication that these two quakes are directly linked.
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Science Weekly podcast
Can AI make our machines fight back the cyber criminals? This week Nicola Davis speaks with two experts on the frontline of cybercrime to get a measure of the threat and how to counter it.
Eye on science – this week’s top video
Well, it’s not exactly from this week, but no harm in saying farewell to Cassini again. And also check out the spectacular pictures of Saturn it took.
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