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Science
Weekly News
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| A roundup of the week’s top stories in Science:
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| In Brief |
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In science news around the world, the United States’ Advanced Research Projects Agency-Energy, part of the Department of Energy, announces a slew of projects that it hopes will break the logjam in fusion research, the National Academies launches an initiative to discuss the ethically fraught topic of human embryo gene editing, and German scientists join other genetically modified (GM) foods proponents in an unusual gamble: urging the country’s government to label all GM products to convince people there’s nothing to be afraid of. Also, agriculturalist Cary Fowler discusses his work to protect the genetic diversity of the world’s crops, featured in the upcoming documentary Seeds of Time. And researchers are closing in on a long-standing goal of engineering genes into yeast that will enable the microbes to make opiates—which, policy experts worry, could make it too easy for narcotics dealers to manufacture the drugs as well.
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| In Depth |
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Microbiology
Elizabeth Pennisi
One of the fastest growing trees, poplars, may rely on tiny microbes in their leaves to fuel their growth. For more than a decade, a lone researcher has been building a case for nitrogen fixation by bacteria living in poplar leaves. There have been many claims of nitrogen fixation in plants outside nodules where it was known to occur for more than a century. Newly reported experiments involving rice grown on nitrogen-poor soil and poplar cuttings put in air with heavy nitrogen should help convince the skeptics. In addition, another researcher finds evidence of nitrogen fixation in the needles of limber pine and Englemann spruce. If these bacteria prove to be widespread, they could be used to boost crop production on marginal soils.
Earth Science
Charlie Schmidt
Vietnam’s Mekong River delta—the world’s third largest delta—is sinking, putting some 20 million people and vast swaths of fertile farmland at risk. Recent research has found that the delta, which covers some 55,000 square kilometers and sits about 2 meters above sea level, is subsiding at rates of 1 to 4.7 centimeters per year. Among the culprits: levees that prevent sediment from spilling out of rivers and collecting in the delta, and some 1 million wells drilled since the 1980s for drinking and agriculture. If groundwater depletion continues at present rates, researchers estimate, the delta could sink by nearly a meter by midcentury. Now, an alliance of Vietnamese and Dutch scientists is trying to get ahead of the problem. They met in Vietnam recently to launch the Rise and Fall project, a $1 million, 5-year effort to better understand what’s driving Mekong delta subsidence and develop strategies to reverse it. “We know virtually nothing about what’s beneath our feet,” said geographer Philip Minderhoud, a co-leader of the project and doctoral candidate at Utrecht University in the Netherlands, during the 11 March gathering. New studies aim to change that.
Biomedical Research
Lizzie Wade
Fifteen years after learning about the medical benefits of cannabis from patients in a sickle cell clinic in Kingston, Mark Ware is studying the drug on a grand scale. A pain management researcher at McGill University Health Centre in Montreal, Canada, he directs the Quebec Cannabis Registry, a new, one-of-a-kind database that aims to gather information on every patient prescribed marijuana in the province over the next 10 years—an estimated 3000 in all. By collecting data on symptoms, dosage, improvement, and side effects, the registry, launched on 11 May and funded by a grant from the nonprofit Canadian Consortium for the Investigation of Cannabinoids, aims to fill gaps in knowledge about the efficacy and safety of medical marijuana. Even as more and more states and countries legalize pot for medical purposes, clinical trials of smoked cannabis remain rare. “Decisions [about medical marijuana] are being made at the ballot box instead of in the laboratories,” says Raul Gonzalez, a psychologist at Florida International University in Miami who studies cognitive effects of cannabis use in HIV/AIDS patients.
Human Evolution
Ann Gibbons
A young man who lived in Romania 37,000 to 42,000 years inherited as much as one-tenth of his DNA from a Neandertal ancestor, according to a new study of ancient DNA. Ever since spelunkers found a robust jawbone in a cave in Romania in 2002, some paleoanthropologists have thought that its huge wisdom teeth and other features resembled those of Neandertals even though the fossil was a modern human. Now, by sequencing informative parts of the Romanian man’s genome, an international team of researchers has found that he had inherited 4.8% to 11.3% of his genome from a Neandertal who lived only 200 years or so previously, according to a talk this month at Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory in New York. The finding confirms that Neandertals interbred with modern humans more than once, and it is the first evidence that the two types of humans had a liaison in Europe.
Europe
Tania Rabesandratana
Surrounded by six Nobel laureates, European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker announced his long-awaited plan to restructure the commission’s scientific advice process on 13 May. In the commission’s new Science Advice Mechanism, a high-level group of seven scientists will channel the input of national academies and learned societies to give the commission the best scientific advice. When Juncker took office last November, he didn’t renew the position of chief scientific adviser, which some scientists took as a sign of disregard for science. Last week’s announcement provided critics with some reassurance, but many details remain to be worked out, including how the high-level group will operate effectively.
Regenerative Medicine
Jocelyn Kaiser
In the 1950s, researchers observed that when the circulation of a young mouse is connected to an old mouse, the elderly animal seems to be rejuvenated. Since 2005, a handful of labs have been hotly pursuing the molecules responsible, hoping to harness them to slow or reverse aging in people. One in particular stood out: a protein found in young blood known as GDF11. In several high-profile papers, two of them published last year in Science, a Harvard University team reported that GDF11 levels decline in older animals, and that replacing it rebuilds muscles, the brain, and the heart. But work described this week in Cell Metabolism by a Novartis team challenges GDF11’s rejuvenating powers. Their paper casts doubt on the assays used in the earlier research and suggests that GDF11 actually inhibits muscle regeneration.
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| Feature |
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Kelly Servick
Antibiotics face an unfortunate paradox: Though we desperately need new drugs to combat the growing threat of resistant bacteria, their discovery and development has ground to a crawl. A series of financial, scientific, and regulatory setbacks have driven companies out of the field, and many of the investors who could help get new drug candidates to the clinic are skeptical that such drugs can be profitable. Now, some are heralding new signs of life, including the return of a few pharmaceutical superpowers. But will desperate moves by governments to entice companies and researchers be enough to spring the next generation of antibiotics from the lab?
Daniel Clery
The quest for fusion energy is more than 60 years old and the current great hope, the $18 billion ITER reactor, won’t hit its stride until 2027 at the earliest. Surely there is a quicker and cheaper route. Behold the spherical tokamak, a plumped-up version of the mainstream tokamak reactor shaped more like a cored apple than the traditional doughnut. That simple shape change could open the way to a fusion power plant that would match ITER’s promise, without the massive scale. The world’s two front-rank machines—in the United States and the United Kingdom—are both being upgraded with stronger magnets and more powerful heating systems. Soon they will switch on and heat hydrogen fuel to temperatures much closer to those needed for generating fusion energy. If they perform well, spherical tokamaks could change the shape of fusion’s future.
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Sponsored by Science & SciLifeLab Prize for Young Scientists
Want to be published in Science?
Want to receive US$30,000 for your research?
Now accepting entries
Science & SciLifeLab Prize for Young Scientists
Deadline: August 1, 2015
Visit www.sciencemag.org/scilifelabprize
|
|
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Science and the future 