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Genetic havoc: New Gene-Editing Report highlights risks to human health and our environment


Sustainable Pulse
Thu, 13 Sep 2018 14:17 UTC
gene drives
© Scientific American
On the heels on the European Court of Justice's ruling requiring organisms developed using new genetic engineering techniques to undergo GMO risk assessments, and several new studies revealing "genetic havoc" as a result of gene editing, Friends of the Earth and Logos Environmental released a new report Wednesday, Gene-edited organisms in agriculture: Risks and unexpected consequences.

With the breakneck speed of recent developments in genetic engineering that could be used to alter DNA in plants, animals, bacteria, and even humans, the report examines the growing body of scientific studies highlighting the risks and unintended consequences from the use of genetic engineering techniques like gene editing in agriculture.

Comment: Read more about Gene drives and 'unintended consequences'

The DARPA-Mind report casually states potential harm:
"Gene drives developed for agricultural purposes could also have adverse effects on human well- being. Transfer of a suppression drive to a non-target wild species could have both adverse environmental outcomes and harmful effects on vegetable crops, for example. Palmer amaranth in Case Study 6 is a damaging weed in the United States, but related Amaranthus species are cultivated for food in in Mexico, South America, India, and China."
Top funder of controversial gene editing tech is the Pentagon
The US military is the world's top funder of a controversial gene editing technology capable of altering global ecosystems. Emails obtained by an environmental advocacy group show that the Pentagon has been secretly funding 'gene drive' studies.

Over 1,200 emails obtained through a freedom of information request by the ETC Group, a research and advocacy organization that focuses on ecological and agricultural issues, shed new light on gene drive research conducted by the shadowy Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA).

The US Department of Defense has pumped at least $100 million into a controversial technology known as "gene drives" - $35 million more than previously reported - making the US military the top funder and developer of the gene-modifying tech.

The technology is capable of splicing DNA strands in order to insert, alter, or remove targeted traits, and "drive" them through a population by ensuring all the offspring of the targeted organism inherit the alteration.Proponents of the gene-editing technology say it can be used to wipe out malaria-spreading mosquitoes, for example. Critics point out that the method could have unforeseen environmental consequences.


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Satellite

Test run: Space junk net successfully completes capture test

Brendon Petersen
Popular Mechanics
Fri, 21 Sep 2018 00:00 UTC
Space nets
© University of Surrey
A British satellite has just successfully proven that it can capture space junk using a system both innovative and old-school: nets.

RemoveDEBRIS, based out of the University of Surrey and funded by a variety of partners including the European Commission and Airbus, has had the goal of finding a low-cost space junk removal system for years. Back in June, the RemoveDEBRIS system was deployed from the International Space Station. On September 16th, the group began to proceed with in-space testing.

Operating over 186 miles (30o km) above the Earth, the RemoveDEBRIS system set out to capture a tiny satellite known as a CubeSat. With a net shooting off at around 44 MPH (20 meters per second) and a vision based navigation including cameras and LiDAR, the net was able to quickly capture the runaway CubeSat.

"It worked just as we hoped it would," says Guglielmo Aglietti, director of the Surrey Space Center, speaking to the BBC. "The target was spinning like you would expect an uncooperative piece of junk to behave, but you can see clearly that the net captures it, and we're very happy with the way the experiment went."
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Rocket

Here's what you need to know about the Russia's S-300 missile system


RT
Mon, 24 Sep 2018 20:37 UTC
S-300 missile launchers
© Credit: Russian Defense Ministry
S-300 missile launchers
On the heels of an Israeli air raid on Syria, which saw the downing of a Russian plane, Moscow will now deliver S-300 anti-aircraft systems to Damascus. Here's a quick guide to the sophisticated weapon and its capabilities.

The Syrian Army has long sought to procure the S-300 from Russia, but talks which began in mid-2000 were interrupted by the civil war in 2011. The current air defense systems operated by Syria's military are mainly the old-fashioned S-125s and S-200s. The downing of a Russian patrol plane by the Syrian missiles - which Moscow said was caused by Israeli jets using the plane as 'cover' - has now changed the game.

So, ahead of the deployment, let's sum up the key specs of the weapon not to be underestimated by Tel Aviv.
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Info

Prototype invention promises new audio clues for the diagnosis of IBS

Natalie Parletta
Cosmos Magazine
Sun, 23 Sep 2018 20:52 UTC
Wearable sensor
© Marshall, et al
A prototype of the wearable sensor that promises to revolutionise IBS diagnosis.
Inspired by acoustic sensing technology devised to pick up the munching sounds of termites, Australian scientists have created a belt to record the internal gut rumblings that would normally cause embarrassment at dinner parties.

But the belt - the brainchild of Nobel Laureate Barry Marshall - is designed to offer a safe, non-invasive tool for monitoring gut noises to help doctors diagnose intestinal disorders, starting with irritable bowel syndrome (IBS).

A true collaborative effort across multiple sectors, the Noisy Guts project was founded by a multidisciplinary team of researchers led by Mary Webberley from the University of Western Australia, in collaboration with the ON science and technology accelerator program, part of Australia's peak science research body, the CSIRO.

Originally, Webberley wanted to study medicine, but it wasn't option because she faints at the sight of blood. So she applied her biological skills to becoming an expert in ladybirds and their co-evolution with parasites.

Enter Marshall, the gastroenterologist who infected himself with Helicobacter pylori to prove that ulcers are caused by bacteria, not stress - a stunt that eventually resulted, in 2005, in a Nobel.
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Brain

Newly discovered neuron circuit directly connects the gut to the brain

Emily Underwood
Science
Sun, 23 Sep 2018 19:06 UTC
gut brain connection
© Nicolle R. Fuller/Science
Sensory neurons inside the gut inform the vagus nerve (yellow) and brain how our stomachs and intestines are doing.
The human gut is lined with more than 100 million nerve cells-it's practically a brain unto itself. And indeed, the gut actually talks to the brain, releasing hormones into the bloodstream that, over the course of about 10 minutes, tell us how hungry it is, or that we shouldn't have eaten an entire pizza. But a new study reveals the gut has a much more direct connection to the brain through a neural circuit that allows it to transmit signals in mere seconds. The findings could lead to new treatments for obesity, eating disorders, and even depression and autism-all of which have been linked to a malfunctioning gut.

The study reveals "a new set of pathways that use gut cells to rapidly communicate with ... the brain stem," says Daniel Drucker, a clinician-scientist who studies gut disorders at the Lunenfeld-Tanenbaum Research Institute in Toronto, Canada, who was not involved with the work. Although many questions remain before the clinical implications become clear, he says, "This is a cool new piece of the puzzle."

Comment:

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Arrow Up

Japan's 'hopping rovers' land successfully, send first images of Ryugu asteroid


RT
Sun, 23 Sep 2018 03:01 UTC
Ryugu Asteroid pic
© JAXA
Ryugu Asteroid
A pair of tiny JAXA robots, released by the Hayabusa2 probe, have successfully landed on the Ryugu asteroid and began transmitting images from the surface of the "potentially hazardous" object four years after the mission launch.

The first images from the astronomical object flying at some 300 million kilometers from the Earth were received by Japan's Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) immediately after the MINERVA-II1 rovers touched down on the asteroid on Friday.

The first image was taken after the separation of the two cylinder-shaped explorers from the Hayabusa2 space probe. Snapped while the rover was rotating, the blurred image shows Hayabusa2 at the top of the screen with the surface of Ryugu depicted at the bottom.
Hayabusa2probe
© Pintarest
Hayabusa 2 probe
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Comet 2

NASA balloon films atmospheric turbulence in noctilucent clouds


Sputnik
Sun, 23 Sep 2018 16:25 UTC
Noctilucent clouds Uppsala, Sweden

Noctilucent clouds over Uppsala, Sweden
PMCs, or polar mesospheric clouds, which are known to glow beautifully in the darkness of night, are affected by atmospheric gravity waves, essentially sent by the convection and uplifting of air masses. These noctilucent masses are known to be particularly visible over the poles.

NASA has sent a long-duration balloon mission to observe a thin group of extraordinary electric blue clouds right on the cusp of our atmosphere over the course of five days, which is hoped to allow scientists better understand turbulence in the atmosphere and in oceans, lakes and other planetary atmospheres, NASA said in a statement. It added that scientists have already begun to analyze the photos captured by the mission.

Comment: Reprising a SOTT article comment from 2011. It certainly seems prescient.
Let us suggest a reason, why instances of noctilucent clouds are intensifying.

What we suspect has been happening, based on our research thus far, is that the upper atmosphere is cooling because it is being loaded with comet dust, which shows up in the form of noctilucent clouds and other upper atmospheric formations.

Magnificent and mesmerizing noctilucent clouds (also called polar mesospheric clouds), were once considered to be rare. But now they are puzzling scientists with their recent dramatic changes. Apparently, the clouds are growing brighter, are seen more frequently, are visible at ever lower latitudes and are now appearing even during the day. If scientists were allowed to conduct honest interdisciplinary research, such changes wouldn't be a mystery.

They would be able to figure out that comet dust is electrically-charged which is causing the earth's rotation to slow marginally. The slowing of the rotation is reducing the magnetic field, opening earth to more dangerous cosmic radiation and stimulating more volcanism. The volcanism under the sea is heating the sea water which is heating the lower atmosphere and loading it with moisture.

The moisture hits the cooler upper atmosphere and contributes to a deadly mix that inevitably leads to an Ice Age, preceded for a short period by a rapid increase of greenhouse gases and "hot pockets" in the lower atmosphere, heavy rains, hail, snow, and floods.


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Fish

Deep sea gulper eel caught in rare video by Nautilus expedition in Hawaii

Lori Cuthbert
National Geographic
Fri, 21 Sep 2018 12:00 UTC
gulper eel hawaii
Gulper eels have the ability to expand their mouths to freakish proportions, and this showoff does not disappoint.The strange fish was found nearly a mile beneath the surface.

A team of oceanographers watching a deep-sea rover's camera never saw this coming: a young gulper eel performing fluid acrobatics for the lens.

The reactions caught on video from the group of scientists watching the gulper eel were priceless; at one point all of them oohed as the eel blew up like a black balloon.

"Big gulp! The Nautilus team spotted a gulper eel (Eurypharynx pelecanoides) doing just that in Papahānaumokuākea Marine National Monument," wrote the team on the Nautilus's website.

Comment: See also:

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Attention

Human egg cells produced in the lab

Daniel Oberhaus|
Motherboard
Sat, 22 Sep 2018 08:14 UTC
Human Egg Cells
© Science
Scientists in Japan have used human blood to successfully create immature human egg cells in a lab for the first time, according to new research published Thursday in Science. The work is a major breakthrough in stem cell research and may lead the way to babies that can be created in a lab using the body tissues or blood of their relatives.

Mitinori Saitou, a biologist at Kyoto University who contributed to this pioneering research, managed to produce mouse eggs and sperm from stem cells back in 2012 and used them to breed healthy baby mice. It was the first time that eggs were created from embryonic stem cells.

When Saitou and his colleagues first produced artificial mouse egg cells, these were grown to maturity inside a simulated mouse ovary constructed from the tissue of fetal mice. Since this tissue would be next to impossible to obtain from humans, the researchers had to figure out a different way of creating an artificial ovary.

To produce immature human eggs, Saitou and his colleagues used human blood cells to create induced pluripotent stem cells, which are notable for their ability to become any type of cell. These cells were then injected into tiny, artificial ovaries that were grown in the lab using embryonic cells derived from mice.
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Bulb

Animal Cognition: Toddlers and chimpanzees share a surprising unspoken language

George Dvorsky
Gizmodo
Thu, 20 Sep 2018 13:59 UTC
chimps
© Matt King
Prior to developing the capacity for speech, toddlers communicate their desires, demands, and discontent using a diverse repertoire of physical gestures. As a new study shows, there's a significant amount of overlap between the gestures employed by human children and those made by other ape species, a finding that's casting new light on the origin of primate communication.

New research published this week in Animal Cognition is the first to classify gestures made by human children using the same technique that's used to classify gestures made by other ape species, specifically chimpanzees. Results show that toddlers between 12 to 24 months use nearly 90 percent of the same gestures employed by juvenile and adult chimps, including hugging, jumping, stomping, and throwing objects. The presence of this shared gestural repertoire, the researchers say, suggests these behaviors are innate-a legacy of our shared evolutionary history.
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