A California man suffering from a rare disease has become the first person ever to undergo an attempt to edit genes inside the body - however it's not clear what side-effects could result from the groundbreaking procedure.

The experiment was carried out on Brian Madeux, a 44 year old with Hunter Syndrome, a metabolic disease that affects fewer than 10,000 people around the world.

Madeux receives expensive weekly treatment to replace missing enzymes essential for breaking down certain carbohydrates. While the experiment will not eradicate the disease, it's hoped that a successful test will mean he will no longer have to undergo these regular treatments which can cost between $100,000 to $400,000 a year.

You would be forgiven for thinking that your private conversations were just that, but Google's Voice Assistant could be recording everything you say.

The feature is designed to allow users to talk to enabled gadgets to search the web, launch apps and use other interactive functions.

As part of this process, Google keeps copies of clips made each time you activate it, but it has emerged that background chatter could be enough to trigger recording.

Living specimens of stromatolites - the oldest evidence of life on Earth - have been found deep within a remote, protected World Heritage Area in Tasmania, Australia.

Stromatolites date back some 3.7 billion years and are regarded as a crucial piece of the puzzle that make up Earth's geological history - thanks to their layers of cyanobacteria, which comprise biofilm. These trap sediment and minerals from the water and cement them in place. The stromatolite layers then painstakingly build up overtime to form rock structures.

Being an experimental scientist can sometimes seem like a thankless task. You may be used to reading headlines about experiments that end up making great discoveries, but less is heard about the (often heroic) efforts of experimentalists that have yet to detect or observe what they set out to.

Some of these efforts have spanned decades in time and generations of manpower and expertise. However, the absence of a result is often just as scientifically meaningful as any popularized discovery: We learn more about what the natural world isn't, or doesn't have. Getting a positive signal from any of these, though, would have far reaching consequences for our understanding of the universe, or our place in it.

Below is a list of seven ongoing experiments that have yet to find what they're looking for. All of them are remarkable for their ingenuity and ambition. It's no wonder where the perseverance to push on with these experiments comes from.

Abstract

Over the last 50 years, we argue that incentives for academic scientists have become increasingly perverse in terms of competition for research funding, development of quantitative metrics to measure performance, and a changing business model for higher education itself. Furthermore, decreased discretionary funding at the federal and state level is creating a hypercompetitive environment between government agencies (e.g., EPA, NIH, CDC), for scientists in these agencies, and for academics seeking funding from all sources-the combination of perverse incentives and decreased funding increases pressures that can lead to unethical behavior. If a critical mass of scientists become untrustworthy, a tipping point is possible in which the scientific enterprise itself becomes inherently corrupt and public trust is lost, risking a new dark age with devastating consequences to humanity. Academia and federal agencies should better support science as a public good, and incentivize altruistic and ethical outcomes, while de-emphasizing output.


Introduction

The incentives and reward structure of academia have undergone a dramatic change in the last half century. Competition has increased for tenure-track positions, and most U.S. PhD graduates are selecting careers in industry, government, or elsewhere partly because the current supply of PhDs far exceeds available academic positions (Cyranoski et al., 2011; Stephan, 2012a; Aitkenhead, 2013; Ladner et al., 2013; Dzeng, 2014; Kolata, 2016). Universities are also increasingly "balance<ing> their budgets on the backs of adjuncts" given that part-time or adjunct professor jobs make up 76% of the academic labor force, while getting paid on average $2,700 per class, without benefits or job security (Curtis and Thornton, 2013; U.S. House Committee on Education and the Workforce, 2014). There are other concerns about the culture of modern academia, as reflected by studies showing that the attractiveness of academic research careers decreases over the course of students' PhD program at Tier-1 institutions relative to other careers (Sauermann and Roach, 2012; Schneider et al., 2014), reflecting the overemphasis on quantitative metrics, competition for limited funding, and difficulties pursuing science as a public good.

In this article, we will

1. describe how perverse incentives and hypercompetition are altering academic behavior of researchers and universities, reducing scientific progress and increasing unethical actions,
2. propose a conceptual model that describes how emphasis on quantity versus quality can adversely affect true scientific progress,
3. consider ramifications of this environment on the next generation of Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM) researchers, public perception, and the future of science itself, and finally,
4. offer recommendations that could help our scientific institutions increase productivity and maintain public trust. We hope to begin a conversation among all stakeholders who acknowledge perverse incentives throughout academia, consider changes to increase scientific progress, and uphold "high ethical standards" in the profession (NAE, 2004).

Mammals only started being active in the daytime after non-avian dinosaurs were wiped out about 66 million years ago (mya), finds a new study led by UCL and Tel Aviv University's Steinhardt Museum of Natural History.

A long-standing theory holds that the common ancestor to all mammals was nocturnal, but the new discovery reveals when mammals started living in the daytime for the first time. It also provides insight into which species changed behaviour first.

The study, published today in Nature Ecology & Evolution, analysed data of 2415 species of mammals alive today using computer algorithms to reconstruct the likely activity patterns of their ancient ancestors who lived millions of years ago.

Two different mammalian family trees portraying alternative timelines for the evolution of mammals were used in the analysis. The results from both show that mammals switched to daytime activity shortly after the dinosaurs had disappeared. This change did not happen in an instant -- it involved an intermediate stage of mixed day and night activity over millions of years, which coincided with the events that decimated the dinosaurs.

Most people do not realize that the various colored clouds which cover the entire giant planet Jupiter are still a mystery. The first probe that reached the vicinity of Jupiter was Pioneer 10 in 3 Dec. 1973, roughly 34 years ago. Since that mission another 12 missions have visited the giant, each carrying a different complement of instruments. Juno, currently orbiting Jupiter, has made eight close passes to refine the data of earlier missions without explaining the makeup of the clouds.

Planetary scientists still believe that the giant planets comprise 90% hydrogen and 10% helium, however, this assumption is being seriously challenged by the Juno gravitational, magnetic field and energetic particle data. Admittedly, nothing about the planet is turning out to be what they expected. This science has been plagued by the 'gas giant' assumption, with monumental steps being taken to make the data fit the the hypothetical model, rather than trying to understand their implications. The uniformitarion paradigm is the only one used to interpret data from every planet in the solar system.

Spectrometers can determine gaseous molecules by studying the spectral lines due to their chemical reactions or radiation emitted when high energy particles impact them. Molecules radiate more spectral lines in infrared spectrum when the air molecules impact one another due to collisions with other atoms. However, particulate aerosols suspended in an atmosphere, like volcanic clouds and smoke, usually <1 μm (micron), only radiate in broad spectral regions, seen as different colors, which do not enable the determination of their elemental composition.

US scientists have reported a bizarre breakthrough in genetics - the ability to grow a third eye on a scarab beetle.

Matching up cells is a major part of the scientific puzzle to regenerate limbs. Researchers at Indiana University Bloomington now say they have made a promising step in developing body parts "outside their normal context."

The development comes in the form of manipulating the genetic makeup of a dung beetle to give the creature a third eye at the center of its forehead. Tests on the extra eye showed it grew nerve connections and displayed the response associated with a working eye.

Published in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences journal, the study describes the "down-regulation" of a beetle's head gene to produce a "functional compound eye-like structure." Armin P Moczek, a professor in the IU Bloomington Department of Biology, told IU News the discovery centered on disrupting a specific gene called orthodenticle.

On November 12, 1990, the man who would go on to develop the World Wide Web published this proposal for linking and accessing information on the shared interface.

Tim Berners-Lee wanted to initially streamline the collection and distribution of information at the European research center, CERN. By the end of 1990, the British computer scientist had developed a blueprint that still informs the way millions of people consume information.

The vision for Berners-Lee's early World Wide Web are detailed in a funding proposal for the World Wide Web dated November 12, 1990.

The US is being pushed out of the grain market as Russia's bumper wheat harvest has dragged down prices to record lows. Russian agricultural exports are booming thanks to a weaker national currency and massive investment.

"We are pushing America aside in some markets, and we are satisfied with this," said Russia's Agriculture Minister Aleksandr Tkachev.

This year Russian farmers are expected to harvest the biggest crop in over a century. Russia will produce at least 83 million tons of wheat in the current growing season, according to estimates by The Wall Street Journal.