Category Archives: Genetic Engineering

Christmas is behind us and the new year is upon us, there may be some time to find a new read.

So here are a few books I will read, or atleaststart. What attracted me to these books is how they approachthinking about thinking: Each tries to tease out why our general understanding on a subject is so often wrong; they explore better cognitive frameworks that could help us comprehend issues more clearly; they consider unique perspectives in securities trading, national security, genetics and artificial intelligence.

On to the reading:

No. 1. Behave: The Biology of Humans at Our Best and Worst by Robert M. Sapolsky.

The professor of biology and neurological sciences at Stanford University (and a MacArthur Fellowship winner in 1987) takes a deep examination into the most basic question of human behaviour: Why do we do the things we do?

He probes the things that influence and determine behaviour: neurology, endocrinology, structural development of the nervous system, culture, ecology and the millions of years of evolution. Why we do what we do turns out to be even more complicated than you might have imagined.

No. 2. The Mosquito: A Human History of Our Deadliest Predator by Timothy C. Winegard.

Forget sharks, terrorists or guns: Mosquitoes have killed more people than all other factors in historycombined. Of the 108 billion humans who have ever lived, almost half 52 billion have died from mosquito-borne illnesses. For 190 million years, the mosquito has been waging a war against the rest of the planet, and for all of that history we have been fighting a mostly losing battle.

This has long been one of my very favourite topics; I am thrilled there is finally a book dedicated to it.

No. 3. The Man Who Solved the Market: How Jim Simons Launched the Quant Revolution by Gregory Zuckerman.

This is my nominee for finance book of the year: I read it,reviewedit and interviewed the author forMasters in Business. All thats left is to reread it slowly and deliberately, with no purpose other to enjoy the tale of how one brilliant man saw the markets in a different way from everyone else.

No. 4. Hacking Darwin: Genetic Engineering and the Future of Humanity by Jamie Metzl.

What will happen to children, lifespans, the plant and the animal world when humans begin to retool the worlds genetic code? Metzl tackles the risks and potential rewards to tinkering with the determinants of life as if theyre just another piece of software.

No. 5. Biased: Uncovering the Hidden Prejudice That Shapes What We See, Think, and Do by Jennifer L. Eberhardt.

Investors know that unconscious bias is at work all the time, undermining our goals. What we may not realize is how bias infects our visual perception, attention, memory and actions. The author suggests solutions to managing our biases, but I remain skeptical we can get past our own error-prone nature.

No. 6. Range: Why Generalists Triumph in a Specialised World by David Epstein.

Among top performers, specialization is the exception, not the rule. Thats the startling conclusion of Epstein, a journalist with Sports Illustrated and ProPublica. Considering some of the worlds most successful athletes, artists, inventors, scientists and business people, he found that it was the generalists who excelled, not the specialists.

No. 7. The Spy and the Traitor: The Greatest Espionage Story of the Cold War by Ben Macintyre.

What colleagues, institutions and competitors do you trust? How does counterintelligence and disinformation affect how we make decisions? These issues are explored in this nonfiction tale of the three-way Cold War game of espionage between the US, the UK and the Soviet Union.

No. 8. Trick Mirror: Reflections on Self-Delusion by Jia Tolentino.

Tolentino looks at the basic building blocks of social media and how we use it to deceive not so much others as ourselves. This series of essays tracks among other things the evolution of the internet from a band of enthusiastic geeks and hackers to the trolls and agents of agitprop that have taken over.

No. 9. Talking to Strangers: What We Should Know about the People We Dont Know by Malcolm Gladwell.

Communication breakdown is the focus in this tour of errors, miscommunication and lies. One of our eras most engaging storytellers, Gladwell roams from Fidel Castro to Bernie Madoff and lots of folks in between. His big premise: the default condition of our species is to assume others tell the truth. This makes all of us vulnerable to the deceptions of politicians, salespeople and con artists.

No. 10. Prediction Machines: The Simple Economics of Artificial Intelligence, by Ajay Agrawal, Joshua Gans and Avi Goldfarb.

What happens if we rethinkthe concept of artificial intelligence as a drop in the cost of prediction? That is the question tackled by the three authors of this book, all economists at the University of Torontos Rotman School of Management. The conclusion is that AI, instead of complicating human affairs, may improve decision-making.

2019Bloomberg L.P.

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Ten books on thinking about thinking - Moneyweb.co.za

A WILD RIDE. Those, by and large, are the first words that come to mind looking back on Futurisms 2019 and all the news that made up these past twelve months.

We ran thousands of stories this year. They ranged from investigative projects, to interviews, to the building blocks of our site: Sharp hour-by-hour analysis on the science and technology narratives of the day. These stories shaped (and are still shaping) the weird, wonderful, frightening, inspiring, and ever-critical present moment were in, to say nothing of the future well occupy on this planet or elsewhere.

That said: Every once in a while, one of these hundreds of stories exceeds our wildest expectations, drawing hundreds of thousands of readers from across the world, and for weeks at a time, too.

To that end and without further ado, here are The Ten Most-Read Futurism Stories of 2019 along with our best guesses as to why they garnered so much attention, and what it might mean for our future.

10. The First Black Hole Photo Is Even More Amazing When You Zoom Out

When: April 12, 2019

What: After the Event Horizon Telescope team unleashed the first-ever image of a black hole, a separate team dropped an incredible follow-up image of the space around it.

Why: A sense of genuine epochal awe surrounded the release of the historic first image of a black hole, for starters. But when we covered NASAs Chandra X-ray Observatory release of the wider shot, showing how distant galaxy M87s black hole was nestled in a boggling vast cloud of high-energy particles, our readers couldnt stop looking. Heck, neither could we.

9. Our Solar System Is Blanketed in a Giant Wall of Fire

When: Nov. 21, 2019

What: Voyager 2 sent back readings suggesting that the edge of the solar system is surrounded by a bubble of 49,427 degrees Celsius (89,000 degrees Fahrenheit) plasma.

Why: We think of the deep solar system as a dark, frozen expanse, but this story showed that its a frontier of extraordinary unknowns that can apparently get, to put it lightly, hot. Even better, NASAs best tool to plumb its mysteries is Voyager 2 a probe thats been traveling away from the Sun since 1977, giving the story an outrageous old-meets-new finishing coat.

8. NASA Engineer Says New Thruster Could Reach 99% Speed of Light

When: Oct. 14, 2019

What: NASA engineer David Burns said that his new thruster design could reach a ludicrous velocity if you give it enough time to accelerate.

Why: The idea of light-speed travel scratches a sci-fi itch, and Burns has a knack for self-promotion. His thrusters undeniably clever it would use a type of particle accelerator to manipulate the speed of an ion loop, subtly changing their mass through relativity effects, thus generating a gentle thrust without propellant. Give it enough time, according to Burns, and it could reach 99 percent the speed of light. The caveats? Itd require building an enormous device in space, and itd take an extremely long time to speed up.

7. New Research: Human Civilization Will Likely Collapse by 2050

When: June 3, 2019

What: An Australian climate change analysis reached a Mad Max conclusion: Were screwed, and on a clock.

Why: The last year in news has often felt a touch world-ending, no? To say nothing of the worlds ongoing fascination with post-apocalyptic fiction, from Dawn of the Dead to The Hunger Games. The wide interest in this, though, illustrates our looming fear of a real collapse event especially when the research comes from a former fossil fuel exec. The good news, according to the research, is that drastic environmental policies could pull the planet back in the right direction. Also, lets be real: the art for this one, by Futurism writer Victor Tangermann, was haunting and beautiful.

6. NASA Research: Astronauts Are Getting Clots, Bizarre Blood Flow

When: Nov. 14, 2019

What: A NASA research project seemingly showed astronauts suffering from ominous circulatory problems.

Why: Everybody loves a feel-good story about a successful rocket launch or a shiny experiment on the International Space Station. But its difficult to ignore growing evidence that space is a hostile environment for the human body and this study, which examined ultrasounds from astronauts whod spent time on space station, showed signs of clots and bizarre blood flow. Needless to say, more research is needed, but this could be an opening act to the human space travel story narrative of this era.

5. Here Are New Pics of That Weird Substance China Found on the Moon

When: Sept. 19, 2019

What: China baffled the world when it announced that its rover had found a mysterious substance on the Moon. Then it released a photo.

Why: The implication of Chinas original announcement, which described the substance as gel-like, was that the material was deeply baffling. Thats probably why droves of Futurism readers visited to see the picture for themselves and share their thoughts though, underwhelmingly, the consensus among researchers is that the material, rather than a gel, is probably lunar glass that formed during a meteor strike.

4. A Dense Bullet of Something Blasted Holes in the Milky Way

When: May 15, 2019

What: According to research by a Harvard-Smithsonian scientist, a dense bullet of something punched holes in our home galaxy many years ago.

Why: A lot of our most-read stories this year were epic in scope, but this galactic-scale mystery by Futurism writer Dan Robitzski might take the cake. Gaps in the stellar stream suggest that something one culprit could be a chunk of dark matter, a million times the mass of our Sun crudely tampered with the large-scale structure of the Milky Way. Just like our readers, we were obsessed and well be keeping an eye out for followup astrophysical research to share with them.

3. NASA: Four Astronauts Will Stay on the Moon for Two Weeks

When: Oct. 30, 2019

What: NASA dropped tantalizing new details about its upcoming Moon missions, which include sending four astronauts to the lunar surface for 6.5 days.

Why: Our readers have a longstanding interest in NASAs efforts to return to the Moon, so these rare specifics from the inscrutable space agency were irresistible. Whats more, this new info demonstrated the depth of NASAs ambition: the 6.5 day mission, which will be loaded with at least four expeditions on the lunar surface, will be twice as long a Moon visit as any other in human history.

2. Russian Sub That Caught Fire Possibly Sent to Cut Internet Cables

When: July 3, 2019

What: In the aftermath of a Russian submarine fire, rumors emerged in Russian media that the sub was on a mission to cut undersea internet cables.

Why: Remember the tragic fire that killed 14 Russian sailors this year? Observers pointed out that Moscow was unusually cagey about the incident, refusing to say even whether it had been a nuclear sub. And then, in a pair of bombshell reports, two Russian outlets reported that the vessel had been a secretive craft thats long been speculated to have been designed to sabotage undersea internet cables. Much like other Russian drama in recent years, this one never got a satisfying conclusion but it was a rare glimpse into the murky world of deep-sea espionage.

1. Chinese Scientists Cloned Gene-Edited Monkeys With Horrifying Results

When: Jan. 25, 2019

What: Chinese scientists made five clones of a monkey that had been gene-edited to suffer from serious psychological problems.

Why: Our most-read story all year took a dive into the lurid world of genetic engineering. Scientists in China tinkered with the DNA of a macaque monkey, and then cloned the animal five times the first time a gene-edited primate had ever successfully been cloned. But ethically, Futurisms Kristin Houser explained, the experiment was a mess: the macaques genes had been altered to give it depression, anxiety, sleep problems and a schizophrenia-like condition. Researchers say the altered monkeys will be a valuable research tool for developing new therapies. But, at the same time, its a Jeff VanderMeer-esque sign of the grotesque frontiers of CRISPR and, like our readers, we couldnt look away.

Excerpt from:
The Top Ten Most-Read Futurism Stories of 2019 - Futurism

Congress approved $1.4 trillion in new spending last week to avoid another government shutdown over the holidays. Taxpayers are right to be wary whenever Congress pulls out its checkbook. But when it comes to one important line-item, budget hawks should be rooting for more funding, not less.

The Government Accountability Office (GAO) serves as Congresss watchdog and plays a critical role in holding the federal government accountable to the American people. In November, the comptroller general issued the annual Performance and Accountability Report for FY2019, which found that GAOs work, yielded a record $214.7 billion in financial benefits a return of about $338 for every dollar invested in GAO.

Congress has provided $630 million in new funding for GAO a $40 million increase. This new spending will help support the comptroller generals efforts to modernize oversight and improve Congresss ability to anticipate and address critical challenges.

Since 2014, GAOs work has produced $340 billion in savings and more than 6,400 improvements in program and operational improvements across the government, according to the comptroller generals February testimony before Congress.

In addition to its traditional auditing work, GAO recently established a science, technology, assessment, and analytics (STAA) team. The STAA team is focused on enhancing Congresss capacity to assess emerging technologies, auditing federal science and technology programs, and using advanced analytics to improve auditing.

Earlier this month, Dr. Timothy M. Persons, GAOs chief scientist and managing director of science, technology assessment, and analytics, testified that, GAO will continue to build its capacity to respond to congressional demand. STAAs current staff level is about one-half of what was outlined in the April 2019 plan submitted to Congress.

Besides saving taxpayers money in the long run, increasing appropriations for the GAO and investing new resources in the STAA team, in particular will improve Congresss ability to tackle the challenges and opportunities posed by modern science and technology, rather than leaving such matters to executive agencies.

For example, the STAA team recently hired a chief data scientist, who is charged with using data analytics to support existing audit capabilities, including for upcoming reviews of improper payments across government agencies. GAO also created a Center for Strategic Foresight in 2018 focused on identifying, monitoring, and analyzing emerging issues facing policymakers.

First, enhancing auditing through advanced analytics will improve Congresss ability to prevent waste, fraud and abuse GAOs bread and butter. But increasing GAOs ability to provide technical services will also strengthen Congresss ability to conduct oversight of the many executive agencies that have jurisdiction over technical matters.

Lacking sufficient technical expertise, Congress has historically tended to defer to executive agencies. This, in turn, leaves Congress ill-equipped to grapple with many of the most pressing issues that confront it, from cybersecurity and weapons development to artificial intelligence and genetic engineering, to name only a few. As a result, Congress becomes a mere rubber stamp... of the administrative branch of government, as one member memorably put it, rather than a coequal branch of government.

Second, improving Congresss technical capability can also help it to anticipate changes in science and technology. Importantly, the STAA team is positioned to provide key support to Congress and federal agencies to address key high-risk areas, such as protecting national security technology.

Enhancing GAOs science and technology capabilities complements the House of Representatives Select Committee on the Modernization of Congresss bipartisan and unanimous recommendation for reestablishing and restructuring an improved Office of Technology Assessment. A well-resourced Government Accountability Office STAA team need notbe a replacement for recreating and modernizing the Office of Technology Assessment, which many members have advocated for. In fact, both STAA and OTA could mutually support the legislative branchs efforts to improve its oversight of the federal government and address the nations science and technology challenges.

It may seem counterintuitive to ask fiscal conservatives to support expanding Congresss capabilities, especially at a time when resources are scarce and the national debt is $23 trillion. But investing in GAO will yield long-term savings and better equip the Constitutions first branch to do its job.

Garrett Johnson is co-founder and executive director of Lincoln Network. M. Anthony Mills is director of science policy at the R Street Institute.

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Why taxpayers should support expanding the GAO | TheHill - The Hill

A sense of looming catastrophe is reinforced by reports of melting glaciers in the Arctic, unprecedented floods in parts of Asia and disappearing islands in the Pacific because of the rise in sea levels.The classic response of environmental campaigners is to demand a green revolution, based on a radical new economic agenda and drastic changes in our lifestyles.

According to the eco-warriors, the salvation of the planet lies in the replacement of hi-tech western consumerism with a culture of self-sacrifice.

Like the po-faced religious puritans of the past, these hectoring zealots argue that environmental disasters are natures revenge on us for our selfish greed.

Therefore, to avoid the apocalypse, we must atone for our sins by accepting endless green bans, taxes and economic recession.

It is a miserable, authoritarian outlook, perfectly captured in the grim rhetoric of Swedish teenager Greta Thunberg, who has become the international champion of the hardline, environmental programme.

In a typically emotive rant at a UN summit last year, Thunberg wailed the politicians had stolen my dreams and my childhood, adding that we are at the beginning of mass extinction and all you talk about is money and fairy tales of eternal economic growth.

But there is an alternative vision for the rescue of the planet, one that is far more uplifting and optimistic.

Instead of seeking to drag us back to a spartan, pre-industrial age, it aims to embrace the future.

Rather than viewing technological innovation as a menace, it wants to harness such progress for the good of mankind.

It is an approach that lies behind the new initiative by Prince William, who announced this week the launch of the most prestigious environmental prize in history in the search for practical solutions for the Earths problems.

Under this ten-year-long project, supported by Sir David Attenborough, five winners will each year receive multimillion-pound awards for the development of ideas to tackle climate change.

Reflecting this bold emphasis on advances in science and engineering, the scheme is entitled Earthshot in an echo of the inspirational US Moonshot programme of the 1960s that pioneered the first Moon landings.

By taking the plunge into environmental politics, there was a danger that Prince William might have come across as just another virtue-signalling, woke celebrity, delivering sanctimonious lectures about green awareness from his affluent cocoon of privilege.

But he has been far too thoughtful, and creative to do that.

Instead, he has come up with a plan that could yield real results rather than just spreading guilt.

In contrast to the bleak propaganda of Thunberg and her fellow fundamentalists, his prizes offer the exciting hope of better times ahead.

The Prince himself rightly referred to the inspiring civilisations we have built through our unique power as human beings to innovate and problem-solve.

He is absolutely right.

The answer to climate change lies with the hard-headed pioneers, not shrill activists.

Tremendous progress is already being made, particularly in the generation of green energy.

Yesterday, the National Grid revealed that 2019 was the cleanest year on record, as energy from sources such as wind, solar and nuclear power outstripped that from fossil fuels.

This can be part of a saga of real environmental progress.

Bolstered by the Princes support, technologists will also find new ways of trapping energy through far more effective storage systems such as batteries or laminate coating.

New, greener forms of transport will be developed, such as electric aircraft and hyperloop trains that can travel at over 700mph.

Crop yields can be enhanced by genetic modification, thereby helping to feed the planet more cheaply.

Above all, the advent of fusion power plants which create energy by combining atoms rather than dividing them will transform supplies, since the process is inherently safe and produces zero emissions.

The stance of the eco-mob is unworkable.

Their whole ethos runs counter to mankinds impulse for improvement.

That is why the radical greens are so intolerant.

In a notorious recent outburst for which she had to apologise, Thunberg herself called for world leaders to be put up against the wall.

But Prince Williams scheme is the opposite.

In place of self-loathing, it is a celebration of the best of mankind.

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New technology will save the planet from climate change, says LEO McKINSTRY - Express.co.uk

The study, led by the University of Sheffield and published today in the journal Nature, reveals the structure of cytochrome b6f -- the protein complex that significantly influences plant growth via photosynthesis.

Using a high-resolution structural model, the team found that the protein complex provides the electrical connection between the two light-powered chlorophyll-proteins (Photosystems I and II) found in the plant cell chloroplast that convert sunlight into chemical energy.

"Our study provides important new insights into how cytochrome b6f utilises the electrical current passing through it to power up a 'proton battery'. This stored energy can then be then used to make ATP, the energy currency of living cells. Ultimately this reaction provides the energy that plants need to turn carbon dioxide into the carbohydrates and biomass that sustain the global food chain, Lorna Malone, the first author of the study and a PhD student in the University of Sheffield's Department of Molecular Biology and Biotechnology, said.

The high-resolution structural model, determined using single-particle cryo-electron microscopy, reveals new details of the additional role of cytochrome b6f as a sensor to tune photosynthetic efficiency in response to ever-changing environmental conditions. This response mechanism protects the plant from damage during exposure to harsh conditions such as drought or excess light.

Dr Matt Johnson, reader in Biochemistry at the University of Sheffield and one of the supervisors of the study, explained: "Cytochrome b6f is the beating heart of photosynthesis which plays a crucial role in regulating photosynthetic efficiency.

"Previous studies have shown that by manipulating the levels of this complex we can grow bigger and better plants. With the new insights we have obtained from our structure we can hope to rationally redesign photosynthesis in crop plants to achieve the higher yields we urgently need to sustain a projected global population of 9-10 billion by 2050."

Dr Johnson stressed that the need to produce enough food for this number of people will require the sector to look to methods including genetic engineering to improve the efficiency of food production. The dramatic increase in food production required by our growing population means we arent going to be able to wait around for evolution to [make photosynthesis more efficient] for us. That is why approaches like genetic engineering are so important for improving crops.

The research was conducted in collaboration with the Astbury Centre for Structural Molecular Biology at the University of Leeds.

Researchers now aim to establish how cytochrome b6f is controlled by a myriad of regulatory proteins and how these regulators affect the function of this complex.

SourceCryo-EM structure of the spinach cytochrome b6f complex at 3.6 resolutionNature DOI: 10.1038/s41586-019-1746-6Authors: Lorna A. Malone, Pu Qian, Guy E. Mayneord, Andrew Hitchcock, David A. Farmer, Rebecca F. Thompson, David J. K. Swainsbury, Neil A. Ranson, C. Neil Hunter, Matthew P. Johnson

Additional materials provided by the University of Sheffield

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Redesigning photosynthesis for the 'higher yields we urgently need' - FoodNavigator.com

We live in a time when science and technology are having an impact on our society in more and more ways. And the decisions that shape how these new fields of knowledge develop ultimately affect all of us.

When I studied biology in high school, I didnt learn about DNA for a very simple reason. The work of Francis Crick, James Watson, Rosalind Franklin and others who unlocked the structure of the basic code of life was still years away. The idea of engineering human beings? Well, that was firmly the stuff of science fiction, like Aldous Huxleys dystopian novel Brave New World (published a year after my birth). It seemed as likely as, say, going to the moon.

There are a few inferences you can make from this framing of my life. One is that I have been on the planet for a while. The other is the speed of change in what we know about what life is, and how we can control it, has accelerated at a rapid rate. Now we as a species are on the precipice of being able to manipulate the very building blocks of human evolution, not to mention wield unpredictable change on the greater world around us. Even as I commit that thought to paper, I pause in awe at its implications.

I have lived through eventful times and my job as a journalist has been to chronicle wars, presidents and sweeping social movements such as civil rights. I have seen a world in flux, but when I try to peer into the future I come to the conclusion that this story of humankinds ability to understand life on its most intimate level and be able to tinker with it for our benefit or detriment is likely to be the biggest one I will ever cover.

We are living in one of the greatest epochs of human exploration and it will shape our world as profoundly as the age of the transoceanic explorers. It is just that the beachheads on which we are landing and the continents we are mapping comprise a world far too small to see with the naked eye. Some of it is even invisible to our most powerful microscopes.

This brings me to a term that has become a big part of my life over the last few years: Crispr. Perhaps you know of it. Perhaps you dont. When I first heard of it, I thought it might be a new brand of toaster. I now know its an extremely powerful tool for editing genes in seemingly any organism on Earth, including humans. Scientists doing basic research have been uncovering the mechanisms of life for decades. They have been creating tools for modifying individual genes but Crispr is one of those revolutions where what researchers thought might be possible in the distant horizon is suddenly available now. Its cheap, its relatively simple and its remarkably precise.

I immediately knew that this was a story that needed telling. Human Nature, the resulting film full disclosure, I am executive producer came out of our conversations with scientists. They tend not to be the type of people who hype things but when they talk about Crispr you can feel the urgency in their voices. This is something you need to know about. All of you. If you are worried about your health or the health of your children. If you are concerned about how we might need to engineer our planet in the face of the climate crisis. If you are in finance, law or the world of tech. This will shape all of it.

And as we grapple with the unintended consequences of the internet and social media, as we try to make progress against a heating planet, I humbly submit that we as a species tend not to be good at thinking through where we are going until a crisis is already upon us. I fervently hope with Crispr that we can start the conversation sooner. That we can start it now. Thats why we made the film.

To be clear, we are probably a long way from designing babies to be more intelligent or more musically inclined. Life is just too complex for that, at least right now. More immediately, there is so much about this technology that is very exciting. As someone who remembers a time when my classmates were struck down with childhood diseases for which we now have vaccines, I know science can have profound applications for human health. Crispr could cure genetic diseases such as sickle cell and Huntingtons. It is being tested against cancers and HIV. It could also potentially be used to make crops more drought-resistant or food more nutritious.

On the other hand, we are walking closer to a world Aldous Huxley foresaw. What does it mean to be human? Where should we draw the boundaries beyond which we dare not cross? The inspiring researchers we talked to for the film know that the ethical and moral questions this technology raises are not for them to decide. Science has given us the tools, but not the answers. This is up to us, all of us. We need to be informed. We need to be honest with whats real and whats not. And we need to add our voices to a global conversation. Thats part of our responsibility as humans living on Earth today.

Dan Rather is one of the USs most feted journalists. He anchored CBS Evening News for 24 years

Human Nature is in UK cinemas now before a university town tour in the new year, wondercollaborative.org/human-nature-documentary-film/#screenings . It will be shown on BBC Storyville in spring/summer 2020

Original post:
Gene editing will let us control our very evolution. Will we use it wisely? - The Guardian

Last week, a woman namedVictoria Gray became the first person in the U.S. to have her cells edited with CRISPR. The41-year-old patient was sufferingfromsickle cell anemia.

RELATED:FIRST HUMAN TRIAL USING CRISPR GENE-EDITING IN US BEGINS

The condition, caused by a genetic mutation that messes with the shape of red blood cells, causes havoc on patients, and to make things even worse, the options for treatment are very limited and ineffective. The only current treatment for sickle cell anemia patients is a donor transplant that works for just 10% of patients, but all that is about to change.

It was clear that analternative, much more effectivesolutionwas desperately needed. After much consideration, doctors believed that editing cells extracted from a patient's own bone marrow could restore effective red blood cell creation, and this is exactly the operation they attempted on Gray.

The doctors used CRISPR to tweak Gray's bone marrow DNA to turn on a specific protein that would allow proper red blood cell generation. The operation makes Gray the first person in the U.S. to undergo a CRISPR editing procedure and the second globally.

The treatment comes from observations made back in the 1940s.In 1941 a pediatrician named Jane Watson noticed that babies with sickle cell didnt have symptoms until 6 months to 1 year of age, Vivien Sheehan, a hematologist at Baylor University told Popular Science.

The pediatrician also discovered that these infants produced fetal hemoglobin for much longer periods than healthy babies.Following Watson's observations, the research since then has indicated that increasing fetal hemoglobin could provide an effective treatment for the disease.

Now, CRISPR may just make that treatment viable. But before we get too excited, it should be noted that the strategy comes with several risks.

In order for the edited cells to be inserted back into the patients bone marrow, other stem cells need to be deactivated. Otherwise, there is the chance the unedited stem cells may continue to produce sickled red blood cells very fast, outpacing the edited cells' production of healthy cells.

Now researchers say they need to follow Gray's progress for at least 15 years to rule out any other potential dangers of the procedure. Still, for those 90% suffering with sickle cell anemia that don't respond well to current treatment, the procedure, if successful, would offer the much-needed lifeline they've been hoping for.

See more here:
Sickle Cell Anemia Patient Becomes First Person in the US to Have Her Genes Edited With CRISPR - Interesting Engineering

After growing pains, scheduling shifts, and some rather unfortunate injuries and incidents plaguing the production of No Time to Die, director Cary Joji Fukunagas entry into the legendary James Bond series finally showed the world its first look at its action packed contents. To say that the result was impressive is an understatement, as theres not only some massively satisfying action present, but a new mystery that Daniel Craigs superspy will have to uncover. And its all down to a secret that Lea Seydouxs Dr. Madeleine Swann may or may not be hiding from him, which could tie her to the notorious terrorist organization SPECTRE.

Theres a 90% chance that there is some great big shadowy secret that No Time To Die has in store for Dr. Swann, and considering whats been shown above, one theory starts to stick out. Before we go to much further into discussing this theory, take a look at this mornings trailer for yourself.

And now, lets talk about just what Madeleine Swann could be hiding in her complicated past:

Right now, the big theory seems to be that Madeleine possesses a hidden tie between herself and the organization her family has served in the past. As we learned in the previous James Bond film, also named Spectre, Swanns father, Mr. White (Jesper Christensen,) was entrenched in the operations of Ernst Stavro Blofelds (Christoph Waltz) nasty enterprise as far back as her own formative years.

So theres a possibility that Madeleine Swann is either a former or current SPECTRE agent, who could have been in the family business at a very young age. It might feel strange, but theres already enough clues to start solidifying this assumption in a comfortable manner. Theres another, wilder theory that spawns from this assumption, but for now lets discuss this more grounded possibility.

As discussed in Spectre, Madeleine Swann has a distaste for guns. The reason being, there was once an intruder who tried to kill her father in her childhood, and she didnt hesitate to shoot that man dead in his tracks. This story could play an important part in No Time To Die, as the British publication Express reported that the film formerly known as Bond 25 will have a flashback to this very encounter.

Madeleine Swann already knew how to assemble a gun thanks to her childhood with a SPECTRE employed father. So either he taught her these skills to protect her throughout life or, in a more chilling scenario, theres a possibility that she could have been a child soldier working for Blofeld. That is, until she turned away from that life and became a psychologist. Which brings up another interesting point.

Throughout No Time To Dies trailer, there seems to be an assumption that the relationship between James Bond and Dr. Swann at the end of Spectre hasnt lasted. Be it his own insecurities, or a general falling out between the two, it seems the potential secret that Madeleine is hiding broke their coupling in two. Which makes it all the more awkward that the two seem to be working for MI6 after Bond comes out of retirement.

As it just so happens, Blofeld is in MI6 custody, and if Swann were to be a SPECTRE agent in hiding, this would be the perfect opportunity to stymie Bonds professional efforts to thwart their organization. Between their failed relationship, and Blofelds Hannibal Lecter like imprisonment bringing him into the fold after all, the man we once knew as 007 is in a tighter spot than hes ever been.

Thinking backwards to the assumption that Madeleine Swanns childhood run in with an intruder, if No Time To Die does show us that particular moment, it seems to be reasonable to assume that Rami Maleks Safin is indeed the man that attacked Mr. White and Madeleine Swann all of those years ago. Facial scarring on both the masked assailant and Maleks face during the big reveal show that hes chasing someone wearing the broken mask that Madeleine tears up upon seeing.

With a more complete look at that mask being shown in the No Time To Die trailer, the flashback theory seems to be in play. If this is the case, Madeleine and Safin know each other from way back, which could confirm that not only Madeleine but also Safin were child soldiers for Ernst Stavro Blofeld. Though theres one other possibility tying both parties to Blofelds organization that could prove to be more outlandish than anything weve seen in the recent run of James Bond movies.

Theres an exchange between Safin and Bond that seems to hint at a much darker possibility when it comes to the existence of No Time To Dies villain.

Safin: Your skills die with your body. Mine will survive long after Im gone.Bond: History isnt kind to men who play God.

As of this moment, the James Bond series canon starting with 2006s Casino Royale seems to be a much more grounded affair than the more classic adventures. In the past, there have been villains trying to use genetic engineering/warfare, the very subject thats rumored to be at the center of Safins schemes in No Time To Die.

Put together with the dialogue above, theres a possibility that Safin is a clone, or at least another variant of a genetically enhanced soldier that SPECTRE has been tinkering with. So if Madeleine Swann does have ties to this man in her past, it could be because they were competing agents within Blofelds family of operatives.

One final note should be mentioned when it comes to Madeleine Swanns big secret in No Time to Die. No matter what this hidden truth turns out to be, it appears to be something so horrific, itll ruin James Bond; possibly even drive him into the path of further and fatal harm. Blofeld tells him as much, when he speaks the following line in the trailer:

When her secret finds its way out, itll be the death of you.

This might not be a literal death, but rather a metaphorical, and even emotional one. If Swanns secret is confirmed to be SPECTRE related, this would definitely be reminiscent of the time Vesper Lynd snuck under Bonds radar, and eventually killed herself as a twisted act of atonement. We all know how that affected Bonds psyche, so theres a potential for James to become more reckless, and even more cruel, in his operations. Meaning that the film intended to wrap Daniel Craigs tenure as the legendary British agent could end with him losing his life; freeing up the next participant to start their own chain of adventures in the future of the famed franchise.

Of course, all of this discussion about No Time to Die is predicated on the first trailer weve seen for the film, and a lot can change between now and the films April 2020 release window. But it feels like this new adventure in the James Bond series is a more personally plotted affair, with Madeleine Swann sitting square in the middle of the proceedings, hiding something that could unhinge the man himself.

No Time to Die reveals all its secrets on April 8th, 2020. Should you want to size up the competition for the box office dollar that weekend, take a look at our 2020 release schedule and see who else is gunning for glory.

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Bond 25: Let's Discuss That Massive Secret That's Teased In The No Time To Die Trailer - CinemaBlend

-OpEd-

BOGOT Everyone talks about how we're in the midst of a technological and scientific revolution that's rapidly transforming our world in ways that exceed previous revolutions.

New technologies come to us so fast that it seems almost unnecessary and repetitive to keep mentioning them. And yet, we cannot overlook how such technologies are redefining our societies and institutions. But what's most important here is not just that people have access to these technologies, but that they reap the benefits of such advances and share in the dividends.

However sophisticated or confusing they may be, the key issue with these technological changes is wealth distribution. If yesterday we were focused on returns from land and machines, today we must pay special attention to the dividends of digital technologies, artificial intelligence and genetic engineering.

These new dividends, like past ones, can be either democratizing in their impact or help concentrate power in the hands of the few. But if they're to permeate society on a democratic scale, we first need a society that absorbs like a sponge, and that, in turn, depends on another basic factor: better education.

Have we already missed the train?

Improved education is needed not just at the higher levels of science and technology, but also in primary and secondary schooling, which creates better citizens. Unfortunately, in Colombia, too many people are excluded from quality education.

This is another reason why education must be a long-term, state policy, rather than subject to the short-term whims of whatever administration happens to be in power. And that means more government spending, which can be financed by more progressive taxes and a smaller military budget.

Colombian students walk to class Photo: Michelle McFarlane

One cannot have a truly democratic society if economic inequality allows a few to also hoard all the political power and wield it over the great majority. There can be no democratic society if everyone can access certain technologies, but only a few will reap its economic rewards. A decent education is one that permits a better social distribution of the dividends of science and technology.

Citizens should not allow the frequently used terms of this revolution words like technology, digital, 4.0 or 5.0 to confound the most basic social demands that include, and are a precondition to, democratic access to the dividends of science and technology. Colombia is no exception, and unless it embarks on a concerted revolution in education, it won't be able to properly assimilate the tech revolution.

Indeed, this is a particularly important challenge for developing nations like ours, which are already playing catchup when it comes to education. If we missed the train already, as they say, what happens now that the train is moving that much faster?

*Hernndez is an economics professor at the Pontifical Xavierian University in Bogot.

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A Democratic Imperative Of The Technology Revolution - Worldcrunch

UGA hype man gives it his all from the sideline to the classroom

Chip Chambers has never been good at sitting still.

Thats why he dances all four quarters of University of Georgia home football gamesand has for the last four years.

Decked out in suspenders and a bow tie, Chambers might be better known as the Mic Man, the hype man who fires up the fans and shows off his fancy footwork in front of the student section at Sanford Stadium.

And what most people dont know about him is that hes actually a scholar who spends a decent amount of his free time in the library or coffee shops. My form of procrastination is reading health policy and theology, he said. Which is a really nerdy thing to say.

Chambers is graduating this December with degrees in economics and biology; a minor in health policy and management; and certificates in interdisciplinary writing, and personal and organizational leadership.

A Foundation Fellow and a teaching assistant in UGAs Honors Program, Chambers next plans to attend to medical school. He wont sit still there either. He aims to get a dual degreeeither a Master of Public Health or Master of Business Administration along with his medical degree.

Chambers draws his unrelenting energy from crowdsbe it fourth quarter on game day, Honors prom or running into his friends on campus.

Chip Chambers was named Homecoming king in 2018. He is pictured with Avalon Kandrac, Homecoming queen. (Photo by Dorothy Kozlowski/UGA)

First and foremost, Chambers is a football fan. Growing up in Watkinsville as a third generation Bulldog, red and black is in his blood. He got discovered for his Mic Man role his freshman year. Hed been attending basketball games and, for better or worse, had built a reputation as that crazy dancing guy that just wouldnt sit down. The athletics department took notice and asked him if he wanted to try out for the Mic Man position, which works in conjunction with the cheerleaders. Starting his sophomore year, Chambers joined the ranks of about a dozen Mic Men in UGA history.

The first key to being a good mic man is to keep a pulse on pop music. Youve got to know every song and youve got to know all the main dances. It doesnt mean you have to be good at them, he said. Sometimes my sister or my roommates will text me a video and tell me theres a dance Ive got to learn. For games, his go-to dance moves are the Dougie, the two-step, the stanky leg and hit the woah.

Notre Dame leprechaun Samuel Jackson and Georgia mic man Chip Chambers have a dance-off during a commercial break at ESPN College Gameday on Myers Quad before the home game win over Notre Dame. (Photo by Andrew Davis Tucker/UGA)

After four seasons at the gig, he said hes learned to pace himself so every time we score, I can act like we just won the national championship. Its all about a steady effort, while still giving it his all. I dont want to walk off that field with an ounce of energy left or with my voice still intact. So, if Im not raspy the next morning, that means Ive done something wrong.

Clearly, Chambers is all about giving 100% whether thats on the sideline of a football game or showing up for a biochemistry test. I want to be characterized by passion, he said. I dont want to be apathetic about anything I do, and I want to be characterized by curiosity.

He worked in UGAs Terns Lab for four semesters researching CRISPR-Cas, a genetic engineering technology. Through UGAs Honors Program, he interned at the Greater New York Hospital Association. This past summer, he interned at Emory Healthcare in Atlanta working in its office of quality improvement and patient safety, and learned a lot about how to make the health care system more efficient, equitable, safe and patient-centered. For six years, hes volunteered at Mercy Health Center, which serves the uninsured.

Chip Chambers has done research through the Center for Undergraduate Research Opportunities for several semesters. (Photo by Stephanie Schupska)

Ultimately, I want to be a doctor because its the intersection of my interests in the life sciences and economics as well as an opportunity to join people at their absolute lowest, he said. Health care meets people at some of their worst moments in their life and I think as a doctor you have the opportunity to walk into a room where someones experiencing tremendous hurt and pain and say, I think I might be able to help. And thats pretty appealing to me.

And as his time at UGA comes to an end, Chambers thinks back to lessons hes learned both in the classroom and on the sidelines. Almost nothing matters nearly as much as you think it does. Im TA-ing a class for first-year students and I see them getting worked up about a lot of the exact same things I used to get worked up about, he said. Ive been trying to learn the difference between whats urgent and whats important. Nobody on their deathbed says, I wish I would have gotten a 93 instead of an 86 on that quiz. But people say, I wish I wouldve spent more time with family, so I want to concentrate on my faith and being a curious, kind individual.

Chip Chambers is a Foundation Fellow. Ive learned that the most effective leaders are the people who started as just one of the people that theyre leading and ultimately still identify as one of those individuals, he said. So for me, Im just another student. Im not anywhere close to the level of Hairy Dawg who is held on a pedestal. But being an effective leader requires a sense of humility and a sense of staying down to earth. (Photo by Stephanie Schupska)

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The man behind the mic - University of Georgia