“A new technique using ultrasound to clear the toxic protein clumps thought to cause dementia and Alzheimer’s disease is moving to the first phase of human trials next year. The treatment has proven successful across animal tests and presents an exciting, drug-free way to potentially battle dementia.” | learn more
Ten people who mattered in science this year.
From the science journal Nature. “Their role in science may have had a significant impact on the world, or their position in the world may have had an important impact on science. In ten short profiles we reveal the human stories behind some of the year’s most important discoveries and events.” | learn more
MIT’s cyborg plant can drive itself into the light.
“Researchers at MIT have now created ‘cyborg plants’ that can control a robot base to drive themselves where they want to go.” | learn more
New CRISPR technique could prevent obesity without cutting or editing a genome.
“An exciting new study has demonstrated how a new kind of CRISPR technique can increase the expression of certain genes, instead of the more traditional approach of cutting or editing DNA. The method was tested in mice, targeting genes associated with hunger, and stopped the animals becoming obese.” | learn more
A smart toilet startup wants to improve pregnancy tests.
I’ve been talking for some time about a future where toilets regularly capture and send you data about your health. This future will first start in hospital/medical settings, and hopefully from there move to the broader “healthy” market over time. A Chicago startup is working on just this. First step: pregnancy tests in hospital settings. | learn more
Genetic changes associated with physical activity revealed.
“Time spent sitting, sleeping and moving is determined in part by our genes, University of Oxford researchers have shown. In one of the most detailed projects of its kind, the scientists studied the activity of 91,105 UK Biobank participants who had previously worn an activity monitor on their wrist for a week.” | learn more
Sugar-sweetened beverages may be addictive.
I’m not sure this is surprising to anyone, but more studies do help make the case stronger. “Youth between 13 and 18 years of age who were deprived of sugary drinks for just three days reported headaches, cravings and other withdrawal symptoms, according to a University of California study with researchers from both the Davis and Berkeley campuses.” | learn more
How to engineer biology.
Vijay Pande, partner at a16z, published this post in Scientific American explaining how we’re moving from pure discovery to a more structured engineering approach for biological. “With design, however, we can plan and progress very systematically along a roadmap and make incremental innovations along the way. Borrowing from engineering, here are principles that allow us to overcome the so-called Grove fallacy and harness biology.” | learn more
Science is getting less bang for its buck.
Researchers Patrick Collison and Michael Nielsen ran a survey of scientists to conclude: “Over the past century, we’ve vastly increased the time and money invested in science, but in scientists’ own judgement, we’re producing the most important breakthroughs at a near-constant rate. On a per-dollar or per-person basis, this suggests that science is becoming far less efficient.” Debatable for many reasons, and quite interesting to read. | learn more
Scientists claim to have discovered a brand new kingdom of life.
“…a new discovery from Dalhousie University in Nova Scotia, published in Nature, claims to have discovered a fifth kingdom of life—a new kind of eukaryote. The paper describes two organisms, one newly unearthed in Nova Scotia and one discovered in 1988, which upon DNA analysis are more distinct from anything else than previously thought.” | learn more