Gene Editing Used to Alter Butterfly's Wing Designs

                Scientists have succeeded in altering the patterns on a butterfly’s wings by tweaking just one or two genes, an advance that may help understand how color patterns and shapes evolved in the insects. By using the new method of CRISPR, a gene editing tool, and produced a butterfly lacking the large round markings known as eyespots. In another experiments also produced changes in other parts of the wing. The distal-less gene, in particular, unveiled itself as a jack of all trades gene that plays roles in shaping several parts of the body. Deleting it not only caused the butterfly to have extra eyespots, but to have shorter legs and antennae. It takes dozens or hundreds of genes to make an eyespot, so it was remarkable to find that only one or two genes are required to add or subtract these complex patterns.

Living Bone Grown in Lab to Boost Cure For Facial Defects

                In a first, scientists have grown a living bone in the lab to repair large defect in the head and face of patient, taking a step forward in improving treatments for people with craniofacial defects. A new technique developed, uses autologous stem cells derived from a small sample of the recipient’s far and replicates the original anatomical structures of the bone. The researchers have been able to show, in a clinical-size porcine model of jaw repair, that this bone, grown in vitro and then implanted, can seamlessly regenerate a large defect while providing mechanical function. The quality of the regenerated tissue, including vascularisation with blood perfusion, exceeds what has been achieved using other approaches. Researchers fabricated a scaffold and bioreactor chamber based on images of the jaw defect, to provide and anatomical fit. The scaffold they built enabled bone formation without the use of growth factors, and also provided mechanical function. They then isolated the recipient’s own stem cells form a small fat aspirate and, in just three weeks, formed the bone within a scaffold made from bone matrix, in a custom-designed per-fused bioreactor.

Gravitational Waves Detected For 2nd Time By The Collision Of Two Black Holes

                For the second time, scientists have detected gravitational waves created by the collision of two black holes 1.4 billion light years away, which once again confirms Einstein’s theory of general relativity. The scientists detected the gravitational waves – ripples through the fabric of the space-time continuum – using the twin Laser Interferometer Gravitational-wave Observatory (LIGO) interferometer in the US.

                On December 26 last year, both detectors situated more 3,000 kilometer apart, picked up a very faint signal amid the surrounding noise. While LIGO’s first detection, reported on February 11 this year, produced a clear peak in the data, this second signal was far subtler, generating a shallower waveform that was almost buried in data. The researchers calculated that the gravitational wave arose from the collision of two black holes, 14.2 and 7.5 times the mass of the Sun.

                The signal picked up by LIGO’s detector encompasses the final moments before the black holes merged. In the final second, while the signal was detectable, the black holes spun around each other 55 times, approaching half the speed of light, before merging in a collision releasing a huge amount of energy in the form of gravitational waves, equivalent to the mass of the Sun. This cataclysm, occurring 1.4 billion light years away, produced a more massive spinning black hole about 20.8 times the mass of the Sun. This second detection of gravitational waves also successfully tested LIGO’s ability to detect incredibly subtle gravitational signals.

                LIGO’s two interferometers, each four kilometres, are designed in such a way that each detector stretches by an infinitesimal amount if a gravitational wave were to pass through. On September 14 last year, the detectors picked up the very first signal of a gravitational wave, which stretched each detector by as little as a fraction of a proton’s diameter. Just four months later, LIGO recorded a second signal, which stretched the detectors by an even smaller amount. In its first four months, the advanced LIGO detectors have already detected two signals of gravitational waves, produced by the collision of two very different binary black hole systems.

To Combat Global Warming, Carbon Dioxide is Turned Into Stone

                Scientists have found a quick way – but not a cheap one – to turn heat-trapping carbon dioxide gas into harmless rock. Experts say the results of a two-year, $10 million experiment called CarbFix, conducted about 540m deep in the rocks of Iceland, offer new hope for an effective weapon to help fight man-made global warming. When an international team of scientists pumped a carbon dioxide and water mix into underground basalt rocks, basic chemistry took over. The acidic mixture dissolved the rocks’ calcium magnesium and formed limestone, a permanent natural jail for the heat-trapping gas.

                Scientists, who had done this before in the lab, thought the process could take thousands or even hundreds of years. But after just two years, 95% of the gas, was captured and converted. One of the methods to battle climate change, in addition to reducing fossil fuel emissions, is to capture carbon dioxide from the air or powerplants. Carbon capture is not the silver bullet, but it can contribute significantly to reducing carbon dioxide emissions.

                Carbon capture however can be expensive – especially the capturing part. Once the gas is grabbed from the air, storage is another issue. It can be stored underground, injected in depleted oil wells, but there are concerns about monitoring it and preventing it from escaping. Injecting it into basalt and letting nature take its course can solve that problem. But at $17 per tonne of carbon dioxide, it can cost a couple times more than injecting it into old wells. There’s basalt all over the world, in places like the Pacific Northwest, India and South America. But even more promising is the ocean floor, which is full of basalt and a good place to store the carbon dioxide.