Latest News Clips 2017.08.07

                     

One of sixty trays containing the entire human genome at the Sanger Center in Cambridge, England. This week scientists in Oregon successfully edited genes in human embryos. CreditJames King-Holmes/Science Source

1.      Gene Editing for‘Designer Babies’?  Highly Unlikely, Scientists Say

Fears that embryo modification could allow parents to custom order a
baby with Lin-Manuel Miranda’s imagination or Usain Bolt’s speed are
closer to science fiction than science.

The New York Times   AUG. 4, 2017

Now that science is a big step closer to being able to fiddle with the genes of a human embryo, is it time to panic? Could embryo editing spiral out of control, allowing parents to custom-order a baby with Lin-Manuel Miranda’s imagination or Usain Bolt’s speed?

News that an international team of scientists in Oregon had successfully modified the DNA of human embryos has renewed apprehensions that babies will one day be “designed.” But there are good reasons to think that these fears are closer to science fiction than they are to science.

Here is what the researchers did: repair a single gene mutation on a single gene, a defect known to cause — by its lonesome — a serious, sometimes fatal, heart disease.

Here is what science is highly unlikely to be able to do: genetically predestine a child’s Ivy League acceptance letter, front-load a kid with Stephen Colbert’s one-liners, or bake Beyonce’s vocal range into a baby.

That’s because none of those talents arise from a single gene mutation, or even from an easily identifiable number of genes. Most human traits are nowhere near that simple.

“Right now, we know nothing about genetic enhancement,” said Hank Greely, director of the Center for Law and the Biosciences at Stanford. “We’re never going to be able to say, honestly, ‘This embryo looks like a 1550 on the two-part SAT.’”

Even with an apparently straightforward physical characteristic like height, genetic manipulation would be a tall order. Some scientists estimate height is influenced by as many as 93,000 genetic variations. A recent study identified 697 of them.

“You might be able to do it with something like eye color,” said Robin Lovell-Badge, a professor of genetics and embryology at the Francis Crick Institute in London.

But “if people are worried about designer babies, they’re normally thinking of doing special — different things than the normal genetic stuff.”

The gene-modification process used in the new study also turns out to be somewhat restrictive. After researchers snipped the harmful mutation from the male gene, it copied the healthy sequence from that spot on the female gene.

That was a surprise to the scientists, who had inserted a DNA template into the embryo, expecting the gene to copy that sequence into the snipped spot, as occurs with gene editing in other body cells. But the embryonic genome ignored that template, suggesting that to repair a mutation on one parent’s gene in an embryo, a healthy DNA sequence from the other parent is required.

“If you can’t introduce a template, then you can’t do anything wild,” Dr. Lovell-Badge said. “This doesn’t really help you make designer babies.”

Talents and traits aren’t the only thing that are genetically complex. So are most physical diseases and psychiatric disorders. The genetic message is not carried in a 140-character tweet — it resembles a shelf full of books with chapters, subsections and footnotes.

So embryonic editing is unlikely to prevent most medical problems.

But about 10,000 medical conditions are linked to specific mutations, including Huntington’s disease, cancers caused by BRCA genes, Tay-Sachs disease, cystic fibrosis, sickle cell anemia, and some cases of early-onset Alzheimer’s. Repairing the responsible mutations in theory could eradicate these diseases from the so-called germline, the genetic material passed from one generation to the next. No future family members would inherit them.

2.      Extreme heat warnings issued in Europe as temperatures pass 40C

Authorities in 11 countries warn residents and tourists to take precautions amid region’s most intense heatwave – nicknamed Lucifer – since 2003

The Guardian   4 August 2017 

Eleven southern and central European countries have issued extreme heat warnings amid a brutal heatwave nicknamed Lucifer, with residents and tourists urged to take precautions and scientists warning worse could be still to come.

Authorities in countries including Italy, Switzerland, Hungary, Poland, Romania, Bosnia, Croatia and Serbia are on red alert, the European forecasters’ network Meteoalarm said, and swaths of southern Spain and France are on amber.

As temperatures in many places hit or exceeded 40C (104F) in the region’s most sustained heatwave since 2003, emergency services are being put on standby and people have been asked to “remain vigilant”, stay indoors, avoid long journeys, drink enough fluids and listen for emergency advice from health officials.

At least two people have died from the heat, one in Romania and one in Poland, and many more taken to hospital suffering from sunstroke and other heat-related conditions. Italy said its hospitalisation rate was 15% above normal and asked people in affected regions only to travel if their journey was essential. Polish officials warned of possible infrastructure failures.

A spokeswoman for Abta, the UK travel trade organisation, reinforced the advice for holidaymakers, saying they should take sensible precautions, keep hydrated by drinking plenty of water, stay out of the sun in the middle of the day, and follow any advice issued by health authorities in specific destinations.

 The heatwave, now in its fourth day and expected to last until next Wednesday, follows an earlier spell of extreme temperatures last month that fuelled a spate of major wildfires, exacerbated droughts in Italy and Spain, and damaged crops.

The highest temperature on Thursday was 42C in Cordoba, Spain, and Catania, Italy. Split in Croatia also hit 42.3C on Wednesday. The spell is forecast to peak at the weekend with temperatures of 46C or higher in Italy and parts of the Balkans.

Authorities in Italy, which is suffering its worst drought in 60 years, have placed 26 cities on the maximum extreme heat alert, including Venice and Rome. Many of Rome’s fountains have been turned off, and last week the city only narrowly averted drastic water rationing.

In Florence, the Uffizi art gallery was temporarily closed on Friday when the air-conditioning system broke down. In Hungary, keepers at Budapest zoo cooled down two overheating polar bears with huge ice blocks.

Temperatures along parts of Croatia’s Adriatic coast, including Dubrovnik, were expected to hit 42C during the day. In the Serbian capital of Belgrade there were reports of people fainting from heat exhaustion.

Highs in Spain, including in popular holiday resorts on the Costa del Sol and on the island of Majorca, are set to reach 43C this weekend, with extreme conditions also forecast in Seville, Malaga and Granada. Ibiza and Mallorca could hit 42C, Spain’s Aemet meteorological service warned.

While Europe’s record high is 48C, set in Athens in 1977, current temperatures are in many places as much as 10-15C higher than normal for the time of year and likely to result in more fatalities, experts have said.

Europe’s record-breaking 2003 heatwave resulted in more than 20,000 heat-related deaths, mainly of old and vulnerable people, including 15,000 in France, where temporary mortuaries were set up in refrigerated lorries.

Such spells of extreme heat in southern Europe could be a foretaste of things to come. French researchers last month predicted summer conditions in some of the continent’s popular tourist destinations could become significantly tougher.

Writing in the journal Environmental Research Letters, the scientists said if a similar “mega-heatwave” to that of 2003 were to occur at the end of the century, when average temperatures are widely expected to be noticeably higher after decades of global warming, temperatures could pass 50C.

The researchers noted that climate models suggest “human influence is expected to significantly increase the frequency, duration and intensity of heatwaves in Europe” and said their modelling suggested that by 2100, peak summer temperatures could rise by between 6C and 13C against historical records.

3.      ‘Full-fledged economic war’: Medvedev slams Trump’s ‘humiliating’ cave-in on Russia sanctions

RT   3 Aug, 2017

Russian Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev © Alexander Astafyev / Sputnik

The US establishment has fully outwitted Donald Trump and used his administration’s weakness to declare a fully-fledged economic war on Russia, Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev has said, adding, that the move leaves no doubt that bilateral ties will never improve.

On Wednesday, Donald Trump signed into law a bill imposing new sanctions on Russia, which Medvedev says has put an end to “hopes for improving our relations with the new US administration.”

“It is a declaration of a full-fledged economic war on Russia,” he wrote in a lengthy strong-worded Facebook post in both English and Russian. “Unless a miracle happens,” the law will affect US-Russian relations for decades, Medvedev wrote.

The US President's signing of the package of new Russia sanctions ends hopes for improving our relations

Warning Washington of a “few consequences,” the Russian prime minister called out the White House’s “weakness” and inability to withstand internal political pressure.

The “Trump administration has shown its total weakness by handing over executive power to Congress in the most humiliating way,”Medvedev wrote.

“This changes the power balance in US political circles,” Medvedev wrote, asserting that the US establishment’s end game is to remove Trump from office.

The American political elite, Medvedev said, is not interested in Trump’s pragmatic approach or the interests of US multinationals who spoke out against any new sanctions.

“New steps are to come, and they will ultimately aim to remove him from power. A non-systemic player has to be removed,” Medvedev underlined.

“This legislation is going to be harsher than the Jackson-Vanik amendment as it is overarching and cannot be lifted by a special presidential order without Congress’ approval. Thus, relations between Russia and the United States are going to be extremely tense regardless of Congress’ makeup and regardless of who is president,” Medvedev outlined.

4.      Alibaba to open 'vending machine' in China to dispense luxury cars

RT    4 Aug, 2017

© AlibabaGroup

Buying a car in China may become “as easy as buying a can of Coke,” claims the Alibaba Group, announcing plans to set up the first “automotive vending machine” later this year.

Chinese consumers can already purchase vehicles online with the help of their smartphones but Tmall, the Alibaba Group-owned B2C shopping site, wants to take this type of e-commerce to the next level.

Here's what the future of car shopping could look like. Good news: no good cop, bad cop routine required.

“The era of online car shopping has already arrived,” said Yu Wei, general manager of Tmall’s automotive division.

According to him, consumers would browse the cars stored in a massive garage-like structure on their smartphones, make their purchase, and then the cars would be delivered to them at ground level.

“It will make buying cars as easy as buying a can of Coke,” Yu Wei added.

The so-called “new automotive retail model” introduced by Alibaba in June will allow mobile shoppers with good credit scores to purchase their new ride in only five minutes.