This week in science

Author

Neil Baugh
November 22, 2023

Happy Wednesday morning! Thanks for joining in for another week. It’s This Week in Science and I’ve picked out 5 cool pieces for you.

Enjoy! And let me know what you think by taking the polls at the bottom and/or sending me an email with your thoughts.

1. First CRISPR gene editing approval

UK first to approve CRISPR treatment for diseases: what you need to know

The landmark decision could transform the treatment of sickle-cell disease and β-thalassaemia — but the technology is expensive.

www.nature.com/articles/d41586-023-03590-6

CRISPR is a gene editing technology that’s been taking the world by storm for the last decade. The goal is simple: using CRISPR, we can remove segments of genes responsible for diseases and replace them with corrected, non-malignant versions.

A perfect use-case example is sickle cell anemia, which is a genetic disease that affects the patients red blood cells by making them sickle shaped. This causes many problems, including intense bouts of pain.

A Boston based company, Vertex Pharmaceuticals, just won the worlds first approval CRISPR therapy to treat sickle cell. Their therapy prevented pain episodes for 28 out of 29 recipients in a clinical trial with only minor side effects.

2. The snooze button… good or bad?

Is Snoozing the Alarm Good or Bad for Your Health?

New research suggests that hitting the snooze button to squeeze in an extra five or 10 minutes of sleep may actually be good for you

www.scientificamerican.com/article/is-snoozing-the-alarm-good-or-bad-for-your-health

Online productivity gurus love trashing the snooze button. They say it hurts your sleep and makes you more tired throughout the day, but per usual they never have any evidence. As a chronic snoozer, I obviously ignore everything they say.

In a definite win for the snoozers, a few new studies show that snoozing isn’t that bad at all and doesn’t significantly affect drowsiness or sleep quality.

3. Making custom spider silk

Click chemistry used to weave customizable spider silk - Advanced Science News

Click chemistry spins bacterial-produced spider silk into a biomedical marvel, promising innovations in fiber optics, wound healing, and tissue regeneration.

www.advancedsciencenews.com/click-chemistry-used-to-weave-customizable-spider-silk

If you’ve ever walked through a spider web, you know it’s tough to get rid of. Spider silk has an incredible mix of strength and flexibility that have made it a prime target of scientists for a while. However, it’s quite difficult to make and there’s been limited success (outside of literally farming spiders for silk).

This paper details a new way of producing spider silk using bacteria and making it more useful by putting new chemistries on it.

4. Science in pictures

This month in pictures - Advanced Science News

Enjoy this gallery of science images featuring a glowing hydrogel fish, microscale flowers, nanoscale fireworks, and more.

www.advancedsciencenews.com/this-month-in-pictures-6

Blood vessel replicates, nanoscale batteries, and more! Check out some amazing images from around the scientific community.

5. Using algae to clean up plastics

Algae-based microrobots clean up plastic waste  - Advanced Science News

Swarms of iron-clad algae have been built to sweep through bodies of water to collect elusive bits of micro- and nanoplastics.

www.advancedsciencenews.com/algae-based-microrobots-clean-up-plastic-waste

Plastic pollution is a problem. To clean it up, scientist are getting creative and making mini-robots that swim around collect plastic by sticking it to themselves.

That’s it for this week! Hope you enjoyed, let me know what you thought in the polls below.

See you next week for more science,

Neil

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