Ones to watch in 2012

Nature predicts next year’s newsmakers.

Dieter Egli, New York Stem Cell Foundation

This year he reprogrammed a human egg and derived embryonic stem cells — but with three sets of chromosomes. Tweaks could produce ‘diploid’ lines.

Paul Mahaffy, NASA Goddard Space Flight Center

When the Mars Science Laboratory lands, the instrument that he runs will sniff for traces of methane, a gas that could be a clue to life.

Elon Musk, SpaceX

His SpaceX Dragon capsule is scheduled to dock with the International Space Station early next year — a milestone for commercial space flight.

Oscar Pistorius, South African sprinter

His efforts to qualify for the 2012 Summer Olympics on carbon-fibre artificial limbs are set to reignite debate about technology’s impact on human performance.

Eske Willerslev, Center for Geogenetics, Copenhagen

This year, he tackled an Aboriginal Australian genome and extinct megafauna. Next year, his palaeogenetic sequencing ventures are bound to surprise.

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