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The InSight lander took this selfie in its first weeks on Mars, before it deployed its seismic instrument.Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech
First quake detected on Mars
NASA’s InSight lander has detected the first quake on a planetary body other than Earth or the Moon — a faint trembling of Mars’s surface. It's not yet clear whether the shaking originated within Mars or was caused by a meteorite crashing into the planet’s surface. InSight heard the marsquake using a French-built seismometer that contains three extremely sensitive sensors nestled inside a dome to protect them from the wind.
CRISPR creates wave of exotic model organisms
Biologists have embraced CRISPR’s ability to quickly and cheaply modify the genomes of popular model organisms, such as mice, fruit flies and monkeys. Now they are trying the tool on more-exotic species, many of which have never before been reared in a lab or had their genomes analysed. But the practical challenges of breeding and maintaining unconventional lab animals persist.
Height heritability hidden in rare genes
A deep genetic dive into the DNA of thousands of people suggests that many genetic traits and diseases might be ruled by gene variants that had lain undiscovered until now. The finding could help to solve the mystery of ‘missing heritability’: about 80% of the variation in height between individuals is down to genes, but the precise genetic factors that make you taller or shorter have eluded us. Researchers performed whole-genome sequencing of 21,620 people and found that the missing heritability for height and body mass index can be accounted for by rarer gene variants that are ignored by typical genetic studies.
Greenland’s demise is accelerating
Water from the melting Greenland Ice Sheet has raised sea levels by 13.7 millimetres since 1972 — half of which occurred during the past 8 years. A study that looked at the mass of the ice sheet since 1972 reveals that it has lost 4,976 gigatonnes of water to the ocean in that time. The rate of loss has increased by sixfold since the 1980s, from less than 50 gigatonnes per year back then to almost 300 gigatonnes a year in the past decade.
FEATURES & OPINION
Rise of the chem-bots
From robot arms to desktop-sized robotic synthesizers, chemists are hoping to reduce some of the time-consuming process of making molecules to push-button simplicity. One promising technology is flow chemistry, in which reactions take place in channels that have a constant flow of reactants pumped through their innards, rather than in a single vessel. But the field will have to overcome its hangover from disappointing drug candidates produced by similar efforts in the 1990s.
Protect our right to light
Skyscrapers in cities rob people of sunlight and put human health, well-being and sustainability at risk, warn two lighting researchers. Tall buildings can be energy-hungry and contribute to everything from a global rise in short-sightedness (myopia) to the stunting of urban trees and vegetation. The researchers argue that access to natural light should be enshrined in legislation from the ground up.
