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Membranes from spinach chloroplasts — the light-harvesting organelles in plant cells — were put to work in a microfluidic chip. Credit: Getty
A cyber-spinach boost for photosynthesis
A biological membrane from spinach leaves can work in tandem with a highly efficient engineered chemical pathway to turn CO2 into sugars. The artificial chloroplast could someday help produce therapeutic drugs or suck up carbon from the atmosphere. “That’s what excites us: we can realize solutions nature has never touched on,” says synthetic biologist Tobias Erb.
Worms do good physics (when sober)
Wriggling aquatic worms can alter the physical properties of the water they swim in, making it flow 10–100 times more smoothly. Experiments have demonstrated that worms can provide macroscopic models for the behaviour of ‘active’ polymers — molecules that move on their own and spontaneously form patterns. Researchers controlled the activity of the worms by raising or lowering the temperature of the water, or by adding alcohol to it. The alcohol seemed harmless to the worms, which took just half an hour to sober up after being returned to pure water, says physicist Antoine Deblais. “Sometimes it’s better to be a worm.”
APS Physics Focus | 5 min read
Source: Physical Review Letters paper
COVID-19 coronavirus outbreak
US approves first CRISPR coronavirus test
The US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has granted emergency-use approval for a new coronavirus test that takes advantage of the gene-editing technology CRISPR. It works by programming CRISPR machinery, which can home in on certain genetic sequences, to detect a snippet of SARS-CoV-2 genetic material from a sample. The test can return results in about an hour, according to the company. Researchers say widespread use of the kit could help to alleviate backlogs and increase testing. It remains to be seen how well the test performs in real-world conditions, such as hospitals, compared with standard tests.
Coronavirus blood-clot mystery
Purple rashes, swollen legs, clogged catheters and sudden death — all are signs of blood clots, large and small, that are a frequent complication of COVID-19, and researchers are just beginning to untangle why. It’s not just the presence of blood clots that has scientists puzzled: it’s how they show up. “There are so many things about the presentations that are a little bit unusual,” says vascular biologist James O’Donnell.
Where distancing is not an option
Researchers are scrambling to understand how COVID-19 is spreading under the radar in group-living situations, such as nursing homes, prisons and homeless shelters. The answers are essential to protect people who don’t have the luxury of separating themselves from others — and to eventually end the outbreak. Especially difficult is shielding the roughly 1.4 million people who use a homeless shelter or transitional housing in the United States each year.
Reporter Amy Maxmen tells the Nature news team about the story on the Nature Coronapod (28 min listen)
Swamped preprint servers block bad science
Preprint servers, where scientists post manuscripts before peer review, have been flooded with coronavirus research: bioRxiv and medRxiv have posted nearly 3,000 such studies between them. The servers are walking a tightrope between quickly disseminating coronavirus science and avoiding poorly conducted research that could fuel misinformation and conspiracy theories. They have enhanced their usual screening procedures to look even more carefully for claims that might cause harm, and are flagging papers that might contradict widely accepted public-health advice or inappropriately use causal language in reporting on a medical treatment.
Features & opinion
Galileo’s story is still chillingly relevant
Is there room in the crowded canon for a new biography of Galileo Galilei? You bet, writes Alison Abbott in her review of just the thing, penned by astrophysicist Mario Livio. With science denialism stronger than ever, Galileo’s grapple with heresy charges is chillingly relevant.
