Two Workers Rescued in Antarctic Mission
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SEVEN DAYS The news in brief RESEARCH CRISPR human trial The first human therapy to involve the CRISPR–Cas9 gene-editing technology passed a major hurdle on 21 June, when a federal advisory panel at the US National Institutes of Health approved a proposal to use the technique to edit T cells, a type of immune cell, taken from people with cancer. The trial, which would SCIENCE FOUNDATION ROBERT SCHWARZ/NATIONAL be run by the University of Pennsylvania in Philadelphia, would simultaneously enhance the T cells’ ability to destroy cancerous cells and protect them from being attacked by the cells. US regulators have yet to approve the trial. See page 590 and go.nature. com/28qkj6m for more. FACILITIES Two workers rescued in Antarctic mission Olympic doping lab Two ill crew members were evacuated from to the pole, following medical evacuations in The World Anti-Doping the US Amundsen-Scott South Pole Station on 2001 and 2003. The National Science Foundation, Agency (WADA) has 22 June. A Twin Otter aeroplane operated by which oversees US research at the pole, did not suspended the accreditation Kenn Borek Air of Calgary, Canada, travelled to release the names or conditions of the patients; of the laboratory in Rio de the pole after stopping at Britain’s Rothera station. both were flown to southern Chile and onwards Janeiro, Brazil, that was to It was only the third midwinter flight ever made to receive medical treatment. have handled anti-doping tests of urine and blood samples from athletes at the city’s streams. In a surprise to many Reef Symposium in Honolulu, 13 satellites from the United upcoming Olympic Games. observers, 52% of voters Hawaii, notes that Australia’s States. The achievement WADA announced on 24 June chose to leave the EU. In the Great Barrier Reef has been brings the agency’s delivery that the facility had failed to run-up to the referendum, a devastated by bleaching this rate closer to those of NASA conform with its international number of senior academics year. Reef bleaching around and Roscosmos, and cements laboratory standards — but and research organizations the world will worsen as India’s place as a major player did not specify why. Brazil has (and Nature) had voiced fears global temperatures rise. in the space industry. had previous such troubles: that a vote to leave would be The signatories say that the it lacked a WADA-accredited highly disruptive to science. government should “stop Chinese rocket lab for the Rio-hosted 2014 See pages 589 and 597 for endorsing the export of coal” China’s new Long March 7 football World Cup. Football’s more. and halt plans for controversial rocket made a successful governing body FIFA decided mines in Queensland. maiden flight on 26 June. to fly samples to a lab in Coral crisis The rocket, which launched Switzerland for testing. More than 2,500 coral-reef India space record from Hainan Island, is scientists, policymakers and India’s space agency set a eventually intended for use in EVENTS stakeholders have written record on 22 June by launching transporting cargo and people to the Australian prime 20 satellites into orbit in a to a new Chinese space station Brexit shock minister demanding that the single mission — the biggest planned for 2022. It uses a The United Kingdom’s vote to government stop approving number in the agency’s history. kerosene and liquid-oxygen leave the European Union in new coal mines, because Its previous record for a single fuel, which is less toxic than a referendum on 23 June has climate change is the major launch was ten satellites. The propellants of older Chinese left researchers scrambling threat to reef ecosystems. The payload, which launched from rockets. The launch delivered to protect their scientific letter, sent on 25 June after a site in the eastern state of several satellites to low-Earth relationships and funding last week’s International Coral Andhra Pradesh, included orbit. 594 | NATURE | VOL 534 | 30 JUNE 2016 ©2016 Mac millan Publishers Li mited. All ri ghts reserved. ©2016 Mac millan Publishers Li mited. All ri ghts reserved. SEVEN DAYS THIS WEEK PEOPLE in cellular signalling involving the protein ubiquitin. Each FERMILAB Trachea surgeon person receives US$250,000 COMING UP Controversial surgeon Paolo — the largest unrestricted Macchiarini, who pioneered cash prize for early-career 7 JULY transplants of artificial scientists. The prizes are A Soyuz rocket launches windpipes seeded with awarded annually by the to take Anatoly patients’ own stem cells, is Blavatnik Family Foundation Ivanishin, Kate Rubins facing preliminary charges of and the New York Academy and Takuya Onishi to involuntary manslaughter in of Sciences. the International Space connection with two patients Station. who died after surgery, public POLICY prosecutors in Stockholm 27 JUNE–2 JULY announced on 22 June. Looser drone rules The Starmus festival Macchiarini is also suspected The United States has markedly in the Canary Islands, of causing grievous bodily quark. Edwards also worked relaxed its rules that govern the Spain, brings together harm to another transplant on accelerator designs for use of small drones, clearing astronomy, art and patient and to a patient future high-energy-physics the way for commercial — and music with speakers undergoing a different type machines. The Tevatron many scientific — applications. including Brian May, of operation, they said. In closed in 2011. The policy, announced by Stephen Hawking and March, Macchiarini was fired the White House on 21 June, Brian Eno. from the Karolinska Institute AWARDS had been under development www.starmus.com in Stockholm — where he had at the Federal Aviation worked since 2010 — after Blavatnik awards Administration (FAA) for allegations of clinical and The three winners of this years. Many scientists had The update to the 1976 Toxic scientific misconduct. No year’s US Blavatnik Awards been unable to use drones Substances Control Act formal charges have been for Young Scientists were for research because the gives the US Environmental brought and Macchiarini announced on 21 June. David machines could not be flown Protection Agency greater denies any wrongdoing. Charbonneau at Harvard for ‘commercial’ use, which authority to ensure the safety University in Cambridge, included research and teaching of chemicals — both old and Helen Edwards dies Massachusetts, was honoured activities at private universities. new. Under the revised law, Physicist Helen Edwards, for his work on observational The latest rules, which apply the agency can request more a driving force behind the astronomical methods used to to drones weighing less information from chemical Tevatron particle accelerator search for chemical signatures than 25 kilograms, require manufacturers and even at Fermilab near Chicago, of life in space. Phil Baran at commercial operators to be compel firms to conduct Illinois, died on 21 June, aged the Scripps Research Institute certified with the FAA. Drones extra safety studies. Several 80. Edwards (pictured) led in La Jolla, California, won must be kept within the line previous attempts to overhaul the design and construction for his research on the use of of sight. the law had failed over the of the Tevatron, which began chemical synthesis to design past decade. smashing together protons scalable, efficient routes to Chemical control and antiprotons in 1985; a potential new drugs. Michael Long-awaited reforms to NASA travel ban decade later, observations Rape at the University of US chemical regulations were NASA has effectively banned of these collisions resulted California, Berkeley, was signed into law on 22 June its employees and contractors in the discovery of the top rewarded for his discoveries by President Barack Obama. from attending a major space-research conference that begins in Istanbul, Turkey, on 30 July, citing TREND WATCH SUPERCOMPUTER SUPERPOWER security concerns. An internal China has ended the United States’ dominance in supercomputing, memo dated 21 June reports A Chinese computer tops the overtaking it in number of machines, as well as speed. that NASA head Charles SOURCE: TOP500 list of the world’s 500 fastest 350 Bolden made the decision supercomputers, for the seventh China United States Japan Germany to not sponsor or process consecutive time. The leading 300 travel to the Committee on machine, Sunway TaihuLight at Space Research (COSPAR) 250 the National Supercomputing assembly in line with travel Centre in Wuxi, can make 200 warnings issued by the US 93 quadrillion calculations per state department. Lennard China has 168 second. It is almost three times 150 supercomputers to Fisk, a space scientist at the as powerful as the previous list’s the United States’ 165. University of Michigan in winner, Tianhe-2, also in China. 100 Ann Arbor and president of in TOP500 list (June 2016) in TOP500 For the first time, China overtakes Number of supercomputers COSPAR, decried the decision the United States in number of 50 as giving in to terrorist threats. supercomputers in the biannual 0 TOP500 ranking. It had just one 1995 2000 2005 2010 2015 NATURE.COM machine on the list until 2000. For daily news updates see: www.nature.com/news ©2016 Mac millan Publishers Li mited. All ri ghts reserved. ©2016 Mac millan Publishers Li mited. All ri ghts reserved. 30 JUNE 2016 | VOL 534 | NATURE | 595 .