Science For All

Most cells in your body come with two genetic libraries; one in the nucleus, and the other inside structures called mitochondria - also known as the 'powerhouses of the cell'. Until now, we've only had a way to make changes to one. A combined effort by several research teams in the US has led to a process that could one day allow us to modify the instructions making up the cell's 'other' genome, and potentially treat a range of conditions that affect how we power our bodies. The molecular foundation of this revolutionary gene editing tool is a toxin called DddA, secreted by the bacterium Burkholderia cenocepacia to sabotage other microbes when competition over resources turns serious. Researchers from the University of Washington have had an interest in the toxin's talents for a while, finding it converts a nucleic acid base called cytosine into a different one commonly found in RNA, called uracil. It's far from the first time researchers have looked to ...

. Mere months into the pandemic, some 115 coronavirus vaccines have been put into development worldwide. France's Pasteur Institute is working on using a modified measles vaccine to "trick" the body into producing antibodies against the novel coronavirus. In March, Norway's Coalition for Epidemic Preparedness Innovations approved an initial grant of US$4.9 million to fund the institute's preclinical research. It's one of eight vaccine candidates CEPI is backing, though only two or three projects will be funded all the way through to the regulation and approval stage. CEPI estimates it will cost US$2 billion to develop a COVID-19 vaccine that can be produced in sufficient quantities to immunize billions in record time. But virologist Frédéric Tangy, head of the institute's vaccine innovation lab, says immunization is the only real solution to the pandemic. He compares measures like social-distancing and self-isolation to putting a Band-Aid on a gaping wound...

According to a new study in the United States, sudden loss of smell really does appear to be an early sign of COVID-19, especially in those with mild cases. In over a thousand patients with undiagnosed flu-like symptoms, experts found those with a loss of smell and taste had a 10-fold greater chance of testing positive for COVID-19. "The most common first sign of a COVID-19 infection remains fever, but fatigue and loss of smell and taste follow as other very common initial symptoms," clarifies otolaryngologist and head and neck surgeon Carol Yan from the University of California San Diego. The good news? If you're sniffing isn't up to snuff, it won't be forever, and it might actually bode well for your recovery. Surveying 1,480 patients, researchers found just over 100 tested positive for COVID-19. Among this subset of patients, a profound loss of smell and taste was quite common, but these senses usually came back within two to four weeks of infection, matching t...

Astronomers have delivered the closest look yet at the extremely hot outer corona layer of the Sun, revealing never-before-seen structures hidden within regions once only seen as empty or dark.  The new high-res images reveal magnetic threads up to 500 kilometres (311 miles) wide, with million-degree plasma flowing within them. The discovery brings fresh insights on the intense atmosphere of our home star. The original data were captured by the High-Resolution Coronal Imager (Hi-C) in 2018. As the name implies, this telescope is designed to take high-resolution images of our Sun's corona; Hi-C can spot objects on the Sun just 70 kilometres (43 miles) in size, or 0.01 percent the total size of the star. "Until now solar astronomers have effectively been viewing our closest star in 'standard definition', whereas the exceptional quality of the data provided by the Hi-C telescope allows us to survey a patch of the Sun in 'ultra-high definition' for the first time,...

A curious kind of bacteria found on the floor of the deep ocean might have a metabolism unlike anything we've seen before. Known as Acetobacterium woodii, scientists in Germany claim that this species, which also lives in the intestines of termites, can both create and use hydrogen and carbon dioxide to produce energy all on its own, even without the need for oxygen.  The ability to survive on organic and inorganic substances alike without oxygen makes this bacterium quite unique among microorganisms, and while scientists have long suspected something like this existed, it's never been clearly described among acetogenic bacteria, which produce methane free from oxygen.  "There have already been speculations that many ancient life forms possess the kind of metabolism that we have described in A. woodii," microbiologist Volker Müller from Goethe University Frankfurt explains. "This is assumed, for example, for the Asgard archaea that were just discovered a few year...