Science

Side by side of mouse embryos. The one on the left appears to be developing normally, but the one on the right has an extra pair of legs.

How turning off one gene causes mice to grow 6 legs

A study of embryo development in mice led to the creation of a mutant mouse fetus with an extra pair of legs in place of genitals.

Kristin Houser

A man in a suit stands next to a robotic arm with computer-brain interfaces on a stage under blue lighting.

Big Tech

In a future with brain-computer interfaces like Elon Musk’s Neuralink, we may need to rethink freedom of thought

In a future with more “mind reading,” thanks to computer-brain interfaces, we may need to rethink freedom of thought.

Parker Crutchfield

Oceans

Artificial reef designed by MIT engineers could protect marine life, reduce storm damage

An MIT team is hoping to fortify coastlines with “architected” reefs engineered to mimic the wave-buffering effects of natural reefs.

Jennifer Chu | MIT News Office

Public Health

How cancer science is creating a sunscreen that lasts all day

NYU chemists have taken lessons learned from cancer drug development to create a longer-lasting sunscreen ingredient

B. David Zarley

Genetics

Gene editing gone wrong: Scientists accidentally create angry hamsters

A team of scientists used gene editing to create what they thought would be a calmer rodent. Instead, the gene-edited rodents were angrier.

Peter Rogers

Robotics

Cloud labs are the “ghost kitchens” of science

Cloud labs which run experiments with robots remotely may make science more efficient, replicable, and accessible.

B. David Zarley

Drugs

Magic mushrooms evolved to scramble insect brains, send them on wild, scary trips

Researchers discovered that the way fungi independently gained the ability to produce psilocybin is because of horizontal gene transfer.

Matt Davis

CRISPR

New CRISPR-based map ties every human gene to its function

Researchers used a single-cell sequencing tool Perturb-seq on every expressed gene in the human genome, linking each to its job in the cell.

Eva Frederick | Whitehead Institute

Physics

Nuclear isomers were discovered 100 years ago

Protons and neutrons in an atom’s nucleus can be arranged in different configurations, creating nuclear isomers.

Dennis Mücher and Artemis Spyrou

Physics

Lasers could cut lifespan of nuclear waste from “a million years to 30 minutes,” says Nobel laureate

If no solution is found, we're already stuck with some 22,000 cubic meters of long-lasting hazardous waste.

Robby Berman

Food

Real cheese without the cow

Biotech startup Formo uses genetically modified microorganisms to produce a completely lab-grown milk that can be made into cheese.

William Lockett

CRISPR

First CRISPR’d cockroaches open door to other gene-edited insects

It’s now easier for scientists to create gene-edited insects thanks to a new technique called “direct parental CRISPR.”

Kristin Houser

Physics

Einstein was right. Flying clocks around the world in opposite directions proved it.

By flying planes both with and against Earth's rotation, and returning them all to the same starting point, we tested Einstein's theory.

Ethan Siegel

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