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Radioactivity May Fuel Life Deep Underground and Inside Other Worlds

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New work suggests that the radiolytic splitting of water supports giant subsurface ecosystems of life on Earth — and could do it elsewhere, too.

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Why Is Florida Releasing 750 Million GMO Mosquitoes?

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The U.S. Food and Drug Administration is expected to authorize the Pfizer-BioNTech COVID-19 vaccine for children 12 to 15 years old, a decision that could come by some time early next week. The vaccine is currently authorized only for people age 16 and older.

A ruling should come "shortly," Pfizer Chairman and CEO Albert Bourla told investors in a conference call Tuesday morning.

The company announced in late March that it would ask the FDA to expand its emergency use authorization to allow younger people to receive the vaccine, citing clinical trials that showed the vaccine elicits "100 percent efficacy and robust antibody responses" in adolescents from 12 to 15 years old.

At Children's Minnesota, the state's largest pediatric hospital system, around 40,000 of their patients fall into that age group. Patsy Stinchfield, the senior director of infection prevention at Children's, said vaccine clinics won't look all the different than those for adults, though their plans include ways to make children feel comfortable.

"We're making it fun. Our clinic has music that plays and we give kids a little stress balls to hold onto if they need to. But most of them come in and do really, really well," Stinchfield told MPR News.

Stinchfield said there's been a lot of interest of vaccine among Minnesota parents and patients. She said they've seen a recent uptick in COVID-19 cases among Minnesota children, including 12 children currently in the hospital right as of Tuesday.

Children's is also in discussions with local school districts about possible vaccination clinics, Stinchfield said.

News of the pending authorization comes as children now represent a rising proportion of new coronavirus cases in the U.S., where more than 100 million adults have been fully vaccinated against COVID-19.

Pfizer is conducting pediatric studies to determine the safety and benefits of administering its vaccine to young children. The company plans to submit two new emergency use authorization requests in September, with one request covering children from 2 to 5 years old and a second applying to ages 5 to 11. A separate batch of results and a possible request, for children who are from 6 months to 2 years old, are expected in the fourth quarter.

"We also expect to have Phase 2 safety data from our ongoing study in pregnant women by late July/early August," Bourla said, according to his prepared remarks.

Looking further into the future, Bourla said he anticipates "durable demand" for the COVID-19 vaccine, similar to that for flu vaccines. And he said that later this month, Pfizer will ask the FDA to give full approval - not just emergency authorization - for administering its vaccine to people ages 16 and up. The company is also studying how a third booster shot could help protect people who have already undergone the two-dose regimen.

Pfizer and BioNTech, its partner in developing the vaccine, expect to be able to produce at least 3 billion doses in 2022, the Pfizer chief said.

The COVID-19 vaccine has already brought billions of dollars to Pfizer; Bourla said that in the first quarter of 2021 alone, the vaccine added $3.5 billion in global revenue. For the year overall, he said, Pfizer expects to bring in around $26 billion based on the vaccine.

The company and BioNTech have shipped some 430 million doses to 91 countries and territories, Bourla said.
Copyright 2021 NPR. To see more, visit https://www.npr.org.

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Pfizer says FDA will soon authorize COVID-19 vaccine for 12-15 age group

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The U.S. Food and Drug Administration is expected to authorize the Pfizer-BioNTech COVID-19 vaccine for children 12 to 15 years old, a decision that could come by some time early next week. The vaccine is currently authorized only for people age 16 and older.

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The mass inoculation of millions of American children against polio in 1955, like the vaccinations of millions of American adults against COVID-19 in 2021, was a triumph of science.

But the polio vaccine had overwhelming public acceptance, while stubborn pockets of vaccine hesitancy persist across the U.S. for the COVID-19 vaccine. Why the difference? One reason, historians say, is that in 1955, many Americans had an especially deep respect for science.

"If you had to pick a moment as the high point of respect for scientific discovery, it would have been then," says David M. Oshinsky, a medical historian at New York University and the author of 'Polio: An American Story.' "After World War II, you had antibiotics rolling off the production line for the first time. People believed infectious disease was [being] conquered. And then this amazing vaccine is announced. People couldn't get it fast enough."

Today, the unprecedented speed of the COVID-19 vaccines' development, along with a flood of disinformation on the internet about all vaccines, has led to a lingering hesitancy among some Americans to receive the increasingly available COVID-19 shots.

"In hindsight, Operation Warp Speed wasn't the best name," says Oshinsky. "It sounds like the project prioritized speed over everything else. They did roll it out quickly, but the FDA and CDC have done an amazing job of testing the vaccines and ensuring their safety and efficacy."

During the late 1940s and early '50s, according to statistics from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, polio disabled an average of 35,000 people a year in the U.S., most of them children. As outbreaks popped up across the country in the hot summer months, people were terrified and voluntarily isolated. Many parents kept their children close to home and away from community gathering spots like movie theaters, roller rinks and beaches.

"Back then, it affected business and travel," says Stacey D. Stewart, current president and CEO of the March of Dimes. "People didn't know how the virus was transmitted. They lived in a state of fear. Pools were closed. Businesses were affected because people didn't want to be out in public."

President Franklin D. Roosevelt, who had himself essentially lost the use of his legs after a polio infection in 1921, when he was 39, launched the National Foundation for Infantile Paralysis, a charitable organization, in the late 1930s. Later renamed the March of Dimes, the foundation took the lead in efforts to fund research at a time when the National Institutes of Health was in its infancy.

"Roosevelt's passion for finding a solution - a cure, a vaccine - made polio a priority coming from the very top leader of this country," says Stewart. "People across the country felt like they were called to duty. It was a call to action, like the war effort."

An army of volunteers for the March of Dimes, largely mothers, went door to door, distributing the latest information about polio and the effort to stop it; they also asked for donations. As little as a dime would help, they said. And the dimes and dollars poured in, Oshinsky says, handed to the volunteers, or inserted into cardboard displays at store checkout counters or placed in envelopes sent directly to the White House.

Cases of polio may have peaked in the U.S. in 1952 with nearly 60,000 children infected. More than 3,000 died. (By comparison, roughly a year's worth of comparable statistics for the COVID-19 pandemic reveal more than 32 million reported cases in the U.S. so far and more than 573,000 deaths.)

The years-long campaign of information and donations to the polio eradication effort made anxious Americans feel they were invested in a solution, Stewart says. So confident was the public in the research leading up to the polio vaccine that by the time the Salk vaccine was ready for experimental testing in 1954, the parents of 600,000 children volunteered their own offspring as research subjects.

When the results of those studies showed the vaccine to be safe and effective in 1955, church bells rang. Loudspeakers in stores, offices and factories blared the news. People crowded around radios. "There was jubilation," says Stewart. People couldn't wait to sign their kids up for a shot.

Then tragedy struck. One of the six labs manufacturing the vaccine, Cutter Laboratories in Berkeley, Calif., made a terrible mistake. The correct list of ingredients for the Salk vaccine called for polio virus that had been inactivated, but in the Cutter facility, the process of killing the virus proved defective. As a result, batches of the company's vaccine went out that mistakenly contained active polio virus. Of the 200,000 children who received the defective vaccine, 40,000 got polio from it; 200 were left with varying degrees of paralysis, and 10 died.

In April, the U.S. campaign against COVID-19 suffered a blow too. Reports that an extremely rare but serious blood-clotting disorder might have resulted from Johnson & Johnson's vaccine - one of the three authorized for use against COVID-19 in the U.S. - once again raised the question of whether possible harms caused by a vaccine might derail people's confidence in a public health campaign at a crucial time.

On April 13, the CDC and the Food and Drug Administration jointly announced that among the 6.8 million doses of the Johnson & Johnson vaccine administered to date, six cases of a serious blood-clotting issue had been recorded, and one had woman died.

Ten days later, after a careful review of those cases and others, the pause was lifted and immunization with the vaccine resumed, with new guidance for recipients and doctors about what to look for in the way of symptoms and how to treat these extremely rare events.

Polio vaccinations were temporarily halted in 1955 following the Cutter error as well. In both incidents, health officials followed the science. After Cutter's manufacturing error was pinpointed as the problem, vaccinations restarted within weeks, with renewed quality control efforts and minus any involvement from Cutter Laboratories.

In 1955, mothers and fathers jumped right back in following the Cutter tragedy, once again signing permission slips and lining their kids up to get their polio shot. It was widely understood and accepted that the risks of polio were a much greater threat than the risks of the vaccine.

"I think back then, people were so personally invested in the vaccine," Stewart says. "They listened to what happened in the Cutter case, and they understood. They continued to trust."

Because of that trust, the campaign to prevent polio with vaccines - first Jonas Salk's and then also Albert Sabin's - was successful, eventually nearly eliminating the disease from the planet. But that also means, says Oshinsky, that people born after the mass vaccination effort don't have memories of how bad the disease could be.

"Vaccines have been a job ... done so well they have obliterated evidence of what the disease can cause: kids on crutches, in wheelchairs, in iron lungs," Oshinsky says. "I remember seeing the occasional empty desk in school because a child had died. People had seen polio every summer, and they wanted kids vaccinated as soon as possible."

The polio vaccine effort offers some lessons for today, says Stewart. First, volunteers from local communities are trusted and invaluable in providing education on disease, research and vaccines. To get people's attention, add to that numerous high-profile advocates - individuals recognized and esteemed by various parts of the population. The March of Dimes recruited Judy Garland, Mickey Rooney and Marilyn Monroe to join the fundraising effort to educate people about polio and the value of the vaccine. And in 1956, Elvis Presley was vaccinated backstage at "The Ed Sullivan Show."

Vaccine efforts at the time did have to contend with racism. Oshinsky writes, for example, about some areas in the Jim Crow South where Black children lined up for shots on the front lawns of white schools, while white children got their shots indoors. The Black children, he notes, weren't allowed inside those white schools, even to use the bathrooms. Very aware of the prejudices of the times, Stewart says, the March of Dimes knew it would also need to recruit prominent and popular Black performers to promote the polio vaccine.

Sammy Davis Jr., Louis Armstrong and Ella Fitzgerald joined the campaign. "There was a very early recognition that you couldn't just have white people talking about the vaccine," Stewart says. In addition to beloved Black celebrities, she says, "the March of Dimes had Black children on the posters to raise awareness in Black communities."

It has now been several months since Sandra Lindsay, a nurse on Long Island, N.Y., became the first person in the U.S. to receive a COVID-19 vaccination. At least 30 percent of the country's total residents are now fully vaccinated, and more than 44 percent have received at least one dose.

"That's the low-hanging fruit," says Oshinsky. "After you vaccinate all the people champing at the bit to get it, that's when you have to think of strong marketing strategies for those who are hesitant."

The strong, consistent message during the polio years was "We're all in this together." The same message, says Stewart, must come across loud and clear today.
Susan Brink is a freelance writer who covers health and medicine. She is the author of The Fourth Trimester and co-author of Change of Heart. Copyright 2021 NPR. To see more, visit https://www.npr.org.

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Can't help falling in love with a vaccine: How polio campaign beat vaccine hesitancy

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The mass inoculation of millions of American children against polio in 1955, like the vaccinations of millions of American adults against COVID-19 in 2021, was a triumph of science. But the polio vaccine had overwhelming public acceptance, while stubborn pockets of vaccine hesitancy persist across the U.S. for the COVID-19 vaccine.

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NASA Astronaut Paints a Picture of Success Growing Plants in Space

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Astronauts on the International Space Station recently enjoyed a fresh supply of leafy greens, thanks in large part to the efforts of Expedition 64 crew member Michael Hopkins.

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142 year old seeds protected underground! 

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142 year old seeds protected underground! 

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It was 4 o'clock in the morning, well before sunrise, and cold. A light wintry mix of rain and snow was falling. The lousy weather was a relief, as it meant even less of a chance that someone might randomly pass by. The small group of scientists didn't want anyone to see what they were about to do.

They'd brought flashlights, a shovel, a trowel, a tape measure and an old map. The map looked more like a blueprint than a pirate's guide to buried treasure. Still, it did show the secret location of something precious stashed away underground.

The researchers had gathered together to dig up part of an experiment: an unusual long-term experiment that started in 1879 on the campus of what is now Michigan State University.

A botanist named William Beal wondered how long seeds could remain viable underground. So he designed an audacious study to find out, knowing full well that the answer might not come in his lifetime.

Frank Telewski, a professor of plant biology at the university, explains that Beal got 20 glass bottles. "Those 20 bottles, he filled up with a sandy seed mixture," says Telewski. "And the sandy seed mixture contained 21 species of plants, with 50 seeds per plant."

The plants were just common weeds. The idea was to find out, if farmers faithfully weeded their plots, how long these annoying plants could keep coming up from seeds already in the dirt.

Beal buried the bottles in the ground, keeping the location private so it wouldn't get disturbed. Every five years, he dug up one bottle and checked to see if the seeds inside would germinate. In 1910, when Beal retired, he passed on the experiment to a colleague, who later passed it on to a colleague and so on.

The study has lasted far longer than Beal intended because its caretakers decided to stretch it out. Instead of every five years, they switched to digging up a bottle every 10 years. Then, every 20 years. Telewski helped unearth a bottle in 2000, when he took over the experiment from a colleague. That year, only a couple of different weeds were still able to sprout.

As Telewski thought about digging up his second bottle, which was supposed to happen in 2020 (the excavation got delayed until this month, because of the coronavirus pandemic), he thought about the future. "I decided we needed to pass this on to the next generation, as I turned 65 last year," says Telewski. He picked three relatively young colleagues at the university to be the new caretakers and join him as he dug up a bottle.

One of them was David Lowry, who recalls first hearing about this famous experiment 20 years ago, when he was an undergraduate student in California. "I was blown away by the length and time at which it was occurring," he says. "I never imagined I'd be involved as well."

Telewski went to Lowry's office a couple of years ago and handed him the map. "And [Telewski] said, you know, in case something happens to me, you have the map. And a couple of months later, he had a stroke," recalls Lowry. "Fortunately, he mostly recovered from that. But there was a moment where it was like, 'Wow, I'm really glad that that handoff had occurred.' "

Even with the map and with Telewski healthy enough to lead the way, it was actually hard to find the right spot to dig in the dark. At first the team got slightly off track, then figured out its mistake and started digging again. Birds began waking up and chirping, and the team worried that it wouldn't be done before sunrise.

Lars Brudvig, another one of the new caretakers, said the whole experience of working on this felt different from the research he has done in the past.

"Almost like more pressure ... than normal," says Brudvig. "Because I'm part of this bigger process, it's bigger than me, and I really want to make sure that it's done right and carried forward properly - both for the generations of plant biologists in the past who have been involved, but also for those generations that are still to come who will be involved in the future."

He and Lowry watched as Marjorie Weber, the third new caretaker, got down onto the ground and stuck her head into the hole. She groped around in the dirt, feeling tree roots and then something smooth.

"I think I found it," she exclaimed, and everyone cheered. Then a moment later, she reported, "Wait - maybe not. ... Oh. It was a rock." Everyone groaned.

A microbiologist named Richard Lenski looked on. "The others were digging and trying to figure everything out, and I sort of held the map and held it under my jacket to keep it dry at one point. That was my hard work," says Lenski. "I was wondering if cops might show up at some point."

Lenski wasn't part of the Beal experiment; he'd asked to come along as an observer. He has a special interest in long-term studies because he has his own going on just across campus. He started it in 1988, to study bacterial evolution, and recently picked a younger successor to carry it on.

"I like to think of our experiment as long term, both in the past and going forward," says Lenski, but the Beal seed-viability experiment "puts our experiment to shame in that respect. This is a pretty amazing, unique aspect of science."

Finally, Weber said, "OK, I - for real - found it!" Telewski greeted the bottles as if they were old friends. "Wow!" he said. "Oh, wow! Hello, bottles!"

Weber says it was really cool to pull a bottle out of the ground, knowing that "the last person to touch it was professor Beal, 140 years ago, you know, this person who was writing letters to Darwin."

The researchers immediately took the bottle to a lab. They spread out almost all of the contents onto potting soil.

A molecular biologist named Margaret Fleming removed a couple of seeds, ones from a species that hasn't germinated in about 100 years. The plan is to analyze those seeds to see if any of the cellular machinery is still active inside, even if the seeds can't germinate, using genetic tools that were unimaginable in Beal's day. What's more, Fleming and Weber are the first females to work on this project in its long history, showing that it's more than technology that changes.

The researchers waited and waited for about a week. Then, on the afternoon of Friday, April 23, Lowry checked the tray of seeds and saw one tiny green seedling. That means at least one old seed could still germinate, and more could sprout in the days to come.

"We know that seeds can last a really long time in perfect conditions, like in seed storage vaults or the permafrost," says Weber, who notes that Beal's original question is still relevant. "We don't really know how long seeds can last in the soil. And that's where most of the seeds are."

She and the other new caretakers are all in their 30s and 40s now, but they'll eventually have to choose their successors to carry the study forward. Telewski thinks they should do it before the next excavation, in 2040.

"If I'm fortunate, I'll be 85," says Telewski, "and I sure hope I can be there as a spectator and can watch the team dig it up with their new colleagues."

But, like Beal, no one on the current team is going to see the end of this experiment. With four bottles left in the ground, the study should go on for another 80 years.
Copyright 2021 NPR. To see more, visit https://www.npr.org.

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The secret mission to unearth part of a 142-year-old experiment

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It was 4 o'clock in the morning, well before sunrise, and cold. A light wintry mix of rain and snow was falling. The lousy weather was a relief, as it meant even less of a chance that someone might randomly pass by. The small group of scientists didn't want anyone to see what they were about to do.

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Image: struvictory via Getty Images

ABSTRACT breaks down mind-bending scientific research, new discoveries, and major breakthroughs.

Clare and her colleagues didn't know what to expect from the experiment, so they used the same type of commercially available Sterivex-HV pressure filters that are common in aquatic eDNA studies. The filter component is located inside a plastic chamber that keeps samples sterile, and a pump attached to the equipment sucks air into the filter system to make collection more efficient.

To the team's delight, the pressure filters successfully picked up naked mole-rat eDNA from the air inside the rodents' burrows, and within the room itself, without needing to be adapted at all for a different medium.

What's more, the experiment also picked up human eDNA that had been shed by researchers and caretakers of the rodents over time. At first, Clare's team was disappointed by the presence of the human DNA, viewing it as a contaminant of the animal study. Soon, however, the researchers realized that there could be enormous implications for both sets of samples.

"That was the first thing we all discussed and said: 'Well, isn't that terrible? It's so contaminated with human DNA,'" Clare recalled. "And then we thought: 'No, that's a different form of DNA. We're just mammals in the environment as well.'"

The discovery of this exciting new eDNA source is bound to impact multiple scientific disciplines. Unlike DNA collected directly from one individual animal, eDNA samples can be gathered passively from an environment with no animals immediately present. These samples often contain a mixture of genetic fragments from multiple organisms that just happen to end up in filters at a certain place and time.

For this reason, eDNA is better suited for large-scale ecological studies of populations and biodiversity, such as tests for the presence of invasive species or making inventories of species that live in a selected habitat, as opposed to detecting and monitoring individuals.

Clare, who has extensively studied bats, sees special potential for ecologists hoping to non-invasively capture information about animals that live in inaccessible or potentially hazardous habitats such as caves, tree hollows, or subterranean burrows.

"We see it as another tool in the toolbox of being able to monitor different forms of life," Clare said. "We have camera traps in forests, and we have different types of nets and aquatic filtering for waterways. We're hoping this is a way we could sample different forms of terrestrial life."

The human eDNA also offers tantalizing possibilities for fields such as forensic anthropology or forensic archaeology, which involve data collection from human remains. For instance, specialists who study ancient remains, such as mummies, might be able to collect eDNA from within a tomb without invasively opening it, though this has not been tried yet.

Airborne eDNA could also complement existing techniques for studying the spread of pathogens, such as coronavirus. Pathogens have evolved to be robust and long-lived as they travel through the air-as opposed to shedded DNA, which quickly deteriorates-so scientists have already developed many ways to study infectious disease transmission. Still, eDNA from the air could help to contextualize the kinds of information gathered by more established techniques.

Clare and her colleagues are already busy with follow-up studies that will shed more light on the future applications and best practices for eDNA collection from the air.

"It's fun to speculate," she said, "but we're also quite a long way from being able to know what this material will do. Step number two is to figure out under what conditions can we even collect it."

"What we've done is show it's possible," Clare concluded. "Now we have to figure out under what context is it possible before we actually can apply it anywhere, in particular."

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Scientists Collected Human DNA From the Air In a Breakthrough

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Image: struvictory via Getty Images ABSTRACT breaks down mind-bending scientific research, new discoveries, and major breakthroughs. Clare and her colleagues didn't know what to expect from the experiment, so they used the same type of commercially available Sterivex-HV pressure filters that are common in aquatic eDNA studies.

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weightlessness causes the human heart to shrink in space

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This is how the human heart adapts to space

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Astronaut Scott Kelly and endurance swimmer Benoît Lecomte both experienced heart shrinkage -- Kelly after a year in space and Lecomte after a 159-day swim across the Pacific Ocean. It's evidence of how the heart adapts to weightlessness, according to a new study.

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An entire lineage of French rabbits has been doing handstands for nearly a century. The acrobatic bunnies are not so much performing a stunt as they are a product of stunted genetics, according to a paper this week in PLOS Genetics.

First discovered in a domesticated rabbit living in a Parisian suburb in 1935, the recessive trait is the product of a genetic mutation that could have been hidden in the animals' genetic code for generations, only to surface then. It's not a superpower. The rabbit variety-the "sauteur d'Alfort," or "the Alfort jumper"-is also more likely to develop cataracts and become blind.

"The strain has been kept since then to study ocular malformations and pathological locomotion," said co-author Miguel Carneiro, a geneticist at the University of Porto in Portugal, in an email. "Rabbits carrying this mutation would not be able to survive long in the wild due to its deleterious effects."

The rabbits walk on all fours when moving slowly, but in a rush, turn to the handstand method. Now, a team of geneticists have identified the root of all those problems in the breed's DNA.

To figure out the origins of the animal's abnormalities, the team of geneticists and developmental biologists bred the Alfort jumper with rabbits that hop normally and sequenced the DNA of their descendants. They found the rabbits that ended up bipedal had a mutation on the first chromosome; specifically, a warped gene called RORB, which expresses a protein of the same name.

"With modern technology, it's straightforward to go from a simple recessive disorder to finding the genes," said co-author Leif Andersson, a geneticist at Uppsala University in Sweden, in a video call. "The expectation was there was something wrong with the spinal cord, because they don't coordinate their forelegs and the hind legs."

Among the Alfort jumping rabbits (perhaps a misnomer, given the bunnies have no hops), this was proven true. The RORB protein is a transcription factor, meaning it has a hand in a number of genes, which all end up being expressed in traits. The proteins are ordinarily produced in inhibitory interneurons that cease communications moving through the body. (Imagine an operator refusing to service your calls.) In the weird-walking rabbits, the interneurons either were less present or completely absent, and, in the latter case, the rabbits would overflex their hind legs, rendering them incapable of hopping.

"What's happening when you're moving is that you have these neurons firing all the time, and they coordinate muscle contractions and receive feedback on the balance of the different limbs," Andersson said. "This coordination of muscle contraction is not correct in these rabbits."

You can think, the rabbits' handstand is not itself the mutation, but a workaround to an otherwise debilitating inhibition of the animal's iconic means of locomotion. Andersson said the two-footed locomotion caused the animals no pain of which he was aware.

It's not the only animal to experience gait disruption due to genetic mutations. Similar behavior was seen in mice with a RORB mutation, and previous work of Andersson's found that a mutation in the gene DMRT3 disrupts the gait of mice and horses. (Interestingly, it is that mutation at work when you look at the different gait patterns of certain horse breeds, from Tennessee Walkers to Louisiana Fox Trotters.)

Thanks to genetic science, these mysteries can be decrypted on microscopic scales and could aid in better understanding the communication centers of our own (human) spinal cords, for medical research going forward.

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These Mutant Rabbits Walk on Two Legs, and Geneticists Now Know Why

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An entire lineage of French rabbits has been doing handstands for nearly a century. The acrobatic bunnies are not so much performing a stunt as they are a product of stunted genetics, according to a paper published this week in PLOS Genetics.

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Still a high school junior, Will Wanish built a syrup production facility with $30,000 in new equipment.

COLFAX, Wis. - A lot of pancake-snarfing kids consider themselves fans of maple syrup, but a western Wisconsin teen is doing them all one better.

Sixteen-year-old Will Wanish has become a maple maven, with thousands of trees tapped, a new production facility and syrup on the shelves of 100 stores.

"This is what I want to do for the rest of my career," the driven Colfax High School junior says. "I don't even eat breakfast in the morning - get up and go."

Will's interest in maple syrup started from a seed planted four years ago by his uncle, a maple syrup hobbyist.

At the start, Will's dad wasn't exactly encouraging.

"I said, 'You know you can go to Walmart and buy a gallon of Mrs. Butterworth for seven bucks," Todd Wanish says with a laugh.

Todd's son would not be deterred.

From a few tapped trees in his yard, Will has expanded to roughly 3,000 taps on several parcels of forest land owned by his grandparents and neighbors.

Small-scale collection bags have been replaced by miles of tubing, through which maple sap is collected into large tanks and pumped out daily for the syrup-making operation Will fires up after school.

"This is all I think about," Will says.

At 15, Will used money he'd earned working at a neighbor's dairy farm to build a gleaming steel sugar shed.

He then equipped his shed with $30,000 in syrup making equipment, purchased with a microloan he received from a local regional business fund.

For Will's parents, it was just another reminder their son is not like other teenagers.

"Even when he was little, there was no naps," Heather, Will's mother, says.

Todd says mornings with his young son were something to behold. "The blankets would fly off the bed and the feet were spinning before they even hit the ground.

"Full speed all day," Heather says.

"Everything's wide open," Todd adds.

With marketing help from his mom, Will's syrup is now on the shelves of 100 stores, from Milwaukee to the Twin Cities.

During the busy spring weeks, friends and relatives help Will with bottling while his dad and grandpa collect sap in 300-gallon tanks mounted in their pick-up beds.

"We're the unpaid interns," Will's dad says with a laugh.

Just shy of his 17th birthday, Will is already weighing expansion.

"I want to be at least 20,000 taps within 15 years," he says.

Some school nights, the lights in Will's sugar shed will burn until 4 a.m. He'll grab a few hours of sleep, then wake for classes.

Will's energy seems as boundless as the spring maple sap he processes.

"Yep," he says confidently. "It don't shut off."

16-year-old maple maven has thousands of tapped trees & syrup in 100 stores

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16-year-old maple maven has thousands of tapped trees and syrup in 100 stores

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Still a high school junior, Will Wanish built a syrup production facility with $30,000 in new equipment. COLFAX, Wis. - A lot of pancake-snarfing kids consider themselves fans of maple syrup, but a western Wisconsin teen is doing them all one better.

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Wolf leaves Isle Royale and has an Epic journey! 

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Wolf leaves Isle Royale and has an Epic journey! 

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In late January 2019, during a bitterly cold winter spell, scientists flew to Isle Royale in Lake Superior to try to locate three wolves that had recently been relocated to the island, the first part of a landmark effort to restore the delicate balance between wolves and moose - their chief prey - in the remote national park.

Four wolves from the Grand Portage reservation on the far northeastern tip of Minnesota were trapped and moved to Isle Royale the previous fall. One died shortly thereafter. The other three survived, but scientists had lost track of them. The wolves' GPS collars hadn't transmitted any locations for five days.

After arriving on the island, the researchers quickly located two of the wolves, but couldn't find the third. They picked up a static-filled signal out over the ice that had begun to break up on Lake Superior. But the weather worsened, and they had to turn around.

Later that day, they finally received satellite GPS data from the wolf's collar, and it confirmed what they suspected- F003, a female wolf, had departed the island on January 31 on an ice bridge that had formed, connecting the island to the mainland. The wolf headed to a location just north of the Pigeon River, on the Canadian border, very near to the area where it had been captured about three months earlier.

"The early research on wolf translocation indicated that if you moved a wolf less than 80 miles it typically would try to return home, especially if it was a breeding animal," Dave Mech, a well-known wolf biologist with the U.S. Geological Survey, said at the time. "So a Minnesota wolf trying to return is not surprising."

But Mech and others also knew that if a relocated wolf stayed in its new home for at least a month, then it generally stayed.

The researchers continued to monitor the movements of the two remaining wolves that had been relocated to Isle Royale, primarily to study their predation habits. But they also continued to track the whereabouts of wolf F003, because her GPS collar continued to send signals of her location every four hours.

And it turns out, she made quite the journey. A team of federal, tribal and university researchers recently published a study detailing the wolf's travels after she left the island.

After spending about four weeks on the mainland near where she was born, the wolf spent a couple months looping around northeastern Minnesota, and then another couple months traveling far into Ontario.

"She covered over 385 straight-line kilometers [about 240 miles] from where she started her emigration when she hit the mainland to her furthestmost west location," said Beth Orning, the study's lead author, who at the time was with the SUNY College of Environmental Science and Forestry in New York.

"Movements like that are are pretty rare for wolves. Most of them settle within 55 kilometers of [where they were born]," she said. Previous research suggests only about 3 percent of wolves will travel so broadly, Orning said.

But wolf F003 wasn't done. She traveled widely throughout Ontario before returning to the Grand Portage reservation in Minnesota for a month. Then she traveled back to Ontario, where she largely stayed through 2020, until she made a trip northwest of the city of Thunder Bay. That's when her collar stopped transmitting.

While researchers will never know specifically what led this individual wolf to cross more than 15 miles of Lake Superior ice and embark on such a long journey, they "posit food stress, social competition, and lack of breeding opportunity, or a combination of these and other factors may have facilitated the long-distance emigration of this wolf from Isle Royale."

On a species-wide level, Orning says it's advantageous to have some animals willing to travel farther than others.

"Having some animals that move those greater distances are going to disperse genes much further into different parts of the population," she says. "So having these occasional individuals that make these long-distance dispersals is a evolutionary biological strategy."

While researchers will likely never know the fate of Wolf F003, they are still tracking the other wolves that were relocated to Isle Royale. 19 wolves from Minnesota, Michigan and Ontario were captured and brought to the park.

As of April 2020, researchers estimated there were 14 wolves on the island. Eight have died, but scientists believe at least two pups have been born.

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Study details Minnesota wolf's epic journey

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A recently published study details the epic journey of a lone female wolf after leaving Isle Royale National Park on an ice bridge. The wolf was one of the first relocated to the park as part of a landmark effort to bolster the wolf population on the Lake Superior island.

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Scientists usually shy away from using the word miracle. Unless they're talking about the gene-editing tool called CRISPR, that is. "You can do anything with CRISPR," some say. Others just call it amazing.

Indeed, it amazed so many people and so swiftly that just eight years after they discovered it, Jennifer Doudna and Emmanuelle Charpentier took home the 2020 Nobel Prize in chemistry.

CRISPR stands for "clustered regularly interspaced short palindromic repeats." Those repeats are found in bacteria's DNA. They are actually copies of small pieces of viruses. Bacteria use them like collections of mug shots to identify bad viruses. Cas9 is an enzyme that can cut apart DNA. Bacteria fight off viruses by sending the Cas9 enzyme to chop up viruses that have a mug shot in the collection. Scientists recently figured out how bacteria do this. Now, in the lab, researchers use a similar approach to turn the microbe's virus-fighting system into the hottest new lab tool.

This CRISPR/Cas9 tool was first described in 2012 and 2013. Science labs around the world soon started using it to alter an organism's genome - the entire set of its DNA instructions.

This tool can quickly and efficiently tweak almost any gene in any plant or animal. Researchers already have used it to fix genetic diseases in animals, to combat viruses and to sterilize mosquitoes. They have also used it to prepare pig organs for human transplants and to beef up the muscles in beagles.

So far CRISPR's biggest impact has been felt in basic biology labs. This low-cost gene editor is easy to use. That has made it possible for researchers to delve into the basic mysteries of life. And they can do it in ways that used to be difficult if not impossible.

Robert Reed is a developmental biologist at Cornell University in Ithaca, N.Y. He likens CRISPR to a computer mouse. "You can just point it at a place in the genome and you can do anything you want at that spot."

At first, that meant anything that involved cutting DNA. CRISPR/Cas9 in its original form is a homing device (the CRISPR part) that guides molecular scissors (the Cas9 enzyme) to a target section of DNA. Together, they work as a genetic-engineering cruise missile that disables or repairs a gene, or inserts something new where the Cas9 scissors has made some cuts. Newer versions of CRISPR are called "base editors." These can edit genetic material one base at a time, without cutting. They're more like a pencil than like scissors.

Here's how it works

Scientists start with RNA. That's a molecule that can read the genetic information in DNA. The RNA finds the spot in the nucleus of a cell where some editing activity should take place. (The nucleus is a compartment in a cell where most of the genetic material is stored.) This guide RNA shepherds Cas9 to the precise spot on DNA where a cut is called for. Cas9 then locks onto the double-stranded DNA and unzips it.

This allows the guide RNA to pair up with some region of the DNA it has targeted. Cas9 snips the DNA at this spot. This creates a break in both strands of the DNA molecule. The cell, sensing a problem, repairs the break.

Fixing the break might disable a gene (the easiest thing to do). Alternatively, this repair might fix a mistake or even insert a new gene (a much more difficult process).

Cells usually repair a break in their DNA by gluing the loose ends back together. That's a sloppy process. It often results in a mistake that disables some gene. That may not sound useful - but sometimes it is.

Scientists cut DNA with CRISPR/Cas9 to make gene changes, or mutations. By comparing cells with and without the mutation, scientists can sometimes figure out what a protein's normal role is. Or a new mutation may help them understand genetic diseases. CRISPR/Cas9 also can be useful in human cells by disabling certain genes - ones, for instance, that play a role in inherited diseases.

"The original Cas9 is like a Swiss army knife with only one application: It's a knife," says Gene Yeo. He is an RNA biologist at the University of California, San Diego. But Yeo and others have bolted other proteins and chemicals to the dulled blades. That has transformed that knife into a multifunctional tool.

CRISPR/Cas9 and related tools can now be used in new ways, such as changing a single nucleotide base - a single letter in the genetic code - or adding a fluorescent protein to tag a spot in the DNA that scientists want to track. Scientists also can use this genetic cut-and-paste technology to turn genes on or off.

This explosion of new ways to use CRISPR hasn't ended. Feng Zhang is a molecular biologist at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in Cambridge. He was one of the first scientists to wield the Cas9 scissors. "The field is advancing so rapidly," he says. "Just looking at how far we have come...I think what we'll see coming in the next few years will just be amazing."
This story was updated on October 8, 2020 to note the Nobel committee's decision to award CRISPR's discovery the 2020 prize in chemistry.

Power Words
More About Power Words

application A particular use or function of something.

base (in genetics) A shortened version of the term nucleobase. These bases are building blocks of DNA and RNA molecules.

biology The study of living things. The scientists who study them are known as biologists.

Cas9 An enzyme that geneticists are now using to help edit genes. It can cut through DNA, allowing it to fix broken genes, splice in new ones or disable certain genes. Cas9 is shepherded to the place it is supposed to make cuts by CRISPRs, a type of genetic guides. The Cas9 enzyme came from bacteria. When viruses invade a bacterium, this enzyme can chop up the germs DNA, making it harmless.

cell The smallest structural and functional unit of an organism. Typically too small to see with the naked eye, it consists of watery fluid surrounded by a membrane or wall. Animals are made of anywhere from thousands to trillions of cells, depending on their size. Some organisms, such as yeasts, molds, bacteria and some algae, are composed of only one cell.

chemical A substance formed from two or more atoms that unite (become bonded together) in a fixed proportion and structure. For example, water is a chemical made of two hydrogen atoms bonded to one oxygen atom. Its chemical symbol is H2O.

CRISPR An abbreviation - pronounced crisper - for the term "clustered regularly interspaced short palindromic repeats." These are pieces of RNA, an information-carrying molecule. They are copied from the genetic material of viruses that infect bacteria. When a bacterium encounters a virus that it was previously exposed to, it produces an RNA copy of the CRISPR that contains that virus' genetic information. The RNA then guides an enzyme, called Cas9, to cut up the virus and make it harmless. Scientists are now building their own versions of CRISPR RNAs. These lab-made RNAs guide the enzyme to cut specific genes in other organisms. Scientists use them, like a genetic scissors, to edit - or alter - specific genes so that they can then study how the gene works, repair damage to broken genes, insert new genes or disable harmful ones.

developmental (in biology) An adjective that refers to the changes an organism undergoes from conception through adulthood. Those changes often involve chemistry, size and sometimes even shape.

DNA (short for deoxyribonucleic acid) A long, double-stranded and spiral-shaped molecule inside most living cells that carries genetic instructions. It is built on a backbone of phosphorus, oxygen, and carbon atoms. In all living things, from plants and animals to microbes, these instructions tell cells which molecules to make.

engineering The field of research that uses math and science to solve practical problems.

field An area of study, as in: Her field of research was biology. Also a term to describe a real-world environment in which some research is conducted, such as at sea, in a forest, on a mountaintop or on a city street. It is the opposite of an artificial setting, such as a research laboratory.

fluorescent Capable of absorbing and reemitting light. That reemitted light is known as a fluorescence.

gene (adj. genetic) A segment of DNA that codes, or holds instructions, for producing a protein. Offspring inherit genes from their parents. Genes influence how an organism looks and behaves.

genome The complete set of genes or genetic material in a cell or an organism. The study of this genetic inheritance housed within cells is known as genomics.

muscle A type of tissue used to produce movement by contracting its cells, known as muscle fibers. Muscle is rich in a protein, which is why predatory species seek prey containing lots of this tissue.

mutation (v. mutate) Some change that occurs to a gene in an organism's DNA. Some mutations occur naturally. Others can be triggered by outside factors, such as pollution, radiation, medicines or something in the diet. A gene with this change is referred to as a mutant.

nucleus Plural is nuclei. (in biology) A dense structure present in many cells. Typically a single rounded structure encased within a membrane, the nucleus contains the genetic information.

organ (in biology) Various parts of an organism that perform one or more particular functions. For instance, an ovary is an organ that makes eggs, the brain is an organ that interprets nerve signals and a plant's roots are organs that take in nutrients and moisture.

palindrome (adj. palindromic) A word, a name or a phrase that has the same ordering of letters when read forwards or backwards. For instance, dad and mom are both palindromes.

protein Compound made from one or more long chains of amino acids. Proteins are an essential part of all living organisms. They form the basis of living cells, muscle and tissues; they also do the work inside of cells. The hemoglobin in blood and the antibodies that attempt to fight infections are among the better-known, stand-alone proteins. Medicines frequently work by latching onto proteins.

RNA A molecule that helps "read" the genetic information contained in DNA. A cell's molecular machinery reads DNA to create RNA, and then reads RNA to create proteins.

tag (in biology) To attach some rugged band or package of instruments onto an animal. Sometimes the tag is used to give each individual a unique identification number. Once attached to the leg, ear or other part of the body of a critter, it can effectively become the animal's "name." In some instances, a tag can collect information from the environment around the animal as well. This helps scientists understand both the environment and the animal's role within it.

Citations

Journal:​ S. Wang et al. An RNA-aptamer-based two-color CRISPR labeling system. Scientific Reports. Vol. 6, May 27, 2016, p. 26857. doi: 10.1038/srep26857.

Journal:​ ​A. C. Komor et al. Programmable editing of a target base in genomic DNA without double-stranded DNA cleavage. Nature. Vol. 533, May 19, 2016, published online April 20, 2016, p. 420. doi:10.1038/nature17946.

Journal:​ D. A. Nelles et al. Programmable RNA tracking in live cells with CRISPR/Cas9. Cell. Vol. 165, April 7, 2016, p. 488. doi: 10.1016/j.cell.2016.02.054.

Tina Hesman Saey is the senior staff writer and reports on molecular biology. She has a Ph.D. in molecular genetics from Washington University in St. Louis and a master's degree in science journalism from Boston University.

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Scientists usually shy away from using the word miracle. Unless they're talking about the gene-editing tool called CRISPR, that is. "You can do anything with CRISPR," some say. Others just call it amazing. Indeed, it amazed so many people and so swiftly that just eight years after they discovered it, Jennifer Doudna and Emmanuelle Charpentier took home the 2020 Nobel Prize in chemistry.

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Jean Bentley is a retired nurse from St. Paul who, back in January, picked up a shift at a nearby clinic that was short-staffed for the day.

When her shift was over a little after 5 p.m., she walked out to the parking lot to start her Toyota Prius.

"And it just made that bhrum, bhrum, bhrum, bhrum, bhrum [sound]," she said, "like you don't have a muffler."

Bentley knew immediately what that noise meant. She had friends and neighbors who also had catalytic converters sawed off from their cars. She had insurance to get it fixed, but her deductible was $1,000.

"So I just had to bite it. You've got to get it fixed. But it's a shame, you know, when you're trying to work extra shifts, and help out, and then you're paying extra money instead of saving."

Catalytic converter thefts have been in the news before, but they've exploded over the past year. According to the National Insurance Crime Bureau, in 2019, on average, 282 thefts were reported each month. Last year, that number jumped to about 1,200 per month.

And law enforcement officials from Duluth to Rochester to the Twin Cities, and across the country, say the trend is intensifying this year as the value of the precious metals found in catalytic converters skyrockets.

One catalytic converter only contains a few grams of metals such as platinum, palladium and rhodium, which scrub harmful pollutants from car exhaust.

"The problem is that they're just worth so much," said Paul Dauenhauer, a chemical engineering and material science professor at the University of Minnesota. "We think of platinum as more valuable than gold. But rhodium is 10 times more valuable than platinum. So in the end, even if [there's] just a small amount of metal in a catalytic converter, it's just worth so much per ounce."

Catalytic converters are muffler-shaped devices installed on the undersides of vehicles. When cars and trucks burn gas, the exhaust has harmful contaminants in it, including carbon monoxide and nitrous oxide, which is the stuff that causes acid rain. Catalytic converters break down those compounds before they're released into the air.

"And we need that to happen really fast because you can imagine that the gases leave the engine very fast and come out the exhaust pipe," said Michael Moats, a professor of metallurgical engineering at the Missouri University of Science and Technology. "So we need to have highly active metals to promote those chemical reactions."

And the best metals to do that are the platinum-group metals, which also include palladium and rhodium. As the prices of those metals have soared - rhodium has increased by about 50 percent in the past three months - catalytic converter thefts have spread across the country, even to Rolla, Mo., where Moats lives, about 100 miles outside St. Louis.

"It is everywhere," said Moats. Recently, he said, "the catalytic converters were stolen off of our church vans."

Most of these metals are mined in South Africa, where production slowed during the pandemic. At the same time that supply was diminished, Moats said there's also growing demand for these metals around the world, especially in China - because more people are buying cars and because more countries are passing stricter pollution laws.

"There are more cars being driven in China, and there are more regulations. So that's part of the driving force as well," Moats said.

Thieves can slither under cars and saw them off in just a couple minutes. Pickups are popular targets, in part because they're higher off the ground. So is the Toyota Prius because it's a hybrid, which only operates on gas part of the time, the catalytic converter doesn't get used as much - so the precious metals inside are less likely to be corroded.

Numbers from the insurance industry show Minnesota with the third-most catalytic converter thefts in the country over the past year, trailing only California and Texas.

"We'd frequently see reports where an officer would pull over a vehicle for a traffic violation. And one thing would lead to another and they'd find a trunk full of catalytic converters, and a Sawzall and jacks," said St. Paul police spokesperson Steve Linder, who said that reports of thefts have tripled just in the first two months of 2021, compared to the same period last year. "But unless we catch them in the act, there's not a lot we can do."

That's because there's no way to trace a catalytic converter back to the car it was stolen from.

Linders said a single catalytic converter can fetch up to $300 at a scrapyard.

Lawmakers in nearly 20 states, including Minnesota, have proposed legislation to try to restrict the sale of catalytic converters.

State Sen. John Marty, DFL-Roseville, has introduced one of several competing measures at the Minnesota Legislature. His bill would require anyone possessing a used catalytic converter to have proof of ownership. It would also ban cash sales.

"I've heard from multiple people who have had converters replaced and then stolen again," said Marty. "And it's often hitting people in core cities like in Duluth or the Twin Cities where a lot of people park on the street. They don't have garages."

Marty said many people he's talked to have $500 or $1,000 deductibles. But some people don't have insurance at all.

Mark Kulda, a spokesperson for the Insurance Federation of Minnesota, says about three-quarters of Minnesotans carry optional comprehensive car insurance, which covers damage not caused by an accident. And he said the rise in theft is going to eventually raise premiums for those who do.

"We don't know what that's going to end up being," Kulda said. "What eventually it's going to cost. What we do know is it will definitely have an impact."

In the meantime, a lot of car owners, including Jean Bentley, are taking matters into their own hands, and having specialized locks installed under their cars to deter thieves.

Bentley said hers cost another $250, on top of her $1,000 deductible to get it replaced.

"It's just a lot of extra money," she said.

Still, it's a lot less than the $2,000 to $3,000 or even more it can cost for a replacement.

There is one glimmer of hope in this story: As electric vehicles become more popular, this problem will gradually fade away. Since those cars don't use gas, they don't need catalytic converters.

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Precious metals drive boom in catalytic converter theft

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There's something more valuable than gold attached to the bottom of your car - and it's sparking a crime wave in Minnesota and across the country. Catalytic converters contain trace amounts of precious metals, including rhodium, which in early March peaked at nearly $30,000 per ounce.

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Looking through the back of your freezer can unearth all manner of goodies that you'd likely forgotten about, but probably nothing quite as surprising as a discovery made at the back of a freezer at the University of Copenhagen.

A 15-foot tube of ice and dirt from Greenland, recovered in 1966 by a US military team that'd drilled over a mile down into the ice, was analyzed for the first time in 2019 -- and there was much more than just sand and dirt in the samples.

In a study, published in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences on Monday, the international team of researchers describe the discovery of "perfectly preserved" twigs and leaves locked within their extracted ice cores. The existence of these plants implies that there was once vegetation in that spot now buried by ice, which shows that a decent portion of Greenland must have been ice-free within the past million years.

Scientist Andrew Christ reported that the samples are like a time capsule of Greenland before the ice. "Ice sheets typically pulverize and destroy everything in their path," he said, "but what we discovered was delicate plant structures. They're fossils, but they look like they died yesterday."

The implications of the discovery could be huge for studies on climate change, given that analysis of Greenland's ice sheet could help scientists predict how it will behave as temperatures rise and the ice melts as a result of human activity. It may also help them estimate how long the ice sheet will take before it melts completely, affecting sea levels worldwide.

In addition, the discovery suggests that Greenland could be more vulnerable to human-induced climate change than we first thought, given evidence that most of the ice sheet has melted away at least once before in history -- and that was without the aid of human greenhouse gases and emissions.

Now that the levels are higher, the ice could melt faster and with more extreme results. Greenland's ice sheet holds enough water to raise global sea levels by 20 feet, which would have dire consequences for coastal populations as it melts.

Lead scientist Paul Bierman was emphatic about the need to address Greenland's ice problem immediately. "This is not a 20-generation problem," he said. "This is an urgent problem for the next 50 years."

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Scientists stunned by fossils found deep beneath Greenland's ice sheet

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Looking through the back of your freezer can unearth all manner of goodies that you'd likely forgotten about, but probably nothing quite as surprising as a discovery made at the back of a freezer at the University of Copenhagen.

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The menagerie of bacterial and fungal species living among us is ever growing - and this is no exception in low-gravity environments, such as the International Space Station (ISS).

Researchers from the United States and India working with NASA have now discovered four strains of bacteria living in different places in the ISS - three of which were, until now, completely unknown to science.

Three of the four strains were isolated back in 2015 and 2016 - one was found on an overhead panel of the ISS research stations, the second was found in the Cupola, the third was found on the surface of the dining table; the fourth was found in an old HEPA filter returned to Earth in 2011.

All four of the strains belong to a family of bacteria found in soil and freshwater; they are involved in nitrogen fixation, plant growth, and can help stop plant pathogens. Basically, good bacteria to have around if you're growing things.

You might wonder what such soil bacteria were doing all the way up on the ISS, but the astronauts living on the space station have been growing small amounts of food for years, so it's unsurprising that we've found plant-related microbes aboard.

One of the strains - the HEPA-filter find - was identified as a known species called Methylorubrum rhodesianum. The other three were sequenced and found to all belong to the same, previously unidentified species, and the strains were named IF7SW-B2T, IIF1SW-B5, and IIF4SW-B5.

The team, lead by University of Southern California geneticist Swati Bijlani, has proposed calling the new species Methylobacterium ajmalii after Ajmal Khan, a renowned Indian biodiversity scientist. This new find is also closely related to an already known species called M. indicum.

"To grow plants in extreme places where resources are minimal, isolation of novel microbes that help to promote plant growth under stressful conditions is essential," two of the team, Kasthuri Venkateswaran and Nitin Kumar Singh from NASA's JPL, explained in a press statement.

Considering we already know that these microbes can survive the harsh conditions of the ISS, the team put the four strains through genetic analysis to look for genes that could be used to help promote plant growth.

"The whole genome sequence assembly of these three ISS strains reported here will enable the comparative genomic characterization of ISS isolates with Earth counterparts in future studies," the team writes in their study.

"This will further aid in the identification of genetic determinants that might potentially be responsible for promoting plant growth under microgravity conditions and contribute to the development of self-sustainable plant crops for long-term space missions in future."

The researchers found that one of the ISS strains - IF7SW-B2T - had promising genes involved in plant growth, including a gene for an enzyme essential for cytokinin, which promotes cell division in roots and shoots.

There's much more research to be done here - the researchers acknowledge that they've barely scratched the surface of microbial diversity on the space station. Around 1,000 samples have already been collected on the ISS, but are still awaiting a trip back to Earth.

Just imagine the exciting space-faring microbes we are yet to discover!

The research has been published in Frontiers in Microbiology.

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Microbes Unknown to Science Discovered on The International Space Station

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The menagerie of bacterial and fungal species living among us is ever growing - and this is no exception in low-gravity environments, such as the International Space Station (ISS). Researchers from the United States and India working with NASA have now discovered four strains of bacteria living in different places in the ISS - three of which were, until now, completely unknown to science.

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designing babies

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Visionary biochemist Jennifer Doudna shared the Nobel Prize last year for the gene-editing technology known as CRISPR (Clustered Regularly Interspaced Short Palindromic Repeats), which has the potential to cure diseases caused by genetic mutations. Correspondent David Pogue talks with Doudna about the promises and perils of CRISPR; and with Walter Isaacson, author of the new book "The Code Breaker," about why the biotech revolution will dwarf the digital revolution in importance.

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Visionary biochemist Jennifer Doudna shared the Nobel Prize last year for the gene-editing technology known as CRISPR (Clustered Regularly Interspaced Short Palindromic Repeats), which has the potential to cure diseases caused by genetic mutations.

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Wow... This is amazing

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Trump administration officials are expected to say this week whether the monarch butterfly, a colorful and familiar backyard visitor now caught in a global extinction crisis, should receive federal designation as a threatened species.

Stepped-up use of farm herbicides, climate change and destruction of milkweed plants on which they depend have caused a massive decline of the orange-and-black butterflies, which long have flitted over meadows, gardens and wetlands across the U.S.

The drop-off that started in the mid-1990s has spurred a preservation campaign involving schoolchildren, homeowners and landowners, conservation groups, governments and businesses.

Some contend those efforts are enough to save the monarch without federal regulation. But environmental groups say protection under the Endangered Species Act is essential - particularly for populations in the West, where last year fewer than 30,000 remained of the millions that spent winters in California's coastal groves during the 1980s.

This year's count, though not yet official, is expected to show only about 2,000 there, said Sarina Jepsen, director of the endangered species program at the Xerces Society conservation group.

"We may be witnessing the collapse of the of the monarch population in the West," Jepsen said.

Scientists separately estimate up to an 80 percent monarch decline since the mid-1990s in the eastern U.S., although numbers there have shown a recent uptick.

The Trump administration has rolled back protections for endangered and threatened species in its push for deregulation, even as the United Nations says 1 million species - 1 of every 8 on Earth - face extinction because of climate change, development and other human causes.

Under a court agreement, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service must respond by Tuesday to a 2014 petition from conservation groups on behalf of the monarch.

The agency could propose or decline to list the butterfly as threatened, which means likely to become in danger of extinction within the foreseeable future throughout all or much of its range. Or it could find that a such listing is deserved but other species have a higher priority, which might delay action indefinitely.

A recommendation to designate the butterfly as threatened would be followed by a yearlong period to take public comment and reach a final decision.

Listing it "would guarantee that the monarch would get a comprehensive recovery plan and ongoing funding," said Tierra Curry, a senior scientist with the Center for Biological Diversity. "The monarch is so threatened that this is the only prudent thing to do."

If the status is granted, federal agencies would have to consult with the Fish and Wildlife Service about potential harm to monarchs from actions proposed for government funding or permitting, such as expanding interstate highways. The service would prescribe other measures in a regulation tailored specifically for the butterfly.

Orley "Chip" Taylor, an insect ecologist at the University of Kansas, agreed the butterfly's long-term prognosis is grim but said he opposes a federal listing for now, fearing it would sour many rural residents on helping the monarch.

"There's a palpable fear of regulation out there," he said, adding that voluntary measures should be given additional time.

Monarchs in southern Canada and the eastern U.S. migrate by the millions to mountainous areas of Mexico each winter, while those west of the continental divide head to coastal California. They congregate so thickly in forests that scientists can estimate their numbers through aerial inspections of trees with an orange hue.

Worsening droughts are reducing the number that survive the journey south for winter, Taylor said, while rising temperatures prompt the butterflies to leave their wintering grounds too soon, damaging reproduction. As the forests dry out, wildfire risk worsens.

If habitat losses and climate change aren't slowed, "we aren't going to have a monarch migration in 30 years," Taylor said.

Environmental groups say 165 million acres of monarch habitat - an area the size of Texas - have been lost in the past 20 years to development or herbicide applications in cropland. They point to heavy farm use of Round Up, or glyphosate, in particular.

Genetically modified corn and soybeans can withstand the poisons, but they wipe out milkweed, on which the butterflies lay their eggs. Caterpillars feed only on milkweed leaves, while adults eat nectar from their flowers and pollinate the plants.

Federal protection for the monarch would draw stiff resistance from agriculture groups concerned that habitat protection rules might interfere with farm operations.

Milkweed can reduce crop yields and sicken livestock that eat it, "so farmers have spent decades trying to get rid of it," said Laura Campbell of the Michigan Farm Bureau, which has participated in a statewide monarch recovery program. "It's a hard sell to tell farmers, 'Hey, you need to start planting milkweed again.'"

Some farmers and ranchers have planted milkweed on lands set aside for conservation. Numerous organizations and individuals are working to restore monarch habitat, focusing on backyard gardens as well as highway and utility corridors.

"But a lot is happening that's taking away habitat at the same time," said Karen Oberhauser, a restoration ecologist and arboretum director at the University of Wisconsin at Madison. "It's like we're running fast but staying in the same place."

Twenty-five years ago, the 6-year-old son of a chemist named Jim Edward just happened to catch a monarch tagged by Oberhauser's researchers, when the butterfly wandered into Edward's yard in Minnesota.

Since then, captivated by the butterfly and its complex migration over generations, Edward has raised monarchs to tell and show hundreds of school groups about the unending migrations.

"Just the exposure of kids to that, that don't necessarily get to see" wildlife otherwise, he said. "Their enthusiasm, their joy, their 'oh, wowness' - to see that."

Some enthusiasts fear they could no longer harvest eggs and raise monarchs if the species gains federal protections. Curry said her group has recommended that careful, small-scale, noncommercial raising be allowed.

Sheila Naylor, a substitute teacher near Sedalia, Mo., says the chance discovery of a milkweed plant in her yard five years ago inspired a quest to grow the monarch's host plant in every available inch of yard and roadside.

She visits the Missouri state fair, schools and elder care homes, pleading the case for preserving monarch and other native butterflies.

"I push myself," Naylor said, "because the butterflies keep me going."

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Endangered-species decision expected on beloved butterfly

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Trump administration officials are expected to say this week whether the monarch butterfly, a colorful and familiar backyard visitor now caught in a global extinction crisis, should receive federal designation as a threatened species.

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Humans are gifted by evolution with skills and capabilities not found on other ancient humanoids. However, our evolution did not cease as Homo Sapiens are said to become "the last hominin standing" -- meaning, we still evolve all the time.

Human evolution is a long process of change by which people, as the Smithsonian Institution, explained, "originated from apelike ancestors."

Scientific evidence presents both the physical and behavioral characteristics shared by all humans who originated from apelike descendants and evolved over a period of roughly six million years.

One of the oldest defining human characteristics is bipedalism. This means the ability to walk using two legs, which evolved more than four million years ago.

Other important traits of humans like having a large and complex brain, being able to develop and use tools, and the capability for language were developed later on.

According to experts in human origins, many of our advanced traits as humans comprising "complex figurative expression, art, and elaborate cultural diversity," developed primarily during the past centuries.

How Humans Evolve

Early this month, Inverse published an article featuring "how the human body has changed," showing how we may still be adjusting to our ever-changing environment's demands. Below are the 3 ways humans are still evolving:

1. Decreasing Body Temperature

A 98.6-degrees Fahrenheit temperature is usually accepted as our normal body temperature. However, based on research published early this year, a more precise reading "would come out to be roughly 97.9 degrees Fahrenheit.

The study authors examined medical records from the last 200 years, and when all temperatures during these years were averaged together, they discovered that the average body temperatures decreased by 0.7 degrees.

The study's author, Julie Parsonnet, told Inverse, humans are "so much healthier than the 19th-century humans." And yet, he added, we, humans of today, have gotten taller, fatter, and had cooler temperatures.

The author hypothesized that his descending trend could be credited to global drops in inflammation, not to mention "better living conditions."

2. Changes in Genes

Human genes are in a continuous state of change "from one generation to the next." One major instance of this is the increasing genes enabling our lactose tolerance.

Such an upsurge is most likely because most humans in the present time have been drinking milk all their lives.

History has it that the enzyme that enables humans to digest dairy turns off when they reach adulthood. This is the time when we customarily wean off our mother's breast milk.

3. Our Bone, Getting Lighter and Frailer

Despite all our milk consumption, our bones are naturally getting lighter and frailer. Owing to our modern life's sedentary nature, our bones have decreased in terms of strength and density, most probably because of the reduction in our physical activity.

Scientists believe such a weakening began around 12,000 years ago, when humans shifted from hunting to stable farming.

The human race keeps transforming. As humans have changed lifestyles, from farming to working in factories to operating office drones, we indeed have evolved accordingly.

According to Princeton University's Professor Joshua Akey, humans are "not immune to the effects of natural selection." He added, our environment is definitely different "than it was even a century ago.

Furthermore, he added, "and it is not hard to imagine things like gene-culture evolution, playing an even more prominent role in the future of human evolution."
Check This Out: 13th Century People Make Blankets From Turkey Feathers Check out more news and information on Human Evolution on Science Times.
©2017 ScienceTimes.com All rights reserved. Do not reproduce without permission. The window to the world of science times.

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Humans are gifted by evolution with skills and capabilities not found on other ancient humanoids. However, our evolution did not cease as Homo Sapiens are said to become "the last hominin standing" -- meaning, we still evolve all the time. Human evolution is a long process of change by which people, as the Smithsonian Institution, explained, "originated from apelike ancestors."

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Voyageurs National Park is now officially one of best places anywhere to see the night sky.

The International Dark Sky Association has recognized the 218,000-acre national park in northern Minnesota as a dark sky park for its efforts to keep the park dark at night. The area has some of the darkest skies in the Midwest and makes the night sky more visible to people on the ground.

Park officials developed a light management plan to earn the designation, including retrofitting lights used in the park. There are only about 80 such parks worldwide.

Earlier this year, the Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness got a similar designation as a dark sky sanctuary, one of 13 such designations in the world.

The Superior National Forest is part of a broader, international effort to recognize and protect the dark skies over the Minnesota-Canada border.

Quetico and La Verandrye Provincial Parks in Ontario are also pursuing dark sky designations. The goal is to create one of the world's largest dark sky destinations.

The International Dark Sky Association is a nonprofit that works around the world to reduce light pollution and protect night skies.

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Voyageurs National Park designated a dark sky park

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Voyageurs National Park is now officially one of best places anywhere to see the night sky. The International Dark Sky Association has recognized the 218,000-acre national park in northern Minnesota as a dark sky park for its efforts to keep the park dark at night.

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Less accidents, and happier animals when the have to cross roads.

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All across Minnesota, highways of concrete and asphalt cross thoroughfares of a different kind: corridors used by wildlife as they seek food and shelter.

A new highway under construction in southern Minnesota is taking that into account, in a way that's a first for state road construction projects.

The Minnesota Department of Transportation has installed an underpass for deer along the new four-lane Highway 14 near Claremont, east of Owatonna. It's the first time MnDOT has included a structure designed primarily for deer to safely cross under a roadway, and to prevent car-deer collisions.

"We've long recognized this need to try to improve driver safety through things like this," said MnDOT wildlife ecologist Christopher Smith. "But certainly, it also has this environmental or natural resource benefit, connecting habitats, allowing animals to move safely underneath the roadway. And so it's really a win-win, both from a driver safety aspect, as well as a conservation aspect."

November is historically the highest month for deer-related crashes. The new four-lane route of Hwy 14 under construction near Claremont in Dodge County will include a special crossing for deer and other wildlife to minimize crashes along that route when it opens Fall 2021. pic.twitter.com/RvfXOHa6sh
- Minnesota Department of Transportation (@MnDOT) December 2, 2020

As the new highway was being designed, information from the Minnesota Department of Natural Resources was used to pinpoint a particularly vital and well-traveled deer corridor southeast of Claremont. It links summer habitat in and near Rice Lake State Park with winter habitat to the south - with the new highway route crossing in between.

Then MnDOT looked at where the new highway needed culverts for seasonal drainage, during spring runoff and after storms.

"The original designs, without considering any sort of wildlife, would have called for some culverts in this area anyways; they would have likely been smaller pipes," Smith said. "But instead of using two or three smaller pipes that a deer would never be able to fit through, we worked with the project engineers and the contractor to come up with this plan that uses this larger box culvert."

It's a 10-foot-by-9-foot, typical box culvert - big enough to allow deer to walk through, but within the constraints of the road project and surrounding landscape. It helps with drainage but will be dry most of the year. And it's short enough that daylight from the opposite side is clearly visible - which may help skittish deer adapt to it.

Once the highway project is done in late 2021 or early 2022, Smith said MnDOT will monitor the passageway to see how deer and other animals are using it. That could include looking for tracks, or possibly motion-activated cameras.

"There are other things we can do in the future, if needed, to improve the use," he said. "That's things like changing some of the vegetation around it to kind of direct deer and other critters to the passageway, or on the extreme, actually installing fence or some other barrier that physically directs them to this underpass."

While the underpass is the first highway structure in Minnesota designed specifically for deer, MnDOT has included wildlife-friendly design elements in other bridges and culverts. In recent years nearly all new state highway bridges over water have included what's called a "passage bench." It's a small pathway that allows wildlife to traverse the riprap - rocks and boulders along the water's edge - under the bridge.

And other states - particularly in the western U.S. - have installed underpasses and overpasses to allow wildlife to safely cross highways.

It remains to be seen whether other upcoming highway projects in Minnesota will include similar passageways for deer, but Smith said there's growing public awareness of the need to maintain habitat connections across highways.

"Deer-vehicle collisions are a big issue in Minnesota," Smith said. "Anything we can do to minimize those impacts is something we want to consider."

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New highway in southern Minnesota will include passageway designed for deer

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All across Minnesota, highways of concrete and asphalt cross thoroughfares of a different kind: corridors used by wildlife as they seek food and shelter. A new highway in southern Minnesota is taking that into account, in a way that's a first for state road construction projects.

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If you fish you should take note!

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A new University of Minnesota study has found that, when lakes were infested with two common aquatic invasive species - zebra mussels and spiny waterflea - young walleye didn't grow as large as quickly, as they did before the invaders arrived.

The Aquatic Invasive Species Research Center study focused on nine large Minnesota lakes that are destinations for walleye anglers: Lake of the Woods, Rainy, Kabetogama, Vermillion, Red, Cass, Winnibigoshish, Leech and Mille Lacs.

Lead researcher Gretchen Hansen, an assistant professor at the university, analyzed data the Minnesota Department of Natural Resources has been collecting from fish in those lakes for 35 years.

Hansen found that walleye in lakes infested with zebra mussels or spiny waterflea were 12 to 14 percent smaller after their first summer than before the lakes were infested. That equates to about half an inch to three-quarters of an inch for a 5- or 6-inch walleye, she said.

Hansen said that might not seem like much, but the size of a fish after its first summer can affect its chances of survival later.

"The next step of our research is to really tackle that question is: Do these changes in early life growth translate into impacts that people might see in walleye that they fish for?" she asked.

Hundreds of Minnesota lakes are infested with zebra mussels or spiny waterflea, two invasive creatures that have a significant impact on lake ecosystems. Researchers know that both species reduce a lake's zooplankton, an important food source for young walleye.

But Hansen said researchers weren't sure how those impacts translate up the food chain to larger species. So, they focused on walleye and yellow perch, which eat zooplankton during the first year of their lives.

The lakes in the study were chosen based on their importance as walleye fisheries, accounting for about a third of Minnesota's annual harvest of the fish.

Two of the lakes are infested with zebra mussels, four with spiny waterflea and one - Mille Lacs - with both. Two of the lakes, Leech and Red, were uninfested at the time of the study, but have since been confirmed to have zebra mussels.

The study did not find a consistent trend of smaller young yellow perch in infested lakes, Hansen said. That was somewhat surprising, she said, because they rely on zooplankton even more heavily than walleye.

Researchers can't know for sure that a loss of zooplankton is what's affecting young walleye growth. Hansen said there could be other impacts such as increasing water clarity, which walleye don't like.

Hansen said she plans to continue her research, including how the results translate to smaller and medium-sized lakes and older walleye.

The study was published this week in the journal Biological Invasions.
Correction (Jan. 28, 2020): A previous version of this story misstated that Cass Lake was one of the two lakes in Minnesota that were uninfested at the time of the U of M study. The story has been corrected and updated.

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Study: Young walleye are smaller in MN lakes with zebra mussels, spiny waterflea

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A new University of Minnesota study has found that, when lakes were infested with two common aquatic invasive species - zebra mussels and spiny waterflea - young walleye didn't grow as large as quickly, as they did before the invaders arrived.