Angela Craven
Mr. Patrick Youell
Science 9B
January 14th 2016
Top 3 Science Stories of 2015
1. Scientists edited the DNA of Human Embryos
a.embryos being injected into a cell
Researchers in China at the Sun Yat-sen University in Guangzhou,China for the first time have edited the DNA of human embryos. Their goal was to reform the gene that lead to a bad blood disorder called thalassaemia. Jungjiu Huang and his team said that the embryos are infertile and will never be able to reproduce."But critics warned that China was becoming the "Wild West" of genetic engineering and afraid that these babies would have genetic advantages, this is why this practice is banned in most of the rest of the world. Dr.David King stated that "It is critical that we avoid a eugenic future in which the rich can buy themselves a baby with built-in genetic advantages." A research article called "Proteins&Cell" published the experiment the Chinese researchers did on the embryo, which you can find the process of it here: http://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s13238-015-0153-5/fulltext.html but Nature and Science refused to publish it out internationally because of ethical reasons. The process works by the bacteria attacking the virus, breaking it away from it's genetic code and that's how the disease is removed.
The researchers used the CRISPR technique which is a process when they remove the particular gene and replace it with another molecule."The technique has been used in adult cells and animal models but never in human embryos.". This method is only used to remove the inherited disease but other's worry that it might go to the point where people will start genetically modifying babies.When Huang and his team went back for another procedure (shown in the picture above in a microscope) they inserted 86 embryos, 71 survived, but only 54 of them were tested, and 28 of those successfully replaced and removed the inherited genetic material. Not long after Huang stopped the project and continued to work on decreasing unexpected mutations in adult and animal cells, not only because it was his personal choice but because of what some people said. Such as "We need to pause this research and make sure we have a broad based discussion about which direction we are going here" said Edward Lanphier an English biologist. It's reported though that 4 other research groups in China are working on this "embryo project".
2. Nepal Earthquake
On April 25th, 2015 a massive earthquake hits Kathmandu, Nepal's capitol with a magnitude of 7.8 (meaning the amount of seismic energy released, the higher the number the bigger impact/release). It was confirmed that 8,000 people were already dead and thousands more were injured and missing. Over one year the Indian tectonic plate moves about 45mm, and when it moves it pushes under the Eurasian plate, explained Dr.Brian Baptie a seismologist at the British Geological Survey in Edinburgh, and that's what caused the Himalayas to form over the millennium.
b.diagram of the earth layers and plates
d.a large crack on Earth's surface which underground was where the friction trembled the two plates
Plates move around all the time, and once they get stuck (whether they collide,push,etc. against each other) which is caused by friction it releases this stress call and the energy is released that then travels through the rest of the Earth's crust's and causes the shaking that we feel (and most of the time causes what is shown in image d). Basically all of Asia has had a history of earthquakes because this is an area where tectonic plates move around all the time (you can see in image b, showing Earth's plates and layers) , and one small wrong move could cause a huge natural disaster towards the people and environment around them. Although earthquakes are also seen in other parts around the world, such as South America and parts of Central and North America. Seismologists at the United States Geological Survey and Geoscience Australia now have a new way of predicting when earthquakes are going to come, by watching the movement in the Earth's crust on a monitor. It can happen any second and they wouldn't be able to warn the people in that area on time (and could end up in a disaster like in image c below). Not even a month later, on May 12, 2015 another earthquake slighter smaller with a 7.3 magntitude (which is still fairly large compared to other earthquakes and recent to the one that occured in April 2015) hits Nepal (and also because of the same reason as the previous recent earthquake).
c. the damage left behind in the 2015 Nepal earthquake
3. 2015 was the Hottest Year in all Historical Evidence
The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) said that out of all the historical evidence they've collected, it was a 97% chance that 2015 was the hottest out of all the data collected. Places all over the world received a change in weather temperature and patterns, the most being the temperature going up and becoming warmer, basically global warming. For example in the U.S. the Northwest and Southwest were slightly warmer (from the data collected all year round) while in the middle it was colder, and in California it precipitated more than usual. People are debating whether or not this is effected by the greenhouse gases, but politicians claim that they are not "global warming stopped in 1998".
The greenhouse effect could be one of many things that lead to global warming because some radiation from the sun can bounce off and go back out to space, but some also remains on the Earth's surface making the planet warmer.
Many worldwide agencies such as NOAA, NASA, and the Meteorological agencies in Britain and Japan take the temperature analyses from ships, buoys, etc. to see weather patterns. It was also reported that the temperatures in lakes all over the world now is heating up, as well as the Arctic Ice Cap that is shrinking year after year. Many scientists theorize that the cause of this global warming is caused by the El Nino ("periodic warming of the eastern equatorial Pacific Ocean that brings sea surface temperatures above average" states "Weather Underground"). NASA reported that there is no sign of the El Nino waning and could endanger the North and South America (shown in the picture below, there is a normal year, and a El Nino year, and at the moment the El Nino year keeps extending it's time period) not too long from now.
e. difference between a normal year and a El Nino year
These warmer weather patterns and El Nino are still happening at the moment and agencies predict that 2016 will be as 2015 because of these weather continuations. This will endanger many of the species on our planet, this won't only threat the species themselves but the environment around them, their adaptations, food chain/cycle, ecosystems and many other things (such as the polar bear, as you can see in image f, it's home the Arctic Ice Cap is slowly melting apart).
f. a polar bear trying to find food in it's collapsing habitat
Bibliography:
- http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/science/11558305/China-shocks-world-by-genetically-engineering-human-embryos.html
- http://worthyreport.com/science/china-shocks-world-with-genetically-engineered-human-embryos
- http://www.geologyin.com/2015/04/what-caused-nepal-earthquake.html
- http://www.dec.org.uk/appeal/nepal-earthquake-appeal
- http://earthsky.org/earth/the-science-behind-the-nepal-earthquake
- http://news.discovery.com/earth/global-warming/climate-records-broken-in-2015-151223.htm
- http://climate.nasa.gov/news/
- https://wunderground.atavist.com/el-nino-forecast
- http://www.nytimes.com/2016/01/21/science/earth/2015-hottest-year-global-warming.html?_r=0
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