PREHISTORY’S MISSING LINK
Antarctica’s hidden volcanoes Scientists have discovered 91 previously unknown volcanoes deep under Antarctica’s western ice sheet, the highest of which is nearly 4,000 metres tall, and have warned of possible consequences. A team from the University of Edinburgh investigated the landscape using measurements from previous surveys obtained by ice-penetrating radar. Undergraduate Max Van Wyk de Vries first drew the attention of his lecturers (and eventual co-authors) to the possibility of volcanoes, other than the 47 already known, when he noticed the unexpected prevalence of “cone” shapes in the region; usually, he says, cones underneath ice sheets “erode into ridges or valleys”. De Vries explained that while “by themselves the volcanoes wouldn’t be likely to cause the entire ice sheet to melt”, melting ice could easily trigger an eruption. The worst case scenario, the team says, would be a feedback loop in which the destabilised volcanoes then melt more ice, triggering further eruptions, and so on. “The big question is: how active are these volcanoes?” glacier expert Robert Bingham said. “That is something we need to determine as quickly as possible.”
The “Frankenstein” dinosaur The mystery of the so-called “Frankenstein dinosaur”, which appeared to consist of body parts from separate unrelated species, may finally have been solved. A new study by researchers from the University of Cambridge and the Natural History Museum suggests that the animal is in fact the missing link between plant-eating and meat-eating species of dinosaurs. Experts were baffled when the Chilesaurus – as the herbivore is known – was discovered two years ago. It seemed to have been “stitched together” from the legs of a Brontosaurus, the hips of a Stegosaurus, and the arms and body of a T-rex. But the new analysis argues that the Chilesaurus was one of the very first Ornithischians, a group that includes several more commonly known beasts such as the Triceratops and the Stegosaurus, and whose roots have for years eluded scientists. “In the 130 years since the Ornithischian group was first recognised, we have never had any concept of how the first ones looked,” said Matthew Baron of Cambridge University. By slotting into the family tree as an early Ornithischian, this specific species emerges as a common ancestor of both carnivores and herbivores, and sheds light on a big evolutionary break between two of the main dinosaur groups. Pig organ transplants The prospect of transplanting pig organs into human beings is one step closer to becoming a reality, after researchers from US biotech firm egenesis used gene editing to remove potentially damaging parts of pig DNA. Porcine endogenous retroviruses in pigs have long been thought of as a major obstacle to xenotransplantation (the transplantation of tissues and organs from animals to humans); they are embedded within the genes of pigs but can cause various cancers and immunodeficiency illnesses (such as HIV) in humans. Using geneediting tool Crispr-cas9, which works like a set of “molecular scissors”, the team successfully cut out the retroviruses. They then created pig embryos from the edited cells and implanted these into surrogate sows, which gave birth to retrovirus-free piglets. Many were quick to point out, though, that the technique’s longer-term genetic, as well as ethical, implications have yet to be examined.
Type 1 diabetes trial brings hope An early stages study involving a twice-monthly injection has had success in halting the previously untreatable type 1 diabetes. The immunotherapy method, developed by researchers at Cardiff University and King’s College London, works by reining in immune cells that mistakenly attack the pancreas’s insulin production, which controls blood sugar. Results over 12 months showed that while the eight placebo patients increased their daily insulin injections by an average of 50%, the 19 drug patients continued to produce their own insulin. If combined with advanced blood testing to spot the disorder before symptoms arise, the approach could also be preventative.