What the scientists are saying…
A step towards a Pill for men?
Researchers in the US have shown that they can temporarily render male sperm infertile using a fast-acting drug. Their discovery, reported in the journal Nature Communications, appears to provide proof of concept for a form of on-demand contraception that men could take before sex, when needed; but whose effects would wear off within hours. The drug works by targeting soluble adenylyl cyclase, an enzyme crucial in sperm motility. The researchers, from Cornell University’s biomedical research unit, have proved that it prevents pregnancy in mice, that it immobilises human sperm in test tube conditions, and that there are no long-term effects on fertility. Unlike the Pill for women, no hormones are involved. The next step is to try it out on rabbits, and then humans. “If the trials on mice can be replicated in humans with the same degree of efficacy, then this could well be the male contraceptive approach we have been looking for,” Prof Allan Pacey, of the University of Sheffield, told the BBC.
The cockatoo’s toolkit
Until recently, humans and chimpanzees were thought to be the only species that use “toolsets”: a collection of different tools used to achieve specific tasks. But in 2021, scientists in Indonesia observed wild Goffin’s cockatoos using three types of tools to extract seeds from fruit. Now new research has shown how effectively the birds are able to use toolsets. In the journal Current Biology, scientists at the University of Veterinary Medicine Vienna describe how they presented to ten Goffin’s cockatoos a box containing a cashew nut that could only be accessed using two different tools: a rigid stick to pierce and tear a membrane between a window and the nut; and a longer, flexible tool to fish the nut out. Seven figured out the need to use both tools, with two solving the task on their first try. The team says that the findings provide the first controlled evidence that Goffin’s cockatoos can spontaneously begin to use a novel toolset, without help from others. The study also provided the first clear evidence that birds can carry a set of tools they will need for a future task: in a more complex trial requiring tools to be brought to a raised platform, four out of the five birds tested learnt to carry both correct tools.
Editing genes for safer toast
Toast and other wheat-based foods could become safer thanks to a new hybrid wheat, developed using gene-editing technology, that produces less of a carcinogenic chemical when cooked. Acrylamide forms in the browned and burnt areas of starchy foods, such as toast.
It is formed from the natural amino acid asparagine; levels of acrylamide increase as cooking temperatures rise. Scientists at Rothamsted Research in Hertfordshire disabled a gene in a strain of wheat, using the editing tool Crispr, to develop plants with nearly 50% less asparagine than current varieties. When cooked, they produced up to 45% less acrylamide. Researcher Nigel Halford told The Times that the findings were good news, not least because regulators are pushing to reduce acrylamide levels in food. “There’s only so much you can do from the food processing point of view,” he said. “If we can provide low asparagine raw material, that’ll be tremendously beneficial to the food industry.” A Government bill permitting the sale of genetically edited food is expected to gain final approval in March.
A climate “Moonshot”
Researchers have proposed an outlandish new method of combating climate change: firing plumes of Moon dust into space, so as to deflect the Sun’s rays away from Earth. In an article in the journal PLOS Climate, a group of astrophysicists argued that dust fired from the Moon could act as an adjustable solar shield. It would, they suggested, take much less energy to fire dust from the Moon than from Earth; and one strategically directed burst could significantly reduce warming for six days or more. This could act as a “fine-tuned dimmer switch”, said Prof Ben Bromley, a theoretical astrophysicist at the University of Utah. And unlike many geoengineering solutions to climate change, he added, it would leave our planet “untouched”. He did, however, concede that getting the mining equipment and a ballistic device, such as an electromagnetic rail gun, to the Moon, would be a “significant project”.