Elementary Particles: One Billion for Nature, More Crispr Babies? Swallowed Lego bricks

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Issue 50/2018

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I myself am a biologist. That's why this week is also about the protection of diversity: a few days ago I had the opportunity to learn more about Hansjörg Wyss. The Swiss billionaire - today he lives in the USA - wants to promote the protection of biodiversity by 2030 with one billion dollars from his private assets. The foundation of the philanthropist now faces the task of meaningfully investing the money. This is all the more difficult as Wyss himself belongs to a rare species with his gift. Hardly any topic gets as little attention as the loss of diversity. Attention is being paid to delegates when action is being taken on climate change in Katowice. Almost no one remembers the United Nations Biodiversity Conference in Egypt more than a week ago.

DPA

The two processes are interwoven. The loss of diversity could have catastrophic consequences for humanity as much as climate change. Intact ecosystems dampen the effects of global warming. They are the basis for clean water, for agriculture, for sustainable industrial production. And both major crises are difficult for humans to understand because they run so slowly. How did you manage to bring climate change to public awareness? By dramatization. Former US Vice President Al Gore sets the tone with his 2006 film "An Inconvenient Truth". Without - sometimes heavily exaggerated - catastrophic scenarios like those in Gore's film, the subject would hardly have reached its present significance. People need to feel, feel, act before acting.

Hansjörg Wyss wants to help negotiate a "New Deal" for nature: By 2030, at least 30 percent of the country's land and ocean surface should be protected. But that will only succeed if coral death and insect exfiltration go to the heart. The loss of diversity is also an uncomfortable truth that needs to be taught to people. We need an Al Gore of biodiversity. Also for this Hansjörg Wyss should spend money.

Cordially, Philip Bethge

Feedback & suggestions?

Abstract

My reading recommendations this week

• The Crispr baby from China is the science story of the year. Are there any more Chinese GM babies? This asks the US stem cell researcher Kiran Musunuru. He has evidence that Chinese He Jiankui's research group also investigated a gene called PCSK9 that causes cholesterol levels to rise. People who are defective are largely immune to heart attacks. Is the first GM baby with built-in heart protection already on the way? (Stat News)

• Digital helpers with artificial intelligence could become the next big thing in the IT industry. I always wonder what you need something for. But even our #Astro_Alex Alexander Gerst has such a thing on the ISS. "CIMON" is the name of the artificial intelligence made in Germany. It is great when the Schlauberger shows something like feelings: "Do not you like it here with me?"

• Maybe "CIMON" was also annoyed by all the space junk that he can see out the window. Just a few bits of trash have been added. The company Spaceflight Industries has sent all kinds of junk into space, for example works of art or the ashes of the dead. For the chance to burn up as a shooting star, they paid 2490 dollars during his lifetime.

• However, it is fascinating how the reusable Falcon 9 SpaceX rockets return to Earth. The last rocket landed skillfully in the sea - here in the video. Small flaw: Actually, she should have put on a landing platform.

• How does a pig's heart live? The physician Bruno Reichart of the LMU Munich has been researching for years whether the blood pumps of the bristle animals could compensate for the lack of donor hearts. Now researchers have achieved a breakthrough to Reichart (Nature). My colleague Veronika Hackenbroch talked to the researcher. "Many thought I was crazy," says Reichart.

• Fascinating long-read for extreme runners and those who dream of it: The American Courtney Dauwalter has specialized in long-distance runs of 300 kilometers and more. It turns out that the lead of the men with the length of the running way melts away ("New York Times").

• How does my child get through the Kita winter without infection? Not at all, says pediatrician and author Karella Easwaran. Here she explains why this is not bad at all and how parents can handle it more easily.

• In the Netherlands, a court has thwarted a lawyer's attempt to blame cigarette manufacturers for the deaths of their customers. Cigarettes would comply with EU regulations, so the profane reasoning: "The fact that addicted to cigarettes and health risks, does not change." (Associated Press)

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quiz

What is the angle between the upper body and upper thigh when sitting or lying down, so that the person can relax the best?

Why does noodle water have to be salted?

Which animal is named after the band "Metallica"?

* The answers can be found at the bottom of the newsletter

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Picture of the week

Ella Cooke, BSC ECOLOGY AND CONSERVATION AND BRITISH ECOLOGICAL SOCIETY

Well powdered, this beetle strikes the camera of Ella Cooke. The young British woman has just won a student prize from the British Ecological Society's "Capturing Ecology" photography competition. Dusted with a fluorescent powder, the crawler, illuminated by a UV lamp, is visible even in the dark. The beetle cosmetics is a common method of ecologists to investigate insect behavior even in low light.

footnote

On average, the head of a Lego male takes 41 hours to reappear after ingestion. This is what doctors report in the "Journal of Paediatrics and Child Health" after a heroic self-experiment. There are no complications, the authors write to reassure worried parents. They find it unnecessary to search for plastic parts in the toilet bowl - "because they are hard to find". Although it was mostly possible to recover their heads. However, one subject said, "I searched my own feces for two weeks," says Briton Damian Roland. Without success.

The SPIEGEL + recommendations from science

• Mobility: Electricity from the bottle - Hydrogen-powered vehicles could soon be the better electric cars
• Sociology: Why obvious lies and absurd delusions are so successful - Researchers explore the social power of the counterfactual
• Health: How much overweight is still healthy?

* Quiz responses: 127 degrees, also called "zero gravity angle" / So they do not lose their taste; if noodles are cooked unsalted, salts and flavorings are transferred from the noodle into the cooking water; only if cooking water and noodle have approximately the same salt content right from the beginning does the pasta taste as it tastes / The wasp Metallichneumon neurospastarchus; the name of the species means "Chef of Jumping Jacks" and refers to the Metallica album "Master of Puppets"