James Temple | The Verge

Bill Gates endorses genetically modified mosquitoes to combat malaria

2016-06-17T15:28:12-04:00

Bill Gates endorsed the use of a powerful and controversial new gene-editing tool to create malaria-resistant mosquitoes in an interview with Bloomberg News today.

A key tool to reduce malaria deaths

A handful of scientists have already created mosquitoes that are either infertile or resistant to the malaria parasite using CRISPR, a genetic cut-and-paste tool that allows researchers to precisely edit DNA. In several cases, researchers have also employed a related technology known as gene drives, which are designed to ensure the traits that scientists introduce are passed along to successive generations the majority of the time. That tool, which effectively identifies and snips out the naturally occurring form of DNA when it appears in offspring, promises to rapidly spread malaria-resistance through mosquito populations. And that’s what Gates said could offer a powerful weapon against the disease.

“Gene drives, I do think, over the next three to five years will be developed in a form that will be extremely beneficial,” he said in the interview, ahead of speaking at the American Society for Microbiology conference in Boston. “Of course, that makes it a key tool to reduce malaria deaths.”

Malaria, which is spread through the bites of female Anopheles mosquitoes, infects more than 200 million people each year and kills nearly 500,000, most of whom are children, according to the World Health Organization. That’s why the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation has poured resources into combating the disease for years, including a $150 million grant in 2014 to develop vaccines.

If gene drives work as expected, they could become one of the most effective tools against malaria, as well as other infectious diseases. But the raw power of the technology raises a new set of concerns as well. Any unexpected side effects on the species would also ripple through the populations and their ecosystems, a fact that could exacerbate already widespread public fears over genetically modified organisms.

Given the capabilities of CRISPR and gene drives, a growing number of policy makers and scientists have been pushing for limits on the use of these technologies and new approaches to this area of research. Some, notably including Kevin Esvelt at MIT, are also developing technological safeguards that could limit the spread of gene drives outside of the lab or within the wild. That includes so called “daisy-chain” gene drives that fade away after several generations, a concept unveiled earlier this month.

“We need to pioneer a new method for developing this technology,” Esvelt said in a phone call with The Verge late last year. “And public notification and discussion should always take place before experiments begin in the lab.”

A crisp intro to CRISPR, the gene-editing tool shaking up science

2016-04-06T08:00:03-04:00

CRISPR may be that rarest thing in science: a genuine breakthrough.

The young DNA editing tool has dominated science headlines for months, as a mounting pile of studies highlight its potential to fight deadly diseases and customize organisms. It’s generally proving to be cheaper, more precise, and easier to use than earlier genetic technologies, opening up possibilities across a wide variety of fields.

How can one technology potentially do so many, and such world-altering, things?

In a paper published just last week, researchers at Temple University used it to snip out the most widespread type of HIV from human immune cells. Meanwhile, labs around the world are employing CRISPR to identify potential cancer therapies, develop treatments for cystic fibrosis, create malaria-blocking mosquitos, produce swole dogs, make miniature pet pigs, and even bring extinct species back from the dead.

How can one technology potentially do so many, and such world-altering, things? In the video above, we set out to explain what CRISPR actually is, how exactly it works, and why so many scientists believe it’s such a promising tool.

Writing, editing and motion graphics by James Temple. Animation by Kimberly Mas. Directed by James Temple, Tyler Pina and Vjeran Pavic.

Prairie voles console their stressed out friends, scientists find

2016-01-21T15:16:24-05:00

Prairie voles take pains to comfort their stressed out pals and relatives, perhaps offering a rare example of empathy in the animal kingdom, according to a new study in Science.

Empathy is well documented in humans, but scientists haven’t had nearly as much luck confirming its existence among animals. It’s only been reported among a few species, including elephants, dogs, and dolphins, though not all researchers agree on what qualifies.

Researchers at Emory University looked for evidence of the behavior in the prairie vole because it’s a particularly social species. It’s one of the rare rodents that generally mate for life, and it also shares parenting responsibilities, collaborates on building nests, and regularly grooms other voles with licks.

“We don’t know if what we experience as empathy is the same thing that the prairie voles experience as empathy.”

For the study released on Thursday, the researchers separated acquainted voles and subsequently gave one of the pair a mild shock. When they were reunited, the other vole licked their jolted friend or family member sooner and more often than during control experiments that skipped the shocks.

The underlying mechanism for the consoling behavior appears to be oxytocin, a hormone also implicated in vole monogamy and social bonding among humans. When the scientists blocked the neurotransmitter in prairie voles, the comforting licks stopped too, though self grooming didn’t.

“I think it’s a very nice piece of work that looks at physiological responses to specific environmental and social stimuli,” said Adele Seelke, a researcher in the psychology department at UC Davis who studies prairie voles.

But she cautioned that it’s difficult to actually know what’s really happening inside the animal’s brain. “I personally wouldn’t call it empathy,” she said — empathy is a human concept, which we can certify in our fellow humans by asking how they feel about what happens to others. But we don’t have that luxury with species that can’t talk. She added, “We don’t know if what we experience as empathy is the same thing that the prairie voles experience as empathy.”

Parrot unveils the Bebop 2, a faster, longer-lasting drone

2015-11-17T15:50:21-05:00

Parrot unveiled a new version of its popular Bebop drone on Tuesday, capable of longer flight times and faster speeds. On the whole, however, it doesn’t seem like a gigantic leap forward for the French company’s higher-end consumer drone. Parrot, which is known for its growing lineup of toy drones, stuck with a 14-megapixel camera for the Bebop 2 that tops out at 1080p resolution video. The 180-degree fisheye lens also remains on the nose of the drone, a precarious placement for an aircraft that regularly crashes into walls and trees.

The optional external flight controller still extends range to 2 kilometers, as promised with the last version (though not always delivered, in The Verge‘s assessment). Parrot said the upgraded Bebop does address some of the connectivity issues that plagued the last version, but didn’t provide much additional detail.

Until reviewers get more flight time, it’s hard to say how much more capable the new Bebop is

During a press event in San Francisco, chief executive Henri Seydoux said the company stripped out weight and moving parts from the Bebop 2 by leaning on software. That includes digital image stabilization, although professional photographers and film makers will question whether software can deliver the same smooth footage as the hardware gimbal favored by competitors, notably as in DJI’s dominant Phantom series.

Parrot says it improved the Bebop’s battery life substantially, from 12 minutes of flight time to 25, although we didn’t get to test that claim during our brief time with it. In addition, the original version secured the battery with a Velcro strap, a design that often allowed it to come loose. The new battery compartment seems considerably more secure.

The reduction in moving parts also promises to make the product more rugged, capable of withstanding more crashes. Which is good since, during my 5-to-10-minute hands-on test, I managed to steer into two walls and came a little closer than I intended (I swear!) to several rival reporters.

Once an engineer tweaked the settings a bit, and I got used to the software controls on the iOS app, the Bebop became easier to navigate. But until reviewers get more flight time, it’s hard to say just how much more capable the new Bebop really is.

Attacking the drone market across the price spectrum

The Bebop 2 will be available on December 14th, starting at $549.99 or $799.99 with the Parrot Skycontroller Black Edition, the external flight controller that promises to extend Wi-Fi flight range by 6,561 feet.

With the latest announcement, Parrot continues to attack the drone market across the price spectrum, widening its lineup of toy drones while also operating commercial subsidiaries, including senseFly, Pix4D, and Airinov. In July, the company announced plans to spin out its drone businesses as a separate subsidiary.

Parrot’s drone revenue rose 60 percent from the previous year in the third quarter, with 87 percent of sales coming from consumer drones like the Bebop and Minidrones. The company recently signed retail agreements with Target and AT&T that are poised to further drive sales, especially with a new drone ready just in time for the holiday shopping season.

The Verge Review of Animals: the dog

2015-11-08T09:00:02-05:00

Moxie at Golden Gate Park. | Vjeran Pavic

In the cold analysis of some evolutionary psychologists, dogs are little more than “social parasites,” exploiting our parental instincts to ensure we continually feed and house the little mooches.

John Archer of the University of Central Lancashire advanced this “alternative Darwinian interpretation” of our connection to pets in several papers, arguing dogs and cats developed infant-like features and human-like behaviors that manipulate us into treating them like our own babies. To Archer, a puppy is little different from Atemeles pubicollis, a rove beetle that squats in ant nests during its larval stage, manipulating members of the colony into feeding it — until it starts gorging on larval ants as well. In other words, we’ve been had. Hoodwinked by our evolutionary hardwiring into giving away precious resources to creatures that don’t even have the courtesy to pass along our genes.

But here is a case where the sober gaze of science overlooks one critical piece of data: dogs are the best. If they’re parasites at all, they may just be nature’s masterpiece.

A mosquito can’t draw a blood meal without stabbing its hypodermic needle of a nose into your arm. Tics hitch aboard with face harpoons while various leeches lock down with sets of saw-like jaws. Dogs, on the other hand, just sidled up to humans one day and flashed a set of big wet eyes. We’ve basically been feeding them under the table and taking them out for evening poops ever since.

If dogs are parasites at all, they may just be nature’s masterpiece

Their total survival strategy amounts to being really, really cute and companionable. As far as nature’s designs go, with its adolescent insistence on sticking fangs, horns, and claws onto everything, the dog comes out as a pretty elegant evolutionary vehicle.

Photo by John Moore / Getty Images

How, when, and why this all started is the subject of a growing body of scientific research and postulation. The leading theory holds that wolves started scavenging food waste along the edges of human campsites or settlements.

“The most brazen among them may have overcome any fear of these new, naked human animals and begun feasting on the scraps pile,” writes Alexandra Horowitz, an animal cognition researcher at Barnard College in her work Inside of a Dog: What Dogs See, Smell, and Know. “In this way, an accidental natural selection of wolves who are less fearful of humans would have begun.”

And then artificial selection would have kicked in, as humans breed wolf-dogs increasingly better suited as household companions — or, at a minimum, less likely to eat us in our sleep. Studies have plotted the beginning of dog domestication all over the geographic and historical map, with estimates ranging from 15,000 to 40,000 years ago. Either estimate would make dogs the first domesticated animals, even though an apex predator is arguably an odd choice for our first house guest.

Humans breed wolf-dogs increasingly less likely to eat us in our sleep

Over time, their looks changed from menacing to downright adorable: heads, teeth, and snouts shrunk as almond eyes grew big and round, juvenile features that persist into adulthood. These neotenous characteristics may serve as “social releasers” that trigger our caretaker impulses, according to Archer.

Successive generations became increasingly adapted to life among people by becoming increasingly like people, “developing rudimentary forms of our social wizardry,” wrote John Homans in What’s a Dog For?

A 2013 study published in Nature compared the genomes of various dog breeds to wolves, and spotted 36 regions where the species diverged. The changes broke down into two major categories, those associated with digesting starches and metabolizing fats (which would have been crucial for animals living off of human food scraps) and those linked to brain function.

Kerstin Lindblad-Toh, a researcher at Uppsala University in Sweden, who led the study, explained the latter finding in an interview with me last year: “A wolf that wants to live with people needs to be able to read human body language and not be scared of them.”

But an absence of fear hardly begins to describe the slobbering, wagging bundle of excitement that tends to greet modern dog parents at the door. A 2010 study led by Robert Wayne at UCLA highlighted another genomic distinction in dogs that could play a role in their gregariousness, as Homans described in his book:

One place on the genome where dogs separate from wolves is a location that, in humans, is correlated with Williams Syndrome, a condition whose symptoms include cheerfulness; social fearlessness; cute, elfin facial features; and sometimes a degree of mental disability.

“This is the so-called party gene,” Wayne told me. “Syndrome sufferers are often the life of the party. They’re very engaging, and there are always people surrounding them.”

Wayne wasn’t available for an interview, but previously told National Geographic that he was “intrigued” by the finding and hoped to study it further. He and Lindblad-Toh both, however, cautioned against reading too much into any one genomic factor.

Photo by Matt Cardy / Getty Images

Whatever the precise array of causes, scientists have been shocked at just how adept dogs are at reading our social cues. Researchers have set up versions of the shell game for dogs, hiding a treat under one of several cups but then clearly pointing to or tapping on the right one. Dogs generally go right for it, even when smell is controlled for. This may not seem like an especially surprising trick to any dog owner, but capuchin monkeys, baboons, and chimpanzees, which share far more of our genetic code, are stumped by the same instructions. Dogs just get us in a way that few other animals do.

Still, the parasitic view of pets argues that you can’t justify the resources we expend on them in evolutionary terms, those tens of billions of dollars that Americans will drop this year on biscuits, bones, squeaky toys, and hot dog outfits. “In the case of pets, bearing these costs is maladaptive,” Archer wrote.

Evidence suggests dogs really do help you score dates. Can your tapeworm do that?

Indeed, maladaptive is about the nicest way of describing the amount of money I personally spend each month on doggy day care for my little mutt Moxie, a black dog with floppy ears and an overdeveloped herding instinct. But I don’t think my relationship with her is nearly as one-sided as this view argues.

In biological terms, parasites aren’t merely opportunistic, they’re harmful to their host, sucking away crucial nutrients or taking over their brains. The next grade down is a commensal relationship, in which one organism obtains benefits from another, without harming or helping it, like the remora that hitches aboard sharks and gobbles up their leftovers.

But I’d argue even that doesn’t apply, since various studies have found that pet ownership is associated with reduced risk of heart disease, lower stress, stronger immune systems, and fewer doctor visits. Plus at least anecdotal evidence suggests dogs really do help you score dates. Can your tapeworm do that?

Photo by Vjeran Pavic / The Verge

On a recent afternoon, Moxie and I visited a dog park near my apartment in Berkeley, California, as we often do several times each day. As I tossed a tennis ball, she bounded after it with a speed and intensity that, for a moment, masks the fact she’s an absolute klutz at fetching. She lunges, vaults, and cranes her neck, but bites down on empty air, always, every time.

And she couldn’t care less. Moxie is a happy little being, devoid of pretension, guile, or ambition. And witnessing that kind of droopy tongued joy has a way of rubbing off, and a way of making all those dog park visits and day care bills worth it.

My own alternative Darwinian interpretation is that dogs are an emotional luxury afforded to us as we stepped out of the wild, building homes, raising livestock, and cultivating fields that would collectively free us from the daily struggles of mere survival. Dogs cheer us up when we’re sad. They’re good company when we’re lonely. They’re a distraction from all the small annoyances and larger tragedies of life. Dogs, in short, make us happy.

And once the hard costs of evolution are accounted for — food, shelter, and sex — what’s more important than that?

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The Dog

Verge Score: 10.0

10.0 Verge Score

Good Stuff

Makes you happy and healthy
Loyal, adorable companion
Helps you score dates!

Bad Stuff

Says goodbye to your time & money
Puppy eyes trigger guilt whenever you go to work
Probably exploiting our parental instincts