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Surgeons at Xijing Hospital in Xi’an, China, carried out the primary transplantation of a non-human liver right into a human physique.Credit score: Xijing Hospital, Air Drive Medical College in Xi’an China
Surgeons in China say they’ve transplanted a pig liver into an individual’s physique for the primary time. With consent from the person’s household, the clinically useless affected person obtained a liver from a pig that was genetically modified to forestall the recipient from rejecting the pig organ. The surgeons say the pig liver secreted greater than 30 millilitres of bile every single day, and the color and texture of the liver remained regular after 10 days. In January, a US crew carried out an analogous experiment with a pig’s liver situated exterior an individual’s physique, and there have been additional experiments with genetically modified pig kidneys and hearts.
Learn extra: Consultants weigh in on the problems surrounding the xenotransplantation of pig organs in Nature Medication (11 min learn, from 2022)
Stellar detectives have recognized seven stars that just lately wolfed up a rocky planet. The planets appear to have been eaten throughout their stars’ comparatively secure main-sequence interval. If that is true, it means these programs have continued to be chaotic lengthy after their formation, with planets disintegrating or falling into their star, says astronomer Johanna Teske. “It’s an inference at this level. We have to have a look at these programs in additional element.”
A slew of research have recognized how irritation within the brains of individuals with COVID-19 may clarify neurological signs reminiscent of lack of scent, complications and reminiscence issues. Rising proof means that the immune response triggered by the virus leads not directly to mind irritation. One research discovered that folks with lengthy COVID and ‘mind fog’ had a leakier blood-brain barrier, which could let in molecules that trigger irritation.
Reference: Nature Neuroscience paper
Indian biotechnology firm ImmunoACT is producing a less expensive model of a most cancers remedy often known as chimeric antigen receptor (CAR) T-cell remedy. A single remedy of NexCAR19 prices between US$30,000 and $40,000 — a tenth of the value of comparable merchandise now accessible. The protection profile additionally seems to be higher than some US-approved CAR-T merchandise. NexCAR19 is now getting used to deal with blood cancers in hospitals throughout India. “These are folks for whom all different therapies have failed,” says immunologist Alka Dwivedi.
For 15 years, geoscientists have been concerned in a sophisticated technical course of to find out whether or not human impacts on Earth quantity to a brand new geological epoch: the Anthropocene. This week, following a controversial vote and problem, the ultimate verdict has arrived from the Worldwide Union of Geological Sciences: we’re not in a brand new epoch. The present lack of settlement on a begin date mustn’t detract from the Anthropocene as an idea, says a Nature editorial. The truth is that people are leaving a discernible fingerprint on Earth programs.
Nature | 5 min learn & Nature editorial | 5 min learn
Options & opinion
AI picture turbines can amplify biased stereotypes of their output. There have been makes an attempt to quash the issue by handbook fine-tuning (which might have unintended penalties, for instance producing various however traditionally inaccurate photographs) and by growing the quantity of coaching information. “Individuals usually declare that scale cancels out noise,” says cognitive scientist Abeba Birhane. “Actually, the nice and the dangerous don’t stability out.” Crucial step to understanding how these biases come up and the right way to keep away from them is transparency, researchers say. “If a number of the information units will not be open supply, we don’t even know what issues exist,” says Birhane.
Invasive ant species such because the Argentine ant (Linepithema humile) have conquered the land so totally that “it could appear as if the unfold of worldwide commerce was an Argentine ant plot for world domination”, writes science journalist John Whitfield. He explores what makes these bugs so profitable, their results on ecosystems and the temptation to match their unfold with humanity’s personal energy struggles. Ants “converse to life’s capacity to flee our grasp, no matter how we would attempt to order and exploit the world”, writes Whitfield. “There’s one thing hopeful about that, for the planet, if not for us.”
