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Return to the moon
2018PREVIEW
1 Return to the moon The race to revisit our closest neighbour 2 Missing limbs regrown Bioelectricity remakes the body
3 Meet your long-lost cousin Next great hominin fossil is imminent 4 Opioid crisis
continues Deadly epidemic shows no sign
5 Microbiology’s mother lode New forms of life revealed 6 Bitcoin’s
of abating
bubble Cryptocurrency set for boom or bust?
7 Pre-birth therapy First stem cell treatment in the womb 8 Last chance for the LHC
Time’s running out for the discovery of new
9 Mission to Mercury An epic voyage to a scorched world 10 Quantum
physics
dawn Google’s computing breakthrough
00 Month 2017 | NewScientist | 29
BILGIN S. SASMAZ/ANADOLU AGENCY/GETTY IMAGES FAR RIGHT: JIM WEHTJE
2018 PREVIEW
1
30 | NewScientist | 23/30 December 2017
to the moon
Return
Everyone is going to the moon, so they say. Between national space programmes and private initiatives, 2018 is the goal launch year for at least eight different missions to the moon, making it the most popular destination outside low Earth orbit. Elon Musk said last year that SpaceX plans to send two tourists on a jaunt around the moon in 2018 using his Falcon Heavy rocket and Crew Dragon capsule. Neither of these have flown yet, so they face significant testing before their intended launch date at the end of the year, and even a minor issue with one of them could delay the journey. Musk has not revealed the identities of the astro-tourists, who will pay an undisclosed – but surely astronomical – amount of money for the ride. President Trump declared in December that the US will send astronauts back to the moon, but in this modern moon race, plenty of others are set to beat them there. The Google Lunar X Prize is the motivation for five privately funded groups making efforts
to launch and land a lunar rover. The first of these firms to cruise across the moon’s surface and send back video will receive $30 million. Barring further extensions – there have been several since the challenge was announced in 2007 – the competition will end on 31 March. All the contenders have contracts with launch providers, but the rovers are still being built and there is no guarantee they will be ready in time or survive the voyage. They are not the only ones getting in on moon mania. India aims to launch its first rover in March, along with a lunar orbiter and lander. China’s Chang’e 4 mission is set to launch in December 2018 with the country’s second lunar lander and rover. Designed as a backup for their predecessors, these have been repurposed for a more difficult landing on the far side of the moon. Chang’e 3 roamed the lunar surface for a year and a half before it stopped transmitting in 2015. Now, it will have a pal. In fact, things might even get a little crowded. Leah Crane
“The lunar surface is the most popular destination outside low Earth orbit. It might even get a bit crowded”
MISSING LIMBS REGROWN A bold plan to regenerate missing limbs by tweaking the body’s bioelectricity could be realised in the coming year. Michael Levin and his team at Tufts University, Massachusetts, have started experiments to get mice to regrow parts of their paws. Levin’s team has already found that patterns of electrical activity allow cells to communicate with each other, and control how embryos develop. Earlier this year, the group altered this pattern – which they call the “bioelectric code” – in worms, enabling them to grow heads instead of tails and vice versa.
Since then, the team has developed a cocktail of chemicals that alter the electrical activity of cells by changing the way charged substances, such as calcium ions, move through them. Preliminary results suggest this brew can boost frogs’ natural ability to regrow severed limbs. The next step is to do this in mammals – a much more challenging feat since these animals aren’t normally very good at regenerating limbs. Mice and humans might be able to regrow a little piece of a chopped-off finger or toe, but that is pretty much it. Levin’s goal is to regenerate an
entire mouse paw – and eventually, human limbs. The team is now applying its chemical cocktail to mice missing parts of their paws. To do this, Levin has created a silk-based gel that can be impregnated with the cocktail and attached to the end of the damaged limb. There have been some early signs of regrowth, although the researchers think they will need to tweak either the cocktail or the way they deliver it to get the results they are hoping for. “We’ve started with a mouse digit, but ultimately it will be an entire paw,” says Levin. Jessica Hamzelou
2
23/30 December 2017 | NewScientist | 31
1 Return to the moon The race to revisit our closest neighbour 2 Missing limbs regrown Bioelectricity remakes the body
3 Meet your long-lost cousin Next great hominin fossil is imminent 4 Opioid crisis
continues Deadly epidemic shows no sign
5 Microbiology’s mother lode New forms of life revealed 6 Bitcoin’s
of abating
bubble Cryptocurrency set for boom or bust?
7 Pre-birth therapy First stem cell treatment in the womb 8 Last chance for the LHC
Time’s running out for the discovery of new
9 Mission to Mercury An epic voyage to a scorched world 10 Quantum
physics
dawn Google’s computing breakthrough
00 Month 2017 | NewScientist | 29
BILGIN S. SASMAZ/ANADOLU AGENCY/GETTY IMAGES FAR RIGHT: JIM WEHTJE
2018 PREVIEW
1
30 | NewScientist | 23/30 December 2017
to the moon
Return
Everyone is going to the moon, so they say. Between national space programmes and private initiatives, 2018 is the goal launch year for at least eight different missions to the moon, making it the most popular destination outside low Earth orbit. Elon Musk said last year that SpaceX plans to send two tourists on a jaunt around the moon in 2018 using his Falcon Heavy rocket and Crew Dragon capsule. Neither of these have flown yet, so they face significant testing before their intended launch date at the end of the year, and even a minor issue with one of them could delay the journey. Musk has not revealed the identities of the astro-tourists, who will pay an undisclosed – but surely astronomical – amount of money for the ride. President Trump declared in December that the US will send astronauts back to the moon, but in this modern moon race, plenty of others are set to beat them there. The Google Lunar X Prize is the motivation for five privately funded groups making efforts
to launch and land a lunar rover. The first of these firms to cruise across the moon’s surface and send back video will receive $30 million. Barring further extensions – there have been several since the challenge was announced in 2007 – the competition will end on 31 March. All the contenders have contracts with launch providers, but the rovers are still being built and there is no guarantee they will be ready in time or survive the voyage. They are not the only ones getting in on moon mania. India aims to launch its first rover in March, along with a lunar orbiter and lander. China’s Chang’e 4 mission is set to launch in December 2018 with the country’s second lunar lander and rover. Designed as a backup for their predecessors, these have been repurposed for a more difficult landing on the far side of the moon. Chang’e 3 roamed the lunar surface for a year and a half before it stopped transmitting in 2015. Now, it will have a pal. In fact, things might even get a little crowded. Leah Crane
“The lunar surface is the most popular destination outside low Earth orbit. It might even get a bit crowded”
MISSING LIMBS REGROWN A bold plan to regenerate missing limbs by tweaking the body’s bioelectricity could be realised in the coming year. Michael Levin and his team at Tufts University, Massachusetts, have started experiments to get mice to regrow parts of their paws. Levin’s team has already found that patterns of electrical activity allow cells to communicate with each other, and control how embryos develop. Earlier this year, the group altered this pattern – which they call the “bioelectric code” – in worms, enabling them to grow heads instead of tails and vice versa.
Since then, the team has developed a cocktail of chemicals that alter the electrical activity of cells by changing the way charged substances, such as calcium ions, move through them. Preliminary results suggest this brew can boost frogs’ natural ability to regrow severed limbs. The next step is to do this in mammals – a much more challenging feat since these animals aren’t normally very good at regenerating limbs. Mice and humans might be able to regrow a little piece of a chopped-off finger or toe, but that is pretty much it. Levin’s goal is to regenerate an
entire mouse paw – and eventually, human limbs. The team is now applying its chemical cocktail to mice missing parts of their paws. To do this, Levin has created a silk-based gel that can be impregnated with the cocktail and attached to the end of the damaged limb. There have been some early signs of regrowth, although the researchers think they will need to tweak either the cocktail or the way they deliver it to get the results they are hoping for. “We’ve started with a mouse digit, but ultimately it will be an entire paw,” says Levin. Jessica Hamzelou
2
23/30 December 2017 | NewScientist | 31