Latest news with #Crick
BBC News
4 days ago
- Entertainment
- BBC News
Crick sub-postmaster performs in Britain's Got Talent final
A postmaster who sings with a choir of people affected by the Post Office scandal said he was "50% gutted and 50% grateful" after failing to win the final of Britain's Got Attridge, who runs a branch in Crick, Northamptonshire, took to the stage with 40 other singers in the Hear Our Voice rendition of Gigantic by Wills and the People saw them finish seventh while magician Harry Moulding took first Attridge said he was "grateful for being given the chance" to perform on the show. The choir was set up for victims of the Post Office scandal and their than 900 postmasters were prosecuted for stealing because of incorrect information from the Horizon computer choir was favourite to win going into the final and the village of Crick had given their support to Hear Our Voice with posters and bunting on was even a rumour that a concert in Crick church was paused on the night so the audience could vote for the choir. Mr Attridge said the final result left the choir "50% gutted and 50% grateful" and added: "If you'd have said to me when I joined the choir that we were going to be going on Britain's Got Talent as finalists and as favourites, who would have thought that?"We've got to be grateful for the support, grateful for being able to get our message out there". Mr Attridge was the only serving sub-postmaster in the choir and said: "At times, I felt like a bit of an imposter [in the choir]."It's been so horrific and so terrible what they've been through."I'm one of them and they've accepted me which is great, but I haven't had the problems they have and the problems I did have have all been sorted."He added that he was "overwhelmed by the support" from the village of Crick said the world had not "heard the last" of Hear Our Voice. Follow Northamptonshire news on BBC Sounds, Facebook, Instagram and X.
Mint
08-05-2025
- Science
- Mint
Gene editing: Is humanity ready to rewrite the book of life?
When Watson and Crick discovered DNA's double helix in 1953, humanity stumbled upon something miraculous and menacing: the ability to edit genes. Not read them, not mildly tweak them, but rewrite them with a divinity complex. Think of it as opening Microsoft Word and creating your fantasy appearance. Rainbow-coloured eyes? Sure. Sounds amazing? It is. Terrifying? Definitely. Gene editing is like Prometheus handing humanity the genetic matchstick—except this time, instead of fire, we're toying with the instruction manual of life. It all started innocently enough, back in the 1970s, when scientists like Herbert Boyer and Stanley Cohen created recombinant DNA, enabling direct gene manipulation across species barriers. The 1980s saw the first genetically modified organisms and transgenic animals, while the 1990s brought the ambitious Human Genome Project. Also Read: Genetically engineered animals are here: Regulation mustn't get left behind By 2003, scientists had mapped 92% of humanity's complete genetic blueprint. The pace quickened with the 2012 invention of Crispr-Cas9, the tool that democratized precise genetic modification through its relative simplicity and affordability. In one bold move, we accelerated both progress and ethical concerns. Crispr tech is precise, cheap and fast. It is already being used to cure genetic diseases. Between 2023-25, the UK and US approved therapies that cured—and not just treated— sickle cell anaemia. Patients who lived their lives with chronic pain and blood transfusions are now free of the illness . Crispr tech do-it-yourself kits can be bought online. It sounds like a great Diwali gift, until someone starts editing mosquitoes to spread designer viruses or resurrects smallpox as a prank. Amazing and terrifying. Scientists, meanwhile, are re-programming immune cells to target tumours with high precision. Plant engineering is equally promising. We could soon have drought-resistant rice and bananas that resist going brown. More nutritious and resilient crops that can withstand climate change could revolutionize food security worldwide. Also Read: Colossal Biosciences' dire wolf pups aren't proof of gene-tech defeating extinction As for genetic re-engineering being a bugbear, the Lulu and Nana controversy is a prime example. It involved twin girls born in November 2018 who were the world's first known genetically modified humans, edited as embryos by scientist He Jiankui. He introduced a mutation to make the gene HIV resistant (the girls' father was HIV-positive while their mother wasn't). His secret research was exposed when documents appeared in China's clinical trials registry and other international publications. The case highlighted the reality of designer babies and underscored the urgent need for an international oversight and governance framework. Genetic inequality has moved beyond science fiction. Today, gene enhancement is available, even if only at a prohibitive cost. Cloning is another contentious issue that hit the news in 1996, with Dolly being the first cloned mammal. While animal cloning is practised in agriculture and conservation, human cloning remains ethically questionable and mainly in the realm of science fiction. Also Read: Genetic studies: Let's cast a wider DNA net The question of whether human genes should be patented is a hotly contested one. While patents incentivize research and drive innovation, critics argue that naturally occurring genes belong to the entire human race. A 2013 US Supreme Court ruling against Myriad Genetics that invalidated patents on naturally occurring genes like BRCA1 and BRCA2 (linked to breast cancer) set a legal precedent. Yet, synthetic or significantly altered genetic sequences remain patentable. Now let's then address the 'mammoth' in the room. Are we headed for a real-life Jurassic Park? The short answer is 'no.' We can't recreate dinosaurs. DNA degrades too fast, with a half-life of about 521 years. The longer answer is 'kind of.' Colossal Biosciences, a US startup, is working on bringing back woolly mammoths by modifying Asian-elephant DNA. It has tried to resurrect the dodo and dire wolf. This is called 'de-extinction,' but critics call it 'bio-dramatics with unpredictable ecological consequences." Let's not sugar-coat it. Gene modification could widen an already yawning gap between the haves and have-nots. Imagine rich engineered babies growing taller, smarter and resistant to everything except bad wi-fi, while the poor are stuck in queues for basic vaccines. Left unchecked, this could usher in genetic caste systems. Humanity, never one to resist temptation, has already produced some genetic oddities. Nasa has gene-edited mice to grow larger muscles in space. Scientists are now editing weed to remove the high THC and preserve its medicinal value. And there are also glow-in-the-dark pets: fluorescent cats, pigs and even bunnies. Also Read: What does a woolly mammoth have in common with Mars? Nothing, except neither will solve Earth's problems Gene-editing is a tool like fire or nuclear energy. Used wisely, it can rid us of suffering, feed billions and save species. Used recklessly, it can usher in a genetic dystopia. The current thinking in science and bioethics is cautiously optimistic. Therapeutic editing is okay, enhancement for aesthetics, intellect or athleticism is hotly debated and editing embryos for heritable traits is mostly banned or heavily restricted, while reviving dinosaurs is not on. As Dr Ian Malcolm grumbled in Jurassic Park : 'Your scientists were so preoccupied with whether or not they could, they didn't stop to think if they should." It's finally time to confront that dilemma. The author is a technology advisor and podcast host.
New York Times
09-04-2025
- Science
- New York Times
Scientists Map Miles of Wiring in a Speck of Mouse Brain
The human brain is so complex that scientific brains have a hard time making sense of it. A piece of neural tissue the size of a grain of sand might be packed with hundreds of thousands of cells linked together by miles of wiring. In 1979, Francis Crick, the Nobel-prize-winning scientist, concluded that the anatomy and activity in just a cubic millimeter of brain matter would forever exceed our understanding. 'It is no use asking for the impossible,' Dr. Crick wrote. Forty-six years later, a team of more than 100 scientists has achieved that impossible, by recording the cellular activity and mapping the structure in a cubic millimeter of a mouse's brain — less than one percent of its full volume. In accomplishing this feat, they amassed 1.6 petabytes of data — the equivalent of 22 years of nonstop high-definition video. 'This is a milestone,' said Davi Bock, a neuroscientist at the University of Vermont who was not involved in the study, which was published Wednesday in the journal Nature. Dr. Bock said that the advances that made it possible to chart a cubic millimeter of brain boded well for a new goal: mapping the wiring of the entire brain of a mouse. 'It's totally doable, and I think it's worth doing,' he said. More than 130 years have passed since the Spanish neuroscientist Santiago Ramón y Cajal first spied individual neurons under a microscope, making out their peculiar branched shapes. Later generations of scientists worked out many of the details of how a neuron sends a spike of voltage down a long arm, called an axon. Each axon makes contact with tiny branches, or dendrites, of neighboring neurons. Some neurons excite their neighbors into firing voltage spikes of their own. Some quiet other neurons. Human thought somehow emerges from this mix of excitation and inhibition. But how that happens has remained a tremendous mystery, largely because scientists have been able to study only a few neurons at a time. In recent decades, technological advances have allowed scientists to start mapping brains in their entirety. In 1986, British researchers published the circuitry of a tiny worm, made up of 302 neurons. In subsequent years, researchers charted bigger brains, such as the 140,000 neurons in the brain of a fly. Could Dr. Crick's impossible dream be possible after all? In 2016, the American government began a $100 million effort to scan a cubic millimeter of a mouse brain. The project — called Machine Intelligence from Cortical Networks, or MICrONS — was led by scientists at the Allen Institute for Brain Science, Princeton University and Baylor College of Medicine. The researchers zeroed in on a portion of the mouse brain that receives signals from the eyes and reconstructs what the animal sees. In the first stage of the research, the team recorded the activity of neurons in that region as it showed a mouse videos of different landscapes. The researchers then dissected the mouse brain and doused the cubic millimeter with hardening chemicals. Then they shaved off 28,000 slices from the block of tissue, capturing an image of each one. Computers were trained to recognize the outlines of cells in each slice and link the slices together into three-dimensional shapes. All told, the team charted 200,000 neurons and other types of brain cells, along with 523 million neural connections. For Nuno da Costa, a biologist at the Allen Institute and one of the leaders of the project, just watching the cells take shape on his computer screen was breathtaking. 'These neurons are absolutely stunning — it gives me pleasure,' he said. To understand how this mesh of neurons functioned, Dr. da Costa and his colleagues mapped the activity that had been recorded when the mouse looked at videos. 'Imagine that you come to a party that has 80,000 people, and you can be aware of every conversation, but you don't know who is talking to whom,' Dr. da Costa said. 'And now imagine that you have a way to know who is talking to whom, but you have no idea what they're saying. If you have these two things, you can tell a better story about what's happening at the party.' Analyzing the data, the researchers discovered patterns in the wiring of the brain that had escaped notice until now. They identified distinct kinds of inhibitory neurons, for instance, that link only to certain other types of neurons. 'When you go into studying the brain, it seems kind of hopeless — there are just so many connections and so much complexity,' said Mariela Petkova, a biophysicist at Harvard who was not involved in the MICrONS project. 'Finding wiring rules is a win. The brain is a lot less messy than people thought,' she said. Many of the MICrONS researchers are now pitching in on a bigger project: mapping an entire mouse's brain. With a volume of 500 cubic millimeters, a full brain would take decades or centuries to chart with current methods. The scientists will have to find additional tricks in order to finish the project in a decade. 'What they've already had to do to get here is heroic,' said Gregory Jefferis, a neuroscientist at the University of Cambridge who was not involved in the MICrONS project. 'But we've still got a mountain to climb.' Forrest Collman, a member of the MICrONS project at the Allen Institute, is optimistic. He and his colleagues recently discovered how to make microscopically thin sections from an entire mouse brain. 'Some of these barriers are starting to fall,' Dr. Collman said. But our own brain, which is about a thousand times bigger than a mouse's, presents a much bigger challenge, he added. 'The human brain right now feels like outside the range of what is possible,' he said. 'We are not going there anytime soon.' But Sebastian Seung, a neuroscientist at Princeton and a member of the MICrONS project, noted that mouse brains and human brains are similar enough that researchers might glean clues that could help them find medications to effectively treat psychological disorders without causing harmful side effects. 'Our current methods of manipulating the nervous system are incredibly blunt instruments,' Dr. Seung said. 'You put in a drug, and it goes everywhere,' he added. 'But being able to actually reach in and manipulate a cell type — that's precision.' The efforts to map a whole mouse brain are supported by funding from a long-running National Institutes of Health program called the BRAIN initiative. But the future of the endeavor is uncertain. Last year, Congress cut funding to the BRAIN initiative by 40 percent, and last month President Trump signed a bill cutting support by another 20 percent. Dr. Bock noted that brain-mapping efforts like MICrONS take years, partly because they require the invention of new technologies and software along the way. 'We need consistency and predictability of science funding to realize these long-term goals,' Dr. Bock said.
USA Today
02-04-2025
- Sport
- USA Today
Former Husker named head football coach
Former Husker named head football coach A former Nebraska Cornhusker has become a high school football head coach. On Monday, Jared Crick was named the head coach of Cozad (NE) High School. Crick played at Nebraska from 2007 to 2011. In 40 career games, the former defensive tackle recorded 167 tackles, 31.0 for loss, and 20.0 sacks. The former Blackshirt said in a statement that he's excited about the opportunity to step into coaching. "I am proud and humbled to be announced as the Head Football Coach of my Alma Mater, to which I owe a great deal of credit and appreciation to the many that have come before me. Great people, who've shaped my life, resulting in the responsibility I now have before me as the leader of this program. We thank Coach Dueland for all of his hard work and commitment to Cozad Football, and we hope to take advantage of the winning environment he has helped create. Following his career at Nebraska, the Houston Texans selected Crick in the 4th round of the 2012 NFL draft. Crick played for Houston from 2012 to 2015 and then spent time with the Denver Broncos from 2016 to 2017. Following his playing career, the former Husker worked as an Account Executive at Farm Bureau Financial Services.
Boston Globe
28-02-2025
- Science
- Boston Globe
Today in History: February 28, the Waco Siege begins
In 1953, Francis H.C. Crick announced that he and fellow scientist James D. Watson had discovered the double-helix structure of DNA. Advertisement In 1956, a commuter train barreling down the tracks at 50 miles per hour slammed into a stopped train from Portsmouth, N.H., near the Swampscott Station, killing 13 people and injuring more than 100 amid a nor'easter. In 1975, 43 people were killed in London's Underground when a train failed to stop at Moorgate station, smashing into the end of a tunnel. In 1983, the final episode of the television series 'M.A.S.H.' aired; nearly 106 million viewers saw the finale, which remains the most-watched episode of any US television series to date. In 1986, Swedish Prime Minister Olof Palme was assassinated while walking on a Stockholm street with his wife; his assailant was never captured and remains unidentified. In 1993, a gun battle erupted at a religious compound near Waco, Texas, when Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, and Firearms agents tried to arrest Branch Davidian leader David Koresh on weapons charges; four agents and six Davidians were killed as a 51-day standoff began. In 2013, Benedict XVI became the first pope in 600 years to resign, ending an eight-year pontificate. (Benedict was succeeded the following month by Pope Francis.) Advertisement In 2014, delivering a blunt warning to Moscow, President Obama expressed deep concern over reported military activity inside Ukraine by Russia and warned 'there will be costs' for any intervention.
