The coronavirus pandemic is accelerating the development of CRISPR-based tests for detecting disease — and highlighting how gene-editing tools might one day fight pandemics, one of its discoverers, Jennifer Doudna, tells Axios.
Why it matters: Testing shortages and backlogs underscore a need for improved mass testing for COVID-19. Diagnostic tests based on CRISPR — which Doudna and colleagues identified in 2012, ushering in the"CRISPR revolution" in genome editing —are being developed for dengue, Zika and other diseases, but a global pandemic is a proving ground for these tools that hold promise for speed and lower costs.
Paving a Brazilian highway that runs through the Amazon without environmental studies could lead to massive deforestation and release of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere, two scientists warn in a letter published in Science Thursday.
National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration forecasters warned Thursday of the potential for an "extremely active" hurricane season in the Atlantic.
The big picture: The agency expects 19 to 25 named storms — with three to six major hurricanes — during the six-month hurricane season, which ends Nov. 30. The average season produces only 12 named storms.
Isaias became a post-tropical cyclone as it moved into southeast Canada late Tuesday after pummeling the East Coast for much of the day with heavy rains and wind —trigging tornadoes, floods and leaving millions without power. At least six people have lost their lives in the storm.
The big picture: Isaias made landfall as a Category 1 hurricane in North Carolina late Monday before being downgraded. It dumped heavy rain across Florida as a tropical storm over the weekend. On July 31, it lashed the Bahamas and parts of Puerto Rico and the Dominican Republic as a Category 1 hurricane.
Isaias became a post-tropical cyclone as it moved into southeast Canada late Tuesday, after spending much of the day lashing the East Coast with heavy rain and spawning tornadoes, per a National Hurricane Center (NHC) update at 11 p.m.
The latest: The NHC warned tropical storm conditions were expected "for a few more hours" along portions of the New England coast. The storm that's killed at least six people and left over 3 million customers without power in New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, North Carolina, Delaware, Virginia and Maryland, per Poweroutage.us.
