Abstracts: A Trip to Mars, a Three-Parent Baby, DNA Screening in Kuwait, and More
• In a new analysis of the imagery appearing in introductory criminology textbooks, men and white people were found to be heavily over-represented. Men of color are the most likely to be portrayed as criminals, while most of the victims shown are white women. And all of this has changed little over 20 years. (Undark)
• Despite headlines announcing the birth of the world’s “first three-parent baby”, children with three parents have been born before. In the 1990s, more than a dozen children were born with DNA from a mother, father, and some mitochondrial DNA from a donor egg. (Buzzfeed)
• Elon Musk, the billionaire inventor, technologist, and CEO of SpaceX, has long entertained visions of sending people to Mars — and he’s been busy this week talking up details for how he’d do it. (Economist)
• In Kuwait, a controversial law that requires all citizens to give a DNA sample to the government is stirring opposition. While the government says it is a security measure to identify criminals and terrorists, some are frightened that their own genetic data could be used against them. (STAT)
• A second person in Florida has been diagnosed with locally-transmitted dengue fever. Dengue is carried by the same species of mosquito that carries zika, and can be fatal. (Live Science)
• At the first Arctic Science Ministerial, an international summit to discuss how climate change is affecting the Arctic, leaders of indigenous Alaskan and Arctic tribes described how they have seen climate change affect the region first-hand. (WNYC)
• Artificial intelligence may be improving, but it can’t entertain us with great writing. Yet. Increasingly sophisticated software is writing increasingly sophisticated prose, from news stories, to a movie. (FiveThirtyEight)
• The notion of using an archaeological approach to understanding and deciphering modern culture has been growing for some time, and it is devoted to the idea that discarded beer cans, shipping pallets, and other mundane, modern artifacts store a wealth of information that archaeologists can help to unlock. (Undark)
• The antibiotic waste from over 300 pharmaceutical companies in India is culturing a lake full of resistant bacteria, which could have global consequences. (Newsweek)
• Starting Friday, the DEA will classify a Southeast Asian plant called kratom as a schedule 1 substance. This ban has led to an outcry from researchers who argue that little is known about the plant’s medicinal value, and it will be much harder to study now. (Seattle Times)
• And finally, by analyzing the similarities among ancient myths in different cultures, researchers may be able to trace a story’s path around the world and gain a better understanding of the migrations of ancient humans. (Scientific American)