BRCA Gene Test, Bacteriophages, Synesthesia. March 9, 2018, Part 1

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🗓️ 9 March 2018

⏱️ 47 minutes

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Summary

Overuse of antibiotics has lead to bacteria becoming resistant to the drugs. In the United States, at least two million people become infected with antibiotic resistant bacteria each year, according to the Center for Disease Control. While some researchers are looking for new sources of antibiotics, other scientists are looking for new strategies to treat bacterial infections. One strategy is the use of bacteriophages—viruses that infect and kill bacteria. In 2013, the Food and Drug Administration prohibited the consumer genetic testing company 23andMe from marketing a test for breast cancer mutations and drug sensitivity. Now, the FDA has changed its mind, granting 23andMe permission to screen for three mutations in the BRCA1 and BRCA2 genes, which increase breast cancer risk. Around four percent of the world’s population has some form of synesthesia, a neurological phenomenon that blurs some of the lines around the senses. In two of the more common variants, synesthetes may involuntarily associate letters with colors, or see colors for musical notes—but there are many other forms of synesthesia, all involving the crossover of one form of perception to another. This week, researchers report that they’ve identified several regions of the genome that may be involved in synesthesia. Plus, Maggie Koerth-Baker, senior science reporter for Fivethirtyeight.com, tells Ira about a falling space station, exoplanets, and more top science stories of the week in the News Round-up.

Transcript

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0:00.0	This is Science Friday. I'm Ira Flato. A bit later in the hour, how a virus fished out of a lake
0:06.5	healed a man's deadly infection. But first, this March is a great month for night sky gazing.
0:13.7	I'm going to get out my telescope because Mercury and Venus will line up close to each other,
0:18.1	low in the horizon. You have Jupiter, Mars, and Saturn also being bunched together.
0:23.5	And if you're lucky, you might catch another bright spot in the sky.
0:27.9	Though it's not a planet or a star, it'll be a falling space station crashing to the Earth,
0:34.4	hopefully not near you.
0:36.1	Maggie Gert Baker is here to fill us in on that story.
0:39.0	She's senior science reporter at 538.com. Welcome back, Maggie. Hi, thanks for having me.
0:45.6	Well, we know the station is going to come crashing down somewhere, but how many more details than that?
0:50.9	I mean, that's all we know, right? Scientists have left it pleasantly vague. So,
0:56.1	sometime between March 29th and April 9th, and somewhere in a area of the world that covers
1:04.8	Spain, France, Portugal, Greece, and, I quote, etc. Et cetera. It's good that's right, the escape clause.
1:13.6	Now, the Chinese space agency was using the station for five years, right?
1:18.2	What was it used for?
1:20.1	For basic scientific research, there was part of their push to become a space-faring power.
1:26.3	The first Chinese woman in space went there, and they apparently lost control of it somewhere
1:32.0	around 2016.
1:33.3	So now it is descending to Earth without anyone being able to guide it to some other place
1:39.7	that's not populated.
1:40.7	Yeah, I remember covering NASA skylight falling from in 1979.
1:45.0	There was always stuff coming back down to Earth.
	...

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