Gene Drives, Big Yawns, and Birth Control: Week in Review

This Week’s NOVA Next Feature

With the power to modify entire populations, gene drives promise to upend evolution—or not. NOVA Next contributor Veronique Greenwood reports the story .

How did Hurricane Matthew become so threatening so quickly?
Big yawns are a sign of a big brain .
A massive new study has linked birth control to depression for the first time.
Hacked security cameras unleash unprecedented and troubling cyber attacks .
Breast microbiome profiles are linked to higher—or lower—chance of cancer.

Here, a mosquito with a gene drive (blue) mates with a mosquito without one (grey). In the offspring, one chromosome will have the drive. The endonuclease then slices into the drive-free DNA. When the strand gets repaired, the cell's machinery uses the drive chromosome as a template, unwittingly copying the drive into the break.

What We’re Reading

Some experts believe that we’ve reached the upper limit of human longevity . [The New York Times]
Botswana, home to 130,000 wild elephants, has announced its support of a permanent ban on ivory trading . [National Geographic]
Psychologist Amy Cuddy’s research on power posing is coming under attack. She responded to her critics here . [Science of Us]
Our surrounding area of stars, gas, and dust—called the Local Arm—is actually about 20,000 light-years long . That’s four times bigger than we thought. [National Geographic]

Did you miss "Great Human Odyssey" this week? You can watch it streaming online here.