Elton John, Tyler Oakley and Jesse Tyler Ferguson named among the worlds most influential redheads of 2020 – PinkNews

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Tyler Oakley (Jamie McCarthy/Getty), Elton John (Dia Dipasupil/Getty) and Jesse Tyler Ferguson (Amanda Edwards/WireImage)

Gay men Elton John, Tyler Oakley and Jesse Tyler Ferguson have all been named as some of the most influential redheaded men in the world.

The three men made the Red Hot 100 Men of 2020 list, which was released this week. Elton John was named the fifth most influential redheaded man of the year, with Jesse Tyler Ferguson of Modern Family fame in 12th place.

Bisexual YouTuber Shane Dawson was named number 13 in the list of influential redhead men, with gay YouTuber Tyler Oakley placing at number 27. Elsewhere, gay swimmer Mike Del Moro was named the 30th most influential redhead of the year.

Various straight men also made the list, including some influential LGBT+ allies. Prince Harry was named the most influential redheaded man of the year. Meanwhile, British singer Ed Sheeran took the second place.

Tom Holland, who is best known for playing Spider Man, was named the third most influential redheaded man of the year, with Irish-German actor Michael Fassbender placing at number four.

Other high-profile redheads to make the list include Tom Hiddleston, Eddie Redmayne and Benedict Cumberbatch, as well as model Ken Bek.

The full list can be seen here.

The list has been compiled by Red Hot, an organisation that is trying to rebrand the ginger male stereotype by showcasing ginger men as sexy and desirable. The project was started by photographer Thomas Knights and kicked off in 2013.

The organisation has also raised more than 60,000 for various charities, including HIV charity the Terrence Higgins Trust.

Elton Johns placing as the fifth most influential redhead of 2020 comes after a groundbreaking year for the legendary singer-songwriter. Last year, his biopic Rocketman was released to critical acclaim. He is currently planning to retire following his final tour, Farewell Yellow Brick Road, which is due to conclude in New Zealand in 2021.

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Elton John, Tyler Oakley and Jesse Tyler Ferguson named among the worlds most influential redheads of 2020 - PinkNews

Weather at Home – How to Make Your Own Thermometer – WIFR

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During this period of social distancing, many parents can be left scratching their heads trying to find educational things to do with their kids to help pass the time. We're trying to help you out a bit with a series of weather-related activities you can do right at home!

Today, we're going to teach you how to build your own thermometer. The best thing about this is most, if not all of the items necessary to build the thermometer can be found in your home already, so you most likely won't even need to leave the house!

Here are the things you'll need to make your thermometer. - A clear bottle (a bottle of white vinegar or a 20oz bottle of pop works great)- A clear straw- Red food coloring- Scotch tape- An index card- Modeling clay or Play Doh

You'll start by filling the bottle about 75-80% of the way with water. It's important not to fill it to the top! Add your food coloring to the water. Place the straw into the bottle about 1/2 to 3/4 of the way down. From there, wrap the Play Doh around the straw and plug the hole in the bottle. Tape the index card toward the top of the straw. That's it! Your thermometer is ready to go!

You will notice as temperatures warm, the red liquid will rise, as temperatures cool, the liquid will fall in the straw. You'll want to grab a marker or a pen, along with a functioning thermometer, so you can mark your index card when the temperature reaches 60, 65, 70, and so forth.

Did you know that the first attempts to measure temperature took place in the year 170 A.D.? Did you know when the modern-day thermometer was invented? For more fun facts about thermometers, check out our series of graphics below!

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Weather at Home - How to Make Your Own Thermometer - WIFR

3 Reasons Sex With Red Heads Is Simply the Best – SheKnows

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Believe it or not, the MC1R genes that cause red hair are also responsible for other physical characteristics that make redheaded sex the best ever.

Whether you love a redhead or youre a redhead yourself, those vibrant tresses can actually translate into a wild bedroom experience.

The genes responsible for red hair also cause redheads to respond differently to physical stimuli than men or women with other hair colors. Redheads feel hot and cold temperatures more rapidly and respond to pain differently than blonds or brunettes. This heightened sensitivity can easily translate into exciting sexual play with hot and cold lubes, ice cubes and even sex toys that trigger heightened physical responses. With faster and fuller physical responses, many redheads report that it doesnt take much effort to reach the big o.

In 2012, Danish researchers discovered that redheads sensitivity may be even more complex redheads may be tougher than we give them credit for, reacting less to a burning sensation in the skin. You can only imagine what this might translate to in the bedroom.

Redheads exude sexiness from their very pores. In his book The Redheaded Encyclopedia, author Stephen Douglas asserts that redheads have a sweet and musky scent on their skin as a result of pheromone production. These pheromones, in turn, drive would-be suitors absolutely mad with desire. Online forums dedicated to the sexiness of redheads (yes, they exist, and it only takes a quick Google search to find them) further support the claim that redheads smell like sexiness in all the right ways.

And if youre wondering just how special the inner makeup of a redhead really is, the answer is very. In the year 2000, researchers pinpointed the exact gene responsible for red hair, the mutated MC1R protein that may only manifest as fiery locks in as little as 1 to 2 percent of the population.

As it turns out, the stereotypical lusty redhead isnt too far from the truth. The most compelling argument for hot redheaded sex is the simple fact that gingers have more sex than their blond or brunette counterparts. A University of Hamburg sex researcher found that women with red hair, whether theyre single or in a committed relationship, participate in substantially more sexual activity than other women. If theyre hitting the sheets all the time, its bound to be pretty hot, right?

It doesnt hurt that redheads have the highest orgasm rate of all hair types at 41 percent.

Were all familiar with the stereotype of the hot-tempered redhead. Some theorists purport that redheads are emotional and volatile because of their heightened sensitivity to pain and other physical stimuli. A redheads reputation for being passionate and opinionated can certainly pay dividends when it comes to sex, and theres some research to support the sexy redhead concept, too. Red has long been known to be the color of arousal. Think red lipstick, red wine and naturally red hair, and youre on the right track.

A passionate lover is always a fabulous thing, especially when he or she knows how to say loudly and convincingly, Touch me there!

A version of this story was published February 2016.

Whether you have a partner or not, here are some of our favorite positions for great solo sex:

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3 Reasons Sex With Red Heads Is Simply the Best - SheKnows

Five Guys A Week: Awkward moment woman only attracted to ginger men is surrounded in lounge – Mirror Online

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Channel 4's new bizarre - and extreme - dating show Five Guys A Week sees yet another cringey moment as a woman only attracted to ginger men surrounded by her potential suitors in her living room.

The programme has already resulted in a number of eye-wincingly awkward moments, from one man projectile vomiting in a kids' bedroom to awful serenading.

Hope, a project coordinator from Manchester, welcomes five red-headed men into her house - who quickly notice they all look strikingly similar.

They jokingly point out that she clearly "has a type" and initially she denies it - before admitting that she fancies Prince Harry and Ron Weasley.

As the latest contestant, Matt, is welcomed into the house, he looks stunned as he walks into the room with three other ginger men in it and quips: "We all look very similar!"

Another admits it is "very bizarre" as he wasn't used to having so many red-heads being in a single room.

One of the men asks Hope: "You clearly have a type, right?"

"You know what, I don't think I do," she stumbles as the men burst out with: "What?!"

Hope backtracks, saying: "I do like guys with red hair, I like Prince Harry, I love Ed Sheeran, I like Ron Weasley!"

One of the men with glasses looks very pleased with the last addition, threading a hand through his hair.

But the five men won't only have to impress Hope, but her mother as well.

Who will be able to win her heart and become her Prince Harry?

*Five Guys A Week airs Tuesday at 9.15pm on Channel 4

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Five Guys A Week: Awkward moment woman only attracted to ginger men is surrounded in lounge - Mirror Online

Black Mom on Why She Was Accused of Kidnapping Son With Red Hair – BET

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A Black mother of three, Ebony Lumpkin, has revealed that she is struggling to convince people that her son who genetically has red hair, is her biological son.

According to the Daily Mail, the Virginia Beach resident said she has even faced police questioning her after a bystander accused her of kidnapping her seven-year-old son, Matthew. Both Ebony and Matthews father, Patrick Tebbe, who is white, have no evidence of red-heads in their family tree.

Her son once asked if he was biologically related to his family because his red-hair stood out among them. To make her son feel more included, Lumpkin and Matthews older brother Adam, briefly dyed their own hair to make him feel more a part of his family.

He once spent a whole week asking every red-haired woman if they were his real mummy after school kids told him I am not, she recalled.

Lumpkin says that a five-minute errand run with her son typically turns into an hour because people are amazed by Matthews striking hair color.

They are always complimenting his hair but then look twice at me and make speculations, she told the Daily Mail. I cant count how many times I have had to explain Im his mother, not nanny nor is he adopted.

She later added, I understand it is rare to see a black mother with a white child who has red- I was shocked when I first saw him too.

Ebony recounted that a trip to the grocery store took a turn for the worst after police showed up after receiving a tip that she kidnapped her son from a white lady. Luckily she had Matthews birth certificate on hand after they visited the doctor earlier that day.

It was the most terrifying thing I have experienced, she said.

Despite the negative comments and encounters, Matthews Instagram page has over 3,000 followers who love every inch of his fiery locs.

Research shows that Matthews parents have to each carry the MC1R gene that is connected to having red hair. Only 1-2% of humans have red or orange hair in the world, making it the rarest natural hair color.

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Black Mom on Why She Was Accused of Kidnapping Son With Red Hair - BET

Workers’ control against the pandemic William Lewis 25 Mar – Red Flag

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It is becoming clear to people all around the world that the leaders of our society the presidents and prime ministers, the billionaires and boards of multinationals, the celebrities and talking heads have few solutions to the twin crises of the coronavirus and the economic slowdown. In most countries the response to pandemic has been too little, too late, and the masses are paying the price.

The incompetence of the ruling class stands in sharp contrast to the heroism and creativity of the workers of the world. With many non-essential workplaces closed or people working from home, social media has been full of praise for the medical, service, sanitation, transit, retail, and other workers who are slugging away under terrible conditions and risk to provide necessary goods and services.

In Argentina, there is a tradition of worker-controlled factories that emerged from the crisis in 2001. In that year, as companies shut down, workers took control of 200 plants and restarted production. In the years following, these initial examples were taken up by workers in various industries fighting against closures and layoffs. But not only did these struggles mean the continued employment of workers who would have otherwise been on the street they provided proof that bosses could be replaced by workers management. Now, many of these factories became integral parts of their communities.

In this time of the coronavirus, these recuperated factories are doing their part to stop the pandemic. They offer a peek of what production for need, instead of greed, might look like.

The textile factory Traful in Neuquen was put under workers control in 2017 after the owners, the Huerta brothers, removed most of the machines in the dead of night. This was not as easy as it sounds, as the workers were tipped off beforehand and blocked the road going into the factory. They were joined by their fellow workers from the Zanon factory, which has beenunder workers control since 2001. It was only with a police escort after many hours of stand off, that the Huertas was able to transport machines at around 3AM.

The workers inherited a mostly empty shop. Though disappointed, they were not defeated and went to the community. The industrial washing machines that were left were used for laundry. Sewing machines were donated, and when workers armed with signs and banners took to the highways and roads to ask for donations, they were overwhelmed with support.

Now, they are returning the favor with the production of face masks and scrubs. Though practicing social distancing, they are risking infection in order to produce badly needed supplies. In their press statement, they explain that they are convinced that in the face of this crisis, it is we, the workers, who must intervene with concrete measures in health and economic initiatives to confront the pandemic. They demand that the government fund a production plan while keeping non-essential workers home and paid. By their statements and actions, they demonstrate that good health should not be held hostage by speculation and profit-motive.

A factory that once supplied police uniforms to the provincial government is now under workers control and producing the supplies needed to stop the coronavirus.

In the U.S., healthcare workers at Providence St. Joseph Health in Washington likewise aremaking masksto protect themselves while they work on the frontlines against the pandemic.

Worker-controlled laboratories and food processing plants are producing badly needed sanitizer, such as at FarmaCoop in Buenos Aires province and La Terre in Mendoza province.

Even in workplaces not yet recuperated, the workers are producing vital supplies. The workers of the state-owned shipyards Astillero Ro Santiago, who have long been under revolutionary socialist leadership, announced that they will use their laboratories to produce sanitizer.

In the city of Rosario, the teachers at San Jose Technical School have utilized the many laboratories to produce over 40 kilograms of sanitizer. Unfortunately, provincial authorities are making it difficult to distribute the sanitizer.

Technical schools in Mendoza are following the examples of San Jose. In Jujuy, teachers and students at the Institute of Higher Education No. 11 are producing the much-needed face masks while the response of the authorities has been purely punitive with no plan for health and welfare.

Capitalism has produced the means to make so many things easily and efficiently. And yet, the system is finding difficulty in the simple things such as putting face masks in the hands of healthcare workers and sanitizer in the hands of people trying to stop a pandemic.

Originally published at Left Voice.

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Workers' control against the pandemic William Lewis 25 Mar - Red Flag

Schitts Creek Recap: A Day in the Big Red Delicious – Vulture

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It feels strange to see some of our Schitts Creekers in New York, doesnt it? And not just because of, you know, the current hellscape were living in, but also because aside from Teds video chatting in the Galapagos and a few moments spent in the Roses old mansion, weve never really seen these people out in the world. Theyve been safely tucked into small-town life all this time. Johnny, Stevie, and Rolands journey to Manhattan to pitch the Rosebud Motel Group to a venture-capitalist firm is a jarring reminder that there is life outside of Schitts Creek. Not only is that on our minds, but throughout The Pitch its exactly what all of the Roses are grappling with, as well. What does life outside of Schitts Creek look like?

Clearly, Moira is the most desperate to find out. As the gang sends the Rosebud Motel Group off to hop on the private jet sent by Johnnys old assistant and interested investor Mike Morrison for them to take to their meeting in New York, Moira is trying to temper her desperation for this deal to happen. She isnt great at covering. We are all relying on no, we are cheering you on! she yells as the team heads out. Not long after, without even a small update from the New York contingent, Alexis finds her mother packing her suitcase. You see a few cherished items being neatly folded into a piece of luggage and you immediately leap to conclusions, Moira tells her daughter, who wants to know why shes preparing to leave the motel. Moira cant help herself she wants to be prepared to get the hell out of Schitts Creek the moment the deal goes through. She assumes that New York will be the base of operations and she and Johnny will be moving there immediately. Alexis is upset over being left out for maybe 15 seconds, but then remembers that Interflix, also headquartered in New York, has been courting her. Shell go there, too! This is the answer to her succulent-in-a-small-pot dilemma. This is great news.

Then, when David shows up because hes on a break from work (he forgot his phone, keys, and wallet), Alexis fills him in on the big family plans. Shes already looking at apartments for her, David, and Patrick to share. David actually asks the question everyone should be asking: What if the deal doesnt go through? But Alexis explains: You would have no way of knowing this but usually when someone sends a jet for you, it means hes very interested. Trust me. And Tiger Woods.

And so it doesnt take very long for David to jump on the were all moving to New York! bandwagon. Hes completely forgotten about the fact that no deal has been signed yet. In fact, when he tells Alexis that there are a lot of what ifs to cover, he means less what if this doesnt work out and more what if we dont agree on the same candle fragrance for the apartment. All the Roses are full-steam ahead they are ready to leave Schitts Creek in the dust.

David does find one potential problem: Patrick isnt into this idea of moving at all. David is so excited to tell him about their plans, he doesnt stop to think about how insane it might sound to lay that news on someone. He cant even fathom the idea that someone might want to stay in Schitts Creek over New York. Not even his offer of half a muffin helps ease the tension. At least he knows how to read the room. Once he sees Patricks reaction, he reminds him that this is all contingent on the deal going through. If it doesnt, this was just a big waste of time and frown lines. They put in a pin in this very alarming conversation until they have more information. And probably more muffins. Theyll need a lot of muffins to get through this.

So what does happen with the big pitch meeting? It does not start off well. Johnny, Stevie, and Roland are greeted in the lobby by Ruth, Mike Morrisons assistant, with some less-than-stellar news: Unfortunately, Mike had a last-minute meeting in South Africa, so he wont be there today. She does at least soften the blow by telling Johnny that she grew up going to Rose Video and is a big fan of his work. The guys in the pitch meeting are much less flattering. From the start of Johnnys presentation, they are pretty much making fun of him to his face. Its a disaster. Well, Johnnys great, but Stevie is unbelievably nervous and Roland why anyone would bring Roland to this meeting is truly stretching the limits of suspension of disbelief. Eventually, the presentation freezes and Roland knocks over a pitcher of water and everyone decides it might be best for a five-minute break.

They go back into the meeting reinvigorated. Johnny takes over and he is wonderful. He is selling the charm of motels like no one ever has in the history of motels. Or selling things. They leave the pitch meeting feeling like theyve nailed it. But when Roland realizes he left his briefcase (it was empty, used only to make himself look intimidating), he walks back into the boardroom to find everyone ripping apart the pitch and Johnny. Its awful. Finally, Roland serves a purpose: He reminds them all that Johnny is a legend and they have no right to treat him that way. Shame on you! he tells them. Roland is a good friend? This is wild.

When he meets up with Johnny and Stevie in the lobby, theyre in celebration mode, but he tries to temper their expectations. And then something great happens: Ruth reappears, tells them that the guys up in that boardroom are idiots, and she and some junior partners are defecting and opening their own firm next month. Its all set up and they are looking for clients just like the Rosebud Motel Group.

You guys: They have an investor. This! Is! Happening!

They wait until theyve returned from New York to tell their families all anxiously sitting outside the motel waiting for them to arrive. Johnny steps out of the car, gives his family a little smile and nod (Eugene Levy is an angel!!), and lets them know that the deal went through. Everyone is ecstatic! There is a huge group hug and demands to pop open some Zhampagne! All of their dreams are coming true.

Well, except for Patrick and David who, judging by the look on Patricks face in that group hug, have maybe just stepped into a nightmare scenario. I mean, lets be honest: These two are getting their happy ending this is a show full of joy, after all. But before they say their I dos theres sure to be some tough conversations about their future and, if I had to wager a guess, the Roses are going to have to say some very emotional good-byes before this thing wraps up.

To convince someone to watch Schitts Creek honestly, it blows my mind that people might need convincing perhaps show them the scene in which Moira commands her children to join her on the floor and hold hands while sending positive energy Johnnys way. She starts this prayer-but-not-prayer exercise out with a To whom it may concern and even gives whatever higher power might be listening a physical description of Johnny so that they know who she is talking about. Finally, she asks this power to forward the following message to Johnny: John, my macho man, you dont deserve another failure. It is both wildly hilarious and lovingly heartfelt, which is exactly how I would describe this show in general.

Oh, Moira repeatedly forgetting who Grace is at Graces own farewell party, which she mistook for her own, made me giggle. When shes asked how she could think this party was for her when the cake clearly says Goodbye Grace on it, Moiras reply is: I thought you were singling out one of my notable attributes. The whole scene is just so good and so perfectly Moira.

Aw, when they learn the good news David hugs Stevie and says, Youre like a businesswoman now, and she responds, proudly, Damn right I am. Stevie! She finally found her calling.

Okay, now we all want to see Kerry Washington and Elle Fanning star in a Broadway all-female revival of 12 Angry Men. Why even dangle that idea in front of us?

Any time someone questions why I need more space, I will forever be using Alexiss explanation for why she would get the master bedroom in an apartment shed be sharing with David and Patrick: But I have a lot of coats.

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Schitts Creek Recap: A Day in the Big Red Delicious - Vulture

Mayor Clears Red Tape, Tells City Departments to Take Actions Against Coronavirus – NBC Southern California

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Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti said Wednesday he has authorized city department heads to take "any action necessary within their budgets" to obtain materials, construction equipment, services and anything else that can help keep people safe during the coronavirus pandemic.

"This might sound small, but this is a big deal," Garcetti said.

"We haven't just reduced red tape. We've completely eliminated it. That means that (Recreation) and Parks staff at emergency shelters can get hand sanitizers more quickly. It means that workers at (Los Angeles International Airport) can get vital personal protective equipment as they interface with travelers coming in from around the world."

Local news from across Southern California

Garcetti said the city has no plans to lay off any of its staff, saying such a move would only exacerbate the crisis. The state of California announced Wednesday that more than 1 million people have filed for unemployment since the Safer at Home orders were issued.

More than 1,000 city employees have been working during the pandemic as part of the Los Angeles Disaster Service Worker Program, Garcetti said.

Garcetti said based on data he's received, Los Angeles is about six days from seeing the same or similar coronavirus numbers that have been reported in New York City, which has been dubbed by health professionals the epicenter of the U.S. outbreak.

"I want to be clear, the worst days are still ahead," the mayor said. "It's a tough thing for me to say, but we look at these projections and...it's coming here. We've taken actions earlier and swifter, but nobody is immune from this virus."

A $2 trillion federal stimulus package will provide Los Angeles with about $400 million to assist LAX operations, $700 million for the Metropolitan Transportation Authority, "tens of millions" in local assistance for areas with low-income residents and $32 million in emergency homeless assistance.

Garcetti acknowledged the details of the package are still being worked out and it doesn't address assistance for immigrants, but he said he is willing to spend whatever it takes in city funding to help with outbreak prevention efforts, with anticipation that the city will be reimbursed.

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Mayor Clears Red Tape, Tells City Departments to Take Actions Against Coronavirus - NBC Southern California

Unlucky in love Parr Hall team member to appear on dating show Five Guys A Week – Warrington Guardian

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A MEMBER of the Parr Hall team is to appear in a new reality TV programme dubbed the Come Dine With Me of dating shows.

Unlucky in love Paul Howard will be in episode three of Channel 4s Five Guys A Week on Tuesday at 9.15pm.

The show throws out the dating rulebook by bringing together five men who are welcomed into the home of a single woman.

Throughout the course of a week, the suitors must compete for her affection and go everywhere with her as she eliminates them day-by-day until there is a last man standing.

Paul, marketing manager for Parr Hall, said: Its a once in a lifetime experience thats how I saw it. It was just really bizarre to start with but super exciting at the same time.

At first youre really aware of everything but you soon settle in and you become yourself after that. There was romance, there was bromance there was all sorts of stuff going on in there.

Pauls relationship came to an end in January 2019. He had been single for about six months when he saw an appeal for contestants for the dating show on Instagram.

He was persuaded by colleagues to go for it and after the application and various interviews he got the call to say he had been chosen by Hope, a 30-year-old project coordinator.

Paul said: I was one of her five guys and Ive never looked back from there. Its kind of like a virtual Tinder we saw pictures of her, she saw pictures of us. There had to be that mutual attraction before you got to that point. It wasnt just a case of throwing five guys in someones house and hoping that it works out.

But as well as living with four other blokes, the snag was that Paul would also be sharing with Hopes mum and stepdad.

He added: The most bizarre moment was literally taking a deep breath and stepping through the door knowing from that moment everything you do and say would be documented.

Youre there with a potential love interest, four rivals and then her mum and stepdad. It was as crazy as it could have been.

Luckily Paul was not eyed with suspicion by Hopes mum.

The 34-year-old said: I think the mum is integral to any relationship but she was lovely to us all to be fair. I think shell be the star of the show.

Obviously going to live with a load of strangers is an experience in itself but then having the cameras all over the place and having a microphone 24/7 brought it to another level.

It was every man for himself in

trying to find somewhere to sleep and the queue for the bathroom.

We were in a two-up, two-down home plus the cameras so it was a squeeze which probably makes it more entertaining. Its strange how quick you adapt and accept something as a new norm.

Pauls experience was filmed over a week but is condensed for viewers into one episode.

At the end of each day, Hope who has a thing for red heads had to break up with one of the potential suitors.

Paul, who remains tight-lipped on how he did in the show, added: It is a brutal process it is kind of like Big Brother someone was going each day. Each day it got to that point where wed sit down and we knew Hope would be telling us one of us was going.

It was a horrible 10 or 15 minutes full of butterflies and anxiety.

But I really enjoyed the experience. There has been a lot of talk about how people are treated on reality TV but I was really well looked after. They always checked how I was doing throughout the process.

I always saw myself doing Big Brother but didnt have the guts to apply but with this I jumped in. I thought it would be a bit of fun.

You come out of there and you learn a lot about yourself. Id be a lot more confident about dating in the real world once youve lived with a girl and four other guys I dont think any other dating experience is going to phase you.

It was filmed a good few months ago so Im excited that its finally going to be out there. Ive been sat on this secret for a while now.

Paul features in episode three of Five Guys A Week on Tuesday at 9.15pm on Channel 4

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Unlucky in love Parr Hall team member to appear on dating show Five Guys A Week - Warrington Guardian

LEGO Collectible Minifigures 71027 Series 20 celebrates the themes 10th anniversary [Review] – The Brothers Brick

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LEGO introduced the Minifigures theme back in 2010, and over the past decade the theme has wandered as far and wide as the Simpsons and a German football team. But it returns every once in a while to the lineup of strange characters and professions that started it all. The latest wave is the 20th classic numbered series, and 71027 Collectible Minifigures Series 20 will release April 19, 2020, with 16 unique figures drawing inspiration from fiction, history, and a wide variety of walks of life. Theyll retail for US $4.99 each, setting a new high-water mark for a non-licensed series. We got a brief in-person look at Series 20 at Toy Fair New York back in February along with official images earlier this month, but now weve got our hands on a full case to bring you a proper review.

Its no surprise that the figures come packed in a retail case of 60 individual blind bags, this time sporting a monochrome sunburst design across the entire package. Back in 2013, to celebrate the release of Series 10, LEGO themed the packaging with gold, and famously introduced the ultra-rare Mr. Gold as a chase figure. This time around, the blind packs are silver mylar, and Im happy to report theres no sign of a chase figure to make you fret about getting a complete set.

Speaking of getting a complete set, our case included three full sets of the 16 characters, with a total between 3 and 5 per case for all of the figures. The distribution is the same as some previous series like the DC Super Heroes line, with five each of three figures, four each of six figures, and three each for the remaining seven. Heres the exact breakdown that our case yielded:

Be sure to watch for our Collectible Minifigures Series 20 Feel Guide, coming soon.

The default black minifigure stands return again, with one included with every minifigure. Unlike the previous DC Super Heroes line, the small clear angled stand is not present with every figure. Only the Breakdancer and Sea Rescuer get them so that they can be posed more dynamically. Three of the figures have parts packaged in an inner bag for protection: Piata Boy, Viking, and Athlete.

Starting in at number 1, the Piata Boy lends a bit of Latin-American flair to the series. While a fun character, like many previous CMF characters he brings up some concerns that LEGO is only portraying non-European/American regions through the lens of cultural stereotypes (where is the Hispanic doctor, or Japanese snowboarder?). Case in point: the Piata Boy brings back the large sombrero for a fourth color (medium nougat), following the green hat from the Series 2 Mariachi, the red one in The LEGO Movies Taco Tuesday Guy, and the black one from the Series 16 Mariachi. Like the original Mariachi, Piata Boy wears two short capes to make the poncho. He also includes a brown Bar 3L for a stick, and of course, the piata, which is a new element for a tiny, blocky donkey molded in light yellow and printed with vibrant colors. The piata is about the size of a LEGO dog and similarly spans three studs. The Piata Boys white torso is unprinted, and his head is single-sided. An extra brown Bar 3L is included.

The Breakdancer features LEGOs first flat-bill baseball cap, and its incorporated into a flowing dark red hairpiece. The Breakdancer coral torso is printed on both sides with a cropped top, and her legs are dual-molded black and white, and printed with lots of details on the front. Despite the back of her head being completely hidden by hair, the head is single-sided, which is a bit of a miss on LEGOs part. She includes the boom box element in a new color (teal) and new print with a gold waveform pattern between the speakers. The Breakdancer also gets a clear angled stand along with a black 12 jumper tile to mount it, so that she can perform her moves. An extra clear stand is included.

Costumed figures have long been among the most popular of LEGOs Collectible Minifigures, and theres no sign of stopping now. Enter the unlikeliest of costumes, the pea pod. Then again, LEGO already introduced a slice of watermelon and a corncob, so perhaps this isnt so far out. At any rate, the green pea pod slides over the minifigure just like other costumes, with a hole in the third pea for the minifigures face. The three peas are printed lime green. The pea pod appears to have no other System connection pointsthe stem, at least, should have been bar diameter. Beneath the costume, the pea pod girl wears a green shirt with a salad bowl print, and she carries a red apple. Her green-lipsticked face is double-sided, with alternate grin and chewing expressions.

Decked out in bright light orange and black with dark red highlights, the Tournament Knight cuts a sharp figure, standing out compared to many of the other historic figures from the CMF line. The knights torso is bright light orange and printed in quadrants on both sides, with a chain hauberk showing through at the top. He has dark red hands, and the legs are dual-molded bright light orange and pearl dark grey, and printed on both the front and sides. The knight is topped with a bucket helm in pearl dark grey (a common color for it), along with a dark red plume, which is the first appearance in that color. He carries a new broadsword element, which is a lovely design thats a bit more historically accurate than most of LEGOs previous swords. Hes protected by a standard triangular shield, printed with a black raven facing left. Beneath the helm, the knight has a trim beard and mustache and a placid expression on his single-sided head. An extra plume is included.

Just in time for the new 21322 Pirates of Barracuda to mark the return of Pirates, the CMF line gets another pirate. This female pirate sports a new tricorne/long hair element, and although it was undoubtedly developed for this character, it actually arrives in the Pirates of Barracuda Bay first on Robin Loot. This one is dual-molded with a black hat and medium nougat hair, unlike the brown/tan combo on Robin. The red plume may be iconic, but its unfortunate that we couldnt get another new color to join the Knights dark red (dark azure, anyone?). The Pirate Girls white torso is printed with leather belts on both sides over the loose frilly shirt, and her black breeches are striped in dark red down the front and sides. Shes got a slight gap-tooth and wears alternate grinning/scowling expressions on her double-sided head. She carries a classic pirate sword, of which an extra is included, along with an extra plume.

What kind of space? Doesnt matter. NASA? Check. Model rocketry? Check. Classic Space LEGO? Check. The Space Fan adores it all. She proudly advertises her LEGO love with her long-sleeve baseball tee showing set 918 One-Man Spaceship from 1979. Her space ballcap is coral with a black ponytail, which is a new color for the combo element thats been around for a few years. Her dark blue legs have several space-themed patches sewn on. In one hand she has a dark grey spanner, which adds a fifth color for that piece. She also carries a 23 tile printed with plans for her next big project, a model rocket. Look closely at the diagram, and youll see that the rocket is marked out with dimensions, which are the accurate measurements of the rocket next to her in millimeters. And the actual rocket, of course, is made of three common LEGO elements, but amazingly this is the first time the 11 rocket base has appeared in red since it was introduced 36 years ago. The 11 round brick in the center is printed with the NASA logo, which I believe is the first time a real, non-LEGO-IP logo has appeared on a non-licensed CMF series. Her alternate expression has safety goggles on for when she launches the model rocket. The Space Fan is the sort of character thats both great fun and a wonderful encouragement to kids, showing them that girls revel in awesome science and nerdery just as much as any guy.

Its 2020, and Llamas are in. To the best of my knowledge, LEGO has never before produced anything Llama related, but heres a Llama costume to go along with the four varieties of Llamas you can get from the new Friends sets. And I do have to admit, the Llama is pretty adorable. How long before someone makes Emperor Cuzco? This minifigure is pretty simple, dressed in all tan except for dark tan hands (hooves?). The torso is printed with a white wool spot on the belly, and a zipper up the back. The legs have hoof prints on the feet. Llama Girls head is double-sided with smirk and grin expressions, and she carries a standard carrot, for which an extra top is included.

Its only taken the Danish company 10 years worth of CMF lines to create an accurate Viking. Back in Series 4 we had another Viking, and Series 7 brought a Viking Woman, but both were crowned with horned helms and represented stereotypical Vikings rather than historical depictions. This Viking, however, looks like he was researched at the Kongernes Jelling Viking museum, which perhaps not so coincidentally is just down the road from LEGOs headquarters in Billund, Denmark. Instead of the horned helm, we get a new element of a more plain helm with protection over the upper half of the face. Its a drastically more accurate representation. There is a plume hole at the top in case you feel like adding back some decorations, though. The rest of the Vikings outfit is similarly accurate (at least as far as minifigures go) with an olive green tunic and a short printed under-cloak with a gold brooch. Both the arms and legs are double-molded with dark brown lower halves. Hes got a blue cloth cape over top and carries a spear and shield with a new design. The Vikings orange beard is an existing design but in a new color. Beneath the beard, the Viking has a handsome, groomed orange beard and mustache. An extra beard is included.

For those of you asking for LEGO to pick up the Power Rangers license, good news!Puts on glassesOh, my mistake. This is the non-IP-infringing Power Rangexcuse me, I mean, Super Warrior! The Super Warrior has an all-red suit, except for the white boots thanks to dual molding. His helmet is a new element thats molded in red and then painted gold and black. Beneath the helmet, he has an incredibly generic, single-sided face. He carries only a jagged-edge sword, which is trans-green with a white core, a new color for that element. This figure feels like filler for Series 20, especially with a single accessory. Im sure it will be popular with kids, but it could have been much more interesting with a new accessory and perhaps a standard LEGO helmet with a new visor element that incorporates the horns.

When I first got a brief look at Series 20 in New York, the Martial Arts Boy was the figure that excited me most, for one simple reason. I spied a Bar 2L in the nunchucks. After all, the Bar 3L made its first appearance with the Series 1 Magician. Alas, I was fooled. The nunchucks are a single element all the way through, with the handles and chains all permanently connected with overmolding. And while theyre not the long-awaited appearance of the 2-length bar, they are still quite cool. Besides the nunchucks, the Martial Arts Boy wears a generic gi with his black belt printed down onto the hips and legs. It also really highlights how much I wish LEGO would do printing on torso sides, since the abrupt stop at the front edge is jarring. The Martial Arts Boys center-parted hairpiece has previously appeared on Professor Flitwick, among others, but black is a new color. His head is double-sided with smiling and determined expressions.

A classical athlete, the Series 20 Athlete is skilled in the discus and javelin, and is apparently quite good having earned a gold medal. The medal makes its first return since 2012, where it appeared first on the Series 7 Swimming Champion and then on each of the Team GB Olympians. The Athlete has a commonsense outfit of sportswear with a bib on both front and back numbered 0937 (to unravel the numbers significance, turn the figure upside down). Judging by the logos on her legs, she appears to be sponsored by AdiI mean, sponsored by mountains. Her Javelin is a classic spear (in the new, square-bottomed style) which is a first in white, and the discus is a light grey 22 tile printed in silver and green, with a tiny black dot at the center. The Athletes hair is an exceedingly common dark brown ponytail, but her head is double-sided with an elated expression on one side and sweaty exertion on the other. An extra medal is included.

Series 20 has been a bit short on new animals, but thankfully weve got a super adorable sea turtle with the Sea Rescuer. (Neither the piata nor stuffed rabbit are creatures.) The sea turtle is a dual-molded olive green and medium nougat element with a single anti-stud on the bottom. The turtle is exactly 3 studs wide and 3 long. The Sea Rescuer (whos not a diver, since she has no airtanks), wears a wetsuit with a tiny turtle logo printed in coral. Her sleeves are dual-molded with dark azure and yellow, and her legs dual-molded black and yellow. She wears a standard helmet and snorkel mask, and carries a bright green stem. She gets about with the help of dark azure flippers, and can strike a fluid pose thanks to a trans-clear angled stand mounted upside-down on a black nipple element. Youll get an extra stand, nipple, and stem.

Heres the mascot of Series 20, carrying the placard celebrating 10 years of collectible minifigures! OK, yes, its a bit underwhelming, but at least its not a rare chase figure that scalpers will hoard to sell for thousands. The Brick Costume Guys costume is identical to the Brick Costume Boy and Girl from Series 18, except for color. Speaking of color, its actually bright green, which is interesting because LEGO doesnt produce 23 (or 22, or 24) bricks in bright green. Brick Costume Guys hair is a rare element introduced last year thats so far only appeared once in an Overwatch set, and is new here in medium nougat. His celebratory sign is a light grey 22 tile printed with the silver and grey sunburst pattern and the number 10.

Lets go back to a glamorous time when big hair and synthesizers ruled the land. Oh yes, and also keytars. Because no instrument is so iconic for 80s rock as the keytar. OK, thats probably not true, but the keytar does emblemize a certain schlocky aspect of the decades music that LEGO is keying into with this character. The keytar is, of course, a new element that can be gripped with both hands like previous guitars, and is printed with the keyboard on the front. The musician himself proudly wears a black leather jacket and a white tee with a pink lighting bolt. The back of the jacket, however, is a work of art that Ill leave you to admire rather than describing it. Hes got pink pants that are printed with a black belt. The musicians dark tan hair is a new long hair element, and his face is double-sided with expressions for rocking out and smiling. Is it just me, or when hes smiling he looks just like James May?

Way back in 2012 Series 6 brought us Sleepyhead, a little boy dressed in pajamas and clutching a teddy bear. 8 years later, and were finally getting his counterpart, Pajama Girl (or Pyjama, depending on where youre from). Dressed in a bright pink outfit covered in tiny, Peeps Rabbit-like bunny heads, the girl is grasping a stuffed rabbit rather than a teddy. The tan rabbit is a new element that can be grasped on either arm, and has an anti-stud in the bottom. Her sleepy bed hair is courtesy of Hermiones hairpiece, which appears here in light yellow, the first time in a color besides brown. Her bright pink short legs are also a new color.

A modern hobbyist, the Drone Boy has a pretty sweet camera rig on a quadcopter and a hefty controller. The Drone Boy sports a plain teal ballcap (a new color for it) and a bright green jacket open to a T-shaped logo, along with plain dark blue legs. The jacket looks an awful lot like an opened version of the ubiquitous winter jacket from City sets. TBB reader Jimmy has pointed out that the partially hidden logo on his shirt is a reference to the classic Town monorail 6399 Airport Shuttle. The boy is licking his lips with determination, no doubt reassessing things after a run-in with the drones blades which necessitated a bandaid. The drone is made of a white Overwatch gun, a trans-black 11 round tile for the lens, a new drone chassis element, and four black beanie propellers. The chassis is a little smaller in every dimension than 3x3x1, and each of the propeller mounts is a plume hole on both top and bottom and rod diameter on the outside. The middle of the chassis has an anti-stud on the bottom, and is completely smooth on top. The drones controller is a white 22 quarter circle tile printed with control pads and a screen. Im pretty interested to see what fans will do with the drone chassis element, as its a cool piece with a weird shape. I do wish it had a stud or rod hole on the top, though. An extra propeller and 11 tile are included.

Pulling from a broad swath of culture, history, and fiction, every CMF series has its hits and misses, with opinions of the characters often revealing more about the viewer than about LEGOs design. And sure enough, not every figure here tickles my fancy. I can hardly imagine a use for a Pea Pod Costume in my own creations, but its certain to be popular, as all the wacky costumed figures are. Nevertheless, there are some standouts here, with the Vikings historical accuracy earning high marks along with the Sea Rescuers turtle and Space Fans geekiness, while the Green Brick Costume Boy and Super Warrior both feel underwhelming. However, at $4.99 a pop, its hard to get too excited about any of them. Its one thing to swallow the higher price for a solo figure when theyre licensed Disney or Harry Potter characters, but paying $5 per figure for a blind pack of an unlicensed minifigure seems excessive (many of which have only a single accessory). Even if you get no duplicates (which will mean feeling the bags or splitting a case with a few friends) youll need to shill out $80 to get the full set. My recommendation? Wait until these inevitably go on clearance.

71027 LEGO Collectible Minifigures Series 20 are available April 19, 2020, from the LEGO.com for $4.99 USD each.

The LEGO Group sent The Brothers Brick an early copy of this set for review. Providing TBB with products for review guarantees neither coverage nor positive reviews.

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LEGO Collectible Minifigures 71027 Series 20 celebrates the themes 10th anniversary [Review] - The Brothers Brick

How far should genetic engineering go to allow this couple to have a healthy baby? – Sydney Morning Herald

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One morning in 2005, Shelley Beverley woke up to find that she had gone deaf. She was 21, and living in Johannesburg with her older brother Neil. I was very scared, she says. It was just so sudden. She struggled through the rest of the day, hoping that her hearing would come back, but it didnt. In one sense, her hearing loss wasnt entirely a surprise: Beverleys grandmother had been deaf, Neil had lost his hearing when he was 13, and her mum, Mary, had lost hers when she was 32. We knew it ran in the family, she says, but I thought Id been lucky and not inherited it.

Beverley, 35, lives in Margate, a semi-rural district south of Hobart, with her husband James. The couple migrated to Australia from South Africa in 2010, looking for space, buying 2 hectares of lush green grass at the foot of a forested ridge near the mouth of the Derwent River. We love the wildlife here, says James, looking out the living room window. Weve seen pademelons, echidnas, quolls, blue-tongue lizards, even a Tassie devil. At dusk, hundreds of kangaroos emerge from the forest to gorge on the grass. Its very peaceful, says James. Its really helped us after everything thats happened.

Apart from their deafness, Beverleys family had largely enjoyed good health. Then, in September 2015, her mother, Mary, then 62, started experiencing fatigue and stomach pain. Doctors in Durban ordered a colonoscopy, but the procedure made her worse. Her feet became swollen and purple. Because of their hearing problems, Shelley and Mary had communicated mainly in text messages. But soon I began noticing that her wording got a bit funny, says Beverley. It didnt always make sense.

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Beverley flew to Durban in February 2016, but by that time her mother could no longer talk or walk. She was so weak that she couldnt move her hands or lift her neck. Two days after Beverley arrived in Durban, her mother caught a virus that caused fluid to build up on her lungs. The doctors tried unsuccessfully to drain it. Shortly afterwards, she died. She weighed just 36 kilograms. It was so fast, Beverley says. And we were still in the dark about what she had.

Shortly before Marys death, Neil had also fallen ill. He developed a number of mysterious symptoms, including facial twitches and seizures. He kept falling over and tripping, and experienced vomiting and headaches so severe he lost his vision for weeks at a time. His behaviour became strange showering with his clothes on, and hallucinating.

One day, Dad was driving him around and Neil started talking to all these little people he thought were around his feet, says Beverley. Doctors in Durban had trouble diagnosing him, so they sent a biopsy to London, where he was found to have a type of mitochondrial cytopathy one of a large family of chronic and progressive diseases that affect the muscles, brain and nervous system. As the family soon learnt, the condition has no cure and no effective therapies. One of the common early symptoms is hearing loss.

Neil died in June 2017, aged 34, by which time Beverley had discovered she also had the condition. It was fear, so much fear, she says. She began experiencing symptoms, including migraines and vision loss. She has since developed diabetes, hypertension, gastro-paresis (when your stomach muscles dont work), and pharyngeal dysphagia (difficulty swallowing). Every time I get sick now, the flu or something, I think, When am I going to need a wheelchair or a feeding tube? When will my legs stop working?

Mito has taken everything from me, she says. If I die, at least James will still have a part of me.

Beverley has bright blue eyes and long, straight, ash-brown hair. Shes got a lazy left eye and uncommonly pale skin, which she attributes to her condition. Oh, and I had bunions out in 2010, she says, laughing wryly.

She doesnt know how long shes got left, but she is determined to make it count. She has joined mito awareness groups, and is an active member of the Mito Foundation, which supports sufferers, and funds research. She has exhaustively researched the condition and takes every opportunity to educate doctors. Youd be surprised by how little they know about it, she says.

But her overriding focus has been on a cutting-edge, and currently illegal, procedure called mitochondrial donation, a form of IVF which would allow those with the condition to have children, safe in the knowledge they would not be passing it on. Mito has taken everything from me, she says. If I die, at least James will still have a part of me. I would like him to look at our child, and say, You have your mums smile or your mums eyes.

An IVF treatment known as mitochondrial donation could potentially save up to 60 Australian children a year from being born with the condition. Credit:

Mitochondrial donation has been labelled immoral and unethical, a slippery slope to designer babies, not to mention potentially unsafe. The only country in the world to have legalised it is the UK. A report by medical experts into the technologys potential application in Australia is due to be delivered to Health Minister Greg Hunt this month.

This fight is really personal to me, Beverley says. Short of a cure, people with mito should at least have the option of having healthy children.

Mitochondria are microscopic structures in human cells that provide the body with energy. For this reason, they are often described as the cells powerhouse. They are crucially important: if your mitochondria fail or mutate, your body will be starved of energy, causing multiple organ failure and premature death.

A stylised representation of a mitochondrion, which provides the body with energy. Malfunction can lead to organ failure and death.Credit:Josh Robenstone

Mito, which is maternally inherited, usually affects the muscles and major organs such as the brain, heart, liver, inner ears, and eyes. But it can cause any symptom in any organ, at any age. Indeed, the term mito includes more than 200 disorders, the symptoms of which are maddeningly varied and seemingly unrelated, leading to delayed diagnoses or incorrect diagnoses or, indeed, no diagnosis.

Many of these people have been fobbed off by doctors or laughed off by people who think they are hypochondriacs, says Dr David Thorburn, a mitochondrial researcher at the Murdoch Childrens Research Institute, in Melbourne, who has diagnosed some 700 cases over the past 28 years. Most people are relieved to finally know what it is, because that is the end of that part of their journey.

Its sometimes said babies produced as a result of mitochondrial donation would have three parents the mother, the father, and the donor.

Up to two million people worldwide have some form of mito. - Others, like Beverley, who have a less severe type of the disease, will get adult onset, and can expect to become ill in their 30s, 40s or 50s.

According to Thorburn, One of the things that most dismays families with mito is the lack of control they have over passing the condition down to future generations of their family.

Remaining childless is one way to stop the condition from being passed down, as is adopting, but as Thorburn acknowledges, There is an innate desire in many individuals to have their own children. For these people, mito donation offers the very real prospect that the condition is eliminated from future generations.

Mitochondrial replacement is a highly specialised procedure, requiring a level of manual dexterity sufficient to manipulate a womans egg, which is roughly the width of a human hair. Within that egg is a nucleus, where a persons genes are located, and the cytoplasm, the jelly-like substance that surrounds it. Mitochondria are found in the cytoplasm.

Mitochondrial replacement involves taking a donor females healthy egg, removing its nucleus and replacing it with the nucleus of the woman affected by mitochondrial disease, but whose nucleus is healthy. The egg is then fertilised using her partners sperm. (Another option is to fertilise the egg first, and then swap the nucleus.) The resulting embryo is then implanted into the mother.

Researcher David Thorburn: "Mito donation offers the very real prospect that the condition is eliminated from future generations."Credit:Josh Robenstone

Since more than 99.9 per cent of our genes are found in the eggs nucleus, which remains unaffected, the procedure will have no impact on the childs height, hair colour or mannerisms. Despite that, its sometimes said that babies produced as a result of mitochondrial donation would have three parents the mother, the father, and the donor.

The technology has been tested in mice for more than 30 years, but only since 2009 has research been done on human embryos, mainly in the UK. Almost from the start, the research was subject to sensational headlines about scientists playing God, and the possibility of genetic engineering, with much of the hysteria being fuelled by anti-abortion groups. The Catholic Church described it as a further step in commodification of the human embryo and a failure to respect new individual human lives.

In 2012, the Human Genetics Alert, an independent watchdog group in London, wrote a paper comparing any baby produced with mitochondrial replacement to Frankensteins creation, since they would be produced by sticking together bits from many different bodies. According to the Conservative British MP Jacob Rees-Mogg, the procedure was not a cure for disease, it is the creating of a different person.

Regulators subjected the technology to four separate scientific reviews, together with rounds of ethical debate and community consultation. In 2015, the UK Parliament voted to legalise the technology for use in humans, on the proviso that it only be available to those women at high risk of passing on the disease. Since then, 13 couples in the UK have received the go-ahead to undergo the procedure.

Its unclear how many children, if any, have been born: the parents have asked that details not be published. Meanwhile, scientists like Thorburn wait eagerly for news of any developments. I know the UK researchers well and have asked several of them, and they are keeping completely quiet about it in respecting the families wishes, he says.

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If there have been babies born in the UK using the procedure, they arent the first. In April 2016, a child was born using the technique in Mexico, to a Jordanian mother who carried a fatal mitochondrial condition known as Leigh syndrome. The doctor in charge, an American fertility specialist called Dr John Zhang, later admitted that he had gone to Mexico because the procedure is illegal in America. In Mexico, he admitted, There are no rules.

Even those who want mitochondrial donation legalised in Australia concede that much remains unknown about the procedure. Its long-term risks can only be understood through lifelong health check-ups, but this is impossible until any children conceived via this procedure become adults. Implications for subsequent generations also remain unclear.

No medical procedure is 100 per cent safe, says Sean Murray, CEO of the Mito Foundation. But we think we are at the stage now where the benefits of the technology are greater than the risks.

One of the issues around safety concerns the compatibility of the donors mitochondria with the recipients nuclear genes. A 2016 study in mice suggested that mismatched mitochondria affected their metabolism and shortened their lives. Another concern is known as carryover, whereby a tiny amount of mutant mitochondria is inevitably transferred from the affected mothers egg into the donor egg during the procedure.

Instead of it being wiped out, the mutation might then reappear in the descendants of any girls born as a result. For this reason, some people have proposed that the procedure be restricted to male embryos only, but this raises all kinds of ethical issues around selective breeding and sex selection.

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Indeed, it often seems as if the term ethical minefield was coined especially with mitochondrial donation in mind.

My primary ethical concern has to do with the sanctity of human life, says Father Kevin McGovern, a Catholic priest and member of the National Health and Medical Research Councils Mitochondrial Donation Expert Working Committee.

If mitochondrial donation is permitted here, the technique most likely to be used is pronuclear transfer, which requires that both the donors egg and the affected mothers egg be fertilised. [This is to ensure that both eggs are at the same developmental stage.] But once the nucleus is removed from the donors fertilised egg, it is discarded. For people who believe that life begins at conception, this is akin to murder. You are creating two lives and destroying one for spare parts.

The Catholic Church has consistently opposed mitochondrial donation. In a Senate inquiry into the technology in 2018, Dr Bernadette Tobin, director of the Plunkett Centre for Ethics at the Australian Catholic University, suggested the process was intrinsically evil.

The inquiry also heard from Father Anthony Fisher, Catholic Archbishop of Sydney, who raised concerns about the moral right of the child to know how he or she was conceived the problem of what he called genealogical bewilderment and the donors right to remain anonymous. He also worried that women might effectively become egg vending machines: The availability of human ova is often assumed when people talk about reproductive technology as if they were somehow there in a cupboard to be used. In fact, it means women have to be used to obtain these eggs. They are extracted by invasive procedures that do carry some risk.

A report by medical experts into mitochondrial donation and its potential application in Australia is due to be delivered to Health Minister Greg Hunt this month. Credit:Alex Ellinghausen

Equally troubling for the Australian Catholic Bishops Conference, the peak national body for the churchs bishops, was the fact that mitochondrial donation involved conceiving babies not by marital intercourse [but by] a technical procedure.

Most of these concerns are redundant, argues the Mito Foundations Sean Murray. We already have a well defined regulatory framework for dealing with all this, he says. As far as the donors right to remain anonymous, we would defer to the appropriate federal or state and territory regulations that apply for sperm or egg donations. In regard to a kids right to know they had a mitochondrial donor, societally there seems to be a preference to inform kids. Its important for them to understand their genetic lineage.

Then theres the matter of consent. The parents can wrestle with the ethical issues and weigh up all the risks, but the only person who cant consent to the procedure is the unborn child. Well, says Murray, they cant consent to being born with mito, either.

The Mito Foundations Sean Murray: "In regard to a kids right to know they had a mitochondrial donor, societally there seems to be a preference to inform kids."Credit:Joshua Morris

Murray, 47, is one of the founding directors of the Mito Foundation, which was established in Sydney in 2009. Mito runs in my family, he says. My older brother, Peter, died of it in 2009 at 45, and my mum passed away in 2011, at 70. What people often dont understand is that even in families that have mito, each member can have different mutational loads basically, different amounts of bad mitochondria. Peter got a high load, but I didnt. Thats why Im still here.

A computer scientist by training, Murray now works full-time on the foundation. Much of his job involves travelling around the country, explaining mito to politicians, journalists and philanthropists, raising funds for research and, most crucially, advocating for a change to the laws.

Mitochondrial donation falls foul of two pieces of legislation: the Research Involving Human Embryos Act 2002, and the Prohibition of Human Cloning for Reproduction Act 2002. The laws prohibit the implantation of a human embryo that contains more than two peoples genetic material. The laws were subject to a mandatory review in 2010, but the then Labor government recommended they remain the same.

In 2013, the Mito Foundation urged the government to revisit its decision. Two years later, it began lobbying in earnest. What we tried to get across was that the science around mito donation has come a long way since 2010, says Murray. Also, the process that the UK went through to legalise it really reassured us that the procedure is safe and effective.

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In the past five years, Murray and his colleagues have consulted with more than 100 MPs and senators. Only one of them, according to Murray, said I dont like this. They have also talked to dozens of industry experts, including academics and medical and research bodies, about the benefits of mitochondrial donation. Most of them get it straight away, he says. We are talking about a technique that will prevent the chance of having a morbidly ill child.

Now, a breakthrough appears imminent. In February 2019, Health Minister Greg Hunt asked the National Health and Medical Research Council to look into the matter, review the science and conduct public consultation. The NHMRC is due to hand its report to Hunt this month. The expectation among the mito community is that he will recommend the laws be changed. Any proposals would then need to be debated in Parliament, where issues around reproductive medicine have, in the past, been hotly contested.

Murray expects some opposition from more conservative MPs, but nothing like the rancour seen in the NSW Parliament during last years debate over legalising abortion. Shadow health minister Chris Bowen has, for his part, said that Labor will support changing the laws.

Mitochondrial sufferer Shelley Beverley at home in Tasmania. This fight is really personal to me. Credit:Peter Mathew

Whether this will help people like Shelley Beverley is unclear. If Hunt gives it the green light, it will take two years at least for mitochondrial donation to become available to prospective parents, given the time involved in drafting and passing legislation, establishing a regulatory regime and getting doctors up to speed with the technology.

This will probably be too late for Beverley. I really only have about a year left to give it a go, she tells me. After that, my symptoms may progress and biologically things get worse after 35. She says she would consider going to the UK for the treatment, but that at present they are not accepting international patients.

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In the meantime, she watches TV, and reads a little, but not too much. (It puts me to sleep.) She gardens: she has a bed of huge white and pink roses out the back of her house, as a memorial to her mother and brother. And she eats. James cooks for me. He lets me choose the best meat and potatoes! Ive put on weight since I met him. She describes James as something close to an angel. He will listen to every problem I have or feeling I experience. He will always put me first.

Beverley started going out with James when she was 21, right around the time she first went deaf. I was so scared that he wouldnt like me as much. I remember calling him and saying I was scared he would leave me. But James is still here. Im very lucky to have him, she says. If I go, I want him to have a part of me.

To read more from Good Weekend magazine, visit our page at The Sydney Morning Herald, The Age and Brisbane Times.

Tim Elliott is a senior writer with Good Weekend.

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How far should genetic engineering go to allow this couple to have a healthy baby? - Sydney Morning Herald

Genetically targeted chemical assembly of functional materials in living cells, tissues, and animals – Science Magazine

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From genetics to material to behavior

Introducing new genes into an organism can endow new biochemical functions or change the patterns of existing functions, but extending these manipulations to structure at the tissue level is challenging. Combining genetic engineering and polymer chemistry, Liu et al. directly leveraged complex cellular architectures of living organisms to synthesize, fabricate, and assemble bioelectronic materials (see the Perspective by Otto and Schmidt). An engineered enzyme expressed in genetically targeted neurons synthesized conductive polymers in tissues of freely moving animals. These polymers enabled modulation of membrane properties in specific neuron populations and manipulation of behavior in living animals.

Science, this issue p. 1372; see also p. 1303

The structural and functional complexity of multicellular biological systems, such as the brain, are beyond the reach of human design or assembly capabilities. Cells in living organisms may be recruited to construct synthetic materials or structures if treated as anatomically defined compartments for specific chemistry, harnessing biology for the assembly of complex functional structures. By integrating engineered-enzyme targeting and polymer chemistry, we genetically instructed specific living neurons to guide chemical synthesis of electrically functional (conductive or insulating) polymers at the plasma membrane. Electrophysiological and behavioral analyses confirmed that rationally designed, genetically targeted assembly of functional polymers not only preserved neuronal viability but also achieved remodeling of membrane properties and modulated cell typespecific behaviors in freely moving animals. This approach may enable the creation of diverse, complex, and functional structures and materials within living systems.

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Genetically targeted chemical assembly of functional materials in living cells, tissues, and animals - Science Magazine

Timeline Shows 3 Paths To COVID-19 Treatment And Prevention (INFOGRAPHIC) – Forbes

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In uncertain times, we are witnessing one of the greatest moments in the history of science.

A projected timeline for treatment and prevention of the novel coronavirus. Although we are living ... [+] through uncertain times, we are also witnessing one of the greatest moments in science history.

Scientists are breaking speed records in their race to develop treatments for the new coronavirus. Some are panning through old molecules hoping to find effective drugs. Others are applying the latest breakthroughs in synthetic biology to engineer sophisticated treatments and vaccines.

Ive previously talked about some synthetic biology companies are racing to create treatments. Others like Mammoth Biosciences are developing much-needed testing. Every day brings additional reports of the latest breakthroughs from around the world. But how can we make sense of all this information?

To provide a big-picture perspective, SynBioBeta and Leaps by Bayer have partnered to help visualize the overall progress of the research community. At the heart of the project is an infographic showing the timeline to the various treatments and preventions (click here to download it). Its based on data from The Milken Institute, which recently released a detailed tracker to monitor the progress of each of the more than 60 known COVID-19 treatments and preventions currently in development.

One takeaway: the progress to develop coronavirus treatments and preventions is moving at an unprecedented pace, with historic records being broken nearly every week.

The crisis response from the global biotech community has been truly inspiring, says Juergen Eckhardt, SVP and Head of Leaps by Bayer, a unit of Bayer AG that leads impact investments into solutions to some of todays biggest challenges in health and agriculture. We are excited to partner on this visual timeline to help a broader audience understand how and when scientific innovation may bring us through this deeply challenging time.

COVID19: Projected timeline for treatment and prevention. Three paths: pre-existing drugs, antibody ... [+] therapies, and vaccines.

There are standard stages to getting a drug approved. In Phase 1 trials, a drugs safety is assessed in a small group of healthy subjects. In later stages (Phase II & III), efficacy is measured in a larger number of people, often versus a placebo. The situation with COVID-19 is predicted to become so dire so quickly, however, that many are looking to fast-track testing. This could include granting experimental drugs expanded access, for compassionate use, which would allow physicians to give them to patients who are critically ill before testing is complete.

The fastest way to safely stop COVID-19 would be to discover that an already-approved medication works against it. Repurposed drugs do not require the same extensive testing as novel medicines and may already be available in large quantities. The Milken Institutes tracker identifies 7 candidate drugs in this category.

One is the malarial medicine chloroquine, which in recent days has been touted by some as a possible miracle drug against the coronavirus. German pharmaceutical company Bayer last week donated three million tablets of chloroquine to the U.S. The FDA and academics are together investigating whether it can provide relief to COVID-19 patients.

There are hundreds if not thousands of other FDA-approved drugs on the market that are already proven safe in humans and that may have treatment potential against COVID-19, so many scientists are rapidly screening the known drug arsenal in hopes of discovering an effective compound.

Antibodies are proteins that are a natural part of the human immune system. They work around the clock in blood to block viruses and more. The problem at the moment is that because the novel coronavirus (known as SARS-CoV-2) is new, no one has had time to develop antibodies against it.No one, that is, except those who have recovered from COVID-19.

Antibodies taken from those people could help patients who are still infected. Such patient-to-patient transfers can be performed without extensive testing or lengthy approval processes so long as standard protocols are followed. It is yet unknown whether this treatment option will work for COVID-19, nor whether there will be enough recovered donors to deal with the infection at scale.

To improve this process, companies like Vancouver, WA-based AbCellera are applying new biotechnologies.

AbCellera is using proprietary tools and machine learning to rapidly screen through millions of B cells from patients who recovered from COVID-19. B cells are responsible for producing antibodies. The company has announced a partnership with Eli Lilly on this project and aims to bring its hottest antibodies those that neutralize the virus to the clinic.

AbCellera's platform has delivered, with unprecedented speed, by far the world's largest panel of anti-SAR-CoV-2 antibodies," said Carl Hansen, Ph.D., CEO of AbCellera, in a statement. "In 11 days, we've discovered hundreds of antibodies against the SARS-CoV-2 virus responsible for the current outbreak, moved into functional testing with global experts in virology, and signed a co-development agreement with one of the world's leading biopharmaceutical companies. We're deeply impressed with the speed and agility of Lilly's response to this global challenge. Together, our teams are committed to delivering a countermeasure to stop the outbreak."

James Crowe at Vanderbilt University is also sifting through the blood of recovered patients. Using a new instrument called Beacon from a company called Berkeley Lights. Crowes team has been scouring through B cells to find antibodies that neutralize SARS-CoV-2. The technology behind this project was developed in recent years with funds from the Department of Defense.

Normally this would be a five year program, Crowe told me. But in the rapid process his team is following, animal studies could be done in as fast as two months.

This morning, Berkeley Lights announced a Global Emerging Pathogen Antibody Discovery Consortium (GEPAD) to attack COVID-19 and other viruses. It is partnering with Vanderbilt University, La Jolla Institute for Immunology, and Emory University to accelerate the work above to the broader research community.

This collaboration also included commercial partners, including Twist Bioscience, who synthesized DNA for the project.

Our mission is to provide the raw material needed for biologists to make breakthroughs, said Twists CEO Emily Leproust. If DNA is needed, we want to make it, quickly and perfectly

Another company that specializes in DNA synthesis, SGI-DNA, is offering its tools at much reduced cost to researchers developing COVID-19 treatments. The company said that people from around the world are coming to them for help.

"There is zero time to waste," said Todd R. Nelson, Ph.D., CEO of SGI-DNA. He said that researchers need synthetic DNA and RNA, which its Bio-XP machine can provide in as little as eight hours.

Nelson continued, "In a matter of a day or two, we have built the genes thought to be critical to the development of successful vaccines against SARS-CoV-2. SGI-DNA has made them available in the form of different genetic libraries, which researchers can use to find druggable targets in a matter of hours, dramatically accelerating the time to market for therapeutics and vaccines.

Beyond searching for antibodies in recovered patients, biotechnologists have other tricks up their sleeves.

One approach involves genetically engineering laboratory mice to mimic the human immune system. These animals can then be presented with the virus or parts of the virus and allowed to recover. The hope is that their B cells would then produce effective antibodies. Because this happens in a controlled setting, biologists can better understand and engineer the process.

A company called GenScript was pursuing this strategy as early as February 4, when police escorted 8 transgenic mice immunized with the 2019 nCoV antigen to research labs in China. In 12 hours, its researchers successfully found specific antibodies in the mice that could recognize the novel virus and potentially block it from binding to cells. In less than 24 hoursagain using Berkeley Lights new Beacon instrument for working with thousands of individual, live cellsGenScript completed a series of steps that would have taken three months using previous technology.

Yet another approach involves computational approaches and artificial intelligence. Firms like Distributed Bio are using computers to reengineer antibodies to better target SARS-CoV-2. The company is optimizing antibodies that are known to target SARS-CoV-1, the virus behind the 2003 outbreak of SARS.

We believe broadly neutralizing antibodies with engineered biophysical properties will become key weapons to win the war against all coronaviruses said Jake Glanville, CEO of Distributed Bio.

Vaccines work by simulating infection, which allows the body to mount its own defense against a virus. Effective vaccines take time to develop, and they can take even longer to test. But recent progress in biotechnology is again accelerating these efforts.

Notably, Moderna has launched a Phase 1 vaccine trial against COVID-19 in record time. Patients in Seattle have already begun receiving injections of an experimental mRNA vaccine. Moderna cranked out doses of this and won approval from the FDA for testing in just 44 days an all-time record.

These programs show a massive focus on a common enemy, and a coming together of disparate firms.

Ginkgo Bioworks, a giant in the emerging field of synthetic biology, has announced a $25 million fund to help spur even more collaboration. The company is offering its laboratory equipment and know-how to anyone with a good idea of how to stop COVID-19. We dont want any scientists to have to wait. The pandemic has already arrived, so the time for rapid prototyping and scale-up is right now, said Jason Kelly, CEO of Ginkgo.

These effortsand the infographic aboveshould give you hope. Although we are all now living in uncertain times, we are also witnessing one of the greatest moments in the history of science.

It's a terrible time, and simultaneously a fantastic time to see the global science community working together to conquer this very hard and challenging disease, said Berkeley Lights CEO Eric Hobbs. We are also learning and developing the tools and technologies to ensure that we can react faster to the next threat, so that we don't get to this point again in the future.

Follow me on twitter at @johncumbers and @synbiobeta. Subscribe to my weekly newsletters in synthetic biology.

Thank you to Ian Haydon and Kevin Costa for additional research and reporting in this article. Im the founder of SynBioBeta, and some of the companies that I write aboutincluding Leaps by Bayer, Mammoth Biosciences, Distributed Bio, Twist Bioscience, SGI-DNA, Genscript, Berkeley Lights, and Ginkgo Bioworksare sponsors of the SynBioBeta conference and weekly digest heres the full list of SynBioBeta sponsors.

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Timeline Shows 3 Paths To COVID-19 Treatment And Prevention (INFOGRAPHIC) - Forbes

After Coronavirus the World Will Never Be the Same. But Maybe, It Can Be Better – Singularity Hub

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Life has changed a lot in the past few days, weeks, or months, depending where you live. As efforts to contain the novel coronavirus ramp up, its likely going to change even more. But were already sick of being at home all the time, we miss our friends and families, everythings been canceled, the economy is tanking, and we feel anxious and scared about whats ahead.

We just want this to be over, and we figure its only a matter of time. Were making plans for what well do when things go back to normaland banking on that happening.

But what if life never fully goes back to how it was pre-coronavirus? What if this epidemic is a turning point, and after it the world is never the same?

More importantlyor, at least, more optimisticallywhat if the world could come out of this crisis better than it was before?

Jamie Metzl, technology and healthcare futurist, geopolitical expert, entrepreneur, author of Hacking Darwin: Genetic Engineering and the Future of Humanity, and Senior Fellow of the Atlantic Council, thinks this is possiblebut it all depends on what we do and how we behave right now. In a talk at Singularity Universitys virtual summit on COVID-19 last week, Metzl explained why he believes that were never going back to normaland what we should be doing now to make the new normal a good one.

For many of us, the most impactful geopolitical event thats happened during our lifetime was the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001. The world changed that day, and its never returned to how it was before.

A flu-like pandemic with a relatively low mortality rate may seem minor compared to the deliberate murder of thousands of innocent people. But, Metzl said, Its my contention that this isnt a 2001 moment, this is something much bigger. I think of this as a 1941 moment.

1941 was the thick of World War II. Nobody knew what the outcome of the war was going to be, everybody was terrified, and the US and its allies were losing the war. But even in the height of those darkest of times, Metzl said, people began imagining what the future world would look.

It was 1941 when President Roosevelt gave his famous Four Freedoms speech, and when American and British leadership issued the Atlantic Charter, which set out their vision for the post-war international order. To this day, our lives exist within that order.

The situation were in right now is, of course, different; its not a war. It is, in Metzls words, a convergence of the worlds of science and biology and the world of geopolitics. And as the coronavirus crisis continues to play out, its geopolitical implications are going to become much greater.

Metzl shared a quote from Italian Communist theorist Antonio Gramsci, written in the 1930s: The old world is dying and the new world struggles to be born. Now is the time of monsters.

Oofthats a big statement.

Metzl deconstructed it. For starters, he said, the post-WWII order that weve all grown up with was dying before this virus appeared.

Post-WWII planners envisioned a world that shared sovereignty and curbed nationalism. But were now in a period of dramatic re-nationalization of the world, with populist, extremist, or authoritarian leaders in power from Brazil to the US to China, and many countries in between.

Institutions intended to foster global cooperation (like the World Bank, the International Monetary Fund, the United Nations, and the World Health Organization) have been starved in the context of this re-nationalization, and as a result we dont have effective structures in place to address global crisesand not just coronavirus. Think of climate change, protecting the oceans, preparing for a future of automation and AI; no country can independently take on or solve these massive challenges.

Not all is lost, though. There are some positive pieces of this globalization story that we also need to be mindful of, Metzl said.

When the Spanish flu pandemic hit in 1918, there were only 2 billion people on Earth, and of those 2 billion only 30 percent were literate.; the brain pool for solving problems was about 600 million people.

Now we have a global population of 7.5 billion and an 86 percent literacy rate, which means over 6.5 billion people can be part of the effort to fix whats broken. Just as crucially, were more connected to each other than weve ever been. It used to take thousands of years for knowledge to transfer; now it can fly across the world over the internet in minutes. The pandemic moves at the speed of globalization, but so does the response, Metzl said. The tools were bringing to this fight are greater than anything our ancestors could have possibly imagined.

But at the same time were experiencing this incredible bottom-up energy and connectivity, were also experiencing an abysmal failure of our top-down institutions.

Have you felt afraid these last few days and weeks? I sure have. The economy is tanking, people are losing their jobs, people are getting sick, and we dont know the way out or how how long its going to last. In the meantime, a lot of unexpected things will happen.

There will be an economic slowdown or recession, and there will be issues with our healthcare systemsand these are just the predictable things. Metzl believes well also see significant second and third-order effects. If the poorer parts of the world get hit hard by the virus, we may see fragile states collapsing, and multi-lateral states like the European Union unable to support the strain. Our democracies are going to be challenged, and there may be soft coups even here in the US, Metzl said. Speaking of challenges to democracy, there are actors whose desires and aspirations are very different from our own, and this could be a moment of opportunity for them.

The world is not going to snap back to being exactly like it was before this crisis happened, Metzl said. Were going to come out of this into a different world.

We dont know exactly what that world will look like, but we can imagine some of it. Basically, take the trends that were already in motion and hit the fast-forward button. Virtualization of events, activities, and interactions. Automation of processes and services. Political and economic decentralization.

But for the pieces of the future that were unsure of, now is 1941. Now is the time when we need to think about what we would like the new world to look like, and start planning for it and building it, Metzl said.

In hindsight, its easy to picture a far better response and outcome to the COVID-19 outbreak. What if, three months ago, thered been a global surveillance system in place, and at the first signs of the outbreak, an international emergency team led by the World Health Organization had immediately gone to Wuhan?

Weall of usneed to re-invigorate a global system that can engage people inclusively across differences and across countries, Metzl said. We need to be articulating our long-term vision now so that we can evaluate everything against that standard.

Theres not a total lack of a positive long-term vision now; the UN sustainable development goals, for example, call for gender equality, no poverty, no hunger, decent work, climate action, and justice (among other goals) around the world.

The problem is that we dont have institutions meaningful enough or strong enough to effect realization of these principles; theres a mismatch between the global nature of the problems were facing and the structure of national politics.

Just as our old normal was the new normal for our grandparents in the mid-1900s, this new normal that feels so shocking to us right now will simply be normal for our children and grandchildren. But there are some criticaland wonderfuldifferences between the mid-1900s and now.

We have more educated people, stronger connections, faster sharing of information, and more technological tools and scientific knowledge than ever before in history. The number of people who can be part of this conversation is unprecedented, Metzl said. We couldnt have done this in the industrial age or even the nuclear age. Theres never been this kind of motivation combined with this capacity around the world.

In 1941, the global planning process was top-down: a small group of powerful, smart people decided how things would be then took steps to make their vision a reality. But this time will be different; to succeed, the new global plan will need to have meaningful drive from the bottom up.

We need to recognize a new locus of power, Metzl said. And its us. Nobody is going to solve this for us. This is our moment to really come together.

Image Credit: Joseph Redfield Nino from Pixabay

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After Coronavirus the World Will Never Be the Same. But Maybe, It Can Be Better - Singularity Hub

COVID 19: 21st Century Reality Check – The Globalist

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The impact of COVID 19 is far-reaching and profound. The virus is unseen and moving fast. It can infect without symptoms. Its use of innocent carriers makes everyone suspect.

It also attacks in a random fashion, with just enough victims to easily lead the rest to the edge of panic. And while COVID 19 appears to kill 20 to 30 times more people than the worst form of flu, it seems to still be like a common cold, in that it may not be strong enough for the body to develop a lasting immune system response.

In spite of the earlier hype, artificial intelligence (AI) has singularly failed to help much.

There was little in the way of predictive analytics about where the pandemic would strike and how it would develop.

The jury is also out on another much-touted darling, biotechnology. Biotech has yet to offer anything like a silver bullet.

Meanwhile, the entire world waits with baited breath for a designer drug or vaccine spliced and stitched up with genetic engineering tools like CRISPR, to vanquish COVID 19.

At the present stage, we cant even answer very simple questions: What comes when this current peak wanes?

All we seem to know is that there will be a new normal. For the foreseeable future, it may not be like anything before.

There is even a good chance some of the same questions we now face may still be around during the next peak of infections, and the one after.

Amidst all this hand-wringing and unleashing of previously unseen economic rescue packages, only the Anglo-Saxons and the Calvinist Dutch have asked the Mother of all Questions:

Who is prepared to pay the price for an abnormal, new normal ? And what exactly will this look like?

The first victim of COVID 19 is likely to be tourism. Which matters because it is one of the worlds biggest economic sectors.

The era of retirement voyages on cruise ships is probably sunk for good. But what about airlines, the lifeblood of the 21st centurys globalized economy?

After all, this is an industry where passengers are even far more densely packed than on cruise ships, sitting squeezed together for hours on end in an air-tight tube.

Worse, owing to the industrys mantra of operating a hub-and-spokes system at airports, a single asymptomatic carrier may be enough to kindle a burgeoning cycle of infections in many different countries.

That evidently is what happened at resorts in Austria and Italy during that fateful ski holiday week at the end of February.

Note as well that, in 2003 when COVID 19s SARS cousin sprouted in China, 1.65 billion people travelled by air that year. In 2018, the figure was already two-and-a-half times higher, at 4.2 billion.

Moving up and down the economic value chain produces only more of the same uncomfortable questions.

Here are some of the pertinent questions to be asked:

1. What is the business outlook for AirBnB, co-living, bars and cafes, discos and cinemas, open-air markets?

2. Will remote learning be the death knell for brick-and-mortar university campuses?

3. How virus-proofed are food and fruit supply chains from Spain to northern Europe, from Mexico to the United States?

4. Do the lorries backed up at borders within the Schengen area conceal refugees?

5. At a time when emergency services are stretched, what is the chance of a terror attack, and how effective would be a response?

6. And although it is clear that a lockdown reduces most targets for a mass casualty attack, there is one notable exception the public hospital.

Most of the world remains hopeful about vaccination against COVID 19. However, a successful vaccine is unlikely to be ready before the end of this year.

After this, there will be the challenge of ramping up production and organizing the immunization of billions of people.

In the meanwhile, should one or more pharmacological treatments be successful, the question remains: How many can be treated, and where?

With 5-10% of COVID 19 cases needing ventilator support, is there room for drive-in halfway houses, between home and hospital, or hospital and intensive care?

In many parts of Europe, serious debate about such questions have been derailed by newsbytes and occasional self-congratulation about hospitals and ICUs.

Way beyond this, tough questions need to be faced. One of the most immediate issues is strategic self-sufficiency.

Take the case of Germany, the presumed master of infrastructure spending and planning. With war out of fashion in Europe, little attention was given to the amazing finding that a large part of Germanys fighter jets, helicopters, tanks and submarines did not work when tested.

This was largely an ideological battle between the left and the political center. However, public health should be another matter.

Nobody is really surprised that there was a severe shortage of face masks even in hospitals in Italy. But why on earth is there one in Germany?

Health systems in ageing societies may lack nurses and lab technicians but face masks?

Just how off we are on our presumably modern reaction and thought patterns, consider this: Before the COVID 19 crisis, the world was obsessed about plastics, of doing away with them.

As is ironically turns out now, the best defense against viral contamination is a plastic barrier. All of a sudden everybody prays for plastics Great Return.

Amidst the many ethics questions we will have to ponder, there are two lessons which COVID 19 might teach us.

1. To pay for the panoply of ever-cheaper products we do not really need, we have lived our lives on a curve of diminishing returns. There will be a recession, probably a severe one, but the world economy will recover. To what degree is our choice.

2. As we sit locked down at home, we can celebrate the return of time. We do not need to overwork to save for free time, at a later date.

It may also be salutary to remember that refugees did not cause the 21st centurys first pandemic. Tourists did.

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COVID 19: 21st Century Reality Check - The Globalist

If and when it has time, the UK must ponder its post-Brexit biotech options – just-food.com

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Johnson has championed deregulation and divergence from the EU on GM

In the three years after the UK's referendum on EU membership, it was often said Brexit had monopolised the political agenda leaving precious little "bandwidth" for anything else. But who would have imagined an issue of such magnitude was about to emerge that would consign Brexit to the "and in other news" section of TV bulletins?

That the biggest Brexit story last week was that EU negotiator Michel Barnier had tested positive for coronavirus and David Frost, his UK counterpart, is self-isolating after showing symptoms, tells its own story.

A few critical and challenging issues had dominated the long debates over the UK's membership of the EU, while undeniably important topics, including the country's differences with Brussels over genetic modification and biotechnology, were relatively little discussed. However, UK prime minister Boris Johnson is going some way to correcting that.

Boris backs British biotech

Since securing his premiership and withdrawal from the EU, Johnson has repeatedly made a point of championing deregulation and divergence from the EU on GM as a Brexit boon for the UK and a priority for his administration. Johnson also appointed George Eustice, a longstanding and vocal critic of the EU approach, as Secretary of State at the Department for the Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra).

Based rigidly on the precautionary principle, EU regulations both on planting GM crops and commercialising foods made from GMO ingredients are consideredby many scientists overly restrictive and lengthy. Over the years, governments and policymakers from across the political divide have sympathised with that view but could do no more than push for reform in Brussels.

Johnson now has the opportunity to put the UK on a different footing. His intended direction of travel is clear, though GM is a highly contentious issue that could challenge even his libertarian instincts.

There has been strong support for deregulation on biotech in the scientific community for many years, so Johnson's remarks have been welcomed enthusiastically by crop scientists.

Professor Jonathan Jones of The Sainsbury Laboratory crop research institute, a practitioner and energetic proponent of GM technology for three decades, bemoans the "glacial" progress of GM regulation, but says the Johnson rhetoric is "exciting".

However, he cautions: "Of course, he's not delivered everything he's promised in the past but I think he's serious on this one. How rapidly we get there from here I don't know. It's complicated."

Consumer fears easily provoked

A prime challenge is the consumer concern and suspicion GM has always attracted. This has engendered a highly cautionary approach by retailers, as reflected in a comment from Andrew Opie, director of food and sustainability at UK food retail trade body The British Retail Consortium, for this article. "Retailers do not currently sell genetically-modified food under their own brands and would not do so unless there is a change in consumer demand," Opie says.

"Activist groups often behave irresponsibly in terms of inflaming public fears about something that is totally benign"

Others would say consumer fears which, while borne partly out of the understandable natural caution people have about technology related to food, are stoked by misinformation and sensationalised reporting, resulting in the retailers' and public policy being led by the least well informed on the topic. "Activist groups often behave irresponsibly in terms of inflaming public fears about something that is totally benign," Prof. Jones contends.

Food manufacturers have also been somewhat reticent about supporting GM publicly, even if they recognise the benefits of the technology.

Asked by just-food for its view on where the UK should go on biotech, the UK food manufacturing representative body The Food and Drink Federation, states: "FDF believes that modern biotechnology, including genetic modificationand new breeding techniques, offers considerable potential to improve the quality and quantity of [the] food supply and could contribute to sustainability by helping to produce more food using fewer resources and with less impact on the environment. FDF recognises that the impact of biotechnology must be objectively assessed, based on sound science and evidence, and be underpinned by an effective regulatory landscape."

The recognition of the potential benefits but a reluctance to go into battle on behalf of GM can clearly be seen in that statement. While Prof. Jones brands current policies on GM as the "tyranny of the more risk-averse", he says he "totally understands the brand reputation pressures both manufacturers and retailers are under". They see "a little bit of upside in terms of cost reduction but a vast amount of downside in terms of risking damage to my precious brand".

All this means biotech has been somewhat friendless, not receiving the widespread support from the private sector that technological innovation in other fields often can. Its backing by "Big Agri" has obviously been significant globally but the associations within that sector help foster some of the distrust, giving environmental campaigners a potent focus for their activities that has resonated with the public.

Farmer support

The National Farmers Union has generally been more publicly supportive of GM, however. Helen Ferrier, chief science and regulatory affairs adviser at the NFU, says it supports a "proportionate and enabling" regulatory framework on GM.

Vicki Hird of food and environment pressure group Sustain, however, suggests the picture is more mixed. "There's a lot of farmers I know who aren't members of the NFU [who] have a position on GM and biotech which is quite different from the NFU," Hird says, adding that protection of their European market will be a prime concern for many, underlining the influence ongoing negotiations could have on the UK's biotech ambitions.

"The UK currently remains aligned with the EU in its approach to genetically modified food. The UK's stance beyond January 2021 will depend very much on the outcome of trade negotiations," the BRC's Opie says.

Gene-editing move?

Where there could be more immediate progress is in the field of new gene-editing techniques. Dr Richard Harrison, director of Cambridge Crop Research, part of the National Institute of Agricultural Botany (NIAB), is leading research utilising modern gene-editing techniques, including CRISPR-Cas9, to modify the genetic make-up of the Fusarium venenatum fungus, the mycoprotein source for meat substitute brand Quorn, owned by Philippines group Monde Nissin.

"We're trying to understand how the fungus uses different carbon sources, and also how it regulates responses to nitrogen as well, because if we could understand that, then we'd be able to use a far greater range of crop-based carbon sources to produce mycoprotein," Harrison explains.

Being able to vary what mycoprotein is fed on could broaden the options for how and where mycoprotein can be sustainably produced as a meat alternative. The research is funded by the Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council, with Quorn manufacturer Quorn Foods, a subsidiary of Monde Nissin,as a project partner and co-funder.

However, Harrison stresses the objective is not to produce a genetically engineered Fusarium venenatum that Marlow Foods might then commercialise, but that the gene-editing techniques are being used as "a research tool to validate our hypotheses".

Speaking to just-food last year, then Quorn Foods CEO Kevin Brennan said the company would "never go anywhere near genetic modification". This is not surprising and is common position among food companies. Owing to a 2018 European Court of Justice ruling, any food produced from ingredients derived from the gene-editing processes Harrison's team is employing would be subject to the EU's GM regulations and would have to be labelled as containing GMOs.

Brennan said the research "provides underpinning science for alternative carbohydrates but also to support feed optimisation". He continued: "If we can understand at a granular level what the organism reacts to we can optimise feedstock to encourage the ideal growth".

Ironically, some older and less accurate mutagenesis techniques, such as using gamma radiation and chemicals to alter genetic profile, fall outside the EU regulation. "All scientists are asking for is an objective evaluation rather than emotive one," Harrison adds.

In common with many scientists, Harrison believes EU regulations on genetic modification and gene editing to be overly restrictive and an impediment to scientific progress, not least as it discourages private-sector investment. So, would there be greater commercial opportunities for food companies, and consequently more investment in research, if the UK were to diverge from EU biotech regulations?

"Would a more proportionate regulatory framework bring in more investment? I think the answer is yes"

Harrison has no doubt there would, and Prof. Jones concurs. "Would a more proportionate regulatory framework bring in more investment? I think the answer is yes."

The NFU's Ferrier also believes regulatory reform will boost investment. "What we're interested in as an organisation is that you're able to move from the research into private-sector R&D and then commercialisation, because as long as seed companies don't see the EU and the UK as somewhere that they want to invest in, then you can do as much brilliant science as you like but the UK, farmers, society, environment, won't get any of the benefit because it will just stay in the research community."

Climate emergency

With regard to the regulation of genetic technologies in food production overall, Harrison urges a strictly evidence-led approach, not least given the challenges posed by climate change.

"There is enormous potential to grow crops with fewer pesticides by using naturally-occurring, disease-resistance genes. You could do that through traditional breeding but that takes a long time and costs a lot of money. Genetic technology makes it a lot faster and we should really have access in the 21st century to those technologies because we rapidly need to reduce our greenhouse gas emissions. Genetic technology could really be a powerful tool to accelerate our decarbonisation of the foodchain."

Prof. Jones adds: "We need every tool in the toolbox to address the perfect storm of rising temperatures, greenhouse gas emissions and rising population."

While recognising the benefits of separating gene-editing technology from GM, Prof. Jones is concerned arguing in favour of this may unintentionally lend weight to the view that there is still something to be feared in genetic engineering. "There are literally dozens of technologies like that that would be fantastic for the sustainability of agriculture, that you can only really accomplish by moving genes from one plant to another or by moving genes between bacteria and plants which is something that's happened naturally in evolution scores of times," he says, strongly urging the government to follow through on its supportive stance on GM.

Nevertheless, gene editing could be the more immediate movethat is easier to negotiate politically and practically. It is also almost impossible to imagine the UK moving out of the transition period with an ECJ ruling featuring in its legislation. Ferrier believes the UK could also work with other member states, many of which were concerned by the ECJ ruling, to move EU opinion on the issue. "This is the opportunity to work with other member states who are similarly concerned about it. That is an area that the UK research sector can have a strength in and it is a really exciting area for developing products that farmers could grow."

While the UK government is so far holding to its December deadline, the coronavirus pandemic seems highly likely to result in the extension of the transition period. When it does finally leave the EU, the UK is likely, at the very least, to have a different regulatory approach to gene editing, if not immediately on GM overall.

When exactly the transition period will now end, however, may depend more on how successful scientists have been at understanding the genome of Covid-19 than the genetic composition of any food crop.

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If and when it has time, the UK must ponder its post-Brexit biotech options - just-food.com

Covid 19: HOMEF Cautions On Use of Biodiversity – Leadership Newspaper

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The Director, Health of Mother Earth Foundation, Dr Nnimo Bassey has called for sober consideration on the development and use of Biodiversity following the virtual shut down of global economy.

Dr Bassey gave the charge in his welcome remarks at a stakeholders conference which held in Abuja on Monday, March 23, 2020 with the theme Agricultural Technofixes and the state of Biosafety in Nigeria.

In his words The world is virtually shut down due to the ravages of a virus. This is no time for grandstanding or for anyone to claim that they have got anything under control.

He said addressing the issues of agricultural technofixes and the state of our Biosafety gives us the template to consider the current situation in our world and the unpredictability of what could happen next. Noting that while scenario planners may have foreseen a pandemic of the scale that Corona virus has provoked, it comes as a total surprise to the average person.

The Activist emphasised that they had had on several occasions warned that things could go deeply wrong and out of hands if humans persist in toying with the genetic make up of living organisms for the consideration of power in a few moguls and for profit, adding that when humans engineer crops to make them act as pesticides, nature offers super pest or super bugs.

In any case humans get trapped in needless and unwinnable battles against nature he said

Recently, mainstream genetic engineering has progressed to the level of editing genetic makeup of organisms and not necessarily having to engage in trans-species transfer of genetic materials.This has focussed on becoming extinction technologies

He maintained that while modern biotechnology promoters like the National Biotechnology Development Agency (NABDA) and the regulatory National Biosafety Management Agency(NBMA) feel confident that they can handle any sort of technicalities in both the mainstream and newfields of extreme technofixes We are deeply concerned that their grandstanding would not stop the purveyors of these technologies from weaponising them.

Giving the opening remarks, Minister of state for Environment, Barrister Sharon Ikeazor, stated that, With Nigerias population projected to exceed 400 million by 2050, an immediate priority for agricultural is to maximize crop productivity in a manner that is environmentally friendly, sustainable and cost effective.

The Minister who was represented by the Director General/CEO, National Biosafety Management Agency (NBMA), Dr. Rufus Ebegba said Government efforts to ensure food security have been challenged by climate change effects such as droughts and floods, erratic weather conditions and declining soil fertility among others.

The Minister said to address these challenges, Nigeria has adopted several technologies including modern agricultural biotechnology to ensure food security in the country.

She maintained that to protect biological diversity from the potential risks posed by products arising from modern biotechnology such as Genetically Modified Organisms (GMOs) and ensure international best practices in the application of modern biotechnology, Nigeria has put in place the necessary legal and policy instruments to guide its development and safe use.

The Minister however noted that Biodiversity in Nigeria is under enormous pressure and highly threatened due to land use changes from agriculture and over grazing,over exploitation of natural resources, environmental pollution and climate change.

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2020-2025 Global and Regional Genetic Engineering Industry Production, Sales and Consumption Status and Prospects Professional Market Research Report…

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The global Genetic Engineering market report by HNY Research offers users a detailed overview of the market and all the main factors affecting the market. The study on global Genetic Engineering market, offers profound understandings about the Genetic Engineering market covering all the essential aspects like revenue growth, supply chain, sales, key players and regions. There is a target set in market that every marketing strategy has to reach. This report on Genetic Engineering focusses on different categories that define this market with a systematic approach that addresses the consumer base, researchers and market experts like the stakeholders. It also gives a clear perspective towards the competition and demand and supply chain.

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Manufacturer Detail

By Market Players:Thermo Fisher Scientific Inc., GenScript, Amgen Inc., Genentech, Inc., Merck KGaA, Horizon Discovery Group plc, Sangamo Therapeutics, Inc., Transposagen Biopharmaceuticals, Inc., OriGene Technologies, Inc.

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By TypeArtificial Selection, Cloning, Gene Splicing, Others

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Staying away from public events during COVID-19 caution? Stream these shows at home – Johnson City Press (subscription)

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So instead of a list of local events, the newsroom staff at Johnson City Press helped pull together a list of shows to watch on streaming services this coming week.

Shrill on Hulu: Shrill is a new Hulu comedy series starring Aidy Bryant from Saturday Night Live as Annie, a fat young woman who wants to change her life but not her body. Annie tries to advance her journalism career while dealing with bad boyfriends, a sick parent and an often dismissive boss. This show explores sexism, body image issues and much more.

Rebellion on Netflix:Rebellion is a five-part series that is told from the perspectives of a group of fictional characters who live through the political events of the 1916 Easter Rising. The show focuses on the revolutionaries fighting for a free Ireland, as well as those involved in the British occupation. A great show for history buffs.

Its Always Sunny in Philadelphia on Hulu: Fans of this cult comedy classic were displeased to see the show leave Netflix in 2017, but you can still catch the gang in action on Hulu, which recently added season 14 to its streaming service. The show, starring Glenn Howerton as Dennis Reynolds, Charlie Day as Charlie Kelly, Rob McElhenney as Mac, Kaitlin Olson as Dee Reynolds and Danny DeVito as Frank Reynolds, follows the exploits of a group of arrogant narcissists who seem to get worse as the show continues.

Adult Swim App: For fans of alternative comedy, the free Adult Swim app can be found on your Roku device or other smart TVs. The app includes everything the channel has ever featured over the years, includingRick and Morty,The Eric Andre Show,Loiter Squad, all the hijinks ofTim and Eric, and much more. With hours of free TV shows, this app alone could kill a lot of time.

Counterpart on Amazon Prime: Counterpart, a sci-fi thriller drama starring JK Simmons, Olivia Williams and Harry Lloyd, tells the tale of a United Nations employee, played by Simmons, who discovers that the agency he works for is hiding a parallel dimension thats at war with our own. Within that parallel dimension is a top spy whos his other self.

The Expanse, an Amazon Prime original: The Expanse, starring Steven Strait, Cas Anvar and Dominique Tipper, follows a police detective in the asteroid belt, the first officer of an interplanetary ice freighter and an earth-bound United Nations executive as they discover a vast conspiracy that threatens Earth's rebellious colony on the asteroid belt.

Ozark on Amazon Prime:Ozark, starring Jason Bateman, Laura Linney and Julia Garner, follows afinancial adviser who takes his family from Chicago to the Missouri Ozarks to work for a drug boss who he must appease through money laundering and more. Season three will come out on March 27.

Altered Carbon on Netflix: Altered Carbon, starring Anthony Mackie, Lela Loren and Simone Missick, is set in a futuristic transhumanist world in which peoples consciousnesses can be transferred into other bodies, orsleeves. This show follows a prisoner who returns to life in a new body with a chance to win his freedom by solving a murder. The show is based on Richard K. Morgan's cyberpunk noir novel of the same name.

The Witcher on Netflix: Though the show has received mixed reviews from some, most have seemed to enjoyThe Witcher, an action fantasy series starringHenry Cavill, Anya Chalotra and Freya Allan. The show, which is set for another season, follows a mutated monster-hunter for hire in a turbulent world where people often prove more wicked than beasts.

Frozen 2 on Disney Plus: The musical fantasy film Frozen 2 was released early on Disney Plus on Sunday for viewers getting throughthis challenging time. This critically acclaimed animated film follows characters Anna, Elsa, Kristoff, Olaf and Sven as they leave Arendelle to travel to an ancient enchanted land to find the origin of Elsa's powers and save their kingdom in peril.

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Staying away from public events during COVID-19 caution? Stream these shows at home - Johnson City Press (subscription)

Beware of quacks! Alternative medicine is injurious to health – Economic Times

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I often write this column sitting at a cafe somewhere, but am doing this particular instalment from the safety of my home. Im taking Covid-19 seriously, and doing all I can in terms of social distancing, personal hygiene and so on. People tend to underestimate the nature of exponential growth, and I worry that many of my fellow countrymen are still too complacent. But there is an ongoing epidemic I worry about just as much as Covid-19 it is the epidemic of ignorance that causes people to believe in alternative medicine.

Over the last few weeks, weve seen all kinds of dubious assertions about Covid-19. Homoeopaths and Ayurvedic practitioners have suggested medications, bovine urine has been offered as a prophylactic, groups of people have chanted Go Corona Go to the supposedly obedient virus, and there is even a suggestion that clapping hands drives bacteria away. These alleged remedies, and the belief systems they are based on, are wrong. They are also dangerous, which is why it is necessary to fight them with the same commitment with which we need to fight literal viruses.

To begin with, I have a visceral objection to the term alternative medicine. Most of the quackery we put in that category is not medicine at all. There are only two kinds of treatment: those that work, and those that dont. Real medicine on one hand and quackery on the other. The term alternative medicine dignifies quackery, and implies an equivalence that does not exist.

And here you say, but so much of what I call quackery seems to work. Why so? Let me offer two reasons. The first, as is commonly known, is the placebo effect. Basically, merely believing that a medicine will work can sometimes make the patient better. A classic example of this comes from World War II, when Henry Beecher, an American anaesthetist, ran out of morphine and was forced to use salt water instead for an operation. The patient did not know this, and the salt water worked. Or rather, the placebo effect worked.

For this reason, when scientific trials are carried out to determine whether a medicine works or not, the standard is not whether the patients get better. Instead, the medicine being tested has to perform better than placebo. This is done through what is called a double-blind placebo-controlled test. Patients are divided into two groups, one of which is given a placebo and the other is given the medication being tested. Neither the patients nor the doctors know which is which. If the medication outperforms the placebo, we know it works. No homoeopathic medicine has ever passed such a test.

A second reason why quackery seems to work is regression to the mean. Many illnesses, like the common cold and some migraines, function in a cycle and get better on their own. Patients often ascribe credit for this to the medication they took. This is especially likely if they already believe in it, in which case the confirmation bias kicks in the tendency to see only evidence that confirms our biases.

But homoeopathy is harmless, right? Only sugar pills? So what is the problem? There are two problems with using alternative medicines. One, what economists would call the opportunity cost: you are not using medicine that actually works, and that could kill the patient. A famous example of this is the Australian couple who insisted on treating their daughters eczema with homoeopathy. The girl died, and the parents were correctly convicted of manslaughter.

Two, people who believe in such treatments can become complacent about the danger they are facing. Watch the viral video of those gentlemen chanting Go Corona Go, and it is clear that they are standing too close to one another. My favourite app TikTok is full of videos from people claiming that religion, the oldest form of fake news, will protect them. These false beliefs are dangerous not just to them but to others around them as well.

Even when the horrors of Covid-19 are behind us, this epidemic of ignorance will continue to take lives. This is especially when the Indian state itself spends taxes coerced from us on this nonsense the ministry of AYUSH should be abolished. It is not just believers at risk, but those around them.

What can you do about it, you ask? Well, first, be a sceptic. Examine every assertion, read up on any subject on which you have an opinion. Two great books I recommend on this subject are Bad Science by Ben Goldacre and Trick or Treatment by Simon Singh and Edzard Ernst. Fact-checking websites also do a great job of debunking nonsense. Use them to correct those pesky uncles in your WhatsApp groups and housing societies. It is your civic duty to speak up.

DISCLAIMER : Views expressed above are the author's own.

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Beware of quacks! Alternative medicine is injurious to health - Economic Times