The science stories that shook 2018
Adam Rutherford, Jim Al-Khalili, Pete Etchells, Sheena Cruickshank, Callum Roberts, Julia Jones, Mark Miodownik, Athene Donald, Mark Jobling, Anil Seth, Jon Butterworth
Sun 23 Dec 2018 02.00 EST
Our guest scientists pick the breakthroughs and discoveries that defined their year, from insights into human evolution to our first trip aboard an asteroid
Adam Rutherford, Jim Al-Khalili, Pete Etchells, Sheena Cruickshank, Callum Roberts, Julia Jones, Mark Miodownik, Athene Donald, Mark Jobling, Anil Seth, Jon Butterworth
Sun 23 Dec 2018 02.00 EST Last modified on Sun 23 Dec 2018 11.30 EST
Take a deep breath. Dive into the emerald water. It’s 13 minutes and 70 metres down to lunch. Are you dead yet? Not if you are one of the Bajau “sea nomads” of south-east Asia, who have been free-diving like this for more than 1,000 years, relying on their remarkable physiology, and, as we learned in April, their genes. Humans left Africa 50 millennia ago, encountering new environments that required adaptation to survive. Adaptation is mostly cultural – building shelters, using fire, deciding what to eat, and transmitting instructions from generation to generation. But alongside this are advantageous genetic mutations grasped by natural selection.
Finding genetic changes that drive adaptations has become much easier now genomes can be sequenced cheaply, and a study this year of the Bajau people provided a beautiful example. Ultrasound scans revealed enlarged spleens – reflex contraction of this neglected organ helps during diving by pumping oxygenated red blood cells into the circulation. Sequencing Bajau genomes and comparing them with those of their non-diving neighbours revealed genes showing signatures of natural selection, one of which is specifically associated with spleen size. Understanding the dive response could have medical applications in acute hypoxia, a common killer in A&E.
Mark Jobling, professor of genetics, University of Leicester
The world took action to combat plastic at last
Among the tsunami of bad news about plastic waste this year, there was a small piece of good news. This was an agreement in April by those responsible for more than 80% of the plastic packaging in the UK to make all plastic packing 100% recyclable, reusable or compostable by 2025. This pledge, called the UK Plastics Pact, is significant because it has emerged not from government but from a consortium of companies and organisations including supermarkets, coffee chains, brands, manufacturers, waste disposal companies and local authorities. Thee organisationsy have clubbed together to solve this problem largely because they are under massive public pressure. They propose to create a circular economy of plastics, a seismic shift in the way companies engineer and use them. It is a big win for the environment of the UK, but it will also have a global impact, because many of the companies involved – such as Coca-Cola, Unilever and Procter & Gamble – are multinational corporations that sell products all over the world. Once the UK creates a non-polluting circular economy of plastic packaging, the likelihood of it being rolled out by these companies in the rest of the world is high. There is an enormous amount of work to do, but I hope when our children look back at the environmental catastrophe of the 20th century, they will see 2018 as the year plastic pollution started its decline.
Mark Miodownik, professor of materials and society at University College London
More:
https://www.theguardian.com/science/2018/dec/23/the-science-stories-that-shook-2018-genetics-evolution-climate-change-artificial-intelligence