Causing a stink
Doctors hoping to perform a faecal transplant 鈥� replenishing a gut with healthy bacteria to treat infection and even Parkinson鈥檚 鈥� must apply to the US Food and Drug Administration for an 鈥渋nvestigational new drug application鈥�. This will improve safety, but some are grumbling over the 30-day lag this imposes on treatment.
Second sight
A man blinded by the degeneration of his retinal cells has had his sight restored in one eye after receiving a stem cell treatment. Human embryonic stem cells were turned into retinal pigment epithelial cells and then transplanted into his retina, as part of a trial by Advanced Cell Technology in Marlborough, Massachusetts.
Critternaut casualties
The space zoo has landed but many of the critternauts are dead. Russia鈥檚 Bion-M1 spacecraft took a range of animals into orbit to probe the biological effects of space travel. But when it returned to Earth after a month in orbit, most of the mice and all of the gerbils had perished. The geckos and snails survived but will be euthanised for study purposes.
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Fukushima floods
It鈥檚 the biggest remaining problem at Fukushima: each day, 400 tonnes of groundwater flood Japan鈥檚 stricken nuclear plant. Juan Carlos Lentijo of the International Atomic Energy Agency, who recently inspected the site, suggests pumping the groundwater out to sea before it leaks into the plant.
Shot in space
Commercial spaceflight could be a boon to Hollywood. Upcoming sci-fi flick Newcomers will be shot aboard XCOR Aerospace鈥檚 Lynx spacecraft, according to The Hollywood Reporter. Though XCOR plans to offer tourist trips to sub-orbital space, it has yet to launch the Lynx.