NEWS | IN BRIEF | AREAS TO WATCH
sciencemag.org SCIENCEPHOTO: RYAN BOLTON/SHUTTERSTOCKpopulation that knock out key fertility
genes or reduce the proportion of female
insects, which transmit disease. But the
first GM Anopheles mosquitoes released
won’t bear such mutations and aren’t
intended to cut down the population.
Researchers will let out fewer than
10,000 genetically sterilized males to
observe how they survive and disperse
in the wild and to help introduce the
concept of GM mosquitoes to regulators
and community members.
Nations size up biodiversity
CONSERVATION | Three years in the mak-
ing, a $2.4 million assessment of Earth’s
biodiversity and ecosystems will be pub-
lished in May. By evaluating trends over
50 years in indicators such as species
extinctions and extent of marine pro-
tected areas, it will chart progress toward
international goals on biodiversity
conservation—and, in many places, how
far short the world is falling. Experts
from 50 nations have participated in a
review of scientific literature and govern-
ment data conducted under the auspices
of the Intergovernmental Science-Policy
Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem
Services. The report, the first since a
similar effort in 2005, will forecast the
future of species on the planet under
business-as-usual and other scenarios.
The new assessment is intended to
inform the next generation of biodiversity
targets, due in 2020.
A global assessment will
examine endangered
species, which include the
ploughshare tortoise in
Madagascar.10 4 JANUARY 2019 • VOL 363 ISSUE 6422
to living descendants. Some warn, however,
that widespread adoption of similar methods
could be used to coerce communities into
genetic testing. In France, a government-
commissioned report recommended in
November 2018 that over the next 5 years,
French museums work with colleagues in
Africa to repatriate tens of thousands of
cultural artifacts looted during colonial rule
if their countries of origin ask for them.Disease crisis looms for swine
LIVESTOCK AGRICULTURE | Pig farmers—
and perhaps some bacon lovers—will anx-
iously scan the headlines this year for news
of African swine fever (ASF). Harmless to
humans, the viral disease is highly infec-
tious and lethal among pigs, causing serious
economic damage through culls and trade
bans. ASF made major jumps in Europe last
year, turning up for the first time in pigs and
wild boar in Bulgaria and in boar in Belgium
and Hungary. The virus can jump from boar,
which are difficult to manage, to swine.
Germany, Denmark, and other major pork
producers are on high alert. Most worrisome
was the first detection of the virus in China,
a long-dreaded development in the country
with the world’s largest pig population. China
has recorded more than 80 outbreaks since
August 2018, including in boar. Authorities
have clamped down on the transport of pigs,
culled more than 630,000,and last month
reportedly banned pig farming where wild
boar are present. Despite these efforts, the
virus could still explode in China and else-
where in Asia.China eyes bioethics overhaul
BIOETHICS | China is likely to tighten its
rules for genetic engineering of humans,
including the creation of heritable traits,
in the wake of an uproar over such work in- A Chinese scientist named He Jiankui
announced in November 2018 that he modi-
fied a gene in embryos that led to twin baby
girls. The modification is meant to protect
them and their descendants from HIV infec-
tion, a feat widely condemned in China and
worldwide as unethical, unjustified, and
possibly harmful to the babies. Most coun-
tries ban or outlaw such experiments. In
China, however, what i s apparently the most
relevant regulation was enacted in 2003 and
never updated to cover advances in gene
editing. Since the announcement, numerous
Chinese researchers, ethicists, and officials
have called for an overhaul of the country’s
bioethics laws and regulations, although
no agency or institution has been named
to lead the effort. Another question for this
year is whether He will face sanctions.
The next planetary mission
SPACE SCIENCE | In July, NASA will chart
its next major step in planetary science
when it selects the next billion-dollar mis-
sion under its New Frontiers program. The
agency will choose between two finalists.
Dragonfly would send a semiautonomous
quad-copter to fly across the surface of
Titan, the saturnian moon sculpted by
rivers of liquid methane. The copter would
search for clues of chemical reactions that
could lead to life. The Comet Astrobiology
Exploration Sample Return mission would
return gases and ice from the nucleus of
the comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko.
Such samples, likely unaltered for billions
of years, could provide a window into the
role comets played in delivering water and
organic compounds to Earth in its
early history.A push to return museum holdings
RESEARCH ETHICS | Researchers are
beginning new efforts to return bones and
cultural artifacts collected for study and
as museum specimens to the peoples from
whom they were obtained, often without
consent. Expect renewed debate on this
issue, as after centuries of exploitative col-
lecting, some researchers use new methods
to collaborate with those communities, and
also expand efforts to return objects of art.
A study from Australia published last month
showed ancient DNA can be used to reliably
link the remains of Aboriginal ancestorsPublished by AAASon January 3, 2019^http://science.sciencemag.org/Downloaded from