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SOURCE: OSNAP
SEA SENSORS National Oceanography Centre in Southamp-
Instruments placed across the North Atlantic are starting to reveal the inner workings of a global current ton, UK, who is involved with RAPID.
that mixes the oceans.
Researchers can’t fully understand this slow-
Warmer surface currents Cold and dense deep water Cold water from the Arctic down without knowing what’s happening in
the North Atlantic, which drives the system.
Warm currents from
OSNAP is starting to fill in that knowledge gap.
GREENLAND the south bring heat Lozier hopes that the array will eventually
to the region. settle a long-standing question about what
powers this system of currents: how much of
the overturning circulation is driven by the
winds and how much by the formation of
cold, dense water that sinks into the deep sea.
Since the array started collecting data, the
4 km
Instrument
depth
North Atlantic has experienced two cold win-
array ters in a row. The data indicate that the ocean
formed a lot of chilly water as a result. But it
remains unclear to what extent this actually
had an impact on the strength of the over-
turning circulation.
from 2009 into 2010. A study published global warming (D. A. Smeed et al. Geophys. Eventually, Lozier wants to see how the
in Geophysical Research Letters on 12 Febru- Res. Lett. http://doi.org/cknk; 2018). Teasing overturning circulation responds during a
ary suggests that this slowdown is part of a a potential climate-change signal out of the warmer winter that produces less cold water in
longer-term pattern of climate variability data could take time, in part because the natu- the region. “We just need to keep measuring,”
across the north Atlantic, and not caused by ral swings in the system are so large, says lead she says. ■
G E NOM ICS
R
esearchers have harnessed the popular environmental conditions. was the flight-data recorder found in many
gene-editing tool CRISPR–Cas9 to turn “It’s clear that the genome has this enormous aeroplanes, says chemical biologist David Liu
DNA into a sensitive recording device. recording capacity,” says Jan Philipp Junker, a of the Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard in
The recorder can document the duration and systems biologist at the Max Delbrück Center Cambridge, Massachusetts. “Just like a flight-
order of events within cells — and even erase for Molecular Medicine in Berlin. “With data recorder records events that happen to an
and re-record information in the same genome. CRISPR, we finally have the tools to use it.” airplane, the cell-data recorders can be used to
The work, published in Science on It is one of many ways in which researchers monitor stimuli that the cell is exposed to, or
15 February1, joins a flock of other CRISPR- are tinkering with the machinery of CRISPR– changes in the cell signalling,” he says.
based cellular recorders that have emerged Cas9 to forge new types of molecular tool. Researchers typically use CRISPR–Cas9 to
from research labs over the past few years. The Two papers also published in Science on alter DNA sequences by directing the Cas9
hope is that such recorders could keep track 15 February describe how CRISPR can be used enzyme to cut DNA at a site dictated by the
ONLINE
daily Nature vehicles as a smog source high-school
newsletter go.nature.com/2hwr052 researchers; and
free in your ● Ocean tides could have driven the science of teen
inbox go.nature. ancient fish to walk risk taking nature.
com/2cxbubr go.nature.com/2gqfzwf com/nature/podcast
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IN FOCUS NEWS
Indonesian funding
Almost 18 months later, the ISF, which
is managed by the Indonesian Academy of
Sciences in Jakarta, says it has selected 10 pro-
jects that deserve to be funded, but does not
I
ndonesian scientists expecting to receive Science Fund (ISF) launched, in March 2016. for us to send [our] research proposal to other
hundreds of thousands of dollars for Its aim was to boost investment in research and funding agencies,” they say. “In this situation,
research are stuck in limbo because the improve research quality. The following May, scientists are the victims.”
country’s first dedicated science-funding it opened up applications for grants worth up Although the ISF seeks funds from a range
agency is struggling to raise enough money. to 1.5 billion rupiah (US$110,000) a year for of sources, including philanthropy and
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