Khanian Meritocracy, Lukewarm Superconductivity, and Cas9 Strikes Again

Today I Learned:
1) Although Genghis Khan was well known as a ruthless leader who would execute basically anyone who messed up or showed the slightest hint of disloyalty, and for massacring any enemies who did not immediately surrender, he was also known for taking in enemies who has particular talents, particularly particular leadership ability, and giving them rank and power according to their abilities. He may have been a cruel dictator, but he was at least a meritocratic one.

2) Scientists have just achieved superconductivity at -70 C! That’s pretty cold… but it’s a temperature that *exists on Earth in the wild*. You could occasionally make that work in Antarctica. With no cooling. Or you could do it in a standard -80 C freezer in any molecular biology lab. That’s a lot better than other superconductivity experiments!

Thanks to Alex Alexander for linking me to this one.

3) Scientists in Ireland and Scotland have successfully used cas9 to treat a mouse model of Meesmann’s epithelial corneal dystrophy. I have no idea what Meesmann’s epithelial corneal dystrophy is, except that it’s caused by a well-known single-nucleotide polymorphism, and it’s apparently dominant. The researchers used a more-or-less standard cutting variant to introduce a frameshift specifically into the mutant allele, knocking it out, while leaving the wild-type, healthy allele intact.

Thanks to the AddGene Facebook page for linking me to this one.