Finishing the euchromatic sequence of the human genome

The sequence of the human genome encodes the genetic instructions for human physiology, as well as rich information about human evolution. In 2001, the International Human Genome Sequencing Consortium reported a draft sequence of the euchromatic portion of the human genome. Since then, the international collaboration has worked to convert this draft into a genome sequence with high accuracy and nearly complete coverage. Here, we report the result of this finishing process. The current genome sequence (Build 35) contains 2.85 billion nucleotides interrupted by only 341 gaps. It covers ∼99% of the euchromatic genome and is accurate to an error rate of ∼1 event per 100,000 bases. Many of the remaining euchromatic gaps are associated with segmental duplications and will require focused work with new methods. The near-complete sequence, the first for a vertebrate, greatly improves the precision of biological analyses of the human genome including studies of gene number, birth and death. Notably, the human enome seems to encode only 20,000-25,000 protein-coding genes. The genome sequence reported here should serve as a firm foundation for biomedical research in the decades ahead

Mobile Stones: The Uses and Meanings of Earth Science Teaching Specimens

The origins of university earth science teaching specimens are diverse; while some objects are collected specifically for teaching purposes and therefore travel directly from the field into a teaching collection, for others, the journey is less straightforward. Indeed, a considerable amount of the material that is used for teaching in the earth sciences has in fact been recycled from other (mostly research-related) activities, purchased from wholesalers, or borrowed from museum collections, and was therefore not originally intended to function in this context. But how are such objects made to work as teaching specimens? What happens to their previous meanings? Do they function any differently from those objects that have been collected specifically for teaching purposes? In addressing these questions, this paper reveals that, far from being fixed, static, and stable—far from being “set in stone”—these objects are polysemic, flexible, and mobile.Les échantillons minéralogiques servant au niveau universitaire à enseigner les sciences de la terre ont des origines diverses : certains objets sont collectés spécifiquement à des fins d’enseignement et partent donc du terrain pour entrer aussitôt dans une collection ; pour d’autres, le trajet est bien moins direct. De fait, nombre des échantillons utilisés pour l’enseignement des sciences de la terre ont été en fait recyclés à la suite d’autres activités (la plupart en lien avec la recherche), achetés à des grossistes ou empruntés à des collections muséales, et n’étaient donc pas destinés à l’origine à fonctionner dans ce contexte. Mais comment de tels objets peuvent-ils être utilisables en tant que spécimens d’enseignement ? Qu’arrive-t-il à leurs significations précédentes ? Fonctionnent-ils différemment de ceux qui ont été spécifiquement recueillis à des fins d’enseignement ? En abordant ces questions, cet article révèle que, loin d’être fixes, statiques et stables—loin d’être inscrits « dans la pierre »—ces objets sont polysémiques, flexibles et mobiles

Blots on the Anthropocene : Micropolitical Interventions With Young People in a University Museum

In this article, we discuss a series of artistic interventions in a university museum co-created by young people, researchers, and museum curators. We focus on the co-development of techniques for disrupting and re-imagining museological spaces and times, while exploring young people's shifting sense of inheritance in relation to the "Anthropocene" as a particular figuration of the current epoch. Drawing together an eclectic range of sources at the intersections of schizoanalysis, posthumanism, decolonial studies, and surrealism, we argue that young people's interventions in the museum constitute micropolitical nodes of resistance to the colonial-capitalistic capture of subjectivity that dominates the current epoch.Peer reviewe

The Manchester Museum: A case study of a volcano themed public event

It is often difficult to inspire the public about igneous rocks. This case study of apublic activity day shows that through working with a range of partners, innovativeideas can bring the subject alive. Experts with objects to handle talked to the pub-lic about eruptions and volcanoes, with eruption demonstrations, hands on activi-ties, explosions and artists workshops taking place throughout the day

Wild

Press release: New exhibition at Manchester Museum goes ‘wild’ for tackling climate and biodiversity crisisWild Supported by the Garfield Weston Foundation 5 June 2024 to 1 June 2025Press view 4 June 2024, 10am-1pm Wild, an exhibition that explores our relationship with the natural world and unique approaches to environmental recovery, opens at Manchester Museum on 5 June 2024. The exhibition will look at how people are creating, rebuilding and repairing connections with nature, and how we can tackle the climate and biodiversity crisis by making the world more wild.Visitors will be introduced to five wild places across the globe and hear a diverse range of voices, from Aboriginal elders to researchers and community activists, to discover how they are all looking to ‘wild’ for a more positive future. In one case, the restoration of traditional practices is helping to heal both the land and the people. In others, biodiversity has exploded where farmland has been rewilded and the reintroduction of animal species is helping to restore ecological balance.Featuring an immersive installation, audio, film and interactive elements, alongside natural history collections and artworks, the exhibition prompts visitors to notice the biodiversity and heritage of wild places and invites us to question our relationships with the natural world. The featured wild places are Manchester; Knepp Rewilding Project, West Sussex; Lamlash Bay, Arran, North Ayrshire; Noongar Nowanup Boodja, Western Australia; and Yellowstone National Park, USA.These places have historically been shaped by people to support farming, hunting, fishing, housing and industry - frequently to the detriment of the health of land, people and nature, and leading to a significant reduction in biodiversity and kinship connections between plants, animals, people and place.At the Knepp Rewilding Project in West Sussex, a failing farm has been rewilded and transformed into a place of natural abundance. In 2002 free-roaming grazers were introduced to transform the land and recreate dynamic and biodiverse ecosystems. Knepp is one of the UK’s leading rewilding sites and an experiment in land stewardship that prioritises biodiversity.On Arran, a decade-long community-led campaign in direct response to overfishing and dredging, culminated in Scotland’s first No Take Zone being established in 2008. This protected area in Lamlash Bay is enabling the local marine ecosystem to flourish, and highlights the importance of conserving our precious blue spaces to help tackle biodiversity loss and climate change.More than 100 years ago native bushland was cleared by colonial settlers in Western Australia to establish farmland. An Aboriginal-led cultural revegetation project, Nowanup Noongar Boodja, is healing Country to heal people. The Country is being revitalised through planting and the return of traditional practices, showing the importance of making decisions for current and future generations that strengthen cultural connections with the past.Yellowstone National Park, the USA’s first national park established in 1872, played a pivotal role in the birth of ‘fortress conservation’ and the ‘wilderness movement’ and saw the forced removal of Indigenous people. The exhibition explores how the impact of colonial violence wiped out the area’s native wolves and later a government-level decision to reintroduce wolves impacted local communities and their relationships with wildlife. Today, the reintroduction of wolves is contributing to the restoration of ecological balance to the area.The balance between landscaped and abandoned spaces in post-industrial urban landscapes are examined in the context of Manchester’s ambition to become a 'greener' city that embraces nature. The exhibition raises questions about the biodiversity of man-made green spaces and the challenges of coexisting with nature in urban environments.Wild also explores how the natural world has traditionally been presented and idealised through Western art, from pastoral scenes to epic landscapes, and representations in popular culture, from Kenneth Grahame’s The Wind in the Willows to CBeebies’ Octonauts.Curator of Earth Science Collections, David Gelsthorpe, said: “Wild aims to provide hope in the face of a situation that often leaves many of us feeling pessimistic. The exhibition highlights work being done by communities right now, to build stronger relationships with nature and shape their world for the better. This isn't simply theoretical thinking, it is impactful, practical action that is already achieving positive results. We hope Wild inspires visitors to better understand their own relationship with the natural world and empowers them to take action, however big or small."Manchester Museum Director Esme Ward added:“Wild is one of Europe’s first large-scale exhibitions to look at how people are working to make the world around them more ‘wild’. As the world’s first Carbon Literate museum, with a mission to build a more sustainable planet, we set out to share new stories and perspectives, from the local to the global, that could inspire us all to collaborate in creating a fairer future. It is this spirit that sits at the heart of Wild.”<br/

Science goals and mission architecture of the Europa Lander mission concept

© The Author(s), 2022. This article is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License. The definitive version was published in Hand, K., Phillips, C., Murray, A., Garvin, J., Maize, E., Gibbs, R., Reeves, G., San Martin, A., Tan-Wang, G., Krajewski, J., Hurst, K., Crum, R., Kennedy, B., McElrath, T., Gallon, J., Sabahi, D., Thurman, S., Goldstein, B., Estabrook, P., Lee, S. W., Dooley, J. A., Brinckerhoff, W. B., Edgett, K. S., German, C. R., Hoehler, T. M., Hörst, S. M., Lunine, J. I., Paranicas, C., Nealson, K., Smith, D. E., Templeton, A. S., Russell, M. J., Schmidt, B., Christner, B., Ehlmann, B., Hayes, A., Rhoden, A., Willis, P., Yingst, R. A., Craft, K., Cameron, M. E., Nordheim, T., Pitesky, J., Scully, J., Hofgartner, J., Sell, S. W., Barltrop, K. J., Izraelevitz, J., Brandon, E. J., Seong, J., Jones, J.-P., Pasalic, J., Billings, K. J., Ruiz, J. P., Bugga, R. V., Graham, D., Arenas, L. A., Takeyama, D., Drummond, M., Aghazarian, H., Andersen, A. J., Andersen, K. B., Anderson, E. W., Babuscia, A., Backes, P. G., Bailey, E. S., Balentine, D., Ballard, C. G., Berisford, D. F., Bhandari, P., Blackwood, K., Bolotin, G. S., Bovre, E. A., Bowkett, J., Boykins, K. T., Bramble, M. S., Brice, T. M., Briggs, P., Brinkman, A. P., Brooks, S. M., Buffington, B. B., Burns, B., Cable, M. L., Campagnola, S., Cangahuala, L. A., Carr, G. A., Casani, J. R., Chahat, N. E., Chamberlain-Simon, B. K., Cheng, Y., Chien, S. A., Cook, B. T., Cooper, M., DiNicola, M., Clement, B., Dean, Z., Cullimore, E. A., Curtis, A. G., Croix, J-P. de la, Pasquale, P. Di, Dodd, E. M., Dubord, L. A., Edlund, J. A., Ellyin, R., Emanuel, B., Foster, J. T., Ganino, A. J., Garner, G. J., Gibson, M. T., Gildner, M., Glazebrook, K. J., Greco, M. E., Green, W. M., Hatch, S. J., Hetzel, M. M., Hoey, W. A., Hofmann, A. E., Ionasescu, R., Jain, A., Jasper, J. D., Johannesen, J. R., Johnson, G. K., Jun, I., Katake, A. B., Kim-Castet, S. Y., Kim, D. I., Kim, W., Klonicki, E. F., Kobeissi, B., Kobie, B. D., Kochocki, J., Kokorowski, M., Kosberg, J. A., Kriechbaum, K., Kulkarni, T. P., Lam, R. L., Landau, D. F., Lattimore, M. A., Laubach, S. L., Lawler, C. R., Lim, G., Lin, J. Y., Litwin, T. E., Lo, M. W., Logan, C. A., Maghasoudi, E., Mandrake, L., Marchetti, Y., Marteau, E., Maxwell, K. A., Namee, J. B. Mc, Mcintyre, O., Meacham, M., Melko, J. P., Mueller, J., Muliere, D. A., Mysore, A., Nash, J., Ono, H., Parker, J. M., Perkins, R. C., Petropoulos, A. E., Gaut, A., Gomez, M. Y. Piette, Casillas, R. P., Preudhomme, M., Pyrzak, G., Rapinchuk, J., Ratliff, J. M., Ray, T. L., Roberts, E. T., Roffo, K., Roth, D. C., Russino, J. A., Schmidt, T. M., Schoppers, M. J., Senent, J. S., Serricchio, F., Sheldon, D. J., Shiraishi, L. R., Shirvanian, J., Siegel, K. J., Singh, G., Sirota, A. R., Skulsky, E. D., Stehly, J. S., Strange, N. J., Stevens, S. U., Sunada, E. T., Tepsuporn, S. P., Tosi, L. P. C., Trawny, N., Uchenik, I., Verma, V., Volpe, R. A., Wagner, C. T., Wang, D., Willson, R. G., Wolff, J. L., Wong, A. T., Zimmer, A. K., Sukhatme, K. G., Bago, K. A., Chen, Y., Deardorff, A. M., Kuch, R. S., Lim, C., Syvertson, M. L., Arakaki, G. A., Avila, A., DeBruin, K. J., Frick, A., Harris, J. R., Heverly, M. C., Kawata, J. M., Kim, S.-K., Kipp, D. M., Murphy, J., Smith, M. W., Spaulding, M. D., Thakker, R., Warner, N. Z., Yahnker, C. R., Young, M. E., Magner, T., Adams, D., Bedini, P., Mehr, L., Sheldon, C., Vernon, S., Bailey, V., Briere, M., Butler, M., Davis, A., Ensor, S., Gannon, M., Haapala-Chalk, A., Hartka, T., Holdridge, M., Hong, A., Hunt, J., Iskow, J., Kahler, F., Murray, K., Napolillo, D., Norkus, M., Pfisterer, R., Porter, J., Roth, D., Schwartz, P., Wolfarth, L., Cardiff, E. H., Davis, A., Grob, E. W., Adam, J. R., Betts, E., Norwood, J., Heller, M. M., Voskuilen, T., Sakievich, P., Gray, L., Hansen, D. J., Irick, K. W., Hewson, J. C., Lamb, J., Stacy, S. C., Brotherton, C. M., Tappan, A. S., Benally, D., Thigpen, H., Ortiz, E., Sandoval, D., Ison, A. M., Warren, M., Stromberg, P. G., Thelen, P. M., Blasy, B., Nandy, P., Haddad, A. W., Trujillo, L. B., Wiseley, T. H., Bell, S. A., Teske, N. P., Post, C., Torres-Castro, L., Grosso, C. Wasiolek, M. Science goals and mission architecture of the Europa Lander mission concept. The Planetary Science Journal, 3(1), (2022): 22, https://doi.org/10.3847/psj/ac4493.Europa is a premier target for advancing both planetary science and astrobiology, as well as for opening a new window into the burgeoning field of comparative oceanography. The potentially habitable subsurface ocean of Europa may harbor life, and the globally young and comparatively thin ice shell of Europa may contain biosignatures that are readily accessible to a surface lander. Europa's icy shell also offers the opportunity to study tectonics and geologic cycles across a range of mechanisms and compositions. Here we detail the goals and mission architecture of the Europa Lander mission concept, as developed from 2015 through 2020. The science was developed by the 2016 Europa Lander Science Definition Team (SDT), and the mission architecture was developed by the preproject engineering team, in close collaboration with the SDT. In 2017 and 2018, the mission concept passed its mission concept review and delta-mission concept review, respectively. Since that time, the preproject has been advancing the technologies, and developing the hardware and software, needed to retire risks associated with technology, science, cost, and schedule.K.P.H., C.B.P., E.M., and all authors affiliated with the Jet Propulsion Laboratory carried out this research at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory, California Institute of Technology, under a contract with the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (grant No. 80NM0018D0004). J.I.L. was the David Baltimore Distinguished Visiting Scientist during the preparation of the SDT report. JPL/Caltech2021