Life in the solar system, false memories and other science stories of the week

Welcome to your weekly science update – a curated list of this week’s most interesting stories in science.

Terminator 2’s T-1000 liquid metal robot just got a nano-baby-step closer to becoming reality – researchers develop a metal alloy that powers its own movement and deforms to get through tight spots.

Silicon Valley poised to disrupt Big Pharma – former head of research at Genentech, Richard Scheller to join Google-backed DNA testing company 23andMe as chief science officer to lead new therapeutics unit.

Investment banks also see opportunities in genomics – UBS has initiated coverage of the $100 billion-plus market in genomics, life science tools, and clinical diagnostics.

US lawmakers hostile toward national science agenda US National Science Foundation under pressure from  congress to revise its research priorities but it looks like the nearly 2 year long feud may be nearing an end.

Neuroscientists getting more adept at manipulating memories – new paper shows false memories can be implanted into the brains of sleeping mice.

Molecular cargo haulers described – A team of scientists determined the basic structural organization of the cargo transport system at work in your cells. Better understanding of this molecular system could point towards novel treatments for diseases from Alzheimer’s, Parkinson’s, Huntington’s diseases, and ALS, to infections from viruses including herpes, rabies and HIV.

Eugenics is back, let the public discourse begin! – science media outlets are starting to run stories about the ethics of genetically altering the human gene-pool. Expect to see more debate on editing the human genome crossing into the mainstream soon.

Meanwhile, it may be too late to stop genetically modified humans – it looks like nature may have been doing it for centuries.

Sound therapies – Scientists may have found a new weapon in the fight against Alzheimer’s disease: focused beams of ultrasound

NASA tested its most powerful rocket boosters ever, designed to carry humankind to Mars.

And Water worlds –big week for space news, recently announced evidence suggests that deep within the icy oceans of Saturn’s moon Enceladus, there are hydrothermal vents much like those found in Earth’s oceans, pushing Enceladus up the ranks of places where we are most likely to find life in the solar system. A few days later it was announced that there is also evidence of a sub-surface ocean on Ganymede, Jupiter’s largest moon.

Author: David Gleicher is Senior Programme Manager, Science and Technology, at the World Economic Forum.

Image: An image of four moons of Saturn passing in front of their parent planet in seen this image taken by NASA's Hubble Space Telescope February 24, 2009 and released by NASA March 17, 2009. REUTERS/NASA, ESA, and the Hubble Heritage Team (STScI/AURA)/Hando ut