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This is the world's smallest and happiest snowman
The holiday season gets bigger and more hectic every year -- and maybe you're looking for a smaller, more adorable way to celebrate. Here's one: the world's smallest snowman. This microscopic frosty was built by the nanofabrication lab at London's Western University. He's adorable, but you'll need an electron microscope to see him in person: according to the lab's Tumblr page, the snowman stands at just three microns tall, or about 0.003mm. For comparison, a human hair is about 75 microns thick (0.075mm).
Scientists design the next-gen CRISPR for gene editing
CRISPR is already effective enough to be used in experimental therapies for leukemia, cystic fibrosis, sickle cell disease and other conditions. But a team of scientists from Western University have created an even more effective version of CRISPR by adding an engineered enzyme called TevCas9. The current version of CRISPR uses an enzyme known as Cas9 to cut DNA segments, such as the specific parts that cause genetic disorders. Western's scientists created TevCas9 by combining Cas9 with another enzyme called I-Tevl.
