Archive by date | February 2014

South Korean Supreme Court confirms Hwang’s sentence

The South Korean Supreme Court has upheld a 2010 ruling which sentences disgraced cloning expert Woo Suk Hwang to a one-and-a-half-year prison term for embezzlement and violation of the country’s bioethics law. The term comes with a two-year probation, however, and if Hwang does not commit a crime during that period, he will not have to serve jail time at all. This is the final judgment on a trial that started in 2006 and reached its first verdict in 2009 after 43 hearings involving 60 witnesses.  Read more

UK moves to legalize controversial IVF technique

The United Kingdom today inched closer to legalizing a controversial method of reproduction, known as mitochondrial replacement, or ‘three-parent IVF’. The Department of Health announced a public consultation of draft legislation that would allow the procedures, which are intended to prevent children from inheriting diseases caused by faulty mitochondria.  Read more

US Navy’s Arctic strategy forecasts ice-free shipping routes

US Navy's Arctic strategy forecasts ice-free shipping routes

By 2030, the Arctic’s Northern Sea Route could be ice-free and navigable for at least nine weeks each year, with a 10-week ‘shoulder season’, according to projections released today in the US Navy’s Arctic strategy. The Northwest Passage could be open for five weeks, with a six-week shoulder season; and the Bering Strait could be ice-free for a whopping 27 weeks a year, with up to 10 weeks of shoulder season.  Read more