The Download: gene-edited chickens, and China’s green companies

The information: Gene enhancing might assist stop chickens from catching and spreading hen flu, new analysis suggests. 

How they did it: Researchers used the gene-editing instrument CRISPR to change the DNA of 10 chickens to withstand the hen flu virus after which uncovered all of them to a low dose of it. Solely one of many 10 chickens caught the virus, and that hen didn’t go it on to any others. 

Why it issues: Chicken flu has killed thousands and thousands of each wild and farmed birds internationally in recent times. It’s more and more affecting mammals as effectively, making the duty of discovering methods to curb it much more pressing. Read the full story.

—Abdullahi Tsanni

These Chinese language firms show inexperienced tech could be worthwhile

Final week, MIT Expertise Evaluation launched a brand-new listing: 15 Climate Tech Companies to Watch. These are the businesses from all world wide that we expect have the potential to make a big impression on the way forward for our local weather.

Amongst them are two Chinese language firms it is best to find out about. One is BYD, the world’s prime electric-vehicle maker, which has simply produced its 500 millionth EV. Its automobiles are making EVs much more accessible, and will finally assist international locations together with China to dramatically scale back emissions from transportation.

The opposite is GEM, which stands for Inexperienced Eco-Manufacture; it makes the provision chain for batteries extra environmentally pleasant by recycling the minerals in them.