In January 2013, two laboratories demonstrated that CRISPR tools could be used to edit genes in human cells. Ten years later, the first patients are already benefiting from the molecular scissors to overcome incurable diseases. This week in Science, one of the pioneers of CRISPR, Nobel laureate Jennifer Doudna, summarises the history of these tools, without forgetting that it all began thirty years ago with the findings of Francis Mojica in the Santa Pola salt flats.

Since records have been kept, the year we are about to end has been the warmest in Spain. Added to this is a severe meteorological drought and the numerous and powerful wildfires that we record in summer. Adapting our society to these extreme events as a consequence of climate change should be a top priority.

After the World Cup in Qatar, National Microbiology Centre researcher María Iglesias wonders where the social alarm about an alleged outbreak of MERS came from and takes the opportunity to explain some concepts of the virus and its surveillance.

After almost three months of delays caused by various technical problems and two hurricanes, the Artemis I mission was successfully launched this morning, the first of a programme that will take the first woman astronaut to the moon. It has 42 days ahead of it, during which the spacecraft will orbit our satellite and test the stability of this lunar orbit, because in the future a space station will be located there to receive the astronauts on their journey from Earth.

The WHO has published the first list of priority fungal pathogens, which affect more than 300 million people and kill at least 1.5 million people every year. However, funding to control this scourge is less than 1.5 % of that devoted to infectious diseases.

The Basque Coast Geopark has recently hosted the presentation of the first 100 geological heritage sites of the International Union of Geological Sciences. The flysch of Zumaia (Gipuzkoa), the mercury mines of Almadén (Ciudad Real) and the volcanic relief of La Palma (Santa Cruz de Tenerife) are among those chosen.  

The Spanish Confederation of Scientific Societies (COSCE) has just published a report, submitted to the EU, which proposes and compares different possibilities for reform of the regulatory framework for genome editing techniques.

Food policies must ensure that the entire population has access to sufficient quantities of the foods that make up a healthy diet without endangering the household economy. 

The H5N1 virus that is causing an unprecedented epidemic among wild and domestic birds has a very low capacity to infect humans. The three cases where infection has been found have been due to close contact with dust raised during the handling of affected poultry.

The alarming shortage of nurses in all of Spain's autonomous communities drastically compromises the health of the public. This is one of the main conclusions of the new report on nursing ratios in Spain published by the General Nursing Council, which also analyses the situation in relation to other European countries.