Lab notes: everyone's gone totally lunar over space travel

Our understanding of the universe is expanding at a fantastic rate, in part thanks to breakthroughs such as the latest gravitational wave detection, reported this week, which shows the 3D shape of ripples from a black hole collision. It's no surprise then that space agencies and companies are champing at the bit to get people out into the far reaches of space to start loading up cargo ships up with killer xenomorphs with their facehuggers and chestbursters*. This week has seen two separate announcements proposing lunar space stations: one from Nasa/Roscosmos, who propose to put a crewed spaceport in lunar orbit, and one from Elon Musk, who says a new SpaceX craft will make it possible to build a base on the moon. In both cases, the lunar bases are intended as springboards for Mars missions and other deep-space travel. Back in Earth's labs, however, there are exciting hints at what the future may hold for gene editing, as a Chinese team managed to use "chemical surgery", also known as "base editing" for the first time to mend harmful mutations in human embryos. It's a technique similar to Crispr, but can change a single letter in a faulty gene. Another promising piece of research used an implant which stimulates the vagus nerve to restore a form of consciousness to patient who had been in a persistent vegetative state for 15 years. In other intriguing news, researchers believe that carbon fragments found in 3.95bn-year-old rocks is remnants of ancient life, putting the emergence of the first organisms on Earth at more than 4bn years ago. Finally (and, let's face it, not definitively), a study has discovered that psychopaths might have distinct and identifiable musical preferences. Interestingly, the study participants with the highest psychopath scores were among the greatest fans of Blackstreet hit No Diggity, with Eminem's Lose Yourself also rated highly. Adjust your Spotify playlists accordingly.