Lab notes: Bottoms up! Cheers to a vintage week in science

Shetland: famous for its irascible ponies, snuggly jumpers and now, perhaps, space exploration. UK Space Agency research has identified Unst, the Shetland Islands' most northern isle as the best site in UK for spaceport to launch satellites into orbit. Which, teamed with the news that a potentially habitable world, Ross 128b, has been found just 11 light years away means exciting times could well be ahead. In the here and now, however, scientists have made their first ever attempt at gene editing inside the body. It's a somewhat nerve-wracking experiment: Brian Madeux, who has Hunter syndrome, has been intravenously given copies of a corrective gene and a genetic tool to cut his DNA in a precise spot. It will permanently alter his DNA, with no way to alter any mistakes editing may cause. Also raising hopes for new treatments, this time of age-related disorders, is the discovery that some members of a small Amish community in Indiana, US, carry a rare genetic mutation which appears to protect against biological ageing. So new treatments plus dog ownership (which cuts your risk of dying from cardiovascular disease, apparently) could make us healthier than ever. Great, because in my fave news of the week, it seems we've been making and drinking wine for much longer than anyone thought, which probably needs balancing out.