Zebrafish made to grow pre-hands instead of fins

PERHAPS the little fish embryo shown here is dancing a jig because it has just discovered that it has legs instead of fins. Fossils show that limbs evolved from fins, but a new study shows how it may have happened, live in the lab.

Fernando Casares of the Spanish National Research Council and his colleagues injected zebrafish with the hoxd13 gene from a mouse. The protein that the gene codes for controls the development of autopods, a precursor to hands, feet and paws.

Zebrafish naturally carry hoxd13 but produce less of the protein than tetrapods - all four-limbed vertebrates and birds - do. Casares and his colleagues hoped that by injecting extra copies of the gene into the zebrafish embryos, some of their cells would make more of the protein.

One full day later, all of those fish whose cells had taken up the gene began to develop autopods instead of fins. They carried on growing for four days but then died (Cell, DOI: 10.1016/j.devcel.2012.10.015).

"Of course, we haven't been able to grow hands," says Casares. He speculates that hundreds of millions of years ago, the ancestors of tetrapods began expressing more hoxd13 for some reason and that this could have allowed them to evolve autopods.

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Testing time for China's migrant millions

BEIJING: Dozens of frustrated parents crowded into a Beijing office, surrounding an education official and brandishing copies of the constitution to demand their children be allowed to take an exam.

Mothers and fathers around the world fight to send their children to the best schools they can, in the hopes of drastically improving their futures.

But China's migrant families are victims of a decade-old residency system that denies urban incomers equal access to advantages from jobs and healthcare to the right to buy a home or car -- and education.

Chinese university admission is based on a single test, the "gaokao".

Cities such as Beijing that host China's best universities -- and large incomer populations -- only allow those with official residency permits, or "hukou", to take their exam and benefit from preferential quotas for places.

Around a third of the capital's 20 million population are migrants, but many of their families become split by rules requiring their children to go to their "home" provinces -- even if they have never lived there -- sometimes for years, to study for and take the test, which varies by location.

Even then, because of the quota system they will have to score higher to win places at top schools.

"Either you let the country share in your education resources or you accept the reality that outsiders are stuck in your education gutter," said Du Guowang, a 12-year Beijing resident from Inner Mongolia.

He and dozens of parents packed Beijing's education bureau each week hoping -- in vain -- it would let their children take next year's exam. But registration closed last week.

"This will directly affect their studies and their future prospects so of course it's unfair," said Xu Zhiyong, a prominent legal activist who has assisted the parents.

Over the past three decades more than 230 million people -- four times the entire population of Britain -- have moved to China's cities in a phenomenal mass migration.

The hukou system restrictions date back to 1958, when the government sought, among its many controls, to designate where people should farm in rural areas, and work or live for those in towns.

It has loosened the rules in recent decades to encourage urbanisation, and acknowledges the need to better accommodate newcomers -- especially as resentment mounts over China's widening rural-urban inequality.

At a key gathering of the ruling Communist Party last month, President Hu Jintao urged officials to "accelerate" hukou reform and work to "ensure that all permanent urban residents have access to basic urban public services".

But bigger cities are less willing to share residency or benefits, fearing doing so would burden their already strained resources and spur a new influx.

Some point to congested roads and overcrowded hospitals to argue that cities cannot handle larger loads.

But critics say the system is discriminatory.

Full reform would need years, but should begin sooner to defuse resentment, said Wang Zhenyu, deputy director of a public policy research centre at China University of Political Science and Law.

"From the basics like education and healthcare to social security to employment to buying a home or car, hukou-based discrimination covers every aspect," he said, "Your hukou will affect you your entire life."

Despite years of lobbying national and city education officials, the migrant parents in Beijing have received noncommittal answers -- along with occasional warnings. Their website, where they posted their demands, stopped working recently.

"Whatever we ask, it's always: 'We are studying the matter and are not ready to respond'," Du said of the official who usually receives them, "We have memorised his words."

The national education ministry has urged local governments to address the issue, and less-competitive areas have agreed to accept outside test-takers, but the capital, with its highly prized schools, has yet to act.

A Beijing education bureau official told AFP to wait for any policy announcements, adding that the office was open to parents once a week for a few hours to let them present their case.

But a mother, who wanted to be identified only by her online name "Hu Yang", said her daughter's teacher sent her a message a few weeks ago to stop making trouble.

She said she told her daughter: "I'm not making trouble for you to be able to go to school. It's for all children fighting for the right for equal education," she said.

"When they grow up they will contribute to society and to the country."

- AFP/fl

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NFL Week 15: The best photos

The Jacksonville Jaguars take a moment of silence in honor of the Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting before their game against the Miami Dolphins at Sun Life Stadium on Sunday, December 16, in Miami Gardens, Florida. Check out the action from Week 15 of the NFL and then look back at the best photos from Week 14.

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Two Topeka, Kan., police officers killed in shootout

Officials stand outside a Topeka, Kan., grocery store, where two police officers where killed in a shootout on Dec. 16, 2012. / WIBW-TV

Updated 11:48 p.m. ET

TOPEKA, Kan. Authorities say two Kansas police officers shot outside a grocery store have died at a hospital.

Police say the 22-year-old male suspect in Sunday evening's shooting in Topeka remains at large and is believed to still be armed.

CBS affiliate WIBW-TV in Topeka reports the name of the suspect being sought is David Edward Tiscareno, a Topeka resident.

The officers were shot when they responded to a report of a suspicious vehicle near the store. The officers have been identified as 50-year-old Cpl. David Gogian and 29-year-old Officer Jeff Atherly.

A witness told WIBW the shooting happened just outside the entrance of Dillons. The witness said he heard three gun clips emptied, then heard another series of shots.

A small crowd gathered for a candlelight vigil outside police headquarters as reporters nearby were given the news of the officers' deaths.

Gogian had been with the department since September 2004 and Atherly since April 2011.

Authorities found the reported vehicle outside a house 10 blocks from the store.

Officers searched the house but didn't find the suspect.

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Obama: Nation Faces 'Hard Questions' After Shooting

President Barack Obama said at an interfaith prayer service in this mourning community this evening that the country is "left with some hard questions" if it is to curb a rising trend in gun violence, such as the shooting spree Friday at Newtown's Sandy Hook Elementary School.

After consoling victims' families in classrooms at Newtown High School, the president said he would do everything in his power to "engage" a dialogue with Americans, including law enforcement and mental health professionals, because "we can't tolerate this anymore. These tragedies must end. And to end them we must change."

Mandel Ngan/AFP/Getty Images

President Obama: 'Newtown You Are Not Alone' Watch Video

Sandy Hook Elementary Shooting: Remembering the Victims Watch Video

The president was not specific about what he thought would be necessary and did not even use the word "gun" in his remarks, but his speech was widely perceived as prelude to a call for more regulations and restrictions on the availability of firearms.

The grieving small town hosted the memorial service this evening as the the nation pieces together the circumstances that led to a gunman taking 26 lives Friday at the community's Sandy Hook Elementary School, most first graders.

"Someone once described the joy and anxiety of parenthood as the equivalent of having your heart outside your body all of the time, walking around," he said, speaking of the joys and fears of raising children.

"So it comes as a shock at a certain point when you realize no matter how much you love these kids you can't do it by yourself," he continued. "That this job of protecting kids and teaching them well is something we can only do together, with the help of friends and neighbors, with the help of a community, and the help of a nation."

CLICK HERE for Full Coverage of the Tragedy at Sandy Hook

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Zebrafish made to grow pre-hands instead of fins

PERHAPS the little fish embryo shown here is dancing a jig because it has just discovered that it has legs instead of fins. Fossils show that limbs evolved from fins, but a new study shows how it may have happened, live in the lab.

Fernando Casares of the Spanish National Research Council and his colleagues injected zebrafish with the hoxd13 gene from a mouse. The protein that the gene codes for controls the development of autopods, a precursor to hands, feet and paws.

Zebrafish naturally carry hoxd13 but produce less of the protein than tetrapods - all four-limbed vertebrates and birds - do. Casares and his colleagues hoped that by injecting extra copies of the gene into the zebrafish embryos, some of their cells would make more of the protein.

One full day later, all of those fish whose cells had taken up the gene began to develop autopods instead of fins. They carried on growing for four days but then died (Cell, DOI: 10.1016/j.devcel.2012.10.015).

"Of course, we haven't been able to grow hands," says Casares. He speculates that hundreds of millions of years ago, the ancestors of tetrapods began expressing more hoxd13 for some reason and that this could have allowed them to evolve autopods.

If you would like to reuse any content from New Scientist, either in print or online, please contact the syndication department first for permission. New Scientist does not own rights to photos, but there are a variety of licensing options available for use of articles and graphics we own the copyright to.

All comments should respect the New Scientist House Rules. If you think a particular comment breaks these rules then please use the "Report" link in that comment to report it to us.

If you are having a technical problem posting a comment, please contact technical support.

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Britain looks to Chinese tourists for Christmas cheer

LONDON - With their shelves spilling over with festive goodies, London's department stores are working hard to attract Christmas shoppers -- but Chinese visitors are the particular target of a charm offensive.

Hotels, retailers and the government are stepping up efforts to woo big-spending Chinese visitors in a bid to bounce back from Britain's longest recession in half a century.

Congee and dumplings are on the breakfast menu at enterprising hotels, major London stores have installed Chinese bank card terminals, and Mandarin-speaking staff are on hand to help out with the Christmas shopping.

Britain is courting Chinese travellers not only because they are a rapidly growing market -- they made an estimated 70 million overseas trips in 2011, up 20 percent in just a year -- but because they are serious shoppers.

"My goodness, they spend," said Patricia Yates, director of strategy for the VisitBritain tourism authority.

"The average Chinese visitor spends about three times as much -- 1,600 pounds (US$2,600, 2,000 euros) -- as the average visitor to Britain," she told AFP.

"So they're very welcome by the retail industry at the moment, who have seen domestic demand soften."

Purveyors of luxury goods in particular have welcomed affluent Chinese visitors with open arms.

The renowned Harrods department store, in London's exclusive Knightsbridge district, now has 70 Mandarin-speaking staff and more than 100 China Union Pay terminals allowing direct payment from Chinese bank accounts.

A Harrods spokeswoman said jewellery and watches, fashion and fine wines were top of the shopping list for many Chinese customers.

"They seek out the very latest, limited edition and exclusive products," she told AFP.

Beneath the twinkling Christmas lights on London's central shopping artery Oxford Street, too, Chinese shoppers were on the lookout for designer items.

"We think London is the capital of fashion," said Harry Gao, a fashion student from the eastern Chinese city of Wenzhou, who was wrapped up against the drizzle in a fur coat and gold trainers.

"Lots of famous designers are from the UK. It's lots of fun."

A record 149,000 Chinese visitors came to Britain last year, bringing some 240 million pounds to the struggling economy.

But Britain's share of the coveted Chinese market is poor compared to several competitors in mainland Europe including France, which welcomed nearly a million tourists from China last year.

"We know that our European rivals do much better than us," Yates admitted. "We really want to break the Chinese market."

The complex British visa system is frequently blamed for the shortfall.

While Chinese tourists can visit 26 European countries on a single "Schengen" visa, a trip to Britain requires a separate visa involving lengthy forms in English as well as additional costs.

Interior minister Theresa May confirmed Wednesday that the government is looking at expanding online applications and making some visa forms available in Mandarin, as well as introducing an express service for premium travellers.

Meanwhile, the government is throwing 8 million pounds at luring an additional 233,000 Chinese visitors a year by 2020, and VisitBritain sent its biggest-ever delegation to Shanghai last month to drum up business.

Over a Chinese breakfast of congee (rice porridge), steamed buns and warm soya milk at London's Landmark Hotel, marketing manager Yan-Ping Mew said he has had "very good feedback" since the meal became available to guests earlier this year.

The hotel also recommends smartphone apps to help Chinese guests navigate London and allocates them room numbers traditionally seen as lucky, such as those on the third or eighth floor.

"The Chinese tend to be slightly more superstitious," Mew explained.

He added that while many Chinese guests come to London to shop, they also want to see the sights and, in some cases, visit prospective universities for their children.

Yates also insisted that Britain had more to offer than shopping.

"There's the history and tradition of our royal family with palaces that you can go and see, great museums that have world-class treasures," she told AFP, adding that the London Olympics had been "an amazing showcase".

- AFP/ir

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Pearlman: I think Bobby Petrino is slime

Bobby Petrino was named head coach at Western Kentucky, months after being embroiled in scandal at University of Arkansas

STORY HIGHLIGHTS

• Bobby Petrino was named the new football coach at Western Kentucky this week


• Hiring came just months after he was fired from Arkansas amid scandal


• Jeff Pearlman says, sadly, this is no surprise in big-time college sports


• He says the vast majority of players are ultimately hurt by the behavior of coaches and administrators

Editor's note: Jeff Pearlman is the author of 'Sweetness: The Enigmatic Life of Walter Payton.' He blogs at jeffpearlman.com. Follow him on Twitter.

(CNN) -- I have a dog named Norma.

She is a small beige cockapoo who barks at the mailman.

I would not trust Bobby Petrino to watch her.

Jeff Pearlman

I also would not trust Bobby Petrino to take my car in for a tire change. I would not trust Bobby Petrino to deposit my Aunt Ruth's Social Security check. I wouldn't trust him to clean my bowling ball, shop for a Christmas ham, change a twenty for two tens, tell me the time or recite the proper lyrics to Blind Melon's "No Rain."

This is not because I am a particularly untrusting person.

No, it's because I think Bobby Petrino is slime.

In case you missed the news, two days ago Western Kentucky University held a press conference to announce that Petrino, undeniably one of the nation's elite football minds, had agreed to a four-year, $850,000 per year deal to take over the Hilltoppers.

With nearly 400 giddy sports fanatics in attendance, Petrino, standing alongside Todd Stewart, the school's athletic director, spoke of honor and loyalty and love and redemption. The ensuing press release, issued by Western Kentucky's sports information department, was straight out of Disney: 101. It made Petrino sound like a cross between Vince Lombardi, Martin Luther King and Gandhi; God's gift to young men seeking to better themselves.

Petrino fired as Arkansas head football coach

What it failed to mention—and what the school desperately wants everyone to fail to mention—is that Petrino may well be the least ethically whole man in the, ahem, ethically whole-deprived world of Division I collegiate sports.

Why, it was only seven months ago that Petrino, at the time the University of Arkansas' head coach, was riding his motorcycle when he crashed along Highway 16 near Crosses, Arkansas.

When asked by school officials to explain what had happened, he failed to mention that, eh, also on the bike was Jessica Dorrell, a 26-year-old former Razorbacks volleyball player who worked as the student-athlete development coordinator for the football program. It turned out that Petrino, a married father of four, was not only having an affair with Dorrell (who was engaged at the time), but was a key voice on the board that hired her for the position when she wasn't even remotely qualified.

During an ensuing university investigation, it was determined that Petrino made a previously undisclosed $20,000 cash gift to Dorrell as a Christmas present.

Ho, ho, ho.

To his credit, Jeff Long, the school's athletic director, defied the wishes of every pigskin-blinded Razorback fan and fired Petrino. In a statement, he rightly wrote that, "all of these facts, individually and collectively, are clearly contrary to character and responsibilities of the person occupying the position of the Head Football Coach—an individual who should serve as a role model and a leader for our student-athlete."

Now, ethics and morals and character be damned, Bobby Petrino has returned, spewing off nonsense about second chances (Ever notice how garbage men and bus drivers rarely get the second chances we are all—according to fallen athletic figures—rightly afforded as Americans?) and learning from mistakes and making things right.

Western Kentucky, a school with mediocre athletics and apparently, sub-mediocre standards, has turned to a person who lied to his last employer about the nature of an accident involving the mistress he allegedly hired to a university position she was unqualified to hold. Please, if you must, take a second to read that again. And again. And again.

Bobby Petrino, holder of a Ph.D. in the Deceptive Arts (he also ditched the University of Louisville shortly after signing a long-term extension in 2007, and quit as coach of the Atlanta Falcons 13 game into his first season later that year. He informed his players via a note atop their lockers), will be the one charged with teaching the 17- and 18-year-old boys who decide to come to Bowling Green about not merely football, but life. He will be their guide. Their compass. Their role model.

Bobby Petrino and social media prove a bad mix

Sadly, in the world of Division I sports, such is far from surprising. This has been a year unlike any other; one where the virtues of greed and the color of green don't merely cloak big-time college athletics, but control them. In case you haven't noticed, we are in the midst of a dizzying, nauseating game of Conference Jump, where colleges and universities—once determined to maintain geographic rivals in order to limit student travel—have lost their collective minds.

The University of Maryland, a charter member of the ACC, is headed for the Big Ten. The Big East—formerly a power conference featuring the likes of Syracuse, Georgetown, St. John's and Connecticut—has added Boise State, San Diego State, Memphis, Houston, Southern Methodist and Navy. Idaho moved from the WAC to the Big Sky, Middle Tennessee State and Florida Atlantic went to Conference USA, the University of Denver—a member of the WAC for approximately 27 minutes—joined the Summit League. Which, to be honest, I didn't even know existed.

Rest assured, none of these moves (literally, nary a one) were conducted with the best interests of so-called student-athletes in mind. New conferences tend to offer increased payouts, increased merchandising opportunities, increased exposure and increased opportunities to build a new stadium—one with 80,000 seats, 100 luxury boxes, $20 million naming rights, $9 hot dogs and the perfect spot for ESPN to broadcast its Home Depot pregame show.

Why, within 24 hours of quarterback Johnny Manziel winning the Heisman Trophy, Texas A&M was hawking Heisman T-shirts for $24 on its website (Or, for a mere $54.98, one can purchase his No. 2 jersey).

Percentage of the dough that winds up in Manziel's pocket? Zero.

After another spectacular exit, Petrino eyes football return

That, really, is the rub of it all; of Petrino's crabgrass-like revival; of coaches bounding from one job for another (even as players can only do so after sitting out a year); of Rutgers moving west and San Diego State moving east and athletic department officials moving on up (to a penthouse apartment in the sky); of $54.98 jerseys.

It's the athletes ultimately getting screwed.

Sure, for the 0.5% of Division I football players who wind up in the NFL, the deal is a sweet one. The other 99.5%, however, are mere pawns, sold a dizzying narrative of glory and fame and lifelong achievement, but, more often than not, left uneducated, unfulfilled and physically battered.

They are told a coach will be with them for four years—then watch as said figure takes a $2 million gig elsewhere but, hey, only because it was right for him and his family.

They are told they will receive a great education, then find themselves stuck on a six-hour flight from California to Newark, New Jersey. They are told that these will be the greatest years of their life, that the college experience is a special one, that only the highest of standards exist.

Then they meet their new coach: Bobby Petrino.

Follow @CNNOpinion on Twitter

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The opinions expressed in this commentary are solely those of Jeff Pearlman.

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Conn. dad recalls loving, creative 6-year-old

NEWTOWN, Conn. Fighting back tears and struggling to catch his breath, the father of a 6-year-old gunned down in Friday's school shooting in Connecticut told the world about a little girl who loved to draw and was always smiling, and he also reserved surprising words of sympathy for the gunman.

Robbie Parker's daughter Emilie was among the 20 children who died in the one of the worst attacks on schoolchildren in U.S. history. He was one of the first parents to speak publicly about their loss.

"She was beautiful. She was blond. She was always smiling," he said.

Parker spoke to reporters not long after police released the names and ages of the victims, a simple document that told a horrifying story of loss.

He expressed no animosity, said he was not mad and offered sympathy for family of the man who killed 26 people and himself.

To the man's family, he said, "I can't imagine how hard this experience must be for you."

He said he struggled to explain the death to Emilie's two siblings, 3 and 4.

"They seem to get the fact that they have somebody they're going to miss very much," he said.

Parker said his daughter loved to try new things — except for new food. And she was quick to cheer up those in need.

36 Photos

Vigils for Conn. school shooting victims

"She never missed an opportunity to draw a picture or make a card for those she around her," he said.

The world is a better place because Emilie was in it, he said.

"I'm so blessed to be her dad," he said.

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Conn. Victim's Father Remembers 'Loving' Daughter

(Image credit: Emilie Parker Fund/Facebook)

Emilie Parker, the little girl with the blond hair and bright blue eyes, would have been one of the first to comfort her classmates at Sandy Hook Elementary School, had a gunman’s bullets not claimed her life, her father said.

“My daughter Emilie would be one of the first ones to be standing and giving support to all the victims because that’s the kind of kid she is,” her father, Robbie Parker said as he fought back tears, telling the world about his “bright, creative and loving” daughter who was one of the 20 young victims in the Newtown, Conn., shooting.

“She always had something kind to say about anybody,” her father said.  ”We find comfort reflecting on the incredible person Emilie was and how many lives she was able to touch.”

Emilie, 6, was helping teach her younger sisters to read and make things, and she was the little girls would go to for comfort, he said.

“They looked up to her,” Parker said.

READ: Complete List of Sandy Hook Victims

Parker moved his wife and three daughters to Newtown eight months ago after accepting a job as  a physician’s assistant at Danbury Hospital. He said Emilie, his oldest daughter, seemed to have adjusted well to her new school, and he was very happy with the school, too.

“I love the people at the school. I love Emilie’s teacher and the classmates we were able to get to know,” he said.

      (Image Credit: Alex von Kleydorff/AP Photo)

The family dealt with another tragic loss in October when Emilie lost her grandfather in an accident.

“[This] has been a topic that has been discussed in our family in the past couple of  months,” Parker said. “[My daughters ages 3 and 4] seem to get the idea that there’s somebody who they will miss very much.”

Emilie, a budding artist who carried her markers and pencils everywhere, paid tribute to her grandfather by slipping a special card she had drawn into his casket, Parker said.  It was something she frequently did to lift the spirits of others.

“I can’t count the number of times Emilie would find someone feeling sad or frustrated and would make people a card,” Parker said. “She was an exceptional artist.”

The girl who was remembered as “always willing to try new things, other than food” was learning Portuguese from her father, who speaks the language.

(Image Credit: Emilie Parker Fund/Facebook)

On Friday morning, Emilie woke up before her father left for his job and exchanged a few sentences with him in the language.

“She told me good morning and asked how I was doing,” Parker said. “She said she loved me, I gave her a kiss and I was out the door.”

Parker found out about the shooting while on lockdown in Danbury Hospital and found a television for the latest news.

“I didn’t think it was that big of deal at first,” he said. “With the first reports coming in, it didn’t sound like it was going to be as tragic as it was. That’s kind of what it was like for us.”

CLICK HERE for full coverage of the Sandy Hook shooting.

Parker said he knows that God can’t take away free will and would have been unable to stop the Sandy Hook shooting. While gunman Adam Lanza used his free agency to take innocent lives, Parker said he plans to use his in a positive way.

“I’m not mad because I have my  [free] agency to use this event to do whatever I can to make sure my family and my wife and my daughters are taken care [of],” he said. “And if there’s anything I can do to help to anyone at any time at anywhere, I’m free to do that.”

(Image credit: Emilie Parker Fund/Facebook)

Friday night, hours after he learned of his daughter’s death, Parker said he spoke at his church.

“I don’t know how to get through something like this. My wife and I don’t understand how to process all of this,” he said today. “We find strength in our religion and in our faith and in our family. ”

“It’s a horrific tragedy and I want everyone to know our hearts and prayers go out to them. This includes the family of the shooter. I can’t imagine how hard this experience must be for you and I want you to know our family … love and support goes out to you as well.”

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