The Download: genetic embryo testing, and Germany’s nuclear predicament

Elizabeth Carr is head of business growth at Genomic Prediction, a genetic testing startup that claims it is going to assess embryos created in IVF clinics for his or her future probability of frequent ailments after which rank them, so dad and mom can decide the one with the perfect future.

It’s a controversial space that has some critics anguishing over the prospect of shopper eugenics. Still, phrase of the corporate’s “well being scores” for embryos is spreading through media experiences and because the firm begins to advertise the assessments to IVF clinics and at conferences.

Carr, who’s in command of gross sales and advertising, could be the right spokesperson. That’s as a result of she was the primary individual born by way of in vitro fertilization within the US again in 1981. Read the full story.

—Antonio Regalado

Inside Germany’s energy wrestle over nuclear vitality

Just a decade in the past, Germany was utilizing nuclear energy to satisfy a couple of quarter of its electrical energy demand. But earlier this month, the nation shut down the final of its nuclear energy vegetation, 60 years after the primary one started operation.

The reactions are blended. Some contemplate this a victory, cheering as Germany strikes away from an electrical energy supply they see as harmful and flawed. But others see it as a serious potential roadblock for local weather motion—whereas nuclear vegetation have been shuttered left and proper, coal energy has chugged alongside, offering an enormous chunk of the nation’s electrical energy and spewing emissions all of the whereas.