Painless painkillers
Two genes that allow opium poppies to make morphine and codeine have been identified. Transferred into microbes, they could enable the painkillers to be made in vats, instead of having to be extracted from poppies. This would reduce the land needed to make the drugs – and their cost, say researchers in Nature Chemical Biology ().
Falcon to fly soon
All nine engines of the SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket were successfully test-fired on 13 March, taking it a step closer to being able to deliver cargo for NASA to the International Space Station. A test launch is…
