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A healthy rhesus monkey has been born after being cloned from fetal cells. Plus: why sperm counts are falling and what we can do about it.

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Zhaodi Liao et al.

Cloned monkey

After numerous attempts over the years, a healthy rhesus monkey has finally been created by cloning. The clone was born in China on 16 July 2020, but its existence has only now been revealed. However, the monkey was cloned from fetal cells, rather than adult cells, and the embryo had to be provided with a non-cloned placenta. So despite this advance, cloning primates remains extremely challenging. As a result, it still might not be technically possible to create a clone of an adult human being, quite apart from the ethical and legal issues. Read more

Microplastic on farms

Fertilisers are a major source of microplastic pollution in agricultural soil, a long-running experiment in the UK has shown, and this pollution has increased dramatically in the past 50 years. Samuel Cusworth at Lancaster University, UK, and his colleagues looked at soil samples collected and archived at Rothamsted Research in an experiment that has been running since 1843. “The issue with microplastics is that they’re capable of being transported across the world into different environmental media,” says Cusworth. “For example, with organic fertilisers, if any of the feed that’s been given to the farmyard animals contains any plastic, this will be digested and end up in faeces.” Read more

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Spencer Wilson

New research shows that we are experiencing a significant decline in sperm counts across every continent studied. Thankfully, we're also starting to get to grips with some of the potential causes, including identifying which hidden chemicals may be to blame, and discovering some lifestyle changes that may help to reverse the trend. Read more

Wednesday 21 February 2024 | 7pm EST

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That's all for today. Thanks for reading.

Sam Wong

Assistant news editor, New Scientist
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