MICROSCOPE

Elon Musk’s moon shot

Space entrepreneur Elon Musk has big dreams. He announced plans to build a huge rocket that would travel to the Moon and then to Mars in 2022. This rocket would replace all vehicles — the rockets Falcon 9 and Falcon 9 Heavy as well as the Dragon capsule — at his company SpaceX, Musk said.

Aussie mozzies

While mosquitoes around the world are evolving to resist pesticides, the dengue carrier Aedes mosquito remains vulnerable to them Down Under. Tests on hundreds of the insects revealed that a specific gene in the Australian version hadn’t been able to mutate and so couldn’t develop resistance to the chemicals. This might have something to do with the fact that Aussies don’t do routine fogging; they only spray pesticides in spots where there is an outbreak.

Gluten phobia

Scientists in Cordoba, Spain, are creating strains of wheat that lack the “bad glutens” responsible for coeliac disease, an immune reaction to eating gluten found in wheat products. But breads, cakes and pastas made from these strains are likely to appeal to people with non-coeliac gluten sensitivity, and those who think gluten-free diets are healthier. Gluten-free food has become a new fad among all and sundry.