Reuters Science News Summary

Following is a summary of current science news briefs. Bionic jellyfish? Yes, and they are here to help

It may sound more like science fiction than science fact, but researchers have created bionic jellyfish by embedding microelectronics into these ubiquitous marine invertebrates with hopes to deploy them to monitor and explore the world's oceans. A small prosthetic enabled the jellyfish to swim three times faster and more efficiently without causing any apparent stress to the animals, which have no brain, central nervous system or pain receptors, the researchers said. Singapore's Shiok Meats hopes to hook diners with lab-grown shrimp

Shiok Meats, a Singapore-based start-up whose name means very good in local slang, aims to become the first company in the world to bring shrimp grown in a laboratory to diners' plates. Demand for meat substitutes is booming, as consumer concerns about health, animal welfare and the environment grow. Plant-based meat alternatives, popularized by Beyond Meat Inc and Impossible Foods, increasingly feature on supermarket shelves and restaurant menus. New telescope reveals sun's surface in closest detail yet

Images from a powerful new telescope installed on top of a volcano in Hawaii show the surface of the sun in the closest detail yet, revealing features as small as 30km (18 miles) across. They were captured by the National Science Foundation's (NSF) Daniel K. Inouye Solar Telescope, which sits at around 10,000 feet (3,000 metres) above sea level near the summit of Haleakala volcano in Maui, Hawaii. Chilean scientists scramble to save last of desert frogs from extinction

When Chilean scientists last year discovered 14 Loa water frogs struggling to survive in a nearly dry river bed in the country's northern desert, the clock began ticking. They believed these to be among the last of the species. On eve of Brexit, Britain faces critical test to defend drug trial crown

It's 2023. Britain's brightest and best drug researchers are packing their bags as clinical trials start to dwindle, leaving a nation renowned as a global leader in pharmaceutical development to face a future in the slow lane. This is a worst-case scenario outlined by some scientists and industry experts in the wake of Brexit, which they say could deprive the country of its role as Europe's leader in early-stage drug research, designing and hosting pan-EU trials. 'Karoo firewalkers': Dinosaurs braved South Africa's land of lava

About 183 million years ago during the early part of the Jurassic Period, enormous amounts of lava flowed across the landscape in what is now South Africa, transforming the environment into a land of fire. But fossil footprints described by scientists on Wednesday showed that intrepid dinosaurs and other animals managed to inhabit this region - now the semiarid Karoo region of South Africa - during quieter periods between the volcanic eruptions. China science database scraps paywall to aid virus battle

A major scientific database run by China's Tsinghua University has made its contents available free of charge from Wednesday in order to help researchers work from home, following a virus outbreak in the central city of Wuhan. The death toll in the epidemic rose sharply to 132 and the first case appeared in the Middle East, as concern mounts after China's health authorities said the number of confirmed cases had jumped by 1,459 to 5,974. Australia scientists to share lab-grown coronavirus to hasten vaccine efforts

A team of scientists in Australia said on Wednesday they have successfully developed a lab-grown version of the new coronavirus, the first to be recreated outside of China, in a breakthrough that could help quicken the creation of a vaccine. The researchers at the Peter Doherty Institute for Infection and Immunity in Melbourne said they would share the sample, which was grown from an infected patient, with the World Health Organization and laboratories around the world.