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This is NEWS Plus Special English.
The world-renowned journal Nature has released its annual list of ten people who mattered in science in 2015. The list includes one Chinese scientist whose work in human embryo gene editing has caused repeated debate in academic circle.
This year's list was compiled after much discussion by Nature's journalists and editors, spans the globe, highlighting individuals who have played important roles in issues ranging from climate change to gene editing to research reproducibility.
Helen Pearson, Nature's Chief Features Editor, says the explosion of interest in a human embryo gene editing has been a major story of the year, and for this reason biologist Huang Jun-jiu at Sun Yat-Sen University in Guangzhou earned a place on the list.
In April, Huang published the first report of a human embryo with edited genes, sparking global debate on the ethics of such research.
In his study, Huang and his team used spare embryos from fertility clinics that could not progress to a live birth, and modified the gene, responsible for a kind of blood disorder, in the embryos. To accomplish the task, they adopted a powerful technique, which can be programmed to precisely alter DNA in specific sequences.
Huang told Nature in April that he wanted to edit the genes of embryos because this can show up genetic problems related to cancer or diabetes, and can be used to study gene function in embryonic development.
You are listening to NEWS Plus Special English. I'm Mark Griffiths in Beijing.
A woman sentenced to life in prison for poisoning children has been acquitted, renewing long-standing questions among judicial experts about the best ways to ensure that legal processes are used in handling cases.
The central government determined two years ago to rectify wrongful verdicts.
Qian Renfeng was given a life sentence in 2002 in Yunnan province, after she was accused of putting poison in the food of children at a kindergarten where she worked. One of the children died. At the time, Qian was 17.
The court said Qian poisoned the children because she did not get along with her employer.
After serving 13 years in prison, Qian is now 30 years old, and was pronounced innocent, because evidence in the case was flawed, as was her confession.
The court says the evidence presented by the police was tainted, and there were some inconsistencies in the defendant's confession. Meanwhile, signatures on three statements in which she confessed to the crime were proved not to be hers.
It was not the first time the country's courts have overturned a judgment in the past two years.
Since late 2013, Chinese courts have conducted a sweeping crackdown on wrongful verdicts, aiming to build up judicial credibility and implement the rule of law nationwide.
