Smartphones have become an integral part of our lives, for better or for worse. We are connected to friends and family around the world at the tap of a screen and have the entire world wide web at our fingertips. Whilst these technological advancements have made our day-to-day lives easier in many respects, there is […]
Athletes Beware
Chronic traumatic encephalopathy (CTE), a progressive degenerative disease found in the brains of athletes with a history of repetitive brain trauma, has been known to affect sportspeople such as boxers since the 1920s. Repeated traumatic events such as punches lead to the progressive degeneration of brain tissue that can begin years or even decades after […]
Give their Hearts a hug: a new heart treatment
Researchers at Harvard University have developed a novel treatment for heart failure. The new treatment is a robotic silicone sleeve that mimics heart function. Current treatments such as heart transplantations have inadequate efficacy. Donors are in short supply, meaning many patients die awaiting transplantation or die after receiving a transplant because of rejection of the […]
Feminist Friday: Can love really trump hate?
I am a feminist. There – I said it. I believe women should have political, social and intellectual equality to men. Outrageous, right? I shave my legs (admittedly more in the summer months…), have a boyfriend and have never treated a man any differently because of his gender. I simply, truly, wholeheartedly believe that the fact […]
Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them
Everyone’s talking about the hit fantasy film. But our planet holds some pretty magical creatures of its own . . . Platypus Perhaps the most-well known in this list of fantastic beasts, it isn’t only this mammal’s egg-laying ability or bizarre morphology that makes it quite the intriguing character. Its beaver-like tail, furry body […]
2017 Science – A Sneak Peek
Evading Extinction Unless you were a Trump-loving, music despising animal hater, 2016 had something to upset pretty much everyone. And as news broke that current mass extinction will be the greatest since the extinction of the dinosaurs, it was up to 2017 to make us feel a little better about the state of environmental affairs. […]
Venom-Stealing Viruses
Venom-stealing viruses sound like something plucked straight from a horror film, but a recent paper published in Nature Communications has discovered exactly that. Husband-and-wife team Seth and Sarah Bordenstein at Vanderbilt University, USA, found snippets of animal DNA within a bacteria-infecting virus. Gene stealing in viruses is not a new phenomenon but these findings are […]