Imogen Poyntz-Wright, online science editor, discusses the identification of lucky genes with regards to obesity in humans
genetics
Gene discovered that provides protection from COVID-19
Print science editor Ellen Rogers discusses the potential impact of recent research showing a genetic correlation with the severity of people’s COVID symptoms.
Cutting Edge Technology
Cutting Edge Technology Erica Mannis looks at the 2020 Nobel prize winning discovery on gene editing using the CRISPR-Cas9 system and discusses potential ethical aspects of the discovery CRISPR-Cas9 genetic technology has been at the forefront of scientific news in recent years for its breakthrough in genetic research. However, with its vast applications come worrying […]
The Identification of Richard III
Online Science Editor Vincent Plant discusses how an international team identified the last Plantagenet king in 2013
Ghosts in our past
Online Science Editor Vincent Plant discusses how Neanderthal DNA still impacts our lives.
Exeter Genomics Research COVID-19
Elinor Jones discusses the recent announcement of a £20 million grant to tackle Coronavirus
CRISPR, Genetic Manipulation!
GENOMIC manipulation, whether due to its connotations of ‘futuristic mad scientist’ or what appears as sheer complexity of patterns of heredity, is consistently associated with words such as ‘dangerous’ and ‘worrying’. However, since 2013, a new technique called clustered regularly interspaced short palindromic repeats, or more simply known by the acronym CRISPR, has turned up […]
Designer Genes
The National Academy of Sciences (NAS) has given a free pass to a DNA editing tool to alter the human genome. This opens the way to unprecedented control over the human genome, and the possibility to prevent, or even cure, genetic diseases. Back in 2012 Professor Jennifer Doudna and her colleagues were spending long hours […]
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. […]
The fall of the Neanderthal
The history of human evolution is a long and fascinating one. In this issue we look at one of our closest evolutionary cousins, the infamous Homo Neanderthalensis, more commonly known as Neanderthals. But how much do we know about Neanderthals and just how closely related are we? Neanderthals were an ancient species of Hominid, commonly recognised […]