Quantum Pigeonholes
Here’s a simple idea: You have three pigeons and only two pigeonholes. If you put the pigeons in the pigeonholes you’ll end up with at least one hole that contains two pigeons. Right? Now...
Category: Snippets
Concussion Crisis
With Glasgow playing host to a major upset in rugby sevens and Commonwealth Games history, we would hope that such a spectacle would increase participation in sports not so often in the public eye....
The Righteous Drug Smugglers
Of all the challenges facing the pharmaceutical treatment of brain diseases, the most fundamental is also one of the most difficult: getting drugs into the brain. Our brain comes with its own bouncer, the...
Gene Expression Analysis by Single Cell RNA-Seq
Analysis of gene expression is important in diagnostics as well as in understanding biological processes. The gene expression profile of cells assesses the extent to which genes are active (or not). Gene expression varies...
Spectroscopy: Showing art in its best light
Spectroscopy is the study of the interaction of light with matter. Different molecules interact with light in various different ways according to their characteristic functional groups. For example, the infrared spectrum of a molecule...
The Book of Life – Rewritten?
All life we know shares one common feature: DNA. From bacteria to humans, our genetic code is written in the same 4 chemical “letters”, the nucleotides Adenine (A), Thymine (T), Guanine (G) and Cytosine...
Harm Reduction
Last year saw the rise of turbo-ecstasy, pills of various guises, which were adulterated with PMA or PMMA . Whilst these compounds are related to MDMA (the active ingredient in ecstasy) they have the...
Give Me Wings
From our earliest and most basic stage the most notable feature of our animal cohabitants has been their size. It is this that has inspired generations of wonder at the thought of towering dinosaurs,...
