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...
Defusing the neurology time bomb- A new gene therapy for Parkinson’s Disease
Parkinson’s Disease (PD) – familiar to many because of the philanthropic efforts of the Michael J Fox Foundation – is a pernicious neurological disease that affects 1% of people over 60 . The financial...
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...
Tasty Science- Mystery Menu Dinner Party
The dinner took place in the basement of the Stravaigin restaurant, which is known for its innovative and high quality menu. Inspiration for the dinner came from the observation that nowadays, in times of...
Engaging Undergraduates in Research
As it slowly sinks in that third year has now been and gone, I overhear more and more of my fellow undergraduate chemists pondering aloud just what exactly it is that you do after...
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,...
Avert Your Eyes, Not Your Heart
If the shimmering black guitar in the corner of the stage wasn’t a sign that this was no ordinary scientific debate, the talking blobfish made it abundantly clear. Being a mere mortal, the sight...
What makes us human?
What distinguishes us from the chimpanzee, our closest relative with whom we share 99% of our DNA? Is it possible to define uniquely human features? Dr Amanda Lucas and Dr Lewis Dean gave a...
