Category: Biology
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Exciting New Research Explores a Third Alternative to Infectious Disease Control
When it comes to infectious disease control, there are two common solutions. These include using medicines, such as antibiotics, to target the pathogens and parasites, or reducing the risk of spread by using preventative measures. However, a recent collaboration between University of Colorado Cancer Center and University of Virginia led to a discovery that demonstrated…
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How Your Sunscreen Poses a stop Real Threat to Coral Reefs
Experts advise us to apply sunscreen on a consistent basis. We all know the associated risks of being overexposed to our sun’s rays, yet recent scientific studies have shown that chemicals used in common sunscreen products may also be causing irreparable damage to our planet’s coral reefs. The media has also started to take notice…
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FDA Approved an Injection That Will Eliminate Your Double Chin
For many of us, trying to hide our double chin – perhaps under a scarf or turtleneck – is a daily battle. It’s a major cause of embarrassment for thousands of affected Australians, and is usually caused by obesity or other natural effects of aging. A double chin is actually just an extra layer of…
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My Dog Speaks To Me With His Eyes – Evolution of Human/Dog Bonds
Puppy love – same as baby love? Yes, it seems so: “My dog talks to me with his/her eyes”- every dog owner on the planet says this. Now, for the first time, it seems that this well-known truth has a scientific basis. A group of Japanese researchers found that dogs indeed talk to us, in…
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Life – Evolved
What is a life form? Most of us, if asked, will think of an animal or a human being-in other words, a multicellular organism. However, life itself evolved in cells, single cells of various types that existed and propagated independently. What are, then, the factors that led cells to collaborate together and give rise to…
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Multi-Coloured Vision
Colour is our eye’s interpretation of light reflecting off objects. The different colours we see are different wavelengths of light. Colour-specific photoreceptors in the retina of our eyes, cones, translate the wavelengths into what we see as colour. Humans generally have three types of cone to do this. One responds to shorter waves of light…
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The Health of the Honey Bee
The delicate state of the European honeybee (Apismellifera) can be traced back to 2006, when the mysterious Colony Collapse Disorder (CCD) began wiping them out. Adult honey bees went missing from their hives, and no bodies were to be found. Since, apiaries have struggled – the US reports a yearly loss of about 30% – leaving…
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The Vaccination Debate: Answers to Common Questions about Vaccination Safety
Vaccinations are not mandatory in Australia, yet it is relatively standard for most children to be vaccinated against diseases such as polio, hepatitis and meningitis. However, in recent years questions have been raised about whether the problems outweigh the advantages of vaccinations, sparking intense debate amongst parents, scientists and the general public. Here, we take…
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Applications of Nanotechnology in Medicine
Nanotechnology can be viewed as the science and engineering included in the design, synthesis, characterization, and application of materials and devices whose smallest functional organization is on the nanometer level or one billionth of a meter. At these scales, consideration of individual molecules and interacting groups of molecules becomes important. Applications to medicine imply materials…
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The Future of Fertility Treatment: Advanced Embryo Selection
It is incredible just how far science and technology have come over the last few decades. In the past, men and women with fertility problems had very few options. Nowadays, there are more options than ever before and fertility treatments are becoming increasingly advanced and reliable. The latest breakthrough in fertility treatments is here in…
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The Hallmarks of Cancer: Fighting Back
Fighting back How can we use our knowledge about growth factors (detailed in the previous articles here and here) to fight back against cancer? This is where the magic words ‘targeted therapies’ come in. Since cancer cells hijack normal growth factor response pathways to become self sufficient, it is logical for us to target these…
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Entelognathus: The Fish with the First Modern Face
Hundreds of millions of years ago, armoured fish dominated the oceans, lakes and rivers of the world. These now-extinct creatures belonged to a class called Placoderms, meaning ‘plate-skinned’ in Greek. They had armoured plates covering their head and thorax, and they were the first creatures to develop teeth, pelvic fins, and most importantly, jaws. Jaws…
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Dig down to lift your spirits: soil bacteria act as antidepressants
Have you ever noticed that people who spend more time outdoors, particularly those who garden regularly, are often cheery? While the exercise, sunshine and general health benefits of being outdoors contributes to a happy disposition, scientists have discovered that some of this cheer comes from a certain bacteria that lives in the soil. Mycobacterium vaccae,…
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The Hallmarks of Cancer: Becoming Independent
This article originally appeared on Know The Cosmos. I will be re-posting excerpts here for Australian Science with added commentary over the coming weeks! “The Hallmarks of Cancer” are ten anti-cancer defense mechanisms that are hardwired into our cells, that must be breached by a cell on the path towards cancer. The First Hallmark of…