Blog
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October 21, 2015
The Eccentric Asteroid Approaches
Halloween might be a little scarier this year. NASA has discovered, just ten days ago, an asteroid that is due to pass by earth in the early morning hours of 31st October. Asteroid 2015 TB145 is currently hurtling through space at approximately 126,000 km/h. It will pass earth within 1.3 lunar distances, or 499,000 km. That … Read more
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October 18, 2015
Is This the Future of Research Funding?
The never ending quest to obtain funding for scientific research just got more difficult for a lot of scientists. The U.S. National Institutes of Health is taking steps to radically change the way it funds cardiology studies, making the move to allocate money to fewer studies with a deeper reach. The agency is confronting the … Read more
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October 14, 2015
Can we treat genetic diseases in utero?
Now that screening for genetic disorders before birth has become not only possible but common, science is looking at how to target specific diseases in order to mitigate their effects…before a child is even born. This week researchers from the Karolinska Institutet in Sweden announced they will be coordinating the first ever comparison study of … Read more
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October 11, 2015
5 Things You Might Not Know About Your DNA
Even at the sublimely beautiful molecular level, humans are far from perfect. Over decades of research it’s clear; our DNA molecules are inherently unstable. So how do we survive? The answer is DNA repair mechanisms within our cells, multitudes of them, which see to it that we make it to the end of the day, … Read more
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October 7, 2015
Why the 2015 Nobel Prize for Medicine is Important
Parasitic diseases rarely cause morbidity or mortality in countries north of the equator. But for the vast number of the world’s poorest people residing in tropical and subtropical areas of the planet, these diseases are enormous barriers to improvements in health and productivity. The Nobel committee this week awarded the prize in Physiology or Medicine … Read more
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October 4, 2015
The Hidden World of Sand
Even if you lay your cheek upon the surface of a sun-baked beach, you’re unlikely to see clearly the kaleidoscopic world beneath you. Gary Greenburg, a research affiliate at the University of Hawaii Institute for Astronomy, created a 3D high-definition light microscope in the 1990s, and he’s been capturing fascinating sand close-ups since then. He’s put out … Read more