Category: 2016
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June 7, 2016
Just Because We Can? The Chimera Question
Without a doubt, the advent of gene editing through CRISPR technology is a scientific and ethical game changer. The potential now to ‘edit’ an embryo has created all sorts of questions that science and governments are grappling with. But another issue at the forefront now is whether we should edit the genes of another species … Read more
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May 26, 2016
Weeds of the Sea: The Explosion of the Cephalopods
What do global warming, overfishing and ocean acidification add up to? Apparently a new dominant species of the underworld – the cephalopod. In a study published this week in Current Biology, a group of scientists from the University of Adelaide have found, since the 1950’s, the populations of octopus, squid, and cuttlefish have not just … Read more
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May 17, 2016
Zika Eradication and the Citizen Scientist
There’s a new wave of data collection being employed in the United States that’s cheap, easy and civic-minded: crowdsourcing. The U.S. Department of Agriculture is launching an ambitious effort to eradicate Zika virus from its population starting with capturing data from across the country. Not by spending great sums of money to pay researchers in … Read more
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May 10, 2016
Back From the Brink: Should Science Halt Extinction?
As we grapple daily with the consequences of climate change and exploding human populations, other animal species we share the planet with are about to go extinct. But, as reported last week in the journal Nature, science may be able to step in and halt the inexorable decline of critically endangered animals. Right now, there … Read more
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April 26, 2016
Silencing the Scientist: How the UK Ban on Lobbying is Still Unclear
The good news is that common sense and activism by the scientific community appear to have prevailed in the debate over the new anti-lobbying clause going into effect on 1 May in the UK. What looked to be a misguided move by the UK government to ban lobbying by groups receiving government funding, has been … Read more
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April 19, 2016
Public Health is Our Health – Get Involved
What do you think about when you hear the phrase ‘public health issue’? Flu, cardiovascular disease, pollution? Or cancer, antibiotic resistance, obesity? What we consider issues of public health come from our cultural mind-set, what hemisphere we live in, and how much our governments, and we as individuals, can afford to spend. But public health … Read more
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April 12, 2016
The Expanding OSE: Meet the new Managing Editor
What do parasites, stone age sites, enzymes, obscure British islands and horse racing all have in common? They are what the new OSE Managing Editor, Dr James Allen loves to explore in his spare time. That is, when he’s not talking to his wife Kirsty about her work building the UK’s first quantum computer. Over … Read more
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April 5, 2016
Seeding after C-Section: The Fast Track to a Better Microbiome?
Modern day surgical procedures are performed under the most stringent aseptic practices. And for good reason. Postoperative infections, before the practice of sterile technique, were often the cause of greater morbidity than the condition being treated. But there’s one increasingly common surgery that has the potential to get a lot dirtier. Delivering a baby by … Read more
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March 22, 2016
How to Save the World Even if You’re Not a Scientist
Do you know which animal is the biggest killer of humans? The lowly mosquito. This blood sucking predator is responsible for the deaths of approx. 725,000 people annually. Humans takes second place in killing other humans at 475,000. Snakes come in a distant third at 50,000. But let’s look on the bright side. between 1990 … Read more