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Restoration Dramas
Peteet notes, climate change will likely alter their carbon storage potential. Increasing temperatures may reduce the cold that helps sediment preserve carbon-rich detritus and if sea levelrise erodes the marshes, the detritus will be exposed. One study...
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“The experiments we're doing today are riskier than they've ever been”
many allegations between the Soviet Union and other communist states and the US about who had biological weapons during the Cold War, and we are all familiar with stories about the origins of AIDS in the 1980s. The difference now is that disinformation...
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“The experiments we're doing today are riskier than they've ever been”
many allegations between the Soviet Union and other communist states and the US about who had biological weapons during the Cold War, and we are all familiar with stories about the origins of AIDS in the 1980s. The difference now is that disinformation...
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Coping with modern life
began in 1936, when Hans Selye discovered that rats exposed to different types of harmful situations – surgery, drugs or cold temperature – showed a similar response whatever the problem. Later, when Selye was asked if he thought modern life was too...
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On record: Latent Lepidopterans
crucial data can be gathered by citizen scientists. Lepidopteran species employ various strategies to help them endure the colder months, with many having a period of dormancy. These overwintering stages are typically more difficult to record in the egg...
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Talking T Cells
done a little better in terms of their response to COVID might be something to do with the fact they get an awful lot of colds, as anybody who is a parent knows. Some of the cold viruses are types of coronaviruses. There's also some crossover between...
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Reports
people's awareness of the abundant wildlife on their doorstep. We had a rain shower before the 11:00 start and had to endure cold, gusting winds until the close at 16:00. Not what we expect in June! There were several groups looking at different aspects...
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Henry T Greely on He Jiankui’s CRISPR babies
the “current situation.” Porteus wanted to know how the trial and the consent process was designed. Dr. He referred to his Cold Spring presentation, where he apparently got feedback and criticism from some attendees; he also spoke with “top ethicists in...
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COVID-19 experts come together to discuss vaccine development and lessons learned from the pandemic so far
vaccine, our understanding of mRNA, the effect the pandemic may have had on other common diseases, such as the common cold and flu, and lessons learned for the future. Associate Professor Lambe concluded: “We really need to consider that no-one is going...
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Who was… Peter Kropotkin?
entomologists such as William Morton Wheeler considering how ants seemed to act together as a ‘superorganism’. During the Cold War game theorists studied the logic behind co-operation and altruism in terms of optimal decision making and behaviour. It...
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"We're creating landscapes suited to the animals that transmit disease to us"
animals. There are about six or so coronaviruses that have leapt over to humans from bats, including what is now the common cold, and three of those – MERS, SARS, and SARS-CoV-2 are causing serious problems. Where does the pangolin come in? Well, the...
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“There were at least three papers in 2019 that said coronaviruses might be a real problem in south China”
animals. There are about six or so coronaviruses that have leapt over to humans from bats, including what is now the common cold, and three of those – MERS, SARS, and SARS-CoV-2 are causing serious problems. Where does the pangolin come in? Well, the...
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“There were at least three papers in 2019 that said coronaviruses might be a real problem in south China”
animals. There are about six or so coronaviruses that have leapt over to humans from bats, including what is now the common cold, and three of those – MERS, SARS, and SARS-CoV-2 are causing serious problems. Where does the pangolin come in? Well, the...
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Why an oral vaccine could be key to fighting COVID-19
applying thermal stability to vaccines and viral vectors. We can take a virus that would initially require a -20°C to -80° cold chain [i.e. it needs to be transported and stored at that temperature at all times] and make it stable in a 4°C or more often...
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Six Legs Walking: Notes from an entomological life
– I hope to start looking at host fidelity in mosquitos in greater depth as a result of her book. Thanks to her writing ‘the cold skeleton of reason acquires living, rosy flesh and … science flourishes’, to quote Julien Offray de La Mettrie. It is very...
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Safe and Sound
we measured two classes of anti-herbivore defence: glucosinolates and phenolics. To do these experiments, we used a cold laser to measure the vibrations of a leaf caused by a caterpillar feeding and playedback those vibrations to leaves in the absence...
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Sunflower named the ‘UK’s Favourite Flower’ in annual RSB poll
ounce of sunflower seed containing around six grams of protein and 14 grams of unsaturated and monounsaturated oils. When cold pressed and unrefined, sunflower oil is high in linoleic acid and vitamin E. Sunflowers can be grown in a variety of soils...
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Tardigrades in space
victims using their super-sharp stylets. In the film Harbinger Down, tardigrades sent into space by the Russians during the Cold War are recovered from a crashed space probe in 2015 by an isolated fishing boat crew. Unfortunately, they have mutated into...
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'The iguana escaped and the monkey peed on me’
the Royal Institution rebuild overran. We couldn't get in to rehearse until the last minute – and did so in the freezing cold and to the sound of pneumatic drills. When we did get in, some props wouldn't fit through doors. On more than one occasion, I...
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A worm's world
Increases in ocean temperature are likely to modify the circulation of water around the oceans and the formation of cold oxygenated deep water. Warming also decreases the oxygen solubility of the seas and increases stratification, decreasing vertical...
