Inherited or somatic mutations targeting genes which encode essential cell growth regulatory proteins favor the emergence of cancer. Cells carrying these mutations acquire growing and survival advantages that trigger the emergence of the tumor. A large number of tumor-associated mutations, as well as many mutations found in the germline of hereditary cancer patients, are single-nucleotide […]
Nearly a century after dark matter was first proposed to explain the motion of galaxy clusters, physicists still have no idea what it’s made of. Researchers around the world have built dozens of detectors in hopes of discovering dark matter. As a graduate student, I helped design and operate one of these detectors, aptly named […]
According to Geoffrey of Monmouth, whose History of the Kings of Britain was written in 1136, the mysterious monoliths at Stonehenge were first spirited there by the wizard Merlin, whose army stole them from a mythical Irish stone circle called the Giants’ Dance. Centuries before the development of rudimentary geology, Geoffrey’s exotic theory – that […]
You are surely familiar with the concept that light behaves like electromagnetic radiation, and that it responds to the equation In this way, the higher the wavelength of the light, the lower its frequency , and vice versa. This means that if we compare red and blue light, for example, we will see that red […]
Around 5,000 years ago (c. 3100 BC), what we know today as Ancient Egypt came into existence. A thousand years either side, and other such “primary states” had also arisen across the world, in Mesopotamia, North China, the Indus Valley and other locations. But why did human social dynamics change so dramatically in such a […]
At just over 14 million square kilometres, the Arctic Ocean is the smallest and shallowest of the world’s oceans. It is also the coldest. An expansive raft of sea ice floats near its centre, expanding in the long, cold, dark winter, and contracting in the summer, as the Sun climbs higher in the sky. Every […]
From advertising to the workplace, it is often assumed that men and women are fundamentally different – from Mars and Venus, respectively. Of course, we all know people who are more androgynous, having a mix of personality traits that are stereotypically considered to be male or female. Importantly, such “psychological androgyny” has long been associated […]
The intranasal route is a rapid, efficient and direct way for different biological agents, small molecules, drugs and chemical compounds to reach the brain. It seems amazing, but people that snort a line of coke already knew that… To date, its mechanism of diffusion is believed to be using either olfactory nerve tracts or dense […]
Hollywood blockbusters such as X-men, Gattaca and Jurassic World have explored the intriguing concept of “germline genome editing” – a biomolecular technique that can alter the DNA of sperm, eggs or embryos. If you remove a gene that causes a certain disease in an embryo, not only will the baby be free of the disease […]
Authors: Ceridwen Fraser, Associate professor, University of Otago; Christina Hulbe, Professor and Dean of the School of Surveying (glaciology specialisation), University of Otago; Craig Stevens, Associate Professor in Ocean Physics, National Institute of Water and Atmospheric Research, and Huw Griffiths, Marine Biogeographer, British Antarctic Survey In 2018, a map named after an oceanographer went viral […]