Author: EUSci
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Dogs to train as COVID-19 detectors
The world faces a global pandemic, and man’s best friend is joining the fight against infection. Dogs are being trained to sniff and detect coronavirus infections in humans before the onset of symptoms, to offer a speedy screening method for the coronavirus that causes COVID-19. In recent weeks, we have all heard of the importance…
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Once Upon a DNA
Omar Shabana explores the ins and outs of the information in our DNA, and how we use it. 26 Million. That’s the number of alleged DNA testing kits to be sold by the 4 biggest genetic-testing companies by the end of 2018. These companies have had a very successful marketing strategy: a promise to show…
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Oldest galaxy disk yet to be observed: ‘Wolfe Disk’ formed soon after the Big Bang
Astronomers have found a galaxy with a disk that formed just 1.5 billion years after the Big Bang – early enough to challenge current ideas about galaxy formation. Massive disk galaxies, like our Milky Way, were expected to have formed around 3 or 4 billion years after the Big Bang. However, Marcel Neeleman at the…
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NASA x SpaceX Launch
After almost a decade, NASA is sending a crewed rocket into space from the US to the ISS (International Space Station). The Falcon-9 rocket has been designed by Elon Musk’s company SpaceX. This is the first time NASA has used a private firm for a US crew launch. The mission is part of NASA’s Commercial…
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Advancing artificial womb technology
Over the last decade, reproductive assistance has taken a major leap forward, and one emerging new technology in this field is the artificial womb. When we think about the word ‘artificial’, it is not uncommon to associate words such as ‘fake’ and ‘unnatural’. Some have even compared this technology to the battery farms in The…
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Biobanks in the ranks
The virus which causes COVID-19 (SARS-CoV-2) has been particularly cryptic in its strike pattern. There is a wide variation in expression and severity of symptoms from person to person; with some people experiencing nothing more than a dry cough, and others bedbound in intensive care. In working out why this is the case, researchers are…
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Can neutrinos shed some light on the imbalance of the universe?
One of the Universe’s greatest mysteries revolves around antimatter, or rather the lack thereof. Physicists are convinced that when our Universe began, matter and antimatter should have been created and dispersed in equal amounts. However, it is evident that we live in a Universe that is almost entirely dominated by matter. It’s just as well…
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The mixed promise of antibody tests
As many countries in Europe tentatively begin to ease restrictions, experts are debating the confounding question of how to exit lockdown and restart the economy under the enduring threat of coronavirus. Antibody tests have been touted as one possible means to assess who may have acquired immunity to the virus and could therefore return to…
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The Million Pound Brain Prize: Edinburgh University Researcher Celebrated as 2020 Prizewinner
Fundamental and pioneering. This is how the selection committee for the prestigious and internationally-recognised Lundbeck Foundation Brain Prize has described the work of 2020 prize-winners Prof. Sir Adrian Bird and Prof. Huda Zoghbi. Having both made outstanding contributions to the field of neuroscience, they will now share the 10 million DKK (around £1.17 million) prize,…
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Black hole discovered 1,000 light years away
European astronomers have found a black hole about 1,000 light years away from Earth – closer than any other discovered to date. Whilst 9.5 thousand, million, million kilometres might not sound very close, the next closest black hole discovered is about three times as far away as this one. The black hole at the centre…