Author: EUSci
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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…
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What does dopamine actually have to do with happiness?
In popular media, neurotransmitters are often viewed as on-off switches for basic human emotions, but how true is this? Neurotransmitters are chemicals that regulate brain activity by facilitating connection between neurons. Dopamine, for example, is considered to be a switch for feelings of pleasure and happiness, but the reality is slightly more complex. It is…
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Let’s talk about autism.
We’re coming to the end of Autism Awareness Month, which has slipped by rather silently – the usual barrage of posters in schools, libraries, shopping centres and swimming pools could of course not happen this year. I often think that, as disorders go, this must surely be one that requires the least awareness raising. After…
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Uncovering an ancient Antarctic rainforest
New research indicates that the icy continent was once home to a temperate rainforest, Shruti Sundaresan reports. When one speaks of Antarctica, we tend to automatically think of snow, ice, glaciers and penguins. However, research shows that the icy continent once had quite a temperate-rainforest-like climate!. The study was carried out by an international team…
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Sound: an invisible pollutant
When we think of ocean pollution, most of us visualise floating plastic, oil spills, or maybe even ocean acidification from rising CO2 levels. Samantha Cargill investigates why we now have to add noise pollution to the mix, too. Marine life exists in a world of sound. Almost all of the creatures in our oceans compose…
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The Perils and Possibilities of CRISPR Whispering
In November 2018 a controversial public announcement was published on YouTube by He Jiankui, a biophysics researcher at the Shenzhen University of Technology, China. He and his team had carried out a gene editing experiment on selected human embryos, and subsequently delivered them through IVF (in vitro fertilisation). They had produced the first human genetically…
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Time for an upgrade? Exploring human neural enhancement
When considering neuroprosthetics and brain-machine interfaces, cyborgs and sentient robots may come to mind – part of a not too distant dystopian future, perhaps. Popular culture leans very heavily upon speculation and the boundless imagination of readers and writers alike, often arousing apprehension and calls to forego innovation for fear of what we may unwittingly…