Author: EUSci
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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…
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Why do humans – and so few other animals – have periods?
Opposable thumbs, the power of speech, the capacity to think and reason: there are many reasons to relish being human. Regularly bleeding out of your vagina is not one of them. We are taught that menstruation is a normal part of the reproductive cycle, a necessary by-product of being a sexually reproducing species. Every cycle,…
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Do viruses make your clock tick wrong?
With the Covid-19 coronavirus pandemic happening, let’s delve into one of the many clever strategies that viruses use to successfully infect their host – disruption of the body (circadian) clock. What is a circadian rhythm? Circadian rhythm is a natural cycle that repeats roughly every 24 hours. The circadian rhythm controls the timing of various…
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Changing the perception of distance
HYPED is the University of Edinburgh’s Hyperloop Team, dedicated to developing the world’s fifth mode of transport. The Hyperloop concept, developed by Elon Musk, consists of a long evacuated tube through which levitated capsules, called pods, travel through, propelled by electromagnetic forces. It is predicted to be the fastest mode of ground transportation, reducing the…
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The brain is overrated: a look at cognition in slime mould
Historical, scientific and philosophical adventure into the nature of consciousness seems to have, nine times out of ten, made the assumption that cognition should be explored within the kingdom of animalia. This top down approach seeks to derive a mechanism for consciousness from that which we already know, rather than from first principles of computation.…
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“Letters to a New Student” book review
“Letters to a New Student” is a short but extremely helpful guide not only for new and current students, but for their parents and family, to get new ideas and advice on how to study better and how to help other people. Even though the author Dr. Gary W. Wood is a Chartered Psychologist with…