Author: EUSci
-
Issue 29 Online: EuScireka!
Welcome to the new edition of EuSci Magazine! We will be posting and promoting each article from the magazine individually on our website over the next few weeks. If you want to read the magazine in its full and original form you can either pick one up from many different locations on campus or read…
-
Your Brain’s Natural Calorie Counter
Clara Lenherr tells the story of how digging up decade-old data led researchers to discover how the brain tells you it’s time to stop eating.
-
What makes us human may come down to the way our neurons process information
Clara Lenherr explores the newly discovered human-specific characteristics of neurons and discusses how the uniqueness of human neurons brings into question what we already know about human cognition. The ability of neurons to carry out complex computations when integrating the thousands of inputs that they receive is thought to be the basis of cognition. The…
-
Can the body remove HIV by itself?
Two patients have astonishingly cured themselves of HIV without any therapy. Kevin Boyle discusses these novel findings and their potential implications in the development of a vaccine against the HIV virus. A recent report in the Annals of Internal Medicine has shown that a female patient previously infected with HIV was able to remove the…
-
HIV Retrovirus: Current advances and mysteries
Claudia Singh Gill discusses the mechanism of HIV infection and the potential advances to treat the deadly retrovirus. 37.7 million people are living with HIV in 2020. Almost one million people die each year from the acquired immunodeficiency syndrome (AIDS) and human immunodeficiency virus (HIV). The HIV virus targets the cells in the immune system,…
-
Nanoparticle based vaccines: a potentially new addition to the “vaccine menu”?
A versatile and highly effective flu vaccine required in tiny amounts might be just around the corner: too good to be true? Kevin Boyle looks at recent advances. For around 70 years, flu vaccines have mostly been made the same way – using chicken eggs. The virus is injected into the eggs and incubated for…
-
Good news coffee drinkers: caffeine reduces the effect of drowsiness on cognitive performance
Alexandra Lesayova writes about new findings by the University of Western Australia and the University of Sydney on the effect of caffeine on cognition.
-
The Climate Crisis: Which animals will survive?
Alexandra Lesayova writes about the threespine stickleback fish; a promising model organism with respect to gaining a better understanding of the effects of climate change on living organisms, and how understanding the basis of natural selection in response to environmental stresses could be the key to accurate predictions of the effects of climate change. Climate…
-
Newly identified proteins are predictors for dementia
Milena Flankova writes about new insights in dementia research: changes in the proteome as a potential indicator for an increased risk of disease, up to 10 years prior Dementia is a syndrome whereby brain function continuously reduces. Alzheimer’s is the most common type of dementia. The most significantly affected age group affected by Alzheimer’s is…
-
Coal, meat, and energy; John Kerry’s interview with Andrew Marr and what it means for the United States’ decarbonisation strategy.
Long read: Sami Cheqrouni-Espinar writes about John Kerry’s proposals on new climate change legislation and how these have raised eyebrows and attracted criticism. What are the technical hurdles of implementing Kerry’s proposed policy and how have scientific experts responded? In an interview with BBC journalist Andrew Marr on the Andrew Marr Show, John Kerry, first…