Author: EUSci
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Mapping Subtidal Seagrass Bed (Zostera marina) Habitat Suitability in Scotland
This research article, written by Le Huang is based on her Master’s dissertation project for MSc Marine Systems and Policies (2020/21) at the University of Edinburgh. Specifically, her dissertation project mapped seagrass bed habitat suitability in Scotland. This project was conducted under the supervision of the University of Edinburgh, and NatureScot. This article summarises the…
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‘It is because of the brave women of the past that we can enjoy the freedoms that we have today’
Alice Drinkwater reflects on the story of Eunice Newton Foote, the unrecognised climate change pioneer who did not have the right to vote, let alone an equal voice to male scientists at the time of her discoveries in the 1850s.
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Could locusts be the future of bomb detection? The “surprisingly simple” brain mechanism behind locust scent recognition
Lily Sharratt-Davidson explores how researchers attempting to bioengineer bomb-sniffing locusts have discovered that the insect’s sense of smell is governed by an arithmetic neuron mechanism. For several years now a team at Washington University in St. Louis has been researching the odour sensing system of locusts, with the aim of bioengineering locusts that are able…
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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…
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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.
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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…
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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…
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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,…
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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…
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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.