Author: News
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Edinburgh International Science Festival 2018 / A Celebration of Women in Astronomy
Prof. Dame Jocelyn Bell Burnell is currently a Visiting Professor of Astrophysics at the University of Oxford and is famous for the significant scientific achievement of discovering the first radio pulsars in 1967. The discovery was recognised with a Nobel Prize for Physics, but she was excluded despite having been the first to observe and…
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Edinburgh International Science Festival 2018 / Edinburgh Medal Address: Prof. Cordelia Fine
Since 1989, the Edinburgh Medal is awarded to scientists during the International Science Festival. The award recognises their contributions to science and technology, and to the better understanding and well-being of humanity. This year, Prof. Cordelia Fine joined the long list of awarded scientists for her work on gender equality and her contribution to close…
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Edinburgh International Science Festival 2018 / Synthetica
Last weekend saw the launch of the 2018 edition of the Edinburgh International Science Festival and, as always, the events on offer are tailored science enthusiasts of all ages and backgrounds and span much further than the realm of day-to-day research. A perfect example is Synthetica, a contemporary art exhibition which is bringing together science…
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Silence no more – correcting hearing loss with CRISPR
Hearing loss is a health problem affecting over 5% of the world’s population. It is a complex disease, which can be caused by both environmental factors (such as noise pollution, medication and traumas) as well as genetic factors. One such genetic factor arises from mutations found in humans in a gene called Tmc1 (transmembrane…
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Evolution through brain asymmetry
We humans share roughly 98.5% of our genetic material with our closest living relatives, chimpanzees. This extraordinarily high level of genetic homology highlights the requirement for small but striking genetic differences between these two species, as we look and behave differently. A team of Edinburgh neuroscientists, in collaboration with colleagues from the University of Oxford…
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Binary neutron stars: new ground for LIGO
As covered in our previous article, the Laser Interferometer Gravitational-wave Observatory (LIGO) has made several successful detections of gravitational waves. The latest detection differs in the previous made to date in that it comes from two neutron stars colliding with one and other. For the first time, scientists have directly detected gravitational waves in addition…
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Blurring the lines between biology and technology
How can one create a computer virus in DNA, you ask? Well, it is not as complicated as it may seem. First, the ‘virus’ program is converted into 2-bit binary data (series of 0s and 1s) and with each combination containing an analogue to the nucleotide bases (adenine, thymine, etc.). 00 is converted to A,…
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EUSci at the Fringe 2017 / 1 Woman, a High-Flyer and a Flat Bottom
Samantha Baines’ latest effort was promoted with one objective: to restore three lost women of science to the modern consciousness. Although set within a bunker with an approximate capacity of 35, it achieves its primary purpose. Word-of-mouth will transmit her message amplified by every attendee enlightened with the knowledge of these luminaries. In this, I…
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An attempt at understanding fragile X syndrome
Several diseases within the autistic spectrum are often linked to genetic mutations that affect protein synthesis in neurons. An example of this type of disease , affecting as many as 1 in 4000 males and 1 in 6000 females in the UK alone, is the so called fragile X syndrome. Mutations in the FMR1 gene,…
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Fighting antibiotic resistance with nothing new
In 2013, the American Centre for Disease Control warned that humanity is approaching a “post-antibiotic era”, a time where bacterial infections become untreatable and mortality rates soar. Even today, multi-drug resistant bacteria are attributed with causing the deaths of 23,000 Americans (more than double that of gun-related homicides) and 25,000 Europeans every year. A major…