Author: News
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Poverty can leave a mark on our DNA
A team at Northwestern University, Illinois, USA, have announced that experience of poverty can leave a mark on a person’s DNA, specifically in the epigenetics of their genome. Poverty, discussed here as a low socioeconomic status (SES), has long been associated with poor health and reduced life expectancy. This has been used in practice, with…
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Neuroscientist Gina Rippon dismantled the myth of the ‘female brain’
The work of Dr Gina Rippon has veered into controversial territory. More controversial, in fact, than you might expect, given that her primary research question is simply “how do brains become different from each other?” The source of much of this controversy is a book that she has written entitled “The Gendered brain,” which challenges…
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Health trackers: help or hindrance?
CW: Mental health, eating disorders, exercise Health trackers have a huge presence in our lives, whether it’s the health app in iPhones or wearable devices such as Fitbits. They quietly record our steps, heart rate, sleep patterns and symptoms, as well as store personal information, all with the aim of helping us monitor and improve our overall health, or, in…
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Medical Cannabis: An evening of discussion at Edinburgh Science Festival
As part of its series of evening discussions, the Edinburgh Science Festival hosted an evening of talks on the properties of medicinal cannabis and barriers to its use in the United Kingdom. Panellists included pharmacologist and co-founder of the International Cannabinoid Research Society Professor Roger Pertwee, neurologist Professor Mike Barnes and medicinal cannabis advocate Karen…
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No pain, sane brain: Clues to pain and anxiety treatment
Jo Cameron, 71, recently discovered that her pain insensitivity was unlike her peers. This is despite the former teacher from Inverness experiencing a sensation as small as a ‘tickle’ during childbirth 40 years ago, believing her peers to have exaggerated the pain. In daily life, she had broken limbs, cuts and burns, and underwent many…
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The necessity of gender-neutral toilets
Entering a toilet is a choice; a choice between entering a women’s or a men’s toilet. It’s so easy, that some people may not even think about it as a choice. To be exact, cis people (people who are completely comfortable with the gender they were assigned at birth) don’t have to think twice about…
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Can mushrooms stimulate healthy ageing?
Mushrooms are divisive, as far as foods go. Some people love their earthy flavour that seems to absorb the best parts of the food it’s served with. Others complain about their bland, rubbery texture. Most people don’t even realise that mushrooms aren’t vegetables. As fungi, they’re actually more closely related to animals than to plants…
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An evening with a Steminist
‘I’m a STEM-INIST’- read the clever amalgamated (STEM + Feminist) caption on the T-shirt worn by Professor Dame Anne Glover, catching the eyes of the audience, as she stepped on the to the stage to deliver her talk on why ‘diversity makes life better for everybody’. She had been invited as the keynote speaker to…
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How old is HIV? The United Kingdom and HIV/AIDS research
The discovery of a viral cause for acquired immunodeficiency syndrome (AIDS) in 1983 by Françoise Barré-Sinoussi at the Pasteur Institute in Paris marked a major achievement in scientific and LGBTQ+ history. In May 1986, the International Committee on Taxonomy of Viruses gave it its current name: human immunodeficiency virus (HIV). HIV/AIDS ravaged the gay community…
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Little trouble makers
Welcome to 2019: the time of sophisticated technology like never before. Your handheld computer resting in your pocket, your light-weighted laptop, your magical Bluetooth device, your orchestral MP3 player and your seemingly limitless option of movies on your smart TV are all a product of technological innovations for pleasure. Technological advances have also carried over…