Category: Feature
-
A new interpretation of dreams: Our in-dream behaviours highlight our unconscious anxieties
A dream: You’re in a room with a man who is extremely dirty. He tells you that he is sad, and he would like you to accompany him to bed because of this. In the room is a double bed, but not a normal double bed. The bed is a health and safety hazard. It…
-
A tale of two wildfires: the Amazon Rainforest and the Congo Basin
When NASA released satellite imaging of the Brazil forest fires on the 24th August, it quickly became apparent that Brazil was not the only country set alight. The image, taken from NASA’s Terra Satellite, displays red bands of fire in Brazil, around Bolivia’s border with Brazil and a large band across Central Africa. Emerging from…
-
PTSD: The evolutionary advantage
A third of people who survive traumatic events experience post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD). PTSD survivors involuntarily and vividly relive their trauma through flashbacks and nightmares. To escape these painful reminders, they try to avoid any potential triggers, and they are constantly on edge. This has devastating consequences on their quality of life. Jacqui, a rape…
-
The gendered dimensions of autism
Gender has been at the forefront of discussion in recent years. Amongst all the talk about social issues, is there a place for science? Can you be disadvantaged –or indeed advantaged –by your sex when it comes to disorders and disease? Sexual dimorphism is the physiological and behavioural difference between sexes. It arises through natural…
-
Being a woman in science: Changed times?
As part of the Edinburgh Science Festival, the Royal Society of Edinburgh hosted a panel, “Being a Woman in Science: Changed Times?” The panel brought together three very different women, from three very different backgrounds. Professor Dame Jocelyn Bell Burnell is an astrophysicist who grew up in Ireland in the 1950s and made a name…
-
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…
-
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…
-
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…
-
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…
-
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…