Tag: research
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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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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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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.
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Secrets of the salamander: Genes identified in limb regeneration
Researchers at Yale University have used an adapted method of haploid genetic screening, which involves creating transplantable grafts from mutated tissue containing only half of the genome, to reveal critical genes involved in limb regeneration in axolotls. Published in the journal eLife, this study highlights that by adapting established methods of genetic screening, researchers can…
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Wound-healing sticky tape for surgeries inspired by spiders
Who would have thought that our eight-legged friends could inspire the design of a double-sided tape to seal body tissue together after surgery? Researchers at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) designed a double-sided tape to glue body tissue together post-surgery, inspired by the natural “glue” that spiders secrete to catch their prey in the…
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New evidence suggests climate change is affecting animal behavior
Weather and climate have a significant influence on life on Earth. Weather is the condition of the atmosphere at a specific time and place. It is described by several elements such as temperature, precipitation, wind, and clouds. Climate refers to the long-term pattern of weather in a particular area. When we talk about climate change,…
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Protein power: Dementia study reinforces role of damaging proteins in Alzheimer’s disease
A study, led by Professor Tara-Spires Jones at the University of Edinburgh, has elucidated the role of clusterin, a protein that accumulates at synapses in the brain, characteristic of Alzheimer’s disease. Researchers studied brain tissue from deceased Alzheimer’s patients, which showed that the accumulation of clusterin occurs at synapses in addition to the aggregation of…
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Multiple sclerosis: Pinpointing risk factors
Because Scotland is of the countries with the highest incidence of multiple sclerosis (MS) in the world, many Scottish researchers are trying to figure out how it develops and working towards new treatments. A research group based at the University of Edinburgh has just published a new Scottish Multiple Sclerosis Register (SMSR) in the Journal…