Tag: science
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Space Junk – a serious threat to our space missions
In 2009, a Russian and an American satellite in orbit collided with each other creating lots of debris in the process. In recent years, space junk has increased significantly, endangering future space missions. Space junk or space debris is defined as machinery or debris left by humans in space. These could range from dead satellites…
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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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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.
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Drug found to have opposing effects on the minds of male & female mice
Tommy O’Regan tells the story of how, for the first time in medical history, a drug has been found to have completely opposing effects on the memories of mice depending on their sex. A team of researchers investigating the molecular mechanisms underlying fear memories at the Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona (INc-UAB) has discovered something striking…
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Scientists pinpoint how much time we have left before global warming reaches critical levels
Global warming is the most pressing environmental threat that humanity faces today. The harmful effects that it has brought about are visible, with glaciers melting, sea levels rising and wildfires ramping across the Earth. If global warming continues at its current rate, the Earth will soon be too hot to live on. Up until now,…
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What can we learn from ye olde medicine?
Ellie Bennett explores how answers to the global problem of antimicrobial resistance, a decidedly modern phenomenon, may lie in the lotions and potions of our ancient predecessors. The Romans gargled urine for mouthwash, the Ancient Egyptians used dung as remedy for, well, everything and Hippocrates diagnosed his patients’ by nibbling on an amuse bouche of…