Category Archives: Life sciences
Focus: A World of Music
BlueSci explores the phenomenon of music—what it is, where it comes from and why we do it Listen. Silence? Or the strange cacophony of ordered sound that is the latest Rhianna track or a Bach partita? If you are not currently plugged into your iPod or humming a tune, chances are you have been at [...]
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Cover: Electron Microscopy
Nicola Love explains the technique used to obtain this issue’s cover image In the 1670s Antonie Van Leeuwenhoek revolutionised science when he began to experiment with magnification. His curiosity to observe anything that could be placed under a magnifying lens led him to be the first person to describe many microscopic entities, such as bacteria, [...]
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Music is my drug
A new study reveals that pleasurable music engages reward-related neurocircuitry. Scientists found that discovering a new favourite song activates similar reward circuitry involved in the pleasure we get from delicious food or drugs like cocaine. In the study, conducted by Salimpoor and colleagues, 19 volunteers were played 30 second samples of 60 songs they [...]
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Bacteria commit suicide to protect others
Escherichia coli bacteria commit suicide to protect other bacteria, even when they don’t share many genes with them; a study published in Proceedings of the Royal Society Biological Sciences shows. The Kin-Selection theory explains why some organisms sacrifice their own reproduction in order to help other organisms reproduce. A common misinterpretation of this theory [...]
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Feature: Food for Thought?
Brianne Kent investigates the links between appetite and brain development. The hormone that is making you hungry might also be making you smarter. There is growing evidence of an important relationship between metabolic processes and cognitive function. For example, caloric restriction, the dietary regimen that limits calorie intake, has been shown to reduce age-related [...]
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A stroke of genius
Feeling the pinch? This expression shows how negatively we view the sensation of being pinched. Scientists have known for some time about the existence of specific neurons, cells of the nervous system, dedicated to detecting this nasty event. Research from Caltech has identified mouse neurons specifically receptive to stroking Showing that stimulating certain cells [...]
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A sea of possibilities for new antibiotics
The collaborative project PharmaSea aims to combat the growing problem of antibiotic resistance by looking for new drugs in our ocean trenches. Each time we use an antibiotic, the weaker strains of infection are killed off while the stronger, more virulent strains are left behind to multiply. In the past, this has not caused much [...]
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Away from the Bench: Altitude Science