- Beth Ashbridge
Since scientists discovered how DNA behaves like a giant genetic recipe book encoding the entire suite of proteins needed for a cell to function, they've also been looking for a simple way to selectively and simply switch off some of those genes to find out how they work. Now there is such a tool. It's called RNA interference or RNAi and it's recently won the discoverers a Nobel prize. But how does it work and could it also be the medical answer to a host of problem genetic diseases? Beth Ashbridge finds out...
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- Frank Witte
Recent Mars missions have produced compelling evidence for what was once a wet world, where life could well have flourished. Now scientists are about to embark on a mission with the best chances yet of finding it. Touching down near the Martian north pole, the Phoenix lander will begin looking for the chemical hallmarks of life past and present. But what do we already know about our near planetary neighbour? Frank Witte finds out...
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- Helen Carter
Every day our bodies are assailed by microbes of all descriptions, but for the most part we successfully fend them off. In this article Helen Carter explores the basis of human immunity...
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- Stuart Clark
When the clipper ship Southern Cross sailed into a living hell off Chile during the night of 2 September 1859, little did the sailors know that they were witnessing the aftermath of a gigantic solar explosion that had engulfed the Earth. Today, astronomers are still unpicking the consequences of this tremendous event.
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- Helen Rogers
The European Parliament voted recently to include CO2 emissions from the aviation industry in its carbon trading scheme from 2011, but did they get it wrong by also including the impact of contrail formation and emissions of nitrogen oxides? What would happen, for instance, if Parliament adopted the same methodology for shipping? Helen Rogers explains why it's not all "plane" sailing…
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- Catherine Zentile
The buzz of a bumblebee is one of the quintessential sounds of summer time. But this ‘slender sound’ and ‘faint utterance’ that was so admired by Wordsworth is under threat because bumblebees are in crisis: of the 25 species native to Britain, three have already been declared extinct. But why are they suffering and what can we do to stem the problem...?
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- Christopher Stanton
Do microscopic fossils hold the key to understanding climate change? Scientists studying tiny marine shellfish called ostracodes have found that they harbour in their shells is a geologic snapshot of the water conditions in which they grew, including chemical pointers to past climates...
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- Chris Smith
The feasibility of a female oestrus amongst humans had been dismissed by the masses. But now a study of tipping amongst lap-dancers has confirmed that oestrus appears to be alive and kicking...
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- Catherine Zentile
Snowflakes form when water vapour condenses directly into ice crystals, and for many years writers have used their delicate beauty as a metaphor for fragility and uniqueness. But now scientists are studying these same qualities to understand one of the most important molecules on Earth – water.
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- Robinson Fulweiler
Equivalent in land area to 14 Isle of Mans, or Rhode Island State twice over, the Louisiana Wetlands are one of the most important acquatic ecological sites in the world. But now they're disappearing, fast - an area the size of a tennis court slips into the sea every thirteen seconds. But what is this wilderness and what can be done to save it...?
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