- Ana Rossi
Ion channels are miniature pores in the membranes of cells. They're the gatekeepers controlling which ions can move into and out of cells, meaning that they control almost every aspect of life itself. This also means they're important drug targets. But to develop effective and selective agents to hit just the right channel means that scientists need to understand the precise structure and workings of each of them. A daunting task, but now new technology has provided a way to do just that...
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- Bjoern Brembs
Flies are creatures of habit - at least that's what the latest research on the fruit fly Drosophila has found. In this article Bjoern Brembs explains how a marine snail started him on the road to uncover the brain basis of learning...
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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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- Catherine Zentile
I.Q. scores have been rising steadily, by about 3 points per decade, ever since they were first administered. This is the Flynn Effect and it means that if we take the average teenager of today with an I.Q. of 100 and project the trend back to the 1900s, the average I.Q. was somewhere between 50 and 70 which usually marks a mental disability! Surely this cannot be correct...?
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- Philip Strange
Surprising as it sounds, one of the world's top tipples a century ago was laced with cocaine. And although the manufacturers have changed the recipe in recent years, Coca Cola is still a market leader, but why was the cocaine there in the first place, and where does the drug come from?
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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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- Chris Smith
Beating your head against a hard surface can be a sign of frustration, yet for a woodpecker it’s a fact of life. So why don't nature's headbangers develop brain damage or a permanent migraine?
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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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- Robinson Fulweiler
Climate change has been blamed with altering the environment – from animal migrations to sea level. Now it's also affecting nutrient cycling. Excess nitrogen discharged into estuaries used to be removed by a bacterial process in the sediments. But recent research shows a dramatic change...
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- Chris Smith
What causes cold sores and genital herpes, how do herpes viruses cause disease, why do herpes infections persist for life and how can cold sores and genital herpes be treated, and how does this all relate to Romeo and Juliet?
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