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(c) Magnus Manske

When the Immune System Fails

Helen Carter

Unless you’re shot in the head or hit by a bus, your immune system has a major and direct influence on your life span! Here, Helen Carter explains what can happen when your immune response goes awry...

(c) NASA

What is Dark Matter and Dark Energy?

Frank Witte

Physics is full of surprises, but none so great as the discovery that 95% of the mass of the Universe is invisible to us. This is the so-called "Dark Matter" and "Dark Energy", but what are they, and how can we find out...?

(c) Paul Trotman

Donated to Science

Paul Trotman

Have you ever wondered what happens to a body when it is donated to a medical school? Have you ever wondered what it would be like to be a medical student and to take somebody apart to see how they worked? Now is your chance to find out, thanks to a film from New Zealand...

(c) André Karwath

Forgotten Knowledge: The Science of Scurvy

Andrew N Holding

Of all the slang names for the British, none is more iconic than 'Limey'. While the the term provokes majestic images of the Golden Age of Sail, scurvy cost countless sailors and seamen their lives. The results of James Lind's work in 1747 led to a cure. Yet in Cherry-Garrard's account of Scott's 1911 expedition to the South Pole, he writes: "There was little scurvy in Nelson’s days; but the reason is not clear" So why did Lind's results get forgotten?

(c) Derived from Andrew Dunn (from Wikipedia)

What is Quicksand?

Chris Smith

There was a time when almost every action movie seemed to involve the hero or villain becoming swamped in quicksand, sinking away until only their hat remains on the surface. But contrary to what Hollywood would have you believe, although it’s almost impossible to escape from quicksand, it's even more difficult to drown...

Flies are creatures of habit

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...

The Menstrual Cycle and Period Problems

Sarah Urquhart

A period, or menstruation, marks the beginning of the process by which the uterus, or womb, prepares itself for pregnancy. Sarah has a look at the process and what can go wrong including missed or late periods, intermenstrual bleeding, heavy periods, painful periods, pre-menstrual syndrome (PMS), and the menopause.

(c) Jeannie Moulton

The Science of the Supernova

Jeannie Moulton

A massive star ends its life with a BANG – a supernova - seen on Earth as bursts of energy in the form of light, including ultraviolet, x-rays and gamma rays. But what can we learn by studying these stellar death throes? Jeannie Moulton ventures into a supernova to find out...

Science in the Lap of Luxury

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...

(c) John Gamel

To sit or not to sit

John Gamel

Is urine bad? Yes, when it ends up on the bathroom floor. What can be done to avoid these unaesthetic accidents? As with many of the challenges confronted by humanity over the millennia, scientific insight might save the day, but the solution will demand a paradigm shift in our excretory habits, as John Gamel explains...

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