- Rachel Dentinger
In September 2010, the BBC reported an “Urgent call on EU to stop billion-euro 'alien invasion'”. But for all the talk of "invasion", the "aliens" at issue were none other than the organisms that we humans have taken on our voyages around the globe and relocated. What makes these species "invaders", rather than migrants? According to a group of critics from within ecology, it's our own prejudice against biotic outsiders. On a planet rife with biological change, much of it wrought by ourselves, it's time to reconsider the categories that define some species as "natives" and others as "invaders".
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- Harriet Dickinson
Everyone can contribute to the work of scientists. Harriet Dickinson explains how you can get involved, and why Science Needs YOU!
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- Robinson Fulweiler
Disruption of the nitrogen cycle can wreak havoc on ocean ecosystems for which oxygen is in short supply. Robin Fulweiler explores the formation of 'dead zones' in part II of The Nitrogen Story.
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- John Gamel
Leukaemia is a deadly cancer of the blood affecting over 250,000 people every year, many of which are children. It isn't caused by an infection or virus, but by uncontrolled proliferation of the victim's own cells. How do you poison the cancerous cells without destroying healthy tissue? Professor John Gamel explores the history of the search for a cure...
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- Kara Majerus
It’s pretty easy to get lost when you venture deep into the Jungle of Lambusango on the Isle of Buton, just off the South East coast of Sulawesi in Indonesia - a fact that I discovered more than once and to the amusement of the local guides with whom I worked during my summer on the Island. The purpose of my trip was to investigate the ranging behaviour of a small carnivore called a Malay civet. This species (and in particular the population I was studying) makes for a very good study model as they are the largest mammalian predator on Buton Island...
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- John Gamel
What do you do when you have freckles...um...down below? The discovery of a crop of pigmented spots on a sensitive body part put John Gamel in a squeeze...
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- Caroline Bell
Barnacles and mussels have an intimate relationship, but are they welcome house guests or uninvited squatters?
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- Emma Easton
Dating codes are placed on food to indicate the food is safe to eat before this date. But how are these dates decided, and what do they really mean? Emma Easton explains...
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- Katrina Stewart
Rare genetic mutations have been known to abolish pain, or to cause permanent agony. But what if subtle differences in genes mean that everyone has a different pain threshold that is hard-wired into their genetics?
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- John Aveson
Spinning hundreds of times per second and carrying a load equivalent to the weight of a family car, often at temperatures approaching the melting point of the metal, the blades in a modern jet engine have to withstand what is arguably one of the harshest environments any engineered material must face. So what are the substances that can rise to this challenge, and how do they beat the odds? To find out, materials scientist John Aveson explores the science of the superalloy...
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