Articles
Florida’s Archbold Biological Station gives online access to unusual natural history collection
The Archbold Biological Station, a world-renowned ecological field station based in Florida, USA, is uploading its natural history collection onto the Internet for the first time. The diverse collection, containing 270,000 specimens of more than 10,000 species will provide researchers and students around the world, with access to this rich source of ecological data. This highly collaborative project, which involves […]
CPHA: The heart of Canadian public health
Health related issues, such as diabetes, heart disease or obesity, can often be hugely influenced by public health initiatives. In her role as Chair of the Canadian Public Health Association (CPHA), Dr Suzanne Jackson champions a public health perspective on important public policy discussions that impact the health and well-being of Canadians. She spoke to us about CPHA’s influence since […]
BAS: Investigating icy waters with Boaty McBoatface
Oceans are not only filled with many weird and wonderful creatures, but they can also slow down climate change – storing human-produced carbon and heat in their oceanic depths. Understanding how this process happens is vital to predicting the impact climate change will have over the coming years. Professor Mike Meredith, science leader at the British Antarctic Survey, focuses on […]
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Globalisation through a post-colonialist lens: understanding our past is key to our present
Professor Diana Brydon is a leading research scholar, working at the intersections of globalisation and post-colonial cultural studies. Through her work, we can see how processes of globalisation have changed many aspects of our daily lives. She frames her study of concepts such as autonomy, community and democracy with the understanding that the history of colonialism is still entangled in […]
Emerging forms of metropolitan governance in Latin America
As Latin America’s middle classes have expanded considerably in the last few years, so have their aspirations for improved living standards, especially in metropolitan areas. Since 2007, Dr Raúl Acosta García of the University of Konstanz has been investigating the efforts of grassroots activists in Guadalajara, Mexico. During this time, he has witnessed a wave of activism through which people […]
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A sustainable approach to environmental management
Ten faculty members from the University of South Dakota and eleven undergraduate students from across the United States including Puerto Rico, came together through the Sustainable RIVER (Remediating InVasives to Encourage Resilience) program to study how a complex suite of historical and contemporary factors affect the current functioning and management of the Upper Missouri River. Most of society’s grand challenges […]
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From beer to brains: how yeast molecular genetics prove the importance of introns
Scientific discoveries often come from the most unlikely of places, and Dr Tracy Johnson’s work is no exception. Using a yeast system typically used to make beer or bread, Dr Johnson and her team at UCLA have uncovered important genetic findings that could highlight the importance of intron retention during gene expression. Her research looks at the science of gene […]
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Fluoxetine (Prozac) use in children: working towards a customised approach
Dr Mari Golub from the Environmental Toxicology Department at the University of California at Davis, has recently completed a five-year research project looking at the behavioural effects of fluoxetine (Prozac) on brain development. Her findings, which have so far been published in eight academic papers, supplement information on the safety of fluoxetine use in children, and show for the first […]
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Communicating the language of plants through inositol phosphates
Organisms require a variety of signalling pathways to communicate with and respond to their environment. Components such as signalling molecules function as the communicators of cellular language. Dr Imara Perera and her colleagues are investigating one group of signalling molecules, inositol phosphates and their derivatives, to understand its role in plant communication. All organisms interact with and respond to their […]
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Controlling magnesium flux: a central role for the PRL-CNNM complex
Magnesium is an essential metal ion for human health. However, its ability to act as a supplementary therapy against disease is a poorly understood area of science. Professor Michel L. Tremblay and his team at McGill University in Montreal, Canada, are looking to change this though, and are currently investigating the role of the newly discovered pathway, PRL-CNNM, in controlling […]
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