Having recently started my PhD on the conservation management of elasmobranch (sharks, rays and skates) populations, I embarked on my first fieldwork season to Ecuador. Many people, including most of my friends, asked me if this involved swimming with sharks- and as glamorous as that sounded – their faces dropped when I inevitably told them that I went to fish markets in Ecuador to collect samples from dead sharks. Perhaps not as exciting as they had hoped.
Ever since the first demonstration of gene editing technologies, the scientific community has been abuzz with debate and speculation about their potential applications. But rather less well known may be the parallel legal battles over how these powerful new methods should be regulated, one of which recently found its way to the European Union’s highest court, the CJEU.
f you work in a lab, you will know that feeling when your supervisor says ‘you have it easy, it was never like this back when I was doing lab work…’ To be fair to our supervisors, times have changed and with it, a lot of experiments are easier. The crazy thing is, these changes really have happened overnight.
There is a historical precedent for major scientific advances that have come from those who have not necessarily followed the traditional academic route for their field. The field of genetics has been no exception to this phenomenon, from its conception by a particularly tenacious Augustinian monk to the somewhat less well-known story of a certain English public school teacher, Ronald Fisher.
Affecting approximately 20-30% of children and 2-3% of adults globally, eczema (which is synonymous with atopic dermatitis) is the most common skin disease at present. Primarily characterised as an itchy and inflammatory skin disease, research has aimed to answer the question of what causes eczema?
Science communication is increasingly needed these days. Earlier this year, I had a chance to showcase my skills in doing some science communication using photographs as media.
Space travel rarely fails to capture the human imagination. Yuri Gagarin first escaped the Earth’s atmosphere in 1961, and 57 years later, our appetite for extra-terrestrial exploration shows no sign of slowing down.
