Most biologists would agree that the most extraordinary development of the 21st century has been the discovery and manipulation of the CRISPR/Cas9 method of gene editing – a natural defence mechanism that bacteria use to defend against viral infection which scientists have hijacked to modify the DNA sequence of living cells. Continue reading Prime editing – a cutting edge new development in genomic engineering
I think many people in STEM are aware that currently most teams, departments, or student populations are not reflective of wider society. But beyond just the numbers and percentages of different identities that make up a team we need to be listening to and acting on the actual experiences of those underrepresented groups. Continue reading Being an ally in STEM
We live in an age where food is grossly abundant. Those distant days when people foraged the land for plants to eat — and even when they shifted to setting up their own farms — seems almost inconceivable now. The intensive nature of the food industry has meant that there’s virtually nothing you can’t buy on a trip to your local supermarket, even if it’s come from the other side of the world. Continue reading Is ‘clean meat’ possible?
Paywalls have become the scourge of this intrepid desk-chair policy officer, and I sometimes find myself reminiscing about my former university libraries with their vast range of journal subscriptions and inter-library loans, which together made paywalls seemingly non-existent. Continue reading Open access: what’s all the fuss about?
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