Research – The Biochemist Blog

August 14, 2017 Research

Unseen waste in our waterways: a hidden environmental problem

By Brittany Maule, Indiana Department of Environmental Management, USA

Coffee is the most popular beverage in the world. Americans in the U.S. consume 400 million coffee cups per day, and about 30% of those coffee drinkers add some sort of sugar or sweetener to their drink. Where does all that caffeine and sweetener go? What about all the other stuff we use every day? The answer that is becoming more and more concrete is in our waterways.

I wandered lonely as syphilis

By Raniel Ponteras, University of St La Salle

Have you ever consulted a phrase of poetry to mend a wound cut by romantic abandon? Perhaps a line or two from Ovid, García Lorca, or Byron can soothe a festering gash. But would you ever take counsel from a poet to succour some sores down there – from a scourge named syphilis?

July 24, 2017 Research

Frontier forensics: the rise of environmental DNA analysis

By Alexander Evans, University of Leeds

The natural world is under threat from many anthropogenic sources, such as the spread of harmful invasive species and the decline of native populations due to habitat loss and climate change. Finding new technologies and methods to assess and tackle these increasingly global problems is crucial. However, in order to tackle big problems, sometimes you need small solutions. One such emerging tiny tool is the sequencing of environmental DNA (eDNA)!

July 20, 2017 Research

The darker side to global warming?

By Sabrina Hossain, University of Birmingham

Global warming is undeniably one of the greatest issues of our day and age. From the ‘fake news’ nay-sayers to the cohort of scientists at the forefront of the battle; global warming is the hot topic on everyone’s lips. Now a majority of you reading may be concerned that this will be just another blog post on the mechanics of global warming accompanied with the obligatory all so familiar fearful statistics of the consequences.