By Dragana Catici, University of Bath
Did you know that, just like us, other viruses can get infected with viruses too? Viruses have always challenged our views of life. These small obligate parasites, with sizes ranging from 20–400 nm, have been the cause of much pain and death throughout the history of life on Earth.
By Jirayu “Boo Boo” Tanprasertsuk, Ph.D. candidate in Biochemical and Molecular Nutrition, Tufts University
Jirayu was the winner of the 2018 Biochemical Society Science Communication Competition (video category). Here Jirayu explores some of his inspirations in creating his video. You can see his winning entry, “Eating for your eyes”, here. The winning written article, by Victoria Bolton, is published in the August 2018 issue of The Biochemist magazine, which you can find here.
Shaked Regev, Stanford University, California
Imagine a world where people can continue going about their lives exactly as they are, while making animal friendly and environmentally conscious choices. Clean meat, also known as cultured meat, could very well make this a reality within the next few years. The idea is essentially to create meat without necessitating the slaughter animals, by growing their cells in a bioreactor under suitable conditions, such as a medium with all the nutrients the cells need, as well as the ideal temperature and pressure for their growth. But why bother changing our food system? What’s wrong with it as things stand?
Emma Pettengale, Portland Press
You might have seen the recent news story about Judy Perkins – the woman cured of terminal breast cancer using her own immune cells in a world first. Some doctors believe that the pioneering development could mark a “paradigm shift” in cancer research and we’re going to take a look at the case, and explain the science behind it!
James Brown, Biochemical Society
We are pleased to announce the winners of our Science Communication Competition. Now in its seventh year, the competition attracted entries from all over the world which were reviewed by our panel of expert judges. The competition asks entrants to create an engaging, creative article or video explaining biomolecular topics to the general public. More information about the competition can be found on our website.
Lauren Cutmore, Bart’s Cancer Institute, Queen Mary University of London
How do you think science is portrayed in the media?
Do you think it’s important to communicate your research with the general public? These were both questions that were posed at the Stand Up for Science workshop in Manchester on Friday 13 April.
Claudia Bonfio, MRC Laboratory of Molecular Biology, Cambridge, UK
For a young undergraduate student, attending a conference could mean visiting a new country, having fun (and drinks) with other group members and grabbing as many gadgets as possible from sponsors’ stands. For an academically-grown up postdoc, together with attending great scientific talks, attending conferences means networking with people in the same field or outside of it, to create new collaborations and partnerships.
