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?
By Meg Booth, University of Cambridge
In January 2017, I attended a careers talk where I saw a presentation given by a Patent Attorney. I was immediately captivated by what sounded like the perfect career for me in that it would allow me to combine my technical background in molecular biology with my interests in science communication, writing and client relations.
James Brown, Biochemical Society
On the 1 May, the Biochemical Society will be at the opening film of the 18th London International Festival of Science Fiction and Fantastic Film. Prior to the film, geneticist, microbiologist, comedian and all round good egg Dr Charlotte Mykura will be giving a talk which aims to separate the science from the fiction and explore how fact can be even more unexpected than film. The film in question is Chimera, a Sci-Fi horror in which (and I quote), “A brilliant but disturbed scientist’s children are in cryogenic suspension, while he races to cure their deadly disease by decoding the DNA of the immortal Turritopsis jellyfish. To progress he needs lots of stem cells. A manipulative millionaire can help but she has her own agenda!”
By Arwen Nugteren, University of Queensland, Australia
Rotors were used in early combustion engines and are still used in electric engines and turbines today. That means that when we first built cars, back in 1886, they used rotors in their engines simply because that was just what worked.
ATP synthase was discovered in 1960 as an essential enzyme in aerobic cellular respiration, but it wasn’t until the 1990s when John E. Walker partnered with crystallographers to determine its structure.
By Valentina Gifford, University of Oxford
In March, I attended the The Dynamic Cell III meeting in Manchester, where, with great excitement, I presented my first poster. The meeting started with the Students/Postdocs symposium, where we got the chance to warm up and have a quick taste of the amazing research that was about to follow. Then, a perfect mix of more experienced and early-career scientists set the context for an inspiring scientific discussion, that brought together a wide variety of topics, all focusing on understanding cell functions, such as motility and cell-cell interactions. The quality of the presentations was outstanding and everybody was able to share his enthusiasm.
