The Biochemist Blog

‘Introduction to DNA’ for primary pupils

By Sharon Williams, Coventry University, UK

On the 7th and 8th of July, six staff and ambassadors from Coventry University ran a fun and interactive DNA activity for children age 7-11 and their families. The activity took place at the Coventry FabLab in the city centre. The idea behind the DNA workshop is to give the community an opportunity to have free family science activities. The event has allowed 7-11 years old to do hands-on activities related to Molecular Biosciences, with the support of their families.

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.

August 11, 2017 Education & careers / Student-focused

PhD reflections: lessons and advice

By Ralitsa Madsen, Institute of Metabolic Science, Cambridge, UK

As a driven PhD student who is dedicating most of my waking hours to a very ambitious project, I often need to justify my choice to others. Wouldn’t I be set up for success with fewer hours in the lab, less scientific reading and a bit more faith in my own talent? My usual response is to ask the following question: how do elite athletes succeed?

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.

July 13, 2017 Policy / Research

Will better toxicity testing sound death knell for animal experimentation?

By Wayne Carter, University of Nottingham

Well it won’t, completely, but it may go some way to reduce the number of animals used in drug development. Drugs need to undergo extensive safety and toxicity testing before being made available to the public on the shelves of a pharmacy.

July 11, 2017 Research / Student-focused

A day in the life of a cardiovascular biology PhD student

By Tom Keeley, King’s College London, UK

I’ve spent the last three years looking for a better way to recreate and observe cell responses in the laboratory. This has been the focus for my PhD, ‘Defining an in vitro model of normoxia and its implications for nitric oxide signalling’, which I’ve been researching in the Vascular Biology Lab in the British Heart Foundation Centre of Research Excellence at King’s College London.

July 7, 2017 Policy / Uncategorized

Parliamentary Links Day 2017 – UK Science and Global Opportunities?

Max Thompson, University of Kent

As a PhD student with an interest in science policy, I was very excited to get the chance attend Parliamentary Links Day 2017. The subject was global opportunities and UK science, which sounded to me like it would entail a lot of discussion of Brexit and general policies which influence the internationalism of UK science, something which I feel very strongly about.