Protecting cassava from disease? There’s an app for that
Reading Time: 4 minutesBY AMANDA RAMCHARAN Postdoctoral Researcher, Pennsylvania State University CASSAVA is one of the developing world’s most important crops. Its starchy roots and leaves are a staple food for more than 500 million people in Africa each day. And Africa produces half of the world’s total cassava output; the continent’s main growers are the Congo, Côte […]
Why do human forget?
Reading Time: < 1 minuteTHE brain, with its 100 billion neurons, allows us to do amazing things like learn multiple languages, or build things that send people into outer space. Yet despite this astonishing capacity, we routinely can’t remember where we put our keys, we forget why we went to the grocery store, and we fail when trying to […]
A NEW KIND OF CHIMERIC
Reading Time: < 1 minuteResearchers have produced sheep-human hybrid embryos that could one day represent the future of organ donation – by using body parts grown inside unnatural, engineered animals. “The contribution of human cells so far is very small. It’s nothing like a pig with a human face or human brain,” stem cell biologist Hiro Nakauchi from Stanford […]
Scientists discovered bacteria that produce gold by digesting toxic metals
Reading Time: 3 minutesHIGH concentrations of heavy metals, like copper and gold, are toxic for most living creatures. This is not the case for the bacterium C. metallidurans, which has found a way to extract valuable trace elements from a compound of heavy metals without poisoning itself. One interesting side-effect: the formation of tiny gold nuggets. A team […]
Pushing mosquito genetics away from blood meals
Reading Time: 3 minutesTHE value of being able to force disease-carrying mosquitoes away from biting human or animals is almost immeasurable. Diseases such as malaria, dengue, and Zika affect hundreds of millions of people annually due to female mosquitoes requiring nutrient-rich blood to support their developing eggs. However, there already exists a mosquito species called Wyeomyia smithii in […]
What animal dies and comes back to life?
Reading Time: < 1 minuteWHAT? Is it true that an animal comes back to life after death? The answer is yes. Mind blowing right? There are a few animals that have this unique ability. One of it is the, Rana sylvatica, a species of wood frog whose special abilities boggle the mind of scientists. “The tiny amphibians can survive […]
Who is afraid of GM0s?
Reading Time: 4 minutesBY MARGARET KAREMBU THE genetically modified organism (GMO) debate remains engulfed in a maelstrom of controversies. Sadly, what is largely a first world debate continues to increasingly hurt poor farmers in the developing world. While sharing knowledge about developments in modern biotechnology and biosafety around the globe, I have had an opportunity to interact with […]
Sweet way to greater yield
Reading Time: < 1 minuteTHREE years ago, biotechnologists demonstrated in field trials that they could increase the productivity of maize by introducing a rice gene into the plant that regulated the accumulation of sucrose in kernels and led to more kernels per maize plant. They knew that the rice gene affected the performance of a natural chemical in maize, […]
Decoding the axolotl genome – A new hope for regenerative medicine?
Reading Time: 3 minutesBY ANDREJA GREGORIC A TEAM of researchers decoded the entire genetic information of the salamander axolotl. It is the largest genome ever to be sequenced. The “Mexican walking fish” could provide us with the foundation for novel insights into human tissue regeneration capacities. This extraordinary amphibian, Ambystoma mexicanu does not undergo metamorphosis but rather keeps […]
Why do human cry?
Reading Time: < 1 minuteTEARS well up in people’s eyes for a slew of reasons. We can cry out of sadness, fear, frustration, anger, or even joy. But why do streams of liquid leave our eyes? For the most part, tears help maintain healthy eyes. For instance, basal tears flow continuously from the lacrimal glands, or the tiny almond-shaped […]