This post was written by Toby Beaven, one of our Chemistry tutors who is currently working at the International Science Festival as a Science Communicator. Thank you Toby for contributing this post to our blog! It’s Festival Time! 2013 marks the 25th year of the Edinburgh International Science Festival. It feels somewhat serendipitous that in my [...]

New Year, New Blog Welcome back from the Christmas break everyone.  I hope the snow is cheering you up, and I’m sure that if it does that has nothing to do with any school closures. This year, I am thinking of introducing a new feature.  Occasionally when I’m in a tutorial, my student asks me [...]

Our Long Lost Tail and 4 Other Vestigial Features Vestigial features are body parts, organs or even behaviours and reactions that no longer provide the same function as they used to in our bodies. Scientists use them as evidence of our common ancestry with animals still using them with their original functions i.e. evidence for [...]

The Science of Baking: Flour and Gluten If you’re making a cake, you’ll probably use flour. Flour is used in baking to give structure, flavour and texture to baked food.  It can also be used to thicken creams and fillings, and, all-importantly, for dusting counters to stop things sticking.  While it’s mostly thought of as [...]

Watch very carefully… Before you read this post, watch this video: It’s about how close you can pay attention.  Go ahead, give it a quick watch. Scroll down to keep reading Now, be honest, did you see the gorilla?  If you did see it, it probably looked quite obvious.  Yet roughly 50% of people who [...]

The Science of Sleep Surprisingly, there isn’t a proper answer to the question ‘why do we sleep?’. Instead, it’s easier to answer ‘why don’t we not sleep’.  Research has shown lack of sleep can cause headaches, increased irritability, problems with memory, aching muscles …. The list goes on [1]! Long term sleep deprivation in animals [...]

The Curious Case of Cosmic Rays 2012 marks the 100 year anniversary of Victor Hess’s official discovery of cosmic rays for which he received the Nobel Prize in 1936 [1]. But skipping forward to the present day, scientists still don’t know where these mysterious particles come from… What are cosmic rays? Well first of all, [...]

  Hurricane Sandy on October 28th.  The image is from NOAA’s GOES-13 satellite [1]. Hurricane Sandy and Climate change At the end of October, Hurricane Sandy devastated the Caribbean and the East coast of America.  At one point it was among the largest hurricanes ever recorded in the Atlantic.  Was the unusual size of Hurricane [...]