My secret about studying Biology Most students find Biology interesting. It’s easy to relate to our lives and learn more about our planet or how our bodies work. The problem with Biology, I find, is the vocabulary. Students tend to struggle with biological terms, which often discourages them from reading the textbooks and studying. How [...]

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 [...]

Yes please… If you’re baking a cake – and on a cold and wet Autumn day why wouldn’t you – you are actually using chemistry and biology.  Delicious chemistry and biology. Most of the time when you make a cake you need a leavening agent of some kind, in other words a way of making it rise. [...]

Humans and chocolate have a long, long history together; scientists have found cocoa deposits in Mayan ceramic pots used in food preparation that are dated all the way back to 600 BC! The world is filled with chocolate lovers but just what keeps us coming back for more for more than 2 millennia? Above: A [...]

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 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 [...]

 Life on planet Earth is an amazingly robust thing and has adapted to live in the harshest of conditions. Here we look at some of nature’s toughest creations. Extreme heat Organisms that flourish in extremely high temperatures (normally around 80 to 108°C) are called thermophiles. They’re found all over the earth, in hot springs in [...]

 This year’s Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine has been awarded to John Gurdon and Shinya Yamanaka for their work in stem cell research. Sir John B. Gurdon and Shinya Yamanaka [1] What are stem cells? The two criteria that define a stem cell are:      They are capable of self replicating to produce [...]