Temperature is something we worry about in our lives all the time. What temperature is it outside so you know what to wear and what are the conditions going to be in coming days or weeks. Farmers have to worry about this as well, as excessive periods of heat or cold snaps can prove damaging […]
Parasitic worms seem to be a topic being covered here more often as of late, but that’s likely because they are just as involved in every aspect of our lives as bacteria are. Understanding how these worms function can bring new insights into human health, agriculture, and more. In one of our prior articles, we […]
Imaging cellular processes has always been difficult. With biotechnology, we have been able to use marker genes like green fluorescent protein (GFP) to follow the activities of individual cells, but that is a far cry from interior mechanisms within a cell. Since the dawn of the field, technology has advanced so that fluorescent microscopy has […]
The central dogma of molecular biology and genetics is pretty straightforward. You take DNA, then you transcribe the desired gene into RNA (usually mRNA) and, once outside of the nucleus, you translate that RNA using ribosomes into amino acids that then form proteins. Those proteins then do the actual function that their original genetic encoding […]
Rubber is one of those unusual substances that isn’t thought about much, but is used in practically everything. From the simple and direct usage in tires for vehicles to any kind of hose or machinery belt or insulation in tiled flooring. There is also the rubber that is used to create latex, which is so […]
A Historical Viewpoint The Explosion Onto The Public Stage For those focused on how history will favor the uncovering of CRISPR and the miraculous developments that have and will spawn from it, the first thing to note is that the idea and research into the technology started several years prior to its explosion into the […]
It is a simple fact of science that over evolutionary time, such as thousands or even millions of years, an organism’s diet can influence and alter its genetics to make it more adapted toward the food it eats. The Effects of Agriculture There is a natural assumption that the same is true for humans, as […]
The fight against Potyviruses is seemingly neverending in agriculture. Say Hello To Another Terrible Potyvirus As past discussions have shown, they are some of the most deadly plant viruses out there, causing huge swaths of crop death and harvest losses. Additionally, moving up a level to the family of Potyviridae shows that 30% of all […]
In studies of how to survive in space and in hostile environments, there is often no better a scientific specimen than the tardigrade, the so-called water bear. This is due to its capability to survive in such scenarios and far more besides. Even exposure to the vacuum of space doesn’t do much to deter it. […]
Yellow fever is one of those diseases that you really want to avoid contracting. But for 200,000 people every year, they don’t receive that option. A Yellow Condition The yellow fever virus is the originating name for its parent genus of Flaviviruses, where the yellow of its name in Latin (Flavus) colors all the rest […]
