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 […]
When discussing pathogens infecting cells, we often turn to discussing viruses. But bacteria also have their methods of infection and one of those ways involves injecting toxic compounds into target cells. This usually helps in their bodily invasion by weakening the immune system or outright killing cells. A Dangerous Concoction These compounds come in the […]
The Human Genome Project, a proposal to sequence the entirety of the human genome and all of its nucleotides, was completed in April of 2003. While there are still scientific debates on whether it properly completed all of the genome, there remains another part of the project that one can say for certain is not […]
The other day on Bioscription, we discussed the South Korean Institute for Basic Science (IBS) and their work with CRISPR-Cpf1 in soybeans. Today, the same organization has released a study on a new form of CRISPR-Cas9 that they isolated from Campylobacter jejuni. This resulted in the acronym CjCas9 for it. A Problem Of Size A […]
What do the terms biorobotics and biocomputing mean to you? For some of you in the know, you may think to bring up the research to design robotic systems that mimic living movements and activities, a la the MIT Cheetah robot. And, while this is indeed a form of biorobotics, it’s on the opposite end […]
Not every tenet of science is set in stone. That’s often been seen in fields like physics and astronomy over the past few decades, where huge innovations and discoveries have been made. But biology isn’t isolated from these sorts of findings. Today’s topic of discussion is new research that calls one of the tenets of […]
Proteins make up everything living that matters. Okay, sure, DNA actually makes up everything, but DNA just exists to transcribe and make proteins. It’s the proteins that actually get the work done. All the tiny cellular work that eventually causes macroscopic bodily changes. So, give proteins a little thank you every once in a while. […]
Sadly for all researchers in the field, the way cancer works is highly varied and dependent on the specific type. Because of that, each different type of cancer has to be investigated separately and all of the mechanisms involved deciphered one by one, meaning any proper treatment or cure for a single type of cancer […]
