Nutrient deficiency in one’s diet is a common problem around the world, where different populations may lack a sufficient source of varying nutrients needed to stay healthy. Iron and zinc are two such nutrients that are critical for one’s daily intake. At the same time, common cultivars of wheat supply around 20% of daily calorie […]
When it comes to biological stresses on plants that reduce their ability to grow and stunts their development, high salt levels is one of the worst possibilities. A high salinity in the soil can interfere with a plant’s roots in being able to take up water through osmosis. At the same time, some sodium ions […]
When your body is in danger, your cells need to react fast to let everyone else know. If you stick your hand in a fire, your brain and your muscle cells have to be notified as soon as possible in order to force the subconscious pullback from the pain and damage, before you’ve even realized […]
Plant compounds make up many of the derived medicines, poisons, and generally useful molecules used in the world today and for much of human history. While we may have learned to produce several of them synthetically as technology has advanced, the original knowledge on their properties and how to use them came from nature. Even […]
You never know when what at first seemed like an innocuous bit of research will turn into the next big tool to help prevent or mitigate the symptoms of a major disease. Coincidental discoveries like that happen all the time and small parts of nature can turn out to have applications we never would have […]
“If all you have is a hammer, everything looks like a nail” is how the saying goes. But does that have to be true? A hammer can actually be a quite versatile instrument and, with some insight and ingenuity, be put to tasks that would previously have been thought outside of its purview. A hammer […]
The past five or so years has been a bit of a roller-coaster for any field that dabbles in genetics. The advancements the scientific community has made in such a short time frame are nothing less than extraordinary and things only seem to be accelerating from here on out. And the single piece of technology […]
The methods available to treat bacterial infections are many. But among those with any real and lasting effectiveness, their usage is limited. Antibiotics were once the Holy Grail of medicine to deal with devastating diseases that wiped out entire populations. With them, these suffering conditions were almost entirely wiped out and the populace began to […]