Internationalism & GMO
Golden rice, salt tolerant crops, insect resistant crops may seem to be the best way for the world population to be fed in the future. Andrea Messer of Penn State University writes about how global food...
How to tell the time?
Organisms need to be able to synchronize with each other and the world around them. Evolution has selected several rhythmic behaviours in organisms that correspond to solar cycles, lunar cycles, tidal...
Evolution & ID
There is a good interview in the Scientific American about the ruling in the USA, given by a Pennsylvanian federal court justice in favour of the parents who complained about a school board requiring...
Genetics of addiction
In Melinda Beck's article in The Wall Street Journal from Wednesday 9 February 2011, the genetic predisposition to alcoholism is discussed.Beck, Melinda. "In search of genes linked to alcoholism." The...
Love study
Scientific American magazine in Feb 2011 has a back page article called "Your Brain in Love" by Mark Fischetti. This article describes how fMRI studies with people who declare their state of love while...
MRSA attacked
MRSA, which stands for Methicillin Resistant Staphylococcus aureus, is nearly impossible to defeat once an infection settles into the body but researchers may have found a new weapon. Details of the...
Chemical Signal for Mate Selection
This article demonstrates how a chemical signal and behaviour to use the signal might be affected by natural selection. This could be used as one of the two examples in Option E1.4. Gil Rosenthal, a...
Correlations in databases
We get frequent news items that claim something is related to another factor. Students need to learn how to read through these messages for better understanding of the science and consequences. Dave...
Google's Body Browser
Everyone must have seen GoogleEarth by now. Type in a location and swoosh the computer flies you in to the precise spot you wanted. Google has gone into outer space and the deep ocean too. Now Google...
Foreshadowing of Frankenfish?
This is a very interesting and early article about the risks of GMO fish which draws attention to the blog about Frankenfish being allowed to sold for human consumption- see Frankenfish. Just be because...