Lucky dip

EUSci now has a fairly extensive archive of fascinating articles- use this page to show you a random selection.

Exercise keeps the brain young in old age

Submitted by Alex Shedlock on Fri, 2012-11-09 16:55
Michelle Williams discusses new research showing that people over 70 see less brain shrinkage if they exercise regularly

 

Researchers at the University of Edinburgh have found that exercise later in life may protect the brain from ageing.

Ageing is associated with changes in the volume and health of brain tissue. These changes have also been linked to disorders of memory and thought, which are particularly prevalent in individuals later lives. Read more »

GM fish coming to your plate? So what!

Submitted by admin on Sat, 2011-01-01 23:43
Edward Duca examines the health and environmental issues behind GM salmon

If I have to read another article about ‘Frankenfish’ or ‘Frankensalmon’, I might require psychiatric treatment. These articles evoke images of double-headed salmon and seven-finned abominations. Why all the fuss? In the US, the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) will soon allow genetically modified (GM) salmon made by AquaBounty to be sold–unlabelled–on the US market. There are no plans yet to sell them in the UK, but the story was still covered extensively by the British media.

The villain is a genetically engineered Atlantic salmon that has a single copy of a growth hormone gene from the chinook salmon. This growth hormone is under the control of an antifreeze gene promoter that the scientists at AquaBounty have taken from the eel-like ocean pout. The promoter keeps growth hormone production switched on all year round instead of only in the warmer months. Thus, the salmon progresses from an egg to your plate in just 18 months instead of the normal 3 years. Read more »

Co-creator of the MP3 talks about why we hear what we hear

Submitted by Alex Shedlock on Fri, 2012-04-27 00:26

 

In skeptical circles especially, it is well known that eyewitness (or earwitness, to coin a word) observations of certain events are quite often fatally flawed. Read more »

Much Ado About Snacking

Submitted by admin on Mon, 2012-10-01 00:00
Joe Forth looks at what recent work tells us about our eating habits, and how we can control them

Obesity in developed countries, in particular the United Kingdom and America, has reached epidemic proportions. Human beings, it seems, are hard-wired to steadily acquire reserves of fat over long time scales, eating a tiny excess of calories every day when food is in plentiful supply. A rough estimate suggests that eating a daily excess of 120 calories (or one chocolate biscuit) over the course of a decade results in a gain of 50 kg of fat. The amount of weight-loss products and designer diets has boomed in proportion to rich nation's waistlines, though this has had little clear impact on the incidence of obesity. Two recent studies tried to shed light on our eating habits, and how we might go about changing them. Read more »

Unfathomable Space

Submitted by Jon Manning on Sat, 2011-01-01 23:43
Kieran Campbell takes us on a journey from the ancient Greeks to Einstein

The sun is the flaming crown of Helios as he rides across the sky from east to west on his flying chariot, or so the ancient Greeks thought. Our understanding of the sun, moon and stars has advanced dramatically since then, but not without centuries of conflict and dispute.

Ancient civilisations believed the stars and planets to be the work of gods, giving birth to numerous belief systems based around celestial formations and movement. Astrology as we know it today has persisted in some form or another since the earliest Babylonian societies first documented it some five thousand years ago. Read more »