Grey Squirrel Invasion Given A Helping Hand By Humans
Native to the eastern half of North America, grey squirrels were first introduced to Britain in the 1870s and are now widely distributed across the UK. It was originally thought that their ability to cope with new landscapes allowed this rapid spread and by interbreeding with different grey squirrel populations a ‘supersquirrel’ evolved which was […]
UK Approves First Studies of Gene Editing on Human Embryos
The UK’s Human Fertilisation and Embryo Authority (HFEA) has given its approval for studies using the gene-editing technique CRISPR to be used in human embryos. This is the first time UK scientists have been given approval to use DNA-altering techniques in human embryos. The research team will be led by Dr Kathy Niakan at the […]
Dino reality or just fantasy?
Jurassic World has taken the world by storm, breaking all box office records in the process. But is it actually possible? The reality is that it could be, if (and that is a big if), we had access to dino DNA! Unfortunately DNA is not stable in an aqueous environment and over a long period […]
Screening for cancer: too much or too little?
The debate about cancer screening has again been in the news with the disconnect between the prevalence of cervical cancer and the lack of routine screening being raised for women over 65. Half of all deaths attributable to cervical cancer are in women over 65 and this has fuelled calls for the upper limit of […]
A mother’s curse…
Each cell of the body contains tiny engines which generate energy; these are called the mitochondria and they are essential to life. They contain their own DNA, which is always inherited from the mother and can be associated with genetic disease. Professor Gemmell of the University of Otago, New Zealand calls this the “mother’s curse” […]