The BBC has been hot on the case looking at what has happened recently in our advances in our understanding of our human genome: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/health-19202141
This is all part of the Encode project and this is now starting to provide more evidence for how our genes interact and how specialisation of cells occurs. I sense that there is still a long way to go…..see below for more details:
http://www.nature.com/news/encode-the-human-encyclopaedia-1.11312
Here the Wellcome collection exhibition provides a very visual and thought provoking insight into what superhuman means. Visit the site for more video footage and information. It looks fantastic!
http://www.wellcomecollection.org/whats-on/exhibitions/superhuman/the-future-of-humanity.aspx
We’ve always believed that muscle fatigue in sport is related to this athletic foe named lactic acid. Even cramp, of which we are still not certain of the biological basis for, has been attributed by some to lactic acid. However, a new study suggests that at the top end of athletic performance, this molecule is no longer foe, but friend….
In all Olympics there is controversy surrounding failed drug testing after athletes blood is checked. However, one thing you may not have thought about whilst watching the Olympics this summer is blood testing to check for gender also. What you might think is a very easy question, but verifying an athletes gender is not always so straight forward, as time magazine illustrates:
http://olympics.time.com/2012/07/02/how-the-ioc-tests-for-gender/
This is a very tricky area of the games and one that we need to tread lightly in in the future, as suggested below:
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/maya-rupert/olympics-gender-tests_b_1737619.html
Good luck IOC!
Once again TEA has been revealed to provide anti-cancer properties reducing the size or even eradicating tumours:
Yet another reason to drink tea!
A comment on life by the eminently enjoyable Professor Petr Skrabanek:
“Life itself is a universally fatal sexually transmitted disease.”
On Saturday 14th July David Bellamy, OBE and former Sutton Grammar School boy, will be leading a natural history walk around Nonsuch Park, starting at 10.30am on the lawn in front of Nonsuch Mansion. Mr Bellamy was inspired to change to botany & zoology by a science teacher at Sutton Grammar School in his 6th form, and his internationally renowned status as a great botanist on TV & in his 45 books can be traced back to that time at Sutton Grammar School!
So do come along, listen and get involved, as it is not every day you can be informed enthusiastically about the plants and other species of a nearby place by a TV botanic icon. Other activities on the day will also include a spider safari with national spider expert Tom Thomas, and seeking out snail species and other wildlife with Dr June Chatfield, expert & author.
For further information please click on the links below:
http://www.bna-naturalists.org/events.htm
http://www.epsomguardian.co.uk/yoursay/yourneighbourhood/9787832.David_Bellamy_returns_to_Nonsuch/?ref=erec