The Prime Minister’s Prizes for Science – awarded at Parliament House in Canberra tonight – recognise excellence in science and science teaching. This year, we asked four prizewinners to reflect on their…
Hugo and Ross Turner are a pair of intrepid twins currently on an expedition to Greenland. One of them, Ross, is using the same style of equipment and facilities used by Ernest Shackleton 100 years ago…
Regenerating the nerves that can return function to our spinal cords.
Michael Dorausch
Spinal cord injuries are currently irreparable. When nerve fibres in the central nervous system are damaged there is, as yet, no way of reversing this. But research we’ve been doing has led to the discovery…
Moving forward in science doesn’t mean moving back in politics.
Weeklydig
Why does a “gay gene” paper still cause a stir? A similar paper on any other topic would probably have passed unnoticed. But this is sex research – where public interest is huge but real funds and real…
Changes to the genes of people that undergo oral immunotherapy because of a peanut allergy could provide a way of testing if the treatment is working, according to findings in a new study. Peanut allergies…
Cancer disproportionately affects the old.
lnmurrey
The older we get, the higher our risk of cancer. With age, we accumulate exposure to environments and chemicals that increase the risk of acquiring cancer-causing mutations. But the danger doesn’t increase…
Fashion tastes probably change too.
Simon Whittaker
If your great-grandparents lived through a famine, their experience could well have altered their genetic code. And three generations later you could well be showing signs of that change. The idea that…
Adrian Bird, Howard Cedar and Aharon Razin were hotly tipped to win this year’s Nobel Prize for Medicine for their pioneering work in the field of epigenetics. They didn’t win. But their nomination is…
The difference between developing as a normal male and being intersex can be down to a single gene.
briansuda
Sex in mammals, including mouse and human, is determined genetically and depends on the paternal sex chromosome - X or Y - received at the time of fertilisation. If nothing goes wrong, an XX individual…
Genetics can explain a black or white cat in a litter, but what about a stripey cat? Enter epigenetics.
Taylor Bennett
The word epigenetics means things imposed “on top of genetics”. But what sort of things? Imagine a white mouse breeds with a black mouse – say you get three white babies and three black babies. That’s…
One in three Australian babies are born by caesarean – but we still don’t know the lifetime effects on the offspring.
Image from shutterstock.com
Despite efforts to reduce intervention rates during labour, vaginal births without medical intervention are becoming increasingly rare in Australia and overseas: nearly one in three women in Australian…
The Indian Myna is an invasive species – but has its behaviour changed in Australia?
Wikimedia Commons.
Plants and animals that are seemingly harmless in their native habitats can become quite aggressive or even destructive in a new location. Think of the rats that have been a source of human and animal…
Epigenetic factors can change due to environmental factors, such as diet, toxins and stress.
leeroy09481/Flickr
DNA provides the instructions to make us how we look and contributes to our life expectancy. Identical twins have exactly the same DNA, so why are slightly different in many ways? The answer is epigenetics…
The human brain can write plays and build robots, but where did this intelligence come from?
ores2k
Intelligence is our most complex characteristic. Some would even say it defines us, setting us apart from other primates. And now, a new study – published this week by Hennady P. Shulha and colleagues…
Men play an equal, if not larger, role in passing on genetic mutations to their children.
Bettina Neuefeind
We all know about the reproductive “biological clock” in women reminding them of the finite time in which they can have children. Now researchers have found evidence that men also have a reproductive “best…
The concept of junk DNA has been debunked by a massive new genetic mapping project.
AAP
DNA previously written off as junk actually acts as a lever controlling genetic activity, leading to health or illness, reveals a massive new genetic mapping project. It’s been ten years since the human…
Mice fed a special diet rapidly passed on an epigenetic change to subsequent generations.
Flickr/a_soft_world
The proportion of people with desirable physical traits could rapidly accelerate over a few generations with the aid of a diet that tweaks particular genes, a study suggests. Research by a team at Sydney’s…
These genes exert their influence through the immune system.
Flickr/Natashacld
In one of the largest human genetic studies ever undertaken, scientists have identified the major common genetic variants that contribute to the cause of the devastating neurological disease, multiple…
Try as you might, there’s no proof you can control your genetic expression.
mutsmuts/Flickr
Marnie Blewitt, WEHI (Walter and Eliza Hall Institute of Medical Research)
Can the way we think influence the way we feel? Most of us would say yes. But can thinking affect the way our bodies behave on a genetic level? Can we, in essence, think ourselves better? A growing band…