biology

Can you see what nobody else can see, are you a tetrachromat?

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Most humans have three different cone cells within their eyes. It is these three variations that enables you to perceive colours. A word used to describe this is “trichromatic“. What is truly fascinating is that not everybody has just three variations of cone receptors, some have four and are tetrachromatic. Tetrachromatic vision is something that is found … Read more

Can we wipe out the Ivory Trade with synthetic 3D printed Ivory?

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The Ivory trade has resulted in poachers seeking out and slaughtering animals such as Rhino and Elephants to such a degree that it is rapidly leading towards, not just the endangerment of species, but complete extinction. The motivation that drives the now illegal poaching is well-understood, as explained by IFLS … The belief that rhino horn treats fevers or … Read more

Probiotic products are of no benefit to healthy individuals

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So the UK’s Guardian does a nice bit of myth-busting with an article all about Probiotics … Fans of probiotic drinks and foods may be wasting their money, according to a review of current research into the supplements that suggests they may be of no benefit to healthy adults. A Danish team looked at the results of … Read more

A New greatly extended tree of life has been published

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What has become increasingly realised is that there is rather a lot of biological dark matter that we know simply nothing about at all and so the publication of a new tree of life (last Monday) that reveals quite a dramatically new picture of life is consequence of further insights. What has been happening is that a lot of new information was … Read more