Why are blue-green algae called cyanobacteria? Question asked by @subha1900 on Twitter. It’s probably easier to explain this by asking the question the other way round: Why are cyanobacteria also called blue-green algae? The reason is that cyanobacteria appeared to look…
Recently I gave a workshop about online engagement and blogging in our Faculty. The result of this was a bunch of new tweeters and new science blogs on the block. To keep the momentum going, we started a “Breakfast Blogging…
“Don’t be afraid of hard work. Nothing worthwhile comes easily. Don’t let others discourage you or tell you that you can’t do it. In my day I was told women didn’t go into chemistry. I saw no reason why we…
Yesterday I came across this video that demonstrates how to make Glowing Sushi, using genetically modified zebrafish to produce a fluorescent “kryptonite roll”. When I first watched the video, my main question was: Why would you want to use fluorescent…
This video explains how to build a gel electrophoresis apparatus, prepare an agarose gel and use it to separate food colouring dyes – and you can do all that in your kitchen! Very cool!
This morning I stumbled across this delightful website (via Esther Wojcicki): “Drawings of Scientists“. For this project, 7th graders prepared drawings of scientists together with a description of how they imagined a scientist to be like. Then they visited FermiLab…
Over the last weeks the BBC has aired season 2 of its fantastic mini series “Sherlock” with Benedict Cumberbatch and Martin Freeman. It is fantastic for a number of reasons, but mainly: The story, which transports Sherlock Holmes into London…
On my search for new topics for the Advent Calendar I was researching what reindeer like to eat. I imagined it would be plants adapted to the cold Northern climate where they live – but I was only partially right.…
Do you have ten minutes to spare and would like to learn how to extract DNA or perform a polymerase chain reaction (PCR) in a virtual lab? Or maybe explore the inside of a cell and learn more about the…
