Both terms refer to one organism with two or more distinct populations of cells * – but they are not interchangeable. The different cell lines in chimeras originally come from different zygotes whereas mosaics arise from the same zygote. Because mosaics start with the same genome, you expect them to be more similar than chimeras […]
Mammalian X inactivation
In humans, males are 46XY and females are 46XX. The Y chromosome has been in the news recently but we’re more concerned about the X chromosome today. You’ll notice that there are two copies of the X in human females – do we have double the X gene products? No, X inactivation silences most but […]
Blood Cancers – what would you want to know?
written by Julia Pon If you had leukemia or lymphoma, what would you want to know? As a medical student, I noticed a disconnect between the type of information that tends to be provided for patients, and the types of information medical students are taught: patient information booklets tend to focus on symptoms, tests and […]
Chemical-free cleaners don’t exist, so why am I still reading about them?
by Susan Vickers Chemophobia is major problem, and it is time scientists to do more to stop the press intensifying it. I welcome all discussion on ways to inform journalists and petition news agencies to report in a conscientious and scientifically correct manner. As a chemist, misuse of the term chemical frustrates me. The use […]
Earthing: Science or Marketing?
I love that people want scientific explanations for how to improve their health. But in the realm of alternative health, the science is often cherry-picked and applied incorrectly – despite sounding impressive, the explanations are often misinterpretations of the scientific principles and collapse when subjected to scrutiny. On a positive note, the attempts to use […]
Sugar and Salt
Do you know what one is salt? What one is sugar? This photo was taken through microscope at 400x magnification.For more information on the photo, please check out the information on the microscopy challenge. via 500px
Take a Closer Look
Guest post: Jenny McQueen 1 I like to look. I like to take a real, good, close-up look. As a child, I examined the fleas pulled from my dogs. I hunted through their fur for the fleas that were fat with blood and placed them under my childs microscope. This unseen world was exciting and […]