Category Archives: Science

Making Pretty, Meaty, Friendly Animals (on Scientific American)

Posted on 21 March 2013 by mmmbitesizescience

Head on over to Scientific American to read our second guest blog post!

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Posted in Evolution, Science | Leave a comment

Converting weeds into flowers: artificial stem cells create a blood supply for bioengineered organs

Posted on 20 March 2013 by mmmbitesizescience

Regenerating the human body by growing whole new organs or patching up damaged ones from just a few cells scraped from your own tissues is a fascinating area of science known as bioengineering. Every living cell in such an organ … Continue reading →

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Posted in Bioengineering, Medicine, Science | Tagged adult stem cell, bioengineering, blood supply, blood vessel, endothelial cell, endothelium, fibroblast, network, organs, partially-induced, pluripotent stem cell, vasculature | Leave a comment

Ivory DNA sequencing tracks elephant poaching hotspots

Posted on 8 March 2013 by mmmbitesizescience

The illicit trade in elephant ivory has been a ridiculous problem since the 1980’s, when Asian and African elephants were decimated to such a level that they made it onto Appendix One (“most endangered species”) of CITES. While all trade … Continue reading →

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Posted in Conservation, Ecology, Genetics, Science | Tagged criminal, DNA, elephant, forest, geography, ivory, poaching, savannah, trade, tusk, wildlife | 1 Comment

Supporting Miss. Muffet in the sixth millenium BC

Posted on 27 February 2013 by mmmbitesizescience

I love cheese. Oh, how I do. Hard cheese, soft cheese, hole-y cheese, crumbly cheese, squidgy cheese – all of them will find a warm and welcoming home in my mouth. While deliciousness alone seals the place of cheese at … Continue reading →

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Posted in Archaeology, Evolution, Science | Tagged bowls, cheese, cheese making, collared flasks, lactase, neolithic, pots, pottery, prehistoric farmers, sieve, vessel | Leave a comment

Semi-retired cells repair our damaged hearts

Posted on 21 February 2013 by mmmbitesizescience

Repairing or replacing damaged cells keeps our organs in tip top working condition. For a long time, we thought that only the incredibly rare stem cells in adult organs were able to create brand new cells to replace injured ones … Continue reading →