Category Archives: Science

Watching it Burn: Soil Microbes vs. Wildfires

Posted on 5 May 2014 by mmmbitesizescience

Wildfires can devastate ecosystems across the world. In 2012, over 67,000 wildfires raced across more than 9 million acres of land in the US alone. Fuelled by wind and parched vegetation, wildfires burn through everything in their path: plants don’t … Continue reading →

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Posted in Bacteria, Ecology, Microorganisms, Science, The Environment | Tagged acid, bacteria, biomass, burn, bush fire, ecosystem, flame, microbe, pH, recovery, scorch, soil, wildfire | Leave a comment

Swimming with Viruses

Posted on 21 April 2014 by mmmbitesizescience

You can find viruses everywhere: in the soil, in the clouds and in animals. According to scientists from the University of Oldenburg in Germany, there are also a ridiculous number of viruses buried at sea, in the sediments of the … Continue reading →

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Posted in Bacteria, Ecology, Marine, Microorganisms, Science, Viruses | Tagged archaea, bacteria, bacteriophage, carbon, community, cycle, deep, gyre, ocean, prokaryote, seabed, sediment, tidal, virus | Leave a comment

More evidence that red wine and aspirin protect against cancer

Posted on 14 February 2014 by mmmbitesizescience

Cancer is a disease of genes. DNA mutations mess with the genetic content of a cell, enabling it to escape the normal controls that restrict their growth. Now, a team of scientists led by Delphine Lissa and Guido Kroemer at … Continue reading →

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Posted in Disease, Science | Tagged aspirin, cancer, compound, diploid, disease, drug, red wine, resveratrol, screen, tetraploid | Leave a comment

Bright Night Lights: Tracking Light Pollution from Space

Posted on 3 February 2014 by mmmbitesizescience

The creep and sprawl of artificial urban lighting is probably the most pervasive technological innovation of the 20th century. Keeping track of how artificial light is changing Europe’s nightscape is important, since more light is typically associated with greater economic … Continue reading →

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Posted in Ecology, Science, Space, The Environment | Tagged artificial, development, economy, europe, light, night sky, pollution, satellite, space, urban | Leave a comment

Where in the body do our emotions lie?

Posted on 17 January 2014 by mmmbitesizescience

Emotions are strange things, bursting over us as we react to life’s joys and challenges. While they might be thought of as ethereal entities with no fixed form or function, emotions actually produce very tangible physical reactions throughout the body. … Continue reading →