Almost every human condition can be linked back to your genes. The list of genetic conditions is lengthy. Diseases like muscular dystrophy, Crohn’s disease, birth defects like spina bifida, and some cancers just barely scrape the long list of ailments that can be passed from one generation to the next. And, it seems that many of us try to overcome our genetics at every opportunity. We work to live a healthy lifestyle, eat the right foods, limit stress, and get enough rest each day. What if there was a better way to protect yourself and those you love from your own genes?
Continue reading Is Cloning the Future of Genomics?All posts by Our Planet
Virtual Reality and Its Benefits to Biotechnology
Biotechnology is a rapidly developing field. Even though the field has been around for many years, today’s biotechnology applications are far more complex and relevant than ever before. The fundamental aim at the core of this field is to find viable solutions to meet human needs, in turn improving our quality of life.
Continue reading Virtual Reality and Its Benefits to Biotechnology
Space exploration is still the brightest hope-bringer we have
Earle Kyle
I am one of the few African-American aerospace engineers who helped design the Apollo spaceships that took men to the Moon. My great-grandfather was a slave in Claiborne, Alabama, who used primitive tools to work the land. My father was born in Alabama before the Wright brothers made mankind’s first flight. He lived to see men walk on the Moon, twin robotic biology labs land on Mars, and a fleet of four space probes on their way to the stars. But many black people, like the late Reverend Ralph Abernathy, felt that the money used to make these amazing things happen would have been better spent on helping the poorest descendants of American slaves.
Continue reading Space exploration is still the brightest hope-bringer we have
5 Reasons To Put More Emphasis On Ecology in Your Workspace
It’s easy to see the benefits of going green if you love nature. But what if you couldn’t care less about the whales, the sea turtles, and whatever species the activists want to save next?
There are still plenty of reasons for you to make your office eco-friendly. Here are five of them.
Continue reading 5 Reasons To Put More Emphasis On Ecology in Your Workspace
Tragic tale of a ‘man-eating’ tigress tells us so much about the climate crisis
Nayanika Mathur, University of Oxford
The way that we live on Earth is causing an unprecedented acceleration in species extinction. Now, more than half a million species “have insufficient habitat for long-term survival” and are likely to go extinct unless their natural environments are restored. But we are already seeing major problems from this intrusion, not least through an increase in human-animal conflict.
Continue reading Tragic tale of a ‘man-eating’ tigress tells us so much about the climate crisis
How Artificial Intelligence Is Helping to Protect Our Environment
Despite the often manic nature of our news cycle, we see two constants in it: immediate action is needed to preserve the environment, and the development of artificial intelligence is progressing at an unfathomable rate. While these may not seem related, their compatibility is undeniable. In fact, artificial intelligence is already doing a hefty share to protect our environment.
Continue reading How Artificial Intelligence Is Helping to Protect Our Environment
88 Constellations and Their Brightest Stars
The International Astronomical Union recognizes 88 official constellations in contemporary astronomy. 42 depict animals, 29 depict inanimate objects, and 17 depict human beings or mythological characters.
Continue reading 88 Constellations and Their Brightest Stars
Did European Colonisation precipitate the Little Ice Age?
Many of us think that rapid environmental change is a quintessentially modern crisis. Today, temperatures are soaring, topsoil is washing away, phosphorous is being diluted, forests are retreating, pesticides are sterilising farmland, fertilisers are choking waterways, and biodiversity is plummeting under the onslaught of overpopulated, industrialised societies. Some of these changes are indeed truly new. But many others have deep roots and distant echoes in the early modern period, the years between around 1400 and 1800 when much of the world began to assume its present form. Recently, scientists, geographers, historians, and archaeologists have combined expertise and evidence to reveal just how profound early modern environmental transformations really were.
Continue reading Did European Colonisation precipitate the Little Ice Age?
The Melting Points of 80 Elements, Substances, and Metal Alloys
Have you ever wondered why plastic melts in a bonfire, but a cast iron pan doesn’t? A bonfire can reach temperatures as hot as 2,012 °F (1,100 °C). Most PET plastic melts at a measly 491 °F (255 °C), so it doesn’t stand a chance! Cast iron prevails with an average melting point of 2,100 °F (1,150 °C), depending on the iron-carbon alloy proportions.
Continue reading The Melting Points of 80 Elements, Substances, and Metal Alloys
What high-speed astronomy can tell us about the galactic zoo
For most of human history, the distant ‘celestial sphere’ was regarded as perfect and unchanging. Stars remained in place, planets moved predictably, and the few rogue comets were viewed as atmospheric phenomena. This began to change with the Danish astronomer Tycho Brahe’s observation of the supernova of 1572 – apparently, a new star – and his studies of the Great Comet of 1577, which he proved was actually a distant object. Nonetheless, the impression of permanence is strong. There are very few astronomical objects that noticeably vary to the naked eye: only the brightest comets, novae and supernovae. For observers in the northern hemisphere, the last naked-eye supernova was in 1604.
Continue reading What high-speed astronomy can tell us about the galactic zoo