Just earlier this week on the popular CBS television show 60 minutes, anchor Steve Croft interviewed J. Craig Venter, a famous microbiologist whose company has been credited for mapping the human genome and creating what he calls “the first synthetic species”. While the experiments that...
Being from Houston but having lived in Austin for 4 years as a student at The University of Texas, I often heard arguments from my Austinite friends that their city is not only much more enjoyable than any other city in the state, but also infinitely more beautiful.
The proud Houstonian that...
[IT IS HARVEST WEEK AT GREENSEEDLING! This week, we’ll be featuring a timely collection of stories comparing organic and conventional food. HAPPY THANKSGIVING to our U.S. readership!] A trip down the produce aisle used to be a somewhat simple task. Select certain fruits...
[IT IS HARVEST WEEK AT GREENSEEDLING! This week, we’ll be featuring a timely collection of stories comparing organic and conventional food. HAPPY THANKSGIVING to our U.S. readership!] Questions about the potential benefits of organic farming center on its differences—or...
[IT IS HARVEST WEEK AT GREENSEEDLING! This week, we’ll be featuring a timely collection of stories comparing organic and conventional food. HAPPY THANKSGIVING to our U.S. readership!] A major difference between organic and non-organic crops involves the use of pesticides to...
[IT IS HARVEST WEEK AT GREENSEEDLING! This week, we’ll be featuring a timely collection of stories comparing organic and conventional food. HAPPY THANKSGIVING to our U.S. readership!] We have come a long way since the days of spreading of pesticides like DDT indiscriminately...
[IT IS HARVEST WEEK AT GREENSEEDLING! This week, we’ll be featuring a timely collection of stories comparing organic and conventional food. HAPPY THANKSGIVING to our U.S. readership!]
Every year in the U.S., families and friends get together to express their thankfulness...
About one month ago, I had the opportunity to travel to Dubai in the United Arab Emirates for a job interview. Throughout my four days in this Emirate known for its ostentatious spending, I was able to witness the devastating effects of the international financial crisis firsthand.
This city,...
When constructing a building from the ground up, sketching modified blue prints and executing precise plans are necessary in order to achieve the desired end structure. On the other hand, the assembling of biological structures in nature requires an entirely different type of planning. As opposed...
A weed known as medusahead has begun to ravage rangelands in the western United States by simply outcompeting other species of grass. It is possible for the medusahead weed to outcompete other grasses due to its relatively high growth rate. Aside from growing faster than non-harmful grasses, medusahead...
Plant biologists have long known that plant roots and fungi can form symbiotic networks called mycorrhizae that allow plants to absorb and transfer nutrients to other plants in the network in exchange for carbon products the fungi need. However, a new study from South China Agricultural University...
When I head back to Kansas in a few weeks for winter break, it looks like I will have something new to talk with my uncle about. He’s carried on the family farm in northern Kansas his whole life, and while our conversation usually centers on horses and pigs, this time it’ll be switchgrass and...
Despite the fact that agriculturists have crossbred plants for years to genetically modify their crops, the phrase “genetically modified organism” continues to receive a bad reputation. Organisms with genes specifically selected to resist disease or produce higher crop yields can serve as one...
Since the identification of DNA as the molecular basis of inheritance and the coding source of proteins half a century ago, researchers have focused on questions of how, when, and where the organism expresses each of its genes, the functional elements of DNA. Scientists at the Boyce Thompson Institute...
Just today, I participated in a class trip to Aleppo, Syria, an ancient town that lies less than a half hours drive away from the Turkish-Syrian border. As a part of this trip, I had the opportunity to visit the National Syrian Museum and was amazed to find millennia old artifacts from prehistoric...
Roughly 7.5 million people worldwide die from cancer each year. This horrifying statistic has caused researchers all around the world to search for ways to bring this number down. While billions of dollars are spent on cancer technology, professors at The University of Illinois have discovered a very...
Researchers at Penn State University and the Nara Institute of Science and Technology have recently discovered that inbreeding, which can lead to disease and diminished health, may be prevented in petunias through genetic mechanisms. Unlike in motile humans, where mechanisms to prevent inbreeding...
Miscanthus can’t seem to stay out of the spotlight in recent plant energy research—it and other perennials like switchgrass (pictured) were highlighted in a recent Bioscience article as potential reservoirs to take up and store excess CO2 in the environment.
The authors of the review examined...
…A Swedish study indicates there might be
A recent study performed by researchers at Lund University in Sweden has shown that the use of biofuels in Sweden has had positive environmental benefits overall, a conclusion that significantly confronts the widely held conception...
Turmeric, a spice often used in Indian cooking and traditional Chinese medicine, is now gaining recognition in the science world for its curative properties. Researchers at Saint Louis University have found that the spice, and its active chemical curcumin, may help prevent and treat liver fibrosis,...
Before the 1980s, society more or less encouraged smoking tobacco; however, when scientific evidence proved cigarette smoking detrimental to health, smoking prevalence declined and tobacco’s reputation took a turn for the worse.
While the downfall of smoking ultimately benefits the population’s...
Cancer. According to must studies, this ruthless disease is considered to be the number one cause of death worldwide, and the number two cause of death in the United States after heart disease.
As a UT student, I participated in a charity bike ride known as the Texas 4000 for Cancer from Austin,...
