Weekly dose: Taxol, the anticancer drug discovered in the bark of a tree

Mar 30, 2016 13:33 pm UTC| Science

Taxol is a chemotherapy drug used in the treatment of specific human cancers. It is a member of the taxane family of drugs, which includes cabazitaxel and docetaxel. The drug is also sold under its generic name of...

Exciting cells and controlling heartbeats – could optogenetics create drug-free treatments?

Mar 30, 2016 13:04 pm UTC| Science

A laser-controlled brain or a heart that beats in time to a disco light display sound like some of the more vivid imaginings of science fiction writers. But scientists are gathering together tricks that may allow us to do...

Antimatter changed physics, and the discovery of antimemories could revolutionise neuroscience

Mar 30, 2016 12:33 pm UTC| Science

One the most intriguing physics discoveries of the last century was the existence of antimatter, material that exists as the mirror image of subatomic particles of matter, such as electrons, protons and quarks, but with...

Why being bold all comes down to evolution

Mar 30, 2016 12:30 pm UTC| Insights & Views Science

Chevalier Blondin was 35 years old when in 1859, with no safety harness and no net beneath him, he first tightrope-walked nearly half a kilometre across the Niagara Gorge. At different times over the coming years, he would...

Scientists turn to 3D printing, digital simulations to treat heart disease

Mar 26, 2016 06:30 am UTC| Science Technology

My mother bought her first GPS in the 1990s. A few months later, she came home angry because it had directed her to the wrong side of the city, making her an hour late. Thats too bad, I said, and we went on with our lives....

How astronomers could find the 'real' planet Krypton

Mar 25, 2016 01:27 am UTC| Science

The search for exoplanets, worlds orbiting stars other than our own, has become a major field of research in the last decade with nearly 2,000 such planets discovered to date. So the release of Batman v Superman: Dawn of...

Dramatic change in the moon's tilt may help us trace the origin of water on Earth

Mar 24, 2016 00:06 am UTC| Science

Astronomers have found evidence that the axis that the moon spins around shifted billions of years ago due to changes in the moons internal structure. The research could help explain the strange distribution of water ice...