Genomics Aotearoa • Nov 04, 2019 •
Murray Cox Do I have to finish my favourite genome? That’s an often-asked question. Geneticists generally strive to produce high-quality genomes that sequence every last gene, making full use of the state-of-the-art technologies coming on stream. Sequencing DNA means determining the order of the four chemical building blocks – called “bases” – that make up the DNA molecule. The sequence … Read More
Guest Author • Apr 12, 2019 •
Dr Andrew Munkacsi Many of us have heard of antibiotic-resistant bacteria, either through the media or perhaps knowing someone who died from such a bacterial infection. Just as there are bacterial infections resistant to antibiotics, there are fungal infections resistant to antifungal drugs. Fungi are microbial organisms (not visible to the naked eye) that can infect plants, animals and humans. Read More
Guest Author • Jan 30, 2018 •
Congrui Jin, Binghamton University, State University of New York This article was originally published on The Conversation. Read the original article. Infrastructure supports and facilitates our daily lives – think of the roads we drive on, the bridges and tunnels that help transport people and freight, the office buildings where we work and the dams that … Read More
Siouxsie Wiles • Dec 11, 2015 •
If you are looking for gifts that are a little different, and like the idea of supporting scientific research, then we have just the thing for you! This year I’ve worked with a number of artists and illustrators to make amazing artworks out of naturally glowing bacteria. The artworks may only last a day or two but we took photos of … Read More
Siouxsie Wiles • May 18, 2015 •
Last November I talked about my research at TEDxChristchurch. It was my first experience of a TEDx event and I was blown away by how amazing and inspirational the day was. It was very humbling to have been given the opportunity to enthuse about bioluminescence and bacteria. Here’s the video of my talk, also featuring glowing caterpillars and … Read More
Siouxsie Wiles • Sep 25, 2014 •
“Ascomycetes“. Licensed under CC BY-SA 2.5 via Wikimedia Commons. Last week President Obama signed an Executive Order aimed at combating antibiotic resistant superbugs. The order establishes a task force and a Presidential Advisory Committee which will look at how the US can implement a national strategy to … Read More
Brendan Moyle • Jun 23, 2014 •
It still is. But I needed to photograph something this weekend. I've been head down, working on a lot of research projects of late, and the time to get out and decompress has been hard to find. Fortunately, one of the things that thrives in w... Read More
Siouxsie Wiles • Jan 20, 2014 •
As a parent, I have watched the Ice Age movies more times than I care to admit. I quite like Sid the sloth but had no idea just how important his descendants could be in our fight against disease. Sloths are slow-moving tree-dwelling mammals found in the jungles of central and south America. They … Read More
David Winter • Sep 11, 2011 •
If you read the Sunday post last week you'll remember that I started a little "when my brains are completely destroyed by thesis wrangling and I need a break" project, and that I'm the sort of person that takes a break from one science project by playi... Read More
David Winter • Sep 04, 2011 •
One of my goals with these Sunday posts is to do a little to broaden the understanding of just how extraordinarily diverse the biological world is. In almost two years of writing about spineless creatures I've limited myself to animals, which, as amazi... Read More