I recently came across a website, DNA 11, whose catchphrase is There is Only One Original. They are, of course, referring to you your genetic make-up which the company collects and creates artwork out of. It sounds absurd but this is how it works.
DNA 11 sends you a mouth swab that you use to collect epithelial cells from the inside of your cheek. You then mail these back to the company and they conduct a gel electrophoresis run of your genes. The results of this (the black and white bands …

A lot of us students continually struggle with a difficult question: What am I going to do after I graduate?
Well, that search is over for me. I’m going to do a PhD. What changed my mind? This paper.
Ovulatory cycle effects on tip earnings by lapdancers: economic evidence for human estrus?
Abstract

To see whether estrus was really “lost” during human evolution (as researchers often claim), we examined ovulatory cycle effects on tip earnings by professional lap dancers working in gentlemen’s clubs. Eighteen dancers recorded their menstrual periods, work shifts, and tip earnings …

Evolution is a big deal.
Everyone probably understands the basics of how it works. “Things change over time,” “good traits remain, while bad traits are eliminated” are common explanations from most people. It truly shows the power Darwin’s theory when 150 years later every student leaving high school is (or should be) aware of it. Unfortunately, what we learn about evolution in high school (and even first year biology) barely scratches the surface of how complex and beautiful evolution is.

For all those tech/video game geeks out there you probably already know about E3. For those of you who don’t, E3 stands for the Electronic Entertainment Expo. It is one of the premier release events for everything video games. Some of you might roll your eyes and scoff, but the video game industry is by far the fastest growing entertainment sector. Sales of video games are expected to double those of the music industry by 2011. In 2007 video games accounted for nearly $19 billion dollars in revenue. The incredibly …

In my humble opinion one of the most overlooked social and scientific changes in the past two years has been the rapid advent of DNA sequencing. The human genome is huge, but recent advances allow 100,000 base pairs (bps) to be sequenced at single time. It is predicted that within a few years, an entire human genome (around 3 billion bps) could be completely sequenced in less than a day for around US$100. Undoubtedly, this has huge ramification in labs and research centres around the world. However, the greatest …