The method of sugar and salt preservation of food is basically done in the same way, chemically speaking, in that water withdrawal is the main result, although the way this comes about is different. The type of food preserved is…
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Ants impose heavy selection pressures on both plants and animals in their local community. Formicidae is an abundant and diverse arthropod family that has expanded to exploit nearly every lifestyle available to creatures of their size and is comprised of…
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Nature is like the human world: sex is a powerful drive. Every flower, no matter how simple or elaborate, has one purpose: reproduction. Unlike spore-bearing plants (mosses, ferns), flowering plants must recombine their genes and produce offspring different from the…
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The plant species which are researched most intensively are those which we depend upon for food. This is a category even more heavily-researched than those plants used for medicine – even though this may run counter to expectations. Our medicinal…
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In 1936, biologist John Bittner studying group of mice discovered breast cancer in the family. During the following years, cancer linked to a virus called mouse mammary tumour virus (MMTV). 2 This virus is a B-type retrovirus (“Retroviruses are responsible…
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In 1946, Joshua Lederberg and Edward Tatum published an article in the Journal of Bacteriology entitled “Gene Recombination in the Bacterium Escherichia coli”. This article not only described a new method of genetic transfer among bacteria, conjugation, it would also…
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Chalky environments in Britain usually occur on grassy hills, where the underlying rock is composed of chalk, a type of limestone, and the soil is generally poor, thin and quite alkaline. These areas provide a specialised environment that is host…
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Microbiology is the study of microorganisms, the smallest living creatures. There are many different varieties of these and some are beneficial in that they do good works for humanity and others are bad and cause disease. Among the many different…
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Bugs, germs, bacteria, micro-organisms – we think of them as dirty and dangerous, to be avoided, controlled, exterminated. But these are living creatures. They share a lot of DNA with us. They also share our needs for food, shelter and…
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The field of botanical genetics is booming with calls for more and more information about the ways in which plants pass on their characteristics, gather up nutrients that are important for human sustenance, maintain their defenses against predators and disease,…
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