Life

Starch is the main source of digestible energy in humans, and a major component of our diet. This article analyses polysaccharides, and what they mean to life on this planet.

The 2023 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine was awarded jointly to Katalin Karikó and Drew Weissman for their discoveries concerning nucleoside base modifications that enabled the development of effective mRNA vaccines against COVID-19.

This paper uses metadata about the three papers that collectively announced the discovery of the structure of DNA in 1953, specifically looking at references and citations. These data together with sentiment analysis of the books written by two of the scientists involved – James Watson and Maurice Wilkins – suggest that while an authoritative version of the history of the science might be possible, an authoritative history that includes the social dynamics of the research environment is unlikely. The closing section of the paper alludes to the advances in Māori and Polynesian ethnography made possible by post-discovery DNA-related research.

Ansa Biotechnologies, Inc., a US biotech company, have reported new enzymatic DNA synthesis which enable similarly controllable synthesis of oligonucleotides of considerably longer lengths.

Is life unique to Earth? As the saying goes, you never really understand how something works until you can take it apart and put it together again - so how is modern research responding to the puzzle of what life is, and how it came about?

Work on sheep in New Zealand has led to US Federal Drug agency (FDA) sanctioned clinical trials to treat the fatal inherited neurodegenerative disease in children, CLN5 Batten disease.

While cisplatin was discovered in 1845, it was not until its discovery as a cytotoxic agent by Rosenberg et al. in 1965 that the complex gained prominence.

Today, kaimoana shellfish are still highly prized for their nutritional value and are regularly consumed, though more commonly as a product of farming than of foraging.