Extinction is Forever

An Introduction In this post, I'm going to talk about an experiment we performed to examine alleles of the TAS2R38 gene.  I also want to talk about the results I expected, why I expected them, and why this bias was incorrect.  For that, I need to begin by talking about race. On a genetic level, race doesn't exist, or, at least, it's very, very different to how it works on a social level.  People from Africa are the most racially diverse, and differ from each other more than, say, someone from England and someone from India do, on a genetic level.  That's due to the founder effect; only a small portion of the population of Africa left to populate the rest of the world, representing only a tiny fraction of humanity's genome.  The DNA of human beings, in general, is really not all that different.  For more info, take a look at  A Brief History of Everyone Who Ever Lived  by Adam Rutherford . And yet, even knowing that, it made me happy that the author is the s

This is a guest post by John Banks, a first year law student at the University of Manchester, with edits from Kali.  John was so excited by the concept of solar sails that he wouldn't shut up until we let him write this post. We call this the power of science. Science! Lawyers and Engineers In February, I, an aspiring law student, attended an event hosted by ReThinkX at CityLabs in Manchester. This was focused on the advances required in medicine to address problems associated with extended periods of space travel on the human body. I already know what you are thinking; ‘How did a plucky law student like myself end up at an event like this?’ It’s a compelling tale; with an infinitely witty main character, a dialogue tormented by puns, and a nostalgic soundtrack. A story for another time. My curiosity was captured by Colin McInnes, MBE, Professor of Engineering Science at the University of Glasgow . From his speech stems my inspiration for this post, for Professor