Inspiring Science- Top Picks 25.05.17

As a science enthusiast I’m constantly looking for articles and blog posts that reaffirm my love for science. Here are just a few of my favourites for this week:

Without action on antibiotics, medicine will return to the dark ages.

If you’ve read any of my previous posts, (The Antibiotic Apocalypse & Antibiotic Resistance: A Communication Error) you’ll know that antibiotic resistance is an issue that concerns me to say the least. It’s a major problem that could change all of our lives yet many people don’t understand the gravity of it. Scientists have been campaigning for the smarter use of antibiotics for years but it wasn’t until recently that those high up started to listen. This article covers some of the challenges that have lead us to this crucial point in the war against bacteria and outlines how the world is coming together to tackle it.

https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2017/may/19/antibiotics-medicine-dark-ages-overprescribing?CMP=twt_a-science_b-gdnscience

Can CRISPR feed the world?

The genome editing technique CRISPR has been featured all over the media recently (including on my blog!). We’ve discussed it’s implications in treating hereditary diseases and combatting viruses such as HIV but scientists are now turning their sights to the global food crisis. Here researchers are looking at using CRISPR to combat the plant pathogen that causes potato blight. Although controlled in the EU, in other parts of the world this pathogen wipe out enough potatoes to feed hundreds of millions of people every year. If it could be stopped, perhaps we could alleviate some of the hunger and starvation that blights much of the world. Is there anything CRISPR can’t do?

https://horizon-magazine.eu/article/can-crispr-feed-world_en.html

Allergy to Hygiene.

Have you ever wondered why health problems such as allergies and asthma are more prevalent in the western world than in developing countries? With all of our sanitisers, cleaning products and healthcare how are we still suffering from these illnesses? Well this brilliant post by Jennie French explains how our good hygiene could in fact be the problem. Dubbed ‘The Hygiene Hypothesis’, could being too clean be bad for us?

https://wordpress.com/read/feeds/56841870/posts/1465674098

Bill Nye, Meet Science Twitter.

Scientists from all over the global have been trolling ‘science celebrity’ Bill Nye these past few weeks with the hash tag #BillMeetScienceTwitter. The aim was to highlight all the amazing work going on to promote science and dispel the myth that all scientists are nerdy men in a lab coat. We wanted to show the breath and diversity across science and scientists and I think we did just that. This great post by Dani, Dalton, Melissa and Solomon nicely summarises the goal of the outreach event and highlights some of the spectacular scientists who took part.

http://www.livingalongsidewildlife.com/2017/05/bill-nye-meet-science-twitter-guest-post.html?m=1

As always, let me know what you thought about my top picks in the comments or on Twitter and please feel free to send me any articles that piqued your interest this week!

For more inspiration, why not check out my previous ‘Top Picks’!

Inspiring Science- Top Picks 16.05.17

Inspiring Science- Top Picks 02.05.17

Inspiring Science- Top Picks 24.04.17