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Gifts from The Morning Star
Bacteria: hunting microscopic giants
Reports of gigantic proteins in extremely tiny bacteria raise exciting questions, write ROX MIDDLETON, LIAM SHAW and MIRIAM GAUNTLETT
A woman looking at matter under a microscope, as irregular sleep patterns may be linked to harmful bacteria in your gut, new research suggests

MOST people will primarily associate protein with its role as a major food group. But at a cellular level, there are millions of possible proteins: they are large, complex molecules that play crucial roles in biochemical processes.

A single protein molecule is made up of amino acids linked together in a long chain. The precise order of these amino acids is specified by the exact sequence of DNA in its corresponding gene.

Although the double helix structure of DNA was known in 1953, it remained a mystery for the rest of the decade how the sequence of a gene contains the “information” needed to transform the four chemicals given the shorthand A, T, C, and G into a protein.

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UNRECOGNISED POTENTIA:L: Girl students conduct an experiment by throwing cotton balls to demonstrate the instinctive reaction of flinching at The Big Bang Fair 2025, for young scientists and engineers, at the NEC in Birmingham on June 18 2025
Science and Society / 16 July 2025
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Science and Society / 2 July 2025
2 July 2025

While politicians condemned fascist bombing of Spanish civilians in 1937, they ignored identical RAF tactics across the colonies. Today’s aerial warfare continues this pattern of applying different moral standards based on geography and race, write ROX MIDDLETON, LIAM SHAW and MIRIAM GAUNTLETT

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Science and Society / 4 June 2025
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The distinction between domestic and military drones is more theoretical than practical, write ROX MIDDLETON, LIAM SHAW and MIRIAM GAUNTLETT

UNEASY COHABITATION: Southern Ridges, Singapore, 2015 Pic: Zairon/CC
Science and Society / 21 May 2025
21 May 2025

Nature's self-reconstruction is both intriguing and beneficial and as such merits human protection, write ROX MIDDLETON, LIAM SHAW and MIRIAM GAUNTLETT

 

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