As tens of thousands return to the streets for the first national Palestine march of 2026, this movement refuses to be sidelined or silenced, says PETER LEARY
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What makes a cat tick
Let's focus on how the genetic code provides the toolbox for the myriad possibilities in any person, or cat for that matter
LUCK OF THE DRAW: Two copies of the eumelanin inhibiting gene gives a completely orange cat
[GPS 56/Creative Commons]
If the government really wanted to address public finances, improve living standards and begin economic recovery, it would increase its borrowing for investment, argues MICHAEL BURKE
MATT KERR takes a winter journey through poetry, labour and memory, from Glasgow to Newcastle, arguing that our radical past isn’t something to revere from a distance, but a tool still meant to be used
One of Canada’s most revered politicians is a native of Falkirk but is relatively unknown in his original homeland. KENNY MacASKILL tells his story
Labour prospects in May elections may be irrevocably damaged by Birmingham Council’s costly refusal to settle the year-long dispute, warns STEVE WRIGHT
HENRY FOWLER and ROB POOLE explain the significance of today’s Megapicket
THE DNA of domestic cats is bundled up into 38 chromosomes. Each chromosome is a long, tightly packed string of DNA that contains many different genes. The concept of a “gene” as a discrete unit of heredity dates back to before the discovery of DNA.
In the 20th century, it was realised that some regions of DNA are operated on by molecular machines in the cell, turning their encoded sequence into RNA and then into proteins, short-lived molecules that are involved in almost all cellular processes.
These DNA regions are what we now call genes. There is some nuance in this: for example, some regions of a gene are not turned into protein themselves and instead play a role in how exactly this happens.
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