Posted on November 4th 2011 in Blog with 1 comment
Animal behaviours can sometimes jump out at you by their similarity to the kinds of things humans do. Most recently, I came across this video of golden orb-web spiders. Dominating the picture is a large speckled black and white female, confidently waiting for her next unsuspecting meal to arrive. What might not be so obvious is the weedy orange male, running scurrilously on her back. Not exactly a very human-like behaviour, I hear you say. Well, I answer back, you don’t know what he’s doing there. What he is doing, is wrapping her body in the finest silks his…
Read more
Posted on October 29th 2011 in Features with no comments
Our bodies are the most personal thing we have. Every living thing on the planet has its own unique combination of DNA. Our DNA, interacting with the environment, creates an organism that will never be seen again in the universe. The cloned sheep Dolly was not the same as her doppelganger. Not even the most identical of identical twins are the same. In humans, our genes not only control how we look, but how we think too. Contained in our DNA is the recipe that governs the development and organisation of the neuron cells in our brain, from which comes…
Read more
