KYTOS Biology

There will always be elements of near death experiences (NDE's) that are difficult to explain scientifically. This is partly because researchers are entirely dependent on the reports people provide of their individual experience, which means the data is received second-hand and there is no way of verifying that the report given is accurate. Some researchers have tried to address this by artificial...

Are ‘ordinary’ people capable of carrying out wicked and immoral acts against other individuals, if the context suggests that is what is expected of them? These are the questions that Philip Zimbardo was trying to answer in his infamous study, 50 years ago. (With thanks to our sponsor 'Curriculum Press' for providing content for this podcast)

Just one week before I recorded this podcast, the FDA, the Food and Drug Administration authorised e-cigarette products for use in the US for the first time ever, claiming that.. .'the benefit to adults trying to quit smoking outweighs the risk to young'. Vaping is often seen as the 'safer' alternative but research suggests that this is simply not the case; in fact, inhalation of vapour is leading...

How keen is your sense of smell? Well, according to new research published in Frontiers in Psychology , people who witnessed a crime are able to identify criminals by their smell. Police line-ups normally rely on sight, but nose-witnesses can be just as reliable as eye-witnesses. It's not quite time to replace the sniffer dogs, however; the 2010 America Vs Wade case highlights the significance of...

Forensics labs are frequently asked to examine documents to determine if they have been altered or forged. An altered document is an original, valid document that has been changed in some way. For example, one common type of altered document is a cheque in which the numbers have been changed to increase the amount drawn. A forged document is one that is created from scratch to masquerade as a vali...

COPD or chronic obstructive pulmonary disease is the term given to a group of diseases which affect the lungs. These include emphysema and chronic bronchitis. They are inflammatory diseases and will obstruct air flow to and from the lungs. There is no cure for COPD as it causes permanent lung damage. Treatment can slow down the progression of the condition. However, people with COPD are also at in...

Obesity is rising dramatically across the world. Since 1975 it is estimated that the number of obese people has almost tripled. One of the chronic diseases that is linked to obesity is type 2 diabetes. The dramatic rise in individuals suffering from this disease is causing a global medical emergency. In a world where our knowledge of the importance of diet and exercise is at a peak, the battle aga...

By not being exposed to agents that stimulate our immune system in infancy, we are at greater risk of developing inflammatory responses and autoimmune diseases in later life. Some scientists vigorously reject the hypothesis, arguing that the term hygiene hypothesis was potentially dangerous. This is because it might lead people to believe that they were too clean and would neglect their cleanlines...

Sepsis is a condition which results from an uncontrolled and disorganised reaction of the body to an infection. If it is caught at an early stage, a combination of treatments can help to cure it. However, sepsis has the power to kill if left either undiagnosed or untreated. (With thanks to our sponsor 'Curriculum Press' for providing content for this podcast)

How did people in the past treat illness, injury and disease? What medicines or 'magic' did they use? In this first of a series of short podcasts, I explore the concept of natural illness vs the supernatural in prehistoric times, the healers and priests of Ancient Egypt and their meticulous medical records on papyri, and how the Ancient Greeks moved from Asclepion medicine to Hippocratic medicine...

English teacher Felicia Isaacs joins KYTOS once again, to discuss the Biology behind one of her favourite poems, 'Death of a Naturalist', by renowned Irish poet Seamus Heaney. In this seminal piece of work, small tadpoles undergo metamorphosis into frogs, and this inevitable change causes a young Seamus to question his love for nature, and the destiny awaiting all living things. 

Hormones are chemical messengers that have a specific physiological effect in the body. Research suggests that hormones also have considerable influence on behaviour and emotion in both human and non-human animals. This supports the notion that behaviour and emotion have physiological origins. It is not appropriate, however, to say that hormones cause behaviour but that hormones influence behaviou...

In the hope that it might provide a solution to the growing problem of antibiotic resistance, a new treatment is currently receiving a lot of attention. Based on a naturally occurring phenomenon this potential solution lies with a group of viruses called bacteriophages. When most people think of viruses, they usually imagine the ones that infect humans and cause diseases like flu, measles, rabies...

There is evidence that, when the solar system was young, conditions on Mars and Venus may have been suitable for life. The surface of Mars has clearly been altered by water in the past and it may still exist deep underground. Venus is the nearest planet to Earth and is almost identical to Earth in both size and geological composition. Recent research has suggested that, long ago, Venus could have...

Coral reefs are widely regarded as some of the most diverse ecosystems on the planet. They provide habitat for approximately 25% of all marine species but surprisingly account for a microscopic 0.1% of the world’s ocean surface. Coral reefs are continually under threat from both natural and anthropogenic (human) factors. In this podcast, I will explore the different types of coral along with their...

In this podcast, I discuss the characteristics of Dissociative Identity Disorder (DID), also known as Multiple Personality Disorder and review the evidence presented in Thigpen and Cleckley’s’ (1954) case study of a person with three distinctly different personalities. It is called a dissociative disorder because there is a division , or dissociation between areas of the person’s conscious awarene...

The prostate gland grows in men at puberty and secretes the fluid that carries the sperm. It remains a constant size until about the age of forty, then it begins to grow again. About 50% of men aged 60 have some enlargement of the prostate gland and this rises to 90% at the age of 80. This  enlargement may be benign – effectively harmless. However, it may be a sign of prostate cancer, the mos...

The biology behind Shelley's Frankenstein in an unquestionably fascinating subject. Since the bicentenary of the novel, Frankenstein or The Modern Prometheus, the field of Medicine has progressed beyond recognition. Yet the overwhelming message that comes across to the reader, and indeed the world, is that we can never allow our egos to presume that we, mere mortals, can play God; this was Victor'...

Many biologists consider the microbes in our bodies to be, effectively, another body organ. The bacteria in our intestines help to release nutrients from the food we ingest, manufacture crucial vitamins, protect against infection by out-competing other, harmful bacteria and interact genetically with the immune system reducing inflammation, to name but a few examples. These undisputed benefits are...

Actions taken at the outset of an investigation at a fire and arson scene can play a pivotal role in the resolution of a case. Careful, thorough investigation is key to ensuring that potential physical evidence is not tainted or destroyed, or potential witnesses overlooked. Arthur Conan Doyle’s literary detective Sherlock Holmes is quoted as saying, 'It is a capital mistake to theorise before one...

Forensic entomology involves the application of insect and other arthropod biology in legal investigations. Imagine a scenario whereby a dead body has been discovered in a wood - one way of estimating how long it has been there is to identify the insects that have colonised it. The first insects to colonise an above-ground body are true flies (order Diptera). They may arrive within minutes of deat...

Neuroplasticity is the brain’s ability to alter its structure and function in response to new learning or changes in the environment. Therefore, when it is said that the human brain is ‘plastic’, it means malleable and able to change. This may seem impossible, but our brains are constantly changing from the moment we are born. Each time we learn or experience something new, synaptic connections an...

Whooping cough, also called ‘the cough of 100 days’, is an acute and highly contagious disease of the upper respiratory tract caused by the bacterium Bordetella pertussis. It is transmitted via droplets in the air from coughing and sneezing. The main symptoms are severe bouts of coughing, often followed by vomiting. Before the introduction of a whooping cough vaccine in the 1950s, whooping cough w...

Dyslexia is a learning disorder that can be explained by cognitive psychology and theories of memory. Evidence from fMRI scans show that the brain functions differently in a person with dyslexia, resulting in strengths and limitations. It affects the ability to develop effective reading skills due to difficulties with working memory, processing skills and phonological awareness. The view of dyslex...

Why would someone elect to have their eggs frozen? The main reason is to store these delicate cells so that they can be used in the future. The technique of freezing and storing sperm cells and embryos has been undertaken for many years. However, the use of frozen eggs for infertility treatment is a relatively new technique. Eggs do not freeze as well as embryos, and in fact, fertilisation of a fr...