“Our cells” are eukaryotic cells, the same type found in other animals, plants and  mushrooms. The other type of cells is prokaryotic cells, which bacteria and archea have. Procaryotic cells reproduce in the manner shown here. Here is a short and easy read about binary…

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has more on home canning and botulism. They both explain the dangers more fully and link to the USDA complete guide to home canning to help you do it as safely as possible. For an overview of the…

Each egg case contains one pup, which takes between six and nine months to hatch. Other egg-laying shark species have different egg shapes: this article has pictures of some of them. Most sharks actually give birth to live youngs. —– Monterey Bay Aquarium “Horn Shark”…

Sarah Lloyd has done a lot of work studying slime moulds, including this one. In real life they look like this. At least when photograped up close, they are tiny, as shown here. Even though many look like it, slime moulds are not fungi. They…

Mitosis is a topic in most introductory science classes, but it can be hard to grasp the whole process. Hopefully this makes it a bit easier. McIntosh (2016) provides a thorough overview of mitosis, if you want to read more about it, because there is…

Polymerase Chain Reaction (PCR) is a topic in most introductory science classes, but it can be hard to grasp the whole process. Hopefully this makes it a bit easier. The initial description of the PCR process was discovered by the Norwegian scientist Kjell Kleppe and…

Photosyntesis is a topic in most introductory science classes, but it can be hard to grasp the whole process. Hopefully this makes it a bit easier. Learn more here: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5264509   —– Johnson (2016) “Photosynthesis” https://doi.org/10.1042/EBC20160016

Especially if you grew up with “The land before time” it’s easy to imagine a T-Rex frolicking with a Stegosaurus. However, the Stegosaurus existed about 155-150 million years ago while the T-Rex existed about 68-66 million years ago. They would never have met, unless they…

Efflux pumps are a really cool way for bacteria to get rid of harmful substances. Bacteria have used them for a long time, for a lot of different substances. They certainly predate prescription antibiotics by a lot. It’s also good to remember that it was…

The US Food Safety and Inspection Service recommends cooking burgers to an internal temperature of at least 71.1 °C (160 °F).See the FSIS website for more information on how to store and cook ground beef safely One of the bactieria commonly associated with food poisoning…