Burning Chemical Questions…
ABOUT ME
Hi, I’m Poppy Flanagan and I am an aspiring A-Level student with a passion for biomedical science and a fascination for the workings of the human body at a molecular level. Through this blog I aim to explain complex concepts and explore how new scientific research drives advances in medicine.
LATEST ARTICLES
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How does CRISPR gene editing work?
CRISPR is a genome engineering technology that allows researchers to make precise changes to genetic material across a wide range of organisms. CRISPR stands for Clustered Regularly Interspaced Short Palindromic Repeats and was first discovered as part of a natural defence mechanism used by bacteria to recognise and destroy viral DNA.1 The CRISPR system consists…
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How Do Carcinogens Cause Cancer?
It is a well known fact that certain food items or chemicals can increase our chances of getting cancer – but why is this? A carcinogen is a substance, organism or agent capable of causing cancer – common examples include radiation, smoking, and alcohol1. Cancer is a disease in which some of the body’s cells grow uncontrollably and spread to other parts of the body2. Some carcinogens cause direct damage to DNA, which…
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How can Identical Twins be so Different?
Identical twins will have exactly the same genome (the entire set of DNA instructions in a single cell1) as each other. So why is it that they can be so different, even in traits that have a significant genetic component? Although nature vs nurture can have something to do with this, a deeper answer lies within the recent discoveries of epigenetics. Epigenetics refers to the processes…
