Animals / Wildlife

The mechanism behind knuckle cracking After decades of debate (really) scientists may have finally agreed on what happens when you crack your knuckles. Is the sound made by a bubble forming in the joint liquid, or the bubble popping?…

April 22nd, is Earth Day. It is not just another Hallmark Holiday as the idea of killing trees to tell someone to do their bit for the environment is, unsurprisingly, against the whole ethos. Earth Day sprung from the 1970s environmental…

The Blob It sounds like a bad sci-fi movie but in the Pacific ocean there is a patch scientists called ‘The Blob’ that is threatening marine life. 'The Blob' is a rough circle that is growing and now 100 metres deep and 2000 kms wide…

Ups and downs at the LHC Don't they look happy! It’s been an exciting few weeks over at CERN. After a scheduled 2 year downtime, the Large Hadron Collider was due to restart last week, but the momentous occasion was delayed by a short…

It’s been a while since there has been a Shot of Science and a lot has happened since the last one! Rosetta mission reveals findings from 67P Keeping up with the very latest science news, we really can’t ignore the…

Have you ever wondered why your dog’s ears prick up even when you hear nothing? You sit reading the newspaper when Toby runs towards the door barking as if his best friend is outside. It could be minutes later before your neighbour and his…

Ridiculous. Amusing. Laughable. These are the first words that came to mind when I saw this image of the sea monster who resembled a monk from 1642. I assumed it to be a Renaissance fantasy imagined by a sailor who had one too many…

I can remember when I was just a whipper-snapper, my Mam would have her book of garden birds and we would spend time staring out into the back garden pointing out the several different species that resided in our humble hedges and trees. I…

In order to find out how the human body and brain works, first we need to begin with animal models. This is the basis of all biomedical research and has led to a detailed understanding of human physiology and also pathology. There are more…

I've been meaning to write some articles for HeadStuff for a while now but it seems that I just kept getting bogged down in writing as part of my PhD research. However, with the publication of my first paper from my research, I figure this…