PhD Insights into Science and Health

The best forms of gluten (source: Flickr Creative Commons user Ralf Smallkaa)

Is non-celiac gluten sensitivity real?

October 3, 2014

In the internet age, sometimes we simply have too much information on our hands, and too few tools to determine which of it is valid. For anyone without access to scientific journals and a few days of free time on their hands to separate the wheat from the chaff, prudence may be the best option. However, if a “better safe than sorry” approach involves eliminating pizza and beer from your life, then safe IS sorry.

Opening the Pandoravirus Box: what do very large viruses tell us about viral origins?

September 16, 2014

Michael Schreiber

Just what is a virus, and where did they come from? Considering that the field of virology dates back to the mid 1800s, it may come as a surprise that these questions are still controversial, and yet, they are. Recently, a team of French scientists discovered viruses of a size and complexity never seen before, and this discovery has been highly disruptive to the controversy.