Which DNA "car crashes" has scientist Marcus looked at so far? Image by Dori, Wikimedia.

Today was the first eviction, and we’re sorry to see Pedro, Gina and Louise W go.

With evictions happening every day this week, students get voting if you want your favourite scientist to stay in the competition!

Cells Zone has been jam packed today with 3 intense live chats. Students and scientists have been chatting about:

cheechee: how do you know if the cells are communicating in your research?
michellelinterman: great question! When white blood cells talk to each other we know because what they look like changes. When they chat, they tell each other to do things, and we can measure what they do and how they look!

angelejoseph3: why are older mothers more likely to have eggs with the wrong number of chromosomes?
katiehowe: older mothers ahve eggs with the wrong number of chroms as their eggs are very old (a woman is born with all her eggs already and no more are made), so some of the important proteins for making sure they have the correct number of chromosomes are missing

duleniherath3: How does starving brain cells of air and food effect them, and in what way is this similar to damage to neurones from Alzheimer’s?
callumjohnston: Well my lab has shown that the reduction of oxygen and glucose which is carried in the blood can cause some of the changes that we see in humans in Alzheimer’s. Beofr that some people thought it was only due to a build up of this sticky protein which can clog the cells up, but we showed there is more to it than that

Students have also been asking why the Cells Zone scientists are interested in cell repair after injury or damage.

In the Genes Zone scientists have been explaining if dark chocolate is good for you and Marcus has been letting us know which DNA ‘car crashes’ he’s been looking at.

And Cancer Zone has been talking about what causes people to get weak when they have leukemia and how to find cures for cancer.