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_Biology: Choosing a Research Topic

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Potential Research Topics Using AccessScience Resources

TOPIC: Antibiotic Resistance

Antibiotic resistance (Article)
Antibiotic (Article)
Drug-resistant tuberculosis on the rise (Briefing)
Arlomycin antibiotics may combat antimicrobial resistance (Briefing)
Cranberry compound prevents antibiotic resistance in laboratory tests (Briefing)
How Do Hand Sanitizers Work? (Video)
This material uses energy from ambient light to kill hospital superbugs (News)
Christopher T. Walsh (Video Biography)

TOPIC: Foodborne Illness

Foodborne disease (Article)
Escherichia coli outbreaks (Article)
Salmonelloses (Article)
Listeriosis (Article)
Climate change could increase foodborne illness by energizing flies (News)

TOPIC: Organ Regeneration

Regenerative biology (Article)
Heart regeneration (Article)
Regenerative medicine as a treatment modality for organ loss (Briefing)
For heart repair, call RNA (News)
Santiago Ramón y Cajal (Biography)
Shinya Yamanaka (Biography)

TOPIC: Genetically Modified Organisms

Genetic engineering (Article)
Genetically modified organism (GMO) (Article)
Genetically modified crops (Article)
Genetically modified nonbrowning apples approved for sale (Briefing)
GM moth trial gets a green light from USDA (News)
GMO Regulation in America (Video)

TOPIC: CRIPSR

CRISPR/Cas9 gene editing (Article)
CRISPR genome-editing methods against superbugs (Article)
Expanded range for CRISPR gene editing (Briefing)
Cancer cells engineered with CRISPR slay their own kin (News)
Tweaking one gene with CRISPR switched the way a snail shell spirals (News)
Gene editing of human embryos gets rid of a mutation that causes heart failure (News)
CRISPR/Cas9 explained (Video)
The Legal Battle Over CRISPR (Video)
Philip Horvath (Video Biography)

TOPIC: Development of the periodic table

Periodic table (Article)
Chemical element (Article)
2019 International Year of the Periodic Table (Briefing)
Ultrathin 2D metals get their own periodic table (News)
Women in Chemistry: Heroes of the Periodic Table (Video)
The Four “New” Elements and How We Got Them (Video)
Have We Found All the Elements? (Video)
Dmitri Ivanovich Mendeleyev (Biography)

TOPIC: Ocean acidification

Ocean acidification (Article)
Coral reef structural complexity (Article)
Ocean acidification affecting fishes’ sense of smell (Briefing)
Ocean acidification may hamper food web’s nitrogen-fixing heroes (News)
Syukuro Manabe (Video Biography)

TOPIC: Chocolate and flavanols

Cacao (Article)
Cocoa powder and chocolate (Article)
Understanding the health benefits of chocolate flavanols (Briefing)
Five Sweet Facts About the Chemistry of Chocolate (Video)
Milk Chocolate Versus Dark Chocolate (Video)

TOPIC: Invasive species

Invasive species (Article)
Invasion ecology (Article)
Effects of invasive Burmese pythons in Everglades National Park (Article)
Invasive lionfish (Briefing)
Asian longhorned tick is an invasive threat in the United States (Briefing)
This invasive tick can clone itself and suck livestock dry (News)

TOPIC: Plastic waste pollution

Plastic waste pollution (Briefing)
Single-use plastic-bag alternatives (Briefing)
Lithium-ion battery anodes produced from waste plastic bags (Briefing)
Polymer (Article)
This microbe makes a meal of plastic (News)
Can Plastics Be Composted? (Video)
How Plastic Recycling Works (Video)

TOPIC: Global climate change

Global climate change (Article)
Greenhouse effect (Article)
Paleoclimatology (Article)
Hydrological consequences of global warming (Article)
Ocean warming (Article)
Sea-level rise (Article)
Deadly heat in an era of global climate change (Briefing)
Glaciers in the Himalayas are melting fast, study shows (Briefing)
The potential for natural climate solutions in the United States (Briefing)
Warming’s role in extreme weather quantified (News)
Humans are driving climate change, federal scientists say (News)
Cow Burps Are Warming the Planet (Video)
Syukuro Manabe (Video Biography)

TOPIC: Higgs boson

Higgs boson (Article)
Higgs boson detection at the LHC (Article)
Large Hadron Collider (Article)
Detection of the Higgs boson (Briefing)
An elusive Higgs boson decay has finally been spotted (Briefing)
Peter (Ware) Higgs (Biography)

TOPIC: Nuclear fusion

Nuclear fusion (Article)
Nucleosynthesis (Article)
Harnessing the power of nuclear fusion in tokamak reactors (Briefing)
Ernest Rutherford (Biography)
Robert D’escourt Atkinson (Biography)

TOPIC: Supermassive black hole

Black hole (Article)
Searching for supermassive black hole signatures in galaxies (Article)
Supermassive stars (Article)
Event Horizon Telescope captures first image of a black hole (Briefing)
Star’s orbit of a supermassive black hole supports theory of relativity (Briefing)
Astronomers can’t figure out why some black holes got so big so fast (News)
The accretion disk around our galaxy’s black hole has been spotted at last (News)
Martin John Rees (Biography)
Sandra M. Faber (Video Biography)

Tips for Choosing a Topic using AccessScience

See what's new! Check out the News link in the site footer to see a list of recently added and updated content.
Browse Briefings for ideas. These short, engaging reports cover new phenomena, events, or scientific discoveries and can be browsed by topic.
Browse Textbooks and other books are easily accessible to help you understand your topic.
Browse our Video collection. Spark your curiosity with videos explaining the scientific concepts behind everyday objects and phenomena.
Use the related links to explore further. Links to related AccessScience articles appear throughout all content types, and a related content section in the right sidebar links to relevant briefings, media, biographies, and projects.
Link to primary literature and external content. Get additional sources right from AccessScience! Use the Primary Literature and Additional Readings sections at the end of Articles and Briefings to find relevant research papers, books, and organizational websites.