Described as a ‘rare genius’ by one of his close friends, HermannJoseph Muller was one of the pioneers of modern geneticsin the early decades of the twentieth century. Althoughhis work on mutagenesis and mutations fetched him widespreadrecognition and glory, thanks to the Nobel Prize he receivedin 1946, the depth and breadth of his contributions to geneticsand allied areas of biology are far more impressive. Tomany, he brought about a paradigm shift in the way experimentalgenetics was done. Even the way in which geneticistsname genes – the standard genetics symbols and notation islargely as proposed by Muller. From school textbooks to advancedgenetics research in genetics labs, from mutation tothe mechanism of species formation, the intellectual outputsof Muller are omnipresent in the domain of genetics. His lifeis an inspiring story of a person waging an immense struggleagainst personal and political nightmares and yet, almostheroically solving some of the most challenging and fundamentalproblems in biology at the time. If the early work ofWilliam Bateson [1], Thomas Hunt Morgan [2] and othersinitiated the follow-up to the resurrection of Mendel’s laws, itwas largely completed by Muller. The purpose of this articleis to summarize some of his key contributions to biology.

GAIA (originally the acronym for Global Astrometric Interferometerfor Astrophysics) is a mission of the European SpaceAgency (ESA) which will make the largest,most precise three dimensionalmap of our Galaxy by an unparalleled survey ofone per cent of the Galaxy’s population of 100 billion starswith the precision of microarcseconds (μas). This article willbriefly review Gaia, the data releases (DR) and the possibleimplications of this mission. The reader will be introduced tothe DR1 and DR2 data releases and the scientific outcomes ofDR1 as a forerunner to the DR2 (released on 25 April 2018)of this one-of-a-kind mission. This article aims to summarizethis great milestone in astronomy.

Graphene – the first discovered ideal two-dimensional materialcombines a wealth of exhibited novel physical phenomenawith an overwhelming potential for practical applications. Itis a one atom thick material where the carbon atoms sit ona honeycomb lattice. The honeycomb lattice is the cause forthe many fascinating properties that graphene turns up with.Conventionally a material scientist would first like to knowthe symmetry that any newly discovered material possesses,as this can help determine the physical properties of the material.In this article, we discuss the space and point symmetrygroups that the hallmark honeycomb structure of graphenepossesses.

Alkyl groups can delocalize both the negative and positivecharges through ion (charge)-induced dipole interaction withthe polarizable alkyl groups. This charge induced polarizationof the alkyl group to delocalize the charge is the origin of

‘inductive effect’ of the alkyl groups. The apparent less efficiencyin negative charge delocalization compared to positivecharge delocalization by a particular alkyl group is attributedto the less polarizing field strength of the anionic charge.

In this article, we present some discontinuous derivatives andthe Volterra function that motivated the generalization of thetheory of integration. In the end, we briefly introduce thereaders to the Henstock–Kurzweil integral.

Teaching ‘Nature Science’ poses a great challenge to educationprofessionals. In a search for alternatives that can facilitatestudent’s learning and attract their interest, a trialexperience is described that was conducted in the class ofBA Degree in Pedagogy at the University of Seville. It wasbased on the creation of motivational and attractive – Learningand Knowledge Technology (LKT) – materials in the disciplineof Nature Science. The results show the advantagesthat prospective teachers find in the use of Information andCommunication Technologies (ICTs) for teaching and learning,in this case, Nature Science.