Gabrielle Weiner

Biology // Class of 2026

From ruins to research: How an ancient brain survived to help understand Alzheimer’s

Neuroscience / /

The immense capability of the human brain quickly disappears after death. A once–thriving organ built of intricate framework becomes pure mush, leaving behind an empty skull. Decomposition, marked by two processes, primarily affects soft tissues, the material from which organs are built. Within hours postmortem, autolysis causes the leakage of cellular enzymes into surrounding tissues, […]

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Bounce back: How lipocartilage is changing regenerative medicine

Biology, Health / /

When you think of the skeletal system, what comes to mind? Most of us visualize a collection of rigid, porous bones, organized in “the leg bone’s connected to the knee bone” fashion. However, a significant portion of the skeletal system is actually composed of cartilage. In every anatomy textbook, you’ll find a section listing three

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The whale that lives forever: Cancer prevention mechanisms in the bowhead whale

Biology, Health / /

Theoretically, the more cells an organism has, the higher the incidence of malignant transformation. If this were true, humans should be considerably more cancer-prone than something as small as a mouse; however, this is not the case. “Peto’s paradox” describes the phenomenon that, despite the increase in cell number, instances of cancer don’t increase in

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An ecosystem of one’s own: The application of ecological theory towards genomics

Biology, Environment / /

The ability to use language to establish relationships and dynamics within an ecosystem sustains the study of ecology. Charles Darwin’s “survival of the fittest” narrative describes the tendencies of natural selection and the likelihood of survival based on an organism’s environmental adjustment. Other terms used by ecologists to classify the relationships between species — mutualism,

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Only the shiniest survive: The science behind the astonishing iridescence of the Morpho genus

Environment / /

There’s nothing quite like the brilliant shifting color of a butterfly’s wings. Humans have long been fascinated by the dynamic properties of anything that sparkles – gemstones, the feathers of a hummingbird, the scales of a fish. What makes this elusive property of nature so unique is not only the colors that it exhibits but

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Radiolaria: A living specimen of the science behind Ernst Haeckel’s evolutionary artwork

Environment / /

Ernst Haeckel, a German contemporary of Charles Darwin, made significant contributions to the field of evolutionary biology. He is responsible for the exploration of primarily marine organisms, and in some cases, identification of entirely new species. More recognizable of his legacy, though, is his artwork. Some of his most iconic images depict a species called

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A mass extinction and a floral explosion: Paleobotany in a post-dinosaur world

Environment, World / /

It is difficult to study evolutionary biology in the modern academic setting without the mention of dinosaurs and their demise. What is often lacking from the discourse in paleontology and its surrounding disciplines, however, is the continuous change in our understanding of the subject.  In a recent study, Jamie B. Thompson, Santiago Ramirez-Barahona, and a

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