NU Sci Staff

Distractions: Fueling your Inner Genius? By Natasha Mathur, Behavioral Neuroscience, 2018 It is hard to imagine exactly what differentiates people between good and great, but based on what is known about quite a few great minds there is one common occurrence. Marcel Proust, Charles Darwin and Richard Wagner were all plagued by the inability to tune […]

Have you read this already? How Déjà vu Works By Sage Wesenberg, Biochemistry, 2019 “Woah, I just had déjà vu!” is about the only proof there is that a person has experienced the phenomenon commonly known as déjà vu, meaning “already seen” in French. Although it is so mysterious and difficult to pin down, about 60–70

Small Steps, Huge Leaps, and Great Bounds By Jameson O’Reilly, Applied Physics and Electrical Engineering, 2019 In 1969, Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin lived the dream that billions of humans have had for hundreds of thousands of years. Humans had long been curious about what lies beyond our humble Earth, but it took a decades-long struggle

Is Light Making Us Fat? By Marc Tawfik, Biochemistry, 2018 Prolonged light exposure might be making us fat. Numerous past studies have established a link between light exposure and circadian rhythm- the body’s “internal clock” that regulates one’s sense of wakefulness. Excessive exposure to light can disrupt the normal electrical activity in a specialized region of

Why Haven’t We Been Visited by Aliens Yet? By Jameson O’Reilly, Applied Physics and Electrical Engineering 2019 The title of this article may sound a bit strange, but Earth is just one planet within one of billions of solar systems within one of billions of galaxies within one of billions of superclusters. There are many requirements

A First for Fish By Sage Wesenberg, Biochemistry 2019 All fish are cold-blooded in order to allow them to survive in cold ocean waters. Until now. The opah, or Lampris guttatus, has just been discovered as the world’s first fully warm-blooded or endothermic fish. In a recent research paper by Dr. Nicholas Wegner published in Science,

Treatment Taboos: Harmless or Harmful? By Cicely Krebill, Biochemistry, 2019 Human African trypanosomiasis, also known as sleeping sickness, poses a risk to millions of people in sub-Saharan Africa. This disease, which is spread through bites by an infected tsetse fly, is very difficult to diagnose and treat, as it is hard to catch at the early

Genome of Human Embryos Edited for the First Time By Marc Tawfik, Biochemistry, 2018 A follow up to “Engineering the Next Human Generation” by Marc Tawfik, NUSci Issue 24 A group of scientists in China recently used the gene-editing technology known as CRISPR/cas9 to modify the genome of human embryos for the first time despite stern

The Foundation of Allergies: Are Antibacterials Bad? By Alessandra Maahs, Biology and English, 2017 Among rows of lab benches and through the sound of clinking walks Dr. Jessica Savage, a researcher at Brigham and Women’s Hospital. Savage’s research focuses on the treatment and causes of allergies in children and adults. Her goal is to find