Road to Reform: The Progression of Mental Health Treatment in the U.S. By Alexandra Dubinsky, Behavioral Neuroscience, 2020 Source: Pixabay Social deviants. Moral misfits. These were the phrases used to describe mentally ill individuals the mid-1700s. This mindset was also the rationale behind institutionalization: If these individuals seemed too violent or disruptive to remain in the […]

From a smeared past to a successful future: Origin of Chinese hamster ovary cells Urjita Tendolkar, Cell and Molecular Biology, 2020 Source: Shutterstock Chinese hamster ovary (CHO) cells are pioneers of modern recombinant therapeutics. They are used as factories to churn out protein-based drugs to treat a wide range of life-threatening diseases. For any protein therapeutic

Where do food allergies come from? Three theories offer clues By Christina Curran, Biochemistry, 2023 Source: Shutterstock In today’s world, it seems as though everyone is allergic to something. While a bit of hay fever or a runny nose from spring pollen might be a nuisance, their threat does not hold a candle to that of

Untangling the Depths of our Hair By Dhriti Aiylam, Behavioral Neuroscience 2023 Source: Shutterstock Straight, curly, blonde, black, thick, thin — we all have hair. And our hair is an important part of our appearance. But although people think about their hair every day, a lot of us don’t know much about it — how it grows, what it’s made

The history behind animal testing in research By Joseph Valenti, Biology, 2023 Source: Shutterstock In the past decade, a piece of technology known as a Microfluidic Human Organ-on-Chips, or Organ Chips, has been in development for research testing. These Organ Chips are clear structures that house living cells that recreate organ and tissue structures and functions,

Cutting Away at the Details: How CRISPR Cas-9 Revolutionized Science By Gabrielle Hernandez, Biochemistry, 2022 Source: Shutterstock Within a decade, the origins of CRISPR Cas-9 were recognized in three different parts of the world. In Japan, the repeated sequence was seen in Gram-negative bacteria; and then again in the Netherlands, in Gram-positive bacteria. Gram-positive/negative are

Finding the Roots: How we Keep Our Information Safe Online By Drew Bodmer, Physics and Computer Science, 2022 Source: Shutterstock From military movements to secret lovers, people have always needed ways to pass secret messages. This art of encoding messages to keep them safe from prying eyes is called cryptography. The first known example of cryptography

When Nurture Shapes Nature: The Role of Epigenetics in Inherited Trauma Sources: Pixabay.com By Alisha Karuvannur-Sandhu, Behavioral Neuroscience & Philosophy, 2023 The nature versus nurture debate has been a pressing controversy for centuries, from John Locke’s blank slate theory in 1690, to the twentieth century ideology of biological determinism. But what if the two are

Why We Can’t Turn Away from True Crime Source: Pixabay.com By Elisa Abraham, Pharmaceutical Sciences, 2021 From documentaries on Netflix to podcasts on Spotify, true crime is having its turn in the spotlight in our media consumption. This fascination leads to the question as to why we are unable to look away from gruesome murders, terrifying