Biology

Trials of the Golden Fleece: What bees must overcome when collecting pollen

Biology / /

Contrary to our peaceful perception of the humble bee, foraging for pollen can be a treacherous journey filled with seduction and trickery. Bees don’t get a “free lunch” in their mutualistic relationship with flowers. Instead, flowers often exploit bees as vessels for pollination, forcing them to endure trials reminiscent of Jason’s endeavors for the Golden […]

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Breaking the pattern: California’s step into reducing insulin prices

Biology, Health / /

Insulin is a necessity. A peptide hormone produced by the pancreas, insulin is important in controlling blood glucose levels as well as carbohydrate, fat, and protein metabolism. In fact, without insulin, glucose can not be stored, and its absence causes fat to be broken down into keto acids, triggering diabetic ketoacidosis, a harmful condition often

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Lullabies for adults: How white noise can improve sleep

Biology / /

Over time, people have developed countless tips and tricks for falling and staying asleep through the night. Counting sheep, yoga, meditation, reading, watching ASMR videos, melatonin, and essential oils …  While some of these methods may work temporarily, they may not be the solution to long-term sleeping problems. All of these strategies share a common

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The world’s oldest heart: Evolutionary insights from the 380 million-year-old fossil

Biology, World / /

In September of 2022, a research team working at the Gogo Formation sedimentary deposit in western Australia discovered the world’s oldest heart, located inside a fossilized prehistoric fish. The fish, classified as a placoderm, had been dead for approximately 380 million years.  The placoderm is crucial to studying the evolution of modern-day vertebrates. Because they

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Back to Basics: A Bird’s Preference for Native Species over Their Invasive Counterparts

Biology, Environment / /

As food availability in the Northern Hemisphere decrease in the fall, many birds travel southward. This seasonal trend of mass travel is known as migration. To prepare for a large migration, birds often stock up on fruits and other food sources. But with invasive plant species overtaking their native counterparts, birds are struggling to obtain

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Sending humans to Mars: Outlook, barriers, and timeline

Biology, Space / /

The United States has landed nine payloads on Mars — the fourth planet from the sun, with a reddish-brown coloration — dating all the way back to 1976. And yet, no human has ever set foot on Mars. Although Earth’s and Mars’ days are approximately equivalent lengths, many stark differences exist between the two celestial

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