Winter weather not only brings unexpected snow days, but can also lead to gene promotion and silencing which is integral in plant reproduction. Some plants, such as those in the genus Arabidopsis, “remember” seasonal cues during winter so they can best time their flowering. This allows this plant to time its reproduction for springtime through […]
Cold weather: Snow day or plant reproduction Read More »
Whether it be jumping into an ice-cold body of water or stepping outside into the cold, unexpected immersion into the cold isn’t uncommon. However, in extreme coldness, the body may undergo an automatic response; this is called a cold shock response. Cold shock responses include a series of involuntary responses, specifically in the heart and
Brr! How butterflies react to sudden coldness Read More »
The human body is an incredibly complex network of cells and efficient pathways. This network constantly adjusts to maintain homeostasis during life changes — with pregnancy as one of the most drastic. So, what happens when a body must sustain a fetus over nine months? How can an embryo with foreign antibodies develop inside the
From foreign to familiar: The functions of the female immune system during pregnancy Read More »
The goal of artificial intelligence (AI) is to teach a computer how to think. So, it’s unsurprising that many of the strides made in AI and specifically machine learning — a subset of AI focused on using large collections of data to teach a computer rules through discovering patterns — have been based on biological
Spatio-temporal Information and Applications of Spiking Neural Networks Read More »
Climate change is one of the biggest health crises humanity faces, according to the World Health Organization. It is all-consuming, impacting almost every aspect of our daily lives. However, we very rarely look beyond greenhouse gas burning to the root cause of how climate change became what we know it as today: philosophy. Similar to
Forest fires have taken over the news. The past year has seen major wildfires on multiple continents. Climate change stands at the center of this crisis, especially in light of the United Nation’s COP26 Climate Summit taking place at the end of October. Unfortunately, forest fires are not the only thing we should be worrying
You’ve Heard OF FOrest Fires, But How About Forest Frosts? Read More »
Neck craning, you gaze up at an impossibly tall building, its windows shimmery and surreal against the bright sky. You spin around, eyes focused upward, and realize that all the buildings around you are taller than ever before achieved by structural engineers. What you perceive as a curious weightlessness to the building contrasts the sturdiness
Inspiration from One who lives in a pineapple under the sea Read More »
Humans have made many lasting, devastating changes to the world in which we live, but biodiversity loss has been one of the main changes we have wrought upon the planet. In the world of agriculture, there has also been a loss of biodiversity in the specific species of crops grown to feed a rapidly growing
An exploration of crop diversity:
The importance of biodiverse agriculture Read More »
Traveling back in time 500 years, one would witness the fall of the Aztec empire and experience the Age of Discovery: events that seem like an eternity ago. That is to say, 500 years is a long time. What will the world look like 500 years in the future? Maybe we will have colonies on
Eating away at the immortality of plastic Read More »