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 »
The metaphor “brokenhearted” is often loosely used to describe someone experiencing various levels of emotional distress. This term, however, is not always a metaphor. In the case of Takotsubo Cardiomyopathy, more commonly known as broken heart syndrome, the heart rapidly weakens after undergoing extreme stress, causing people to suffer from a literal broken heart. In
Broken heart syndrome Read More »
Cardiac arrest. For most of us, it spells the end. For wood frogs, however, it’s just their annual hibernation through the winter. Hibernation is usually a similar process among most species — eat as much as possible, find shelter, and live off those energy stores until the snow begins to melt. Usually, the animal spends
Frozen frogs: Nature’s not-so-tasty popsicles Read More »
Animals face numerous dangers, one of them being illnesses. Species have found a variety of ways to protect themselves from diseases, but not much is known about how they affect the physiological state of the individual. A phenomenon surrounding the immune systems of canaries was recently discovered by researchers at the University of Connecticut. The
The extraordinary empathy of canaries’ immune systems Read More »
There’s a trail of red arrows extending along the carpeted floor toward a white tent with two openings, a trace of rubbing alcohol lingers in the air, and Whitney Houston’s “I Wanna Dance with Somebody” is playing over the speakers dotted along the speckled tile ceiling when, suddenly, there are two faint thuds to the
Glitching out in the face of fear Read More »
In the 1990s, the US government heavily funded neuroscience research and sponsored numerous programs to educate members of Congress and the public about the wonders of the brain. But years before this “decade of the brain”, the writings of a man named Oliver Sacks helped introduce the world to the complexities of neurology and cognition.
Oliver Sacks: A decoder of neurological glitches Read More »