An estimated 45 million people in the world are blind. A multitude of factors cause blindness. Amongst the greatest are genetic disorders, such as retinitis pigmentosa, which affects over 2 million people worldwide, and macular degeneration, which affects 14 percent of people over the age of 80. One solution to this? Bionic eyes. Creating artificial […]
Bionic eyes: Can we provide artificial vision? Read More »
91,099. That was the number of people needing a kidney transplant in 2020. Of those people, just one in four received the coveted organ. The others will have to wait an average of four to five years. Kidney transplants are in such high demand that they make up 83 percent of all organ transplant needs.
Xenotransplantation: Can pig kidneys replace our own? Read More »
According to the Centers For Disease Control and Prevention, in 2020, over 40 percent of the United States population was considered obese. Obesity causes many issues like coronary heart disease, type 2 diabetes, stroke, many types of cancers, and a weakened immune system. Due to the medical difficulties that come with obesity, the lifespan of
What happens to your body when you gain or lose weight? Read More »
Cells, the most basic unit of life, have a remarkable property: resilience. Cells are faced with a multitude of stressful situations that test their ability to survive, thrive, and adapt to new situations. Often, when a cell endures stress, proteins within the cytoplasm begin to unravel. In order to prevent this, ubiquitin molecules are used
If cells can recover from stress, so can you! Read More »
Following the 1941 attack on Pearl Harbor, a wave of fear and distrust in all things Japanese encompassed the United States. This sentiment resulted in President Franklin Roosevelt’s issuing Executive Order 9066, which declared that all persons of Japanese ancestry living on the west coast be forcibly relocated to assembly centers and incarceration camps located
Pregnancy is an uncertain time for many expectant parents. It’s a daunting experience known for its vast expanse of new territory and potentially risky outcomes. A constant in most pregnancies is the location of the embryo: in the protective, developmentally beneficial environment of the uterus. However, this isn’t always the case. The prevalence of extrauterine
Out-of-place embryos: The rise of undetected ectopic pregnancies Read More »
Despite the modernity of medicine and the advancements mankind has made in understanding human physiology, there is perhaps no greater mystery than the driving force behind our every action, thought, and feeling: the human brain. The physical structure of the brain is clear, but the origin of many of the existing neuronal pathologies is still
Are our brains self-sabotaging? The role of astrocytes in neurodegenerative diseases Read More »
While wrinkle creams and wheatgrass shots may be all the anti-aging rage, the real secret lies within all of us. Put simply, aging is the slow progression of DNA damage. As cells replicate, approximately 100 base pairs of DNA are lost in what is known as the end-replication problem. Organisms have long developed a counter
Curing old age: How genetic regeneration could turn back the clock Read More »
The 2016 presidential election and victory of Donald Trump marked the start of a period scholars call the “post-truth” era. While this concept isn’t new, a post-truth society is characterized by the absence of shared objective standards for truth in favor of appeals to emotion or personal beliefs. Today, many politicians appeal to the emotional
Post-truth politics and the future state of knowledge Read More »