On February 4th, we celebrated World Cancer Day to remember those affected by cancer, standing by them in their fight against it. Known as the big “C,†cancer is a dreaded disease. There were 18.1 million new cases worldwide in 2018, of which 9.6 million were fatal. Being a leading cause of mortality, it has
On my walk home from work, I almost always encounter what I affectionately call “trash creaturesâ€: squirrels that pop out of dumpsters carrying slices of pizza or crows pulling apart garbage bags to get at the tasty morsels inside. While undoubtedly amusing, these incidents may have more cryptic, and sinister, consequences to the health of
Medicine has been important to humans since our earliest days, but for the majority of our history, we've had very little idea of how medicine works. We used to attribute medicinal effects to magic or to balancing the fluids of the body (bloodletting, anyone?), but thankfully we've come a long way since then. With the
Recently, I was in the lab doing some routine work with cells. In order to start growing my own stock of cells I took a small vial out of a tank of liquid nitrogen, where it is stored at around -150°C (-238°F). Then I quickly thawed it to body temperature (37°C, or 98.6°F) and transferred
Disease alters lives in permanent and often heartbreaking ways. Most people have a story about how they have been affected by disease, either firsthand, through a family member, or looking from the outside in on another person's life. In a world where tragedy is at the forefront of our personal lives via news stories, gofundme
Better posture. Better sex. Better poop? If these happen to be part of your New Year's resolutions (and if they aren't, they should be), did you realize that working on your pelvic floor can help improve all three of these areas? If your answer is no, or if you're wondering what the heck is my
Algae happen to be one of the most important organisms on our planet, producing about 70-80% of the oxygen we breathe. They are mostly aquatic photosynthetic organisms which grow in all sizes, from microscopic phytoplankton floating in the water, to the giant kelp which can be as large as a tree! More often you can
Ladies, how many times have you rolled your eyes while your male friend languishes on the couch, suffering from a serious case of the “man flu†while the rest of us manage to take a decongestant and go about our day? Fellas, does it ever seem like every woman you know is constantly complaining of
Have you ever been scared of grey hair, skin wrinkles, baldness, or even worse, dementia? Voltaire once remarked, “What most persons consider as virtue, after the age of 40 is simply a loss of energyâ€. Nothing is as unnerving as the fact that we all have limited time on this beautiful planet. For centuries, humans
Don't forget!! One Health Day is coming!! https://t.co/dUmFU7SPOt pic.twitter.com/FWLmKg1taO — OneHealth Commission (@OneHealthCom) October 12, 2018 What is One Health? One Health is an approach that acknowledges the interactions between human and animal health are inextricably linked, and interdependent to the health of the surrounding ecosystem. These interactions offer opportunities for the emergence and spread
It's that time of year again. The weather is starting to get a little cooler, the leaves are changing color, and flannel shirts are now socially acceptable to wear. It is finally Fall and Halloween is right around the corner. One of the most iconic stars of Halloween parties and the horror fiction genre is
Typhoid Mary – the woman still infamous in our culture for wantonly spreading typhoid fever in the early 1900's. Newspapers of the time painted her as a villain. However, Mary Mallon, the woman behind the headlines, was more the victim of the circumstances of her birth, her biology, and the culture of medical science. The
