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Know Yourself, Know Your Supreme Court Justice Nominee

On June 27th, 2018 current Supreme Court Justice Anthony Kennedy submitted his letter of retirement to President Trump, to go into effect after July 31st. On Monday, July 9th, President Trump announced his 1st nominee for the second Supreme Court seat to be filled during his presidential term: Brett Kavanaugh. In response, many are eagerly

Dead Zones… Are They a Problem?

Continuing from my previous post, I want to talk about real life examples of climate change and its effects on the world around us. The idea for this particular post came to me when I was scrolling through Facebook and saw a video about a dead zone near the coast of Oman. It made me

Fatal Attraction: The Truth Behind Mosquito Bite Preference

For as long as I can remember, they have come for me. They follow me everywhere, stealing a tiny drop of my life force and replacing it with poison before I even know they've been there. I still bear the scars of their attacks on my legs and ankles. I have tried every defense– chemical,

Insect Riddles

Any true Athenian knows that summer means sweat, more sweat and (best of all) insects! Though summers filled with no-see-ums, mosquitoes, gnats and flies may cause you to despair of their class altogether, don't forget all the fascinating, beautiful and seemingly magical insects that make our existence possible. Whether you're an entomologist or not you

Take two of what and call you in the morning?

While everyone may not know exactly what antibiotics are or how they work, most people have taken them at some point in their lives. Familiarity with antibiotics stems from the fact that they are prescribed often, and their frequency of misuse has led to a very big problem – antibiotic resistance. So what are we

The Science of “The Pill”

The story of oral contraception begins in the early twentieth century when Austrian physiologist, Ludwig Haberlandt, found that female rabbits and guinea pigs became temporarily sterile after the transplantation of ovaries from pregnant animals. But what caused this temporary sterilization, and how did it lead to the pill? The secret of the pill is the

End of Net Neutrality is Inevitable, but Open Access is Not

Whether you're checking your Gmail or streaming the finale of Handmaid's Tale, your Internet usage is treated equally by the companies that have built the infrastructure of the internet, Internet Service Providers (ISPs), like Comcast and AT&T. This is broadly called net neutrality. However, net neutrality cannot be preserved in its current form. The Federal

To vaccinate or not to vaccinate? It's not just about you.

1.5 million. That number can represent many different things: the population of Philadelphia, the number of classified living species, or the number of tweets Taylor Swift's Reputation album received in the first 24 hours of its release. It is also the number of children under 5 years of age that die from vaccine-preventable diseases every

A Tariff-ible Policy

There's an old joke that goes something like this: teach a parrot to say ‘supply and demand' and you've created an economist. And, honestly, there is some truth to this common trope; after all, economics is not called the ‘dismal science' for no reason. However, even with all the criticisms, the economic laws of supply

Do These Genes Make My Butt Look Big?

  Today's chickens are bigger than ever before, which raises the question – how did we do that? Over the years, companies have selected chickens with the healthiest growth and size for breeding, to help them get the best start possible. Understandably,food animal production is an emotionally-charged topic, and with conflicting information readily available online

Coffee and sustainability Part I: The caffeinated inconvenient truth

For my Master's research, I was fortunate to study avian ecology in Costa Rica where I developed a deep appreciation for the incredible bird diversity observed there. Other things that also stayed with me from the experience was the scenic coffee farms and the friendly farmers who not only let me work on their properties

The two-sided tail of the Peacock

Have you ever encountered the Indian Peafowl? It is notoriously famous for a showy, elaborate dance to lure its female, the peahen. The male peacock adorns himself with an ornate appearance. Just observing one is breathtaking. A fan-shaped crest sits on top like a jeweled crown, a brilliant blue glistening neck making way for an

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