Science & Pop. Culture

milky way galaxy during nighttime

The Earth from ET’s Perspective

To date, researchers have identified over 5,000 exoplanets in the Milky Way, a small fraction of the billions hypothesized to exist in our galaxy. Among them, researchers catalog so-called “Earth-like planets,” or planets with a similar size, structure, and distance from the Sun as Earth. While of great interest to modern astronomers, no conclusive evidence

The evolution of Pokémon evolution: 25+ years of Evolutionary misconceptions

        Without question, Pokémon is one of the most iconic entertainment franchises ever. In fact, it is the highest-grossing media franchise of all time, coming in at a whopping $76.4 billion in revenue. All franchises come with some form of controversy among media and fans, and although Pokémon has avoided major contention, it has spread misleading

Looking to the Future

As of 2020, the global consumption of energy is 580 million terajoules per year. Of this, 83.1% comes from fossil fuels like coal, oil, and natural gas, 4.3% comes from radioactive sources, and about 12.6% comes from renewable sources like hydro, solar, and wind. We have currently 50 more years of oil reserves left available,

Becoming a Lump With Knobs

Driving down any rural road around this time of year, you’re likely to see rows on rows of corn blowing in the wind. You might notice that they look like twins of each other, almost exactly the same height and precisely the same color.  That uniformity is also why corn lovers can walk into near

The rift between us: how jargon isolates scientists

“Therefore, the overall objective of this project is to characterize the changes in mitochondrial metabolism in early VML injury and determine how these contribute to the total decline of muscle contractile and oxidative function.” This was the sentence I used to describe the purpose of my dissertation project to my advisory committee. To them, it

The Monsters That Make You: The Spooky Tale of Selfish DNA

It’s the spooky season and we’re all anticipating monsters crawling out from under our bed, but did you know that there are monsters living inside our very cells! Every living thing has DNA in its cells. It provides the “blue print” for what that living thing is going to be. There can't be any monsters

microsporidia harpooning a cell

Microsporidia: tiny parasites with big impacts

A vessel is harpooned and infiltrated by an enemy, then robbed of its precious cargo – this imagery may call to mind Long John Silver or other fictional marauders, but these events happen every day, all around us, on a scale so small we cannot see it. I'm referring to microsporidia, a group of real-life,

Toxicology and Poisons: a Cat and Mouse Game

Murder is as old as mankind. Or so the saying goes. Every culture has a history of poisons, from the ironically named “elixirs of life” eagerly sought after by early Chinese emperors and nobles, to the Poison Damsels (Visha Kanya) of ancient Indian mythology that could kill you with just a drop of the deadly

Learning Disabled People Are (Metaphorically) Disappearing

Growing up in the special education system, I noticed an interesting phenomenon: learning-disabled students become invisible as they age. That isn't to say that they aren't in the building, but that they work hard to make it less and less apparent that they are learning-disabled. By the time learning-disabled students enter college, their learning disability

a woman with grey hair walks by a business shut by COVID-19 restrictions

The unexpected silver lining: stress and premature greying

The process of hair going grey is a topic that has always fascinated me. Mainly because I cannot remember a time in my life where my Dad's hair was entirely dark. In my earliest memories, where he was a young thirty-something-year-old, I can recall giggling at what he vehemently swore were little droplets of wisdom

The Trap of Pseudo-Sustainability

Last week, I received an email from Brandless, an online store that specializes in affordable, healthy, and environmentally-conscious products. Their email was advertising their new line of “tree-free” products – paper products that are made from bamboo and sugarcane, rather than trees. I strive to be environmentally conscious, but I am also a person who

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