Technology

Breaking the two-hour tape: Engineering the fastest marathon run in history

What does it take to reach the peak of athletic performance and break barriers thought to be beyond human capabilities? One of these barriers is the two-hour marathon, a feat which requires running 26.2 miles while maintaining an average pace of 4:34 per mile. At that speed, you could run the 100-yard length of a

Microbial mania on Mars

At the Kennedy Space Center, NASA is finalizing preparations to launch the Mars 2020 rover in July. One of the aims of the Mars 2020 mission is to search for signs of past microbial life through biosignatures. Biosignatures typically present themselves in traces of nitrogen, oxygen, or methane, indicating some active life form in either

Can you hear me now? Good!

“Tweedly tweedly TWEEE“ “Badum dum dum” “That was good everyone, but can we do one more take?..” Working at a recording studio for a year was the dream job for a fledgling audiophile such as myself. One tidbit that stuck with me was the absolute genius, yet simplicity, in how the songs we recorded could

Plant Cells, an Unculturable Mystery

The simplest unit in biology is the cell. This central tenet has remained true since the coining of the term 'cell' in 1665 by Robert Hooke. Cells have enabled multicellular organisms to conquer every part of the planet, enabling cell line specialization and the formation of more complex organisms. Multicellularity allowed organisms to thrive by

Cleaning up Chernobyl with Sunflowers

On April 26, 1986, in the city of Pripyat, Ukraine, a group of engineers working on the No. 4 Reactor at the Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant accidentally caused one of the greatest environmental disasters known to mankind. 50 tons of radioactive material were released into the atmosphere and dozens of lives were lost. Pripyat was

Blinded by the Blue Light

”Don't stare at your phone/computer too much, you will hurt your eyes” – we've probably all heard this at some point in our lives. Is this true? Does staring at a screen really “hurt” your eyes? What other effects does it have on the body, and is it something that will impact our health as

The Cartography of the Genome

What is a map? What does it REALLY represent? You might answer a map generally represents the relationships of locations. However, maps have evolved substantially in modern times. For example, modern genomics and cartography? While they might seem like different worlds, they actually share much in common. Both focused on a similar goal – spatial

Littering 2.0

Like many kids, I dreamt of becoming an astronaut; exploring distant planets and making contact with aliens. With a huge number of planets out there, it's hard to think we're all alone in this vast universe. But, as I grew as a scientist, my curiosity focused on a specific question: How can we find alien

Big Science, Small Satellites

Is it a star? A moon? A comet even? No, it's a satellite! NASA broadly defines a satellite as a moon, planet, or machine that orbits a planet or star. More specifically, “natural” satellites include the Earth, which revolves around the Sun, and the moon which revolves around the Earth. On the other hand, there

Cosmic Farming: A Step Towards a Sustained Stay in Space

We talk about astronauts going on space missions to unravel the possibility of life beyond Earth. In fact, with NASA and SpaceX's race to Mars, it is not long before a human colony is established on the Red planet. But have we ever considered how we will sustain ourselves there? Food has been a major

The Cold Truth About Cryopreservation

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

My machine learns better than me

Have you ever used Siri to check the weather for the week, for your trip to the beach, or to check if that cough you have this morning means you're dying and don't need to go to class? What about those pesky ads on Facebook or Instagram that seem directly related to your interests? What

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