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(01/29/15 5:15pm)
The body’s fight or flight response is all too familiar to many of us, even if we’ve never been confronted with a life or death situation before. As college students, we may have to give a presentation in front of a large class, drink several cups of coffee in order to finish an essay or even just ask our romantic interest out on a date — situations which can induce a variety of responses from the human cardiovascular system. These symptoms include stomach “butterflies” and an accelerated heart rate. However, some people may experience these symptoms without any sort of external stimulus. Medical and psychological conditions, such as heart disease and schizophrenia, can cause the heart to race uncontrollably and unpredictably, and in some cases it can be deadly.
(12/04/14 6:51pm)
With recent advances in nanotechnology, computers and microchips have gotten exponentially smaller and more powerful over the past few decades. In fact, this phenomenon is so well known that it’s been given a name: Moore’s Law, after the scientist who first described it. Many may be doubtful that this trend will continue forever, due to the physical limits of technological materials, but as it turns out, our bodies already contain tiny, natural computing agents — the bacteria Escherichia coli. Recently, scientists at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) have come up with a way to store information in this common bacterium.
(11/13/14 7:44pm)
If given the choice, would you decide to stand out as an individual or fit in with your peers? Society may value individuality and uniqueness among people, but history suggests that conformity has often been more crucial to our species’ survival. A recent study has found that the need to fit in is present in human children but not in chimpanzees or orangutans.
(11/06/14 7:05pm)
One of the greatest challenges in treating cancer is figuring out how to eradicate tumor cells without harming healthy ones. This is particularly true for cancers that affect major organs such as the lungs, the liver or the brain. A study conducted by a team of neuroscientists at Harvard University and led by Khalid Shah, a professor at Harvard Medical School, poses a potential solution to the problem of distinguishing between cancer cells and normal, healthy ones.
(10/23/14 2:18pm)
There are a wide variety of diseases that impair the growth of the brain and nervous system, ranging from autism spectrum disorders to schizophrenia. With this large number of disorders comes an even larger number of treatments, from medications to therapies to surgeries. However, many of these seemingly different neurodevelopmental disorders may share a common cause. One treatment could be developed that would be effective for many different disorders.
(09/18/14 6:16pm)
With the sudden popularity of the ice bucket challenge this past summer, many people were introduced to the neurodegenerative disease known as amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS). The goal of the challenge was to help fund research to find a cure for ALS, which is newly diagnosed at least 6,000 times per year and for which there currently exists no effective treatment.
(09/11/14 6:11pm)
Who hasn’t dreamt of a time when cars drive themselves and adjust themselves to fit all needs? In the days of The Jetsons and Back to the Future, these new technologies might have seemed to be something of the very distant future. But now, with the introduction of even tinier computers and even more efficient fuel technologies, even companies like Google have ventured into changing the future of driving.
(09/04/14 8:08pm)
If there’s one thing that paleontologists can say for certain about human evolution, it’s that we evolved from hominids who lived millions of years ago. We’ve all heard about the Neanderthals, Homo erectus and Homo sapiens, but can we ever be sure which of these species evolved from which? Which major species are we really descended from? And most importantly, what does evolution really show about the differences between modern humans and their ancestors, and what characteristics we can truly call “human?”
(04/10/14 3:42pm)
Researchers at Hopkins have identified a protein that helps control cytomegalovirus (CMV). This virus, which may seem unrecognizable from its name, causes one of the most common viral infections among humans. In fact, the CMV infection is so common that there is a 50 to 80 percent chance that you will have it by the time you are 40 years old.
(02/08/14 12:56am)
Picture yourself as a human 300,000 years ago. You are huddled inside a cave with friends, and there is a hunting party around a burning hearth. As you cut up the afternoon’s catch with a newly crafted stone tool, you chat — in whatever communication methods available — about your day. You lean over and whisper to your neighbor about the herd of deer you saw earlier roaming the mountains where you normally hunt. Your friend then suggests to the group that you all fight away the other people threatening to take your hunting spot.
(12/06/13 8:16pm)
In 1965, Intel co-founder Gordon Moore observed that as electronic devices such as cell phones and cameras decreased in size, their processing power and memory capability grew exponentially. His conjecture, which soon became known as “Moore’s Law,” has become one of the driving forces behind technological advancement. Over the past few decades, scientists and inventors have continually defied the limits of technology. We are all too accustomed to ultra-thin cell phones and super fast computers, the likes of which our grandparents and maybe even parents never could have imagined.
(11/15/13 8:34pm)
Language is an extremely crucial part of the human culture. It allows us to communicate our feelings, pass on stories, and relay important information to other people. From the moment we are born, we rely on language – both body language and spoken words – to build relationships and develop the skills and knowledge that we need to survive.