Archive: 2012

Presented by Ann Fiegen, Kevin Bonham, and Tina Liu When a team of scientists discovered in 2011 how to make the deadly H5N1 “Avian flu” virus transmissible through air, it stirred a debate about scientific ethics and national security that has raged…

-- According to Max Eastman, “a smile is the universal welcome.” For individuals whose faces are severely disfigured due to trauma, burns or disease, a smile may be difficult, or even impossible, to express. Facial deformities may impair daily…

Presented by Anjali Tripathi, Kirit Karkare, and Sukrit Ranjan Earth is one of the eight planets in our Solar System. Within the past 20 years, astronomers have discovered more than 700 planets in the Universe, which are orbiting stars that are not our…

-- Last month, physicians at the University of Maryland Medical Center made headlines after performing what is regarded as the most extensive face transplant in history. In 1997, a firearm accident left Richard Norris without a nose, lips, and part of…

Everything that we can see, small, taste and touch is made of matter. For the first ten thousand years of human development, we crudely shaped matter (like metal and wood) into forms that we could use.

-- Despite our best efforts to wash our hands and keep raw meat separate from other ingredients while cooking, over 76 million Americans per year become ill from foodborne bacteria or the toxins produced by them. The bacterial culprits are typically E.…

-- If you believe Hollywood’s interpretation, the advent of intelligent robots rarely ends well for mankind. Movies like The Matrix, Terminator, and I, Robot all depict robots as quite intelligent, capable, and horrifyingly destructive machines that…

-- The world is excited about solar cells – and with good reason. Imagine the City of the Future, where every exposed surface has solar cells on it, converting the sun’s energy into electricity. This vision could include solar cells on windows, on top of…

-- If every cell in an organism has the same genetic program, how can there be so many different types of cells in one body? The answer lies in the fact that not all genes are turned on or expressed in every cell. Determining which genes are turned on…

-- While sitting in your elementary school classroom or making some amorphous jelly mold studded with jelly beans, you may have heard the phrase “mighty mitochondria” from your studies on the cell structures. More than just a catchy alliteration, this…