Archive: 2013

The Kepler Space Telescope has found thousands of planets and planet candidates. Perhaps one of the most exciting discoveries is that smaller, rocky planets are more common than we thought. Our current understanding of what makes a planet habitable for…

Science produces knowledge about our world, while also forming the basis for technologies, medicines and applications that are instrumental to tackling the many problems facing our society. Because of its enormous impact, it is critical that science be…

From “Scientists create hybrid flu that can go airborne”, news article in Nature by Ed Yong, 2 May 2013 (original article here) Creating a “hybrid flu” may seem outlandish or irresponsible without additional information.…

Presented by Clare Malone Is there a biological reason why some people become violent offenders? This is an area of biology with many legal, ethical, and societal implications. Tonight we will focus on what the biology can, and cannot, tell us about the…

Presented by Dan Dwyer Most of the time our immune system protects us from the outside world. Occasionally, it tries to protect us from things like pollen and peanuts instead, a process that we call allergy. The allergic response involves several…

Do you get headaches often? Do they interfere with your life? Repeated headaches and migraines have a significant effect on quality-of-life and productivity at the personal level. Collectively migraines and other associated symptoms cost the US economy…

Presented by Marshall Thomas Every day, a program of cell death called apoptosis destroys millions of cells in our bodies. Though it sounds morbid and scary, apoptosis is critical for keeping us healthy by removing old and damaged cells. This staves off…

Meditation has ancient, religious roots, but it has also become a secular practice, implemented to promote wellbeing and to treat depression and anxiety. Skeptics might be wary of this jump from spiritual origins to medical treatment, but mounting…

You may have recently heard about cases of acute lymphoid leukemia (ALL) being cured in a few adults and children using a new type of cell therapy [1]. In these studies, scientists took a patient’s own immune cells, altered their genetic material so that…

They say that the key to a man’s heart is through his stomach. A more biologically accurate metaphor would be that your gut holds several keys—not to your heart, but to your brain. Remarkably, the gut is capable of altering the brain’s ability to process…