By Jackson Radler If most of your driving career has been in North America, it’s likely that circular traffic intersections are a bit unconventional. We Americans like intersections clean and efficient: with sharp 90° angles and computer-controlled lights maintaining an orderly flow of traffic. So, what’s the deal with these loopy curvy European contraptions? Are … Continue reading Roundabouts and Rotaries and Traffic Circles, Oh My!

Comic By Arrienne Butic

By Julia Simpson The project that would eventually become the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) was initially proposed in 19961, 2. The goal was to build a powerful telescope specifically designed to image in infrared, allowing scientists to see through cosmic dust clouds and look further into the history of the universe than ever before2. … Continue reading A Webb of Wonder: The James Webb Space Telescope

By Stephanie Baringer Since the FDA’s founding in 1906, the agency has only approved approximately 140 drugs to treat diseases of the central nervous system1, compared to over 450 drugs to treat various cancers2. While there are a variety of reasons for this dichotomy, one is the difficulty of getting drugs into the brain due … Continue reading How Tf Do We Get This Drug in the Brain?

By Jessica Heebner As of July 2022, your money is able to buy, on average, 9.1% less than it was last July. What does that mean, exactly? How are you making more money (if you were lucky enough to get any raise at all) but your money buys less? It’s all due to inflation. Stick … Continue reading What’s the Big Deal with Inflation?

By Christopher Kendra Little Susie went about her Saturday like a normal 14 year-old girl. She woke up, watched cartoons, contemplated dismantling the patriarchy and had her favorite sandwich for lunch. Later in the day, she did in fact dismantle the patriarchy, but that’s not the point of this article. By Tuesday, Susie felt nauseous … Continue reading Tracking the Pathogen: Foodborne Outbreaks

By Ian Hayman You’re sitting in lab, fiddling with the newest duct tape/wire/clamp/tubing/ring stand amalgamation you jury-rigged to support your experimental apparatus. Everything looks good (or as good as it can look), so you start your experiment and head to lunch. Calamity strikes. Upon returning to lab, your monstrosity has fallen apart and your precious … Continue reading Tea! Earl Grey! Hot! How Star Trek Replicators are not so Sci-Fi After All

By Ryan Hylton, PhD This article is based on the dissertation of Dr. Ryan Hylton who defended his thesis at PSCOM on May 16, 2022. The advantages of cryo-electron tomography In cell biology publications, many mechanistic models are built on a research team’s interpretations of relatively indirect observations. For instance, changes in protein expression levels … Continue reading The Benefits of Exploring the Unknown: How Cryo-Electron Tomography of Neuronal Growth Cones Revealed a New Function for an Old Protein

By Gaelyn Lyons On June 7th, I presented my first biomedical sciences PhD student seminar. I was excited to share the research I've done over the past year with my peers and obtain feedback that I can use moving forward. A week before my seminar, Dr. Ralph Keil, the biomedical sciences program director, sent me … Continue reading Can You Repeat That? The Importance of Rigor, Reproducibility, and Transparency in Science

By Rebecca Fleeman Over the past two decades a large portion of the public has formed unfavorable feelings towards the pharmaceutical industry1. With soaring drug prices and the opioid epidemic, many question the financial intentions of not only drug companies, but also the doctors who accept financial kickbacks from pharma. This distrust kindled government action … Continue reading Here Comes the Sun: Updates to the Sunshine Act