By Mariam Melkumyan If you have ever been to a primary care physician, they have almost certainly used a little hammer to tap your knee to test for your knee-jerk reflex. In response to this tap, your leg likely jerked a little, hence the name of the reflex. This simple test is used to assure … Continue reading The Knee Jerk Reflex: More Than A Simple Medical Test

By Victoria Silvis While the world has focused on rapidly developing a vaccine for SARS-CoV2, the WHO recently approved a vaccine that has been developed for malaria, a serious illness endemic to poorer tropic and subtropic regions globally. In 2020 alone, there were 229 million cases with an estimated half a million deaths.1 Malaria infections … Continue reading What’s the buzz about Mosquirix?

By Gaelyn Lyons There has been a lot of talk lately about the COVID-19 booster vaccine, especially with new variants arising and Pfizer submitting an application to the FDA for a booster against COVID-19. The first two jabs have been found to significantly protect individuals from severe symptoms and reduce the risk of hospitalization.1 However, … Continue reading Give Me a Boost! The Debate on the COVID-19 Booster Vaccine

By Rachel Kallus, Psy. D How often do you feel tired, spacy, confused, and in your own world as you get through the day? The answer is probably quite different if you are a college student, overnight shift worker, new (or not so new) parent, or a vacationer on the beach. Despite different answers, we … Continue reading Sluggish Cognitive Tempo (SCT): An Explanation of the Syndrome and its Impact on Learning

By Hannah Johnson Figure 1: An image of coral and fish from the Great Barrier Reef9 When it comes to the 7 natural wonders of the world, it probably comes as no surprise that the Great Barrier Reef falls under this classification. Located off the coast of Australia and considered to be the largest living … Continue reading The Great Barrier Reef in Danger of Decline

By Stephanie Baringer Medical history was made on June 7th, 2021, when the FDA approved aducanumab, an anti-amyloid-β (Aβ) monoclonal antibody for Alzheimer’s disease (AD), a devastating neurodegenerative disease characterized by cognitive decline and memory loss1. Aducanumab is the first AD drug to be approved in nearly 18 years and is the first to target … Continue reading Looking Past Amyloid-β: Emerging Alzheimer’s Disease Therapies

By Mariam Melkumyan Figure 1: Humans and animals alike yawn when they are tired, bored, or not stimulated enough. Figure from Doc & Phoebe’s Cat Co. After a long day of traveling to Maryland and back, I started yawning every few minutes, but I didn’t feel that sleepy yet, so I was confused as to … Continue reading The Most Contagious Non-Disease: Yawning

By Rebecca Fleeman If you could change anything about yourself, what would it be? Would you add a couple of inches to your height to improve your view at concerts? Maybe you’d tack on some IQ points to get into the school of your choice. Or, if you read my last article, maybe you’d increase … Continue reading From Changing Your Jeans to Changing Your Genes

By Kalin Z. Salinas Would you believe if I told you that your blood could be used as a new form of medicine in the future? Physicians often recommend annual blood tests because they may reduce your risk of various diseases by allowing you to gain information about your overall health. What if I told … Continue reading Not Your Average Neuron: Neurons From Your Blood

Thank you to everyone who voted for Lions Talk Science’s Best Blog Post of the Summer 2021 semester! The results are all in, and your favorite LTS article was "Feed Me Seymour! The Real-life Plants that Eat Meat" written by Ian Hayman! For his winning article, Ian will receive a $25 gift card! Additionally, our randomly chosen voter to win a $10 … Continue reading Winner of Summer 2021 LTS Best Blog Post