By Laura Odom It’s a tale as old as time: the farming of a crop supports the economy of a region until importation, human travel, or climate change introduces an invasive pest species that likes to snack on the aforementioned crop. Invasive species are often advantaged in new habitats, as they typically have no natural … Continue reading How Weevil Our Crops Recover?: The history of how Alabama farmers went (pea)nuts over an invasive pest
History
Getting to the Heart of the Problem: The Penn State Heart Legacy
By Victoria Silvis Since the first successful kidney transplant in 1954, organ transplantation has become an increasingly common procedure with over 39,000 occurring in the United States in 2020.1,2 While the pancreas, heart, and liver were the next organs to be transplanted in the 1960’s, organ procurement was a challenge, as the United Network for … Continue reading Getting to the Heart of the Problem: The Penn State Heart Legacy
Penicillin: One Of The First Antibiotics
By Hannah Johnson Figure 1: Structure of penicillin (Getty Images, 2022). Some of the first antibiotics found to treat bacterial infections were discovered in the late 1800s and early 1900s by Paul Ehrlich and Alexander Fleming, starting the antibiotic era. Ehrlich is credited for the idea of a chemical compound capable of selectively targeting microbes … Continue reading Penicillin: One Of The First Antibiotics
A Tribute to African Americans Who Impacted STEM
By Savanna Ledford February has been designated as Black History Month since 1976 and is a time to honor the contributions and sacrifices of African Americans who have shaped the United States.1,2 In the words of former President Barack Obama, Black History Month is about “… the lived, shared experience of all African Americans, high … Continue reading A Tribute to African Americans Who Impacted STEM
Diverse Scientists and Their Impact on Science Today
By Stephanie Baringer Historically, science was a white man’s club; women and minorities need not apply. Since its creation in 1901, only 58 of the 609 Nobel Prizes awarded have been given to women, more than half of which were given in the past 20 years1. While minority representation in science has improved over time, … Continue reading Diverse Scientists and Their Impact on Science Today
How We Almost Eradicated Polio
By Sonam Lhamo In the late 1940s and early 1950s, polio was a feared infectious disease in the U.S. During summers, when the disease peaked, parents would keep their children from going to swimming pools and movies for fear of their children contracting polio from infected children1. Polio is a highly contagious, infectious disease caused … Continue reading How We Almost Eradicated Polio
The Developmental Origins of Health and Disease: The Role of Maternal Nutrition
By Kaitlin Carson Are alterations in diet during pregnancy enough to change the course of offspring development? Insights from the Dutch Hunger Winter, a famine that occurred near the end of World War II in which food supplies were severely restricted for a period of 5 months, have helped us address the effects of diet … Continue reading The Developmental Origins of Health and Disease: The Role of Maternal Nutrition
The Search for Blue No. 1
By Hannah Johnson Photo Credit: Rebecca Robbins, Mars Wrigley Global Innovation Center from https://www.ucdavis.edu/news/new-natural-blue-food-coloring Have you ever wondered about the industry behind the color of your food? So much of what we eat is transformed into more vibrant and distinguishable colors and this is especially true for manufactured foods, such as candy, cereal, and jelly. … Continue reading The Search for Blue No. 1
Obituary for the Arecibo Telescope
By Julia Simpson Isaac Newton famously wrote that “if I have seen further, it is by standing on the shoulders of giants.” For 57 years, humanity stood on the metaphorical shoulders of the Arecibo telescope and uncovered far-reaching, incredible insights about our universe. As of December, that giant has fallen. Picture a rocky valley in … Continue reading Obituary for the Arecibo Telescope
How Neanderthals Impacted Our Health
By Kevin Fundora Reconstruction of a male and female Neanderthal.(ScienceSource, S. Entressangle & E. Daynes) Do you sunburn easily or suffer from allergies? Are you wondering why some people have severe symptoms from COVID-19 while others do just fine? The reason why may be from genes we inherited from another species of human, the Neanderthals. … Continue reading How Neanderthals Impacted Our Health
Lions Talk Science 