I was sitting at my kitchen table with a scattered mess of textbooks and notes studying for my first graduate school final. The white board was filled with incoherent scribbles…
Continue ReadingIt can be tempting in science, and in life, to believe that every stone has already been turned, that the most impactful steps in your field have already been made,…
Continue ReadingBeverly Crusher. Roy Hinkley. Emmett Brown. Samantha Carter. Sheldon Cooper. The Doctor. Abby Sciuto. Temperance Brennan. What do each of these scientists have in common? From creating a Geiger counter…
Continue ReadingThe votes are in, and to the surprise of pundits and pollsters everywhere, Donald J. Trump has been elected the 45th president of the United States. However, many scientists are…
Continue ReadingWinter is officially still three weeks away, although the alternating 30° F nights and 75° F days makes that difficult to remember. The arrival of winter means that it is…
Continue ReadingThe holidays can be stressful for a number of reasons. Take a minute to count up your own stressors. As a graduate student or burgeoning academic, do any of these…
Continue ReadingMeasuring Chemical Chatter If a brain could talk, what would it say? Probably nothing profound or understandable. Rather, it would emit a bustling clamor of messages between neurons. These messages…
Continue ReadingThe electron microscope (EM) was first tested by Max Knoll and Ernst Ruska at the Berlin Technische Hochschule in 1931, remarkably overcoming the resolution limits of visible light for the first…
Continue ReadingCongratulations to Dr. Margaret Scarry! A longstanding faculty member of the Anthropology Department at UNC-CH, Dr. Scarry was recently promoted to the Director of the Research Labs of Archaeology (RLA)…
Continue ReadingImagine a future where the plants in your garden not only grow delicious vegetables, but keep an eye on the soil and water conditions while they’re at it. Is the…
Continue ReadingThis past October, CBS 60 Minutes aired a feature on Artificial Intelligence. They were taking a peek into the world of Watson, a computer system developed by I.B.M that can…
Continue ReadingWe all get that same question over and over again from everyone we meet — the old friend at the grocery store, an uncle at a family reunion, or even…
Continue ReadingImage a researcher has been tasked with studying how hibernation affects a bear’s microbiota, or the collection of microorganisms residing on and in an organism. The researcher begins his day…
Continue ReadingDo you want to learn about how the material of pants affects the sex life of rats? Or about the different personalities of rocks? How about someone who invented prosthetic…
Continue ReadingThe relationship between exercise intensity (or volume) and susceptibility to upper respiratory tract infection (URTI) is a rotated J-shaped curve. This means that some regular moderate physical activity decreases the…
Continue ReadingHalloween is a time of year when we hanker for the horrific, ogle at the ugly, and revel in the rotten. And in this election year, we’re just as likely…
Continue ReadingOver a third of the adult population in America is obese (Body Mass Index (BMI) ≥ 30) and an additional 40% are classified as overweight (BMI 25-30). Within the past…
Continue Reading“9-1-1 … Hello! Somebody just collapsed on MLK Road near the Root Cellar café,” said a bystander as he rushed towards the man lying still in the parking lot. A…
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