Presented by Anjali Tripathi How many planets are there? What are they like? In this lecture, we will talk about the variety of planets that are found beyond the Solar System. These so-called exoplanets have been discovered near and far, throughout the Galaxy. We’ll talk about the detection of these planets and their location in space, as well as their location relative to their host … Continue reading Exploring Planets Near and Far
We’re still grappling with the astonishing 2010 discovery that Neanderthals had mated with modern humans [1]. Now two new studies published earlier this year [2, 3] have identified the Neanderthal contributions to our present-day genomes, and also provided evidence that our Neanderthal legacy may be a mixed bag of beneficial and deleterious traits. Neanderthal-Homo sapiens Sex: Does it Matter? The sequencing of the complete Neanderthal … Continue reading The (Not so) Secret Life of our Inner Neanderthal
There’s been a lot of buzz recently about cancer immunotherapy, including its selection as Science Magazine’s 2013 Breakthrough of the Year. Immunotherapy has introduced a new class of drugs that harness your immune system’s ability to fight off cancer cells. While traditional cancer drugs act by directly attacking cancer cells, immunotherapies instead stimulate your immune cells to kill the cancer themselves. Immunotherapy has been gaining … Continue reading Blocking the Brakes: Helping Your Immune System Battle Cancer
“… several groups have previously demonstrated that circulating factors found in young mouse blood are capable of rejuvenating various organs in aged mice.” Continue reading Young Blood Rejuvenation – Groundbreaking Science or Old News?
Presented by Chris Garris Did you know that the average human gut is home to over 100 trillion microorganisms? These numbers are not from a diseased state, but rather are representative of a normal, healthy human gut. Clearly, this suggests that the vast majority of microorganisms living within us are not pathogenic. Animal studies of germ-free or selective gut colonization by microbes provide growing evidence … Continue reading In the Loop with Poop: Intestinal microbes in health and immunity
From Snails Are Dissolving in Pacific Ocean (original article here) Image courtesy of Arctic Exploration 2002, Russ Hopcroft, University of Alaska, Fairbanks, NOAA/OER Recent findings show that CO2 emissions are increasingly acidifying oceans, causing snail shells in the Pacific Ocean to dissolve! This may have far reaching impacts on ocean life, affecting a variety of organisms, especially those within the same food chain. The world’s … Continue reading Increasingly Acidic Oceans Are Dissolving Snail Shells
Where do we come from? How did all the diversity of life originate? These are some of the most intriguing biological questions we still struggle to answer. In order to understand the processes that produce the diversity of life on Earth, evolutionary biologists study the historical relationships of organisms, their phylogeny. There are only three major kinds of cellular organisms that form the Tree of … Continue reading Origins of Eukaryotes: Who are our closest relatives?
meshing agricultural landscapes with the needs of wildlife is having your cake and eating it too Continue reading ‘Pop up’ wetlands pop up to aid in bird migration
Microscopy images above show two model diatom species: Thalassiosira pseudonana (left) and Phaeodactylum tricornutum (right). If you live in Boston, nanofactories of sophistication well beyond anything the human race has come up with are just a Charles River away. Diatoms (seen in the images above) are unicellular photosynthetic microalgae that can be found in freshwater and marine environments worldwide. These tiny creatures have plastids with … Continue reading Diatoms: Nature’s nanotechnologists
Imagine if, instead of painful and invasive tissue biopsies of solid tumors, all that a physician needed was a 10 mL blood sample (about a tablespoon’s worth) to diagnose cancer, inform treatment decisions, or monitor the response of a tumor to treatment. Often, when a tumor is identified, doctors will surgically remove a piece of the tumor—that is, perform a biopsy—and subject the removed tumor … Continue reading Fingerprinting cancer with blood: blood-based biopsies bring new ease and precision to cancer screening