Month: October 2014

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Looking Closer: The Search for the Electron Electric Dipole Moment

Figure 1~ Artist’s conception of the electron electric dipole moment (Adam West). Everything and Nothing Ask a physicist “Why is there something rather than nothing?” and you’re likely to provoke consternation. Science, the discipline most concerned with studying nature, may never be able to speak with authority about the reasons behind nature’s very existence, as that question may be forever inaccessible to the scientific method. But … Continue reading Looking Closer: The Search for the Electron Electric Dipole Moment

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Seminars

Fat vs. Sugar: The culture of American dieting

Presented by Katherine Richeson, Mary Gearing, and Abbe Clark Nutrition is currently one of the most popular science topics in mainstream media, as it is intimately tied to lifestyle, health and personal appearance. However, this popularity has led to a proliferation of inaccurate and sensationalized information. Our aim with this lecture is to provide the audience with the scientific background necessary to understand nutrition beyond … Continue reading Fat vs. Sugar: The culture of American dieting

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Forever Young: How long can humans live?

Presented by Michael Schultz, Tyler Huycke, and Ryoji Amamato Imagine a future where you can take a pill that halts the aging process, and if your organs do wear down, they can be replaced like car parts; a future where you can expect to stay healthy well past your first century of life. Our lecture will explore these ideas by looking into how scientists are … Continue reading Forever Young: How long can humans live?

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Fat vs. sugar: Who will break your heart?

Nutrition plays an important role in the prevention of chronic illnesses such as diabetes and heart disease. The Seven Countries Study, one of the earliest and most influential epidemiological studies, spanned the second half of the last century and showed a strong correlation between consumption of saturated fat and incidence of coronary heart disease. This result established a “low-fat” dietary dogma that has gone largely … Continue reading Fat vs. sugar: Who will break your heart?

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Ebola Virus: How it infects people, and how scientists are working to cure it

Since the beginning of the current outbreak last May, Ebola has been a near daily news story.  Most articles have focused on the public health aspect of the disease in terms of its spread throughout West Africa, attempts to contain it, and efforts to set up viable health care stations near affected areas.  An earlier article on our website explained why this epidemic has become … Continue reading Ebola Virus: How it infects people, and how scientists are working to cure it

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Activities of 8 place cells recorded while the rat ran back and forth through along the track. Each dot is an action potential, and each color is a different cell. Credit Stuartlayton via Creative Commons 3.0
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The recent Nobel Prize was not about solving Alzheimer's disease

(A response to ‘Alzheimer’s Disease Discovery Leads To Nobel Prize‘ and other similar articles) Activities of 8 place cells recorded while the rat ran back and forth through along the track. Each dot is an action potential, and each color is a different cell. Credit Stuartlayton via Creative Commons 3.0 Last week, the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine was awarded for the discovery of … Continue reading The recent Nobel Prize was not about solving Alzheimer's disease

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EBC-46, a novel PKC inhibitor shows pre-clinical potential
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New cancer drug promising, but has a long way to go

A recent article published in Medical Express last week touts the impressive findings of a pre-clinical study on the experimental drug EBC-46 (pictured above). In the article, they claim that EBC-46 is able to effectively destroy tumors by destroying the blood vessels that supply it with oxygen and nutrients. It is important, however, to remember that the work they are reporting on is very preliminary … Continue reading New cancer drug promising, but has a long way to go

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Hybrid Solar Cell with Higher Efficiency

In a finding that appears in the journal Nature Materials (original article here), researchers demonstrate efficient energy harnessing using a hybrid solar cell. Specifically, they show ultrafast energy transfer between an organic molecule (made up of carbon and hydrogen atoms) and an inorganic semiconductor (made of atoms other than carbon and hydrogen). Normally, absorption of one photon or particle of light by a solar cell … Continue reading Hybrid Solar Cell with Higher Efficiency

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Our Universe’s Story: Cosmos from chaos

Presented by Stephen Portillo, Zachary Slepian, and Kate Alexander As the result of observational and theoretical breakthroughs starting in the twentieth century, the cosmology of the Big Bang Theory was established. A crucial part of this captivating story is explaining how, from the violence and chaos of the Big Bang, organized structures like our own Milky Way galaxy formed. The first part of this lecture … Continue reading Our Universe’s Story: Cosmos from chaos

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Inputs and Outputs: How the brain allows us to interact with the world

Presented by Laura Driscoll and Shay Neufeld The simplest way to think about the brain is as a platform through which we can interact with the world. Highly specialized sensory structures in our peripheral nervous system detect information in our environment and send these sensory signals to the “information hub” of our bodies, the brain. Here, sensory information is processed to produce an internal precept … Continue reading Inputs and Outputs: How the brain allows us to interact with the world

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