Growing up in Oregon meant I spent lots of time hearing about Sasquatch. Now working in a lab studying monkeys, I’ve spent a lot of time thinking about how different primates are related. While it is undeniable that little evidence has been found to prove Bigfoot roams the wild forests of the Pacific Northwest, perhaps […]
Category Archives: Uncategorized
Mal de Débarquement: The Science of Land Sickness
posted by Seraphina Solders
Recently I was lucky to spend seven days on a catamaran out at sea with a small group of (COVID-vaccinated) friends. We traveled around the Gulf of California, witnessing truly amazing sights like manta rays jumping out of the water, sea birds diving into the water, and turtles floating along in the swell. This was […]
Why UC student researchers need a union
posted by Laura Beebe
Right now, a group of graduate student researchers across the University of California are working to form a union. What does this mean? How is science made? The process of becoming a full-time (“tenure-track”) neuroscientist or biologist at a university or other research institution involves a long training process. Students must obtain an undergraduate degree […]
The Earth is Flat: A Psychology Perspective
posted by kelseysundby
Living in a world of “alternative facts” and misinformation is exhausting. A casual scroll through Facebook can spiral into a tiresome fact checking escapade and an emotional rollercoaster: “You mean we could have been free from COVID if we had all just injected ourselves with bleach?!” Misinformation is defined as false information that is spread, […]
Neuroscience… of the bladder
posted by Catie Profaci
When we think of neuroscience, we often think of the brain. […] But so much of neuroscience is concerned with happenings outside the brain itself. For instance, neural signaling controls and coordinates our muscle movements, alerts us when our stomach is empty, produces a physiological response to arousal, and sends a painful alarm when we damage our skin. Neural signaling is also important for telling us when it’s time to pee.
It’s about time
posted by Haylie Romero
About a day To you, Earth probably seems like a fairly stagnant entity. Sure, we are currently dealing with rising global temperatures as well as carbon dioxide (CO2) levels, but in your day to day world, those changes probably seem quite small. Over the history of life on Earth, however, so many things that we […]
Racism and Birth Inequities, From Biology to Society
posted by Laura Beebe
Image Credit: UNICEF Black mothers in the US are 3-4x more likely to die from pregnancy-related causes than white mothers (NPR/ProPublica). In addition, 40.6% of Black births are preterm, compared to 33.1% of white births (CDC). Compounding evidence suggests that the lived experience of racism in the US, rather than genetics, health behaviors (e.g. smoking), […]
Postictal Blues
posted by Donovan Cronkhite
Intro On the morning of January 12th, 2020, I woke up to the sound of my phone vibrating. It was my mom because it was her birthday and I had told her to call me the night before. I had the perfect plan: at approximately 2 a.m. that morning, I snuck into the house (I […]
Get out of my personal s p a c e
posted by Jess Du
How does the brain dynamically represent our personal space? It’s more interesting, and complicated, than you may think.
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