February 10

Can Botox make us happier?

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I’ll admit it – I absolutely love Netflix reality shows depicting beautiful people, their lifestyles, and their interpersonal issues (looking at you Selling Sunset…). At least once per season on my favorite shows, a cosmetic surgeon shows up to give Botox injections to any willing participant to help keep their skin wrinkle-free. As a Netflix […]

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February 03

Plants: What are they thinking about?

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As fauna, we look at the floral contemporaries in our lives as little more than living scaffolding: unthinking entities more akin to the truly lifeless- like mountains -compared to us as fast paced, conscious creatures. However, if you’ve ever felt like your house plants were feeling a little neglected after the holiday travels, maybe you’re […]

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January 27

Genetics of Sasquatch: making cryptozoology scientific?

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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 […]

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January 20

A review: “How Emotions are Made” by Lisa Feldman Barrett

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Take a moment and think about the last time you saw someone cry, or broke into a fit of laughter with your friends. It’s memories like these that last the longest in our minds and ultimately make up who we are – our ability to feel a vast range of emotions, and to share those […]

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December 09

Mal de Débarquement: The Science of Land Sickness

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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 […]

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December 02

Breastmilk for baby brains

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For such a natural part of being a human, breastfeeding has had a controversial past whether in private or in public- in fact, it only became legal to breastfeed in public in all 50 states in 2018, when Utah and Idaho were the last to legalize it. While this trend of normalizing breastfeeding seems recent, […]

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November 18

COVID-19 on the brain

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As the world has struggled with the COVID-19 pandemic over the past nearly two years, scientists and doctors have worked in absolute overdrive to provide patients with safe and effective treatments and preventative vaccines in record time. However, providing treatment options for patients infected with the novel SARS-CoV-2 virus has been a challenge due to […]

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November 11

Are we ready for chips in our brains?

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[En Español] Anna is an Army veteran who served her country and recently lost her arm due to the blast from an improvised explosive device. While this is a life changing event for Anna, current technology in the US allows her to get a robotic arm controlled by a computer chip implanted in her brain. […]

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August 12

Bridging the Gap Between the Brain and Communication

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What is your preferred mode of communication? For many of us, we feel comfortable speaking, writing, or typing to share our thoughts and connect with others. Our practiced texting thumbs and typing fingers have allowed us to document written language with incredible speed. In some cases, however, patients may find themselves with the inability to […]

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July 22

Shaken memory

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image source: http://epilepsycongress.blogspot.com/2018/07/epilepsy-and-memory-loss.html Like any college student in his early 20’s, I had a bit of a wild streak with alcohol back in April of this year (2021), getting drunk off my a**. That lasted about half a week. As I have written in a previous article, I suffer from a condition known as posttraumatic […]

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