May 05

Hello Darkness My Old Friend: How Echolocation Lets Bats Rule the Night

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When I asked my boyfriend, a 15-year-old stuck in 28-year-old’s body, who would win in a battle between Batman and Superman in anticipation of the now-in-theaters “smash-flop” blockbuster, he responded, “Obviously Superman with his powers of x-ray vision and superhuman strength.  Batman is just a human with fancy technology.”  Such gadgets as a tape erasing […]

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April 28

Zika and the Brain

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[En español] If you have been able to capture a glimpse of any news OTHER than the ongoing disaster which is the American 2016 Presidential Election, you may have caught wind of another wave of (more global) disaster: newly uncovered effects of the Zika virus. Zika first came into the spotlight when it was linked […]

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April 21

Heavy on my Mind: Lead Poisoning (Part II)

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When I first heard about the water crisis in Flint, Michigan, I didn’t have the slightest idea how serious the problem was. Sure, I’d heard that lead was no good for you. I thought back to the day I moved into my first apartment in New York City and the superintendent handed me a pamphlet […]

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April 07

The Changing Face of Autism

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[En español] Spectrum. This word could refer to electromagnetism, the colors of the rainbow, or any number of things that fall on a scale between two points. However, when I see or hear the word “spectrum”, the first things that come to my mind are the faces of people I know who struggle with social […]

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April 01

The plastic brain

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[En español] We are born with roughly 100 billion neurons, more neurons than we’ll ever have again. It’s still a ton of neurons; they could wrap around the earth 3-4 times. Plus, each of these 100 billion neurons has a couple hundred to thousand connections with other neurons. But as we age, our brains also change. Regions of the brain key for memory […]

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March 17

We Are All Actually in the Matrix

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I’m not kidding: you, me, and everyone else are actually in the matrix. But it’s not quite the same matrix as in the movie “The Matrix.” We are (probably) not being grown and harvested by robots who (somewhat inexplicably) have chosen to use us as a power source.

No, I’m talking about your brain. Your brain is your own personal matrix. It enables your consciousness, your sensations, your positive and negative feelings.

It lies to you. All the time.

Let me show you.

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March 11

Heavy on My Mind: Lead Poisoning (Part I)

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I fear (read: know) that I am not the only person who has chosen to ignore the water crisis in Flint, Michigan. It’s depressing and complicated. But it is also important, and not just about Flint. In this post, I discuss the biological and economic costs of lead poisoning. Its effects are widespread throughout the body—and the United States—and I hope you will find them worthy of your attention.

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March 03

Science Should Have No Gender

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[En Español] I intended this article just to highlight the contributions of women to biomedical science (and science in general) to celebrate International Women’s Day on March 8. But, the further I was in my reading and writing, the more evidence I was finding about how women have been (and still are) quite sadly disregarded […]

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February 25

They’re Right In Front Of You

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[En español] The story of the neuroscientist that almost wasn’t and the role of advocacy within neuroscience. // South Central Los Angeles in the 1980s was essentially a war zone. The area had become a hub for crack cocaine dealing, which only worsened the violence from street gangs and pushed the area into deeper poverty and […]

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February 18

“It ain’t about how hard you hit”

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[En español] Have you ever felt your brain bouncing inside your skull after you got your head banged? Or have you ever hit your head so hard that you felt the world spinning around you like you were totally wasted? This is how Shannon Gugerty, a professional MMA (Mixed Martial Arts) fighter, describes his experience […]

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