Humans are becoming cognizant of two daunting possibilities: they either are or are not alone in the universe. Some assert that the former is more terrifying, while others contend that the latter is. Regardless of which is true, extraterrestrial life has still yet to reach out to humans. The ultimate conundrum, like Enrico Fermi famously […]
There should be aliens, but why aren’t there? Read More »
The trees dance in the morning light, their branches waving in the breeze. The meadows stretch vast, decorated with swaths of verdant reds, blues, and purples. A ribbon of water cuts through the valley, bending towards the horizon. Such images often come to mind when considering the singular beauty of Earth, especially in comparison to
In the 1990s, the US government heavily funded neuroscience research and sponsored numerous programs to educate members of Congress and the public about the wonders of the brain. But years before this “decade of the brain”, the writings of a man named Oliver Sacks helped introduce the world to the complexities of neurology and cognition.
Oliver Sacks: A decoder of neurological glitches Read More »
Suppose Earth’s clock is reset to its very beginning. This would take us back over 4.5 billion years, passing the first human around 7 million years ago and the first microscopic organism 3.5 billion years ago. Then, we let the clock rerun. Would life evolve as it did for humanity, or is our existence a
One data point: Bayesian inference and the likelihood of life Read More »
If you’ve taken a biology class, you’ve probably heard that “the mitochondria are the powerhouses of the cell.” That phrase is etched into the memories of millions of schoolchildren. Still, their notoriety is well deserved; these little powerhouses sparked one of the most fundamental events in evolutionary history: the development of the eukaryotic cell. There
Mitochondria: The powerhouse of … life as we know it? Read More »
Early in its discovery, Venus was thought to have a similar atmosphere to Earth’s for reasons such as observed clouds, but upon researching the environment of Venus, it became obvious that the climate was far from Earth’s. The temperature on a normal day is around 400 degrees Celsius, or 752 degrees Fahrenheit, and its surface