General Science

Enough about polar bears: Who else is vulnerable to climate change?

Posted February 12, 2024 by sciutern

[A collage of endangered animals affected by climate change. In clockwise direction: an Arctic fox (©Teresa on Unsplash), a bumblebee (©Stacie Clark on Unsplash), coral reefs (©Milos Prelevic on Unsplash), an emperor penguin and its baby (©Memorycatcher on Pixabay), a cow (©Ryan Song on Unsplash), and a koala (©Ellicia on Unsplash). Collage by Hayeon Byun).

Polar bears are one of the most iconic symbols of the impacts of climate change. Their struggle is shown over campaigns across the world, which show animals that have become endangered as a result of climate change. Although they are used the most in these campaigns, polar bears aren’t the only animals impacted by global warming. This post explores other animal species that are also heavily affected by the impacts of climate change and aims to raise awareness of the struggles the wildlife around us experience…

The Cosmic Compass: How birds Master the Skies

Posted January 29, 2024 by sciutern

[Image of mass group of birds flying through the sunset sky.]

Every year, the skies come alive as billions of birds begin their migration. From the Arctic Tern, with its remarkable marathon around the Earth to the quaint journey of the Dusky Grouse, the avian spectrum is a captivating display of nature’s variability. How do these travelers embark on such extraordinary journeys, navigating through continents and oceans with such precision?

Extremophiles: The alien-like creatures of Earth

Posted January 15, 2024 by sciutern

[An image of a hot spring at Yellowstone National Park. The hot spring is a reddish-orange color in the foreground. The colors transition to a blue and green background, from which a vapor is rising.]

The discovery of extremophiles – organisms that thrive in extreme environments – completely changed scientists’ perspectives on the conditions necessary for life. These evolutionary marvels provide context for the origins of life, evolution, and are maybe the best case for the possibility of the existence of life on other planets with extreme environments….

PhD Mom: Baby development

Posted December 16, 2023 by Chloe Holden

[Pictured is a 4-month-old baby laying on his stomach on a bed while smiling at the camera and playing with a rattle toy and a teething toy.]

I’ve been doing this mom thing for about 2 years now and along the way I’ve gotten a chance to not only watch my child grow from being a squishy potato of a newborn into a boisterous, opinionated, and hilarious toddler, but I’ve also learned some cool things about baby cognition and child development along the way…

Miss Understanding: Discussing myths about sleep health

Posted December 2, 2023 by Lindy Howe

[A woman is laying on a bed with her head on a pillow with her eyes closed.]

Scientists have finally figured out exactly how much sleep humans need: “Just five more minutes!” KIDDING! We’re not here to perpetuate unhelpful sleep habits (yeah – uh – sorry, that snooze button probably isn’t doing much for you); we’re here to talk about the science behind a topic that all people can relate to: sleep…

The neural foundation of psychopathology is complex

Posted October 28, 2023 by Eric Larson

[A person unwinding and rolling up the tangled wire, pulling the tangled wire is in the brain.]

Since the “Decade of the Brain,” neuroscientists and clinical psychologists have been particularly interested in understanding how the brain contributes to psychopathology (commonly referred to as mental illness or mental disorder). However, despite all the resources poured into pursuing questions along these lines, there is little overlap in research findings between studies; it remains difficult to effectively translate neuroscience research into clinical practice, arguably the ultimate goal in studying the brain basis of psychopathology.

Love math, but don’t care too much

Posted September 2, 2023 by Tongyao Zhang

$[A child playing with number toys on a table.]$

As part of my job as a researcher and graduate student in the Department of Psychological and Brain Sciences, I invite parents and children to play math games in our lab. As I lead parents and children through studies about how children learn, I’ve seen very different attitudes in parents towards math. Some parents would happily talk about numbers and inferences in their daily interactions, and they make a lot of attempts to start a conversation about math…

Demystifying Artificial Intelligence: A crash course in machine learning

Posted August 11, 2023 by sciutern

[An image of a human head; through the head are a series of orange wires forming a network reminiscent of the circuits on a computer chip.]

Artificial intelligence continues to make the news, especially with technologies like ChatGPT – an AI Chatbot – and DALL-E – an image-generating software – becoming increasingly accessible to the public. Reports of modified syllabi in colleges and universities and sentient chatbots may have piqued your interest recently, and for a good reason! AI has gradually become embedded in our daily lives as an influential tool for COVID-19 contact tracing, national security, healthcare, and much more…