Finding the Right Question

Posted on April 3, 2021 by Jennifer Sieben

Dr Songhu Wang. Image credit: Heising-Simons Foundation.

Imagining life on other planets is usually the work of science-fiction authors, but increasingly it is becoming the work of current astronomers. Although it had been theorized that there existed other planets outside of our solar system, exoplanets were only confirmed in the late 1980s. The field exploded when the Kepler space telescope started finding thousands of exoplanets. A rich field of study was born.

One of IU’s own astronomers focuses on the interactions of these distant planetary systems. Dr. Songhu Wang became interested in exoplanet research when he was learning about non-linear dynamics in his undergraduate years. He worked with chaos theory, where “if your initial conditions are a little bit different, your results are totally different.” He started out being interested in pure mathematics, but got drawn into the practical aspects of it. Chaos theory can be applied to diverse fields of study like the stock market, weather systems, or even the spread of disease based on the movement of people. Of course, it’s also used in astronomy. (more…)

My journey in graduate school

Posted on March 27, 2021 by Riddhi Sood

There are few experiences in one’s life that are deep and impactful. Graduate school was definitely one of them.

My journey in graduate school can only be described in one way: as a paradox.

Ask any graduate student, and they will tell you that graduate school is not a place for the faint-hearted. Just like any jaw-opening, thrill-seeking action movie, there are mysterious, shady characters wanting to put you down, as well as a kindhearted stranger that makes the journey bearable. As I reflect about my journey as a cancer biologist, I feel that my story here at Indiana University Bloomington (IUB) can be described in a few words: confidence, structure, purpose, and knowledge. Let me tell you what I mean.

Image showing graduate student's journey as full of adventure, obstacles, test, enemies and rewards — Journey is full of obstacles. Image Credit: Esbjorn Jorsater

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Particle physics goes virtual through pandemic difficulties

Posted on March 20, 2021 by Guest Contributor

This post was written by Thomas Rainbolt, a student from the ScIU-led winter intersession course “Science in a Digital Age.”

Phineas and Ferb (in the funny Disney cartoon) had it right when they wondered what could be done over a 104-day summer vacation. There is a lot to do, such as go on a trip, get ice cream, spend weeks on end floating in a pool, or do particle physics research. However, the COVID-19 pandemic has shifted everything in life, resulting in many of these plans being canceled this past summer.

Wait! Go back! Why would any student want to spend their summer, their solitary free time during the year, doing particle physics research? Moreover, how would that work during a pandemic, when the university is completely shut down?

Physics research has taken a significant hit due to the COVID-19 pandemic. When the first wave started in March 2020, Nature published an article about how major physics research projects were brought to their knees due to the restrictive nature of the safety guidelines. In fact, the American Institute of Physics predicted that the impacts of the pandemic will result in billions of dollars in fund deficits and “could reverberate for years to come.”

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A quick summary of the immune system and the COVID-19 vaccine

Posted on March 13, 2021 by Haley Jordan

There are many strategies when it comes to developing a vaccine, but the idea behind all of them is similar. Vaccines are designed to pose a foreign invader, such as a virus or bacterium, to your adaptive immune system without causing you to be sick. Our immune systems are quite amazing, which also makes them quite complex. Here, we will focus on a few aspects that are important for understanding vaccine development.

This image shows a person’s hand, and a syringe is being held between the person’s fingers. The needle of the syringe is pointed towards a round pathogen cell with small projections. — Vaccines give our immune system a template, from which our bodies can build immune ‘memory’ against a particular pathogen (e.g., virus or bacterium). If we are then re-infected by this pathogen, this immune memory will reduce the symptoms that we experience. *Image credit: CC0 on Pixabay.*

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Potluck of neuroscience: Meet microglia, your brain’s National Guard

Posted on March 6, 2021 by Taylor Woodward

This post is the second in a series that will highlight contributions from various scientific disciplines that have furthered our understanding of how the brain and nervous system affect how we think and behave. Click here for the previous installment about ion channels, and look out for more posts in the future!

One of the first things you’ll learn about if you start studying the brain is that it is made of cells called neurons. While neuroscientists have a decent understanding about how neurons work, it turns out that at least half of the brain is actually made of non-neuronal cells called glia*. Glia, named after the Greek word for ‘glue,’ were initially thought to be a type of connective tissue in the nervous system, acting just as scaffolding, while the neurons did all of the communicating. In the last couple of decades, the growing field of neuroimmunology has highlighted the importance of a certain kind of glia: microglia, the brain’s resident immune cells.

An illustration of a neuron showing its root-like dendrites, its blobular soma (body), and its long axon. — A simple diagram of a neuron with its three main parts: the dendrite, the soma, and the axon. *Image attribution*: https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/b/b5/Neuron.svg.

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The beneficial attributes of vaccines

Posted on February 27, 2021 by Guest Contributor

This post was written by ScIU undergraduate intern Autumn Shively.

Vaccines remain a hot topic in this country, especially due to the COVID-19 pandemic. To understand the importance of why we should be vaccinated, we first must understand how the immune system responds to an infection. When a disease-causing microorganism, called a pathogen, is introduced into our bodies, our immune system is signaled to initiate an attack on this intruder. Specifically, our immune system will try to stop the pathogen from multiplying, which will prevent the pathogen from spreading and decrease the infection. To coordinate this attack, the immune system will recruit different types of cells, including macrophages, B-lymphocytes, and T-lymphocytes. These cells all work together to dismember the virus or bacteria that enter the body, and then remember this intruder using molecules, called antigens, that are left behind. This response allows our immune cells to be alert and ready if the pathogen was to enter the body again and ensures that next time, the pathogen will be quicker and easier to attack.

Vaccines imitate this initial introduction of a foreign pathogen in the body, since they typically contain the pathogen in a weakened or dead form. Therefore, vaccines allow our bodies to fight off the pathogen more easily by activating or refreshing the antigen recognition within our memory cells, so that we are prepared to find and fight off the same pathogen as soon as it enters our bodies again.

This image shows three pathogens, including measles, chicken pox, and the flu respectively, with their existing antibodies that have built up due to exposure of disease within our bodies. The last antigen shown is a new pathogen with no antibody near it because it is a new exposure. — *Image credit: World Health Organization*.

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Building Wakanda: a graduate student’s journey into sports psychology

Posted on February 20, 2021 by ScIU Editorial Team

A banner that reads: ScIU Commemorating Black History Month

This post is from ScIU’s archives. It was originally published by Lana Ruck in February 2020 and has been lightly edited to reflect current events.

A profile of DeJon Purnell in celebration of Black History Month

In the USA, sports are important, period. But many of us are aware that America’s cultural obsession with sports is not without its downsides. Still, I know people who are fine with that past few years’ Super Bowl mascots, or who found the coaches and plots of Netflix’s sports documentaries Cheer and Last Chance U [warning: very strong language] endearing, rather than concerning. This week on the blog, we tackle sports and performance from the perspective of mental health, talking with IU’s DeJon Purnell.

Purnell is a Ph.D. student in the Counseling Psychology program in IU’s School of Education, and his specific focus is Sport and Performance Psychology. According to Purnell, who goes by DJ, he and others in his field “basically combine the fields of mental health counseling and psychology and apply them in the athletic performance domain.” While much of sports psychology translates directly into counseling the athletes themselves, DJ focuses on bigger-picture issues in sports and performance mental health, such as coaching behaviors and pathways to licensure for practicing sports counselors. (more…)

Welcome to the Weaver Lab: An interview with Dr. Lesley Weaver

Posted on February 13, 2021 by Chloe Holden

A profile of Dr. Lesley Weaver in celebration of Black History Month

Dr. Lesley Weaver, an alum of IU’s Department of Biology, has returned to campus as an Assistant Professor after her finishing her postdoctoral research at Johns Hopkins University. This past September, I had the opportunity to interview her about her experience as an early career researcher, setting up her lab, navigating IU in her new role as an Assistant Professor, and how the COVID-19 pandemic shift to online has simultaneously highlighted issues with and solutions to accessibility and diversity in academia.

Dr. Lesley Weaver poses for a head shot wearing a bright, cobalt blue top, smiling facing the camera, and wearing her black, curly hair down and parted on the side. — Dr. Lesley Weaver – Assistant Professor in the Department of Biology. Image credit: Dr. Lesley Weaver.

Drosophila ovary diagram. *Image credit: screenshot from the Weaver Lab website.*

What are your research interests?

The big question I’m interested in is how different organs talk to each other and what they talk about. Since I can’t look at all of the different organs and all of the different ‘conversations’ between organs happening in humans, my lab research uses Drosophila (fruit flies) and focuses on reproduction to understand inter-organ communication. This is important because many external factors, such as changes in diet, bacterial infections, and exposure to environmental toxins, alter an organism’s physiology through disruption of tissue homeostasis, which could result in infertility. By using the fruit fly as a model, we can gain insight into how some of these inter-organ communication networks possibly act in humans.

How does it feel to be back at IU? What differences are there between being a graduate student and a faculty member on campus?

I’m from Indiana, so that was a major factor for me coming back. I have always been a small town girl, so I love the fact that Bloomington is a small town with a big university. Here, you have the benefit of being in a small community, but you also have a large university for students.

One of the obvious differences between being a student here versus faculty is that as faculty, you get to experience Bloomington both when it’s flooded with students and during the breaks, when the students leave. Another difference I definitely feel is, since I was here last, I’m now considered an established investigator.

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Diversity in Sciences Libraries

Posted on February 6, 2021 by Guest Contributor

This post was written by ScIU guest writer Haley Norris, a graduate student in IU’s Information and Library Sciences (ILS) Program.

A woman sits at a laptop with books spread around her. — Photo by Christina @ WOCinTech, CC0 on Unsplash

In 2019, Inside Higher Ed used federal data to show that Latinx and black students switched out of STEM majors at rates of 8% and 11% higher than their white counterparts. This led to people in higher education trying to figure out why BIPOC students did not feel supported enough to stay in STEM fields. The truth is that higher education is white-centric and reinforces many of the same layers of systemic racism that are more widely acknowledged in government, courts, policing, prisons, and beyond. To ensure that all students feel welcome and secure in STEM spaces, collegiate science libraries have launched many initiatives to support BIPOC students in tangible ways.

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Sunscreen Myths

Posted on January 30, 2021 by sciutern

This post was written by ScIU Undergraduate Intern, Carly Jones.

We all know that feeling of smearing sunscreen across our face during the hot summer months. Heavy, oily, and greasy… it’s not the most elegant experience. But how important is sunscreen really? Well, as it turns out, it’s pretty essential for our health. Sunscreen protects us from ultraviolet (UV) rays, which come in two forms, UVB and UVA. UVB rays are what cause sunburns and contribute to the development of skin cancer, whereas UVA rays damage the skin from tanning, aging and wrinkling. Science shows that wearing sunscreen not only protects against sun damage and cancer, but also prevents visible signs of aging, evens skin tone, and reduces dark spots on the skin. Unfortunately, despite all of these health benefits, more than 85% of men and 70% of women do not wear sunscreen regularly. So why is that?

Pictured is an extended arm holding a small, white bottle of sunscreen. — It is time to debunk common myths about sunscreen. Photo Credit: Carly Jones

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