How rat behavior may inform our understanding of racism

How climate change impacts fresh water: a SWAT modelist’s perspective

Posted on March 26, 2022 by ScIU Editorial Team

To celebrate World Water Day (March 22), we are highlighting this post from ScIU’s archives! It was originally published by Dan Myers in December 2019.

Ph.D. student sits at his desk with a virtual model of the Great Lakes Basin on his computer screen. — Dan Myers uses the SWAT model on his computer to simulate climate change impacts to fresh water.

When people ask me what I research as a Ph.D. student in the Indiana University Department of Geography, I respond “I model.” This is typically followed by a head-to-toe, confused glance at my worn running shoes, wrinkly shorts, and faded yellow-and-brown collared shirt. “No,” I say, “I’m not a fashion model. I make computer models. I am working on some really cool research involving the effects of climate change on rivers of the Great Lakes Basin, just north of us.” Now, you may be thinking, “climate change, that’s scary, huh?” Why, yes it is! That’s why it is so important that we learn as much as we can about climate change so that we can prepare our ecosystems and communities for its impacts.

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What the heck is a nanowire?

Posted on March 19, 2022 by Thomas Ruch

Imagine a future in which your iPhone 20 charges itself as you walk down the street and your house is powered by photoelectrochemical (PEC) cells installed in your backyard, using the power of the sun to convert captured rainwater into clean hydrogen. If we have any hope of realizing this future, you can be certain that nanowires will play a significant role. So what are nanowires, and why are they so important?

My previous blog post [1] was dedicated to examining a class of objects known as topological materials, with an emphasis on the bizarre realm of topological insulators (TIs). Implicit in the definition of topological insulators in the previous post was the assumption that the bulk of this insulator behaves as one would expect from its name: preventing the flow of electric current. Real-world TIs are not quite so simple, however. The bulk of TIs is often somewhat conductive due to the presence of material defects, negating the purpose of the insulator (to prevent the flow of electric current). As a result, one principal objective of topological materials research is to minimize the influence of the bulk. There are various ways to accomplish this, one of which being to shrink everything down to minuscule scales. The incentive to reduce bulk influence has given rise to nanowires, one of the most promising geometric configurations of topological materials. Nanowires are structures that have diameters on the order of nanometers (a nanometer is 0.000000001 meters, which is very small), with variable lengths. These minuscule wires are known for possessing a diversity of fascinating properties, making them exceptionally versatile and, thus, extremely useful for industrial, electronic, and other technological applications, from dramatically increasing transistor efficiency to creating a synthetic tooth enamel that mimics the real thing exceptionally well [2]. Not all nanowires are topological materials, however. Topological and non-topological nanowires alike have a wide range of applications. During my time at IU, our group was focused on “growing” nanowires and testing their electrical/magnetic/thermal properties in order to look for interesting physics that occurs on such scales. For the purpose of this post, I will focus on three of these properties and how each endows nanowires with certain advantages when compared to bulk materials, enabling them to have a wide range of applications in the real world.

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

Posted on March 12, 2022 by ScIU Editorial Team

To celebrate Brain Awareness Week (March 14-20, 2022), we are highlighting this post from ScIU’s archives! It was originally published by Taylor Woodward in March 2021.

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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What is a species and why should we care?

Posted on March 5, 2022 by Allison Nelson

When you read about an animal on Wikipedia or in a textbook, one of the first things mentioned is its scientific name — genus and species. But, how do we define a species?

First, why are we concerned with classification? Humans have an innate need to categorize. It’s ingrained in our minds from our days as hunter-gatherers, when we needed to remember what each plant was and whether it was safe to eat or poisonous.

Taxonomy is a hierarchical system that classifies the biological continuum. It comes from Greek philosophers (including Plato and Aristotle), who ranked animals as closer or farther from God. Darwin then focused on common ancestors, and his ideas on how to draw phylogenies are still used today. In 1758, Carl Linnaeus finalized the classification system into what we use today: Kingdom, Phylum, Class, Order, Family, Genus, and Species. His system is ubiquitous, and the only modification has been to define a level above Kingdom (Domain: bacteria, archaea, and eukarya).

At this point, you would think that the definition of a species is clear and concrete. But, that is not the case; there are still multiple definitions of a species.

The first hurdle is that variation is continuous, but classification is discrete. This is a holdover of Linnaeus’s belief that species were sharply delineated, but it obviously creates some friction. Continuous variation is the case for much of nature. For example, light is a spectrum, but colors are discrete bins. We get around this by classifying colors as “blue-green” or “red-orange.” Species are no different, except we don’t readily create new descriptors for animals that defy categorization. In other words, there’s no “bear-cat” in scientific language.

This system has led some to adopt the view that species don’t exist at all and are simply a made-up concept. This view was popular in France in the 1800s, but is still held today by some scientists today, mainly botanists.

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PhD Mom: A day in the life

Posted on February 26, 2022 by Chloe Holden

Today, we’re going to talk about the typical day of a PhD parent – mom addition – except I don’t have a “typical” day. Instead, I have a three-and-a-half month old, Percy, who is teething and going through the four month sleep regression¹ early, so no sleep for baby and no sleep for me. If I’m lucky, I’ll be able to run downstairs in the morning – normally, a little bit before 7 a.m. – to start making my breakfast. Before it’s even ready, my son will wake up from his last nighttime sleep session. Before eating my oatmeal and drinking my tea, I’ll go back upstairs and change him out of his pjs and dirty diaper. When infants don’t feel well (like when teeth are forcing their way through their gums), they tend to get clingy, so he’ll sit on my lap while I eat breakfast. Sometimes, he’ll let me set him down long enough to clean some bottles.

a stainless steel sink is filled halfway with water and bubbles from dish soap and you can see bottles and breast pump parts sticking up throughout the bubbles — I stare down a sink full of bottles and pump parts at least 3 times a day.

An aerial view of a 3 month old infant napping in a crib with blue dinosaur sheets, wearing a long sleeve onesie with cartoon wolf faces and gray socks — Percy tends to only nap for about 30-40 minutes at a time, which leaves very little time to get stuff done while he’s asleep

After breakfast, we go back upstairs, where he gets to play on his mat. Currently, this activity includes lots of arm waving and clumsy grabbing, and when he figures out I’m more than two feet away from him, getting dressed and brushing my teeth, it includes screaming. With all the running back and forth to reassure him I didn’t disappear, this process usually lasts until his first nap around 8:30 or 9 a.m.

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The new beast in our backyards

Posted on February 19, 2022 by Allison Nelson

Watch out, Hoosiers! There’s a new predator afoot. Thirty to forty-five pounds, hungry, mobile, and traveling up to 15 miles per day — coywolves are Indiana’s newest predators!

A quick note on terms — since the early 1900’s, the term ‘coywolf’ has described a hybrid animal from a wolf and a coyote. The mid-2000’s saw the rise of wolf-coyote-dog hybrids across North America. These creatures are widely called ‘coywolves.’ All uses of ‘coywolf’ or ‘coywolves’ in this article refer to the latter. Scientists are still somewhat divided on whether these triple-hybrids are a separate species. These creatures are sometimes referred to as Eastern Coyotes. Those who believe they are separate enough (in terms of genetics and physical characteristics) have coined a new species name, Canis oriens (literally Eastern Canid – the group that includes dogs, foxes, wolves, and coyotes). This name has not caught on yet, due to a number of scientists who do not believe they are a separate species. Through the process of speciation (which includes interbreeding between species, populations changing diets, or geographic separation), new animals are constantly being created through evolution.

One such ‘new’ animal is the ‘coywolf.’ First seen in 2009 in Cape Breton Highlands National Park in Nova Scotia, Canada, they are a mix between wolves, domestic dogs, and coyotes. They exhibit personality and community traits of each of the three established species. Like dogs, coywolves are unafraid of humans. Like coyotes, coywolves are able to hunt in open areas. And like grey wolves, coywolves are able to hunt in forested areas. Coywolves also hunt in packs like grey wolves. In short, they eat everything and are afraid of nothing.

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PhDad: A day in the life of a PhD parent

Posted on February 12, 2022 by Taylor Woodward

Graduate school is challenging. Between navigating new coursework, new teaching responsibilities, and conducting independent research projects, it can be an overwhelming endeavor for anyone. But doing all that with a family? Is that even possible?

After graduating with my bachelor’s degree in Neuroscience, I worked for a couple of years as a technician in a research lab. My wife and I wanted to start a family sooner rather than later, so when I started grad school, I had a 1-year-old daughter and a son on the way. I never get tired of the look of surprise that people give me when they find out about my family situation.

A father, reading a book with his daughter on the couch, is saying ‘...and so, that’s how they found out what the prefrontal cortex does…’ — *Image credit: CC0 on Pexels (edited by the author).*

Balancing a Neuroscience PhD program and family life with young children is difficult, but also incredibly rewarding. During work hours, I wrestle with intellectually difficult concepts as I try to ask and answer questions about the neurobiology of anxiety, depression, and opioid addiction. In the mornings and evenings, I try my best to take an active role as a parent and help my family as much as I can. I’m not perfect at balancing my home life and school life (no one is), but I try as best as I can. One of the things that I’ve tried to apply is intentionally separating ‘school time’ from ‘home time,’ which is difficult.

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Neuroimaging: Three important brain imaging techniques

Posted on February 5, 2022 by Taryn Bosquez

At the birth of neuroscience, it was difficult to understand how the brain worked because, at the time, those studying it did not have the technology to analyze and measure brain activity in real time. Thankfully, we have come a long way since the first dissections of the human brain, and we can use a multitude of wonderful pieces of technology that enable the study of the brain and its inner workings.

Three different neuroimaging techniques, EEG, MRI, and PET, allow us to explore and measure the insane amounts of activity going on in our brain; however, each comes with its own strengths and limitations, making the motivations behind using them very important. (more…)

Scientists can be creative too!

Posted on January 29, 2022 by Taylor Woodward

Scientists of all disciplines have pop culture ‘pet peeves.’ I’m sure physicists cringe at the rampant misinterpretation/misuse of quantum physics in movies (I’m looking at you, Ant-Man). I can almost hear the distant facepalm of a chemist each time a commercial plays that advertises ‘chemical-free’ soaps (like, all matter is technically a chemical by definition). As a neuroscientist, one of my pet peeves is the idea that people are either ‘right-brained’ or ‘left-brained,’ similar to how people favor their right or left hand.

An illustration of a ‘left’ and ‘right’ brain, where one side is filled with math equations, and the other is filled with colorful blots. The author scribbled an ‘X’ over this . — Image Credit: Pixabay.com. Edited with artistic expertise by the author.

It’s a misconception that’s based in some truth. In some of the early explorations of the human brain, scientists discovered that there were particular parts of the brain that were involved in certain specialized functions. If the back of the brain was damaged, vision issues would pop up. If certain areas on the left area of a patient’s brain were injured somehow, they would lose the ability to speak or understand language. As seen in the fascinating story of a patient known as H.M., surgical removal of the temporal lobe completely wipes out a person’s ability to form new memories. Work done by Roger W. Sperry in ‘split brain’ patients showed that the two halves of the brain function differently. However, his findings were popularized and taken out of context. (more…)