By Natalie Nielsen If anyone has healed from an injury causing a swollen limb or body part, which could benefit from products like those CBD Gummies, then they have witnessed the lymphatic system at work. But what is the lymphatic system, and why do we care about it? The lymphatic system is a vasculature network, […]
By Alec Chaves There are many aspects of human biology that are fascinating…. how we breathe, how we turn food into energy, and even the process of forming thoughts. In this article, I am going to break down one of the most basic functions that humans can carry out: movement. Although basic, movement requires a […]
By Alan Curtis The human immune system has two main branches: the innate and the adaptive immune systems. The innate immune system includes simple external defenses such as skin and tears and more complex internal defenses like patrol cells, called neutrophils, that look for anything that might be out of place. The adaptive branch is considered […]
By Eva Vitucci The electronic-cigarette (e-cig) comes in a variety of shapes and sizes, and many different flavoring options. While vaping and e-cig use were initially brought into the market as a safer alternative to cigarettes, new studies suggest otherwise. As 27.5% of high school youth continue to vape, an increase in lung disease and […]
By Rami Major Commercial DNA testing kits are becoming increasingly more popular. Although they can be fun windows into our past, they can also have serious repercussions related to questions of privacy, crime, and health. Your DNA contains clues called markers, which are short sequences of your DNA that scientists have associated with different regions […]
By Jeffrey Letourneau What did you eat for dinner last night? It might feel like a long time ago from your perspective, but chances are that the microbes in your gut are currently digesting some of the last remaining nutrients from that meal. In particular, dietary fiber is an important food source for these microbes, […]
By Alan Curtis Hiking can be a fun and rewarding form of exercise but it comes with plenty of dangers ranging from blistered feet to wild animals. One of the most common dangers, however, is a seemingly harmless plant called Toxicodendron radicans, or more commonly, poison ivy. Poison ivy is a hardy, flowering summer plant […]
By Yogitha Chareddy Spring is in full bloom and the warming weather is encouraging North Carolinians to leave their cozy homes in search of fun outdoor activities. As we shed our winter jackets, sweaters, and fuzzy socks, we must remember to add a new layer of protection: sunscreen. Everyone knows what sunscreen is. It’s the […]
By Rachel Cherney Have you ever woken up to see a shadow in your room, perhaps whispering your name? You do all you can to hide, but you can’t move – you’re paralyzed, and your breathing is so loud, the shadow is sure to find you. You try to scream, but you can’t. You’re completely […]
By Jenna Beam Let’s level with each other – everyone has a spleen, everyone knows that everyone has a spleen, but does anyone know what the spleen is for? Until a few years ago, I had no idea what the spleen was for. Was it like the appendix – a vestigial structure, leftover from millenia […]
By Rachel Cherney If you’ve received your driver’s license, chances are you had the option to decide to donate your organs after your (unfortunate or untimely) death. Organ transplantation is an incredible medical procedure, allowing so many people a second chance at a quality life, or life at all. Just one organ donor can save […]
By Christian Agosto-Burgos The Human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) emerged around 1920 in the Democratic Republic of Congo, probably as the result of human consumption of raw or undercooked chimpanzee’s meat contaminated with the Simian Immunodeficiency Virus (SIV). If untreated, HIV can lead to acquired immunodeficiency syndrome (AIDS). HIV did not become a global issue until […]
By Jenna Beam If you’ve been alive at any point since 1998, chances are you’ve heard about the anti-vax movement. As a part of this movement, parents refuse to vaccinate their children. This movement was started on the back of a “study” (it was a scam) that falsely claimed a link between vaccines and autism […]
By Eva Vitucci Blood. It makes some people squeamish, some people faint, but it makes all of us alive. Blood is the fluid inside our blood vessels that circulates through our body and connects each organ system together, as though it were the body’s highway system. This liquid highway system is how the cells of […]
By Eva Vitucci Scientists have proven that it truly is harder for teens to wake up earlier than other age groups. While there are a few reasons that potentially drive this difference, it largely boils down to two main molecules that are produced in our bodies, melatonin and serotonin. When we wake up in the […]
By Eva Vitucci The human body is an amazing entity, and as can be seen by watching the recent Winter Olympics, the body can accomplish great physical feats! Becoming an Olympic athlete requires years of practice and training. Interestingly, while most people may focus on how critical it must be to build and maintain the […]
By Matt Niederhuber North Carolina has had a miserable winter this year, with a heavy dose of snow and bitter cold – so much that you might wish you could climb under a warm blanket and hibernate till May. Unfortunately, humans can’t hibernate like many of our mammalian relatives, and we’re forced to suffer through […]
By Jennifer Schiller When I was young, there was this one kid in my class who had all the colors of crayons. The rest of us would have the basics, but she had a pack of 256, with colors like “burnt umber” and “razzmatazz”. The rest of us would ooh and aah and beg to […]
By Jennifer Schiller Close your eyes and remember your breakfast. How did it feel? Was it slimy scrambled eggs? Was it crunchy cereal? Or, like the man after which Richard E. Cytowic’s non-fiction book The Man Who Tasted Shapes is titled, did it feel pointy in your hands from the pepper? Was this last question […]
By Yitong Li When it comes to food choice, it’s almost an instinctual question: sometimes I want some chicken and greens for dinner and others I want some BBQ ribs and mashed potatoes. Compared to other decisions, such as which phone to buy or which shirt to put on in the morning, choosing food seems […]
By Allyson Roberts Regenerative medicine is one of the hottest topics in biomedical science right now. Multiple labs are using inventive approaches to try and find ways to create body parts in the lab. In the United States alone, there are over 120,000 people currently on the waiting list for an organ transplant, and an […]
By Christina Marvin Immunotherapy is an entirely new way of thinking about cancer treatment. Traditional therapies such as surgery, chemotherapy, and radiation aim to target and destroy tumors. Often times, tumor targeting is poor or the treatments damage other parts of the body. Immunotherapy, on the other hand, teaches our body’s natural defenses (the immune […]
By Kelsey Gray Hearts have long been associated with the month of February. Hallmark Cards began producing Valentine’s Day cards featuring the heart in the early 1900s. The first American Heart Month was declared by President Lyndon B. Johnson and took place in February 1964. In 2003, the first National Wear Red Day was held […]