Category: public posts
The select public posts from syn·op·sis, written and reviewed by iSci students at McMaster University. Each post is interdisciplinary in nature, and a wide variety of subject matter is covered. So sit back, relax, and start learning.
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The Exciting Future of Electrified Medicine
Within the medical community, the treatment of Parkinson’s Disease (PD) has remained a challenging and unresolved endeavour. The history of PD is extensive; despite being discovered by Dr. James Parkinson over 200 years ago, researchers are yet to find a cure (Goetz, 2011; Rizek, Kumar and Jog, 2016). However, due to advancements in modern-day technologies…
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Seismic Consideration in Structural Design
Like puzzle pieces, Earth’s outermost layer is composed of tectonic plates that shift and collide against one another, accumulating stress over time. As the friction is overcome, an accumulation of seismic energy is suddenly released in the form of an earthquake (Kukowski, 2016). But while natural quakes destroy buildings, how have engineers worked to create…
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Behind the sport: figure skating
A successful figure skater must have a combination of steady balance, speed, strength, control, and grace. The seemingly effortless jumps and spins can be deceiving until you give them a try yourself. Exploring the rigorous forces involved in every maneuver, the intense psychological aspect, and the conditioning techniques gives us a behind-the-scenes look at a…
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Tree Man Illness
The name ‘tree man illness’ is a reference to the yellow-brown growths, as seen in Figure 1, which resemble tree bark that develop as a symptom of Epidermodysplasia verruciformis (EV) (Swati, et al., 2017). EV is a disease that results from a mutation on the EVER genes (McDermott, et al., 2009). Mutations that occur in…
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How to Cause More Pandemics!
Discussions surrounding the future of pandemics are understandably uncomfortable as many countries have yet to leave behind the current COVID-19 pandemic. Alas, it takes a couple Google searches to learn that many experts have agreed that the next global pandemic is not a matter of if, but when. In 2007, the World Health Organization warned…
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A Path Towards Conquering Cancer
Despite the significant scientific advancements devised to decrease death, reduce discomfort, and improve quality of life for cancer patients, there remains a distinct deficiency in the competencies of cancer-based therapeutic technologies. The burden of cancer has continually progressed; by 2040, cancer-related death will have increased by 42% from 2018, making it a leading cause of…
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Key Concepts of Keyboards
Computers have become essential for a variety of diverse tasks ranging from communication to quantum computing. The average person knows enough about a computer to navigate and accomplish their desired tasks. However, most individuals do not know how each key works. Physics, coding, and engineering are some of the many working concepts at play within…
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The New #FOMO Trend
The expression FOMO, fear of missing out, was added to the Oxford dictionary in 2013, and since then it has recieved over 3,000,000 hits on google (Hayran, Anik and Gürhan-Canli, 2020). #FOMO has been used over 200 times on Facebook and Instagram, which reaches approximately 100,000 people in a single day, highlighting how fast these…
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Turning the tide with thalidomide
For over three centuries, humans have been using medicinal drugs to treat symptoms of various conditions. One such condition is morning sickness in pregnant women. In the 1950s, many women were prescribed a sedative drug named thalidomide. What transpired was the most deadly man-made medical tragedy. Figure 1: S and R enantiomers of Thalidomide (adapted…
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The Language of the Universe
Mathematics is known as the language of the universe and its applications in academia are endless. Anything from computer science to quantum mechanics utilizes the operations and processes of mathematics. The major forces behind the expansion of mathematics are contributed to the large accessibility of computers and the exponential increase in the collection and creation…