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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Who’s Really in Charge: You or Your Gut Bacteria?
Bacteria in the gut microbiome are roughly equal in number to human cells, with estimates around 1:1 (Sender et al., 2016). This raises an intriguing question: are we humans with a lot of bacteria, or bacteria having a human experience? Twenty-five years ago, few people talked about ‘autoimmune disease’ or ‘gut health.’ However, today, these…
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From Highways to Airways: The Link Between Traffic and Asthma
Imagine standing at a busy intersection in downtown Hamilton. You can hear tires screeching, and the smell of exhaust fills your nose. In fact, it fills a lot more than your nose: it fills your lungs, possibly causing severe respiratory conditions like asthma (Gillissen and Paparoupa 2015). Asthma is a chronic inflammatory disease that can…
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Binaural Beats: The Beats That Beat Cognitive Overload
“It’s always that damn phone.” These devices, alongside many others, have become our most prized companions while simultaneously being major sources of anxiety, stress, and an endless overload of distractions. Ironically, a developing remedy to these issues, present in the problem itself, is an unconventional digital drug called binaural beats. Accessible through a simple pair…
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Tiny Plastics, Big Problems: How MNPs Impact Our Health
Can touching something as common as a receipt lower testosterone? Microplastics and, more broadly, nanoplastics are used in numerous ways within society, composing many everyday items. However, the main concern with microplastics is their detrimental impact on the environment, and new research points to their adverse effects on human physiological and endocrine health (Lee et…
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The Beautiful Dead: How Anatomical Studies Evolved Arts and Science
As one goes through life in the Americas, they have a non-zero chance of interacting with at least one of the great pieces of art eternalized in western pop culture, many representing either a concept or emotion, mythical or historical. A recognition of great past minds in The School of Athens by Raphael, portrayal of…
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The Phosphorous Trap: How Bioavailability and Food Additives Impact Chronic Kidney Disease
High phosphorus levels in patients with chronic kidney disease (CKD) have been directly related to increased mortality rates (Figure 1)(Noori et al. 2010). In CKD patients experiencing progressive loss of kidney function, a phosphorus-restricted diet is often a management method for hyperphosphatemia. In this condition, net intestinal absorption exceeds renal excretion and/or dialysis removal of…
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The Eye Problem NASA Did Not See Coming
Since the first human entered space in 1951, scientists have expected stress on the human body. Yet, it wasn’t until 2011 that it was identified that spaceflight changes the structure of astronauts’ eyes (Mader et al. 2011). Spaceflight-Associated Neuro-Ocular Syndrome (SANS), a condition unique to long-duration space flight (LDSF), had flown under the radar for…
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The Pain of a Feather: Allodynia
Imagine living a life where sensations as ordinary as the gentle touch of a loved one, a cold breeze or simply the feeling of clothes on your skin evokes pain. This is the reality for individuals with allodynia, a phenomenon which causes non-painful stimuli on the skin, to be perceived as pain. This phenomenon is…
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A Breakdown of Trenbolone: Why Doping is not Dope!
You have consistently been exercising and tracking your macronutrients, but you can’t seem to increase your muscle mass at the same pace as the fitness influencers that you follow online. Often what is not seen is the pharmacological “advantage” they have over you, accelerating physical results that go beyond training and diet. This “advantage” is…
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Snake Oil: The Original Scam
It has become common to refer to scams as ‘snake oil’, a term originating from the original snake oil scam back in the 19th century. Clark Stanley, the fraudulent salesman, took the idea of using snake oil from Chinese practices and sold a product known as Clark Stanley’s Snake Oil Liniment (Weill Cornell Medicine, n.d.-b;…