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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What do plants, the human heart, and special relativity have in common?
The beauty of mathematics is in the complexity that arises from simple rules. Take the following sequence of numbers: {1, 1, 2, 3, 5, 8, 13, 21, …}. To get this sequence, start with the number 1, add 0 and you get the next number in the sequence: 1. Take 1 and add the previous number…
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Spooky Skeletons: Evidence for Cannibalism
The Hallowe’en season conjures all sorts of monsters, legends, and gruesome displays that are allegedly grounded in truth. Grisly murders, ghost hauntings, and appalling acts of cannibalism survive as folklore – but is there evidence to suggest that cannibals did exist? For hundreds of years, Inuit legends told of cannibalism among doomed explorers of the…
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Homework Totally Rocks!!! #JK #sarcasm
“I absolutely adore midterm season!!!! WOOOHOOO!” If you have ever been a student, then you know that I am being sarcastic. You also understand what I feel and know what I mean. But how can a computer algorithm, which cannot relate to my situation and does not know me personally, tell that those words do…
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Why Bad Smells Smell Bad
When you smell a new scent that you have never come across before, you never have to stop and ponder “hmmm is this smell unpleasant?” On a daily basis, we take 24,000 breaths, each one full of molecules that interact with our olfactory receptors, allowing us to smell the chemical world we live in (Agapakis…
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Techniques of 3D bioprinting for organ production
The applications of three-dimensional printing are endless. From prototyping to specialized manufacturing, 3D printing allows users to develop unique creations for specific purposes, without requiring skills in the manufacturing process (Shimizu et al., 2000). Its use is widespread through the manufacturing and technology industries, and shows great promise in other fields as well, including healthcare. One of the…
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Global St(Warming)
The words climate change trigger thoughts of hot temperatures, mass extinctions and melting ice caps. Even though these are all frightening changes, one specific danger that is overlooked by the media is the increase in the incidence rate of violent thunderstorms. Thunderstorms are one of the primary causes of catastrophic loss in the United States.…
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Combating the Crippler
In the early 20th century, the world was plunged into a state of frenzy. Poliomyelitis, or polio for short, was a formerly sporadic disease caused by poliovirus that had grown to become a global pandemic. At its height, 22000 people in the US alone were left paralysed each year, their motor neurons destroyed (Trevelyan, Smallman-Raynor and…
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Neurological Effects of the Gut Microbiome
The human microbiome is perhaps one of the most subtle and unfamiliar aspects of modern medicine. Though some bacteria have been shown to be beneficial to human health, not much is known about microbiome-host interactions. It remains a keen topic of research. Numbering in 100 trillion cells, the human microbiome is comprised of 10 times…
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Toxicodendron: Getting Under Our Skin
Itch, medically referred to as pruritus, is a nocifensive neural sensation most everyone has experienced. It can be induced by touches only microns in length, like the legs of an insect or the spines of a plant (Twycross, 2003). Unimpressive as they seem, brushing and scratching responses itch are important to our health. Without these evolved defences, we…
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The Physics of Ballet – It’s Harder Than LonCapa
On the surface, when you watch ballet dancers gracefully move across an empty stage filling it with their passion and emotion, it almost gives the impression that dance is quite effortless. Even after hours of endless rehearsals and tiring performances, ballet dancers make everything look calm, collected, and strong. On the other hand, when you…