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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From Relapse to Recovery: How Neuromodulation Techniques Could Revolutionize Addiction Treatment
Substance use disorder (SUD) claims an estimated 67,000 lives annually in Canada, highlighting the devastating impact of the drug epidemic (CAMH 2025). SUD is a chronic illness that causes symptoms of impaired judgement, impulsiveness, drowsiness, nausea and vomiting, and mood changes. These symptoms can lead to significant impairments in health, social function, and voluntary substance…
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Drinking and DNA: How Epigenetic Modifications Reinforce Alcohol Dependency
Alcohol dependency is not only restricted to behaviour. Epigenetic modifications such as histone acetylation implicate specific metabolic factors in neural functions that drive addictive behaviour in alcohol dependency (Berkel and Pandey 2017). Histones are proteins around which DNA is wrapped to form chromatins. At the tails of histones, they possess lysine residues which can be acetylated.…
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Skin Pigmentation Bias in Pulse Oximetry Measurements
Pulse oximeters have revolutionized modern medicine, enabling continuous, accurate, and non-invasive monitoring of functional oxygen saturation of hemoglobin (SpO₂) (Chan et al. 2013). Taken as a fifth vital sign, the device’s use is routine in emergency care, general ward, intermediate/intensive care unit, the operating room, and in general practices (Bosch et al. 2024). However, with…
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Applications of CRISPR and Its Limitations due to Ethical Dilemma
The discovery of the CRISPR-Cas9 gene editing process won the Chemistry Nobel Prize in 2020 (The Nobel Prize 2020). This discovery revolutionized the biotechnology industry by enabling DNA modification, specifically gene editing (Jiang and Doudna 2017). DNA modification spans multiple industries, such as healthcare, to treat animal/human genetic disorders, cure diseases, and develop therapeutic drugs…
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Hydrocephalus: Surviving Without a Brain
The 2007 report “Brain of a white-collar worker” by Dr. Lionel Feuillet, Henry Dufour, and Jean Pelletier, describes the case of a 44 year old with a history of childhood postnatal hydrocephalus. His CT and MRI scans revealed massive enlargement of his ventricles (Figure 1) (Feuillet et al. 2007). A few weeks after a ventriculoperitoneal…
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What is Naloxone – and More Importantly, How Does It Work?
The ongoing opioid epidemic continues to be a public health concern in Canada and many other parts of the world, fuelled by both prescription and illegally obtained opioids (Belzak and Halverson 2018). Naloxone, generally known by its brand name Narcan, is the most commonly used medication that is administered during opioid overdose emergencies (Theriot et…
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Mapping the Mind in 3D: Voxel-Wise Modeling
Voxel-wise modeling (VM) bridges neuroscience and computation by transforming brain imaging data into mathematical relationships between stimulus features and brain activity. It’s a framework that associates aspects of natural stimuli, such as images or sounds, with responses in individual brain voxels (Yılmaz et al. 2020). A voxel, or volume element, represents a tiny cube of…
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The Redhead Paradox: Where Hair Colour Meets Health
Red hair has always stood out, but in a healthcare setting it does more than just turn heads; it complicates pain management. From anesthesia resistance to decreased pain tolerance, the Redhead Paradox is reshaping how doctors consider treatment, along with the anxiety that can come with it. The red hair phenotype results from mutations of…
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Shoot a Bullet at the Speed of Light! Or Not. – Special Relativity and Its Effects
Imagine you are watching a person travel at 99% the speed of light in a vacuum (c), and they shoot a bullet in front of them which is going at 10% of c. Classical physics and intuition tells us that the bullet would surely be travelling faster than light, and it’s extremely hard to get…
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Holistic Hoof: Examining the Ecological Importance of Wild Horses
Wild horses (Equus ferus) roam as unspoken architects of the land, shaping environmental interactions and nurturing ecological balance through their untamed presence. Often found in landscapes that support domestic livestock, such as in the midwestern United States, wild horses are frequently regarded as an invasive species (Lönker, Fechner, and Abd El Wahed 2020). With complex…