Category: syn·op·sis beta
Welcome to syn·op·sis beta, the section of the site dedicated to iSci student authors. To get writing, click on the “+New – Post” icon in the upper right. Otherwise, feel free to read, comment, and polish the work of other students.
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How-To: Beginners Guide to Sourdough
As we near the end of our harsh Canadian winter and shift into rainy, blooming spring, our days grow a little longer, and many of us crave a fresh start of our own. What better way than making a sourdough starter that can later become a warm, fresh loaf? Known for its gut‑health benefits, sourdough…
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Barrel, Don’t Jump
The integration of quantum physics and biology is new and fascinating. One of the main examples of quantum biology is the effects of quantum tunnelling on DNA mutations. It may not be possible for a person to run through a barrier and come out on the other side. But, in a way, their protons can,…
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How Algorithms Are Quietly Running Your Life
Every post you linger on for three seconds, every article you click and immediately close, you probably think of these as insignificant moments. Tiny, meaningless fragments of a day spent online. But to the platforms hosting them, these micro-interactions are data points in an ever-growing portrait of who you are, what you want, what makes…
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MacArthur Park
According to a poll conducted by ESPN, figure skating ranked as the most anticipated sport of the 2026 Winter Olympics among U.S adults, drawing 59% of Olympic fans and 53% of female fans (Gibson 2026). While audiences are captivated by the artistry of the sport, much of the excitement stems from the sports’ highly impressive,…
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How Canada Treated Children Like Animals
Note: post contains sensitive information on the medical experiments preformed on Indigenous children during the 1940s-1950s in residential schools. Animal testing has been used to further medicine for centuries, with some of the earliest recorded instances being Greek physicians 400-300 BCE (Hajar 2011).The use and justification of animal testing has persisted to modern day where…
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Burmese Amber Fossils: When Is Science Worth it?
Among the seven major amber deposits containing Cretaceous (145.5-66 Ma) fossils, Burmese amber (burmite) preserves the most diverse paleobiota (G. Shi et al. 2012). A total of 228 organism families have been identified in burmite, compared to 68-125 families recorded in the other six Cretaceous deposits (G. Shi et al. 2012). Burmite has been particularly…
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Bugger, It’s Hot
When discussing climate change we often focus on the anthropic perspective. How will it affect humanity and our way of life? There is nothing objectively wrong with this perspective but it can often limit our understanding of how truly destructive climate change is. Recent research has shown that in the most biodiverse regions in the…
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That One Canadian Wolf Bird
Common loons (Gavia immer) are one of Canada’s most recognizable birds, not just for their appearance but for the soundscape they create on lakes. Their calls are often heard as background “lake noise”, but there is more to them than just that. For loons, sound is a primary tool for coordinating with mates and responding…
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How Daylight Saving Time Alters Time Perception
Subjective time perception refers to the cognitive and neural processes that allow individuals to estimate and experience the passage of time (Fontes et al. 2016). This phenomenon is framed within the pacemaker–accumulator model, known as the internal clock theory proposed by Gibbons et al. (1984). The theory proposes that a pacemaker generates pulses that pass…