Category: syn·op·sis beta

Imagine falling asleep, becoming aware that you’re dreaming, and being able to answer questions and solve problems while you’re fast asleep. As impossible as it sounds, researchers have shown that lucid dreamers can answer questions during REM sleep and even perform complex tasks within dream environments. But how does lucid dreaming work, why can some…

Why have you been so sad eating dining hall food every day? It’s not just the lack of seasoning; the diversity in your gut bacteria might be as slim as your dinner options. The gut-brain axis is a two-way communication pathway facilitated by the vagus nerve which allows for the brain and gastrointestinal system to…

Unfortunately, in our world cow feces aren’t very tasty or appealing to most, and typically when thinking of waste, all that is seen is useless byproducts or even pollutants that have no immediate use in the world. However, just as humans have found a practical use for manure, it seems the rare ecosystems of extremophiles…

What’s your favorite board game? When was the last time you picked one up? Board games are one of the greatest inventions ever created by humans. Not only do they span across cultures from The Royal Game of Ur in what is now Iraq (Raposo and Lamont 2023) to the tafl games of north-western Europe…

There are many different theories that describe the placebo effect, but in general, the placebo phenomenon uses a subject’s past associations with certain stimuluses like smell, touch and sound to mislead their beliefs on the effects of an administered treatment (Vase and Wartolowska 2019). Placebos have been most often used as a control group for clinical…

The morning after a night of heavy drinking, it is common for one to experience gaps in memory of the night prior. Memory impairment and alcohol are commonly linked, but does this association hold true regardless of the specific alcoholic beverage? Studies done on red wine consumption have shown a potential effect of reducing the…

A fish about the length of your finger hangs just under the surface of a mangrove swamp. Above it, a beetle sits on a leaf. The fish can’t see where the beetle really is, but it fires anyway, and the beetle tumbles into the water. It looks like a physics problem solved on the spot,…

Earthquakes are a scary reality for people living on active plate boundaries. Not only does the initial earthquake cause destruction, the secondary events caused by the seismic activity can lead to the evolution of species through allopatric speciation.  Speciation refers to limiting a population’s gene flow by alternating its environment (Harvey 2026, slide 43). The…

Alzheimer’s is one of the most prevalent and devastating neurodegenerative diseases globally, and affects approximately 35.8% of people over the age of 85 (Alzheimer’s Association 2026). Alzheimer’s disease is primarily attributed to the buildup of amyloid-beta (Aβ) peptides (plaque) within the brain parenchyma, which occurs when non-functional microglia and astrocytes, both types of glial cells,…

At first glance, being an F1 driver seems easy, especially compared to other high-performance athletes. They aren’t running around a 1.76-acre field for 90 minutes or hitting a ball as hard as they can for five sets. Instead, they sit in the cockpit of a $15 million bucket on wheels and drive around a loop…