Category: syn·op·sis beta

The American psychologist William James famously said, “the same space of time seems shorter as we grow older” (James 1890, 625). But a day is still 24 hours, so why does time seem to speed up as we grow older? Time is something that is measured by a clock, remains constant, and is used universally.…

Though the earliest relatives of the seaweed plant date back to more than 1.6 billion years ago, it remains one of the most versatile plants of the modern world (Osterloff 2017). “Seaweed” is the common name used to classify large, multicellular algae. Among the years, its applications have evolved—from being known as a gastronomical treasure…

The typical spiders wait in webs, but jumping spiders hunt on foot (Garrison et al. 2016). One tempting explanation is that webs are costly, so shedding them must be an upgrade (Schmitz 2004, 2005). But a plausible story remains only a hypothesis; science consists of constant questioning and testing. Upon a closer look, abandoning web…

Our common sense would tell us that we don’t want to let fungus or rot into our crops, but what if that wasn’t always the case. Winemakers are constantly trying to figure out new ways to make the flavour and experience of wine better or more complex, and eventually that led to the discovery of…

“It was much pleasanter at home,” thought poor Alice, “when one wasn’t always growing larger and smaller, and being ordered about by mice and rabbits.” (Alice in Wonderland, Lewis Carroll) Sitting at your desk, within seconds, your hands balloon to the size of your couch, your bedroom doorway recedes into an infinite tunnel, and the ticking…

Somewhere in southeastern North America, there is a carpenter ant currently, against its own will, biting on a twig so hard that it dies, remaining fixated in that position long after its death. The culprit is no other than Ophiocordyceps kimflemingiae (Ballesteros-Aguirre et. al, 2025). Once a spore is inside the body of an ant,…

Well, for some reason Clavicular is injecting himself with peptides again, and concerningly selling this health regime to young boys. Have you ever asked yourself why “mogging” others seems so important in today’s day and age? Humans have evolved uniquely in terms of sexual selection as a natural selection method, but in the past few…

Tuesday has no colour. At least, it shouldn’t. It’s just a day of the week, nothing more. You can’t point to Tuesday, hold it in your hands, or shine light through it. There is simply nothing there to see, and yet, the question doesn’t really feel meaningless.  Give it a moment, what colour is Tuesday?…

Biomimicry is an interdisciplinary field that combines engineering and biology to design machines and tools based on plant traits (Hayakawa et al. 2024). Scientists were interested in creating an extremely water-repellent material that would prevent liquids from adhering to surfaces, thus superhydrophobic surfaces were made(Xue et al. 2010). Superhydrophobic surfaces which are areas with small…

Before the advent of modern medicine, bacterial infections ravaged human society. A lack of treatment options available rendered infections such as bacterial pneumonia deadly. However, an accidental discovery would lead to the development of bug-fighting medications known as antibiotics. In 1928, physician Alexander Fleming was studying the bacterial genus Staphylococcus by cultivating it in petri…