By Rowan Dunbar, C2ST Intern, University of Illinois Chicago

I remember sitting down a few years ago to write what was the most important essay of my life – my personal statement for college. With just 500 words, I recounted how my life experiences had led to my interest in biomedical engineering, particularly how engineering solutions have the potential to address barriers to quality healthcare for marginalized communities. However, throughout my time in college, I stumbled upon the fact that many treatments never reach the people who could benefit the most from it, and this is something many engineers do not expect or account for. That is why it stood out to me when I heard Dr. Joshua Leonard speak about access to treatment at Northwestern University this past summer. I decided to interview Dr. Leonard to dig deeper. Continue reading “Synthetic Biology as a Tool to Advance Human Health: An Interview with an Expert”

By Donnisa Edmonds, C2ST Intern, University of Chicago

In 2021, the FDA announced that they had approved Wegovy, a GLP-1 receptor agonist, as a treatment for chronic weight management. Since then, it feels like every pharmaceutical company has jumped at any opportunity to push their own GLP-1 drug for weight loss or weight management. In turn, use of these medications has skyrocketed. Recent reports suggest that as of 2022, 12% of adults in the United States have taken a GLP-1 agonist for weight loss at some point. 

These medications are widely viewed as a win for people struggling with weight loss. However, many are also concerned about their long-term physical and mental effects, particularly for people with eating disorders. 

To properly discuss these concerns, it’s important to first understand how GLP-1 drugs actually work.

Continue reading “GLP-1 Drugs and Eating Disorders: A Hidden Risk in the Weight Loss Revolution”

By Ella Heckman, C2ST Intern, Loyola University

Vaccines are tools of modern medicine used in keeping us safe and healthy from the spread of disease. The science of vaccination has come a long way in the last 200 years since the first vaccine, the smallpox vaccine, was developed in 1796. As science has developed, so too has the role of the public in deciding whether or not to get vaccinated against preventable diseases. This includes you, too! The amount of information available to us in making these decisions can be overwhelming, especially if we don’t understand the science. 

Continue reading “Vaccines: No Risk, No Reward”

By Hayden Nelson, C2ST Intern, University of Chicago

Did you know your smile is one of the most powerful social signals you have? Or that the simple act of smiling can change your brain chemistry, and even make strangers like you more? It’s true! Smiles aren’t just friendly gestures, they’re complex psychological signals that influence how we feel and how others perceive us. And what’s more interesting is that this all happens without us even noticing. Our brains respond to smiles automatically, shaping our impressions and emotional responses in a split second. 

Continue reading “The Secret Psychology of Smiles”

By Edita Music, C2ST Intern, Illinois Institute of Technology

We’ve all heard of cause and effect, but what if our universe doesn’t actually follow this principle? That’s the question behind a recent physics study conducted by Dr. Julia Mossbridge at the Mossbridge Institute, who spent a year recording how tiny particles of light (photons) behave inside a dark, sealed box. Her goal was to test something that could be the plot of a science fiction movie: could information about the future somehow show up in experiments done in the present? The phenomenon she studied is called the “causally ambiguous duration sorting effect” or CADS for short. In simpler terms, it’s a hint that the world around us may sometimes blur the line between “before” and “after.”

Continue reading “The Curious Case of the CADs Effect: Is Time Travel Actually Real?”

By Donnisa Edmonds, C2ST Intern, University of Chicago

Since the launch of ChatGPT in 2022, many people have wondered about the long-term impact of generative AI on our ability to remember information, communicate through writing, and think critically. This June, a research group from MIT’s media lab published one of the first studies to address these questions in “Your Brain on ChatGPT: Accumulation of Cognitive Debt when Using an AI Assistant for Essay Writing Task.” 

Continue reading “Your Brain on ChatGPT: A Cognitive Neuroscientist’s Breakdown”