Announcements
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Letter to the Reader: Fall 2020 (Issue 2)
Dear Reader, In an era defined by a global pandemic, political turmoil, and social justice movements, it’s undeniably clear that…
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Letter to the Reader: Fall 2020 (Issue 1)
Dear Reader, In an era defined by a global pandemic, political turmoil, and social justice movements, it’s undeniably clear that…
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VOLUME 13 ISSUE 2 OUT NOW!
Dear Reader, In the last several weeks the progression of the global coronavirus pandemic has left us quite shocked, and…
Speech to Street: Bringing Awareness to Homelessness in St. Louis
“Pray that God would help me break the cycle of addiction,” she replied. Christina was sitting on the street corner of a Schnucks supermarket when my friends and I met her. We were volunteering with an Unhoused Ministry to hand out Ziploc bags of snacks, water, socks and masks to unhoused individuals. Christina shared that she was hungry,…
Researchers Agree that Needle Exchanges Are a Good Thing. Do Policymakers?
As of 2019, over 1.2 million Americans live with HIV [6]. An estimated 7% of these patients used injection drugs such as heroin, a population consisting disproportionately of racial minorities. For instance, Black people made up 30% of injection drug users diagnosed with HIV in 2018, despite representing only around 13% of the population. The primary mechanism of HIV transmission in this case is the sharing…
The Role of “Big Data” in Healthcare: Improving Patient Outcomes and Efficiency
Recently, healthcare has been undergoing a digital revolution. Mobile devices and technologies are more frequently being incorporated in healthcare settings to improve a broad range of health outcomes. Healthcare has mainly used a “one-size-fits-all” approach to patient care in which generalized treatment plans are used rather than personalizing treatment plans based on the patient’s individual case. However, with recent advances in…
Terraforming Mars with Tardigrades
Can genetic engineering help humans live in space? [SA3] As billionaires are pursuing their interest in space exploration, the prospect of a mission to Mars is becoming more credible. CEO of Tesla and SpaceX, Elon Musk, a vocal proponent and investor in this endeavor, says the deadline for a Mars mission may be as early as 2024 [7]. With a plan…
Legal and Ethical Considerations of Robotic-Assisted Surgeries
“Minimally invasive robotic-assisted” surgeries entered the limelight of the medical field in the mid-2000s, when they were first used in the fields of gynecology and urology as innovations driven by the desire of patients to have new, minimally invasive procedures [2]. Although it has been a steadily growing field for the past few years, the…
Restraining the Brain: The Role of Microglial Cells in Suppressing Neural Activity
Even before birth, the human mind is teeming with activity. A single touch, taste or sound can set off a chain reaction in the brain, exciting hundreds of thousands of neurons. These neurons make up networks that are responsible for everything from reaching for a glass of water to picturing a still lake. Filled with…
East St. Louis Community Efforts to Upend Infrastructural Issue
As America continues its battle against the coronavirus, it would be all too easy to assert that its effects have been arbitrarily felt by everyone. While there is no evidence of underlying genetic factors that predispose individuals to be affected by COVID-19, there is plenty of evidence showing how a community’s environment can create health…
Beauty and Brains: The Neuroscience Behind Attractiveness
What makes someone attractive? Is beauty truly in the eye of the beholder? In the ChatLab, part of the University of Pennsylvania’s Center for Neuroaesthetics, researchers explore these questions in the field of neuroaesthetics. Neuroaesthetics is “a subdiscipline of cognitive neuroscience concerned with the neural basis of aesthetic experiences, which involve interactions with entities and…
Long Road to Recovery
After the rapid rollout of COVID-19 vaccines, life has returned to a semblance of normalcy. For COVID long-haulers, however, their lives have veered away from their original tracks. While some people have recovered from the illness within weeks, long-haulers are still grappling with the harsh reality of “chronic COVID-19,” even months after the symptom onset….
COVID-19 in 2021: Hope is Rising
More than 3,000. More than 12,000. More than 700,000. More than 4.55 million. These numbers have been growing like an eternally ticking clock except instead of marking the passage of time, they mark each life that was lost to COVID-19 in St. Louis, in Missouri, in the United States and worldwide. The virus does not discriminate,…