It's the night before a big exam and you can’t sleep. It's 2am, and you begin to worry about your inability to sleep which in fact keeps you more awake. Ever notice that? The night before an exam or the first few hours prior, your body feels like it's going to sink below the ground. Sweaty palms, elevated heart beat, or the need to use the bathroom more frequently are all signs of this. These are not classified as “just nerves” but they are legitimate stress responses. Your b

Bioinspiration, also known as biomimicry, is the practice of drawing ideas from nature’s designs to create innovative technologies. Over millions of years, nature has been vital in solving many challenges through evolution and scientists often studied these solutions to develop more effective, innovative, sustainable and efficient human-made products, which help the survival of humanity and other species. One of the most remarkable examples is shark skin, a solution which has

Winter season can be one of the best – or worst, depending on your tolerance to the cold – time of the year. Regardless of your weather preferences, many of us are familiar with rosy cheeks and pink-tipped noses that come with the low temperatures.  Why do our fingers turn so pale, while our face explodes with red? Stick around, and you’ll learn the science behind the ever-changing colouring of our skin. The importance of homeostasis The average body temperature of humans is

There’s nothing more refreshing than an icy cold drink on a hot day. What is not so refreshing is the brain freeze that follows. Ironically, your brain does not drop several degrees in temperature when you experience a brain freeze. What actually happens during a “brain freeze”? Why do they hurt our heads, despite our cold food being in our mouths? And most importantly, how do we get rid of these ice cream headaches to resume eating our delicious summer treats? Brain freezes

The immune system is supposed to be the body's defense mechanism, but for some individuals, it's their biggest vulnerability. It’s an attacking mechanism that unfortunately we fail to put up a battle against. This mechanism takes its status as an autoimmune disease. The Science Behind Autoimmune Diseases Autoimmune diseases arise from the malfunction of the immune system. Instead of attacking foreign invaders like pathogens, the immune system (white blood cells like B-cells a

French fries, tater tots, crispy chips… We humans derive a lot of value from the underground tuber of Solanum tuberosum . Yet, some of its closest relatives don’t have tubers for us to eat. So, how did the potato come about? Turns out, we owe this starchy goodness to tomatoes. Potatoes are the underground tubers of the potato plant ( Solanum tuberosum ). The tubers are modified stems that store food for the plant, and is used to grow another potato plant asexually. Yet some o

All life on Earth is made from molecules that are known to be “chiral”. This means that they can exist in 2 versions, like your left and right hands. They look the same, but can’t be perfectly laid on top of each other. For example, all of the proteins in our bodies are made of left-handed amino acids (L amino acids). But there are also right-handed ones (D-amino acids), which life on Earth doesn’t use.  Mirror life is a hypothetical form of biology built entirely from these

More often than not, we tend to associate larger body sizes with being more susceptible to cancer. This idea is amplified due to the presence of more cells in species with larger body sizes, such as whales and elephants. However, this is not truly the case.  Peto’s Paradox, first proposed by English statistician and epidemiologist Richard Peto, describes the inverse correlation between body size and the number of cells of an organism at the species level and the incidence of

We’ve all heard the phrase, “I’m starving!” or “I’m so hungry I could die”. These are common examples of hyperbole and exaggeration to...

Think back to eighth grade summer camp—oh how we reminisced for earlier times, shared laughters, traded names of our crushes under the...

Blanking out is a term used to explain common mental absences which can occur in various scenarios. Whether it is during a conversation,...

Just like detectives use clues to solve crimes, doctors use Polymerase Chain Reaction (PCR) to find viruses within the body before...

At some point in your life, you’ve hit your elbow against a piece of furniture at just the right angle, in just the right spot, and felt...

Tigers, cats, and dogs. Two are obviously more related than the other. But what about hamsters, rats and hedgehogs? How are mushrooms...

In 2024, approximately 589 million adults had diabetes across the globe—that’s 1 in 9 adults  (aged 20 to 79) across the world who are...

As our digital world grows, so does the demand for faster and more powerful computers. But this growth comes with a cost. Data centres...

In the vast expanse of the ocean, deep where the rays of the sun fail to reach, the haunting songs of whales resonate through the water....

Other than the insufferable coughs and high fevers, there was one symptom almost everyone complained about during the peak of the...

We have all heard of cells. The building block of life that everyone is made out of. It does everything from transporting oxygen, to...

Missing a period often raises one big question: Am I pregnant?  But for many young women—especially athletes, those under chronic stress,...