These Fish Transformed Their Dorsal Fins Into Taste Buds
“When I turned the jar to look at the specimen, I saw a strange little thing on its head on its blind side,” Presti says. “I thought, ‘Oh, my God, what is that?’”
Katie Cottingham, Ph.D.
I'm an award-winning freelance science writer, sharing the latest scientific breakthroughs with the public by turning complex concepts into engaging stories. I cover many areas of science, including biology, medicine, chemistry, and materials science.
‘Fearsome’ Saber-Toothed Cats Needed Their Baby Teeth and Mommies, Too
With long, thin blades protruding from their mouths, saber-toothed cats roamed the Earth during the last ice age, alongside woolly mammoths, giant ground sloths and mastodons. They lived from the Eocene to Pleistocene epochs, which spanned over 50 million to about 11,700 years ago.
Reframing the conversation around education and crime to transform lives
**COMMUNICATOR AWARD**
Without a strong foundation, you can’t construct a strong building. And without a good education, a child cannot flourish. “A quality education gives you access to a choice-filled life, and if you have a choice, the last thing I think people want to choose is violence, the juvenile justice system, crime,” says Meria Carstarphen, director of the National Center for the Elimination of Educational Disparities (NCEED) at Morgan State University. “It’s all about giving hope to people who have never been able to break out of this without some lift.”
Without a strong foundation, you can’t construct a strong building. And without a good education, a child cannot flourish. “A quality education gives you access to a choice-filled life, and if you have a choice, the last thing I think people want to choose is violence, the juvenile justice system, crime,” says Meria Carstarphen, director of the National Center for the Elimination of Educational Disparities (NCEED) at Morgan State University. “It’s all about giving hope to people who have never been able to break out of this without some lift.”
Raman spectroscopy for edible oil analysis
**ASJA AWARD**
“We could tell that these products were unequivocally adulterated because soybean oil looks very different from avocado oil based on the fatty acid profile,” she explains.”
Reprinted from INFORM June 2024, Vol. 35 (6), pg. 8-12, copyright © 2024, with permission granted by AOCS
“We could tell that these products were unequivocally adulterated because soybean oil looks very different from avocado oil based on the fatty acid profile,” she explains.”
Reprinted from INFORM June 2024, Vol. 35 (6), pg. 8-12, copyright © 2024, with permission granted by AOCS
Solving a 50-Year-Old Mystery Could Lead to Neurodegenerative Disease Treatments
How do you make a fatty molecule that is involved in breaking down other fats in the brain, yet doesn’t get destroyed itself?
How One Chihuahua Proved to Be a Link to the Ancient Dogs That Moved to Latin America With the Spread of Agriculture
The tiny, feisty Chihuahua is a relic of sorts.
Making AI and cybersecurity more accessible
With two centers focused on AI technology and cybersecurity, Morgan State University (MSU) is poised to level the playing field for students and users of the technology.
Voice-activated assistants turn on our lights, tell us the weather forecast, and remind us of our appointments. Large language models like ChatGPT can algorithmically compose poems and songs with a prompt just a few words long. And self-driving cars are getting closer to the marketplace every day.
But despite these benefits of
Voice-activated assistants turn on our lights, tell us the weather forecast, and remind us of our appointments. Large language models like ChatGPT can algorithmically compose poems and songs with a prompt just a few words long. And self-driving cars are getting closer to the marketplace every day.
But despite these benefits of
Egyptian Eyeliner May Have Warded Off Disease
Clearly, ancient Egyptians didn't get the memo about lead poisoning. Their eye makeup was full of the stuff.
Programming Plants
“What is really exciting about this way of engineering plants is that we can make really precise, targeted and quantitative changes that we have not been able to do before,” says Tamborski, a postdoc in Brophy’s lab.
Reprinted from INFORM April 2024, Vol. 35 (4), pg. 14-16, copyright © 2024, with permission granted by AOCS
Reprinted from INFORM April 2024, Vol. 35 (4), pg. 14-16, copyright © 2024, with permission granted by AOCS
Immune Cells Digest Alzheimer's Plaques by Spitting Enzymes at Them
Immune cells in the brain called microglia can partially break down large amyloid plaques characteristic of Alzheimer’s disease by latching on to them, forming a sort of external stomach and releasing digestive enzymes into the space, according to a preclinical study by Weill Cornell Medicine investigators. The findings could ultimately lead to therapies that boost the ability of microglia to break down amyloid plaques.