For years, scientists have known that Earth is something special. Its distance from the sun allows for the perfect amount of light and heat to enter the atmosphere, giving us the perfect temperature and energy to sustain life. While the debate about the origin of said life still continues, no one can deny that Earth […]
Category: Science
Rendezvouz with an Interstellar Visitor: Never to Be Seen Again
It is not often that astronomers get a chance to explore interstellar bodies within close proximity. The farthest we have reached into interstellar space is Voyager 1 which, at the time of writing, is located over 21 billion kilometers away. Its only contender, Voyager 2, is still located within the heliopause. On October 19th, however, a […]
A New Era for Astronomy: LIGO and Virgo Spot a Neutron-Star Merger
Gravitational waves have been a topic of discussion ever since Albert Einstein first introduced them in his theory of general relativity in 1916. Like much of his early work, gravitational waves were only talked about conceptually through mathematical principles and without empirical evidence of their existence. It took 60 years to prove their existence, and […]
Don’t Get Poison Ivy: BioBlitz 2017
When I was told that I would have to wake up at 5:00 AM on a Sunday to spend the day standing outside looking at “nature,” let’s just say I was less than thrilled. The requirement of long pants and closed-toed shoes to protect against ticks? That definitely made me feel worse. All my dread […]
VERIPAD: A Startup by Macaulay Alumni
Having come from countries where counterfeit medication is a salient issue, and with a vested interest in medicine themselves, Bishoy Ghobryal (CCNY ’15) and Da Wi Shin (CCNY ’15) came up with a health IT solution to this problem with the help of various advisors. Their advisor Dr. Rajesh Vedanthan, a cardiologist at Mt. Sinai who […]
Goldwater Scholars Spotlight
Goldwater Scholars Spotlight By: Vickie Savvides and Christine Hirt After receiving a nomination by her Macaulay advisor, Tamar Lichter of Queens College was granted the Barry Goldwater Scholarship, a pristine award provided to college students who intend to pursue research careers in mathematics, science, and engineering. Lichter who grew up in Long Island, had originally […]
Lust, Attraction, Love, and Tinder
It’s that time of year again! As the weather gets warmer and the flowers grow more vibrant, love seems to be in the air. But what is love? How do we recognize feelings of love, and how do we go about looking for these moments of connection? It turns out that in our ultra-critical generation […]
HIV-Positive Organ Transplants: Reducing Stigma, Saving Lives
Since the HIV epidemic began, those in the United States diagnosed with HIV have been barred from donating organs or having their organs donated. That is about to change when Johns Hopkins performs the first kidney and liver transplants from HIV-positive donors to HIV-positive recipients. At the height of the AIDS epidemic twenty-eight years ago, […]
The Gravitating Discovery
High school physics has taught us (hopefully) what waves are and the characteristics that define them. Simply put, waves are something that transfers energy. Perhaps the most quintessential example is, when a pebble is dropped in a pool of still water, waves ripple from the point of impact, indicating the transfer of energy outward. Now, […]
Cotard’s Syndrome: Zombie Disease
The belief that one is already dead is known as Cotard’s syndrome, named after the French neurologist who first diagnosed it. In the 1800s, Jules Cotard described the syndrome as a type of depression characterized by anxious melancholia and delusions about one’s own body. Esmé Weijun Wang is among the few people who experienced the […]