Daily Positivity

Have you ever been in a situation where you had enough ice cream but still crave for more? I have been in this situation while on a beach. Beach is a nice place to relax and welcome the summer vacation. Going to a beach with friends is already very exciting and packing for the beach is more exciting. We had packed a lot of food to enjoy on the beach. There were a lot of delicious chocolate chip cookies, marshmallows, pancakes, waffles, and etc. You name it, we had it. After eating all of the food we had packed, one of my friends saw an ice cream shop. Many people were full and their “sugar cravings” was satisfied. However, half of my friends wanted to eat ice cream, including myself. This provoked a thought that why some people crave for sugar more than others? Do the genes have something to do with it?  Do we inherit the cravings we feel to eat sugar? To investigate whether there are genes involved in the sugar cravings, an international team studied the genes of more th...

Last night, I was dreaming about a chocolate river and peppermint grass surrounding me. I was having the time of my life consuming these wonderful flavors. I was in the middle of this chocolate dream and alas the alarm went off. Then, I realized it was all because of the movie I watched the previous night, Charlie and the Chocolate Factory Dreams. Now for those who are not aware of this movie, it is an adaptation of Roald Dahl’s novel, Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, where a poor boy Charlie Bucket gets an opportunity to visit Willie Wonka’s famous chocolate factory and all these wonders relating to chocolate. Dreams are an interesting component of anyone’s sleep because they seem so unreal. It is common for people to wake up suddenly after encountering a nightmare or it is possible that many people wish to stay in their perfect dreams. There are instances where people have reported that they have seen dreams which are not closely related to their real-life. How and why do we see...

We execute numerous numbers of functions every day. Some are voluntary like reading, exercising, writing or learning and involuntary like breathing, digesting or maintaining homeostasis or in other words maintaining the normal balance of the body.             Long story short: we need our brains to breathe, eat, study, exercise and even dream! Our brains are comprised of trillion cells. The two types of brain cells-neurons and glial cells- are crucial for brain functioning. Neurons basically transmit the electrical signals throughout the body. The glial cells just provide insulation to these neurons to prevent damage to these precious brain cells which basically guide us to do everything we do every day. That is why glial cells are extremely important. But, still how does the body determine what cells become neurons and what becomes glial cells? Probably, this question motivated the scientists at SISSA to research about these bra...

When we hear RNAs many of us think about it as some cell organelles that produce proteins. Or perhaps, some people do not know what an RNA is. Its main function is to produce proteins; however, it has many functions. But how does a small RNA translate proteins which are essential for the survival of the humans? These RNAs are always neglected and they deserve some attention for the enormous work they do. So let us begin with the “Central Dogma of Biology”. Many biology students dread it; however, it is an important concept we should understand. It all begins with our good old friend DNA. In my opinion, it is the king in our bodies. It contains our genes! So the DNA in the nucleus of the cell to be specific in the nucleolus transcribes an mRNA or the messenger RNA. To transcribe an mRNA the DNA initially has to replicate itself. To transcribe means to copy a DNA strand to produce RNA and this is the first step in gene expression. The DNA has two complementary strands that are sepa...

Recently, there have been a lot of speculations about stem cells and their ethicality. The main question is: “Is it ethical to kill an embryo in order to procure stem cells where that embryo has a potential to grow into a human being?” To answer this question we first need to understand what are stem cells? What benefits do they provide us with? What are some disadvantages associated? Can they be used to treat a person who has been diagnosed with a terminal illness like cancer or an organ failure?   So let us begin with some basics. Stem cells are pluripotent cells, that is, they have an ability to develop into an organism. A zygote, product of a sperm and an ovum fusion, is a classic example of an undifferentiated stem cell. A zygote is a single undifferentiated cell which divides itself to form an embryo. The undifferentiated cells found in an embryo are called the Embryonic stem cells. As the embryo enters its eighth week it is called as a fetus. Here, the stem cells begin...

Abstract: Genes are crucial for the development of any living organism on the Earth. They contain information which aids in protein synthesis. These proteins are important for the normal functioning of the body. Genes are inherited from the parents through the DNA. The offspring inherits one chromosome from each parent. However, the main question is whether the genes control the inheritance of the way a person thinks. Intelligence Quotient, also known as the IQ, is the measurement of the reasoning skills and intelligence of a person. This experiment was designed to determine whether the IQ is an inherited factor. A parent and an offspring were asked to take an IQ test. The scores were used as a determining factor of whether IQ was inherited. Introduction: Intelligence Quotient, or the IQ, is a measurement of the intelligence a person possesses which is used to resolve quotidian complications. The IQ can be determined by taking an IQ test and calculating the score which ...