Daily Positivity

With summer quickly approaching us, many of us are happy because of the positive mood brought by the sun. I am one of the people who get happy after looking at a bright yellow sky. I experience melancholy after looking at a gray overcast sky. I am sure many of you have weather dependent mood. Rainy days remind me of sad memories. However, sunny days inspire me to approach the “carpe diem” policy. In simpler words, I like to seize the day by living every moment of it and being productive. I realized that my parents experience the same joy and productivity when the sun is shining bright. Hence, I wonder if the happiness brought by the sun is genes? Do people experience a different type of mood when they see the sun?  After researching many articles, I came across a common gene that might be involved in season-based mood changes. The gene that expresses the serotonin transported plays a huge role in season-based mood changes. These season based mood changes are inherited as variou...

We as human beings are extremely proud of the technological achievements that we have accomplished over the past years. However, with all these medical achievements there are some things that we cannot avoid. Cancer is one of the things that exist as a hurdle in human progress. Nonetheless, we human beings will never cease to progress and hence have novel ideas to cure cancer. Read along to understand how researchers have researched techniques to cure Breast Cancer, a reason that is known to cause deaths in women.              In breast cancer, the breast cells grow uncontrollably and can cause swelling in the breast areas(1). This growth can be detected in various parts of the breast including the lobules, ducts, and connective tissue. The lobules are responsible to produce milk, the ducts carry this milk to nipples and the connective tissue is a structure that supports the breasts. Most cancers have their source in th...

Taking AP psychology in my senior year was beneficial as it introduced a new question to me. I guarantee that many of us have heard this comment that our behavior is like our parents. My father keeps saying that my thought process is similar to his. Thus, the question of whether or not we inherit behaviors arises? Or is it based on the environment?             Many scientists believe that genetics and the environment equally influence our behavior. In a classical twin study, the influence of environment and genetics was studied. It is believed that the monozygotic 1 twins share more similarities with each other than dizygotic 2 twins. The twins participating in the study were adopted by different families and were tested for their IQ results. The IQ test results of the monozygotic twins varied by just .04 in spite of the different environmental factors. This study, therefore, suggested the important role of genetics on behavio...

Abstract: The newly developed technique, CRISPR, or Clustered Regularly Interspaced Short Palindromic Repeats, is based on the bacterial “immune system”. CRISPR-Cas9 system was discovered in the 1970s in the E.Coli bacteria. This system is naturally found in the bacteria as an anti-infection mechanism. If an analogy is to be drawn, the CRISPR-Cas9 system can be compared to the antibodies in humans. When the bacteria sense a viral invasion, it targets the viral DNA and creates strands of this targeted DNA. These fragments are known as the “CRISPR fragments” and are stored as a memory when there is an invasion by the same virus. If there is an invasion by the same virus, the CRISPR fragments produce RNA which later targets the viral DNA. The Cas9 enzyme functions to destroy the viral DNA. Similarly, in the lab, a biologist can target a specific sequence of the gene and use the CRISPR “scissors” to cut the DNA at a specific site. Scientists aim to apply this technique for cancer ...

With the increasing number of patients enlisted in the transplant list, the supply of healthy organs is quite limited. This is demonstrated in the graph below: Image credits: https://biolife4d.com/ripple-effects-transplant-waiting-lists/ The graph signifies that the number of patients enlisted on the transplant waitlist far surpasses the donors. This is alarming as there are so many patients whose life depends upon a new and healthy organ but organs are not available to them.              However, a new and growing branch of science which is known as tissue engineering is developing to propose a solution to this problem. With the help of various techniques implemented in tissue engineering, patients can receive temporary grafts until a healthy organ is available to them.              The various tec...

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...