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Category: Science

Coal Trains, the Environment, and Human Health: Why the Gateway Pacific Terminal is a Train Wreck Waiting to Happen

Coal Trains, the Environment, and Human Health: Why the Gateway Pacific Terminal is a Train Wreck Waiting to Happen

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Imagine: while sipping your morning coffee, you peer out your kitchen window and see a mile-and-a-half-long locomotive passing your home, the first of twenty that will do so that day. Black plumes of exhaust are expelled from the train’s engine while clouds of dark particulates stream off each of the uncovered cars. What you are seeing before you is a train transporting enormous quantities of coal from mines in the Powder River Basin (spanning northeastern Wyoming and southeastern Montana) to…

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Galactic Cosmic Radiation and its Link to Alzheimer’s: Is Space Exploration Truly Worth the Risk?

Galactic Cosmic Radiation and its Link to Alzheimer’s: Is Space Exploration Truly Worth the Risk?

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“Space: the final frontier.” Anyone who has lived in the United States during the last 60 years can attest to the country’s longstanding obsession with exploring the mysterious void of space, truly the last uncharted region known to man. Beginning in the late 1950s with the Soviet Union’s launch of Sputnik 1—the first artificial satellite to orbit Earth—America fell headfirst into the Space Age, with TV series such as Star Trek and movies like 2001: A Space Odyssey capturing the imagination of…

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Ultramarathons and the Human Body: A Scientific Look beyond the Blood, Sweat, and Tears

Ultramarathons and the Human Body: A Scientific Look beyond the Blood, Sweat, and Tears

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After a full day of classes, lunch dates, and club meetings, it can be quite tempting to proclaim, “I feel like I’ve been running around all day!” Of course, the majority of our waking hours are usually spent sitting down–whether studying or on Facebook–while the majority of our exercise comes from madly dashing across campus. To say we’ve been running around “all day” is certainly an overstatement for most of us–but not for all. Enter a small group of elite…

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The Science Behind the Smell: A Closer Look at How We Perceive Food Odors

The Science Behind the Smell: A Closer Look at How We Perceive Food Odors

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From freshly baked cookies to rotten eggs, an Italian restaurant to a fish market, our strong reactions to the odors emanating from different foods is really quite amazing. The sight of a moldy Tupperware dish does not disgust us as much as its stench; likewise, the sensation of chewing a warm chocolate chip cookie does not excite us as much as does its mouthwatering aroma. We may be repulsed by the smell of a particular food item at one point, only to…

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Look Out, Bikini Bottom: A Look Into Ocean Acidification and its Impacts on Plankton

Look Out, Bikini Bottom: A Look Into Ocean Acidification and its Impacts on Plankton

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Despite what SpongeBob Squarepants may lead you to believe, not all plankton are inherently evil, greedy creatures. In fact, these minuscule marine organisms play an incredibly important role in the regulation of global climate. Not only are they responsible for removing half of the atmosphere’s carbon dioxide through their own processes of photosynthesis, but certain varieties of plankton are also known to be the principal generators of dimethyl sulfide, a gas that is vital in maintaining global temperatures. Dimethyl sulfide induces cloud formation over…

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