Student Columns

Kelly Shen '23, image from Unsplash.com For the first time, CO2 levels in the atmosphere have surpassed 420 parts per million (ppm = 1 particle of CO2 per 1 million particles of air). Mauna Loa Observatory in Hawaii has been monitoring weather and climate since the 1950’s and reported the news on April 5th, after recording a daily average of  421.21 ppm, a new record. For comparison, the daily average was 315 ppm only sixty years ago.  Kate Marvel, a climate scientist at Nasa, is “more certain CO2 causes global heating than smoking causes cancer.” The evidence is strong, as…

Kelly Shen '23 A defining characteristic of mammals, and especially humans, are our very large brains. In fact, the human brain typically reaches about 1,500 cm3, nearly three times the size of the gorilla brain (500cm3) or the chimp brain (400cm3). How did we develop larger brains than most other organisms? Scientists believe they have finally unlocked some clues, starting with cells from our primate cousins.  The Medical Research Council (MRC) Laboratory of Molecular Biology in Cambridge, UK, has grown brain “organoids” out of stem cells called neural progenitors. These cells are shaped like cylinders, and when they split make…