The Spectrum
The Spectrum is the Triple Helix’s science blog. Every quarter, we guide a team of writers and editors through the process of producing timely, creative, original, and accurate commentaries, articles, and/or editorials on issues that are most relevant for the scientific, political, and social climate of our time.
Here you can find The Spectrum’s articles about recent scientific discoveries, technological advancements, and opinions on science in society.
The Dry Future of the American Plains: Threats to the Ogallala Aquifer
By Hannah, Winter 2022. The Great American Plains have been an agricultural powerhouse for decades. In 30 years, they might not be. The reason? No water. We don’t often stop to ask where our tap water comes from, let alone where the water that grew our breakfast...
Food for Thought: Navigating New Approaches to Long-Standing Neurophilosophical Debates
By Eva, Winter 2022. From the principal investigator exploring the sprawling neural circuits that govern our everyday lives to the undergraduate students attending their first neurophysiology lecture, neuroscientists at every level of experience are met with the...
Superbugs: an IM-MRSA Guide
By Tania, Winter 2022. When walking into the first lecture of a new quarter, a student does not typically expect to be greeted with the professor’s biggest fear listed at the top of the syllabus. Yet students in Organic Chemistry this quarter got more than they...
A Brief Introduction to the “Forever Chemicals”
By Kate Ferrera, Fall 2021. In the 1980s, Jim Tennant, a factory worker in West Virginia, sold land to the DuPont chemical manufacturing company for use as a non-hazardous waste landfill.[1] This was standard practice and would have been completely unremarkable except...
Eating on the clock: the potential and pitfalls of intermittent fasting
By Nikhil Kumar, Fall 2021. Chances are, whether on the internet or in real life, you’ve heard the words “intermittent fasting” or “IF diet” before. In my own life, I see those fitness buzzwords everywhere. Whether it’s my father who chooses not to eat anything during...
Gravitational Lensing—A Telescope For Our Telescopes
By Jason Wu, Fall 2021. On October 5th, 2021, the Dark Energy Survey (DES) collaboration—a scientific imaging group on the hunt for the elusive dark energy—officially concluded its six-year mission. Despite sounding like a string of stereotypical astronomical jargon,...
Self-Healing Concrete: The Future of Construction?
By Pierce Hoenigman, Fall 2021. Concrete is a material that dates back to the ancient world, famously used by the Romans in their constructions. The incredibly strong Roman recipe is now lost to history, though refinements over the past few centuries have resurrected...
The Future of Medicine or an Ethical Nightmare? Elon Musk’s Neuralink and the Advent of Brain-Machine Interfaces
By Theresa Christiansen, Fall 2021. What if a simple brain implant could improve our vision, effectively treat depression, or allow us to control a computer with our minds? While these ideas have fascinated us for centuries in the form of science fiction or superhero...
Energy Dependency: Examining our Power
By Tania Pena Reyes, Spring 2021. It was in the not-too-distant past that the state of Texas encountered one of its biggest winter storms in history. I had the honor of being one of the millions of Texans who lost power during this disaster. I was lucky: my family...
How Theoretical Computer Science is Impacting Fundamental Physics
By Noah Geller, Spring 2021. In his talk, “The Shapes of Spaces and the Nuclear Force,” [1] physicist Gregory Moore describes the productive exchange of ideas between mathematics and physics as a tennis match. In this analogy, mathematicians develop theories which...
The Telehealth Explosion
By Sam Rydberg-Cox, Spring 2021. As the global COVID-19 pandemic consumed every aspect of our lives, it also catalyzed the expansion of technological advances. Telehealth has exploded, and if you follow the money, it seems as though these advances are here to stay....
The Last Great Hope for New Physics: How the Muon’s Unusual Spin is Challenging the Standard Model
By Alex Masegian, Spring 2021. For the last 50 years, our understanding of the universe’s fundamental structure has been encapsulated in a set of theories known as the Standard Model. Built from the discoveries of thousands of physicists, the Standard Model states...
Childhood brain development
By Omar Kassem, Spring 2021. Brain development and maturation are modulated by an interaction between environmental conditions and genes. Early childhood is a critical period of brain development, which renders it highly vulnerable to disorganizing environmental...
Fish Farming: Insights and Considerations on the Future of the Fishing Industry
By Isabella Xu, Winter 2021. Sushi, fish tacos, and shrimp cocktails are undoubtedly delicious and well known around the world, but the origin and production of the seafood that ends up on our plate rarely crosses our minds. As the human population grows faster than...
Understanding how we make decisions: Neural Inhibition’s role in facilitating decision making and reducing anxiety
By Sam Rydberg-Cox, Winter 2021. Every morning we must immediately make decisions. Do I get out of bed or do I hit the snooze button? What do I want for breakfast? These types of questions fill our days, but how do we actually go about choosing one option or the...
Green Burials: How the Climate Crisis is Changing After-Life Services
By Annagh Devitt, Winter 2021. Due to the ever-looming climate disaster, individuals are beginning to change their habits and alter their decisions to go green both in life and in death. So called “Green Burials” offer an alternative to the recently departed that...
The Difficult Search for Life After Death
By Corinne Stonebraker, Winter 2021. So much of our day-to-day lives are consumed by just that–our lives. The content of our conscious human experience is contained within the 80 or so years we spend as living beings. However, regardless of your belief about what...
The Growth of Aquaculture: Potential and Consequences
By Nichos Molnar, Winter 2021. Humans have utilized agriculture since the beginning of organized civilization. Agriculture has been with us for so long that innovations and advancements in the field aren’t interesting to most people. However, aquaculture - even in the...
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