One thing that sets humans apart from our closest evolutionary relatives, Old World apes and monkeys, is that much of human brain development occurs outside the womb. This means that, relative to our evolutionary neighbors, humans are born altricial—a term describing animals that are born helpless and dependent upon parental care. Because our immature brains are presented with real-world stimuli as they develop, humans have the chance to be molded by external cues like language.
Nature never ceases to amaze us, particularly when it comes to how biological organisms develop sophisticated and diverse strategies to survive dynamic and oftentimes hostile environments. Myxobacteria (also known as “slime bacteria”), for example, have evolved a specialized life cycle to cope with the possibility of unreliable nutrient supply. While nutrient abundance enables the bacteria to grow and proliferate, nutrient scarcity can conversely trigger a transition to a more dormant state. In response to nutrient depletion, myxobacteria cells can aggregate into fruiting bodies, three-dimensional multicellular structures of diverse colors and shapes. A subset of the cells within the fruiting bodies develop into rounded myxospores with thick cell walls, waiting for a more favorable environment to resume growth. It is truly amazing how the behavior of a large number of cells can be coordinated to achieve the rapid and dynamic process of fruiting body formation.
Carbon dioxide is a greenhouse gas, which absorbs and radiates heat. It is estimated to be responsible for about two-thirds of the total energy imbalance which is driving our increasingly urgent global climate crisis. According to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, this past year, we reached a new all-time-high of atmospheric carbon dioxide: an astounding 412.5 parts per million (ppm). This is higher than any other time in the past 800,000 years.
In this episode of The Highlights, we’re joined by Yeon Soon Shin, who completed her doctoral degree in neuroscience at Princeton in 2020 and Rolando Masís-Obando, a 5th-year graduate student in neuroscience. We discuss their paths to graduate work in psychology, their research on how environmental context affects memory, and the virtual reality environments they created to test their ideas.
This episode of The Highlights was produced under the 145th Managing Board of The Daily Princetonian in partnership with Princeton Insights. Rolando Masís-Obando is a graduate student in the Princeton Computational Memory Lab and can be reached at rmasis@princeton.edu. Yeon Soon Shin is currently a postdoctoral research associate at Yale University and can be reached at yshin@princeton.edu.
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Written and hosted by Thiago Tarraf Varella GS and Paula Brooks GS
Edited and sound engineered by Sophia Villacorta and Isabel Rodrigues
Produced by Isabel Rodrigues
Original Princeton Insights coverage by Paula Brooks GS
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Clinging to the side of a marina you might find the usual suspects like mussels and barnacles, but lurking among these life forms is a less familiar one, a squishy invertebrate that looks like nothing more than a translucent tube. This creature is the sea squirt, Ciona instestinalis. Despite its unassuming appearance, Ciona could hold the key to understanding how the brain--the most complex structure in the universe--came to be. By investigating the evolutionary origin of the brain, we can uncover the roots of the remarkable variety of intelligence in the animal world and gain a deeper appreciation for the beautifully complex human brain. Princeton researchers are now studying the simple ‘brain’ of the sea squirt to begin to unravel this evolutionary story.
In this episode of The Highlights, we’re joined by Mira Nencheva, a graduate student in the Department of Psychology. We discuss her path to graduate work in psychology, the day-to-day of working with toddlers at the Princeton Baby Lab, and how the vocal pitch of a caregiver can affect learning early in life.
This episode of The Highlights was produced under the 145th Managing Board of The Daily Princetonian in partnership with Princeton Insights. Mira Nencheva is a graduate student in the Princeton Baby Lab of the Department of Psychology. She can be reached at nencheva@princeton.edu.
To view the transcript for this episode, click “More Info” and then “Full Transcript” in the episode player.
Written and Hosted by Thiago Tarraf Varella GS and Liza Mankovskaya GS
Edited by John Shin and Isabel Rodrigues
Produced by Isabel Rodrigues
Original Insights Coverage by Liza Mankovskaya GS
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Microbes are powerful tools in the biotechnology industry. Like microscopic factories, microbes are employed to manufacture a diversity of chemical compounds, such as industrial chemicals, food products, drugs, and other biotechnology molecules, on a large scale. Given the ease of genetic engineering in microbes like Escherichia coli and Saccharomyces cerevisiae, scientists and metabolic engineers alike tinker with their metabolic capacities, or even completely rewire them, to yield high concentrations of a specific product [1]. Metabolic engineers aim to maximize the efficiency of these biosynthetic processes. High efficiency, in turn, delivers biomolecules that are more readily available and at a lower cost. Metabolic engineering applications also can be more sustainable or environmentally friendly than traditional chemical synthesis approaches [1,2]. Recently, a team of researchers in the Avalos lab, led by former Ph.D. candidate Makoto Lalwani (now postdoctoral researcher at the Wyss Institute), added an additional layer of genetic engineering to this process: They are using light as a strategy to advance biomolecule production [3].
In this episode of The Highlights, we’re joined by Jarome Ali, a graduate student in the department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology (EEB), and Professor Mary Cassie Stoddard, the head PI of the Stoddard lab in EEB. We discuss her career in sensory ecology and color vision in birds, her field experiments in the Rocky Mountains of Colorado, and the science of nonspectral colors.
This episode of The Highlights was produced under the 145th Managing Board of The Daily Princetonian in partnership with Princeton Insights. Jarome Ali is a graduate student in the Stoddard Lab of EEB, and Cassie Stoddard is an associate professor of EEB. Dr. Stoddard can be reached at mstoddard@princeton.edu.
Written/Hosted by Thiago Tarraf Varella GS and Jarome Ali GS
Edited by Sophia Villacorta
Produced by Isabel Rodrigues
Original Insights Coverage by Jarome Ali GS
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Preserving the integrity of DNA is crucial to maintaining a cell’s functions and life cycle. However, DNA is regularly under attack by chemical and physical agents, such as toxins and UV rays from the sun, that can cause breaks in the chemical backbone that holds a strand of DNA together. This DNA damage can lead to dire consequences if left unaddressed, with effects ranging from cell death to uncontrolled cellular proliferation, which leads to cancer. Thankfully, our cells have evolved mechanisms of repairing broken DNA in order to alleviate the risks of accumulating DNA damage.
In this episode of The Highlights, we’re joined by Patricia Hoyos, a graduate student in the Princeton Neuroscience Institute (PNI). We discuss her work on the development of spatial biases in school-aged kids, the challenges and perks of working with children, and her experiences transitioning her work from undergraduate independent work to a graduate project.
This episode of The Highlights was produced under the 145th Managing Board of The Daily Princetonian in partnership with Princeton Insights. Patricia Hoyos is a graduate student in the Kastner Lab of PNI. She can be reached at phoyos@princeton.edu.
To view the transcript for this episode, click here.
Written/Hosted by Thiago Tarraf Varella GS and Crystal Lee GS
Produced by Isabel Rodrigues
Original Insights Coverage by Munisa Said GS and Crystal Lee GS
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