Growing up in a quiet suburban town in Connecticut, transitioning to a college located in the heart of Boston proved to be an abrupt culture shock. Accustomed to secluded trails and vivid autumns, I found myself yearning for wide open spaces. I aimlessly wandered the bustling Boston streets, hoping to find peace of mind somewhere in the midst of all of the intersections. [...]
It’s an alarming pattern—large percentages of engineering students either drop out or switch to another major.Studies suggest a variety of reasons why this behavior has emerged, including the difficulty of the coursework, feeling isolated by peers who are pursuing non-STEM degrees, a lack of mentors or role models and inadequate preparation in high school. To combat the number of STEM students they’ve seen [...]
New technologies are continuously being developed and brought to market. All the better for the public, right? It depends. For leading mobile phone manufacturers, it is crucial to keep all demographics in mind—particularly those with disabilities. Nearly one in five of the world’s population lives with some kind of recognized disability. My grandma, who suffered from Parkinson’s disease, could never operate a mobile [...]
Astronauts rejoice: Freeze-dried spaghetti may soon be a thing of the past! Popular spacecraft fare currently consists mainly of rehydrated meals. While this works just fine for a quick jaunt to the moon, it isn’t particularly well suited for longer trips through deep space . . . say to our friendly red neighbor, Mars. In early 2013, NASA awarded Systems and Materials Research Corporation (SMRC) a [...]
Imagine this: You and a team of peers need to create a working app that will rival the most popular ones on the market. The challenge? You only have 48 hours. Welcome to a hackathon. It may sound crazy, but hackathons—short bursts of creative problem-solving where great minds come together to create new tech—are all the rage. How does it work? Students from [...]
Our brains govern our every muscle movement, from reaching out for a cup of coffee to competing in the Olympics. But when something goes wrong with the way the brain transmits messages to our muscles—most often, this is due to a stroke or an injury to the spinal cord—we lose muscle function, a condition called paralysis. Back in 2004, a study found a [...]
In high school, I took two different chemistry classes. Although I found the subject interesting and looked forward to every lab, the most advanced thing I ever did with chemicals was conduct experiments with hydrochloric acid. As one might expect, professional chemists attempt and accomplish a lot more than that. As a matter of fact, chemists around the world haven’t just been working [...]
The hardest I ever remember laughing happened pretty recently. A friend of mine and I were walking down Boylston Street this past spring, observing people on Segways and seguing into a discussion about the strangeness of spelling and pronunciation in the English language. Somehow, the word bologna ended up being pronounced “buh-LAWG-nuh” with a bizarre pseudo-accent. I’m not sure why I found what my friend said [...]
Like many other people, I have experienced times when a sarcastic comment has flown right over my head. The thing about these moments, though, is that when you don’t pick up on sarcasm, you tend to miss a lot. Who knew? A big reason why it’s so important to be able to recognize sarcasm is because of how common it is in our society [...]
As writing is the trade with which I intend to make my (secondary) living, there’s a significant level of pressure on me to be the best writer I can be. This is also true of my being a student in college. Gone are the days of high school when building to a final essay assignment could take as long as a month. Now I, [...]