Over the past three years, a rush of excitement has emerged globally regarding artificial intelligence. In a student’s everyday life, discussions about artificial intelligence arise frequently- whether about the potential benefits of generative AI, using ChatGPT on homework assignments, or seeing AI’s growing presence on social media platforms like TikTok.
Claims that AI holds significant potential in the development of society and technology are impossible to ignore, with AI occupying numerous sectors seen throughout daily life. In fact, when I began writing this article, even clicking enter on a google search titled “Impact of AI on climate change” immediately caused an AI overview to pop up unprompted.
AI generated images / The Economic Times India
While the environmental repercussions of AI usage cannot be ignored, to deny the multitude of potential benefits from artificial intelligence would be absurd. Instead, it makes more sense that the use of (mostly generative) AI for recreational purposes is the issue– hundreds of thousands of people contribute to this environmental impact, not realizing that even a short prompt into ChatGPT has been proven by the International Energy Agency to equate to 4-10x the amount of energy that just one Google search consumes.
There are four key problems attributed to why AI can cause widespread harm to our environment. First, the mining required to extract critical minerals and rare earth elements for the microchips that power AI is incredibly destructive to the environments where these resources are found. Navigating New Horizonsconfirms this, stating,
“[The minerals and elements] are often mined unsustainably”.
The second is that AI servers are held in data centers which produce a shocking amount of electronic waste. They also contain hazardous substances such as mercury and lead, according to the United Nations Environment Program (UNEP). This is harmful because when they are (often) disposed of improperly, the wildlife, soil, air, and water around it are contaminated.
Thirdly, these AI data centers use preposterous amounts of electricity and energy, due to advanced technology seen in these models. Therefore, the energy used in most of these data centers comes from fossil fuels which produce greenhouse gases that further contribute to global warming. Research by the University of Nottingham shows that by 2026, AI data centers will likely account for nearly 35% of Ireland’s energy consumption. Added effects to climate change are something that we simply can’t afford currently, with the already increasing rate of rising global temperatures.
Pollution due to Elon Musk’s AI data center in Memphis / NAACP
Finally, and most of all, data centers consume a colossal amount of water, not only to construct but also to cool electrical components of AI. Chilled water absorbs heat from computing equipment. This water does not return to the water cycle; most of it is gone forever when used to cool these heated data centers. The centers use mechanical chillers which carry heat away from the servers, releasing it through a condenser, and so the water becomes water vapor where it does not cycle back through treatment systems like in a typical household. Even though some of it returns as rainfall, a majority of vapor in the air cannot be recovered. Not only this, but data centres are often located near locations which are already prone to droughts, which gives the inhabitants of this area even less access to water. This is a huge problem when a quarter of humanity already lacks access to clean water and sanitation. MIT Newstells us that for every single kilowatt hour of energy a data center consumes, it would need two entire liters of water for cooling. It is an atrocity to restrict so much life from access to clean water and instead use it on generating ‘a cartoon version of me’ or asking ChatGPT to write a quick email that could be written by the individual in just two minutes instead.
The impacts of these contributors on climate change are immense. It also doesn’t help that generative AI models have an extremely short shelf-life as AI companies such as ChatGPT and DeepSeek consistently deliver new models, provoked by rising demand for new AI applications. So, the energy used to train previous models goes to waste every few weeks, and new models use even more energy because they are more advanced than the previous ones. Sure, one person using Perplexity AI doesn’t do much to the environment, but if everyone follows this logic, the large scale of people using AI results in terrible repercussions.
On the other hand, popular articles repeat that because “500ml of water are used for every 20-50 ChatGPT prompts, not every prompt”, the amount of energy that ChatGPT uses is not that significant. However, like govtech.com states, even if 500ml sounds small, combined with the 122 million people who use ChatGPT daily, this is a lot of water that is wasted for purposeless reasons. AI’s energy use has exploded only because AI has exploded. It is not that each prompt uses a significant amount of energy, but that AI has had an explosive growth being the quickest adopted technology ever, therefore the energy adds up to be significant through the sum of people using AI.
As a society, we have to acknowledge that even though AI provides us an abundance of opportunities and ideas for our modern world, we must not forget the consequences to the already declining environment that overuse brings. We should take into consideration that life would most likely not be worse without generative AI for the average person. We should take into consideration that the tradeoff of mindless entertainment and having ChatGPT search for basic facts is worth a better chance at restoring our Earth. And ultimately, we should simply refrain from using AI for recreational reasons unless the purpose is absolutely urgent and necessary.
Recently, the phrase ‘flow state’ has gone viral on social media, but most people have no clue what’s actually happening in the brain. Creative outlets for your brain start with the flow state, a mental state you can enter during creative activities like art, dance, writing poetry, or even giving a creative speech. When you are fully immersed in what you’re doing, the mind becomes deeply focused and present. This experience is known as the flow state.
Being in this state can trigger the release of feel-good chemicals such as dopamine, which is associated with pleasure and reward. These chemicals positively affect your brain chemistry and help bring it into balance. The more often you engage in creative activities that lead you into this flow state, the more positive the effects on your mental and emotional health.
Routine also plays an important role in achieving flow state. While the brain may become bored with repetition, the discipline of regularly doing creative work helps maintain the steady release of beneficial brain chemicals. Over time, this habit becomes a powerful tool for supporting emotional stability and improving overall brain function. It can also increase your capacity to learn and help you stay in a more positive mood. Your brain is like a muscle that can grow and change with use. Just as going to the gym strengthens your body, creative outlets help strengthen your brain. Whether you’re solving mental math problems, dancing, writing, or painting, these activities exercise the brain in meaningful ways, and with time, you will begin to notice progress in your thinking, mood, and emotional resilience.
Creative outlets are not just helpful in the long-term, they also provide temporary support. These outlets allow you to process emotions, deal with stress or trauma, and reflect on your day in a positive way. This results in a clear headspace and a more productive day.
Engaging in creative activities can calm the amygdala, which is the part of the brain responsible for the fight-or-flight response. When you’re feeling anxious or stressed, the amygdala becomes highly active. Creative work signals to the brain that you’re safe, which helps reduce that activation and gives you a sense of relief and clarity. Incorporating creativity into your life is more than just enjoyable, it’s a powerful way to support your mental health and help your brain thrive.
Saturn already has the highest number of known moons in our solar system, with 250, but it could also become the only planet with a habitable moon. Greedy, right? The 2005-2017 Cassini-Huygens mission to Saturn revealed clefts in the surface of Enceladus (one of Saturn’s moons) that shoot out water vapor ‘plumes’ into space as a ring (dubbed the E-ring) that circles Saturn. These clefts are believed to receive their water from an ocean below Enceladus’ surface. When the Cassini spacecraft flew through the plumes as they sprayed, it collected ice grains. Since the mission, scientists have been researching these grains, and they’ve found that Enceladus’ plumes hold carbon-containing molecules like aliphatic, heterocyclic esters, alkalines, ethers, ethyl, possibly nitrogenic, and possibly oxygenic compounds. They published their most up-to-date findings this October 1.
To break all this down, these carbon-containing molecules basically mean that the moon Enceladus might have the potential to house life. But don’t get too excited— it’s also possible that these molecules only become organic due to radiation, where ions in Saturn’s magnetosphere chemically react with the E-ring particles. To find out the truth, the European Space Agency might send an orbiter to Enceladus to sample fresh ice. Their orbiter wouldn’t arrive till 2054, so I suppose we’ll just cross our fingers till then.
October 3: From Type A to Type O
We all know and love universal blood type O, but what about those who actually have it? For kidney transplants, type-A positive, -B positive, and -AB positive patients can receive their own respective type and type-O; however, type-O patients can only receive type-O kidneys. Thus, when these other patients receive type-O kidneys, people with type-O lack donors, end up waiting two to four years longer for their kidneys, and often die during the wait. Oh, and let’s not forget that type-O patients comprise over half of the kidney waiting lists!
Scientists from the University of British Columbia have been tirelessly studying this catastrophe for over a decade, and they published their first successful transplant this October 3. They managed to place two reactive enzymes in a type-A kidney so that the kidney changed to universal type-O. Sugars that coat organs’ blood vessels determine blood type, so they created an enzyme reaction to strip away the defining sugars. While past conversions have needed live donors and changed antibodies within patients, compromising their immune systems, this new method changes the kidney itself and uses deceased donors.
So, here’s what happened in their transplant test:
Scientists converted a type-A kidney using the enzymes
Placed the kidney in a deceased recipient (with the family’s permission)
Days 1-2: the body showed no signs of rejecting the kidney
Day 3: a few of the type-A attributes reappeared, which is a slight reaction, but nothing as severe as in previous conversions
The body showed signs of tolerating the kidney anyway
Success!
October 6: 2025 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine
This year, the 2025 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine has been awarded to three people! Mary E. Brunkow, Fred Ramsdell, and Shimon Sakaguchi earned it for their advancements on ‘peripheral immune tolerance’, the mechanism that ensures the immune system doesn’t hurt the body. Essentially, peripheral immune tolerance prevents humans from having all kinds of autoimmune diseases. However, prior to these three, scientists had no real understanding of why or how this system worked. Brunkow, Ramsdell, and Sakaguchi built on each other’s findings to discover ‘regulatory T cells’, the agents behind peripheral immune tolerance.
1995: Sakaguchi debunked the popular theory of ‘central tolerance’ by discovering a new group of immune cells.
2001: Brunkow and Ramsdell explained why a certain type of mice was particularly defenseless against autoimmune diseases. They found that strain to have a mutation in what they dubbed their ‘Foxp3’ gene, and they showed that humans have a similar gene, which also causes an autoimmune disease when mutated.
2003: Sakaguchi showed that the Foxp3 gene dictates the growth of the cells he previously found. These cells became known as ‘regulatory T cells’, and they supervise cells in the immune system as well as the immune system’s tolerance of the human body.
All this is awesome, but let’s see how their discovery actually impacted modern medicine. Scientists have found that regulatory T cells can actually protect tumours from the immune system, so, in this case, they are looking for a way to dismantle the cells. However, to combat autoimmune diseases, scientists can implant more regulatory T cells into the body to help prevent the immune system from attacking the body. So, just as Ann Fernholm proclaimed, “they have thus conferred the greatest benefit to humankind.”
October 7: 2025 Nobel Prize in Physics
Get this: another trio received the 2025 Nobel Prize in Physics! The Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences bestowed the honor onto John Clarke, Michel H. Devoret, and John M. Martinis for their experiments demonstrating quantum physics within a larger system. Quantum physics, or quantum mechanics, allows tunneling, which is when particles pass through barriers. Normally, the effects of quantum mechanics become negligible once they start working with large particles, but Clarke, Devoret, and Martinis showed that tunneling can still happen in a larger system.
Just like with our last trio, here’s how they did it:
1984-1985: They experimented with passing a current of charged particles through a controlled circuit containing superconductors. They found that the multiple particles acted like one large particle when going through the superconductor. The quantum part of this was that the system used tunneling to go from zero-voltage to a voltage. So, they concluded that quantum mechanics can still cause tunneling in a macroscopic system.
And why do we care? Well, Olle Eriksson, the Chair of the Nobel Committee for Physics, said, “It is wonderful to be able to celebrate the way that century-old quantum mechanics continually offers new surprises. It is also enormously useful, as quantum mechanics is the foundation of all digital technology.” I don’t know about you, but I think I’ll take his word for it.
October 8: 2025 Nobel Prize in Chemistry
Our LAST Nobel Prize trio of October comes in Chemistry! Susumu Kitagawa, Richard Robson, and Omar M. Yaghi received the 2025 Nobel Prize in Chemistry from the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences for their ‘metal-organic frameworks (MOFs)’. These frameworks are from their new molecular construction, where carbon-based molecules link together metal ions so that the two form MOFs, which are essentially porous crystals. Scientists can then manipulate these MOFs to take in and guard particular substances. MOFs can also create chemical reactions and direct electricity. So, with these MOFs, scientists can design materials with particular functions of their choosing.
1989: Robson began testing the properties of atoms by combining copper molecules with four-pronged molecules, and this created porous crystals similar to MOFs. However, these MOF impersonators were unstable and needed someone to fix them.
1992-2003: Enter- Kitagawa and Yaghi. From his experiments, Kitagawa concluded that MOFs could be changed and modified as gases could run through them. Then, Yaghi made a stable MOF and showed that they could be manipulated to have new properties.
Since their discoveries, scientists have made tons of their own unique MOFs, each equipped to solve a different problem. We can thank MOFs for giving us a safer Earth. I mean, any kind of chemical substance that can make clean water, grab carbon dioxide from the air, or produce water from desert air sounds like a good one to me.
October 11: The Surprising Link Between COVID-19 and Anxiety
Covid. The word that teleports Gen-Z right back to online school in pajamas, Roblox, and Charli D’Amelio. We all know and hate it, but did we realize that it might be affecting future generations who weren’t even alive in 2020?
A study published on October 11 revealed that male mice who contracted COVID-19 birthed children with more anxiety-like behaviors than those of uninfected mice’s children. Basically, COVID-19 changes RNA molecules in the male’s sperm, which then dictates his children’s brain development. In female offspring specifically, their brain’s hippocampus region, which deals with behaviors including anxiety and depression, was altered. The authors of the study believe that these changes may cause increased anxiety levels.
Okay, okay. Remember: this study was done on mice, not humans. More research is needed to see if humans will experience similar effects, but for now, we’re safe.
October 12: Light Years Away
“A long time ago in a galaxy far, far away…” Wait, what? A long time ago? Evidence suggesting that the closest alien civilization may be 33,000 light-years away did come out this October 12, but for the estimate to be feasible, the civilization would need to have already existed for at least 280,000 years. Yeah, that feels like a long time ago. And don’t worry about the far, far away part– I’d call 33,000 light-years pretty far.
At a recent meeting in Helsinki, research was shown indicating such a possibility. Here’s the criteria for a planet to have extraterrestrial life and actually sustain itself:
Carbon dioxide in the atmosphere (so photosynthesis can work and support life)
An atmosphere of at least 18% oxygen (complex animals need more oxygen, and there must be enough oxygen for fire because blacksmithing must happen to technologically advance)
Average lifetime of about 10 million years (so they can exist at the same time as us)
Already existed for at least 280,000 years (so civilization can develop and they can exist at the same time as us)
Keeping these in mind, scientists have concluded that if there is an alien civilization existing at the same time as us in the same galaxy, it would have to be at least 33,000 light-years away. To put that into perspective, our Sun is about 27,000 light-years away from us. Yeah. Pretty far.
October 20: Enteral Ventilation
Sometimes, CPR isn’t enough to save respiratory failure. Then, patients turn to mechanical ventilation. But sometimes mechanical ventilation is too much, and the lungs end up even further damaged. Enteral ventilation, however, may just be the sweet spot. Enteral ventilation is a practice where perfluorodecalin, an exceptionally oxygen-soluble liquid, is administered through the intestine to deliver oxygen to the body while the lungs heal. Published on October 20, the first in-human study of enteral ventilation succeeded and was demonstrated to be safe. The only side effects were bloating and stomach pain, but those quickly resolved, and perfluorodecalin concentrations nearly disappeared from the bloodstream (a good thing!).
After this safe and tolerated success, more studies on enteral ventilation will soon develop, and lungs everywhere may be saved.
October 20: CI Chondrite on the Moon
Before we get into any of this moon stuff, you may be wondering what in the world (or should I say galaxy) CI Chondrite is. I’m here to help! CI Chondrite, a porous and the most water-dense meteorite, generally breaks before it can reach Earth because its properties make it so crumbly. CI Chondrite actually makes up less than one percent of all meteorites on Earth. That means it also barely ever reaches the moon. However, during their Chang’e-6 mission published on October 21, the China National Space Administration found traces of CI Chondrite dust on the moon.
A Chondrite Meteorite
Here’s how they did it:
They looked at thousands of fragments from the Apollo Basin, a sub-basin in the South Pole-Aikten Basin that acts as a hotspot for debris since it covers one-fourth of the moon.
They looked for pieces with olivine, a mineral normally in meteorites.
Then, they analyzed the olivine pieces and found seven with properties identical to CI Chondrite
When analyzing, they found that the pieces did not have the chemical ratios expected for lunar debris.
However, they realized that the seven fragments’ ratios did align with those of a CI Chondrite asteroid that crashed, melted, and solidified on the moon early in the solar system’s history.
With these discoveries, the team found the first solid evidence that CI Chondrite once hit the moon and that CI Chondrite can be preserved after such a crash. Actually, they found that CI Chondrite could comprise up to 30 percent of the Moon’s meteorite debris. Additionally, their study provided evidence to help back up the theory that CI Chondrite once created water and volatiles on the Earth and Moon. More research is needed to see if it’s really true, but those missions will now be much easier with the China National Space Administration’s new process to find CI Chondrite.
October 27: Back to the Basics
Nope, not like the song. On October 27, in the Astrophysical Journal Letters, scientists described their findings of what they believed to be Population III stars, one of the first groups of stars in the galaxy. With the James Webb Space Telescope, they pinpointed them in LAP1-B, a cluster of stars 12 billion light-years away from Earth. Scientists believe Population III stars are some of the first stars made after the Big Bang, and they have a unique property of being a billion times brighter than and a million times the mass of our Sun.
Here’s why they believe their discovered stars to be Population III:
Emission lines on the stars’ spectra indicated high-energy photons, which are consistent with Population III stars.
Their spectra showed them to be extremely large.
Their masses aligned with astronomers’ guesses for those of Population III stars.
They were in LAP1-B, whose properties agree with the criteria for Population III.
It’s a low hydrogen and helium environment.
Its temperature can support star formation.
It’s a low-mass cluster, and it had few large stars before those of Population III.
It meets mathematical criteria for forming stars and keeping them alive.
Seems pretty feasible, right? Anyways, these scientists were the first to find a group of stars that meets all criteria for being Population III, and these ancient stars can actually explain the galaxy’s construction and development. That’s all for STEM this October, but don’t worry, because this November’s looking like a great one.
University of British Columbia. (2025, October 3). UBC enzyme technology clears first human test toward universal donor organs for transplantation. Eurek Alert. https://www.eurekalert.org/news-releases/1100223
Every year, in the United States, millions are diagnosed with schizophrenia, autism, and depression . These disabilities severely hinder people’s way of living, therefore, it is crucial for us to find ways to prevent individuals from suffering. In the past few years, research has shown that the gut has a significant connection with your brain.
The ENS
The ENS (enteric nervous system) is what some researchers call your “second brain.” It is composed of two layers that have hundreds of millions of nerve cells that dictate your mood shifts. Located in the gut, this system efficiently communicates with the central nervous system, connecting your mind and body.
The ENS sends signals to your brain via the gut-brain axis. For example, when the gut signals hunger, the brain sends out a stressor leading to your blood sugar dropping, which makes you frustrated or irritated. This shows that the brain and gut are in constant communication, which can be linked to mental illness. With this logic, we can understand that while microorganisms within the gut can prevent mental illness, others can cause them.
In cases of Schizophrenia, clinical research has shown similarities within the gut between patients; 8 cases of Schizophrenia found that their gut contained similar gut microbiota such as: Lactobacillus, Enterococcus, and Bifidobacterium. Scientists then prescribed probiotics to these patients which reduced inflammation and contributed to a better state and overall mood.
The Mind and Gut’s Relationship
While research is still being developed regarding the link between the two, findings are piling up in order to help us understand the relationship between the gut and mind.
In order to maintain a healthy gut and mindset, there are a few ways to keep yourself healthy. You are what you eat. Your diet is a major factor for a healthy gut, so nourishing your gut with a diverse and balanced diet can feed bacteria, allowing for an improved mood! Some healthy nutrition options include probiotics such as: kimchi, kefir, and other fermented items, as well as prebiotics like green vegetables, legumes, whole grains, and nuts.
Additionally, ways to completely treat mental illness are still being discovered. A process called “Faecal microbiota transplant” has recently been found to be a possible cure. The process allows donors with healthy guts to donate stool to patients suffering from infected colons. This process is usually used to treat infection, however, studies were done that found out a few cases of clinical depression were cured through this process.
To sum it up, the gut microbiome may not seem like much, however it does play a significant role in mental health. The link between the two is still being studied to this day, with new findings revealing that treatments may cure existing mental illness. As of now, the current best way to maintain a healthy mental state is to ensure a healthy diet. Hopefully, one day we will be able to cure mental illness through these ground breaking discoveries, and when that happens, I will be here to report it!
References
GBD 2019 Mental Disorders Collaborators. (2022). Global, regional, and national burden of 12 mental disorders in 204 countries and territories, 1990–2019: A systematic analysis for the Global Burden of Disease Study 2019. The Lancet Psychiatry, 9(2), 137–150. https://doi.org/10.1016/s2215-0366(21)00395-3
Li, Z., Tao, X., Wang, D., Pu, J., Liu, Y., Gui, S., Zhong, X., Yang, D., Zhou, H., Tao, W., Chen, W., Chen, X., Chen, Y., Chen, X., & Xie, P. (2024). Alterations of the gut microbiota in patients with schizophrenia. Frontiers in Psychiatry, 15, 1366311. https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyt.2024.1366311
Cooking is instrumental in everyone’s life. Think about how many times you’ve eaten today! Eggs for breakfast, milk as a drink, pirate booty’s as a snack, mac n cheese for lunch, and pizza for dinner. We all spend minutes, even hours of our lives simply deciding what foods to eat, but have we ever dug deeper into what chemicals we’re eating? After all, cooking is chemistry and something has to keep that twinkie immortal! In this article, we will take out our detective gloves to examine what we’re really putting in our bodies, then uncover the history of cooking, and finally discover the impact of cooking on American culture.
Let’s head to the lab! When looking at a typical American kitchen, you’ll notice a trend of processed foods such as deli meat, sauces, and pastas. This happens because processing often alters the food, leading to a sharp increase in sugars, sodium, and calories. While processing itself is not inherently bad, the abundance of ultra processed foods (a certain kind of extremely unhealthy processed food with abundant fats, calories, and salts) has been linked to higher cancer risk. This is due to the production process which often adds additives or strips nutrients from the food. While most foods undergo some kind of process, this article will refer to ultra processed foods such as packaged snacks, bread, cereal, processed meat, condiments, sweets and alcoholic beverages, and candies and desserts.
Processed foods such as cheese, noodles, and even oil have always existed as a main staple in ancient diets. As food has evolved, new processing techniques such as the invention of hermetling bottling in 1809 has led to widespread canning and tinning, while Louis Pasteur’s discovery of pasteurization in 1864 inadvertently caused the increasing popularity of processed foods. During World War I, the convenience of processed food continued to remain relevant, as people rapidly advanced machinery creating microwaves and blenders, and sought food that was nutritionally dense to fight malnutrition and disease. In the modern age, the most recent rise of processed foods is credited to food marketing. Fast food companies spend billions of dollars in marketing each year, and according to wildhealth.com, in 2017, 80% of their ads focused on candy, snacks, and fast food which are all ultra-processed foods (UPFs).
Bright. Colorful. Iconic. Everyone has fallen for the sugary promises without realizing they are being preyed on by these advertisers.
Label marketing has also had a detrimental effect on the food industry. The FDA sets standards that companies must abide by, however many of these standards are outdated and the 1994 definition of “healthy” to be placed on food products was changed only three years ago which resulted in limits being set for the amount of fat, cholesterol, and sodium in a product.
We may sacrifice nutrition for convenience, but these unhealthy habits are linked to 30+ health conditions and are proven to increase risk of complications such as cardiovascular disease, cancers, obesity, and type 2 diabetes. As Dr. Devies puts it “Ultraprocessed foods are better at preserving shelf life than human life.” Data shows that 57% of adult diets and 67% of children’s diets consist of ultra-processed foods. The laboratory may create a product that has an excellent appeal, and a long shelf life, but do not be fooled. It is devoid of the important nutrients that our bodies actually crave.
Can you name 5 ingredients in a cheetos bag? Processed foods have become a major component in many American diets contributing to the obesity and overweight crises which sever our connection to the natural foods that our ancestors ate. While eating junk may be more convenient, the physical effects will catch you in the long run.
Scientists have recently declared chemical pollution an environmental threat as severe as climate change. Specifically, chemical pollution is the contamination of air, land, or water with high levels of unnatural substances, or pollutants. As these chemical pollutants continue to quickly spread throughout the globe, the multitude of risks they pose is only growing.
The Severity of Chemical Pollution
The severity of chemical pollution is emphasized by the wide range of substances it encompasses and their persistence in the biosphere. Examples of chemical pollutants include volatile organic compounds (VOCs), heavy metals, air contaminants, persistent organic pollutants (POPs), pesticides, and PFAS (per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances), to name a few. Most of these chemicals do not break down over time; instead, they accumulate year after year, causing lasting damage to the Earth. They are found in everything from rivers to livestock, and according to the CDC, PFAS have been detected in the bloodstreams of about 97% of Americans. This is a global problem, too; a 2025 study conducted in Bihar, India, revealed that nearly 90% of children and 80% of pregnant women tested in the state had unsafe amounts of lead in their blood. Furthermore, the poor regulation of industrial waste and aging infrastructure in many regions of Africa and Southeast Asia allows toxic metals such as lead and mercury to contaminate drinking water and agricultural soil.
Scientists have warned that chemical pollution has already crossed the limit for what is safe. The volume of synthetic chemicals currently in circulation has far exceeded the Earth’s capacity to manage them safely, and the sheer variety of synthetic compounds, over 350,000 globally, makes regulation nearly impossible without extensive global action.
Effects on Health & Ecosystems
For humans, exposure to chemical pollutants can cause cancer, sterility, developmental diseases, immune system damage, and disruption of brain and hormone function. Columbia University’s School of Public Health covered several significant ways chemical pollutants harm the body: DNA damage, genomic alterations and mutations, disrupted development in children, mitochondrial dysfunction, interference with regular bodily functions, endocrine disruption, increased susceptibility to allergies and infections, hindered neurotransmission, and impaired nervous system function.
As for the environment, PFAS have been detected in livestock, fish, and crops, affecting food safety and biodiversity. Chemical spills pollute rivers and seas, killing aquatic life and disrupting ecosystems. Soil contaminated with pollutants becomes infertile, reducing agricultural efficiency.
What’s Being Done
Though serious, attempts to rectify the situation have been slow-going. The United States’ Environmental Protection Agency has recently introduced stricter drinking water standards for PFAS, with limits in the parts-per-trillion range. Several states have launched lawsuits against chemical manufacturers in order to force them to fund cleanup efforts. Meanwhile, in Europe, policymakers are moving to ban classes of harmful chemicals instead of regulating them one by one, a necessary approach given the scope of the crisis, according to scientists. The UN has begun negotiations for a plastics and associated chemicals treaty, which would be the first major international agreement to limit harmful substances since the Montreal Protocol on ozone-depleting chemicals in 1987. Moreover, researchers are in the process of developing technology aiming to destroy PFAS molecules previously thought to be indestructible.
Even so, progress can be unsteady and quite slow. Many poorer nations lack the infrastructure to monitor chemical pollution as well as the political power to hold corporations accountable for any potential damage they cause.
Since these chemicals can be found everywhere, phasing them out requires a great deal of effort, starting with change on a systematic scale.
Recently, communities across the globe have seen unusually intense and violent hailstorms. Many have noticed huge ‘monster hail,’ which can be the same size as a small Labubu and cause significant damage to people and their property. This growth in hail size can be traced back to stronger updrafts and warmer temperatures, which I will expand on in this article. Communities will have to learn to deal with these powerful storms as hail sizes continue to rise.
How is Hail Formed?
Hail is made when raindrops are lifted by updrafts, or warm rising air, into the upper atmosphere. There, the temperatures are cooler, and the raindrops freeze into small particles of ice. As the ice particles are carried around by the updrafts, they bump into supercooled water droplets. Supercooled water droplets are raindrops that are still in liquid form despite being at below-freezing temperatures. When these droplets collide with the ice particles, they immediately freeze onto the particles, making them bigger. As this cycle continues, more and more droplets attach to the hailstone, causing it to grow larger and larger. Once the hailstone gets too heavy for the updrafts to support it, the hailstone will fall to the ground.
According to atmospheric scientist Brian Tang, there are two main hypotheses that potentially explain hail’s increasing size: One explanation involves Earth’s rising temperatures. In recent years, there have been warmer overall air temperatures due to heat being trapped in the atmosphere by greenhouse gases. As that air gets warmer, it also becomes more moist, as warmer air can hold more water vapor. Because there’s more moisture, more supercooled water droplets will be found in the upper parts of storms, where temperatures are below freezing. With greater access to these droplets, hailstones can grow even larger.
Another factor articulated by Brian Tang is an increase in unstable air masses coming from western North America. As these air masses move east, they form thunderstorms over flatter areas. These air masses are formed because of many reasons. One of these is the accelerated melting of mountain snowpacks, which is caused by rising temperatures. As snowpacks melt more rapidly, the ground beneath them gets heated. This heating, in turn, also warms the air near the ground while the air higher up remains cool. This contrast in temperature creates even more atmospheric instability, which leads to the development of unstable air masses, and thus, thunderstorms.
But these hail sizes could only be the beginning. According to a study conducted by the Weather, Climate and Society Research Group at Northern Illinois University, “Although fewer hail days are expected over most areas in the future, an increase in the mean hail size is projected, with fewer small hail events and a shift toward a more frequent occurrence of larger hail.” The study goes on to report that smaller hailstones (<4 cm in diameter) are expected to become less frequent, while larger stones are expected to increase by 15-75% in size. In other words, it was concluded that hailstorms may become less common overall; however, the small, relatively harmless hail that makes up the bulk of hailstorms today may be replaced by larger, more destructive hail.
We’re already seeing early signs of this shift. The Iowa Environmental Mesonet recorded 1307 instances of 2+ inch hail in 2024, compared to just 714 in the year prior. Likewise, Colorado set its state record for hail size in 2023 with a 5.45 inch hailstone- that’s about two tennis balls (0.00126 football fields) wide!
The effect of these intense hailstorms is clear: according to Versik, roof repair value in 2024 reached almost 31 billion dollars, a 30% increase from just two years prior. Wind and hail were the primary drivers, making up almost half of all roof-related insurance claims.
Some helpful ways to prevent property damage include:
Parking cars in garages or under shelters
Trimming trees to prevent falling branches
Clearing gutters to stop them from overflowing
Replacing windows and roofing
If your area is expected to experience a hailstorm, stay up to date with weather forecasts and pay attention to warning systems. Make sure to have an enclosed room in your house with no windows and stay there until weather services confirm that the storm has passed.
Conclusion
In recent years, we have seen hail grow larger and larger, and this trend shows no signs of stopping. As hailstorms continue to evolve and become more unpredictable, it is extremely important to stay informed as we adapt to the continuing changes in our climate. It is important to realize that the trends we are seeing are indicative of a larger shift in our climate. Outside of hailstorms, numerous other gradual shifts in our weather are taking place. We are seeing extended droughts, rising sea levels, and longer wildfire seasons as well. While it is still debatable whether these shifts are man-made or part of a natural cycle, it is clear that hail is just one symptom of a larger change that will have lasting effects on human life for years to come.
Gensini, V. A., Ashley, W. S., Michaelis, A. C., Haberlie, A. M., Goodin, J., & Wallace, B. C. (2024, August 21). Hailstone size dichotomy in a warming climate. Nature News. https://www.nature.com/articles/s41612-024-00728-9
How Scientists are Using Worms to Learn About Humans
Worms and humans could not possibly be any more different. And yet, scientists have been studying C. elegans (caenorhabditis elegans) to learn more about the human body over 70 years. These unassuming worms have aided in groundbreaking findings in medicine for human diseases such as Alzheimer’s, AIDS, and stroke.
What makes C. elegans so valuable is not its complexity, but rather its simplicity. Because so many of its biological pathways are conserved in humans, this worm provides a uniquewindow into the fundamental processes of life, including cell division, gene regulation, neural signaling, and aging. With a transparent body, rapid life cycle, and a genetic makeup that mirrors much of our own, C. elegans has become an essential organism in modern biomedical research. Understanding how scientists use these worms can help us appreciate not just what we’ve already learned, but also the vast potential that still lies ahead.
What is C. elegans?
C. elegans is a free-living nematode that has become one of the most important model organisms in research. It measures approximately one millimeter in length and naturally lives in temperate soil environments, where it feeds on bacteria like e. coli. It is non-parasitic and exists in two sexes: hermaphrodites, which are capable of self-reproduction, and males, which occur at a less than 0.1% chance under normal conditions. The hermaphroditic reproductive mode allows for the maintenance of isogenic populations, which is advantageous for genetic studies.
The adult C. elegans hermaphrodite has exactly 959 somatic cells while the adult male C. elegans has exactly 1,031 somatic cells. The worm’s relatively simple anatomy includes muscles, a nervous system, a digestive system, a reproductive system, and an excretory system. The organism develops through four larval stages before reaching adulthood, with a complete lifecycle taking just two to three weeks under laboratory conditions.
Genetically, C. elegans has a compact genome consisting of about 100 million base pairs across six chromosomes. It was the first multicellular organism to have its entire genome sequenced in 1998 in a project led by John Sulston and Bob Waterstons. Its genome is highly amenable to manipulation using a variety of modern techniques.
Why do scientists study C. elegans specifically?
First introduced into studies by Sydney Brenner in the 1960s to study neurological development and the nervous system, the nematode proved itself in the lab with its unique combination of genetic, anatomical, and practical features that make it exceptionally suitable for biomedical research.
Remarkably, around 60-70% of human disease-associated genes have counterparts in the C. elegans genome, making it an incredibly valuable model for studying human biology. Many genes responsible for critical cellular functions are evolutionarily conserved between worms and humans. Therefore, scientists can manipulate the function of these genes in C. elegans to study their roles in disease without the complexity or ethical challenges of working with human subjects or higher animals like mice or primates.
Adult hermaphrodites’ cells, which remain the same in every single worm, each of which has been identified and mapped, allowing for detailed tracking of development, differentiation, and cellular processes. Its transparent body enables real-time visualization of internal structures, including neurons, muscles, reproductive organs, and digestive tissues. The worm, which has a simple nervous system of only 302 cells, is one of the only organisms where every neural connection is known. Additionally, C. elegans has a short life cycle of two to three weeks and is easy to culture in large numbers, making it especially convenient for developmental and aging studies.
How do scientists modify C. elegans in experiments?
Scientists modify and study C. elegans using four primary methods: RNA interference (RNAi), CRISPR-Cas9 genome editing, transgenic techniques, and drug screening.
One of the most widely used techniques for modifying gene expression in C. elegans is RNA interference (RNAi). This method allows scientists to silence specific genes to observe the effects of their absence. In C. elegans RNAi can be easily administered by feeding worms with genetically engineered E. coli bacteria that produce double-stranded RNA (dsRNA) matching the gene of interest. Once ingested, the dsRNA activates the worm’s endogenous RNAi pathway, leading to the degradation of the corresponding messaging RNA and a reduction or elimination of the target protein. This method is highly efficient, non-invasive, and relatively easy to perform, making it ideal for large-scale genetic screens. Researchers can identify genes involved in key processes such as embryonic development, aging, metabolism, and neurodegeneration.
The CRISPR-Cas9 system has revolutionized genetic research in C. elegans by enabling precise, targeted alterations to the genome. Scientists introduce a complex composed of the Cas9 enzyme and a guide RNA (gRNA) into the worm, which directs the Cas9 to a specific DNA sequence. Once there, Cas9 introduces a double-strand break in the DNA. The cell’s natural repair mechanisms then fix the break, and researchers can insert, delete, or replace specific DNA sequences. In C. elegans, CRISPR can create mutants mimicking human disease alleles or study regulatory elements of genes. This method provides a level of control that surpasses RNAi, as it allows for permanent and heritable genetic modifications. Scientists often inject the CRISPR-Cas9 components directly into the gonads of adult hermaphrodites, ensuring that the genetic changes are passed onto the offspring.
Transgenic techniques in C. elegans insert foreign DNA into the worm’s genome to monitor gene expression, trace cell lineages, or study protein localization. One common approach is to fuse a gene of interest to a reporter gene such as green fluorescent protein (GFP). When this gene is expressed, the fluorescent tag can be visualized in living worms using fluorescence microscopy. This allows researchers to observe where and when specific genes are active, how proteins move within the cells, and how cells interact during development or disease progression. Transgenes are typically introduced via microinjection into the syncytial gonads of adult worms, leading to the formation of extrachromosomal arrays inherited by the next generation. Stable lines can also be created through CRISPR or chemical integration methods. These visual tools are particularly powerful due to the worm’s transparent body, which makes it possible to track fluorescent signals in real time throughout the entire organism.
C. elegans is an excellent system for drug screening and environmental toxicology due to its small size, short lifespan, and genetic tractability. Researchers can test the effects of thousands of compounds quickly and cost-effectively. In these experiments, worms are exposed to chemical agents in liquid or on agar plates, and their survival, movement, reproduction, or specific cellular markers are measured to assess the biological impact. Using genetically modified strains that mimic human disease pathways, scientists can screen for drugs that alleviate symptoms or restore normal function. These tests provide an efficient first step in drug development, singling out promising candidates before moving onto mammalian models.
The cell lineage and the programmed cell death in C. elegans / Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine 2002
One of the most groundbreaking discoveries made using C. elegans was the genetic basis of programmed cell death, or apoptosis, a critical process in both development and disease. The research was led by Dr. H. Robert Horvitz at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Horvitz and his colleagues began studying cell death in C. elegans in the 1980s by tracing the fate of every cell in the worm’s body during development. They discovered that exactly 131 cells always die in the developing hermaphrodite and that this process was genetically controlled. Through genetic screening, Horvitz identified three core genes that regulated apoptosis: ced-3, ced-4, and ced-9. By inducing mutations in these genes, the researchers could either prevent or accelerate cell death in the worm. This revealed that cell death is not a passive consequence of damage, but rather an active, genetically programmed event. The mammalian counterparts of these genes, like caspases and BCL-2, were later discovered to play central roles in cancer, autoimmune diseases, and neurodegeneration, making this research foundational to modern medicine. Horvitz was awarded the 2002 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine for his work along with Sydney Brenner and John Sulston.
In addition, C. elegans has contributed to our understanding of neurodegenerative diseases such as Alzheimer’s. One major study was led by Dr. Christopher Link at the University of Colorado in the late 1990s. Link developed a transgenic C. elegans strain that expressed the human β-amyloid (Aβ) peptide in muscle cells. This is the same peptide that forms toxic plaques in the brains of Alzheimer’s patients. In the study, the researchers observed that worms expressing Aβ developed progressive paralysis as they aged, mimicking aspects of human Alzheimer’s pathology. They then used this model to screen for genetic mutations and chemical compounds that could suppress the toxic effects of Aβ. Their work identified several genes involved in protein folding and stress response that modified Aβ toxicity. This demonstrated that C. elegans could be used as a fast and cost-effective in vivo system for identifying genetic and pharmacological modifiers of Alzheimer’s disease. The worm model has since then been adapted by numerous labs worldwide to study tau protein aggregation and mitochondrial dysfunction, expanding our knowledge of neurodegenerative pathways.
Another major discovery made using C. elegans was the link between insulin signaling and lifespan regulation. Dr. Cynthia Kenyon at the University of California, San Francisco, led a series of experiments in the 1990s that transformed the field of aging research. Kenyon’s team discovered that a single mutation in the daf-2 gene, which encodes an insulin/IGF-1 receptor, could double the worm’s lifespan. They found that when daf-2 signaling was reduced, it activated another gene, daf-16, which promoted the expression of stress-resistance and longevity-related genes. To test this, Kenyon used genetic mutants and tracked their development and survival across generations. The C. elegans with the daf-2 mutation lived significantly longer than their wild-type counterparts and were more resistant to oxidative stress and heat. These findings provided the first clear evidence that aging could be actively regulated by specific genetic pathways rather than being a passive deterioration process. Later studies found that similar insulin/IGF-1 pathways exist in mammals, including humans, opening new therapeutic avenues for age-related diseases, diabetes, and metabolic disorders.
So what does the future hold?
The future of C. elegans in scientific research is remarkably promising, with its applications continually expanding as technology and genetic tools advance. With the rise of CRISPR-Cas9, optogenetics, and high-throughout screening techniques, researchers can now manipulate C. elegans with unprecedented precision to study complex biological processes such as epigenetics, gut-brain interactions, and real-time neuronal activity. In the coming years, C. elegans is expected to play an even greater role in personalized medicine and systems biology. Its potential as a predictive model for human gene function could aid in understanding the consequences of mutations found in patient genomes, leading to more tailored treatments. The worm’s short life cycle, fully mapped genome, and conserved biological pathways make it an ideal model for rapidly identifying new therapeutic targets and testing drugs, especially for age-related and neurodegenerative diseases. Despite its simplicity, this tiny nematode continues to open doors to complex human biology, proving that even the smallest organisms can have the biggest impact on science and medicine.
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Have you ever had a parasite? Maybe you ate an unwashed fruit, had an open wound, or even stepped on something you shouldn’t have. Nevertheless, parasites are everywhere and more common than you may think. In this article, we’ll go over parasites as a whole; including a review on what they are, theories on evolution, and a deep dive into a specific parasite. Overall, parasitism is one of the most complicated relationships seen in nature, and whilst it’d take a mountain of explanation to understand it all, hopefully this article can deepen your current understanding and offer some insightful information.
What Are Parasites?
By definition, parasites are organisms that live off of another organism or “host”. There are many “species” or categories of parasites, ranging from utterly harmless to ultimately fatal. Some of the more common parasites you may have heard of include tapeworm, roundworm, pinworm, etc. While there are countless ways to get infected, tapeworm for example, only needs its eggs to be accidentally swallowed . Fortunately such cases are rare in developed countries like the U.S. Additionally, these parasites are objectively easy to get rid of. Albendazole is a very common medication used to treat parasitic worm infections, and taking a few doses should cure the disease. Oftentimes, albendazole is crucial in mass drug administration as an attempt to control and lessen cases of infection, especially within developing countries.
So what happens when you get a parasite? Well, it is impossible to give one direct answer. Say you are infected with a common intestinal worm, perhaps unknowingly you have ingested pinworm eggs. Some symptoms might include gastrointestinal issues, vomiting, abdominal pain, extreme itching, and even irritation, all common with other intestinal parasites. You go to the doctor, get some blood work, and thankfully they diagnose you, treat you with albendazole, and everything is back to normal. But what about when it’s not that simple?
Some parasites are much more dangerous, and at times, even incurable. Malaria, a very widely known global health concern, is a single-celled parasite spread by mosquitos. In some cases, such as that of Plasmodium falciparum (the most dangerous type of malaria) once infected, it can take only 24 hours to kill. While there are treatments and improvements in the medical world for malaria, developing countries are still struggling with the disease to this day. Another deadly parasite is brain-eating amoeba or Naegleria Fowleri. Found in infected waters such as lakes, this parasite enters the brain through the nose while you are swimming. While it is extremely rare, fatality rates are nearly 100 percent. Naegleria fowleri destroys the brain tissue causing swelling and oftentimes complete coma. Once the symptoms set in within a week of infection, it will take roughly five days until death. Unfortunately, there are countless more of these dangerous parasites including schistosomes, which we will cover later. However for now, let’s see how these parasites came to be.
The Evolution of Parasites
Though there are countless theories determining the exact evolutionary path or origin of parasites, there is no factually known truth. Overall, the study of evolution of organisms is an extremely difficult and unending task. To truly form a complete cycle of evolution you have to not only know the events that took place, but their total effect and order., Unfortunately we cannot go back into the past, but, there are some pretty strong theories regarding parasite evolution.
It is safe to presume that parasites arose millions of years ago from previously freeliving organisms. Many researchers believe that the majority of present-day parasitic life forms evolved after being ingested by their host. This theory, called ‘freeliving ancestors’, describes how freeliving organisms evolved to survive within their host by gaining their needed nutrients from within the host’s stomach. As mentioned earlier, some of the most common or well known parasites, such as the tapeworm, show stark similarities with this theory.
On the other hand, another well known potential theory is that the parasite-host relationship may have formed from a predator-prey relationship, where the parasite acts as the predator. Ancestors of such parasites have been found to have collected similar nutrients from their prey as parasites collect from their host. This theory is common in ectoparasitism, in which the parasite lives within, or on, the host’s skin.
Another theory to consider are facultative parasites. This represents the “hybrid” of parasitic characteristics and regular freeliving organisms. They provide the possible transitional state, or the “evolutionary stepping stones” within the transition to full blown parasitism. Facultative parasites can survive both on their own, and within, or on, a host. While dissecting facultative parasites as a whole calls for a separate discussion, it is important to understand a few things, for one: phenotypic plasticity. This refers to the flexibility of an organism’s phenotype, or observable characteristics. An organism with strong phenotypic plasticity has the ability to adapt more fluidly to its environment. For example, a facultative parasite may increase survival under specific conditions and overtime adapt on favorable heritable variations (in this case: parasites), also known as the Baldwin effect. Similar to the Baldwin effect, genetic assimilation, which represents phenotypic plasticity under specific conditions as well, is more set in place. This implies that eventually the organism’s plasticity will decrease, and the trait will no longer need the environmental trigger for it to show as it becomes fixed or stuck in place.
Once again, even with immense research and evidence, the exact path of evolution for parasites is difficult to place. Even with potentially knowing events that were detrimental to the evolutionary path, we still cannot specifically know which traits may have caused what. An interesting metaphor would be to think about how “noses might not have been selected to carry glasses.” While the characteristic of having a nose is useful for wearing glasses, it certainly didn’t evolve for that reason. Likewise, just because an organism has a quality that relates to parasitism, it may have nothing to do with it. For example, some traits we may have thought were specific to the evolution of parasites, have been found in completely different freeliving organisms with no real connection. Additionally, a parasitic trait can evolve in different ways as well. For example, the image below demonstrates the inverse relationship between various characteristics and parasitism.
There are many misconceptions when it comes to parasites. Admittedly, parasites are utterly terrifying, so intense phobias and even psychosis aren’t farfetched. However, these false beliefs can lead to incorrect, useless, and even sometimes harmful homemade “treatments”. For example, have you ever heard of a parasite cleanse? A parasite cleanse is a form of detoxing the body through supplements, diets, or drinks. They frequently include different types of herbs, oils, and other supplements. These “treatments” are not medically necessary nor are they FDA approved. There is no evidence of these cleanses treating any parasites, and sometimes they can be harmful to your gut, causing other issues. If you believe you may be infected with a parasite, it is important to get proper medical help. That being said, let’s look into the current state of the medical world in relation to parasites.
According to the World Health Organization, or WHO, approximately one quarter of the world’s population is infected with some type of intestinal worm, with even higher rates in developing countries. Although this statistic might seem concerning, there have been many improvements in the medical world, as well as constant research being done. For one, the mass drug administration system, as mentioned once earlier, is seeing vast improvements with providing ample medicine and treatments to those who need it. In particular, nanotechnology, the method of manipulating matter at the near-atomic scale, has helped tremendously in targeted drug delivery. Deeper research regarding genes and interactions of parasites with the host, is assisting in the making of treatments and vaccines. Whilst parasitic infections remain a problem today, there is much hope to help the issue decline within the future.
Schistosomes
By now you have read through much information about parasites, specifically what they are, their evolution, and even some medical overviews. So now let’s take a deep dive about a specific parasite: Schistosomes. Schistosomes are a type of parasitic flatworm, distinctively known as blood flukes, and are the root of a terrible, oftentimes chronic disease called schistosomiasis. So what do you need to know?
Schistosoma are believed to have originated in the supercontinent of Gondwana around 120 million years ago, from their early parasitic ancestors, which primarily infected hippos. Interestingly, they began their life by primarily infecting a snail, parallel to their life cycle today, which you’ll read about later. From that point, through host migration, they traveled to Asia and Africa, where they are primarily found today. Eventually, the parasite evolved into other forms, more specifically schistosoma, predominantly infecting humans.
The life cycle of schistosoma has many stages, including two hosts. First, eggs are passed down from the previous host, through urine or stool, into water. These eggs, which then hatch into larvae, must now find their first host: a snail. Within these snails, the schistosoma continues to mature, releasing once again into water. As you are harmlessly swimming or bathing in seemingly clean waters, the schistosoma penetrates the skin, entering and infecting your body. From that point, they travel to your liver, where they fully mature into adult worms, and travel to the veins in the intestines or bladder to mate soon after. At this point you could have been infected for potentially months. Other than a slight skin irritation where they had entered your body previously, you don’t start showing symptoms until you get Katayama fever or the acute stage of schistosomiasis, lasting for a couple weeks.
Katayama fever is a hypersensitivity or immune complex reaction to the eggs being deposited in the body’s tissue. Symptoms of this stage are categorized by fever, abdominal pain, cough, muscle and joint pain, and so much more. At this point the disease is still possibly reversible. Treatments such as preziquantel are common for treating this disease and can help those infected formulate a full recovery. However, some people don’t necessarily show symptoms until it’s too late. For instance, in 2021 an estimated 176.1 million out of 251.4 million people were not treated on time.
The next stage is chronic Schistosomiasis. While technically the worms can be killed through specific treatment, they can cause irreversible organ damage with life long affects. Furthermore, the long lifespan of the adult worms can make it exceedingly difficult to treat. These worms can live in the body for over a decade, laying hundreds of eggs daily. While these eggs are produced in order to be released in the urine and stool, they frequently get trapped in the tissues of your organs. As they get trapped, the body’s immune response causes extreme inflammation in the organs, primarily the liver, bladder, and intestines. Alongside many other implications due to the lodging of the eggs, such as fibrosis (the formation of scar tissue), can lead to organ failure, increased risk of cancer, and ultimately death.
Those with schistosomiasis often spend their lives in and out of hospitals. As time goes on, their bodies begin shutting down or falling victim to other illnesses. Schistosomiasis is an extremely hard disease to deal with, infecting more than 200 million people worldwide. Developing countries in Africa and Asia struggle tremendously, especially without access to clean water, or the inability to receive necessary treatment.
Though the probability of completely eradicating the disease within the near future is low, thankfully the number of infected is generally decreasing. As immense efforts are being made globally, better access to medication, as well as sanitary environments are readily being provided. Additionally, extensive amounts of research are helping find out more about schistosoma to better our treatments and potentially develop a vaccine.
Conclusions
Overall, while parasitic infections are fortunately majority of the time treatable, there is so much more to them than what one might think. In this article we were able to cover plentiful information about parasites, their evolutionary history, and the terrifying reality of Schistosomiasis, so with this knowledge, it is time to make a real impact. Below, there is a link to a GoFundMe page, where you can help Recy Abellanosa, a mother, wife, and teacher who is struggling with the effects of schistosomiasis. By donating, you will be able to take some of the financial burden off her family as she fights the disease. As a final remark, I highly encourage you to learn more about these organisms, as well as keep yourself and others around you educated in the current scientific and medical world.
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Huntington’s Disease, discovered by George Huntington in 1872, is a hereditary genetic brain disorder. Since then, many researchers have dedicated their lives to studying Huntington’s Disease. While we have not found a cure nor treatments to slow the progression, we have discovered how it works, what it is, what it can do, and how it is passed down.
George Huntington, an American physician from Long Island with a degree from Columbia University, published his paper “On Chorea” in 1872, describing Huntington’s Disease so accurately and succinctly that the disease was named after him. He was only 21 when his paper was published. However, he first encountered what would come to be known as Huntington’s Disease when he was 8 years old while accompanying his father and grandfather on medical rounds. Within “On Chorea”, he summarized three key characteristics of a person with Huntington’s Disease: their propensity to suicide and mental disorders, inheritance patterns, and progressive disabilities. This was his sole contribution to medical research. His paper shone a light on this “medical curiosity” from a new field of medicine and shook the medical research world into a frenzy to try to grasp what Huntington’s was and how it worked.
Huntington’s Disease (HD), is inherited from your parents following an autosomal dominant inheritance pattern. It causes nerve cells, mainly in the basal ganglia, brain cortex, and the striatum, to gradually break down and lose function. More than 15,000 Americans currently have HD, but many more are at risk of developing it. There are two kinds of Huntington’s Disease, adult onset, the most common, and early onset, which affects children and teenagers. Fortunately, early onset is very rare, only affecting 5.7% of Huntington’s cases. HD affects an estimated 3 to 7 people out of 100,000, most commonly people of European descent. If a parent has HD, their child has a 50% chance of inheriting the genetic mutation as well. If the child does not inherit it, they will not show symptoms and cannot pass it down. On the condition that the patient has more than 50 CAG repeats, there is a 90% chance they inherited the gene from their father, because CAG repeats tend to be more unstable when passed from the male. There are situations where HD occurs without family history. This event is called Sporadic HD.
Huntington’s is a genetic mutation of the HTT gene. It produces a protein called huntingtin. This protein helps your nerves function. The HTT gene is found on chromosome 4, which also happens to be associated with the cause of many other genetic disorders and some types of cancer. The defect involves a DNA segment known as CAG trinucleotide repeat. It is made up of three DNA building blocks, cytosine, adenine, and guanine, appearing several times in a row. Normally, the CAG segments are repeated 10 to 35 times within a gene, and these people lie in the unaffected range, whether normal or intermediate allele sub-ranges. To a person with Huntington’s, it can be repeated 36 to more than 120 times. They lie in the affected range, either reduced penetrance or full penetrance if they have more than 40 CAG repeats. People in the intermediate allele and the reduced penetrance sub-ranges, with 27-39 CAG repeats, may not develop symptoms but can be carriers. The increase in repeats leads to the production of abnormally long and oddly shaped huntingtin proteins. The elongated protein forms toxic fragments that fuse together and collect in neurons, disrupting the normal function of cells and ultimately killing them. This causes the symptoms of Huntington’s Disease. As the mutated HTT gene is passed down, the amount of CAG trinucleotide repeats increases. A larger number of repeats causes early onset Huntington’s and a sooner appearance of symptoms. This is referred to as anticipation.
The diverse symptoms of Huntington’s Disease are what leads to many misdiagnoses in the early stages and why it took so long to be recognized as its own disease. George Huntington’s paper “On Chorea” focused mostly on chorea, which involves involuntary jerking or writhing movements, akinesiadeveloping as the disease progresses, unusual or slow eye movements, trouble with walking and balance, dystonia, ataxia, trouble with speech, athetosis, and dysphagia, and weight loss. Mental health conditions include irritability, mood swings, social withdrawal, insomnia, fatigue, loss of energy, suicidal thoughts, OCD, mania, bipolar disorder, psychosis, hallucinations, and paranoia. There are cognitive conditions as well, like, trouble organizing, trouble prioritizing and focusing on tasks, lack of flexibility and perseveration, lack of impulse control that can lead to violent outbursts, lack of awareness in one selves behaviors and ability, slowness in processing thoughts, seizures, trouble with driving, and trouble learning new information and memorization. These symptoms can get more intense when the person is nervous or distracted. Eventually, these symptoms get so bad that it is more closely categorized as dementia.
Many people with HD remain conscious of their environment and can express emotions. As it progresses, the patient will need more help and supervision. Ultimately, they will need help at all hours of the day. HD is not fatal in and of itself. Patients most commonly die from complications like physical injury from falls and accidents, malnutrition due to trouble feeding oneself, infections, typically pneumonia but others as well, choking, heart failure, seizures, and, due to the mental toll, 7-10% of HD patients commit suicide. The average lifespan of a person with Huntington’s is 10 to 30 years after a diagnosis.
This disease, because of its diverse symptoms, takes a skilled eye to diagnose. In most cases, it can be done with a neurological exam and an analysis of the patient’s medical and family history. But in other cases, the patient might require genetic and blood tests and diagnostic imaging like an MRI, CT, PET scan, or EEG. A neurologist and neuropsychiatrist will perform these tests. There are many research studies underway to study Huntington’s and while we do not have a cure, we have a basic understanding of the disease, which means we are one step closer to long term treatments. Johns Hopkins, for example, has 4 ongoing studies: the Sage Studies: PERSPECTIVE Program, which is evaluating the safety and efficiency of the experimental drug SAGE-718 in adults with early Huntington’s Disease, the Generation HD2 tests, which is the second phase of tests on Tominersen in young adults with HD ranging from 25-50 years old. The HDClarity study, an observational study to collect cerebrospinal fluid in order to study biomarkers that influence HD’s pathophysiology and growth, and the Enroll-HD program, a registry for the Global Huntington Disease Cohort, providing vast information for future clinical research. These are just a few of the many programs dedicated to unlocking the mysteries of HD. The most promising fields are those studying biomarkers, like the HDClarity study, and stem cell research.
There are many options for treatments that can help improve the quality of life for a person with HD. They will require more help as the disease progresses and a team of people to help them like a neurologist, psychiatrist, genetic counselor, physical therapist, occupational therapist, and a speech therapist. A counselor could also help the patient and their family members with the emotional toll. Medications can also be prescribed to ease symptoms and keep them functioning as long as possible. To treat chorea they could take deutetrabenazine, amantadine, tetrabenazine, or haloperidol. The latter two of which could also help deter hallucinations and delusions. To manage their emotions, they could be prescribed antidepressants like fluoxetine and sertraline, antipsychotic drugs like risperidone and olanzapine; however, some antipsychotic medications have side effects that could make chorea and akinesia worse, and mood stabilizing medications like lithium. Antidepressant and antianxiety medications are also commonly prescribed because there are high rates of depression and suicide amongst patients with HD. It is also recommended to maintain physical fitness because it is shown that patients who exercise regularly delay the symptoms of HD more than those who do not. Huntington’s, however, can be prevented by genetic counseling, prenatal testing, and in vitro fertilization, where an egg and sperm are fertilized in a lab and checked to see if it has Huntington’s disease. If it does not, it is then implanted back into the uterus. It is important to speak to a genetic counselor before having a child if you or your partner has HD or is at risk to develop symptoms.
An HD diagnosis is certainly not a death sentence. A person with Huntington’s can live a long, happy life. We now know so much about this disease that even George Huntington would not be able to believe. There are many options for every particular patient and every particular case. And as science and technology advances, so will we in our path to finding a cure for Huntington’s Disease.
Glossary
1. A CAG trinucleotide repeat is an unstable expansion of the DNA sequence “cytosine-adenine-guanine” (CAG) that codes for the amino acid glutamine, resulting in a long “polyglutamine” tract within a protein
2. a situation where individuals who inherit a disease-causing genetic mutation do not develop the associated disease or condition
3. Akinesia: become rigid (stiff) and move very little or not at all
4. Dystonia: unusual fixed (unchanging) postures
5. Ataxia: loss of coordination
6. Athetosis: slow, involuntary, and writhing movements
7. Dysphagia: difficulty swallowing
8. Psychosis: losing some contact with reality
9. Tominersen: a treatment for Huntington’s Disease that is under research and trials
Youth Stemline 