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.
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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Gobbi, F., Tamarozzi, F., Buonfrate, D., van Lieshout, L., Bisoffi, Z., & Bottieau, E. (2020). New Insights on Acute and Chronic Schistosomiasis: Do We Need a Redefinition? Trends in Parasitology, 36(8), 660–667. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.pt.2020.05.009
Janouskovec, J., & Keeling, P. J. (2016). Evolution: Causality and the Origin of Parasitism. Current Biology, 26(4), R174–R177. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cub.2015.12.057
Pion, S. D. S., Chesnais, C. B., Bopda, J., Louya, F., Fischer, P. U., Majewski, A. C., Weil, G. J., Boussinesq, M., & Missamou, F. (2015). The impact of two semiannual treatments with albendazole alone on lymphatic filariasis and soil-transmitted helminth infections: a community-based study in the Republic of Congo. The American Journal of Tropical Medicine and Hygiene, 92(5), 959–966. https://doi.org/10.4269/ajtmh.14-0661
Tiwari, R., Gupta, R. P., Singh, V. K., Kumar, A., None Rajneesh, Prasoon Madhukar, Sundar, S., Gautam, V., & Kumar, R. (2023). Nanotechnology-Based Strategies in Parasitic Disease Management: From Prevention to Diagnosis and Treatment. ACS Omega, 8(45), 42014–42027. https://doi.org/10.1021/acsomega.3c04587
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
Earlier this summer, I was graciously given the opportunity to shadow a private-practice oncologist/hematologist in the Dallas area. There, I gained a clear understanding of what a career in STEM entails, learned how doctors approach complex cancer cases, and secured an inside view into the emotionally taxing yet deeply rewarding work of an oncologist.
What does an Oncologist’s career look like?
At the ground level, an oncologist’s job involves diagnosing and treating cancer. They play a central role in administering cancer treatments and developing long-term plans. There are three main types of oncologists:
Medical Oncologist: Dr. Nair, whom I shadowed, practices as a medical oncologist. These doctors use targeted therapies like chemotherapy and immunotherapy to treat cancers.
Surgical Oncologist: Surgical oncologists perform biopsies and remove tumors through surgical procedures. Usually, after a medical oncologist has successfully shrunk a tumor through targeted therapy, a surgical oncologist will excavate the remaining piece.
Radiation Oncologist: As the name suggests, these doctors treat cancer through radiation therapy.
Dr. Nair works as a hematologist-oncologist. Because cancer often involves blood and bone marrow (leukemia, lymphoma, myeloma), having training in both oncology (solid tumors) and hematology (blood disorders) allows a doctor to treat a wider variety of patients without having to refer them to another clinic. Also, in the U.S., most oncologists need no extra schooling to end up board-certified in both.
Typically, becoming an oncologist requires about 14-16 years of school. This includes a four-year undergraduate program, where students generally major in biology, chemistry, mathematics, or physics. Then, students take the MCAT, or the Medical College Admission Test, and attend medical school to earn their MD. After four years of medical school, doctors attend a three-year residency program. Finally, they complete a three-year fellowship program, subspecializing in oncology or hematology-oncology. Oncologists typically finish schooling in their mid-thirties, and though they spend most of their twenties in schooling, many agree that this time is fully necessary due to the extensive information students have to understand.
A central part of an oncologist’s job is responding to a wide spectrum of questions, ranging from emotional ones like “if the tumor is getting bigger, do I have less time to live?” to straightforward questions like, “if I eat and sleep more, will I have more energy the next morning?” Sure, many of these questions become routine over time, but it’s that rare, complex one that truly tests a doctor’s knowledge and, when answered well, builds even more trust between the patient and their provider. Because cancer is such a serious topic, patients seek oncologists who make them comfortable, and the best way to provide that security is by easing their uncertainties and reinforcing confidence in their provider. This is exactly why those 14 long years of medical training matter so much.
The Difference Between Private Practice and Clinic
Dr. Nair is affiliated with the broader group Texas Oncology and practices at Medical City Dallas, but before going in to shadow her, I had no idea what the difference between a private practice and a clinic was. Here is an easy way to break it down:
Private practice: When a doctor or group of doctors owns, manages, and runs their own medical office. Like a business, they hire staff, manage billing, and run their own practice from top to bottom. Though private practice intersects the two contrasting fields of medicine and business, these doctors have more flexibility when not working for a large hospital or healthcare system.
Clinic: Usually affiliated with a larger group, hospital, or university. Doctors who work as part of a clinic follow the protocol set up by a broader employer and focus less on business and management.
Highlight Patients
You may think that looking at cancer gets repetitive after a while, and maybe you’re right- but in the two weeks that I shadowed Dr. Nair, we saw a wide variety of patients that kept me quite interested. Often, it wasn’t the cancer or condition that made them memorable, but their personality, and the reminder that cancer does not discriminate. People from all walks of life, rich or poor, tall or short, male or female, can be struck by the disease at random and affected in similar ways.
1. Female, mid-40s, obese
This patient was on blood-thinners that were administered by the hospital. Upon arriving home, she purposefully took double the prescribed dose for a few days. With the alarmingly high dosage this patient was taking, her gums would bleed when brushing her teeth, and minor cuts would bleed profusely without stopping. Suddenly, the patient formed a massive internal hemorrhage in her stomach, and was rushed to the ICU where she took a break from blood thinners and recuperated.
2. Female, mid-30s
This patient was aware she had a tumor in her lungs, but didn’t know the extent of its spread or whether it was even malignant. As the cardiothoracic surgeon opened her chest to perform a biopsy and assess the situation, he found that the cancer presented as stage 4 and had spread extensively throughout the lungs. After removing substantial diseased lung tissue, the patient’s remaining lung capacity was too low to sustain oxygenation. Therefore, she was placed on a ventilator that essentially acted as a pair of bedside lungs, pumping air for her.
3. Female, early-60s, groaning in pain
As Dr. Nair and I walked into the patient’s room, she was lying on the bed, groaning and screaming in severe pain. This woman had a pancreatic tumor, one of the most painful types of cancer, due to the tumor pressing on bunches of nerves and organs in the abdomen and back. Though she was fully lucid, the pain was preventing her from formulating complete thoughts or ideas, and her husband described that she could not eat properly or move around without a wheelchair. Dr. Nair told the couple to visit the ER within the hospital immediately, so that the patient could be administered stronger pain medications.
The role of women in healthcare
One thing that really stuck out to me was the number of women who worked in the office with Dr.Nair. Out of the three oncologists, only one was a man, and the rest of the staff, including the P.A. and infusion nurses, were all women.
In fact, according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics; around 77.6% of all healthcare workers are women. However, we hold a disproportionately small number of leadership positions compared to men. Where 77.6% of healthcare workers are women, only about 38% of all physicians are women.
Despite the gender gap that still exists today, equality growth in the last 20 years alone has been monumental. According to the Association of American Medical Colleges,
“From 2004 to 2022, the number of women in the active physician workforce increased 97%.”
Going forward, the future looks bright too. In 2019, women for the first time accounted for a majority (50.5%) of students enrolled in medical school in the United States. Today, women account for about 54.6% of medical school students. As women make up the majority of medical school graduates, the number of physicians in the coming years will consequently increase.
Conclusion
Before I arrived at the oncologist’s office, I pictured a gloomy waiting room filled with silent, dejected patients. Instead, I discovered something completely different. People tend to imagine only the sickest patients at a cancer clinic, the ones who are dying. But they often forget about the many who are improving, on the uphill climb, and who see the doctor’s office not as a place of punishment or despair, but as a lifeline that offers hope and light at the end of the tunnel.
Seeing this side of cancer care reshaped my view of healthcare entirely. It made me realize that medicine isn’t just about treating disease and sending patients on their way, but instead creating an environment where people are given a reason to keep fighting.
As someone born and raised in New York City (NYC), I can attest to the urgent need to upgrade the city’s climate control infrastructure. Current systems are outdated and hinder the city’s ability to meet emissions goals and address global warming; the encapsulation of this problem is the boiler. A staggering 72.9% of heating in NYC comes from fossil-fuel-burning steam boilers, one of the most carbon-intensive options available. Tenants of apartments pay for the maintenance of centralized boilers without control over the temperature, leading many to open their windows in winter to release excessive warmth. This heat and the fossil fuels used to produce it are wasted, highlighting the inefficiency and impracticality of NYC’s existing infrastructure.
Even when this heat remains indoors, steam boilers are only about 80-85% efficient at burning fossil fuels. Up to a fifth of a boiler’s fuel does not generate usable heat, but burning it still releases vast quantities of pollutants like CO2, exacerbating climate change. Furthermore, boilers continue to lose efficiency during their lifetimes and require frequent maintenance and replacement. While steam boiler systems were revolutionary in the 19th century, they may now become obsolete as NYC implements a technology that could change how the world thinks about climate control.
The innovation behind heat pumps comes from the mantra of use what is given; instead of generating heat through combustion, they simply move existing warmth between two places. Most of these fully-electric pumps remain functional well below 0℃, even though it may seem like there is no warmth to be moved. This operative capacity allows them to have heating efficiencies of 300-500%! Because of this, International Energy Agency partner Yannick Monschauer estimates that “Heat pumps could bring down global CO2 emissions by half a gigaton by the end of this decade.”
Heat pumps work by operating on the Second Law of Thermodynamics (SLOT), which states that heat will move from a hotter object to a colder one. In the wintertime, the pumps pull in outdoor air and blow it over fluids (called refrigerants) held in a closed-loop system. The air transfers warmth to the cold refrigerants through SLOT, and the heated fluids turn into gas. Heat pumps can work in freezing temperatures because these refrigerants have such unusually low boiling points, allowing them to vaporize easily; one of them, Refrigerant 12, has a boiling point of just -21.64°F!
The hot, gaseous refrigerants move into a compressor that compacts their molecules, making them even warmer. They then flow through a coil that exposes them to indoor air, and the refrigerants release their warmth inside through SLOT. As the refrigerants cool, they condense back into liquid and pass through an expansion valve, decreasing their temperature further. They move to an outdoor coil and are ready to restart the process, continuing to warm cold homes during the winter.
Even more significantly, heat pumps have reversing valves that switch the flow of their refrigerants. These valves allow the pumps to cool homes by pushing out warm, indoor air in the summertime. Thus, heat pumps make air conditioners, boilers, radiators, and related piping unnecessary, freeing space and alleviating material and labour costs that typically get passed on to homeowners.
Heat pumps in NYC
In 2024, NYC pledged to have heat pumps provide 65% of residential heating, air conditioning, and water-heating needs by 2030. This shift would drastically reduce the city’s carbon emissions from the climate control sector, which contributed to 10% of global energy-related CO2 emissions in 2021.
This pledge is logical both environmentally and practically: having one heat pump replace two systems saves valuable space, lowers costly installation and maintenance fees, and reduces energy demands. The NYC government realized this potential and signed a $70,000,000 contract to install 30,000 window heat pumps in NYCHA buildings, better known as public housing. Two heating companies, Midea and Gradient, will provide these units.
In late 2023, Gradient installed 36 preliminary test units in NYCHA buildings. Most NYC steam boilers, including those in NYCHA’s current system, are powered by gas with oil reserves in case of an emergency. Gradient found that their pump can lower tenants’ heating bills by 29-62% on moderate winter days compared to gas-powered boilers. Savings are as high as 59-78% compared to oil-burning boilers. In testimonials that Gradient collected, NYCHA tenants noted the heat pumps’ impressive air filtration, heating, and operational capabilities. Midea conducted similar tests and soon plans to release its heat pump for public purchase.
The Cold Drawbacks of Heat Pumps
Although technological faults remain, NYC is continuing its plans to install and promote heat pumps to replace its intensive, outdated systems. For one, Midea’s upcoming pump will cost ~$3,000 per unit, greatly exceeding the combined price of ~$460 for their bestselling, single-room heating and cooling systems. This is a misleading comparison, however, because heat pumps also act as heating systems. The technology can lower electricity and fuel bills over an extended period, but the current price point makes heat pumps an unaffordable investment for many households – despite government subsidies and incentives. Even the NYC government’s bulk order of Midea and Gradient pumps averages over $2,300 per unit.
Furthering the inaccessibility of these systems, the most advanced, aesthetically pleasing, and apartment-friendly heat pumps can only heat and cool individual rooms. This means that multiple units must be purchased, installed, and powered to service a home, and each must be replaced about every 20 years. Still, NYC’s firm stance on heat pumps indicates the climate control systems’ proven efficacy, practicality, and sustainability.
Heat Pumps Globally, and Plans for the Future
While technological challenges remain, NYC is continuing to deliver on its pledges. This decision on heat pumps is being made throughout the United States (US). In 2022, heat pump sales in the US significantly outpaced those of gas furnaces (a type of central heating system particularly popular in North America). This lead has continued into 2025 as more people realize that the pumps can lower fossil fuel emissions and energy bills.
This switch is not just happening in the US; countries worldwide are beginning – or continuing – to invest in these pumps. Sales in European countries have soared in the 21st-century, an accomplishment partly attributed to friendly government policy. The country with the most pumps relative to its population, Norway, has 632 heat pumps installed for every 1,000 households (the majority of these pumps service entire houses, unlike the Midea and Gradient systems discussed above). Despite this high ownership rate, 48 pumps were purchased in Norway for every 1,000 households in 2024.
In spite of these promising statistics, heat pump sales in most economies have either slowed or slumped in recent years – particularly in Europe. Analysts suspect this is due to high interest rates, rising electricity prices, low consumer confidence, and low gas prices. While this is discouraging, pump sales and ownership rates remain higher than they were several years ago. In 2023, New York Governor Kathy Hochul pledged to help the U.S. Climate Alliance (USCA) install 20,000,000 pumps across the U.S. The USCA is a coalition of 24 governors representing 54% of the United States population and 57% of its economy. The bipartisan group has successfully delivered on their promises of emissions reduction, climate resilience, economic growth, energy savings, and zero-carbon electricity standards that heat pumps are engineered to meet.
This coalition has proved that environmental action is popular, necessary, and possible. At a time when climate policy is under question, sustainable and feasible technologies – like heat pumps – need the investment of citizens, industries, and governments alike; no matter how small the scale.
So, how can you help? Since 2022, the US government has given a federal tax credit to citizens who install efficient heat pumps. The Energy Efficient Home Improvement Credit provides eligible homeowners up to $2,000 annually. Combined with other energy-efficient credits, US citizens can regain up to $3,200 every year. These monetary incentives offer another reason to consider switching to heat pumps, and similar policies are being enacted worldwide.
I am proud to live in a city that rewards and encourages the sustainability of citizens, corporations, and public works. As the severity and irreversibility of global warming loom, heat pumps offer us a breezy solution to polluting climate control systems. Eventually, NYC’s infamous boiler rooms and clanging pipes may become relics of the past.
Youth Stemline 