Category: BSJ Features

While dopamine is best known as the chemical responsible for the satisfying feeling from rewards like ice cream, it is also critical for the function of many parts of the brain, from mood to motion.

Since 2019, the spread of a new nondenominational church, known as the Church of Ambrosia, has sparked nationwide controversy. This church has made headlines for using entheogenic (or psychedelic experience-inducing) plants for spiritual and personal improvement. What entheogenic plants are they referring to? Psilocybin, also known as Magic Mushrooms. 

Fossil fuels have been the main culprit for causing climate change—electric vehicles have emerged as one of the solutions to mitigate climate change in wealthy countries. The production of their batteries relies heavily on minerals which, if not sourced responsibly, can exacerbate environmental degradation and contribute to the very issue they seek to address.

The degree to which language shapes cognition, thought, and perception is an ongoing debate in the field of linguistics—a debate without clear consensus. Some veins of thought appear to believe that the relation between language and perception is so inextricable that they give form to one other.

Death has inspired countless philosophical, theological, and scientific studies. A strange phenomenon described in a May 2023 study raises questions about whether death should be determined by heart functionality: scientists from the University of Michigan School of Medicine revealed that brain activity surges as a human dies.

As we stand at the cusp of a future enriched with innovations like CRISPR-Cas9, bioprinting, nanomedicine, and brain-computer interfaces, public sentiments oscillate between anticipation and apprehension. Given the transformative nature of these advancements, it’s crucial to delve into the legal framework that will safeguard and guide this technological revolution.

In the macroscopic world, people, planets, and stars follow a set of physical laws to which all matter abides. However, what happens when such physical laws are observed on a microscopic particle scale? While modern circuitry strives for smaller silicon chips, this begs the question, how small can we go?

Throughout history, brain function has been a hotly contested subject — Aristotle theorized that it regulates heart temperature, while ancient Egyptians considered it a useless organ. Luckily, modern scanning technology has allowed researchers to resolve some of these century-old debates by precisely mapping out portions of the brain.