by Apeksha Srivastava (ComSciCon-Virginia Tech 2023)

I remember seeing a woodpecker in my grandma’s home when I was around seven or eight. It happily pecked at a wooden pillar in the garden with its beak. “This is what they do all the time! It is their natural behavior,” my grandma said. After a long time, early this year, when we had to choose topics for an assignment as a part of our PhD coursework, I suddenly remembered woodpeckers again. I could immediately picture them pecking at trees with their beaks. Belonging to the bird family Picidae, woodpeckers are found worldwide. They are famous for tapping their beaks against hard surfaces many times a day for several reasons: finding and storing food, making nesting holes, for sexual display, and communication. 

You might think, the forceful impact of the beaks on tough surfaces, followed by the abrupt slowing down of their heads, could hurt their brains! But surprisingly, there is no proof that woodpeckers experience brain injury from this tapping. Are these birds immune to brain damage? If yes, how?

... Read more about Peckings Cause Brain Damage in Woodpeckers: Nay or Yay?

by Apeksha Srivastava

Why are there so many stars in the sky? Is there life on other planets? Why did the dinosaurs disappear? How did we come into existence? Like many other kids, I was curious about a lot of things during my school days. “Science is the answer,” teachers used to tell us, looking into our wonder-filled eyes.

Science: the systematic study of not just the world but the entire universe. In the most basic terms, it involves efforts to make sense of things through experiments and evidence-based explanations. Until the 12th grade in school and even preliminary years of college, most of us are under the impression that science is “rigidly” based on facts and rules. Our course curriculum makes us believe that most of the science is already known. It leads to the common assumption that researchers and scientists work with a predefined set of frameworks. Is that really the case? Or is there a difference between how we think science is practiced and how it is actually practiced?

... Read more about Science: An Interplay Between “Ignorance” and “Awareness”

by Kendall Clay (ComSciCon-Atlanta 2022)

Planarians are aquatic flatworms that can regenerate, or regrow, new body parts--including a brain!

... Read more about How Do Planarians Grow a New Brain?

By Honoreé Brewton, ComSciCon-Triangle 2022

Think back to New Year’s Day. It’s a brand new year, and you’re ready to wipe away the previous one and start with a clean slate. You might have some resolutions for improving yourself. Maybe you feel uncertain about what the new year will bring. Or maybe it’s just another day to you–nothing special. For many people, however, the new year is an optimal time to form better habits. Some people vow to exercise more, meditate more, save more money, and so on. One common resolution is to reduce the amount of alcohol one consumes, specifically during “Dry January”.

... Read more about Skipped Dry January? Here’s Why You Should Try It!