Humanities – Athens Science Observer

The Dark Past of Yaupon Tea, and What Genetics Can Do To Brighten Its Future

Ben Long — Fri, 28 Oct 2022 20:49:14 +0000

Whether you drink coffee, tea, or both, it’s hard to deny that we live in a caffeine culture. In 2021 alone, Americans drank over 62 billion servings of tea, and over 60% of Americans drink coffee every day. With such high numbers, tea (and especially coffee) industries are straining to keep people’s daily kick on …

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A botanical and medicinal history of Echinacea, a native plant of the Southeast

Chazz Jordan — Fri, 10 Dec 2021 21:03:40 +0000

In Native American culture, the purple coneflower was used to treat poisonous bites and stings, toothaches, reduce inflammation, sore throat, colds, and so much more. In a way, this botanical miracle was used as a cure-all and was used to treat ailments more than any other medicinal plant. The purple coneflower, also known scientifically as …

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Natural Philosophers and Seekers of Truths: The Missing “Ph” in “PhD”

Audrey Ward — Fri, 03 Dec 2021 17:41:27 +0000

The History of the PhD While many students aim to earn their PhDs, few know the philosophical history of the degrees they are pursuing. The Doctor of Philosophy (PhD or DPhil) began as the degree awarded in recognition of advanced scholarship and acknowledging that recipients had expertise needed to teach at a university level. These …

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Survival of the Fittest: A Sullied History of Science

Kelly McCrum — Fri, 02 Apr 2021 14:15:55 +0000

We've reached a point in the pandemic where people are starting to wonder: what would you do in a vaccinated world? Of course, reaching that reality requires that the world continue to take the health risks of coronavirus seriously, and that we continue to be transparent about how vaccines are made, tested, and distributed. There …

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The unexpected silver lining: stress and premature greying

Jen McFaline-Figueroa — Tue, 30 Mar 2021 20:18:51 +0000

The process of hair going grey is a topic that has always fascinated me. Mainly because I cannot remember a time in my life where my Dad's hair was entirely dark. In my earliest memories, where he was a young thirty-something-year-old, I can recall giggling at what he vehemently swore were little droplets of wisdom …

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Biases in STEM: Gender Discrimination Affects UGA Faculty

Alaina O'Regan — Fri, 22 Jan 2021 00:04:40 +0000

â€œI think my career was negatively impacted by being a woman,â€ said Ellen Neidle, professor of microbiology at the University of Georgia (UGA), who has a doctorate in molecular, developmental, and cellular biology. â€œI always thought that women could do everything. It was a pretty big shock to me when I first realized that wasn't …

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Saving more than just seeds, in situ

Tara Conway — Fri, 13 Mar 2020 22:28:54 +0000

While I'm often left paralyzed by apple choice in Kroger, I know the breadth of options at grocery stores mask a far different reality: we've lost roughly 90% of the world's crop varieties in the past 100 years. This threat to future food security is referred to as genetic erosion and primarily attributed to the …

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Vegetables are a social construct

Tara Conway — Mon, 30 Sep 2019 21:24:44 +0000

My particular confluence of knowledge (a blend of economics, environmental policy, and crop science) tends to leave me completely overwhelmed by the discordance among human nutritional needs, environmental health, and global agricultural systems. So, I let out a tiny gasp of elation when the Lancet, one of the world's most prestigious general medical journals, released …

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The Cartography of the Genome

athenssciencecafe — Mon, 29 Apr 2019 19:42:39 +0000

What is a map? What does it REALLY represent? You might answer a map generally represents the relationships of locations. However, maps have evolved substantially in modern times. For example, modern genomics and cartography? While they might seem like different worlds, they actually share much in common. Both focused on a similar goal – spatial …

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The Magic Of Curries: A Spicy Science

athenssciencecafe — Tue, 06 Nov 2018 17:25:22 +0000

Have your lunch breaks gotten boring? How about an enticing curry to spice up your taste buds? Curries like korma, rogan josh, jalfrezi and tikka masala are more than just food – they are an experience. An explosion of sweet, savory, spicy, and sour flavors all at once – each bold in its own right, …

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Crowd-funded Dams

athenssciencecafe — Wed, 17 Oct 2018 17:04:16 +0000

Infrastructure development is a major issue in many countries of the developing world. Countries with developing economies often suffer from a negative balance of trade and weak institutions, making lenders unwilling to lend. Governments of these countries are forced to borrow with heavy interest rates, further increasing budget deficits. This cyclical economic problem …

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Social Insurance: Holes in the Safety Net

athenssciencecafe — Mon, 08 Oct 2018 16:56:31 +0000

This article is part of an opinion editorial series on topics under the umbrella of Social Insurance. Topics have been chosen based on common gaps in knowledge of Social Insurance. Part 1 of this series is on the topic of the social safety net and some groups that fall through its holes. The social safety …

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Maternity Care (Or Rather Lack Thereof) in STEM

athenssciencecafe — Wed, 19 Sep 2018 13:59:34 +0000

In recent decades, we have seen an increase in women holding STEM related careers. Today, 25% of workers in STEM fields are female. It is time to begin the conversation on how policies, whether at the institute level or federal level, are going to affect our growing workforce of women. Although reliant on the growing …

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Bioterrorism & Chemical Weapons: Part 1

athenssciencecafe — Tue, 18 Sep 2018 00:26:24 +0000

Smallpox blankets given to Native Americans. Gas chambers in concentration camps. Chemical weapons in the Syrian War. Russian spies poisoned by a nerve agent. What do these have in common? Each weaponizes chemical or biological agents. With today's strained political and foreign affairs climate, there is an ever-looming possibility of war and the use of …

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Disaster Strikes and Disease Follows

athenssciencecafe — Fri, 23 Dec 2016 20:17:11 +0000

When disasters strike we see images of destroyed buildings, injured individuals, and the far-reaching devastation that accompanies the forces of Mother Nature. The media covers the aftermath for a few weeks, but then coverage slowly dissipates and people watching from afar forget about the struggle still facing those affected. But for these individuals, devastation and …

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Bangladesh's Battle with Arsenic

athenssciencecafe — Thu, 08 Dec 2016 17:06:01 +0000

Arsenic was a favorite poison among murderers for a long time because of its lack of odor and taste, and until the mid-19th century it could not be detected in corpses. Large quantities of arsenic can kill a person very quickly. However, a risk faced by millions of people every day is the slow and …

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The Branded Body

athenssciencecafe — Wed, 07 Dec 2016 13:50:01 +0000

Get off the bus near the University of Georgia's Tate Center and you'll see a campus awash with Nike swooshes. Shirts, shoes, shorts, socks, hats and backpacks all proudly bear the company's distinctive logo in the school's iconic red and black colors. In fact, you have to look hard to find any of Nike's competitors' …

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How Language Affects Thought And Culture

athenssciencecafe — Thu, 01 Dec 2016 15:16:12 +0000

The way our language forces us to speak has profound implications on our culture and way of thinking. There are many different types of languages around the world derived from various parent languages. For example, English is a type of Germanic Language which is a branch of the Indo-European language family. It is split into …

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The Price of Life: The Rising Cost of Epipens

athenssciencecafe — Mon, 10 Oct 2016 04:26:17 +0000

It was a typical Christmas for mom Colleen and her family. Everybody was sitting around the living room and enjoying the day. All of a sudden, Colleen's young son Ciaran started to wheeze. Knowing that Ciaran had a severe nut allergy, Colleen scooped him up and hurried to the kitchen. She grabbed an EpiPen and …

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Sorry, Peter Parker: Why Radiation Isn't as Cool as You Thought

athenssciencecafe — Wed, 21 Sep 2016 12:00:20 +0000

In the sci-fi world, radiation is synonymous with super powers. Peter Parker became Spider Man thanks to an overzealous radioactive spider, and when a group of scientists were bombarded by radiation in space, they became the Fantastic Four. In the real world, however, radiation is viewed a bit differently. If radiation means â€œsuper powersâ€ in …

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A New Therapy for PTSD: Virtual Reality

athenssciencecafe — Sat, 03 Sep 2016 21:05:58 +0000

â€œThe body remembers. Stuffed until an event, a sound, a sight, a touch, a word, or a person awakens themâ€. The body remembers pain, domestic abuse, and the horrors of war. Unfortunately these memories become a burden on a person's mind and body. This debilitating and stressful illness is commonly known as Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder, …

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Innocents Lost: Mitigating severe malaria in children & pregnant women through anticoagulation

athenssciencecafe — Mon, 20 Jun 2016 22:21:44 +0000

Will my baby be healthy? How can I protect it? Is my child safe? For the 125 million pregnant women at risk of contracting malaria there is no need to imagine, this is the reality they face everyday — Tara Bracken Winner of the 2016 University of Georgia 3 Minute Thesis, Tara Bracken speaks about …

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The Social Nature of Scientific Inquiry

athenssciencecafe — Wed, 13 Apr 2016 14:00:06 +0000

I have a good friend who studied evolutionary ecology during our undergraduate years. He eats science for breakfast. The scientific method is his guiding principle. At our last get together, I began talking about science as a cultural phenomenon. This conversation graduated into an entire day's debate about the cultural nature of the scientific method. …

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Black History Month: the Life of George Washington Carver

athenssciencecafe — Tue, 23 Feb 2016 18:55:55 +0000

We all know February is the shortest month of all, but this month and all its holidays are flying by even faster than usual this year! Punxsutawney Phil already didn't see his shadow, you've either endured Valentine's Day with tons of chocolate or enjoyed the day with your significant other (hopefully still with lots of …

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Methods to the Madness: One Anthropologist's Quest for the Perfect Interview Question

athenssciencecafe — Wed, 10 Feb 2016 20:22:54 +0000

One purpose of anthropology is to understand human cultural diversity, and therefore the methods to understand this diversity must delve into human experience. Cultural anthropology research design requires that researchers spend long hours in the field with participants, learning behaviors, beliefs, experiences, relationships, and myriad other aspects of human life. And the research can seem …

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