Published in Frontiers for Young Minds
The science of light manipulation started with the ancient Greeks, so we have had many years to develop it. Lenses and holograms are part of our everyday lives. Light and sound are very similar: they are both waves, and they both have particles associated with them. So, why do we not have lenses or displays for sound? Or do we? This article will te...
Published in Frontiers for Young Minds
Over 100 years ago, Nobel Prize winner Ramon y Cajal first described structures called dendritic spines, located on the surface of brain cells. Since then, scientists have been trying to understand what dendritic spines are and how they function in the brain. Even with the latest technology, it is very difficult to research dendritic spines because...
Published in Frontiers for Young Minds
When people get infected with the SARS-CoV-2 virus, which causes COVID-19, why do some people get mildly sick while others get very sick? Although we know that SARS-CoV-2 enters the body via the nose and mouth, we do not fully understand how nasal cells respond to this infection or why some people get sicker than others. To answer these questions, ...
Published in Frontiers for Young Minds
Will a child born today experience more heatwaves, wildfires, or droughts compared to a 60-year-old? The answer to this question might seem obvious: “Yes, of course.” But when it comes to the question “How much more?” climate scientists did not have the answer—until recently. In this article, we will describe a study in which we figured out how man...
Published in Frontiers for Young Minds
The cells in your body contain genes made of DNA. Genes store the genetic information passed on to you by your parents. This information serves as the recipe to make proteins, and proteins build, maintain, and heal every tissue in your body. The cellular machinery that makes proteins reads this recipe with the help of small molecules called transfe...
Published in Frontiers for Young Minds
As you probably know, most farms are found in rural areas, far away from big cities. However, when food is grown near cities, it can make cities more sustainable and prepared for the future. Moreover, it even offers business options for farmers in the outskirts of the cities as well as for newcomers and start-ups producing food in the city centers....
Published in Frontiers for Young Minds
Our oceans are full of life and home to many different species. High species diversity often concentrates in specific areas called “biodiversity hotspots” (e.g., coral reefs). These hotspots develop with the help of a few key engineering species (e.g., corals). In the Mediterranean Sea, well-known biodiversity hotspots are seagrass meadows. Macroal...
Published in Frontiers for Young Minds
Fluorine is the 13th-most abundant element on earth, found most often bound to other elements in its negatively charged form, fluoride. Fluoride compounds are used to improve dental health, to make steel, and to make useful materials like Teflon. Fluoride is also emitted into the environment as a byproduct of both natural and industrial processes. ...
Published in Frontiers for Young Minds
Why do we get sick? Medical doctors would say there are many causes, depending on the sickness: the SARS-CoV2 virus causes COVID-19, poor eating habits cause obesity, smoking causes lung cancer. But what if we looked at this question differently…as a species, why have we evolved bodies that are vulnerable to getting sick? Should we not have evolved...
Published in Frontiers for Young Minds
Recently, the field of bioengineering, which uses biomedical knowledge to solve problems and create products, has made great progress creating tiny, functioning models of human organs, called organoids. The brain is the most complex organ of the human body. Although brain organoids have been created, they still cannot perform calculations, learn, m...
