Some insects are rather large. A few are quite scary looking. An extremely small minority could feasibly kill a human being. But one such bug exists that is big, scary, and can kill you. This creature is called Vespa mandarinia, more commonly known as the Asian giant hornet. Vespa mandarinia is the insect of your nightmares.
It has been decades since Watson and Crick discovered the structure of DNA, and over a decade since the human genome was completely sequenced. In the ensuing years, technology to decode, understand, and change individual genes has grown in leaps and bounds. It is no longer a question of if we can change the very thing that makes us human, but should we. The question of should we rewrite the code of life is a complicated one, especially as it is not really one question but several, each stemming from a different type of possible modification. The most important difference is between somatic modification and germ line modification.
Hypothetically, we can question the scientific background behind everything we know, suggesting that even common knowledge can be up to interpretation. This creates the divide between the humanities and science, where the former is based on open ended musings and the latter calls for definite findings, so it’s not often that we readily accept the intersection between science and philosophy. Occam’s razor, however, combines the two and exists as field of thought today not because it contests an area of science or provides insight into a particular field, but because it defines a method of thinking that is applicable to all approaches in any scientific discipline.
Whether you are a social butterfly always hanging around Rice University's RMC or your college commons or you are a hard-working student who enjoys studying in Fondren, you have probably encountered my favorite invention in the whole world, the HydroBoost water filter.
For many of us, keeping our balance is something we never have to think about. Since it happens so naturally, why should we think about the elaborate neural connections that make it possible? However, we can learn a lot about the brain when we look at what happens when motor control is impaired. One motor-impairing condition under much scrutiny is Parkinson’s disease, and many scientists dream of finding a cure for it.
