The Trouble with Genetic Diversity – Part 1
What do antibiotic resistance, the many colors of butterflies, and the fact that life still exists on this planet all have in common? Genetic Diversity! Genetic diversity is awesome! It’s what allows us to all be a little different and to overcome any obstacle that comes our way! But genetic...
How Fish Adapt to Darkness
There are millions of examples of plants and animals adapting to their environment. Need to blend in? Change your coloring. Need to crack a different kind of nut? Change your beak. But while we have lots of examples of adaptation, we rarely have the ability to look at what...
Another Way We’re Killing the Bees
I have a confession to make. I am hopelessly and desperately in love… with honey! It is the perfect additive that brings my peanut butter sandwiches to the next level. But to get honey, we need honeybees and unfortunately for everyone they aren’t doing too hot right now. There...
How to Make the Flu Vaccine Better
Have you ever gotten the flu vaccine but still gotten the flu? We make about 160 million vaccine doses every year in the US, but they vary in effectiveness from year to year. In this video I discuss the yearly difference, but I also talk about a bigger problem. A...
Drawing Science at NYSci STEM Night
I went to the New York Hall of Science for their STEM and social media night to showcase my SimpleBiologist YouTube channel where I take new scientific papers and turn them into fun animated videos. An average of 1.5M scientific papers are published per year. That’s 3 papers every minute!...
Is There Already a Zika Treatment?
Humans contract zika via mosquito or through sexual contact. While most people recover from infection, it can have some intense side-effects for pregnant women. We know that infection during pregnancy comes with an increased risk of microcephaly, where a child is born with a smaller than average head which causes brain...
Can We Cure Autoimmune Diseases?
What do you do when your illness isn't caused by bacteria or viruses, but is instead caused by your own immune system? Researchers are developing new technologies that could help cure autoimmune diseases....
How to Build a Biohybrid Robot
We see a lot of mechanical robots in our lives, but what about robots that are powered by life? Researchers have created a robotic ray powered by muscle that swims towards light!...
Why Haven’t We Cured HIV yet?
Millions of people in the world are living with HIV. Scientists have been researching this virus for over 30 years and all we have are subpar treatments. Why is that the best we have? Why haven't we cured HIV yet?...