Issue 25: What's in Your Mind?

ISSUE 25 | FALL 2023

TABLE OF RESEARCH 6 THE PSYCHOLOGY OF SPORTS INJURIES 8 THE SCIENCE OF LOVE 10 THE HISTORY OF PRIMATES AND SNAKES 11 THE PSYCHOLOGY OF COMMUNITIES 12 AFTER SURVIVING COVID-19

HEALTH 14 THE BOOK OF LIFE 16 the KEY TO HOMELESSNESS 18 WHAT’S IN YOUR MOUTH 20 UPSET STOMACH? 22 DOPAMINE

NEWS 24 THE LAST OF US, THE FIRST OF the FUNGI Cover art by veronica richmond 2

CONTENTS WRITE AT THE MUSEUM INTRODUCTION 26 The Spark 27 THE STORY OF A SOUL 31 THE MORAL COMPASS OF SCIENCE 33 Remind Me Again? 36 Monoculture Monsters 38

ETHICS when rewards kill passion 40 Publish or Perish 42

PROFILES MEGAN PILLER 45 ABIGAIL ADERA 48 CALEB HEATHERSHAW 50

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Letter from the Editor Hi everyone!

I hope everyone's had a great start to the new school year! I'm so incredibly excited to finally launch Issue 25: Human Psychology. It's my first issue as the newly-appointed Editor-in-Chief after our previous EIC, Megan Piller, graduated, leaving me with incredibly big shoes to fill. Nevertheless, I think this issue does the job. We challenged our writers to question everything they know about the world around them and examine how our own subconscious instincts drastically alter our perception of the world we live in. I'm so proud of all the hard work that went into this issue, and all of our incredible new staff members who have stepped up to the plate and are already working to make the magazine their - our - own. This issue carries with it the feeling of a Scientifica renaissance, and I'm so glad it is finally yours.

Have fun, stay curious, and enjoy the mind-melt. :)

Emily Danzinger Political Science and International Studies, Class of 2025 Editor-in-Chief, UMiami Scientifica

letter from the editorial Advisor By definition, psychology is the scientific study of the mind and behavior. Whether it is in business, the psychology of marketing and pricing an item, or in one’s life following a traumatic or rewarding experience. Psychology is what makes us who we are and contributes to our behaviors relating to people, places, and the world in general. Psychology is a part of all creatures that live in the world we inhabit, and it can be in the conscious and subconscious minds. In this issue, we will look at psychology in a variety of ways, including as it relates to love and how it plays a role in sports. I'd like to take this opportunity to thank Megan Piller for the work she did with Scientifica prior to graduating last semester and introduce you to Emily Danzinger, our new Editor-in-Chief. Emily and her dedicated staff of undergraduates have put this issue together. Please enjoy this issue.

Roger I. Williams Jr., M.S. Ed. Director, Student Activities Advisor, Microbiology & Immunology Editorial Advisor, UMiami Scientifica Emily Danzinger Ethan Bentley Aarohi Talati Veronica Richmond Ethan Tieu Veronica Richmond Shirley Pandya Ainsley Hilliard Luke Sims Francesca Dostillio Rachel Farinas

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C O R E T E A M

EDITOR IN CHIEF MANAGING EDITOR COPY CHIEF ART & DESIGN DIRECTOR DIRECTOR OF WRITING & CREATIVE WRITING DIRECTOR OF PUBLIC RELATIONS DIRECTOR OF PHOTOGRAPHY DIRECTOR OF DISTRIBUTION DIRECTOR OF TREASURY AND ADVERTISING INTERNAL DIRECTOR OF COMMUNITY OUTREACH EXTERNAL DIRECTOR OF COMMUNITY OUTREACH

SCIENTIFICA STAFF 2023 Board of Advisors Barbara Colonna Ph.D. Senior Lecturer Organic Chemistry Department of Chemistry Richard J. Cote, M.D., FRCPath, FCAP Professor & Joseph R. Coutler Jr. Chair Department of Pathology Professor, Dept. of Biochemistry & Molecular Biology Chief of Pathology, Jackson Memorial Hospital Director, Dr. Jonn T. Macdonald Foundation Biochemical Nanotechnology Institute University of Miami Miller School of Medicine Michael S. Gaines, Ph.D. Assistant Provost Undergraduate Research and Community Outreach Professor of Biology Mathias G. Lichtenheld, M.D. Associate Professor of Microbiology & Immunology FBS 3 Coordinator University of Miami Miller School of Medicine Charles Mallery, Ph.D. Associate Professor Biology & Cellular and Molecular Biology Associate Dean April Mann Director of the Writing Center Catherine Newell, Ph.D. Associate Professor of Religion Leticia Oropesa, D.A. Coordinator Department of Mathematics *Eckhard R. Podack, M.D., Ph.D. Professor & Chair Department of Microbiology & Immunology University of Miami Miller School of Medicine Adina Sanchez-Garcia Associate Director of English Composition Senior Lecturer Geoff Sutcliffe, Ph.D. Professor of Computer Science Yunqiu (Daniel) Wang, Ph.D. Senior Lecturer Department of Biology *Deceased

EDITORS Aarohi Talati Hanna Ebrahimi Olivia Hennon Fatima al-Hanoosh Francesca Dostillio Shirley Pandya Veronica Richmond Kiara Khemani Elena Thomson Gina Adams Emily Danzinger Megan Piller Caleb Heathershaw

Artists & Designers Veronica Richmond Vrinda Gupta Khushi Bajaria Chaunté Lewis Judith Juste Ashleigh Morris LC Furtado Ethan Bentley

Writers Kyle Banker Veronica Richmond Blake Goldberg Ronak Venkata Abby Cherefant Ethan Tieu Sabrina Merola Caleb Heathershaw Michel Hughye Judith Juste Giana Vitale Ethan Bentley Judith Juste Gina Adams Claire Chang Chirag Anand Emily Danzinger

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laying a sport is a core childhood and living memory of many collegiate and professional athletes. All the teammates, big games, locker room talks, team dinners and offthe-field memories bring nostalgia to sports. However, a sizably undesirable part of sports may overshadow those positive aspects at many points: injuries.

The Abundance of Injuries in Sports While athletes can take measures and precautions to prevent injuries, they are realistically unavoidable in dynamic sports such as football, hockey, basketball, and soccer. According to the NCAA, 564,712 injuries of different severity occurred between 2014 and 2019 across all collegiate sports programs nationwide. As a college soccer player and former hockey player myself, I cannot imagine listing all my injuries in the past few years.

No matter how prepared you feel or how often you stretch, you are never fully immune to injuries on the field.

From my experience, there is not only a physical recovery from an injury but, arguably as important, a substantial mental recovery. While not addressed often enough, the psychological aspect of injuries impacts millions of athletes

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worldwide. As a result, I wanted to write this article, from the perspective of a lifelong athlete, about the different injury recovery strategies and psychological challenges athletes face while working to return to the playing field.

Physically Recovering From Injury Before analyzing the psychological impacts from sports injuries, we first must look at their toll on an athlete’s body. Whether it is a minor or major injury, athletes must wait and rest before beginning physical therapy to rejoin their team. Athletes have different care options depending on their level of play. For example, a professional quarterback will have much better trainers and healthcare resources than one who is playing at the highschool level. However, there are still many strategies that athletes follow universally, regardless of athletic level.

The most common protocol athletes follow is known as RICE (rest, ice, compression, elevation), which takes various weeks or months depending on the severity of the injury. For example, when Miami Hurricanes player Norchad Omier sprained his ankle during the 2023 ACC Tournament, his speedy recovery consisted of continually following this pattern of resting and treating his ankle before resuming play only a week later in the NCAA March Madness Tournament. Unfortunately, not all sports injury recoveries happen this rapidly, but this recent situation showcases how effective treatment and care can expedite the recovery time. But, in longterm cases with significant injuries or not having similar resources, lengthier recovery times can seriously impact an athlete’s mental health before and after returning to their sport.

Psychologically Recovering From Injury Injuries can psychologically affect an athlete, including creating responses of negative emotions, mood disturbances, fear of re-injury, devastation and reduced confidence. These responses often stem from longer-term injuries such as ligament tears, fractures and

dislocations. However, many athletes can face these responses from repeatedly encountering minor injuries and facing isolation or disengagement.

Injuries can mentally impact athletes of all ages, but there has been a recent highlight in it having an even more significant effect on college athletics, due to the addition of rigorous coursework and other commitments outside the field.

In a survey conducted in 2021, approximately 30% of female and 25% of male student-athletes report having anxiety. Furthermore, only 10% of all college athletes with known mental health conditions such as depression or anxiety seek care from a mental health professional. While these statistics do not solely focus on the impact of physical injury on mental health, we can assume that they play a sizable role, as injuries can completely change the lifestyle trajectory of an athlete. College athletes also have many different involvements than professional athletes, as many depend on receiving stellar grades to retain their athletic scholarships. As a result, the stress from injuries, doing well in classes, and attempting to recover your physical body significantly impacts a college athlete’s mental health.

This college example paints how the mind and body must be healthy and connected before returning to their sport. Many fans believe their favorite athletes can instantly play once a doctor clears them to compete. However, that is far from reality, as many athletes often take more time to practice or prepare to return to their sport after sitting out for an extended period. A recent professional-level example is Simone Biles, an Olympian-winning athlete who decided to sit out the 2020 Tokyo Olympics due to mental health reasons.

While this received heavy criticism, Biles realized and stated to the media that her mind and body were not acting in harmony, causing concern with all the risky stunts and physical actions in her typical routines.

There are many different perspectives on what it means to feel mentally prepared to return to a sport. One athlete, such as Omier, could be anxious about entering a competitive March Madness game where they could get hurt in the same way and be sidelined for much longer once again. Other athletes, such as Biles, may realize after an injury or setback that they need more time to feel mentally ready to return to their sport. In whatever way you look at it, the mind and body are closely connected in an athlete’s injury recovery period, which is often not recognized by fans or others who want to see the players return to their favorite team as soon as possible.

My Experiences and Future Hopes As an athlete who has encountered similar situations as those mentioned above, I would argue that the psychological aspect of recovering from an injury is just as important as healing your body itself. Not only must you need to feel emotionally and mentally prepared to play the sport you love, but you also must do so at a high level. Often enough, when you are injured, you are replaced by another player by which you must compete to win back your starting position. While this is different from situation to situation, this competition immediately once returning can add significant stress, requiring mental toughness and readiness.

As a President of the mental health club UpliftingU and a member of the Men’s Club Soccer Team at the University of Miami, I understand the importance of mental health and the challenges associated with recovering from sports injuries on a competitive team.

While they have affected athletes of different levels, like Norchad, Simone, and myself, we all have varying mental health resources

to ensure that our injury recoveries do not significantly reduce our confidence and affect our mood. However, this part of the recovery process is often overlooked. I hope professional and college athletes will soon be asked more questions about their mental recovery from an injury. From this, we can hopefully see these resources and advice grow and spread to fellow athletes across the globe.

Sources American College of Sports Medicine. (2021). Retrieved 28 March 2023, from https://www.acsm.org/ news-detail/2021/08/09/ the-american-college-of-sportsmedicine-statement-on-mentalhealth-challenges-for-athletes Bescoby, C. (2022). Shifting the spotlight: mental health of injured athletes. Retrieved 28 March 2023, from https://www. sportsinjurybulletin.com/diagnose-treat/shifting-the-spotlight-mentalhealth-of-injured-athletes Gitnux. (2023). The Most Surprising College Sports Injuries Statistics And Trends in 2023. Retrieved 28 March 2023, from https://blog.gitnux.com/ college-sports-injuriesstatistics/ NCAA. (2011). Mind, Body and Sport: How being injured affects mental health.

Retrieved 28 March 2023, from https://www.ncaa.org/ sports/2014/11/5/mind-bodyand-sport-how-being-injuredaffects-mental-health.aspx Tillman, R. (2021). Simone Biles reflects on choice to pull out of Olympics: ‘It was too much’ . Retrieved 28 March 2023, from https://www.ny1.com/nyc/ all-boroughs/news/2021/09/28/simone-biles-opens-up-tokyo-olympicsdecision

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by veronica richmond illustration & Design: veronica richmond

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by Blake Goldberg

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nakes. Some people love them, many do not.

Ophidiophobia, or the fear of snakes, is one of the most common phobias in the world, and that may be for good reason. Primates have been the prey of snakes since the inception of primates themselves. Even today, around 5.4 million people are bitten by venomous snakes, with around 100,000 of them succumbing to the venom. It turns out that snakes may have actively shaped primate evolution and, more specifically, the primate’s visual processing system.

This concept, called the Snake Detection Theory, was first proposed

by Lynne Isbell, a primatologist at the University of California, Davis, in her 2006 book The Fruit, the Tree, and the Serpent: Why We See So Well. In 2009, Isbell ran a study where macaque monkeys were shown images of snakes and images of non-threatening stimuli, such as flowers or geometric shapes. The images were presented on a computer screen for only a fraction of a second (200 milliseconds) before being replaced by a blank screen. The researchers found that the monkeys were able to detect the presence of a snake in the image significantly faster than they were able to detect the presence of other objects.

This theory extends to all primates, including humans. A 2017 study by Isbell and Jan Strien hooked humans up to EEGs, devices that monitor brain waves. For the first task, researchers had participants look at close-ups of snake skins, lizard skins, and bird plumage. The second test had participants look at partially exposed photos of snakes,

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Design: Chaunté Lewis

lizards, and birds. For both trials, the photos of the snakes elicited the strongest response. It is believed that the special scale patterns of snakes elicit a unique response because they are particularly rare in nature. It also suggests that humans (and other primates) specifically can detect snakes even while they are motionless. There is even evidence that our ability for snake detection forms at an extremely early age. In a 2016 study conducted at the University of Virginia, researchers showed images of snakes, spiders, flowers, and fish to a group of 48 infants between the ages of six and twelve months. The images were presented in pairs, with one image from each category shown side by side. The results of the study showed that the infants spent significantly more time looking at the snake images compared to the other images. The researchers suggest that this indicates that infants as young as six months old have an innate ability to detect characteristics of snakes among other stimuli. It is also argued that this ability may have evolved as a way to protect against the danger posed by snakes.

So we are afraid of snakes because our primate ancestors were afraid of snakes, but why does this matter? Well the Snake Detection Theory gives us insight on how our brains work now and the millions of years of evolution that contribute to it. This knowledge can be used to develop new treatments for phobias and other anxiety disorders.

By mapping the neural pathways of snake detection, we can better understand how humans process information. This information can even be used to help AI and machine algorithms better detect and respond to threats and other stimuli. This theory makes us question what exactly is hard wired into our brains and how we got here. It may very well be that our capacity today to watch television, read books, and play sports started millions of years ago with our primate ancestors and snakes.

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hink back to your freshman year, walking into the dining hall or food court for the first time. You might’ve asked someone if you could sit next to them, saying something along the lines of “I just moved in,” or “I just got here.” Or maybe you sat alone instead, making a quick exit until you met enough people on your floor to grab food with.

Regardless of the way it happened, you ended up choosing a few people around you (and vice versa) to spend time with. In college, this process is mediated by an almost impossibly large amount of factors, which can be individual or environmental in nature. Age, height, race, attractiveness, and even one’s major could affect who you end up marching to the dining hall with. When making these new friends in a desperate search for stability, one may assume that these friendships are guaranteed to last. Nevertheless, it’s almost a given that the people around you will change. There’s no cardinal rule that the people you meet in your first few weeks are going to be the end-all, be-all of your core community. As Kerri-Ann Scott, an undergraduate nursing student, puts it, “freshman year friendships aren’t any more or less valuable to me than the friends I’ve made now. I tend to have more in common with the people I choose to spend time with now, which has allowed for those friendships to grow far quicker than those from earlier.”

For Kerri-Ann, and many college students, time is not the determining factor. Recent literature notes that while there are many different possible explanations for why two people might become friends, one of the strongest is value homophily. Value homophily is the tendency to be attracted to, or associate oneself with, someone who shares your values. This intuitively makes sense — anyone would feel more comfortable being around people who believe the same things as them. And the science agrees: value homophily is associated with extending “the potential for social cooperation” (regardless of the accuracy regarding the information exchanged).[1] Thus, although we may bond quickly with these friends made on a whim in our freshman year, we’re far more likely to bond more closely with those whom we have things in common with, like those we meet in classes or clubs.

While sharing one homophily, such as common values or beliefs, can increase the chances of becoming friends, having more than one homophily in common, such as gender and financial situation, can ironically interact to create a negative effect. A possible explanation for this is that “sharing more than one attribute with others can create redundancies.”[2] Nobody wants to be friends with people that are too much like themselves. This suggests that similarities are not enough; the differences in experiences, backgrounds and interests provide an avenue through which relationships can form.

This raises an interesting point: our differences are just as important as our similarities when it comes to maintaining a healthy, strong friendship. Saying “we just didn’t have that much in common” may not be the bullet-proof justification that people think it is. It is important to seek out others with different perspectives than our own, if not for friendship, than at least for exposure. A healthy mix of both similarities and differences reinforce each aspect in a positive light, allowing us to appreciate the differences that make each other unique, while also capitalizing on the common denominators that make quality time more memorable.

The reality is, most students spend a great deal of their lives up until this point trying to find that balance. We try to find a goldilocks range in which the people we meet aren’t too similar or different from us. This process is continuous; there’s no end to the temporary losses young adults feel at this stage in life when friendships falter due to having too much in common or different.

And so, I offer a suggestion: the next time you search around for a new friend, choose the people that bring you stability. Choose the ones that might not be into dance like you, but would love to take you to the rock-climbing gym. Be open to widening your very collection of interests and experiences, because just by doing so, you will be widening your pool of potential friends as well.

Sources: [1] Rauwolf, P., Mitchell, D., & Bryson, J. J. (2015). Value homophily benefits cooperation but motivates employing incorrect social information. Journal of Theoretical Biology, 367, 246–261. doi:10.1016/j.jtbi.2014.11.023 [2] Block, P., & Grund, T. (2014). Multidimensional Homophily in Friendship Networks. Network science (Cambridge University Press), 2(2), 189–212. https://doi.org/10.1017/nws.2014.17

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How Do We Think About Death?

by Abby Cherenfant Illustration: Ashleigh Morris Design: Veronica Richmond

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he COVID-19 pandemic has strikingly awakened us to the fact that we die. As we watched the number of lives lost totaling nearly 7 million, wide-scale death became hauntingly familiar to us. The COVID-19 pandemic has challenged many of our long-held beliefs about death and how we address burial rituals. Most importantly, this pandemic forced us to rethink how we view our own deaths, and how we would like to die in the modern world.

Dealing with Death Anxiety With such a rampant loss of lives, many of us dealt with eerie, uncomfortable feelings, generally described as grief, fear, or anxiety.

Sheldon Solomon, a social psychologist and professor at Skidmore College, has an explanation for the reasoning behind those emotions, stating “it is the existential anxiety caused by reminders of our own mortality.” Simply put, to function as a conscious being, it is imperative that you be in some denial about your impending death. This ability to compartmentalize thoughts about one’s mortality allows us to maneuver through daily life, performing different activities and tasks— cleaning your room, studying for exams, cooking dinner. If you were constantly aware of the inevitability of your own death, “you would be overwhelmed with potentially debilitating existential terror,” according to Solomon. The logical outcome is a kind of cognitive dissonance. You know all humans die, you know that you are human, and yet somehow you do not believe that you yourself are going to die.

When you have a constant reminder of death, such as the COVID-19 pandemic, your brain experiences an intense awareness of your mortality. According to the Omega Journal of Death and Dying, the death anxiety level of university students caused by the pandemic was

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found to be 48.3%, a surprisingly high number for individuals who have not even approached the time for a mid-life crisis.

Over the last 20 years, Solomon and his colleagues, Jeff Greenberg and Thomas Pyszczynski, have delved into the human tendency to avoid thoughts of death and how we react when reminded of it. Their research has uncovered a series of expected behaviors following death reminders, all aimed at disregarding our inevitable demise and reinforcing our individual importance. This concept has been labeled as Terror Management Theory and has been supported by numerous psychological studies. One such neurological study conducted in 2019 demonstrated that the brain has a mechanism that evades awareness of one's own mortality and perceives death as an unfortunate occurrence that only happens to others. In other words, our brains are hardwired to acknowledge death as an occurrence that happens to others and not to oneself, a false sense of immunity to the inevitable. This denial becomes easier to maintain when death is not a part of our daily lives.

However, when we experience news about death more frequently, whether through personal loss or a global pandemic televised worldwide, it becomes increasingly challenging to maintain that denial.

Greenberg, who co-created Terror Management Theory, explains that their research has identified a few typical responses to reminders of death, including seeking safety measures (such as wearing masks or washing hands) and outright denial (believing in conspiracy theories or convincing oneself that no one they know is sick). Therefore, it is not surprising that during the COVID-19 pandemic lockdowns, people have been engaging in activities such as online shopping, drinking, and watching television more frequently, as noted by Solomon. What we are witnessing with that behavior is the result of the persistent reminder of death and ways to cope.

Planning for End of Life For many individuals, the constant reminder of mortality and death, which the COVID-19 pandemic brought, did not only manifest as anxiety or fear, but instead, worked as a motivator. The COVID-19 pandemic encouraged some individuals to begin planning for end of life. End-of-life planning involves making preparations for the care and management of your health, finances, and personal affairs in the event that you become critically ill, incapacitated, or pass away.

The goal of end-of-life planning is to ensure that your wishes and preferences are known and respected by family and friends, and that these individuals are equipped to handle your affairs and make important decisions on your behalf. End-of-life planning typically involves creating advance directives, such as a living will or healthcare power of attorney, which outline your preferences for medical treatment and end-of-life care. This type of planning also includes making decisions about funeral arrangements, estate planning, and distribution of assets.

It is important to note that end-of-life planning is not a new phenomenon, existing prior to the COVID-19 pandemic. However, these practices increased dramatically during the COVID-19 pandemic period.

A series of studies published

by Health Affairs in 2017 revealed that 36.7 percent of Americans had completed an advance directive, including 29.3 percent with living wills.

However, the COVID-19 pandemic served as a warning to many able bodied individuals—both young and old—to address how the last days of their lives may look. VITAS Healthcare revealed that in 2021, 29 percent of Americans reported that the COVID-19 pandemic increased the likelihood that they would discuss documenting their wishes around medical issues, funeral preparations, etc. The study revealed that the age group which was most open to end-oflife planning was, oddly enough, between the ages of 18-30.

With a focus on end-of-life planning, many people began to discover nontraditional methods of burial and body preparation/handling. In 2020, there seemed to be an accelerating trend toward cremation, and respondents cited cost as the primary reason. Cremation is typically less expensive than a traditional funeral service. A traditional burial, with plot and headstone, costs around $15,000, while cremation averages at $2,200. The significantly less expensive option became more favorable during the COVID-19 pandemic, likely due to the inability of funeral homes

to process the number of deaths that were occuring, the inability of family to make funeral and burial decisions due to lockdowns, and the economic instability many families were facing during COVID-19.

Researchers expect this shift in Western attitudes toward death to continue post-pandemic and beyond, with more Americans choosing cremation than ever before, according to Tulip Cremation.

As Americans face the stark reality of their own mortality, more individuals report that they are more open to non-traditional burial options. In fact, in a survey conducted by Better Place Forests, 53 percent of survey respondents said they were more likely to explore eco-friendly possibilities like green burials or memorial forests, in which ashes are spread around the soil of a tree and used to help the tree grow, forever incorporating that individual’s ashes into the tree’s DNA. Sixty percent of those familiar with memorial forests said they would prefer that option above other burial options.

The COVID-19 pandemic has brought the topic of end-of-life planning to the forefront of public discourse. While the idea of planning for one's death may be uncomfortable, it is essential to ensure that individuals have control over their own medical treatment and affairs, and that their loved ones are prepared to make important decisions on their behalf. As we continue to navigate the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic, it is important that individuals are informed about their options and empowered to make choices that align with their personal beliefs and values.

Preparing is Important Although we may not want to contemplate our mortality on a daily basis, the occasional recognition of its existence need not lead to overwhelming anxiety or prompt us to make impulsive purchases on Amazon while holding a martini in one hand and a credit card in the other. For others, the pandemic has enabled them to take control of their end-of-life planning, including creating advance directives and considering non-traditional methods of burial and body handling. The COVID-19 pandemic highlights the importance of end-of-life planning and provides an opportunity for building a more robust understanding of how to approach and deal with our inevitable end. As we continue to navigate a world where more pandemic-related events will occur, it is essential that we acknowledge our mortality and embrace the opportunity to plan for the end of our lives in a way that reflects our wishes and values.

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I

t was dark, a moonless night to be precise. The sheer curtains ebbed and flowed like a foamy shoreline. Their folds swayed in the warm, moist air like a widower’s veil on their lover’s homegoing.

Not a single soul peeped, even the crickets ceased their songs that night.

All life, with their heads bowed, wept for the soul whose groaning slapped against dying leaves and rotting bark. The being dragged their limp body on the concrete ground, clinging to their throat.

“Help…me! I…I…can’t—” They wanted to scream these things, but they couldn’t. The weight of the dark night and the warm humidity that snatched oxygen from their lungs compressed this scream into an airy hiss. (The sound, many say, was like a plump balloon on its last leg.) They lifted their head slightly, trying to stretch open their airway, but their eyes widened, like porcelain platters. ‘No, it can’t be,’ they thought. Their eyes were fixed on a bookshelf in the corner of the room—only two rows tall and propped against the wall. On the top shelf, there was a dim salmon-pink glow that emerged from a lowly book. It was quite thin, but still, it stood tall, like an encyclopedia. As they peered at the book, their sight slowly dimmed, a voice crashed through the window, derailing the sheer curtains.

“You see correctly… It is “The Book of Life.” Touch it…and you will live…live…live…” the voice echoed.

The being felt a push in their lower limbs, their heavy body now floated slightly above the cold floor. They scratched their way toward the shelf until finally, they were only a fingertip away from “The Book of Life”…

Illiteracy— the inability to read or write.

According to United Nations Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organization (UNESCO), there are about 774 million illiterate adults around the world. You may be thinking, “Well considering that there are

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7.888 billion people in the world, 774 million is (pulls out calculator)… approximately 9.81% of the world's population! That's not bad!" Well, I thought the same thing too, until I discovered the distribution of this 9.81…%. In an article titled “Marking International Literacy Day in a digital world”, Billard-Arbelaez states that almost 50% of these adults live in Southern Asia (387 million—19% of the population), about 30% live in sub-Saharan Africa (232 million—23% of the population), and many of the rest are in low-income communities in Global North countries. Overall, 61% of this illiterate population are women and 39% are men. “Well, what about the children? Is there any hope?” UNESCO reports that there are 260 million school-aged children who do not have access to education. What’s disheartening though, is that all of these numbers are crude estimates. Given the limited statistical reach in many areas around the world, there could be millions more who have not been included in this data!

“So…why is all of this important?” Well, in order for us to answer this, we first have to understand the benefits of reading and writing.

Benefits of Reading According to Healthline, reading can strengthen the brain, increase one’s empathy, prevent age-related cognitive decline, reduce stress, aid in better sleep, lowers blood pressure, alleviates symptoms of depression, and even increases longevity! What is even more wonderful, is that it really doesn’t matter what you read, all you need to do is read.

Benefits of Writing According to Harvard Business Review, writing can reduce stress, anxiety, depression, improve sleep quality, enhance performance, bring greater focus and clarity, and also heal brain tissue damaged by trauma!

Alright! Now that we know the general benefits of reading and writing, let’s apply it to the statistics we saw earlier. The main regions where illiteracy is high are Southern Asia, sub-Saharan Africa, and low-income communities in the Global North. Collectively, these communities are susceptible to detrimental trends such as homelessness, malnourishment, violence/abuse, disease, weak infrastructure, and the list goes on! All of these events can result in suffocating trauma which outlets such as reading and writing can ameliorate.

In addition to this, there is a lot of information out there on things such as preventive health measures, financial literacy, and even career development that can help to actively ameliorate these trends.

Unfortunately, because of illiteracy, these life-saving resources seem intangible.

Illiteracy is a global health issue that needs to be addressed.

There are too many people in this world, who are suffocating in silence under the weight of trauma simply because they have no outlet. Others are stuck dragging along in darkness because they don’t have access or the ability to comprehend life-saving information. Others see the solution in front of them, but they have no one to give them the helping hand to reach it.

So, here it stands before you, the mission of a lifetime. Will you accept it, and help these human beings to finally reach the “Book of Life?"

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By Gina Adams illustration & Design: veronica richmond

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ost of us can imagine the familiar “click” of a door unlocking, let it be the front door of our childhood home, or the automatic unlocking of our dorms as we swipe our cane cards. And while I’m sure just the mention of this scenario has brought back a flood of core memories for many of us, memories are not the only thing the click of a lock is connected to. Ingrained in this onomatopoeia is an inherent sense of safety and security, a shield against the increasingly dangerous world. The bitter truth of this protection is that a lot of people across the world don’t have anything to lock - they are a part of the escalating ‘homeless epidemic.’ Now I’m sure everyone reading this is familiar with the concept: it’s not too far-fetched to say that everyone has seen someone on the streets before, especially considering a lot of us are from big, well-developed cities.

But I think a lot of you would be surprised to know that the difficulty in discussing the concept of homelessness is that despite the implications written in the name itself, it's actually rather challenging to lock in on a concrete definition. It’s simple to suggest that anyone without a home is considered “homeless,” but defining it this way discounts all the people that may be squatting on a friend’s couch or living somewhere not meant for human inhabitation. For this reason, I’m choosing to utilize

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the definition provided by the American Psychological Association, which defines homelessness as existing “when people lack safe, stable, and appropriate places to live.” Now that we have settled on a tangible definition, the question becomes: What contributes to this ‘homeless epidemic,’ and why do Americans turn a blind eye to this worsening problem?

Unfortunately, especially in the United States, a culture of stigmatization has surrounded homelessness for far too long. Many homeless people are ignored or scorned, intrinsically rooting this stigma into American culture. This stigmatism cannot continue, as a majority of the homeless population are experiencing medical, mental, or substance use disorders and deserve the same treatment as the rest of the population. Let’s put some things into perspective: according to the United States Department of Housing and Urban Development’s 2022 Annual Homeless Assessment Report, over 580,000 people experience homelessness on any single given night, with at least 25% experiencing a mental illness, the most common including depression, bipolar disorder, schizophrenia, anxiety disorder and substance use disorder (SUD). Regrettably, this strong association between homelessness and poor mental health appears to be a common phenomenon, begging the question: is poor mental health a cause or consequence of homelessness?

It turns out that the relationship between mental health and homelessness is “bi-directional” in nature, the various dependencies of the two contributing to the decline of the other in a vicious cycle. We will examine both sides of this relationship further, starting with how mental illness can be a primary cause of homelessness.

Finding a way to pay for the fundamental necessities of survival, like shelter, food, clothes and medicine takes an incredible amount of planning, exertion and time. Imagine tackling these challenges with a severe mental illness or substance use disorder - not only would it be more difficult to carry out day-to-day tasks like paying bills and feeding your family, but just by having a mental health complication, you would be less likely to be stably employed.

The World Health Organization reveals that people with mental illnesses and substance use disorders comprise one of the lowest categories of employment rates. The combined effect of this job instability and the uncertainty of an individual’s ability to perform routine tasks catapults individuals with a mental illness or substance use disorder detrimentally below the poverty line. From this stage, it’s not hard to see how quickly people can fall into unsafe and unstable conditions, ultimately resulting in homelessness.

While it is not difficult to see how poor mental health can cause homelessness, we must also examine the other side of this bi-directional relationship. Let’s imagine this scenario: most mental illnesses require treatment plans that are contingent upon taking medication at consistent times during the day. If you were to do this, you would probably store your medication in a cabinet near your bed and set a reminder on your phone to take it at the right time every day. But what would you do if your bed was the ground beneath your feet, and your night never ended in the same place twice? What if there was no concrete way to tell time, and the days all blended together? It would be almost impossible to be persistent with your medication, and that’s if you could manage for it not to be lost or stolen. These structural obstacles often exacerbate and amplify current mental illnesses, contributing to the significant struggle to escape the homeless epidemic.

Keeping this in mind, not all homeless people start out with a pre-existing mental health complication; a portion develop symptoms of mental illness as a consequence of being homeless. Some

of the most common symptoms that can manifest after a period of homelessness include depression and suicidal thoughts related to the contempt and disdain most individuals receive on a daily basis while on the streets. Another common outcome of homelessness is the development of substance use disorders. Besides the increased availability and easy access to substances, people may use them to “self-medicate”, in an effort to relieve symptoms or escape from the trepidation they experience daily. This series of events is a slippery slope, leading quickly to dependency and addiction. The fact remains that substance use disorders are chronic medical disorders that require a comprehensive plan contingent on a patient’s regular adherence, and for homeless people this is even more difficult. The instability of homelessness makes it almost impossible for someone with a substance use disorder to receive or complete treatment, making it even less likely for them to climb out of the hole of homelessness.

The last, but certainly not least concerning relationship between mental health and homelessness that I want to touch on is the significant impact growing up without a stable home can have on childhood development. It has been proven time and time again that having a stable living arrangement and social connection to those around you facilitates healthy brain development in young children. In living an uprooted life, it is unfeasible for most homeless children to come by one, if not both, of these factors. Not only this, but homeless children are more than twice as likely to suffer from infections, malnourishment, and cognitive, behavioral, and emotional complications, creating an expanding barrier to childhood development.

Overall, the lack of mental health support for the homeless population may make it seem like a unique problem that only affects the homeless, but everything boils down to the limited resources available to treat mental health, mental illness, and substance use disorders. It’s true: mental health has a stigma, regardless of housing status, resulting in a shortage of mental health workers worldwide.

This lack of resources, in combination with the absence of affordable housing (a topic for another article), makes it extremely difficult to stop this bi-directional cycle between homelessness and mental health. But now that this relationship is revealed, it’s up to us to find the key. We may have to try many different sizes and shapes before finding the right one, but only together can we take the next steps in unlocking the neverending cycle between mental health and homelessness. “Click”.

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o you really know what’s in your mouth? There are over 500 million oral bacteria that reside in your mouth on a regular basis and even more microbes than people on the planet if it has been a few hours since you last brushed your teeth. These microbes include fungus, bacteria, and more which form your own unique microbiome. If this makes you uncomfortable, you are not alone!

That being said, not all bacteria are bad. There are both good and bad ones that are in constant balance with one another all over your body–not just in your mouth. If this equilibrium tips to a certain side in the mouth, say in favor

D

Oral Health:

The good bacteria on the other hand support oral health rather than causing problems. They help digest food for effective digestion, control bad breath by neutralizing the harmful buildup, as well as protect against cavities with stimulation of saliva that wash away food particles, acid, and bad bacteria. A bacteria known for maintaining a healthy oral microbiome is Lactobacillus reuteri. There is strong evidence that shows the effectiveness in reducing inflammation of gum disease and bad breath and reduction of cavity occurrences and development in correlation with L. reuteri. It was shown in a trial with 30 patients that administering L. reuteri for 42 days reduced bleeding of

by Claire Chang Design: Chaunté Lewis

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of the bad bacteria, common dental issues arise such as cavities, gum diseases, tooth loss, and tooth decay. These concerns can be prevented by obtaining a better understanding of the role of microorganisms in dental diseases.

It is important to know how these harmful bacteria function to better bring awareness to the importance of getting rid of them. One of the most common dental concerns worldwide are cavities which are caused by Streptococcus mutans. These acid-producing bacteria colonize the dental surface and cause damage with the help of fermentable carbohydrates. Some common foods that contain fermentable carbohydrates include those with free or added sugars and acids in snacks, processed food, and soft drinks. S. mutans use the sugar in broken down fermentable carbohydrates to produce lactic acid compounds, most commonly lactic acid, that are left on your tooth. This acid is what causes the outer layer of the tooth – enamel – to break down and the bacteria to get its way into the tooth and multiply. This rapid growth not only deteriorates the enamel but can cause tooth decay or loss depending on how frequent sugar is left in the mouth. What makes controlling this bacteria difficult is the way they like to live in the grooves of the tooth; which, if not brushed frequently or effectively can disrupt the balance of the microbiome causing concerns.

Just as S. mutans like to get into the hard to reach places and cause dental issues, so do Porphyromonas gingivalis, Tannerella forsythia, and Treponema denticola together known as the “red complex”. These harmful bacteria lead to gum disease, specifically chronic periodontitis. This can present itself with irritation and swelling of the gums in its milder form. This is due to an accumulation of plaque where the tooth and gum meet and the inner part of the gum. Plaque can be thought of as a sticky substance made up of food and saliva that sits in your mouth which provides a home for bacteria to feed and multiply. Similar to S. mutans, the “red complex” also survives off of sugars as well as amino acids in the later developed pockets where sugar is not available. Due to the rapid growth of bacteria, the disease progresses by the breakdown of periodontal tissue forming deep pockets in the gums.

The depth of these pockets are directly correlated with the number of bacteria breaking down the foundation for the teeth. So just as a house with an unstable foundation will collapse with added stress, so too will a tooth with deteriorating tissue and continuously growing bacteria.

This can cause many complications such as tissue, bone, and tooth loss due to a decrease in supportive structures as well as reduced blood flow.

the gums, plaque build up, and pathogens responsible for periodontal disease such as P. gingivalis which was discussed above. A similar study showed that an oral probiotic containing L. reuteri improved gum attachment, and pocket depth. Chewing on gum twice per day for 14 days was also shown to reduce bad breath significantly compared to the control group taking placebo gum.

Aside from helping with gum disease and bad breath, L. reuteri also has a positive effect with cavities. It was shown that in the presence of L. reuteri there were lower levels of lactic acid in saliva which broke down the enamel. The way L. reuteri is able to do all of this is by creating an antimicrobial peptide called Reuterin which kills other bacterial species. It may lower levels of S. mutans and pathogens that cause periodontal disease by producing a key anti-inflammatory, IL-10. With this, L. reuteri is able to keep your oral microbiome in equilibrium and prevent common dental issues from arising.

It is important to understand that the harmful bacteria discussed above are opportunistic pathogens which means they are normally present in the body without causing disease but cause diseases under certain conditions. These situations can include weakened immunity, genetics, dry mouth, and altered microbiota from low hygiene. It is the beneficial bacteria such as L. reuteri which help lessen the chances of dental problems. What is more important is the overall mix of microbes in your oral microbiome than any single species. That being said, in order to keep a good balance of all of your microbes, it is important to take simple actions that will help the bacteria help you; this includes avoiding sugar, keeping good oral hygiene, and visiting your local dentist.

When you eat, you are not just feeding yourself, but the bacteria that live in your body as well.

This is especially true for the tooth decay-causing bacteria that turn the sugar from foods into enamel-dissolving lactic acid. Having a consistent routine of brushing your teeth, flossing, and using mouthwash will help balance the microbiome and reduce the potential for dental complications. What also helps remove this bacteria from hard to reach places is visiting your local dentist for a professional cleaning every 6 months. These actions will not only help you take control of your own microbiome, but also prevent the harmful bacteria from controlling you.

How the Gut Immune System Affects Mental Health

BY ETHAN BENTLEY DESIGN: JUDITH JUSTE

C

linical depression is a mental health disorder that is associated with a consistently depressed mood or loss of interest in activities which impedes the daily life of the individual.

This condition not only causes great mental distress but also disrupts biological processes that regulate inflammation, coagulation, metabolism, sleep, appetite and other functions. When we think of mental health, many think of psychological factors such as social interaction or how one was raised; but many other factors play a role in your psychology, including the immune system of your gut.

The biochemical causes of many mental health disorders, like depression, are not well understood; however, developing research has shown that they are not simply the result of a chemical imbalance of the brain. To better understand the mechanism of depression, researchers have investigated the ability of T-cells found in the gut immune system to determine the role they play in the functioning of the brain. Many different stress-related pathways play a role in the development of depression and the gut immune pathway relies on the γδ T cells to moderate these types of psychological stress responses. This research not only has applications in understanding the cause of mental health disorders but also provides potential therapeutic targets that could be used to prevent and manage mental disorders.

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While it may seem strange to look for answers to a psychological dysfunction in the gut, it is important to understand the role that the gut-brain axis plays in maintaining homeostasis throughout the body.

The gut-brain axis is a system throughout the body that links intestinal functions with the emotional and cognitive center through the use of neural, endocrine, immune and humoral links. Aspects of this axis, including the central nervous system and the hypothalamic-pituitary gland involved in hormone secretion, can be activated in response to environmental factors such as stress or emotions. This system relies on a two-way communication system, so the development of stressors in the gut can lead to the conditions that create depression.

While the role the gut plays in homeostasis has been known, it is only recently that the microbiota within the gut have been acknowledged as a key regulator of the axis. Through this role, the microbiome is shown to play an essential part in the development and health of the brain and thus, is implicated in various psychiatric, neurological, and neurodegenerative disorders. The microbial diversity of a person tends to decrease with age. As a result of this, elderly populations are at an increased risk of developing these disorders and thus increasing susceptibility to mental health dysfunction. Due to the fact that stress can alter the microbial composition of the body, the gut and its corresponding microbes play a key role in cognitive development through the gut-brain axis.

Since the microbiome of the gut is essential in maintaining homeostasis in the body, the way that the intestinal immune system interacts with the gut has a direct impact on brain function. While the mechanisms of this interaction are not fully understood, an analysis of γδ T cells has revealed its role in monitoring the body’s response to chronic stressors through the use of dectin-1 signaling.

The γδ T cells are a type of T lymphocyte residing in the gut that is involved in the inflammatory response, a process that imposes a large amount of stress on the microbiome and is involved in the regulation of social behavior. Dectin-1 is a protein receptor that regulates intestinal inflammation and is capable of accumulating γδ T cells, making dectin-1 a promoter of psychological stress responses that could lead to the development of depression. This suggests that inhibiting dectin-1 could be the target of treatments to aid those suffering from mental disorders. By suppressing this receptor, intestinal inflammation could be stopped, which could prevent stress-induced behavioral abnormalities from occurring by stopping γδ T cells from acting as a gut immunity stressor. As a result, their ability to cause the inflammatory response would decrease, thus allowing the microbiota that is so critical for cognitive function to thrive.

Mental health disorders, such as depression, cannot simply be reduced to a simple chemical imbalance. Instead, they are the result of a complex network of interactions throughout the body. The biochemical pathways that lead to depression including the gut-brain axis are not fully understood, however, they are being analyzed to find new treatment opportunities. The exploration of the role that the immune system and specifically γδ T cells have on stress response in the gut microbiome requires more research to fully understand. The study of mental health disorders from multiple biochemical angles has the potential to yield novel approaches that can aid in both the prevention and treatment of these conditions, improving and even saving lives.

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I

n our current society, pleasure is only a few inches away.

Smartphones, with their countless apps, addictive social media and constantly evolving technology allow easy access to joy, right at our fingertips. With all of these advantages, how could smartphones be a bad thing? Think about this: have you ever found yourself holding your phone, without being able to remember when or why you picked it up? This is something many of us are guilty of, but it can be difficult to see why. Otherwise, this everyday action, something as simple as using your

smartphone, can be harmful.

Additionally, there mechanisms in the body that deal directly with pleasure and pain. Therefore, if we understand how these

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mechanisms work, we can use them to boost productivity and even break some habits that we’re not entirely proud of.

The neurotransmitter dopamine significantly impacts how we, as humans, experience pleasure. Let’s imagine a student who is currently procrastinating, and is on their phone, falling for the common belief that they’ll be productive after they “take a break.”

Unfortunately, this plan is doomed from the start.

By avoiding homework and using their phone, the student creates a highly dopaminergic experience, quickly gaining excess dopamine. This rapidly becomes an infinite cycle: once the student starts indulging, they will never be satisfied, and always crave more. For example, after they’re done on the phone, they might delay it even more and think, “oh, I’ll begin after I play video games.” Sound familiar? This is just an example of an experience many of us may have gone through. Thereof, a key point to remember is that when you engage in dopaminergic activities, you will always be chasing after something else even more potent.

Therefore, once you understand the consequences and are able to recognize these patterns, it is easier to avoid falling into the detrimental cycle of dopaminergic activities and their adverse effects.

As with the smartphone example, these temporary hits of dopamine are so enjoyable that it becomes difficult to shut them off and move on to other tasks, especially if the next task is less enjoyable. This happens because dopamine systems are designed to do this. You can think of the dopamine system as maintaining the equilibrium between pain and pleasure. For instance, a corresponding counterbalance of

pain is required to restore balance whenever we engage in pleasurable activities. For example, when we’re watching a show that we really like, after we stop watching it, we are bound to experience a type of pain. This is the body doing its job of maintaining homeostasis of dopamine.

Moreover, when we repeatedly expose ourselves to pleasure, particularly the kind that’s easy to attain without effort, our bodies continuously struggle to maintain this balance. We can become dependent on artificial substances or behaviors to maintain normal dopamine levels; this could be abusing drugs like amphetamine (Adderall) or something as simple as eating too many desserts. “Why should I do anything if I can pursue this fun experience forever?” If overindulged in constantly, it’s easy to have such thoughts, and it may negatively affect various aspects of one’s life, such as grades, motivation, and concentration. Ultimately, we’re stuck in a cycle we’re not proud of, but continuously need to pursue.

Even something as simple as procrastination can have this effect, where we choose to be on our phones instead of focusing on our tasks.

It’s essential to keep in mind that such dopamine cycles are not only relevant in the experiences we engage in, but also in our addictions, whether it be substances or video games.

While this may seem like an endless cycle, there is hope: we can use this naturally occurring system to our advantage. If used in the right way, the dopamine system can be used to overcome any bad habit or behavior. This can be transformative for many people. Once you stop engaging with the artificial source of dopamine, you’ll start to realize and genuinely enjoy the little, or even seemingly tricky things in life. The dopamine system isn’t here to punish you, but rather, it’s built on a foundation to reward you for behaviors that you accomplished despite the extra effort it may have required. For

example, dopamine has the power to motivate humans to evolve and develop through generations. It rewarded our ancestors for doing something as simple as eating or hunting which may be why we even exist today.

Indulging in pleasures is easy, but this does not mean we should stop enjoying things. Moderation is always key. We should strive to continue doing the things we love, but also be more mindful towards those that require more pursuit and effort, instead of scrolling mindlessly through our smartphones for hours on end. We can start this by setting achievable goals and working towards them.

Each small accomplishment towards your goals will release natural and meaningful dopamine levels and motivate you to keep pushing forward.

Another strategy is just taking care of your overall health, for example, engaging in things like healthy eating and exercise.

These may initially seem complex and not worth it, but once you cut out artificial sources of dopamine, you will start to genuinely enjoy healthier activities that may have not seemed as appealing previously, as it’s a highly dopaminergic activity that also requires effort.

Sometimes, accomplishing the smallest goals can lead us to ultimate happiness and success.

Dopamine is not meant to be our enemy. Its systems exist for important reasons, which can do both good and harm. We must avoid overindulgence to keep the systems in check, and pursue meaningful activities that require effort and ultimately bring us joy. If we understand and use it properly, dopamine is an ally that can keep us motivated and happy forever.

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I

n the hit “HBO” show “The Last of Us,” the world enters a post-apocalyptic state due to a fungus that turns humans into dangerous zombie-esque creatures. The disease in the show is based off of the real infection caused by the Cordyceps fungus, which is capable of hijacking the motor control of insects; The Cordyceps attach themselves to and invade their target, where the fungus proceeds to grow and manipulate their victim, thus forcing it into a zombie-like state. The insect is then directed to an ideal place for the fungus to create spores and once in position, the Cordyceps kill the ant and a stalk bursts out of the insect’s head. While humans don’t need to fear being turned into zombies anytime soon, the world of “The Last of Us” highlights the potential danger associated with the emergence of fungal infections.

Fungi are a kingdom of eukaryotes including organisms such as mushrooms, yeast, mildew and mold. Fungi have always had the ability to infect humans; however, they have not been a primary concern of disease since many fungi cannot survive at the temperature necessary to live in the human body. However, as the overall temperature of Earth rises due to global climate change, many fungi have begun to adapt to survive at higher temperatures, thus increasing the likelihood they could survive in humans. One of the first pathogens that is believed to have evolved due to the changing climate is Candida auris. This fungus has caused alarm recently due to its rapid spread throughout the United States healthcare system and represents a dangerous trend as more fungal infections begin to emerge.

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by eTHAN bENTLeY

When most think of infectious diseases, we tend to envision bacteria, viruses and parasites as the major threats to our health; however, fungi can be just as dangerous. Fungal infections in humans range from Athlete’s Foot, caused by Tinea pedis, to far more deadly diseases that can reach a mortality rate of up to 90%.

Fungi mortality rates are often higher than bacterial diseases and other diseases but despite the high death toll, fungi attract far less attention since they tend to only kill immunocompromised individuals. Such deaths occur because many immunocompromised individuals have a below-average internal body temperature, which is the immune system’s main defense against fungal and viral growth.

Since most of the population is not as susceptible to fungal infections, considerably less antifungals are designed to respond to these high mortality diseases. If the conditions of the environment were not changing, this would not be that much of a problem, as fungi have an optimal temperature at which they can survive; unless motivated, these diseases would not make the jump to infect humans. Under rapidly increasing temperatures however, the fungi endure stress; as temperatures increase, proteins denature and atmospheric pressure changes, causing osmotic pressure to which fungi must adapt. As heat-adapted fungal infections emerge as a result of climate change, the need for new antifungals also rises, as fungi such as C. auris are also adapting to drugs that are used for

DESIGN: ChauntÉ Lewis

treatment.

Candida auris was first identified in an ear infection in Japan in 2009 and has since spread to become a global health issue. Due to the fact that C .auris is most infectious amongst those who have weakened immune systems such as those with chronic diseases or those undergoing certain medical treatments, this fungus has become prominent in hospitals. C. auris has been responsible for many different outbreaks in hospitals and, as a result, the disease has built up a resistance to many of the drugs that are typically used to treat other different types of Candida infections.

The disease is spread through the contamination of surfaces, which allows Candida to spread through hospitals and healthcare facilities. Once the fungus makes its way into the body, it colonizes the skin, where it then makes its way into the bloodstream, causing severe infections which often lead to death in immunocompromised people.

As one of the first fungi that is believed to have developed as a result of rising temperature, this disease has created alarm amongst healthcare officials due to not only its high temperature resistance, but its multidrug resistance and high mortality rate.

While “The Last of Us” presents an entertaining work of fiction, the biological concepts that lead to the development of the cordyceps fungus are based in reality. As the damaging effects of global climate change continue to push organisms to evolve, it is clear that humans must also evolve to deal with these new challenges. The threat of fungal infections continues to rise and with Candida auris as possibly the first fungus to develop the ability to survive in humans, new measures must be taken to combat them. Fungi may not be able to bite us quite yet, but coupled with the development of drug resistance, it’s clear that a new type of microbial monster is rising.

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By Caleb Heathershaw, Director of Writing

W

hat stories will be told about you?

Write at the Museum is a collection of five essays that explore how the past has impacted the present. To equip our writing team to explain the historical stories behind contemporary scientific perspectives, I partnered with The Kislak Center at the University of Miami (within Richter) which houses insanely cool artifacts, books, maps, and manuscripts that span thousands of years of history. We sat down with Kepler’s tables (1627) which modernized planetary motion, Mary Shelly’s Frankenstein (1831) which established science fiction as a literary genre, and the journals of the American Philosophical Society (1771) which gave a fascinating window into scientific thinkers like Benjamin Franklin at the turn of the American Revolution. After adventuring through this treasure trove of extraordinary primary sources, we uncovered the following fascinating stories: First, is my foray into the origins of Frankenstein. If you have attended any English literature class, you know that the monster is not the Creature - the monster is Victor Frankenstein, the Creator. You may not know the story itself has quite monstrous origins. Inspired by the 1831 edition of the novel and its masterful introduction, my article explores the personal, cultural, and scientific circumstances surrounding Frankenstein’s gothic genesis.

Design: Chaunté Lewis

In the second article, Ethan Tieu explores the history of scientific ethics, mimicking the framing letter structure of Frankenstein.

Inspired by the Lynd Ward illustrated edition of Frankenstein, Tieu recounts history in graphic detail to reanimate our memory of just how grotesque our journey was to reach modern ethical understandings in science.

Next, Michel Hughye investigates the question, “What does it mean to be human?” Inspired by the 16th-century work of Bartolome de las Casas, Hughye enters moments in time where human distinction was called into question and invites us to consider the question ourselves.

Then, Judith Juste applies ancient linguistic methods to modern medical problems. By using the tools from the past to improve the present, Juste offers a translational approach to patient education, teaching us that medical comprehension may be as easy as our ABCs. In the final piece, Giana Vitale scrutinizes the monstrous consequences of monoculture. Looking to the ancient farming practices of the Mayans and the observations of 19th century environmentalist George Marsh, Vitale reveals that responsible agriculture is not only possible, it is necessary.

Enter history with us, for in the past lies the pathway to the future.

Special thanks to Arthur Dunkelman, the curator of the Kislak Collection, for your incredible insight and inspiring stories.

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By Caleb Heathershaw Illustration & Design: Veronica Richmond

I

t was on a dreary night of November that I beheld the accomplishment of my toils. With an anxiety that almost amounted to agony, I collected the instruments of life around me, that I might infuse a spark of being into the lifeless thing that lay at my feet. It was already one in the morning; the rain pattered dismally against the panes, and my candle was nearly burnt out, when, by the glimmer of the half-extinguished light, I saw the dull yellow eye of the creature open; it breathed hard, and a convulsive motion agitated its limbs.

Hidden deep within the Richter Library, there sits an antique literary window into the defining tale of science fiction. In 1818, at age 20, Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley published Frankenstein; or, the Modern Prometheus. The novel follows the story of a young scientist named Victor Frankenstein, who is discovered washed ashore in the Arctic by the explorer R. Walton. Victor recounts his macabre attempt to create a living creature from corpses and the consequences of his Creature’s failed quest for companionship. “Frankenstein” blurs the line between science and fiction, making it the first true science fiction novel, and arguably the genre’s most impactful work. This story exposed the masses to the macabre scientific debates of the intelligentsia of the time and alluded to the potential consequences of their work- literary and scientific. After years of professional success and personal tragedy, Shelley published a third edition of the novel in 1831, which you can see for yourself in the Kislak Center. This edition contains the first printed illustration of the Creature and an introduction written by Shelley herself explaining how she, “then a young girl, came to think of so very hideous an idea.”

Although Mary Shelley’s introduction describes her novel’s conception with seemingly facetious mythical flair, her journals and letters confirm the chaos to be true. From “Genesis” to “Paradise Lost,” origin stories throughout history follow a familiar motif: Out of Chaos, Creation. I hope to illuminate the chaotic interplay between science, literature, and history from which Mary Shelley’s creation arose and reveal the Creator hiding in the shadows.

On a Dark and Stormy Night When I placed my head on my pillow, I did not sleep, nor could I be said

to think. My imagination, unbidden, possessed and guided me, gifting the successive images that arose in my mind with a vividness far beyond the usual bounds of reverie. I saw—with shut eyes, but acute mental vision, —I saw the pale student of unhallowed arts kneeling beside the thing he had put together.

In 1816, Mary Shelley, her sister Claire, her husband Percy, her one-year-old son William, and physician John Polidori spent the summer in Geneva high in the Alps at Villa Diodati, the holiday home of Lord George Byron. The summer was exceptionally dark and stormy due to the looming clouds of the 1815 eruption of Mount Tambora, the most violent volcanic eruption in millennia. Unaware of the eruption, the Shelleys had no explanation for the incessant torrent that often forced them inside. On one stormy June evening, the group read German ghost stories from Phantasmagoria late into the night.

Afterward, Byron suggested each member write a haunting tale of their own. For weeks, Mary faced that “blank incapability of invention which is the greatest misery of authorship.” While sitting by the fireplace on yet another dark evening, Lord Byron and Percy debated the scientific possibility of reanimating life and the harrowing finality of death, drifting between the sublime and the macabre. Mary listened from the sofa. That night, Mary had a dream, so haunting, so clear, that the swirling chaos of her imagination began to crystallize in the form of a Creator and his Creature. To understand the genesis of this debate, we must look further back into the conversation of that fateful night.

The Spark of Life Many and long were the conversations between Lord Byron and Shelley, to which I was a devout but nearly silent listener. During one of these, various philosophical doctrines were discussed, and among others the nature of the principle of life, and whether there was any probability of its ever being discovered and communicated. They talked of the experiments of Dr. Darwin… who preserved a piece of vermicelli in a glass case, till by some extraordinary means it began to move with voluntary motion. Not thus, after all, would life be given. Perhaps a corpse would be re-animated; galvanism had given token of such things: perhaps the component parts of a creature might be manufactured, brought together, and endued with vital warmth.

For the readers of Frankenstein in 1818, or even 1831, electrifying the dead back to life would have not seemed like outlandish science

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fiction but a terrifying possibility quite close to occurring. Mary grew up surrounded by the intelligentsia of the Romantic period, a time when poets embraced the imaginative darkness within, politicians discussed the societal collapse of ideals seen in the french revolution, philosophers rejected enlightenment rational snobbery in favor of gothic ambivalence, and scientists passionately debated the nature of electricity and the origin of life.

In June of 1752, Benjamin Franklin sent a kite attached to a Leyden Jar (a 16thcentury electricity storage device and a primitive capacitor) into a thunderstorm and demonstrated that lightning was, in fact, a carrier of electricity. Philosopher Immanuel Kant declared in a 1775 essay, “There is such a thing as right taste in natural science, which knows how to distinguish the wild extravagances of unbridled curiosity from cautious judgments of reasonable credibility.

From the Prometheus of recent times Mr. Franklin, who wanted to disarm the thunder, down to the man who wants to extinguish the fire in the workshop of Vulcanus, all these endeavors result in the humiliating reminder that Man never can be anything more than a man.” Kant accused Mr. Franklin of snatching lighting from the gods regardless of consequences, just like the mythical Grecian Prometheus, an accusation alluded to by Mary Shelley’s titular character.

Luigi Galvani, an Italian electrophysiologist at the University of Bologna, made a startling discovery in 1780 that dead frog legs twitch when shocked with a spark. In his groundbreaking treatise “Commentary on the Force of Electricity on Muscular Motion," he recounts, "The phenomenon always occurred in the same manner: violent contraction in individual muscles of the limbs, just as if the prepared animal had been seized with tetanus, were induced at the same moment of time in which sparks were discharged." For the first time, electricity was thought to be a substance generated in the nervous system that directly caused muscle contraction, a phenomenon dubbed animal electricity, or galvanism. Galvanism, as Mary mentioned, was believed to be the animating force of life and imagined as the means to the fantastic.

Alessandro Volta thought that the electrochemical gradient created between substances of differing composition drove electric current, not animal electricity. Volta went on to create the voltaic pile, the first battery - arguably the most important invention in science.

However, bitter battles ensued between Volta’s followers and Galvani’s followers, including a violent public debate involving Mary Shelley’s own physician William Lawrence and private debates in the parlor of Lord Byron that Mary overheard.

In 1803, Luigi Aldini, the nephew of Galvani himself, sought to put his critics to rest by demonstrating his uncle's theory in a spectacularly

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macabre fashion. In the London Royal College of Surgeons anatomy amphitheater, he gathered dozens of scientists and dignitaries to gawk at his latest demonstration. Aldini applied a massive battery to the corpse of a recently deceased prisoner. The corpse contracted violently, and onlookers watched as “his jaw quivered, his left eye opened, and his face convulsed.”, Aldini then attached leads to the prisoner’s ear and anus, causing the entire body to jerk up, seemingly bringing the dead back to life. While young Mary was not in attendance that day, this experiment and the surrounding galvanism debate fueled cultural imaginations and scientific discussion for decades.

Physician and naturalist Erasmus Darwin (grandfather of Charles Darwin) explored the spontaneous creation in his astounding 1803 poem/treatise “The Temple of Nature.”

“Organic Life began beneath the waves…. / Hence without parent by spontaneous birth / Rise the first specks of animated earth.” In Darwin’s accompanying notes for this line, he describes his experiments with the Vorticella or Wheel Animal (a worm species) entering a suspended animation when on dry land, then leaping into life when placed back into the water. The reanimation of this Vorticella worm may have been what Mary was remembering when she referred to the movement of Vermicelli, a type of dried pasta. Her clouded memory reveals how science can often seem as fantastical as myth.

Creating a Monster “Invention, it must be humbly admitted, does not consist in creating out of void, but out of chaos; the materials must, in the first place, be afforded: it can give form to dark, shapeless substances, but cannot bring into being the substance itself…

Invention consists in the capacity of seizing on the capabilities of a subject, and in the power of moulding and fashioning ideas suggested to it.”

Creation is not a product of the void but of chaos directed.

As I am writing this, I’m peering out of my window into a dark stormy night. Bright sparks of electricity are flying across the sky in a raging thunderstorm. A thought has struck me. In dissecting the origins of Frankenstein to construct my own narrative about the interplay between science, literature, and history, have I fallen into the same pattern as Victor Frankenstein himself? Anatomical reconstructions of the past, even when given a spark, do not bring the dead to life. Dr. Frankenstein is not real, and neither is his creature. Yet somehow, an author who has been dead and buried in St. Peter’s Church for one hundred and fifty-two years has imprinted her imagination into mine. And now, through this very page, the moist, three-pound glob of electrified carbon behind my eyes is imposing my thoughts on your mind.

Electricity may spark our bodies into animation, but we, the creators, get to choose what story we bring to life.

On the morrow I announced that I had thought of a story. I began that day with the words, It was on a dreary night of November, making only a transcript of the grim terrors of my waking dream… And now, once again, I bid my hideous progeny go forth and prosper.

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have a question for you: What makes you human?

You could begin with the anatomical features: bipedalism, a voice box capable of language, and opposable thumbs to name a few. It’s more complicated than that, though.

You see, the question of what sets humans apart and the implications of humans being set apart is not a new area of debate.

Philosophers, scientists, and laymen have debated the answer to this question for generations. I’m sure it’s one you’ve asked yourself at some point. Human exceptionalism is the formal name of this topic of debate, stating that humans are unique and distinctive from other organisms, possessing innate value within themselves because of this distinction. So after all this time, what have people in history had to say about this topic?

What has historically defined a human? How does modern science define a human? How do you?

Nearly 2400 years ago, Aristotle said that “The ultimate value of life depends upon awareness and the power of contemplation rather than upon mere survival.”

Aristotle’s claim that awareness and contemplation set humans apart is supported by modern experts. Dr. Thomas Suddendorf, a renowned animal cognition researcher out of the University of Queensland, stated in his book The Gap: The Science of What Separates Us From Other Animals that two major features separate humans from any other species: “our open-ended ability to imagine and reflect on different situations, and our deep-seated drive to link our scenario-building minds together.”

Suddendorf also concluded that “There is no

evidence that animals are able to construct, reflect and compare different future scenarios like humans are.” While animals can predict events through associative learning, such as punishments and rewards, humans have an internal theater with a “stage”, “actors”, and “set”, which allows them to bring situations, even novel ones, to life. From envisioning where you’ll be in 5 years to standing in the shower coming up with that perfect comeback for an argument you had years ago, contemplation is one of the defining factors of what makes us human.

Still, history has been riddled with conflicts

predicated on differing definitions of what makes someone human.

Take for example the Spanish conquest of the Americas, and the treatment of the Native Americans.

While appearing as human, much debate occurred over whether these people were “entirely” human. Indigenous people looked human, but their actions, language, beliefs, and way of life were very different from what these Spaniards had known.

Many Spaniards took advantage of this, declaring the Natives subhuman and treating them horrifically.

In History of the Indies, Bartolome de las Casas described in vulgar detail the treatment of the Indians, “With my own eyes I saw Spaniards cut off the nose and ears of Indians, male and female, without provocation, merely because it pleased them to do it. ...Likewise, I saw how they summoned the caciques and the chief rulers to come, assuring them safety, and when they peacefully came, they were taken captive and burned.” In the midst of this horror, Bartolome de las Casas, a recently appointed Bishop in the Church of Spain, stood up for the lives and rights of the Indians, using his Christian faith to defend their humanity. In his A Short Account of the Devastation of the Indies, Casas writes “God made all the peoples of this area, many and varied as they are, as open and as innocent as can be imagined.” Despite their differences, which many used to justify calling the Natives subhuman, Casas believed that these people were made by God and that they had souls and consciences just like that of the Spaniards. Casas also wrote “Christ wanted love to be called his single commandment. This we owe

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to all men. Nobody is excepted.” As a consequence of his belief in God creating all men, he comes to another conclusion that the command of Christ to “love thy neighbor” must be applied to all, including the Natives, by showing kindness and dignity. Through these arguments, Casas was able to enact change through the Church of Spain, leading to laws passed on the proper treatment of the Natives, namely the New Laws of the Indies for the Good Treatment and Preservation of the Indians, which abolished slavery of the Indians and the encomienda system. Fast forwarding hundreds of years into the future from Casas, rhetoric similar to his can be seen in movements such as the Civil Rights movement. Dr. King shared the strong Christian beliefs that Casas had as a Baptist minister, even claiming at one point that

“Segregation is a blatant denial of the unity which we all have in Christ Jesus.” Again, we see this appeal to a unity that stems from something greater than humanity, a God, who made, loved, and redeemed His people so that they would be unified in love for one another. Religious appeals, while not universal, have been foundational to humanity’s definition of distinctiveness.

As we look at the present, modern advents in science are bringing entirely new perspectives and layers to this debate. For example, embryonic stem cells are pluripotent, being able to give rise to every cell type in the body, making them a major focus of research for their potential medicinal properties. However, embryonic stem cells are often harvested from human embryos in the blastocyst stage, destroying the embryo. Depending on one’s answer to the critical question of when one becomes a human, this process could be viewed as ending a life, as the embryo would have otherwise developed into a fully-functioning human being. This debate has even reached as high as the US presidency, with presidents since Bush banning then reversing bans on fetal stem cell harvesting.

Regardless of one's stance on the subject, the defining line between human and not yet is crucial to society’s ethical debate.

While not exhaustive, this brief walk through history has revealed a couple of key moments in the debate about what makes humanity well… human.

Aristotle appealed to the mental, as complex contemplation is unique to humans alone.

Casas appealed to the spiritual, claiming humans are made by God and deserving of love and respect without exception.

These claims by Aristotle, Casas, and others have catalyzed massive changes in how the world views and treats people across the span of history. As we enter a new era of scientific advancement through genetic editing and artificial intelligence, we face new questions. Would a human clone be considered human?

Would AI be considered contemplative? How will these technologies affect our perception of ourselves?

So I’ll ask again: What makes you human?

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LETTER X To Mrs. SAVILLE, England.

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LETTER XI To Mrs. SAVILLE, England.

Alabama, Oct. 23th, 18—.

Archangel (Arctic Circle), Nov. 19th, 17—.

ou will rejoice to hear that no disaster has accompanied my returning voyage, for I now stand on familiar ground.

Archangel has been veiled in a blanket of snow since my landing, with its frosty paths reminding me of the expansive icy seas that I have only just escaped from. Though I wish that I could write to you with plans of concluding my journey and returning to your care in England, I have come to realize that my travels are far from over.

While I do not doubt the cruelty with which Victor (my tragic friend of passion) was taken from me, far crueler are my thoughts that his work may have been reprehensible. Desecrating the bodies of the deceased? Forging life from what has died? Although Victor’s story has enthralled me to no end, I have had ample time during my returning voyage to recognize that his actions certainly question where the boundary lies between pursuing knowledge as a passionate scientist and manipulating nature as a self-appointed “God”. His heart and unshakable conviction may have been remarkable, but the means by which he realized his scientific desires most definitely merit ethical deliberation.

My dear sister, the many technological advancements of our time will propel vigorous scientific advancement in the years to come.

And yet, from Victor’s life, I have only now been introduced to the previously hidden ethical considerations that we must follow if we are to wield these advancements as responsible pioneers of knowledge; for if we were to blindly utilize our new technologies to pursue scientific paths without regard to ethics as Victor did, the monsters — the immoral causes and consequences — of our creation would be unfathomable and unrelenting.

It is in light of this understanding that I cannot return home. As science leaps forward, I hope to see moral considerations manifest into necessary contracts with my very own eyes. It is my ambition to shed light on the moments that will birth our ethical understandings and to chronicle the codification of ideals. Perhaps we will reach a delicate balance between the pursuit of knowledge and the preservation of our humanity as moral beings — a balance my dear friend left unattained.

Victor may have created the first of many ethical monsters, but I pray that these ethical understandings will stifle the growth of similarly hideous monsters in coming times.

I promise to write often, wherever and whenever I may be.

Your affectionate brother, R. WALTON.

My dear sister, I have observed brilliant developments in medical practices throughout my travels, but I have been horrified by the numerous injustices in medical experimentation that have arisen alongside.

One of the most notorious individuals that I have encountered is J. Marion Sims, a surgeon who experimented on enslaved women without anesthesia or informed consent.

Without regard for the safety of his participants, Dr. Sims has used these women as experimental subjects in order to perfect his surgical techniques; however, these women who were forced to participate have suffered a great range of physical and mental afflictions as a result. While I have heard many begin to call Dr. Sims the “father of gynecology,” I believe his methods pose grave ethical concerns — and I am not alone in this sentiment.

The public outrage resulting from news of these atrocities has only been reinforced as additional examples of unethical medical experiments have come to light, such as the deliberate infection of prisoners with malaria, yellow fever, and other diseases, and the use of electric shock therapy on mental patients without their consent. It would be untruthful to insist that no scientific advancements have been yielded from these inhumane efforts, but it is imperative to recognize the widespread ethical concerns triggered by these experiments’ dubious means. Whereas the unfortunate circumstances of morally debatable experiments — like Victor’s creature — were known only to a select few during the previous century,

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these new, publicized cases of human experimentation have empowered the public to develop their first voice in the realm of scientific ethics — a voice demanding humane treatment of human subjects.

However, I must admit that not all share these ethical concerns; some are even advocating for the restricting of ethical guidelines on the grounds that such regulations would repress scientific advancement. Knowing Victor’s past, I cannot agree with this opposition. Victor was once one of these individuals, a scientist driven to the edge of scientific exploration by any means. Having heard his regrets, of how he sacrificed not only his life but also the lives of his beloved as a consequence of his studies, I conclude that meaningful, constructive scientific progress cannot exist in conflict with our connection to our humanity.

As many have begun to share in this moral understanding, I expect ethical guidelines to be established in the wake of these inhuman human studies. As of now, however, the sciences remain a lawless territory when it comes to the treatment of experimental subjects.

Your affectionate brother, R. WALTON.

LETTER XII To Mrs. SAVILLE, England.

Nuremberg, Oct. 2th, 19—.

You will be excited to hear that in recent years I have observed the most drastic developments in our understanding of scientific ethics! Whereas in previous years ethical discussion was limited to conversations on human experimentation, the emergence of new technologies has resulted in the establishment of the first ethical guidelines — stifling the emergence of Victor’s creatures in our time.

Unjust medical experimentation on human subjects has seemed to carry over from the previous century, fueling public outrage and driving the establishment of new ethical regulations. During my recent traveIs through Alabama, I encountered the horrid Tuskegee Syphilis Study: hundreds of Black men with syphilis were left untreated — even after a cure was discovered — so that scientists could investigate the progression of the disease. With this and further breaches of humane treatment, public outrage over the lack of regulations for the treatment of human subjects has reached its tipping point. These monsters of the scientific world had been left to wander long enough, and the time was right to address this issue.

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After decades of public outrage, I am relieved to write that a number of ethical guidelines have been established to protect the welfare of human subjects. Most notably, the National Research Act — passed largely in response to the Tuskegee Syphilis Study — released the Belmont Report that outlined ethical principles for all research involving human subjects. In the aftermath of World War II, the Nuremberg Trials also established an official ethical precedent by prosecuting Nazi scientists and doctors for their unethical experiments on human subjects during the war. However, it is during World War II that I noticed a new ethical concern reach the public eye — one that is in stark contrast to what I have previously observed.

World War II ended with what can be described as nothing less than a catastrophe.

Scientific advances within the field of atomic energy enabled the United States to develop an atomic bomb, which they then dropped on the Japanese cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. In the aftermath of the damage and death caused by the bombings, profuse public outrage ensued, criticizing the moral underpinnings of the bombings and calling for ethical guidelines for the development and application of scientific technology. Organizations such as the United Nations and the International Atomic Energy Agency would eventually establish these regulations, but I believe that this newfound public scrutiny of scientific technology more importantly served as a turning point for research ethics: from questioning the application of humans in research to questioning the application of scientific technology itself.

Until now, Victor’s monster has manifested itself through unethical research practices on humans — but these unjust practices have now been addressed by new regulations while technological advancements have only grown in complexity and controversy. While the monster may have taken a biological form over the past two centuries, it is clear that new advances in scientific technology have opened doors for the creature to inhabit.

Your affectionate brother, R. WALTON.

LETTER XIII To Mrs. SAVILLE, England.

San Francisco, Apr. 11th, 20—.

Bridging the second half of the previous century and present times, technology is most definitely at the forefront of modern ethical concerns. With the establishment of many ethical regulations in human research and the establishment of countless institutional

review boards, I believe that ethical practices within human studies — and even within animal studies — have been well established. The emergent gray area, where rapid advances in the absence of ethical guidelines have allowed Victor’s monster to roam, now lies in the field of scientific technology.

One major ethical concern that has arisen in recent years is genetic editing. While the potential benefits of being able to edit our genetic code are clear, there are also risks associated with this technology, including the possibility of creating new diseases and the potential for discrimination based on genetic traits. In fact, researchers who have attempted to genetically modify human subjects have come under intense scrutiny and been exiled from the scientific community.

Cloning is an area of similar concern, particularly when it comes to the possibility of human cloning. A sheep named Dolly was cloned a few decades ago, but whether this technology is sufficiently refined and ethically sound for human use is still under intense debate.

Artificial intelligence is another area that has the potential for both great benefits and ethical concerns. The development of AI technology has the potential to revolutionize many fields, but there are also concerns around job displacement and the potential for misuse, especially when it comes to the development of chatbots.

While chatbots can be useful tools for generating ideas and assisting writers, there is also the potential for chatbots to be used for unethical purposes, such as spreading disinformation, plagiarizing content, and producing writing that is difficult to distinguish from

that of human authors. In fact, you may have failed to notice that this paragraph, along with the previous three, were written by ChatGPT! Through my travels and through these years, I have been given the opportunity to not only witness the sublime strides of science but also the emergence of the ethical guidelines that accompany it. In Victor’s time, experiments on human subjects and biological models were free from any form of established ethical guidelines — regardless of how unjust the treatment of their subjects may have been. It was not until

centuries later that ethical guidelines would regulate the humane use of humans and animals in research, and by that time new ethical concerns had arisen about the unjust development and application of scientific technology. As ethical debates still rage today, I wonder whether we will finally tame these monsters or whether their appearance is an inevitable facet of the scientific journey.

Your affectionate brother, R. WALTON (and ChatGPT)

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I

t was an ordinary Thursday afternoon when Jan did her usual rounds with Dr. Laylah only to find an extraordinary case. As they opened the wooden door, they were greeted by a patient who sat slumped in the cold room, his tired eyes fixed to the ground. The fluorescent light bounced off his leather jacket. “Good morning sir!…” Dr. Laylah said. He darted his head up and nodded without even saying a word. “I’m Laylah and I will be your nurse practitioner for today, and this is Jan! She will be assisting me.” Lips pressed together, he simply gave a subtle nod, then looked at the floor again. The nurse practitioner shuffled through the papers on her clipboard until she found his file.

She looked up, “So, you said that you’re always tired. Have you made any dietary changes lately— after your diagnosis I mean?”

He looked up and furrowed his eyebrows, “Why? What diagnosis?”

“Type two Diabetes. You need to change your diet just to ensure that your blood sugar doesn’t spike.”

He pulled his chin back. “Diabetes?”

Laylah and Jan looked at each other, stunned. Had he been taking medication without knowing why?

Name (Last, First): Plannery, Doug Patient Age: 55 Health History: Type II Diabetes Drug History: Currently taking Metformin Reason for Visit: Chronic Fatigue

Believe it or not, but this true incident is not an anomaly. In the sea of background information, medical jargon, and treatment options, it is very easy for patients to lose sight of life-saving health information.

In his 2003 article “Patients’ memory for medical information,” Dr. Roy Kessels states that “40-80% of medical information provided by healthcare practitioners is forgotten immediately; furthermore, almost half of the information that is remembered is incorrect.” This is problematic because an important aspect of equitable health is a person’s ability to make conscious decisions about their own health. Consider that there are over 7.4 million misdiagnoses within the US alone and that 1 in 3 of them result in injury or death! When a patient is able to recall important details regarding their condition, they will maximize their ability to ask informed questions and minimize their chances of becoming a victim of such harrowing statistics.

So…how do we make medical information more memorable? Primarily, we have to identify the main culprits that stunt patient medical memory. Kessels identifies three principal components that could be at fault:

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1) Clinician Jargon (i.e. difficult terms) 2) Mode of Information (i.e. is the information written or spoken?)

3) The Patient (i.e. patient’s education and culture).

Now that we know the components, what do we do? In order to target each category we have to: 1) find a method that eliminates the need for jargon 2) present the information in a digestible form, and 3) find culturally specific elements that patients are familiar with.

In other words, we have to find ways to manipulate key elements of language and literature! History shows this same issue appeared in antiquity and luckily for us, many different cultures found ways to improve health-related memory. Let’s look into three tools of language that people in antiquity manipulated in order to make information more memorable: symbolism, rhyme, and alphabet. Finally, we will see how we can apply it to modern medical teaching.

Symbolism

Rhyme

Alphabet

Symbolism condenses details from complex topics into visual imagery or familiar concepts that are quicker to absorb. For instance, in order to capture Catholic doctrine, a symbol was developed in 1635. A missionary sent to the Timucuan, Gregorio de Movilla, claimed that he designed the symbol for the Timucuans to help them understand Christian doctrine. “This symbol is particularly effective because the Timucua natives recognized the sanctity of the cross and the circle since they were also sacred in Native American cosmological symbology” (Kislak Museum).

Symbolism can also use narrative form.

For instance, parables, especially those from ancient religious texts like the Bible, are used to symbolize larger theological ideas.

The story of the “Prodigal Son,” found in the Bible, uses cultural elements such as agriculture and general wealth, to convey God’s love for all people. Similarly, the stories of Prometheus, Epimetheus, and Athena use natural materials like fire, mud, and air to describe the divine origin of human beings.

The reason why symbolism is so effective is that it takes overwhelming ideas and processes them into familiar simple images, making the information more palpable. Additionally, the imagery involved in symbolism can help those who experience illiteracy.

Rhyme incorporates repetitive and corresponding sounds to facilitate word flow and rhythm. Our brains tend to absorb information better when the information follows a pattern, as in the case of rhyme. In 1884, physician Dr. Hugo Erichsen authored a book titled “Medical Rhyme;” it was created to help people memorize medical information better.

In one popular poem he wrote titled “Lines to a Skeleton,” he used vivid imagery and rhyme to depict complicated organ systems. Here’s an excerpt:

Alphabet is a letter or character system that serves as the building block of language.

There are many ways to use the alphabet for memorization. For instance, you can take advantage of letter order like Dr. Erichsen or the authors of Apple Pie ABC. The Apple Pie ABC functions a little differently since it uses rhyme and the pie-making and eating process to help children learn the ABCs. At the same time, it uses the alphabet to enable people to remember the pie-making process!

In regards to the cultural reach of this method, it is also very effective because it can cater to the alphabet (letter/character system) of any nation and culture! Another popular way to use the alphabet is through mnemonic acronyms. Mnemonic acronyms are a type of memory device that uses words or letter orders to condense complex phrases or procedures.

They can be real words like FAST (the stroke signs and ideal responses) or memorable letter orders like NASA (the space agency). They can explain procedures, word order, etc.

Behold this ruin! ‘Twas a skull/...

This space was Thoughts mysterious seat…

Beneath this moldering canopy Once shone the bright busy eye; By pairing the rhythmic nature of rhyme with vivid familiar imagery, Dr. Erichson communicates medical information in a way that the brain loves. He doesn’t describe these organs by using jargon, but instead, uses familiar objects—“stars and suns” and “lawless fire.”

Challenge: Find a difficult medical/scientific concept and apply any of these elements of language to make them memorable. I have developed four suggestions for implementing these memorable language techniques: 1) Whether you are writing a poem, parable, drawing a symbol, etc., it must be culturally specific. Focus on implementing things such as language, food, customs, etc. within your work. This will make your message more familiar therefore making it more memorable.

2) Before presenting information to the patient, send out questionnaires prior to the visit to gauge the patient’s preferred learning method (Visual, Auditory, Kinesthetic, etc.). Also, gauge the patient’s general interests. This will mainly help you determine which language element (ie. symbols, rhyme, or the alphabet) will be most effective for your patient.

3) Spaced repetition should be encouraged because it enables the information to remain fresh in the memory. It can be prescriptive. For instance, you could say “At least read the poem twice during the course of illness,” or “Look at the symbol at least once a week.”

4) Aim to standardize your work. Every demographic has things that are unique to that group of people but to facilitate teaching and to decrease confusion, information must be the same/similar within all healthcare providers in the area. As patients navigate between providers, standardization allows the information to be the same.

Implementing these language techniques will not only benefit patients but also help us walk closer to health equity. There are many patients in the world who, like Doug, are not making informed decisions about their health simply because vital information was forgotten or misunderstood. By applying tools from historical linguistics to modern medical discussions, we can help patients better understand their own health.

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ou are standing in the produce section of the grocery store you frequent. As you look around, you may think there’s a large selection of fruits and vegetables, including a few that are local to your store, like guava, yucca and boniato here in Miami.

Now consider the vegetation you see outside in the world around you.

There are hundreds and thousands of species of non-edible plants in our communities, yet this staggering plant diversity doesn’t seem to be available when it comes to the foods we eat. You can probably name at least a handful of flower species, but can you name more than one kind of garlic? Two kinds of bananas? Three kinds of potatoes? Why do our grocery stores deliver only the illusion of diversity and variety in our produce? Are there other foods we are missing, out of sight and out of mind?

Humans have been manipulating food for as long as we’ve been able to eat. When hunter-gatherers discovered agriculture by intentionally spreading seeds from the plants they ate, they chose seeds from plants that produced the greatest and most reliable harvest. Over the course of generations, this selection has fundamentally changed the genetics of those crops to make them highly specialized to grow in local regions, creating “landrace” crops. Some landrace crops grow in such specific habitats that plots separated by only a few feet in altitude can

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contain entirely different subspecies. A massive shift in the agricultural selection process occurred In the 1960s, during a time known as the Green Revolution. Gene-editing technology was used to modify crop species to grow with extraordinary efficiency, saving thousands of people from starvation by enabling unprecedented large-scale agriculture. But, they also gave rise to a monoculture food system.

Monoculture crops are undoubtedly great at what they do: producing large amounts of food quickly and cheaply. However, these crops are anything but ideal. Small-scale local farmers growing landrace crops have been increasingly pushed out of business by competition with large-scale agriculture. Many face the difficult decision to either adopt monocultures to survive or to try and maintain their landrace crops until they are pushed out of the market. Farmers who choose monocultures not only become heavily dependent on a handful of seed companies (who trademark their seeds and require they be repurchased each growing season) but they also lose important cultural history tied up in the roots of their landrace foods. Take, for example, the more than 24,000 recorded varieties of maize in Mexico. Maize plays a central role in many native religions, including that of the Mayans, who believed the first humans were made from dough of ground maize. Different kinds of maize also serve different culinary functions. Some are good for roasting, some for making masa for tortillas, some for turning into

alcohol and some used only for popcorn. These traditions, and the species of maize associated with them, are going extinct as genetically modified corn overtakes Mexican fields.

There is another, perhaps even greater, sacrifice being made in the name of homogenized agriculture: our planet. Large-scale agriculture, in name, already suggests a need for vast tracts of land, but genetically modified crops require more than just lots of room to grow. Because they are tailored to produce as much food as possible, modified crops need massive nutrient inputs in the form of water and fertilizer. In short, large fields must be cleared, installed with intensive irrigation and applied regular nitrogen replenishment to support these monocultures. Fields often replace critical local ecosystems. Worse yet, when the fields become infertile and exhausted from intensive growth they are abandoned in search of greener, more productive pastures. In 2019, a UN report found that nearly a third of the world’s surface and 75% of its freshwater resources are devoted solely to supporting crops or livestock. Millions of hectares of tropical forest have been cleared just to farm soy and palm oil, and tens of millions more have been used for cattle ranching. In America, the Midwestern prairies were plowed over long ago to be replaced with wheat, soy, corn and potatoes. The obliteration of our few remaining natural ecosystems looms.

This crisis is not a recent phenomenon. In the 1860s, George P. Marsh detailed his observations on the impact of Americans on the environment in his treatise “Man and Nature: Geography as Modified by Human Action.”

Marsh was thorough in his listing of the ways in which man had modified, to its detriment, the North American landscape. He noted how hunting birds had allowed insects to populate so expansively that both farmers (whose crops were eaten) and wildlife (whose habitats were overrun) suffered. Simultaneously, the clearing of forests by colonists removed birds’ other food sources.

At the time of his writing, Marsh noted that the once abundant North American red-headed woodpecker had already gone nearly extinct for this reason. He also elaborated on the ways that forests regulate the water cycle, and that areas where vast tracts of trees were removed experienced more extreme storms, flooding and water loss from evaporation. Critically, Marsh knew that the expansion of agriculture was the driving motivation behind the destruction of forests and other habitats and that already, in the 1800s, more than enough nature had been removed. He asserted that it was time to take action to permanently preserve what remained. Nearly 164 years later, we have ignored Marsh’s warnings and continue to ravage our

ever-diminishing wildlife.

Finally, beyond the loss of culture and natural habitats, homogenized agriculture has created a terrifying Achilles’ heel in our food system. When the entire supply of one food is produced by a singular species of plant, any harm that strikes that plant will knock that food out of production completely. If a disease or pest arises that preys on any of our fundamental cereals like soy, wheat, or corn, our food system will be crippled. It would not be a stretch to suggest that mass food shortages are possible. In fact, this exact phenomenon has already occurred. Huanglongbing, or citrus greening disease, is an incurable disease of orange trees that causes them to produce bitter, irregular fruit and eventually die. When the disease reached Florida in 2003, it caused a 75% reduction in fruit production before continuing to spread throughout the rest of the country.

Unlike genetically modified monoculture crops, landrace crops contain immense genetic diversity, making them invaluable. Landrace species are much hardier than genetically modified species, and each landrace crop may be resistant to different diseases.

Interbreeding or genetic modification with landrace crops could make others resistant to the same diseases.

Preserving the genetic diversity contained in landrace crops could save our food system from collapse.

Let us return, at last, to the produce section of the grocery store. While we remain grateful for the abundance of the select fruits and vegetables available to us, we can also mourn the unique landrace foods, rich cultural traditions and irreplaceable natural habitats that were lost for their sake. We can acknowledge the flaws in our precarious food system and, armed with that knowledge, begin to take steps to fix them…but how? We can all start by being curious about where the food we eat comes from and making a conscious effort to expand our palates to include new foods. For the adventurous, foraging is a wonderful way to discover and connect with native flora. For those not afraid to get their hands dirty, try planting some of your own food. The best way to preserve landrace crops is to grow them, and you don’t need tons of space and farming experience to cultivate a few seeds. For the socially inclined, talk to others about what you’ve learned and get involved in your communities to protect local farmers and ecosystems.

In the words of Marsh, “Of all organic beings, man alone is regarded as essentially a destructive power.” We must take action now to correct monoculture agriculture, otherwise our own greed will eat us, and all other life on earth, out of our only house and home.

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ave you ever had someone offer you a reward for doing something you already enjoy? Maybe your boss offered you a bonus for finishing a project, or your parents promised you a new toy for doing well in school. If so, you may have experienced the overjustification effect — a phenomenon where receiving external rewards can actually decrease, or even kill, your intrinsic passion to do something. Now, I know what you're thinking: "What's so bad about getting a reward? I love rewards!" And sure, rewards can be great — who doesn't love getting a pat on the back or a gold star for a job well done? The dilemma is that when we start relying too much on external rewards, we can actually start to lose our own internal drive to do things.

Let me give you a personal example. When I was in middle school, I used to love creative writing. I would spend hours hunched over my notebook, scribbling away at my latest short story or Diaryof-a-Wimpy-Kid-inspired journal entry; I even worked to add similar illustrations, although you’d have to pay

me to speak about those artistic monstrosities. It was a hobby that not only gave me a lot of joy and satisfaction, but also that came from the heart. But then, something changed. With difficult high school writing classes like AP Language and AP Literature, I suddenly found myself not just writing for fun anymore — I was writing for a grade.

And as much as I tried to ignore it, I couldn't help but feel a little thrill of excitement every time my professor handed back an essay with an "A" on it. It was like a little pat on the back, telling me that I was doing a good job.

While this external validation initially fueled my motivation to write more, this feeling would not last for long. I started caring less about the beauty behind displaying delicate emotions and gems of reason on a page through writing, and more about the grade I would receive. I started writing not because I wanted to, but because I had to for

Illustrations By Jeff Kinney

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my classes. And eventually, after I finished these classes and the A’s stopped rolling in, I stopped writing altogether — not because I had lost my writing ability, but because I had lost my intrinsic motivation (thanks, hindsight!). In essence, these shallow, transient rewards had replaced the heart at the center of my now-ancient short stories and journal entries, only to later abandon my motivation and ultimately leave my literary passions in shambles.

This, my readers, is the overjustification effect in action. When we start receiving external rewards for things we already enjoy, it can actually backfire and make us enjoy those things less. It's like we're tricking our brains into thinking that the only reason we're doing something is for the reward, when in reality, we used to do it just because we derived enjoyment from it. This effect is so pronounced that some psychologists believe that we should choose to not do what we love for work and instead reserve these precious activities as passionate hobbies.

Now, I'm not saying that external rewards are always a bad thing. In fact, there are plenty of situations where they can be really helpful, such as when you're trying to motivate yourself to do something you don't enjoy or when you're trying to incentivize someone else to do something they wouldn't normally do. But the key is to use them sparingly, and to make sure that they don't replace your intrinsic motivation altogether.

Now, this is far easier said than done. It is easy to jump at the opportunity to be rewarded for something that you love and are good at, and commonplace to push yourself for that higher grade in college classes (a feeling that we all know far too well). However, there are steps that we can take to ensure that the rewards that we will inevitably encounter will not degrade the very actions and passions that they are intended to encourage.

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It's important to be mindful of the rewards we receive and the reasons we decide to pursue a specific course of action. Are we pursuing a particular activity because we genuinely enjoy it, or are we only doing it for the external rewards and recognition? If it's the latter, we may want to take a step back and reevaluate both our priorities and our motivations underpinning our behaviors.

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Try to focus on the process of the activity, rather than just the outcome. For example, if you enjoy playing an instrument (shoutout to my fellow musicians out there!), focus on the joy of honing and improving your skills, rather than just the end goal of performing for an audience or winning a competition. This can help you stay motivated even if you don't receive external rewards or recognition.

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Try to create a supportive environment that values intrinsic motivation. Strive to surround yourself with people who share your passion and are motivated by the same things you are, such as by engaging with student organizations or relevant extracurriculars. This can help you stay motivated and remind you of why you love the activity in the first place, not to mention the added bonus of making new friends!

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Lastly, don't be afraid to take breaks or step back from an activity if you start to feel like the external rewards are taking over.

It's important to give yourself space to recharge and reconnect with your intrinsic love for what you do.

In the end, it's up to us to strike a balance between external rewards and intrinsic motivation. While rewards can be a useful tool for motivation, it's important to recognize their potential to overshadow the intrinsic enjoyment of the activity. By taking steps to nurture and protect our intrinsic motivation, we can maintain our love for the activities we enjoy and avoid the pitfalls of the overjustification effect. So, the next time you find yourself tempted by the promise of a reward, take a moment to consider the true value of the activity itself: what drives you to do it and what fulfillment will you derive from it. By ensuring that we always consider our intrinsic passions before overwriting them with transient rewards, we can find ways to do what we love while still loving what we do.

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by Sabrina Merola illustration & Design: veronica richmond

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ove forward. Get ahead. It’s a competition. We are the future for science, but is it a fresh start? Each day is a new one paving the way to get ahead. Everything is done for a reason, whether it be choosing the hardest courses, adding majors and minors, working in labs, or getting jobs and internships. As a young scientist, I was always eager to jump right into the bigger things, no matter the amount of questioning I got as a result. Having a determined mindset to work towards goals was always worth it, and although Rome was not built in a day, we worked twice as hard each day to get there.

There is a consistent fight to reach the top, but how is it the downfall? Ego comes about silently, and no one utters a word unless it’s checkmate. Do we ask when we are consumed by our own egos?

The ego is responsible for how we act when we reach a goal or the way we respond to an achievement. The ego talks as if it is a best friend, always questioning if you did enough... reinstating that you are on top. There are efforts for our ego to serve as motivators, but overcoming barriers cannot be accomplished swiftly. Choose to encourage self-respect and set ego in the time-out chair. My question to you is do you recognize who your ego is? If not, are you on your own, kid?

When attending an interview, we must present a professional image, prepare suitable answers to anticipated questions, and always enter the room with the utmost confidence that we will be selected. Does ego not help you? You normally submit your resume or curriculum vitae (CV) when applying for any position. The "paper" we provide for the decision makers to determine whether to hire us, mentor us through a program, permit us to join their lab, etc. reveals ego. It is ego introducing us as an individual in the competitive academic world saying, "I want to get to the top!"

According to Katalin Karikó, the leading researcher behind the Pfizer/BioNTech Covid vaccine, “If so, many people who are in a certain field would come together in a room and forget their names, their egos, their titles, and just think, they would come up with so many solutions for so many things, but all these titles and whatever get in the way.”

With the evolution of academia centered on "publish or perish," society has made ego a sensitive subject to debate publicly. This phrase alludes to the toxic culture that drives scientists and researchers to publish more and obtain more citations, particularly in "high impact" journals, and the pressure associated with scientific publishing.

Students aim to publish. Students are driven by their papers.

We were taught to base our skills on a résumé, CV, or academic transcript that serves the same purpose as a publication: demonstrating that we are resilient students who take each opportunity presented to us and who are an asset to the team. It's true that we're all still learning and constantly having to prove ourselves. To reach their positions, our professors and bosses had to follow a similar trajectory. We must not lose sight of the fact that a "paper" cannot tell us about our personalities, our passions, how we got here, or how we operate in research.

Whether you have recently started working in a lab or are a Ph.D. student, recognizing who you are as a researcher indicates your place in the field and your drive to make groundbreaking findings. Brilliant people who are enthusiastic about discovering the truth—and doing it more quickly and effectively than others—drive science. If we are unable to congratulate ourselves on our accomplishments, then it was meaningless. Always be humble in our aspirations, proud in our success and resilient in our failures.

You haven’t done too badly for yourself now, have you?

“Wherever you are, whatever you’re doing, your worst enemy already lives inside you: your ego” – Ryan Holiday, Ego is the Enemy Success is threatened by ego. We tend to depict our ego as the beginning of our villain origin story, but don't hold your ego responsible for the things you made it do. Recognition. Honors.

Funding. Expertise. Accepting these words as if they were the accomplishment itself gives us a sense of affirmation that we find gratifying.

“Nobody’s going to hand you anything. You don’t get what you don’t go after.” – Cinda Williams Chima, The Exiled Queen In such an intensely competitive academic world, it’s important to be proactive, and chase after your aspirations. We are ‘naturally selected’ to thrive in this world without pity. Dreams. Goals. Success.

We question ourselves, "How do I get there?" since the path itself will be under constant change. The instance when ego limits us from advancing as students is when we start climbing this ladder of success (as society defines it for us).

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ecently, I had the opportunity to sit down with Megan Piller, outgoing Editor-in-Chief for Scientifica magazine, is a (now) 22 year old senior majoring in Microbiology & Immunology and Public Health with a Chemistry minor, that she claims “just came with the microbio major.” In spite of such varied majors, she finds herself leaning towards the Public Health side of things, and plans on pursuing a Master’s in Public Health at Yale University following her graduation. She originally decided on UM because she liked the school’s Dual Degree program, which she felt would strongly bolster her initial interest in being premed, as well as their offering of the best financial aid (Go ‘Canes).

Despite her current involvement in Public Health, Piller, from the age of 11, was stuck on the idea of being a neurosurgeon. Nevertheless, as she began her studies, she realized she wanted to be involved in a field that was less toxic and individualized, especially since the American medical and insurance systems’ tendency to be reactive instead of proactive “frustrated” her. She realized she wanted to be involved in preventing people’s health from declining, instead of simply easing the burden after the fact, and taking public health classes with Dr. Ashley Falcon and Dr. Andrew Porter “opened [her] eyes to a new possibility for [her] education and [her career].” She appreciates that the public health sector has been “such a welcoming…open, inclusive environment” in which her passions could remain sustained, even in the face of changing politics that has made treating women and minority groups that much harder. She strongly believes in the public health sector’s ability to “make really, really big changes in a community by doing really small kind of simple tasks” and equates its importance to teaching people how to swim instead of constantly

having to save those who are drowning, stopping the very issues that plague our society before they even start.

Besides working as EIC for the Scientifica since Spring 2022, Piller has served as the Director of Member Research and Publishing for Project Public Health (PPH), which was started last year by outgoing Managing Editor Abigail Adera, whose profile is also featured in this issue. Project Public Health is, as Piller describes it, “a sphere for students interested in Public Health who are majoring in it, minoring in it, [or] even people who just kind of want to learn more about it to kind of come get published, get mentored, get woke, [and] get going.” Not only does PPH provide opportunities for students to boost their resume for grad school or job opportunities after graduation, but it mainly serves to help expand students’ understanding of what public health is and what it can do, since it's a far broader field than most people realize, and plays a role in every aspect of life we could imagine; for example, during the COVID-19 pandemic, it was the public health sector responsible for raising awareness not only about what the virus was and its effects, but how to treat it and slow its transmission. Piller has also worked with PPH to collaborate and create an internship opportunity with Planned Parenthood of South, East, and North Florida, with whom Piller interned last summer.

Through such an opportunity, two writing interns and a design intern work to create content for Planned Parenthood and spread awareness about reproductive and sexual health; Piller hopes to see the project expand to other universities in Florida while UM remains the central hub.

The prospect of leaving such an opportunity behind and helping other students who “have a passion specifically for sexual and reproductive health kind of get started on their journey” excites Piller, who feels that PPH was a great “springboard” for jump-starting her own

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involvement and passion for public health.

Piller is also Vice Chair of ECO Agency, a branch of student government dedicated to raising awareness about the importance of environmental sustainability on campus. Ainsley Hilliard, who's the current Director of Distribution for Scientifica, serves as ECO Agency Chair, thus demonstrating how far Scientifica’s roots lie in other major on-campus organizations, further helping to build strong connections and relationships across the core team, who cheers one another on in their interest areas, even those outside of Scientifica.

Besides her on-campus involvements, Piller also assists in two different research projects with UM graduate faculty in the Department of Public Health Sciences. The first is with Dr. Arsham Alamian, the Associate Dean for Health Studies at the University of Miami School of Nursing and Health Studies (SONHS). In her work with Dr. Alamian, which is done in collaboration with East Tennessee State University, Piller conducts research focused specifically on Hispanic and Latino minority pediatric populations, especially those who are predisposed to, if not already, suffering from metabolic syndromes like diabetes and obesity. A lot of this work dips into maternal health studies, a subject Piller views as incredibly important, both to learn about and gain experience in by publishing abstracts for the APHA on the subject.

Piller has also done work for The Sex Wrap, which she attributes to helping her find her “primary” research interest that she intends to focus on in grad school. The Sex Wrap is a sexual health edu-tainment podcast with both a social media presence and a research lab, helping to bridge the mainstream with the scientific. It was founded by Dr. Andrew Porter (University of Miami) and Dr. Spring Cooper (City University of New York), who’ve been friends since their PhD years and decided to start the research lab together. The podcast is available on all platforms (Piller says to check it out) and focuses on answering questions about sexual health that people may be too afraid to ask about otherwise, either at home or at school. The podcast is meant to be accessible to all age groups, be it fourteen year olds who are just learning about (abstinence-based) sexual education for the first time or adults who missed out on sexual education during their own school years. Piller believes that the podcast is especially pertinent now, given potential regulations that the Florida government is attempting to place to limit sexual education in schools, even going so far as banning the mention of menstruation until the sixth grade. These topics range from more “obvious” topics like sexual education and sexual health to others like pregnancy, menopause, healthy relationships (familial, platonic, and intimate), LGBTQ+ and minority sexual identity issues, transgender care, and reproductive access. The Sex Wrap even discusses what having an abortion is like with real-life testimonials from those who’ve actually had abortions in an effort to properly educate people on a controversial topic whose discussion is full of fear-mongering and false information.

Although people often move on from working with The Sex Wrap, Piller was allowed to continue her work with the podcast through taking the mandatory BPH 490 Community Practicum course required from all final semester seniors prior to obtaining their BSPH degree. Instead of working on a traditional thesis, Piller

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has been able to form a research manuscript specifically related to the memeification of sexual health information, laughing that she technically gets to do her thesis on “internet memes.” She’s grateful, though, to use the internet and social media as her outlet as it's quickly becoming one of the most common places where people, young and old, get their information about sexual health and sexuality, especially given the increased restrictions being placed on what can and cannot be taught in the classroom.

Piller believes that working with The Sex Wrap over the past couple years has helped her solidify her research interest as being women’s sexual and reproductive health; specifically, Piller hopes to focus on reproductive health worldwide, mostly because the state of American sexual and reproductive health has frustrated her recently.

She hopes one day to return to the homefront, but she feels that, at least for now, “there are really massive opportunities to make incredible change in some smaller international communities”, especially in places like Africa where reproductive and sexual health, although lagging a bit, have been moving in the right direction with increased rates of female education both in general and on reproductive health/family planning, which has been proven to predict how well a country is going to perform not only in the health sphere, but economically and politically. In the future, Piller aspires to do work with either the World Health Organization or a non-profit organization like the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation to help increase the prospects of female education and reproductive freedom globally. As she graduates, she isn’t sure how much she’ll be involved in the podcast, but she really hopes for the opportunity to stay on the team or even just occasionally contribute; regardless of where her future plans take her, though, she plans to remain a big supporter and follower of it.

Following Piller’s taking over as EIC in Spring 2022, Scientifica magazine has made tremendous developments and strides both on and off campus. One major stride that Piller reflects fondly on is that of art and design, which Piller attributes to the tireless work of graduating/retiring Art and Design Directors Meera Patel and Isa Lozano, who she claims stepped up and turned her “crazy outlandish visions'' for the magazine’s design into reality. Besides that, Piller believes her strongest contribution to the magazine is the community and network she helped to cultivate, especially in the face of the COVID-19 pandemic that turned operations remote. Even through email, Piller has gotten to know nearly all members of the writing, editing, and design teams very well. Similarly, Piller’s proud of the space she’s created for the core team, one in which everyone can pursue their interests and creativity to the fullest; for example, this past March our graduating Writing Director Caleb Heathershaw hosted a Write at the Museum in the Kislak Center (which is published in this issue!). Further, over the past year the magazine has taken strides to get involved with the community, including visiting the Boys and Girls Club of South Miami to show elementary schoolers science experiments with several other ideas in the works. All of this has been done with relatively little funding from the Board of Publications, meaning that Scientifica truly meets the designation of student-run; all efforts and contributions are made because we care about the magazine, we care about its impact on the community, and we care about science. Being able to build such relationships while

pursuing what you love is, as Piller describes it, “really rewarding.” It’s not a one-woman-job, it takes a team.

In grad school, Piller claims she’d “certainly seek out an opportunity similar to Scientifica and join” if possible. Even if not, she feels like, thanks to Scientifica, she’s leaving with a good skill set under her belt both in writing and design, as well as getting to know her own leadership style, which includes less micromanaging than she expected. She enjoys giving those who work on the core team and on the magazine overall the opportunity to follow their own path and passions, to be themselves and discover what they’re passionate about.

Working for Scientifica has also taught Piller a lot about the general STEM field, but specifically that there needs to be more opportunities for those who may not always have their voices heard, especially since STEM is so much more than just science, technology, engineering, and math. She feels that opening the door for otherwise “outlandish” things to tie to STEM like politics, psychology, food, etc. is something that needs to be further explored moving forward, since that's the only way for people to truly understand that science is all around them, even if they aren’t a science girly or guy that’s solely interested in laboratory-based research.

In parting, Piller recounted some words of advice she wished she had known both prior to her journey at the University of Miami and her term as Scientifica EIC. The first piece of advice is to “get involved in things that…you might [even] have a miniscule interest in” since that’s where she met a lot of her closest friends and how she was able to fine-tune her interests and plans for the future. With that being said, Piller emphasizes that it's absolutely okay to enter college not knowing what you want to do or where you want to go after college ends, that its not always about the end goal, but about everything that happens and everyone you meet along the way. This is especially important given the state of the current world and economy in which we live: you need to find what you’re passionate about because you essentially “work until you die” and there’s no point in feeling miserable and unfulfilled until then. Finding something you love to do ensures that a bad day is just a bad day, and nothing more, since you always have the next day to look forward to. And if

finding that passion is the outcome, its more than okay to take your time and take pride in feeling uncomfortable when exploring what that passion is for you.Similarly, another major piece of advice is that its okay for the first year of college to not be the best year of your life.

Sometimes it is, and sometimes it isn’t, and that’s perfectly okay. The best years of your life are always the next years of your life, so it’s important to not count yourself out if things aren’t playing out the way they do in the movies. College is a time to become comfortable with being uncomfortable, especially when you’re working towards finding something you’re passionate about.

As a woman involved in the STEM field, though, Piller reserved some extra special advice for other women in the field who may be struggling due to internalized misogyny and patriarchal tendencies within the field. She explains that you don’t need to ask for a voice because you already have one, and it's important to surround yourself with people (both men and other women) who will hand you the microphone instead of attempting to speak for you. She also explains that, although UM talks a lot about the importance of inclusivity and progressiveness, there will always be room for improvement and growth, especially since Piller’s had her own fair share of male peers who’ve attempted to talk over her or question her and her validity.

She explains that, even though this may sting, it's so important to not let it get you down or discourage you from speaking up over and over again. If anything, taking these hardships in stride and using them as motivation to be consistent and put yourself out there repeatedly will help you build yourself a strong foundation so others cannot question you again. Despite the pressure you may face, it's okay to make mistakes and to be ignored, because that’s when you find out what you’re really made of and how much you truly care, and that’s when your work will begin to speak for itself. She further emphasizes the importance of female unity, and that we should all work together to lift one another up and create a space for female and non-binary scientists to have their voices heard and perspectives shared; to not let adversity stop you if you feel you’re where you truly belong. Nothing worth it is super easy, and struggle should be something you should get excited about - it means you’re growing.

As I finish typing out this profile, I find myself getting a bit emotional. I met Megan as a first-semester freshman during the orientation student media session, and it's almost surreal to think I’m sitting here two years later writing what I deem to be an incredibly detailed love/goodbye/see you later letter. It’s because of her kindness and her passion and her commitment that I’ve become the person and writer I am today, and I recognize that, in her absence, I have some pretty big shoes to fill. To know Megan is a truly special gift, and whether you knew her as a signature on a Scientifica email, as an Orientation Leader, or just as a classmate and peer, Megan is one of those people that you meet, even just once, and you never forget.

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bigail Adera, Scientifica’s outgoing Managing Editor, is a current (as of Spring 2023) senior earning her dualdegree in Public Health and Global Health. She chose UM because of the academic interdisciplinary freedom that the Foote Fellows Honors Program offered, the school’s world-renowned UHealth System, and her earning of the Stamps Scholarship which Adera claims “has enriched [her] undergraduate years in ways [she] never thought possible.”

Growing up, Adera was torn between becoming 1) a Walmart greeter or 2) the first person to serve in all three branches of national government. She eventually eased off both of these dynamic career paths and found herself more aligned with the healthcare field. She feels lucky that both of her parents are primary-care physicians, enabling her to get a front seat look at the role of a clinician.

However, she was always interested in the “bird’s eye view” of healthcare - she wanted to know how policy and prevention could act on health outcomes from above, easing the load of illness left for clinicians to treat - she was also intrigued by the role of culture and socialization in health. Coming into college, she wanted to take classes that answered questions like: how do different cultures define illness? What socialization happens in hospitals? How can lack of

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cultural competency and power dynamics impact care? Through her public health and global health dual degrees, Adera has come to learn that public health is both an art and a science.

Besides doing work for Scientifica, Adera has been involved in several other groups and organizations on campus. She’s worked as an Organic Chemistry Workshop Leader for the past four semesters, and has loved teaching a subject that gave her so much trouble. She claims her greatest joy was learning how to break down complex concepts using the bare minimum. That electrophile over there?

He’s an electron simp, he’ll do anything for a bit of negative charge.

That nucleophile? He’s tripping, he overdosed on electric charge and he’s looking for a center to unload. Organic chemistry, like any language, can be so overwhelming until you form a familiarity with its vocabularies and its patterns. It’s like a game, and if you can truly understand the rules, you don’t have to worry about memorizing as much. Of course, it’s easier said than done, but she loved being able to share her love for a class that she thought was going to make her lose her mind. Being a workshop leader also lead her to start 305Chem, a private tutoring business with her friend and fellow UMiami student Victoria Heijn.

Adera also served as Public Health Surveillance Intern at the Citrus County Mosquito Control District, where she was able to conduct an independent research study on Cx. Quinquefasciatus mosquito larvae in their sewer plant habitats. She found evidence of larvicide resistance among a few sampled field mosquitoes, using laboratory reared mosquitoes as a baseline. Her methodology was translated into a new in-house protocol at Citrus County Mosquito Control District for larvicide resistance testing.

Adera also had the opportunity to start a new student organization on campus called Project Public Health - she claims to have struck out with an amazing e-board these past two years and, thanks to your help, the organization was able to grow our membership to over 300 in just two years! Adera started PPH because of how much she enjoyed the public health courses she was taking through the School of Nursing and Health Studies. She was sad there was no place for like-minded students to come together to work on projects, volunteer together, receive mentorship, etc. And so the idea for PPH with its 4 aims was born: Get Woke. Get Published. Get Mentored. Get Going. Members of the organization have been able to

enjoy several different opportunities to get involved both with those in the field and in the community overall. The organization started a Big/Little Program with MPH/MSPH Students at Miller School of Medicine, a formal publishing collaboration with Planned Parenthood of Florida (coordinated by outgoing Scientifica EIC Megan Piller), and designed a children’s health education workbook for ‘Health in the Hood’ 5013c in Miami. They have hosted trivia nights with university president Julio Frenk, certification classes to raise awareness about Narcan use, HIV/AIDS Peer Education, and Mental Health First Aid, and two Annual Sex Nights, where the organization brings in a panel of sexual health experts (OB/GYNs, sexual health researchers, sexual health therapists etc.) to answer student questions. They have hosted panels like “Careers in Public Health” and “Sex Night” and gone on public health sanitation trips abroad in the Dominican Republic to build latrines. Adera credits Project Public Health as her favorite involvement during her time at UM. Since joining her freshman year, Adera claims that the magazine has “exploded”, with innovations including the Envision special issues, writing workshops (Go Caleb!), creative writing, community outreach and rich, high-quality design. Of all her work at Scientifica since her start in her freshman year, Adera’s proudest of Scientifica’s 21st issue, This is Public Health. This issue was a collaboration between Scientifica and writers from Project Public Health, marking one of Scientifica’s first collaborations with student organizations aside from its incredible partnership with ECO Agency for the special Envision issues released

each Spring. In this issue, writers explored the great challenges and successes of the public health field, with articles on a wide range of topics including sun safety and sexual assault prevention. Such work, both This is Public Health and the various other issues Adera has presided over, has taught her that science becomes meaningful when it is shared. All of the incredible discoveries uncovered in laboratories across the globe are often unappreciated by non-STEM people because they have not been translated into a language that can be understood simply. She believes that anything in science should be made simple and beautiful so that it can be appreciated by people of all backgrounds. That’s what she loves about Scientifica - it is a magazine written by nerds to be read by people hailing from all corners of campus. She’s a firm believer that if you truly understand something to a deep level, you are able to teach it to a third grader. Scientifica is all about taking scientific phenomena that excites us, and translating it into a modality that everyone can enjoy. As Adera explained, this “is what keeps science meaningful in society.”She’s also confident that the new CORE will take Scientifica to new heights. Down the line, she thinks it would be awesome if Scientifica could take over a dedicated space in Shalala where writers and designers could come to collaborate in a creative space.

Although Adera walked at graduation this Spring 2023, she was awarded the Plus One Scholarship, affording her the opportunity to do another victory lap around campus, even from across the pond.

During this upcoming Fall semester, Adera will be studying abroad at Queen Mary University of London, where she will take courses in public health geography and theater. During the following spring, she will finish up the coursework left in her Plus One Enrichment in Rhetoric Studies (coursework in creative writing, public speaking, journalism, etc.. Her hope is to enroll in medical school right after my Plus One, and will be applying this cycle. Per her request, everyone please cross your fingers and toes and eyes for Adera, even though I have no doubt she’ll get in.

In the future, Adera wants to combine her love for public health with her passion for medicine, mainly because she feels that medicine can no longer be practiced in a vacuum as a field that stands alone. As more and more physicians are cross-training in public health, there is now huge potential for care to shift from primarily reactive to preventative. This, in line with a health insurance industry shift from reimbursing for fee-for-service (FFS) to value-based care, will cause more and more physicians to wear a public health hat.

Adera is grateful that she was able to scratch the surface of public health competencies in her undergraduate years, giving her a foundation from which to practice prevention medicine.

For her fellow STEM students, Adera left the following words of advice: “If you feel like you’re the dumbest person in the room, you are in the right place. Time after time, be it in a lab placement, upper-level science course, first couple weeks of a new job, I always have that “fish out of water” feeling. We have all heard of imposter syndrome, but I like to call it a “brave buzz.” Rather than treat it as a negative thing - a syndrome - let your jitters and nerves be a reminder that you are doing something new and something brave. Only because you are pushing yourself beyond what you’ve already encountered are you feeling this buzz - embrace it.”

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aleb Heathershaw, Scientifica’s outgoing Writing Director, is a senior (as of Spring 2023) majoring in Biomedical Engineering with a minor in Communication. He initially wanted to attend college in a mountain town but, as Heathershaw himself explained, he followed the funding, “like any good scientist”, when UM presented him with a very generous offer. That, and he liked the iguanas Over this past winter break, Heathershaw had the opportunity to walk down memory lane and look through his old schoolwork, and it made him realize he hasn’t changed very much. In kindergarten, he was already giving presentations on crystal formation, martian topography, and the social dynamics within naked mole rat colonies. His class journal has a fantastic entry where his teacher, Mrs. Vandebosch, asked the class to draw what they wanted to be when they grew up. Above Heathershaw’s drawing of himself in a scribbled lab coat he wrote, “I want to be a scientist.” And here we are! Heathershaw has switched between fields of science countless times (as he claims his bookshelves attest). From paleontology to astronomy, from botany to herpetology, he was curious about pretty much everything. “As a kid growing up hopping around the foothills of North Carolina, I raised tadpoles into frog armies in my garage and watched salamanders sprout new tails in the river near my house. When reaching high school however, I realized that herpetology would not be a sustainable career field. While searching for a field of science to pursue that was both intriguing and impactful, I happened to come across a TED talk where Dr. Anthony Atala asked a simple question: “If a salamander can regenerate, why can’t we?” I was hooked.” From there, his interests shifted from zoology into biomedical research, specifically the field of regenerative medicine. A biomedical engineering degree gave him decently paying career options if need be, an incredible toolkit for conducting biomedical research, and the closest access to what he believes is the most “insanely cool field of science,” stem cell research.

Heathershaw began doing research work at Miami’s Interdisciplinary Stem Cell Institute in Fall 2021, using induced-pluripotent-stemcell-derived cardiomycytes to model heart failure with the Dr. Joshua Hare Laboratory. He initially became interested in such research when his anatomy and physiology professor explained the functioning of the heart, leading him to question whether

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the heart could be taught to regenerate following injury. On his first day at the lab, Dr. Wayne Balkan, Heathershaw’s research advisor, explained that the small cluster of heart cells beating in a lab dish were actually iPSC-derived cardiomyocytes (iPSC-CMs). He then shadowed Dr. Amaryllis Wanschel, learning basic laboratory techniques and how to maintain iPSC-CM culture.

Then, in the summer of 2022, Heathershaw joined the NIH-T32funded competitive Summer Undergraduate Research Fellowship (SURF) at UM to continue his cardiomyocyte research under the mentorship of Dr. Wanschel and Dr. Balkan, specifically focusing on how to use GHRH to treat HFpEF. For context, HFpEF is a common

cardiometabolic syndrome where the heart becomes too thick and stiff to fill with blood properly; there are limited animal models, no in vitro models, and no effective treatments. A 2-hit in-vivo model

by Dr. Joseph Hill at UT Southwest (Schiattarella, 2019) suggested that HFpEF comorbidities caused nitrosative stress to damage the Unfolded Protein Response (UPR) signaling pathway, leading to ER stress, metabolic imbalance, and ultimately HFpEF pathophysiology.

In his research with Dr. Wanschel and Dr. Balkan, Heathershaw designed a 4-hit in vitro model to see if those effects could be mimicked, thus demonstrating if a GHRH treatment would reverse those effects. Their preliminary findings indicated that the 4-hit model damaged the UPR signaling pathway and the GHRH agonist appeared to alleviate some but not all of the effects. With further testing, this could become a useful exploratory model of HFpEF in a dish. After weeks of delicately culturing his cardiomyocytes, Heathershaw was thrilled to explain his research. Although presenting his poster in lab meeting was nerve-wracking, Dr. Hare (the director of ISCI) said, “Importantly, you told a really nice story with your data.” Later at the SURF research symposium, Heathershaw tightened his trademark red bow tie, leaped on stage, and passionately explained his HFpEF model, fielding questions from physicians and scientists as his heart raced. Out of 30 presenters, Heathershaw was delighted to win third place.

Returning home to his family, he presented his research - Shaelynn, his 4-year-old sister, his biggest fan and his biggest critic, had the same comment as Dr. Hare. “Good storytime Caleb.”

Outside of doing undergraduate research and serving as Scientifica’s Writing Director, Heathershaw is one of the President’s 100 campus tour guides. He’s also on the leadership team of Cru, and serves as Vice-Chair for Student Government’s What Matters to U speaker series, which has brought in guest speakers including Josh Peck, Marlee Matlin, Chris Bosh, and many other famous faces to campus to discuss their own experiences. From overseeing the logistics for WMTU’s Pitbull event to mediating Cru’s discussions on scientific and religious clash, Heathershaw has worked hard to promote crossperspective conversation, something that matters to him deeply as someone who identifies as a religious person, a gay person, an educator, a communicator, and a scientist all at once.

During his time as Writing Director, Heathershaw’s especially proud of the culture he’s cultivated amongst the writing staff, using his own experiences to create memorable writing education opportunities. For example, when he’s at home with his five-yearold sister, the two like to put on the livestream of the West Coast Sea Nettles Jellyfish Tank at the Aquarium of the Pacific, start the soundtrack to Finding Nemo on Spotify, throw a big blue blanket over their heads, and imagine what it would be like to live in the sea.

This is where Heathershaw got his inspiration to start his Science and Storytelling writing workshops in a similar way: with a Jellyfish livestream, Finding Nemo music, and exercises in imagination.

While, of course, he’s proud of small linguistic tics he’s trained into the writing team (like advocating for active voice and cutting out jargon), he feels that his most important contribution to Scientifica has been sparking a spirit of curiosity and creativity among the

writers.

Part of this desire for unity and immersion amongst the writing team stemmed from the way Heathershaw’s very own Scientifica experience began - Heathershaw wrote his first article for Scientifica during his COVID-19 quarantine. While locked between the white concrete blocks of Eaton Residential college, he leapt into the world of martian colonization and discovered that even in space travel, community matters -a well-trained, cohesive team is just as critical to the mission as rocket fuel. Since joining Scientifica, he has discovered that his passion for science is closely tied to a passion for science education, building up the next community of scientists.

Working as Scientifica’s Writing Director has made Heathershaw realize that we have already accomplished incredible things in science, but the limiting factor that prevents science from being used to improve people’s lives is not research - it's communication. And although communicating science to a nontechnical audience is a challenge, it is an exciting challenge, and a rewarding one. While working as Writing Director, he discovered the science of learning, a field called Science Pedagogy. And this position has taught him just how much he loves educating educators on communication. Science communication is an art form, it requires both skill and taste. Heathershaw likes to think he has taught his writers both (spoiler alert: he has, and he’s done it very well). In the future, Heathershaw claims he would love to see Scientifica capture a greater audience. In all honesty, print journalism is declining rapidly, so he’s excited to see how Scientifica adapts to the digital era. He also hopes that each person who writes for Scientifica teaches those skills of science communication to their own respective fields of science.

After graduating in Spring 2023, Heathershaw will have spent his summer with his family and traveled to Washington DC and Guatemala. In the fall, he will be starting his PhD in Integrative Physiology and Pharmacology at Wake Forest University’s School of Medicine Graduate School (WOW!). The lab he hopes to work in uses those induced pluripotent stem cell derived cardiomyocytes to model pediatric heart disease. He’ll be continuing research similar to what he began in undergrad, taking the skin cells of kids with genetic heart disorders, programming those skin cells into stem cells then heart muscle cells, then observing how the disease develops and trying out different treatments. Not only does the Wake Forest Institute for Regenerative Medicine conduct cutting-edge research, they also do tremendous science outreach and education within the community and across the country. He hopes that he can work in science education professionally as a professor, with side gigs in science writing, science outreach, and science policy.

As he leaves UM to write his next chapter in life, he has a few words of advice: “First, talk to everyone about science! Talk to your friends, talk to your parents, talk to your classmates, talk to your professors, talk to your dog. The more practice you can get explaining science to varied audiences, the more adaptable and adept you will become. Second, read and write as much as you can. Read deeply and widely, in nonfiction and nonfiction and write with the same breadth.

And most importantly, stay curious!”

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