By Shania Dean-Motley This summer, I had the opportunity to spend ten weeks at the Donald Danforth Plant Science Center in St. Louis, Missouri, as part of its Research Experience for Undergraduates (REU) program. I conducted research in the Burch-Smith Lab under the mentorship of Dr. Tessa Burch-Smith and Samantha Nuzzi. Coming into the program, I already had experience in basic plant molecular biology techniques from Dr. Sonali Roy's lab in the Dean's Scholars program at Ten

By Sonali Roy Every speaker eventually runs into it: the question that isn't really a question, the audience member who wants to perform rather than ask, and the moment where you're put on the spot in front of a room full of people. I'm not interested in getting into why this happens or the demographics involved—that's a different conversation. What I want to do here is start building something more useful: a practical, growing list of reactions that let you keep your dignity

By Sonali Roy This year, my lab and I volunteered at the Tennessee State Fair. Our group included graduate student Hyndavi Yammanuru, postdoctoral researcher Rajni Parmar, and me. This was our third time volunteering at the fair. The Tennessee State Fair is held with the Wilson County Fair in Lebanon, Tennessee, and usually sees approximately 800,000 visitors each year. As a state land-grant university, Tennessee State University has a booth in the 4-H Pavilion. The people wh

By Samantha Fann Have you ever compared someone to a pig as an insult? Well, while calling someone a pig is considered rude, you might have said a fun fact without realizing it. Humans are genetically, anatomically, and physiologically very similar to pigs. So much so that they are a perfect model for studying the mechanisms of human disease. Our lives are so intertwined with pigs that not only are they an economic staple in agriculture but also biomedicine, emphasizing the i

By Faizan Ali The spring season is here, and summer is just around the corner. Imagine that you are rocking down Broadway in your stylish and comfy T-shirt, but what if I told you that the very summer you are enjoying is a big threat to these nice-looking shirts? Global warming is not just leading to higher temperatures or rising sea levels; it's also messing with the global cotton crop, ultimately jeopardizing its supplies and putting the entire textile and fashion industry

By Oluwaseun Adeyemi Avian influenza, popularly known as the bird flu, is a serious threat to poultry industries globally. Even more...

By Jun Guo I'm excited to share some groundbreaking research that's been making waves in the world of plant genetic engineering. A team...

By Kyla Hughes In a perfect world, humans would be free of diseases, illnesses, syndromes, and other conditions. Unfortunately, many...