January, 2023 | TechieTonics

Book Review: The Brain by Dr. David Eagleman

January 27, 2023January 27, 2023 Pooja Kashyap

Dr. David Eagleman is a neuroscientist at Stanford, NYT bestselling author, Writer/Host of THE BRAIN on PBS, and the list continues. After listening to his podcasts and TED talks, I decided to pick-up one book from his vault – The Brain: The Story of You. The book is an interesting read and at some points, quite an eye opener. Here, Dr. Eagleman reviews how the human brain develops and make sense of the data that it receives from sensory systems. We are built to perceive only thin slice of perception,…

Book Review: The Story of the Dinosaurs in 25 Discoveries by Donald R. Prothero

January 18, 2023January 18, 2023 Pooja Kashyap

Since the origin of life in 3.5 billion years ago, hundreds of millions of species might have lived on planet earth. Most of those are extinct by now. In his exceptional book, The Story of the Dinosaurs in 25 Discoveries: Amazing Fossils and the People Who Found Them, Donald R. Prothero has tried to surface those species that led to the landmarks in evolution. The idea was to signify evolutionary transition from one group to another. An interesting read for those who are looking for history of dinosaur science. Very…

Vitamin D Deficiency Associated with Melanoma: Skin and Bone Health

January 17, 2023January 17, 2023 Pooja Kashyap

Vitamin D plays an important role in regulating normal function of human body. It helps the body to absorb and retain calcium and phosphorus, which are critical for building bone. In addition, it also helps in boosting energy levels. Epidemiological studies too, have shown that Vit-D deficiency is closely associated with common chronic diseases such as bone metabolic disorders, tumors, cardiovascular diseases, and diabetes. In addition, similar corelation between vitamin D and skin cancers have also been investigated.

Book Review: I, Robot by Isaac Asimov

January 16, 2023January 16, 2023 Pooja Kashyap

I, Robot by Isaac Asimov is a collection of short stories written between 1940 and 1950 and were composed together in 1950. To create an ethical system for the co-existence of humans and machines, Asimov, laid the foundation of the three laws of robotics, which were:

Interview: Dr Jie Yin, Associate Professor at North Carolina State University

January 11, 2023January 11, 2023 Pooja Kashyap

Dr. Yin received his Ph.D. in Engineering Mechanics from Columbia University. Prior to join NC State, he worked as a Postdoctoral Associate at MIT and an Assistant and Associate Professor at Temple University. He is the recipient of the NSF CAREER Award and Extreme Mechanics Letters (EML) Young Investigator Award.

Human Brain Organoids Implanted in Mice: Human-mouse Synapses

January 10, 2023January 11, 2023 Pooja Kashyap

An international team of neuroscientists has demonstrated that human brain organoids when implanted in the cerebral cortex region of a mice can respond to external sensory stimuli. Brain organoid, here, refers to a three-dimensional tissue that is made from skin cells.

Book Review: The Matter of Everything by Dr. Suzie Sheehy

January 6, 2023February 21, 2023 Pooja Kashyap

The Matter of Everything is penned by an accelerator physicist Dr. Suzie Sheehy. The book introduces us to the time when physicists were about to unravel the mysteries of matter via exploration of subatomic particles. And it all started with a serendipitous discovery by the German physicist Wilhelm Röntgen, who in 1895, was working with a cathode ray tube in his laboratory. He noticed that the phosphor-coated screen was giving off a green coloured light when exposed to a cathode ray tube.