Library content is labelled in admin pages as ‘Post’ under the ‘Category’ column
Here is your chance to rock some C2ST gear. Head over to our Threadless storefront and pick your desired merchandise and favorite design! You can also click the “Gear” button along the top navigation bar to access the store.
Profits from sales support our science programming throughout the city of Chicago.
The film Armageddon is fiction; it suggests that humanity was in mortal danger until heroic actions saved us. Did you know that there are people who observe and secure improved orbits for near-Earth asteroids EVERY DAY? Their efforts have eliminated the chances of an extinction-level asteroid impact with Earth over the next 100 years or so. Did the film spur action that helped achieve this incredible decrease in risk? Was this due to increased public consciousness of the risk?
Continue reading “Science in Film: Lessons from the Movie Armageddon”
How do our experiences, such as learning how to play music and playing sports, affect our brain? Although we are surrounded by sound all of the time, we rarely give much thought to this invisible yet powerful companion. The auditory system is a uniquely complex sensory system and the ability to make sense of sound relies on exquisite precision by the brain. Given the complexity and precision of the auditory system, accurate sound processing is particularly vulnerable to head injury. On the other hand, its precision can be honed by activities that exercise the auditory brain such as playing a musical instrument.
Continue reading “Head Banging: How Music and Concussions Impact Brain Health”
By David Graykowski
The sounds of our lives shape who we are. Your mother’s voice, a Mozart symphony, a friend’s yell on the playground. “Making sense of sound is essential for survival and it is computationally one of the hardest things we ask our brains to do” (Kraus, 2015). Continue reading “Dr. Nina Kraus Interview”
Most of us know what it feels like after a long night with little or no sleep, but do we know the wide-reaching effects such nights can have on our health?
By Robert Kriss
Dr. Phyllis Zee, Chief of the Sleep Medicine at Northwestern Hospital, warned the audience at Horner Park on Wednesday, August 15, that we cheat sleep at our peril. Dr. Zee’s excellent presentation was the first instance of C2ST’s collaboration with the Chicago Park District in the “Science in the Parks” series. Watch the video here.
Dr. Zee explained that three scientists recently shared the Nobel Prize for Medicine for their work in the early 1980’s identifying the genes and protein molecules that drive our twenty-four-hour biological clocks, often referred to as our “circadian rhythm.” Every cell in our bodies has the clock mechanism, and all these clocks are coordinated by the master clock in our brains. The mechanism interacts with light and dark. It keeps us awake and productive (usually) during the day and early evening, and puts us to sleep at night to rejuvenate our systems for another day.
