Neural Networks: How Machines Learn to Think

Introduction In recent years, neural networks have moved from the pages of research papers into the heart of everyday life. They drive the recommendations we see on streaming platforms, power the large language models that do your banco and even help create life like images. Inspired loosely by the way

A Scuffed Guide to Immortality (Well… Almost)

Introduction - how to grant eternal youth Would you want eternal life?  Strange way to start an article, I’m aware, but now that I’ve got your attention, let’s take a look at how humanity has aged in the last thousand years or so. Our life-spans have been

Cursed by Your Own Mind

The Imposter Curse - Capgras Delusion Imagine your mother. She looks like your mother. Has her eyes, her voice, even her smile. But something is wrong. The familiarity is only skin-deep, a mask stretched over a stranger. Your brain whispers that this woman is not your mother at all, but

Memory Retrieval using Music - when Science meets Art

Introduction Music, an art form that works with sounds by instruments and voice, is a universal language that connects us emotionally and culturally, transcending age, race, and background. It can improve our moods, reduce stress, and allow creative expression of our emotions. However, the influence of music reaches even deeper.

Why You Have A Six Pack (and not one massive ab)

Recently, I was sitting in an excruciatingly long, three-hour car journey to my uncle's house, bored out of my mind, sitting next to my younger brother. He too, was in a little glassy daze, staring out the window. Then, he asked me a question that, while seeming deceptively

Train Design - Natural Inspiration or Copyright Infringement?

From materials and fabrics to buildings, planes and trains, we often see features in man-made designs that have similarities to biological creatures - this is known as biomimicry. Biomimicry is the adaption of biological entities to solve human problems. This technique is used across a range of industries from material

Makeup to Die For: Pale and Deadly

Painted Illusions The Renaissance was a world of spectacle of lavish fabrics, gilded palaces and faces that gleamed like porcelain. A world where beauty was no longer just a marker of status, but an art form, a living canvas where power and seduction were painted in layers of white, red

A Fish’s Guide to Breathing

Introduction Imagine a life where you couldn’t stop moving. No breaks, no naps – just constant movement. Or else… Or maybe a life where you could breathe through your skin. This is the reality for a large proportion of sharks out there, as they rely on three main processes called

The Forms of Silica: Why Are Crystals Like That?

Amethysts, opals, quartz and sand. In our lives, we see all these things from time to time and we’re all pretty familiar with how they look. Amethysts are a deep purple where quartz are clear or white, precious opals have their ‘play-of-colour’ effect and sand is, quite plainly, just

The Chemistry Behind Vapes

In a nutshell During the shelf life of e-liquids and when they are vaporised, the components of the liquid interact, oxidise and generate harmful by-products. These are often hard to identify for they differ from puff to puff, liquid to liquid and vape to vape. The sheer number of commercial

How Life May Thrive Under Extraterrestrial Ice

Picture this… Imagine your daily life on our moist speck of dust hurtling around a dense ball of plasma, which we call the Earth and the Sun respectively. Sunlight warms your face, determines your sleep and waking periods, and sets the stage for innumerable chemical reactions which drive life itself.

Do Animals Dream of Electric Sheep?

Dreaming remains as a mystery in science and psychology. Studies show that most mammals experience REM (Rapid Eye Movement) sleep, where dreaming occurs. EEG scans and behavioural studies suggest possible explanations, but no definitive answer has been concluded yet. Exploring dreams in humans and animals helps us understand sleep’s

Makeup to Die For: Ancient Glamour

Beauty is pain “Beauty is pain” and “pain” beauty was indeed. Long before modern regulations and dermatological testing, cosmetics were crafted from minerals, metals and pigments straight from the earth. In ancient Egypt, Greece and Rome, substances such as lead, copper and mercury were routinely applied to the skin, eyes

Body Composition and its Surprising Affect on Scoliosis

Introduction Scoliosis is defined as the “three-dimensional deformity of the spine” with a curvature of the spine in the “coronal plane of more than 10 degrees”. To an amateur, this curvature can be simply described as the sideways warping of the spine. Adolescent idiopathic scoliosis (AIS) is the most common

How To Dominate Winter

Winter, a season in which we relate to extreme coldness and vulnerable environments. Many life forms are really sensitive to temperature difference. Critical temperature is required to enhance growth in plants, insects and fish. A drop of two degrees in temperature when the sun goes behind a cloud, for instance,

Can Everybody Have Clean Water?

Contributions by Gregorio Secchi, Pasha Keray, James Brooks, and Richard Brooks Access to clean water and proper sanitation is a fundamental human right, yet millions worldwide still struggle with water scarcity, pollution, and inadequate hygiene facilities. Currently, over two billion people are affected by the lack of safe water, and

3D Bioprinting - The Future of Transplants

Imagine a world where damaged organs can be replaced with brand-new, customized ones, where skin grafts are printed on demand for burn victims, and where drug testing no longer relies on animal models. Every year, thousands of patients around the world wait for life-saving organ transplants, but the shortage of

How to Start Your Own Cult: The 4 Step Guide

*Disclaimer: this is satire – do not start a cult. The Psychology Behind Cults (And Why You Might Already Be in One)   So, you want to start a cult – and with the right psychological techniques, a little charisma and a carefully curated sense of mystique, you too can collect a loyal

Do Octopuses Dream?

The Basis of Dreaming Dreaming has been the focus of scientific studies for a long time now, particularly in vertebrates like mammals and birds, and some of the most widely accepted theories suggest that dreams have purposes related to memory consolidation, neurla plasticity, threat simulation, and cognitive problem-solving. In humans,

The Clock That Doesn’t Quite Tick - Exploring Sleep and Wakefulness

Everybody loves sleep, and - wait, we’ve done this before. My apologies. For the risk of sounding clichéd (and to a certain extent, plagiarising myself) I will continue along those lines. Sleep is a great thing. While we often don’t get enough sleep, it is also crucial to

Weight Loss Drugs - The Cure to Everything???

Obesity is currently one of the biggest global health issues of today – classified as a ‘global epidemic’ by the WHO, about 1 in 8 people are obese worldwide. Associated with both physical and mental complications, obesity can increase the risk of type 2 diabetes and cardiovascular disease, whilst carrying also

A Guide to Heartbreak

Introduction  Heartbreak. The crushing weight in your chest. The racing thoughts. The inability to sleep, breathe, think. Heartbreak isn’t just in your head; it’s in your whole body. From racing pulses to hollow stomachs, heartbreak reveals the deep connection between emotional pain and physical health, triggering a surge

Beyond Insulin: Potential Cures for Type 1 Diabetes

Continuing from my previous article, here is another one in which I will explore several potential/ experimental treatments for type 1 diabetes (T1D). Insulin replacement has always been the only treatment for patients with T1D, and there is still no one-time cure for diabetes. That is why I wanted to

Sleep and the Therapeutic Possibilities of Dreaming. Yes, Really.

Let’s turn back the clock to somewhere around 1350 BC, specifically to ancient Egypt. To consult with the god of fertility, Bes, Egyptians would engage in an unorthodox practice which involved drawing the deity on their hand, wrapping both their hand and their neck in cloth, then going to

Unravelling the Causes of Type 1 Diabetes

Although not common, there are a couple type 1a diabetics living among us in school. It is an autoimmune disease resulting in a person’s CD4+ and CD8+ T-lymphocytes attacking and destroying the β-cells in the pancreas (β-cells are responsible for producing insulin). This results in the patient having hyperglycaemic