Today we are more than excited to present another one of our alumni – Cédric Lood. Cédric joined the Summer School of Science in 2018 as a project leader and is currently finishing his PhD in the field of computational biology. Cédric’s path in academia has been highly nonlinear and filled with different adventures and we are happy that he agreed to share his story with us. Let’s dive in!
World Day for Laboratory Animals is marked annually on the 24th of April to raise awareness about experimenting on animals. Animal models have been used for scientific purposes, such as helping us understand cell mechanisms, complex biological functions and in finding new cures for diseases. Due to anatomical and physiological similarities between humans and animals, especially mammals, potential medications, vaccines and therapies are first investigated on animal (and non-animal) models. Clearly, not all results conducted on animals can be directly applied to humans; rather, they help us understand crucial processes and decide whether it is safe to move on to the next level. It is almost impossible to imagine biomedical research being run without animal models as they are crucial for fundamental discoveries – from ancient dissections to contemporary gene editing technology.
Co-author: Ivana Osredek
Hello, everyone! We are proud to present our new category – Careers in Science! As a natural sequel to our series of posts on studying abroad, where we compared the application processes for various countries and universities around the world, now we want to show you what the process of studying itself looks like and what path(s) you can take after completing your studies! In this issue, we will talk about different job opportunities in academia.
Academia is a widely used term for research and professorship. Unfortunately, it is not uniformly structured globally, since different countries have different names, qualifications and conditions for various positions. However, they are becoming standardized all over the world, which will enable researchers to study and improve their knowledge and skills wherever they want.
When you hear the name Star Wars, (possibly) the most popular saga in history, one of the first things that may come to mind is The Force. For those, however, who are guilty of not having seen the saga, The Force is an energy field created by all life that connects everything in the universe. Cool, right? What if I told you that there is actually a theory for our universe which states that all the known forces can be explained away with only four fundamental ones? The Standard Model is going to surprise you!
When you think about the world we live in, you most likely feel like it’s getting worse by the day – there is an increasing number of terrorist attacks, education is absent in many parts of the world, many people don’t have access to healthcare or live in extreme poverty, to mention just a few. You may, therefore, be surprised to hear that all the major indicators actually show that the world has been getting consistently better in virtually all aspects for the last few decades! The question, therefore, arises as to why so many of us share such a distorted, negative perception of the world, and what we can do to align it with reality?
Co-author: Mario Zelić
Dearly beloved, we have gathered here today to join together the Summer School of Science and the Internet in matrimony. Due to current circumstances, which make it impossible to organize S3 in Požega like we used to, this year we are in dire need of evolution and adaptation. The School is coming back, but in a different format. In this post, we bring you a detailed description of how we envisioned this year’s Summer School (and what you need to do if you’d like to join).
Now, now. Lay down the pitchforks. The title of this post might seem all the more blasphemous to some of you due to its date of publication, but it allows us to introduce a very important topic – the power of approximation, and when it should and should not be employed.
Today, it is my pleasure to present an interview with a long-standing alumnus – Fran Supek. Fran was part of S3 for several years, as a project leader and as organizer of the School, and is now an aspiring group leader researching genome biology in Barcelona. So, let’s get to know our S3 PI!
Categories
What’s a number?
Three is a number, right? So are pi, the square root of two or i. But mathematics is all about abstraction, so how do we abstract the concept of a number? How do we properly define numbers?
Categories
The fall of the giants
People often ask, “What is the single most important environmental/population problem facing the world today?” A flip answer would be, “The single most important problem is our misguided focus on identifying the single most important problem!”
Jared Diamond