Untapping the Secrets of Memory

Written by Michael Awada on . Posted in Science

“Memory is the ability of an organism to store, retain, and recall information and experiences.”

For as long as I can remember, human-beings have struggled with various memory issues. Former President Ronald Reagan suffered from Alzheimer’s, and it was believed that it may have even affected him during the last years he was in office. Ralph Waldo Emerson suffered from dementia and forgot his name late in life. Similarly, civil rights hero Rosa Parks had memory issues in her later years. Parks’ family said she was abused by attorneys who took advantage of her mental state, convincing her to sue popular hip-hop group Outkast for using her name in a popular song.

The Mystery of Lake Vostok

Written by Michael Awada on . Posted in Science

For those of you who haven’t heard of Lake Vostok, it has been called “the most alien lake on Earth”. There was some fascinating news was released this afternoon.

Lake Vostok is a subglacial lake the size of Lake Ontario located 2.5 miles below sea level in the middle of Antarctica. It is estimated that the lake water lying beneath the ice has not been accessed in over 20 millions years! To put that in perspective, the largest mammal ever to walk the Earth, the ‘giraffe-rhino’ called a Paraceratherium was just going extinct at this time!

Paraceratherium