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Volume 4, Issue 1
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1 Pushing the Buy Button

"Do you prefer Pepsi or Coke?" used to be the big question when we were growing up: as kids, we fought for our favorite brand, claiming that Pepsi was too sweet or Coke was too sparkling. Many of us, including myself, grew tired of this never-ending debate: "They taste the same, who cares?" Doctor Samuel McClure at the Baylor College of Medicine cares. In October 2004, McClure and fellow neurobiologists performed a blind-taste test, investigating how the brains of 67 subjects responded to Pepsi and Coke. 		Potay Parapiboon 167
2 Not Just Biology

How do dramatic ecological shifts precipitate the outbreak of latent infectious diseases? Professor William Durham, the chair of the Anthropological Sciences Department at Stanford University, and his colleague, Assistant Professor of Anthropological Sciences James Jones, have begun to address this question. Using a holistic approach, they study how human-induced environmental change affects the transmission ecology of diseases. 		Stephanie Oberfoell 176
3 Unraveling the Genetics of Colon Cancer

In the 9.3 minutes it takes you to skim through this magazine, one person in the United States will have died from colon cancer. According to the American Cancer Society's estimates, 145,000 people will be diagnosed and 56,730 people will die from colectoral cancer in our country alone each year. Colon cancer is currently the third most common form of cancer in the western world. Tumors and polyps in the colon, rectum, and appendix characterize this type of cancer. 		Hahn Nguyen 171
4 Amazing Ants

Imagine walking through the Amazon rainforest. Trees surround you, blocking out the sky, plants and insects swarm on every surface, and unseen animals rustle through the canopy above. Suddenly, you step into a clearing. This area is bare except for the evenly spaced trunks of a single species of tree, Duroia hirsuta. No other vegetation is in sight, and there are few signs of animal life. Above the stunted branches, you can see the sky. 		Adrienne Sussman 167
5 Biochemistry Genius Uncovered

Over a span of nine days in September, Stanford Associate Professor of Biochemistry Pehr Harbury was awarded two grants guaranteeing him no less than million in research money for the next five years. At only forty years of age, he has garnered the attention that comes with two of the most prestigious prizes that can be awarded to an American biochemist aside from the Nobel Prize: the MacArthur Fellowship and the National Institutes of Health (NIH) Director's Pioneer Award. 		Jian Cui 177
6 When Immune Systems Attack

We are surrounded by microbes bent on using us as their own incubators. Our only defense is our immune system. Without the intricately woven meshwork of defenders, our bodies would helplessly succumb to the myriad of bacteria, viruses, fungi, and other pathogens that surround us every moment without our slightest awareness. Yet even something so utterly vital for our existence has its shortcomings. One such flaw is autoimmunity, a condition in which the immune system attacks the body's own tissues. 		Jonathan Frohnmayer and Tammy Doukas 177