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  • January 20, 2021
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I Want a Brain Transplant. Change My Mind.

Mary Lombardi
MARY LOMBARDI | BLOGGER | SQ ONLINE (2019-20) Before writing this paper, my knowledge of organ transplantation consisted of Ancient Egyptian mummification practices (okay, these organs weren’t exactly transplanted, they were cut out and removed,... Read More

I Tried Going to Therapy

Lina Lew
BY LINA LEW | BLOGGER | SQ ONLINE (2019-20) On any given campus, and no doubt at UC San Diego, there is perhaps nothing more strikingly familiar than self-deprecating jokes about one’s lack of sleep,... Read More

Stress- The Gift that Keeps on Giving

Neha Sahota
Today, I want to tell you a little bit about a movie that I watched recently. It’s a well known Peruvian film entitled La Teta Asustada, which translates to “The Milk of Sorrow”. The premise... Read More

Insulin and Diabetes: Don’t Sugar Coat it

Mary Lombardi
MARY LOMBARDI | BLOGGER | SQ ONLINE (2019-20) Studying and practicing medicine hasn’t always been so glamorous. For hundreds of years, the ancient Greeks used to taste urine to diagnose diabetes, with sweet-tasting urine being its... Read More

I Tried Going Vegan for a Week

Lina Lew
BY LINA LEW | BLOGGER | SQ ONLINE (2019-20) Growing up, my parents used to encourage me to try new things. Some things (like joining the school newspaper) went well. Other ideas (like attempting to... Read More

A Noble Winner | The Discovery of Human Blood Types

Mary Lombardi
MARY LOMBARDI | BLOGGER | SQ ONLINE (2019-20) The intellectual strife, stride, and fervor involved for the sake of discovery and revolutionary transformation are profound. Some get lost, some pursue, and some provide such a... Read More

Food as Fortune-The Epigenetics of Pregnancy

Neha Sahota
NEHA SAHOTA | BLOGGER | SQ ONLINE (2019-2020) Have you been feeling a little down lately? Is your academic performance not where you want it to be? Has the freshman fifteen turned into the sophomore... Read More

Brahe’s Baffling Bladder

Soha Khalid
As we move into summer break, it's time for a warning about the dangers of having too much fun. In the case of Tycho Brahe, influential astronomer, too much fun led to a rather embarrassing cause of death. Read on to find out how you can avoid making the same mistake he did. Read More

A New Chapter: Grey’s Anatomy Season 5, Episode 22

Jenny Chiem
BY JENNY CHIEM | BLOGGER | SQ ONLINE (2018-19) Congrats to the Class of 2019 for finishing college! I’m sure all you recent grads are out having a splendid time celebrating the end of your... Read More

Breaking into Summer Break

Daniel Lusk
DANIEL LUSK | BLOGGER | SQ ONLINE (2018-19) I hope that your school year went well. Or that you’re at least finishing strong? At this point in my blogging career, I can’t blame my uncertainty on... Read More

About SQ Online

SQ Online is part of the Saltman Quarterly program, a biology student organization committed to communicating science and research. The late Dr. Paul Saltman inspired the program’s creation, and the Saltman Family continues to generously support our efforts. For more on Dr. Saltman’s legacy, read our tributes.

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Hi everyone! We hope your first week back in class Hi everyone! We hope your first week back in classes is going well. Just last month we shared the article “Finding a ‘True Blue’ Friend in Nature” on our website and wanted to share it here as well! 

“On campus at UC San Diego, blue is a bountiful color, from the clear skies and great weather to the Pacific Ocean at our beaches. But despite the seeming abundance of blue in the world around us, blue still remains fairly rare in nature’s plants and animals. Blue pigments in plants are typically unstable due to their chemical properties.”
The bird on the second slide seems blue, but has no blue pigment at all! This is because they “rely on the use of structural color—tiny physical structures on the body that interfere with light to create the optical illusion of the color blue.”
“By using the right mechanism and pathway, animals are able to consume, modify, and eventually incorporate those pigments into their own bodies. However, animals that consume blue plants do not exhibit this same characteristic, and don’t integrate the blue pigments from their foods into their own physiological colors.”
“Although blue plants exist, the chemical instability of anthocyanin pigments make blue shades largely subject to their environments. As a result, blue anthocyanin pigments in plants might be too sensitive to pH for animals to consume them and incorporate them into their own bodies as the same shade.”

Thank you to our reporter Helen Zhu, illustrator Sara Kian, and photographer Bridget Spencer for the fascinating article! If you’d like to read more on this article, or any of our other articles, please go to sqonline.ucsd.edu. Have a great week 1!
Merry Christmas everyone! We wanted to share one o Merry Christmas everyone! We wanted to share one of our featured articles from this year!
Early June, we shared the article, “Petri Dish to Big Picture: How Microbes Inspire Creativity,” to talk about Agar Art, an annual competition accepting submissions by petri dish rather than canvas. "Every year, scientists and artists together embark on a quest to create paintings with a rather unorthodox material: microbes. These tiny organisms–bacteria, yeast, and more–are often invisible to our eyes in individual numbers, yet they are found almost everywhere–from the bottom of the ocean to our own tongues. 
“Painting” with microbes can be difficult due to their sporadic growing times and diverse life cycles.
Sticky E. coli bacteria are pushed outward by the more mobile A. baylyi bacteria, forming “petal” shapes that together create a flower-shaped biofilm. This flower pattern is one example of a biofilm, which forms when one or more species of microorganism grow together. Biofilms are found everywhere–hydrothermal vents in the ocean’s depths, showers and pipes throughout our cities, and even in our large intestines and plaque on our teeth.
Paying attention to the natural patterns of life can inspire new perspectives on traditional processes, like those of creating a painting or conducting a scientific experiment. "
You can find this article and more on our website, sqonline.ucsd.edu. 
Thanks to illustrator Arya Natarajan for the cool artwork! Happy Holidays :)
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