• Immune System Reprogramming: Successes and Limitations of CAR-T Cell Therapy

    Traditional cancer treatments have saved countless lives, yet they often cause extreme side effects due to their lack of specificity in distinguishing cancer cells from healthy tissue (National Cancer

    Xianhao Wu

    May 08, 2026

    more

  • Redlining Effects On Disproportionate Incarceration Rate of Black Americans

    “In reality, the ‘war on drugs; has been a war on people,” is a widely used slogan by civil-minded activists (Amnesty International, n.d.). This phrase acts as a cry for how the Black population has b

    Anna Lu

    May 08, 2026

    more

  • The Fitting Fulfillment View Plus Positive Response

    Can the meaning of life arise from acting out of “reasons of love” and engaging with loving worthy objects (Wolf)? Meaning in life and why it matters, one of American philosopher Susan Wolf’s major works, discusses what it means for a life to be meaningful and proposes her structure for it—the Fitting Fulfillment View. This paper begins with a reconstruction of Wolf’s Fitting Fulfillment View. The remainder of the paper focuses on how an additional Positive Response component is required for the Fitting Fulfillment View to be sufficient, while considering objections to times when there is no response, and whether this amended view is too dependent on the evaluation of others. Thus, Wolf’s Fitting Fulfillment View is not sufficient for meaning to arise, as individuals’ subjective preferences can conflict with objective attractiveness.

    Anna Lu

    April 09, 2026

    more

  • Antarctic Sheet Viruses: An Ignored Threat to Global Public Health

    As people become more aware of rising greenhouse gas emissions and animal habitat loss caused by global warming, another serious issue is overlooked: the release of unknown pathogens hidden within the Antarctic’s melting ice core. The Ross Ice Shelf (RIS) is Antarctica’s largest ice shelf. Located in west Antarctica, the RIS makes up about 30 percent of the continent’s total ice shelf area, and is about as large as the country of France. Crucially, it acts as a “key regulator” of local and regional marine life, and global carbon and nutrient cycles.

    Ranqi Xiong

    April 09, 2026

    more

  • Balancing Green Growth and Poverty Reduction

    The pursuit of green development has become a central pillar of urban planning in the 21st century as cities confront environmental challenges. Green growth, which "describes paths of economic growth that are environmentally sustainable," is often viewed as universally beneficial. However, it can produce unintended consequences when a city's planning of green development overlooks certain social demographics. In particular, low-income urban populations may be at the expense of such development, bearing disproportionate costs when green policies are implemented without adequate support.

    Siyi Lu

    March 06, 2026

    more

  • The BRELL Network: Energy Grids as 21st Century Battlegrounds

    In 1882, Thomas Edison opened the world’s first commercial power plant, introducing electric energy to the masses. Fast forward to the present day, where electric networks have evolved beyond the local blocks and expanded into transcontinental networks, providing a common resource but unintentionally turning technological advancement into a 21st-century geopolitical imperative. In 2001, for example, former Soviet Union countries Belarus, Russia, Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania synchronized their power systems under Moscow’s control to create the BRELL energy grid, relying on Soviet-era infrastructure to unify regional energy transmission; however, only three years after the establishment of the grid, Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania joined the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) and the European Union (EU), a final step towards European integration. As the only remaining link to Russia, the three Baltic states viewed energy centralization as a vulnerability. Plans for Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania to decouple from the Russian power grid gained momentum following Crimea’s annexation in 2014, accelerating with Moscow’s invasion of Ukraine in 2022. The three Baltic countries joined the EU power grid with a full disconnect from Russian-controlled power in February 2025. Reflecting an overall decrease in dependence on Russian energy, the state’s international influence has diminished while NATO’s sphere of influence has expanded into Eastern Europe. The Baltic’s disconnect is not only a technical transition but also a pivotal moment in the struggle over governance of a common resource—energy.

    Diana Zhang

    November 28, 2025

    more