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EquilibriUM Edition 5 Editorial Team

EICs:

Julia Kravchenko is a neuroscience graduate student
studying the relationship between sleep and Alzheimer’s
disease. She is passionate about making academia accessible to the general public. Outside the lab she can be found reading fantasy novels amidst her growing collection of gnomes. Along with being a Co-EIC, Julia also helped with layout for the magazine!

Jessica Li is a Ph.D. student in the Department of Microbiology & Immunology. Though their research interests have evolved toward an environmental microbiology focus, they remain fascinated by the gut microbiome and the many ways microbes affect human health. They aim to make science more engaging through fun illustrations.

Alexander Ford is a student and neuroscientist who researches how the brain processes sensory information in the visual system. He has a tendency to seek out the absurd, and frequently attempts to create art. In his free time, he is with friends, family, or a good book under a tree.

Editors:

Daniela Pereira is a PhD candidate in neuroscience studying the interaction between GLP-1 and addiction. She enjoys singing on the good days and bad days, sometimes driving her friends nuts. She also loves to read, crochet, and play video games with her long-distance friends!

Deanna Cannizzaro is a lover of science and storytelling. She enjoys crafting ways to share her research about how sensory neurons are critical for saliva regulation, while also writing a speculative fiction novel, reading fantasy books, baking gluten-free breads, and hiking with her family. 

Emily Januck is a PhD candidate in the Neuroscience Graduate Program at the University of Michigan, where she studies neurodegeneration. Outside the lab, she enjoys attending trivia, playing Euchre, and traveling with her friends. Connect with her on LinkedIn.

Juan Mato is a neuroscience graduate student leveraging mouse models to investigate the cellular mechanisms of peripheral neuropathy in inherited ataxias. Outside the lab he can be found playing volleyball, bouldering, cooking, and playing fortnite with his friends. 🙂

Colter Giem is a second-year Ph.D student in Molecular and Cellular Pathology, studying nuclear protein dynamics and regulation in neurodegenerative disease. In his free time, he enjoys painting and hiking around Ann Arbor, board games with friends, and trying (and mostly failing) to like running. Colter was also an illustrator for this edition!

Naomi Raicu is a fourth-year Applied Physics Ph.D. candidate at UM, where, as a member of the Z Laboratory in the Nuclear Engineering and Radiological Sciences Department, she studies the transport properties of high-entropy liquids through atomic-scale simulations. In her free time, she enjoys distance running and knitting. Naomi also served as an illustrator for EquilibriUM Edition 5.

Kaitrin Freeland from Kalamazoo, Michigan. She is a 3rd year PhD student in the Biological Chemistry department. In the lab, she uses fluorescence microscopy to study lysosomal repair mechanisms. Outside the lab she enjoys the outdoors, reading, and spending time with family and friends.

Illustrators:

Elise Tahti is a Ph.D. candidate in the UM Department of Pharmacology, where she spends her time striving to better understand the diverse functions of drug metabolizing enzymes. She enjoys working in interdisciplinary spaces where science, culture, and art intervene, which is heavily influenced by her background studying Women, Gender, and Sexuality studies as an undergraduate. In her free time, she can often be found picking up new creative hobbies, such as printmaking, ceramics, and fiber arts.

Paola Isabel Medina-Cabrera is a fifth-year Cancer Biology Ph.D. student from Yabucoa, Puerto Rico. In the labs of Dr. Marina Pasca di Magliano and Dr. Benjamin Allen, Paola studies how cells communicate in the pancreatic cancer microenvironment to develop new potent therapeutic strategies for patients. Paola has been involved in MiSciWriters since 2022 as part of our Illustration team, where she enjoys turning scientific concepts into engaging visuals. Besides drawing and making science more interactive, she enjoys reading, exploring new cities, and enjoying a new restaurant! Along with illustrations, she also helped with layout for the magazine!

Rebecca Taubitz is a physiology graduate student interested in the intersection of reproductive health, endocrinology, and stress. She is passionate about sharing science creatively and loves collecting new hobbies in her spare time.

Adriana Brown is a 3rd year PhD student in Earth & Environmental Sciences. She studies how the climate of ancient Earth evolved using geology and chemistry. When not looking at rocks, she enjoys cooking with her roommates, doing crosswords, and exploring the outdoors.

MM_HumGenHds9Sep25

Satabdi Mohanty (she/her) earned her Master’s degree in Human Genetics from the University of Michigan and is currently a Research Assistant in the Department of Human Genetics. She served as a scientific illustrator for the previous edition of Equilibrium magazine and is continuing that journey in this edition as well. Satabdi enjoys translating complex scientific ideas into engaging visuals that spark curiosity and make science more accessible. She believes that discoveries are not meant to live only in research papers; they can also be told through colors, characters, and creative storytelling. For her, illustration is where her scientific and artistic worlds meet, allowing both sides of her personality to thrive. This fall, Satabdi will begin her PhD in Cellular, Molecular, and Systems Biology, carrying with her the same curiosity that fuels both her research and her art.

Layout

Skye Thompson

misciwriterseditors blog, EquilibriUM

Letter from the Editors

Written by: Alexander Ford, Jessica Li, and Julia Kravchenko

To those outside of science – our progress appears in bursts. Nothing nothing nothing, and suddenly you can take penicillin for your pneumonia. Nothing, nothing, nothing, and now the first internal combustion engine lets you travel farther and faster. Nothing, nothing, nothing, and then they’ve suddenly split the atom. 

Yet “nothing” is never truly nothing. Each of these discoveries is an amalgam of countless smaller discoveries, countless stories, countless journeys, and countless scientists tenaciously repeating the cycle of the scientific method. Science is the means by which we humans expand our knowledge of cause and effect in the physical world. It is the process by which we create wonders and terrors, save lives and destroy them. It is – fundamentally – a framework that we never stop building upon, the path our species has travelled along to get us to today, and the path that spirals out ever outwards into the future.

The title of this 5th anniversary edition is drawn from the famous quote by Isaac Newton in a 1675 letter, “If I have seen further it is by standing on the shoulders of Giants”, a metaphor for the great discoveries he himself had come to, from calculus to gravity, and how even these accomplishments are derived from a lineage of work stretching back thousands of years to the ancient mathematicians. It emphasizes humility, and acknowledgement of that long lineage of scientific advancement under the surface of every discovery.

It’s fitting that this quote itself stands upon literary shouldersgoes back even further – originating in the 12th century with the French philosopher Bernard of Chartres who wrote:

“We are like dwarfs perched on the shoulders of giants, so that we can see more than they, and things at a greater distance—not by virtue of any sharpness of sight on our part, or any physical height, but because we are carried high and raised up by their giant stature.”

Within this edition, we cover some scientific discoveries that have helped us see farther than ever before.  and take time to explore our connections to our scientific giants, and how much we build on their legacies when we create our own. John Donne perhaps said it best, “No man is an island, Entire of itself; Every man is a piece of the continent, A part of the main” – and the institution of scientific discovery is no different in the reciprocal connections to the lives of nearly every human being and every discovery.

As we look ahead to the future, we must also look down – and remember that we all – in our own ways – stand on giants of our own.

Alex Ford is a student and neuroscientist who researches how the brain processes sensory information in the visual system. He has a tendency to seek out the absurd, and frequently attempts to create art. In his free time, he is with friends, family, or a good book under a tree.
Jess Li is a Ph.D. student in the Department of Microbiology & Immunology. Though their research interests have evolved toward an environmental microbiology focus, they remain fascinated by the gut microbiome and the many ways microbes affect human health. They aim to make science more engaging through fun illustrations.
Julia Kravchenko is a neuroscience graduate student studying the relationship between sleep and Alzheimer’s disease. She is passionate about making academia accessible to the general public. Outside the lab she can be found reading fantasy novels amidst her growing collection of gnomes.
misciwriterseditors blog, EquilibriUM

Portraits of Giants

Illustrated by: Charukesi Sivakumar

Edited by: Naomi Raicu

This piece is of a family at an art museum looking up at an exhibit titled “on the shoulders of giants” featuring portraits of influential people within the field of STEM. To me, this is a visualization of how the people today look upon giants of the past resulting in a never-ending cycle of inspiration and influence for future generations who are still unaware of the impact they will have. Together, this shows the cycle of influence that the giants of the past have on us in the present, as well as those of our future.

Charukesi Sivakumar is a 5th year PhD Student in the Molecular and Cellular Pathology Program. She is in the Rajesh Rao Lab, studying the mechanisms of early eye development. She hopes to pursue a career where she can find new and creative ways to bridge the gap between patients and scientists. Outside of the lab, you can find her playing the violin with the U of M Life Sciences Orchestra, reading, singing, cooking, listening to music and podcasts, doing art, or spending time outdoors.

misciwriterseditors blog, EquilibriUM

What Does a Scientist Look Like?

Written by: Hira Mirza

Photographed by: Anjesh Ghimire

Edited by: Daniela Pereira, Rebecca Taubitz

Hira is a neuroscience graduate student researching how memories get stabilized during sleep. She is passionate about communicating science to the broader public and making STEM pathways more accessible to all.

Anjesh is a neuroscience graduate student researching whether the memory processes the brain uses to learn and store memories also play a role in forming strong social bonds. He loves his work, his friends and family, skiing, and he is perpetually struggling to keep his plants alive.

misciwriterseditors blog, EquilibriUM

Branching Through Time: The Art & Science of Microglia

Written by: Kate Giffin

Edited by: Elise Tahti

The first neuroscientists were artists. Using clever chemistry, they developed ways to stain brain tissue and then drew what they saw. Here, I have carved a block print based on one of the first published drawings of microglia, the immune cells of the brain. In a series of four 1919 papers, Pío del Río-Hortega described these cells and clearly showed that they were a different cell type from the other glial cells in the brain, astrocytes and oligodendrocytes. His conclusions about microglia, based almost solely on observations about how they look under different conditions, were startlingly accurate. For example, he noticed that microglia rapidly migrate to a site of injury and transform in shape, even becoming, in his words, “monstrous.” He accurately hypothesized that they clean up debris through a process called phagocytosis. He also speculated that microglia have a different developmental origin than other brain cell types, a conclusion that wouldn’t be verified for over 100 years and which required the development of sophisticated genetic fate mapping techniques.

Continue reading “Branching Through Time: The Art & Science of Microglia” →
misciwriterseditors Uncategorized

The Lysosome: A Missing Puzzle Piece in Understanding Dementia 

Written by: Kaitrin Freeland

Edited by: Emily Januck, Lauren Heinzinger

Illustrated by: Paola Medina-Cabrera

Today feels wrong, but I don’t know why. All day long the air has been heavy, suffocating. I feel like I can’t breathe. Something is looming, the tension keeps building, and I swear my heart rate keeps increasing.

The phone rings, my father answers, and I can hear my grandpa’s voice on the other side. Did my heart just stop? My father lifts his eyes to us, and we know – he doesn’t have to say what has happened. He hangs up as tears roll down his face and his head drops into his hands. 

The struggle is finally over. Dementia claimed my beloved grandmother.

Continue reading “The Lysosome: A Missing Puzzle Piece in Understanding Dementia “ →
misciwriterseditors blog, EquilibriUM

On the Shoulders of Empire

Written by: Francisco Torres-Torres

Edited by: Juan Mato, Deanna Cannizzaro

Illustrated by: Rebecca Taubitz

Dun-dun. Dun-dun. Dun-dun.

Benches shook. Monitors clattered off uneven tables. Reagents jangled and tumbled, spilling down the giant’s mile long limb. The scientists, so enthralled in their thoughts and experiments, had forgotten how high up they really were! They buzzed around the ivory towers encrusted like pale honeycomb along the giant’s monstrous shoulders. 

Where is Uncle Sam going now… one scientist wondered, looking over the foggy mountain range. Villagers stirred like ants as the giant lumbered closer. Some admonished the giant, some welcomed the intrusion. Others went along with their day.

Continue reading “On the Shoulders of Empire” →
misciwriterseditors blog, EquilibriUM

Where Scientific Lineage Begins

Written by: Kenia Contreras

Edited by: Kaitrin Freeland, Juan Mato

Illustrated by: Adriana Brown

Ancient hands pulled strings taut on bows beneath the young sun. Calloused hands spread tar across rooftops under summer heat. Tanned hands scrubbed grime from grout beneath crystal chandeliers. Now, gloved hands pipette beneath fluorescent laboratory lights.

Humanity has come a long way since Lucy, one of our earliest known human ancestors. Lucy, like many of our ancestors, had to put survival and instinct first; there was room for nothing else. Every hour was spent hunting, gathering, building, and enduring. Survival was not a choice. Before humanity could advance, our ancestors first had to withstand the brutality of the world around them.

Continue reading “Where Scientific Lineage Begins” →
misciwriterseditors blog, EquilibriUM

Building the Periodic Table

Written by: Camila Gonzalez Curbelo

Edited by: Emily Januck, Colter Giem

Illustrated by: Colter Giem

Memorizing the periodic table of elements is undeniably one of the (slightly dreadful) science class rites of passage. Although most of us weren’t expected to memorize the entire table, we had to learn enough of it to recognize what a few of the symbols meant. Growing up during the golden era of YouTube, I came to associate learning the elements with the iconic “The New Periodic Table Song” by AsapSCIENCE. The song consists of a rapid-fire list of the chemical elements in order, sung in an absurdly catchy melody. It is chaotic, distinctively nerdy, and unforgettable even a decade later. 

Continue reading “Building the Periodic Table” →
misciwriterseditors blog, EquilibriUM

Cosmic Reparations and the Legacy of Harriet Tubman

Written by: Kihana Wilson

Edited by: Daniela Pereira, Kaitrin Freeland

Illustrated by: Satabdi Mohanty

The first question I ever thought to ask of the Universe was not how it came into being, not when it decided to be, nor even why it wanted to become. No, my questions were concerned with my own how, when, and why: ‘How did it come to be that I existed only in the liminal spaces?’ ‘Why was I relegated to them?’ and ‘When, if ever, could I escape into permanence and stability?’ In other words, my original motivations for studying the Universe were selfish. It seemed to me the source from which I could draw meaningful truths about my existence uncorrupted by mankind’s falsehoods it tried to project onto me.

Continue reading “Cosmic Reparations and the Legacy of Harriet Tubman” →