What Is One Life Science Fact or Discovery That Blew Your Mind?

Entries by Emma Wu & Tahmid Mottalib

November 2025

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I had never pondered about how babies can get enough oxygen in the womb while the mother also needs oxygen to live. Babies get more oxygen in the womb because fetal hemoglobin binds oxygen more strongly than the mother’s adult hemoglobin. The gamma globin in fetal hemoglobin replaces the beta globin found in adult hemoglobin, this change allows the baby’s blood to pull oxygen from the mother’s blood across the placenta due to the higher affinity for oxygen in their hemoglobin molecule. After birth, the baby’s body gradually switches from producing gamma globin to beta globin due to changes in gene expression. This fact stuck with me due to the fact that gene expression is an automatic process, requiring no thought, but can modify our body to adapt to different scenarios to assist in living properly.

-Tahmid Mottalib

Brussel sprouts are by no means a popular vegetable. Did you know that hating brussel sprouts could be genetic? Even though it's not surprising because our DNA gives us a specific set of taste receptors on our tongues and different people's receptors have different sensitivities and thus varying tolerances for food, I still find it cool that there's a legitimate biological reason that we dislike particular foods. I don't hate brussel sprouts, but this fact stuck with me because I was wondering if there were other foods that we could have genetic predispositions to disliking, and turns out this is the case for truffles and coriander.

-Emma Wu