Columbia Scientist is an open-access journal of non-research scientific work by high school, undergraduate, and graduate students worldwide: opinion editorials, briefings, letters, science art, and podcast scripts.https://columbiascientist.org/https://columbiascientist.org/articles/ai-battery-science/https://columbiascientist.org/articles/ai-battery-science/Screening 32 million candidate battery materials would have taken a human team decades. A Pacific Northwest National Laboratory and Microsoft collaboration did it in 80 hours.Sat, 01 Nov 2025 00:00:00 GMTArtificial IntelligenceEdition 4 · Fall 2025Luke Cooperhttps://columbiascientist.org/articles/brain-aneurysm/https://columbiascientist.org/articles/brain-aneurysm/An illustration of a cerebral aneurysm: the weakened vessel wall that, if it ruptures, becomes a hemorrhagic stroke.Sat, 01 Nov 2025 00:00:00 GMTNeuroscienceEdition 4 · Fall 2025Kimberly Wanghttps://columbiascientist.org/articles/cosmic-constant/https://columbiascientist.org/articles/cosmic-constant/Relativity says time stretches and slows depending on how fast you move and what mass is nearby. If it isn’t absolute, what exactly are we experiencing?Sat, 01 Nov 2025 00:00:00 GMTPhysics and SpaceEdition 4 · Fall 2025Mackenzie Tamhttps://columbiascientist.org/articles/elephant-in-the-room/https://columbiascientist.org/articles/elephant-in-the-room/Female octopuses strangle their mates. Female birds sing. Darwin recorded almost none of it, and a century of animal behaviour research inherited his blind spot.Sat, 01 Nov 2025 00:00:00 GMTBehavioral ScienceEdition 4 · Fall 2025Lauren Subramaniamhttps://columbiascientist.org/articles/flightless-future/https://columbiascientist.org/articles/flightless-future/The US recorded its first human death from avian flu in January 2025. The virus has since reached 17 states and more than 950 dairy herds, and the response is still catching up.Sat, 01 Nov 2025 00:00:00 GMTEpidemiologyEdition 4 · Fall 2025Jasmine Younghttps://columbiascientist.org/articles/gendered-aging/https://columbiascientist.org/articles/gendered-aging/Alzheimer’s is markedly more common in women. One line of research traces part of that gap to pregnancy, and to the social expectation that women become mothers.Sat, 01 Nov 2025 00:00:00 GMTMedicineEdition 4 · Fall 2025Afeefa Azharhttps://columbiascientist.org/articles/googles-willow/https://columbiascientist.org/articles/googles-willow/Google’s Willow chip crossed a threshold quantum computing has chased for decades: adding more qubits made it less error-prone, not more. What that means, and where it might lead.Sat, 01 Nov 2025 00:00:00 GMTQuantum ComputingEdition 4 · Fall 2025Emily Rosenthalhttps://columbiascientist.org/articles/griefbots/https://columbiascientist.org/articles/griefbots/Chatbots trained on the digital traces of the dead can hold a conversation in their voice. The harder question is whether interrupting grief this way helps anyone.Sat, 01 Nov 2025 00:00:00 GMTTechnoethicsEdition 4 · Fall 2025Michaela Markovahttps://columbiascientist.org/articles/inflammation-memory/https://columbiascientist.org/articles/inflammation-memory/Alzheimer’s has long been read as a disease of the brain. A growing body of work points somewhere else, to the immune system.Sat, 01 Nov 2025 00:00:00 GMTDiseaseEdition 4 · Fall 2025Diya Khuranahttps://columbiascientist.org/articles/microbial-medicine/https://columbiascientist.org/articles/microbial-medicine/Trillions of microbes live on human skin, and the balance among them decides whether the barrier holds. What happens when medicine starts treating that ecosystem directly?Sat, 01 Nov 2025 00:00:00 GMTMedicineEdition 4 · Fall 2025Grace Lihttps://columbiascientist.org/articles/nurdles/https://columbiascientist.org/articles/nurdles/Eleven and a half trillion plastic pellets enter the ocean every year. They aren’t classified as hazardous, so almost nobody is counting them.Sat, 01 Nov 2025 00:00:00 GMTEnvironmentEdition 4 · Fall 2025Bernice Denghttps://columbiascientist.org/articles/quantum-code/https://columbiascientist.org/articles/quantum-code/Neuroscience can map circuits and restore movement to paralysed patients, yet still cannot say why a melody raises goosebumps. A case for taking quantum theories of consciousness seriously.Sat, 01 Nov 2025 00:00:00 GMTQuantum PhysicsEdition 4 · Fall 2025Arav Shelathttps://columbiascientist.org/articles/second-race-for-space/https://columbiascientist.org/articles/second-race-for-space/Asteroid mining promises resources without the human cost. But the countries building the spacecraft are the ones that grew rich on colonial extraction, and the countries holding the lithium are, again, not at the table.Sat, 01 Nov 2025 00:00:00 GMTSpaceEdition 4 · Fall 2025Grace Wu