Stories

ChatGPT is artificial intelligence that writes for you, which can include letters, song lyrics, research papers, recipes, poems, essays, outlines, even software code. Despite its clunky name (Generative Pre-trained Transformer), within five days of its launch, more than a million people were using it. Dr. Liran Ma, TCU computer science professor, explains the potential opportunities and challenges with this new-age language generation model.

Narrative Medicine is an approach to health care that prioritizes the stories of patients, seeking to foster narrative competence among practitioners. Mathew Crawford, instructor in TCU’s Pre-Health Professions Institute, explains why this skill is central to holistic patient care in most medical contexts.

The Pre-Health Professions Institute hosted a holiday party for Cancer Care Services to support local patients and their families on Dec. 4 in the BLUU. Pre-Health students volunteered to greet guests and act as Santa's helpers. The first 20 families to arrive received gift bundles, and guests enjoyed hot chocolate, snacks, crafts, pictures with Santa, custom balloon art, face painting and a special visit from SuperFrog.

Sarah Hill, psychology professor, explains that while most industries are affected by economic downturns, the cosmetic industry is not one of them. This phenomenon has been named the "lipstick effect." Hill discusses why people spend more money on a class of non-essential goods when they have less disposable income.

Rhiannon Mayne, chair of Meteoritics and Planetary Science and curator for the Oscar E. Monnig Meteorite Gallery at TCU, in collaboration with Native Earth | Native Sky (NENS), was awarded a grant for her Native Lands (NaLa) program. NENS aims to offer a better understanding of and stimulate interest in STEM programs that incorporate Native American stories and voices by developing holistic curriculum that interweave Native American stories and language with STEM principles.

Co-authored by Elisa Marroquin, assistant professor in TCU’s Department of Nutritional Sciences, a new paper published in the Journal of Medical Microbiology reveals the first systematic review to assess the effect of taking probiotics alongside antibiotics on the diversity and composition of the human gut microbiome. The review evaluates trends across 29 studies published over the past seven years.

TCU's Pre-Health Profession's Institute is partnering with Be The Match to host an on-campus and virtual Donor Registry Drive on Tuesday, Nov. 15 from 10 a.m. - 3 p.m. The goal of the event is to add donors to the Be The Match donor registry. Registrants can be between the ages of 18-40 years old, must meet health guidelines and should be willing to donate to any patient in need.

Veterans in Engineering, Technology, and the Sciences (V.E.T.S.) officially launched in 2020. This program connects veterans, military, and non-traditional students to STEM programs. In addition to initiatives to assist veterans in STEM programs at TCU, V.E.T.S. is focused on academic advising, internships, networking, and peer support.

Carnivorous plants have a wild array of adaptations that help them flourish in nutrient-poor environments, which include strategies to lure prey to their traps. John Horner, TCU biology professor, is an evolutionary ecologist with research interests in plant-insect interactions. Here he answers some in-depth questions about these fascinating plants.