Maxwell Coyle

Columnist

Campus

Staff

Max Coyle is a Synapse staff writer and a technician with the Gartner Lab, where he studies the patterning and self-organization of microvasculature in 3-D tissues. His interests include biking, bourbon, and bibimbap, though never at the same time.

Science

Wednesday, May 18, 2016 - 15:34

Would You Rather?

By Maxwell Coyle

“Would you rather live forever or die in the next five seconds?” This question was posed to me recently and I was flummoxed. Most people, according to the asker, say they would die in the next five seconds. It took me much longer than five seconds to answer, so I guess I was already doomed to an eternal life and to the painful demands of being a thinking, sentient lifeform forever.

Science

Thursday, May 5, 2016 - 09:27

God’s Imperfect Red Pencil

By Maxwell Coyle

From the perspective of noise, CRISPR systems are modern biology’s closest approximation to Beyonce’s Lemonade or Game of Thrones: buzz-worthy, trending, think-pieced-to-paralysis.

Science

Thursday, April 28, 2016 - 15:50

The Machines Amidst the Minestrone

By Maxwell Coyle

When I lie on San Francisco’s Ocean Beach and focus my vision softly on the undulating water, I imagine the life that swarms underneath the ocean’s surface. The fish, the sharks, even the tiny happy phytoplankton, all bumping and grinding amongst one another like puckish tipsy high-schoolers. I imagine this happens all over the ocean, a teeming sea of water and fish and water again.

Science

Wednesday, April 13, 2016 - 14:03

Zika Outbreak Prompts Emergency Research at UCSF

By Maxwell Coyle

The recent outbreak of Zika virus in Central and South America correlates with a spike in birth defects, the first and foremost being microcephaly, a severe impairment of brain development. In Brazil, 1,113 cases of microcephaly have been confirmed, with 3,836 more suspected (as of April 12th, according to the Brazilian Health Ministry). The World Health Organization has declared this spike in microcephaly and other defects to be a global health emergency. The White House has asked Congress for $1.9 billion and has already transferred $510 million previously earmarked for an Ebola response.

Science

Tuesday, March 29, 2016 - 13:21

The Militarization of Cells

By Maxwell Coyle

Once every academic quarter, the UCSF Mission Bay campus takes on a new character. Normally unlocked buildings are barricaded and guarded by (mostly) men with guns.