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Thank you for choosing The Budding Scientist to publish your work! We are currently accepting entries for our first edition:

🗓️ Application Deadline

Below are some starting points for each department on different ways of tackling this prompt. However, the more original you are the better!
They are designed to mimic university interview questions, strengthening your scientific exploration of topics you may not have thought about before.
We look forward to reading your creative ideas and how you explore such a broad and conceptual themes in your own way.

🧬 Biology

• Explore the complexity of animals' emotions, perhaps going into depth about a particular species and how they may express their emotions? How do you think this would affect different relationships e.g. courtship, predator-prey, competition etc?
• Do plants have emotions? You could explore plant signalling and reactions, and draw a parallel to human emotions. Through evolution, could plants potentially develop emotions?
• How have human emotions developed and become increasingly complex over time? You could outline different emotions and the biology/biochemistry of how they work.

🧪 Chemistry

• Explore the effect of different hormones on mood, and how they work in the body. For example, it is well known that dopamine is associated with motivation, but what is the chemical basis?
• Research Le Chatelier's principle, and write about how maintaining an emotional balance could mirror the same principle. When life throws us a major event or curveball, our emotions will also shift drastically to find a new baseline.

⚛️ Physics and Engineering

• Physics: Explore how Superposition, the quantum idea that a particle can exist in multiple states at once, could explain emotional paradoxes such as feeling bittersweet.
• Engineering: How do structural engineers effectively design buildings such as airports and stadiums to naturally guide crowds and reduce panic or fear emotions?
• Research why designs incorporating certain materials such as concrete may feel harsh, whereas materials like timber seem more welcoming. Explore how these ideas can be used in everyday life.

🩺 Medicine and Biomedical Sciences

• How do neurotransmitters and other drugs work? Research a disease or syndrome that neurotransmitters are effective against and find out why they work.
• Research the science behind the 'Broken Heart Syndrome' (clinically known as Takotsobu cardiomyopathy), to see the effects of immense grief on the human heart.
• Write an article on the immense power of the placebo, or less commonly known, the nocebo effect. How does simple hope act as a medical drug?
• Explore medical ethics the importance of considering the patient's emotions in areas such as clinical trials, diagnosis, breaking bad news etc.

🧠 Psychology and Social Sciences

• Write about the pyschological phenomenon of FOMO (Fear of Missing Out) and the emotional panic associated with it.
• Is it possible to "catch" negative emotions, e.g. why does walking into a room where everyone is stressed lead to stress (emotional contagion)?
• Explore the Chameleon Effect and why we change ourselves to fit in, using ideas of conformity.
• Write about the Theory of Constructed Emotion.

💻 Computer Science

• Write an article on Sentiment Analysis; how can AI be taught to understand complex human emotions through text?
• How are certain apps coded to emotionally manipulate you e.g by invoking anxiety, panic or confusion through certain layouts - known as Dark Patterns.
• How is your feed and 'recommended' section of apps used to target your strongest emotions, and how does that leave you engaged?

Links to helpful resources

Below are links to resources that our editors have collated in hopes that they may be useful for your writing. These are completely optional and we do not expect you to have read or watch everything below, but if you find yourself feeling stuck on where to begin, or would like to explore a specific topic in more detail, this may be a great place to look!
Remember to reference any sources you use; rules for referencing can be viewed under the Guidelines tab.