Luke Hollomon

Richmond

Review Editor at OutdoorGearLab

Featured in: Favicon

medium.com Favicon

bikepacking.com Favicon

outdoorgearlab.com

Articles

Life Without Your Occipital Lobe

Dec 11, 2024 | medium.com | Luke Hollomon

What happens when you lose this lobe? You go blind. In a really interesting way. Pop out the back of your brain and discover just how powerful the rest can be. Luke Hollomon, M.S., DPT·FollowPublished inScience Spectrum·8 min read·--One half of the occipital lobe, highlighted in red at the back of the skull. Image generated by Life Science Databases (LSDB).
When Your Brain Can’t Tell Left From Right: A Journey Through the Mysterious Parietal Lobe

Nov 27, 2024 | medium.com | Luke Hollomon

Life without your parietal lobeThe parietal lobe is under-appreciated, but key to helping us understand our complicated world. Here’s what happens when it breaks. Luke Hollomon, M.S., DPT·Follow7 min read·--My wife can’t tell left from right. At least, not in a consistent manner. Directions fly by her to points unknown. In the car, only Apple can tell her where to go. And even then, it must be on screen with an arrow, the voice will not do.
What Happened to the Hole in the Ozone Layer?

Nov 14, 2024 | medium.com | Luke Hollomon

We all talked about it in childhood, but haven’t heard details in a whileIt’s still there, but it’s healing a little at a timeLuke Hollomon, M.S., DPT·Follow5 min read·--As a child of 1992, I remember hearing about the hole in the ozone layer regularly in elementary school. It was before climate change was a well known topic and we mainly talked about recycling and acid rain. I remember being mystified by the hole in the ozone layer, just after we learned about all the layers of our atmosphere.
How a Pothole Saved a Man’s Life: The Strange Science of Restarting Hearts

Nov 5, 2024 | medium.com | Luke Hollomon

History of CardiologyThe incredible true story of how a bump stopped a heart attack and the surprising science doctors are still studying today. Luke Hollomon, M.S., DPT·Follow7 min read·--Weak and dizzy, an 81-year-old Virginia man calls 911. He had a heart attack ten years ago and this feels all too familiar. He sits on his couch, waiting for the ambulance to show up as his heart accelerates and chest pain increases. Panting, sweating, groaning, his stress rises with every passing second.
The Mistake that Changed Cardiology Forever

Oct 24, 2024 | medium.com | Luke Hollomon

Hidden Medical HistoryA doctor’s worst nightmare becomes a medical breakthroughLuke Hollomon, M.S., DPT·Follow5 min read·--Basement of Cleveland Clinic, October 1958. Dr. F. Mason Sones Jr. stood frozen, watching in horror as his assistant’s needle slipped. In that split second, what should have been a routine heart procedure turned into what everyone in the room believed was a death sentence for their 26-year-old patient.
When My Brain Forgot How to See: A Traumatic Lesson in Neuroscience and Perception

Oct 14, 2024 | medium.com | Luke Hollomon

A brain injury taught me a deeper truthI Broke A Reflex I Didn’t Know I Had and Saw Deeper Into MyselfLuke Hollomon, M.S., DPT·FollowPublished inKnow Your Body·7 min read·--The ceiling tiles skipped like a broken film reel as they rushed me down the hospital corridor. In that moment, I realized my brain wasn’t just injured — it was fundamentally altered. A simple bike ride home, interrupted by a speeding car, had stripped away a superpower I never knew I possessed.
The Bacterial Secret to Snow: How P. syringae Shapes Winter and Revolutionized Ski Resorts

Oct 1, 2024 | medium.com | Luke Hollomon

A microscopic bacterium is responsible for every snowflakeWithout this tiny bacteria, it would almost never snowLuke Hollomon, M.S., DPT·Follow5 min read·--At the heart of every snowflake, at the core of every hailstone, and in the center of every raindrop lies a bacteria that’s responsible for it all. Without this microscopic critter, there would be no more snow days, skiing wouldn’t exist, and Kilimanjaro would lose much of it majesty. Life without Pseudomonas syringae wouldn’t be the same.
Walking Like a Bird - Life with a Broken Brain

Sep 25, 2024 | medium.com | Luke Hollomon

Birds walk weird. I know that’s nothing groundbreaking, but think about it. If you want to walk like a chicken, what do you do? Other than fold your hands under your armpits, what changes? In my case, my nose sticks forward and my eyes open wider. But there’s one more thing that chickens (and all birds) do that I can’t. They fixate. Pick an object a couple of feet away, ideally one with words on it. This screen will work, but it’s a bit small for the experiment.
The Seals the Study Climate Change - and Themselves

Aug 26, 2024 | medium.com | Luke Hollomon

Teamwork between humans and seals helps both species surviveThe Seals the Study Climate Change — and ThemselvesAll over the world, elephant, crabeater, and Weddell seals are doing investigative work for science. Deep under Antarctic ice, they glide through the water to collect data on currents, temperature, salinity, pressure, and more. Each time they surface to breathe, sensors they carry ping a satellite, relaying data to hundreds of scientists scattered across the globe.
A Chip Covered in Cancer is Accelerating Research

Aug 15, 2024 | medium.com | Luke Hollomon

Studying colon cancer is hard. The colon is dark, squishy, and hard to get to, whether it’s in people or animals. Researchers have developed methods to make it easier, but, so far, they’ve been limited to Petri dishes or specially bred animals. Neither is ideal. That’s what led a group of researchers to search for a new way to study colon cancer.