In Episode 6 of Across STEM with YSI Season 2, our conversation begins with something deceptively simple: the realization that your brain is always guessing.

Uzra Abid Ali joins Amirali Banani to talk about dreams, illusions, and the moments when perception quietly slips without us noticing. Drawing from her recent talk at STEM Quest 3.0, Inside Your Limit: The Neuroscience of Dreams & Illusions, Uzra explains how the brain isn’t a camera capturing reality as it is. It is a fierce prediction machine, constantly filling in gaps based on experiences and expectations.

She talks about dreams as one of the clearest examples of this. When external sensory input shuts off, the brain does not go quiet.

It becomes more creative.

Entire scenes, emotions, and narratives emerge out of nothing, without any real-world data feeding them. For Uzra, this isn’t just fascinating, it’s revealing. Dreams show what happens when perception is driven almost entirely from the inside out, which can unravel essential cues about consciousness.

She then discussed illusions, and not as tricks or party curiosities. Uzra describes illusions as moments where the brain’s shortcuts become visible. When an illusion fools us, which happens very often, it isn’t because our brain is broken—it’s because it’s trying to work efficiently, prioritizing speed and coherence over perfection or accuracy. This idea reshapes how we think about error and distortion in neuroscience.

Following this, Uzra reflects on how learning about the neuroscience of dreams and illusions has affected her personally. She admits that once you understand predictive processing, it becomes harder to take your own perceptions at face value. You begin to notice how easily the mind fills in details and how confidently it tells stories that feel real in the moment. It is a testament to how easily our brain at times can be tricked by the laws of physics, and thus how easily we can get tricked by our own brain into thinking that something it has made up is actually real.

A key takeaway from Uzra’s episode worth noting down: the focus is not to be placed on finding firm answers. It is on learning to pay attention to the moments when reality feels slightly unstable.

These are the moments that often reveal the most about how the mind actually works.

Watch Uzra’s STEM Quest 3.0 talk

Breaking into a field like neurotechnology can feel intimidating. It’s complex, technical, and often framed as something you’re only allowed to touch once you’ve reached a certain level.

In this episode of our new season of Across STEM with YSI, Amirali Banani sits down with Joshua Thomas Carter, a psychology undergraduate student (graduating later this year!) at the University of Surrey in Guildford, England and the Founder and President of the Surrey Neurotech Society, to talk about what it means to step into an incredibly exciting, emerging field when you don’t yet have all the answers.

Much of this episode stems from Joshua's recent talk at STEM Quest 3.0, Journey into Neurotechnology: Lessons and Advice, where he shared how he went from being deeply curious about the brain to working hands-on with neurostimulation for cognitive enhancement and building his university’s first-ever neurotech society. In this conversation, he expands on that incredible journey so far—one that is shaped far more by curiosity, persistence, and initiative than by certainty or a perfectly mapped-out plan.

Rather than treating neurotechnology as something distant or reserved for experts with years of experience, Joshua breaks it down as a field that’s still unraveling and evolving and is very much open to students willing to learn. He reflects on his first year in neurotech, from navigating unfamiliar research papers and technical language that needed Googling every few words to discovering opportunities that were closer than he ever expected. Along the way, he speaks candidly about the moments of doubt, the learning curves, and the realization that waiting to feel “ready” often means never starting at all.

A big part of Joshua’s story is about access. He challenges the idea that neurotech belongs only to engineers or long-established researchers, and talks about why students from a wide range of backgrounds have a tremendously important role to play. That belief is what pushed him to build a student neurotech community from scratch at his university, creating a space where interest could turn into collaboration, and where learning did not require permission. Along with this, we also explore the responsibility that comes with working on the brain itself (neuroethics!). Joshua speaks thoughtfully about ethics in neurotechnology, why moving fast isn’t always the right approach, and how conversations around philosophy and human impact are just as important as technical innovation.

At its core, this episode is for anyone who’s ever felt drawn to a field but unsure how to begin. Joshua’s story is still unfolding, and that’s exactly what makes it powerful. It shows that meaningful STEM journeys do not ever start with certainty, even in a complex field like neurotechnology.

They start with asking questions, reaching out to people, learning from any resource at your disposal, and taking the first step forward without hesitation.

That’s what it is all about.

Skincare often gets dismissed as “just cosmetic”, overlooking the captivating science underlying it.

But what if it’s actually chemistry, microbiology, and equity all in action?

In this episode of season 2 of Across STEM with YSI, Amirali Banani speaks with Reindy Faith Sanon, a high school senior from New Jersey who is an aspiring dermatologist with huge dreams, and a 2025 Junior Fellow with the Harvard Undergraduate Microbiology Society. Following her STEM Quest 3.0 talk, From Molecules to Moisturizers: The Chemistry of Skincare and Inclusive Dermatology, Reindy unpacks why skin health is a rigorous scientific field and why inclusivity should be so foundational to modern dermatology.

Reindy reflects on how her early curiosity and a lot of hands-on experimentation shaped her interest in skincare science from a young age. She shares how navigating self-care and health during the COVID era deepened her commitment to medicine, and how misinformation on social media can deeply distort public understanding of science and healthcare—including the myth that skincare is just cosmetic.

The conversation also explores youth leadership in STEM and the incredibly important role of interdisciplinary learning, diving deep into how young scientists can challenge outdated assumptions in medicine. From busting the myth that skincare “isn’t real science” to advocating for equitable dermatological education and patient care, Reindy offers a powerful reminder that innovation in healthcare starts with curiosity, and a serious willingness to learn.

The episode also zooms out to examine how curiosity itself becomes a powerful tool for scientific growth. Reindy speaks about learning through trial, through reflection, and even through uncertainty, describing how asking “why” at an early stage can be just as valuable as having formal credentials. She reflects on how moments of confusion, of experimentation, and of self-directed learning shaped her confidence as a young scientist and why embracing uncertainty is essential in fields where knowledge is in a constant state of evolution.

This powerful perspective from Reindy reframes science not as a linear path, but as an iterative process that consistently changes.