I don’t know about any of you, but I was fascinated after hearing Andrew speak about people thinking they cured their child of autism. Think about it, all of our lives we’ve thought this disease was incurable; yet there are parents who have no medical history claiming they’ve done the impossible. So, since I couldn’t seem to understand how parents could believe such a thing, I decided to do some more research on it. In an article I found, it focuses around one family who believes they’ve rehabilitated their son from autism. Notice the key word “rehabilitated.” This family understands that autism can’t be cured, and they believe that if a parent was to think their child was cured, then they never really had autism in the first place. So right off the bat, it seems this family is a little more legitimate than the examples we talked about in class. The family paid for a program called Applied Behavior Analysis or ABA. This program helps teach the kids how to learn and how behave in a positive manner. The program uses rewards and repetition to help the kids learn. Through this, the family believes their son improved greatly.

Not only did they use ABA, but they also had their son tested for levels of mercury.  As we had also discussed in class, mercury in vaccines were found to potentially cause autism. Jamie, the son in the article, had six times the amount of mercury in his body. The doctors gave him medicine to reduce the mercury levels, and Jamie’s parents claim it made a huge difference. This story kinda reminded me of the girl in the video we watched in class who suffered from a neuro disease after a flu shot. Definitely a powerful story, but I’m not entirely sure how realistic it is. So despite the fact that this family knows they can’t cure autism, their story still isn’t completely reliable.

I’m one of those people who will only believe it once I see it, so I tried to look up some more on whether or not mercury caused autism. I came across a study found on Forbes. They took an island around Madagascar and studied the women there for years. They chose this area because it has a much larger fish intake than most of the world, and fish contains mercury. Like all studies, there are confounding variables and other circumstances, but what the study found was that there is no negative developmental effects despite the huge mercury levels. This is just one study, done in one area of the world, on one large group of pregnant women, but I already am more convinced by this than the stories we heard in class or by Jamie’s story. It’s definitely a topic that will always be highly discussed, but do you believe the power of anecdotes, or do you need science to be there to back up your beliefs?

Photo courtesy of http://www.topnews.in

According to an analysis of scores of over 63 scientific studies stretching back over decades, the conclusion has been made that religious people tend to be less intelligent than people who are not. An analysis conducted by the University of Rochester found a very convincing negative correlation between religion and smarts. He found that 53 of 63 studies responded in this way.

A new study shows that consuming chili peppers and being in cold temperatures may aid in weight loss.

Have you been terrified of snakes your whole life? is it a fear unexplainable but terrifying nonetheless? Well, genetics may be to blame for your fear of these reptiles. A new study is showing that the human brain may actually be programmed to be afraid of snakes!This study says that ALL humans may have this genetic fear of snakes due to our long evolutionary history that involved snakes preying on us humans.

The study comes from a tribe called the Agta 

Negritos in the Philippines. The author of the 

study, an anthropologist from Southern Methodist University, spent over 20 years with the tribe and was able to document their rivalry with the local pythons in their area. He uses his knowledge of the area to describe the history of humans and snakes. The study found that this fear is universal among humans but also a different type of fear compared to that fear gained when a robber holds a gun up to us. 

So next time you think its illogical for you to be afraid of snakes remember that it isn’t! Because of evolution, history, and genetics none of us can help it we are all afraid of snakes. 

When people think of Australia a lot of times the first thing that comes to mind are kangaroos, but kangaroos aren’t the only strange animal that call Australia home. This article does a good job explaining that because Australia is an island, it has no immigration of animals from other parts of the world which is why it has animals unseen anywhere else. Before Australia became an island though, it was part of Asia before continental drift and rising sea levels caused Australia to break off into its own continent. The animals that were in a way stuck on the island had to adapt or die, which is what the animals did. 

The kangaroos have a very strong tail as well as hind legs that help them hop long distances on the flat desert plains on hot days. The kangaroos hopping takes less energy than walking. The wombat is another unusual animal living in Australia. They were able to adapt to the heat that Australia provides by becoming nocturnal. Koalas have a diet of mostly eucalyptus leaves and their strong claw-like paws help them cling to the trees. While the leaves are poisonous for a lot of other animals, the koala’s digestive system has adapted to it. Emus aren’t able to fly or run fast but they were given strong legs to be able to deliver a powerful kick to any animal that tries to attack them. Their feathers resemble matted hair which allows them to handle the extreme changes in the weather. Platypus have adapted to be able to swim as well as dig with their flattened body, strong limbs, and waterproof fur. 

Australia is also host to some of the most dangerous animals in the world. The box jellyfish, also known as the sea wasp, lives in Northern and North Eastern Australia and can be found near the coast of the Great Barrier Reef. Their tentacles have a strong toxin that delivers what its few survivors call an electrical shock as opposed to a burn. It is necessary that a victim gets medical attention as soon as they are stung or else they will most likely die always die. The salt water crocodile is another dangerous animal living in Australia. They are typically around seven meters long and will usually attack anything that moves. Salt water crocodiles swim on the bottom which makes it uneasy to spot them and they have an extremely powerful bite. Unsurprisingly, sharks are everywhere inhabiting all Australian coastal waters. Although they don’t kill humans too often, they still most definitely have the ability to. Shocking to most, the great white shark is not the most dangerous shark in Australia. Bull sharks have killed more humans than any other shark combined. Out of the ten most dangerous snakes in the world, eight of them are Australian. The most dangerous snake in the world can kill a hundred adults with a single bite. The brown snake, also from Australia, is capable of killing many as well. It is extremely dangerous, especially in the summer, to visit the Coast line and walk on the hills over the grass. 

http://www.sciences360.com/index.php/why-does-australia-have-so-many-unusual-animals-2-20658/

http://www.portaloceania.com/au-diverses-dangerous-ing.htm

When people think of Australia a lot of times the first thing that comes to mind are kangaroos, but kangaroos aren’t the only strange animal that call Australia home. This article does a good job explaining that because Australia is an island, it has no immigration of animals from other parts of the world which is why it has animals unseen anywhere else. Before Australia became an island though, it was part of Asia before continental drift and rising sea levels caused Australia to break off into its own continent. The animals that were in a way stuck on the island had to adapt or die, which is what the animals did. 

The kangaroos have a very strong tail as well as hind legs that help them hop long distances on the flat desert plains on hot days. The kangaroos hopping takes less energy than walking. The wombat is another unusual animal living in Australia. They were able to adapt to the heat that Australia provides by becoming nocturnal. Koalas have a diet of mostly eucalyptus leaves and their strong claw-like paws help them cling to the trees. While the leaves are poisonous for a lot of other animals, the koala’s digestive system has adapted to it. Emus aren’t able to fly or run fast but they were given strong legs to be able to deliver a powerful kick to any animal that tries to attack them. Their feathers resemble matted hair which allows them to handle the extreme changes in the weather. Platypus have adapted to be able to swim as well as dig with their flattened body, strong limbs, and waterproof fur. 

Australia is also host to some of the most dangerous animals in the world. The box jellyfish, also known as the sea wasp, lives in Northern and North Eastern Australia and can be found near the coast of the Great Barrier Reef. Their tentacles have a strong toxin that delivers what its few survivors call an electrical shock as opposed to a burn. It is necessary that a victim gets medical attention as soon as they are stung or else they will most likely die always die. The salt water crocodile is another dangerous animal living in Australia. They are typically around seven meters long and will usually attack anything that moves. Salt water crocodiles swim on the bottom which makes it uneasy to spot them and they have an extremely powerful bite. Unsurprisingly, sharks are everywhere inhabiting all Australian coastal waters. Although they don’t kill humans too often, they still most definitely have the ability to. Shocking to most, the great white shark is not the most dangerous shark in Australia. Bull sharks have killed more humans than any other shark combined. Out of the ten most dangerous snakes in the world, eight of them are Australian. The most dangerous snake in the world can kill a hundred adults with a single bite. The brown snake, also from Australia, is capable of killing many as well. It is extremely dangerous, especially in the summer, to visit the Coast line and walk on the hills over the grass. 

http://www.sciences360.com/index.php/why-does-australia-have-so-many-unusual-animals-2-20658/

http://www.portaloceania.com/au-diverses-dangerous-ing.htm

   Every one of us has seen a video advertisement online, whether we have to watch 15 seconds of it before watching our youtube.com video (called youtube pre-roll advertising) or have to wait until the video stops playing to get back to our Words With Friends game. Online/digital video advertising is clearly growing in popularity…but how effective is it?

A woman typically images the ideal mate as a partner with a taller height than her, however that is not always a possible case. The battle over height can be explained by the genes of men and women, tied to sexual conflict built in our DNA. 

A woman typically images the ideal mate as a partner with a taller height than her, however that is not always a possible case. The battle over height can be explained by the genes of men and women, tied to sexual conflict built in our DNA. 

A woman typically images the ideal mate as a partner with a taller height than her, however that is not always a possible case. The battle over height can be explained by the genes of men and women, tied to sexual conflict built in our DNA.