According to Psychology Today “addiction is a condition that results when a person ingests a substance or engages in an activity that can be pleasurable but the continued use of which becomes compulsive and interferes with ordinary life responsibilities, such as work, relationships, or health”. Whether it’s gambling, cigarettes, drugs, or something else, addiction is a serious issue that plagues our world today. So what is it about addiction that causes a person to continue a bad habit even when they know that they are causing harm to themselves and to their loved ones? Well I’m not sure, and am very curious to find out especially because I have loved ones who are suffering from addiction, so lets take a deeper look into the topic and find out.

According to TIME Magazine addiction is associated with a single chemical in the brain known as dopamine. Dopamine can be looked at as our bodies reward system that provides us with a euphoric feeling when we do something good such as get good grades, lend a helping hand, or even have sex. Dopamine is an essential chemical in the body for survival, and scientists believe that the dopamine system arose very quickly in the process of evolution because it rewards us for behaviors that are essential for survival. For instance if sex were not pleasurable, we would not partake in it, therefore causing no reproduction of the population and rapid extinction. When someone becomes addicted to drugs they don’t crave the drugs per se, however they crave the rush of dopamine that these drugs give them. This situation can also be looked at as to why we have an urge to better ourselves, for instance an urge to achieve good grades. If getting an “A” on a blog period did not provide me with a rush of satisfaction then I would most certainly not be blogging right now, however since I do feel good about myself after achieving a good grade on something I continually strive to obtain that feeling. Although it may seem hard to believe right now, I am not blogging to achieve a good grade, I am blogging to achieve the feeling of satisfaction that the good grade will provide me with, and for many of us this is why we become addicted.

Based on this information I would say that we are all addicted to something, however some of us get addicted to the wrong things and on a much deeper level than other people. The reason why drugs are so dangerous, is that they are highly addictive thanks to the powerful dopamine rush the drugs provide. With some drugs this addiction is stronger than others based on the chemical properties of the drug and how greatly they effect our bodies reward system.  Gambling on the other hand is not an addictive habit until you win for the first time and experience the “reward” of winning. When people gamble they are not necessarily gambling for the money, rather they are gambling for the satisfaction that the money will provide for them. The more successful of a gambler you are the deeper the addiction to it becomes. Addiction and this dopamine release are the reason why adrenaline junkies exist, for them they are willing to put there lives on the line performing foolish acts, just to achieve an adrenaline rush, which for them also releases a dopamine rush. I would say that adrenaline junkies are not addicted to the stunts they preform, rather they are addicted to the adrenaline rush that these activities provide them with.

Overall I believe that addiction is a serious problem that our world faces today, and that the main culprit to blame for our world’s addiction problem is dopamine, a chemical substance vital for survival, which just goes to show how messed up our body’s reward system truly is. The reason why addiction ultimately tears families apart is that, the addicted person begins to get more satisfaction out of the dopamine rush form the vice of addiction, than they receive from their own family or their families success. Dopamine is a sick chemical which causes great trouble in our world, however it truly is just something that you can’t live with or can’t live without and this is why addiction is such a widespread problem in our world today. 

Does age really matter when it comes to the consumption of alcohol, and if so why does the required drinking age vary so greatly from country to country? This is a question that came to mind after my trip to Ireland last summer where I was able to legally purchase and consume alcohol whenever I pleased.

The drinking age in most European countries  is 18 years of age, however the drinking age in the United States is 21 years of age, so why is this and are the three years that separate the two significant? According to the National Library of Medicine “setting the minimum legal drinking age at 21 clearly reduces alcohol and its major harms.” Drinking age is a number set in order to attempt to reduce the number of alcohol related harms, so when deciding on an age it is important to pick it based upon whether or not the reduction in alcohol-related harms justifies the reduction in consumer surplus. For instance it wouldn’t make much sense to change the drinking age from 21 years of age to 25 years of age in the US, because adults in this age group experience a significantly less amount of alcohol-related harms than those form the 18-21 age group. In this situation, the value of raising the age would not be greater than the value of the associated costs. This is opposed to changing the drinking age down from 21 to 18 where alcohol-related harms are much more frequent, therefore the value that is obtained from drinking is not as valuable as the consumers safety. Overall this study found that setting the minimum legal drinking  age at 21 opposed to 18 clearly reduces alcohol-related harms, which is ultimately the main reason we have a required drinking age; safety.

An opposing study in The Daily Wildcat claims that it’s about time that we lower the drinking age from 21 to 18, under the basis that people who are under 21 drink less often than people who are older than 21, however when people that are under 21 drink, they often drink more than someone older than 21 would in a single sitting, which leads to binge drinking, the reason why alcohol related harms occur in the first place. The author of this article believes that if we lowered the drinking age to 18 then we would almost eliminate the problem of binge drinking, because the 18 year olds would follow the trends of the 21 year olds and not drink as much in a single sitting. I believe this to be an entirely bogus theory with many flaws, even though the article does claim that “More than 70 percent of teens drink by the time they reach 18, and 80 percent of college students drink, according to the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism”. Personally I couldn’t see lowering the drinking age just because of a trend that proves that people of age are less likely to binge drink than those underage. I believe that this issue would just create a bigger problem for us and in no way remove the problem of binge drinking, it would just present it to a younger crowed. I believe that if we lowered the drinking age to 18 then 15 and 16 year olds would first and foremost be more inclined to drink, and would then begin to trade places with the 18 year olds in this paradox, causing them to binge drink. Personally I would rather have an 18-year-old binge drinking than the 15 or 16 year old whose body is much less matured and therefore not as capable of digesting alcohol properly.

Overall I believe that 21 is the optimal drinking age as far as our country is concerned; a place where people pride themselves on there drinking ability rather than their intelligence quotient. As far as I see it I, if the drinking age were lowered I do not believe that the amount of alcohol related harms would be reduced, in fact I feel as though they would occur much more frequently. The only reason why I could see making a change in the legal drinking age would be for the sole purpose of reducing these harms, which has been proven back in the 1970’s and 80’s when some states had a required drinking age of only 18,  to only increase when the drinking age is lowered. With that being said I do not believe that reducing the drinking age is the answer, and 21 seems to be the happy medium age, where of course there are still alcohol-related harms, but much less than there would be if the age was lowered. 

Whenever I hear the word alien I think of a green slimy human-esk figure with large black eyes and three fingers. I am probably wrong for envisioning them as Hollywood portrays them to society, but however they look I completely believe that life does exists beyond earth. My main reason for this belief is that the universe is just to big for us to be the only lucky ones. Before It’s News helps break down the numbers; modern telescopes are able to identify approximately 1 billion galaxies in our universe with each galaxy holding roughly 1 billion stars, therefore the total number of stars in the universe is 10 sextillion with an estimated 10 million billion planets. Now if we assume that life sustainable planets are rare in our universe, lets say one in a million, it is safe to say that there are ten billion planets in the universe capable of sustaining life. These estimates come from data that we are physically able to see, and do not account for the unknown amount of space that we are not able to see, meaning that these numbers could be much larger.

Life as we know it would not exist without the presence of water, so therefore we assume that in order for life to survive water must be present on that planet. Well it turns out that recent breakthroughs in technology have lead scientists to believe that water may flow underneath the surface of mars along with several moons of various planets in our solar system. This is encouraging news considering the fact that planets right in our own backyard are showing signs of the compound we know to be essential for life, only increasing the probability that life exists elsewhere.

According to the Merriam-Webster Dictionary an alien is defined as “something not familiar or like other things you have known: different from what you are used to”, what I take from this definition is that aliens are equal to the unknown; so why would something unknown and foreign to us require the same means for survival. With such a large and undiscovered universe I would not be surprised if these extraterrestrials did not require water for survival, and perhaps needed something else or nothing at all to maintain life. If this theory were true it would be a game changer, causing us to rethink life as we know it, along with increasing the odds substantially that aliens do exist.

Lastly, another reason why I feel so strongly about the existence of extraterrestrial life is the number of sightings and abductions that are reported on a yearly basis. I understand that not all of these stories are incredibly creditable however with hundreds of detailed reports each year the data is just too consistent and similar to be completely false. The National UFO Reporting Center does a good job at reporting and explaining these sightings in detail, I encourage you to take a look at a few of the reports and make a decision for yourself on whether or not you believe that they are creditable or not. Just remember that out of the hundreds of accounts that are reported each year it only takes one of them to be true.

Overall I just see our universe as to large and undiscovered of a place for us to be the only ones living in it, and think it is foolish to rule out the possibility of extraterrestrial life however it may exist. 

            Cough… Cough… Ahhhhhh Chuu! Yuup it’s that time of year again, “cold season” and like every year around this time I am once again a victim of the cold, as I’m sure many of you are as well. As I lay here sucking on cough drops and drinking ginger ale, I find myself wondering what exactly is a cold, how the hell did I catch it in the first place, and what are the most effective remedies that will make my cold more bearable.

         According to WEB MD it turns out that the common cold is a group of symptoms in the upper respiratory system that can be caused by more than 200 viruses, with the rhinovirus and the coronaviruses being the predominate perpetrators. Ask Alice tells us that these viruses attack and multiply in the cells that line the nose and throat, causing the congestion that we experience when infected. Colds are predominantly caught through touch, and sometimes even caught through airborne particles from a cough or a sneeze. Contrary to belief colds are NOT caused by being underdressed in cold weather or by getting wet, so the next time your mom tells you that “your going to get sick dressed like that”, you can tell her otherwise. However one is much more susceptible to a cold if they are extremely fatigued or under emotional distress which is likely the cause of my cold considering the fact that I am pledging a fraternity. The common cold although it is usually mild, is the leading cause of doctor visits and absences from school annually. Colds have such an effect on our everyday lives that the CDC estimates that Americans suffer 1 billion colds per year, which is an astonishing number considering that fact the we only live in a country of 317 million people.

         So now that we know what a cold is, it’s time to find out what is the best way to heal the pesky illness. Cold remedies are almost as common as colds themselves, and many cold remedies date back hundreds of years, but does longevity truly guarantee success? Well in the case of chicken noodle soup, longevity would  definitely guarantee success. According to the Mayo Clinic the soup does more than heal the soul, it actually acts as an anti-inflammatory by inhibiting the movement of immune system cells that inflame the infected respiratory system, and also acts as a catalyst in the movement of mucus, limiting the amount of time the viruses are in contact with the nose lining. Now don’t get me wrong I’m not saying that chicken noodle soup is the most effective cold remedy, however taken along with others it is an effective contributor. Now I don’t know about you but whenever I’m under the weather my mom urges me to drink lots of fluids, and it appears that the woman is up to something. Colds thrive in dry conditions, which explains why they are most prevalent in the wintertime, so the more moisture you can keep in your body the better. You should try to drink lots of water, juice, and tea with honey, which can loosen congestion, all while staying away from alcohol, coffee, and caffeine, which can make dehydration much worse. However the remedy that I find most useful in dampening the symptoms of a cold is salt water. Salt water can have many beneficial uses when suffering from a cold, as both a gargle and as a nose spray. Salt water when gargled can provide much need relief to a scratchy throat, and helps keep the respiratory system moisten all while clearing out excess mucus. I have just began using the Nelimed Sinus Rinse which acts sort of like the Neti pot, with a much more powerful blast of saline in the infected area, removing infected mucus all while clearing the respiratory system. I would highly recommend this product and have already begun to feel better since implementing it into my daily routine.

         Now that we know what works well, we can talk about the remedies that are not so effective. First and foremost antibiotics will have no effect on the common cold, which is a virus. Antibiotics attack bacteria, but not viruses and therefore are ineffective, taking antibiotics during a cold will not get you better any faster and will only contribute to the problem of antibiotic-resistant bacteria. Over the counter cold and cough medications are also not as effective as we may think, they will not prevent a cold or shorten its duration in any way, coming with annoying side effects, and if used more than a few times a day can actually make symptoms worse.

         Overall colds are a pain to deal with. If you catch a cold you can expect to be sick for a couple of weeks with no cure, only remedies that can help dampen the symptoms. However, if you implement these remedies your cold will be much more bearable to deal with, therefore allowing you to function as normally as possible.

Waking up for my 8am every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday is never an easy task, in fact just in order to begin thinking straight I need to get a hot shower, brush my teeth, and drink a tall glass of orange juice. From an early age I’ve always enjoyed a glass of orange juice in the morning, but one thing I’ve never enjoyed is the awful taste of the drink after brushing my teeth. So why the hell does orange juice taste like shit after we brush our teeth? Well I’m not sure and this is why I pose this question, so lets take a deeper look into the topic, and hopefully come up with an answer for this paradox that has troubled man since the beginning of time!

According to HowStuffWorks scientists don’t fully understand how taste works, however they do have a pretty good idea and hold a general consensus as to what causes the horrific taste when OJ & toothpaste are combined. Many of us would consider orange juice’s sweet citrus taste to be very enjoyable when drank alone, just as we enjoy the minty fresh taste of a well brushed mouth, however the combination of the two is disastrous. The most commonly accepted theory as to what taste is according to another article from HowStuffWorks, is “a chemical sense perceived by specialized receptor cells that make up taste buds”. These taste buds or taste receptors are separated into five sections on the tongue that are best at picking up that specific taste; the categories are as follows sweet, salty, sour, bitter, and umami a Japanese word meaning delicious savory taste. Scientists currently believe that taste sort of works like a puzzle, where molecules of a certain shape will interact with receptors that are shaped to accept them, however these receptors are easily manipulated which is why scientists believe the combination of orange juice and toothpaste is not a good one.

So who is responsible for the foul taste, the OJ or the toothpaste? Well many scientists believe that the foaming agent found in toothpaste known as sodium lauryl sulfate (SLS) is mainly responsible for the offense. SLS destroys phospholipids, which are fatty compounds that serve as inhibitors on the bitter receptors, on top of this SLS also dampens our sweet receptors suppressing orange juice’s sweet citrus taste we’ve all learned to love. So by increasing your tongue’s ability to detect bitterness and decreasing your tongue’s ability to taste sweetness, it is no wonder why orange juice tastes so awful after brushing your teeth. According to Science Made Simple dentists believe that SLS is responsible for giving people mouth ulcers as well.

The bottom line is that orange juice tastes bad directly after brushing your teeth because of the foaming agent found in 99% of all toothpastes known as SLS. In order to avoid this problem you could stop brushing your teeth or stop drinking orange juice all together, which I don’t recommend doing either of the two. Instead it would be wise to eat a light snack before drinking your OJ or simply brush your teeth AFTER drinking your orange juice. If you follow one of these simple tips you will no longer gag first thing in the morning from the repulsive taste of orange juice after brushing your teeth. 

Is generosity contagious? This is a question that came mind last weekend as I was canning the streets of Pittsburgh for THON. While canning I noticed some trends that my group and I found very interesting, these trends have lead me to believe that there is a science to canning, and that generosity may be contagious.

I’m a freshman pledging a fraternity so this was my first canning trip. Going into the trip I really had no idea what to expect and was anxious to get started. We began canning at 7:30am on Saturday morning, traffic was slow, but as the day went on the streets became much busier. I was stationed at a streetlight, on the corner of a busy three-lane highway. Unsure of what to do I began shaking my can in the air with a THON sign taped to my chest, all while pacing up and down the street the entire length of traffic. Donations were few and far between in the morning due to the low traffic volume, but as the day went on the donations seemed to pick up. People would donate anywhere from a couple cents all the way up to two hundred and twenty dollars (thanks to one very generous woman). The most common donation seemed to be a dollar, which was great, but it truly didn’t matter how much the person donated, as long as they donated, because every donation no matter the size adds up and will make a difference in a child’s life. As the morning went on I began to develop a routine, I would walk along the traffic as far as I could starting at the light until it turned green, which is when I would walk back to the top and repeat the process again. There would be times when I would walk down the length of traffic and not receive a cent, where other times I would make up to twenty dollars on a single trip. As the day continued to go on I began to pick up on a trend, I found that when a car close to the light donated money no matter the amount, I was much more likely to receive multiple donations on that trip. At first I began to think that this was by chance, but it kept on happening. When I did not receive a donation by a vehicle in the front of the traffic line I wasn’t likely to receive one at all, however when I did receive a donation from someone in the beginning of the line, this trend continued throughout. My thought of reasoning behind this phenomenon is that when a person sees someone committing an act of kindness, they are much more likely to keep the kindness train rolling, in this particular case donating.

Interested in this topic I decided to do a little research and see if anyone else shared the same views on generosity as I did, and it turns out I’m not the first to notice a trend like this. According to TIME Magazine “One person’s initial generosity can spark a chain reaction of benevolence, according to the latest study from prolific social contagion researchers James Fowler and Nicholas Christaki”. This study took participants who didn’t know one another and had them participate in a series of games, all while making sure that every individual interacted with the other participants only once to rule out the possibility that generosity may be rooted in increasing familiarity. The studies showed that participants who received money in an earlier round were much more likely to give money in a later round, demonstrating that generosity is indeed contagious. The studies also showed that uncooperative selfish behavior was also contagious, when someone did not receive money in an earlier round they were less likely to give money in a later round. I witnessed both of these instances first hand over the weekend; when a car in the beginning of the line donated money the vehicles around them witnessed that act and felt an obligation to donate as well, where as when a vehicle refused to donate, no example was set, therefore placing no obligation on any of the surrounding vehicles.

This topic refreshed my memory and got me thinking about a commonly aired Liberty Mutual Commercial which does a great job at demonstrating this train reaction of generosity, and how witnessing an act of kindness makes you more likely to partake in an act of kindness as well, causing a generosity epidemic.

The bottom line is that generosity is indeed contagious, and that witnessing an act of kindness makes you much more likely to partake in an act of kindness yourself. This also works the other way around, and if no one steps up to the plate and demonstrates and act of kindness people are less likely to go out of their way to partake in an act of kindness. So instead of sitting back and not doing anything, be a leader and spread the generosity virus!

Sitting atop 8,556 acres of land, Penn State University Park has the tenth largest college campus in the United States. As students on this large campus, it is inevitable that we will occasionally have some long walks to class. Now I don’t know about you, but on my long walks I like to keep myself occupied, and to do so I often analyze the people around me, and sometimes even compare those people to myself. In fact, just last Wednesday on my walk to geography class I began to take notice to the height of the people that I passed in relation to my own height. You see, I consider myself to be a tall person, and so would most of you. I stand six feet four inches tall, and am the tallest person in my family by about two inches. Coming from a relativity small high school I was always one of the taller people in my class, and definitely the tallest in my group of friends. However, I no longer feel so tall here at Penn State. As I was looking around the other day I began to notice many tall people, some that were taller than me, and plenty of others that were either my height or within one or two inches of me. This then got me thinking about my nephew Nathan, who is the son of my brother Jake (6’2″) and his wife Diana (5’6″). Nathan is only 3 years old, but is already on track to surpass me as the tallest member of the family according to his growth charts. This in return sparked my imagination and got me thinking about my life in the future, and how tall my son will be. For instance what if my wife is at least (5’6″) and we have a son… does this mean that he will one day surpass Nathan as the tallest member of the family? And what if every (6’2″+) man on the face of this earth procreates with a woman who is at least (5’6″)… does this mean that all of their sons will be taller than (6’4″) as well? And what factors are contributing to this ramped increase in height, are genetics alone responsible or is there something else? Well I’m not sure and this is why I pose these questions… so lets take a deeper look into the topic and find out!

According to Scientific American humans are getting taller, in fact “over the last 150 years the average height of people in industrialized nations has increased approximately four inches”. When looking for an explanation for this paradox scientists first looked at evolution, now lets remember that in order for something to evolve there must be a physical and/or behavioral variation. In a study done in industrial England families were evaluated and children that were born into poorer families were on average shorter than children born into wealthier families. It was also shown that poorer families had larger numbers of children. Given those results the population should have gotten shorter, however that has not been the case. Height has increased across the board paying no attention to a person’s socioeconomic standing. These results therefore rule out evolution and the process of natural selection. 

So if evolution is not responsible for this increase in height, then what is? Well it turns out that this increase in height has not been consistent throughout human existence, and studies show that there was no significant increase in height from the Stone Age up until about the 1800s. This leads many scientists to believe that the increase in height comes from advancements in nutrition. According to TIME Magazine our vitamin, mineral, and protein intake has increased significantly over the past 200 years causing the body to grow much more rapidly. On top of advancements in nutrition, we also have less disease today than we did 200 years ago. Overall these studies suggest, that the healthier we are the taller we should be. As nutrition and health continues to advance the human population should continue to get taller, this explains why we are generally taller than our parents, and why our kids will most likely be taller than us. Now don’t get me wrong I’m not saying the more you eat the taller you will be, but what I am saying is that proper nutrition plays a big role in your height.

Nutrition is not the only thing that contributes to your height, it is predominantly determined by your genetics. According to The Global Post “Genetics accounts for around 60 to 80 percent of one’s height potential, meaning that each one of your biological parents contributes to about 30 to 40 percent of your height.” With this being said the remaining 20 to 40 percent of your height is then determined by your quality of health and nutrition intake.

The bottom line is that we are getting taller as human beings, and that your height is determined mainly by your genetics and also by your quality of nutrition. So to answer my question as to “whether or not my son will be taller than my nephew Nathan”, the answer is not necessarily. It all depends on the percentages, and how much of the height gene my son will inherit from me rather than from my wife. My son’s quality of nutrition will also play a factor. This also answers my question as to  “What if every (6’2″+) man on the face of this earth procreates with a woman who is at least (5’6″)… does this mean that all of their sons will be taller than (6’4″) as well?” The answer is also not necessarily; it will depend on what percentage of the height gene the child receives from both the mother and the father, on top of the child’s quality of nutrition. Overall chances are that your child will be taller than you, however nothing is guaranteed. So the next time someone tells you that “you are growing like a weed” you’ll be able to explain to them why. 

Ten FULL Days! This is how long Mail Online estimates that the average woman spends styling her hair per year! Of course stylish hair is an attractive trait, however is it really worth spending 2.7% of your entire year on? I don’t think so! Although it may seem hard to believe, but hair wasn’t always treated as a fashion accessory, according to You Beauty it once had a much more purposeful use. Before heaters and coats early humans relied on hair for warmth, hair also helped protect form cuts, all while protecting us against chaffing by lubricating our arms and legs. On top of its protective aspects hair did still play a role in finding a partner, but instead of women, males were the ones who prided themselves on their hair. Men with the most impressive hair would scare away the rivals and in return would receive the prettiest women.

Hair has evolved over the years and it is much different than it was for our early relatives. According to MNN hair has thinned out so much over the years, that it no longer appears that we have as many hair follicles as an ape of our size (which we still do by the way). But if hair has thinned out so much do we still have a need for it? The answer is “YES”. I talked about the trouble that bedbugs present in my last blog post, well it turns out that these pests are much easier to detect on those who have body hair rather than those who do not. A study that recruited 29 university students and investigated who could spot the bedbugs on their bodies first, those with body hair or those without. The results were unanimous those with the body hair were able to spot the pesky varmints almost twice as fast as those who didn’t. Now by no means am I suggesting that women should stop shaving there body hair, this was just a study used to help back up my point that body hair is useful. Overall, other than being an attractive (or sometimes unattractive) feature, hair has more benefits than just beauty. 

“Don’t let the bedbugs bite!” a phrase that I’m sure we’ve all heard more times than we may have cared to, but maybe it is time to start taking this phrase a little more literally as these pesky varmints make their resurgence back into the States. Yes thats right I said it, bedbugs are back and ready to attack! According to the Mayo Clinic bedbugs are about the size of an apple seed and bite the exposed skin of sleeping humans to feed on their blood. These pests that were once eradicated in the United States thanks to DDT a pesticide which is know known to be extremely toxic, have made it back once again after this chemical was banned. 

Why is the ocean Blue, but not my bottle of FIJI? As a youngster playing on the beach I never really thought to deeply into the matter I almost just accepted it without question, but as I grow older and become more inquisitive I wonder about things like this, as I’m sure you do as well. According to The Library of Congress there are three theories regarding the color of the ocean, and they are all closely related. The first theory talks about how the water absorbs the sun’s wavelengths, this is explained well by The NOAA. This article discusses how the ocean absorbs the colors in the red half of the light spectrum leaving only the colors in the blue half behind. These blue wavelengths are then scattered throughout the water, and are rapidly reemitted into different directions. This reemitted light is the light that our eyes pick up. The color of this light is usually blue, but that color can be different depending on the circumstances. 

The second theory bites off the first and says that “particles in the water may help reflect blue light”. The particles in the water actually play a big role in this process, and help determinate the color of the water (i.e. whether it is green, brown, grey, or blue.) I’m sure were all familiar with the green or even brown seas of the north eastern Atlantic Ocean (i.e. The Jersey Shore) well contrary to belief and according to About.com this color is not because the water is dirty, its because of  the great presence of algae and plant life. This yellowish plant life reacts with the blue rays from the sun causing the greenish tint that we’ve grown to love at the Jersey Shore. This is also prevalent in the red sea according to this article in Enchanted Learning, where instead of the yellowish plant life, the red plant life in the sea reacts with the blue rays giving the sea it’s reddish tint. As far as a brown or even grey color ocean is concerned, this occurrence happens right after a storm where sand and other particles get kicked up from the oceans floor, therefore masking the suns rays and giving the ocean its brownish tint. 

The last theory states that “the ocean reflects the blue sky”. This is true, however it is only prominent at “low angles when the water is smooth”. Overall, each one of these theories has a hand in the color of the ocean, and the color is often determined by the weather and location. This concept holds not just true for oceans but also for all other large bodies of water (i.e. rivers, lakes).