I took audio engineering while in high school. There, I learned everything about mixing and sound in general. One thing we focused on was noise induced hearing loss. I was astonished to learn about tinnitus and learn the statistics about noise induced hearing loss. According to an article by the National Institute on Deafness and Other Communication Disorders, or NIDCD “Approximately 15 percent of Americans a between the ages of 20 and 69—or 26 million Americans—have hearing loss that may have been caused by exposure to noise at work or in leisure activities.” This is a HUGE number of people especially when it is something that can be prevented.

In a second article I found, this one done by American Hearing Research Foundation, it said that hearing loss could absolutely not be fixed. This is the same as what I learned in class, that once it’s gone, there is no getting it back again. This has been the belief for several years but as I continued my search, I stumbled across a third article, a recent one, in which they could prove the previous beliefs wrong.

Medical News Today published an article about noise-induced hearing loss was restored in mice. Researchers from the University of Michigan and students at Harvard Medical School conducted experiments on mice that could be revolutionary. They increased the protein that is abbreviated as NT3 in the mice with the noise induced hearing loss and were able to see positive results. They found that NT3 is a large part of the communication between the ear and the brain the researchers created an experimental experiment in order to test the differences in the mice. With this they looked at the group of mice that got a boost in the NT3 protein and those who did not. They found that the ones that had the boosted “NT3 regained their hearing in a 3 week period.”

Although these findings are extraordinary, they cannot jump to conclusions about the effects it has on human hearing. The scientists want to see if there would be methods to create a drug that would help with the increase in NT3 of humans and would help regain hearing. They also mention in the article how the researchers only used partially deaf mice so they are uncertain to whether or not it would help fully deaf mice.

Overall, I think it would be really interesting to see where this research can lead to humans. I also would like to follow up and see if they do tests on fully deaf mice because that as well could open doors to the future of reversing the effect of noise-induced hearing loss. I thought this experiment was conducted well in the way that they compared the two groups and I think they should use this type of experiment on humans too (as long as they know NT3 would not be a negative effect).

In a study recently done a reported in the Journal of Clinical Pathology, wild berries that are grown in wetlands in the US could help kill more cancer cells. At the moment the UK research is being done solely on cancer cells in laboratories but I think it will be interesting to see where the research on these chokeberries may go. While experimenting they found that putting the berry extract on pancreas cancer combined with chemotherapy drugs killed more cancer cells than the test without the berry extract. Interesting isn’t it? The scientists believe that the berry contains something that may “reduce the number of harmful cells.” They also did experiments in the same fashion on brain cancer cells. I am very intrigued to see where this experiment could lead the scientists and how the scientists will decide what the most effective way will be to experiment further. Hopefully as they continue to experiment, their findings will direct them towards the defeat of cancer and helping people who have it. This was an experimental experiment that measured the difference of the effect of the berry on the cancer cells. Whether or not the berry extract was applied was the control in the experiment. I don’t know where this research could lead or what in the berry is causing this but this could be a huge deal in the cancer research world.

I had heard kissing is healthy before and it seems to me all the facts in this article I read make sense. It actually has some science behind it, which was interesting. Although the exercise of kissing may be minor, it is said that the movement of ones tongue and lips use muscles that actually shape ones face, and this also burns calories (although not many). Another health benefit of kissing that the article stated was that it causes “blood-vessel dilation” which can help get rid of cramps as well as headaches. Here are some explanations of why you can get a headache because of blood flow. Kissing released various hormones in your brain making one happier overall too. Lastly the article says how kissing fights cavities because of saliva production and also lowers your blood pressure because you get a steady heartbeat. While this all makes sense to me this article made me curious as to how valid it was. The scientific facts were there but it lacked its credibility. Throughout the article it refers to an Author of a book about kissing, Andréa Dermirjian, but what makes me know that she has actually done legitimate research? I then looked for another article and came across one called “Chemical Attraction: The science of kissing“, which was way more in depth and described what Demirjian had outlined but way more in depth and scientifically. This was an article explained more of the chemical processes as well as the experiments that actually prove that kissing is good for you, not just stating it. For example neuroscience professor Wendy Hill from the Lafayette College explained how “kissing releases chemicals that reduce stress hormones” and did a study which had 15 people either kiss or hold hands for 15 minutes and measured the amount of chemicals in each person after the time. They replicated this in different settings as well. This type of research being stated in the actual article automatically gives this article more credibility. I thought the first article was good for entertainment reasons, but when you want the proven science of it, the article written by Furtwangler was definitely the more interesting and on point.

What is something that you absolutely can’t live without? Food? Water? Air? How about your cell phone?

I found an article called “Watch Out: cell phones can be addictive.” This was not a surprising article for me to stumble across because in today’s day in age, I don’t doubt the title is true. After reading the article I was feeling as if I as well am addicted to my cell phone, however, some of the facts they described were scary. According to the article just mentioned, “the average college student uses their cell phone for about nine hours a day.” That is actually insane. It even points out the fact that that number is more than what most students spend sleeping. It states that excessive use and withdrawal are signs of addiction which many people find as describing words about their phone use. Although these are not all the traits that describe addiction, as was pointed out by Tracii Ryan, a psychologist at the RMIT University in Melbourne, Australia, this could be a sign of it.

I really do think many people are addicted to technology and cell phones especially at the college age. As mentioned in the article, people are very aware of drug and alcohol addiction but people often neglect the addiction to behavior. You constantly see it taking away from other activities such as class, homework, social lives and so on. It is the saddest thing I know to see people’s grades suffer because of technology distracting them, when in reality technology is there to make ones life easier.

Another thing I noticed was when I worked at a restaurant at home as a hostess, I would look around the waiting room and everyone is on their cell phone which is one thing, but when they all sit down at a table together, no one puts their phone away. An extreme case I saw was a teenager having headphones plugged into their cell phones during dinner. What is so important to listen to on ones cell phone that will take you away from other breathing, sensitive, caring, human beings. Although I check my phone all the time, freak out if it’s dead or couldn’t imagine life without it, I think teenagers need to every once-in-a-while look around at life that is happening to them without their cell phones. One can miss a lot in the non-technology world if you forget to look around.

I think the research that was done in this article and facts that describe addiction is something that college students should be aware of because some of them fail to realize it is a problem in the first place, in the same way drug users fail to see the problem. The stimulation of the brain, and feel good hormones released through the use of technology is no where near the senses you can stimulate when you put down your phone and start living yourself. Believe it or not, the really cool Facebook status you read will still be there after an hour-long jog, or painting or doing a hobby that you love. Although I think there could be a lot more research done to support this data, I definitely feel that this is a good beginning to it all.

Dancing is something I have always loved. Whether it is on a stage or at a party, I am the one to always be dancing and showing off my moves. One thing people may fail to realize are the judgments that are made on others based on dance moves— especially judgments of men. In a study done at the School of Life Sciences at the Northumbria University it defines dancing in humans as “a set of intentional, rhythmic, culturally influenced, non-verbal body movements that are considered to be an important aspect of sexuality and courtship attraction…” “Dancing ability, particularly that of men, may serve as a signal of male mate quality in terms of physical strength, prenatal androgenization and symmetry, and thus affect women’s perceptions of men’s attractiveness.” I’m sure the guys who are actually reading this blog right now are kind of freaked out. In one of their research methods, they had men dance and they were filmed and turned into avatars on the computer and women needed to rate the attractiveness of their movements. This gave researchers insight to the exact movements that women liked. It was interesting the way they researched this. I thought right off the bat it was an interesting research topic, but the way they had actual men dancing and women observing was a good way of research. The results they found were definitely interesting and I think you guys should all take a look before you hit the dance floor this weekend.

I know the legalization of Marijuana is a very common topic to discuss in today’s society. People constantly argue whether it is safe or not or if legalization is a good idea in the United States. I came across a study that was funded by the Australian Government that was really interesting. The study showed really horrifying facts about teens that use marijuana. Here are the facts that caught my attention in the study- “…teens who smoke marijuana daily are more than 60% less likely to finish high school”, “The users are also seven times more likely to attempt suicide and eight times more likely to use other illegal drugs. They may also be more affected by depression and have welfare dependency.” (CBS Philly). This study was so interesting to me because of the way the study was conducted. Researchers followed activity of 3,700 teenagers until they were 30 years old. To me this makes the results seem to be very valid because of a few reasons. First of all, it was smart that they sampled such a large group of teenagers. This makes the results more valid because it is not necessarily a small biased group, rather a larger demographic and sample size is covered. Secondly I thought it was interesting that they measured the results over a long time span. I am surprised that findings and statistics such as these were not known beforehand. This type of observational experiment however could have results that are affected by other things. For example, the lifestyles of the people who are being observed can affect the results of how depressed they are. However, if the science of this and the experiment is in fact accurate, is USA making a really bad decision? Although legalizing marijuana would eliminate black markets, would it instead create a less educated, more depressed, and drug addicted generation? It is hard to say, but I think that the United States Government should take the time to fund their own scientific research for the good of its own citizens before large negative effects come into place.

Hi, my name is Amanda Torhus, I am a Sophomore in the Smeal College of Business and I am planning to be a Supply Chain Management major.

(i) I am taking this course because a friend had recommended it to me. In addition to that, I saw it in an article that was called “Gen Eds That Don’t Suck” which explained it to be a great class.

(ii) I am not going to be a science major for a few reasons. I did well in all my science courses but never enjoyed it. Science never came easy to me and I realized quickly that my brain worked better in different ways. Business was something that I always knew I was passionate about so it made no sense to major in something other than that.