As the United States gets more progressive, the idea of legalized gambling is a hot topic that is highly debated. There are many pros as well as many cons that would come with legalizing gambling everywhere. A pro is the government would be able to tax, regulate and collect the money from gambling instead of casino owners and sharks. An obvious con is the darkness of addiction that many people would legally be able to fall into.

I personally love gambling. When I turned 18 and was legally able to gamble in my home state, I was gambling every day at casino machines. However, since I was only 18 with no steady income I was not able to gamble huge amounts of money and experience the great thrill of winning large amounts of money, therefore I was fortunately unable to experience the lows of losing all that money.

Surveys show that at least 2 million people are addicted to gambling and at least 20 million people’s lives are affected negatively by gambling with both of these numbers rising. Why is gambling so addicting? Gambling affects dopamine levels, which is defined as a chemical messenger that affects brain processes controlling movement, emotional response, and the ability to affect pleasure and pain.

Gambling affects the dopamine levels by losing the thrill of winning, causing a person to feel the need to gamble more money to experience a greater thrill. This process keeps repeating and repeating. Compare this to a drug addiction where the addict gets used to the level of high and needs more of the drug to feel the same high as before.

As much as I love gambling, I recognize the possibility of addiction and the negative impacts that come with it. Gambling addictions are as real as drug addictions and affect the brain the same way.

Sources:

http://www.scientificamerican.com/article/how-the-brain-gets-addicted-to-gambling/?page=1

http://www.utexas.edu/research/asrec/dopamine.html

http://www.scientificamerican.com/article/how-the-brain-gets-addicted-to-gambling/?page=2

Everyone has experienced the pain in their backs after carrying a heavy backpack around for a while. The relief of taking the weight off your shoulders is equivalent to sitting down after a long day of walking. As college students carrying around books for multiple subjects, the heavy backpack is sometimes unavoidable. This is never pleasant, but could this backpack be causing true damage to the back known as scoliosis?

For those of you who don’t know, scoliosis is defined as disorder where the spine is curved in the shape of an S or C, depending on the symptoms. The true cause of scoliosis has not been found, but doctors have found genetic links between members who have scoliosis.

Can a heavy backpack increase the chances of getting scoliosis? All the research and medical reports have disproved this theory. The only problems heavy backpacks can be linked with is back pain, but they do not shift the spine into the shape of an S or a C.

The good news for the kids who can’t escape the load of heavy books is that their spine is safe from an unhealthy adjustment. The bad news is that chronic back pain could be the result. An obvious way to combat heavy backpacks is lightening the load and only carrying items that are essential for class or studying.

Sources:

http://www.niams.nih.gov/Health_Info/Scoliosis/scoliosis_ff.asp

http://orthoinfo.aaos.org/topic.cfm?topic=A00633

It’s a common phrase, “cats always land on their feet.” It always seems that if a cat falls or is dropped, they perfectly correct themselves midair to land on their feet and be unscathed by the fall. I’ve been very curious since I was younger why this happens and how they’re able to do it. Have they mastered defying physics or are they just magical creatures?

I’ve grown up with multiple cats and have never seen one, no matter when falling or dropped, to correct themselves in the air and land on their feet. Animal Planet says that cats’ bodies reflexively corrects itself so its feet hit the ground first. So how are their bodies able to do this while other species can’t?

Animal Planet attributes this to their body mechanics. Cats’ bodies recognize where their feet are and adjust accordingly, using their heads as the anchor that starts the adjustment. The amazing thing about cats that allow their body to adjust midair are their spines. Without their spines being able to do what they do, cats would not be able to adjust in the air and land on their feet.

The backbones of cats are very flexible, allowing them to create extra movement when correcting midair. They also have 30 vertebrae, which allows their spines to be more flexible and make their bodies more nimble. Compare that to humans who have just 24 vertebrae in their spines. Their spines physically allow them to correct themselves when falling, but is it a natural inborn skill or is it taught to them? Animal Planet says its an inborn skill with cats being able to correct their falls by the age of 6 weeks old.

Cats are amazing animals and it seems like they are both defying physics and in a way magical.

Sources:

http://www.animalplanet.com/pets/why-do-cats-land-on-their-feet.htm

One year during a family reunion I noticed the weirdest thing about my cousin’s eating habits. All 7 of us cousins were eating our Chocolate Chip Mint Italian Water Ice for the day, when I noticed the weirdest thing. My cousin was picking out the chocolate chips and not eating them, which she had never done before. Naturally I asked her what she was doing and why she was wasting chocolate chips. She answered back that she wasn’t eating chocolate anymore because it causes acne. When I heard this answer I asked her if she was crazy.

I have consumed a lot of chocolate over the years and haven’t experienced any problems with acne. This is true for my mom and brother as well, so when I heard my cousin say it causes acne I was surprised and naturally curious to see if this was actually true.

Acne occurs when oil and dead skin cells clog hair follicles. Does chocolate consumption increase the risk of clogging the hair follicles?

All of the research concludes that it doesn’t with Web MD reporting about one specific experiment at the University of Pennsylvania where Dr. Albert Kligman conducted an experiment where he gave teens with acne real chocolate bars and others bars that tasted like chocolate. The teens didn’t know which of the bars they were given. The results were that the chocolate bars produced no more acne than the non chocolate bars.

The conclusion seems to be that chocolate does not cause oil and dead skin cells to clog hair follicles, which is what causes acne.

All of you fellow chocoholics can rejoice because chocolate does not cause blemishes in skin.

Sources:

http://www.mayoclinic.org/diseases-conditions/acne/basics/causes/con-20020580

http://www.webmd.com/skin-problems-and-treatments/features/chocolate-and-acne

As many people already know, caffeine is a stimulant that gives energy to the central nervous system which essentially “wakes” up the body. Many people turn to coffee, sodas or other soft drinks containing caffeine to get their “caffeine fix” for the day. So what is the most effective drink containing caffeine that can provide benefits to the body?

According to Livestrong, the two most effective and healthy drinks containing caffeine are coffee and tea, especially green tea, which may not surprise any of the nutritionists in here. But what makes these drinks more effective than a caffeinated soda?

The Mayo Clinic lists how many milligrams of caffeine are in a serving of coffee, tea and soda. It may come to no one’s surprise that coffee is the king of caffeine levels with a brewed, 8 oz. cup ranging anywhere from 95-200 mg.

The more interesting comparison is tea and soda. The two most popular teas, green and black, range from 24-45 mg in green tea and 14-70 mg in black tea. Compare this to popular soda brands like Coke, Diet Coke and Pepsi which range from 23-35 mg, 23-47 mg and 32-39 mg respectively. So depending on the batch or brand of tea and soda, the amount of caffeine can basically be equal. But what are the health benefits of drinking coffee and tea?

Well, coffee and tea come from natural substances like beans and leaves, which eliminates unhealthy artificially made substances from being the base of the drinks. Researchers have found many benefits in drinking coffee and tea according to Greatist.

Coffee has been found to improve memory loss and help with diseases like Alzheimer’s, Heart Disease, Gout, Type 2 Diabetes and for only men, Parkinson’s Disease. Coffee also increases calorie burning, which has many health benefits as well.

Green Tea is full of antioxidants which reduces the risk Breast, Lung and Stomach Cancer. It also prevents arterial clogging, allowing more fat to be burned, decrease the chance of having a stroke and improve cholesterol levels. Black tea lowers the risk of heart disease and stroke by allowing the blood vessels to dilate correctly.

With all the health benefits of coffee and tea, it’s hard not to drink a cup or more a day when needing the “caffeine fix.”

Sources:

http://www.uhs.umich.edu/caffeine

http://www.livestrong.com/article/545383-healthy-ways-to-drink-caffeine/

http://www.mayoclinic.org/healthy-living/nutrition-and-healthy-eating/in-depth/caffeine/art-20049372?pg=1

http://greatist.com/health/why-coffee-tea-are-amazing-you-infographic

Diet Coke has become the popular substitute soda for the original Coca-Cola because it doesn’t use high amounts of high fructose corn syrup. Instead, Diet Coke uses an artificial sweetener called Aspartame. There have been many rumors circulating that Aspartame causes cancer, making Diet Coke more dangerous to drink than Coca-Cola even with lower levels of sugar.

What exactly is Aspartame? The American Cancer Society defines it as an artificial sweetener made from amino acids, aspartic acid and phenylalanine. They also say it is found in brand names such as NutraSweet and Equal. So what is the benefit of putting Aspartame in foods and drinks if it could possibly cause cancer?

The American Cancer Society states that Aspartame is about 200 times sweeter than natural sugar, therefore less needs to be added to make something sweet, thus reducing calories and high levels of sugar. Aspartame cuts sugar levels but does it cause cancer?

A United Kingdom website about weight loss discusses the effects of Aspartame and cancer. They stated that there has been not enough evidence over the last 20 years of research and experiment to definitely conclude that Aspartame causes cancer… at least for now. Currently 130 have confirmed the safety of Aspartame in foods and drinks like Diet Coke according to the same website.

So all of you Diet Coke lovers seem to be safe… at least until a definitive conclusion is found!

Sources:

http://www.cancer.org/cancer/cancercauses/othercarcinogens/athome/aspartame

http://www.weightlossresources.co.uk/diet/healthy_eating/aspartame.htm

Everyone has heard that if you drop a penny off the Empire State Building, it will kill the person it hits. Is there any truth to this?

On the surface, it makes sense because the Empire State Building is so high off the ground that the distance itself should be able to make the penny travel fast enough to be deadly. Now take into consideration the weight. The new pennies way about 2.5 grams, which is relatively light.

The lightness of the penny prevents it from reaching the necessary speed to kill someone according to How Stuff Works. They also say the penny tumbles when it falls, which negates it from “slicing” through the air like a bullet for example.

The combination of the lightness and the way it falls through the air prevents the penny from being deadly when dropped from a tall building like the Empire State Building.

Now I’m not condoning throwing anything off a building no matter how light it is, but this seems like just another myth your mom and dad told you to keep you from making them look bad in public.

Sources:

http://www.answers.com/Q/How_much_does_a_US_penny_weigh

http://science.howstuffworks.com/science-vs-myth/everyday-myths/threw-penny-off-the-empire-state-building.htm

You have to get up early for class after a long night and can’t seem to get up when the alarm clock goes off. The most common thing to do is grab a big cup of coffee to wake you up. It does the trick and you’re sitting in class listening to the professor and everything goes great. This is what most people think of when thinking of the benefits of coffee.

Fast forward a few days and you are getting a little sick and have a stuffy nose. Now you are starting to get a headache. What should you do?

Unknown to most people, they should go and grab themselves a cup of coffee. Why? Coffee contains an ingredient, common knowledge to almost everyone, called caffeine. According to this website, caffeine is a stimulant that causes the body to essentially “wake up” and be more alert. So why would you want to drink something containing caffeine when you don’t feel like doing anything?

Well caffeine is common in headache prescriptions because it allows the body to use more energy when integrating the medicine to treat headaches according to the National Headache Foundation. So why drink a cup of coffee when you can get medication?

Coffee is an easy home remedy that can be done anytime a headache is occurring. Bottom Line Health states that headaches, or more severely migraines, are caused because the blood vessels get larger, causing them to press against nerves, which causes the painful feeling. They also say coffee helps with headaches or migraines because coffee reduces the size of the expanded blood vessels back to their normal size, thus relieving the painful feeling.

So the next time your headache is unbearable and you feel like you need to get headache medicine, just brew a quick cup of coffee or go to a Starbucks and you should be feeling great just like before.

Sources:

http://www.uhs.umich.edu/caffeine

https://www.headaches.org/educational_modules/caffeine/fast.html

http://www.bottomlinepublications.com/content/article/natural-remedies/coffee-helps-migraines

Let me first start off by saying that my family owns a dog that is a pure bred and happens to be a Labradoodle (a mix between labrador retriever and poodle), which is a relatively new breed compared to the history of other breeds.

With that being said, I am all for the breeding of dogs, but it raised the question in my mind; Is creating new breeds of dogs immoral when there are plenty of dogs to choose from already?

As livescience states, breeding of dogs are due to messing with genes. I never thought about this before now, but I find it odd that not many people are claiming the immorality of dog breeding while a majority of people think cloning is immoral. What’s the difference between them really?

For those of you who can remember back to the boring high school science classes, then you probably already know that a gene is a part of DNA. I honestly wasn’t sure so I double checked using this website. That brings me back to the differences between breeding and cloning. While researching cloning, I used this website that says cloning copies a cell containing DNA. Therefore both breeding and cloning manipulates DNA. The difference is one creates a new species (breeding), while another creates a copy of the same species (cloning). So is dog breeding now immoral or is cloning now not immoral? Well as I said above, I don’t think dog breeding is immoral and I also don’t think cloning is immoral, but you can decide for yourselves.

Another point about dog breeding immorality is the fact that new dogs are being created even when there are dogs in shelters waiting for owners. This website is an opinion piece bashing anyone who buys purebred dogs when there are plenty of good dogs available in kennels or shelters. The author even goes so far to call the people who want purebred dogs selfish.

Now I wouldn’t call my family or myself selfish because we wanted a purebred dog, we just happened to love our dog at first sight when we saw her. So does the fact that we didn’t go to a shelter and look for a dog before going to a place that sells purebreds make us selfish or immoral? I don’t think so. I don’t think anyone who does the same thing we did is selfish or immoral. The people who are selfish and immoral are the ones who have allowed the dogs to be put in the kennel or shelter in the first place.

Sources:

http://www.livescience.com/6023-genes-dogs-breeds-discovered.html

http://rarediseases.about.com/od/geneticdisorders/a/genesbasics.htm

http://www.clonesafety.org/cloning/facts/process/

http://quinxy.com/dogs/the-selfish-immorality-of-dog-breeding-buyers-sellers/

People who hate getting shots, myself included, will do anything to avoid a shot. But what if that shot could help you avoid the flu and that annoying runny nose and lingering cough that doesn’t seem to go away until the sun comes back? Something has been created to do this and goes by the name of the “Flu Shot.” But is this shot even worth the trouble to receive?

According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, or CDC, between 5% and 20% of Americans get the flu each year. There is a staggering difference between 5% of the population and 20% of the population, which to me raises the question of; How many people are truly getting sick a year? Nonetheless, below are the percentages in numbers.

The U.S. and World Population Clock has the United States’ population at 318,896,570 (at least when I wrote this post). Therefore 5% of the population infected with the flu is 15,944,828 or about 16 million people. Compare this with 20% which is 63,779,314 or about 64 million people. However, Health Day wrote an article where the CDC’s researchers discovered that in the year of 2011 and 2012, 45% of the population ages 6 months and above, got flu shot. This equates to about 143,503,456 or about 143.5 million people.

The CDC itself has reported that effectiveness of flu vaccinations can vary. According to this page, it varies on the age and health of a person, as well as if the shot is well matched to the flu.  They also say even when the shot matches the flu type, its effectiveness still varies.

Healthline lists the side effects of getting a flu shot which includes, pain at the injection sight, aches and pains, headaches, mild and high fevers, severe allergic reactions and Guillain-Barré Syndrome, or GBS, which causes paralysis and weakness throughout the body.

Getting a shot for something that doesn’t 100% reduce the risk of getting the flu doesn’t seem logical to me, especially when considering these side effects.

Sources:

http://www.cdc.gov/flu/about/qa/disease.htm

http://www.census.gov/popclock/

http://consumer.healthday.com/infectious-disease-information-21/flu-news-314/cdc-says-more-americans-are-getting-their-flu-shots-680560.html

http://www.cdc.gov/flu/about/qa/vaccineeffect.htm

http://www.healthline.com/health/flu-shot-side-effects#RunnyNose6

After September 4th earlier this month, America’s favorite sport is officially back. It started in dominant fashion for the Seahawks, the defending champions. However with the NFL season returning, most likely at least one of your team’s favorite players will be injured and most likely there will be an ACL tear. More and more football players are tearing their ACL, but they are recovering faster than ever. Has science allowed athletes to recover faster than an average person?

The Anterior Cruciate Ligament, or ACL, is one of the knees’ major ligaments. When the ACL is torn, the surgeons perform reconstruction surgery to repair the knee as best as possible. According to this website, surgeons replace the torn ligament with a healthy tendon to act as the new “ACL” because once a ligament is torn, it is beyond repair.

Looking at this from a football perspective, the number of torn ACLs have been high since 2009 and spiked in 2013 according to Peter King’s The MMQB site where he looked at statistics from the 2009 season onward. The total number of ACL tears during the entire season, preseason and postseason included, were 56 in 2009, 56 in 2010, 48 in 2011 and 56 in 2012. In 2013, numbers were also high, reaching 50 torn ACLs with 7 weeks to still compete. Why is it such a big deal to tear an ACL? Well besides the excruciating pain, the ACL provides stability for the knee. This is a nightmare for athletes, especially football players, who need their lower bodies to have full strength. No stability also means no explosion, which in turn makes the athlete expendable because of their lack of speed. However, the athletes who have torn their ACLs’ have come back just as strong, just as fast and recovered quicker than the average person.

My mom tore her ACL in both knees so I have some previous background knowledge of recovery time, which was usually about a year back when she tore her most recent one in the early 2000s. The official recovery time now for a patient is 8-12 months. How about for an NFL player? The average recovery time for NFL players is 6-9 months, 6 being the recommended minimum. So not too much of a difference, until the common sports fan spits out the fact that Adrian Peterson returned in 4 months and was incredible. Now more and more players are doing this (example: Chris Harris Jr. of the Denver Broncos). So are these fast recoveries due to science?

Already science has created anti-gravity treadmills and underwater treadmills to reduce stress when recovering from a knee injury, which is hugely important to keep inflammation at a minimal. Now scientists, according to this website, have created a pill to reduce muscle strength loss during recovery, which will allow athletes to return even quicker and in better condition physically. This pill is also designed for an average patient and not just an NFL athlete. I am all for this pill and anything else science creates to improve recoveries from injury.

Science has come a long way in the sports medicine and keeps rapidly advancing to improve the lives of athletes. Not only is this advancement in technology good for the athletes, because they won’t lose a career over an injury, but it’s also good for us fans who can see our favorite players back on the field sooner than ever before.

Sources:

http://www.mayoclinic.org/tests-procedures/acl-reconstruction/basics/definition/prc-20012625

http://mmqb.si.com/2013/12/04/nfl-injury-increase-2013/

http://kidshealth.org/parent/nutrition_center/exercise_safety/acl_injuries.html

http://www.mensfitness.com/training/pro-tips/5-most-devastating-sports-injuries

http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2013/06/130613104418.htm

http://orthopedics.about.com/od/aclinjury/f/rehabtime.htm

Hi, my name is Brad Wakai and I’m from Missoula, MT. I am taking this course because I really hate any form of “real” science classes. Biology, Chemistry and Physics, which I took in high school, bored me and I didn’t get much out of those classes. However, I like theories and deep thinking so this class appeals to me. I do not want to be a science major because science is my least favorite subject and I could not go into a profession involving science. This is a picture of our Montana Grizzly basketball team in 2010.

Learn more about Missoula, MT.