Everyone loves music and a song can put you in a great mood.  But can  music help relieve depression in kids?

A study conducted by the Northern Ireland Music Therapy Trust concluded that music “reduces depression and raises self-esteem in children and adolescents with behavioral and emotional problems.”  251 kids were divided into two groups for this study.  One group continued with normal treatment for their depression and the other group had music therapy for 12 half-hour sessions once a week.  In these music therapy sessions, kids expressed their feelings and thoughts through writing songs and music.  In these sessions they may also just listen or sing or dance to music as well.

The results showed that music therapy worked extremely well.  Ciara Reilly, Chief Executive of the Northern Ireland Music Therapy Trust, “For a long time we have relied on anecdotal evidence and small-scale research findings about how well music therapy works. Now we have robust clinical evidence to show its beneficial effects.”  Reilly suggests that musical therapy worked so well that its should become a mainstream option for depression treatment.

This method works well because, as another worker at the Norther Ireland Music Therapy Trust, Karen Diamond said, “It is a non-verbal intervention. The children do not have to say anything.”  Often, it is hard for small children who are dealing with a lot of emotional issues to communicate with words, so this option is a great alternative.

However, this study was not experimental and there could’ve been other factors involving confounding variables that effected the kids in the music therapy’s emotional states.  To me, it seems natural that if music could lift my spirits when I’m down, it could do the same for kids who are depressed.

https://www.yahoo.com/health/when-kids-are-depressed-music-can-help-100783152492.html

http://www.belfasttelegraph.co.uk/news/local-national/northern-ireland/music-therapy-can-cut-depression-30686470.html

In my opinion, Alzheimer’s Disease may be one of the scariest diseases ever. Anyone who is a fan of the movie The Notebook knows how emotionally painful it is to have a loved one suffer from this disease.

Alzheimer’s Disease is a degenerative disease.  The symptoms include mild memory loss which eventually worsens in patients to the point where “individuals lose the ability to carry on a conversation and respond to their environment.” Right now, there is no cure for this disease, only treatment to slow the advancing of the disease.

However, new research has shown that there may be a way to protect yourself against Alzheimer’s.  A new study has show that walnuts may help to prevent or lower the risk of the disease.  The study tested the performance of wild mice and mice who were genetically altered to be vulnerable to getting Alzheimer’s. The experimental group of mice were fed a diet with 6 – 9 percent walnuts and the control group’s diet contained no walnuts.  The mice went through trials “that tested their spatial and learning ability and psychomotor skills and coordination.”

The study concluded that the mice that were fed the diet with walnuts performed much better than the control group.  The head researcher, Abha Chauhan, said, “Our study adds to the growing body of research that demonstrates the protective effects of walnuts on cognitive functioning.”

It is most likely that this experiment had these effects because walnuts have antioxidants that help protect against the amyloid beta, which is a protein that causes oxidative damage of the brain in people with Alzheimer’s. Antioxidants and other elements of the walnut help fight inflammation and stress that kills cells.

Although this study seems very well performed and its findings are very positive, mice are not people.  The walnuts could have some effect on mice that it does not have in humans.  Therefore, we cannot be too positive until trials on human are run and reflect the same results. But until then, it seems pretty clear that adding some walnuts to your diet would not hurt.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/national/health-science/walnuts-appear-to-delay-onset-of-alzheimers-disease-new-study-finds/2014/10/20/d357bc7e-58a6-11e4-b812-38518ae74c67_story.html

http://www.express.co.uk/life-style/health/526195/New-dementia-breakthrough-experts-two-ways-fight-disease

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/10/21/walnuts-and-alzheimers_n_6020766.html

http://www.alz.org/alzheimers_disease_what_is_alzheimers.asp

If you’ve ever smoked weed or have just simply watched Cheech and Chong or Harold and Kumar movies, you know that after smoking weed people get super hungry, a sensation called the munchies.  The munchies just aren’t a lack of will power after smoking, its actually a side-effect of the chemicals in weed.

Your appetite is boosted when you smoke weed because of the THC, tetrahydrocannabinol, that you inhale when you smoke marijuana.  THC triggers the sensors in your brain that are in charge of smell and taste, making you taste and smell more intensely.  Because of these heightened senses, your appetite increases.

In an experiment on mice, a group was fed THC and another group, the control group, was not fed THC.  The mice were then placed in an area with bananas and almond oil.  The group with the THC ate the most and smelled the oils for the most time. Sure the rats with THC could’ve just been hungrier or had a better sense of smell, but if done correctly, the experiment proves that THC is the cause of munchies in weed smokers.

This appetite boosting chemical doesn’t just cause harmful consequences, like ordering twelve pizzas at 4 am or eating way more Taco Bell than is healthy.  THC can help people who are suffering from lack of appetite, like people undergoing chemotherapy or suffering from HIV. Smoking medical marijuana can help these people suffering from horrible conditions live more comfortably and for longer.

Estes, Adam C. “Why Smoking Pot Makes You So Hungry.” Gizmodo. Kinja, 20 Apr. 2014. Web. 15 Oct. 2014.

“Why Does Marijuana Cause The “Munchies”? – TruthOnPot.com.”TruthOnPot.com. TruthOnPot.com, 22 Nov. 2010. Web. 15 Oct. 2014.

I’ve seen enough zombie apocalypse movies to know that a zombie takeover would be very, very bad news for planet Earth.  But how likely is it that zombies could be a reality?

We generally think of zombies as bodies that have come back from the dead to attack humans.  As students of science we know that once a body is dead, it cannot come back alive.  However, there are parasites or “neurotropic viruses that attack our brains and cause aggressive or bizarre behavior.”  For example, rabies is a disease that once contracted by being bitten by an infected animal.  The disease makes you go insane and feel the urge to bite others in order to infect them. (Dell’Amore)

Another zombie like health issue could be the parasite toxoplasmosa gondii  that controls rats’ brains.  The parasite is eaten and lives in a rat, but is only able to reproduce when inside the gut of a cat.  The parasite controls the rats’ brains to force them to hang around cats so they will be eaten by a cat and the parasite will be able to reproduce.  In studies, infected rats hung around spots that were sprayed with cat urine, whereas healthy rats panicked when near areas with the smell of urine.  On the bright side, we are not rats, but if this parasite evolves more we could be in trouble.

Having our mind controlled by parasites or viruses may not be a huge threat to our species today, but being left in a “zombie” or almost lifeless like state because of neuro toxins could be a bigger as the threat of biological warfare increases.  Some poisons can “slow your bodily functions to the point that you’ll be considered dead”.  The drugs that relives the victims leaves the patient in a trance, with no memory and only able to do simple tasks including moaning and eating.

A little more far fetched of a theory of how a zombie apocalypse could come about is through a combination of new ground-breaking scientific discoveries.  In recent years scientists have been able in a suspended state so that it can be brought back to life later.  Also doctors have the ability to regrow brains, like those in coma patients with brain injuries.  Labs are dedicated to “‘reanimating’ a person”.  With this process the brain would not have to have a cortex since “all you need is the stem and you’ll still be able to mindlessly walk and eat”.  We could have real life zombies walking around because of science and not the supernatural.

I personally do not think scientist would ever intend or try to create humans like this though.  Even if they were created, they would not be blood-thirsty, infecting creatures like we see in movies.  If zombies were created because poisons or viruses or parasites, we might have a bigger issue.  As the threat of biological warfare increases, the thought of modified viruses and parasites or advanced toxins becomes more of a possibility.  These weapons could be used to break down our nervous systems and make us in to zombies potentially.  However, as science advances for the worse, it also advances for the better and hopefully scientist could quickly find a cure to these dangerous threats.

“Toxoplasma Gondii Parasite Mind Control: Science Fiction in the News.” Toxoplasma Gondii Parasite Mind Control: Science Fiction in the News. N.p., n.d. Web. 06 Oct. 2014. <http://www.technovelgy.com/ct/Science-Fiction-News.asp?NewsNum=547>.

The phrase “work hard, play hard” on the weekends has been confirmed as true.  According to a study, “people drink more alcohol on days when they work out more.”  The study had 150 between the ages 18-89 to use a smart phone application to track how often they drank alcohol and how often they exercised over three periods of 21 days.

A study in 2009 concluded that people who are more active he results came in the same for the more active people and the less active people. Despite those results, this study discovered that the less active people drank more alcohol when they exercised and so did the more active people.

The author of the study, David Conroy, argues that the results of his study could be due to the loss of willpower from working hard at the gym so “they’re less able to say ‘no’ to a cocktail” or that people are having a drink as a reward for a great workout.  However, Dr. David Grier’s statement makes more sense to me.  Increase drinking does not cause an increases in exercise or vice versa, they are simply both influenced by an extra factor, the ways in which people spend their free time.

Dr. David Geier, “an orthopedic surgeon and sports medicine expert in Charleston”, warns us to not assume that more exercise leads to drinking more.  The results could simply have resulted because people tend to be more active and drink more alcohol when they have free time, like on the weekends.

Source: Holohan, Meghan. “Reward for Sweating? We Drink More Alcohol When We Exercise.” TODAY Health. NBC, 23 Sept. 2014. Web. 01 Oct. 2014.

As a college aged girl, I’ll admit I’ve taken my fair share of selfies. Although I don’t share these selfies on social media often, I’ve never considered that posting one might damage my relationships with others.  According to a recent U.K. study, could “be damaging to your real-world relationships.” (Huffington Post)

The authors of this paper, titled “Tagger’s Delight? Disclosure and liking behaviour in Facebook: the effects of sharing photographs amongst multiple known social circles”, surveyed 508 Facebook users who had an average age of 24.

The authors of this paper asked the participants “to rank how close they feel to their friends, coworkers and relatives who also use Facebook. They then compared those answers to how many selfies those people posted.” (O’Shea)

Most of the data was “messy” but one finding is pretty obvious.  The study found that the participants ranked their “relationship quality” lower with people who posted the most pictures with the subject of their selves. Dr. David, who was the study’s head author said, “‘…people, other than close friends and relatives, don’t seem to respond well to those who constantly share photos of themselves.'”(Grenoble)

Many people, especially teens, do not realize that as Houghton mentioned, “‘It’s worth remembering that the information we post to our ‘friends’ on Facebook, actually gets viewed by lots of different categories of people: partners; friends; family; colleagues and acquaintances; and each group seems to take a different view of the information shared.'” (Miller)

This study makes sense to me as most people who post excessive amounts of pictures of just themselves seem to post those pictures because they are attention seeking or “fishing for likes” to feel better about themselves.

However these results could be due to reverse causation. It seems that the people posting the selfies could just be self absorbed people anyways and that is the reason the for their low relationship quality ranking.  In other words, it is not the selifes that cause someone to feel alienated by the poster, but the people who post the most selfies just have personalities that do not make for good relationships with others.

Grenoble, Ryan. “Posting Too Many Facebook ‘Selfies’ Can Hurt Your Real-World Relationships, Study Says.” The Huffington Post. TheHuffingtonPost.com, 13 Aug. 2013. Web. 29 Sept. 2014.

Houghton, David. Tagger’s Delight? Disclosure and Liking Behaviour in Facebook: The Effects of Sharing Photographs amongst Multiple Known Social Circles (n.d.): n. pag. Birmingham Business School Discussion Paper Series. Birmingham Business School. Web. 29 Sept. 2014.

Miller, Tracy. “Too Many Selfies on Facebook Can Damage Relationships: Study.” NY Daily News. NY Daily News, 12 Aug. 2013. Web. 29 Sept. 2014.

O’Shea, Chris. “Discoveries.” Science Confirms That Selfies Are the Worst. Circle F Media, n.d. Web. 27 Sept. 2014.

Aliens taking over our planet or just paying a visit have been a common theme in movies, books, cartoons, and television shows for decades.  These stories leave me wondering what life forms on another planet might be like.  But how possible is it that life on other planets actually exist?

Although, there are many rumors that extraterrestrials have visited earth, no accounts have ever been confirmed.  Which leaves us with the questions, as stated in the Fermi Paradox, “ If extraterrestrials are so common, why haven’t they visited? Why haven’t they communicated with us? Or, finally, why haven’t they left behind some residue of their existence, such as heat or light ..?” (Harris)

Even if a planet was suitable for life, life would still have to emerge. Scientists have speculated that Jupiter’s moon Europa would be one of the most likely places we could find life in space.  The moon has a giant liquid ocean beneath its thin ice-like crust.  The crust protects the liquid from radiation, which would make it possible for life to possibly evolve there.  Another reason life could be hosted on this planet is that it has water, engergy, and organic chemicals, which are believed to be “the key for origin of life” (Redd). 

I would not be surprised if during my lifetime we never found life in outer space.  Conditions have to be so perfect for life to exist that it is a very small possibility that another environment like ours exists.  If life did was found, I would expect it to be microscopic or a very basic life-form.  But who knows, there could be life way more intelligent than ours out there.

http://science.howstuffworks.com/space/aliens-ufos/extraterrestrial-life-odds.htm

http://www.space.com/26905-jupiter-moon-europa-alien-life.html

Dogs can do many tricks. Some can catch frisbees, some can walk on their back legs, and some can bring in the paper.  However, can dogs really detect cancer?

According to a study conducted in Italy, two dogs were trained and tested to detect cancer.  the dogs sniffed urine samples collected from a group of 677 people, some who were cancer-free and some who had prostate cancer.  The dogs had a 98% percent success rate of correctly identifying which samples were from those with tumors.

Dogs are known for their scent of smell and have four times the number of cells used to smell than humans.  Therefore, it is not too far fetched to think that dogs can sniff the chemicals that tumors emit. The non-profit, the InSitu Foundation, is even seeking approval from the FDA for a “canine medical scent detection kit” that would detect lung cancer through breath samples.

The first step to train these animals is to hold two samples of fluid, one with cancer cells and one without, in front of each dog.  The dog is then rewarded when it sniffs the vial with the cancerous fluid inside.  This allows the dogs to become familiar with the smell that is linked to cancer.

Dogs have alway been very loyal creatures to their owners.  They’ve been used as seeing-eye guides and they can even detect when someone is about to have a seizure.  Using their sniffing powers to detect cancer seems only like the next step. I think this would be a great idea especially because dogs keep many calm when they are nervous or anxious, like being tested for cancer.

http://blogs.discovermagazine.com/d-brief/2014/05/19/dogs-sniff-out-prostate-cancer-with-98-percent-accuracy/#.VBeXdec03Ao

http://www.nbcnews.com/health/mens-health/dogs-sniff-out-prostate-cancer-n107641

One of my favorite kinds of cookie are Oreos.  With so many flavors to choose from (mint, dubble-stuffed, cookie dough, peanut butter) and with so many ways to eat them ( dunk them in milk, open it up, or just eat the whole thing), how could you not resist them?

Once I start eating them, it feels like I can’t stop.  I could seriously eat a whole box if I didn’t stop myself.  So why are these chocolate cookies with “creme” filling so good?  According to a study by Connecticut College presented at the Society for Neuroscience’s annual conference, “Oreos may be as addictive as cocaine”.

   In the study, rats were placed in a maze where they could go to an area with rice cakes or with Oreos.  The majority of rats chose the area with the oreos, just like in another study where they gathered more in an area of a maze where they were injected with a shot of cocaine versus an area where they would be injection with saline.  From measuring changes in the ‘pleasure center’ of the rats’ brains, the researchers concluded that rats who were eating the cookies actually experienced more pleasure than the rats who were injected with the drugs.  

Of course, humans are not rats and the rats were not actually “addicted” in the traditional sense to the cookies, although they found more pleasure in them than addictive drugs.  The study does show how foods, like Oreos, with a high sugar and fat content can be so hard to stop eating even though we know we shouldn’t eat them anymore.

Sources:

Gupta, Sanjay, Dr., and Elizabeth Cohen. “Oreos as ‘addictive’ as cocaine in lab rat study.” The Chart. Cable News Network, 16 Oct. 2013. Web 10 Sept. 2014. <http://thechart.blogs.cnn.com/2013/10/16/oreos-as-addictive-as-cocaine-in-lab-rat-study/>.

Locker, Melissa. “Oreos May Be As Addictive As Cocaine.” Time Magazine. Time Inc., 16 Oct. 2013. Web. 10 Sept. 2014.<http://newsfeed.time.com/2013/10/16/oreos-may-be-as-addictive-as-cocaine/>.

Walton, Alice G. “Why Oreos Are As Addictive As Cocaine To Your Brain.” Forbes Magazine. Forbes Magazine, 16 Oct. 2013. Web 10 Sept. 2014 <http://www.forbes.com/sites/alicegwalton/2013/10/16/why-your-brain-treats-oreos-like-a-drug/>.

Hi everyone! I’m Kelsie Ahern and I’m from Baltimore, Maryland.  I’m taking this class because it was recommended by an advisor. I’m not a science major, because I’m much more interested in the humanities.  I’m in he School of Communications and I’m planning on being a journalism or PR major.  My dream job would be to work at a fashion magazine. Also, I am currently obsessed with French Bulldog puppies so, here’s a picture.