Author Archives: Kendall Agosto

Do Bananas Keep Mosquitoes Away?

Being allergic to mosquitoes, I have heard of countless ways to keep them at bay. I personally use the dryer sheets trick. But something I have heard about for a while is the myth that if you eat a banana before going out, it will keep the mosquitoes at bay. I personally have never tried it but was interested to find out what studies have found regarding the banana trick.

According to the myth, mosquitoes won’t bother someone who ate a banana because of the Vitamin B12, but this is in fact false. I have ever heard the rumor that eating a banana before going out causes mosquitoes to be attracted to you. But in fact, according to the American Mosquitoes Control Association, eating a banana before going out with neither attracts nor defends against mosquitoes. Susan Paskewitz from The University of Wisconsin also studied the effects of bananas on mosquitoes and found no correlation between the two.mosquito

Although both of these studies found no correlation between bananas and the effect of them on mosquitoes, both researchers said that they believe more studies need to be conducted to come to a more clear conclusion. I believe the studies are not very strong because they were both conducted on small sample sized which can cause a large problem. We also don’t know if the study was conducted on random people or not. What if everyone in the test had the same blood type, this could be a very large third variable that was not taken into account that could cause the results to be bias. Reverse causation also couldn’t be a factor here because that would be saying that because someone was not bitten by any mosquitoes, they must have eaten a banana, and this is more definitely the case.  So overall, the studies do not seem to have been conducted well and I don’t believe the studies results can be trusted.

Are Low Carb Diets Safe?

In light of the “Freshman 15,” I have been looking into different types of diets and a type of diet I have come across several times is the Low Carb diet. Obviously with a low carb diet, you eat a significant amount less of carbs, but what do you replace them with? Usually while on this type of diet, carbs are replaced with proteins and lot of veggies. But what can be some issues regarding the low carb diet? When starting a new diet, your body will often take some time to get used to it. MD Stephen Sondike said “”Any time you make a fundamental change in your diet your body is going to react — and when it does you are bound to experience certain symptoms or problems.”

Regarding the low carb diet, a lot of time what can occur when cutting down on carbs is constipationFarfalle_Pasta. The reason this is, is because a lot of fiber comes from high carb food such as white bread and pasta, so removing these from your diet can throw your body into a tizzy. But a study found that if you eat 5 servings of low carb veggies a day, your bowel system should remain the same and reduce your chance of constipation. This seems like a pretty easy fix to a simple problem, but are there other health risks involved in this type of diet?

Another concern with the low carb diet is dehydration. The reason this becomes a factor is because eating a low amount of carbs begins a fat burning process called “dietary ketosis.” Because a large amount of ketones are being produced, it can cause dehydration easily. So this seems to be a problem with another easy fix: drink more water!

Also drinking more water can help elevate any bowel problems. Ketones can also cause bad breath, which you may think you can just brush or floss away, but this is not the case in these terms. Here, your bad breath is being caused by metabolic changes, so brushing your teeth more will not help. Drinking water can help this issue because it will dilute the ketones.

So overall, it does not seem like there are any large concerns with the low carb diet. But I decided to do more research and came to find that there are some more and higher risk concerns that everyone needs to take into consideration before starting this diet. One concern is getting enough folic acid, a B vitamin critical to everyone, but especially pregnant women says NYU nutritionist Samantha Heller. Folic Acid is critical in controlling homocysteine (which is linked to heart disease). So if you are already at risk for cardiovascular diseases, dropping your folic acid could cause serious health concerns. There has also be evidence that a low carb diet can take its toll on calcium levels (but that is more of a concern for in the long run).

Another major health risk of the low carb diet is the higher likely hood of osteoporosis and kidney stones. Since a low carb diet usually causes people do also go on a high protein diet, this can cause you to urinate more calcium than normal which could cause osteoporosis and kidney stones. So overall, this type of diet may be healthy for some people but unhealthy for others, especially if they have previous health issues or women who are or considering getting pregnant. Before starting a diet like this, you should talk to your doctor and nutritionist and see if they believe it is healthy for you. You also cannot go into this diet thinking you are going to lose weight right away or lose a very large amount of weight. Diets work differently for everyone so just because it works for one person does not mean it will work for you.

While doing research for this blog, I began to wonder if reverse causation could have any play in this diet. I don’t believe reverse causation could have any play in this because that would be saying that you are losing weight, therefore you must be eating less carbs and this is by no means correct. People lose weight in all different ways and on all different diets. So reverse causation could play no part in this. Also, when on a low carb diet, there is a possibility for false positives. While on this diet, you may believe that you are losing weight strictly because you are eating less carbs, but you could be losing weight for other reasons too. Maybe for example, you started to go to the gym more often resulting in you losing more weight. Because of things such as this, the results from the studies could be flawed. Or maybe because you are eating less carbs, you are eating less overall which could lead to your weight loss. So there are chances for a false positive in this type of diet.

Why do Women Crave Chocolate?

I know I am not alone when I say that when I am on my period or about to get my period, I crave chocolate so badly that it is almost impossible to say no. I also think guys know that girls also crave chocolate while on their period because the amount of time my friends and I have received chocolate from a boyfriend or male friend is impossible to count. But why do we crave chocolate? Well the first reason is pretty obvious: hormones. Estrogen and progesterone are the two main hormones released during a woman’s menstrual cycle and they have an impact on almost every organ in a female’s body. One study found that even though there is dramatic increase in these hormones, it only caused about half the women in the study to have chocolate cravings. So what else could cause women to crave chocolate?

Other doctors believe that chocolate cravings are psychological. Chocolate cravings may be due to the stress of the oncoming bleeding and chocolate is culturally said to be a way to deal with stress. American culture makes chocolate a positive but our brain also processes it as a reward. The reason this is is because chocolate results in dopamine being released (the main reward chemical in the brain). Because of this, our body does actually perceive chocolate as a reward which is why women especially like chocolate while on their period.

 

Chocolate has also been found to increase heart rate and blood pressure and both of these things can make you feel a little better. It is also thought that chocolate can mimic serotonin and release endorphins, both of which can decrease anxiety and depression. Others say we crave chocolate because of its high magnesium level and our body’s need for calcium. I really think that girls crave chocolate because while on our period, we think it is a time to indulge because of all our bodies are putting us through.chocolate240

In all of the studies I read about, third variables were never mentioned, but this could defiantly be a factor that would need to be taken into consideration. We also have to keep in mind that chance is always something we need to take into consideration. The group of people that were sampled may just not have been in the mood for chocolate, or maybe some women were allergic to chocolate. Overall, no study showed any definite reason as to why a large percent of women crave chocolate while on their period but doctors and psychologists have many reasons as to why they think this could be.

Is Being Athletic a Gene?

mannings     Have you ever seen a family of incredible athletes and thought “being athletic has to be in their genes! They can’t all be THAT good at sports?” I know I have thought this before. My best friends family consists of 4 children (3 girls and 1 boy) and each of them got recruited to different D1 colleges to play soccer. Having all 4 kids be recruited to D1 schools is almost unheard of. Another example of a situation that makes people question whether being incredibly athletic is a genetic is the Manning family. The Manning brothers are the sons of NFL quarterback Archie Manning. Both Eli and Payton Manning have been superstar quarterbacks at one point in their career. How is it possible to have 3 amazing quarterbacks in one family? Situations like these are rare and must make others, like myself, question how large a role genetics play in athleticism.
     Through the research I did, I found that genetics do not play as large of a role as we may think they do. The only thing genes really effect regarding athletic ability is how their offspring are physically built. This means, their genes effect their strength, muscle fiber composition, anaerobic threshold, lung capacity, and flexibility. Genes can also play a role in how a persons’ body responds to training. So even someone who has a low genetic potential for endurance can be trained to have the endurance of someone born with genetics for a high level of endurance. Of course some genes do help people in particular sports (ex: being tall for basketball and short for horse racing). But nowadays what is most important in determining how athletic someone is, is how much training and effort they put into perfecting their craft. How someone does in sports is also greatly affected by their diet at their mental game and no one can be born with either of these things.
     If someone is born incredibly athletic but chooses to spend their days eating chips on the couch, they will never reach their full athletic potential. Similarly with someone who is born with a disadvantage toward athletics. If this person decides to dedicate themselves to being an athlete, they can overcome someone who is born athletically build. It is all about the effort you are willing to put in to get the results you want. So nowadays, genes play little to no part in how athletic someone is. There is no special gene, athletic hormone or scientific reason behind how great someone is at a sport. No one is born a D1 athlete or an NFL superstar quarterback. People may be born with certain advantages, but with some extra effort, anyone can achieve just as much if not more than them.
    Something I became curious about while doing all this research was what determines how well someone’s body takes to athletic training. In all the research I found, it said that some people respond differently to training than others, and I would be interested to know what effects this. Could this be strictly genetic or pure effort. If you took two children (one born with physically athletic genes and the other without) that said on the couch eating chips their who life and had them start running, who would be able to run a faster mile after a year? The child born with better genes for being athletic or the child with less favorable genetics toward being athletic? But in this study you would have to take into account the small sample size and randomization. This could be a very interesting study and could provide a lot of insight for the athletic community.

Does Alcohol Make People Horny?

blog    It is no surprise that college life includes a very large drinking and hook up culture, but is there a correlation between the two? I don’t know anyone at Penn State who can say they have gone to a frat party and hasn’t witnessed two people making out furiously in the middle of the dance floor, but does alcohol cause this? And if it is the alcohol, does alcohol cause people to become more horny or just make impaired decisions? I was interested to find out more and through my research, I found some interesting things. The first thing I found is that women who drink one to two glasses of red wine a day have a higher level of desire than women who do not. So continuous alcohol consumption can influence woman’s desire. When I read this study I began to think that reverse causation could be a factor here. It is possible that hornier women drink more red wine than other women. And chance is always a factor that has to be taken into account so all of this could call the study into question.
    In social situations, alcohol can act like as a “social lubricant” meaning it can make social situations less stressful for some people. Studies have also shown that alcohol can help some people overcome sexual inhibitions or anxieties. In other words, alcohol is like liquid courage. It can give people the courage they need to do something they would not usually have the guts to do.
     Scientifically  “Alcohol disrupts the normal flow of neurotransmitters across the cortex’s synaptic connections, and we enter an altered state” (Fact or Fiction…1). The first thing we lose at this stage are our inhibitions which our sober cortex would usually keep in check. Then we become more talkative and our better judgment begins to leave. Because of all of these things happening throughout our body at once, it makes sense as to why so many hook ups occur at college parties. Although through all of the research I did, I couldn’t find any studies directly relating alcohol to hook ups, based on the data I found, it can be seen how there could be a relationship between the two. But based on the data I found, I cannot say whether or not alcohol makes men and women more horny, but it does make them more likely to make impaired decisions (ex: become sexually active).
     If I wanted to conduct a study on alcohol and the hook up culture at college parties I would first start out by gathering a large number of students and following them around for maybe 6 months and track if/how many people they become sexually active with after consuming “x” amount of alcoholic drinks. To be even more through, I would try to conduct my study at a few different universities across the country to see if I get similar results relating alcohol consumption to the number of hook ups students have. Through this study I would hope to see if there is a correlation between alcohol and the amount of sexual activity someone is involved in. And maybe through this study, a correlation between alcohol consumption and how horny someone is could be found.

 

Freshman 15 Myth?

     As the first semester of Freshman year comes to a close, I know myself, along with many other freshman are beginning to notice their pants getting a little bit more snug and their shirts getting a little tighter.  A study at Auburn shows that we are not alone and that weight gain does not only happen during freshman year but all 4 years! The study followed 131 students over their 4 year careers to see if/how much weight they gained. The study found that after 4 years, 70% of the students had gained weight. The average weight gain for the students was 12 pounds by the time of graduation senior year.
     The study also found that the percent of students over weight from freshman year to senior year increased from 18%-31%. The scientists conducting the study found the largest changes were in body fat and waist circumference. Strictly regarding the “Freshman 15,” a new study published in Applied Physiology, Nutrition, and Metabolism, found that on average, freshman only gained between 2.5-3.5 pounds. So based on these studies, you could conclude that the “Freshman 15” was just created by the media looking for a catch phrase. But I also have concerns regarding the study conducted at Auburn University.pokey
     First off, the study was only conducted on 131 students, which is not very many at all considering how large of a school Auburn is. They study would be more believable had it followed the Rule of Large Numbers (conducting the study on more students). Another thing that calls this study into questions is the fact that the study only followed students from Auburn University. What if Auburn has healthier food offerings that other Universities around the country? Or what if students at Auburn University are more physically active than at other Universities? All of these questions are things that could make this study bias. So to have made this study more concrete, it should have been conducted not only at Auburn, but several other universities across the country.
     The study also did not tell us what type of students they followed for 4 years (female, male, skinny, overweight, ect). This information is important to a study like this because all of these things have a direct relationship to the outcome of the study. There could also be reverse causation in this study. The study says that students gain weight because they are in college. But what if students gain weight just because of the age they are at, not because they happen to be in college? So as I have pointed out, there seem to be several flaws with this study so cannot pull any definite answers from this.
     Another scientific reason as to why the “Freshman 15” may be a reality is because of lack of sleep which can be a confounding variable. According to studies at the University of Arizona, about 67% of freshman do not get the appropriate amount of sleep for their brain to function to its full capacity. The American Journal of Clinical Nutrition did a study that found that when people are lacking sleep, it increases late night snacking and causes people to eat larger portions because your hunger and fullness hormones, including two called ghrelin and leptin are effected. I personal know this is true because I have fallen victim to staying up late and ordering DP Dough at 3am. So things such as these can definitely increase someone’s chance of gaining the “Freshman 15.”

Is Being Homosexual Genetic?

gay    Have you ever met a person who was homosexual later to find out that someone else in their family is homosexual as well? With many homosexual people that I have met, I hate later found out that their siblings or aunts/uncles were homosexual as well. Scientists at Northwestern University have conducted studies that found that genes only make up about a 40% chance of someone being homosexual. The scientists came to the conclusion that being homosexual is from genetics but mostly environmental and social factors.

The scientists at Northwesters still believe that they will be able to find a way to test of babies will grow up to be homosexual or not. The have currently been studying 400 sets of twins to see if any men are more prone to be homosexual. One scientist said that one day there may even be a pre-natal test that can text for homosexuality. Overall thought, the scientist don’t believe that being homosexual is a choice. Scientists at the University of California think that being homosexual can be explained by the presence of epi-marks, but the findings are still inconclusive.

While reading this article I found a few flaws in the scientists tests. First, they are testing babies, but what if the gene is developed overtime? The scientists would be unable to test for this because they are testing such a specific time frame. Also, the test was conducted on only males, so we don’t know if any of these findings are the same for women and I would be interested in knowing if genes have the same effect of women. I do believe that genes are very much involved in whether a person is homosexual because when I have met a homosexual, I usually learn later that their brother or sister is homosexual too. So this leads me to believe that being homosexual is very much a genetic.

Is Crying a Turn Off?

kim k     We have all seen movies or been in a situation where a girl starts to cry and a guy awkwardly tries to console her, but is there more to the story than the guy just not knowing how to handle the situation? According to many studies, guys a sexually turned off when girls cry. In the double blind experiment, males either smelled women’s fresh tears or saline. The scientists found that neither liquid had a discernible odor to men. After smelling the liquid, the men were then shown images of woman not involved in the study.

What was found was that men who had smelled the real tears of women were less sexually aroused than men who only smelled the saline. The scientists based how aroused the men were by their body temperature, heart levels, testosterone levels, ect. The men who smelled the real woman tears also said that they felt less aroused then the men who smelled saline. It was also found that men who smelled the real tears had less brain activity in the section of the brain linked to sexual arousal.

What really surprised me about this study was that it was the smell of tears that caused the men to be turned off sexually. I never would have thought that the smell of tears is what cause men to go in to such a panic. I thought men didn’t like girls crying because they didn’t know what to do to make her feel better, not being they were sexually turned off because of the smell. I also thought maybe they didn’t like girls crying because it made them look unattractive. These could also be other facts that could be further explored in future studies. Overall, I think the study was conducted very well but I think the details of the studies could have been given with more details (ex: how many guys were tested, what age group, etc.).

http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2011/01/110106-womens-tears-sex-drive-turn-off-sexual-health-arousal-men-science/

Would it be different if a woman smelt a guys tears?

Are World Cup Soccer Balls Predictable?

soccer     For anyone who has watched soccer at all, you have probably seen an amazing goal where the ball looked like it was going to the bottom left corner of the goal but then all of a sudden changes and scores in the top right hand corner. As a soccer player, I found myself wondering if the soccer ball itself has anything to do with this . In my research, I found that how many panels the soccer ball has on it plays a larger role in how the ball glides through the air than we think. Something else that also plays a part in where the soccer ball goes is whether it was glued or stitched together.

Soccer balls used to have 32 panels stitched together, but the soccer balls that were used in the World Cup this summer in Brazil only had 6 panels and were glued together. Since this new soccer balls are getting increasingly smoother, it increases the drag causing it to dip and curve less often at high speeds. The ball is also designed with little nubs to help cut down on the “knuckling effect.”

The effects of the direction of the soccer ball were different though depending on whether it was kicked on the soccer field in Brazil or in a wind tunnel. In a study done by Sungchan Hong and his colleagues at the University of Tsukuba, they found that a soccer ball traveling through a wind tunnel was unaffected by how many panels it had or whether it was stitched or glued together. What effected the ball more was whether or not it was smooth. Soccer balls that were smooth flew more unpredictably through the air than soccer balls with nubs.

As pointed out earlier in my blog, there is a large difference between a soccer ball getting kicked in a wind tunnel and on an actual soccer field and I think this is the largest flaw in this study. Conditions out on a soccer field are constantly changing, unlike in a wind tunnel where they are kept at a constant humidity, speed, ect. It seems to me that their study was too controlled. Constant changes on the soccer field change how accurate the ball is while in the air. So when you watch a pass or shot on goal in soccer, it is hard to tell whether it was the wind blowing or how the soccer ball was constructed. But what also is not taken in to account in this study was how the soccer player kicked the ball. Some soccer players just have the amazing ability to spin the ball in ways people cant even imagine, and no kick is ever the same. So there is no way this experiment could have taken this variable in to account causing the results to be inconclusive.

http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2014/05/140529-world-cup-soccer-brazuca-physics-jabulani-sports/

Do Dogs have a 6th Sense?

dog    We have all heard crazy stories about dogs going against all odds to get back to their owner, but do any of us know how a dog is able to do this? Do scientists even know how dogs to this? The answer is no! This remains a mystery to scientists. Scientists have a theory that dogs have a sixth sense called homing, which is then broken up into two sub-departments. The first is the animals ability to make a “map” in their mind of landmarks, scents, sounds and familiar territory which they are then able to follow back home. The map is also theorized to include Earth’s magnetic fields which they can also follow like an inner compass.

The other type of honing is called PSI trailing which is based on our strong relationships with our pets. PSI trailing says that pets can use the bond between animal and human to physically find their way back to each other. It is also possible to develop a social bond so strong that the animal feels a rhythm, and when it is thrown out of whack, the animal uses it as a sonar to find their way home. Although there is no conclusive data to show that any of this is actually true, there was a study done in the 1950’s that tested out these theories. The study was conducted by Dr. Karlis Osis and the experiment was conducted on kittens he had developed a close bond to.

In the experiment, he put the kittens in a T-shaped maze and tried to guide them through it with his mind. What he found was that the kittens he had a closer bond to were more likely to follow his directs than the kittens he was not as attached to. I think that this study could have been conducted better because a T- shaped maze seems to easy. To really test out the theory of PSI, I think they could have made the obstacle more difficult and then see what happened. Other studies such as this have been conducted throughout the year but nothing has been conclusive so how animals find their way home from thousands of miles away is still a mystery.

Some skeptics will say that animals just find their way home by chance, but to me, an animal find their owner thousands of miles away is not chance. There has to be something more than a lucky guess, there has to be something inside an animal that leads them to their owner. There has to be something in the special relationship that a pet an owner share that allows them to find their way home. The homing theory seems logical to me and with all the research I have done on this topic, it makes the most sense to me. Maybe one day we will be able to understand how out pets find their way home to us, but until them, I guess we should just all be happy that they find their way home to us.

Is Sex More Than Just Exercising?

cuddling     We have all heard that sex is a good form of exercise and brings us closer to people, but are their other benefits to sex? Apparently, there are many more positive effects of sex than we take into account. According to a study at Wilkes University, sex is shown to help improve your immune system. The study showed that students that had sex once or twice a week had a stronger immune system than those students who had sex less frequently. For women specifically, having sex improves bladder control. When women have an orgasm, it causes their bladder muscles to contract which strengths them.

Sex has also been proven to lower blood pressure for both women and men of all ages. More specifically it lowers systolic blood pressure which is the first number on your blood pressure test. Estrogen and testosterone levels are also kept in check because of sex which in return reduces the chance of heart attacks. One study found that men having sex at least twice daily reduced their chance of dying from heart disease by 50%. A study done by Rutgers University, New Brunswick also found that orgasms can block pain. Orgasms allow our pain tolerance to go up and can help chronic back and leg pain. Sex also eases stress, especially if it is with someone you care deeply about rather than a one night stand.

After reading so much about the positive effects of sex, it made me wonder if the results of having sex were similar to just cuddling. I found that cuddling is very similar in the sense that it causes our body to produce some of the same “feel good” hormones (oxytocin) that sex does. As humans we are programmed to seek out and enjoy physical touch, with or without clothing on. This is why our body receives the same effect with cuddling as it does with sex. So whether you spend your night having sex or just cuddling to a good movie and snacks, your body will treat them the same and produce “happy hormones” which in result will help your overall health.

How Much Money is Too Much Money?

BBC News reports on how The United States is spending nearly 10 times more money than India to send an operational missal to Mars. India has a budget of $74 million dollars to create The Mangalyaan satellite which was confirmed to be in orbit and is a huge accomplishment. The Mangalyaan satellite costs almost one tenth of the United States operational missal, The American Maven.satellite

You may be asking how this is possible. Well, people costs in India are much lower than here in the United States and a large amount of money that goes into projects like this is to pay the people working on it. Also components and technologies that were produced on their own soil were prioritized over expensive foreign imports and this significantly cut down costs. India kept a close eye on how to keep the cost to a bare minimum and make things simply. But due to these things, The Mangalyaan satellite is capable of much less than other satellites out there. Even thought the satellite is so small, it will still be able to address some of the biggest questions about Mars which is what it is meant for.

My biggest question while reading this article was “Why can other countries spend so much less money on projects like this and the USA has to spend so much money to get the same thing done?” To me, it just seems like the US is being inefficient with its money. Of course I understand that our satellites can do more but I don’t understand why we have to be at the forefront of most projects going on in the world. We spend a ridiculous amount of money on things that should be secondary to many other important things going on in this country, such as healthcare and poverty.

The article brought up the point that maybe India hasn’t put much money into the project because they know that other, more wealthy countries will take over the lead so their is no need for them to put a lot of money into the project. If I lived in India, I would think the same way. They know that other people are going to do it and are going to do it better than them, so they put their money into projects that would benefit their country as a whole which is a very smart move on their part. Forbes Magazine published an article saying very similar things as to what I am saying. It talks about how the USA is struggling in so many other fields that are more important than where the US is putting its money. Of course science exploration is very important, but just as India did, we would cut down on costs and put money into other things that would help America as a whole.

Do Artificial Sweeteners Cause Diabetes?

According to a new studysugar, artificial sweeteners may disrupt the body’s ability to regulate blood sugar which can result in metabolic changes. This in turn can result in diabetes. This is an interesting study because often people consume sweeteners to avoid this exact metabolic change and it is also relevant because a lot of people our age consume coffee and tea and will add artificial sweeteners.

The study was conducted mostly on mice to see how the artificial sweeteners effected their body, but especially their blood sugar levels. Not only does this metabolic change potentially cause diabetes, but it also can cause obesity. But the study was not conclusive in its finding so we can not say that we are completely positive that artificial sweeteners are directly related to diabetes or other disease that humans may get.

One flaw in the study may be that those in the trial were already over weight so they were already at a higher risk of getting diabetes or other blood sugar level diseases. Or vise versa, some people in the study may be thin and not as at risk as the others. Also, getting diabetes may be a generic trait. So someone’s weight may not play as large of a role in if someone gets diabetes or not as we think.

Also, the article doesn’t give a lot of info on how the study was conducted or who it was conducted. Therefore, we don’t have enough information to know weather or not the test was conducted well or if there are variables that they tested for that we don’t know of. We also don’t know that types of artificial sweeteners were used in this test. Some sweeteners may have gotten different results than others, so to generalize this study doesn’t seem right.

Overall, this study seems to have a lot of flaws in it and doesn’t give enough information to decided if this study should be trusted or not. Until further testing is done into this subject, I would say that our age group is more than okay with using any type of sweetener they chose to for their morning energy burst of coffee.

Is Being Rude acceptable?

kindnessThis article is about calculating the correlation between acts of kindness and rude acts. When people do something nice for someone, it usually influences the other person to do something nice for others. But sometimes a nice action can backfire and make someone think that because they did one nice action, they can do a mean one after to balance it out. The study in this article consisted of texting a group of 1252 a few times a day asking if anyone had recently done anything good or bad for them. If something good or bad had happened, they would then have to say who did the act, what they did and how good or bad it was.

Participants in the study found that this study made them more aware of their surroundings and more aware of what people around them were doing for or against them. At the end of the three study, they found that on average, people did as many good things a day as they did bad. The test also found that there was no correlation between moral behavior or judgment within religious and non-religious groups. The study did find that people who received an act of kindness were 10% more likely to commit an act of kindness later than day. On the other hand, someone who committed an act of kindness were 3% more likely to do an act of rudeness later on that same day.

The study did not give a specific reason as to why people thought that after doing one act of kindness that they could then all of a sudden be rude to someone later. I believe that this is because people see kind and rude acts as a point system. When someone does something nice, the add one point and when they do something rude, they subtract one point. So people think that as long as they stay a 0 or above, they are a good person and can justify their rude actions. But a lot of other factors go into weather a person is nice or rude and a lot of these things cannot be calculated through a study. Things like these would be such as what type of mood the person is in. If someone is in a bad mood, they obviously wont do anything nice for someone and if someone is in a good mood, they may be more likely to help another person out. In a study like this, it would be very difficult to calculate a variable like this.

Overall, this was a good study but I think there are many ways that it could have been improved. Maybe instead texting the group of people to find out info, they could have called them instead and gotten more details than you can get over text. I think that overall, the data could have been more through and specific.

Is Global Warming Killing Birds?

birdIn the article Climate Change Will Disrupt Half of North America’s Bird Species, Study Says, scientists describe how the changing climate in different parts of the world will effect 650 of species of birds in the nest 65 years. The change in climate will drive dozens of bird species into extinction because they will be unable to find a new area to relocate to. This reason alone is going to effect over 21% of bird species by 2050 and 31% by 2080.

I agree that global warming could defiantly affect the bird population in a negative way but I find it hard to believe that scientists can accurately predict what bird populations will be in 65 years. 65 years is a long time away and so much can happen in this amount of time. What if global warming doesn’t happen as quickly as the scientists believe it will? What if hybrid cars become very popular and instead of 65 years, these bird species become extinct in 100 years? There are so many different factors that affect this test that I think it is too large a time span to be so accurate.

A question I found myself asking while reading this article was “why don’t the birds just move some place else?” It’s not as easy as that. For example, a bird that is from California cannot just leave California and migrate to Washington. This is because what the bird eats in California may not be in Washington and the species will be left without food and soon die. There are many factors like this that we fail to recognize with topics such as this. Something else we have to consider when talking about this topic is “what is going to happen to the insect population when all these species of birds die off?” Birds eat spiders, misquotes, worms, ect. so we have to ask ourselves if these insect populations are going to rapidly increase with the bird population dying off so quickly. Scientists from Radbound University found that “in areas where water contained high concentrations of imidacloprid—a common neonicotinoid pesticide—bird populations tended to decline by an average of 3.5 percent annually.” This shows that there is a connection between using pesticides to kill the increasing insect population and the declining population of birds. This also brings up the topic of farms over using pesticides which will in return have a negative impact on humans and what they eat. But farmers over using pesticides can be due to a lot of different factors such as location, insects, ect. so it is hard to say that them over using pesticides is only due to the increasing bug population due to bird species dying.

I Don’t Do Science

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Hey Everyone!

My name is Kendall Agosto and I am from a really small town in Central Jersey called Metuchen. I am not a science major because I just don’t get it; none of it makes any sense to me. In high school I had to take biology, chem, and physics and I hated all of them (but my teachers also weren’t the best). I am also not a science major because I don’t see how people can make a lot of money in the field of science unless you discover the cure to an illness or something amazing like that and I could never do that. I am taking this course because I heard from older students that it is a really cool class and that Andrew is a pretty cool guy. Here at PSU, I am in the Smeal College of Business double majoring in finance and econ because I want to work on Wall Street and make a lot of money. Here is my live link to the Smeal homepage.