In 1997, the first successful cloning of an adult mammal occurred. Dolly the Sheep was born in Britain, and since then goats, mice and pigs have been cloned as well. Cloning is done by “[taking] embryos and inserting these nuclei into egg cells. The resulting eggs could be implanted in surrogate mother animals.” However, cloning really is not that effective- for Dolly to be born, “The team that created Dolly placed nuclei in 277 eggs. Only 29 of those eggs developed into embryos that could be implanted, and of these, only one resulted in a live birth. ” So to create another person would be hard. But scientists think that cloning could help paralyzed or sick people, even possibly curing Parkinson’s disease. This type of cloning is called therapeutic cloning.

The other problem with cloning humans is who would be cloned, what makes someone “clone-able”? Would the rich only be able to afford it- or even what is the best human race to be cloned? Would they be more like property or have the same rights an individual has? Remember, clones are the same exact genetic make up of whoever is being cloned. Is it ethical to make a clone? In a way, it is unethical to make a clone, how would the clone feel about being a clone? Would they get the same opportunities as everyone else or be expected to follow in the original’s footsteps? In the US it has remained one of the most controversial issues, as some lawmakers and scientists want to allow limited research and other want to completely ban it.

There is some belief though that cloning could help bring back extinct/endangered species. Approximately 100 species of animals go extinct each day. Scientists think that if the embryos are placed within an animal somewhat relative to the extinct animals, it could possibly bring back the species.

Cloning could either help us – by bringing back extinct animals or helping cure diseases- or it could potentially be our demise. Human cloning in my opinion is unethical, as great as it would be to meet Ghandi or Audrey Hepburn, the amount of problems it would cause is not worth it. Imagine having to tell a certain nationality that they’re not worthy of being cloned, WWIII would probably break out! For now, the science of cloning should be stuck with animals or finding the cure to diseases.

Our brains work in crazy weird ways and some of the ways it works, we still don’t understand. What I want to know is how we learn a language. I know that when you’re young it’s easier to learn a language because you don’t already have a large language barrier on your speech and communication skills, so it’s easy to adopt one or two languages at once. I also know that the larger your language barrier grows, you can’t make certain sounds or say things a certain way, but I want to know how that even happens. We didn’t have to work or study stuff to learn are native language, so how did it just happen?

It’s said that discovering a language is the best way to learn it, which is how we learned our native language. We wanted to know what something was and someone would tell us and the fact that we wanted to know made us remember and retain the information. We would retain the information exactly, or close to, how the person educating us would say it, which is why people have certain accents in certain areas because they are just copying how their parents or whoever talked. We pick up some words and then eventually some phrases and then start putting all those together to form sentences and full thoughts in our own language.

When we are infants, we are like sponges. We soak up all the information we are told and since our memories are the freshest and emptiest they will ever be in our lives, we can retain a lot of the information we are being told. Infants have a special language learning part of their brain that eventually goes away and gets reversed after we get the hang of our first language. This makes it hard to pick up and learn a new language easily. It could also be due to not being exposed to that language environment constantly. Another reason it’s hard to learn another language is because we are taught it, we don’t learn it; memorizing is a big part that messes a lot of people up. We all are good a memorizes things, it all just comes back to how we memorize and what we believe is important to remember.

After learning so much and thinking in a certain language for so long, it’s hard to start over and learn a new one in a classroom setting. Sitting in a room and being forced to learn something new and probably confusing like a new language after learning all day can be really boring, which is why it’s hard to teach a new language. Living the language is easier because it forces you to get to know what words for things are and then learn phrases and so on. Being in the language environment is how our brain picks up easier something new. Just trying to memorize new verbs and words is hard and most of the time, ineffective.

How some people are taught French.

So by constantly hearing something over and over again, you will eventually pick it up and understand what’s going on; that’s basically how we learn our first language. People are constantly talking to you and your little infant brain and you just have to figure what in the world is going on, and you successful do it by the time you are about two or three. You adjust to the world around you and learn from what you see.

Many runners have probably heard of the common injuries of shin splints and stress fractures. Some have probably even experienced them firsthand. But most people have probably never heard of Compartment Syndrome, a painful condition in the legs. I hadn’t even heard of it until a few weeks ago, when one of my teammates on the club track team collapsed at the finish line following a 1000 interval. Apparently this has happened often to her, as the coaches and other girls knew exactly how to handle it, propping her upward against someone else’s legs and keeping her responsive. For the record, this teammate is an amazing runner, probably state competitor level in high school and possibly recruited for some D2 and D3 level track programs. After witnessing this incident, I wondered to myself how she continues to run daily knowing the pain she will probably experience. I was also curious what exactly Compartment Syndrome is, which is what I decided to take on in this blog.

Simply put, Compartment Syndrome is a painful condition which occurs when the pressure within the muscles grows to dangerous levels. The name derives from the “compartments” of the lower legs, where the muscle pressure increases. Especially for runners, the blood supply to the muscles increases during the activity, but since there is no room for expansion of the muscles, the compartments can’t accommodate for the increased blood supply. Just typing this evokes a sense of extreme pain for me. What is happening is similar to filling up a balloon. If you continue to fill it with helium, eventually it will burst from too much pressure. However, unlike the balloon, the compartments of the legs cannot expand, making the situation even worse. I did discover that there are some treatments to this condition. They are the following:

1. Extended rest. This means no running hard activity on the legs for 3 to 4 months. However, this isn’t always successful as pain may return afterwards anyways.
2. Surgery. The procedure is called a fasciotomy. A long incision is made in the fascia of both compartments of the lower leg to release the pressure. You can see this incision in the image on the right.

This girl on the track team has not had surgery, as far as I know. I believe she took an extended rest period last season, but the pressure has obviously returned. The fact that she continues to run is inspiring, but it is also terrifying. Knowing and witnessing the pain that she is enduring seems crazy to me, but I guess that’s what you have to go through if you’re dedicated enough!

Compartment Syndrome isn’t only linked with runners, however. It can commonly develop after a serious injury, surgery, or during a critical illness. This type is chronic, meaning it can develop over weeks.

This condition is something that affects many but also that many have never heard of. I think that it is important that more people are educated on it to understand what others may be suffering from.

Have you ever wondered why some people are naturally talented at singing while others are not? How did Beyonce, Justin Timberlake, and Christina Aguilera become so talented? Was it years of practice, or were they born with the talent? Through playing the flute for nine years, I
always thought that it would help me better my singing. While nearly everyone else in the wind ensemble had beautiful voices, I always sounded like a frog. This caused me to wonder: why do some people sing extremely well without trying, while others cannot, even while putting forth effort?

Poor singing has an actual scientific definition: “it involves a deficiency in three areas: pitch accuracy, the ability to keep time, and note memory.” Therefore, it is clear that numerous factors go into one’s ability to sing. Genetics affect “the shape and size of the vocal folds and the larynx. The shape of a person’s skull is also responsible for the shape and size of the pharynx and the nasal cavities, a person’s natural resonators.”  Each of these has a correlation with a human’s ability to sing. An example of this would be guitars. If you play multiple different guitars, even while using the same strings, each guitar will sound unique due to the individual shape and size (Medical Daily).

According to one study, the reason for poor singing is not what most people previously believed. The study involved the use of a slider, with which one is able to produce different sounds and pitches. Participants included both musicians and non-musicians. Each individual was told to recreate the pitch that was played for him or her by using the slider. However, the subjects were not allowed to use their actual voice. This study showed no difference in accuracy between musicians and non-musicians. After, the participants had to match the played pitch with their voice only. In this activity, the musicians had more success. Therefore, the National Center for Biotechnology Information suggests that a majority of singing deficits result from “poor motor control and timbral-translation errors” (NCBI). To me, this seems like something that can be improved through practice.

It is extremely clear that there is a huge genetic factor in singing. This makes me wonder: is there a singing gene? According to ABC news, there is high speculation that there is in fact a music gene. David Huron, a professor of music at the Ohio State University (sorry for the reference, but I had to), believes that “the music gene would have arisen tens or hundreds of thousands of years ago, and conferred an evolutionary advantage on those who possessed it. Natural selection would have nurtured the gift of music, favoring those who possessed it with more offspring who were themselves more likely to reproduce.” Huron credits many possible biological roots of music. One strong example he gives is the ubiquity of music. Whether it be native tribal songs or the raves that take place in Amsterdam, music is a unique part of each individual culture (ABC news).  I am currently taking a human development and family studies class, in which we are discussing different affects gene correlation has on children. Passive correlation occurs only in young children, when they are unable to make decisions for themselves. An example of this is in reading. If a mother has a love for reading, it is likely that her family’s home will have an abundance of books. Also, the mother will probably take her children to the library often, and encourage them to read. This is likely to result in the children’s love for reading: both because the children are exposed to it, and also because they share the common gene with their mother. I believe that the same goes for singing. If a parent has a strong love for music, they are likely to be continuously singing and playing music throughout the house. These parents are also more likely to encourage children to play instruments of their own, by signing them up for music lessons and buying them children’s instruments from an early age. These children are at a huge advantage for being successful in the music industry because first off, they are likely to have the music gene that has been passed down by a parent. Second, the positive encouragement that would take place is vital for successs.

Mental aspects also play a huge role in singing. Many people doubt themselves and their talents, and therefore their singing goes unheard. It is essential that all music teachers and professionals teach confidence in their students and admirers. Of course, the environment also plays a large role in singing abilities. Those who are raised in an environment where singing is not only encouraged, but also praised, have a higher chance of succeeding in music.

While some people do naturally have beautiful voices and perfect pitch, it takes a majority of people years of strong practice to become a good singer. The study I mentioned above from the NCBI shows that as humans, we are able to recognize distinct pitches and recreate them on an instrument, however it is hard to recreate the sound with our voices. I believe that we all have the innate ability to recognize pitches, although some are unable to hear the pitch that they are singing when they try to recreate it. This makes it hard to match pitches together, which in turn will result in poor singing. According to new research from Northwestern University, “singing accurately is not so much a talent as a learned skill.” Steven Demorest, a professor of music at Northwestern’s School of Music believes that the ability to sing directly relates to playing an instrument. ” ‘ No one expects a beginner on violin to sound good right away, it takes practice, but everyone is supposed to be able to sing… When people are unsuccessful they take it very personally, but we think if you sing more, you’ll get better” (Deardorff). There is hope! A study that was published in the journal Music Perception compared the singing abilities of three groups: kindergarteners, sixth graders, and college-aged adults. In one specific test, the individuals were asked to listen to four repetitions of a single pitch, and then sing back what they heard. Not surprising, “the study showed considerable improvement in accuracy from kindergarten to late elementary school, when most children are receiving regular music instruction. But in the adult group, the gains were reversed…suggesting the ‘use it or lose it’ effect” (Deardorff). The study also showed how children who are called “tone deaf” and made fun of for their poor singing abilities are not likely to engage in music in the future. (Deardorff). Neglecting to practice will never make you better, whether it be singing or in sports. It is important to always continue trying, and in turn, you will see improvements.

If you have listened to your favorite singers over time, whether it be for one year or  for ten, you are likely to have noticed a significant change in their voices. I know that I have always been a huge fan of Taylor Swift. Taylor sings extremely different now than she did five years ago, and in a good way. While I believe that part of it is maturity, I also can say with confidence based on these studies, that Taylor Swift’s improvement in her voice is a result of consistent and thorough practice.

Therefore, we now know that singing is comprised of numerous physical, mental, and environmental factors. “Not everyone is going to be a top athlete… but with the right coach and lots of practice, you can surely see results” (Medical Daily). While we may never match up to Beyonce, practicing our singing will definitely improve our musical talents.

Since all my blogs have been about realistic situations, I decided to make this last blog a little more interesting and ask one of those fun science questions. If you have participated in shark week, a week long television special on discovery channel about sharks, then you have probably heard about Megalodon. Megalodon is an ancient species of shark that lived around 2.6 million years ago. The interesting thing about this supposedly extinct shark is that they could grow to 60 feet. To put that into retrospect, a average length of a regular shark is 11 to 13 feet. There is concrete proof that this ancient shark existed, but could it be possible that is is still alive to this day?

Many of you probably think that its impossible for this shark to exist. I mean if it were really that big, then shouldn’t we have seen it by now? But when you think about 95% of the ocean being undiscovered, it is kind of impossible to dismiss this possibility.

The real evidence that megalodon existed was the fossil remains of the shark, specifically the teeth. There has never been a scientific recording of the species, as most scientists believe it has gone extinct 2 million years ago. to read more about the history of megalodon, you can read this article here.

There is some potential real evidence of megalodon still existing. In Australia, a research team tagged a nine foot great white shark. Four months after the great white shark was tagged, the researches found the tag washed up on the beach. When they analyzed the data from the tagger, they found a temperature rise and a sudden 1,900 foot drop in depth. The only realistic explanation was that the shark was eat by something and the tracking device was digested and washed up on the shore. You can read more about this possible real evidence here.

On the other side of the argument, many scientists have concluded that the ancient species megalodon does not exist. Discovery channel made a mocumentary about megalodon, and when it was proven that the tv special was fake, many people were in uproar at discovery channel. Scientists have an explanation for almost every megalodon theory, but does this mean that it is really extinct? Comment on this post and tell me what you think!

Is photographic memory real?

Ever since I heard about photographic memory as a kid, I was always fascinated and pretty jealous of the people who could just look at a picture or a page on a book and just memorize it.

I mean if I had photographic memory, I know I would have probably done a lot better in high school. I wanted to do some research and really figure out if photographic memory is actually a thing, or if it is just what smart people tell everyone else to make themselves seem cooler.

I did some research on the internet and there is actually a more scientific name for photographic memory, eidetic imagery. Eidetic imagery is defined as a normal subjective visual image experienced with noticeable vividness whether evoked by an actual external object or not. So to explain that, you can put a picture in from of an eidetiker for 30 seconds, then remove it, and the person will confidently claim to still see the picture in their head. They can describe the picture just like it is still in front of them. The funny thing about people with photographic memory describe the objects or images in their head in the present tense as if they are looking at it right then and there.

Eidetic memory is different then just memorizing or learning something. It is kind of cheating the system and storing the image in your head without fully learning it. You may think that you could have this photographic memory because you can remember a photo that was taken or a page from a book really well, but the difference with eidetic memory is that their memories will fade away involuntarily. They usually tend to last for a half a minute to several minutes only. During that time period is when the person will go over it in their head so they can learn it without using their photographic memory. There is a lot of psychology that goes into this, and you can read more about it here.

So you must think, how can I get this? The thing is that mostly younger people have it, it there is no research that adults possess this ability to form eidetic images. So it seems that really you get it or you don’t and it could fade away the older you get as the worse your memory gets. Which is unfortunate, because I am sure buys adults could really benefit from using this imagery.

So in the end, photographic memory is real, it is just called eidetic imagery, and it might not be as literal as having a storage of photos of things in your head. But there definitely is evidence that this phenomenon is real. If you have any thoughts on this, or you know anyone who has photographic memory, comment on this post and talk about it!

Monday was a particularly dreary day complete with the need for some coffee. So I fired up the Keurig and warmed myself up in a mug of caramel vanilla goodness. But then I remembered it was free coffee Monday at Dunkin so I hopped on the Blue Loop and indulged in an iced coffee. That night my body wasn’t thanking me for my caffeine overload. So I questioned it – what is the best time to drink coffee?

It turns out that the most popular time – the morning – is actually the worst time to get the caffeine boost. Our bodies have high levels of cortisol in the morning, which causes two problems.

1.) Cortisol is a hormone that is released “in response to stress and low blood glucose.” The caffeine interferes with that and less cortisol is produced, meaning the caffeine must make up for the lack of cortisol.
2.) A person’s caffeine tolerance is increased as it is replacing that cortisol boost.

These levels are high at three different times during the day. And while it makes sense to gulp down that cup of Joe when you wake up to make you more awake, the opposite occurs when those cortisol levels are high.

When you drink coffee or other caffeinated beverages, it passes through body membranes in the bloodstream via the lining of your mouth, throat, and stomach. Within 45 minutes 99% of the caffeine is absorbed through the membranes. The half-life for caffeine is 4-6 hours, meaning the effects from the coffee lasts 4-6 hours.

In relation to the cortisol levels, the best time to drink coffee is between 10am and 12pm and 2pm and 5pm. When it comes to making sure the caffeine leaves the body in enough time to give you a good night’s sleep, use the 4-6 hour rule as reference.

I have always chosen a pen and paper over a keyboard when taking notes. I like how it is so much easier to scribble information across a page than be limited to the functions of Word. Besides, in High School, computers weren’t allowed in class. But, now that I am in college I see MacBooks and PCs on almost every desk. I don’t understand how students find it easier to take notes on a computer. So now I am wondering whether or not one form of taking notes is better than the other? Should
I turn over to the digital side or keep my pencil in my hand?

In 2013, a teaching assistant at Princeton University conducted a study to see if laptop note taking was less effective than traditional note taking. Pam Mueller with the help of her professor, Daniel Oppenheimer, created a study consisting of three parts:

1. First, students watched a video, TED talk, or something similar. While watching the video each student either took notes on his or her computer or in a notebook. After the video, they “completed difficult mental tasks for 30 minutes,” then took a quiz.
2. The second group of students were given a warning by an administrator:

   “People who take class notes on laptops when they expect to be tested on the material later tend to transcribe what they’re hearing without thinking about it much. Please try not to do this as you take notes today. Take notes in your own words and don’t just write down word-for-word what the speaker is saying.”

   After the warning, the students proceeded exactly like the first group.

3. The third and final group waited an entire week since watching the video before taking the quiz. Some students were allowed to review their notes before they took the quiz.

In all three parts of the study, the results were the same. Students who chose a pencil and paper over a laptop scored higher on the quizzes. Despite the warning given to the students in Group Two, verbatim notes were still being typed. Why could the students not obey the warning? Mueller points out that typing is a whole lot faster than writing. Typers seem to feel invincible and copy “large parts of lecture content verbatim.” Hand writers do not have the luxury of doing this. Instead, they must pick out key words to write down for “that initial selectivity leads to long-term comprehension.”

Next time you are in class try and write down notes with your hand. See if you feel more engaged in the lecture. Then, see how well you do on the next test. Based on the findings of this study, and personal experience, I am definitely keeping my laptop closed and notebook open in class.

My mom has a sleep walking issue. If she is woken up out of a deep sleep she will walk to the kitchen and begin acting as though she is highly intoxicated despite having had nothing to drink. She will speak about things that make absolutely no sense to those around her. Upon waking up in the morning, she will have no recollection of her journey through our house the previous evening. After witnessing her behavior, one could argue that she is not quite in control of her actions or responsible for her words when in her sleepy state. To me, this seems like an innocent, hilarious problem; however, WHAT IF… God forbid… my mother was to murder someone during one of her nightly escapades? What if she attempted driving a car and in her dreamy state of mind robbed a store? Would her “sleepwalking” be a legitimate defense? In my criminology class, we learned that throughout the history of the criminal justice system, this excuse has indeed been applicable in certain cases.

US News and World Report released an article on “7 Criminal Cases That Invoked the ‘Sleepwalking Defense'”. The first successful case in which this defense was used was Massachusetts v. Tirrell. in 1846. Tirrell was a chronic sleepwalker who nearly decapitated a prostitute, yet was believed by the jury and found not guilty. Two cases in which the defendant was originally found guilty yet had the decision reversed on appeal were Fain v. Commonwealth and State v. Bradley, both claiming to have been in somnambulistic states upon murdering their victims. In Regina v. Parks a man drove to his in-laws house and viciously murdered them, following which he drove to a police station. He had severed many tendons in both of his hands but seemed oblivious to the pain, causing the police to believe he was sleepwalking. He was found “not conscious, not responsible, not guilty”. In 1994 Pennsylvania v. Ricksgers , Michael Ricksgers was found guilty despite his defense of previous sleep apnea/ sleep walking episodes. The jury believed that he had alternative reasons to kill his victim (his wife).

Just how many people are actually affected by sleepwalking? Is it possible that something tragic could happen as a result of one of your unconscious habits? The Official Journal for the American Academy of Neurology released a study on the “prevalence and comorbidity of nocturnal wandering among US adult general population”. The results showed that out of 19,136 American adults, 3.6% reported that they had experienced night wandering within the previous year. Science Daily has an article describing a study done by The American Academy of Sleep Medicine on the potential dangers of sleep walking. The results of the study done on 100 diagnosed sleep walking adults showed that “a positive history of violent sleep related behaviors was found in 58 percent, including 17 percent who experienced at least one episode involving injuries to the sleepwalker or bed partner that required medical care”.This leads us to understand the possibility of someone committing a crime similar to those mentioned above.

The Wikipedia page for homicidal sleepwalking has an immense amount of interesting information and more example cases if you found this blog post interesting. Medical Daily also has an article on a rare but not unheard of disease/ criminal defense called “Sexomnia” in which rape is committed during sleep. In Sweden, people have been found not guilty using this as an excuse.

What exactly causes sleepwalking? It is not entirely known. Web M.D. tells us that the disorder seems to be highly biologically influenced. You are 10 times more likely to experience this sleep disorder if someone in your immediate family sleepwalks then someone in a family with no sleepwalkers. Other potential factors of this occurring are a chaotic sleep schedule, drunkenness, sleep deprivation, and some types of medication.

There are strong conflicting opinions about using sleep walking as a defense in a murder case. At first glance, it sounds legit and I feel sorry for the perpetrator as I imagine my mom not able to control her actions. However, I find it hard to distinguish someone claiming to be sleep walking from someone claiming to be under the strong influence of alcohol or drugs. I would argue that it is 100% possible for someone to lose complete control of their actions when highly intoxicated, yet this would not be considered an excuse for a crime. I suppose a reason for this could be because people do not choose to sleep, yet they do chose to drink or do drugs. Another reason why I believe the sleep walking defense is illegitimate is because when I imagine the family of the victim hearing that as an excuse, I can not fathom that being enough of a reason for them to have lost a loved one.

Photo Retrieved from: http://thehealthyhavenblog.com/2011/03/08/true-or-false-never-wake-a-sleepwalker/

In this blog period, I want to do something different than what I have already did in the first period that I want to use the whole blog period to introduce you about only one topic: “Do technology improvement make our life better?” and I am more confident about doing my blog this way after Andrew said about the blog today.

Mercedes-Benz F 015 Luxury in Motion Self-driving cars

For most of the people may give a ‘yes’ with no doubt because what we are embedded in those advanced technologies today and ” we cannot live without these technologies”. The creation of Engine make the term “transportation” sounds real, the creation of internet allow us to access information in a much convenient way, the creation of smart phones ensure us could travel with the least item that we are going to bring, etc. For all those example I have list, technology improvement does make our life better, and I have to admit that I am a crazy fan about advance technologies because all of them are so cool and they just make us closer and closer to ” the future show in the threater”. However, there are voice about technology is the thing which cause humanity a lot of trouble. The invention of engine allow all those automobile run on the street which cause the environmental problem by the exhausted gases.

Dean Kamen’s incredible robot arm is good to go

The invention of the internet reveal people’s privacies and the anonymous strangers always create panic and chaos. Indeed, the smartphone is one of the best inventions in the world, and I love it so much, but people also claim that the Smartphone creates problems on study, health and the society. Thus, we can see a lot of evidence are on both sides of the balance, which means both arguments are solid to exist and I am going to share some of my understanding towards to each argument in the several blogs after.

Siri (iOS9)

In these series of blogs, I am not going to focus on those common issue that people are used to in their lives mentioned above: I am going to point my finger on the topic which is popular recently: New energy automobile, AI-Vocie Assistance , Nano-Patch, and Artificial Body Part. Hope you will like it.

Quick Link to the blog series

New-energy Automobile

voice assistance

nano-patch

Artificial body part

Conclusion

Here I am, a freshman in college who should be refreshed after the summer off from high school and ready to move on to bigger and better things. True statement, but for some reason I am still so tired from all the lost sleep of my high school days. It has been said that teenagers these days are more stressed than the average working forty year old, which could all add up from the lack of sleep. In high school I was lucky to fall asleep by midnight after my long day which would restart again soon in just a short six hours. So I wonder today why I am still so drained and the effects my lack of sleep has/had on my body.

So the question is does lack of sleep affect teenagers in everyday life? The X variable being sleep and the Y being the effect it has on teens. On average teenagers get 7-7.5 hours of sleep every night even though they need about 9-9.5 hours. There are both biological and physical reasons for why teens don’t get enough sleep at night. Biologically speaking there is a shift in the “internal clock” or their circadian rhythms, causing them to fall asleep two hours later which leads to needing two extra hours in the morning which sadly just isn’t possible. High School begins between 7:00-8:00 a.m in most cases meaning the teen is waking up between 5:00-6:00 a.m just to make it to school on time, making their time period of being asleep very small. Other physical causes include rigorous courses which leads to homework, clubs, sports, religious obligations, etc., leading to a very packed schedule in a teen’s day.

Cornell psychologist, James B. Maas, says “almost all teenagers, as they reach puberty, become walking zombies because they are getting far to little sleep”. The effects of the lack of sleep can be harmful to everyday life. Sleep is food to the brain, meaning that if teens didn’t sleep bad things would happen just as if we didn’t eat all the nutrients we need from day to day. When teens don’t get enough sleep it limits their ability to learn, concentrate, and solve problems which is basically school in a nutshell. In a study conducted by Dr. Amy Wolfson and Dr. Mary Carskadon it was reported that students receiving C’s and D’s in classes were getting on average 25 minutes less sleep compared to their counterparts receiving higher grades. In a social aspect teens become very irritable and can lash out at their friends, families, or teachers which never goes well. It can also lead to drowsy driving, which is incredibly dangerous and similar to drunk driving or texting and driving. According to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration there are more than 50,000 traffic accidents a year due to drowsy teens and their driving. Other issues stem from bad behavior meaning substance abuse or other extreme risk taking behaviors.

So what can we do to save these teens poor unfortunate souls? Maintaining a sleep schedule, avoiding sleeping late on weekend/taking excessive naps, and turning off electronic devices are some simple ways to make changes. Do homework earlier in the day and making sleep a different priority is also extremely important in maintaining a normal/better sleep schedule. Although hard to enforce I personally think high schools should start at later times, and extend the day a little later. It is crazy that some places start as early as 7:00 in the morning, it is just so early, especially when there are so many issues that arise from it. Overall, I think lack of sleep is causal in decreasing the well being of teenagers today.

When the Penn State football team lost to Temple almost every Nittney Lion was quite complexed. What could be the reason why our great school would loose to Temple? It could be because we weren’t playing on our own turf?

Jeremy P. Jamieson, from the University of Rochwell, posted a paper that reported that when teams play at home they have a 60% of winning. Jeremy did a meta-analysis of studies ranging from golf, boxing, and tennis allowing him to explore different sports’ cultures.

People argue about the cause of this statistic saying it is due to a multitude of reasons such as: traveling, having rambunctious fans screaming at you, and referee bias.  For example, whenever a rival school comes to Penn State to challenge our elite teams our fans always blow their eardrums out by screaming at the top of our lungs. When players are trying to focus on

the game and they have the fans screaming it’s hard to focus on the main  task.  This seems to be the case in some stadiums such as Century Link Field where in December 2013 Seattle Seahawks fans set the record for loudest outdoor sports stadium at 137.6 decibels (dB). To put that in perspective humans physically start feeling pain at 125 decibels (dB).

A second reason why this statistic is so high is the amount of traveling players have to do. There are instances where players have to travel all over the country which can disrupt their sleeping cycles making them too fatigued to play the game with all their strength. Furthermore, when players aren’t playing on their home field they have a lack of spirit or incentive to win their game because their fans are not there.

Lastly, there is such thing as referee bias unfortunately. This can be shown mostly in soccer games either in the MLS or games around the world. Organizations like FIFA are known for being corrupt. Even recently a huge investigation was launched to investigate the organizations and its functions.

Whether or not there is a trend here, no one can deny the general atmosphere at a home game. Home team spirit is so impactful on the players and gives them incentive to win for not only their team but their fans.

Pennsylvania has an elevation of roughly 1,100 feet above sea level.  This will pose relevance, as this article applies to our lives.

Recent research has linked the thin air of high elevations to increased rates of depression.  While such correlation may seem negative; high elevations have also proven to decrease the prevalence of attention deficit disorder, commonly known as ADHD.  In Utah, the average state elevation is 6,100 feet.  The rate of ADHD patients is 50% lower than sea-level states! The trend continues in Salt Lake city, where the elevation is 4,300 feet, and ADHD rates are 38% less than sea-level states.

After reading these statistics, I wondered; how can this be?  Hypobaric Hypoxia is a condition caused by the lack of oxygen in the air, at a high elevation.  In order to combat the adversity of this geographically-stimulated side effect, the body produces higher levels of dopamine.  Ironically, decreased dopamine is associated with ADHD.  Consequently, as ones’ elevation increases, the risk of acquiring such a disorder diminishes.  Douglas G. Konde, assistant professor psychiatry and senior author of this study, labeled hypoxia as an “environmental stressor.”  However, in this case, altitude provides protection.

In order to further examine this correlation, the national Survey on Children’s Health conducted a survey.  In 2007, they visited 94,642 households.  They found 73,123 children with mild, moderate, or severe ADHD (ages 4-17).  The same study was conducted in 2010, this time, they interviewed 372,689 households and found 40,424 participants were diagnosed with ADHD.  Through geographical analysis, they concluded that for every one foot increase in elevation, health care providers lowered their chance of diagnosing a patient with ADHD by .001%!  Such statistics demonstrate how an increase in sea level deters the probability of acquiring ADHD.  Additional examples include North Carolina where the average elevation is only 869 feet above sea level, and an incredibly large 15.6% of the population appears diagnosed with ADHD.  North Carolina is opposite Nevada, where the average elevation is 5,517 feet above sea level, and merely 5.6% of the population suffers from ADHD.  Such statistics make a compelling argument for strategically starting your life.  Will informed citizens foreshadowing reproduction begin to relocate to higher altitudes?  Or will this data go unnoticed in a society where ADHD provides a large amount of obstacles to those affected.

For those of you who are not familiar with how ADHD is treated, their are two different categories of medications prescribed.  One are stimulants, which accelerate the heart and speed up neurotransmitters.  The others are non-stimulants, such as Concerta.  In the following study, 325 medicated-ADHD students were interviewed, based on their symptoms.  A large 48% complained of at least one side effect.  These symptoms include an abnormal loss of appetite, sleep problems, and mood swings.  Stimulants appeared to effect patients psychologically, as the majority of them reported mood disturbances.  Non-stimulant patients reported digestive discomfort, ranging from nausea to gastrointestinal problems.  The reason I brought up the complications of medications is in order to stress how inconvenient having ADHD is.  In our competitive society, academics and education are becoming increasingly competitive.  In order to combat the negative effects of having a learning disability, many citizens have to unhealthily depend on these medications.  However, what if people used this article in order to strategically reproduce in a high elevation? Thus, lowering the chances of their offspring growing up with ADHD.  I believe this is an incredibly interesting field of science, and I am excited to see if there is a continuously decreasing trend of ADHD diagnoses in high elevations.

Sources:

http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2015/04/150407210834.htm

http://psychcentral.com/lib/side-effects-of-adhd-medications/

I have always been jealous of those with photographic memories because I am sure studying and memorization is so easy for them. Now, instead of being jealous, I choose to question if photographic memory truly exists. There is a common idea that some people have the ability to remember detailed images perfectly in their minds. But how do some people remember more detail than others? Is it possible to remember an image perfectly? If so, how much detail are those with this ability able to remember? As someone without so-called “photographic memory”, it is hard to imagine being able to recall an image with perfect clarity.

One possible answer to these questions is discussed an an article of the Scientific American. This article claims that “Photographic memory” is basically the common name for “eidetic imagery”. People with this ability can be easily distinguished using something called the “Picture Elicitation Method”. The person is shown a picture on an easel and when the easel is removed, they can recall the image and even scan the picture in their minds for certain details. The person continues to look at the easel and feels as though they can still see the image This causes them to speak in the present tense which is another factor that points toward eidetic imagery. This is different from how the common brain forms an image. According to the Association for Psychological Science, humans “pinpoint certain visual information for more scrupulous analysis but discard other visual information”. The fact that the mind discards some information instead of retaining all details immediately distinguishes it from Eidetic Imagery, or “photographic memory”. With Eidetic Imagery, people can see an entire city and recreate the entire image from memory like the man in this photo. 

However, the Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy considers two possible answers. Mental imagery could be another explanation behind “photographic memory”. Mental Imagery is a more perceptual experience. This experience can occur without an external trigger that causes a representation in one’s mind that is more like visualizing or imagining the sensation or image. An image produced from Mental Imagery can be thought of as a “copy” or “echo” of the actual experience. The second possibility Stanford considers correlates with Scientific American’s theory. Eidetic Imagery is less widely understood by the common population. Contrary to Mental Imagery, images produced by Eidetic Imagery are “externally projected”, meaning they are caused by something outside of the mind. This factor makes these images closer to the image or experience in reality. To put it simply- Mental Imagery occurs mostly inside the brain and creates something more like a memory of what a person saw. Eidetic Imagery takes an outside image and recreates it more exactly in a person’s head. After examining the two types of Imagery, Stanford does not say for sure whether photographic memory exists. They do, however, agree with Scientific American that they believe Eidetic Imagery is closest to the phenomenon. 

Although I did not find an article claiming that “Eidetic Imagery is the same as photographic memory”, I feel that there is enough support to claim they are extremely similar. According to the theory of Eidetic Imagery, some brains process external images differently than others. Some brains can create images with more detail, images that are more like photographs. This sounds like a photographic memory to me.

Breast cancer, being a hard to understand cancer, typically leads to a lot of myths. But does the myth that bras lead to breast cancer have any truth in it? The 1995 book called Dressed to Kill by Sydney Ross Singer and Soma Grismaijer, started the rumor that bras and breast cancer correlation. Dressed to Kill claimed that a women that wears underwire bras for 12 hours a day will have a higher risk of developing breast cancer than women who do not.

Some doctors that agree with this idea of correlation say, wearing certain bras that are tight fitting can cut off lymph drainage, which can lead to the development of breast cancer. In the book Dressed to Kill, the authors conducted a study of over 4,000 women and found that women who wore bras for less than 12 hours per day had a 1 out of 52 risk, while women who wore bras 24 hours per day had a 3 out of 4 chance of developing breast cancer. They argued that the correlation of bras to breast cancer is four times greater than smoking is to lung cancer.

But other doctors say no, there is a lack of proof and data for the correlation of bras and breast cancer. The American Cancer Society quoted that “there is no evidence that compression of the lymph nodes by bras causes breast cancer; in reality, body fluids travel up and into the underarm lymph nodes, not towards the underwire.“ Basically stating that there is not a sufficient amount of evidence that justifies that bras cause breast cancer. In 2014 researcher conducted a observational study on postmenopausal female participants about their bra wearing patterns. More than 1,000 women with breast cancer and almost 500 who did not have breast cancer participated in this study. The conclusion, the researchers found no evidence of a connection between breast cancer risk and the hours at which a woman
wears her bra.

This correlation is still fought over with doctors, physicians, and experts. There is no clear cause of breast cancer and no clear evidence to link or unlink breast cancer and bras. It’s up to you to decided if you believe it to be true of not, and if you should avoid bras or not. Ask yourself, does the risk outweigh the cost?

Sources:

http://articles.mercola.com/sites/articles/archive/2009/05/19/Can-Wearing-Your-Bra-Cause-Cancer.aspx

One more time: No, wearing a bra does not cause breast cancer

Confusion. Purpose. Heaven. Hell. Adam. Eve. Union. Government. Bonded. Alone.

These are some of the reoccurring words that pop up in my head when I am asked the question of why we exist. There are two types of people; those whose search for definition, and those that define themselves. The common denominator they share is curiosity. Curiosity drives us as humans and allows us to really cultivate our personality through experience. Now of course I could go into details about nature vs. nurture, but forget that cause the school system has already shoved that far enough down your throats. It’s been said that trust is established at 18 months of age through mother-infant interactions, but to me thats bull crap. Now I am not saying that ones caregiver doesn’t teach them a lot, or most of their definition, but at the same time, as humans we are constantly losing ourselves to only be found on the corner of a new journey. In times that we are lost, the feeling is unescapable and we churn in lakes that cannot be dried out. We lose a lot, some more than others, so I refuse to be categorized as to when an individual determines their capacity to trust. The elite, but now deceased psychoanalyst, Erik Erickson would probably go into his Theory of Development. He would defend his stage of trust vs. mistrust and stand by his belief that ones development is life long, but you cannot tell me a humans will to trust is determined in only the ages from 18 months to three years. If the world does not meet my needs as a child, I get the fact that it stays in my subconscious mind, but mistrust from ones older age is completely aware information. Our minds are just constantly observing, dissecting, and analyzing information so quickly that when we do have access to what has made us unable to trust, it is much easier to indulge in. It’s no wonder Erik Erickson named himself the son of him self….. Ignorance is bliss. 😉

Why cry…we do it when we’re sad, laughing, in pain, we even cry during our favorite tv show or movie. But why? what’s the point of crying?

Everyone has had that one time when you have shed a few tears maybe you were sad over a breakup or death, or maybe something was just so funny you couldn’t help it. Have you ever thought about why though?

“Crying is a natural emotional response to certain feelings, usually sadness and hurt. But then people cry under other circumstances and occasions,” says Stephen Sideroff, PhD, a staff psychologist at Santa Monica–University of California Los Angeles. Humans expel various compounds in body fluids that give off subtle messages to other members.

There are 3 different types of tears that all have different purposes. The first tears are basil tears, basil tears are what keeps your eyes from getting dry. We produce about 10 ounces of basil tears a day. This is also a reason why many people suffer from a stuffy nose after they been crying for a while. The second type is reflex tears, these tears help protect the eye from irritations like onions, smoking and dust. The final type of tear is the emotional tear, the emotional tear is when you are genuinely sad or happy, the endocrine system is triggered to release hormones that eventually form tears. Tears produced during emotional crying have a chemical composition which differs from other types of tears. They contain significantly greater quantities of the hormones prolactin, adrenocorticotropic hormone, Leu-enkephalin, and the elements potassium and manganese.

Tears are produced by the lacrimal glands that are just above the outer corner of each eye. The film of tears on the eye is a complex system, consisting of three layers: oil, water and mucus. The water layer is the thickest and contains electrolytes, proteins, glucose and other substances.

After a long day of school  are bodies are exhausted from all the work we have done, but have you ever stopped and ask yourself why we need sleep?

Everyone assumes that sleeping is a time for your body to shut down but that is not the actual reason why we sleep. Sleeping is a time when processing, restoration and strengthening occurs. Exactly how this happens and why our bodies are programmed for such a long period of slumber is still somewhat of a mystery. But scientists do understand some of sleep’s critical functions, and the reasons we need it for optimal health and wellbeing.

Scientists have explored the question of why we sleep from many different angles. They have examined, for example, what happens when humans are deprived of sleep. In other studies, they have looked at sleep patterns in a variety of organisms to see if similarities or differences among species might reveal something about sleep’s functions. Yet, years of research and many discoveries about other aspects of sleep, the question of why we sleep yet to be determined.

The amount of sleep you need depends on your age. Adults need 7-9 hours of sleep per night, 1 year olds need roughly 11 to 14 hours, children between 9 and 11 years old, and teenagers need between 8 and 10 hours of sleep a night.

Scientist understand that we need sleep they just haven’t figured out exactly why. We know after we sleep we feel more alert, more energetic, happier, and better able to function. But there is no science exactly prove why or how we feel this way. It’s interesting to understand because maybe “sleep” is just one way our bodies feel fresh and energized. We’ll never know until scientist can prove the reason we sleep.

A lot of people take energy drinks to stay awake at work or to stay awake while you pull an all nighter studying. But so many experts have stressed that energy drinks are bad. I never knew why, so I did some research.
From mountain dew in high school, to 5 hour energies in college and the to the big can of monster during work our bodies might be consuming too much energy. 5 hour energy and monster are getting a lot more popular their market is worth $12.5 billion and is said to grow $21 billion by 2017. So I guess the question lies how bad is it, if so many people are buying it on a daily basis.

Energy drinks  have been connected to heart and neurological problems. It brings down the mental health of a teenage and it increases their risk for headaches as well as boost blood pressure and heart rate. On the caffeine informer website they list 13 dangers of drinking energy drinks. Such as cardiac arrest, headaches, increased anxiety, insomnia, type 2 diabetes, drug interaction, addiction, risky addiction, allergic reaction, high blood pressure and niacin overdose. I a lot of people aren’t aware of the series problems energy drinks can cause especially if you drink more than one can. People should what how much they drink because they are very powerful.

Teens that drink energy drinks are more likely to get head injured. There is a relation with the amount of energy drinks you drink and getting a brain traumatic injury. However, there might be another reason why some people get TBI when they get TBI, for instance if they take more risk. Future studies are needed to better understand the reason for the link between energy drink consumption and TBI, and to examine exactly why teens are drinking these beverages, the researchers said.

“Energy drinks, such a Redbull and Rockstar, contain high levels of caffeine and change the chemical state of the body, which can prevent people from getting back on track after a TBI,” study co-author Dr. Michael Cusimano, a neurosurgeon at St. Michael’s Hospital in Toronto, said.

The bad thing is that all these energy drinks have been approved by the US food and drug administration so the companies have the right to promote their product any way they would like.

Yet as much as we all hate to admit it, we have searched on Google “ways to get rid of acne fast” or “why do I get acne.” We have all had the wonderful experience of acne during our teenage years and some into their adult years. Having acne can be embarrassing, painful and annoying. You just try to cover it up with whatever makeup you have or using medication. But you still can’t find a treatment that actually gets rid of it. So why is it that some get more acne than others, why do we get acne and what are some methods that you can get rid of acne?

https://www.wikinedia.com/wiki/health-fitness/acne/

            To begin with, there are two types of acne: the bad kind that leaves scars and are annoying, and the good kind which makes your face look better. Acne affects 80% of the population, so not that many people can hide from the pimply complexion.  Huiying Li of the David Geffen School of Medicine conducted a study on 100 people, half with acne and half clear-skinned. According to Li, there is a certain bacteria called “P. acnes lurks deep in skin pores, sometimes irritating the body’s immune system to cause inflammation and the resulting red bumps we call pimples,”(LiveScience). In the study, researchers found 66 strains in the genome, but narrowed it down to 2 strains that affected ⅕ of every pimpled-person and did not show up as much in the clear-skinned people. But there was one strain most common in the clear-skinned people and not the acne people. Dr. Noah Craft, a dermatologist, deduced that there must be a “natural defense mechanism” that attacks and destroys acne bacteria before it enters the body and causes acne. Scientists think that making more creams that have good P acnes in it will help get rid of acne. But there is yet to be one created. LiveScience. Although there is not specifically clear data to why some people get more acne than others, there are few possibilities. One of the biggest reasons that people get acne is due to hormones called androgens that occur in both sexes during puberty. The androgen produces a lot of oil and sebum which causes more acne. Genetics also plays a small role if your parents had a lot of acne then you are more likely to get acne. People that wear a lot of oil-based makeup can also contract more acne and also some medications can cause more acne.WebMD.

              Now that we know why we get acne, we can figure out how to effectively get rid of it. There are many non-prescription medications that contain salicylic acid or benzoyl peroxide and sulfur. There are also prescription drugs for a stronger reaction which includes benzoyl peroxide, antibiotics, tretinoin, tazarotene, adapalene, dapsone, and azelaic acid. WebMD. There are also non-medicated ways to get rid of acne which are pretty simple. First off, we know that acne is caused by oil and bacteria. So when looking for a face wash, go for a oil-free based face wash and make-up. To avoid using your hands to wash your face, find a facial brush from Olay or L’oreal. Even one of your household items can be used like toothpaste to put on zits. Cosmopolitan. Here are some tips that you can use when preventing acne:

• Don’t pick at your pimples, they will cause scars.
• Keep a daily routine for your skin care
• Don’t sleep with makeup on
• Wash makeup brushes in soapy water once a week
• Use salicylic acid based concealers
• Wash your pillowcases
• Shower after anything that makes you sweat Prevent Acne

Whether you were born with healthy skin or pimply skin, it is always a good ideas to follow these prevention tips and to stay on top of acne. Good Luck!

Remember the last time you had a dream? When you wake up in a panic in the middle of the night it is usually from a bad dream. But do you ever wonder why those bad dreams happen? Some people think that dreams are based off of things that happen during the day or something that is bothering you in your subconscious. I think dreams are so interesting and fascinating because they don’t make sense. The fact that we have our own little world going on in our head as soon as we fall asleep is fascinating to me. But even though it is all whimsical and fun, there is a scientific reason behind dreams that explains why we have the dreams that we do.

“Your limbic system (hippocampus and fornix––the wormy tangle all up in the middle of your brain) is the primary control center for your emotions, and it becomes especially active during your dreams.” (Sanford) This explains why there are many emotions during dreams and it can deal with danger. You can also dream during “non-rem” sleep. REM sleep is the stage closest to waking, though, so you’re more likely to remember REM dreams. The different stages of sleep will result in different types of dreams. In one study, a lab-induced “pins and needles” sensation manifested as a problematic shoe fitting in the subject’s dream, while more intense pain can produce nightmares wherein the dreamer tries to escape the source of their pain, literally and metaphorically.

Its crazy to think that dreams have a logical explanation behind them and it makes understanding why nightmares occur much easier. Nightmares tend to occur in the last third of the night when REM sleep is the strongest. Nightmares in adults can be spontaneous, but are generally triggered by psychological factors like anxiety and depression. Many affects from nightmares can occur that include sleep apnea and restless legs syndrome which can cause people to experience chronic nightmares.

There is also a religious aspect related to dreams. “Early civilizations thought of dreams as a medium between our earthly world and that of the gods” (Van Der Linden). This religious aspect relates to the fact of the theory that dreams have a prophetic meaning behind them. Dreams are a crazy thing to think about because as we sleep we basically watch a movie in our heads

Dreams are also strongly connected to our memories. Dreams can twist a memory into a completely new memory. Memories are always in our minds, therefore this can be a reason that we dream of old memories. But also with memories there comes the phenomenon of deja vu. Personally I have dreamt about something and months later it has actually happened. Dreams are figments of our imagination of our bottomless minds.