If you haven’t gotten in an argument with your friends at some point in your life about righties versus lefties then shame on you. Everyone (probably not everybody, just an exaggeration) has had this debate in their life at some point. Whether it is about who are the better athletes or who lives longer, it was a common debate in our lives growing up that has been around for some time. The big claim is that left handed people live shorter lives than right handed people. This is quite a significant statement and got me thinking: is this actually true?

Our world is dominated by right handed people, where just about 10 percent of the world’s population is lefties. Back when this was a bigger debate, roughly around the 90s, not many tools and other resources were made for lefties. Today we see that there are certain desks in schools designed for lefties and special kitchen tools specifically for lefties that was not common back then. The lack of tools for lefties was considered a factor that played into their premature deaths according to BBC News. But this simply just didn’t make sense. Like McManus, a professor of psychology and medical education at University College London and author of Right Hand, Left Hand, said  “it’s not at all plausible.” Since this was not true, people had no idea why lefties might have shorter lifespans than righties. This led to experiments.

Null Hypothesis: Lefties do not have shorter lives than righties

Alternative Hypothesis: Lefties do have shorter lives than righties

The most common research on the subject was made by Dr. Diane F. Halpern of California State University and Dr. Stanley Coren of the University of British Columbia. They looked at roughly 1000 cases of people who passed away and found the differences to be “striking.” The researchers found that on average right handed people lived to 75 years of age and left handed people lived to 66 years of age and this trend was apparent in both men and women. They also found that lefties were more than 5 times as likely to die in accidents, mainly driving, than righties. The reason they said was because that the world was not made for lefties. So we go back to this idea that it seems like left handed people just do not belong, or at least at the time, did not belong in society. This is outstandingly interesting to think about how the world was so dominated and by and made for rightes. However, Chris McManus (the same guy mentioned in the previous paragraph) says that Halpern and Coren made a “very subtle error.” He goes on to say that “their mistake was they only looked at the dead..” Because left handed people were becoming more popular as time went on, people started to switch to using their right hands. Society didn’t accommodate for lefties so people may have been born left handed, but then switched later in their lives which would skew the results that Halpern and Coren find. McManus goes on to describe an exaggerated scenario and basically says that lefties living shorter lives than righties is a myth. To read more about that click here.

Here is a graph showing how many more lefties there have been over time. From McManus’ publication “Right Hand, Left Hand”

Conclusion

Based on the research I did, it is hard reject the null hypothesis of lefties living shorter lives than righties. From a statistics standpoint, it looks very convincing that lefties do live shorter lives. However, it is just a small sample size and there are other variables that play into this experiment. The research that Coren and Halpern conducted could also suffer from the “file drawer problem” where negative results are not published. Chris McManus made some very convincing points as well about their results being skewed and I agree with him that it could be a myth. I think 20 to 30 years ago, it made more sense to say that lefties lived shorter lives than righties and there were statistics to prove that. Today, our society has adapted to left handed people as they are becoming more popular and I think it is just a myth that they live shorter lives. An argument can be made for both ways so, what do you guys think?

Here are some fun facts I found about lefties that differ from righties that are very interesting.

Most Americans are motivated by money and want to achieve the “American dream.” Finding a job is very difficult but finding one you enjoy may be even harder. Many Americans hate their jobs or are completely disengaged. In fact, Gallup conducted a 2013 State of the American Workplace Report where more than 150,000 full and part-time workers were surveyed. According to the report, only 30 percent of workers are fully engaged and nearly 70 PERCENT hate their jobs or they are not engaged in their work. That is a tremendously large number that does not bode well for our society. The reason this is concerning is because people who do not like their jobs can be under a lot stress most of the times which leads to a higher risk in suffering a stroke.

According to recent research, people who have high stress jobs are more likely to suffer from strokes than people that do not have high stress jobs. People were 1.4 times more likely to have a stroke if they encountered psychological stress compared to people that did not. Stress levels are very high among people in the work environment and clearly this needs to be reduced because of the serious effects it may have one people. The study also concluded that about 10 percent of strokes is related to work stress. So where exactly is this information coming from?

Obtained from Google images

The study was conducted by researchers that followed and kept track of participants over the span of 30 years from 1971 to 2001. The participants included a group of roughly 5000 men ages 40 to 59 who lived in Copenhagen, Denmark. The men were given an exam where they were asked about their alcohol consumption, smoking habits, and whether or not they have received treatment for diabetes. Note: people who had a history of heart attacks or a heart disease were not included in the study. The results were astonishing. During the time in which they conducted the study, 779 men suffered from a stroke, and 167 died from one. The men were divided into five groups based on social class which looked at education and job level. Men in the three highest social classes had an increased risk of stroke by 38 percent than the men in the other lower classes. While this number is not very big, it says a lot about how much stress plays a role in risk of strokes. To learn more about how the study was conducted and the results click here.

Another group of researchers looked at six studies where about 140,000 people were involved from ages 18 to 75. The span was from 3 to 17 years and they found that the high stress jobs were 22 percent more likely to cause strokes. Furthermore, this became a lot more dangerous where these jobs were 58 percent more likely to cause ischemic stroke which is the most common type of stoke causing a blockage of blood flow to the brain. And oddly enough, the researchers looked into gender and found that women with high stress jobs were 33 percent more likely to have stroke. The studies show correlations between the stress level and strokes but that does not mean causation is involved. Dr. Yuli Huang of Southern Medical University in Guangzhou, China brings up a great point in that “work stress may foster unhealthy behavior such as smoking,, reduced physical activity, lower help-seeking behavior and poor eating habits-all of which are important risk factors for stroke.” So while high stress levels make sense for increasing the risk of stroke, there could be other confounding variables involved.

My take from these studies and research is that this is a very serious problem. Stress is very common in the work place and the statistics correlating high stress levels at work to an increase risk of stroke is very concerning. People should be more aware of this issue and learn about tips to reduce stress. Like I mentioned before these studies show that there is a correlation between stress and risk of stroke but nothing shows that there is a causation involved. There are confounding variables involved, like Dr. Yuli Huang mentioned, but reducing stress levels at work and choosing a job you like will be the first step to reducing the risk of suffering a stroke and potentially saving your life.

I always thought about is there was someone exactly like me in the world when I was younger. But now I know that this is not possible because every human being is different in every way. How could would it be though to have another you in the world? We have been exposed to “cloning” in TV shows and movies in a fake way but the biggest question is whether or not this is possible in real life. The fact of the matter is that research has shown that clone could be very possible in years to come.

What is Cloning?

Let’s get an understanding of what cloning actually is first. According to Medical Daily, “cloning describes a number of processes used to create genetically identical copies of a biological entity.” When we think of cloning, most of us associate it to copying something and recreating the identical version of it whether it’s a person, animal, etc.

So, is it possible?

First, scientists and researchers have already made a big discovery by cloning human embryos and recreating stem cells. This is a fantastic discovery made by them and not that long ago we would have never thought this would have been possible! Since the 1950s scientists have cloned many different animal species including mice, cow, pig, sheep, and cats. The thing that all these animals have in common is that they are not primates. It is a lot more difficult to clone primates and the closest we’ve come is cloning a monkey in 1997. Dr. Robert Lanza, chief scientific officer at the biotech company Advanced Cell Technology, has had plenty of experience around these experiments.

His claim was that the researches encountered problems that needed to be solved with trial and error. It was very easy for scientists to acquire the eggs of the non-primates to conduct many different experiments and figure out the problems. However, eggs are very precious to primates and it is a lot harder for them to acquire and use for experiments. Another reason why it may be difficult is because cloning mice or a different animals does not translate into cloning human beings very easily. In cloning an animal, researchers need to remove a nucleus of an egg cell which causes them to extract proteins that are necessary to help cells divide. Lanza goes on to say that that basically in mice they are able to reproduce these proteins again but primates do not have this capability which is a big problem. Also, Lanza states that a lot of abnormalities can be encountered such as causing problems with blood flow in the fetus which is detrimental to a human being.

The biggest concern with this is how unethical it is to clone humans and Dr. Lanza says “it’s like sending your baby up in a rocket knowing there’s a 50-50 chance it’s going to blow up. It’s grossly unethical.” Dr. Lanza has a very intelligent position on this matter and the effects it has and you can read more about that here.

The Experiment

An experiment involvinig cloning was conducted and funded by Oregon Health and Science University. The researchers involved were “looking for a better way to make fresh human tissue for the treatment of severe injuries or disease.” They conducted a tissue-growing experiment where they removed DNA from and unfertilized human egg and inserted a patient’s skin cell that contains their DNA into that egg. After that, they used a chemical reaction to begin cell development and created a ball of 50 to 100 cells known as a blastocyst. A fetus can be formed from this and to find out more information about how that happens click here. Dr. Mitalipov, a developmental biologist at Oregon Health and Science University and a lead author of the study, said “various cell lines and tissues, including beating human heart cells” were formed with the assistance of growth chemicals. His main goal is to use cloning to treat diseases and his team will work hard to make that happen. They are still a ways away from cloning humans, nevertheless this was a big step for the future.

This picture shows the process of creating embryonic stem cells from human skin cells

I think after doing my research cloning is very possible in maybe 20 or so years. With technology advancing at such a rapid pace, discoveries will be made in the next decade that we would have NEVER thought would be possible. A lot of progress has been made revolving around cloning and I don’t think cloning humans is out of the question. Do you guys think cloning could very possibly happen in the near future or no way it will happen?

Our world is so unique in so many different ways. From how the world works to the amazing creatures that live on our planet with us. Exotic animals are so unique and interesting to research about. This is why I wanted to look more into the topic and come across one of the coolest creatures I have ever seen. It is called a Glaucus Atlanticus (yes you read that right).

The Glaucus Atlanticus is often referred to as a blue sea slug or blue dragon drawing a lot of comparisons to a Pokemon character. It can be found in tropical waters off the coast of Australia and South Africa. The blue sea slug is roughly 3 centimeters long and appears to have a blue and silver colored skin. It floats on the top of the water by filling it’s stomach with air. They can be found subtly floating with the current in these waters which make them very hard to notice. While this creature seems pretty awesome, it is actually quite dangerous.

The person in this picture was actually very brave to pick it up barehanded because of how dangerous it is.

The Glaucus Atlanticus is a very poisonous creature that, while it may not look like it, can be very aggressive. The tiny blue sea slugs feed on larger, poisonous animals such as the Portuguese Man O’ War. These Portuguese Man O’ War creatures have tentacles that average 30 feet. 30 feet! That’s insane and the fact that the Glaucus Atlanticus is a threat to it is so fascinating. I also found out that it can consume an entire organism! So how is such a small creature so dangerous? Because the blue sea slug is immune to toxins, it is able to lock on to larger creatures’ tentacles and takes in the toxic nematocyst cells. The toxin that is absorbed from other creatures is then stored in their finger-like appendages in the tips that can then be deployed later on other creatures. The venom blue sea slugs consume is concentrated which makes their stings much more powerful than the larger creatures they took it from.

Who knew such a small, cool looking creature could be so dangerous. That just goes to show how unique and fascinating our world really is. If you plan on going to the tropical waters in South Africa and Australia (which many of you may not now), make sure to be aware of these blue sea slugs and just look at not touch them.

We have all heard the very popular myth about dropping a penny off the Empire State Building killing someone. It seems very plausible considering how tall the building is and how fast of a speed the penny reaches being dropped from so high up. I have heard that this myth is in fact true and that it is not possible to drop a penny of the Empire State Building and have it kill someone. So I wanted to look into it more and here is what I found.

First, there are basic measurements to know about this experiment. The height of the Empire State Building is roughly 1,250 feet. This is roughly 50 times the size of an average two-story household! Now, the general assumption people make is that a penny falling from this height would surely accelerate downwards at a rapid speed penetrating the skin of a pedestrian. This is not the case however. A penny only weighs about one gram and there is a confounding variable in this experiment and that is air resistance.

This image compares the height of the Empire State Building to other buildings

Because the penny is so lightweight it tumbles when it falls, there is a lot of air resistance that holds the penny back from reaching a maximum velocity. According to Scientific American, the faster a penny moves through the air the more air resistance it will experience which causes the drag force and force of gravity to be equal and opposite to each other. This means that once the penny reaches its terminal velocity, after that point it travels roughly at 25 mph which is not a fast enough speed to much damage at all. Even if there was no air resistance at all and New York City was evacuated, the penny STILL would not reach a fast enough speed to kill someone. Without any air resistance, the penny would reach an estimated maximum velocity of about 190 mph which sounds fast but is actually still not enough to kill you.

To put it in perspective in terms of speed and damage, this website does an excellent job with a comparison to a bullet being fired out of a gun. Basically, it demonstrates how a low powered bullet that roughly weighs the same as a penny is shot out of a gun at an initial speed of around 600 mph. That is a whole lot more than the speed of a penny when it is dropped from the Empire State Building. In fact, MythBusters did this experiment by shooting a penny out a gun at about the same speed as the bullet into Adam Savage’s hand. His reaction was that it barely even hurt. Clearly, from these experiments it is proven that dropping a penny from the Empire State Building will not kill someone. MythBusters did a great job looking at all the variables and explaining the reasoning behind their verdict in this video.

From my research, I can now say disregard this myth and know for a fact that dropping a penny from the Empire State Building will not kill somebody.

You know that time of year where you can’t help but sneeze about a zillion times a day. Yup, i’m talking about allergy season. Allergies are a pain and there is no question about that. Some people have worse allergies than others and it can almost be unbearable at times. I am someone who has extremely bad allergies and cannot stand it. Of course the most common cause of allergies is related to pollen but it got me thinking, what else causes a bad case of allergies?

According to Dr. Mercola, spring allergies affect an average of 25 million Americans. (This article was written in 2013 so the numbers might be different now but it is just a general representation how allergies affect people). As I previously mentioned pollen in the air is the most common cause for allergies. The reason why large amounts of pollen may be present in certain years compared to others is because of the pollen’s early arrival after mild winters. When the arrival of pollen happens early following mild winters, there is more pollen in the air and allergy seasons tend to last longer. While there is a correlation between pollen and allergies, pollen is NOT the only cause of allergies. As we know, correlation does not equal causation.

This is a picture I got from http://lib.store.yahoo.net/lib/allergybegone/pollen-count.gif. It generally represents amounts of pollen in areas of the U.S.

Our immune systems basically work to target unhealthy and uncommon bacteria and get rid of them. To learn more about how our immune systems work in causing allergies go here. When it targets a harmless environmental protein called an allergen, this is how allergies occur. The immune system then sends out a protective substance called immunoblobulin E (IgE) antibodies to target and fight the allergens. Everybody has these IgE antibodies in them, but people who experience worse allergies than others more amounts in their body. Therefore, there is more going on as far as targeting and attacking these allergens in a person’s body with allergies. We also have these cells called mast cells in our body that play a role in causing allergies, more specifically allergic reactions. These mast cells send chemicals into the blood and tissues of our body and it is one chemical in particular called histamine that causes the problem. The chemicals that are sent cause itching and swelling, and can be very irritating. Also, they cause some fluid to leak from our cells and all of these play into why we itch and scratch so much during an allergic reaction.

Of course allergic reactions can become very serious leading to tightening of the throat and loss of voice which is also because of these chemicals. My overall take from this research is that pollen is a very popular cause for allergies to occur, but a lot more goes on than we think. I never really though about how much our body goes through to cause something as “simple” as allergies. There are many more factors and confounding variables that play a part in causing allergies, that most people do not really think about.

Do you guys think all these factors play a legitimate role or it’s just something as simple as pollen that causes allergies?

Magic tricks are attention grabbing and simply mind blowing. There are two types of people when it comes to magic: people who hate magic and think it’s stupid and people who find it magnificently interesting. I am someone who is mind blown and very entertained by magic. I wanted to find out more about the science behind these magic tricks and how they are so mind blowing.

Like Prof Read said today in class, magic is about manipulating the mind and intuition of humans. It’s all about illusion making the impossible seem possible. Teller, part of the magic team Penn and Teller, has explained why magic works with the media. Teller explains that “at the core of every trick is a cold, cognitive experiment in perception. Does the trick fool the audience?” He goes on to say that “misdirection” and distractions play a big role in whether or not a trick is successful. Of course this makes sense that the people experiencing the magic are often distracted. They are focusing on trying to figure out the magic trick while it is actually happening. Often times the audience that is engaged in the magic trick is focusing on what seems to be the trick, but actually the trick is happening somewhere else.

retrieved image from Google

Laughter is a big way magicians distract the audience and Teller describes why it is such a distraction. He says that laughing disables our ability to think critically for a brief moment. Magicians can use this to their advantage when they perform a trick that may seem out of the ordinary to their audience. So the audience will laugh right after this happens and they then often forget what happened right before that. A 28 year old professional magician and graduate student from McGill University did a study where he performed a simple card trick. He had people randomly stop on a card as he flipped through the deck. He intentionally showed the target card, the 10 of hearts, longer than the rest but it was subtle enough that the audience still had no idea. A whopping 98% picked the target card and when asked the people that participated why they had picked that card, they had no idea. Olson, the student and magician in the study, took a psychology course where he said most of the concepts he learned in that course were similar to the basic principles of magic.

One of my favorite movies, Now You See Me is all about magic and the secrets behind it. If you like magic and haven’t seen it I suggest watching it! The movie demonstrates the value of perception and making the audience believe what they think is real. This is a scene in the movie in which actor Morgan Freeman’s character explains the secrets behind their big magic trick. (If you haven’t seen the movie and want to don’t watch the video!)

Mat Franco is one of my favorite magicians. The tricks he performs are simply mind blowing. He was the winner of America’s Got Talent 2014. His career has launched to unthinkable heights since then. Here is my favorite trick he has done; every time I watch this I get goose bumps.

Roller Coasters are one of the most thrilling things we experience. That is if you like roller coasters of course. I am a huge roller coaster fan and love going to amusement parks. There are definitely those massive intimidating roller coasters though that sometimes make me think while I’m in line “why am I doing this?” When the ride is over I want to do it again and absolutely love the rush you get.  All the different forces we experience on roller coasters is what makes it so fun.

Roller coasters test the limits of gravity by accelerating and changing position to the ground causing many different forces to act on your body. First, we need to understand the basics. 1 g is equal to the force of acceleration due to the gravity near Earth’s surface. In other words, we experience 1 g while we are just standing still on the ground not in motion. In terms of acceleration this is about 9.81 meters per second squared according to Physics Buzz. When we go down steep hills, through cork screws, and flips on roller coasters people will experience roughly four times the acceleration of 1 g. This is what causes us to get that weird churning feeling in our stomach.

While we are accelerating down a steep hill, gravity is pulling us down while an acceleration force wants to pull us up. These forces will balance out at a certain point of acceleration making us feel weightless. The reason we sometimes get lifted up out of our seat is if we accelerate down a hill fast enough. This causes the upwards acceleration to be greater than the force of gravity thus lifting us up out of our seats. While it is terrifying for some people, this is my favorite part about roller coaster rides. How do we stay on track and in our seats through a loop-the-loop? It’s simple. We accelerate fast enough where our apparent weight and acceleration force are greater than the force of gravity pulling us down. So when we go upside down, these forces combined with the harness keep us from falling out. In fact, the forces are strong enough on their own that we would not need a harness to keep us in.

Coasterpedia has some really cool information about G-forces and roller coasters. The highest g-force recorded on a roller coaster is 6.3 Gs! That is roughly six times the amount of acceleration from when we are standing still. This was on the Tower of Terror in South Africa. The most amount of g-forces experienced on a ride in the United States is 5.9G. This is on a ride called Shock Wave in Arlington, Texas. One of the most notable and largest roller coasters in the world is Kingda Ka where people will feel 5.0G. Here is a video of the thrill of riding Kingda Ka.

We experience an absurd amount of g-forces on roller coasters, nevertheless it is one of the most thrilling feelings in the world.

Growing up as kids in the late 90s and early 2000s, we were exposed to the possibility of flying cars whether it was in movies or comic books. It was every kids dream to live long enough to see this happen. We all at one point thought about what our future would like and for most of us, it was something like this. While this kind of futuristic city may be a bit unrealistic, the future of cars may surprise you. It is quite possible we could have flying cars in the near future.

As we know, technology is becoming more and more advanced nowadays. Trends in the past 10 years has shown just how much we have progressed.  Brad Feld, managing director at Faundry Group,  takes a look at transportation trends in recent years. Electric cars have become more popular in today’s society making for a more convenient way of transportation. According to Feld, hybrid vehicles represent 3% of cars on the road today. This is not a large number, however it us up from the 0% that were on the road just ten years ago. As for all electric based cars, there only about .1% on the road. An example of this type of car is the Nissan Leaf.  Feld goes on to explain that the majority of cars will be electric in the near future. He basically states that with the improvement in battery technology and reduction in costs, electric cars will overtake gas cars by 2025. Read more about it here.

Feld brings up an interesting point in saying that building the hover car is not the problem, but rather pilot licensing is the real barrier. In fact less than one third of one percent of Americans are licensed pilots. It takes months of studying and years of training to get a license. Not to mention, pilot licenses can cost anywhere from $5000 to $10,000. So flying cars a very real possibility from a production standpoint. Feld thinks transportation will be very different by 2030 and we will finally experience the flying cars.

Forbes thinks that we will have flying cars on the market as soon as 2017! This would be incredible is we do in fact see them that soon, but could imagine how expensive they might be. A Slovakian company called AeroMobil unveiled their latest prototype of a “flying car.” They say it is an all road vehicle that can navigate between traffic and between landings and take-offs from airports. It is pretty awesome looking too and if this video isn’t the coolest thing you’ve ever seen, then I’m not sure what is.

CEO Juraj Vaculik has stated that they have big plans for the flying car to hit the market by 2017. The thought of flying cars is starting to become much more realistic. Only two more years and we could witness one of the biggest technological advances in history.

Picture taken from Forbes website

We have all experienced the pain of banging our funny bone against furniture, and it is the farthest thing from funny. It sends a numbing pain through our whole arm that is certainly not pleasant. So why is it called our funny bone then and why does it hurt so much?

There are a couple of theories for why it is called our funny bone. The first is that the name derived from a play on words. Our upper arm bone between the elbow and shoulder is called the humerus, which sounds like humorous. Makes sense. The other claim is that the tingling sensation sent through your arm is like an odd, “funny” feeling. I am curious as to who came up with that one. Who would hit their funny bone, experience that numbing pain, and say “hey this is kind of funny” so they called it the funny bone. But that’s beside the point. Now, why does it hurt so badly?

The funny bone is not actually a bone but rather a nerve. It is called the ulnar nerve, which runs from our neck all the way down to our hand. This nerve, like most in our body, is mostly protected by bones. Except when it gets to the elbow, it passes through something called the cubital tunnel where it is only skin and fat that protects the nerve. This makes it much more vulnerable to bumping it. When people bump their funny bone, they are actually hitting their nerve and compressing it against the bone. This shoots a weird tingling pain down your whole arm and into your fingers. It numbs your arm and hand for a few seconds and our first reaction is to shake it off or rub it (in addition to yelling in pain) which seems to get rid of the pain, While this sensation may not be funny and hurts at the time, things could actually be worse.

People suffer from something called cubital tunnel syndrome. This is when the ulnar nerve gets irritated and on its trip through the elbow, it gets obstructed and pinched against your bone. People can suffer from this by constantly hitting their funny bone where it keeps irritating that nerve. As you may imagine, this pain is not pleasant. It is as if you were being constantly hit with a tiny mallet on your elbow, bumping your funny one over and over again. In extreme cases, this syndrome impairs people’s usage of their hands. So next time you hit your funny bone, it may hurt at first, but be thankful you do not have to deal with the pain experienced during cubital tunnel syndrome. That certainly is not funny.

Sources:

http://mentalfloss.com/article/21474/what-funny-bone-and-why-does-hitting-it-hurt-so-much

http://www.bbc.com/future/story/20150827-why-does-it-hurt-so-much-to-hit-your-funny-bone

The Jamaican Olympic sprinter has taken the sports world by storm with his blazing speed. Usain Bolt has set the world record for the 100m and 200m sprint and has already accumulated 6 Olympic gold medals. Bolt is an 11-time world champion and has become a household name throughout the world. Watch how fast Bolt is when racing against other runners. Warning: don’t blink or you might miss it.

Usain will go down as one of the fastest sprinters in the world but how fast is he really? Let’s find out:

Usain Bolt’s record breaking 100m time in Berlin was 9.58s which is insane. He ran at an average speed of 23.35mph! It gets even better; Bolt reached a top speed of 27.44 mph! That is absurd for a human being. His 200m time is just as impressive running it in 19.19s with an average speed of 23.31 mph. This is extremely fast without a doubt and most humans cannot come close to these speeds. But how fast is Bolt compared to land animals? Surprisingly, not very.

An elephant’s top speed is roughly 25 mph which is just about two mph less than Bolt’s top speed of 27 mph. It’s crazy to think that an elephant can run that fast given their superstition and size. But what’s even harder to grasp is the fact that an elephant is almost as fast as the fastest man in the world. A domestic cat is faster than Bolt reaching top speeds of 30 mph. Here is a representation of his speed compared to other land animals:

So to humans Bolt is extremely fast, but when compared to animals Bolt does not look so fast anymore. I’m not discrediting Bolt in any way, shape, or form. He is still a hell of an athlete and one of the most naturally gifted athletes and the fastest runner in the world. However it’s mind blowing when you compare his speed to other animals and see how much slower Bolt looks compared to these animals.

To most people who consume alcohol, there are many things that they think can cure a hangover. Sports drinks and some sort of food always seem to be the go-to options for this. While this seems like it may help, it does not have the affect to cure a hangover. Water is another obvious choice for curing hangovers. And in fact, water will not do the trick either. While it may seem like these will do the trick, the fact is (according to scientists and researchers) there is no real cure for a hangover.

Researches in Canada and Netherlands surveyed 1600 university students to determine the effects of a hangover and if what they were doing to “cure” it was actually working. Some of the evidence researchers gathered involved the students telling them the amount of drinks they’ve had, the time period of which they have been drinking, and the severity of their hangovers the next morning. A sample of 789 students from Arcadia University was used during this time and researches found out that about 4/5 of them who claimed they did not experience a hangover, had a blood alcohol level less than .10. So people who claim they are immune to hangovers, are drinking a lot less than they realize. What is causing these hangovers are proteins called cytokines, according to The Verge. These proteins are being found in the immune system of people when they drink. So just like a cold, it is not a person’s fault for getting sick but rather the immune system.

449 of 826 Dutch students were surveyed based on consuming food or lots of water right after their drinking session. Those who did try to cure their hangover with food or water, only felt slightly better statistically than those who did not do anything following their drinking session. These numbers were so slight that these researches are confident in saying there is no real cure for a hangover other than to drink less alcohol.

Sources:

http://www.theverge.com/2015/3/25/7918015/hangover-cure-iv-drip-nausea-food-vegas

http://www.cbc.ca/news/trending/hangovers-cant-be-prevented-with-water-or-greasy-food-says-science-1.3210322

What’s up guys my name is Chris Cavanaugh. I am a junior and my major is marketing. I absolutely love sports so just warning you guys now, my posts will most likely be about sports if I can find a way to relate it to the class. I am from West Chester, Pennsylvania a small town about 45 minutes outside of Philly. Before starting my collegiate career at Penn State, I went to Seton Hall University my first year of college. I then transferred to Penn State Altoona and now I am here. I could not be happier being up here at University Park!

I am taking this course because it will satisfy a gen. ed. required for my major and also sounds very intriguing. Science has not been one of my better subjects throughout school and never really enjoyed it. This class seems much more different than most science courses and I am excited to be a part of this class.

I was originally born in Albany, New York and while I did not spend much time there, my whole family grew up in New York. I hate to say it, but we are big Yankees and Jets fans. We are season ticket holders for the Jets and here is a pic from a couple years ago! 

As for music, I am a big Twenty One Pilots fan and here is one of my favorite songs by them