This will be my last post of the SC 200, so I am going to talk about the most interesting thing in my mind. Everyone has watched the movie about immortal people, they can not be killed, or die naturally. Human has pursed immortal throughout history, but we haven’t succeeded. What does it really feel like to be immortal? Is that a bless or a curse?

Lets talk about the advantages of immortal first. One of the human’s greatest fear is the fear of death. When you are immortal, you don’t need to worry about that. you can do everything you want to do, go anywhere you want, not afraid of times run out and getting old. You will stay young forever if you get immortal when you are young. You won’t get sick, or get any physically injury. You got unlimited time, from Before Chris to Universe Century. You get to meet all kinds of culture, from the great roman empire to United Federation of Planets. You can witness history, join the first Olympics, fight with King Arthur or have dinner with Abraham Lincoln. Your journey will never stop!

Your body will never get old, but your mind will. Thinking about living for thousands of years. After experience all the changes of the world, you will get tired of changes. You stop to find things interesting. You need to move very often, in case other people find out your secret. You will feel lonely all the time. All your friends are long gone, so do your relatives. Some time in your life, or many times, you will meet the person you love. You may tell her your story, and you are together. But that person will die eventually, and you won’t. You will keep thinking about them. You will find out that you are actually outside the world. There is no place for you. At the end, you will be the last one, forever…

No one can stand alone forever, even he or she is immortal. In my mind, that is the curse, the worst curse. Imagine standing on the top of the mountain, realized that you are the only human in the universe and you will always be. But all of that is just my own opinion. There is no way for us to know what the immortal really feel, maybe they already move beyond human, maybe they live in their own world happily forever. How will you feel?  cracked thatsreallypossible

Some ideas from movies and TV: “The Man from Earth”, “In Time”, “Forever”, “Interstellar”

Hope everyone has a great year!!!

Have you ever looked at old people’s hair? most of their air are either white or grey. It is a common knowledge that our hair turn white when we get older. There are also some exceptions, such as me, I am only 18 and I already have a lot of white hair. Why do these things happen? What cause our hair to turn white and how can we prevent it?

At the base of the hair follicle, there are cells called stem cells. It was responsible for replenish the keratinoctes and melanocytes. melanocytes stems produce melanin, which colored your hair. Our hair color actually depend on the combination of melanin, Brown or black and yellow or red. The number of melanocytes stems decrease when you get older. when most of the melanin were lost, the hair will appear grey or silver. In the end, the hair lost all of its melanin, then there will be no color on the hair, so it become completely transparent. But the transparent hair appear white in our eyes. LiveStrong

Age isn’t the only cause of white hair, genes are big factories. That is the reason why many young people also have white hair. There is a thing in our genes called melanogenic clock, it knows when our parent’s hair turned grey, and we will follow them. If you have grey hair since you were young, your children are very likely to have grey hair at young age. other factors such as lack of Vitamin B12 intake and stress can also cause the hair to turn grey before it supposes to be. In 2009, a Japanese study find a thing called genotoxic stress, which can damage DNA by deplete the melanocyte stem cells. This is not the daily small stress that everyone has. Study found out that normal people’s melanocyte function decrease 10-20% every 10 years after age 30. By age 50, 50% of the people will be half grey.  gaizupath todayifoundout howstuffworks

There are ways to slow down the process of hair turning grey. Consume enough vitamins such as B12 can help you to prevent grey hair. Eat the food that contain Iodine can also help prevent the grey hair, such as fish, bananas and iodized salt. Also, don’t be too stressful, try to relax sometimes. Have hope in life even when you are desperate. Think of your beautiful hair! stylecraze

Have you ever took a turboprop plane, which is mostly small plane with spinning  propellers. It can be really loud, and you can feel the shaking a lot. Many people are afraid of taking turboprops, because they think those plane are old and unsafe. They trust more on jets. So, are jets really safer than turboprops?

When we talk about turboprops, we are not saying the old propeller airplane. Many people misunderstand the turboprops, they think they are made a long time ago, and was replaced by jets. They will think about old propellers with pistons engines during the World War II, planes were hard to start, there were many accidents, and all kinds of things. Modern twin-engine “propeller” airplane actually use jets to spin the propellers. So it’s actually very similar to jets airplane. Turbine engines are much safer and reliable than piston engines. If you think about it, Jets use turbine engines to run their fan blades inside the engines, while turboprops run their propellers on the outside. the change of having engine accidents are same between jets and turboprops. If you are worry about the engine stop in the air, both jets and turboprops can fly and land properly with single engine. schubach aviation

For birds strikes, Turboprops’s engine are actually less likely to be damaged compare to jets’ engines. Turboprops have a thing called “inertial separator”, it allow things that are heavier than air to separate from the inlet airflow to prevent damage that can due to the engines. According to CarQna, this is how inertial separator works “It works by forcing the inlet air to ‘spin’ in a vortex before it enters the compressor stage. This ‘spinning’ forces out heavier particles by centripital force. and ejects them out before they enter the engine.” So it can actually prevent things from hitting the engines directly. But bird strikes do happen sometimes. For both Jets and Turboprops, if the bird is small, it will just pass through the engine, and nothing will happen. If the bird is big enough, it may damage the engine heavily and pilot need to shut that engine down to prevent further damage.  just about flying

There are actually many advantages to fly with turboprops. First, it is more furl efficiently at low altitudes, and it cost less for shorter distance . Second, turboprops have shorter take off and landing distance because propellers can stop more quickly and provide extra drag, so it is suitable for landing in small airports in rural and desolate areas. Third, turboprops have climb better than jets, so they can land of those mountain airports. mountain aviation

There are advantages for both jets and turboprops, and they are used in different routes and areas. There is actually no difference in the safety of jet and turboprops. There is no need to afraid of propellers, sometimes you may even find out that turboprops are more comfortable than jets.

Have you ever heard of other people saying that they will not eat any thing after 8 pm? They said they are on diet and eating at late night and before bed will make them gain a lot of weight. I always get hungry at night even when I ate a lot during dinner. And I can not wait until morning so I ate a lot even when it’s midnight, but I didn’t gain any weight. Do eating before really make you gain weight? or it is just a myth?

Most people who believe eating before bed will make them gain weight think that their body can’t burn those food fast enough so they will gain weight. In their mind, when they eat food during daytime, they will have plenty of time to do activities such as exercise to burn those food. But we don’t move a lot while we are sleeping, so the food will just stole in our body and become fat. This thesis seems very truth, but that is not how human body works. According to WebMD, weight gain is not based on a 24-hour clock. So you will not immateriality gain weight. the weight you gain is based on the total amount you take in over a period of time, then compare to the amount you burn in that period.

A healthy and active men should take in 2400 to 3000 calories a day, and for women, its 2000 to 2400. If your calories intake is more than that during the daytime, eating before bed will actually make you gain weight. But if you haven’t reach the point, you can eat before bed and every thing will be just normal, and it’s actually good for you. When you are building muscle you need to take in more calories. A meal before bed can help you with that if you can’t reach your calories target during the daytime. A study from Maastricht University find out that protein snacks before bed can help athletes with their muscle recovery. Healthy Eating

Although eating before bed will not make you gain weight in most situations, but we still need to stop eating about 1 hour before bed to allow digestion. Watch for your total calories intake can help you control your weight. If you have a healthy diet and enough exercise, then eating before bed will just make you stronger. Don’t be afraid to eat before bed again! US NEWS

Do you experience times when you have hard time to sleep? You just lay on the bad for hours and just can’t fall asleep. Now, we got phones, computers and all the other entertainments. We can play with those when can’t sleep, but they actually make us harder to sleep. People are getting less sleeping time, and more and more people start to have insomnia. The most direct way to fall asleep quickly is to take sleeping pills. So how do sleeping pills work? what side effect do they have?

The main propose of sleeping pills is to make people fall asleep, so they work on the brains. They depress the central nervous system and promote drowsiness in your brain. Depress the central nervous system results in  relaxation, less anxiety, slow reflex and breathing then sleepiness. So it actually do many things that help people go to sleep. articlesbase

Most sleeping pills should be prescribe by doctors, but there are some sleeping pills that are over-the -counter, so they can be bought without prescription. For example, sleeping pills that contain diphenhydramine. diphenhydramine was originally used to treat allergy symptoms, but it has the side effect of drowsiness. This kind of sleeping pills can help normal people that suffer infrequent insomnia, but if the person has insomnia for a long time, than this drug isn’t strong enough for them and won’t do much.

Prescribe sleeping pills such as Amnien and Sonata are the most common sleeping pills used by people. they contain the medicine called Gamma-aminobutyric acid (GABA). Human brains has GABA receptors, so these sleeping pills can deal with it to make us feel relax and sleepy. And by selecting the GABA sleeping pills, they can target certain GABA receptors to make it more precise and efficient. doctors believed that it is better for promoting sleep rather than just making people fall asleep. WebMD

Of course, If you are taking medicine, there will be side effects. Sleeping pills have many side effects that are well known. Such as feeling sleepy the next day, easy to forget some events and dizzy. After taking sleeping pills for a long period, your body will grow accustomed to drugs, so it takes more drugs to make you fall asleep. And when you stop taking the sleeping pills, it will be even harder for you to fall asleep than before taking drugs. There are reports about sleep walking after taking sleeping pills. And according to the study published in BMJ Open, there is a higher chance for people who take sleeping pills to get cancer and die than people who didn’t take them. Also, taking a lot of sleeping pills at a time will cause people to die. everydayhealth

Sleeping pills can really help many people when they have a hard time falling asleep, but we need to see a doctor before using them. Sleeping pills are good things when we use them properly, but having a good sleeping habits can truly benefit people for life.

According to Shrinkage, “Shrinkage is defined as a change in the dimensions of a fabric or garment.” And it can become either bigger or smaller. Most clothes are made of cotton, which made up of fibers. When you are washing clothes, the fibers that make up clothes are been pulled, stretched and twisted. The connection between two fibers can’t hold the force, so they either get closer or further. Most of the time, the connection between fibers get stressed, and they just get closer, then the clothes shrink. mental_floss

There are three kinds of shrinkage, felting, relaxation and consolidation. They are caused by different situations and fibers types. Felting happens when the clothes are made of animals fibers. There are scales along the surface of the animal fibers. When water and heat meet with the animals fibers, those scales will will compress together, cause the shrink. Relaxation is happen when fibers are placed in water or liquid. When fibers meet warm water, it will relax and absorb water. The change cause by relaxation is very small, less than 1%, so this is the best shrinkage you can get. Consolidation happen when water, heat and mechanical action meet together. The fibers had to release the stressed cause by those things, that force fibers to change form. This will change the size of the clothes the most.  Shrinkage

Here are some ways that can prevent shrinkage. When you buy the clothes, choose the clothes that label “preshrunk”, this means the clothes are already shrink, and they won’t shrink again. Although using cold and warm water won’t prevent clothes from shrinking,  it is still much better than using hot water. Read the labels on the clothes carefully, they will tell you how to take care the specific cloth. Air drying your clothes also prevent the shrinkage, when using dryer, select the lower heat that is more gentle to the clothes. Prevent shrinkage

Clothes are important to us, and we need to take care of them. some clothes are extremely expensive, we need to prevent them from shrinkage. There are many ways you can use to protect you clothes!

Sometimes we find out that it is hard for us to concentrate during studying. There are many reasons that can interrupt your study progress. Today, I am going to tell about the food that help you to focus during studying.

According to WebMD, ginseng, fish and berries are very good for your brain function. They can help with your memory and focus. they can also help you to maintain a healthy brain when you get older. Eating breakfast is really important to a person’s health and studying. the studies found out that breakfast may improve the short-term memory and attention. Coffee can make your feel more alerted, and more awake during studying. fruits are also great for studying, the sugar they contained also raise your alertness. They also give you energy and nutrients.

Leafy greens are good for your brain, according to Eating Well, a 2006 study shows that people who eat 2 or more serving of vegetables per day have mental focus of people 5 years younger than them. so it can maintains our brain functions. Some nuts also help your brain to perform better, such as walnuts. Walnuts look like brain and it contain a lot of essential fatty acids to help your brain performance (CampusTalkBlog).

It is very important for college students to study hard, and we need to make it right. A good studying habit is also required. Hope this information can help you with your study!

I used to hear the saying that apple wake you up better than coffee during the morning, and apple help you to stay awake better than coffee. I don’t know which one is true. But I know that there are many people that can’t get up in the morning without a cup of coffee, my mom is one of them. She would go to the coffee downstairs every morning. This is a habit for them. What I am going to study today is to find out which make you stay awake better, coffee or apple?

Coffee can make you feel more awake when you are tired, this is a common knowledge. According to The wannable scientists, there are about 95 milligrams of caffeine contained in a cup of coffee, and it will stimulate your nerves system to make you awake and clear. An apple contain about 100 calories of proteins and carbohydrates and nutrients your body need. There is no special elements in apple that will excited your nerves system and wake you up. But there are things that can keep your body going.

Coffee also contain antioxidant that is good for your health. According to LiveStrong, if you drink less than 6 cup of coffee a day, your risk of getting diabetes, hypertension and cardiovascular falls. And the chance of you getting a liver cancer is drop by half. Apple also antioxidant, it also have phytonutrients that is good for your body. They also say eating apple improve your breathing, and the risk of  asthma falls. It helps with your lung a lot and reduce the chance of getting lung cancer. Apple also has many other positive effects o human body. A apple a day keeps the doctor away.

If you drink coffee a lot, then you are not wake by the caffeine in the coffee. You are awake because your body are used to it when you drink coffee. If you just want to wake up, coffee is definitely your choose. But my suggestion is to take them both. They are all perfect for your morning!

Now, people lives become more busy and most of they people won’t spend much time on having a proper meals. So they have many different kind of vitamins and minerals they take everyday to reach with the daily nutrients intake. Many people are taking things they never heard of just because the bottle said that it is good for health. Some of them take 10 pills every morning. So the question is, do daily vitamins and minerals really work?

The vitamin pills do include vitamin in there, and those are what human body needed. But if you think just by taking those pills and you are going to get healthy, then you are completely wrong. On the bottle or the label, it always says vitamin and minerals supplements. That means it was only the support, the add on. So you still need to eat proper, eat the vegetables, fruits, and meats needed for your body. Pills can’t turn your unhealthy diet into healthy.

“a registered dietitian Karen Ansel said that “Food contains thousands of phytochemicals, fiber, and more that work together to promote good health that cannot be duplicated with a pill or a cocktail of supplements.” ” (WebMD)

The healthy meals is very important, it gives you most of your daily nutrients, that included vitamins, minerals, proteins and all the other stuffs your body need. When you had your meals, and your still find out that there is a nutrients gap, then you can take the vitamins and minerals supplements. Although they only help a little.  People are spending too much money on the nutrients they don’t need. They think they can use health to exchange with money first, then use money to buy health. But unfortunate, the world doesn’t play like that. The only way to get a healthy diet is to literary eat a healthy diet.  (ASA) (WebMD) Here is a website that contain a chart telling you what kind of people really need supplements. (MotherJones)

If you want your body to be healthy, stop buying those supplements that is useless to you. Spend the money on a good diet that contain nutrients you really need. Of course those vitamin and minerals supplements can always help you, but they are just filling the gap in your diet. If you have nothing at first, then supplements won’t really help!

Different places use different ways to dry their clothes. In Asia, most people dry their clothes under sun or in their house because they don’t have laundry dryer. When you look above the small street Singapore, you will see hundred of colorful clothes hanging orderliness.  In US, most of the people dry their clothes by laundry dryer. Each ways have it own reasons and benefits. How do we choose between hanging our clothes under sun and using a laundry dryer?

First, we are going to talk about the advantages of the laundry dryer. First and most important reason for most of the people to use a laundry dryer is convenience. We just need to throw in our clothes and come back in an hour and its done. We don’t need to go outside, hang our clothes, get them back when weather is bad, hang them back on, and get them back when its dry. We don’t need to worry about other’s seen our clothes and get it easily. And it can keep clean in the dryer, if there is air pollution, the clothes hanging outside will be dirty, too. According to about home, the clothes hanging outside will bring pollen and mold spores. So people who are sensitivity or allergy to those things will  troubled.

There are also many advantages of hanging clothes under sun. First, it does’t cost money. You don’t need to pay electricity bill for that. The clothes can also last longer hanging under the sun. Because it does’t rolling and stretch clothes like laundry dryer does. Clothes won’t shrink, too. And according to Washer/Dryer Comboz, sun is a “natural sanitizer”, so if you dry you clothes under sun, they will smell cleaner and fresher. Sun can bleaching the clothes, it can make white clothes whiter, but make other clothes color lighter, too. Sun can also disinfect your clothes. The UV light can damage the DNA of the bacteria and microorganism, it can kill or stop their reproduction (best drying rack). But all of the things above require you to live in a clean place.

Over all. drying clothes under sun or using laundry dry are because of the living habits. If you live in big cities, it is better to dry you clothes in laundry dryer to keep it clean and save your time. But if you went on vacation or live in a big, clean place. You should probably hang your clothes under sun to feel the nature!

We brush our teeth many times per day. It is very important for us to find our own way of brushing teeth in a right way because we don’t want to waste our time of brushing our teeth wrong. Manual toothbrushes have existed for a long time, and many people still use them now. Electric toothbrushes are still new, and it seems much more technological. So, how should we choose between manual toothbrush and electric toothbrush.

The main purpose of brushing teeth is to keep it clean and remove wastes. According to Jefferson Dental Clinics, it is possible to keep the teeth at grade A+ level with a manual toothbrush. It requires using proper brushing technique and brush for 2 minutes. Using a electric toothbrush is much easier, and test shown that electric toothbrush dose a better job at cleaning the teeth and mouth.

There are 2 tests result both support electric toothbrush in cleaning the mouth. First one is a 3-mouth clinical investigation compare the manual and electric toothbrush in removing the plaque and gingivitis. The results shows that electric toothbrush reduces plaque for 15% and gingivitis for 16%, while manual reduces plaque for 8% and gingivitis for 12% (Europe PubMed Central). Second test was done by Cochrane, “Authors from the Cochrane Oral Health Group carried out this review of existing studies and the evidence is current up to 23 January 2014. It includes 56 studies published from 1964 to 2011 in which 5068 participants were randomized to receive either a powered toothbrush or a manual toothbrush.” (Cochrane). Compare to manual toothbrush, the result show that at one to three month, electric toothbrush has an 11 % reduction in plaque and 6% in gingivitis. After three month, electric toothbrush has an 21% of reduction in plaque and 11% in gingivitis. According to these test, electric toothbrush is better at cleaning and removing plaque and gingivitis than manual toothbrush.

But not everyone is suitable of using electric toothbrush. Manual toothbrush provide a variety of choose. From small  head to big head that suit different size of mouth. From soft bristles to hard bristles for different kind of teeth. Manual toothbrush also have many different kind of sculpts and colors. They don’t need to be charged before use and easier to carry. Compare to manual toothbrush, electric toothbrush is more heavy, and don’t have much choose. You also need to carry the charger when you travel.

Although both manual and electric toothbrush have their advantages and disadvantages. But electric toothbrushes are still better at cleaning the mouth and teeth. If you can get used to a electric toothbrush, it is still better to choose a electric toothbrush!

We use mouthwash in many situations. Before we go out and we are too lazy to brush our teeth, we will use mouthwash and it feels fresh in our mouth. Some may use mouthwash in daily life because it can kill bacteria and other microorganisms that cause bad breath and gum diseases. Because of the spicy and cool, feeling after using mouthwash, many people may think that it is very useful and efficiently. But is mouthwash really that good? Does mouthwash really work?

The main purpose for us to use mouthwash is to clean the mouth so we don’t get gum diseases that often. the most common diseases you can get in your mouth are plaque and gingivitis. There are mainly two kinds of mouthwash, alcohol and non-alcohol.  Alcohol is well known for killing bacteria and other microorganism. And according to The Atlantic, a number of test results show that mouthwash actually has an appreciable effect on plaque and gingivitis. In those test, a meta-analysis said that alcohol contained mouthwash reduce dental plaque by 13% to 56%, and a reduction in gingivitis between 14% and 36%. They also test the non-alcohol mouthwash, which reduce both disease by 15%.

Other main purpose of using mouthwash is to freshen the breath. This is why we have bad breath: “Bad breath comes from the mouth bacteria that cause dental plaque and release volatile sulfur compounds, which create a foul-smelling odor.” according to 1-800-DENTIST. Mouthwash only reduce the amount of the bacteria in our mouth or neutralize the compounds. so it is only temporary. If you have chronic bad breath, mouthwash won’t help. And there are 25% of American have chronic bad health. If you use alcohol contained mouthwash, if may worsen your breath because high levels of alcohol may drying out the mouth (Ask the Dentist).

Overall, mouthwash can really help you in some ways. But it is not something you want to depend on all the time. Brushing your teeth after every meal is the best way to help fight bad breath. And if you want to use mouthwash, choose the non-alcohol one. Teeth are very important to us, we need to take care of it!

People wash their hands all the time. Before eating, after eating, after toilet, some may even wash their hands every 15 minutes. Doctors suggest people to wash their hand to prevent bacteria and sickness. Now, more and more people start to use anti-bacterial soap or other anti-bacterial stuffs to further prevent sickness. They think this is way more effective than normal soap because it can kills 99% of the bacteria. So, is anti-bacterial soap really useful and do we need them?

Of course, anti-bacterial soap contains soap and anti-bacterial materials. This is how anti-bacterial soap works. Inside the soap, there are two kinds of molecule called  hydrophilic and hydrophobic. With these molecules, soap can decrease water’s surface tension and bind to dirt, oil and bacteria. Once it bind all those things, water can bring them away. So actually, normal soap can bring some bacteria away, too(Learn more).

Even the normal soap can bring away bacteria, then we assume that anti-bacterial soap can bring away more. But, there is no evidence that anti-bacterial soap is more power than simple soap and water. There is also test point out that, the antibacterial components need to stay on surface for 2 minutes in order to work. So most of the people only use the soap part of the anti-bacterial soap(Learn more.

Not all the bacteria are bad for us, there are some bacteria that help us defend the harmful bacterial. We all know that if we keep killing a kind of bacteria or virus, it will start to development resistant. It becomes super bacteria and human have to invent new things to go against it. So is anti-bacterial soap, if we keep using it, there is a chance that it helps the development of super bacteria(Learn more).

Is it really necessary to use the anti-bacterial soap? I don’t think so. Normal soap is as good as those and even cheaper. Of course, there are many places that need t o use anti-bacterial soap, such as hospital. But in daily life, a simple soap with water is more than enough for most of us.

We can do all kind of things while we are sleeping. We talk, we walk, we can even drive while sleep. But in my entire life, I never saw a person who sneeze while sleeping. It should be fun to sneeze while sleeping because it may wake you up. So can human sneeze while sleeping?

By definition, “A sneeze is a reflexive action usually produced by your body in response to an irritant in the nasal mucosa.”(Learn more). Every things have a trigger point, so is sneezing. People sneeze when the areas of your nasal cavity and sinuses are stimulated enough, such as when you are sick or you breath in bad stuff. Some people will sneeze when they see the bright light and for now, there are no explanations for that.

While you are sleeping, our mucous membranes will swell. This means it’s more sensitive and we can sneeze more easily. But because there isn’t much air flow while we are sleeping, there normally isn’t enough stimulate to cause sneeze. But there is still a possibility to sneeze(Learn more).

Because our brain wants us to get enough sleep very bad, so it does something that prevent us from sneezing while sleeping. When we are sleeping, we enter a status called REM atonia. Our brain will shutdown the release of certain neurotransmitters, so that the message won’t get to brain. Even if there is enough stimulate, our brain won’t know. If the brain doesn’t know, it can’t control us to sneeze. But there is always an exception, when there is too much stimulate. Our brain will wake us first and then sneeze(Learn more).

It turns out that, people don’t sneeze while sleeping, can they are unable to. That is a good thing for us, when we are having cold or allergy we can still sleep. I can’t image the life that we can sneeze day and night. Human’s body is a really smart and amazing thing, it has many ways to protect itself. Next time, if a person said he is  asleep sneeze, you will know he is lying.

All over US, you can find many public fountain that provide free drinking water for people. Many people may won’t care about the quality of water, I don’t care much, too. As long as water is colorless, I assume it’s clean. But do those public fountain drinking water really clean? Will it harms us or its harmless. should we keep drinking?

In Oregon, A 13-year-old student wanted to know if toilet would be cleaner than public fountain in school. He then swabbed both and test the result. It fond out that toilet was cleaner than public fountain (Learn more). But toilet is cleaner than many things such as keyboard, remote control and cell phones. This experiment done by a student maybe not very accurate, but it also suggests that school pay more attention on toilet than public fountain.

Another research was done in Denver with group supervised by a biology doctor. They tested the Public fountain in state capital, main library and buss terminal. These were places that would have a lot of people everyday. They found out that there were many environmental organisms that looks very bad, but they won’t harm people. And there are things that can harm people, they will grow at 37 degrees Celsius, which is body temperature. To most people, they can drink and get no harm. But for those who are on certain medication or have certain diseases, those are bad for you (Learn more) (Learn more).

Although the public fountain is dirty, but most of the  water in US is clean. Don’t touch the public fountain beside the bottom. Public fountain should be cleaned often to provide a safe environment. When you use the public fountain water, just let the water run for a few seconds and then drink. Drinking those water is always better than dehydration!

I am playing a game recently called “Metal Gear Solid”. In this game, you can knock down enemies and use balloon to extract them. That balloon can also lift trucks and containers. Of course the features in the game aren’t real, but how powerful are balloons? How big or how many balloons are needed in order to lift a person or even a truck.

Different types of balloons has different capacity. The most common balloons we see is helium balloon. Air weight 1 gram per liter, while helium weight 0.1785 per liter. Helium is much lighter than air so it float in the air (Learn more). A normal balloon has a diameter of 1 foot, that is not a very big balloon and it only lift up to 14 grams. Such as 4 sugar packets. If you want to lift your lunch that weight a pound, you will need a 3 foot diameter balloon. This is a chart given by MAKING SCIENCE FUN! show the capacity of helium balloon

Balloon            Volume        Lifting Power
Diameter (ft)  Cubic Ft          Pounds

1                           0.52               0.03
2                          4.19                 0.27
3                        14.13                 0.91
4                        33.51                 2.15
5                        65.45                4.19
6                       113.10                7.25
7                       179.61               11.51
8                      268.10              17.18
9                      381.73              24.46
10                    523.63              33.55
11                    696.95              44.65
12                    904.83              57.97
13                   1150.42              73.71
14                   1436.84             92.06
15                    1767.25            113.23
16                    2144.79           137.42
17                    2572.60          164.83
18                   3053.82          195.66

An average person weight about 136 pounds in the world, you will need a 16 foot diameter balloon. You don’t see a 16 foot diameter helium everyday, you may never saw it. If we try to use 1 diameter balloons to lift that person, we will need about 4500 balloons (Learn more). A normal balloon cost 8 cent, it costs you about 350 dollars to fly with balloons, and be sure to buy insurance before your trip.

Assume that we have a truck that want to fly, we need to find a balloon that suit it. The truck weight 15000 pounds, and we only want to use one balloon. base on HowStuffWork, the equation of balloon capacity is 4/3 x pi x r x r x r. so we need a 77 foot diameter balloon to lift a normal truck. Although a small balloon seems weak, but when it get larger and larger, balloons can be really powerful!

Sometimes when people are drunk, they will do crazy things. But when they are really really drunk, they can throw up. After they throw up, they feel much more sober. Some people think throwing up is good for them because it get rid of the alcohol in the body. Some may continue drinking after throw up. So, does throw up really good for us when we are drunk?

After you throw up, only the alcohol in your stomach will leave your body. Some alcohol already entered your blood and your liver, and they would not leave your body very soon (Learn more). But at least some alcohol already left your body, so your body don’t need to deal with as much alcohol as before.

Throwing up while sleeping can be very dangerous, some people can be very drunk and they pass out. If they lay down and face up, their vomit can choke and kill themselves. (Learn more) If there is nobody nearby to help you, then it’s very likely that you won’t realized and dead.

When you go to a party, you want to meet people and you want to impress them. If you throw up in front of them or even on them, it might be the worst  situation for you. But if you are really good, this can also be the big chance. Also, If you think you are sober after throwing up and keep drinking, there is a high possibility that you will get alcohol poisoning. It is very bad for your body and can also cause death. (Learn more)

Over all, Throwing up is a sigh of your body to tell you “it’s enough”. If you ignore the sign, there will be a serious consequence. Throwing up can be a good things if you really can’t control yourself, but for your own good, don’t let your body tell you when to stop!

Hi, my name is Hank and I am a freshman in Penn State. I come from Taiwan but I have lived in China for 12 years. I am in the college of liberal art and my major is sociology.  I think Penn State is a great school and I will have a great time here.

I choose this course because this course seems very interesting and it is for non-science students. I think SC 200 isn’t the normal science class, it talks about the science in our life, i think it suits me more than other science courses.

I am not planning to be a science major because I like other subject more than science. Although I like science, I don’t want to study it in college or work as scientist. But I think I will have a lot of fun in this class.

This is a photo I took this January in Harbin, China.

Here is something cool to know about, I hope you enjoy it!