How can this female snake reproduce without the help of a male? According to MDC herpetologist Jeff Briggler, the female yellow-bellied water snakes can reproduce without a mate through a process known as parthenogenesis. Parthenogenesis is a type of asexual reproduction “in which the offspring (babies) are produced by females without genetic contribution of a male.” But, snakes aren’t the only ones that use this process, incests, as well as some species of fish and birds are also capable of producing offspring through parthenogenesis.

Warren Booth, an evolutionary and population geneticist at North Carolina State University said female animals resort to parthenogenesis because they’re unable to find a suitable male to reproduce with.

Booth and Gordon Schuett, an evolutionary biologist and herpetologist, have investigated snake parthenogenesis for several years. Concluding that female snakes resort to parthenogenesis to conserve their eggs. Booth told Live Science in 2011 ” in other words, if they can’t find somebody good enough to fertilize their eggs for them, female snakes take matters into their own “hands,” rather than allowing their eggs to go to waste.”

How does parthenogenesis actually work?

For the female yellow-bellied water snakes to asexually reproduce they must carry out meiosis, cell division that creates four egg-progenitor cells each with half the number of chromosomes of the parent cell, one of which becomes the egg. The strange part about parthenogenesis is that after meiosis, instead of the females body reabsorbing the remaining three egg-progenitor cells, one of those cells behaves like a sperm cell and fertilizes the egg. Resulting in an embryo composed of genetic material only from the female.

According to Booth and Schuetts studies, in some cases females actually store sperm from old mates that they interacted with before they reached sexual maturity. Then, when they’re grown up and mature, they use the sperm to fertilize their own eggs. But, this isn’t parthenogenesis.

Study Results

This past September, a yellow-bellied water snake at the Missouri Department of Conservation’s (MDC) Cape Girardeau Conservation Nature Center that has been isolated from relations for eight years gave birth to a litter of baby snakes. This is the second year in a row that this female snake has gone through parthenogenesis. According to Booth and Schuett, the longest recorded time a female snake has stored sperm has been for five years. So, if their study is accurate, this female snake has set a new record by being able to store sperm for 8 years.

Missouri Department of Conservation’s is now teaming up with Booth and Schuett to analyze the geneticists of the DNA of the baby snakes to figure out if they have DNA from both a male and female snake, or if the female actually went through parthenogenesis.

Work Cited

http://www.livescience.com/52286-water-snake-virgin-birth.html

http://www.livescience.com/52489-meiosis.html

I know I’m not the only one that has gotten an ice cream cone on a hot summer day and regretted not getting a cup two seconds later when it’s melting and running down my arms. But, no worries, scientists may have found a solution to our problem!

Slow Melting Ice Cream!

Researchers from two universities in the United Kingdom named Edinburgh and Dundee discovered that a protein called BsIA can be used to solve our drippy ice-cream dilemma. Bovine serum albumin (BsIA), is a protein found in biofilm thats derived from cows. BsIA can be used as an ingredient to keep everything combined in ice cream making it smoother and allowing it to melt at a slower rate.

Why would we use BsIA?

Biofilm is defined as groups of microorganisms in which cells stick to each other on a surface.”The outer surface of biofilm creates structural stability from a collection of molecules secreted by cells, known as the extracellular matrix. Matrix consists of proteins, polysaccharides and extracellular DNA.” The researchers from the UK said that “BsIA is the protein responsible for creating a hydrophobic coat on the outer surface of the biofilm, which means that it creates an outer layer that repels water like a raincoat.” But, oddly enough because of this “raincoat” feature of BsIA, it allows two substances that would typically repel, to mix. For example, water and oil. It’s this unique binding abilities that make BsIA the perfect alternative of the typical stabilizers used to make ice cream today.

Cait MacPhee, a professor at the University of Edinburgh, told Live Science that, “In ice cream, the important interfaces are between fat/oil and water (which really don’t want to mix), air bubbles and water (the bubbles that want to pop, or the air wants to escape) and the surface of ice crystals,” and, “adding our proteins stabilises all of these, and the combined effect is to slow down the melting.”

This study was published on April 28, 2015 and is still testing its findings. Even though, the UK researchers haven’t actually tasted the BsIA laced ice cream they created some in the lab and according Professor McPhee “have every reason to believe that the texture and firmness are identical to normal ice cream.”

Work Cited

http://www.colgateprofessional.com/patient-education/articles/what-is-biofilm

http://www.bbc.com/news/uk-34104545

Howler Monkeys

Howler Monekys are found in tropical Central and South America. Their name comes from the loud cries they use to send messages to other monkeys that this territory is already occupied. Howlers are omnivores that have an average live span of 15 to 20 years, growing to be about 22-36 inches and weighing anywhere from 5 to 22 pounds.

Deep calls or Small Balls?

Studies have shown that the smaller a Howlers testes are, the larger their hyoid bone is. A monkey’s hyoid bone is the structure allows them to create that deep, booming call they’re known for. According to a new study published just a few days ago in the journal of Current Biology, “the relative sizes of the hyoid bones and testes appear to be related to how the animal lives and reproduces.” For example, the scientists found that male Howler monkeys that live in groups multiple other males tend to inherit larger testes. Unlike the single male Howlers that live amongst a group of females who invest in booming, strong calls.

Charles Darwin, even suggested that the male Howlers used their cries  to attract females. Concluding that the females would choose their mates based on the depth of these calls.  This theory was studied years later by an anthropologist named Leslie Knapp and her colleagues at the University of Utah where they discovered that male howlers hyoid bones are about five times larger than those found in the females. Which implies that Darwin’s proposition that Howlers calls play a reproductive role was accurate.

Discovery

Knapp and her fellow researchers also measured 10 different species of monkeys hyoid bones across Mexico and Central America. Knapp told Live Science that “the hyoids and testes varied widely across species: The species with the largest hyoids had bones 10 times larger than those with the smallest. And the largest testes were about seven times larger than the smallest testes.” But, specifically among Howlers, the researchers said that these monkeys were either found to have large testes and smaller hyoids or smaller testes and larger testes which was linked to social structure. For example, it was discovered that male monkeys that were mating with multiple females were found to have larger hyoids and smaller testes. Meanwhile, the monkeys living in groups with numerous males and females all mating together were found to have larger testes and smaller hyoids.

This could be explained by Darwin’s theory that Howlers use their call to attract more mates or scare off other males from taking their females. “Resulting in a lower sperm load because they compete for females before the actual mating act” said Knapp.

On the other hand, for the male Howlers living in groups, they have a much greater volume of sperm because their goal is to impregnate a female monkey that they’ve mated with multiple times. It’s probably impossible for howler monkeys to evolve both a large hyoid and large testes, Knapp said.

Does this also apply to humans, after all we are long distant cousins? According to researchers from University College London men with deeper voices are considered more attractive by women than men with higher-pitched voices. Their study consisted of  32 participants, and concluded that  “high-pitched female voices females were found to be attractive because they indicated the speaker had a small body and deep male voices were judged as more attractive because they conveyed that the speaker had a large frame.”

So what do you think? Is this just another similarity between humans and monkeys we haven’t discovered yet?

Work Cited

http://animals.nationalgeographic.com/animals/mammals/howler-monkey/

http://www.livescience.com/52560-monkeys-with-deeper-calls-smaller-testes.html

http://www.smithsonianmag.com/science-nature/why-women-like-deep-voices-and-men-prefer-high-ones-41492244/

Annually, 150,000 people around the world join the waiting list for an organ transplant but half of them die before they can get one.

Why are there Organ Shortages?

Only a very small number of people die in a way that allowed their organs to be suitable for transplantation. Such as in the hospital, in an intensive care unit, following a road accident or a stroke. Or some people haven’t made it clear that they want to become an organ donor when they die, and relatives may be too distraught to give the doctors permission.

Xenotransplantation

Xenotransplantation is the process of transplanting organs or tissues between members of different species.The transplant can be carried out between concordant species , which are closely related and have a lot of the same genes. Or it can be carried out between discordant species that aren’t closely related, therefore having few genes in common. Transplants carried out between discordant species result in more violently rejected transplanted organs. This is because all animals have ‘flags’ on their cells that tell what species they are.

Why are transplanted organs rejected?

Majority of people with transplanted organs suffer from rejection, even if they’re from the same species. Rejection happens because the recipient’s immune system realizes that the new organ is not its own. Thats why transplant patients must take anti-rejection drugs. On the other hand if the organ being donated comes from a different species it is rejected quiet quickly in a process called hyper acute rejection. “In hyper acute rejection pre-programmed antibodies in the recipient’s bloodstream target the xenoantigens, “the flags”,  all over the transplanted organ and trigger a destructive chain reaction. The blood supply to the transplanted organ is blocked, cells die, and the organ stops working.”

 Ways we’ve tried to prevent hyperacute rejection of xenotransplants?

In 1992, British scientists successfully breeder a pig with human “flags” on its cells in hopes to prevent hyper acute rejection of xenortansplants. “The scientists did this by putting DNA for the human flags into the pig embryos then put them into the wombs of surrogate sows. They had to do it multiple times before they were finally successful in creating a ‘transgenic’ pig with a DNA  0.000001% more human than other pigs.”

Dilemma 

But, this still didn’t get rid of the rejection problems for xenotransplant because when monkeys were given these “transgenic” pig organs the longest they survived was only a few months. Many people asked why the British scientists didn’t transplant the “transgenic” organs into humans, because after all they did have human “flags” now. And the answer was because it was unethical and “they were worried that the pig organs could carry potentially dangerous pig viruses into their human recipients, such as PERVs.” In 1997, British scientists discovered PERVs, Porcine Endogenous Retroviruses, could infect humans, and even though they didn’t have any evidence proving that, they didn’t want to risk spreading the disease. For example, “every species has its own type of endogenous retrovirus which is harmless to the species it lives in.”

We currently use pigs insulin to treat diabetes, and their heart valves to replace diseased human valves. To this day, the closest we’ve gotten to actually using “transgenic” pig organs for human transplants was when the livers of transgenic pigs were used to keep two patients alive in the USA while doctors searched desperately to replace them with human organs. “The two patients – one of them Robert Pennington – were connected to transgenic pig livers on trolleys at their bedside. The pig livers took over the work of their own failed livers, cleaning their blood and keeping them alive. Both procedures were successful and the two patients are alive and well after human livers were found for them and transplanted. ( this was all done before scientists discovered that PERVs could infect humans)”

The Big Step Forward

Until, the landmark study by George Church and his team at the Wyss Institute for Biologically Inspired Engineering at Harvard University and Harvard Medical School where they used the gene editing system known as “CRISPR–Cas9” to genetically engineer pig DNA in 62 locations. “By using CRISPR–Cas9 like a pair of molecular scissors Church and his team have inactivated all 62 repetitive genes containing a PERV in pig DNA, surpassing a significant obstacle on the path to bringing xenotransplantation to clinical reality.”

Work Cited

http://wyss.harvard.edu/viewpressrelease/222

http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/shows/organfarm/etc/faqs.html

What is sunscreen and why do we use it?

The first sunscreen was invented in 1938 by an Austrian scientist named Franz Greiter. Sunscreen was created to protect the skin against ultraviolet radiation from the suns UV-A and UV-B rays, which is the the leading cause of skin cancer. Also known as SPF, Sun Protection Factor, which measures how well the sunscreen is at preventing UVB from damaging the skin. UV-A rays seep deep into the skin and increase reactive oxygen species that can damage the DNA. Meanwhile, UV-B rays only effects the outer most layer of the skin that increases direct photochemical damage to DNA, which mutates genes causing wrinkles and aging of skin.

Sunscreen combines multiple ingredients that help prevent sun’s ultraviolet radiation from penetrating the skin. There are two kinds of active ingredients in sunscreen, mineral and chemical filters. Chemical filters include: oxybenzone, avobenzone, octisalate, octocrylene, homosalate and octinoxate. Mineral sunscreens use zinc oxide and/or titanium dioxide.

Effects of Sunscreen on the Human Body

To explain the chart above,

In two European studies by Margaret Schlumpf of  the University of Zurich in 2008 and 2010 she found sunscreen chemicals in mothers’ breastmilk, potentially exposing the fetus. In Schlumpf’s 2010 study she discovered that 85 percent of the milk samples she collected contained at least one sunscreen chemical.

In 2008 the Federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention tested a sample of more than 2,500 Americans and found that more than 96 percent of them contained traces of Oxybenzone. The researchers noticed that their participants had a significantly higher concentrations of Oxybenzone in their bodies during the summer which led them to concluded that the application of sunscreen was the cause.

But according to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) not only is sunscreen a danager to humans it has also been reporter to be destroying our coral reefs.

The NOAA said that” this is the third time in history, the world is in the midst of a global coral bleaching event.” When scientists conducted studies in Hawaii and the U.S. Virgin Islands they discovered that oxybenzone was extremely harmful to the coral reefs. According to The Washington Post a very small amount of oxybenzone is needed to harm the coral in fact they said there only needs to be “the equivalent of a drop of water in a half-dozen Olympic-sized swimming pools” to cause sufficient harm. Lead researcher Craig Downs said that from approximately 14,000 tons of sunscreen ending up in the coral reef each year 80 percent of the coral reef has been destroyed!

What can we do to stop this?

Coral reef animals and plants have been a gold mine for finding new cures and medicine in the 21st century. So, the U.S. National Park Service strongly encourages us to use “reef-friendly” sunscreen that doesn’t contain oxybenzone to help preserve our coral reef.

Work Cited

http://www.huffingtonpost.ca/dr-mike-hart/does-sunscreen-cause-cancer_b_3280578.html

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/sunscreen-coral-reefs_56274317e4b08589ef49bf67?utm_hp_ref=science&ir=Science&section=science

http://www.cdc.gov

http://www.doctoroz.com/article/your-sunscreen-might-be-poisoning-you

http://www.skincancer.org/prevention/sun-protection/sunscreen/sunscreens-explained

http://www.ewg.org/2015sunscreen/report/the-trouble-with-sunscreen-chemicals/

http://www.sun-protection-and-products-guide.com/who-invented-sunscreen.html

WHAT IS HIV

HIV stands for the Human Immunodeficiency Virus. Once someone is infected with HIV the virus targets one of the main components of our immune systems, our T-cells (CD-4). HIV binds with the surfaces of the T-cells and releases an enzyme into the nucleus of the T-cells, managing to fuse its own RNA with the T-cell’s DNA. This compromised cell starts replicating and detaches from its infected cell, going around the body infecting other T-cells in a likewise fashion. With this lack of healthy T-cells the immune system is greatly weakened and when the T-cell count falls below 200,000/ml of blood a person is said to have developed AIDS.

There are two types of HIV: HIV-1 and HIV-2.

Both HIV-1 and HIV-2 are transmitted the same way. For example, HIV is transmitted by sexual activity involving semen, vaginal fluids or blood, direct blood contact (“particularly through sharing injection drug needles “), accidents in health care settings with blood transfusions (extremely rare in the United States), and mother to baby (“before or during birth, or through breast milk”). But, HIV cannot be transmitted through saliva, tears, sweat, feces or urine.

Differences:

“HIV-1 is further classified into four groups: M (the major group), N, O (the outlier group), and P. More than 90 percent of HIV-1 cases involve HIV-1 group M. Within group M lie 10 separate subtypes: A, B, C, D, F, G, H, J, and K. Also included are CRFs (circulating recombinant forms) which are essentially hybrid subtypes formed from a mixture of two subtypes; think of them as sub-subtypes.”

WHERE DID IT COME FROM

Scientists conclude that the source of the HIV infection in humans originated from a type of West African chimpanzee. “They believe that the chimpanzee version of the immunodeficiency virus called Simian Immunodeficiency Virus, SIV, was most likely transmitted to humans and mutated into HIV.” According to a discovery by a group of researchers from the University of Alabama in 1999, they had found a type of SIVcpz that was almost identical to HIV-1. The SIV strain used was said to be from a frozen sample from a “sub-group of chimpanzees known as Pan troglodytes troglodytes ( P. t. troglodytes), which were once common in west-central Africa.The researchers, led by Paul Sharp of Nottingham University and Beatrice Hahn of the University of Alabama, made the discovery during the course of a 10-year long study into the origins of the virus. They claimed that this sample proved that chimpanzees were the source of HIV-1, and that wild chimps had been infected simultaneously with two different SIV which had “viral sex” to form a third virus that could be passed on to other chimps and, more significantly, was capable of infecting humans and causing AIDS.”

STAGES OF HIV

Acute infection: Within the first two to four weeks after being infected with HIV, you may start to feel flu-like symptoms also known as Acute Retroviral Syndrome (ARS). During this period, large amounts of HIV are being produced in your body, which also means since the amount of the virus in the blood is so high you’re extremely contagious. But, eventually your immune response will tame the virus in your body bringing it back down to a stable level, allowing your T-cell count to replenish, but not returning to pre-infection levels.  Its also very  important to add, not everyone develops ARS, some people don’t not even show symptoms.

Clinical latency (inactivity or dormancy): During this phase, HIV is still active, but reproduces at very low levels. Most people are on antiretroviral therapy (ART), the combination of several antiretroviral medicines that slow the rate at which HIV multiplies, during this stage. Toward the end of this period, your T-cell count will begin to drop resulting in HIV infection. Leaving your immune system too weak to protect you, resulting in AIDS.

• “Untreated HIV is almost universally fatal because it eventually overwhelms the immune system—resulting in acquired immunodeficiency syndrome (AIDS).”

AIDS

This is the stage of infection that occurs when HIV destroys your immune system. When the T-cell count falls below 200,000/ml of blood a person is said to have developed AIDS. But, you can also be diagnosed with AIDS regardless of your T-cell count, if you develop one or more opportunistic illnesses such as bacterial pneumonia, candidiasis and cryptococcosis. If not treated people with AIDS only typically survive about 3 years.

HOW TO TELL IF YOU HAVE HIV
The most common HIV test is the HIV screening test that checks for HIV antibodies in blood, urine, or fluids from the mouth. There are also two at-home HIV testing kits available in most drugstores. “One involves pricking your finger for a blood sample, sending the sample to a laboratory, then phoning in for results. The other involves getting a swab of fluid from your mouth, using the kit to test it, and reading the results in 20 minutes.”

TREATMENTS

Theres are no known treatments for HIV/AIDS, only things that prolong the life expectancy of those infected. Such as Antiretroviral therapy (ART) that can dramatically prolong the lives of many people infected with HIV and lower their chance of infecting others.

PROTIEN BREAKTROUGH

“A team of scientists under the leadership of VRC Director John R. Mascola, M.D.; former VRC Director Gary J. Nabel, M.D., Ph.D.; and Richard A. Koup, M.D., VRC deputy director and chief of its immunology laboratory, at the Vaccine Research Center (VRC) of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases”, section of NIH engineered a protein called VRC07-αCD3 in the lab that awakens and destroy resting T-cells infected with HIV. For example, when a person stops taking their anti-HIV drugs this protein could possibly destroy the dormant HIV infected cells that are still in the body. But, further studies are needed to prove this.

“The NIH scientists found a monkey-adapted version of the protein to be safe and well-tolerated when given to monkeys infected with a similar form of HIV and receiving antiretroviral therapy. The researchers are now studying the effectiveness of monkey-adapted VRC07-αCD3 in the animals.”

According the NIH scientists VRC07-αCD3 destroys the of dormant HIV- infected cells in three steps. First, the CD3 end links to a latent, HIV-infected T-cell. Which activates the cell causing it produce HIV, displaying pieces of the virus on its surface. “Next, the HIV end of the protein attaches onto those pieces of virus and the CD3 end attaches to a killer T-cell, awakening it and dragging it towards the helper T cell. Finally, the activated killer T-cell destroys the HIV-infected helper T cell.”

Have scientists finally created a cure for HIV?!

Before reading I want everyone to answer this question: How similar do you think identical twins separated at birth could grow up to be just from their genetics? If you answered, “depends where they were raised and whom they were raised by” you are wrong.

At the University of Minnesota a team of researchers led by Thomas Bouchard, conducted multiple studies over the course of twenty years on 137 pairs of twins to answer this question. Their studies consisted of 81 pairs of identical twins (twins who developed from one egg that split in two), and 56 pairs of fraternal twins (twins who developed from two eggs fertilized by two different sperm). As a result of the Minnesota study more than 170 individual studies have been conducted focusing on the different medical and psychological characteristics of twins. In these studies for identical twins they found that happiness and well-being had a 50 percent genetic influence, dental and gum health had strong genetic influence, similar correlations between genetics and IQ, and they found that genetics had a stronger influence on sexual orientation in male twins than in female twins (According to a study of 4,000 pairs of twins in Sweden). Another thing I found really interesting that they discovered was that when studying photos of the twins, they saw that identical twins would stand the same way, meanwhile fraternal twins would stand different.

At the end of all of these studies when researchers finally reunited the twins they conducted yet another study, surveying twins about how close they felt to their “newfound” sibling. 80 percent of the identical twins surveyed said they felt closer with their newfound twin than they did to their best friends! Which “suggests a strong genetic component in the bond between identical twins.”

“The Minnesota studies gave scientists a new understanding of the role of genes and environment on human development, Segal said.“ The scientists performed observational studies on the 137 pairs of twins and found evidence that suggests that certain traits such as IQ, sexual orientation and well-being are mainly hereditary factors. I can’t think of any other way of performing this study without it being unethical.

I couldn’t believe all of these similarities were caused simply by genetics so I did a little more research and found the Jim Twins, who were actually part of this study. They had bizarre similarities. For example, they drove the same kind of car, both married twice, had dogs with the same name and had the same favorite beer.. just to name a few. Its so interesting to see a real life example of this study and how similar the twins actually end up being with out ever meeting! I suggest everyone follow the link over to their page and read about the Jim twins. You’ll be mind-blown about what genetics can cause!

How would you guys feel if you found out that you had an identical twin that liked all the same things you did?

Fun fact: “One pair of female twins in the study were separated from each other at 5 months old, and weren’t reunited until age 78, making them the world’s longest separated pair in Guinness World Records.”

Work Cited:

http://www.livescience.com/47288-twin-study-importance-of-genetics.html

http://www.guinnessworldrecords.com/world-records/longest-separated-twins

Pet ownership has nearly tripled since 1970. With more than 62% of American households being homes to at least one pet. What’s changed over the past few decades that’s made pets so popular? Is it their companionship, and entertainment? For some people yes. But, recently scientists have been able to run tests showing growing evidence that owning pets can in fact help protect against stress.

Who would’ve ever thought your pet could save you the head ache instead of causing it! “The State University of New York at Buffalo conducted a simple but ingenious study showing that pets can be more supportive in times of stress than friends or spouses. The study involved 240 married couples, half of which owned a cat or dog. Couples without pets had higher blood pressure and heart rates, a strong sign that they were feeling more stress than the pet owners. The subjects had to perform two tasks: Doing difficult math problems in their heads and putting their hands in ice water for two minutes. Some were alone, and some had company: either a spouse, a friend, or a pet. As reported in the Journal of Psychosomatic Medicine, subjects had higher blood pressure and heart rates when a spouse or friend was in the room. However, in the presence of a pet, blood pressure and heart rates went down. People who didn’t own pets had, on average, higher heart and blood pressure rates than people with pets.”

How can your dog be more helpful and supportive than your best friend and spouse when they can’t even talk?! Maybe that’s just the reason. “Spouses and friends try to be supportive, but few can match the nonjudgmental loyalty of a pet,” according to the researchers.

Anyone with a pet can verify this claim that pets relieve stress. Just think about it, how angry can you really get when you’re looking at those puppy dog eyes?  I think this experiment does a great job at supporting the hypothesis. It compares pet owners and non-pet owners, makes them complete tasks that cause stress and compare the outcomes.

Did you guys know that colleges all across America have been welcoming Pet Therapy during the finals weeks to help with stress. So, if you guys are feeling overwhelmed and stressed out during testing go stop by the Student Health Center right here at Penn State and play with some puppies!!

I know I’m not the only one that has found themselves walking into people, poles and down flights of stairs as a result of texting. Texting has become a major part of our daily lives. On the news all we hear about is the fatal accidents caused from texting and driving but we still do it. We just can’t seem to put the phones down! Are we addicted? Is it even possible to be addicted to texting?

According to psychiatrist, Dr. Gary Small’s Nero-imaging study, texting and heroin stimulate the brain in the same primitive part of the brain called the dopamine system. So let me get this straight… are SCIENTISTS saying texting is as addictive as heroin?! One student even agreed by saying “I think that it’s just like a drug, once you get hooked on to it, you can’t let go. It’s like whenever I open my eyes the first thing I look at is my phone.” Some signs that you may have a texting addiction include: “losing track of time because of excessive texting, neglecting eating and sleeping, having a constant need for more, and suffering negative repercussions, and like ignoring others or lying because of texting.”

Research has shown that Dopamine is the “wanting system” in the brain that propels us to action. It induces a loop that starts with seeking, and then gets rewarded which makes us seek more. Making it harder for us stop, always checking our phones for new texts and messages. The dopamine system also directs us to move. When we pick up our phones more dopamine gets released, in turn strengthening our motor circuit making it more likely we’ll take that same action again. Dopamine is triggered when something unexpected occurs. For example, when we get a text our dopamine system gets excited thinking; when will the next one come? , who will it be from?, what will it say? Texting is the brains latest drug on the street.

There have been no actual studies conducted to prove this hypothesis. Scientists could run a random experiment by randomly assigning participants to one of two groups: a control group and a variable group. In the variable group the scientists could take away their cell phones for a certain period of time and record the effects. If those without cellphones experience withdrawal like symptoms (anxiety, depression, irritability etc.) id say its safe to conclude that the study was consistent with the theory that texting is addictive.

I definitely think texting is addictive. Once I researched this topic it all made sense as to why every time I get a text I cant resist opening it. Its because I may have myself a slight texting addiction. Just look at the effects on the dopamine part of the brain as a result of texting. If that doesn’t scream addiction I don’t know what does. I wish there were more studies to show evidence that texting is addictive but I guess since its such a new thing to us we’ll just have to wait and see!

Work Cited:

http://growingleaders.com/blog/is-texting-addictive/

http://patch.com/connecticut/newcanaan/texting-a-dangerous-addiction

http://elitedaily.com/life/culture/receiving-text-message-like-orgasm/845037/

http://www.baylor.edu/mediacommunications/news.php?action=story&story=145864

Are you ready to risk it all for Americas favorite sport? Concussions due to football have become increasingly more prevalent and are proven to cause extreme long-term brain damage! We all knew concussions were bad for us, but how truly detrimental are they?

The National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health recently conducted a study showing that professional football players are at a much high risk of dying from Alzheimer’s, ALS, and other diseases caused by brain cell damage than the rest of the general population. For their study they gathered data on “3,439 ex-professional football players, an average age of 57, that all had played at least five seasons between the years 1959 and 1988 for the National Football League.” They searched through the 3,439 men’s death certificates, keeping an eye out for deaths caused by ALS, Parkinson’s disease and Alzheimer’s disease. During the course of the study, 10% of the men passed away. Leaving the scientists to conclude that football players; “have triple the risk of death caused by diseases that destroy or damage brain cells compared to other people, they are four times more likely of dying from ALS or Alzheimer’s disease, but they have about the same risk of death from Parkinson’s disease as the rest of the population.

As a result of this study some may ask, “Does the position they play affect their chances of developing these diseases?” The answer is yes. After the initial study, Everett J. Lehman, MS, and his team set out to find out whether the positions football player plays impacted their risk of developing one of these brain damaging disease. So, they divided a team into two different groups: the speed group and the non-speed group. The speed group consisted of the non-line positions such as the fullbacks, running backs, quarterbacks, halfbacks, wide receivers, tight ends, defensive backs, safeties and linebackers. Meanwhile, the non-speed group was made up of those positions on the line, such as the defensive and offensive linemen. From their study they discovered that football players with positions not on the line (in the speed group) were more than three times as likely to die from a neurodegenerative cause, a disease with a progressive loss of function or structure of neurons, than a player on the line. 62% of the players in the initial study in speed positions!

Everett J. Lehman said’ “These results are consistent with recent studies that suggest an increased risk of neurodegenerative disease among football players. Although our study looked at causes of death from Alzheimer’s disease and ALS as shown on death certificates, research now suggests that chronic traumatic encephalopathy (CTE) may have been the true primary or secondary factor in some of these deaths. A brain autopsy is necessary to diagnose CTE and distinguish it from Alzheimer’s or ALS. While CTE is a separate diagnosis, the symptoms are often similar to those found in Alzheimer’s, Parkinson’s and ALS, and can occur as the result of multiple concussions.”

Which is why all we’ve been hearing about on the news and on ESPN is how the NFL has been expanding its rules to prevent “defenseless” players from taking hits above their shoulders (now a penalty if a players head dips), and how they’ve been constantly improving helmet designs to try and help protect against concussions.

This study’s conclusion is only based on 343 men’s deaths due to these brain diseases out of 3439. I don’t know about you guys but since this study is a few decades old and the equipment and protective gear has improved since then. I would like to see them conduct a more recent study to see if professional football players are still three times as likely to die from a neurodegenerative causes as they were back then. Also, I don’t think the death of 343 men is an accurate representation of the whole NFL/ professional football players.

Is it really worth it to go pro?

Work Cited:

https://www.washingtonpost.com/lifestyle/wellness/history-behind-an-apple-a-day/2013/09/24/aac3e79c-1f0e-11e3-94a2-6c66b668ea55_story.htmlhttp://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/249912.phphttp://breakingmuscle.com/health-medicine/pro-football-players-have-4-times-greater-risk-of-als-and-alzheimers

Blondes have been the butt of our jokes for decades for their supposed lack of
intelligence. But now those with darker hair color can take some of the heat
because scientists have finally disproved the “dumb blonde” stereotype.
A recent study from the Stanford University has been able to prove that hair
color and intelligence have absolutely no relation. Scientists have been trying
to figure out what causes blonde hair for years. It turns out blondeness comes
from a switch of one single letter, A (adenine) to G (guanine) on chromosome
number 12 of the genetic code. The interesting part is that “the switch
isn’t in the hair color gene itself; it’s in the gene that controls how the
hair color gene works.”
But, even though letters of the genetic code are being changed the team of
Stanford scientists said that this genetic change is so specific that it only
affects the color of the hair follicle and nothing else, not even the brain
cells. Crushing the theory that blondes are less intelligent than those with
other hair colors. 
	Lead researcher Professor David Kingsley and his team decided that since mice
have very similar gene compositions as humans do that they were going to use
them to conduct their research. During their experiments they found that a
mouse’s hair color came out blonde or brunette based on whether a specific
gene was switched “on” or “off”. “This is a good example of how
fine-tuned regulatory differences may be to produce different traits. The
genetic mechanism that controls blond hair doesn’t alter the biology of any
other part of the body. It’s a good example of a trait that’s skin deep —
and only skin deep,” said Kingsley in a press release.
But, this still doesn’t explain why we thought blondes were so dumb in the
first place. In a study conducted in 2004, “blonde women were shown to become
dumber when subjected to negative prejudices toward blondes.” Jens Foerster,
a social psychologist from the International University Bremen in Germany said,
“after exposure to negative social-stereotypes about them, the fair-haired
participants performed significantly more slowly in the tests." This goes for
any stereotype, when people are constantly told they are something, they start
to subconsciously become it. For example, when blondes are told they can't
perform a task well, they’ll work slower to try to make fewer mistakes. 
 
	Unfortunately, since there has been no human IQ comparison testing between
blondes and brunettes we have no concrete data that blondes are in fact any
less intellectual than women with other hair colors. If scientists really
wanted to conduct an experiment they could random select blonde and brunette
participants and separate them into a blonde group and a brunette group. Then,
make them all take some generic SAT/ACT type test and look at the average
scores from the blonde vs. the brunette’s tests and compare the data
accordingly. Obviously, taking into account potential third variables such as
socioeconomic standing, race and parents education.

I personally think the data above proves that hair color is truly only skin
deep and blondes being less intellectual is only a stereotype that we really
don’t even need a test to prove. Think about it, majority of the girls you
see don’t even have their natural hair color any ways so how would you know
if the “dumb blonde” you’re talking to isn’t really a brunette?!

What do you guys think? 





Work Cited:

http://www.bustle.com/articles/26533-are-blondes-really-dumb-science-says-no-stupid

http://www.forbes.com/sites/alicegwalton/2014/06/02/science-shatters-the-blondes-are-dumb-stereotype/

Hi everyone! My name is Hailey and I’m from Westchester, New York, which is about 35 minutes from New York City. I am a freshman here at Penn State and Im currently enrolled in the Division of Understudies. Some of you are going to find this crazy because Penn State was always your first choice but I had the hardest time picking a school because I had no clue where I wanted to go. Then, in the middle of June I had a change of heart, so I called the PSU admissions office to see if I could still apply and they miraculously said yes. So, here I am! I plan on studying international business/ entrepreneurship and finance so when I graduate can start my own general contracting company. Sorry Andrew, my high school chemistry class really ruined the world of science for me.

But, the reason I chose to take this class was because when I was sitting with my advisor looking though all the boring mandatory general education classes he said that SC200 is always very highly recommended and that the teacher has an awesome accent so I how could I pass that up!