So as someone who struggled with severe acne and was medicated heavily for it, I always wanted another treatment. I tried medicine after medicine, whether it be topical creams to antibiotics, I finally broke down and took this awful medicine called Accutane. This medicine has so many side affects to the body whether it be constant chapped lips and dry skin to severe depression, so naturally I wanted another way to ease this process in order to not have to take the medicine.

One day my grandmother was talking to me on the phone and said that she suffered from the same issue when she was a child and needed a cure for the issue since they didn’t have the medicine that we have today back then. She told me that she used to wipe her face with rubbing alcohol to dry it out (which makes total sense), but then she told me she used to put honey on her face! This caught me completely off guard and so I looked into it to see if that was an old wives tale or if this was something that could actually work.

It turns out that the natural properties in honey are extremely beneficial to the human skin and can help to take away pimples. It acts as a natural antibiotic to help your skin eliminate existing pimples, then has many other traits to help keep pimples from coming back. To help prevent acne from coming back, honey has a natural osmotic effect that pulls out the toxins that cause acne to be severe. It also has many natural acids which help to prevent bacterial growth on the skin, and thus help to prevent the bacteria from penetrating the pores to cause infections that cause acne. Most of these causes are due to the fact that honey is a food that is naturally high in hydrogen peroxide, and this a crucial ingredient in most every topical cream that is used to eliminate acne.

Recently Penn State started a partial implementation of a cyber security called two factor authentication. This is unique from anything that Penn State has tried when it comes to cyber security, because it causes those who are already enrolled to have to authenticate that it is truly them who is signing into that account.

This is special because the science behind this has allowed for large companies such as Target and Amazon to keep their information for customers more secure upon the customers request. This is done through an algorithm that is run through the authentication system, and requires a generated code to finish the algorithm. To receive a code the person either needs an interactive token which in its simplest form is a key chain attachment that spits out a code at the touch of a button, or a cell phone/smart phone. By using a cell phone a code can be texted to the person so that they can manually input the code. The use of a smart phone allows for the person to download applications that sync up to certain accounts, much like Penn State Webaccess, that allow for persons to authenticate their account with just the touch of one button.

This is a huge step in cyber security because it helps to lock accounts until the verification has been confirmed by the intended user. This helps to eliminate the simple hacker who runs a code to guess passwords once they have obtained an username. By adding the extra layer there is no way that a program can work past the second layer of putting in a code because there is not token connected to the account except for the one possessed by the user.

So as we approach finals week, there is a noticeable murmur ( at least I have heard it) about where to get drugs such as Adderall to help students study better. I found this interesting because this had never struck me as being an large issue until I came to college and found out just how many people tried using the drug when they were not prescribed it. I did some research on this topic, and also conducted my own poll with several of my peers around me to gain a little bit more information.

When I polled ten students who live within my dorm and asked a series of three questions,

1. Have you ever taken Adderall or another performance enhancing drug?
2. Was it for the purpose of studying if so?
3. Are you prescribed Adderall or another similar drug?

When asked these questions, six out of ten individuals answered yes to the first two questions, however, the same six individuals all answered no to the third. Not a single person out of six who had taken the drug was prescribed it!! This meant that they were receiving it from someone, and more than likely paying decent money for it. This also meant that the amount that they purchased was solely based on the supply that the dealer was willing to give out.

As I researched further to see if this was an extra high amount, I was shocked to see how low the actual amount was in comparison to my small poll. The study showed that of a cumulative amount of those polled in college, 61.8% had been offered a drug such as Adderall or Ritalin, and a cumulative amount of 31% had taken these drugs. Which in relation to my study was quite low, but still an astounding number considering that there is such a large quantity of college students within the trial, and only 5.3% of college students total in the United States are prescribed these drugs.

All in all, when looking at these numbers, there is a real issue and it is one that could really affect the lives of many if something were to go awry with the drugs or prescriptions.

So I came down with an illness over Thanksgiving break and had a fever, and so thats what inspired this blog post. I looked into fevers a little more and found out that there is actually 13 different types of fever, each of which says something different about what you can be experiencing when it comes to your health. These types of fever range from very mild and something you might experience regularly without knowing to serious and life threatening sort of issues.

So starting with normal body temperature to get a handle on what all of the future evidence means, the human body varies between 36 degrees celsius and 37.5 degrees celsius. The lowest point at which is recorded normally at about 2-4 am and the highest being in the mid to late afternoon. A fever is described as a fluctuation of over a degree celsius of the maximal body temperature.

So after looking at the symptoms of what fever I was experiencing, I came to the conclusion that  I had one of the ten main types of fever (I said 13 earlier because relapsing fever has 3 sub categories of fever) which was a remittent fever. This is the most common fever seen in medical practice, but can be associated with typhoid infections on a more serious note.

However, some other types of fevers are more directly related to more serious and deadly diseases. Intermittent only displays a heat spike for several hours during the day, and the fever then rests for the remainder, but this type of fever is commonly related to diseases such as malaria and kala-azar which is a parasite disease that is transmitted by being bit by sandflies. Kala-azar is so rare in the United States that there is less than 1,000 cases per year, however, there are more than 200 MILLION people at risk of it throughout the world and it is the second most deadly parasitic killer behind malaria, and is almost certainly fatal if not treated.

There are then different types of fevers which are much more common but still can hold awful outcomes, such as night sweats. Night sweats are common with sickness’ such as mono and the common cold, however, night sweats are common in those who suffer leukemias and autoimmune disorders. These are much more subtle fevers, but will cause exhaustion do to the lack of sleep that the body gets in turn from the night sweats.

Next time you have a fever, think about how the fever could impact you, and what the possible implications are for the fever on your health.

Has anyone heard of a thundersnow? Well it exists, a thunderstorm in the middle of a snow shower!

This freak phenomena is one that may happen once a winter in a single location, and can only happen in certain areas throughout the country. The science behind this is explained well by the Weather Channel, but I am also going to break it down for you.

Normal snow storms clouds only reach up to about 20,000 feet into the atmosphere, not allowing them to have enough power or space to produce lightning within the clouds. However, this is different for things such as lake effect snow (snow storms from storms being pushed off of the great lakes that contain warmer air) or larger systems that turn into snow storms as they move north. With the warmer air stirring up the clouds, it creates almost a firing turret for the lightning to develop and grow within. These turrets rise to about 5,000 feet above the regular cloud base and the warmer air allows for the molecules to charge.

http://www.weather.com/science/news/what-thundersnow-and-why-does-it-happen-20140218

The charging of the molecules within those turrets is caused by both snow and small hailstones called grauple interacting. This interaction builds the charge up and with enough time and charge there is the possibility of lightning. This process is much like when you have static electricity from rubbing against conductive surfaces and then touching another surface unleashes the charge.

So next time you think you heard thunder in the winter but want to count that out, just reconsider and check the weather to see if the conditions are right!

I have long been mesmerized by baby donkeys and how incredibly cute they are in comparison to their older counterparts, but then I got into looking at if there was any use in having a donkey over a horse. It turns out that donkeys are much better animals than horses in many aspects that humans use them for! Whether it be for farm use or the typical desert scene where a dried out cowboy is riding one across the desert, donkeys are incredible animals.

The sheer force of the donkeys is actually more than most every breed of horse, and this allows them to be utilized not only as farm animals, but also as animals that can be used to fix issues suffered by natural disasters. There has been incidents where donkeys were used to pull limbs or trees fallen down during hurricanes when cars or other machinery was unable to.

Donkeys also  back up the stereotype of latin american leaders using donkeys on the battlefield instead of horses, but there was actually viable reason as to why they did that. Donkeys are not as skittish as horses are and tend to be more reliable around the loud noises caused by battles. They also tend to avoid dangers around them better than horses, and will make decisions based on keeping their own selves safe.

I have long been mesmerized by baby donkeys and how incredibly cute they are in comparison to their older counterparts, but then I got into looking at if there was any use in having a donkey over a horse. It turns out that donkeys are much better animals than horses in many aspects that humans use them for! Whether it be for farm use or the typical desert scene where a dried out cowboy is riding one across the desert, donkeys are incredible animals. 

The sheer force of the donkeys is actually more than most every breed of horse, and this allows them to be utilized not only as farm animals, but also as animals that can be used to fix issues suffered by natural disasters. There has been incidents where donkeys were used to pull limbs or trees fallen down during hurricanes when cars or other machinery was unable to.

Donkeys also  back up the stereotype of latin american leaders using donkeys on the battlefield instead of horses, but there was actually viable reason as to why they did that. Donkeys are not as skittish as horses are and tend to be more reliable around the loud noises caused by battles. They also tend to avoid dangers around them better than horses, and will make decisions based on keeping their own selves safe.

One of my many passions is fishing and in particular, fly fishing. Many people who know very little about it see the typical old man with a bamboo pole in the middle of a creek nestled deep in the mountains somewhere. That is where it got its roots, people throwing imitations of tiny flies and bugs onto the water and fly fishing being the way to propel these tiny “flies” a distance farther than a few feet. However, as anglers have looked to challenge themselves even further and have looked to tackle species all over the globe with this method of fishing. Thus the sport has changed and developed into a full blown mess of tackle and terminology all backed by science, and basic principle.

http://www.tenkarabum.com/tenkarabum-winter-challenge.html

In the image you see what looks like a hook with a puff of feather attached to it, and its almost so small that you would have to squint to see it without the magnification. Something with such little weight can’t be thrown with more than a few inches by the human hand let alone with a typical fishing rod, so this is where fly fishing comes into play. The delivery method is a mix of physics and human tampering, the physics of propelling a heavier object forward with a backward motion or the inertia that it already has is an age old thing to do, but technology and science has made this even easier and an industry in itself.

Many fly rods that are coming out now are either fiberglass blends or graphite/composite blends, and the material is extremely important to the rod. The way that rods are made now allow for extra bend in the rod,

http://www.orvis.com/news/fly-fishing/pro-tip-understanding-rod-action-and-choosing-the-right-rod-for-you/

which in turn loads extreme amounts of energy when delivering the line forward, and thus giving length to the cast. By manipulating how much a rod bends, companies are able to produce rods that have either a faster or slower action, which was impossible with the traditional bamboo rods. By having this option they can fit rod types to fishing styles, as well as to the angler and their casting style/preferences.

The use of these new materials has also allowed for unprecedented strength throughout the rod. Now, granted these rods are still extremely easy to break (trust me… don’t skimp on cases or putting them in said cases for storage) but the rods can also take a tremendous amount of pressure when used properly (Watch the last 20-30 seconds). These advances have allowed sportsmen to tackle species that used to seem close to impossible to catch on normal gear let alone on fly gear. Another thing that has allowed for this has been the specialty lines that have been produced to fit the needs of anglers, and the species that they are chasing.

http://www.troutcatchers.co.uk/acatalog/Fly_Line_Care___Information.html

These different types of lines each hold a different application to compensate for certain issues that arise throughout different fisheries. The difference in fly line is that is a heavier line that most usually floats (but not in all instances) and is thicker, which allows for the rod to bend even farther and allows for longer and more accurate casting. There are also sinking lines that are specialized for certain species, and these lines are truly a work of science. The lines are determined on the amount of weight added to the line in order to counteract the natural buoyancy of the fly line and get the fly deeper in the water. Some of these fly lines can way as much as 4 pounds when held in a full bundle in ones hand, and can thus alter the casting motion or the presentation.

An example of the types of “flies” that would normally be paired with a sinking line, and just for perspective, the fly is about 12″ and so the line is used to drag the fly down

So whether it is the next time you drive over a creek and see someone fly fishing, or you’re flipping channels and it happens to be on tv, just remember that there is so much more behind fly fishing than some crazy person standing in a creek moving his arm back and forth.

Every athlete knows the struggle of constantly aching or being sore from some practice or workout or injury that they have been through. An everyone’s go to is usual the miracle drug of ibuprofen. I used to take so much to hold my body together after several injuries that I had built up a slight immunity to it and thus had to take more in order to receive the affect that I needed. This meant waking up and taking 3-4 regular strength ibuprofen (400mg) and then proceeding to go to school and taking 3-4 more around lunch time. At this point, I was already at the maximum recommended dose for the average sized adult and it was only around noon. About 20 minutes before warming up I would take 4-5 more so that I would be set for most of the game and at that point my total dosage for the day 5,200mg, which is 2,000 milligrams more than what the maximum recommended dose is for the average sized adult. Obviously, this isn’t good for the human body, but how bad is it actually?

http://www.hercampus.com/school/tulane/adderall-new-advil-0

After looking into this issue, I found out what long term use of ibuprofen can do to the liver. The research showed that what ibuprofen does within the liver is open up the mitochondrial membrane and allows for the slow seep of toxins through the liver. After long use and even abuse of ibuprofen at over the suggested dose is continues to break down the membrane and cause the slow deterioration after many years. Its not something that will happen over night by any means, but it is suggested that if the habits continued over many years that it could seriously harm the liver and the body as a whole due to the affects of toxins getting through the  damaged liver.

The article also describes how over an extended period of time (not specified in the article) that the membrane struggles to even to retain the main active ingredient in ibuprofen, Ca^2+. As a cause of this, more is required in order to receive the desired effect of the drug, and in turn it further destroys your liver.

So not all fish are designed the same, there are some built for holding on to deep oceanic shelves, and there are others that are made for running quickly through shallow water. Whatever it may be, the main feature that helps determine this on species is their tail. The design of the tail of a fish determines not only how they live, but where they live and what they eat for food. It is evolutions major statements, and it is truly noticeable by examining so many different species of fish. The different types of tails serve different purposes, and the best way to think about this is to think about cooking. So different cooking utensils serve different purposes, so you wouldn’t use a strainer to collect water to boil, or you wouldn’t use a knife to scoop ice cream. So evolution has allowed certain species to adapt to their environments and better suite their living style by using the most crucial part of a fishes propulsion.

https://www.igfa.org/species/67-sailfish-atlantic.aspx?CommonName=67-sailfish-atlantic.aspx

The sailfish (pictured above) is the fastest recorded fish in the ocean, that tops out at a speed of 70 mph, but much like a cheetah, only for quick/short bursts. The tail type has been found to move large amounts of water without creating too much drag, thus allowing for rapid propulsion of the fish. This is true for smaller fish such as the bonefish which also sports the forked tail and is known for its blistering speed in shallow water.

The tail types vary greatly from that of species such as grouper which sport large, flat tails to serve the purpose of holding them in place in heavy currents or underwater structure.

http://forshorefishing.blogs.theledger.com/10025/big-fish-photo-of-the-week-82409/

This species of grouper, the Goliath Grouper, which rightfully is a great demonstration of the large paddle like tail and how it serves its purpose. The fish is commonly found around areas with heavy currents and structure, such as bridges or man made shipwrecks offshore. By having this tail, they are able to hold themselves in place amidst the heavy current which brings the food to them. This allows for minimal exertion of energy, while still being efficient predators (hence why they are so big).

In conclusion, there are different applications for the types of tails that fish have. So next time you go to the beach or lake and see fish, think about the habitat that they are living in and look at how their bodies have evolved to suit their needs in that body of water.

Hi! I am Jacob Sparrow and I am technically from State College, but I really am from Blacksburg Virginia. In case you’ve never heard of Blacksburg then don’t worry, it is a small town in the Blue Ridge Mountains that is home to Virginia Polytechnic Institute (Virginia Tech). I recently moved to State College for a parents job and thus I ended up at Penn State because I fell in love with it from the start. It truly captured my heart from the first time I saw Beaver Stadium looming in the distance on the ride here.

One of my passions is fly fishing and it is a great passion to have when living in central PA because State College has a top 50 rated stream for trout fishing in the nation! Considering the uncountable amount of streams in the nation that is a huge accomplishment, especially since only 50 years ago there was a purge of almost all of the fish in the stream due to Pollution.

Here is a picture of me with a wild trout caught out of one of the many beautiful parks in State College.

The reason I am taking SC 200 is mostly that it is satisfying one of my Gen Ed’s, however, after looking at what this course has to offer I am extremely excited to dive deeper into our discussion topics. It should be an amazing semester if this class continues to live up to my expectations!