Whenever I study for a test or quiz I always listen to classical music. It helps me realize and focus on the material that I need to study. Also, whenever I take a test, I seem to remember the information more clearly. I wonder if listening to classical music, while studying, increases your GPA and intelligence in general.

A study was done at Western Connecticut State University, in which a variety of research was conducted on 54 college students on the effects of different types of music on cognitive abilities. In the first experiment, they hypothesized that the participants would do better on a listening comprehension test after listening to Mozart than those who listened to nothing. After conducting the test the results were not promising. They found that the results between the two groups were not sufficient enough to support the original hypothesis. These findings can be due to a number of things besides what music the participants listened to. For example, the prior education of participants before they entered the study is a confounding third variable. In the second experiment, the participants listened to rock music and then took the test. The result was the same as the first experiment. There was no sufficient difference between the two groups.

My research then led to me to something called the Mozart’s Effect. The phrase “the Mozart Effect” coined back in 1991, that has gained media and public attention ever since. The concept of it is by listening to Mozart’s music it will improve your brain’s function. In a BBC article, it explains the results of a meta-analysis of sixteen different studies. All which confirmed “listening to music does lead to a temporary improvement in the ability to manipulate shapes mentally…” However the benefits do not last long and it does not make the person more intelligent. In 2010 of a larger meta-analysis of studies found that other types of music besides Mozart worked just as well. For example, listening to Schubert was just as good, and so was hearing a passage read out loud from a Steven King novel. However, this only works if you enjoy what you’re listening to. This leads me to believe that the effect only works if you enjoy what you are listening to instead of the song specifically.

What I can conclude from my research is that listening to music that makes you focused can perhaps make you focus more on something. There are no known negative side effects to doing it so trying it out once or twice wouldn’t be a bad idea. Personally when I listen to any type of classical music I tend to become more focused on what I’m working on.

Recently I have been doing a lot of “power-napping” in order to get energy for the day ahead of me. I notice that after I wake up from a nap, I feel somewhat more awake and aware of what’s going on. I decided to do some research to find out whether or not power napping is effective or not, and if it does more harm then good.

According to Lizzie Parry, a thirty-minute nap can help repair the damage to your body if it lacks sleep. It relieves stress and bolsters the immune system by restoring your protein and hormone levels to normal. A study was conducted that examined the relationship between hormones and sleep in a group of eleven men between the ages of 25 through 32. The men were limited to two hours of sleep for one night in the first experiment. Their urine and saliva was analyzed, and it was found that their hormone and immune system has decreased in activity. In the second experiment the men were able to take two 30-minute naps the day after only getting two hours of sleep the night before. After analyzing their urine and saliva for the second time, scientists saw a 2.5 fold increase in levels of norepinephrine (a hormone that helps prevent stress). Furthermore they saw the levels of interleukin-6 (a protein that helps fight infections) go up as well. The experiment concluded that short naps can be beneficial to your immune system and stress levels.

While taking naps increases your immune system and your general alertness, it still has negative consequences. According to the National Sleep Foundation power naps can leave people with sleep inertia that can last for more then 20 minutes. Sleep inertia is the feeling of grogginess and disorientation that comes when you awake from deep sleep. This type of feeling can be detrimental for someone who has a test to take or work to do right after they wake up from a nap. Furthermore, frequent naps during the week can lead to negative effects on sleeping patterns. If you have trouble sleeping at night, naps during the night will increase the problem.

If you’re thinking of incorporating a nap into your daily schedule, plan for it around noon. This way when you wake up it won’t be almost time for bed, and you will have time to get over the sleep inertia. I enjoy my sleep so I will probably continue to take naps during the day.

Students usually have the habit of cramming before a test or quiz the night before. Personally, I tend to avoid doing this because I believe that it’s actually bad to cram before a test and instead study a little each day before the test. With a plan, you can space out your preparation for the test

Research from UCLA researches say to not even bother with it. “The problem is the trade-off between study and sleep. Studying, of course, is a key contributor to academic achievement, but what students may fail to appreciate is that adequate sleep is also important for academics,” say researchers. If a student replaces studying with sleeping, they are more inclined to have academic problems due to being tired. In this study, 535 Latino, Asian American and European American students were recruited from grades nine through twelve. Throughout a 14-day period the subjects recorded in a diary how long they studied, how long they slept and if they experienced any academic problems (not understanding something taught in class or getting a bad grade on a test, quiz, or homework). This type of trial is correlational because the researchers are observing the subjects. The researchers found that the amount of time students studies became associated with more academic problems. Longer study hours generally meant fewer hours of sleep.

Leaving things to be completed last minute can seem much easier for us to do. A BBC article references a 2009 study by Nate Kornell at the University of California, Los Angeles. The study showed that spacing out learning was more effective than cramming for 90% of the participants who took part in one of his experiments. However, 72% of the participants thought that cramming was more effective when studying. Why would students think this way? Most of the time when we cram in 6 hours of studying we are able to recognize what we are seeing but not exactly recall it. “Different parts of the brain support different kinds of memory” (Stafford). Your visual cortex is one of the parts of the brain that helps with recognizing different sets of information. Your frontal cortex and temporal lobe also help create a memory from clues you give it. So just because your visual cortex is processing your notes that you study, it doesn’t mean that the rest of your brain is able to create a memory of it.

After completing this research I can conclude that cramming for tests are not effective. It causes more harm then good to your body. From now on I will organize my studying hours to make sure I am well prepared for my tests.

Normally whenever I take a hot shower I feel lethargic afterwards. Recently I have been plagued with cold showers every morning I wake up before class. Surprisingly, I have been more alert and active during the day after I take a cold shower. Do cold showers make you more aware and awake during the day?

According to Lizette Borreli, taking a cold shower can have surprising benefits to our skin and body. For starters, it increases your alertness. The response our body gives off to cold water splashing us is a shock that keeps us warm. As a result our body increases its oxygen intake, which causes to more blood to be released and spread faster throughout our bodies. This gives us a natural dose of energy.

Another benefit to taking cold showers is it relieves muscle soreness while at the same time speeds up recovery. A 2009 study analyzed 17 trials involving over 360 people, who after working out either rested, or immersed themselves in cold water. This was a randomly controlled, experimental trial because the scientists randomly selected their test subjects and controlled whether they would be exposed to cold water or not. It is experimental because the scientists are controlling the variables. The result of the experiments was a 24-minute cold-water bath healed sore muscles 1-4 days faster than not taking a cold bath at all.

A third benefit to taking cold showers is it helps maintain your skin and hair. According to Borreli, “Hot water has the tendency to dry out our skin, so it’s best to use cold water to tighten your cuticles and pores, which will prevent them from getting clogged.” The cold water also helps keep your pores in your hair “closed-off” too, so that dirt doesn’t get into them. Jessica Kant told The Huffington Post that while hot water may feel good on our bodies, excessive hot water use can “strip healthy natural oils from your skin too quickly.”

Personally I wouldn’t take a cold shower everyday because I couldn’t deal with the cold water and shivering everyday. However, after the research I’ve done I think that I will start taking cold showers after I come back from working out at the gym.

Unfortunately I have made biting my nails a habit this past summer. Most of the time I would bite my nails when thinking about starting college or when something else stressed me out. For example, I’m currently biting my nails from stressing about my first blog period’s grade… I would like to find someway or something to help break this bad habit before my teeth take their toll on my fingers.

There are many negatives to biting one’s nails. For one it looks gross; whenever I see someone biting their nails in public it leaves me uneasy. This type of behavior may give off a wrong impression to people around you. Not to mention, it messes up the appearance of your hand which can be a turn off to people.

Secondly, constantly chomping away at your cuticles can put you at higher risk for illnesses. Unless you wash your hands before biting your nails, which for the most part probably doesn’t happen, you have no idea what bacteria or other unknown substances you can put in your mouth.  Rochelle Torgerson, M.D., Ph.D., a dermatologist at the Mayo Clinic, comments in a Huffington Post, “It can also raise the risk of paronychia, or infection of the skin surrounding the nail.” You come into contact with over 60,000 types of bacteria a day. With that fact in mind think twice before putting your fingers near, around, or in your mouth!

So, what is one to do to break this bad habit? There are multiple ways to do this. You can wear fake nails, glue pepper to your fingers, or develop a new habit. Click on this link to look at the Top 10 Ways to Prevent Nail Biting.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Marijuana usage has gone up over the past couple years due to things such as media coverage, and its legalization for recreational and medical use in our country.  However, I’ve heard before that smoking “weed” kills braincells and lowers your IQ. A study was done in New Zealand on 1000 people from the ages of 13-38. The study found that chronic users of the plant that used it before the age of 18 had their IQ points drop about 8 points before the user turned the age of 38.

While this does seem worrisome, it should be noted that there are several studies that make this study a little less easy to believe. For one, the people who were affected was only a small percent of the original 1000 (38 to be exact). Secondly, during the study the individuals were smoking 4 times a week, more then the average smoker smokes. Finally, this study had been going on for 20 years which is above the average amount a time a person usually smokes marijuana. Although this experiment shows that your IQ may go down as a result of smoking marijuana, the likelihood of it happening to an average user remains uncertain.  Click here to watch asapSCIENCE explain more effects of marijuana on your brain and the rest of your body. 

There is little evidence that shows anything in marijuana has neurotoxic effects on the brain. However, when someone inhales THC into their body they overload the dopamine levels giving you a “high.” In an article released in January 2015, it explains the long term effects of the drug. It explains that users could have reduced capabilities remembering things, and will have trouble with learning. Other effects include: breathing problems, increased heart rate, depression, and anxiety.

Although average use of marijuana won’t kill you, or seriously harm your body, it should never be taken advantage of. Contrary to popular belief marijuana can become addictive, especially to those who start using the drug before they reach adolescence. Treatment for the addiction usually involves behavioral treatment. As of now there are no proven treatments to get rid of an addiction.

The Space Race in the mid-20th century exhibits the phenomenon that is space exploration. This race between the United States and U.S.S.R. to reach the moon was resolved by the U.S. landing on the Moon first. Since then, the United State’s interest in aerospace has expanded and today our sights have no bounds.

On May 31st (My birthday), 2012, Mars One, an space company announced that it is hoping to colonize and establish a human settlement in the year 2023. The plan consists of resupplying the original pioneers every two years with things such as food, oxygen, water because they will not be returning home. The brave men and women who decide to go on the first mission will have to stay on Mars for the rest of their lives. All of the pieces of machinery that will be used for the project are currently being assembled by a variety of companies such as: Space Exploration, Space Development, ILC Dover, and many others.

Mars One will be funding this venture through variety of different sources. Along with an extensive amount of donors and sponsors, the company will create an international media event around the project. This event will serve to show the people of earth the extensive amount of preparation and training that the selected astronauts. The astronauts will also share their experiences as they build their new home on the Red Planet.

Although this idea seems excellent and completely realistic, there are still a number of things that will be obstacles that the scientists and the astronauts will have to get over. Robert Walker, explains in his article what difficulties the explorers will have to overcome.  For one, being farther away from the sun means that the planet will be naturally colder.  Typical night time temperatures can go down to -70 degrees celsius, and sometimes it gets so cold that the CO2 in the air freezes as dry ice! A second problem is that not only the atmosphere is thin (which causes more radiation to get through to the surface) but also there is no oxygen in the air. Finally, the unforgiving weather and terrain of the planet. The desert land and periodically sand storms would cause problems with not only the people living in the colony but also it would cause problems for communicating back and forth. While this project has yet to be completed we can only be hopeful that it will be successful once it has stared!

Star Wars was always one of my favorite movies – from the space battles, plot twists, and storyline. As a kid I was always fascinated with a Jedi’s main weapon – a light saber. This light blade could cut into any material as easy as cutting butter with a hot knife. Will our generation ever be able to see a light saber, or even used on the battlefield by soldiers? 

Scientists at Harvard University and Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) have challenged “the conventional wisdom about light, and they didn’t need to go far, far away to do it.” Scientists were able to coax photons (particles of light) into molecules. “Most of the properties of light we know about originate from the fact that photons are massless, and that they do not interact with each other,” Mikhail Lukin said (one of the scientists in the experiment).

Researchers pumped rubidium atoms into a vacuum container, and then cooled the atoms to absolute zero using other lasers. With this new environment being created, the researches then fired photons into the cloud of atoms. Two of the separate photons fired into the cloud came out the other side as a molecule. This result is known as Rydberg blockade (Click this link to get more information about this “blockade”).

The photons can arguably interact with each other, allowing the possibility for creating two beams of photon molecules that could interact with each other.  All scientists would need to do is figure out a way to make the beam stop at around two-feet, and you’re on your way to becoming a Jedi Knight.

Chris Lough comments in his article about the difficulties surrounding making a full-functional light saber. For one, he says that this was created in a vacuum, which we as humans obviously don’t live in. Second, being able to contain the molecules in a two-foot, vertical Lightsaber is not something that scientists are able to do as of now. They would need to create a type of barrier that would have to coat the Lightsaber in order to keep it together. Furthermore, the beam itself (let’s assume scientists were able to contain it) wouldn’t have the destruction capabilities that an actual Lightsaber has. The beam wouldn’t be hot enough to cut through anything.

Although it would be amazing to wield the power of a Jedi, scientists are using this new technology of photonic molecules to help speed up ways to do quantum computing.

Whenever I would crack my fingers around my parents they would always tell me to stop cracking my knuckles because I’ll “develop arthritis if I don’t.” At first I believed them, because they were my parents, but after doing research on my own I was able to find the answer.

While cracking your knuckles may be aggravating to the people around you, it most likely will not cause you to develop the disease. An article in the Harvard Health Publications explains the “pop” sound come from “bubbles bursting in the synovial fluid — the fluid that helps lubricate joints.”  Because arthritis primarily affects only the joints in our bodies, and the “pop” noise happens in the synovial fluid (not the joints), I can conclude that arthritis does not develop from cracking your knuckles.

“Click” “Clack”

Some people crack their knuckles out of boredom, or from habit, and some people do it because they say it relieves pain and gives more flexibility of your fingers. Personally I do it out of boredom, but I am trying to break the habit. Although it may seem like an innocent bad habit, cracking your knuckles can cause slight problems for you down the road. A Medical News article goes into some of the consequences of it. For example, they say that it can cause a weaker hand grip and some hand swelling. Furthermore some studies show that it can cause damage to the ligaments that are surrounding the joints.

Cracking your knuckles isn’t the worst possible thing you can do to your body. If anything you probably shouldn’t do it out of respect to the people around you because some people hate the sound of the “pop.” It can be as cringe-worthy as listening to someone scratch their snails on a chalkboard.

Consuming alcoholic beverages has been an American pastime. Whether it be at weddings, birthday parties, or even tailgates people have always found excuses to enjoy alcoholic beverages (responsibly of course). Vaportini and VapeShot are companies that allow its consumers to “consume” alcohol in a new way: instead of drinking it, you inhale it through vapor. But is this safe?

According to Vaportini, a website that allows you to purchase the device,  “It’s like another distillation within the globe, so the [alcohol] a person consumes with a Vaportini contains no impurities, almost no calories, and no carbs. The effects are immediately felt making it easier to imbibe.”                                    

Some people say that this new way of getting drunk is unsafe and harms our bodies more then actually drinking alcohol does, while others say its safe. In a article posted by Medical Daily they talk about the ups and downs of vaping alcohol. The first step is picking your alcohol. It can be vodka, rum, whiskey, really any alcohol out there (although the vapor will taste different from the drink). Then you poor it into the container, pressurize it for 20 seconds, and BAM your alcoholic drink just became an alcoholic vapor. This will create the vapor, at which point you stick a straw in, suck, and enjoy! The vapor will enter your bloodstream immediately rather then going through your stomach and being absorbed through your intestines. Each single bottle only contains 1/60th of a shot giving you a buzz to last only fifteen minutes. Click here to listen to Stephen Colbert’s commentary on this new technology.

When inhaling any substances there’s always going to a risk. Although throwing up isn’t fun for any reason, it’s your body’s way of telling you to stop and that you’ve had too much. When you vape your alcohol you are bypassing your stomach and liver, making it easier for you to overdose on alcohol without being able to regurgitate it if you consume too much. Although you need to puff a lot in order to get severely inebriated it is still dangerous and risky to try VapeShot or Vaportini especially if you have never tried it before. While this is a new technology, and studies are still being performed on it chances are its better to go old fashioned and drink (legally and responsibly) from the bottle.

Hi,

My name is Michael Rosenthal and I grew up in Cherry Hill, New Jersey. I am currently enrolled in the college of the Liberal Arts and majoring in international politics.

During my high school tenure my science classes were not my favorite and I didn’t get the grades that I wanted. I am taking this course, however, because of Andrew’s efficiency in public speaking and making the topics he teaches interesting.

I am not planning on being a science major because, and to be frank, science is not fun and/or interesting to me usually. Hopefully, however, this class will allow me to further my understanding of the world around us.

Please enjoy this video of one of my favorite soccer (fútbol) players, Zlatan Ibrahimovic, scoring a goal off a bicycle kick way outside the box.