Rock, paper, scissors, shoot! The simple, yet timeless game dates all the way back to the Han Dynasty and is known by many as a method of combining chance and luck in order to determine who gets the last slice of cake, the home side in FIFA, or any other random situation. Although you might think of it as childish, RPS (rock, paper, scissors abbreviated) is actually a mind game comprised of strategy, anticipation, intelligence, and observational skill. Some in fact take it so seriously that they created the USARPS World Championships; before it became extinct, the finals would air on ESPN yearly. It raised so much awareness that Chinese researchers assembled together to crack the science behind RPS.

If you like your odds of guessing at random (33.33%), then statistics reveal that each “weapon” choice will have the same probability in future and previous rounds of the game; this is referred to as a Nash Equilibrium. Curiousity about whether the odds of the game could be manipulated led Chinese scientist Zhijian Wang from Zhejiang University to conduct an experiment of his own. After experimenting and tinkering around with the data, he “discovered that gameplay typically consists of predictable patterns.”

The observational experiment began with 360 subjects divided into 60 groups of 6. They played 300 rounds of RPS where each and every move, win, and loss was recorded by the Chinese scientist. Ironically enough, the generated results confirmed that the subjects played rock 100 times, paper 100 times, and scissors 100 times…the Nash Equilibrium! It was also discovered that players that lost tended to rotate from rock to paper to scissors while the consistent winners would stick with one main strategy instead of switching it around. “This game exhibits collective cyclic motions which cannot be understood by the Nash Equilibrium concept but are successfully explained by the empirical data-inspired conditional response mechanism,” he said. Other data collected from flowingdata.com uncovered that “males have a tendency to throw rock on their first try, inexperienced RPS players will subconsciously deliver the item that won previously, and paper is thrown least often, so use it as a surprise.”

While we might think of it as a game, the concept of RPS lies within nature, as well. The common side-blotched lizard “exhibits a rock-paper-scissors pattern in its mating strategies.” There are three color types: orange, blue, and yellow. Scientists have observed the behavior of these reptiles and it has been confirmed that an orange will defeat a blue, a blue will defeat a yellow, and a yellow will beat an orange in a competition for a mate. That’s not all, however. Some bacteria also use a RPS strategy during antibiotic production. Doctors Benjamin Kerr and Brendan Bohannan of Stanford University discovered the pattern during a computer simulation in a laboratory. Biologist Benjamin C. Kirkup, Jr. “demonstrated that these antibiotics, “bacterioicins”, were active as Escherichia coli compete with each other in the intestines of mice, and that the rock-paper-scissors dynamics allowed for the continued competition among strains: antibiotic-producers defeat antibiotic-sensitives; antibiotic-resisters multiply and withstand and out-compete the antibiotic-producers, letting antibiotic-sensitives multiply and out-compete others; until antibiotic-producers multiply again.”

I find it extremely intriguing how a game thought of as “elementary” or “basic” is reflected in elements of nature throughout the world. Next time you find yourself in a RPS duel, keep in mind these strategies that will help you to succeed.

Sources:

How to win Rock-paper-scissors every time

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-2617808/The-science-Rock-Paper-Scissors-Mathematicians-reveal-hidden-pattern-game-guarantee-win.html

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rock-paper-scissors#Instances_of_use_in_real-life_scenarios

http://psychology.about.com/od/cindex/g/condresp.htm

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nash_equilibrium

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Common_side-blotched_lizard

Pictures:

http://cdn.bgr.com/2015/09/rock-paper-scisscors.jpg

http://i0.wp.com/flowingdata.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/07/rock-paper-scissors.gif?zoom=1.5&resize=620%2C1412

Recently, I had porcelain veneers put over some of my dwarf teeth. The dentist assured me that the compound she used to cement the false teeth was strong enough to last my the rest of my life without any issues — only a couple months later did I realize that she was mistaken. I woke up one morning very confused because there was a small object lying on my tongue. As I rubbed away the eye discharge, I pulled out the unknown object in my mouth and I couldn’t believe my eyes as I was staring at my own tooth! I began to panic and thought, “how could this be? I thought these would last a lifetime…what on earth am I going to do?” Luckily, I found a dentist that re-cemented it back on for me and he later informed me that he saw visible evidence that I was grinding my teeth at night. That particular visit peaked my interest about the causes and dangers of grinding teeth so I did a little of research about it and the results were quite interesting.

The first question I had was: why do people grind their teeth? Teeth grinding, or its proper name Bruxism, is according to NHS.uk “the medical term for grinding the teeth and clenching the jaw.” While some naturally grind their teeth at night for no reason whatsoever, 70% of bruxism cases are a result of excessive amounts of stress and sleep anxiety. Grinding teeth doesn’t only happen subconsciously during sleep; sometimes during intense concentration or during a stressful moment, a person will clench their jaw tightly for an extended period of time. Other ways in which one will clench their jaw repeatedly, such as chewing gum, allows the jaw to become accustomed to clamping down on the teeth vigorously, promoting the grinding at night. A myriad of other possible third variables can cause grinding your teeth at night such as: alcohol consumption, smoking, and using recreational drugs such as ecstasy and cocaine.

If you find yourself a victim of bruxism and wish to rid yourself of this detrimental habit, there are many ways to have it treated; however, only a few methods have proven to successfully rid
it. Although some doctors recommend using a night guard for protection, Dr. Mark Burhenne contradicts the popular belief. According to him, “a mouth guard is put in place to protect the teeth from grinding, but since it can re-position the jaw, it can actually make the obstruction of the airway worse.” He instead recommends consulting to your dentist about getting a sleep study in order to receive a diagnosis for “sleep apnea” from a sleep specialist. On the other hand, if you’re living the life of a frat star and you find yourself drinking, smoking, and partying the majority of the nights of the week, it would be recommended to cut back in order to reduce your teeth grinding at night. Some long term consequences of bruxism include: prolonged migraines, excessive facial muscle tone, popping your jaw joint, and tooth wear or even loss.

Because I’m only 19, it is a little concerning that I have started this habit so early; however, Dr. Burhenne’s advice has given me hope. For anyone out there that is experiencing the same thing as I am, I hope this blog has been informative and can help you overcome the obstacle of bruxism.

Sources:

http://www.s4sdental.com/for-the-public/teeth-clenching-grinding/effects-of-bruxism/

http://www.webmd.com/oral-health/guide/teeth-grinding-bruxism

http://www.nhs.uk/conditions/teeth-grinding/Pages/Introduction.aspx

http://askthedentist.com/why-you-grind-your-teeth/

http://askthedentist.com/why-you-grind-your-teeth/

http://www.nhlbi.nih.gov/health/health-topics/topics/sleepapnea

https://retailrobot.files.wordpress.com/2013/05/lebron-mouthguard-meme.jpg

Whenever the weather takes a turn for the worse, I resort to taking the bus from class to class. With all the other like-minded individuals choosing to avoid the frigid, windy, or rainy weather as well, the white loop is always congested with students en route to their classes. Over the course of the school year, I have began to notice a trend every time I step foot onto the CATA autobus. As soon as the bus driver releases the parking break and begins to proceed to the next stop, an awkward, piercing silence fills the air despite the giant cluster of kids standing and sitting together. As I look around examining the transit, it becomes apparent that the reason behind the silence is due to every single boy and girl looking down at their cell phone, too infatuated with what’s going on in their virtual world to attempt to make conversation with their neighbor. Some might argue it’s a part of our generation; yet, I believe that cell phones have become too much of an obsession with today’s youth and something has to be done in order to prevent the problem from spreading into something much worse.

Just to prove how severe cell phone addiction has become among today’s youth, a study from Baylor University has revealed that women college students spend about 10 hours per day on their phone while the men have their iPhones and androids glued to their faces for another 8 hours…that’s a THIRD of the day spent looking at your cell phone. If that doesn’t seem sad to you, get this. 60% of students admit they feel as though they have developed an addiction to these “indispensable pieces of technology”. In order to uncover more about this unhealthy technological trend, the professors in the media communications department at Baylor conducted an online survey of 164 students. Out of the 24 cellphone applications and features they studied, 11 proved to have different effects based on gender. For example, popular social media apps Pinterest and Instagram proved to be as addicting as crack cocaine for women because as females, they are more easily attracted to social media whereas the men wasted time using their phones for “utilitarian or entertainment purposes”. Out of all the other features examined, texting took up the most time (94.6 minutes/day) followed by sending emails (48.5 minutes/day), checking Facebook (38.6 minutes/day), browsing the web (34.4 minutes/day) and listening to music (26.9 minutes/day). The study showed to have effects on the students’ school work, as well. “Cellphones may wind up being an escape mechanism from their classrooms. For some, cellphones in class may provide a way to cheat,” says researcher James Roberts, Ph.D., The Ben H. Williams Professor of Marketing in Baylor’s Hankamer School of Business. He also noted that “as cellphone functions increase, addictions to this seemingly indispensable piece of technology become an increasingly realistic possibility.”

The consequences of cell phone addiction lie not only within the classroom but outside, too. Almost everyone I know, including myself, who has purchased an iPhone, always has it either in their pockets, backpack, or in their hands — almost as though it has become an extension of themselves. Dr. James Roberts believes that even though you might consider yourself a social media king, that doesn’t make you necessarily all that social. He claims that today “some people use a cellphone to dodge an awkward situation. They may pretend to take a call, send a text or check their phones.” It has been observed that huge increases in the use of smartphones is paired with a diminishing ability to communicate and socialize face-to-face. Another study conducted by the UCLA psychology department compared two groups of 11 and 12 year olds in order to verify whether binging social media had an effect on social skills. Predictably, the group that was totally separated from media, cell phones, and television “performed significantly better at recognizing emotions than those allowed to keep texting and tweeting and talking on Facebook after just five days.” Afterwards, Dr. Karl Benzio, an executive director for Lighthouse Networks, examined the problem at hand and identified 6 major repercussions from overusing a cell phone:

1.  Impatience in relationships because of the “instantaneousness” of social media.
2. Interference with relationship skill acquisition and implementation.
3. Having so many casual acquaintances as able to reach out to many people, but then no time to really have deeper relationships.
4. Mistaking social media relationships for real ones
5. Using social media to engage in more in depth and complicated relationship activities, like dating, breaking up, managing conflict, etc.
6. Inability to articulate or explain anything with depth of thought and feeling and requires back and forth connection.

With the path we’re on right now, we could possibly be headed for a new generation of socially awkward, impatient, thick-headed, sentimentally incapable tech heads. All is not lost, however, because according to PsychCentral.com there are a few ways to cope with cell phone addiction. First, like any other dilemma you might have in your life, it is most important to recognize and address the problem. Secondly, if you can’t quit cold turkey, try tracking your cell phone usage daily, weekly, monthly, and/or yearly in order to see how much you really are on that device. Once you start weaning off of it, discipline is absolutely essential for maintaining progress. Finally, after you start feeling more comfortable without it, you will begin to realize how insignificant all of social media and, more importantly, YOU are (yes, you are not as important as you probably think you are on Instagram, folks). Too many people are overly concerned with how high their follower count is on Twitter and Instagram instead of how high their GPA is. As the world starts to become more and more reliant on technology, it is absolutely imperative that people are educated of the risks associated with all kinds of it, especially on a cell phone.

Picture sources:

http://s3.amazonaws.com/kidzworld_photo/images/2011131/82d5d2cf-bdd3-4f65-870b-7a1ed205f87a/a1.jpg

http://www.k5learning.com/sites/all/files/kids%20using%20cellphones.jpg

Picture taken from www.foodandwine.com

It’s holiday season, and you know what that means — decorations and excessive amounts of food. A common phenomenon associated with this past weekend’s Thanksgiving celebration is the inevitable food coma waiting to settle in after you’ve just about eaten your own body weight in mashed potatoes, turkey coated in gravy, stuffing, peas, and cranberry sauce. Many consider the binge-consumption of turkey as the mechanism for why we all experience fatigue after the traditional November feast. The reason for the correlation is due to a compound found in turkey called tryptophan. This amino acid has been found to “achieve its effects by way of serotonin, one of the key brain chemicals involved in regulating mood”, says PsychologyToday.com. Other research has indicated that serotonin is “the promotion of slow-wave sleep in non-human mammals…and it may do the same for humans” and is even a “precursor” for melatonin. If all of the facts listed above sounds like perfect evidence to verify the thanksgiving fallacy, the truth is might be surprising to you.

Plain and simply, turkey has absolutely NOTHING to do the impending sentiment of lethargy. In fact, according to Web MD, turkey has the same amount of tryptophan as any other kind of poultry. Despite its presence within the bird, nutritionists believe that a larger supply of the amino acid remains within carbohydrates, such as the cornbread and mashed potatoes eaten at a thanksgiving dinner.

Another underlying variable is fat; decent amounts of fat in meals has been known to cause drowsiness. In fact, a study at Penn State University revealed that the consumption of fatty foods does induce sleepiness. Thirty-one “healthy, non-obese participants” spent four nights in a sleep lab in order to help scientists document the relationship between fatty foods and sleeping patterns. As one could’ve guessed, those who ate more fat fell asleep more quickly during the day than those who ate only carbs. And let’s not forget the alcohol, either! Whether it’s a fine wine or a heavy glass of beer, a couple servings can cause drowsiness after a while.

So, what really happens behind the scenes that causes the “postprandial somnolence”? The answer is quite simple, actually. Eating big portions of food at a time makes you tired. Researchers have discovered that a high-carb, high-fat, and high-sugary meal “triggers a neural response as soon as they hit the small intestine”, according to Scientific American and Huffington Post. Once the neural response has been activated, the brain tells our bodies to slow down and try to digest the food rather than shoveling more of Grandma’s stuffing down your throat. Following the neural response, a collection of brain cells called orexin are found in the hypothalamus region of the brain. Due to its sensitivity to glucose levels, after a meal like Thanksgiving, the surgence of sugar, carbs, and fat coursing through your body triggers the production of orexin, causing the brain to dictate to your body it’s time to take a nap. That isn’t all, however. While the orexin does most of the sedative work, it is the insulin that ultimately delivers the knockout punch.

Unlike the orexin, the amount of insulin released into the brain has a positive relationship the amount of food eaten, not the amount glucose ingested. Similar to tryptophan, the presence of insulin automatically increases the amount of seretonin and melatonin released during digestion, which in turn increases the amount of fatigue felt. The graph on the left represents an experiment conducted by Trond Jenssen and Anders Hartmann from www.nature.com. The results indicated that approximately 10-15 minutes after eating a glucose heavy meal, the glucose level increases while the level of insulin spikes significantly. After 30 minutes, the decreasing levels of insulin experiences a second wind as it and glucose exponentially increases for an hour and a half more.

Sometimes hunger combined with a plethora of delicious food on the table can force us to eat a little more quickly than we normally do — it’s only human! If you despise falling susceptible to the amino acids working its course through your body after your Thanksgiving meal, you have a couple of options. First, try to control your eating and sleeping patterns. Get a good night’s sleep before turkey day and try to eat something throughout the day, it’ll behoove you more than you think. Another possible option is to try to eat later in the evening so the sleepiness will hit you just before bedtime. As the Christmas season is falling upon us, keep these things in mind once you find yourself indulging in a plate of yuletide deliciousness.

Picture Sources:

http://www.nature.com/nrneph/journal/v11/n8/fig_tab/nrneph.2015.59_F1.html

https://knowingneurons.files.wordpress.com/2013/11/foodcoma.png?w=610

Sources:

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/11/22/sleepy-after-eating-a-big-meal-why_n_2171058.html

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/15488646

http://www.womenshealthmag.com/food/consuming-more-fat-may-make-you-drowsy

http://www.medicaldaily.com/why-does-turkey-make-you-sleepy-answer-plus-other-foods-put-you-bed-312274

Futbol, calcio, fussball, footie, or “the beautiful game”: these are just a few synonyms for the game we Americans refer to as soccer. The sport focuses heavily on endurance, skill, composure, creativity, and finesse; however, many seem to neglect physicality as a critical aspect of the game. With shin guards as the only form of protective wear, it is easy to sustain an injury while playing, especially a concussion. In fact, sport concussion statistics claims women soccer players have a 33% chance of receiving a concussion during their time playing the sport while it is predicted the men play with a reduced 19% chance. Women soccer ranked as the 3rd highest concussion rate among all sports and men soccer ranked 6th behind football, ice hockey, and lacrosse…all sports where the players are required to wear helmets.

Picture taken from http://www2.pictures.zimbio.com/gi/Chelsea+v+Southampton+Premier+League+aQgqk_Wv1pBx.jpg

Although it is rarely worn, soccer helmets do, in fact, exist. Anyone who follows professional soccer should be able to immediately recognize this man who plays “between the sticks”. Petr Cech, a Czech goalkeeper, is known by many as one of today’s greatest keepers, but he is recognized more often for being one of the only players in the world who sports that unmistakable black protective headgear. Ever since suffering a horrific head injury in 2006, the ex-Chelsea man wears the Full 90 Protective Helmet to reduce the chance of sustaining another concussion; however, could the protective helmets prove to be not as effective as they are marketed?

According to the Full 90 website, “the entire line of Full90 headgear has been designed to mitigate the typical impact forces that occur in soccer.” If one were to look more closely, the manner in which the helmets are marketed could potentially mislead consumers into believing that the headgear protects the user behind all impact forces in soccer. There is a disclaimer at the bottom of the website that reads, “WARNING: Designed to reduce severity of impacts to the head; however, no headgear can protect against all foreseeable impacts. Offers no protection to parts of the body it does not cover directly. Serious injury may occur even while using this product correctly.” Additionally, a scientific article about the effectiveness of headgear in soccer published by the British Journal of Sports Medicine explains an experiment they conducted in order to test the efficacy of the headgear. There were several controlled tests conducted with a human volunteer and a manikin where each wore three different commercial head gears (Full 90, Head Blast, and Kangaroo Soccer Head Gear) and experienced impact with another head, the rear of the head, and a soccer ball traveling at speeds of 6-30 m/s. All variables such as ball selection, test conditions, velocity and distance of the ball, and linear and angular head accelerations were accounted for during the trials. The results indicated that for ball impacts, the head gear provides almost no protection; however, for head to head impacts it actually benefited the player to wear the helmet.

Modern day sports are constantly changing due to scientific and technological developments. For example, in the 50’s hockey players didn’t even used to wear helmets because it wasn’t believed helmets served any protective purposes. Who knows, if the concussion rate among soccer players (or should I say footballers) increases within the next few years every player might have to sport that goofy looking black head gear during every game. Before any conclusions about the mandatory use of helmets are met, more research needs to be done regarding head injuries sustained by players around the world.

“Marijuana is quite possibly the finest of intoxicants. It has been scientifically proven, for decades, to be much less harmful to the body than alcohol when used on a regular basis”―Nick Offerman

Within the past century, smoking cannabis has become immensely popular within both the teenage and adult community. For some, the feeling of elation and euphoria produced from the herb is preferred rather than the “out-of-control” side effect from inebriation. Although marijuana “has been scientifically proven…to be much less harmful to the body than alcohol when used on a regular basis”, that does not mean that it is necessarily harmless. Many consider the link between smoking “herb” and lung cancer correlative; however, the possibility of a third variable is often neglected. It has been scientifically proven that smoking tobacco heightens the chances of getting lung cancer; on the other hand, can it also be said that smoking marijuana produces the same consequence?

Despite the legal implications of possessing the drug, a substantial amount of Americans still choose to smoke. In fact, according to Gallups Annual Consumption Habits Poll, marijuana use among Americans has risen 26% since 1973.

Graph taken from http://www.gallup.com/poll/163835/tried-marijuana-little-changed-80s.aspx

In order to determine whether developing lung cancer from smoking the occasional joint was fact or fiction, an observational control case study was conducted by the Cannabis and Respiratory Disease Research Group in 2008. First, the conductors of the experiment received permission from 324 lung cancer patients (age 55 or younger) to interview them about prior marijuana use. According to the publication of the study, “information on demographics (including ethnic group), smoking history, passive smoking exposure, recreational drug use, diet, occupation, income, education, alcohol consumption and family history of malignancy was collected” in order to rule out any possible third variables. Subjects who admitted to have smoked cannabis on 20 or more occasions were then asked to complete a more thorough questionnaire. The results revealed that out of the 324 controls, there were 79 cases of lung cancer that were believed to stem from the inhalation of marijuana. Data indicated that the risk of receiving lung cancer increased by approximately 8% for each “joint-year of cannabis smoking” after confounding variables such as smoking cigarettes were adjusted into the numbers. After 4 and a half years of monitoring their patients (January 2001-July 2005), it was concluded that long-term use of cannabis among young adults can, in fact, increase the risk of developing lung cancer.

If one was to abide by the previous control case’s data and believe that smoking weed causes lung cancer, it would be expected that the number of smokers and the number of lung cancer fatalities would have a positive relationship; however, between 1970 and 2008, statistics reveal that the number of lung cancer deaths among Americans actually decreased by roughly 7%.

Graph taken from http://www.clevelandclinicmeded.com/medicalpubs/diseasemanagement/pulmonary/lung-cancer/

This is good news for pot smokers; the data above advocates that their “high habits” aren’t as unhealthy as one might initially believe. What about the data, however? In the field of science, nothing is absolute; therefore, there is a chance that the conclusions of the control case study could have been a false positive. In addition, an article on LeafScience.com argues that “a new study confirms that smoking marijuana does not raise the chances of developing lung cancer.”

Researches from Canada, the United States, and New Zealand compiled and combined data from six other studies in order to resolve the mystery surrounding smoking marijuana and lung cancer. Compared to the other control case study, this experiment utilized more subjects…to be exact, there were approximately 2,000 lung cancer patients and 3,000 controls. The team, which included members from the International Lung Cancer Consortium, concluded that their “results from [the] pooled analyses provide little evidence for an increased risk of lung cancer among habitual or long-term cannabis smokers.” Furthermore, Donald P. Tashkin from the University of Southern California reveals even more positive information regarding the smoking of marijuana.

“The THC in marijuana has well-defined anti-tumoral effects that have been shown to inhibit the growth of a variety of cancers in animal models and tissue culture systems, thus counteracting the potentially tumorigenic effects of the procarcinogens in marijuana smoke.” -Dr. Donald P. Tashkin, M.D.

Among all the positivity surrounding the health hazards of marijuana, there happens to be some negative silver lining. Hal Morgenstern, PhD, a University of Michigan epidemiologist insists the smoke from cannabis contains many carcinogens that can be harmful to the lungs. In fact, a marijuana “joint” will produce almost four times as much tar inside of the lungs than a normal cigarette would.

So now let’s get down to the jist of it– there’s nothing about smoking weed that is good for you; however, according to the data presented before, a couple hits every now and then won’t kill you. It’s ambiguous as to whether smoking weed truly causes lung cancer, but in order to prevent it totally it is suggested to refrain from smoking all together. To quote Mark Twain, “I never smoke to excess – that is, I smoke in moderation, only one at a time.” So for all you stoners out there, I suggest you follow Mr. Twain’s advice about moderation unless you want to end up developing lung cancer……or will you?

Dreams are known to be absolutely random. One night you’re walking around school naked and the next you’re riding on a flying elephant to your cousin’s bar mitzvah even though he’s not even Jewish. Have you ever wanted to be able to control your dreams and create your own realm of reality within your head every night? Well look no further because the science of Lucid Dreaming allows for that. Lucid dreaming has been known ever since Aristotle’s time; he was quoted saying that “often when one is asleep, there is something in consciousness which declares that what then presents itself is but a dream”. Lucid dreaming isn’t just used for fun, however. According to thelucidreamsite.com The tibetan buddhists used lucid dreaming as a way of self reflection and “as a means to gain spiritual enlightenment.” They referred to it as “dream yoga” and the objective of it is “to probe your consciousness and bring you to a constant state of awareness.” Also, it is said that in a deep, reflective lucid dream, the mind portrays your own problems such as social anxiety, timidness, and other emotions as “physical” characters within the dream that you can interact with…cool huh?

Why don’t we all lucid dream as soon as we fall asleep at night? Well there are two popular methods to lucid dreaming. One method is to lay down at night on your back with your hands by your side, close your eyes as if you were going to sleep, except fight the urge to fall asleep for 30-45 minutes WITHOUT MOVING A MUSCLE. After a while your body will feel weightless and you will enter a stage of “sleep paralysis“. You will not be able to physically move your body because it is technically asleep; however, your mind will still be conscious and ready to control your dreams. This method requires an absurd amount of concentration and discipline, so if you don’t want to try that there’s always method #2. This version takes a little bit more time; however, once you get the hang of it, you will be able to lucid dream any night of the week if you wanted. The first part towards learning lucid dreaming is teaching yourself how to remember your dreams as soon as you wake up. It is recommended to keep a “dream journal” next to your bed and write them down first thing in the morning so it is easy to recall your dreams easier. The second part is reality checks. Similar to the movie Inception, in a lucid dream there will be some parts of the dream that are inaccurate from reality. For example, if you were to look at a clock it would look a little something like this:

Try clapping or putting your hands together, as well. Believe it or not, in the dream world your hands would just end up going right through each other as if they were transparent. The goal is to recognize these phenomenons going on during your dream and it should trigger your mind to realize you are just dreaming and you are not in reality. Only after that epiphany will you be able to control your dreams. Another indicator that you’re lucid dreaming comes in the form of “dream signs.” Everyone can discover their own unique dream signs by paying close attention to an arbitrary, random, and reoccurring entity in your dreams. It could be a purple cat, a red bouncy ball bouncing around the dream, pretty much anything. Now we know what lucid dreaming is, but what causes humans to be able to do it? Neuroscientist J Allan Hobson proclaims once we realize we are dreaming something triggers the dorsolateral prefrontal cortex which is responsible for self-awareness and working memory.  According to Hobson’s theory, when lucid, the dreamer “treads a fine line between staying asleep, yet remaining conscious enough to remember they’re dreaming.”

Although it seems too good to be true, lucid dreaming is a great way to live out your fantasies in the most realistic manner possible without it actually being reality. Don’t get too carried away, however, because then differentiating between reality and dreams might be a little confusing. If you’re interested and want to learn more about lucid dreaming, visit this site to learn how to get started yourself. Best of luck and happy dreaming everyone!

Who hasn’t envied the lives of child actors at least once in their lives? I mean think about it…beauty, fame, fortune, praise, practically any material thing at your disposal, who wouldn’t want that kind of life? Well, fast forward a couple years and the consequences begin to truly reveal themselves. Former iconic child stars such as Lindsay Lohan, Amanda Bynes, Justin Bieber, and Miley Cyrus have tarnished their image through scandals, tattoos, drugs, and issues with law enforcement. But why? What causes these glamorous, youthful icons to go “bat-s*** crazy”? In her article, “7 Reasons Child Stars Go Crazy“, former child actress Mara Wilson provides an “insiders perspective” on this ongoing phenomenon.

Wilson begins her article by stating that the fact she wasn’t “Olson twin famous” behooved her. Additionally, she lamented that parental intervention is almost nonexistent for some of the big name child stars, which causes them to have bad and/or distant relationships with their parents. To go along with Wilson’s statement, Psychotherapist Christine Webber claims that “discipline enables parents to demonstrate acceptable and non-acceptable behaviour to their child”; therefore, it can be inferred that the child stars without parental supervision neglect the discipline received from good ol’ mom and dad.

Another important and modern example Wilson comments on is the fact that many stars, especially females, are, or have been, sexually exploited. She tells a brief anecdote about one time when she was around the 7th grade and she looked herself up on the internet. Little did she know that she would find herself on a “foot fetish website dedicated to child actresses.” Although it seemed meaningless and comical at the time, a couple years later Wilson put two and two together and realized she was practically featured on a child porn site…doesn’t seem so funny and innocent anymore, does it? Fortunately for Wilson, her average physical features served as a blessing in disguise as she was left out of the more seriously messed up “child porn sites.” Some of the youthful celebrities who, in Wilson’s words, “never seemed to go through an awkward age” and smoothly transitioned into beautiful adults never thought badly of the attention they received from sexual exploitation. The less clothed, the more attention. The more attention, the better, they thought. Webber would argue that the reason why some child celebrities experience the “Miley Cyrus” effect is because “when parents are critical or inconsistent or even unloving, their children will usually grow up undervaluing themselves”,
lacking self esteem and self respect. That half-naked picture of Lindsay Lohan everyone thought was so “hot” might make ladies around the world feel envious of her looks; however, they shouldn’t feel envious of the fact that they have had a stable family life and a good set of morals.

Sometimes the lives of others can be extremely deceiving, especially when looking at those of celebrities. Thanks to Mara Wilson, we have uncovered what the life of a teen idol is like, and that it is not in accordance with Dr. Christine Webber’s essentials to raising a good kid. Essentially, what it ultimately boils down to is having a solid family life and balancing all the aspects of your life. Aristotle taught that in order to live a good life, we must find our “golden mean“, or the balance between the two extremes. If there’s any take away from this, it’s to be happy with your own lives and not to become preoccupied with the lives of the famous because more often than not, the grass is ALOT greener on the other side.

Believe me, I’m no science nerd; however, after watching Christopher Nolan’s Interstellar, I became instantly fascinated with the beautiful mystery of outer space. In the film, Bradley Cooper is portrayed as a former space engineer and NASA pilot named Cooper. After enigmatically being given the coordinates to NASA’s secret headquarters, Cooper finds himself between a rock and a hard place when he has to decide whether to embark on an interstellar journey to find a new habitable planet for human kind or to remain on the dying Earth and become sitting ducks with his beloved daughter, Murphy (named after Murphy’s Law). Ultimately, Cooper bites the bullet and decides to pilot the “Endurance” along with three other brave astronauts, including famous actress, Anne Hathaway. I know what you’re thinking — “it’s a hollywood movie, and everyone knows that half the material in those things are complete B.S.” Although that statement may be true on most occasions, Interstellar acquired the services of renowned physicist Kip Thorne to help make the film as realistic and scientifically accurate as possible.

If you haven’t seen the movie and are wondering what the hell that picture is of, it is a representation of what a wormhole looks like. First thing’s first though…what is a wormhole? Dr. William Hiscock from Montana State University defines a wormhole as “a tunnel-like connection through space-time, much like the real tunnels bored by worms in a (Newtonian) apple.” In other words, instead of having to travel from point A to B in a straight line, space bends so that you can travel through both singularities and take a major shortcut.

Secondly, why is it circular? In Karl Tate’s web article, “The Science of ‘Interstellar’ Explained”, he points out that when “seen in person, a wormhole would be a sphere. A gravitationally distorted view of space on the other side can be seen on the sphere’s surface”, hence the transparency of the wormhole in the Interstellar picture. The magic about wormholes is that they not only possess the ability to connect two separate universes, but they allow for the possibility of time travel. Although we do not yet have the technology to stabilize and successfully travel through a wormhole, scientists continue to pursue the idea of interstellar travel by means of wormhole excavation.

In this second image, Cooper and two members of the crew are excavating a world made completely of water for signs of potential life. The only problem is, every hour spent on the water world is equivalent to SEVEN YEARS back on the Endurance ship which remained up in space…that’s relativity, folks. As ridiculous as this scene sounds, Albert Einstein proved that this phenomenon can actually happen! Einstein proved that there exists two types of relativity: general and special relativity. In Cooper’s situation, he would be experiencing general relativity. According to Einstein’s principles, general relativity means that time slows down in stronger gravitational fields. Unfortunately, after spending 3.3 hours on the extraneous planet, a catastrophic accident led to a death of a crew member and 24 years passing by.

At first glance, one might look at this image and think it’s a lighted up outline of Saturn; however, this is actually the most accurate representation of what a black hole looks like in reality constructed by Kip Thorne. According to the Caltech physicist, all matter that is attracted by the black hole’s immense gravitational pull first circulates around and over it’s “sphere”, giving it it’s glowing ring; this is called the “event horizon”. Once sucked inside, all matter compresses together because of unfathomable pressure and then releases a singularity streaming from the top and bottom of the black hole. In the movie, Cooper falls into a black hole and somehow falls into the 5th dimension (trippy!!!) and this is when the movie gets all fictitious.

Although the movie is considered fiction, Christopher Nolan did a tremendous job of incorporating real life science into a hollywood film. Not to mention, he grasped the attention of millions and peaked the curiosity of non-scientists around the world.

Sources for Pictures:

https://sites.psu.edu/siowfa15/wp-content/uploads/sites/29639/2015/09/111114_TimeCircle_Wormhole.jpg

https://sites.psu.edu/siowfa15/wp-content/uploads/sites/29639/2015/09/interstellar-wormhole.png

https://sites.psu.edu/siowfa15/wp-content/uploads/sites/29639/2015/09/47191081.cached.jpg

https://sites.psu.edu/siowfa15/wp-content/uploads/sites/29639/2015/09/dnews-files-2014-10-binterstellar-black-hole-670×440-141029-jpg.jpg

Fact of the day: there are approximately 7.3 billion people living on Earth, about 27,000 types of ethnic groups, and 6,500 different variations of human language and dialect. If you think those are staggering numbers, get this: there are 950,000 species of insects ALONE in the world and humans have become out-populated by chickens…so, if you think about it, we are technically a minority. We have been surrounded by animals for hundreds of thousands of years; yet, we have not found a way to effectively communicate with them. Are animals capable of learning human language? Does each species of animal have their own form of language? These are some of the mind-probing questions that scientists have been investigating for years; however, in the 1990’s, a breakthrough was made by American Researcher, Francine Patterson.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=teB-Icrog6E

Take a look at the very beginning of this PBS Documentary and you will find yourself awestruck; Dr. Patterson managed to cross the language barrier between man and animal by teaching Koko, a female western lowland gorilla, sign language. Koko’s ability to translate and communicate in sign language indicates that gorillas are more intelligent than most animals…but the question remains: is Koko’s learning ability unique to her as an individual or is it possible for other animals to learn interspecies communication, as well?

It is known that dogs can learn commands, parrots mimic human words, elephants mourn for the dead, and that horses can do math, but no other species of animal has the ability to purposefully communicate with humans by forming words in a specific language. Confused and looking for an answer? The secret lies within the anatomy of the human and animal brain. There is a region of the brain called Broca’s area which in charge of interpreting language and formulating words. Scientists have discovered a region of the primate’s brain that is “uncannily similar” to the one linked with speech in humans. According to Claudio Cantalupo and William D. Hopkins’ article, “Asymmetric Broca’s area in great apes” the Broca’s area in some apes have been found to “show a human-like asymmetry not only in posterior (such as the planum temporale) but also in frontal regions, indicates that the origin of asymmetry in language-related areas of the human brain should be interpreted in evolutionary terms rather than being confined to the human species.”

It’s physically evident that apes are similar to humans anatomically; however, now we know that they have similar brain structures, as well. Thanks to researchers like Dr. Patterson and breakthrough research in psychology, we have uncovered the unbounded potential to communicate with gorillas, chimpanzees, and apes. Who knows what the future holds…maybe one day the fable of Dr. Dolittle will become a reality; however, for now we must keep looking to science for answers to the questions that still remain a mystery.

Every generation has its unique style of music accompanied by a single, chart-topping musician/band. Sinatra ruled the 40’s, The Rolling Stones conquered the 60’s music industry, and nowadays Chicago’s one and only Kanye West has taken the 2000’s by storm; however, all of these performers hold little to no significance once referencing the influence Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart had on the history of music. His name is notorious, yet little know what made him the greatest musician of all time. What was it about that little Austrian that grabbed the attention of masses? His flair and exuberance attracted the attention of Europe; however, it wasn’t just personality traits that made Mozart the genius he was.

Ever had an “ear-worm” before? For most, after hearing a catchy song for the first time, the only way one can regurgitate the tune is to whistle it from memory. Well for Mozart, he had absolute pitch which meant he could hear the song once and then immediately replicate it on any instrument he wanted…pretty impressive, eh? According to recent studies conducted by University of California’s professor Diana Deutch, the absolute pitch ability is mostly genetic so, unfortunately, chances are if you don’t think you have it now, you probably will not ever get it. The brain is divides its duties to either the left or right side of the brain; however, scientists aren’t certain that the absolute pitch ability lies within solely one of the brain’s hemispheres. According to Dr. Robert Zatorre, a neuropsychologist at the Montreal Neurological Hospital in Canada, “it’s a leap to say that perfect pitch resides primarily in the left brain. We consistently find that regions of the right auditory cortex seem crucial for listening to melodic patterns or making judgments of pitch going up or down…But I would not go so far as to say that music is all on the right.” In order to gain more information about human’s ability to appreciate music, he conducted an experiment with a man who had suffered a stroke on both sides of his brain. Interestingly, the subject could not differentiate jazz music from rap or classical music. From that, he concluded that if damage is done to just one side of the brain, the musical ability still resides; however, the appreciation for music would be substantially diminished.

To clarify more on to the absolute pitch mystery, Dr. Gottfried Schlaug, a neurologist at Heinrich Heine University in Dusseldorf, Germany conducted an experiment in which he compared the brains of people with perfect pitch and people without it. As suspected, the left planum temporal was almost twice as large in perfect pitch people than it was within the others. As a matter of fact, the planum temporale of musicians without absolute pitch was more similar in size to a non-musician’s than to those with perfect pitch.

Hours of practice and conducting coupled with the rare absolute pitch ability launched Mozart’s career and labeled him as one of the greatest of all time. If you think you have what it takes, feel free to try the Perfect Pitch Test and see if you possess the ability that the great Mozart once had.

Hey guys, my name is Philip Littleton and I am a freshman. I am from Alexandria, Virginia which is about 20 minutes outside of Washington D.C. and I am currently enrolled in Smeal College of Business. In high school, I went on a trip with my economics class to New York City and ever since then I fell in love with the place which initiated my passion for business and one day hope to be able to live there. Unfortunately, I never had very good science teachers in high school; therefore, for me learning science has become somewhat of a burden.

During orientation my academic adviser told me that this course is the way to go for non-scientists, so that is another reason why I am taking this course. However, after reading over the syllabus the course material actually sounds quite interesting so I have high hopes for this semester!

Here’s a picture of my favorite soccer team, Manchester City: