Evolution has been a heavily debated topic in the religious community since the idea was suggested by Charles Darwin in 1859.  Many people have argued that there’s no way it could exist, we nor any animal could be the bi-product of mere chance.  This debate found its way into Americas public schools as the system began to teach this.  Many parents fought back against it, writing complaints about teachers overstepping their bounds against religious freedoms.

So people in America don’t like the concept of evolution, what’s the big deal?  There are a lot of scientific ideas that people deject, this isn’t a news flash.  But where this becomes interesting is just how far some people went to reject any extension of the idea of evolution.  In relation to the popular video game series Pokémon, many members of the religious community spoke against the game because of the way the pokemon evolve.  In the game, after reaching a certain level a pokemon will “evolve” into a new, better form of itself.  Interestingly enough, this is more like a metamorphosis.  In real life, one animal doesn’t just turn into another instantaneously and we call it evolution.  What pokemon do is very similar to what happens with a butterfly, they start out life as a lower form and eventually become a bigger creature.  In fact, in the game there is a pokemon called “Butterfree” that starts its life as a worm, goes through a metamorphosis and becomes a butterfly.

Image source

But since they decided to call this process evolution in the series, many people took offense to it.  One group that decided to come to the aid of Nintendo in this issue was actually the Vatican, this article from 2000 tells the story of how Pope John Paul 2 gave Pokémon his blessing because he said that it was a “story of strong friendship” and not a game that promoted satanic themes.

So then, if Pokémon really is based on science, what sort of patterns are we able to follow through their lives?  Well one real scientific trait in the games is a concept called “shiny pokemon”. Essentially, some of the pokemon in the game have a recessive gene and when they breed to make a new pokemon, that baby can turn out to be a shiny. A shiny is just a pokemon that has a different color.  This is similar to recessive genes in real life, like how two parents with black hair are able to give birth to a kid with red hair.

Another fascinating evolution is one that a pokemon called Eevee does.  For this section I am getting inspiration from here because I didn’t think about this particular pokemon at first.  Eevee is able to evolve into 7 different pokemon, and while this seems like something that doesn’t happen in real life, it actually is.  This is called a phenotype, and after doing some reading through this study here, I think the easiest way to describe this is that animals metamorphose into forms that best suit them in their environment.  So a grasshopper will have a different skin color depending on if it’s living in a brown prairie or a green forest.  This is similar to what is happening in the game, except there the trainer gets to pick what it will become. So next time you’re playing Pokémon, don’t forget to think about how totally relatable it is to the real world!

Image Source

For most of my life, and increasingly so for the last few years, I have found it very difficult to focus on what I am reading without listening to music. Even as I read other students blogs I had to press play on my previously paused youtube tab to be able to take in what I was reading. I think my problem is that I seem to always have two or more streams of thought running through my head at a time, so while I read one part of my mind is saying the words I see while another totally random train of thought runs through my head making it really hard to take in what I am reading. When I play music, however, I find that second train being consumed by the pulsing beat.                                                                                                                                                           Now I’ve always heard that it’s impossible to truly take in what you are reading when listening to music because our brains cannot multi-task but teachers had always told me listening to Mozart while studying was a good idea. And while the artistic makings of Flume or Chance the Rapper that I listen to are a far cry from classical symphonies, I decided to investigate on how music, and different types of music, impact our reading capabilities.                         According to USA Today, music can have a both positive and negative effect on your reading capabilities. The article reveals that in order to read or study it is optimal to be in a good balanced mood, which music can help bring us to. However when it comes to music with lyrics, our reading abilities can be impaired because we are using the language area of our brain to do two things at once, and the human brain is not good at multi tasking. When doing a school activity like math, however, lyrical music should not be too much of a problem because math uses a part of the brain separate from the lyrics and one shouldn’t severely interfere with the other.

With this phone there seems to be trouble.There are fires when plugged into the wall or outlet anywhere. Many of these phones if not all of them have been discontinued.Their batteries explode and it is very dangerous There has been many problems and one important one I want to get to the bottom of is why this seems to be happening and how science is related.

Should we use this type of phone on airplanes?

While reading an article from the FAA also known as the Federal Aviation Administration, it was talking about how people with this phone should not change or use it on an airplane, as this will risk it blowing up and catching on fire. The company of the phone had asked for the return of the phone and saying how the costumer safety is much more important then people buying our destructive product.In this USA today article it also talked about how people shouldn’t put the phone in their bags to be checked at airports either for safety reasons. They have told passengers not to take the phone onto plans as they have had cases where the planes have been damaged due to something happening with the phone. Many times this has happened due to the fact that the phone has been overheated and they don’t want that to happen on plans. So, they advise passengers not to have there phone turned on for the duration of the flight.

Personal Example:
This is important to know this information and it reminded me about when my dad got a hover-bored from his work. We had to be very cautious and make sure that we stood by when it was charging because we have heard from other people that the same thing would happen. While it was charging the outlet would get over heated and it could catch on fire. Luckily this had never happened to my family however, we still were very cautious and made sure to be careful and keep an eye on it while charger. This is the same thing that people needed to do with this phone. Keep a close watchful eye.

Why is this happening? How Come they are Exploding?
While researching I have read many article but there was one that talked about how it’s the fault of Samsung its self. They have had many different cases of phones that exploded because of the battery. What could Samsung possible have done to have so many problems with their phones? In a statement made my Samsung there has been an intermittent business error. The phone has had many problems with over heating which causes the fires. There is some science that plays a part in the batteries inside the phone. There is a main reason that batteries in phones get over heated and it leads to science.

How Science Comes into Play?
The elements of science and the periodic table play a role in the batteries inside the Samsung Galaxy Note Seven phone.The component is called Lithium and it’s a metallic that can be dangerous if it catches water. This battery in this phone could have bad electric and it caused fires. When the battery gets over headed and the lithium can’t shut off the battery gets dead and the phone overheats causing fires that way.

Results:
There have been many problems with the Samsung Note Seven that has lead to many fires. The overheating of the phone is a problem that has came up in many of the articles that I have read. One important part of this is that it’s not a good idea to bring this phone onto airplanes. There have been many problems and plans have gotten damaged because of the phones. Samsung has asked if anyone has this phone that do to the safety of the costumers they return it. Also, science plays a part in the batteries of these phones and Lithium plays a big part and is an element that when connected with water could cause a fire. Please if anyway has this phone please be careful and return it and don’t bring it on airplanes or put in your check in bags.

Websitehttps://www.google.com/#q=samsung+note+7+and+airplans
http://www.livescience.com/56056-samsung-galaxy-note-7-battery-fires.
htmlhttp://www.phonearena.com/news/Samsung-explains-why-some-Galaxy-Note-7-batteries-tend-to-blow-up_id85105

Calculated using data from Fangraphs. AB is at-bats and HR is home runs.

As a big Major League Baseball (MLB) fan, I have noticed that home runs seem to be occurring with more regularity than the past this season, as exemplified by 43 year old Mets pitcher Bartolo Colon hitting his first career homer this May. The data matches my observations: during the current season, home runs are being hit more often than any other time in the history of the game, with the fewest at-bats between each home run, as shown in the chart to the right. Additionally balls are coming off of the bat faster than the past, as indicated by a greater exit velocity. I was curious about what could be driving this change and wanted to take a further look.

Evidence seems to be pointing towards a change in the ball being the primary reason for the huge increase in home runs, but there are likely a number of other factors involved. After the 2014 season, when scoring was very low and pitching dominated, the league reportedly met with the MLB Player’s Association about possible changes to increase offense, with one proposal involving a change to the ball. Last July, there began to be a dramatic increase in home runs and scoring in the major leagues. Several players have noted that the balls used in the major leagues this year seem to be wound tighter than the past, which could make it go further. It would make sense that the league would be interested in promoting more offense, since it would increase the popularity of the game. It would be strange, however, if they changed the ball without making it known to the public.

The balls used in the major leagues are manufactured by Rawlings in Costa Rica. It is possible that a slight change in the manufacturing process, which is all done by hand (with 200 workers recently laid off), could lead to increases in the coefficient of restitution (COR), a fancy physics term describing how bouncy the ball is, which consequently can produce major increases in the distance the ball travels and the speed it comes off the bat. MLB permits a wide range of acceptable restitution coefficients, which means that it is possible for balls to fall within the acceptable range, but be bouncier, and therefore, travel nearly 50 feet further.

Yoenis Céspedes of the New York Mets. Photo by Jim McIsaac/Getty Images.

FiveThirtyEight conducted an experiment that attempted to determine whether the ball has changed in recent seasons. They had official MLB balls from 2014 and late 2015 thrown from a cannon at a steel plate, in order to measure their COR or bounciness. The tests were inconclusive and did not not find a significant difference in the COR of balls from 2014 compared to those from late last season. No matter how many tests are run in a lab, there is no way to replicate game situations and ensure that the balls are exactly the same as those used in games.

Comparing the major league and minor leagues can help provide some insight into what role the ball has played in driving up the home run rate. The balls used in the major leagues and minor leagues are produced thousands of miles apart, in Costa Rica and China, respectively. Typically, the home run rates for both leagues were correlated, but recently, while homers have increased in the majors, they have decreased in the minors (Triple-A), as shown in the chart below. When analyzing matchups that took place between the same pitchers and hitters, at both the minor league (Triple-A) and major league level since last July, the the ball traveled further in MLB. 3.3 percent of balls hit were homers in Triple-A, compared to 4.3 percent in MLB. This could be a sign that the ball changed in MLB. There is precedent for this. When modifications were made to the ball in the past, there were significant changes in home run rates.

Steroids are not a logical explanation for the dramatic increase in home runs because it is unlikely that a large number of batters began taking some performance-enhancing drug at the same time that allowed them to hit more home runs, without getting caught. Plus, the league has cracked down on steroids in recent years, with harsher penalties that could result in a lifetime ban from the game.

Other theories on why home runs have increased include that a different approach is being taken by both pitchers and batters. Pitcher may be encouraged to pitch to contact to get quicker outs, while batters are being more aggressive, as shown by the decrease in walks and increase in strikeouts.  Hitters have also gotten better at hitting high velocity pitches and turning them into home runs. Research has shown that how hard a ball is thrown does not correlate with how fast it is hit off the bat, meaning that the batter is more responsible than the pitcher for the exit velocity and distance the ball travels. Therefore, the influx of young power hitters in the game could play a role in the rise in homers. Additionally, teams may be valuing power more than the past. With pitching dominating, teams may have figured that if there are less opportunities to score, they should make sure they capitalize on the chances they are given.

As we discussed in class, there are certain phenomena where it is very difficult to explain the cause, and this is a great example of that. There are no clear-cut answers for why home runs are being hit more often, but there are number of possible explanations involving variables discussed above, such as the ball and players themselves, or it could potentially be just a fluke.

Sources

• http://fivethirtyeight.com/features/are-juiced-balls-the-new-steroids/
• http://fivethirtyeight.com/features/steroids-probably-arent-causing-baseballs-power-surge/
• http://fivethirtyeight.com/features/a-baseball-mystery-the-home-run-is-back-and-no-one-knows-why/
• http://www.espn.com/mlb/story/_/id/17109063/the-mlb-home-run-explosion-2016-juiced-baseballs-blame

You’re all ready to go on vacation, the highlight of your entire summer.  You head to the airport bright an early to get on your flight, strapped in for the long haul.  But as you start to board the flight, you realize just how long you are going to be in that metal tube for.  But why does it have to be that way?  With the incredible technological advances we have made in the past few decades, why are airplanes moving at the same speed as they have for a long time?  There’s a lot of reasons for that, some of which are purely up to the airlines and some of the others are due to actual technical reasons.

To talk about why planes aren’t getting any faster, we have to first understand the history of commercial flight.  There has been a refusal to break the sound barrier in commercial flight because of how many inconveniences it causes.  Breaking the sound barrier uses a lot of fuel, causes a disturbance to both passengers and people under the plane on the ground.  Sonic Booms in the air can cause damage to windows and other fragile items on the ground, and as a result peoples homes were being damaged when supersonic flights were flying domestic.

Many of you might be familiar with a flight service called Concorde, they were offering flights from America to Britain because it didn’t cause disturbances over domesticated areas.  According to this article, the main reason that the Concorde was required was because of all extremely high costs.  By the time they had managed to create the plane, they were already three times over their R&D budget.  Supersonic flight also takes a large amount more fuel, and during the 1970’s fuel costs were already extremely high due to the oil crisis.  This made the barrier to entering the Concorde market exceptionally unwise for most airlines.  They also couldn’t fly over mainland America, so these flights were limited to being Transatlantic.

Image Source

The failure of the Concorde has set back the airline industry massively, instead of now going to spend their money to research faster flights, airplane manufacturers are now looking for ways to use less fuel in order to be more cost efficient and save the environment.  Since drag is such a big technical issue when flying, we can look at the fact that doubling our speed will increase the drag force by 4 factors.  This causes fuel costs to rise at a disproportionate rate, and it’s not cost efficient to fly these planes because people aren’t willing to pay first class prices for a simply faster flight.  So until we are able to find a way to break the sound barrier using less fuel and not create a disturbance when flying over land, speeding up our commercial flights will not happen.  Maybe the real future lies in teleportation, then.

It is very common for someone to be driving, and start to daydream. This has happened to me before when I got home from a routine trip to the store, and when I got home I didn’t remember driving during most of the trip. This happens when I am familiar with my area and my mind starts to wander when I am driving. According to William Hampton, in 65,000 fatal crashes during 2010-2011, 62 percent were related to daydreaming. Daydream driving is very dangerous because you may think that you have control of what is going on around you, but it is almost like your body goes on auto-pilot.

There is another article by Ron Claiborne that states that dozing off could be related to a term called micro-sleep. This is when you doze off without noticing you are dozing off. According to the same article, there was a study done on one particular individual who had stayed up for 32 consecutive hours and was driving down a road. He had a brain wave monitor hooked up to him, with observers in the car to see what he was doing. After the drive, they recorded that he had fell into micro-sleep 22 times, even though the driver only remembered dozing off twice. This term micro-sleep is caused by sleep deprivation. Micro-sleep is a very dangerous thing that anyone can go through without even knowing it, constantly dosing off and having your subconscious drive can be one of the most dangerous actions while driving.

Both of these problems relate to each other because they put other drivers on the road in danger. There is a direct causation relationship for these ideas, because you have to be conscious when you are driving in order to be driving in a safe manner. Both daydream driving and micro-sleep driving prevents you from having full consciousness while driving, and makes you extremely vulnerable for a dangerous crash to occur. In the micro-sleep study, the individual stayed up and made himself sleep deprived, and tried to drive. This is a direct causal relationship because the sleep deprivation caused him to go into micro-sleep multiple times. We can rule out the reverse causal relationship because micro-sleep does not cause you to be tired. There is no third confounding variables because the only thing that causes micro-sleep is sleep deprivation. Lastly, chance could be an explanation for this study but it is highly unlikely because of the fact that he was sleep deprived, and that caused him to micro-sleep.

The mechanism for this particular study is sleep deprivation, because sleep deprivation causes micro-sleep to occur. The putative causal variable is whether or not the sample is sleep deprived and the putative response variable is whether or not the sample goes through micro-sleep on their drive.

In conclusion of this study, everyone should get a normal amount of sleep daily before driving, in order to prevent loss of consciousness at the wheel. This will help make the roads even more safe than they already are.

Works Cited

Hampton, William. “Just How Dangerous Is Daydreaming While Driving?” Popular Mechanics. Popular Mechanics, 30 Jan. 2015. Web. 11 Sept. 2016.

NOTEBOOK, REPORTER’S, and By Claiborne Ron. “‘In the Blink of an Eye’: Dozing While Driving.” ABC News. ABC News Network, 03 Dec. 2012. Web. 11 Sept. 2016.

Every time I pluck my eyebrows, my eyes tear up and I’ve always thought it was a normal reaction… I didn’t think anything about it. My roommate recently told me that she sneezes every time she plucks her eyebrows- this was not the first time that someone has told me that, so I thought I should look into this more.

It just so happens that by plucking your eyebrows, you are stimulating your nerves!

Doctor Jeanie B. Downie, explains that plucking eyebrows is a reflex– a normal human reaction…who knew? When you go near the face, you might flinch when someone moves their hand in front of you, throws a ball near you, something gets close to you- this is a reaction (a reflex) because your body is reacting to whatever is near your face. The same thing happens when you pluck your brows, your eyes tear, you might sneeze, you might have a tear stream down your face, etc. You are touching your nerves which are highly sensitive.

Interestingly enough, Doctor Gervaise Gerstner also explains how by tweezing your eyebrows, the facial movement is triggered from pain causing you to tear up whereas the sensation on your face causes you to sneeze due to irritation.

It turns out that your nose and eyebrows are on the same branch of the trigeminial nerve- this causes you to sneeze with irritation (apply pressure to the area and you should be good). Ever notice in the Spring when allergies are bad your eyes bother you and your nose?… Blame your nerves!

This study can be observational because you can watch people when they get their eyebrows tweezed and witness this, but it can also we experimental. You can take the X variable which would be tweezing the eyebrows and the Y variable would be applying pressure to the area to experiment and take note of the differences. I don’t think there would be any confounding variables (maybe if your skin was already irritated/dry or if you were sick/had allergies and actually had to sneeze)?

There is a phenomenon called ACHOO or Autosomal Dominant Compelling Helioopthalmic Outburst- that explains why people sneeze when they look at the sun, this is the same phenomenon that can explain why people sneeze when they tweeze. Overexposure to light will make anyone sneeze, but when you pluck near the visual cortex you are disrupting the area causing an achoo.

There has been an experiment conducted that if antihistamines would control the sneezing because the study shows a possible correlation between allergies- however, the experiment is not strong enough to suggest that taking allergy medicine will cure the tweezing and sneezing phenomenon.

Brow specialist Kristie Streicher of Striiike salon in Los Angeles says she will hold the area above the brow when she shapes clients’ eyebrows because she wants to reduce the pain they might feel. Although she admits that there is no effect on a client sneezing when she holds the brow, she believes it relieves some pain.

Streicher emphasizes how around 15 to 20 percent of her clients have sneezed due to tweezing the brow. There is no evidence on if eyebrow waxing or threading has the same effect, but it is something that can be further investigated.

Unfortunately no one knows how to reduce the sneezing; we can only reduce the pain at this point. I wouldn’t bother with allergy medication only because I don’t think it will work just because it’s a nerve problem. I think you can psyche yourself out and believe the medicine does something… someone can experiment with a placebo and make a new group that’s controlled and test to see if the medicine does something.

I observed my roommate, Jill, after I decided to experiment with this and it was one of the funniest things I’ve seen. I advise you all to try this sometime and watch the results.

Below is a video explaining ACHOO

http://https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MMNbw6fU_QA

Quantum Satellite

Last month, China just launch the first quantum satellite in the world. Now China make the message into quantum level so that is impossible for other countries to crack.

How does quantum satellite work?

In order to make the messages uncrackable, scientists turn to subatomic world. In subatomic level, particles are strange. When they are separated, they continue to affect each other no matter how far they are away from each other. This is what Einstein call spooky action. To pass a message, the satellite will create a quantum key or random numbers that encode information. These would be sent or received to the Earth. Quantum key is able to travel in long distance and carry photons. Photons can not be copied, and photons are always bound with each other. People usually put message in photons. Therefore, no other things in the world can intercept the message. If the message is hacked, quantum key would change or cancel, and the transmission would fail. So that means people can only get some random number if they try hard to crack the message.

Now China launch the first quantum satellite, it not only prove some theories in quantum mechanics, but also is a big step in space race. With the development of technologies, I think more and more countries would be able to launch their own quantum satellite and keep proving the mysterious theories in quantum mechanics.

Chinese Quantum Satellite 墨子（mozi)

URL:

How quantum satellite work

Chinese report of quantum satellite

Video about Quantum Satellite

A GMO is commonly known as a genetically modified organism. The following article talks about the history of GMOs and DNA. I think it’s an absolutely incredible idea. We discovered DNA almost 150 years ago and sometime from 1868 to 1972  someone thought ” Hey , what if we mixed two different strains of DNA to improve plants and crops?”. The method that is used to create new strands of DNA is called gene splicing. According to the article above, gene splicing is the process of cutting and placing specific DNA proteins into other strands of DNA.

Now I know what everyone’s thinking. Who are we to play God and alter the genes of species? There are many positive things GMOs bring to us. Third world countries still are suffering from starvation. What if rice and beans were able to grow in harsh conditions where it normally wouldn’t thrive? Or if they could enhance the size of the rice or add more nutrients into the grain? What if crops were altered to survive in frigid temperatures? The possibilities are endless.

The following article discusses some of the positive effects of GMOs to the global population and environment. One of the most interesting pieces of information that I read from this article was the possibilities of edible vaccines. A crop could be produced on a mass scale in order to prevent anything from malaria to cholera. The article describes a potato plant that has been tested as a pharmaceutical drug that can prevent diarrhea. I’m excited to see what the future holds for this field, I’d love to see what you all have to say.

Yesterday I woke up and could not hear out of my one ear. I scheduled an appointment  at UHS for Tuesday, knowing that I have another ear infection… AGAIN. I even know exactly the ear infection I have every time, it’s referred to as Otitis Media.

*WARNING, THE FOLLOWING IMAGE MAY BE GROSS TO SOME READERS, PROCEED WITH CAUTION*

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image from http://www.kids-ent.com/pediatricent/ear_infections/

The above image is a comparison of a healthy eardrum to an ear infected with Otitis Media. Otitis Media is a middle ear infection typically contracted after having a cold, flu or allergies. The bacteria gets into the ear because of the clogged Eustachian tubes, and the bacteria gets trapped with liquid, creating an infection in the space behind the ear drum (WebMD). This can cause the ear drum to burst, and lead to symptoms such as hearing loss, ear ringing, headaches, and fever (personal experience and Healthline). This ear infection is common in infants, children, and the elderly (Healthline). So why do I, an 18 year old, get this kind of ear infection at least twice a year?

The problem with me (and others who are suffering from chronic ear infections) could lie within the Adenoids.

image found here http://dfwsinus.com/nasal-airway-obstruction/adenoid-tonsil-hypertrophy/

The adenoids are located behind the tonsils. The adenoids can sometimes act as a gathering place for germs that get transferred into the Eustachian tubes, causing infection. Another problem that can occur with the adenoids is that they are too large, and that blocks the Eustachian tube, preventing proper drainage (MedicineNet). A solution for this issue is to get the adenoids removed, or an Adenoidectomy.

This seems to be a bit of a drastic solution, but personally, after being on the same antibiotics multiple times for the same ear infection, finding a permanent solution would be grand. Obviously when I go to UHS this week, they’ll probably write me an oh-so-familiar perscription of Amoxicillin and send me on my way. But maybe when I go home for break this winter, I’ll actually see an ENT (ear nose throat) doctor. For now however, I’ll continue to wonder and research why my poor ear continues to get infected.

Everyone’s heard that breakfast is the most important meal of the day as it refuels our bodies after a night’s sleep and gives us the energy we need to go about our days. In 2011, Kellogg’s surveyed 14,000 Americans and found that 77% of children, 36% of high school students and 34% of adults actually eat breakfast. Are the people who don’t eat breakfast at some sort of disadvantage? Recent research has shown that it might not actually be as essential as we think.

Eating a well-balanced breakfast in the morning has many benefits for our health. Firstly, eating protein restores our glucose levels (which fluctuate between rising and falling throughout the night) and gives us the energy we need to function adequately throughout the day. Furthermore, since it’s our brain’s only source of energy, eating the correct carbohydrates in the morning makes us sharper and more alert. Secondly, research has shown that eating breakfast means you are less likely to become overweight. A study done by Yunsheng Ma et al. looked at the link between eating patterns and obesity. The results showed participants who skipped breakfast were 4.5 times more likely to become obese.

On the other hand, there has been research and studies that prove eating breakfast isn’t absolutely necessary, especially for weight loss. A study conducted by the University of Alabama proved that eating breakfast has almost no effect on your weight. Their study had 300 participants who were randomly allocated to the groups: eat breakfast, skip breakfast or continue with current breakfast habits. After sixteen weeks, their initial and current weights were compared and on average each person had only lost a pound.

Additionally, breakfast isn’t the only way you can get energy in the morning. Many people prefer working out. In one study, researchers looked at 70 different studies on the effects of exercising and energy levels. Over 90% of the studies showed that people who exercised regularly had more energy and less fatigue, compared to those who didn’t exercise.

Another factor to consider is that many of the studies claiming breakfast is very important are done by health and nutrition companies which means they are likely to be biased. Kelloggs, The Quaker Oats Company etc. are obviously going to try to promote their products as helpers with weight loss and good health.

In conclusion, I think that eating a healthy and well-balanced breakfast will help you throughout the day (definitely for college students who often have long and tiring schedules). However, if you’re eating breakfast to help with weight loss, you might want to look more into that as the fact is not totally accurate.

Other sources:

[1] [2] [3]

Most people, myself included, are guilty of taking a selfie at one time or another. Some people take one with a group of friends while others will find the perfect lighting and sit for hours taking hundreds to pick out the perfect one. Selfies are becoming so popular that iPhones even have a separate folder in the photo app reserved just for the beloved selfies and there are special contraptions called selfie sticks in order to take even better selfies. Once people have the perfect selfie, it is time to edit it and post it on every possible social media site. While this seems like a harmless way to pass time, studies are showing this may lead to character traits that you may not want attached to your name.

Ohio State University recently conducted a study in which they surveyed around 800 men ages 18 to 40 to find out their selfie taking habits. What they found is a little scary. Men who take more selfies are more likely linked to having narcissistic and or psychopathic tendencies. Jesse Fox who was one of the lead researchers noted that this is not surprising but now what everyone was already thinking has been confirmed. It is important to note that this does not mean that every guy who takes selfies is narcissistic or psychopathic, but they may score above the average on those tests. Fox also asked the men if they edit their selfies before posting them. The results showed that men who do edit their photos are linked more to narcissism but not psychopathy which makes sense because psychopathy has to do with impulsivity. If someone is impulsively posting selfies, they probably won’t take the time to edit them. Overall, Fox came to the conclusion that the way we present ourselves online is impacted by our personality. Like we were talking about in class, correlation does not equal causation. Just because men who take lots of selfies are more likely to be have traces of narcissism and psychopathy does not mean that taking selfies is what caused that. It might even be a reverse causation: narcissistic and psychopathic traits are already in their personality and that causes them to take more selfies. I find it really interesting that this study was done on men and not women though they are working on running the same research on women. It will be interesting to see how those results compare and contrast.

Now that we know what taking selfies tells about our personality, let’s dig into why we like taking selfies, other than they are just really fun to take!  People are very well versed at studying other people’s facial features and facial expressions but when it comes to their own faces, have a lot of trouble. We can look in the mirror all we want but if we saw ourselves in public, we might not be able to recognize our own selves! This is crazy because of all the time our society spends in the mirror, you’d think we’d know our own faces pretty well by now. One study was done in which they asked people to choose the original photograph of themselves out of several that had been altered to make them appear both more and less attractive. People had a lot of trouble picking the real photograph. What we think we look like in our head is completely different than what we actually look like. Therefore, the beauty of selfies is that we can take lots of them until we think we have one that looks like what we think we look.

Like most things in life, selfies should be taken and posted in moderation. I am all for a good selfie to give us a little confident boost. I truly believe that we need to love ourselves before we can love others. If posting a selfie every now and then helps you to feel good about yourself, then I say go for it! However, if you post a selfie a day, maybe lay low for a little while and see if your personality or attitude changes. It can’t hurt to try!

Intro

3D printing, also known as additive manufacturing (AM), refers to processes used to synthesize a three-dimensional object in which successive layers of material are formed under computer control to create an object.(Wikipedia) In order to make a 3d printing, you need to have a 3d printer and a software to make the model.  Generally, you just design a model in a program, and then use the printer to print your work.

3d printer

A 3d printer is like a regular printer. It makes 3d model a layer at a time. It starts from the bottom and goes to top repeatedly. It works automatically, but it takes a lot of time to print a object. The 3d printer does not need ink, it need some special plastic to print, such as ABS (Acrylonitrile Butadiene Styrene), PLA (Polylactic Acid) and PVA (Polyvinyl Alcohol).

software

There are many software to make 3d model. From my point of view, openSCAD is a good choice for beginner. It only has some basic tools and it’s not hard to learn.

Here is a photo of some 3d models that I made in my high school.

URL:

Some other software

how does 3d printer work

material for 3d printer

For me the thought of passing on to the next life makes me scared. It could happen at any time and it just happens.People get sick, people grow old, or it just seems to be there time.Can human’s even live forever? This is something that I say I want because I’m scared to die but what does science say about this topic and if we can’t live forever what happens to us? Where do we go? Could technology help in the process of us living longer? If so how does it play a role?

What scientists Say about Humans Living forever?

For many years scientists have been trying to undercover the secrets as to how people are living to be over 100 years old. According to the Actile by 2050 high tech medicine will help increase the number of people living. Many big companies are putting in millions of dollars to help solve the huge mystery problem of people growing old. Growing old and the body processing we just need to drudge the process and we can potentially live forever. People are tending to live much longer than usual but there is still the fear of getting certain diseases, as people grow older like for example, dementia. For scientist they have to research and figure out ways that they can turn death and stop the process of again. According to the article there was One-way in particular that I found that worked and really made me what to read more and that was the Vampire. This was when the scientist would take the blood and relocates it from youthful to aged bodies.

Studies Done:
There was studies done on animals such as mice first to see if there life expectance would rise which it did, now they are going to be testing the drugs on humans to see if it improves there live expectance as well. There was a different study done at a college that gave blood from youth to people with dementia to see if it could be the flip-flop to ageing the scientist believes it could be the answer.

What is The Next Step?
Scientists are trying to figure out how to live longer. However, while the scientists are trying to conclude this what is the next step? The world is going to be a lot more different people are going to be living till 200 years old possibly but, there is steps set in motion for this to work. The places that people are working are going to be changing drastically. A rule of whom we can and can’t bring to work is going to change.

Results:
Life is very complicated and we may not be able to live forever there is ways to up our chances of living longer. Many technological advances to help, cures of diseases being discovered, transferring of blood to help the aging process, and our body growing each day. Staying happy and healthy is the best kind of cure and helps keep us going everyday. I may be scared to die but in the end if everybody does and I was the only one to still be living that wouldn’t be healthy. So we may not get to life forever but there are many ways to keep us going now and to keep us happy which happy people live longer.

Website:
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/technology/2016/01/25/will-technology-help-us-live-forever/http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/science/science-news/10807478/Vampire-therapy-could-reverse-ageing-scientists-find.html
Google Images- Pictures

If you’re like me than you will always have nail polish on your nails at any given time. I couldn’t tell you the first time I discovered the colors of their names that came with it- it was a glorious moment.

But with all the chemicals listed online that’s in a nail polish bottle, I had to do more research. Could it be that nail polish is doing more harm than good?

In a Daily Mail article, Doctor Thu Quach explains how nail products can contain dangerous materials. Upon these findings Toluene, which is found in gasoline according to the Merriam Dictionary, Formaldehyde, which is known to cause cancer according to Dictionary.com. I know the brand Essie that sells nail polish stopped using Formaldehyde in its products a few years ago because my neighbor is a manicurist and she would talk about how things were changing.

Doctor Quach also explains how exposure to certain chemicals can cause problems with people’s hormones, nervous system and potentially cause cancer/fertility problems.

This can be an observational experiment because you can be watching how nail polish creates problems years later, or it can be experimental because you can test how much nail polish you put on and what happens. X variable- nail polish coats, Y variable- side effects, confounding variable- which brands did you use, did you use UV gel, what other products did you use, are there any fertility problems in the family, is there cancer in your genes, etc.?

There is much speculation as to if you work in a nail salon that one is going to have respiratory problems because of breathing in chemicals all day- there is no proof that nail products cause this, but some people have complained of experiencing skin irritations, eye injuries and allergic reactions which can also create memory problems, nausea or cancer.

Doctor Quach emphasizes how women working in salons can have birth defects- spontaneous births, preterm delivery, undersized babies, etc. because of the chemicals. It’s important to note that not only nail polish can cause birth defects, but other factors such as genetics, living area, not the proper medical care, stress, etc. can.

I think there is a social standard and people, especially girls, feel obligated to wear nail polish. Whatever the reason is as to why we continue to wear hazardous chemicals, we all need to educate ourselves.

The FDA has tried to regulate the products that companies can use, but some are still ignoring the laws. They warn against using certain chemicals, but it is up to you to use what you want and feel is right.

Clearly there is a correlation between using nail products and health problems, whether it takes years for the products to destroy our bodies or months- (again) every one should be careful.

People weren’t mixing chemicals on purpose to see what was giving people side effects and serious health issues- those happened over years. I think that nail polish will get safer when we eliminate the toxic chemicals and create new ways of making nail polish safe and healthy for all of us.

As I have mentioned before I am a huge supporter of nail polish. I think it looks pretty, I feel better about myself and if I do not have a color on- I will bite my nails completely off, which I cannot stand. I know I should probably stop wearing it, but I won’t.

I found an interesting video on why a woman decided to throw out all of her nail polish and it made me re-evaluate everything. I advise all of you to watch the 11 minute clip because it puts things into a new perspective.

Disclaimer: If you are going to throw out nail polish, please let them dry out first and then dump them… DO NOT throw them down the sink because then they will be in our drinking water and we all know how that ends.

http://https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZcmrpLsBU0Q

Your whole life you have been listening to music through headphones or earbuds, not really knowing the actual consequences or harms they cause towards your ears. I like to listen to my music very loud, whether I am at the gym or even just walking from class to class with my earbuds in. Recently my ears have been very sensitive to the level of noise I have been listening to my music at. Which brings me to the reason why I chose this topic, to see if there is a possible correlation here.

According to”The Huffington Post headphones are not nearly as damaging to the ears as earbuds.”Everyone who can hear has eardrums and by putting this loud music directly into your ears it vibrates the eardrum which ends up damaging areas of the ear that transfer the sound to your brain. Loss of hearing commonly happens when the hair cells in our ears are severely harmed.(Huffington,2013)

This diagram of the ear above shows exactly how sound enters and travels through the ear. Also back on what I said before about the hair cells, as displayed in the picture, the most delicate and most inner part of the ear lays the hair cells.

Headphones compared to earbuds I would think are not as bad for your ears. Since headphones cancel out all outside sounds I would feel that that is beneficial to your ears since they will not have to put up with the outside sounds going on around you and the music that you are currently blasting. In comparison to the earbuds they are totally opposite of that, they are deeper in your ear and are not noise canceling.

In conclusion, listening to music at a loud volume can cause severe hearing damage. According to “The Huffington Post you should not listen music for more then 60 minutes at a time.” In other words I think that its all in moderation, if you are careful with the amount of loud music you listen to you should never come across obstacles such as hearing loss later down the line.

http://health.stackexchange.com/questions/312/when-does-the-use-of-headphones-become-harmful/490

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/10/16/headphones-bad-for-hearing_n_4100874.html

When I was younger, Claire’s Accessory Store was all the rage. Whether you were there to buy a necklace, earrings, or get your ears pierced, it was the staple  of every preteen’s trip to the mall. The first time I went to Claire’s, I was in awe at the amazing array of chunky jewelry in multitude of colors, I thought I had found my happy place. I purchased a necklace with matching earrings and a very cute ring, I couldn’t wait to go to school and wow everyone with my bling. After about two days though, I noticed that my finger started turning green, I was so confused as to why my mom made me throw out the ring, but later on I learned that your finger turning green was a sign that you were wearing fake jewelry. To this day though, I still don’t understand WHY this happens.

Turns out, the idea of only cheap jewelry causing the alarming green color is untrue. According to Chemistry expert Anne Marie, the discoloration can happen with sterling silver and gold rings as well, the chances are just a lot lower. The main culprit with finer jewelry is sweat, the mixing of sweat with the metal over time causes a faint discoloration of the finger. The metals that typically cause the biggest problem are silver and copper, which also happen to be among some of the cheapest metals. The reason behind the actual color change can be explained by a chemical reaction between your skin and the metal of the ring. Other factors, like lotion use or sweat, can also explain the change of color. The oxidization through contact with oxygen of the materials on the ring is what causes the discoloration on the skin, and although the color can be alarming there are no real health hazards that arise.

So now the question that comes up is can you stop this from happening? And if so, how? Preventing oxidization is probably a bust because well…oxygen is all around us. And even expensive authentic jewelry can cause some discoloration, so what’s the solution? The answer is that although there is no way to completely avoid this, there are ways you can greatly reduce your chances. One piece of advice is to minimize as many liquids from touching your ring as possible, try to remove rings when washing your hands with soap, using lotion, or swimming. Some people repeatedly apply a coating of nail polish on the inside of their rings to prevent the metal from touching their skin.

Whatever you decide to do, just remember that your finger turning green because of a ring is not the end of the world. Wear what you want and what makes you feel good, but following some of these tips can keep you from encountering this problem.

Sources:

Why Does Your Finger Turn Green (Chemistry)

What Causes the Color Change?

Metal Prices

Define Oxidize

Climate change now become a popular topic among those few years. As the demand of resources increased rapidly, people started to pay more attention to the environment. We all know emission of greenhouse gas, such as carbon dioxide and methane, is the main reason that causes climate change. According to EPA (Untied States Environmental Protection Agency), more than 30 billion tons of carbon dioxide (CO₂) are produced by human activities each year. Since pre-industrial time, the concentration of carbon dioxide has increased over 40%. People might think that the amount of carbon dioxide emission annually doesn’t have any relation to their daily life, but it really does a lot to our surroundings.

The first time I heard about the terms “carbon sequestration” was during my Chemistry class in high school. Although the conversation of it didn’t last any further, the concept imprinted to my mind. I think it might be a doable solution to climate changes, so I would like to do some further research on this topic.

Since we have so many carbon dioxide in the atmosphere, why can’t we recycle them? I don’t know how many people used to have that idea before, but this is exactly what carbon sequestration all about. Wikipedia explained the term as capturing atmospheric carbon dioxide for long-term storage. This process could reduce a significant amount of carbon dioxide, which could slow down the accumulation of waste gases produced by the fossil fuel combustion.  An article in the PCO2R (Plains CO2 Reduction) Partnership website introduced two types of carbon sequestration: terrestrial (also known as biologic) and geologic.

Terrestrial sequestration is a process to capture carbon dioxide through photosynthesis of plants, and transfer the carbon element into roots and stems; keep them in the soil for a long term when the plants dead. However, the disadvantage of terrestrial sequestration is that it only stored the carbon portion of the carbon dioxide gas, this means that if the carbon once had the chance to escape from the soil, it would contact with the oxygen in atmosphere and formed out carbon dioxide again.

(a picture from the PCO2R article that explain the process of terrestrial sequestration)

Geologic sequestration would be a totally different story from terrestrial sequestration. It captures the carbon dioxide gas produced by human activities before it releases, and then transport it into a long term storage deeply underground. A video stated that the carbon dioxide are normally transferred through pipes and injected 4500 meters underground in a typical geologic zone.

(picture found in Wikipedia, explains the process of both terrestrial sequestration and geologic sequestration)

However, like any other types of new forming technology, there are still certain problems need to be overcome in carbon sequestration: the cost of the process, the storage capacity of carbon dioxide and the energy penalty. People need to balance the pros and cons to see if it’s worth it for the process. An article from EPA summarised the possible geologic formations for storage as depleted oil or gas fields, deep coal seams and saline formations. Those areas with certain characterisation could prevent the escaping of carbon dioxide. The map below shows the potential sites for sequestration.

(map found in the article)

To me, I think carbon sequestration might be a doable solution to limit the amount of atmospheric carbon dioxide produced by human activities. Climate change is a big issue that couldn’t be reverse with a single move. Carbon sequestration couldn’t eliminate the hazard of greenhouse gas, but it does good to our environment.

resources:

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

I am a freshman and I have been here for almost a month and I have already caught the cold that’s been spreading around campus. Now my theory is because of the dining halls. Everyone touches the spoons multiple times and no one sanitizes their hands each time they grab a new spoon or utensil. This means that the germs are getting all over multiple people’s hands. A majority of people do not was their hands before they begin to eat their food and that’s how the sickness is spreading. Another thing is that when people are sick they still come to class. They are then coughing all over the place also spreading around the sickness. Another theory are the residence halls once someone gets it in the residence hall everyone gets it. For me I was okay but my roommate got sick which later spread to me. I am sure this is something common for everyone else. Since they’re communal bathrooms and everyone gets on the elevator this is another way for people to get sick. Overall since everything is shared it’s very easy to catch something from someone else and get sick. Germs are everywhere and they’re easily spread. But it’s a never ending cycle because of the people coming to class sick which includes myself. People when they are sick they’ll come to class anyway but that spreads more germs. I along with many of those people believe in going to class even if sick. Why? For one we all want to get an education. Number two these classes are not free. Number three missing class could cause someone to be behind and it will affect their grades.  Does anyone else see where I am coming from? Can anyone else see the overlap?  My solution would be to always wash my hands before touching anything or before I go to touch my food or anything like that. I would also wear one of those medical masks. I personally am not one of the people who are germo-phobes but I get very sick quickly and I would prefer not to get sick. For me personally I have a crappy immune system where once I get sick it’s very hard for me to get better. It takes especially long to get better even with the simple things like a common cold. I caught this cold going around two weeks ago. It’s been two weeks of me being sick non-stop with no progression of getting better. Another bad thing with having my immune system is whatever thing I get it makes me get my asthma. I have had asthma since I was three months old. But in recent years every time I get sick I get my asthma which leads to issues with breathing. In my experience since I have gotten here not only has sharing things lead me to being sick but also just walking around. When I am rushing specifically to this class since I come from the Hammond building people are always blowing smoke in my face. So not only am I already sick with breathing issues but things like this makes it work. The medical mask and washing my hands seems to be the very solution for me. I wonder does anyone else go through things like this? If so how do, they deal with it? How well do people deal with overall sickness and going to class?

We’re college students, and therefore a microwave is our best friend. Half of us don’t even have kittens, and out of those who do, half of them don’t know how to cook. We rely on microwaves more than you think, for that late night easy mac, or left chinese from the night before. So what do we do when we hear rumors about microwaves causing cancer, we’ll we investigate them

The process that most cooking undergoes is known as thermal dynamics, where the food is warmed on the outer layers and cooks within. Microwaves cook the opposite way however, from the inside out. Alternating atoms used in other forms of cooking cannot undertake the power of a microwave, causing all of the molecules to rearrange. Radiolytic compounds are also created in microwavable cooking. These radiolytic compounds When these compounds enter the body, cellular activity is interrupted causing anaerobic energy. Anaerobic energy is the body working without much oxygen, causing much fatigue. These type of energy can also lead to cancer. Cancer called die in oxygen, and therefore prosper in anaerobic environments. Therefore, according to Hans Hertel, a Natural News author, microwaves can indeed cause cancer.

However, if microwaves really are so cancerous, then why are they still so common? This is because there are still many doubts to the cancerous microwave theory. According to Jane Lear, who got her information from the Health Physics Society, no microwaves are not harmful. Sure, they give off radiation, but radiation so small it would show no effects on humans or have any detrimental effects on human DNA.  The Food and Drug administration have to approvethe radiations level of the microwave, ensuring it’s safety, before it is sold on the market. All sold microwaves must have two lock systems to prevent the radiation from leaking. To prepare for when the lock systems do not work, and another system known as the monitoring system is put in place to prevent the microwave from being able to open until the radiation is gone. According to Fitness Professional, Nick Tumminello, any actual incidences like burns or serious diseases like cancer need require much more radiation than the approved 5mW microwaves produce.

So don’t worry, to my fellow college students, please continue eating your leftovers for breakfast and those microwave dinners when you are sick of the dining hall food. Because as of today, while there are small concerns, there is no real evidence to prove that microwaves can actually cause cancer to humans.

Do you ever have those nights where you just have those crazy dreams? You marry your crush, jump off a moving train, or maybe even save the world?  Did you happen to eat cheese right before you had these specific dreams? There is a strange rumor that eating cheese before bed causes you to have more memorable, sweeter dreams. I know this is a famous rumor because of the amount of overused, unfunny memes there are on google images. However, did you ever wonder if this rumor was actually true, and if so how cheese affects your dreams at all?

A study done by The British Cheese Board  tests whether or not cheese really does affect one’s dreams. 200 participants were given 2/3 of an ounce of cheese about a half hour before they were to go to sleep.  (Melissa Block) The participants were to keep  a diary recording
their dreams for two weeks. The experiment was successful in that, 3/4 of the participants were not only able to remember their dreams, but all the dreams were pleasant.

That was not the surprising part however. The crazy part was that different types of cheese have different effects. One of the more common cheeses used in the study was cheddar cheese, which caused dreams about celebrities. Blue cheese caused wild explicit dreams, with individuals being able to remember every detail. Some examples of these vivid dream are a “vegetarian crocodile who was upset because he couldn’t eat children. And another one dreamed that they had soldiers fighting with each other with kittens instead of guns (Nigel White).” There was also cheshire, which sadly caused a pleasant sleep but no memorable dreams. Because this was a  study done by the British Cheese Company, of course they had to include some British cheeses. Red Leicester caused nostalgic dreams involving a familiar past, and lastly Lancashire caused people to dream about work.

This all sounds very unbelievable and somewhat an old myth, so is there really science behind this? Tryptophan is an amino acid found in dairy products. Tryptophan is known for regulating sleep and stress patterns. This sounds like a pretty believable theory, an amino acid that affects sleep creates a clear relationship between cheese and dreams. However, while this is
believable, it is not definite. There was a flaw in this study, in that there was no control group. All the participants were given cheese, so no one could say they still had pleasant rememberable dreams without the cheese. I will say though, I did eat pizza last night before bed, and had a very detailed dream about my high school teachers coming to a Penn State game. Hmm, coincidence?

There is another theory of the relationship between cheese and dreams. However, even Dana Smith, the author of Sweet Dreams Are Made of Cheese , admitted was a far stretch. There is a dominate fungi in cheese that may influence explicit dreams. The fungi contains tryptamine or tyramine which has chemical effects on our brain. Tryptamine affects serotonin and is said to cause hallucinations, which could explain the vivid details in dreams. However, I think it is obvious this chemical is not potent in cheese because, at least from personal experience, cheese never made me hallucinate. Locus coreuleous is the part of the brain that controls the sleep-wake cycle. The tyramine affects this area of the brain, which may cause us to sleep and wake without us actually knowing,  therefore causing wild dreams.  (Dana Smith)

You can decide whether or not this is enough evidence for you to believe there is some strange relationship between the cheese you eat before bed and the dream you have afterward. Personally, I’ll use any excuse to eat some late night cheese.

Have you ever gone to bed and woke up in the morning with a ridiculous dream and not know what the meaning is behind that dream? It has happened to me many times. Have you ever gone to sleep thinking that I won’t dream a single dream? Or how can I remember all my dreams? This has happened to me as well. For all of these questions and more I decided to dig deep into what our dreams mean to help me better understand my thought process while having dreams and why we wake up in the morning and we can’t recall a dream we had. Just like me many people in the world we have been trying to make sense of our dreams for a very long time.

Scientific Studies of Dreams:
While doing research I found an interesting article that talked about dreams from a scientific perspective. The article talked about how the evolution of technology plays a big part in how scientists can deceiver our dreams. According to the Medicaldaily there was a study that I found talking about how scientists view our dreams when we are sleeping. In this article it talked a diagnosis that was made about people who can remember their dreams. According to the article there was a 2011 Study, which had to do with high tech web and our brains, which play a big part in our dreams.

What dreams say about me? (From a Scientific Perspective)

When a person has a dream it has something to do with what they were thinking about or doing that day. There was a sample done from a group of fantasy workers and it talked about how people with great education would dream more of important things within work, For example, getting a raise. This fantasy website had a list of different dreams that people had it talked about what the dreams were saying. People who have what is called simple dreams tend to be better more rational thinking.

How our feelings play a part in our dreams?
Feelings are a big part of our everyday lives. They also play a big part in our dreams as well. It’s hard for scientists to be able to say exactly what our dreams say. Scientists come form a natural side of dreams and can tell from that but can’t tell exactly what they are saying. What we dream about and experience in our dreams might not be real but how we feel in our dreams and how we feel in real life verses fantasy in the dream is definitely real. How people act in dreams can tell a lot about the character they are. This doesn’t stand true for everyone it has a line between human behavior and fantasizing. There was a study done about REM and sleeping and how our feelings connect to our everyday lives. Feelings play a huge role in our dreams and can tell a lot about a person during the dream.

Results:
I have leaned and concluded a lot about dreams from this article. Technology has played a huge part in the evolution of dreams. Scientists can deceiver our dreams to a point. Emotions play a huge part in our dreams and can say a lot about a person. However, in reality our dreams vary from person to person and it’s hard for scientists to say exactly what dreams mean.

Website:
http://www.medicaldaily.com/what-dreams-mean-and-what-they-say-about-you-based-science-314558https://www.dreamscloud.com
https://walkerlab.berkeley.edu/reprints/Gujar-Walker_CC_2011.pdf

I have been skateboarding for 8 years now and I started when I was 13. When I stopped playing basketball at 15 skateboarding became my main source of exercise. I would come home sweaty, beat up and tired almost everyday from being out skateboarding, and I loved every second of it. Skateboarding is a very physically demanding activity. Riding the board alone takes a lot of balance and having to keep pushing while riding the board can take a lot of stamina. Skateboarding also builds muscle in your legs since a vast majority of skateboarding tricks are done using your feet and legs to be able to “pop” the board into the air. This pop is known as an ollie and it is the basis of all other skateboarding tricks. An ollie is when a skater pushes their back foot down on the tail of the skateboard while simultaneously sliding their front foot up the board and sucking their feet into their chest. This causes the board to come up with the skater’s feet. Below is a picture demonstrating what the ollie looks like when it is done properly and here is a GIF of an ollie so you can see what it looks like in motion.

Source – http://www.hotel-r.net/im/hotel/fr/ollie-23.jpg

So now that you have a general understanding of some of the physics that goes into skateboarding it should be easier to understand why skateboarding is a very healthy activity that burns many calories and can keep you in shape. According to an article (http://www.healthfitnessrevolution.com/health-benefits-skateboarding/) at healthfitnessrevolution.com (“The Health Benefits of Skateboarding”, 2014) skateboarding can burn 150 to 500 calories per hour. That number can fluctuate depending upon your size, where you are skating, and how hard you are skating. For example if you are skating in a skatepark for an hour you will burn much more calories than riding to the store for an hour. Skateboarding also improves your flexibility since you use every part of your body to perform a trick. Even though the pop of the skateboard is done with your feet and legs every part of the body is used in skateboarding. As seen in the picture above the skateboarder is using his arms to help him ollie higher. Arms are also used to help with balance and rotation. Skateboarding also improves your flexibility, especially in the ankles. Skateboarding requires you to be loose so you can move your body and bend your knees to absorb impact when you land. If you remain rigid it will be much harder skateboard. Along with improved stamina, flexibility and overall health one of the most important things skateboarding has taught me is how to fall properly. Falling happens A LOT in skateboarding and injuries do happen but after skateboarding and falling over and over again I have learned how to fall in a way that I reduce my chances of being severely injured. The most important part to falling in skateboarding or in general really, is to keep your momentum moving so one part of your body does not absorb a large amount of impact. When I fall I try to roll and this keeps my momentum moving in the same direction. Knowing how to fall is a useful life skill that can help you out if you find yourself falling down for whatever reason. The last health benefit of skateboarding I want to touch on is a mental one and that would be stress relief. Skateboarding allows me to forget about all of life’s stressors and problems for a while. When I am skateboarding I am focused only on skateboarding. Nothing else really matters when I am riding my board and it allows me to focus and have fun. In conclusion skateboarding has many different health benefits such as improved physical endurance, coordination and overall health. In my opinion having fun is the biggest health benefit to skateboarding.

GIF Source – https://media.giphy.com/media/7HVhRsKOxGzD2/giphy.gif

SC 200 is deigned to make us non-majors better consumers of science so that we gain an appreciation for the scientific process and are able to intelligently consider the many scientific claims that will be made in our lifetimes. Essentially, we are here to learn to not blindly believe what anybody tell us! In the spirit of being better informed science consumers, I felt it would be an interesting idea to discuss and debunk three common and prevailing scientific misconceptions so that we can call stop believing them!

Seasons are caused by distance to the sun

The idea that it is hotter in the summer because that is when the Earth is nearest the sun is completely false. In fact, we are actually further from the sun in the summer than we are in the winter. The correct explanation for the seasonal weather changes that we experience annually is related to the 23 degree tilt of the Earth’s axis. In the northern hemisphere, we are more directly hit by the sun’s rays that we are during the winter when were are tilted slightly away from the. The southern hemisphere experience this in opposite fashion. Source

One human year equals seven dog years. 

There is no question that humans tend to outlive their 4 legged best friends by quite a good many years, but to simplify the lifespan to the common 1:7 ratio is misleading and incorrect. There are two main reasons for this. First of all, dogs develop at different (faster) rates than humans do. The first year of a dogs life can more closely be defined as 15 human years. While the last few years of a dog’s life are about 4 in terms of aging. The second reason to drop this myth from your mind is because of the rather larger variance in the lifespan’s of different size dog breeds. For example, living longer than 15 years is much more of a feat for large dogs (labs, etc.) than it is for small ones that weigh less than 20 pounds. Source

There is no gravity in space

Just because one does not necessarily “fall” in space as they would on Earth does not mean that there is no gravity. In fact, there is gravity everywhere in space and the force can act upon objects insanely far away. Gravity binds the Earth to the Sun and even keeps every star in the galaxy revolving around the supermassive black hole in the center of it. Gravity is a relatively weak force when compared to the likes of electromagnetism and nuclear energy, but it is everywhere. This article sums it up nicely.

There are many more misconceptions to be discussed, but most are a bit more outrageous or obvious that these. I wanted to pick a few that many college-aged people such ourselves tend to  actually believe in hopes that they we can let go of them. These three are a good start!