Many guys don't like to be tied down in a relationship during their college years, but science has recently determined that this behavior may cause them to die before their female counterparts. Apparently, species which are not monogamous, also called polygynous species, tend to age faster and die earlier due to the constant competition for sex. This wouldn't be a problem for people if they weren't so afraid of death, but we intrinsically fear the unknown and death is the ultimate unknown.
The current definition of death is the point at which the brain stops functioning, and it often occurs when the brain spends a considerable amount of time without oxygenated blood. According to New Scientist, the average person has about 10 seconds between when the blood stops running and losing consciousness, which will probably be the scariest 10 seconds of our lives. Granted, we won't be around to remember it, but I think it's the fear of physical pain that makes us fear death, as none of us know just how much death hurts.
Given that we live in a society full of the delicious, artery-clogging goodness that is fried food, it isn't surprising that heart attacks are among the most popular ways to die. Although some heart attack survivors claim to have felt pain and pressure in the chest, others say "it felt more like indigestion, tiredness or muscle cramps than a heart attack," according to New Scientist. So while you think you may just be experiencing gas from eating at a hole-in-the-wall burger joint, it might turn out to be a heart attack — not to freak you out or anything.
Probably more common to our demographic — the Florida college student — is death by drowning: drowning in the ocean, drowning while drunkenly swimming and drowning in your own vomit. According to the National Safety Council, 3,718 people died from accidental drowning in 2003, and only 412 of these cases involved boating accidents. The survivors claim that there is a "tearing" and "burning sensation" as the water goes into the lungs, and they are ultimately overwhelmed by a feeling of calmness, says New Scientist. People can typically only hold their breath 30 to 90 seconds, after which the water that the victim inhales blocks the gas exchange in the lungs, which leads to death.
No one knows for sure what happens after that, but common beliefs are that our souls go to some faraway land, that our souls walk the earth for all eternity or that nothing happens at all. Given that today is Halloween, though, you're sure to see many ghosts and other "dead" people — albeit fake ones — walking the streets.
Tuesday, October 30, 2007
Tuesday, October 23, 2007
Costume Ideas for the Mad Scientist
If you're still scrambling for a Halloween costume, I suggest dressing as a mad scientist with a real live brain as a prop - which you can make yourself. Scientists at some other Florida school have developed a functioning brain using electrodes (electricity conductors) and rat neurons (brain parts), which could help figure out what causes neurological disorders, such as epilepsy, and how brain function evolved over time. Granted, the brain is quite small for an accessory, and it probably can't go outside for trick-or-treating, but it is impressive nonetheless.
And what do you do with the brain once Halloween is over? Train it to fly a plane, of course; I'm being completely serious. The scientists hooked up the mini-brain to a flight simulator and it slowly became better at flying the virtual aircraft. These brain-makers hope this technology could one day be used to fly unmanned aircrafts, such as fighter planes.
Still, I'm not sure how much I'd trust a "living computational device" to control a major aircraft, since it doesn't have any eyes. Luckily, this reality is still a far way off, according to a biomedical engineer at the Georgia Tech. The brain is far from having the capacity of a human brain, as it's made up of significantly less neurons. But since the brain is capable of learning, it can help create the next generation of computers, which will hopefully be able to do more than simply recall pre-programmed information.
If you don't have the time or energy to grow a brain, which is the major component of the costume, you can dress as a Jesus-doctor - one who can perform miracles by bringing damaged limbs and organs back to life. Earlier this month, scientists over in the United Kingdom came up with a plan to develop a "bionic" nerve, which will be rolled into a tube-like structure and placed between the two ends of a severed nerve. The nerve will then re-grow over the bionic structure, and supposedly, patients will regain complete use of the limb or organ that was damaged.
Granted, this costume would not be as impressive as the one with the brain, but you should be able to fake it pretty well for one night. Then again, I am not sure if nerds still get beat up in the school yard, so dressing like one for Halloween may be hazardous to your health. You could always take the easy way out and dress as Doctor Frankenstein, since there are plenty of costumes of his monster (also referred to as Frankenstein) floating around in retail stores. How close are we to building a real creature out of left-over parts like Frankenstein did in Mary Shelley's book? Not very, but are getting closer to fixing the parts we already have.
And what do you do with the brain once Halloween is over? Train it to fly a plane, of course; I'm being completely serious. The scientists hooked up the mini-brain to a flight simulator and it slowly became better at flying the virtual aircraft. These brain-makers hope this technology could one day be used to fly unmanned aircrafts, such as fighter planes.
Still, I'm not sure how much I'd trust a "living computational device" to control a major aircraft, since it doesn't have any eyes. Luckily, this reality is still a far way off, according to a biomedical engineer at the Georgia Tech. The brain is far from having the capacity of a human brain, as it's made up of significantly less neurons. But since the brain is capable of learning, it can help create the next generation of computers, which will hopefully be able to do more than simply recall pre-programmed information.
If you don't have the time or energy to grow a brain, which is the major component of the costume, you can dress as a Jesus-doctor - one who can perform miracles by bringing damaged limbs and organs back to life. Earlier this month, scientists over in the United Kingdom came up with a plan to develop a "bionic" nerve, which will be rolled into a tube-like structure and placed between the two ends of a severed nerve. The nerve will then re-grow over the bionic structure, and supposedly, patients will regain complete use of the limb or organ that was damaged.
Granted, this costume would not be as impressive as the one with the brain, but you should be able to fake it pretty well for one night. Then again, I am not sure if nerds still get beat up in the school yard, so dressing like one for Halloween may be hazardous to your health. You could always take the easy way out and dress as Doctor Frankenstein, since there are plenty of costumes of his monster (also referred to as Frankenstein) floating around in retail stores. How close are we to building a real creature out of left-over parts like Frankenstein did in Mary Shelley's book? Not very, but are getting closer to fixing the parts we already have.
Tuesday, October 16, 2007
Color Me Bad
Throughout life, we learn to associate colors with different tasks: red means stop, yellow means caution, and red and yellow together mean McDonald’s. I learned my senior year of high school that green and pink together induce nausea, but only after we chose them as our class’s Homecoming colors. Oddly enough, though, not everyone sees color the same way you do.
Apparently some women can see more colors than the rest of us, which may cause them to spend more time comparing shades of lipstick and picking out the perfect outfit. Thus, scientists have finally discovered why women take more time to shop than men. Called tetrachromats, these people can see four different channels of color, instead of just the red, green and blue variety that most humans can see. Unfortunately, there is no way to describe these other or more intense colors; if you've read The Giver, you probably know what I mean. For those of you who haven't, most of the people in the book see in black-and-white, except for a select few who can see red. Those who can see red in the book cannot describe why the red objects look different, since no one can conceptualize the color. Anyway, there's also no online vision test for these extra colors, since computers monitors tend to use three colors.
Of course, there are people who can't even see all three colors, in a characteristic that is more common in men than women: color blindness. Many mammals are color blind, but, thanks to science, there are now three mice that can see color. This was done in an effort to figure out the evolution of our eyes -- or play God, if you're of the Brother Micah variety. The researchers bred "genetically altered" mice (whatever that means) into passing along a gene which allows the mice to see the color red. If the scientists wanted to get really fancy with the human-rat vision evolution, they could've also given the mice a nifty pair of contact lenses, since mice are relatively nearsighted, or a pair of glasses for those that are stuck in the 1980s.
Nearsightedness, or the inability to see distant objects clearly, is caused by light not quite reaching the retina while remaining in focus. It's almost as though your eyes are too big for the amount of light they let in, and thus the light cannot reach the back of the eye. Farsightedness, the inability to see close objects clearly, is caused by too much light hitting the retina before the object comes into focus. You could also pretend that I said your eyes are too small for the amount of light they let in.
Anyway, besides just seeing colors -- or not seeing them, in some cases -- there are also people who feel colors. No, this isn't some sort of New Age philosophy, but an actual neurological condition. Called synesthesia, people with this condition can not only feel colors, but also hear, smell and taste them. There are variations of synesthesia, such as seeing time, and there is no explanation for any variation. While it would be neat to experience this condition without the use of illegal drugs, I am truly glad that I do not have it; pink is my favorite color, and I would hate to feel nauseous every time I see it.
Apparently some women can see more colors than the rest of us, which may cause them to spend more time comparing shades of lipstick and picking out the perfect outfit. Thus, scientists have finally discovered why women take more time to shop than men. Called tetrachromats, these people can see four different channels of color, instead of just the red, green and blue variety that most humans can see. Unfortunately, there is no way to describe these other or more intense colors; if you've read The Giver, you probably know what I mean. For those of you who haven't, most of the people in the book see in black-and-white, except for a select few who can see red. Those who can see red in the book cannot describe why the red objects look different, since no one can conceptualize the color. Anyway, there's also no online vision test for these extra colors, since computers monitors tend to use three colors.
Of course, there are people who can't even see all three colors, in a characteristic that is more common in men than women: color blindness. Many mammals are color blind, but, thanks to science, there are now three mice that can see color. This was done in an effort to figure out the evolution of our eyes -- or play God, if you're of the Brother Micah variety. The researchers bred "genetically altered" mice (whatever that means) into passing along a gene which allows the mice to see the color red. If the scientists wanted to get really fancy with the human-rat vision evolution, they could've also given the mice a nifty pair of contact lenses, since mice are relatively nearsighted, or a pair of glasses for those that are stuck in the 1980s.
Nearsightedness, or the inability to see distant objects clearly, is caused by light not quite reaching the retina while remaining in focus. It's almost as though your eyes are too big for the amount of light they let in, and thus the light cannot reach the back of the eye. Farsightedness, the inability to see close objects clearly, is caused by too much light hitting the retina before the object comes into focus. You could also pretend that I said your eyes are too small for the amount of light they let in.
Anyway, besides just seeing colors -- or not seeing them, in some cases -- there are also people who feel colors. No, this isn't some sort of New Age philosophy, but an actual neurological condition. Called synesthesia, people with this condition can not only feel colors, but also hear, smell and taste them. There are variations of synesthesia, such as seeing time, and there is no explanation for any variation. While it would be neat to experience this condition without the use of illegal drugs, I am truly glad that I do not have it; pink is my favorite color, and I would hate to feel nauseous every time I see it.
Tuesday, October 9, 2007
Mission to Mars
We all complain about needing more time: time to sleep, time to study and time to stalk our classmates on Facebook. Apparently our complaints have been heard, as scientists have just created a 25-hour day. The hard part will be getting Earth and the sun to cooperate.
While adding an extra hour may be difficult on Earth, since even Wal-Mart is only open for 24 hours, the experiment was designed to get the human body adjusted to the 25-hour days found on Mars. The study involved 12 people living in a controlled environment without any time clues, such as windows or clocks, for 65 days. The participants followed regular time in the beginning, but later the researchers delivered two pulses of light at the end of the "day," which tricked the participants’ internal clocks and allowed them to stay awake an extra hour. This method could be used to keep astronauts from getting jetlag when traveling to Mars — whenever we get there.
By going to Mars, we'd essentially gain more Earth-time, as days are slower on the red planet. I’m not sure how many days the average person would want to spend on Mars, though, since there’s nothing to do there yet; really, Mars would be more boring than Boca. Anyway, this is similar to how a time-traveling device, i.e. a time machine, would operate.
To travel forward in time, we would just need to travel close to the speed of light for a while and then come back to Earth, physicist Brian Greene told LiveScience. Of course, this is easier said than done, but at least it works on paper. Unfortunately, this method doesn’t work for traveling back in time. This means that if you really, really want to go to the future, you’ll have to learn to love it, since there’s no going back.
Time is considered to be the fourth dimension — the other three being length, width and height. While it is possible to move the first three backward and forward, time can only move forward. Thus, we cannot make time move backward, nor can we make it stop, no matter how much we may want to or how hard we try.
That said, the most developed way to travel back in time is to find a wormhole, or a tunnel which connects two areas of time and space. Unfortunately, no one is really sure if wormholes exist — not even the writers of Star Trek, who greatly depend on the wormhole in Deep Space Nine — and no one knows if our future selves have yet accomplished this task.
Theoretical physicist Stephen Hawking once asked in a PBS special, "Time travel might be possible, but if that is the case why haven't we been overrun by tourists from the future?"
He makes a good point. We have enough problems with tourists from other states, let alone tourists from other eras. While these future-people may be able to help us in ways we can’t even imagine, they may choose to travel to our time just to laugh at us and our primitive ways. You know you’d do the same thing if you could, and then probably post the photos on Facebook.
While adding an extra hour may be difficult on Earth, since even Wal-Mart is only open for 24 hours, the experiment was designed to get the human body adjusted to the 25-hour days found on Mars. The study involved 12 people living in a controlled environment without any time clues, such as windows or clocks, for 65 days. The participants followed regular time in the beginning, but later the researchers delivered two pulses of light at the end of the "day," which tricked the participants’ internal clocks and allowed them to stay awake an extra hour. This method could be used to keep astronauts from getting jetlag when traveling to Mars — whenever we get there.
By going to Mars, we'd essentially gain more Earth-time, as days are slower on the red planet. I’m not sure how many days the average person would want to spend on Mars, though, since there’s nothing to do there yet; really, Mars would be more boring than Boca. Anyway, this is similar to how a time-traveling device, i.e. a time machine, would operate.
To travel forward in time, we would just need to travel close to the speed of light for a while and then come back to Earth, physicist Brian Greene told LiveScience. Of course, this is easier said than done, but at least it works on paper. Unfortunately, this method doesn’t work for traveling back in time. This means that if you really, really want to go to the future, you’ll have to learn to love it, since there’s no going back.
Time is considered to be the fourth dimension — the other three being length, width and height. While it is possible to move the first three backward and forward, time can only move forward. Thus, we cannot make time move backward, nor can we make it stop, no matter how much we may want to or how hard we try.
That said, the most developed way to travel back in time is to find a wormhole, or a tunnel which connects two areas of time and space. Unfortunately, no one is really sure if wormholes exist — not even the writers of Star Trek, who greatly depend on the wormhole in Deep Space Nine — and no one knows if our future selves have yet accomplished this task.
Theoretical physicist Stephen Hawking once asked in a PBS special, "Time travel might be possible, but if that is the case why haven't we been overrun by tourists from the future?"
He makes a good point. We have enough problems with tourists from other states, let alone tourists from other eras. While these future-people may be able to help us in ways we can’t even imagine, they may choose to travel to our time just to laugh at us and our primitive ways. You know you’d do the same thing if you could, and then probably post the photos on Facebook.
Tuesday, October 2, 2007
It's a great day to be an amoeba
If you think your job is hard, you should try being an amoeba. While they often just lounge around the bottom of a lake, which sounds like a good ol' time, other times they have to go ahead and eat some brains.
The latest victim chosen by the Naegleria fowleri -- which might as well be Latin for zombie -- was a 14-year-old boy who happened to get some lake water up his nose around Sept. 10. The boy died one week later after the amoeba, which was in the water, ate its way from the boy's nasal cavity into his brain.
There have been six deaths associated with this zombie-amoeba in 2007 alone and -- guess what -- half of the cases were in Florida. The most common way for the amoeba to enter the nasal cavity is through water, as it is known to live near the bottom of warm fresh-water lakes and in some swimming pools. I still don't understand why people go swimming in lakes when the state is covered in beaches and swimming pools, granted not all pools are safe from this microscopic beast.
Besides Florida, there have been two cases in Texas this year and one in Arizona. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, there were 23 documented infections between 1995 and 2004, which makes the six cases this year that much more significant. Apparently amoebic infections are on the rise, possibly leading to a zombie uprising of microscopic proportions.
This type of amoebic infection can be found using an MRI, and it can be treated with antibiotics. Unfortunately, many medical professionals are not used to looking for amoebas, reports CNN. Yes, this article was linked earlier, but I'm not sure if any of you click the links anyway.
For some reason, no one ever believes me when I bring up the brain-eating amoeba in everyday conversation. This habit started in 2002 when I read about the case in Georgia and, for some reason, the habit is still going strong.
Maybe I just like to say the word "amoeba."
One of our sneakier amoebic friends, the Acanthamoeba (Latin for eye-muncher, or something), found its way into the eyes of 138 people earlier this year and was supposedly linked to contact solution. It was never officially determined whether the solution contained the amoebas or if the solution simply didn't kill the organisms. Instead of going for the brain, this amoeba is seemingly content with the cornea.
Unlike the zombie-amoeba, eye-muncher is not linked to certain death. It only seems to lead to vision loss, which is still a serious problem. Some of the amoeba's victims are undergoing Keratoplasty, or corneal transplants, in an effort to correct their vision.
I don't know what we did to anger these little organisms, but as Tyra Banks would probably say, amoebas are fierce.
The latest victim chosen by the Naegleria fowleri -- which might as well be Latin for zombie -- was a 14-year-old boy who happened to get some lake water up his nose around Sept. 10. The boy died one week later after the amoeba, which was in the water, ate its way from the boy's nasal cavity into his brain.
There have been six deaths associated with this zombie-amoeba in 2007 alone and -- guess what -- half of the cases were in Florida. The most common way for the amoeba to enter the nasal cavity is through water, as it is known to live near the bottom of warm fresh-water lakes and in some swimming pools. I still don't understand why people go swimming in lakes when the state is covered in beaches and swimming pools, granted not all pools are safe from this microscopic beast.
Besides Florida, there have been two cases in Texas this year and one in Arizona. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, there were 23 documented infections between 1995 and 2004, which makes the six cases this year that much more significant. Apparently amoebic infections are on the rise, possibly leading to a zombie uprising of microscopic proportions.
This type of amoebic infection can be found using an MRI, and it can be treated with antibiotics. Unfortunately, many medical professionals are not used to looking for amoebas, reports CNN. Yes, this article was linked earlier, but I'm not sure if any of you click the links anyway.
For some reason, no one ever believes me when I bring up the brain-eating amoeba in everyday conversation. This habit started in 2002 when I read about the case in Georgia and, for some reason, the habit is still going strong.
Maybe I just like to say the word "amoeba."
One of our sneakier amoebic friends, the Acanthamoeba (Latin for eye-muncher, or something), found its way into the eyes of 138 people earlier this year and was supposedly linked to contact solution. It was never officially determined whether the solution contained the amoebas or if the solution simply didn't kill the organisms. Instead of going for the brain, this amoeba is seemingly content with the cornea.
Unlike the zombie-amoeba, eye-muncher is not linked to certain death. It only seems to lead to vision loss, which is still a serious problem. Some of the amoeba's victims are undergoing Keratoplasty, or corneal transplants, in an effort to correct their vision.
I don't know what we did to anger these little organisms, but as Tyra Banks would probably say, amoebas are fierce.
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