Learning Biology

FOR KIDS: Sugar-pill medicine

Susan Gaidos

December 16th, 2008

http://www.sciencenews.org/view/generic/id/39298/title/FOR_KIDS_Sugar-pill_medicine

Emily Kammerdiener

12/22/08
Before the research the scientists new the drug wouldn’t exactly help earaches or major illnesses. The research question is how does placebo or sugar pills help? Also, why does placebo help some patients and not others. This should be researched because if placebo could work on some people they should use it instead of other pills that could be dangerous. Medical researchers use placebo on some patients and real drugs on other patients. They do this to determine how well the drug works.

The research found that placebo actually triggers a certain part of the brain then it releases dopamine. This helps the nerve cells communicate with each other and then you start to feel better. It also releases opioids which is a chemical reponse to pain. Conclusions that can be drawn from the research is that you could actually try placebos instead of real drugs and start to feel better. It can really help people with anxiety. The information is presented so it can be safier for some people to try placebos first and see the effect. I think this information is important and also very interesting. I think this is interesting because people can actually get better using placebos instead of real drugs. When taking the placebos you don’t have to worry about all the side effects the real drugs have. It is of value to myself and others because it is safier and maybe a better alternative to try than real drugs. It is not contradicted by other studies. Medical reasearchers conducted the studies. They studied this subject because they wanted to show people they could maybe get better without real drugs and that it may be good to try.

Questions that could be asked and that I have are how did placebos come about? How exactly do placebos help people feel better with certain conditions? I think placebos would be a good thing to try because it cuts down on risks that real drugs have and they still could work for you.

Name: Anthony Pascuzzo

Title:  A Clean Getaway

By: Dina Fine Maron

A Clean Getaway

My article is informing people that it is possible to not be able to be traceable at a crime scene.  How you can do this is easy, criminal investigators use the protein hemoglobin to pick up traces of blood.  But first I will explain to you what a hemoglobin does.  A hemoglobin is a protein that loves oxygen, its job is to grab oxygen and from the lungs and carry it to the rest of the body.  Once its full of oxygen it won’t even bother to grab more oxygen, that the key for getting a clean getaway.  New oxy cleaners have lots of oxygen in them which make the hemoglobin’s not bother to grab oxygen from the investigators which will make the blood test negative.  This works because investigators you hydrogen peroxide which you use when scrap your knee to stop the bleeding.  The investigators tests use the same type of reaction between the blood.  They use the peroxide to which then makes the hemoglobin’s grab the oxygen and give them a positive result.  Then a group of researchers got curios and make their own crime scene.  They used Neutrex and oxy cleanser, then they took regular cleansers and then washed them with water.  The researches were right the regular cleansers made the clothes look clean to the naked eye but were traceable.  They Neutrex was clean to the naked eye and was still untraceable, therefore using oxy cleaners will make a blood trail untraceable.

Source:  http://www.sciencenews.org/view/generic/id/38925/title/FOR_KIDS_A_clean_getaway

FOR KIDS: DOUBLE TAKE

Emily Sohn

http://www.sciencenews.org/view/generic/id/39172/title/FOR_KIDS_Double_take

Devan Neal

January 5, 2009

Prior to reading this article, I had a little bit of knowledge on this subject.  I knew that there could be two types of twins; idenctical and fraternal.  I was aware that in identicle twins, they recieved the exact same combination of chromosomes from both their mother and father.  Also, that fraternal twins were concieved when two eggs were fertalized.  The difference between the two sets of twins is that identical twins are the same in many ways, i.e. looks.   The purpose of this research was to settle the debate between nature and nurture.  The essential question in the article is, “What makes us who we are, nature (genes) or nuture (environment)?”  This is a necessary research question because it allows us to have a better grasp on understanding how complex humans are.  Do genes determine whether we like sports, or if we’re good at art?  Or are our personalities a result of the way we are raised and the environment we’re raised in?  For their research, the scientists collected a variety of information from each family, using questionnaires, DNA samples, brain wave patterns and more.  Every few years since the work began, the scientists have met with the same families and have done many of the same tests.  The Minnesota researchers now have information about more than 10,000 people. From this large set of data, the scientists have turned up a lot of interesting results.

One thing the research showed was that identical twins are far more alike that fraternal twins in many ways, even when those identicle twins are raised apart.  Also that fraternal twins are more similar than virtual twins.  These similarities are true for a large number of personality traits, such as how outgoing people are, how aggressive they are and what types of decisions they tend to make.  These results suggest that genes play important roles in determining our personalities.  Identical twins also tend to become more similar to each other with age. That’s probably because as they get older they have more control over what they do and how they live.  Conclusions that can be drawn from this information would figuratively set the stone on the “nature” side of the argument.  This can be backed by the survey results of identical twins raised apart.  Research was conducted and advised by Matthew McGue, a psychologist at the University of Minnesota, Twin Cities and other coleagues at the university.

“Twinning is a mystery,” McGue says. “There’s no end to questions.” Therefore, researchers want to know why sometimes only one twin develops a serious disease. What is it about the environment that pushes certain genes to turn on or off?  I would still like to know if diseases developed by both twins will have the same magnitude, and ultimately end the same way?  I can connect this to my life because I know several sets of twins and some are identical and some are fraternal.  These twins show exactly what this article was talking about.

Why We Take Risks—It’s the Dopamine
By Alice Park
http://www.time.com/time/health/article/0,8599,1869106,00.html
Erika Bizousky
1/5/09

Before reading this article, I really did not have any prior knowledge about dopamine and it’s effect on the brain. The research question in this article was “What makes people take risks?” When you think about it, it really doesn’t make sense to take risks. If no one ever took any risks, then there would probably be a lot less deaths happening everyday, or a lot less injuries. Yet people are still taking risks. Scientists at the Vanderbilt University of Nashville, and the Albert Einstein College of Medicine in New York City had a hunch that some kind of chemical in the brain must have been being released every time a person takes a risk. They conducted research and experiments to prove that dopamine was the chemical that made people take risks. Dopamine is a chemical in people’s brains that makes you feel good or happy, so it would make sense that it is somehow involving in risk-taking. A professor at Vanderbilt University named David Zald conducted a study to prove their hypothesis. He had 34 men and women complete a survey on their risk-taking tendencies, and then he scanned their brains to figure out how many dopamine receptors the participants. He predicted that the people who liked to take more risks would have less receptors because then they could achieve unusually high dopamine levels whenever they took a risk.  The results of the experiment proved Zald’s theory correct. The people who would take more risks didn’t have as many dopamine receptors. The rush of unusually high dopamine in the brain caused these people to take more risks like they were a drug addict. Professor Zald knew his results were valid because before they tested the same experiment on rats which had the same results.
The study showed that dopamine was definitely the cause of why people take risks.  They can also conclude that people kept wanting to take risks because of the feel-good effects of the dopamine and that people who had bad or few dopamine receptors wanted to take more risks than people with better receptors. I think the research is very informative and interesting. I have wondered why people take silly risks or do things without thinking, and these studies answered this question. The people who conducted the research were professors at colleges in New York and Tennessee. I believe that the reason for the research was to figure out more about the brain and why people do the things they do. The human mind is a very complex thing and should really be studied more.
Some questions I have for further understanding of this subject is “What activities produce high dopamine levels?” and also “How can dopamine affect your mind and make you feel happy?” This study really relates to my life because a lot of times I wonder why I do risky or stupid things without thinking, and now I know it is because of dopamine.

Title: Corals, Turfgrass, and Sediments offer stories of climate past and future

Author: Sid Perkins

Thomas Wagner

Period 1

January 5, 2008

Website: http://www.sciencenews.org/view/generic/id/39485/title/Corals%2c_turfgrass_and_sediments_offer_stories_of_climate_past_and_future

They didn’t know very much about the history in rainfall of the islands of Hawaii. This is essential because they said they can use the coral for ancient rain gauges if there is no data available. They researched it because it is always good to know the history of the places around the world, also since that Hawaii hasn’t been very explored. They ran tests on the coral to see the yttrium content in the coral, it is found in the groundwater which runs into the ocean.

They found the evidence of the yttrium in the water has decreased over years, there also has been a large decrease in the runoff from the streams from 6.4 million gallons a day to just 3.5 million gallons a day. You also can see a decrease in the amount of groundwater seepage. Some conclusions you can get from this information is that you might not know what will happen if there is not enough water seepage and flow, you also may not be able to support all the life for the people and plants there too. In my opinion I believe this is very important seeing how vital this water is for the Hawaiians to live and provide a great environment. Grumet Prouty and her colleagues worked on this project to provide information on this to the world.

Some questions I have is that what would happen to their population if they cannot get their need of the water to have a plush environment? What will happen if the water seepage and the runoff falls way to low? If so could it damage the environment around it?

Title: An Injection to Cure Holiday Drinking?
Author: Jeffrey Kluger
Website: http://www.time.com/time/health/article/0,8599,1867668,00.html
Keaton Mohney
Period 3
December 22, 2008

Before reading this article, I knew that a lot of people over drink during the holidays. I was shocked at the percentage of deaths over the holidays due to alcohol is 40% ! I think that that is way to big of a percentage. We should try to reduce that this Christmas. I also knew that a leading cause in these accidents is because of one main decision. When people choose to get behind a wheel after they have had one to many drinks is a really stupid thing to do. Yes, you might not wreck. You might wreck and not get killed. You might wreck and kill people in both vehicles. Or, the worst is when you wreck and you don’t die, but the person/people in the other car do. That would be on your conscience for the rest of your life.  I think that scientists purposely researched this injection to stop over drinking and save lives this Christmas. One researcher  was David Rosenbloom who is a substance abuse specialist at the Boston School of Public Health and director of the addiction prevention and policy group. He and many other scientists studied this new drug called naltrexone to prove its authenticity.
From the research and experimentation, researchers learned that this drug can alter your brain and make you curb the want to drink. And it even has a backup plan, if you give into the craving, it still  allows you to shrink the amount consumed so you will not get to a drunken state. The main conclusion they can make from the research is to basically end deaths during holiday seasons by eliminating drunk drivers. My opinion on this is very strong. I totally agree with this new shot to prevent over drinking. People are so stupid when they have to much to drink and I think that this drug is a way to ensure safety for travelers this Christmas. The people who drink are not the only ones who are in danger of getting hurt when they get in a vehicle. Families who don’t even drink and have little sons and daughter in the backseat quietly sleeping after a long night of unwrapping presents are also in danger because of someone else’s reckless decision.
The only thing I would like to know after reading this article is the follow up on this drug. If it gets put out on the market, I would like to know in a couple of months if it was effective enough to get people to limit consumption of alcohol. I would like to find out if the death tolls during the holiday went down due to this drug. I think this injection  should be further tested and tried so that the value of it is proven so we can reduce the amount of deaths before it is too late.

Luke Spack Period 1
Date-12-12-08
Article- Luke Spack Period 1
Date-12-12-08
Article- Teens’ Latest Self-Injury Fad: Self-Embedding
Website- http://www.time.com/time/health/article/0,8599,1865995,00.html
Date Submitted- Thursday, Dec. 11, 2008
Author- Tiffany Sharples

Self affliction has been going on for centuries and people have known about but it has not been a major deal. The question that comes out of this article is why do people create pain for themselves when there is other ways to get around problems. This research was not conducted when patients have been going into hospitals with wounds caused by themselves and this caused further research. The research was gathered in hospitals in some states, one in particular was Chicago,Illinois. This is very essential because many lives could be taken if this becomes very common in teenagers lives.
This evidence is very valid because it was collected from doctors in hospitals and put on record. Since this started to become a big idea much research has been put into this by a few doctors who are gifted in the area of self affliction. The evidence was collected from patients who self embedded and the papers the doctors filled out helped also.

The research found is quite sad. Self embedding has been around for centuries but it has not been common. Now teens today who are suffering from physical, mental, substance abuse, fear, nervousness, and anger are embedding objects into their arms to take away the other kinds of pain. These objects being placed in their arms are usually pencil tips, paper clips, metal shavings and some other sharp objects. The objects if pushed to far in the body can cause tendon, ligament, bone, and muscle damage. Also, the objects can be carried by blood to larger organs like the heart and cause punctering and this can kill. The most common thing though is a skin infection. This information was presented to us by the other who i concerned about the problems of self embedding.

I think this article is very interesting and when it comes down to it, this article is very sad. I believe the teenagers doing this need to be counseled immedeatly. This article is very interesting to many people I believe because this needs to be stopped. Parents need to read this article if they have any suspicion of their children harming themselves this way. This study has not been contradicted because it is a very serious issue that needs stopped. The group who collected this information was the Childrens Hospital of America. One of the main leaders in this study was Dr. William Shiels II. The research was conducted because when the X-rays were looked at weird things were appearing in them. This brought curiosity to the doctors. They all met in Chicago and disscused the various X-rays they collected with self embedded objects in them. The childrens hospital is a hospital chain across all of America. It takes in all children who have bad diseases like diabetes, add, and many more. They have excellent care and have much love for the children.

Further questions would include: Why is self harm so popular, what are these teenagers thinking and feeling and why they choose this method of self harm. The question I have is how parents cannot detect the arms with sores and infections early on so that they can stop there child from harming themselves more. In school we have not studied anything like this, but we are going to be looking at the organs of the pig and the tendons. So possibly if we would stick a the pointed tool in it, it could cause an infection if it was still living. This article was interesting and there still is a lot of things still needed about this to connect why kids do this to each other.

Run for Your Lives

Sanjay Gupta

http://www.time.com/time/specials/2007/article/0,28804,1703763_1703764_1853207,00.html

Joel Riggleman

December 20th

Before the subject was researched, researchers thought that running or jogging would cause a large increase of knee replacements. The essential research question is if jogging or running along with other types of excercise and diet will increase the time that you live. This subject should be researched because excersice is important and it is good to know all you can about it. The data was collected by Stanford University researchers who started researching 538 middle-aged runners back in the 80’s when there was a big jogging craze.

The research found that runner/joggers did not have higher rates of osteoarthritis and total knee replacements. In the runners group vs. the nonrunners,onset of disabilities appeared 12 to 16 years later. I think that this information is important. It is always good to know the affects of excersice whether it’s over the course of weeks or years.21 years of research show that excersice will the onset of disabilities as you get older and even add years to your life.

Possoble questions for this subject could be; Will further excersice and dieting also increase the years on your life? A question I have is whether or not strenuously excersicing as your older will negatively affect your body. This subject doesn’t directly relate to what we are studying.

Tige Woodson

Sara Coelho

ScienceNOW Daily News

19 December 2008

 Before reading this article I would have never believed that the same amount of force inflicted on purpose or accidentally could be more or less painful. Who would ever think that while playing a sport like football being crashed into by your opponent would hurt more than if your teammate crashed into you? It seems that the amount of pain a person feels depends on if they believe it was on purpose or an accident.

A psychologist, Kurt Gray, and his colleague, Daniel Wegner,  at Harvard University ran experiments to see if people had more pain when they thought it was inflicted accidentally or on purpose.  The volunteers of the experiment received electrical shocks from a stimulator tied to their wrist. Those who believed their partner in the experiment was shocking them said that the pain was high on a scale of 1 to 7 and as many times as they were shocked it continued to hurt and rate high on the scale. However, the volunteers that were told that no one controlled the shocks given to them stated that the pain was not too bad and even hurt less over time and that they got use to it.

I don’t think getting electrically shocked sounds very fun, but it is interesting that when a person thinks they got hurt by accident it doesn’t seem to give them as much pain as it would if they thought someone hurt them on purpose.

The article stated that most of the volunteers were females, I wonder if the results would be the same with more guys. It also quoted a neuroscientist, as saying it was a step toward understanding social effects on pain. I question what other social effects might determine how much pain a person feels.

Easton Renwick

Sara Coelho

ScienceNOW Daily News

17 December 2008

Before the writing of this article there were several things that were known.  One was that researchers did not know what came first in a particular stick insect group.  The insect, or the island.  Researching for this information as well as studying it will give the scientist the answers that they need.  The research that was done came from many specialists in the field of stick insects.

From the research was found many interesting things.  upon researchhing for these types of insects researchers discoverd that one  of the most dangered insets in the world was still alive along the coast of the balls pyramid.  Another more interesting information is that certain species of stick insects have been around for for 20 million years, and the island that they were found on had only been around for 13.

I believe this information for this article is necessary for the people that are interested in these types of insects.  This information was gathered by the New Zealand Main Institute of Research.

After reading this article I still have questions about how accurate the years these insects and the island have been around.  Also i question where the money for all of this research came from.