Author Archives: Ziyi

How Does Technology Use Correlate with Our Mental Well-Being?

Posted on November 20, 2017 | 1 comment

Source: https://www.inc.com/issie-lapowsky/inside-massive-tech-land-grab-teenagers.html

 

 

 

 

 

 

The advancement of technology is increasing at a dramatic rate with new technological breakthroughs every year. Nowadays, it’s quite difficult to find someone who doesn’t use technology at all. Every year, the percentage of the population using technology increases. This is shown in a study conducted by Pew Research Center in 2017 where in America, about 95% of the population owns a cellphone of some kind compared to only 35% of the population in 2011. That is about a 10% increase in cellphone ownership every year!

Also, the amount of time adolescents spend online has more than doubled from an average of 8 hr per week in 2005 to 18.9 hr per week today!

This goes to show just how dependent we are on cellphones, computers, television, etc. So, the question here, asked by all parents is: “does modern technology improve or degrade the mental well-being of the younger generation?”. Although some studies have been conducted, none have been rigorously examined.

The answer to this question was found in a study conducted by Andrew Przybylski, a psychologist at the University of Oxford and Netta Weinstein, a psychologist at Cardiff University in Wale. Andrew and Netta wanted to determine the correlation between digital-screen time and mental well-being of adolescents. They used the digital “Goldilocks” hypothesis where it describes that “too little” tech use deprives young people of important social information and peer pursuits, whereas “too much” may displace other meaningful activities.

They surveyed 120,000, 15-year-old participants across England. The survey asked the participants about their engagement in different kinds of digital activities during their free time and about their life satisfaction and happiness over the past 2 weeks.

Surprisingly, the results they found was quite the opposite to many contrary beliefs.

Figure 1. Mental well-being as a function of daily digital-screen time on weekdays and weekends. Results are shown for time spent (a) using smartphones, (b) playing video games, (c) using computers, and (d) watching TV and movies

From the figure above, the results show that moderate use of technology correlates with improved mental well-being. However, the longer the technology is used, the teens’ well-being starts to decline.

This study indicated that moderate use of technology in the modern world actually may not be so harmful and may actually be advantageous in a very online connected world that we live in today.

So, to all parents out there, there is no harm for your children to spend some time on their cellphone or laptop. And to all teens out there, although it’s nice to go on Facebook and Twitter, you should also spend some time with your family and friends out in the real world as well.

-Ziyi Wang

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Trees within Trees within Trees!

Posted on October 30, 2017 | 2 comments

I’m sure many people, whether scientists or just the average person have always wondered about what kind of creatures or what the environment was like over 300 million years ago, before the dinosaurs roamed. So, specifically, the question  to be answered today is: what were the trees like 374 million years ago? The answer: most definitely different from today’s tree!

Recently, scientists have discovered silicified trunks containing hundreds of tree-like structures in Northwest China. The team led by Hong-He Xu of the Nanjing Institute of Geology and Palaeontology travelled to Nanjing, China in order to study this amazing discovery. They studied the thick transverse and longitudinal sections of the trunk.

The researchers named this species the Xinicaulis lignescens, which translates to “new stem becoming woody”. What they found when they cut open the trunk was hundreds of xylems which is defined as a type of transport tissue in vascular plants that transports mainly water and nutrients. Today, in most trees, the xylem goes up through the center of the tree, and a new xylem grows around the old one, which is typically called the “growth ring” where this is used to estimate the age of the tree. The image below shows the comparison between X. lignescens (top) vs. today’s tree (bottom).

Picture on top shows top view of trunk. The black dots represents each individual xylems with exploded view to show the “growth rings”. Picture on botton shows the xylem or “growth rings” of a regular tree.

From the top picture above, the xylem are arranged on the outer area of the trunk compared to today’s common tree that have xylem filling the entire trunk. Hong-He Xu also discovered that the middle of the X. lignescens trunk was hollow and that the xylem strands were interconnected to each another like a web. Each of these xylems had its own set of “growth rings”. The tree therefore grows by continuously tearing the specific xylem apart and repairing it to allow the big parent tree to grow in size. This is a very complicated process!

Currently, Hong-He Xu and his team are studying how much carbon these trees could capture from the atmosphere as well as how this could have impacted the climate. By studying these rare fossils, we gain a piece of the puzzle of what the world was like in the past.

 

Ziyi Wang

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Video

Using Nanomachines to Destroy Cancer Cells in Just 60 Seconds!

In present day, when one develops cancer, the most common technology or treatment for these diseases are radiation therapy, chemotherapy, immunotherapy, targeted therapy, etc. More recently, a new way of destroying cancer cells have been discovered by researchers at Durham (UK), North Carolina State and Rice University; a group led by Professor James Tour.

Professor Tour and his team have previously worked on and created nanomachines such as motor-bearing molecules and peptide-carrying nanomachines designed to target specific cells. These studies have been previously published in Nature.

“We thought it might be possible to attach these nanomachines to the cell membrane, and then turn them on to see what happened,” said Tour. This resulted in developing these tiny, light-activating nanomachines that can target specific cells and drill through their membrane, activating apoptosis of the cell.

“These nanomachines are so tiny that 50,000 of them put together is still about the diameter of a single strand of hair,” says Tour.

Each nanomachines has a car shape, with four wheels that are motorized which allows for propulsion along cell surfaces. They are designed to target a cell’s lipid bilayer membrane. Once reaching the membrane, the nanomachine will either deliver drugs to kill the cell or the nanomachine itself will activate the cell to be destroyed.

Because this is using a molecular mechanical action and is not a biological creation, it is very unlikely for a cancer cell to develop resistance to these motorized machines. This is a great development in producing new drugs that can prevent the targeted bacteria or viruses from developing resistance and growing stronger.

These nanomachine motors were tested on live cells, including human prostate cancer cells. Experiments have shown that without an UV light trigger, the motors could still locate the specific cells of interest, but stayed on the targeted cells’ surface and were unable to drill into the cells. However, when triggered with UV light, the motors rapidly drilled through the membranes.

 

“Once developed, this approach could provide a potential step change in non-invasive cancer treatment and greatly improve survival rates and patient welfare globally,” said Dr. Robert Pal from Durham University, that collaborated with James Tour.

So perhaps in another 20-30 years, these nanomachines will be widely used in cancer treatment, and may possibly decrease the death rate from cancer. A very interesting idea to think about.

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(Video: James Tour Explains Nanomachines at Rice University)

                               – Ziyi Wang

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