Category Archives: Biological Sciences

Aerobic Exercise Boosts Memory

Posted on January 31, 2011 by | 3 comments

As midterms are quickly approaching, many of us are trying to retain and cram as much information as we can into our brains. If it hasn’t already become apparent, most of us will realize that our brains can only store a limited amount of information. Fortunately, there appears to be a way to expand and boost our memory, and that is simply through aerobic exercises.

Image from: www.runningrules.com

In a recent article published by Science News (which can be found here), they reported a study that was highlighted in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. In this study, scientists discovered that adults who frequently performed aerobic exercise activities such as walking developed an increase in hippocampus volume. The hippocampus, which is a memory centre in the brain, normally decreases in size with age, however in the study the reversed occurred. They also found that the members had higher levels of Brain-derived neurotrophic factor (BDNF), which is a brain-aiding molecule.

Image from: www.library.thinkquest.org

Wikipedia article on the hippocampus: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hippocampus

Wikipedia article on Brain-derived neurotrophic factor (BDNF): http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/BDNF

The study compared two different groups of adults aged 60 to 80. In one group, the adults did toning workouts such as weight training and yoga sessions for a year. While in the other group, the adults consistenly walked for three times a week. After a year, the group which simply did toning showed normal results, which consisted of some of the test subjects observing a decrease in hippocampus volume. On the other hand, the group that did a year of aerobic exercises observed roughly a 2 percent increase in anterior hippocampus volume.

If adults aged 60 to 80 can develop increases in the hippocampus by up to 2 percent, it begs the question of whether a younger study group would develop an even larger increase in their hippocampus. Hence, this study should be expanded to include a more diverse age group. Furthermore, why should the study stop there? They could also include teenagers, children, and possibly toddlers as well. Perhaps they might discover that people that have superior memory got that way by doing a lot of aerobic exercise during their childhood. It would also be interesting to understand why and how this process occurs. This is definitely a fascinating area of research, and it has great implications. It shows that exercise not only benefits the body, but the brain as well. So it is in everyone’s interest to maintain a healthy lifestyle and to keep fit.

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Posted in Biological Sciences, New and innovative science, Uncategorized

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Banding on Penguins Not Such a Good Idea Afterall

Posted on January 29, 2011 by | 1 comment

Climate change can be assessed through using the top predators of the Southern Oceans, the penguins. However, a recent study published on Nature have shown that the use of flipper banding may affect one specific population of King Penguins.

The 10-year study indicates that “banded birds produced 39% fewer chicks and had a survival rate 16% lower than non-banded birds“. This finding from the research team from the University of Strasbourg in France brings to the surface the effect of banding on animals, specifically the penguins in order to collect scientific data.

However, the conclusion on the tagging and bands are by no means clear, according to interview with two penguin experts. One of them, Dee Boersma, at the University of Washington stresses that not all bands are created equal, thus the effect on species may be different with different materials, shapes, sizes of the bands.

The study in the end stresses the importance of reconsidering the data collected of the effects of global warming on marine ecosystems from flipper-bands.

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Posted in Biological Sciences, Environment, Issues in Science, Science in the News

Preverbal Infants Show Social Dominance

Posted on January 28, 2011 by | Comments Off on Preverbal Infants Show Social Dominance

Here is an interesting study about infants and how they develop social dominance. Five studies were done with 144 infant participants showing that 10 to 13-month-old use relative size to predict the outcome of a dominance contests. This correlation of social dominance and relative size is found almost universally with human cultures and with the animal kingdom.

“”Traditional kings and chieftains sit on large, elevated thrones and wear elaborate crowns or robes that make them look bigger than they really are, and subordinates often bow or kneel to show respect to superior humans and gods,” says Thomsen, a research fellow in Harvard’s Department of Psychology.” -from Science Daily–

The methods of the study were complicated as infants can’t just tell you what they are thinking. So they basically observed the infants reactions to different visual situations.

“The researchers showed infants videos depicting a large and a small block with eyes and mouth bouncing across a stage in opposite directions. Next, infants watched the two blocks meet in the middle, impeding one another’s progress. They then saw either the large or the small block bow and step aside, deferring to the other.” -from Science Daily–

On another Note:

This study also makes me think of how we chose our mates. Females usually want a man who is bigger than them, and males want a female who is smaller. I know as I grew up that my Dad was definitely the dominant one in the family, larger than my mother, and he set the rules and enforced them.

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Posted in Biological Sciences, New and innovative science

The Vast Field of Biomechatronics

Posted on January 28, 2011 by | 1 comment

Biomechatronics – one of science’s most rapidly developing areas –  is a  field that encompasses biology, mechanics and electronics. Examples of inventions that have sprouted from this field include, ECG’s, surgical robotics, medical cameras, and other body monitoring devices. One of the most recent discoveries in this field have sprouted from combinations of robotics and neuroscience, in which researchers have been working to develop prosthetic limbs that render the user under complete control of its functions – solely relying on the individual’s own cognitive processes.

One of the most notable breakthrough stories that I read about belongs to that of Pierpaolo Petruzzellio. Petruzzellio, an Italian man, lost his left arm in a car accident at the age of 25. Scientists in Rome quickly grasped this unfortunate event in Petruzzellio’s life as an opportunity to test their latest technology in hopes of giving him the chance of gaining a fully functional arm again. Electrodes were placed on the nerves that remained in Petruzzellio’s forearm, and  were then attached to a robotic arm through a network of cables and wires. Though the arm was not directly attached to his body, Petruzzellio claimed after a month he began to feel sensations in the artificial limb –  almost as if he had a real arm again. All this in consideration, the process was certainly not easy. It took Petruzzellio about a month of consistent focus and determination to begin to control the robotic arm to form even the most primitive of hand gestures, (wiggling of fingers, clenched fists, etc) and even then they were still shaky and took a great amount of mental control. Nonetheless, the dexterity exhibited by Petruzzellio was something that had never been witnessed before in this field of science.

Though this is undoubtedly an amazing advancement in biomechatronic science, one may wonder – where can the possibilities end? Now that scientists are well on their way to providing fully functional, consciously controlled prosthetics, what’s not to stop them from further developing these projects – branching out from aiding the disabled, to augmenting the abilities of normal, healthy humans? What if scientists are able to create robotic legs, capable of running never before seen speeds and carrying inhuman strength? What if 10 years down the road, humans were capable of being mechanically fitted to possess multiple limbs? In sports, could these mechanical advantages for the disabled be deemed appropriate?

Where should the line be drawn? As long as Arnold Schwarzenegger as Terminator doesn’t show up anytime soon, I think I’ll be all right.

Biomechatronics taken too far?

Check out this amazing video depicting the science behind Petruzzellio’s artificial limb, and his experiences.

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Posted in Biological Sciences, New and innovative science

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Man Made Proteins

Posted on January 28, 2011 by | 1 comment

In ancient times the Greeks had myths about creatures that had the best parts of animals put together. One example is a griffon, which is half lion and half eagle. Some research being conducted at Princeton University may lead to organisms with the best of the best genes possible.

Scientists at Princeton have created new genetic sequences not found in nature that can sustain life. They created a list of proteins not found in nature that would fold into a 3D structure on its own.  They then tried putting these proteins into some living cells to see if the synthesized proteins actually do anything.

The scientists inserted the proteins into some mutated bacteria cells that were missing some genes essential for life. The control group that had the deleted genes but no added proteins did not survive. Mutant bacteria with the added proteins survived and formed colonies. This showed the scientists that synthetic proteins can be as useful at sustaining life as ones found in nature. This is a big step in fabricating life because the new proteins bear no resemblance to the natural proteins that it replaced.

There are many combinations of amino acids that can be combined to form a protein and nature has only created a small portion of the possible combinations. If scientists continue this type of research, they may find proteins that are more efficient at their function than their natural counterparts. We could eventually be putting the best pieces of genetic code together to make super organisms.

The origional article can be found here: http://www.princeton.edu/main/news/archive/S29/43/27E55/index.xml?section=topstories

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Posted in Biological Sciences

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