Category Archives: Issues in Science

Can the first year of your life determine your ability to love as an adult?

Posted on January 30, 2012 by | 3 comments

According to Jeffry A. Simpson, the amount of love and support you get from your the mother can predict your future endeavors in relationships with other people in adulthood. But how do first 12 to 18 month’s of your life can predict your romantic relationships when you’re 25?

In University of Minnesota, researches  investigated whether mother infant relationship can later influence love partnerships by assessing 75 subjects from birth into their early 30’s.To help researchers rate how tightly the mother and the infant were bonded, children were put into stressful situations with their mothers and evaluated by their behavior. As adults, subjects regularly returned for evaluation of their personal lives such as relationships with friends, family and romantic partners.

Although there was evidence confirming this psychological theory, there is still some ambiguity in this issue. The researchers  found that even though the child may not have experienced great connections with his or her mother, having a loving and trustworthy romantic partner will protect one from showing dysfunctional behavior.

Also, there can be other factors influencing child’s ability to communicate in the future. For example, an infant’s personality, genetics, neighborhood environment could be the factors influencing him or her in the future. This means there is no clear cut to predicting one’s future romantic relationships.

On the other hand it is still very important that a mother does understand that infant neglect can create problems in child’s personality. By  nurturing, showing attention, cuddling and talking to the baby, a mother helps the child develop trust, sense of security and feelings of love.

For more information on why it is  important to establish warm and trusting contact with your own child, watch this video:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C6fY6RchNk4&feature=BFa&list=PL23E3015A4B0AAAB6&lf=results_video

 

 

Resources:

Association for Psychological Science (2011, December 14). Ability to love takes root in earliest infancy. ScienceDaily. Retrieved January 30, 2012, from http://www.sciencedaily.com­ /releases/2011/12/111214125904.htm

Youtube Video: Why is bonding with baby important?  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C6fY6RchNk4&feature=BFa&list=PL23E3015A4B0AAAB6&lf=results_video

 


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Fighting Global Warming with Global Cooling

Posted on January 30, 2012 by | 1 comment

A recent news article explains a potential reason as to why our past “little” ice age occurred. The National Center for Atmospheric Research (NCAR) suggests that “an unusual 50-year-long episode of four massive tropical volcanic eruptions triggered the Little Ice Age between 1275 and 1300 A.D.” (1) These eruptions released sulfates and other aerosols that increased the reflectivity of the atmosphere, reducing incoming solar radiation thus cooling the earth. However, this sparked interest in terms of current possible solutions toward the opposite effect: that is, global warming; a highly debated topic in today’s society.

There is much concern over the increase of the earth’s average surface temperature due to greenhouse gases; to the point where geoengineering is becoming a very important field. In fact, some fairly recent farfetched ideas to cool the earth have been discussed, some of which include increasing the number of trees to remove carbon dioxide, or releasing aerosols such as sulfates into the atmosphere using blimps, mimicking what a volcanic eruption would do but on an evenly distributed and global scale. Some even believe that releasing millions of mirrors into our orbit to reflect sunlight may be a solution to cool the earth!

To illustrate a brief idea behind geoengineering, consider this YouTube video:

YouTube Preview Image

What really needs to be considered though is if we were to proceed with some of these proposed ideas within the geoengineering field, will we cause more harm than good? Can we use previous data from events such as the volcanic eruptions mentioned earlier to predict how a large input of aerosols can affect industries? Of course, these questions and many more are all under investigation using very powerful computer climate models, as climate is a very difficult phenomenon to predict and understand.

 

Reference:

1. Was the Little Ice Age Triggered by Massive Volcanic Eruptions?” Science Daily: News & Articles in Science, Health, Environment & Technology. Web. 30 Jan. 2012. http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2012/01/120130131509.htm>.

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The Mournful Fate of Laika

Posted on January 23, 2012 by | 1 comment

As with other experiments, the role of laboratory animals was absolutely  crucial in the early exploration of the universe. Many animals took part in giving information as to what happens in gravity-free status before astronauts went to the universe. The most notable animal must have been Laika, who was the first animal to orbit the Earth.

 

Laika. The image at the top of the page is a model on display at the Polytechnical Museum in Russia. Image courtesy of Alexander Chernov and the Virtual Space Museum

 

On October 4th, 1957, the Soviet Union launched the first artificial satellite to orbit the earth, named Sputnik 1, and accelerated space development competition among many countries. About a month later, on November 3rd, 1957, second artificial satellite to orbit the earth was launched again. Not only Sputnik 2 was important in its bigger size but it had more surprise to it; the first space animal Laika was on board.

 

Laika was a Siberian husky, who was discovered by laboratory scientists when she was wondering in the city of Moscow. His original name was Kudryavka, but it was changed to Laika since the pronunciation was long and difficult. Before launching Sputnik 2, the Soviet Union elevated the ambience by recording Laika’s voice and playing it through televisions and radios.

 

Stamp art; Albanian; 1958; Russian Sputnik Dog Laika.

 

Inside of Sputnik 2, there were many types of equipment such as oxygen generator, carbon dioxide remover, and temperature regulator along with ample food and water supply for Laika’s survival. In addition, electrodes connected with Laika transmitted his pulse rate, breathing measurements as well as body temperature to the control tower.

 

Laika was shot into the universe tied tightly inside of Spunik 2. A week later, the Soviet Union announced that Laika was euthanatized and therefore had a pleasant death. However, this statement was proved to be wrong in 2002. Dimitri Malashenkov, one of the Soviet scientists, exposed hidden data of Laika in the World Space Congress in Houston, Texas, US. He showed how Laika could not handle excessive acceleration and unexpected high temperature that she died from overheating within hours of departure.

 

Although the truth was revealed after all and although Laika paved our way for improved technology, we should not forget the fact she was sacrificed for our selfishness. Space experiments will be continued in the future where laboratory animals will be essential. Let us not forget about the sacrifices made by them and appreciate their contribution.

 

 

 

 

References and further reading

Laika

Sputnik 1

Sputnik 2

 

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