Category Archives: Science in the news

Electricity at the palm of your hands

Posted on February 24, 2014 by | 1 comment

Have you ever considered that your hands could be a source to produce electricity? With materials called Peltier tiles, you can actually create products that are powered by the energy from your hand. Peltier tiles rely on the thermoelectric effect. When one side of a material is hotter than the other, the temperature difference can be used to generate a voltage. With a temperature gradient produced, charge flows from the hot to the cold side.

The Peltier effect. Source: Wikimedia commons

Remarkably, Ann Makosinski from Victoria was able to use Peltier tiles to create a hand powered flashlight. In her design, she used a hollow aluminum tube and embedded Peltier tiles into the material as the base of her flashlight. She created a temperature difference by heating the outside of the material with the palm of her hand and cool the inside of the tube with an internal air system. Her flashlight was able to turn on in the absence of light just by placing her hand over the flashlight.

A flashlight courtesy of Mrmariokartguy from Wikimedia Commons

The importance of this technology is significant. We don’t always have a set of batteries lying around and in the event of an emergency, a hand powered flashlight would be extremely useful. Here is a video from Ann Makowsinski describing her flashlight:

YouTube Preview Image

Video courtesy from the user: Queenie Andini

Pacemakers are now using this technology.  A chip is inserted into the body that requires a 2 degree difference in temperature difference to run. Dinesh Bhatia and her colleagues from the Journal of Pharmacy and Bioallied Sciences have found that areas just under the skin can cause a temperature difference by 5 degrees Celsius. With the use of the thermoelectric effect, we won’t have to perform surgeries just to replace the batteries of a pacemaker.

The problem with this technology is that it may not be able to generate a lot of electricity. If we could find a way to overcome this, it would be a revolutionary change to the products we can produce.

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Hair Dye can give you Cancer?

Posted on February 21, 2014 by | 3 comments

A recent study says that hair dyes contain chemicals that are linked to cancer. WHAT! Is this true?

Source: Flickr Commons

For years, hair dyeing has become increasingly popular among both males and females. Whether it is to cover up age defying gray hairs or for personal beauty related reasons, the cosmetic industry has boomed because of it. However, there are always potential risks to using any sorts of chemically produced products.

The link to cancer comes from the fact that many permanent hair dyes contain secondary amines that can penetrate the skin and stay on hairs for a long time after application of the dye.  Poisonous chemicals such as N-nitrosamines can be produced when chemicals in permanent hair dyes react with exhaust fumes in the air and tobacco smoke. Although these types of permanent hair dyes are banned from cosmetics, simple chemical reactions can generate these dangerous chemicals posing a potential hazard for hair-dyeing consumers.

There has been a concern regarding whether the type of hair color results in a greater risk of developing cancer. Some studies have suggested that darker-colored hair dyes link to a higher risk in getting cancer, specifically bladder cancer. Researcher Dr. Gago-Dominguez and her co-workers analyzed several bladder cancer cases in which hair dye was used among the patients. They compared these patients to adults that had not used permanent hair dye and found that women who used permanent hair dye once a month are twice as likely to develop bladder cancer.

This video provides a summary of hair dye and bladder cancer:

http://www.dailymotion.com/video/xgfype

Source: VideojugHealthWellbeing  daily motion

Fortunately, there is not enough evidence to support this and should not affect a persons decision to dye their hair. There is however other side affects of using permanent hair dye such as allergic reactions. Paraphenylenediamine (PPD) is a major chemical component in permanent hair dyes. It is a colorless substance that becomes colored when it is oxidized.  The intermediate stage before it is fully oxidized can cause allergic reactions such as swelling and redness so it is important to properly read labels before using an hair dye product, as is before using any chemical substance.

So, if you plan on dyeing your hair, be sure to educate yourself on the chemicals present in the dye to prevent any allergic reactions. Do not however, worry about there being a causal effect between hair dye and cancer.

– Jessy Duhra

Macrae, F. 2013. Hair dyes used by millions of women are linked to chemicals that can cause cancer [online]. Available from http://www.dailymail.co.uk/health/article-2281413/Hair-dye-used-millions-women-linked-chemicals-cause-cancer.html

Hair dye could cause bladder cancer- and brunettes are at a greater risk [online]. Avaible from http://www.dailymail.co.uk/health/article-562651/Using-hair-dye-increase-risk-cancer.html

Allergy to parphenylenedia. 2013. [online]. Available from http://dermnetnz.org/dermatitis/paraphenylenediamine-allergy.html.

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Oxytocin: The reason for monogamy?

Posted on February 10, 2014 by | 4 comments

To the insecure, the girlfriends, the wives and the crazies: I guess you can finally put an end to splurging on beauty products! It turns out it is not the endless hours we have spent before date nights that reminds your man to remain faithful to you – it is actually because of the hormone, oxytocin. Oxytocin is a hormone secreted by the pituitary gland. It is often referred to as the “love hormone” or the “cuddle hormone” since it’s released during hugging, touching, and other intimate moments.  

Many people mistakenly call oxytocin the “love hormone” when “attachment hormone” or “bonding hormone” would be more suitable. This video outlines other chemicals released in the brain through the various stages of romance!

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Chemical Structure of Oxytocin
Source: Wikimedia Commons

Monogamy is not prevalent in mammals. In fact, humans are part of the few species that serve as an exception to this and it is oxytocin that is responsible for this partner bonding.

Larry Young, a professor of psychiatry from Emory University in Atlanta, examined prairie vole brain activity during bonding. Young compares these rodents’ behaviour to humans, in that their oxytocin concentrations rise during bonding. It was observed that monogamous male voles had a strong desire for their partner and acted in a hostile manner towards other females.

This video outlines Young’s findings of prairie vole brain activity with regards to bonding.

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Dr. René Hurlemann, an executive senior physician from Bonn University Medical Center, and researchers from Ruhr University of Bochum in Germany and the University of Chengdu in China, collaborated to examine the effects of oxytocin in humans, specifically in males. They showed pictures of their female partners and pictures of other women to 40 heterosexual males. These males were given a dose of oxytocin (in a nasal spray form) and then a placebo, on another day.

The Good?
After being administered oxytocin, it appeared that their reward system, in their brain, was very active when shown pictures of their female partners. In fact, according to their brain activity, males found their partners more attractive than other women.

The Bad?
With oxytocin activating the reward system between lovers, Hurlemann suggests that the lack-of oxytocin  might be responsible for the immense sadness and depression people experience after parting ways with their partner. Individuals experience a state of withdrawal, with the reward system being significantly less active.

Your best bet for faithfulness would be to increase your oxytocin concentration! Give your special someone a hug or two and complete a challenge together! This should increase activity in your reward system and remind your significant other to remain faithful!

-Brenda Nguyen

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Animal Vibrissae Inspire Electronic “Whiskers” for Robots

Posted on February 10, 2014 by | 4 comments

If you have been following the news lately, you might have heard about a recent study published in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences by scientists from a Laboratory at Berkley University who have been developing electronic whiskers for use in robots.

In this video is a brief overview of the technology from the news:

http://www.dailymotion.com/video/x1a5e83
Video source: newsy videos  daily motion

As fascinating as this technology is, you are probably wondering logistically about the inspiration — animal whiskers, or as they are scientifically know, vibrissae. So the question is, how do vibrissae actually work and why are they so important?

Image Source: anniejay on Flickr

If you have a pet cat or dog, you have probably noticed vibrissae protruding from either side of their snout. One might easily dismiss these as decoration, based on the fact the human facial hair is essentially cosmetic. However in the case of many animals, vibrissae are an integral part of how they view and interpret the stimuli of there surroundings.

These highly specialized hairs, also found on carnivores, rats, beavers, seals and bears, are very stiff and are rooted deep under their skin. At its base,  there are touch receptor cells, as there are at the base of all ordinary hairs. Only here, they are in much higher concentration. Then since a vibrissa is long and very flexible, it is able to amplify a small touch at its end so as to be felt with high sensitivity.

Image Source: wikimedia commons

 It has been suggested by neuropsycologists that the size of a brain region devoted to a particular sense can be correlated to its relative importance in interpreting sensory data. In the case of dogs, 40% of the area of their brain linked to touch is associated with the face and a large proportion of this is then specifically for vibrissae. Interestingly, for each separate vibrassa, it can be shown that it connects to a separate place in the brain of a dog. Therefore vibrissa are an absolutely essential facet of their sensory perception.

Vibrissae are controlled by muscles that move them forward in a “whisking” motion as the animal approaches an object. As they touch a surface they impart information about the texture as well as its location, which can help in the recognition of an object or surface. Their sensitivity is even so great, that they are able to detect changes in air currents. As an animal nears a solid object, his motion pushes air towards the object, of which some is reflected back and picked up by the vibrissae. Thus they are able to determine the location of an object without actually touching it.

Now that you know how vibrissae work, and their importance to animals, you can appreciate how valuable an electronic version would be. If robots could be equipped to interpret sensory information in this way, they could be used to execute tasks which previously would have been impossible.

Julia Brown

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Olympic Fallout: Just How ‘Green’ is 2014?

Posted on February 10, 2014 by | 1 comment

Source: Flickr commons

Last Friday night, the world turned its eyes to a small town on the eastern coast of the Black Sea; the Sochi 2014 Olympics had begun. With opening ceremonies full of winter wonder, and the promise of a brave new world from International Olympic Committee (IOC) President Thomas Bach, Russia ushered in the next iteration of winter competition.

Though mired in controversy regarding the overrun of this Olympics (it is expected to cost roughly 50 billion Euros in total, by comparison Vancouver 2010 cost about 5.5 billion Euros), quietly shuffled aside are the concerns raised over the environmental impact.

Sochi National Park
Source: Flickr commons

To construct the Olympic venue for Sochi 2014, an area encompassing 8,750 acres of wetlands within the Sochi National Park has been effectively demolished. Though this area represents roughly 1.8 % of the total park size, it remains a sizeable portion to be lost. During the bidding process, Russia assured a zero-waste games and promised to follow Green standards. While this looks good on paper, zoologist Suren Gazaryan says “Sochi organizers have failed on all Green promises”. Gazaryan asserts he has witnessed not only illegal dumping of waste material, but also the blocking of major migration routes of animals residing within Sochi National Park; the park itself represents an extremely productive ecological area home to over 65 species of bird, none of which have been seen recently around Sochi.

Bolshoi Ice Palace – 12,000 seat multi-purpose arena
Source: Flickr commons

All of this begs the question: Just how stringent is this concept of Green? It shouldn’t be a surprise that an undertaking of this magnitude will needlessly (as many other locations possess the infrastructure to support international games) require substantial environmental sacrifices. In spite of this, the IOC gave the go ahead to Russia in the face of their fabled ‘no-waste games’ concept. While Russia admittedly maintained their lofty ideal of planting three trees for every one that they cut down during the construction of Sochi 2014, Gazaryan makes the keen observation that “…ecosystems are not Lego sets that you can take apart and rebuild somewhere else”.

For the next two weeks the world will come together to celebrate the best of human triumph, but in the face of glory and prestige have we lost sight of the Green standard we hold ourselves so fervently to? During the opening ceremony, IOC President Thomas Bach implored us all to embrace our diversity; let us not forget that if we are to attain that brave new world, we must also embrace our biodiversity.

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The Memory Game: Does Caffeine Help?

Posted on February 3, 2014 by | 2 comments

It is the night before that dreaded exam; the question surely revolving within your head is whether or not to chug down a cup of coffee.  If the goal is not to merely stay awake and finish reading those last few chapters but to keep your optimal level of memory up, then the following information is your key to success.

A variety of beverages contain caffeine, such as energy drinks.
Source: Daniel Jurena, Flickr

The Bad:

Caffeine has a half-life of approximately 6 hours which implies after a full 12 hour day, 25% of the original caffeine dose will still be present in your bloodstream.  Depending on dose, varying levels of sleep disruption or insomnia may follow.  In addition to not being able to sleep (which certainly will not aid your memory), the side of the coin people often overlook about caffeine is after its intake, as research has shown, the REM (Rapid Eye-Movement) phase and slow-wave deep sleep are affected.  REM sleep is believed to be the stage of the regular sleep cycle when memory is consolidated, thus it is critical that it remains undisturbed.

The Good:

Fortunately for coffee drinkers, there is new light shed on the beneficial effects of caffeine. Recently, a study conducted by undergraduate student Daniel Borota and a research team at John Hopkins University marked the first time direct results of caffeine stimulating the improvement of memory were recorded.  In the study, participants observed a series of simple everyday images including an office chair, a duck, and a saxophone.  To control for variances of individuals’ conditions, all participants viewed the images first, before half of the group was given a 200mg dose of caffeine while the other half was subject to a placebo.  The next day, the participants viewed another series of similar images and the group with caffeine intake the previous day was found to identify slight image differences with greater accuracy than the placebo group.  This differentiation is called pattern separation in neuroscience and leads to the conclusion that caffeine does indeed enhance memory consolidation in humans.

Dr. Michael Yassa from John Hopkins University further explains the study:

YouTube Preview Image

 

There is a fine line between over-caffeinating yourself to cram for exams and taking a healthy dose of it to help with alertness.  This new research shows that perhaps, the recommended amount of caffeine to optimize memory may be 200mg- just about one strong cup of coffee.

Blog post by Madeleine Tsoi

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All-Nighters: Not worth it

Posted on February 3, 2014 by | 3 comments

Pulling An All-Nighter
Source: Pink and Black Magazine

I can recall the countless times I have found myself on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram or other social media sites when I should be studying. In wasting all that valuable time procrastinating, I end up pulling an all-nighter in order to complete my assignment. Or that time when I realize that I spent the majority of the term slacking off, so I resort to pulling all-nighters during final exams in attempt to learn all the material. 4 months’ worth of course load in 24 hours…that’s possible, is it not?

Many people believe that all-nighters are necessary to achieve better grades. Is it worth sacrificing a few hours of sleep to attain a higher GPA?

The answer, unfortunately, is no!

The Anatomy of an All-Nighter
Source: Staff Writers, OnlineColleges

Christian Benedict, a professor of Sweden’s Uppsala University in Sweden, and other researchers, performed a study to determine the repercussions of pulling an all-nighter. These sleep researchers analyzed the blood content in fifteen men: after they had a full 8 hours of sleep and after they pulled an all-nighter. After the participants pulled an all-nighter, researchers discovered an increase in the concentration of NSE and S-100B in the participants’ blood. The Swedish researchers compared the effects of sleep deprivation to that of head injuries’ (similar to a blow to the head or from a car accident), since it is known that the molecules NSE and S-100B increase in blood during head injuries.

According to study funded by NINDS (National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke), the brain’s role during sleep is to rid itself of toxins. Lack of sleep may be connected to neurodegenerative disorders, which are result from toxin build-up between brain cells. Examples of neurodegenerative diseases include multiple sclerosis, Parkinson’s and Alzheimer’s.

Not only are all-nighters harmful to brain health, sleep deprivation leads to poor grades! Pamela Thacher, a professor at St. Lawrence University, discovered that students who frequently pulled all-nighters had worse GPAs than students who didn’t. Dr. Philip Alapat, a medical director and professor of Baylor College of Medicine, agrees with Thacher in that a lot of rest helps with memory retention and increases both academic performance and concentration. Alapat recommends that students get 8 hours of sleep, study during the evening (6-8pm), and not abuse caffeinated beverages to increase both health and GPA!

For the students who might disagree and exclaim that they have received a better score when they replaced an hour of sleep with an hour of studying: it is not worth it if it is at the expense of your well-being!

The video below outlines why sleep is necessary for maintaining brain health.

YouTube Preview Image

Happy studying!

-(Vy) Brenda Nguyen

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The “Big Bang”: Want to hear the “Bang”?

Posted on February 3, 2014 by | 1 comment

Of the thousands of millions of species on this roughly 4.5 billion-year-old planet, Homo sapiens is the only species looking for the evidence of the origin of his existence.  His curiosity and investigations today have led to the affirmation of the term “Big Bang,” and even further, to the point where he has been able to create a simulation of the sound of the early moments when the universe was born, seconds after Big Bang.

Although it might suggest an explosion, the term “Big Bang” refers to the moment when a hot dense universe started to expand and cool down rapidly.The following video depicts the big bang theory, based on which scientists describe the beginning of our universe:

John Cramer, a physicist at the University of Washington in Seattle has recently refined his ten-year-old idea about the possibility of re-creating the sound of the Big Bang.

Cramer’s work relied on data collected by the Planck satellite, one of the largest and most sensitive satellites ever built. This satellite can detect the millimetre and sub-millimetre fractions of wavelength and once located in space, it is directed away from the sun.

Planck satellite,
Photo from http://www.bis.gov.uk/ukspaceagency/news-and-events/2012/Jan/planck-instrument-loses-its-cool

Computer simulated picture of Planck satellite and its orientation relative to the sun and earth,
Photo from: http://www.learner.org/courses/physics/visual/visual.html?shortname=planck_standing

On Mission ESA, the Planck satellite collected the light temperature variations in all directions around it, which helped create a pattern that could be explained using the Cosmic Microwave Background Radiation concept. CMBR is defined as the uniform faint afterglow or heat residues of the big bang, reaching the earth from the sky in every direction.

Pattern created by the measured temperature variations in sky by the Planck satellite,
Photo from: http://www.esa.int/Our_Activities/Space_Science/Planck/Planck_and_the_
cosmic_microwave_background

When this cosmic background light was released billions of years ago, it was incredibly hot and bright. However, since after the big bang both time and space were stretched and the universe started to cool down, wavelengths coming from this background light got longer and longer. That’s why today these wavelengths are in the microwave section of the electromagnetic waves spectrum; hence the name Cosmic Microwave Background Radiation.

Picture representing wavelength elongation due to decrease of temperature (the redshift effect) and stretch of universe,
Photo from: http://proximacentauri360.blogspot.ca/2013/08/cosmic-microwave-background-radiation.html

Cramer finally converted planck’s data into sound waves and scaled up the obtained frequencies by a large factor so that the sound frequencies could fall within the human’s hearing range (20-20000 Hz).

In a story he wrote in Analog magazine about his investigations, Cramer said:

“The original sound waves were not temperature variations, though, but were real sound waves propagating around the universe,… “

Science students like me might ask: Sound is a mechanical wave and it would need a medium to be able to propagate through space. In what way is that statement justified?

Cramer argues the early universe was dense enough that at that state, sound waves could travel through space and the length of these waves would be so short that again it would fall well below the human’s hearing threshold.

In the end, I invite you to listen to a 100-second version of the sound of the birth of universe:

http://youtu.be/GJyJ8Xjllzk

 

– Shamim Hortamani

 

 

 

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