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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THE DARKSIDE OF COSMETICS

Posted on February 3, 2014 by | 5 comments

Source: Flickr Commons. Assortment of Cosmetics.

Makeup!

Makeup is something that most women and some men are familiar with. For some individuals makeup allows them to express their creativity with the colours they choose and the various ways of application. For others, it provides an extra oomph of self-confidence. It also helps with accentuating one’s natural “beauty”. As well as, makeup allows for covering up unwanted blemishes and flaws that take away. Although “makeup” has these pros, it does come with some concerning cons.

One major con is the chemicals that are incorporated within the products. Besides the chemicals, another downside is that makeup does not allow skin to breathe freely as it plugs pores. Back to the chemicals. Most makeup products contain parabens and phthalates. These chemicals allow for “blushes”, “eyeshadows”, “lipsticks”, and “foundations” to remain fresher for longer due to their preservation qualities. Seems like that would be beneficial for consumers as their products would not go bad as fast and thus not buying products that often. In reality, parabens and phthalates are more harmful than helping save a few bucks. These chemicals have been tested and have led to many problems such as skin irritation, interference with sex hormones in both males and females, and most shocking, cancer.

A study led by Dr.Dabre, found that the penetration of parabens through the skin led to breast cancer. From this study that included 40 patients, all 40 of the women tested positive for at least one type of paraben found within their breast tissue. This one study may not cause one to think that it is that significant as only 40 patients were tested, but more scientific research is being done to see what other potential harms could arise from chemicals contained within “cosmetics”. Therefore, pre-cautions such as using less or no makeup at all can help with avoiding the dark side that comes from within “makeup”. So the next time you decide to put on some “lipstick” before you go out, think twice about what other chemicals you are putting into your body.

Source: Wikimedia Commons. Lipsticks.

Rubeen Sangha

 

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Perfect Pitch by Popping a Pill?

Posted on February 3, 2014 by | 1 comment

Have you ever wanted to win that karaoke contest on Saturday night, but just couldn’t seem to stay on key?

Photo Courtesy of Flickr Commons: Encore Entertainment

Well, you may be in luck! Researchers have recently found that you can learn how to detect and produce absolute pitch, even as an adult, with the help of a pill.  In this study it was demonstrated that the ability to achieve absolute pitch could still be learned as an adult (with the aid of a pill) even though there is normally a critical period (usually early in life) for being able to learn this type behaviour.

Absolute pitch is the ability to identify or produce a tone without the aid of any reference tone and it is estimated that only 1 in 10,000 people actually have the ability to do this. Although it is believed to be a genetic trait, it was previously thought that if absolute pitch  was not learned during the critical period (from birth until around age 7) that it could never be obtained. However, with the help of a medication this critical period can be reopened and allow us more time to learn absolute pitch.

Photo Courtesy of Flickr Commons: Yngve Bakken Nilsen

Valproate, or valproic acid is normally used to treat epilepsy, bipolar disorder and migraine headaches. However, in the study mentioned earlier it was individuals taking valproate that were able to learn to identify pitch significantly better than individuals taking a placebo. Takao Hensch, a professor of molecular and cellular biology at Harvard University, says: 

“It’s quite remarkable since there are no known reports of adults acquiring absolute pitch.”

Valproate is thought to be able to achieve these results by modifying the brain’s plasticity to a more juvenile state. As we age, our neuroplasticity decreases and that’s what causes these critical periods to exist. So, a higher plasticity in adulthood allows us to learn things we were once only able to learn as a child. It makes the brain “young again”.

Photo Courtesy of Flickr Commons: Jean-Etienne Minh-Duy Poirrier

What does this mean? Well, being able to win that karaoke competition may only be the start of it. Critical periods exist for a wide variety of other things including language development. This discovery could also potentially enable us to learn new languages more effectively. The possibilities are truly endless.

However, Takao Hensch warns:

“…Critical periods have evolved for a reason and it is a process that one probably would not want to tamper with carelessly … If we’ve shaped our identities through development, through a critical period, and have matched our brain to the environment in which we were raised … then if we were to erase that by reopening the critical period, we run quite a risk as well.”

Although this finding seems to have incredible potential, would winning karaoke really be worth losing part of your personality?

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Memories are Lies!

Posted on February 2, 2014 by | 1 comment

Well…they could be. It turns out that our memories are not as reliable as we’d like to believe.

We catalog and store what we see and do everyday. We discard useless information and try to hold onto useful information (though that may suddenly be very difficult during exam period). This whole process is associated with three major steps: encoding, storage and retrieval.

Let’s say you see someone flip on their bike. You process the information that you see, hear and feel, selecting that is most important and filter out the distractions. You then store this information in a memory so that you can recall and describe this event on demand. This seems like a journal. You make an entry and you can read it back any time you want, just the way you wrote it. However, just recalling a memory will change it.

Car crash image used in Elizabeth Loftus’ study
Source: TED Talks

This effect can even be exploited to create false  memories. In a study done by false memory expert Elizabeth Loftus, she was able to successfully implant false memories in participants. A car crash involving a blue car was shown to participants. After providing half the participants with information that suggested the car was white, much of them later remembered that the car was white. In fact, just using the words smash to describe the crash rather than hit caused participants to falsely remember broken glass at the scene.

Childhood memories have also been manipulated. In the study mentioned above, a memory of being lost in a mall was successfully planted in participants. Another study planted an animal attack memory into 77 participants. In both cases, these “memories” became more and more detailed every time the participants retold the memory. At the end of studies, the false memories were rated by the participant as reliable and as vivid as the real memories.

Source: SalFalko on Flickr

Okay, you can plant memories in people. Cool idea for a movie, but how is this signifiant in real life? A lot of criminal convictions are based on witnesses. False memories have often led to false convictions. Victims have identified wrongly innocent people as perpetrators and have landed these people in jail. These convictions are pretty common, in fact, in recent study looked at 300 innocent people that spent up to 30 years in prison, 3/4 of these were due to faulty eye witness memory.

There is another exploit for false memories. Some have suggested to exploit this property for good: implant warm fuzzy memories about vegetables into children so that they eat health. Unethical? Maybe.

– David Ng

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The Google Car

Posted on January 27, 2014 by | 1 comment

When people think about the future of transportation, they usually only consider advances in fuel economy or alternative fuels, but what about cars that can drive themselves?

Source: Wikipedia Commons (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Jurvetson_Google_driverless_car_trimmed.jpg)

Autonomous cars is not a relatively new idea as the concept of a driverless car had originally came from the 1920s when Houdina Radio Control Co proved that they could remotely control a vehicle through the streets of New York. Although the car had to be manually controlled, it proved that cars may be able to drive themselves one day when the technology is there.

Nowadays most modern cars contain the usual GPS, parking sensors, cruise control and some could even parallel park for you, but car manufacturers and Google are taking that one step further and creating cars that can drive themselves without any assistance. The Google car was originally created from a Toyota Prius that had undergone numerous modifications to make it driverless. Currently it is not very cost effective as all changes total up to $150,000 including a $70,000 laser radar system also known as Lidar. This system provides the vehicle with nearly all the data it needs, it creates a three dimensional map of the vehicle’s surroundings. Also, maps of the world are combined with the laser system to create an even better depiction of the car’s environment.

YouTube Preview Image

So far the autonomous vehicles have driven over half a million kilometers nearly accident free. There has been only two documented accidents with the driverless car and they are both at human fault. The first accident was caused when it was driven by a person and the second was when it got rear ended. Other than that these cars could be the future of human transport, the only problem is when production models are made and if an accident happens who would be liable; would it be the car passenger or the car manufacturer?

YouTube Preview Image

In the above video you can see Nissan’s driverless car in action. This is an example of the potential benefits of a driverless car because they can park themselves rather than the owner having to waste time to find a parking lot.

With all new technology there are always pros and cons in the case of autonomous vehicles. By the year 2020 major car manufacturers such as Mercedes Benz, Nissan, and BMW plan to sell their own version of the self-driving car.

Posted by: Justin Sidhu

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Is Yoga the Solution for Insomnia?

Posted on January 26, 2014 by | 1 comment

 

Has University life turned you into an insomniac? Many University and college students claim to suffer from insomnia, also known as a sleeping disorder. I’ve come across friends tweeting late at night with hash tags “insomniac” or “sleep-deprived” every so often. With the juggle of schoolwork, exercise, work and a social life, it is not surprising that a number of students are having difficulty sleeping. I personally feel that my mind is constantly working and thinking about things I need to do, especially at night when its time for bed.

Insomnia. Image: sese kim (Flickr Creative Commons)

Is there a cure for insomnia? Many over-the-counter or prescription pharmaceutical drugs such as sleeping pills are available and can do the job for you, but is it the right solution? There are always side effects when taking any type of medication and as a student; you don’t want to be relying on drugs in order to get a decent night sleep.

Sat Bir S. Khalsa, a researcher at Brigham and Women’s Hospital at Harvard Medical School, performed a study on subjects with insomnia and found that after eight weeks of breathing, meditation and asana exercises, the participants showed improvement in their sleep time and quality of sleep.  This research also showed that by practicing yoga for 30-40 minutes, people fell asleep 30% faster and their night-time waking was reduced by 35%.

Yoga can be portrayed as a complicated practice, with all its different poses and techniques. However, it can be as simple as just breathing. An example of a breathing exercise is alternate nostril breathing. We tend to breathe mainly out of our right nostril when we are stressed out.  The right nostril connects to the left-brain which activates our sympathetic nervous system, responsible for our fight or flight response. The sympathetic nervous system and stress hormones such as adrenaline and cortisol increase blood pressure and heart rate during stressful situations. In contrast, the parasympathetic system slows the heart rate and lowers blood pressure allowing one to recover from an overwhelming situation. Yoga poses can increase blood circulation and slow breathing can increase the oxygen level in the body. Both of these practices can increase the activation of the parasympathetic nervous system allowing for mental relaxation. This stimulatory effect of yoga on the autonomic nervous system, can help your sleeping pattern.

The video below gives a brief recap of how yoga can help you get a better nights sleep and introduces some basic yoga poses.

YouTube Preview Image

So next time you’re laying in bed having difficulty sleeping, try out a yoga pose or breathing exercise. It might just help you sleep like a baby!

– Jessy Duhra

Sources:

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/dr-michael-j-breus/yoga-insomnia_b_1939696.html

http://www.womentowomen.com/fatigue-insmonia/yoga-for-insomnia/

http://www.yogajournal.com/for_teachers/2016

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