Category Archives: Science in the News

Spontaneous and Contagious Yawning

Posted on March 2, 2015 by Gagandeep Gill

In any given day, there is at least one instance where we yawn. This may be a “spontaneous yawn” or something called a “contagious yawn“. The difference between the two is that a “contagious yawn” is a reaction to someone else’s yawn. … Continue reading →

4 Comments

The Harmful Sun: Evidence for Post-Exposure Damage

Posted on March 2, 2015 by gurtaj mahil | 5 comments

Woman applying sunscreen on to her face for maximum protection against the UV-radiation of the Sun. Source:Flickr commons. Image by earthlydelights

It is common knowledge that the ultra-violet (UV) radiation from the Sun has the ability to cause skin-cancer. For this reason, many of us make sure to apply sunscreen before we depart for the beach on a sunny day. But is the sunscreen doing it’s job? Is it effective in preventing skin-cancer?

Sunscreen can come in the form of a spray or a creme and is vital for protection from the Sun’s harmful rays. As described in this article, sunscreen functions to protect your skin by absorbing the UV rays, acting as the first-line of defence. The article also mentions that no matter how high the protective power of the sunscreen, not all of the UV-rays will be absorbed and some will ultimately reach the layers of the skin.

As per this BBC article, as these UV-rays make it past the sunscreen, they are absorbed by a component of the skin called melanin. Similar to how sunscreen is the first layer of defence, melanin is the second layer of defence against the sun’s rays. Again, melanin does not absorb all of the UV-rays and some pass through to the deeper layers of the skin. This article says that once the UV-rays penetrate the melanin, they can cause disruption at the DNA-level which may cause skin-cancers. This is not the whole story, however.

The video by Kevin Boyd through Ted-Ed explains why sunscreen is necessary to prevent skin-cancers:

According to a new study out of Yale University, scientists have discovered that the Sun’s UV rays have the ability to do damage for more than three hours after exposure. The study found that once the melanin absorbs the UV-rays, it initiates a series of chemical reactions in the skin that produces heat. This heat, it was discovered, is what ultimately damages the DNA, hours after initial exposure to the sun.This is a huge breakthrough as it was not previously known what happens to the UV-rays after being absorbed by melanin.

Yes, the sunscreen that is on the market now still protects against UV rays, however, it does not protect against the post-exposure damage that occurs. So no, the present form of sunscreen is not as effective as it should be. The real-life implication of this study is that now scientists can produce an ‘evening-after’ sunscreen that can be applied after exposure, protecting your DNA from the heat and ultimately preventing cancers.

Finally, a quick note for all those that don’t feel the need for any sunscreen; not only are you putting yourself at risk for cancer when you are in the sun but also for up to four hours later,even if you are indoors. Until this new type of sunscreen is developed, I think it’s essential that we allow for as little UV-rays to get to our melanin as possible. So, lather up!

A sign that reminds everyone to ‘use plenty of sunscreen’ to protect themselves from the harmful rays of the Sun. Source: Flickr commons. Image by Alex Liivet

5 Comments

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

Tagged DNA mutation, exposure, skin-cancer, sun, sunblock, sunscreen, UV, Yale

Three-Parent Babies

Posted on March 2, 2015 by Siana Lai | 2 comments

Last month, the United Kingdom voted to legalize “three-parent babies.” They are the first country to allow this procedure and within a year, the first of these babies will be born.

Mitchondrial replacement can prevent mitchondrial disease from being passed on to future generations
Photo courtesy of Flickr

These babies will have three parents in an attempt to eradicate mitochondrial disease. In short, this disease is caused by mutations in the mitochondrial DNA which in turn leads to insufficient energy for the cell’s survival. The death of cells causes the organs to fail ultimately leading to death. This illness is passed through the mother to her children. There are three traditional choices for mothers with this disease that hope to have children. They can adopt a child, use a donor egg, or become pregnant and at 11 weeks have the fetus tested for mitochondrial disease. At that point, they can choose to terminate the pregnancy. However, there is new hope on the horizon for prospective mothers in the United Kingdom that have this disease. The government recently legalized a method of three-person in-vitro fertilization, mitochondrial donation.

There are two methods of mitochondrial DNA replacment, maternal spindle transfer and pronuclear transfer.
Photo courtesy of Flickr

There are two different methods of mitochondrial donation. The first is named maternal spindle transfer where the repair is completed before fertilization. An egg is taken from both the mother and the donor and both the nuclei are removed. Next, the mother’s nucleus is kept and inserted into the donor’s egg while the donor’s nucleus is destroyed. Then, the donor egg containing the mothers nucleus and healthy mitochondria is fertilized with the father’s sperm. Finally, the egg is implanted back into the mother.

The other method of fertilization is named pronuclear transfer. In this procedure, the repair is done after fertilization. First, an egg is taken from both the mother and the donor. Then, they are fertilized with the father’s sperm. Before the eggs have a chance to replicate, the chromosomes from each egg are taken out. Next, the donor ones are thrown out and the donor egg is filled with the mother’s chromosomes. Finally, the egg is implanted in the mother.

There are many ethical concerns attached to this issue causing countries including Canada to hold back on legalizing this procedure. In Canada, this specifically has to do with the fear of opening the doors to designer babies. Not only are designer babies horrifically dystopian and Brave New World-esque, it may also decrease the natural variability of the human race, something that is required for the race to survive and adapt. However, changing a baby’s mitochondrial DNA is a far cry from creating designer babies. The procedure has no effect on their hair or eye colour and it isn’t enhancing them in any way. In fact, the change affects less than 1% of the baby’s total genome.

Other ethical concerns include “germline” genetic engineering, the fact that one of the embryos are destroyed in the pronuclear transfer and that we are unsure of this procedure’s effects on humans. Even with these concerns, this procedure is worth it if we can eradicate a painful disease affecting millions.

Check out this video by Elliot M. that sums up mitochondrial replacement:

– Siana Lai

2 Comments

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

Tagged biology, ethical issues, health, in-vitro fertilization, medical issues, mitochondria, modern technology

Boosting Your Immune System with a Dose of Personality

Posted on February 23, 2015 by samantha mee | 3 comments

Personalities and their effects on biological systems have become an increasingly popular focus of research over the last few years; the target of these studies is often related to the degree in which our personalities can regulate many aspects of our life, such as our wellbeing. A video from the Youtube series ASAPScience (see below) provides an example of the link between personality and biology. The video specifically discusses a relationship between personality and sleep habits (whether you’re a night owl or a morning person) and how the latter reveal your personality traits.

The science behind our personality is simple. It can be defined as a collection of characteristics or qualities that form an organism’s unique character. These specific traits that all combine to form a unique personality can affect different aspects of our life, such as our performance in school and the friendships we have. The question is, does personality really have an impact on our health?

Previous studies have linked personality and its role in the risk of developing health problems. More recently, research has shown that personality traits can be a factor in how well a body can fight a disease. Published in the journal Psychoneuroendocrinology, a study conducted by Kavita Vadhara and colleagues at The University of Nottingham has shown that some traits part of the ‘Big Five’ group, which are five primary dimensions of personality common to all humans, can play a role in the way the defence system of the body works. This system is also known as our immune system.

The ‘Big Five’ Model shows the five primary dimensions of personality.
Big Five Source: Wikipedia Commons

The team of researchers asked 121 students to complete a questionnaire based on their personality. This questionnaire measured their degree of the ‘Big Five’ personality traits. Specifically, they looked how extroverted the participants were (energetic, talkative), their neuroticism (how anxious or moody) and their conscientiousness (how organized or thoughtful). In addition to the questionnaire, they also took a blood sample from each participant. This allowed the analysis of a number of genes that are involved in an inflammatory immune response, which is a response initiated by our immune system that helps the body fight infection and speed up the recovery from injury. Using microarray technology to determine which genes are active, the team of researchers were able to make a correlation between personality traits and the active genes required for an immune response.

The above instrument is used in microarray technology to identify active genes.
Microarray Source: Wikipedia Commons

Results showed that participants who scored higher for extroversion in the questionnaire had an increased expression of pro-inflammatory genes (genes capable of promoting inflammation). However, participants who demonstrated a higher degree of conscientiousness subsequently had a decreased expression of pro-inflammatory gene expression. In other words, individuals with a more social behavior appear to have a greater ability to deal with infection and injury, whereas participants who were more cautious could not effectively handle the infections. The third trait mentioned, neuroticism, did not show an association with gene expression.

Before you celebrate that your outgoing disposition means you’re better at fighting illness, I think an important question that should be asked is, what is influencing what? Could it be the opposite cause-and-effect relationship, where our immune system influences our behaviour? Whatever the cause of the above results, the study conducted by Vadhara and colleagues provides further support to the dynamic relationship between health and personality.

Check out this video by Kurz Gesaft explaining how the immune system works:

Thanks for reading!

Samantha Mee

3 Comments

Posted in Biological Sciences, Science in the News, Uncategorized

Tagged disease, Gene, health, Immune System, microarray, Personality, science

4D Printing: It’s One ‘D’ Better.

Posted on February 23, 2015 by seungwon lee | Leave a comment

I am pretty sure most of you have heard of 3D printing technology. Knowing that you can print anything you want, 3D printers have opened up unlimited opportunities for us to print toys, tools in our living room and household appliances as well. However, all of these great products have one thing in common – rigidity. That means they will maintain their shape once we print them, avoiding the hassle of putting pieces together to obtain a complete product.

Lego pieces that need to be assembled (Source: Free Art & Technology)

So why 4D if 3D does the job?

Skylar Tibbits, an MIT researcher who came up with this new concept of 4D printing has announced “It’s called 4D printing. The idea behind 4D printing is that you take multi-material 3D printing — so you can deposit multiple materials — and you add a new capability, which is transformation,that right off the bed, the parts can transform from one shape to another shape by passive energy — so heat, shaking, pneumatics, gravity, magnetics.”

So what does that really mean? Well, it means printing objects that can change after they are printed—basically printing a raw material that folds into the shape of the final object like a long chain of polypeptides in cells that self-folds into a functional protein.

4D Printing: Self-Folding Strand into “MIT” (Source: The New York Times)

For example, this MIT string works by printing a long strand of plastic that’s made two different polymers that react differently to water; one expands and one contracts, and by intelligently mixing the two based on blueprints, the strands fold themselves into the shape of the final object. Although 4D technology remains premature, such concept has the potential to extend to greater innovations that will allow 4D production of pipes that can actually expand and contract in response to water demand. Or imagine a self-assembling furniture. Print out a flat board and add water; next thing you know it curls up into a rocking chair.

Written by Seungwon Lee

Be Happy! Your Dog Knows When You Aren’t.

Posted on February 22, 2015 by Surekha Gangar | 6 comments

Humans and dogs have had long-lasting relationships since cavemen existed. Because of these long-lasting relationships, dogs are probably one of the most domesticated species and it shouldn’t be a surprise that they are able to distinguish between different human emotions.

When exposed to photographs of human facial expressions, adult dogs were able to recognize different emotions. Dogs’ reactions to facial expressions were evaluated compared to a neutral expression photograph. When joy was displayed, both adult dogs and puppies reacted more to the expression, as compared to the neutral photograph. However, only adult dogs reacted to anger, avoiding the photograph, and to fear, paying more attention to it. This research suggests that emotions that are more difficult to interpret, like anger, may take dogs longer periods of time to recognize.

Happiness: Flickr Commons (Nithi Anand)

Anger: Flickr Commons (englishme community)

Fear: Flickr Commons (Portland Center Stage)

You may be wondering, are dogs better able to recognize their owners’ emotions? In fact, dogs are able to distinguish emotions just as well for strangers of the same sex as their owner. For example, when shown photographs of their owners’ smiling face versus the owners’ blank face, the dogs selected, using their noses, the owners’ smiling face significantly more often. The results were the same for a stranger of the same sex as the owner. It isn’t clear why the results weren’t similar for those of the opposite sex, but it may be because of facial feature differences between genders. Although gender had an impact, the portion of the face displayed didn’t seem to impact recognition. Dogs were able to recognize emotions even when only the eyes were displayed.

Happiness: Flickr Commons (Shannon Phillips)

Anger: Flickr Commons (maidin_rua)

Fear: Flickr Commons (Leonardo Moyano)

Humans’ emotions are not only presented through visual cues (facial expressions) they are also displayed through verbal and behavioral cues. When all these aspects of emotional display were considered and dogs were asked to retrieve objects in a recent study, the dogs still demonstrated that they recognized emotion. Dogs were given a choice between two objects, one their owner acted disgusted towards and another their owner acted happily towards. Regardless of their interest when they approached the two different objects, dogs retrieved the object their owner displayed more positive emotions towards.

How can dogs interpret emotions? Researchers have done MRI scans on dogs and found that dogs’ brains actually function similarly when processing human emotions. The following video, by Reuters, briefly summarizes this research.

My first thought before I read about dogs recognizing human emotions was, “that explains why they get sad when the owners do and why they seem to comfort the sad owner.” However, the current research contains nothing related to sadness, so can we say that dogs could potentially recognize all human emotions? Maybe more research needs to be done to make such a bold statement.

– Surekha Gangar

6 Comments

Posted in Public Engagement, Science in the News

Tagged dogs, emotions, facial expressions, processing emotions

Tattoo removal might be easier than you think

Posted on February 20, 2015 by Ian Villamin | 4 comments

Do you have a tattoo that you regret getting? Maybe your tattoo is not appropriate for your future career or you made a spontaneous decision to get one. For whatever reason, one in six people who have tattoos hate them so much that they want them surgically removed.

Woman has to get tattoo removed due to her job because the U.S. Marine Corps does not authorize any hand tattoos. Source: Slick-o-bot Wikimedia Commons

Luckily, surgery may not be needed because Alec Falkenham, a Ph.D. student from Dalhousie University, is developing a tattoo removal cream as a painless alternative. This topical cream promises to eventually make any tattoo fade away.

Using a tattoo needle. Source: James Gray-King Flickr

To make a tattoo, tattoo needles are used to go through the epidermis, the outer layer of the skin, and send dyes into the dermis, the deepest layer of the skin, causing an inflammatory response. This would then signal the immune system to send a type of cell called macrophages to the wounded site. As a result, the macrophages eat up the dye and show up as the desired colour which is visible through the skin. In order to remove the tattoo, Falkenham’s cream allows new macrophages to consume the macrophages with dye and then migrate to the lymph node, essentially removing all of the tattoo’s dye.

Below is a video by TED-Ed which goes into further detail of the science behind tattoos:

This tattoo removal cream would challenge current methods such as surgery or laser removal. Surgery requires the excision of the skin containing the tattoo and then stitching it back together, and laser removal uses a highly concentrated light to break the dyes apart so that the immune system can clear them away.

An article states that surgery is better for smaller tattoos but would still leave a scar, while laser removal is a long and painful procedure, and does not promise full removal of the tattoo. Moreover, the price of surgery could range from $500-$1000 and laser removal could be $200-$350 per session with a suggested 4-5 sessions. Alternatively, the tattoo removal cream would not cause any pain or scarring, and it would cost 4.5 cents per square centimetre for each treatment.

Falkenham’s cream has the potential to be a popular choice for many people regretting their tattoos because it would be a cheaper and painless alternative. It could even promote more people to get tattoos knowing they could remove them with a simple cream. The idea of this cream is enticing, but some things still need be known such as the amount of applications in order to see a noticeable change, whether the cream permanently removes the tattoo or just fades most of it, or the side effects while using the cream. Although Falkenham’s cream is still in its research stages, it would be interesting to see the results of his tests and if successful, a finalized product for commercial use.

-Ian Villamin

4 Comments

Posted in Issues in Science, Science in the News

Tagged cream, laser, surgery, tattoo removal, tattoos

Getting a Little Touchy-Feely

Posted on February 19, 2015 by Uttara | 3 comments

Haptic technology in action.

Touch screens are sooo 2000-and-late. You know what’s fresh? Being able to feel the texture of what’s on your screen. Just imagine feeling the cold, hard steel of the weapon your character is holding in Call of Duty; or the soft, silky material of that perfect dress you’re buying online. Does this seem far-fetched to you? Well, this kind of magic is called haptic technology.

What is haptic technology? In short, it is a feedback-technology that simulates the sense of touch by vibration, motion and force through interactions with the user. It is easier to replicate visual and auditory cues from the user, but much more difficult to work on tactile cues. Nonetheless, researchers are actively looking at how to efficiently convert these signals to a sense of touch.

Okay, so why so much fuss about this – what will it bring to you, blog- reader? In many applications, the sense of touch is vital to convey information about the object from the fingertips to the brain. When this sense is combined with the other 4, it dramatically increases the amount of information the brain receives about the object. This reduces the amount of time and error involved in completing a certain task. This is especially important in professional training, such as when doctors and astronauts practice on virtual objects.

A device that provides haptic feedback through a user’s hand.

The video below is a TedEd talk by a professor at UPenn. It summarizes haptic technology and provides some important implications for this applied science. For example, medical students can practice their profession on virtual patients, such as finding cavities on a set of teeth. In fact, cavities can more precisely be found on real teeth with this technology as well! Online shopping can also be enhanced – the shopper can feel the texture of the item before they make the purchase – making it a more convenient experience for all. Gamers will also be more involved in the game as they can feel the ground underneath the character’s feet, and can accurately simulate the driving of a vehicle.

Maybe in the next few years, when you shop for your favourite kind of jeans at hm.com, you will be able to feel that familiar denim texture right from your device at home.

-Uttara

3 Comments

Posted in Public Engagement, Science Communication, Science in the News

Tagged brain, digital, haptic technology, online, technology, touch, virtual

Parental violence and affects on children

Posted on February 11, 2015 by harrimal cheema | 3 comments

Violence is everywhere, but it is not always observed because it occurs behind closed doors in the homes of many. You might have wondered why certain children behave differently and are not able to cooperate and express themselves while others are extraordinary and have exceptional communication skills. Well studies show that a child’s behaviour reflects that kind of environment they are raised in.

Parental violence is a common occurrence in various families no matter what religion or race and is reflected in their child’s behaviour.

Children Witnessing Parental Violence. (Image Source: English Articles)

Children who grow up seeing their parents fight are more likely to portray aggressive behaviour in the future. They don’t develop social skills and tend to spend time alone. They get aggressive easily and pick up fights at school. Their performance at school is very poor and they are not able to build relationships in life.

Along with aggression, we see in the video below, parental violence also affects children’s mental growth and health and leaves them in trauma thus, weakening them emotionally. Children develop a fear in their mind when they see their parents fight and this stays with them throughout their life. Parental violence damages children emotionally. Instead of developing with the love and care of their parents, they grow up seeing violence and distance away from their parents. This stays in their mind and affects their ability to think and perform cognitive tasks properly. Children who grow up in such an environment are more likely to experience mood anxiety and personality disorder. They are neglected and left alone at the time of their life when they need their parent’s support and care the most. Even as adults, they experience loneliness and are not able to stand up for themselves.

Credits: Youtube and The Children of Domestic Violence

This is the link, to the story of the little girl in this video. It shows how she was affected by parental violence and struggled to live a happy and confident life as an adult.

Furthermore, a researcher at Cardiff University, states that parents fighting and slamming doors and disagreeing over certain issues in front of their children affects a child mental health and weakens them emotionally.

As a result, to cope up in life these children need extra attention and counselling. Parents need to be careful of what kind of relationship they share in front of their children. Children need to be given love and affection and need to grow in a happy environment in order to mature into healthy adults. Children should be free of any emotional or mental stress that interferes with their healthy growth and causes them to drift away from their families leading to stress and loneliness in life.

Therefore, parental violence is discouraged especially in front of children as it affects their mental stability along with their ability to perform cognitive tasks in life.

– Harrimal Cheema

3 Comments

Posted in Public Engagement, Science Communication, Science in the News

Tagged aggressive, behaviour, environment, mood anxiety, personality disorder

Are frozen fruits nutritious?

Posted on February 9, 2015 by Monica Ko | 3 comments

picture credit to Google Advanced Search

Today in grocery stores you will be able to find a mix of fresh fruit and frozen fruit. At first I believed that fresh fruits must be the healthier and more nutritious option between the two. However after researching I found out that frozen fruits holds qualities that allow it to be just as nutritious as fresh fruit.

Below is a youtube video by Dole frozen that describes how frozen fruit is made.

Frozen fruit and fresh fruit share a similar growing process as they both grow on land the part where the process starts to differentiate is when the fruit is picked for processing. Fresh fruit is picked before it has even ripened so that its deterioration during processing and shipping is limited. On the other hand frozen fruit is picked once it has fully ripened, this is allowed as the process of freezing the fruit acts as a preservative that limits the amount of deterioration that occurs. Freezing fruits dramatically slows down deterioration rates, as a result nutrients such as vitamins and antioxidant levels stay relatively similar to the time when it was frozen. This is good as fruit begins to lose its nutrients right after it has been picked thus it is beneficial to eat a fruit right after it has been picked. As most of us do not have access to fruit that has just been picked we have to go for the next option, which may be frozen fruit.

Still fresh fruit has its benefits in particular frozen fruits often contain higher sugar levels. This is because fruit companies may choose to add sugars to enhance the taste of frozen fruit. By doing so these fruit companies increase the sugar content people intake when they are eating fruits. While adding sugar to frozen fruits may cause some people to enjoy eating fruits more it comes at the cost of increasing the amount of sugar intake per fruit which ultimately increases the amount of calories being eaten.

However there has been a steady increase in popularity for frozen fruit this may be attributed to its ease in preparation compared to fresh fruit. Unlike fresh fruit that has to be washed and sliced frozen fruit comes ready to serve and use. For those of us that want to spend less amount of time preparing meals frozen fruit is the more convenient option.

Below is a youtube video by AsapSCIENCE that compares frozen fruit to fresh fruit

Regardless I think that both fresh fruit and frozen fruit has its benefits and downfalls but the most important idea to keep in mind is to be actively trying to incorporate fruits into diets.

– Monica Ko

3 Comments

Posted in Issues in Science, Public Engagement, Science Communication, Science in the News

Tagged benefits, fresh fruit, frozen fruit, health, preservatives

Category Archives: Science in the News

Spontaneous and Contagious Yawning

The Harmful Sun: Evidence for Post-Exposure Damage

Three-Parent Babies

Boosting Your Immune System with a Dose of Personality

4D Printing: It’s One ‘D’ Better.

Be Happy! Your Dog Knows When You Aren’t.

Tattoo removal might be easier than you think

Getting a Little Touchy-Feely

Parental violence and affects on children

Are frozen fruits nutritious?

Add Users

Recent Posts

Categories

Authors

Science Feeds

Category Archives: Science in the News

Add Users

Recent Posts

Categories

Authors

Tags