Category Archives: Biological Sciences

Who’s this stranger starring at me?

Posted on November 1, 2015 by | 7 comments

Can you imagine if one normal day, as you are getting ready to leave the house, you take a glance at yourself in the mirror and see a complete stranger? That person looks just likes you, speaks the same way you do and has done the same activities in life as you have. The only problem is, you do not realize the fact that you are looking at your own mirror image because the person you see is an unknown intruder.

By State Library of New South Wales collection [No restrictions], via Wikimedia Commons

A similar situation happened to an elderly man in France who could not recognize himself in the mirror and started conversing with the stranger he saw replacing his reflection. After his daughter took him to the hospital, doctors diagnosed this man with a rare condition called Atypical Capgras syndrome. While in the typical case of this syndrome, patients think that a family member or a friend has been replaced with an identical impostor, in the atypical case the patients’ delusions concern his own self.

By Andraž Blaznik (email) [CC BY-SA 3.0 (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0)], via Wikimedia Commons

According to neurologists and psychiatrists, people who have this disease have impairments in two separate brain pathways. The overt pathway or direct pathway is impaired, prohibiting the patient from recognizing faces but allowing them to show emotion towards a particular face, and the covert pathway is impaired, where even though patients can identify a familiar face, they show no signs of familiarity related to that face. The Atypical Capgras syndrome causes patients to recognize themselves as strangers. The Youtube video below shows an actual case of the typical Capgras disease.

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By Canale di Cogmonaut

People who suffer from this disease can be helped by certain anti-psychotic medications. Due to the rareness of this disease further investigations on methods and drugs that can cure it are currently taking place.

All in all, apart from our brain being a miraculous organ capable of receiving, organizing and distributing information to make our bodies function properly, it can also work in reverse, preventing us from recognizing our own mirror reflections. So next time you look at yourself in the mirror, be grateful that you recognize that awesome person standing right in front of you because some have to face a scary reality where they start to question their own identity.

By Doris Stratoberdha.

 

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Posted in Biological Sciences

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Crossed Legs, Health Risk or Not?

Posted on November 1, 2015 by | 3 comments

How do you usually sit on chairs? Sitting cross-legged is one of my unchanging habits because I feel very comfortable sitting like this. Even now, I have my legs crossed! Is this really harmful to us? Many say crossing legs can lead to numerous health problems even if it may seem harmless. Commonly known consequences of spending long hours with legs crossed are effects on blood pressures and heart, varicose veins, and blood circulation. Check the video below for brief overview.

Credit: Abilhail Abihu

According to the study in 2007, sitting with crossed legs at knee increased blood pressure, whereas with crossed legs at the ankles didn’t result the same. In the study, 50 healthy volunteers and 53 patients with hypertension, abnormally high blood pressure, participated and randomly allocated. Seated blood pressure was measured with their legs in three different positions; one with feet flat on the ground and two with legs crossed differently. During blood pressure measurements, crossing legs increased systolic and diastolic blood pressures in patients with hypertension. In contrast, healthy volunteers had an increased systolic blood pressure, and a little effect on diastolic blood pressure. Blood pressure was higher when seated legs crossed, but it was a temporary increase.

Varicose veins, enlarged veins that are visible through the skin due to increased blood pressure, appear commonly in legs and feet. Age, genetics, obesity, gender, and pregnancy are all risk factors. Dr. Mohmmed Moursi, an UAMS vascular surgeon, indicated that crossing legs isn’t the major cause of this vascular problem. Instead, they result from an intrinsic problem inside the veins. Another common belief he mentioned was that standing for long hours is another cause of varicose veins. Nonetheless, standing may magnify the existing problems with veins but shouldn’t directly cause them.

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Normal Vein (left) and Varicose Vein (right). National Heart Lung and Blood Institute via Wiki Commons

Many say crossing legs can cause problems for blood circulation but there aren’t many evidences supporting that. Not only sitting cross-legged, but also staying in one position for too long can lead to the numbness in feet. The sensation is from sitting legs crossed which created pressure on the peroneal nerve, located in the back of the knee. People generally change their position when they begin to feel uncomfortable. The recent study in Korea found that sitting legs crossed wasn’t the cause, and in fact, sitting sedentary positions for long time did affect.

Crossed Legs

Women sitting with legs crossed. Ion Chibzii via Wiki Commons

Perhaps, avoiding sitting stationary or improving postures when seated are the solutions. In fact, good posture can improve muscle function, blood flow, lung functions, and mental health. Surprisingly, recent studies showed good posture affects intelligence, improves abilities to remember, and protects from having back-problems. Thus, sitting with legs crossed isn’t the direct cause but sitting in the same position for long periods of time can be. Exercising regularly, stretching, taking walks in between, and even focusing on sitting up straight can help one change one’s sedentary lifestyle. 

By: Josephina Kim

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Posted in Biological Sciences, Issues in Science, Science Communication

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Benefits of Eating Insects

Posted on October 26, 2015 by | 3 comments

Have you ever been disgusted by a cockroach or a spider? Of course you have! You may find the sight of a bug disgusting but for many cultures eating bugs is considered normal. In fact, there are 2 billion people worldwide who regularly eat bugs as part of their diet. Below is a video of some of the delicious dishes you can create with bugs.

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Credit: darrenb3

There are many benefits to eating bugs. They are a cheap food source, they provide important nutrients, and eating them is environmentally friendly.

Bugs are everywhere. They can be found in your own backyard. However, bugs in urban areas are not safe to eat due to the possible contamination from pesticides. Still, many bugs in the wild are edible and pose no risk. There are also farms which specialize in raising bugs for consumption. Since bugs can be found everywhere and are abundant, they are a cheap source of food. Insects make up most of the biomass of terrestrial animals and represent 80 percent of the world’s species. What makes them even cheaper is the low cost of raising them. They do not require the specialized care of normal livestock. Of course not all types of bugs are edible but there is still a huge variety to choose from.

Even though bugs are small, they can be very nutritious. Bugs contain almost no cholesterol and are chockfull of protein. Bugs also contain fat but that fat is mostly the unsaturated kind which is healthier. Another added bonus is the absence of pesticides and growth hormones commonly used in raising livestock.

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This chemical is Roxarsone which is used in chicken feed to increase growth. Credit: wikipedia

Eating bugs is also beneficial for the environment. Since bugs are so abundant, eating them is unlikely to pose a threat to their survival as a species. The following chart shows the percentage of species in each animal group and how endangered they are. From the chart, we can conclude that insects suffer the least from being endangered.

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A huge amount of other animal groups are endangered compared to the insect group. Credit: eoearth

These three benefits may not be enough reason to convince people to try eating bugs. This is understandable so in order to convince you here is a video that gives more reasons to switch to a diet of bugs.

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Credit: AsapSCIENCE

 

-Bowen

Commented on “Is It Safe to Take Expired Medications?” by Amir Jafarvand, “The Vaccination Debate” by Chelsea Cayabyab, and “Infectious Felines” by Danielle Marcotte.

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Posted in Biological Sciences, Issues in Science

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New AIDS vaccine trials to be performed on Humans for the first time in history

Posted on October 19, 2015 by | 1 comment

In 1984, Human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) was discovered by a team led by Dr. Roberto Gallo, which opened the gates for mankind in order to gain more knowledge about this deadly incurable disease which was the reason for the deaths of millions of people. As the director of the Institute of Human Virology (IHV), Dr. Roberto Gallo is now launching the institute’s first clinical trial of a vaccine for AIDS – a project that has been 15 years in the making.

HIV is one of a group of atypical viruses called retroviruses that maintain their genetic information in the form of ribonucleic acid (RNA). HIV virus has an enzyme known as reverse transcriptase, which makes it capable of producing deoxyribonucleic acid (DNA) from RNA, whereas most cells carry out the opposite process, transcribing RNA from DNA. The activity of the enzyme enables the genetic information of HIV to become integrated permanently into the genome (chromosomes) of a host cell. Since HIV virus controls the genetic information of the cell, it makes the cell produce more HIV virus using the host machinery, thus replicating at a fast rate. With HIV’s inherent ability to rapidly mutate and escape the immune system, conceiving an effective vaccine against it has been a seemingly difficult challenge.
Mechanism of HIV virus invading a human cell

Mechanism of HIV virus invading a human cell

It is found that when HIV infects a person, its surface protein called gp120 attached itself to another protein called the CD4 receptor, which is found in the white blood cells. When it binds to CD4 cell, it can change shape to avoid recognition from neutralizing antibodies which is the usual immune response form the body. This conformational change allows it to bind to a second receptor called a co-receptor, on CD4 cell surface. Once it has a grip on both HIV envelope protein fuses with the cell membrane, thus once within the cell, HIV is safe from attacks from antibodies. 
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The experimental AIDS vaccine, called as “Full length single chain” vaccine contains an HIV surface protein gp120, engineered to link to a few portions of the CD4 receptor. The main aim is to trigger antibodies against gp120 surface protein when it’s already attached to CD4 and the transitional state in which the protein envelope is present is vulnerable to be attacked, thus effectively stopping it from attaching to the second site of co-factor attachment.
According to World Health Organization (WHO), AIDS has been held responsible for over 1.2 million people in the year 2014, if this vaccine turns out to be effective, it could change the world.
-Rikul Thapar
 

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The Benefits of Fad Diets: The Ketogenic Diet

Posted on October 19, 2015 by | 2 comments

Dieting is one of the hottest topics of the 21st Century, as many different diet plans surface the internet each day. According to the summary by Medical News Today, the most talked about diets include the Atkins Diet,  Zone Diet, Vegetarian Diet, Vegan Diet, Weight Watchers Diet, South Beach Diet, Raw Food Diet, and Mediterranean Diet. Different types of diets are chosen depending on the lifestyle people aim for. However, there is one type of diet that has been raved about in the medical field. The Ketogenic Diet, first developed in the 1920’s to treat epilepsy, has now become a recommended diet for tumor patients.

The Ketogenic Diet and a normal diet differ in the amount of macronutrients eaten. In a normal diet, people eat large amounts of carbohydrates, which is then broken down into glucose by insulin. These glucose molecules are used by cells as an energy source. However, when glucose sources become depleted, normal cells can gain energy through other sources like stored fats. Tumor cells cannot find any other way to gain energy and heavily rely on glucose as the only energy source. Therefore, by restricting the intake level of carbohydrates, the glucose levels become depleted and tumor cells die from a lack of energy source.

carbohydrate-diagram

Structures of glucose and carbohydrates. Credit: Blend Space

The Ketogenic Diet works by restricting the intake of carbohydrates to the lowest amount while increasing the intake of fats and proteins to maintain sufficient energy levels.

ketogenic_diet_flowchart

Credit: Meta Ketosis

The diet typically consists of high fat consumption (70-75% of total calories), moderate protein consumption (20-25% of total calories), and low carbohydrate consumption (5-10% of total calories).

dockers-diner

More bacon please! Credit: Vanity Buzz

The high fat consumption compensates for the low carbohydrate intake. Thus, normal cells begin to breakdown fats for energy. The moderate protein consumption controls the amount of insulin, which further prevents the breakdown of glucose. In addition, high insulin levels restrict ketosis from occurring.

As humans’ main source of fuel, diets play an important role in every individual’s health. As healthy individuals we should follow a regular diet instead of pursuing fad diets. However, special diet plans such as the Atkins Diet is still useful in the medical field for improving the health of tumor patients, and should not be easily overlooked. If you’re interested, please take a look at this video to see how this man beat cancer with the Ketogenic Diet:

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Stephanie Lam

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Posted in Biological Sciences, Science Communication, Uncategorized

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Meditation, is it a waste of time?

Posted on October 17, 2015 by | 3 comments

For thousands of years’ people have practiced meditation for spiritual, emotional and physical well being, yet without much evidence of its effects. It is known that meditation can relieve stress, lower blood pressure and lift someone’s mood. But it is only in the last 15 years have neuroscientists taken a serious look at the changes in brain structure underlying some of meditations benefits.

https://www.bulletproofexec.com/benefits-of-meditation-how-to-meditate/

Image from: bulletproofexec.com

Like during everything we do, meditation rewires our neural circuits, pruning away the least used connections and strengthening the ones we exercise the most. Studies looking for signs of these changes focus on ‘mindfulness meditation’, which challenges people to keep their attentions fixed on their thoughts and sensations in the present moment. Earlier on, scientists acknowledge that many of these studies are small and not ideally designed. But now, researches have gathered enough evidence to be confident that their findings are not just a fluke. Experiments suggest that Buddhist monks have more robust connection between scattered regions of their brains, which allows for more synchronized communication. Expert meditators also seem to develop an especially wrinkly cortex (the brains outer layer), which we depend on for abstract thought and introspection. Several studies have confirmed that meditation can increase the volume and density of the hippocampus, which is crucial for memory.

Studies show that 10-20 minutes of meditation a day sharpens the mind. When scientists compared the brains of the monks to those of new meditators, they found the region of the brain associated with empathy to be much more pronounced in the monks. These studies also show that prolonged meditation can alter your brainwave frequencies, exhibiting higher levels of Alpha waves that help reduce feelings of negative mood, tension and sadness.

In an 8-week study meditators showed increase in the density of grey matter in brain regions involved in learning, memory processing and emotion regulation. While in the amygdala, which deals with stress blood pressure and fear, grey matter decreased. In these studies, meditators scored higher on tests of attention and working memory, which is the ability to store and manipulate information in one’s mind. Although areas of the brain involved in sustaining attention deteriorate as we age, meditation counteracts this decay.

Meditation not only affects the mind but the body as a whole. In a study where both meditators and non-meditators were given the flu virus, meditators had produced a greater number of anti-bodies and had increased immune function. Meditation also showed advantages on the cellular level where lower levels of stress increased the function of the enzyme telomerase that counteract the shortening of DNA telomeres, which are linked to cardiovascular diseases, diabetes, cancer and aging.

Of course meditation is not a substitute for other medical advice or a healthy life style, but much like hitting the gym can grow your muscles and increase your overall health, it seems like meditation is a way to workout your brain with extra health benefits.

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I have two mommies and a daddy

Posted on October 12, 2015 by | 4 comments

You are probably now wondering if you read that title correctly. Well I assure you that you did. Science has yet again found a way to surprise us all by creating in vitro fertilized babies that have genetic material from two females and one male. The process is called ” three-parent in vitro fertilization” and it will be used as a technique to save the lives of millions of newborns.

By MartaFF (http://www.lainfertilidad.com) [CC BY-SA 4.0 (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0)], via Wikimedia Commons

                 The main reason why scientists have even thought of creating such a method is due to defectuous mitochondrial deoxyribonucleic acid (DNA) that some women have. Since every embryo receives mitochondrial DNA only from the female parent, these women pass this DNA to their embryo. Thus, the fetus becomes vulnerable to many life-threatening diseases which can cause massive harm to vital organs such as the heart, liver, brain and central nervous system. Up till now the only fertility options for these women have been either adoption of a child or in vitro fertilization with an egg donor.

By Martin Strachoň / Wikimedia Commons.(http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0)], via Wikimedia Commons

Imagine what could happen if scientists can remove this faulty mitochondrial DNA and replace it with a healthy kind. The child would live! This is exactly what three-parent in vitro fertilization does. This mini transplantation process involves taking the nucleus of the mother’s egg and putting it in a female donor’s egg cell that contains healthy mitochondria. Then this egg cell is fertilized with the father’s sperm. Although the embryo does contain donor DNA apart from parent DNA, the phenotype of the embryo does not change. This method allows the baby to be healthy and live a normal life. It also gives parents the chance to have their own child who is genetically related to them.

By MyName (Imperfect chaosimperfect_chaos) (Own work) [CC BY-SA 3.0 (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0) or GFDL (http://www.gnu.org/copyleft/fdl.html)], via Wikimedia Commons

                Unfortunately there are ethical issues which are delaying the incorporation of this technique in fertility laboratories. Many people debate that transplanting mitochondrial DNA into an egg can also lead the way to other possible genetic modifications that parents want to make to “improve” their children such as higher IQ, a certain type of eye color etc. This argument fails to make a strong point as to why the three-parent in vitro fertilization should not happen considering that it could save many fetus lives.

All in all, scientific discoveries have enabled a way for mitochondrial diseased fetuses to live and grow into healthy babies. Check out this short video which sums up the way the procedure is performed and the benefits of this method.

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Credit: NMANewsDirect

By Doris Stratoberdha

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