Communicating Science (15w111)

Back to the Basics: Wash Your Hands!

Posted on November 1, 2015 by rosalyn desa | 4 comments

It’s that time again where it seems that everyone is sick and there are germs everywhere. Many people have adapted preventative cold regimens for the winter such as getting a flu shot, increasing their vitamin C intake and drinking warm beverages. I believe that everyone needs to think back to the basics and wash their hands more frequently and thoroughly in order to prevent getting sick.

Wash ’em if you got ’em | woodleywonderworks

Recently, Daily Mail performed an experiment which used a UV camera to detect germs and estimate which method of washing your hands is the most effective. A lotion was applied to the hands after washing them so the germs appear fluorescent white under the UV camera. Researchers found that washing your hands with soap for 15 – 30 seconds got rid of the majority of germs as opposed to a six second hand wash which minimally reduced the germs present. Additionally, they found that washing your hands for more than 30 seconds was not necessary to eliminate even more germs and resulted in unnecessary exhaustion.

Washing hands (before shot)_0033 | James Emery

Washing hands (after shot)_0035 | James Emery

Often times people think that if they wash their hands with hot water, it will kill the germs. This is not true since germs require temperatures above 100°C, the boiling point of water, to have this effect. In fact, the Center for Disease Control and Prevention states that washing your hands with water that is too hot can cause skin inflammation and is a waste of energy. Check out this video to learn more about the differences of washing your hands in hot and cold water.

By: Nick Uhas

Since hot water doesn’t help you get rid of germs, you must rely on friction. First, rub your hands together vigorously so the soap is able to trap germs on your hands. Then, when you use running water, the germs trapped in the soap suspension can be washed away. When drying your hands, make sure to do so with a towel or hand dryer so once again, the friction can remove even more germs.

I think that prevention is the best way to approach illnesses and disease. Whether it takes reciting happy birthday twice or the use of nice smelling antibacterial soap, make sure you wash your hands because I believe it is the most effective and simple way to prevent getting sick this winter.

Wash Your Hands! | elston

-Rosalyn Desa

4 Comments

Posted in Biological Sciences, Issues in Science, Public Engagement, Science Communication

Tagged bacteria, Center for Disease Control and Prevention, flu, germs, handwashing, health, Nick Uhas, prevention, Science in the News, sickness, viruses

Who’s this stranger starring at me?

Posted on November 1, 2015 by doris stratoberdha | 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.

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.

7 Comments

Posted in Biological Sciences

Tagged brain, Brain Pathways, Delusion, Disease, Impairment, Imposter, mirror image, Self-recognition, Syndrome

Smarter by playing a music

Posted on November 1, 2015 by sogand goharpey | 4 comments

ave you ever wonder what does playing a musical instrument do in our brain?

Neuroscinetists did a research to observe the effects of playing music on the brain. they used MRI to observe the brain activity of the musician while playing a music and interestingly, they found some fireworks happening in the brain. those fireworks showed that playing a music makes all part of the brain be involved and engaged, especially, visual, auditory and motor parts.

Furthermore, for playing a musical instrument , you need to follow some rules which makes your brain function well in other activities. Neuroscientists compared the brain of listeners to players and they found that the major difference is that playing a musical instrument needs motor skills that are controlled in both hemispheres. For this reason, playing a musical instrument is like doing a whole-body work out.

playing a musical instrument is like doing work out/flicker.com

Moreover, playing a music will activate and combine both hemispheres of your brain; left hemisphere which is for following disciplines and doing mathematical tasks, however, right hemisphere is the part for creativity and emotions. you need both skills in playing an instrument. Therefore, playing a music increases the activity of the bridge between two hemispheres in the brain.

This increase allows messages to pass through those two hemispheres faster and makes musicians solve problems easier and faster.

Recent study showed that playing a music has a positive effect on memory too. studies showed that musicians have a great ability in creating, storing and retrieving information compare to other people.

To conclude, playing a musical instrument has a positive effect on our brain. by playing a music, you will be smarter. in other words, you would be able to make a right decision in your life.

Ted-Ed website

written by: Sogand Goharpey

4 Comments

Posted in Issues in Science, Public Engagement, Science Communication, Science Communicators

Tagged brain, brain activity, musicians, playing musical instrument, Science in the News

Crossed Legs, Health Risk or Not?

Posted on November 1, 2015 by Josephina Kim | 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.

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.

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

3 Comments

Posted in Biological Sciences, Issues in Science, Science Communication

Tagged back problems, blood circulation, blood pressure, crossed legs, diastolic, heart health, hypertension, intelligence, peroneal nerve, posture, Science in the News, systolic, varicose veins

All You Need is Love (and Science!)

Posted on October 31, 2015 by Chelsea Cayabyab | 2 comments

Despite the Halloween spirit abound, let’s fast forward a few months and talk about love instead. Ever heard of Mandy Len Catron? She is a UBC professor internationally known for the NYTimes article “To Fall in Love With Anyone, Do This“, a narrative of how 36 simple questions had Ms. Catron falling in love with an acquaintance. If you’re wondering where the science is– well, what she actually did was to informally recreate a psychology experiment based on a 1997 research paper by Dr. Arthur Aaron and his team.

Front cover of the NYTimes interactive “36 Questions on the Way to Love”

Everybody knows that relationships which start from friendship and blossom into romantic love typically last longer than spontaneous relationships based on “sleepovers”, if you know what I mean. So the question is, what causes a person to fall in love in the first place?

Dr. Aaron’s original 1997 research tested out this “falling in love” by temporarily developing feelings of closeness, or “interconnectedness” as they put it, between strangers. Their method asked male-female pairs and female-female pairs to do three sets of “sharing” activities where they had to disclose increasingly personal information. NYTimes created an app for these 36 questions, for the people who would like to try it out themselves. The questions’ purpose, besides each person’s disclosure, was to prompt the couple to be more responsive towards each other. The pairs were given 15 minutes to do as much as they can in each set and after 45 minutes, they were asked to stand as far away from each other as possible to do a final questionnaire, assessing what they think about each other. Though temporary, the researchers concluded the experiment as successful in recreating an intimate experience between each couple which resembles a relationship developed over time.

Image taken by Tina Fineberg, posted by NYTimes blogger, Anna North.

However, in one of their disclaimers, they said that the goal of the 36 questions was not to make each partner fall in love with each other. Instead, it was supposed to make them closer, so the questions can apply to friends, or to a pair of couples and so on. They also said that the procedure will obviously not produce key characteristics of long-term relationships such as loyalty, commitment, etc. Although, Dr. Elaine Aron mentioned in an article that one couple from the study eventually married, so maybe these questions are really a quick-and-easy recipe to falling in love!

Photo taken from Jenn Co’s anythingbrilliant.com

Mandy Len Catron thought so too, along with several million others. I have personally tried it out because I was curious but who wouldn’t be, right? The activity was really fun, some questions were awkward but it’s definitely worth the time and effort. I recommend this as an ice-breaker activity during a blind date or even a casual friendly meeting. So to all the people out there craving intimacy, get off Tinder, find a friend, sit down, and get reeaaal close because love might just be sitting right next to you!

-Chelsea Cayabyab

Commented on:

Osama Qubain’s “The Magnus Effect: From Football to Flight”
Sogand Goharpey’s “Smarter by Playing a Music”
Kheman Hara’s “The Dark, Dangerous & Deep Web”

2 Comments

Posted in Public Engagement, Science Communication, Science Communicators

Tagged 36, catron, close, connect, intimacy, Love, mandy, nytimes, question, Science in the News, valentine

Benefits of Eating Insects

Posted on October 26, 2015 by Bowen Zhao | 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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

3 Comments

Posted in Biological Sciences, Issues in Science

Tagged bugs, eating, food, insects

Stress can do what to your body?!

Posted on October 26, 2015 by Ravjot Ahluwalia | 3 comments

We have all experienced the pressures associated with being a university student. It can be quite difficult to balance working, exercising, sleeping, maintaining relationships with loved ones and excelling academically. For many students, living in constant stress has become a lifestyle. Stress for a small period of time can be a positive because it keeps us alert and focused. However, when stress becomes overwhelming and lasts for a prolonged period of time, it can cause detrimental effects on overall health and well-being.

Human stress by Becky Wetherington via Wikimedia Commons

According to the Annual Review of Clinical Psychology, stress is defined as anything that causes the body to deviate from homeostasis. In other words, a defence mechanism triggered by some form of threat, which causes the body to behave abnormally. Under this situation, the nervous system and adrenal glands release stress hormones, such as adrenaline and cortisol that prepare the body for a “fight or flight” response. This causes the heart to beat faster, muscles tighten, blood pressure rises, breath quickens and senses become sharper. If this process is working correctly, it can provide the strength and agility needed to defend us in an emergency situation, for example if someone tries to hurt us.

Bath Melancholy by N. Renaud via Wikimedia Commons

Although this emergency response is crucial to our survival, it is necessary for the body to return to its normal state otherwise it takes a toll on various systems. Firstly, if the nervous system is not normalized, chronic stress symptoms such as irritability, anxiety, depression, insomnia and headaches persist. These symptoms can cause overeating or not eating enough, excessive intake of drugs or alcohol and social withdrawal. Secondly, chronic stress can also affect the respiratory and cardiovascular system because the heart works too hard. This can potentially cause problems such as hypertension and increase the risk of strokes and heart attacks. Thirdly, the digestive system is affected which results in heartburn, acid reflux, nausea, vomiting or stomachaches. Stress may additionally affect the intestinal tract causing diarrhea or constipation. Fourthly, the muscular system is affected since the muscles are constantly tightened without relaxation. This causes numerous aches all over the body. Fifthly, the reproductive system is affected causing abnormal menstrual cycles for women and a decrease in testosterone levels in men. Lastly, the immune system is drastically compromised causing people to become more prone to infections.

Yoga by Kennguru via Wikimedia Commons

There are many causes of stress other than university, such as sudden life changes, negative attitudes or financial problems. However, there are few ways to deal with symptoms of chronic stress and to ensure that stress does not take over your life. Relaxation techniques such as yoga or meditation can cause the body to alleviate stress. Exercising is also an excellent tool to relieve stress because it releases hormones that uplift spirit. A healthy diet and sleep promotes better coping mechanisms for stress and clear thinking as well. Additionally, it is important to continuously be kind to ourselves, be confident and have a positive outlook on life. If you believe you can overcome any obstacle, then you will definitely be able to.

Credit: TED-Ed

– Ravjot Ahluwalia

3 Comments

Posted in Biological Sciences, Issues in Science, Public Engagement, Science Communication

Tagged chronic stress, health issues, medicine, peace

Uncharted territory: how big is the universe?

Posted on October 26, 2015 by trevor tsang | Leave a comment

How far is too far? On groggy Sunday mornings, the gym may seem “too far”, while for two long-distance lovers separated by circumstances, they are always “close enough”. For some, distance is relative to our motivation. Space, however, does not care what you think.

Voyager 1. Image from NASA.

It’s been over 35 years since NASA’s launch of Voyager 1, and since then, it has travelled almost 20 trillion kilometers from home. You might think that that’s far, but in the grand scheme of the universe where distances are measured with respect to light, it has travelled a mere 18 light-hours. To put that into perspective, the nearest star to our Sun, Proxima Centauri, is about 4.24 light-years away.

So how big is the universe then?

Before we address that, we need to know how old the universe is. Based on measurements of the cosmic microwave background, which is basically leftover radiation from the Big Bang, astronomers are confident that the universe is about 13.8 billion years old. Since Distance = Velocity × Time and nothing can travel faster than light (?), the universe must have a radius of 13.8 billion light-years, right? Wrong!

The Doppler effect on the pink sound waves. Image from user Charly Whisky from Wikipedia.

The short answer to the size of the universe is that it is at least 93 billion light-years in diameter. The reason that the universe is larger expected is because the universe is expanding. This can be determined by the apparent redshift of distant stars due to the Doppler Effect. So an object emitting light from 13.8 light-years away would have moved to a position much farther away.

One thing to note, is that this measurement is only what we can observe. The observable universe from another planet billions of light-years away is likely different from our reference frame of the Earth. Is the universe infinite? Perhaps. But for now, we can appreciate that even though our paradigm of the universe is limited, there is still much to explore; we have observed billions of galaxies, and in each are billions of stars, each hosting their own worlds much like ours. Despite the uncertainty in the true size of the universe, we know that space is vast. As the Dutch artist Vincent van Gogh had once said, “for my part I know nothing with any certainty, but the sight of the stars makes me dream.”

If you have 45 minutes to spend exploring part of our Solar System, check out Alphonse Swinehart’s video below, where you travel from the Sun to Jupiter at the speed of a photon! Do yourself a favour and enjoy the video in full screen mode.

– Trevor Tsang

The Magnus Effect: From Football to Flight

Posted on October 26, 2015 by osama qubain | 1 comment

In 1997 during a football match between Brazil and France a Brazilian player named Roberto Carlos scored an “impossible goal”. With no direct line to the goal it seemed unreasonable for him to even attempt for goal 35 meters away, yet with with a good run up and calculated strike he sent the ball flying towards out of bounds, passed the free-kick wall, before curving back into the net, giving brazil the lead. This shot made the 21-year-old player a household name in the sport and left spectators amazed. It seems to defy Newton’s first law of motion, that states: “an object in motion stays in motion with the same speed and in the same direction unless acted upon by an unbalanced force.” The ball’s change in direction meant that must have been some force acting upon the ball causing it to curve back on target. This phenomenon is called the Magnus Effect, named after Heinrich Gustav Magnus who described it in 1852, although it was first documented 200 years earlier by Isaac Newton when playing tennis at Cambridge College.

As the ball moves and spins through the air one side is spinning with the direction of air flow and the other against. The side where air moves opposing the direction of spin causes high pressure. The area where air is moving in the same direction as its spin, the deflected air creates an area of lower pressure. The makes the ball act as a wing as is moves from an area of high pressure to an area of lower pressure, which causes the ball to move in the direction of spin, curving into the goal.

The Magnus Effect affects all rotating balls or cylinders flying through the air, making it an important aspect in ball sports like football, tennis and golf. Nevertheless the Magnus Effect has found several industrial applications in the past making ships sail without sails and planes fly without wings. The image below is a sail boat without sails, instead is has large spinning cylinder called ‘Flettner Rotors’ that deflect cross winds, using the Magnus Effect, to propel the ship forward. Even nowadays there are hybrid ships with flettener rotors in decrease diesel consumption improving efficiency.

Flettner Rotor Sail Ship https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rotor_ship#/media/File:Buckau_Flettner_Rotor_Ship_LOC_37764u.jpg

This idea took to the skies in the early 20th century. The image below is that of a wingless plane, where its wings have been replaced with spinning cylinder. Using the Magnus Effect the cylinders generate more lift than traditional wings, however they do generate a lot more drag making them impractical for aviation. Nowadays the only planes utilizing flettner rotors are small remote controlled model planes.

Flettner Rotor PLane
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flettner_airplane#/media/File:Flettner_Rotor_Aircraft.jpg

From the football field to the seas, understanding the Magnus Effect gives for spectacular sport and ingenious design, amazing spectators and increasing efficiency.

1 Comment

Posted in Uncategorized

Tagged football, magnus effect, physics, roberto carlos

Is It Safe to Take Expired Medications?

Posted on October 26, 2015 by Amir Jafarvand | 4 comments

Nowadays, abundance of over the counter drugs has led to people’s self-medication. Therefore, many of us have lots of unused drugs at home that usually get expired and we are not sure if it is still safe to take them after their expiration date.

By Jaroslav A. Polák

According to a study done by Food and Drug Administration (FDA) on expired drugs of military, it was found that 90% of expired drugs were still potent and harmless after 15 years. Therefore the expiration date on drugs does not actually mean anything. Mr. Flaherty, a pharmacist at the FDA, believes that the expiration date of drugs is mostly for marketing purposes because the drug manufacturers want to maximize the profits by having the drugs restocked in shelves at shorter time intervals. You may think that the focus of the research was on drugs used in wars and this does not mean the regular drugs usually used by people are effective after their expiration date. However, Joel Davis, a former FDA expiration-date compliance chief, states that most drugs can last as long as the drugs tested in the research if they are stored under optimal conditions.

By Israel Defense Forces

Furthermore, FDA claims that keeping expired and unused medications at home may pose a threat to children or older people. Children may find the stockpile of unused drugs and take them while older people may mix up all of their medication and take the wrong one. US Drug Enforcement Administration also reports that keeping old medications at home increases the possibility of prescription drug abuse. Therefore, it is very important to dispose of old and unused medications. It is not a good idea to get rid of the old medications by flushing them down the toilet or throwing them in the trash because the medications would pollute our environment. In order to dispose of our unused drugs properly, we should take them to our local pharmacy or anywhere that take-back programs are offered. In the following video, US president, Barack Obama, talks about the importance of “National Prescription Drug Take-Back Day” and how prescription drug abuse can cause heroin addiction.

-Amir Jafarvand

4 Comments

Posted in Uncategorized

Back to the Basics: Wash Your Hands!

Who’s this stranger starring at me?

Smarter by playing a music

Crossed Legs, Health Risk or Not?

All You Need is Love (and Science!)

Benefits of Eating Insects

Stress can do what to your body?!

Uncharted territory: how big is the universe?

The Magnus Effect: From Football to Flight

Is It Safe to Take Expired Medications?

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