Category Archives: Science in the News

Will you keep it or delete it?

Posted on November 27, 2019 by | Leave a comment

Do you ever check how many photos or apps you have on your phone? Have you ever considered managing your personal data?

Image flicker

If you answered “No” to any of these questions, you might want to rethink about your personal data storage. Most users usually do not keep track of the data on their devices until they are notified that they are running out of storage.

Personal data can be social media accounts, favourite playlists, and even credit card details. You might be surprised to find out how much personal data is shared across devices and online platforms.

It is important to “derive value from your personal data over time,” says Dr. Francesco Vitale, a PhD candidate in Human-Computer Interaction at the University of British Columbia. The process of selecting what to keep and delete could be difficult for users because of their attachment to data. If that is the case, is there any kind of technology that can help facilitate data management?

This is exactly what Dr. Vitale questioned and studied. He used a Research through Design approach to come up with the five new design concepts to analyze people’s opinions towards different approaches of keeping and discarding personal data.

Design Concepts

Patina – a visualization of how frequent the users access the data.

The age of data is shown by using a spiral. A longer spiral means more frequently accessed data. 

Patina Source: Francesco Vitale

Data Recommender – a system that tells users which data needs attention. 

This system is partly incorporated into apps like Google Photos and Files on Android.

Data Recommender Source: Francesco Vitale

Temporary Folder and Temporary App –  both with features that have an “expiration date.” 

Users can decide how long they want to keep certain folders/apps for, and it will be uninstalled automatically.

Temporary Folder Source: Francesco Vitale

Temporary App Source: Francesco Vitale

Future Filters – an app that allows the users to decide what to do with data in the future. 

The users are given choices from a set of actions and criteria in order to decide what happens to the data.

Future Filters Source: Francesco Vitale

Impact in Our Lives

The result of the study showed that opinions on managing data vary between not trusting technology vs. being open-minded about technology managing their data for them. 

Some have mentioned that they do not mind deleting their data off their devices for example, in the case of social media it is “never truly deleted, … there will always be a copy somewhere out there.” Many users store their personal data on online platforms without thinking about the consequences.

Recently, Dr. Vitale participated in a short interview that discusses his research and about how data management affects his life. 

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To further discuss the topic, Science 300 podcasters at UBC decided to cover Dr. Vitale’s research and see how data management affects the lives of students. 

(Podcast credit: Francesco Vitale, Bernice Huynh, Kieffer Silva Pinto, Sara Uzama)

With different views on the topic, perhaps data management is a subject that should be taken more seriously and further investigated. 

-Bernice Huynh, Kieffer Silva Pinto, Sara Uzama

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Posted in Outreach Project, Science Communication, Science Communicators, Science in the News

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Scientific Explanation for Paranormal Activities

Posted on November 18, 2019 by | Leave a comment

Have you ever experienced paranormal activities? The black shadow standing in the dark, faint voice calling out for help, seeing your deceased-loved ones…

Source: Google image

Source: Google image

Though scary stories are enjoyed by some group of people, the existence of ghosts or spirits are highly debatable topic because of the numerous claims made by number of people that they have seen or heard ghosts.

Ghosts are scientifically impossible to exists because of its ability to do things like passing through the walls or floating in the air, and also because researches that were done on paranormal activities have found no evidence regarding the existence of ghosts.

A study conducted by Baland Jalal found that hallucination and sleep paralysis could play a role in people misunderstanding their experience as paranormal activity. During sleep paralysis, people can feel like they are levitating, having out-of-body experience, and sometimes, they see or hear another figure in the room when they are supposed to be alone. These experiences are hallucination because they are seeing things that are not really not present in reality. Sleep paralysis, on the other hand, are caused by the failure in rapid eye movement cycle. Rapid movement known as the stage of sleep where your eyes literally move rapidly. This eye movement usually happens when people are falling into or coming out of sleep, and to avoid people from acting out their dream in real life, the brain normally paralyze people’s muscles during rapid eye movement sleep. Usually brain turns off the paralysis before you wake up, however in sleep paralysis, you wake up as the paralysis is happening.

What about the case where people heard something?

Megan Fox, an American actress and model, believes in ghost after her first encounter in Mexico. In the interview she did with MTV News, she said that she heard the sound of someone coming into her hotel room and pouring coffee. However, when she decided to go see her breakfast, there was nothing. Since the sound was heard by both Megan and her nanny at the time, she says, “[she] believe[s] in everything.”

A study done by David Smailes considers this as hallucinations. He explains that pareidolia is the cause of this hallucination. Pareidolia is when we try to make sense of a pattern or an image even though there’s no meaning exists. Some examples of this could be seeing a face when looking at the front of the car or seeing a mushroom when looking at the clouds. These images are all result of pareidolia.

Since we are used to relying on our senses, when we experience hallucination, we trust our perceptions and believe it. However, sometimes what you thought you saw or heard could be your brain processing it based on what you captured with the eyes or ears. If this is hard to process, think about the time you misheard that one favorite song of yours. This is a good example of your brain giving an extra information to make sense of things that doesn’t.

 

-Sara Uzama

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Posted in Science Communication, Science in the News

Researchers Looking into 2 Week Allergy Treatment

Posted on November 18, 2019 by | Leave a comment

Globally, 220-520 million people suffer from food-related allergies that range from mild discomfort to being the cause of death. Chances are, there is someone in your course affected by this chronic illness. Currently, there are no approved treatments for these allergies other than completely omitting them from your diet, using antihistamines or epinephrine when allergy symptoms appear, or oral immunotherapy. However, it’s very difficult to avoid cross-contamination, especially when you need to eat food someone else has prepared and immunotherapy takes 9-12 months, causing allergic reactions along the way. But what if there was a way to desensitize, even completely remove the immune systems’ response to food that cause allergies in as little as 2 weeks without causing a reaction?

From a small study released on Nov 14, 2019, the researchers from Sean N. Parker Center for Allergy and Asthma Research at Stanford University has found that when targeting the alarmin IL-33 (a signal that initiates inflammatory responses) in peanut-allergic people with etokimab (an antibody injection) there was a 73% increase in the tolerance threshold for the allergy compared to the placebo group. These people could eat moderate amounts of peanuts (no more than 300 mg) 15 days after the injection without having to be expose to the allergen beforehand. This percentage dropped to a 57% increase after 45 days.

Since this is a relatively new study, there are still some improvements to be made on the procedure itself. The sample of the double-blind experiment was only 20 adults with 15  adults receiving estimable and 5 adults receiving the placebo, and the results were self-reported, which can cause a lot of variability in the data. However, the results from this small experiment was promising, and personally, I hope that etokimab will be available for the public use in the next few decades. It would be extremely helpful to eat out without having to worry about being rushed to the hospital due to accidental contamination or even just to see what peanuts would taste like.

-Sharon Li

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

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Is Antibiotic Resistance Our New Biggest Threat?

Posted on November 18, 2019 by | 1 comment

Throughout history, our advancements in medicine have allowed us to live longer, prevent the spread of certain infectious diseases, fight infections and overall improve our quality of life. However, in recent years some of the important medical breakthroughs we have made as a society have been threatened by antibiotic resistance.

What is antibiotic resistance? In short antibiotic resistance is when antibiotics become less effective at treating the desired infection. It is caused by bacteria who evolve to be able to resist the drugs intended to kill them, so without antibiotics to terminate them, these bacteria begin to flourish and can cause persistent infections which could potentially ultimately lead to death.

A comparative view of non-resistant bacteria and drug resistant bacteria. Image Source: flickr

According to a 2018 study, in 2018 antibiotic resistance rates in Canada were 26%. According to projected models an increase in antibiotic resistance rates in the future could severely impact Canada’s economy. The study states that if resistance rates were to increase to 40% and a possible worse case 100% by 2050, Canada’s economy would be smaller. It could cause a decrease in the employment force which is said to likely have the largest impact in labour intensive jobs. On a global scale, antibiotic resistance could also have severe socioeconomic consequences. It is believed that the cost of treatment for resistant bacterial infection could approximately be 700 US dollars. This will have the largest impact on those who have a lower income and could potentially increase the presence of a socioeconomic divide. So, aside from the obvious medical impacts of antibiotic resistance, there is the various associated issues that arise which can decrease societal progressions.

Currently scientists are attempting to find solutions to this serious threat. A biotechnology company called Genentech has recently had a team of scientists that have developed a drug that can more easily penetrate the cell membranes of certain bacteria. Additionally it proved to be effective against various multidrug-resistant forms of some of these bacteria. Although this drug development is in its early stages, it could be very impactful in reducing antibiotic resistance and solving some of the resulting issues.

 

Image Source: flickr

This week (November 18th– 24th) is considered World Antibiotic Awareness Week, which is important in spreading awareness to the public about how to effectively use antibiotics to mitigate potential increases in antibiotic resistance. Some common ways that you can decrease antibiotic resistance rates are:

  • Follow your medical prescription properly (don’t skip medication days)
  • Don’t take antibiotics for infections such as a cold or the flu
  •  Try to with the help of a doctor see if there are possible solutions to provide comfort aside from the use of antibiotics.

Simple steps like these can be impactful in decreasing antibiotic resistance rates and gives us the power to fight against this looming threat.

 

 

-Shania Mander

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Posted in Biological Sciences, Science in the News

Potted Plants: More Than Decoration?

Posted on November 11, 2019 by | 2 comments

Perhaps there’s a potted plant in your room right now. It may be some species of succulent, a colourful flower, or maybe it’s a quaint bonsai tree. If there is a potted plant, what were your reasons for buying? Was it for aesthetics, to try and liven up your room, or maybe you’re trying to improve your room’s air quality. Have you felt though that you work better or have a better mood in rooms with plants? Are those feelings simply due to placebo, or do plants actually have a positive effect on your health?

Do potted plants have tangible health benefits? Wikimedia

If you bought a plant to get some cleaner air though, you may be out of luck. A recent study found that potted plants aren’t actually that useful in removing large amounts of volatile organic chemicals, and that to get any significant effect you would need quite a few plants. So if you’ve picked out a potted plant to improve your room’s air quality, it may just be better to open a window or use a fan.

However, this isn’t to say that the effects of indoor plants are non-existent or insignificant. There’s been many different studies which suggest that indoor plants do have concrete and quantifiable effects, though these effects are typically on the psychological side, and in our hectic day to day lives, perhaps it’s something we need.

One study shows that interacting with plants actually resulted in the subjects feeling more comforted and soothed, and even resulted in lower diastolic blood pressure. This doesn’t mean that indoor plants will magically cure your high blood pressure, but it does show that indoor plants can have some tangible effect on your mental state. Another study showed that office workers who worked in offices with plants felt better about their job and also felt they had higher quality-of-life compared to workers in offices without any plants.

Not only do indoor plants appear to have positive mental health benefits, it’s also been found that plants can potentially have a positive effect on a person’s creativity and mood. Participants in a study, particularly women, were found to perform better and have a better mood when doing tasks in a room with a potted plant compared to a room with no objects or other objects in it.

The benefits of potted plants are numerous, so perhaps making space for a potted plant if you don’t have one would be a good idea. After all, even the simplest things can help break the occasional monotony of life.

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Should we end Daylight Saving Time?

Posted on November 11, 2019 by | 6 comments

Who hasn’t looked at their clock early in the morning and wished for an extra hour in bed? Well, as of last week, daylight saving time has finally come to an end, which means an extra hour of sweet sleep. Many clocks around the world have officially been pushed back an hour, and some researchers want to keep it that way permanently.

Daylight saving time was first introduced during World War I to save energy, and since then it has been continued to be practised in many countries. Yet, the health effects linked with daylight saving have been unclear, until now. Recently, Beth Marlow and her team have reported that daylight saving may be doing us more harm than simply making us lose an hour of sleep.

The team analyzed multiple studies that looked at brain activity and the effects of daylight saving. They concluded that a person’s circadian rhythms are thrown off by the simple time change. The circadian rhythms are responsible for behavioural, physical, and mental changes in a person, which can be affected by both light and darkness. The disruption to the circadian rhythms can cause serious and deadly health effects. For instance, Marlow found that there was an increased number of strokes and heart attacks reported during the start of daylight saving time. In addition, the lack of sleep caused by daylight saving time has led to increase in fatal car crashes.

So, why do many nations still practise daylight saving time? Well, as mentioned before, daylight saving does save energy. As the US Department of Energy found, the energy saved is equivalent to more than 100,000 households energy use in a year. Therefore, the economics behind daylight saving is a major factor for keeping it.

As Marlow and her team have reported, daylight saving time has major impacts on the health of many individuals, and like many other researchers, they advocate the end of daylight saving time altogether. However, the energy saved during this time has outweighed decisions of ending it.

-Anum Khan

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Fatal Familial Insomnia: Dying without sleep

Posted on November 11, 2019 by | 3 comments

Sleeping. Source: Flickr

What if one day you woke up and didn’t have the ability to fall back to sleep again? Unfortunately, this is the devastating reality for almost 50 families around the world today.

Fatal Familial insomnia (FFI) is a rare neurodegenerative disease caused by prions, which are abnormal forms of normally harmless proteins found in the brain. Since this mutation is dominant, in that one copy of this mutated gene can automatically lead to its expression, this disease affects both males and females equally. Furthermore, individuals with FFI normally present symptoms of this disease between the ages of 20 to 61 years old. These symptoms include an onset of dementia, speech problems, and coordination problems.

Dementia. Source: Flickr

 

The tragic family curse

Generation. Source: Flickr

FFI is a genetic disease, thus it is able to be passed on through generations. Fortunately, however, if one parent has this genetic mutation, there is only a 50% chance that it would be passed on to their offspring. Nonetheless, the following generations that receive this mutation eventually succumb to this disease without escape.

This inevitable disease causes death of neurons in the brain and the first symptoms are apparent at around the age of 50 and are followed by four symptomatic stages.

There are four stages that individuals with FFI encounter. The first stage is insomnia, which is followed by the second stage of hallucinations and severe panic attacks. The third stage is defined by weight loss and the total loss of the ability to sleep and lastly, the fourth stage is marked by dementia. Each of these stages are short as the rapid progression of FFI causes death within 12 to 18 months.

The main cause of death from this disease is due to progressive physical and mental deterioration, which is the consequence of one of the fatal symptoms of FFI, the inability to sleep.

 

Searching for a cure

FFI is a subtype of prion diseases which itself has no cure. Additionally, since FFI is a rare disease, it is still incurable as there has been limited research done on this disease. However, there are some potential treatments that are being examined today.

Currently, there is an ongoing 10-year trial being conducted on individuals that carry this genetic mutation. In this study they observe the effects of the antibiotic doxyclycline on pre-symptomatic patients, as researchers believe the use of this antibiotic may be an effective way to prevent FFI in individuals who carry this disease.

Sadly, effective long-term treatments for FFI are non-existent. Therefore, presently, short-term treatments are being used. One of these treatments include the used of sedatives, such as sleeping pills, which can temporarily help manage the symptoms of insomnia. However, its effectiveness varies from person to person.

Although FFI is a rare disease, it still affects families around the world today. Therefore, without a cure, this leaves families hopeless for their future ahead. However, with research currently being conducted, hopefully this can provide individuals with FFI a fighting chance to overcome this disease.

– Karina To

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Posted in Biological Sciences, Science in the News

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Increased screen time can lead to deficient brain development in children

Posted on November 11, 2019 by | 3 comments

Have you ever seen a tablet or phone given to a child as a solution periods of crying or whining? Giving an infant a portable device is an easy and harmless remedy to infant tantrums right?

Not exactly, a recent study published by JAMA pediatrics reveals that an increased amount of screen-based media use can lead to lower language retention and literacy skills in prekindergarten children.

Child playing with tablet Source: PxHere

Researchers studied 69 children from ages 3-5, to determine a possible existing relationship between screen-based media use and brain development. From their study, they were able to conclude that children with an increased screen time, compared to the guidelines of the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP), showcased a lower microstructural organization and myelination of white matter tracts that support language and literacy skills.

Myelination of white matter tracts is crucial to the cognitive development of infants as it involves the formation of a myelin sheath around a nerve to allow the a quicker displacement of nerve impulses in the brain.

Cross section of human brain, the lighter parts are the white matter and the darker parts are grey matter. The white matter is coloured white because of the myelin that surrounds the nerve fibers in the brain. Source: Wikipedia

From their research, lower amount of white matter in childrens’ brains lead to a decreased level of derivation of meaning of objects, symbols, and letters, which scientists believe plays a crucial role in literacy development.

To develop these conclusions, scientists analyzed the results of a ScreenQ survey (completed by the child’s parents), which is based off of four main factors of the AAP guidelines involving the child’s access to screen, their frequency of use, the content viewed, and interactivity or co-viewing. From the survey, the researchers compared the survey results to MRI scans of the the children’s brains and also to results from a series of communication tests designed for children with developing literacy skills.

The solution to these neurobiological risks in children may be very tricky as screen-based devices can be found in almost every household and are used daily by the general public. However, a way to prevent deficiencies in child brain development can be to follow the guidelines proposed by the AAP. Some of the recommendations are:

  • For toddlers younger than 18-24 months, avoid any form of media other than video chatting
  • For children ages 18-24 months, only allow children to watch media with parents (co-viewing) to begin communication development though watching and talking with parents
  • For children ages 2-5, allow only 1 hour a day of media exposure (educational programming) through co-viewing if possible.

To see another take on the topic, how portable device use may be beneficial to child cognitive development, check out this video:

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-Bernice Huynh

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

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Concussions – just one example of brain injury

Posted on November 4, 2019 by | 3 comments

We’ve all (most likely) bumped our heads and brushed it off as nothing to worry about. However, new research shows that repeated head impacts may not be as insignificant as we may think.

In a research article published in Science Advances this past August, researchers found a correlation between routine head-to-head contact in American football players and abnormal changes in the white matter of the brain. 

Source: Westshore Rebels & British Columbia Football Conference Media

The study followed players from the University of Rochester over the course of a single season, and had them wear accelerometers in their helmets to measure the force of impact during all practices and games. The participants also underwent brain scans before the season began and after the season ended. 

Brain tissue can be divided into two major categories: white matter and grey matter. The grey matter of the brain is primarily responsible for information storage and processing, while the white matter of the brain is crucial in connecting the regions of grey matter to the rest of the body.

Since white matter plays such an important role in transmitting information throughout the body, it varies structurally by the presence of myelin sheaths, which allow the brain to transmit information throughout the body more efficiently. 

A measure known as fractional anisotropy, which effectively measures how effectively stretches of white matter can carry neural signals, was used to identify damage sustained to the brain throughout the course of the season. 

The findings of this study demonstrate two major facts: there is a significant reduction in the integrity of the white matter of the brain after the repeated head impacts sustained by as little as a single season of football, and that the amount of reduction is related to the amount of rotational acceleration that a player’s brain is exposed to.

One of the major risks associated with repetitive brain trauma are chronic traumatic encephalopathy (CTE), a condition in which a protein develops into clumps in the brain. As it continues to grow and spread throughout the brain tissue, it slowly kills off brain cells.

Some of the symptoms associated with CTE are issues with impulse control, depression, and loss of memory. More information can be found through the Concussion Legacy Foundation website, linked here. 

The following infographic shows the four stages of CTE, as proposed by Dr. Ann McKee.

Infographic showing the four proposed stages of CTE development. Source: Concussion Legacy Foundation

The risk of developing CTE was found to increase with the number of years spent playing football, in a study published by the Boston University School of Medicine. It was found that the risk increased by 30% for every year played, meaning that the odds double for every 2.6 years played. 

While there’s still a lot of work that needs to be done to further understand the risk factors associated with these repeated impacts, and to what extent it affects cognitive performance, finding that there is a correlation between repetitive head impact and the degradation in the quality of brain tissue is a notable step in establishing the importance of concussion prevention and treatment. 

– Sarah Jiang

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