Category Archives: Issues in Science

The N.H.L. Calling For A Cloudy Forecast

Posted on March 18, 2019 by | Leave a comment

Hockey has been touted as a sport near the top of the totem pole in terms of inherent risk for concussion. You don’t have to look much beyond the fact that the game is played on a sheet of ice to realize why head injuries are so common. Add some body contact into the mix, slapshots that rifle a dense rubber puck over 100 miles an hour, and players with long fiberglass sticks who skate faster than a car drives on a residential street and you have a tragic recipe for head trauma, otherwise known as hockey.

Ding Dong No One’s Home

Ever since the dawn of hockey, players have been getting their “bell rung” regardless of whether they are wearing a helmet or not. The game of hockey is an intense test of determination and power and as a result of such ferocity at some point, if you play the game, it is inevitable that you will get injured.  Injuries are an all too familiar part of the game and many are only now realizing that getting your “bell rung”, or in other words receiving a concussion, can have grave consequences.

WASHINGTON, DC – February 1, 2011: Washington Capitals forward Alex Ovechkin (#8) upends and topples Montreal Canadiens defenseman P.K. Subban (#76) with a check during their NHL ice hockey game at Verizon Center. Source: Flickr

Despite more information being made accessible to the general public (players included) regarding concussions and their relation to chronic traumatic encephalopathy (CTE), it seems nearly every week another player out with a concussion, some taking longer than others to return. A concussion is noted by the American Association of Neurological Surgeons as being an injury to the brain that results in temporary loss of normal brain function, which is usually caused by a blow to the head. The brain is surrounded by spinal fluid which acts as a barrier between the soft tissue of the brain and the hard bones of the skull. Any jolt or hit to the head can cause rapid movement of the brain in the cranial cavity potentially damaging brain cells and tissue. Concussion symptoms vary depending on the intensity of impact but in general, can last for less than a day or persist for weeks – even months.

WASHINGTON, DC – March 6, 2012: Washington Capitals forward Alex Ovechkin (#8) hits Carolina Hurricanes forward Patrick Dwyer (#39) during their NHL ice hockey game at Verizon Center. Source: Flickr

Millions or Brain Damage?

To help reduce such head injuries the National Hockey League (NHL) implemented a new concussion protocol two years ago. The new procedures included off-ice education for players regarding concussions as well as mandatory removal of a player from the game for an acute evaluation if he is hit and a concussion is suspected. Contrary to recent amendments, concussion rates are as high as they’ve ever been in the history of the sport, but, despite this, players like Rick Nash are making use of the off- ice education. The six-time All-Star has called it quits at the young age of 34 due to concussion-related symptoms, passing up millions of dollars in hopes of saving his mental health. With almost anyone who laces up the skates, their dream is to make it to the big leagues but many fail to realize that the dream often comes at a price, and there is no amount of money that can reconcile for serious brain damage.

Written by: Riley Cox

 

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Can We Predict the Next Mass Extinction?

Posted on March 11, 2019 by | 1 comment

Asteroid Impact that killed the dinosaurs (Source: Wikimedia Commons)

Sixty-six million years ago, a massive asteroid crashed into Earth. The explosion from the impact released energy equivalent to 100 trillion tons of TNT. The mass extinction that occurred afterwards wiped out about 80% of all species at the time, including the dinosaurs. What if there was a way to predict such a catastrophe?

Do Mass Extinctions Follow a Pattern?

In 1984, researchers Raup and Sepkoski compiled data on twelve recent extinction events. Using statistics, they analyzed the data and found that a mass extinction seemed to occur about every 26 million years. This finding led to a torrent of research as scientists sought to replicate and explain this phenomenon.

The Solar System’s Journey through the Milky Way

One of the most prominent explanations were suggested by Rampino and Stothers. They proposed this pattern had something to do with our sun’s movement within the Milky Way galaxy. Just like how the earth revolves around the sun, the sun also revolves around the centre of our spiral galaxy. As the sun orbits, it also oscillates above and below the spiral arm. The gravity within our solar system fluctuates along with this vertical movement.

The sun’s orbit around Milky Way (Source: Wikimedia Commons)

According to Rampino and Stothers, the changes in gravity has an important impact on the Oort Cloud, a cluster of asteroids in the outer reaches of our solar system. When the sun is located right within the galaxy arm, the gravity from this densely packed region disturbs the Oort Cloud. As a result, Oort Cloud comets are deflected into the inner solar system, where any one of them can crash onto Earth, potentially causing a mass extinction similar to the one that killed the dinosaurs.

Oort Cloud (Source: Wikimedia Commons)

Counterargument

Equally many scientists have also criticized the existence of the 26-million-year pattern. For example, in his study, John Alroy claimed that the proposed pattern did not agree with data documenting mass extinctions of marine animals. In addition, Bailer-Jones pointed out flaws in Raup and Sepkoski’s statistics. She wrote that there were extinction events in the data that Raup and Sepkoski had omitted from the calculations. Furthermore, she noted the dates of the extinction events were uncertain, which Raup and Sepkoski did not account for. As a result, Bailer-Jones felt that Raup and Sepkoski’s calculations were not significant enough to draw such bold conclusions. Instead, she felt there’s more evidence that mass extinctions are sporadic, caused by multiple factors, including climate change.

Conclusion

The idea that mass extinctions occur at a predictable rate is both terrifying and fascinating. However, scientists are still debating whether such a pattern really exists. In the meantime, we can focus on other causes of mass extinctions. Specifically, ones we can control. Asides from meteor impacts, global warming  is also a major cause of mass extinctions and there’s not need to predict that our planet is warming at an unprecedented rate.

-Written by Helen Hu

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A Shot a Day Keeps the Doctor Away?

Posted on March 11, 2019 by | 2 comments

Let’s face it, you’ve probably never heard that saying before. Apart from having a good time and feeling great in the moment, alcohol consumption is generally associated with a negative connotation. Recent studies have shown that moderate drinking can increase a person’s life by dropping their risk of early death by 18%. Although studies have associated drinking with some health benefits, it is more commonly known as being addictive and highly toxic. Even with this common knowledge, millions of people globally continue to consume alcohol on a daily basis, and thousands of alcohol-related deaths occur annually in the United States.

Shots of hard alcohol. Source: Flickr Credit: Kirti Poddar

BUT THEY SAID IT WAS GOOD FOR YOU…

Pouring a glass of red wine. Source: Flickr Credit: Rawpixel Ltd

New research has found that moderate levels of drinking, defined as one or two glasses of wine or beer per day, can be linked to a longer lifetime. People who consumed alcohol were less likely to die due to cardiovascular disease than those who did not. Red wine was also found to have some anti-aging benefits associated with it, due to the presence of antioxidants. A 2017 study that excluded non-drinking participants with other health issues and addiction once again found a correlation between those who consumed alcohol and a lowered risk of heart attacks, chest pains, strokes, and fatal heart disease. In addition, it has been found that moderate drinking can reduce insulin resistance, which is the primary cause of type 2 diabetes. Although these findings may seem promising to many, no direct cause and effect has been found between moderate alcohol consumption and longevity.

WHAT’S IN IT?

Line-bond structure of ethanol (CH3CH2OH). Source: Wikimedia Commons Credit: Sevela.p

The main ingredient in alcohol that is responsible for getting people “drunk” is ethanol, a psychoactive molecule that impacts the central nervous system, altering brain function and hence causing visible changes in mood, behaviour, perception, and consciousness. It is produced by the yeasts that digest sugars in foods such as grapes and grains that are used to make wine and beer, respectively. When alcohol enters the bloodstream, “pleasure hormones”, known as endorphins, are released and transported to the brain where, over time, they are able to shrink the part of the brain that is responsible for memory and reasoning. In red wine specifically, the presence of the compound resveratrol contributes to the antioxidant-like benefits of drinking.

FAKE NEWS

Ambulances parked at the emergency entrance of a hospital. Source: Flickr Credit: Can Pac Swire

Data from 2006 to 2010 taken from the Centre for Disease Control’s (CDC) Alcohol-Related Disease Impact (ARDI) online application shows that 88,668 alcohol related deaths occurred in the United States within those four years. Of those deaths, 44% of them were due to chronic causes, primarily liver disease, and the remaining 56% were from acute causes, including motor-vehicle accidents and suicide. Overall, it was found that males accounted for 71% of alcohol-related deaths. People in the 50 to 64 age cohort contributed the greatest quantity of alcohol-related deaths. These statistics show that although there are indeed some health benefits to alcohol consumption, alcohol should continue to be consumed only when safe, and most importantly in moderation.

Written by Kelsey Wong

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Young Blood, Old Soul

Posted on March 4, 2019 by | Leave a comment

We often hear our grandparents telling their stories in those “good old days”. Indeed, who doesn’t want to stay forever young? Humans all experience physical and mental function declines as we are inevitably getting old and a lot of researches have been done so far to solve the mystery of aging. As evidence piles up, scientists say that the fountain of youth may lie in the blood.

Credit: Geralt

Can we reverse aging? Credit: Geralt

A recent paper published on Communications Biology showed a restored cognitive function in old mice after they received bone marrow transplantation from younger mice. They found that the level of a critical chemical, called CCL11, in blood was lowered in young bone marrow recipients mice and therefore reasoned that hematopoietic (blood cell generating) system may play a special part in regulating CCL11. This molecule is thought to have an inhibitory effect on nerve cells regeneration, which is a hallmark of aging.

However, this is not the first study in the field. In fact, discoveries on the rejuvenating power of young blood can be dated back as early as 1970s when scientists surgically connected the blood vessels of two lab mice with different ages so that they could share the same circulating blood. The old mice did become younger in terms of some physiological aspects. And more researches have found similar results and pinned down some critical molecules responsible for aging.

https://youtu.be/yKLlXRjktak

Blood transfusion reverses aging in mice
Credit: GeoBeats News

 

Those findings are very promising in helping us understand the mechanism of aging and develop drugs or therapies to fight some of the age-related disease, such as Alzheimer’s disease, in the future. However, our keenness to stay young has already been taken advantage of by some people. A start-up company in California called Ambrosia charged $8,000 to give clients one-time infusion with blood plasma from young people. Just in last month, FDA stated that “we’re concerned that some patients are being preyed upon by unscrupulous actors touting treatments of plasma from young donors as cures and remedies.” Soon after that, Ambrosia stopped their transfusion treatments.

Indeed, it’s not the time to jump the gun yet. First, those findings in animal models may or may not be applicable to humans yet: we still need more evidence to prove that. Secondly, such treatments are generally beyond the regulation of FDA, and they may bring other risks, such as blood-borne diseases, not to mention the societal consequences. Therefore, it seems we do have a long way to go before we find the real fountain of youth.

Written by Xin Dong

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Marine Evictions

Posted on March 4, 2019 by | 1 comment

Anyone who has seen the any of our world’s oceans can easily appreciate their immensity.

 

The ocean’s cover 71% of the surface of Earth. Retrieved March 4, 2019 from https://www.goodfreephotos.com/people/woman-standing-next-to-the-ocean.jpg.php

But don’t be fooled. Contrary to what you might think, they aren’t open expanses of habitable environment where any marine species can live and thrive.

As anyone with any background in biology can tell you, just because the space is there, doesn’t mean it can be occupied by any living organism. This is especially true when it comes to the marine environment.

Marine species have to face a number of challenges that many terrestrial species simply would never have to worry about. One of these challenges, that poses a more serious threat because of climate change, is the availability of oxygen.

The Oxygen Minimum Zone

Many complex physical, biological, and chemical processes are constantly taking place within the ocean. Some of which are highly variable, and others are relatively constant.

One feature that arises from a combination of these processes, is the Oxygen Minimum Zone (or OMZ), which are pockets within the water column that contain low levels of dissolved oxygen. These areas are present throughout the world’s oceans and usually occur at a depth of 200 to 1000 metres.

Oxygen Minimum Zones occur naturally and don’t pose a serious threat to marine life. However, researchers have begun to see that some of these low oxygen areas are beginning to expand, as a result of global warming.

Sea surface oxygen levels. Purple are the lowest concentrations and red are the highest. Retrieved March 4, 2019 from https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:WOA09_sea-surf_O2_AYool.png

The Problem

One benefit of living in the ocean that many terrestrial animals don’t have, is the ability to not only migrate horizontally, but also vertically. In fact, many marine organisms undergo these vertical migrations for many different purposes, such as escaping predation.

There are many studies being conducted, and that have already been done, where researchers are trying to measure how well different marine species are able to tolerate low levels of oxygen.

They can measure this through physiological responses, like metabolism, or behavioural responses, like the frequency and duration of movement within the water column.

One key observation that some researchers have made is that many fish species cannot tolerate low levels of oxygen. So, if the oxygen minimum zones continue to expand, their habitat will become more and more limited.

What Does This All Mean?

Some species with a higher tolerance to low oxygen levels may have an advantage as they are able to escape predation and other competing species.

However, the expansion of the oxygen minimum zones will bring even more challenges to species who need to avoid the low oxygen levels.

This is especially concerning if this includes certain fish species that are an integral part of the food web; not only as a source of food for many other marine organisms, but for the fisheries industry that depends on a large expanse of fish populations.

 

Cameron Carvalho 

 

 

 

 

 

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