On the Climate Change Doom and Gloom

Posted on March 4, 2019 by | 11 comments

I was insomniac for the last three months.

See, if the world is inevitably inhospitable for the humans in the next decade, why should I put so much effort on my college studies? I kept on being reminded in my class about how the doomsday is going to happen during my lifetime. No matter what I do, I probably can’t save my country in South East Asia from sinking due to the global sea level rise. Also, the future generation is going to suffer more, so why should I give birth to new ones? Why add to the population if the world can’t handle it? I felt so alone because I don’t think people close to me understand my concerns. I’m overwhelmed and depressed – and it’s all because of climate change.

What if we lose all of this? (Image: Syakirah Zainal)

Many people are actually familiar with this feeling. There is even a scientific term being widely used to describe these blues.

It’s called eco-anxiety.

What is eco-anxiety?

Robert Gifford,  a professor of Psychology in the University of Victoria described eco-anxiety as “a kind of fear what’s next.”

“The fear that nature is changing permanently or at least permanently within the lifetime of the people who are alive,” he said. “Fear for children.”

People who are experiencing this often feel alienated because we are not used to blaming climate change for our mental health problems. We have seen unfortunate individuals fleeing from civil wars caused by scarcity of natural resources in their areas. They lost their homes, families, and the ability to work. We can imagine them being stressed out and depressed. But what we don’t usually understand is, eco-anxiety affects fortunate people too, i.e., people in first-world countries with no war.

This is because the world is a complex network of systems. Whatever affects one system would definitely affect another; news of extinction of floras and faunas, and sufferings all over the world will reach us at least once in our lifetime. With more understanding of what it really is and personally experiencing it, we can’t help but worry if this problem is bigger than we thought.

Does that mean we should stop spreading climate news?

This is a worse option. Everyone needs to be educated to make an effective change. We must accept the reality of climate change, and we should also acknowledge the fear that comes with it. Kim Knowlton, a senior scientist from National Resources Defense Council perfectly summarised this in the video below: 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?time_continue=91&v=gd4465GfAf4

I also started to find hope when I talk to others about this. Some may listen, some may take it with a grain a salt. But hey, at least they are hearing about it. We should always focus on hope. When the network for change is strong, we’ll have more impact on a cleaner environment. Getting involved is great because I can see that people care and I’m not doing this alone.

I know this. Because I sleep better now.

– Syakirah Zainal

11 Comments

Posted in Issues in Science, Science Communication

Tagged , , , , , , , , , , ,

Please get rid of this headache!

Posted on January 29, 2019 by | 2 comments

Possibly one of the most dreadful feelings: an oncoming headache. Nothing more mundane could be worse than your head feeling like it’s caving in at any moment while you’re trying to get through the day. There are many different types of headaches, with tension headaches being the most common among adults and teens caused by a variety of factors.

Painkillers are a common and quick remedy to relieve headaches. [Source: Vox]

You soon find yourself at the local pharmacy to quickly rid yourself of the pain. So, what should you take? The following are common over-the-counter drugs (OTC) used to treat pain and fever relief.

Tylenol

This is the brand name of the chemical drug acetaminophen (also known as paracetamol). It is the most popular OTC painkiller worldwide. Acetaminophen inhibits the synthesis of prostaglandins, which are chemical messengers produced by the body in response to an injury/illness that helps to signal pain and induce fever. Acetaminophen then blocks this signalling to help reduce the pain. Prostaglandins also induce inflammation of the body tissues but (unlike the other two drugs below) acetaminophen does not have anti-inflammatory action.

Tylenol is the most common OTC painkiller worldwide. [Source: London Drugs]

Acetaminophen is most frequently involved in drug overdose. Overdose or mixing with alcohol may result in severe or fatal liver damage. It was the leading cause of acute liver failure in the US between 1998 and 2003.

However, Tylenol is generally considered safe for pregnant women in all three trimesters. It can also be taken by any age group including young children with fevers at 3-months-old, which is probably one of the main reasons why this brand is so popular.

Advil

This brand’s sole medicinal ingredient is ibuprofen. It belongs to the class called non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAIDs). Ibuprofen blocks the production of prostaglandins and helps relieve a broad range of aches, especially hangover-type headaches!

Advil is popular to take when relieving headaches during a hangover. [Source: BisonOffice.com]

Most NSAIDs also have an anti-platelet effect from reversibly altering platelet function, which protects from blood clots by prolonging bleeding time.

Women are not recommended to take Advil during pregnancy. Unlike Tylenol, children need to wait until at least 6-months-old to take Advil.

Aspirin

The chemical name of this brand is acetylsalicylic acid (ASA). Like Advil, they also belong to the class of NSAIDs therefore also providing release with anti-inflammatory action. They also work by decreasing the body’s production of prostaglandins. In addition to providing relief from headaches, Aspirin can be prescribed by a doctor as a blood-thinner to lower the risk of stroke and heart disease, something that Tylenol and Advil cannot do.

Aspirin is another well-known brand of OTC painkillers. [Source: London Drugs]

Unlike other NSAIDs, Aspirin irreversibly and permanently prevents platelet function during their lifespans of 8-10 days, resulting in inclined unstopped bleeding.

Aspirin is considered relatively safe in infrequent doses for women during the first two trimesters of pregnancy, but should be avoided in the third trimester as it can be harmful to both the mother and baby. Aspirin should also be avoided in children less than 18-years-old that have a viral illness (e.g. flu or chicken pox) due to the risk of Reye syndrome.

Comparison and conclusions:

Table comparing the three painkiller brands. Advil has the most adverse effects, but Advil is less toxic than Tylenol in terms of overdosage. Advil and Aspirin are similar in their type class and side effects. Tylenol is safest to use for pregnant women and can be taken the earliest in children. [Source: Created using Microsoft Powerpoint]

It’s common sense that taking too many painkillers is bad for you. Do not take OTC drugs too frequently as it may cause the body to overly rely on the medication, resulting in additional headaches. There are many natural ways to treat headaches that can be just as effective. Below is a video on head massage techniques that can help as well.

Please note this post is a basic guideline for the self-treatment of common, mild-to-moderate headaches. If your headache is excruciating or lasts longer than a couple days, please consult with a pharmacist/doctor if there is an underlying issue and to discuss other treatment options.

– Julie Zhu

2 Comments

Posted in Science Communication

Tagged , , , , , , , ,

Image

Trying to lose weight? Avoid the Tapeworm Diet!

 

Humans may use half of their imagination for weight loss. To be slim, all kinds of brain-opening methods of weight loss are endless, such as taking ribs, freezing diet, cutting stomach, swallowing cotton balls, vomiting… Among the strange weight-loss methods, the Tapeworm Diet is the most dangerous.

However, the mite diet is so simple and rude that it always attracts people who want to take shortcuts. Just take a piece of mites, no need for diet and exercise, and wait for the eggs to hatch in the body. These parasites will start their mission to help the body absorb the hateful nutrients. This completely hits the pain point of human beings who want to lie down and get thin.

So, is it feasible to use mites to lose weight? First, let’s understand how terrible aphids are.

Among all parasites, aphids are a heterogeneous species. As an intestinal parasite, they are mainly known as “big” and longer than the human body. However, they can hide in your body for a few years, but you cannot feel their existence. You will not be told by doctors that there are alien invasions until your headache is unbearable, and you are tortured by nausea, vomiting, and convulsions.

Taenia saginata (beef tapeworm) and Taenia solium (pork tapeworm) are mostly used for weight loss. Eggs or gravid proglottids are passed with feces. Thus, Cattle and pigs became infected by ingesting vegetation contaminated with eggs or gravid proglottids.

life-cycle of pig tapeworms and cattle tapeworms ( courtesy of DPDx)

 

Take the pigs (T. solium) as an example. When the mites enter the pig stomach, the stomach acid protease will digest the outer shell. After the egg shell breaks, the aphid larvae will escape. At this stage, the larvae have six hooks. Therefore, they can easily pass through the stomach wall and reach other parts of the body. In general, the destination of them is striated muscle. But some of them will reach other parts of the body, including the brain, liver, eyes and subcutaneous tissues. Once these mites settle down, it grows into a capsule thatprotects them from the immune system. In this stage, they are called cysticercosis.

If people do not fully heat pork before eating them, these capsules will enter the human body alive. They will be encapsulated by digestive juice and transform into adults that have head segments to adsorb on the human intestinal wall. Aphids use fluff to absorb the gut nutrition for their own needs.

However, what happens next is creepy. Aphids’ neck segments will continue to split and produce more body segments which will gradually mature. Adult tapeworms can shed ten segments one day, and each body section contains tens of thousands of eggs. After growing into sic hooks, these mites will enter various tissues and organs. As a result, the host people will have cysticercosis.

If they invade our skin, it is skin cysticercosis.

It can be said that the cysticercosis that normal humans try to avoid, the extreme dieters are open to this. The locusts are not only consuming calories but also consumes the host himself or herself.

 

1 Comment

Posted on January 28, 2019 by in Biological Sciences, Issues in Science

Tagged , , ,

Image

Why peer review is so important?

Every science student should know the importance of peer review that it involves other experts in the same field to check the validity of academic paper and suitability of publication. However, in real life peer review still lacks sufficient attention and that has much impact on the public more than you think!

John Bohannon is a journalist and PH.D. in molecular biology of bacteria. He thinks many publishers pay little attention to peer review and one of many reason is for profit.

In 2013, he made up 304 papers about a biologist Ocorrafoo Cobange at the Wassee Institute of Medicine in Asmara found some anticancer element collected from a lichen. They are unusual because the biologist and the Wassee Institute of Medicine do not exist, and this anticancer element is fake. John submitted 304 papers to 255 open-access journals worldwide and 157 of these papers were accepted. Only 36 papers were reviewed and 16 of them were still accepted after “peer review”. Certainly, John withdrawal these 16 papers before they actually get published. The results of his “experiment” were quite shocking. Based on this outcome, he published a paper on Science revealed many publishers consider profit from publication before subscriptions.

He did another experiment 1 year later. In 2014 he recruited 15 people through facebook to do a 3-week experiment. They aged from 19 to 67 years old, and 5 of them were male and 10 of them were female. John randomly assigned them to 3 groups. One group followed regular diet. One group followed a low-sugar diet and the other group followed a low-sugar diet plus 40 grams of black chocolate. John with his partners measured 18 kinds of health data for 15 people everyday and after 3 weeks they found that 2 groups followed low-carb diet lost 5 pounds of averaged weight. Between the 2 treatment groups, the group ate a bar black  chocolate everyday for 21 days lost their weight faster than the other group and their cholesterol level had decreased.

John and his partners started to write paper after the defective experiment. After some time they finished the paper ” Chocolate with high Cocoa content as a weight-loss accelerator”, which was a well-formed paper. It has proper format, eligible literature review and figures displaying data. They submitted it to 20 publisher and accepted by some of publishers within 24 hours. In 2015, John published this paper on International Archives of Medicine after he paid 600 euros. John did not stop his “experiment” then. He recomposed his paper and made a news manuscript. In a short time, many newspapers companies reprint it and resulting in a widespread across the world.

After a few months, John wrote an article “I Fooled Millions Into Thinking Chocolate Helps Weight Loss. Here’s How.” and explained how bad lacking peer review can impact on everyone’s life.

The paper has been removed from the International Archives of Medicine website but people can still see it online.

 

Leave a comment

Posted on January 28, 2019 by in Issues in Science, Science Communication

Tagged ,

Bone Broth Aiding Recovery?

Posted on January 28, 2019 by | 2 comments

I fractured my tibial plateau in 2013 and needed surgery for a full recovery. I remember all the elders in my family suggesting I drink bone broth. I wondered why bone broth? What could a soup like drink do for me and the recovery of my fractured bone? The elders failed to explain and convince me that bone broth was to believed to have health benefits, especially in aiding post-injury recovery.

Sold By Kobe Bryant!

Listening to a podcast in 2018, I discovered that my basketball idol, Kobe Bryant, took bone broth when recovering from a bad ankle sprain. He recovered from an estimated 4-6 week timetable of rehabilitation in a record breaking 12 days. I was now sold and intrigued by this magic substance. This made me dig further into the research of bone broth.

What is Bone Broth?

 Ingredients of Bone Broth

The first step in making bone broth involves going to your local butcher or market and collecting animal bones. Then to extract the amino acids, minerals and collagen you will have to boil them along with some salt, vegetables and herbs. It can take up to 10 hours to for the bones to fully boil down.

The Benefits!

Bone broth doesn’t sound appealing, but the nutritious value is high. The bones and connective tissue are rich in both vitamins and nutrients such as iron, vitamin A, fatty acids, and zinc. They also contain collagen which can be used for building blocks of protein by the body. This video below, created by Natural Ways on YouTube, shows the benefits of bone broth ranging from looking younger to boosting energy. From ancestral stories and to modern day research, some things are certain: bone broth helps aid sleep, protect the joints, help reduce inflammation, helps detoxify the digestive system and support weight loss.

 

Maybe, next time when an elder suggests me to change my diet, I will. They know best!

-Kevin Rasode

2 Comments

Posted in Biological Sciences

Tagged , , , , , , , , , , ,

Diets, Diets, Everywhere and Not a Pound to Lose

Posted on January 28, 2019 by | Leave a comment

There have been many different trends in the dieting world, with each new diet promoting varying degrees of fat and carbohydrate intake. The most recent trend to take off is the ketogenic diet, focusing on high fat low carb intake. Other big trends include: the Mediterranean diet and the Paleo diet. Now-a-days there are just too many diets to keep track of each promoting different health benefits. *Note what is written here is my own opinion of what each of these diets entail and in no way, are a reflection of a person participating in these lifestyles.

Recent fad Diets:

1) Mediterranean Diet

Example foods for Mediterranean diet. Source: Foxys Forest Manufacture/Shutterstock

Focuses on the consumption of healthy fats like olive oil and fish while eliminating processed foods and limiting red meat consumption. Has recently been named the 2019 best overall diet.

Benefits: Easy to maintain as there are many options, can cause weight loss and help prevent heart attacks and strokes along with type 2 diabetes.

Downside: It does not count calories or percentage of fat to carbs so it may be harder to follow for those adjusting to the diet. Limited milk consumption – for those who like milk. Cap on alcohol consumption – one glass max for women and two glasses max for men.

2) Ketogenic Diet

Ketogenic example meal. Source: anyaivanova/Shutterstock

Focuses on increasing your intake of good fat and protein while decreasing the amount of carbs. The type of carbs that are consumed should not be highly processed, and come from natural sources like fruits and whole grains. Carbs should be used sparingly, only as a filler if needed.

Benefits: Reduction of carb intake, therefore promote weight loss. Increased intake of omega-3 fatty acids which are the better of the 2 main fatty acids (omega-6 being the other)

Downside: It may cause irregularity, irritating your bowls. Puts restrictions on certain food groups, making it harder to order food at restaurants. If you are genetically predisposed to high cholesterol it increases your cholesterol.

3) Paleo Diet

Paleo diet example foods. Source: MaraZe/Shutterstock

Focuses on eating in the same way as our ancestors ate; emphasizing whole foods, lean protein, veggies, and nuts/seeds. This means that all processed foods are removed from your diet.

Benefits: There is evidence to show that this diet can lead to weight loss and a reduction in waist size as there is a reduction in carbs and more protein. Other benefits include reducing factors of heart disease and increased iron intake.

Downside: The elimination of normally nutritious and healthy foods such as grains, legumes, and dairy.

 

The above diets can contribute to weight loss and a healthier life. However, people should consult their doctors before attempting any of these sorts of diets as they may not be beneficial to everyone. It is always best to choose a diet that works for you and one that you can stick to.

~Christina M

Leave a comment

Posted in Biological Sciences

Tagged , , , , , , ,

Hatching a chick without eggshell

Posted on January 28, 2019 by | 1 comment

How does a chick break out its shell? Is it possible to hatch out a chick without an eggshell? The idea originated from Perry MM, he spent 22 days on this study in 1988. Later the Japanese high school students and the Chinese scientists imitated the experiment. It allows  scientists to observe the process of hatching out a chick without an eggshell. Therefore it helps disease prevention and treatment. Furthermore, this skill can be used to save vulnerable birds from extinction.

The Japanese high school students imitated it in 2014.

Source: Zanzibar Ni Kwetu

The Chinese scientists imitated it in 2018 giving more details.

Source: CCTV English

After 21 days, the chick is born without eggshell.

Image credit: CCTV

What is the most difficult process?    

The process of passing oxygen is really important. If the oxygen is too much, it will result in oxygen toxicity. If the oxygen is not enough, it will result in congestion.

Why did they do the experiment?

By doing this experiment, it allows scientists to observe the whole growth process directly. In addition, it allows scientists to test the effects of using drugs and radiation about the growth of chick embryo. This can help disease prevention and treatment.

According to the video, from Day 5, the surface of the embryo is covered by a  vascular network around the embryo, which provides a very good model for the study of vascular proliferation and inhibition. The vascular proliferation model ( the formation of new blood vessels) can be used in wound repair, and the study of vascular growth inhibition can be used in the study of tumor treatment. As the chick embryo develops, it forms a variety of hormones and nutrients that have not yet been fully explored, and which often have surprising effects on tissue regeneration and tissue culture.

To save the endangered birds?

An online article says that it can be used to save endangered birds when their eggs have been damaged, we can also choose bird IVF and try to grow vulnerable species using surrogate eggs. However, we need to consider the success rate, it is around 50% currently.

Life is really wonderful and we should continue to explore science in order to protect this beautiful world.

——ZIJIE LIN

1 Comment

Posted in Biological Sciences

Tagged , , ,