Category Archives: Biological Sciences

How to Synthesize 40,000 Biochemical Weapons in Six Hours!

Posted on March 21, 2022 by billyang | 1 comment

In the media, we constantly hear about Artificial Intelligence (AI) advancing for the benefit of society. It is assumed that this advancement will aid us in fields such as healthcare and drug development by simplifying complex human tasks. However, what if it did not? What if this AI was abused to potentially harm society?

Collaborations Pharmaceuticals, Inc. had designed a molecule generator called MegaSyn, which discovers new potential drugs that can target and prevent human diseases through machine learning model predictions. This functions as the AI of the story. Essentially, the model depicts all of the predicted target drugs that are synthesizable, while deleting all of the molecules that are considered toxic to humans. The company proposed the idea that they could synthesize toxic molecules by simply inverting this program. Due to the universal abundance of possibilities, they used VX, which is one of the most toxic biochemical nerve agents developed, as a model to focus the results. In less than six hours, the program produced a model that generated 40,000 molecules that were within the same calibre of toxicity as VX.

A few grains of VX (6-10 mg) are enough to kill a person. Source: Periodic Videos

The Potential Misuse of AI Programs

Although the company did not synthesize any of the molecules in their model, this experiment raises serious concerns over the consequences of AI misuse. There are hundreds of commercial companies with technologies that are able to replicate MegaSyn. Furthermore, another AI program that can make this risk more severe is retrosynthesis software, which can computationally break down a molecule into the steps from which it is synthesizable. Although this model was based on VX-like compounds, it would be simple to look for other toxic molecules through minimal adjustments to the program. The abuse of AI should be alarming because all you need is the ability to code in order to greatly lower the technical skills required to synthesize potentially dangerous biochemical weapons.

Quantitative Structure-Activity Relationship is an example of a similar program that is used for Drug Discovery. You can substitute VX as the molecule to apply to this study. Source: Data Professor

Rapid Synthesis Using Combinatorial Chemistry

Complimenting the advancements on the technological side, there have also been significant advancements on the chemical side in the last century. The development of combinatorial chemistry allows for the synthesis of mass numbers (perhaps millions) of similar compounds within a single process. Essentially, there is a large array of structurally diverse compounds, also known as the chemical library, which interacts with biological targets of interest to simultaneously synthesize thousands of peptides. With the AI-generated model acting as the chemical library with its toxic-focused molecule (such as VX), the process of combinatorial chemistry becomes much more easily accessible.

Combining different structures together using biological target interactions to synthesize multiple compounds. Source: Wikimedia Commons

So, Is This Technology Beneficial Or Not?

The molecule-generating AI program is concerning due to its applications in biochemical warfare. If the program is misused, it can easily be employed in war and cause the loss of thousands of lives, not to mention the environmental impacts of such chemicals. However, this program could just as easily be used for the benefit of mankind. The key is transparency. Collaborations Pharmaceuticals decided to be transparent with their findings and inform the public about the power of their program. Therefore, there is peace of mind that they will use this program for the benefit of drug discovery.

~ Bill Yang

1 Comment

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

Tagged Artificial Intelligence, Biochemical Weapons, Biotechnology, Chemical Synthesis, chemistry, Drug Development, Nerve Agents, Pharmaceuticals

New Treatment for HIV

Posted on March 20, 2022 by jack wu | 1 comment

HIV and its Implications

The HIV global pandemic was once a major killer in the 20th century. HIV causes mental panic, social apprehension mortality when left untreated and miseducated. Due to the fact that diseases transmitted from sexual contact or drug usage cause social stigma, the HIV global pandemic became a fight not only against the virus itself but the perception of that from the general public. Though no form of illness should be conceptualized from that of a negative connotation, HIV long has had a conception coming from promiscuity, drug addiction, and carelessness. Treatment for HIV and better education continues to be a global battle.

HIV is described as a virus with no cure but treatable. Proper treatment of HIV can allow an infected individual to live a normal lifespan. Source: HIV.gov

How HIV is Transmitted

HIV is transmitted through sexual contact, needle sharing, contaminated blood transfusion as well as birth. HIV is a virus that attacks the body’s immune system. The latent stage of HIV is AIDS when the CD4 cell count in the body lowers to rates that cause infections to be prone.

HIV is transmitted through four major ways: sex, blood transfusion, needle sharing and mother to baby. Source: avert.org

Treatment History

HIV treatment first began with Zidovudine, which became available in 1987. Zidovudine causes side effects such as low blood cell count, liver damage. More importantly, Zidovudine stops working as the virus mutates. In 1996, antiretrovirals became available for public use. The combination of antiretrovirals made it difficult for enzymes in HIV to replicate. In 2007, Raltegravir became available as an HIV integrase inhibitor. In 2010, Truvada became an available option for pre-exposure prophylaxis for the public.

New Injection Treatment

Treatment for those infected with HIV requires a daily oral pill. Until 2021, one of the oral pills had to be taken by someone HIV positive. A daily pill makes it difficult to adhere to treatment. Moreover, oral pills are difficult for those with swallowing difficulties, poor drug absorption, and gastrointestinal problems. Cabotegravir and rilpivirine are taken as integrase inhibitors and non-nucleoside reverse transcriptase inhibitors. These two medications are taken in injection form once every one or two months. The result is that injection forms require much less dedication to HIV treatment, as these forms don’t require a daily treatment plan. The key to HIV treatment to allow those living with the virus to lower transmission and keep the virus under control is to have an undetectable viral load. An undetectable viral load allows an infected person to live a normal lifespan and be HIV non-transmissible. Injection treatment works equally as well as the oral pill.

HIV injection Treatment Description

New Treatment Plan

In the UK, injection treatment for HIV will begin in 2022. Other European countries are soon to follow this plan. Another treatment plan for HIV is a solution and alternative to approach a virus in modern society.

1 Comment

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

Tagged HIV/AIDS

First Genetically Modified Pig Heart Transplant

Posted on March 14, 2022 by Shayan Abbaszadeh | 1 comment

If due to an unfortunate accident, you were on the National Organ Waitlist for a heart transplant, would you consider receiving a heart from an animal?

Since the first organ transplant, there has been a shortage of healthy organ donors all around the world. For example, last year in Canada, about 280 people died while waiting for an organ transplant. This shortage is much greater in more populated countries such as the US, where on average ten people lose their lives every day. To resolve this shortage, doctors have tried to transplant animal blood and organs to humans. Unfortunately, they have not been very successful until recently, due to the complexity of the human body and the anatomic variations between different species. However, using genetic engineering, scientists have been able to transplant a few animal organs to humans, including the first pig heart!

Human Body & Organ Transplant

The human body is like a very complex machine, with microscopic vessels and delicate tissues. A slight change or injury to an organ can be disastrous. When a vital organ, such as the heart is damaged beyond recovery, doctors have to replace it with a donor’s organ, which is usually a deceased person.

Organ transplant has saved countless lives over the decades but it can commonly result in complications, especially if there is low blood type compatibility between the recipient and the donor. If the recipient’s blood type does not match the donor’s blood type, the recipient’s body will reject the organ. During organ rejection, the transplanted organ is nothing more than a foreign object to the body, like bacteria. The body’s defense mechanisms will try to remove the transplanted which usually results in death.

Dark green represents the number of transplants, light green represents the number of patients on waitings lists and the dashes green represents the number of dead patients while waiting for a transplant. Image by Canadian Organ Replacement Register https://www.cihi.ca/en/organ-transplants-in-canada-2020-donations-and-need-infographic

Genetically Modified Pig Heart Transplant

However, on January 7th, 2022, scientists and doctors made a huge advancement in this field. They were able to transplant the first-ever genetically modified pig heart into a 57-year-old man, who was suffering from life-threatening heart disease. David Bennett has been recovering from the operation and is currently healthy and stable.

Why use a genetically modified pig heart?

There are many reasons why scientists used a pig as the donor, mainly because pigs are very anatomically similar to humans. In both adulthood and childhood, their organs are similar in size and function to humans, making them well suited for transplant. Additionally, pigs reproduce at a fast pace and can be bred at high health standards in labs. There are labs in the world that breed and clone pigs for organ transplants.

Eckhard Wolf with pigs in at the Badersfeld bog test farm in Oberschleissheim, Germany. Photographed by Lukas Barth/Reuters https://www.theguardian.com/science/2022/feb/03/german-researchers-to-breed-pigs-for-human-heart-transplants

Using advanced technology, scientists were able to edit parts of the DNA of a pig and turned off genes (the building blocks of DNA) that resulted in organ rejection. This eliminated the need to find a compatible blood type donor.

In Conclusion:

The use of animal organs for transplant is not a simple matter, since there is still a lot of controversy around the topic. Many believe that genetic engineering is a technology that humans should not explore. Others bring up the issue of animal welfare and question the practice entirely. However, if more research is completed on genetically modifying animals for organ transplants, we might be able to solve the organ donor shortage entirely. Patients will not have to wait on long lists to receive organs to live and we could minimize the risks of organ transplants significantly, saving thousands if not millions of lives.

By Shayan Abbaszadeh

1 Comment

Posted in Biological Sciences

Tagged Medicine, Organ Transplant, Pig

Sound Impacts on Our Brain Activities

Posted on March 14, 2022 by zhi ting zhong | 2 comments

While you’re reading this post, may I ask you to take a moment to pay attention to your background sound? Take a look at the picture below, and think of the smooth line in the left as the sound that is comfortable or unnoticeable to you and the wavy line in the right as the sound that is bothersome and distracting to you. Which way do you think you receive your current environmental sound?

Image by Olena Shmahalo via Quanta Magazine; noise generated by Thomas Donoghue.

Facts — Sounds Have Different Kinds

To know the impacts by different sounds on our brain, let’s start with the processing centre of the received sounds. Humans interpret sounds and process their information through cortex, the outer layer of the most anterior of the brain. When our concentration is disrupted, cortisol – the primary stress hormone – is induced and results increasing of our stress level. Excess cortisol impairs functions in the most front of cortex. Thus, when cortex is affected by noise from the outside environment, brain capacity to think clearly and to retain information is compromised.

However, you may have noticed that sometimes you seem to endure some outside sounds and have no issue with concentration. Such sounds are called neutral, to which people do not have much reaction. On the other hand, the sounds that are unpleasant and disturbing are called triggering sounds, which include eating, pen clicking, and clock ticking. When people become extremely sensitive to triggering sounds, they are emotionally affected. The phenomenon is called: Misophonia.

Image by Dr. Megan Faye via Anxiety Specialist of Atlanta.

An article by James Cartreine, PhD, Contributing Editor published on June 24, 2019 via Harvard Health Blog by Harvard Medical School titled, Misophonia: When sounds really do make you “crazy”, provided background information and facts regarding misophonia. The article described a British-based search on 20 misophonic people and 22 normal people, and the researchers noted that “persons with misophonia showed much greater physiological signs of stress (increased sweat and heart rate).” As a conclusion, it confirmed that misophonia has negative impacts on human emotions and “can lead to isolation.”

Silver Lining — ASMR Ambience

So far, it looks like that the sounds are mostly bad to people. However, if you’re browsing YouTube often, you’ll notice in recent years, “ASMR” and “ambience sounds,” such as tapping, writing, raining and fireplace imitation, are trending. Unlike neutral sounds that are unnoticeable, such sounds help many people to relax and fall asleep as well as more concentrated on working and studying.

Why is that?

University of Sheffield published a journal on June 21, 2018 via Science Daily: Brain tingles: First study of its kind reveals physiological benefits of ASMR, could have an answer to it. That is, ASMR is in fact a response to specific triggering sounds experienced by some people called “Brain-Tingle.” The pathway of how ASMR flows mentally to physically is shown as below.

Image by Emma L. Barratt, Nick J. Davis in their scientific article: “Autonomous Sensory Meridian Response (ASMR): a flow-like mental state” via The National Center for Biotechnology Information (NCBI) published online on Mar 26, 2015.

Two Sides of the Coin

ASMR and misophonia are just like two sides of the sound-impact coin. The fact that one is positive while the other is negative supports that even if the positive side cannot be a replacement for medication, its benefits for mental and physical health are therapeutic.

~ By Evelyn Zhong

2 Comments

Posted in Biological Sciences, Outreach Project, Public Engagement, Science Communication

Tagged Ambience, ASMR, brain, Misophonia

From Poison to Prescription: The Large Impact of a Small Fungi

Posted on March 7, 2022 by Christine Sun | 1 comment

What if one bite of warm, freshly-baked bread could kill you? Where, even before you realize you’ve become a victim of ergotism, you start to feel nauseous and noticeably numb.

But… then that brings us to the question…

What Exactly is Ergotism?

Ergotism is a disease caused by a fungus called ergot (scientific name: Claviceps). Often found growing on cereal and forage plants like grass, wheat and rye, ergots can be deadly if ingested. When ingested, it can cause symptoms like seizures, nausea, and hallucinations and cut off a person’s blood flow; possibly leading to death.

Ergots on rye. Fortunately easy to differentiate from regular rye grains due to the difference in colour and size. Source from The Atrium

Because ergots grow on forage plants such as wheat and rye, they can easily be ingested by a large population: infected crops can be processed into flour, a common ingredient used in multiple cuisines, and contaminate the food people will consume. As a result, ergotism epidemics have caused the deaths of many people throughout history; a single case in 944 France caused the deaths of 40,000 people.

Further records of these epidemics date back as early as the Middle Ages; maybe even before then.

A depiction of ergotism found on the painting ‘The Temptation of St Anthony’ (1512-1516) by Matthias Grünewald. Ergotism is also known as St. Anthony’s Fire. Source from Brewminate.

Nowadays, as knowledge on ergots advances, the number of reported deaths caused by ergotism has greatly decreased. Regulations have been placed on agricultural and milling procedures to prevent ergots from being milled into flour. Additionally, specific farming methods have been devised to prevent ergots from growing on the crops altogether.

Although… are ergots really so harmful?

Beneficial Uses of Ergots

Despite the toxic properties, scientists have discovered ways to use ergots in beneficial ways by creating multiple compounds derived from the toxins produced by ergots.

One of these compounds is ergotamine; a medicine used to treat migraines-type headaches. Ergotamine works by utilizing the properties of ergots that can restrict blood flow by narrowing the blood vessels around the brain and reducing the headaches caused by changes in those blood vessels.

Another compound derived is ergometrine, also known as ergonovine; a medicine used to induce labour and prevent postpartum bleeding. Similar to ergotamine, ergometrine uses the properties of ergots that reduce blood flow and narrow blood vessels to reduce blood loss after birth.

Chemical structure of the compound, ergometrine. Illegal in the United Kingdom based on its close relations with LSD. Source from Wikipedia

With that said, there are risks and side effects to both of these compounds. An overdose of either compound can cause ergotism and possible side effects of ergometrine include vomiting and high or low blood pressure. Because of these risks, they’ve been heavily regulated; ergometrine especially because it can also be used to make LSD. Both these compounds aren’t for daily use and should only be used if prescribed by a medical professional.

The use of ergot-based compounds as medicine is a heavily debated topic. Some people argue that the safety concerns are far too great to ignore while others argue we can’t ignore the benefits either.

Whether you are against ergot-based medicines or not, it’s fascinating to see how much impact a small fungus, not much longer than a child’s pinky finger, has on our history… and perhaps, our future as well.

– Christine Sun

1 Comment

Posted in Biological Sciences, Public Engagement

Tagged Biology, Biotechnology, Claviceps, Disease, Ergotism, Ergots, Fungi, Medical Sciences, Medicine, Mycology, Pharmaceutical sciences, St. Anthony's Fire

Image

Caribou habitat restoration

Motivation

Caribou are critical indicator of forest heath, and they play important role in many places: they are important resource for indigenous people, prey species for many carnivores. However, recent years, there has been a decline in Caribou population.

I want to explore the effectiveness of habitat restoration as a caribou conservation strategy. Habitat restoration has been studied previously, but generally, I am still unsure of how impactful it really is because it is a long-term solution. Therefore, it is important to research this topic and discover whether or not habitat restoration is a strategy government should continue to use.

What is habitat restoration?

Habitat restoration is the renewing and repairing of damaged or degraded habitats back to a more stable state. This involves physically going to sites of habitat destruction and manipulating the environment. An example would be positioning trees and branches to create barriers to reduce the sightlines of linear features.
The main goal of habitat restoration is to reduce predator use of linear features like seismic lines and roads in hopes of reestablishing the predator-prey dynamics that caribou and wolves shared prior to human industrialization and exploration. As a result, the caribou population should be better conserved. (graph from MLR images Flickr)

Caribou population declines

During my research, we find that the primary cause of caribou population decline is the unstable predation of caribou which is caused by human-mediated changes to predator-prey dynamics. For example, Industrial exploration which is human-caused destruction impacts predation that impacts the caribou population.

source from Daniel images

Methods to insist caribou population

Wildlife cameras planted in restored and unrestored areas; comparing the use of these linear features for caribou, bears, wolves, moose
Overall prediction: less likely to use restored vs unrestored, increased response with increased treatment intensity
GPS Collars to quantify individual animal use of restored vs unrestored lines
Overall prediction: Restored areas used more than unrestored, effect increases with treatment intensity

Solution

After analyzing the cause of the decline, there are two main goals for habitat restoration reverse the effects that clear cut logging and pipeline Another goal is to promote a sustainable environment for caribous to live in without human intervention. These two ways will benefit to caribous population. But We need a large area and time scale to observe the response of caribous population levels to understand how changes in habitat use after habitat restoration treatment translate into increased survival rates of caribou.

Conclusion

Human activities have caused the destruction of many organisms. What we can do is stimulate the action of habitat restoration. However, the complexity of the ecosystem will cause limitations for habitat restoration. The near local communities opposed habitat restoration because of the impact on their daily life. In addition, high economic costs can be perceived as having a negative impact on the restoration process. Overall, there are pros and cons to habitat restoration but it is necessary for us to consider the best solution to address the consequences of human destruction.

——Chenyang Luo

First Genetically Modified Pig Heart Transplant

Posted on February 7, 2022 by Shayan Abbaszadeh | 1 comment

If due to an unfortunate accident, you were on the National Organ Waitlist for a heart transplant, would you consider receiving a heart from an animal?

For decades, doctors have tried to transplant animal organs in human bodies, but have not been successful. Partly, because of how complex the human body is.

Human Body & Organ Transplant

The human body is like a very complex machine, with microscopic vessels and delicate tissues. So complex that if one part of the body is injured, the rest of the body will be affected by it. This becomes fatal if the injured body part happens to be a vital organ, such as the heart.

Since the dawn of medicine, scientists and doctors have researched and studied techniques to perfect human organ transplants. Due to the complexity of the human body, organ transplants can commonly result in complications and possibly death.

One of the biggest challenges of organ transplants is finding a matching blood type. If the recipient’s blood type does not match the donor’s blood type, the recipient’s body will attack the organ. During organ rejection, the transplanted organ is nothing more than a foreign object to the body, like bacteria, it will try to remove it which usually ends in the death of the patient.

Another side of the problem is finding organ donors because there is a shortage of healthy organ donors all around the world. For example, as you can see from the image below, last year in Canada, about 280 people died while waiting for an organ transplant. This shortage is much greater in more populated countries such as the US.

https://www.cihi.ca/en/organ-transplants-in-canada-2020-donations-and-need-infographic

Genetically Modified Pig Heart Transplant

However, on January 7th, scientists and doctors made a huge advancement in this field. They were able to transplant the first-ever genetically modified pig heart into a 57-year-old man, who was suffering from life-threatening heart disease. David Bennett has been recovering from the operation but is currently healthy and stable.

Why use a genetically modified pig heart?

https://www.theguardian.com/science/2022/feb/03/german-researchers-to-breed-pigs-for-human-heart-transplants

In Conclusion:

If more research is completed on genetically modifying animals for organ transplants, we might be able to solve the organ donor shortage entirely. Patients will not have to wait on long lists to receive organs to live and we could minimize the risks of organ transplants significantly.

By Shayan Abbaszadeh

1 Comment

Posted in Biological Sciences

Tagged Medicine, Organ Transplant, Pig

Cancer Therapy – Breakthroughs in Cancer Cell Research and Treatment

Posted on February 7, 2022 by jimmy huang | Leave a comment

Imagine this:

You’re living your life but suddenly you lose the urge to eat. Not a big deal, maybe it’s just a phase.

A week passes and you notice that those juicy arms you’ve worked so hard to grow seem to start looking like sticks. You face seems a bit discoloured, somewhere on the paler side. You weigh yourself, and you’re down 10 pounds. You start feeling a bit concerned but maybe it’s the keto diet that you started.

A few more weeks pass and you feel a small bump on your lower back. Now you’re freaking out and head to the hospital. After a diagnosis, the doctor says the three dreaded words: “you have cancer.”

What is cancer?

In the most general sense, cancer is a disease which causes cells to rapidly divide and grow uncontrollably and spread to different parts of the body. Cancer cells can also aggregate in certain areas and disrupt bodily functions, also known as tumours.

Current treatments for cancer:

Currently, there are three main types of treatment: surgery, chemotherapy, and radiation. As surgery suggests, it is the physical removal of a tumour. Chemotherapy uses drugs to target to rapidly growing cells, even healthy cells such as hair. Finally, radiation uses x-rays, particles, or radioactive seeds to kill cancer cells. Of course there are other types of treatment such as targeted therapy but it is less used in the medical industry.

Example of Cancer Treatment (Chemotherapy) – Image by VeryWell

A newer type of treatment, car t-cell therapy:

Chimera antigen receptor (CAR) T-cell therapy is a newer type of treatment that was tested back in 2010. Essentially, T-cells from a patient are extracted, genetically modified with CAR, and reintroduced into the patient. These modified T-cells are more adept at targeting only cancer cells. In a 2022 study by Melenhorst et al., it was found that two patients suffering from lymphocytic leukaemia entered remission right after treatment and after a decade, still continues to be in remission and even contains detectable CAR T-cells. This study shows that CAR T-cell therapy has it’s merits as being a legitimate treatment.

CAR T-cell Therapy Cycle – Image by Genetic Engineering & Biotechnology News

Side effects of treatment:

Like all types of cancer treatments, there are some side effects associated. In a 2022 New York Times article by Gina Kolata, some side effects include high fevers, comas, and dangerously low blood pressure. However, some of these symptoms were resolved given time.

Overall takeaways:

Recent studies showing the results of CAR T-cell therapy has given it a chance to display the potential of it being a legitimate cancer treatment. Although some nasty side effects are associated with treatment, we cannot deny the positive effects it has shown. However, further research and testing would be crucial in developing this medical knowledge.

– Jimmy Huang

Impact of Background Sound to Our Brain Activities

Posted on February 7, 2022 by zhi ting zhong | 1 comment

While you’re reading this post, may I ask you to take a moment to pay attention to your background sound? Do you think it is noisy? Or do you think it is comfortable? Does it irritate and distract you? Or does it help you to focus more?

https://d2r55xnwy6nx47.cloudfront.net/uploads/2021/02/Brain-Noise_2560_Lede.jpg

Tick Tock…

Now let’s be back and think about it: How does background noise affect our concentration?

First of all, humans interpret sound and process the information through cortex, the outer layer of the most anterior of the brain. When our concentration is disrupted, cortisol – the primary stress hormone – is induced and results increasing of our stress level. Excess cortisol impairs functions in the most front of cortex. Thus, when cortex is affected by noise from the outside environment, our capacity to think clearly and to retain information is compromised.

Notably, when people become sensitive to the triggering sounds such as eating and breathing, they are emotionally affected by these triggering sounds. The phenomenon is called: Misophonia. A British-based research of 20 misophonic people and 22 normal people shows that only misophonic people rated the triggering sounds as highly disturbing while both groups rated other neutral sounds such as baby crying and people screaming as unpleasant sounds. It also led to another finding of the researcher that misophonic people showed much greater physiological signs of stress to the triggering sounds including increased sweat and heart rate.

https://i.guim.co.uk/img/media/e16e33bdce44e28c845484cf9b93efafbdcac570/0_171_5121_3073/master/5121.jpg?width=620&quality=45&auto=format&fit=max&dpr=2&s=1b96aff2315ed8ee9176c6908c50f57b

ASMR Ambience

However, if you’re browsing YouTube often, you’ll notice in recent years, “ASMR” and “ambience” are trending. Such sounds including tapping, writing, raining and fireplace imitation, help many people to relax and fall asleep as well as more concentrated on working and studying.

Why is that?

Let’s start with ASMR’s full term: Autonomous Sensory Meridian Response, from which you could possibly tell based on previous section. It is in fact a response to specific triggering sounds experienced by some people called Brain Tingle: A flow-like mental state, which is shown below in an ASMR map.

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4380153/figure/fig-1/

An experiment was carried out to study to see physiological changes in participants while they were watching two different ASMR videos and one non-ASMR video. Half of the participants were identified as having ASMR experience and the other half did not. The study found that those “who experience ASMR showed significantly greater reductions in their heart rates … on an average decrease of 3.14 beats/min compared to those who do not.” More importantly, there appears “significant increases in positive emotions including relaxation and feelings of social connection”. Although the change only appeared in participants with ASMR experiences, ASMR is proved to be beneficial for both mental and physical health.

Wrap Up and Step Further

Noise has various impact on human’s brain activity. Just like a coin has two sides, the impact could be positive or negative. Even if its positive side cannot be a replacement for medication, its benefits for mental and physical health are therapeutic.

~ By Evelyn Zhong

1 Comment

Posted in Biological Sciences, Outreach Project, Public Engagement, Science Communication

Tagged Ambience, ASMR, brain, Misophonia

From Wolves to Dogs. From Foxes to … Dogs? A Study About domesticated Foxes

Posted on February 7, 2022 by ma darryl | Leave a comment

As a kid, have you ever thought it might be awesome to have a monkey, dog or maybe even a fox as a pet? Or maybe you considered a more fearsome animal, like a lion or tiger, but realized it might be too difficult to domesticate.

In a famous 60 year long (1959-2017) experiment, Russian researchers Lyudmila Trut and Dmitry Belyayev selectively bred silver foxes to view the evolution that occurred to transform wolves into dogs. In essence, the two researchers were trying to selectively breed for tameness in the foxes.

Romeo the wolf with a labrador
Credit: Reddit

how is it possible?

Up until the study, the silver fox had never been domesticated before. To maximize the possibility that tameness was from genetic selection, the foxes were untrained, given minimal exposure to humans and were kept in cages. This tameness trait was evaluated once the pup reached the age of one month. The researcher would approach the fox in its cage while wearing a two-inch-thick glove and place a stick inside its cage.

Reactions were graded on the scale such that the highest score would be given to the calmest subjects. Criteria for some low-scoring foxes included extreme aggression or shrinking at the back of their cages. Those foxes who did not react would receive highscores and go on to breed for the next generation.

An aggressive silver fox pup
Credit: Darya Shepeleva

wait you’re happy to see me?

In the first few generations, the foxes were fairly hostile towards the researchers. Even the calmer foxes in these cohorts were notably not social towards humans. However, around the sixth generation of foxes, some fox pups seemed to seek human contact ‘not only [tail] wagging [but] also whining’. This behaviour was coined to be part of the ‘elites’.

In the sixth generation, only about 2% of the domesticated foxes exhibited this behaviour. Over the generations, the proportion of domesticated silver foxes that were deemed to be part of the ‘elites’ continuously expanded. By the 20th generation, the proportion reached 35%. In 2017, the elites made up 70% of the domesticated foxes.

Lyudmila Trut with a domesticated silver fox
Credit: Wikipedia

Can i have my own pet fox?

Yes, domesticated foxes are still obtainable from Russia. Although the experiment is no longer running, the foxes themselves are still being bred. Assuming you can pay the hefty price (approximately $8000) and it’s legal to own one in your country, it is still possible to have a pet fox.

The researchers were able to mostly domesticate the silver fox given that they had never been domesticated before. Being able to do so only by grading the calmness of the foxes as well makes the experiment even more fascinating. Despite being a very slow process, it creates the question of what other kinds of animals could we possibly domesticate purely based on their ‘tameness’?

-Darryl Ma

Category Archives: Biological Sciences

The Potential Misuse of AI Programs

Rapid Synthesis Using Combinatorial Chemistry

So, Is This Technology Beneficial Or Not?

HIV and its Implications

How HIV is Transmitted

Treatment History

New Injection Treatment

New Treatment Plan

Human Body & Organ Transplant

Genetically Modified Pig Heart Transplant

Why use a genetically modified pig heart?

In Conclusion:

What Exactly is Ergotism?

Beneficial Uses of Ergots

Motivation

What is habitat restoration?

Caribou population declines

Methods to insist caribou population

Solution

Conclusion

Human Body & Organ Transplant

Genetically Modified Pig Heart Transplant

Why use a genetically modified pig heart?

In Conclusion:

What is cancer?

Current treatments for cancer:

A newer type of treatment, car t-cell therapy:

Side effects of treatment:

Overall takeaways:

how is it possible?

wait you’re happy to see me?

Can i have my own pet fox?

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