There are several models of possible radiation effects at different levels. Because the effects with small amounts of radiation are small, it is hard to quantify them, so do small amounts of radiation 1) do nothing 2) cause harm 3) have a positive effect? The jury is out.
Putting radiation exposure in context
Orac: 'Ann Coulter Versus Physics - Guess Who Wins'
Thursday 31 March 2011
31st March 2011 Attitude towards Women in Science
Yet again, evidence to support the attitude that women are inferior to men. 'An Unwanted Consequence' gives an example of someone being compared to his 'sister' whereas they were the same person. The commenter said his work was better than hers, just he had just had a sex change from female to male.
An article I read a while ago explores how negative stereotyping can cause women to under perform.
An article I read a while ago explores how negative stereotyping can cause women to under perform.
31st March 2011 - Aha!
New Insight into "Aha!" Memories
It has been found that the "Aha!" moment is connected with remembering things. When subjects were shown pictures made into inkblots, and then the original, their amygdala lit up in an fMRI scan. The amydala is the part of the brain responsible for emotions. It has been suggested that the brain is evaluating whether to remember the information or not.
Thinking of my own experience with the children, one of them remarked recently at how easily he remembers the names and spelling of footballers' names yet he finds it much harder to remember other things. Could it be an emotional attachment to football that causes him to remember? Is it being fun enough to invoke the forming and laying down of memories?
It has been found that the "Aha!" moment is connected with remembering things. When subjects were shown pictures made into inkblots, and then the original, their amygdala lit up in an fMRI scan. The amydala is the part of the brain responsible for emotions. It has been suggested that the brain is evaluating whether to remember the information or not.
Thinking of my own experience with the children, one of them remarked recently at how easily he remembers the names and spelling of footballers' names yet he finds it much harder to remember other things. Could it be an emotional attachment to football that causes him to remember? Is it being fun enough to invoke the forming and laying down of memories?
Wednesday 30 March 2011
30th March 2011 - Radium
Today I finished reading a series of articles on Radium and the Radium Girls.
Radium was hailed as a wonder element, with radium sweets, tonics and so on being produced. It was found within a couple of years of its discovery that it could be used to shrink cancer tumours. What I'd like to know is how they managed to spot that radiation shrinks tumours, or rather why they would be treating people with it in order to see this.
The Radium Girls were women who worked in a factory painting watch dials with Radium. They suffered horrible disfigurements and ultimately death from radiation poisoning. Radium acts like calcium in the body, and is used by the body in place of calcium. Instead of making bones strong, it shoots them with alpha particles, causing holes so that the bones become brittle and break.
Part 1: The Radium Girls
Part 2: Life in the Undark
Part 3: A Dazzle in the Bones
Radium was hailed as a wonder element, with radium sweets, tonics and so on being produced. It was found within a couple of years of its discovery that it could be used to shrink cancer tumours. What I'd like to know is how they managed to spot that radiation shrinks tumours, or rather why they would be treating people with it in order to see this.
According to the ACS, the discovery of radiation in 1896 by Wilhelm Conrad Roentgen was a huge advancement in cancer therapy. Within months of the discovery, X-rays were being used for diagnosis, and within three years, radiation was used in cancer treatment. According to the ACS, radiation therapy began with radium and low-voltage diagnostic machines. French doctors discovered that daily doses of radiation over several weeks would greatly improve therapy results. In the early 20th century, radium was being used in small tubes for insertion directly into tumors or body cavities containing cancer, which allowed for treatments of inoperable areas, like the cervix and larynx, according to the American Society of Radiation Oncology. [Source: The History of Cancer Therapy]
The Radium Girls were women who worked in a factory painting watch dials with Radium. They suffered horrible disfigurements and ultimately death from radiation poisoning. Radium acts like calcium in the body, and is used by the body in place of calcium. Instead of making bones strong, it shoots them with alpha particles, causing holes so that the bones become brittle and break.
Part 1: The Radium Girls
Part 2: Life in the Undark
Part 3: A Dazzle in the Bones
30th March 2011 Evolution
Coyne in Maryland - Table of those accepting evolution by country showing the USA as 33rd out of 34.
'Why Evolution Is True' by Jerry Coyne, AAI 2009 -
How can the prostate gland make sense from an intelligent design point of view? It's an organ prone to swelling around a collapsible pipe.
It shows various trees of evolution such as how the whale's ancestors lived on land.
Why teach evolution? - Along with the evolution acceptance table, there are several statistics about the American population's knowledge of science.
1 in 5 think the earth is the centre of the solar system.
54% think electrons are larger than atoms
63% can't name the planet nearest the sun.
60% know Superman's home planet.
58% can't work out a 10% tip.
Half of Americans polled didn't know how long it takes the earth to revolve around the sun. [Source]
'Why Evolution Is True' by Jerry Coyne, AAI 2009 -
How can the prostate gland make sense from an intelligent design point of view? It's an organ prone to swelling around a collapsible pipe.
It shows various trees of evolution such as how the whale's ancestors lived on land.
Why teach evolution? - Along with the evolution acceptance table, there are several statistics about the American population's knowledge of science.
1 in 5 think the earth is the centre of the solar system.
54% think electrons are larger than atoms
63% can't name the planet nearest the sun.
60% know Superman's home planet.
58% can't work out a 10% tip.
Half of Americans polled didn't know how long it takes the earth to revolve around the sun. [Source]
Tuesday 29 March 2011
29th March 2011 Stromatolite
Rocks called stromatolite were formed, and indeed still are in Australia, when biofilm trapped bits of sediment. They have rings almost like wood. More information and some photos can be found at Greg Laden's blog.
29th March 2011 Diabetes
I watched a couple of videos today on glucose, insulin and diabetes.
The first video explains briefly how glucose is used in the body, and insulin's part in this.
The second explains where insulin is produced and how type I and type II diabetes differ.
The first video explains briefly how glucose is used in the body, and insulin's part in this.
The second explains where insulin is produced and how type I and type II diabetes differ.
29th March 2011 Sleep in Children & Teenagers
Research has shown that many children and teenagers are not getting sufficient sleep. Rather than the 8 hours usually mentioned, teenagers need 9-9 1/4 hours and younger children need 10-12.
The blue light of screens may prevent the body from producing sufficient melatonin at bedtime making it harder to fall asleep.
A recently discovered consequence of lack of sleep is that it disrupts the metabolic processes of the body leading to an increased risk of obesity. We get hungrier, eat more of higher calorie foods and may also exercise less because we're too tired.
Source: http://www.chicagotribune.com/health/ct-health-chat-teen-sleeping-habits,0,4228133.htmlstory
The blue light of screens may prevent the body from producing sufficient melatonin at bedtime making it harder to fall asleep.
A recently discovered consequence of lack of sleep is that it disrupts the metabolic processes of the body leading to an increased risk of obesity. We get hungrier, eat more of higher calorie foods and may also exercise less because we're too tired.
Source: http://www.chicagotribune.com/health/ct-health-chat-teen-sleeping-habits,0,4228133.htmlstory
29th March 2011 - Kepler's Planets
Yesterday, I read a post on the SETI blog at scienceblogs explaining about the NASA's Kepler project which searches for new planets. They take an image of a star and then detect tiny changes in the light produced. Reductions potentially indicate planets. To confirm their sightings, they need to detect the reduction again which may take years as the planet orbits the star. They can work out the time it takes the planet to orbit, and distance from, the star and its size and mass.
An incredible image showing all the potential planets to date can be found here.
An incredible image showing all the potential planets to date can be found here.
28th March 2011 - Flat Solar Systems
Planets orbit around their sun in the same plane (give or take). Why is this?
From the SETI blog at scienceblogs:
From the SETI blog at scienceblogs:
"These very flat systems are fully consistent with our classic model of how planetary systems form. A protoplanetary disc, basically a disc of dust and gas, collapses and becomes flatter and flatter and spins faster and faster. The innermost part of that disc collapses gravitationally to form the central star, or the sun. Fragments then clump together in the outer part and those fragments stick together and collide and stick to grow and create the planets."
28th March 2011 Dogs
Bears walk with their feet flat on the floor, whereas dogs have evolved so that the construction of their feet is such that they run on their toes. This means that dogs can run long distances because of the extra spring given by their feet. [Caniform Carnivore Cladogram Construction]
28th March 2011 - Toggling Silicon Switches
I watched a Sixty Symbols video on Toggling Switches at the atomic level. I found it incredible and exciting, although I'm not sure why, that they have discovered how to manipulate the angle of bonds between two silicon atoms, just like flipping a switch. This switch changes the way the electrons flow. A longer version can be found on youtube.
28th March 2011 - Experts & Spotting Quackery
Today, I listened to a TEDtalk by Noreena Hertz called How to Use Experts and When Not to which was about keeping our intelligence switched on when listening to experts. MRI scans have shown that the decision making parts of the brain switch off when we listen to experts. Surely we should always weigh what people tell us and ask questions. It might be uncomfortable to hear that there is uncertainty, but isn't that better than blindly swaying in the wind as one expert tells us one thing, and then another something else?
We're bombarded with information about the newest bestest thing we're ever going to come across, but what are some of the signs that it is too good to be true? These are taken from the In the Pipeline blog.
We're bombarded with information about the newest bestest thing we're ever going to come across, but what are some of the signs that it is too good to be true? These are taken from the In the Pipeline blog.
- Boost your immune system - Do we really want an overactive immune system?
- Detoxifying - Remove the toxins and we'll all be healthy?
- Energy - This could be anywhere from 'gives you more energy' to mystical forces.
- Ancient Wisdom - We used to do it so it must be good! Err, we used to do all sorts of silly stuff so how does that make it right?
- Location - As with Ancient Wisdom, why would it being from somewhere else inspire confidence?
- Conspiracy - X doesn't want you to know about this but I'm going to tell you if you pay me lots of money
- Simplicity - Just a spoonful of vinegar and you'll lose loads of weight. Why? How?
- Lack of Humility - Absolutely 100% works, no side-effects listed, never need anything else.
27th March 2011 - Statistics
Statistics are often presented in a very boring and dry way. Not so with Professor Hans Rosling. He presents information in a very visual way such as in this TEDtalk: Hans Rosling shows the best stats you've ever seen.
You can play with the statistics, and many others at this site: http://www.gapminder.org/.
You can play with the statistics, and many others at this site: http://www.gapminder.org/.
27th March 2011 - Earthworms & Spiders
Worms - David Attenborough’s Life Stories from 25th March 2011 was about earthworms. Unfortunately, I don't have a permanent link to this podcast but there is some information available on youtube.
In Australia, there are giant earthworms, as thick as a thumb and 6ft long, although the longest is claimed to have been 13ft long! However, they are extendable and breakable and thus difficult to measure accurately.
Earthworms are found on all continents except Antarctica where the frozen ground is too hard.
There are 200 species in Europe but Britain only has 26 species since all its native species were killed off in the Ice Age and only a few made it back before Britain and Continental Europe were separated. Although there are relatively few species in Britain, the ones we have are prolific and there can be as many as 50,000 worms in an acre.
At night, worms nibble on leaves and drag them back into their tunnels. When they find a leaf, they grip it with their mouth and drag it home. They grip pine needles by the lower end, but most they grip by the stalk. To test the intelligence of worms, Darwin did an experiment with triangles of paper. The worms almost always pulled the triangle by the sharpest point having crawled all over it first, which does indeed show they are intelligent.
Worms can produce both eggs and sperm. The yellow band around their bodies is necessary for their reproduction. When two worms get together, they produce lots of slime covering both. They exchange sperm which they each keep in a pouch. After a few days, the band produces more slime which hardens into a ring. The ring travels up the body, collecting the other worm's sperm, takes it to the eggs, fertilises them and then takes them off the worm to form a capsule of fertilised eggs. It is unknown whether the large Australia worms reproduce in the same manner, although their egg capsules have been found as can be seen in the video linked above.
Spiders - Spiders encasing trees with webs has the advantage to us of capturing lots of mosquitoes! In Pakistan, after flooding, the spiders were unable to make webs on grass and low lying bushes so thousands made for the trees. Even with all the lying water, there were few mosquito bites as they got caught in the webs in the trees.
In Australia, there are giant earthworms, as thick as a thumb and 6ft long, although the longest is claimed to have been 13ft long! However, they are extendable and breakable and thus difficult to measure accurately.
Earthworms are found on all continents except Antarctica where the frozen ground is too hard.
There are 200 species in Europe but Britain only has 26 species since all its native species were killed off in the Ice Age and only a few made it back before Britain and Continental Europe were separated. Although there are relatively few species in Britain, the ones we have are prolific and there can be as many as 50,000 worms in an acre.
At night, worms nibble on leaves and drag them back into their tunnels. When they find a leaf, they grip it with their mouth and drag it home. They grip pine needles by the lower end, but most they grip by the stalk. To test the intelligence of worms, Darwin did an experiment with triangles of paper. The worms almost always pulled the triangle by the sharpest point having crawled all over it first, which does indeed show they are intelligent.
Worms can produce both eggs and sperm. The yellow band around their bodies is necessary for their reproduction. When two worms get together, they produce lots of slime covering both. They exchange sperm which they each keep in a pouch. After a few days, the band produces more slime which hardens into a ring. The ring travels up the body, collecting the other worm's sperm, takes it to the eggs, fertilises them and then takes them off the worm to form a capsule of fertilised eggs. It is unknown whether the large Australia worms reproduce in the same manner, although their egg capsules have been found as can be seen in the video linked above.
Spiders - Spiders encasing trees with webs has the advantage to us of capturing lots of mosquitoes! In Pakistan, after flooding, the spiders were unable to make webs on grass and low lying bushes so thousands made for the trees. Even with all the lying water, there were few mosquito bites as they got caught in the webs in the trees.
27th-28th March 2011 - Radiation levels & Acceleration of Particles by a Supernova &
Radiation Levels - According to a University of Oxford nuclear and medical physicist, a reasonably safe level of radiation limit per month is more like 100 mSv per month, with a lifelong limit of 5,000 mSv, than the quite low limit 1 mSv per year. Cancer patients' healthy tissue near the site of the cancer receive a far higher dose than this and their healthy tissue recovers, given time.
Radiation is given to cancer tumours in small doses so that the surrounding cells have a chance to recover. 'The basis of this effect is that tumor cells are generally defective in DNA repair and cannot repair damage from radiation to their DNA as efficiently as normal cells.' [Orac's Blog]
Acceleration of Particles by a Supernova - Stripes have been detected in the Tycho's Supernova remnant. These stripes may provide the first direct evidence that supernova remnants can accelerate particles to energies a hundred times higher than those achieved by the most powerful particle accelerator on Earth, the Large Hadron Collider.
Radiation is given to cancer tumours in small doses so that the surrounding cells have a chance to recover. 'The basis of this effect is that tumor cells are generally defective in DNA repair and cannot repair damage from radiation to their DNA as efficiently as normal cells.' [Orac's Blog]
Acceleration of Particles by a Supernova - Stripes have been detected in the Tycho's Supernova remnant. These stripes may provide the first direct evidence that supernova remnants can accelerate particles to energies a hundred times higher than those achieved by the most powerful particle accelerator on Earth, the Large Hadron Collider.
26nd March 2011 - Alpha Beta Gamma Paper & Neutrinos
Alpha Beta Gamma Paper (1948) - In the first 3 minutes after the Big Bang, protons and neutrons bumped into each other they stuck together. There were about 7 protons to each neutron. When 1 neutron and 1 proton stuck together they formed the nucleus of a Deuterium atom. It was too hot for the electrons to stick to make it an atom. If two of these Deuterium atoms stuck together, they formed an alpha particle, the nucleus of a Helium-4 atom.
By 17 minutes, all of the neutrons had bound themselves into Helium nucleii.
Not much happened until about 350k years when the electrons had cooled enough to join the nucleii to form Helium atoms. Alpher came up with the idea that 75% of the universe is made of hydrogen, and 25% of Helium, by weight. This is correct for interstellar space. It is supporting evidence for the Big Bang Theory.
The other, heavier elements are made in the centre of stars.
Neutrinos - They have very little mass, if any, no electrical charge and they pass through pretty much everything. It's been calculated that it would take 4 light years of lead to stop them! They are abundant. They are produced in the sun in fusion. It starts with four Hydrogen nucleii which are basically protons. They want to form a Helium so two protons get converted to two neutrons. When this happens, a positron and a neutrino are emitted. The neutrino shoots out of the sun and heads towards us.
Neutrinos are good candidates for dark matter.
There are 50 x 10^12 neutrinos passing through our bodies every second.
There are three types of neutrinos, electron, muon and tau These types are called flavours. Neutrinos can change flavour which means they must have mass.
They were originally detected deep underground in carbon tetrachloride. Sometimes they bump into a chlorine atom and transmute that chlorine atom into an argon atom. You've then got to find that argon atom. Talk about a needle in a haystack!
Nowadays, heavy water is used and the neutrinos are detected as light. The reason it's deep underground is because cosmic rays will also produce the light reaction.
26nd March 2011 - Weaver Ants, Probability, Vacuum Cleaners, Snow, E=mc2 & Brussel Sprouts
Today was quite a productive day, so I've split the information into two posts.
Weaver Ants - There are several different types of ants which fall into this functional category. They connect living leaves together with larval silk. In the tropics, they provide a cool, protective area. When disturbed, guards rush out and squirt formic acid at the disturber. [Myrmecos Blog]
Probability - - Geometric distribution in trying to win something from buying coffee in Canada with probability 1/6. The expected time to win after your first failure is the same as it was before the first failure since the coffee cup does not 'remember' you failed the first time.[Andrew Eckford: The Blog]
Pressure & Vacuums - Dust is pushed into a vacuum cleaner by atmospheric pressure rather than sucked in. [Sixty Symbols]
Snow - Writing on snow can be achieved by pummeling it with ions. When snow hits the ground, it gets broken so there are no pristine crystals.[Sixty Symbols]
E=mc2 - The formula, E=mc2 is only correct when the particle is at rest. If the particle is moving, then it should be E2 = m2c4 + p2c2 where m is the mass, c is the speed of light and p is the momentum. This means that you can get negative energy which is an antiparticle, the positron.
If you measure the mass of the components of an atom, and then put those components together, the mass drops due to the binding energy. [Sixty Symbols]
Brussel Sprouts - Brussel sprouts can cause the same orange skin colour that carrots can due to their high carotene content.[Vital Signs: Why Is He Limping?]
Weaver Ants - There are several different types of ants which fall into this functional category. They connect living leaves together with larval silk. In the tropics, they provide a cool, protective area. When disturbed, guards rush out and squirt formic acid at the disturber. [Myrmecos Blog]
Probability - - Geometric distribution in trying to win something from buying coffee in Canada with probability 1/6. The expected time to win after your first failure is the same as it was before the first failure since the coffee cup does not 'remember' you failed the first time.[Andrew Eckford: The Blog]
Pressure & Vacuums - Dust is pushed into a vacuum cleaner by atmospheric pressure rather than sucked in. [Sixty Symbols]
Snow - Writing on snow can be achieved by pummeling it with ions. When snow hits the ground, it gets broken so there are no pristine crystals.[Sixty Symbols]
E=mc2 - The formula, E=mc2 is only correct when the particle is at rest. If the particle is moving, then it should be E2 = m2c4 + p2c2 where m is the mass, c is the speed of light and p is the momentum. This means that you can get negative energy which is an antiparticle, the positron.
If you measure the mass of the components of an atom, and then put those components together, the mass drops due to the binding energy. [Sixty Symbols]
Brussel Sprouts - Brussel sprouts can cause the same orange skin colour that carrots can due to their high carotene content.[Vital Signs: Why Is He Limping?]
25th-26th March 2011 - Hydrogen & Dark Matter
Well, today's topic on the Starts with a Bang blog is "How Hydrogen Teaches Us the Temperature of Dark Matter!" I found this one a real struggle to understand but I'm very glad I took the time, with a couple of friends, to fight my way through it. There are a few points I'm not really clear of yet, but I'm getting there.
When hydrogen's electron jumps from a high energy state to a low energy state, it emits that energy, and when they do that, they emit radiation.
The light from distant galaxies is absorbed by hydrogen clouds it passes through, and because of red shift these absorptions are detected as different wavelengths. Light from distant sources shows many more absorption lines as it passes through more clouds. [Starts with a Bang Blog]
Hydrogen tells us dark matter is cold because if it were hot, it would be moving too quickly to 'stick together'.
I also watched a talk by Lawrence Krauss, which helped me to understand the above blog, as well as introducing the following ideas.
The curvature of space is measured using a very large triangle and calculating the sum of its angles.
1% of the interference on the TV after transmission ended was due to cosmic radiation.
The universe is flat, since the lumps given by cosmic radiation are 'just the right size'. This means that 70% of the energy of the universe resides in empty space and noone knows why. This amount is consistent with the universe speeding up and it's consistent with the amount 'missing' when we 'weigh' the universe to make it flat.
In 100 billion years, there will be nothing left to look at in the universe because it will be moving away faster than the speed of light, so scientists would come to very different conclusions. What conclusions would we have come to if we'd been around a few billion years earlier?
When hydrogen's electron jumps from a high energy state to a low energy state, it emits that energy, and when they do that, they emit radiation.
- If the electron jump down to the first energy level, it emits ultraviolet light and belongs to the Lyman series.
- If it jumps down to the second energy level, it emits (mostly) visible light and belong to the Balmer series.
- If it jumps down to the third, it gives off infrared light and belong to the Paschen series.
The light from distant galaxies is absorbed by hydrogen clouds it passes through, and because of red shift these absorptions are detected as different wavelengths. Light from distant sources shows many more absorption lines as it passes through more clouds. [Starts with a Bang Blog]
Hydrogen tells us dark matter is cold because if it were hot, it would be moving too quickly to 'stick together'.
"It tells us that dark matter can be WIMPs (like from supersymmetry), because they're too massive to move quickly, or they can be particles that are born cold, like axions or (some) sterile neutrinos, because they started off moving slowly. But they can't be regular neutrinos or hot sterile neutrinos, among others, because this small-scale structure -- and hence the hydrogen lines that we see -- would get washed out at early times!"
I also watched a talk by Lawrence Krauss, which helped me to understand the above blog, as well as introducing the following ideas.
The curvature of space is measured using a very large triangle and calculating the sum of its angles.
1% of the interference on the TV after transmission ended was due to cosmic radiation.
The universe is flat, since the lumps given by cosmic radiation are 'just the right size'. This means that 70% of the energy of the universe resides in empty space and noone knows why. This amount is consistent with the universe speeding up and it's consistent with the amount 'missing' when we 'weigh' the universe to make it flat.
In 100 billion years, there will be nothing left to look at in the universe because it will be moving away faster than the speed of light, so scientists would come to very different conclusions. What conclusions would we have come to if we'd been around a few billion years earlier?
24th March 2011 - Human Exoskeletons & Motivation
- Human Exoskeletons - TED talk of the day. Yesterday I was wondering about replacement arms and today I see this which gives hope to those who can not walk. It is an exoskeleton which for the military, allows people to carry 200lb over long distances. It has extra 'legs' attached to the person's legs to take the load, but it does not limit movement. There is also, more exciting to me, an exoskeleton, which is just put on externally allowing someone to walk. They show a lady who is paralysed from the pelvis down using this to walk. I wonder how much movement is necessary to be able to use this.[TEDtalk] [Longer TEDtalk on eLEGS]
- Motivation - What motivates us to do well at creative tasks? Money? Nope, mastering things and choosing what we do ourselves. Research has shown that larger financial rewards lead to weaker performances when creativity and ideas are required. It seems that so long as money isn't an issue, people work better when the motivation is intrinsic. Different parts of the brain are responsible for external and internal motivations and their effects on our behaviour are very different.[Animated presentation on money & motivation]
Update: New Scientist
But the work of Deci and others suggests the problem with bonuses runs far deeper than poor scheme design or cheating. In 1971, he asked students to solve puzzles, with some receiving cash prizes for doing well and others getting nothing. Deci found those offered cash were less likely to keep working on puzzles after they had done enough to get paid.
Two years later, a team led by Mark Lepper of Stanford University, California, asked children aged between 3 and 5 years old to draw with felt-tip pens. Some were told they would receive a special ribbon as a prize for doing so, and duly received it. These children were less likely to choose to draw with felt-tip pens when they were later given a free choice of activities. No such effect was seen with children who were not offered a reward, whether they subsequently received an unexpected one or not (Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, vol 28, p 129).
These studies suggest that offering rewards can stop people doing things for the sheer joy of it, an idea known as the overjustification effect. This was the basis for a series of books by Kohn in which he argues that rewarding children, students and workers with grades, incentives and other "bribes" leads to inferior work in the long run.
Those who believe in the power of bonuses fail to distinguish between intrinsic and extrinsic motivation - wanting to do something because you like it in its own right versus doing something because you want the reward, Kohn says. "It's not just that these two are different, it's that they are often inversely related. The more you reward people for doing something, the more their intrinsic motivation tends to decline."
A "do this and get that" approach might improve performance in the short term, but over longer periods it will always fail, Kohn says, as it turns play into work and work into drudgery. Bonus recipients inevitably play safe, become less creative, collaborate less and feel less valued, he adds.
23rd March 2011 Blood Recycling, Worrying & Bioengineering
I've been listening to Medical Matters podcasts from last year.
- Blood Recycling - Instead of blood transfusions, a hospital in Wales is using blood collected from the bleeding from the patient. This blood is cleaned and then put back into the body. Only if the red blood cell count drops below a certain amount is other blood them brought in. Because the blood is taken from an open wound, there is the chance of bacteria being collected with the blood, but the amounts in the cleaned blood are small and the body is able to deal with them. Patients tested the day after the operation show no trace of these bacteria in their blood.[MedMatters: Case Notes Blood Transfusion Consent 21 Sep 10]
- Worrying - The advice about trying not to worry seems to be a bad idea since trying not to worry just makes it worse, and trying to stop doesn't work except when using drugs and alcohol. What we should be doing, according to some Dutch research by Ad Kirkhof, is to actively worry about things in a pre-determined way, setting aside time to worry. If waking up in the night, try to change your thinking to something positive and 'worry' about that and repeat it over and over. You're still worrying but it's positive. [MedMatters: All In The Mind: 09 Nov 10, 20:30 minutes onwards] He has a book on using CBT to combat worry. ["Stop Worrying: Get your life back on track with CBT"]
- Bioengineering - The TED talk for today was about bioengineering. For years, we've had crossbreeds through selective breeding, but the scope is wider through genetics. Now there is genetic manipulation to make glow in the dark mice, cats, dogs, monkeys and fish. You can even buy these fish in some places in the USA. If they can do it for monkeys then probably for humans too? The most exciting part I found was of a monkey whose brain waves were connected to an arm in another room. The monkey noticed that when her arm moved, the other arm moved. After a while she stopped moving her arm and just moved the artificial one in the other room, making her the first primate to have 3 independently functioning arms. So when is this going to be used to replace missing limbs in humans, or is it already? [TEDtalk]
22nd March 2011- Autism, Bonobo, Salmonella, Bats, Octopuses, Exercise & Weight Loss
It felt like I was not going to find anything of interest today as I was quite busy but then some interesting bits and pieces showed up.
- Autism - Paul Offit, a vaccine expert, made the following comment concerning autism in a webchat: "I work in a hospital with David Mandell, Hakon Hakanarson, and Bob Schultz, all excellent researchers in the field of autism. And the story of the cause or causes of the disorder is clearly emerging. There's been a lot of wonderful research in this area that involves specific genes, the proteins those genes make, when they make them, structural abnormalities in the brains of children with ASD and others that offers some real hope for the future. I look forward to the time when these stories are the main story, rather than the unfortunate focus on a dead-end hypothesis like vaccines. That discussion has only hurt children with autism, causing some to miss vaccines from which they would have benefited." [1] This is definitely something I want to read more about.
- Bonobo - These apes have a matriachal structure which leads to a highly tolerant society where no fatal violence has been observed as yet. Unfortunately they live in the Congo jungle and so they are hard to study as it's the scene of violent conflict which also endangers their survival. These apes play throughout their lives, learning trust, bonding and building tolerance. They are known as the "make love not war" apes. They show play as an adaptive wild card. As for us, play is not frivolous, but essentual. [2]
- Salmonella Hijacks Macrophages - Salmonella replicates inside macrophages, the cells usually used to destroy bacteria and viruses in the body. When the Salmonella is engulfed by a macrophage, the macrophage encloses it in a 'phagosome.' Within a phagsome the environment is make inhospitable (acidic) with the purpose that everything will be destroyed. However, with Salmonella, the Salmonella stops the environment from getting too nasty and makes itself comfortable, replicating wildly. There are various triggers which start to make the environment inhospitable. If two of these are knocked out, as you might expect, the immune response isn't so good. If, however, all these triggers are knocked out, the salmonella doesn't replicate as it seems that it requires the acidity in order to 'know' it's in the right place to replicate. [3]
- Bats - The lesser bulldog bat uses recently caught insects to fuel its flying which has been measured by a breath test which detects exhaled carbon-13. This is surprising because insects, consisting of mainly proteins and fats, do not form an easy energy source. Resting, fasted bats burn mainly stored fat for energy. [4]
- Octopuses - Octopuses have a central nervous system with a peripheral nervous system in their arms. How are the arms controlled? The octopus does not appear to have the exceptional computing mechanism required to control the arms so they seem to function autonomously. It appears that octopuses can learn to use visual information from the central nervous system to control the peripheral arms by watching what they are doing. [5, 6]
UPDATE: Cephalove: The octopus, the maze, and why it matters: behavioral flexibility and sensory-motor integration
- Exercise & Weight Loss - Hypotesis: "Thus, I would predict that people in whom overeating is driven by stress, depression, poor self-esteem, or unrestorative sleep, will lose weight when they take up exercising - not because they are burning calories, but because they are eating less." [7] I'll be interested to see any research that looks into this especially as the hypothesis fits in with my own experience.
21st March 2011 - Sleep, Crocodiles, Washing Machines and Anger
The first few posts were written at facebook but I've decided to move them here.
Some bits and pieces I read today. Some I'd seen before but not in so much detail.
Some bits and pieces I read today. Some I'd seen before but not in so much detail.
- Sleep -Taking an afternoon nap helps us to filter out negative emotions. [1] Makes sense and a good excuse for a nap! Funny to read this today having listened to a short TED talk [2] yesterday about how important sleep is whereas in today's society people brag about lack of sleep.
- Crocodiles - Since a crocodile has no sex chromosones, the sex of crocodiles is determined by the temperature at which their egg is incubated. The eggs are incubated in rotting material. [comment #23 3] This reminds me of gardeners using rotting manure to produce a heated bed for plants early in the year.[4] Although it's hard in the lab to produce a batch of just male crocodiles at a constant temperature, this is achievable for alligators. [5] Crocodiles chirp at each other from inside the eggs which enables them to coordinate hatching and call mother to dig them out.
- Washing Machines - I watched a new TED talk on washing machines [6] where Hans Rosling shares some personal stories about how a washing machine changed his family's life. Only about 2/7 of the world population has access to a washing machine. Imagine how much time it would take if you had to wash all your clothes by hand, and how little time you'd have for other things. What difference would it make if everyone had access to a washing machine? What would they be able to spend that extra time on?
- Anger - When we are angry, we want to fight against something so we are more likely to pick articles which counter our point of view and thus we gain the other side of the story making it easier for us to make more rational decisions. I wonder if this is limited by the level of our anger.[7] On reading the research paper, and not just the sumamry, there are references to other negative moods such as sadness leading to us wanting to only read things which confirm our viewpoint. [8] Not only do people when angry choose information contrary to their position, but they also pay attention to it to the extent that, in the study, some changed their opinions.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)