Authentic Science Research 2013-2014

Type 2 diabetes is typically likened to obesity. This article showed how exercise (without a change in diet) may prove to be a big help to people with type 2 diabetes. In order to test this idea researchers took 12 adults with type 2 diabetes and gave them MRI body scans. Those scans revealed that all 12 subjects had substantial amounts of fat buildup around organs such as the heart, liver, etc. The next step researchers took was to have all 12 subjects exercise for 3.5-6 hours a week for 6 months as well as take a hiking trip which was then followed by another MRI. The results showed that there was a 37% reduction in fat levels around the heart, and fat around the liver had decreased too. These results lead to the conclusion that exercise can have a significant impact on people with type 2 diabetes.

There are two types of strokes. One is caused by a hemorrhage, and the other is caused by a clot. When someone has a stroke it is crucial to get immediate medical attention, but doctors lose a lot of time waiting for the results of MRIs or CAT scans in order to conclude if a stroke was caused by a hemorrhage or clot. So, researchers in Sweden have developed a super helmet of sorts that can judge whether a stroke was caused by a clot or hemorrhage. The helmet works by sending low-intensity frequencies through the head; then, the helmet senses how the waves scatter. If there is a hemorrhage the helmet will pick up how the waves reflect off of the pooling blood and display it on an attached computer. This innovative helmet will help EMTs determine what kind of stroke a patient is having which will increase the efficiency in which a stroke victim is treated. Helmet trials are scheduled to begin this fall.

This article talked about an experiment where scientists exposed mice to UV light equivalent to a fair skinned person soaking up 30 minutes of sunlight. Even though mice are known to be furry creatures of the night; after a week of exposure to UV light the mice began to produce the "feel-good" hormone opiod-Beta- endorphin, and the mice also began to act like addicts. So, the next step of the experiment was to take away the UV light exposure. When the scientists did so, the mice began to show common signs of withdrawal (shaky hands/paws, chattering teeth etc.). From such data scientists concluded that UV rays did have some sort of addictive affect on the mice. The author then concluded this article by wondering if the same effect can be found in humans.

This article talked about how Dengue fever is prevalent in the tropic countries, but in the last few years a few (2-3) cases have shown up in the Texas/Mexican border as well as in Florida. Dengue fever is called the bone breaking fever due to the immense pain it causes. The CDC has put Dengue fever on its' watch list in order to prevent a dengue epidemic in America.

The conventional idea regarding the brain is that each sense (vision, hearing, touch, taste, and smell) has a designated area in the brain. This was the idea at first, but this article shows that the visual cortex may be doing double duty. Not only is the visual cortex processing vision, but it's also playing a part in processing sound. This breakthrough was discovered when scientists ran an experiment; in the experiment subjects were blindfolded and played three different sounds. When the scientists analyzed each subject's brain in reaction to each sounds they discovered that they could tell what each subject was listening to just by looking at the visual cortex. Thusly proving that the visual cortex actually has a correlation to one's sense of hearing. Furthermore, scientists have also made the assumption that the visual cortex's diversion to the auditory region is due to evolution and will help one survive.

Rather than talking about cool organs this article was more about the topic of "cool kids." This article talked about how the "shelf life" for the popular kids rarely makes it past 20s. In a study in the Journal of Child's Development sociologists followed little kids from various ethnicities and locations until they were adults. Sociologists found that children that were dubbed "cool" were developed this fake maturity because they were typically the ones that went to parties or dated at an earlier age, but as the kids began to get older the other children developed real maturity, so the "cool kids" typically began to involve themselves in riskier behavior in order to maintain their "cool" status, but eventually the risky business turned to alcohol/drug abuse. So, eventually the "cool kids" are no longer cool they are law breakers. Finally, leading sociologists to believe cool kids can't stay cool forever.

As the title suggests, this article discussed how music can affect the choices someone makes. This idea came from an experiment where a group of people listened to music similar to the beginning of the Simpson's theme song (a triton) which is where the notes are spread out and longer. The other group of people listened to music similar to twinkle twinkle (a set of fifths) which is when the notes are consecutive and shorter. After both groups listened to their selected music they were asked to take a grocery list and divide the items on the list into groups. The results showed that the group that listed to the triton music made more inclusive or broader groups whereas the group of people that listened to the fifths were more detailed and had less inclusive groups. After discussing the initial experiment the paper moved on to talk about a new/ developing theory in the field of psychology called construal level theory. This theory states that there is a direct link between how far things are and how people interpret them. Then what scientist have done is make a correlation between the construal level theory and the initial experiment discussed in the passage. Scientists say certain types of music certainly do evoke certain emotions; so, the same can be said for how echoing tones can cause one to interpret things broadly whereas consistent tones can cause one to interpret things more specifically.

In the article "Super Cooled Organs Could Stretch Time To Transplant" the author discusses how scientists have started an experiment to stretch out the shelf life of a harvested organ. The experiment was performed on rats, and in order to perform the experiment the scientists first harvested organs and essentially froze them, then the organs were sprayed with a variety of chemicals to keep the organ from developing ice crystals as well as to keep the organ functional. Then, after 3-4 days the organs were "defrosted" and transplanted to rats. The result was that that rats that received 3 day old organs (livers) lived for about 3 months and rats who received 4 day old livers had a 60% survival rate; whereas, rats who were given 3/4 day old livers preserved by modern day techniques all died. Which shows that the organ freezing method could potentially advance the duration for which an organ can be kept functional after being removed from a body which could drastically change the field of organ transplants.

This article didn't necessary discuss what caused Lyme disease, but rather it talked about how the modern Lyme disease test is inefficient in determining whether a patient truly has Lyme disease. See, the concept is that the Lyme disease is caused by the bacterium Borrelia burgdorferi. So, natuarally the Lyme disease test is designed to only look for said bacterium, but the problem is that in Europe Lyme disease is commonly caused by the bacterium Borrelia garinii which means that if one were to contract Lyme disease from the bacterium Borrelia garinii and get tested for Lyme disease in America they would get a negative result despite actually having the disease. European screening for Lyme disease is called the c-6 based ELISA test and it can detect approximetly 18 different species of Borrelia, but the CDC reports that this test isn't used in America, and this neglect can prove detrimental for many who have Lyme disease. As a result of America's dreadful Lyme disease test many companies have developed their own tests, but none of those have shown to be any more reliable than the one recommended by the CDC. Thusly showing that America should improve its Lyme disease test.

This article introduces an interesting notion, that in order to gauge time one must be aware of space.. After initially introducing the concept the author then describes a disease called left hemispatial neglect, which is when one is not able to remember the left half of something. The author cites how researchers then proceeded to test how people with left hemispatial neglect perceive time. The premise of the experiment is that in languages that write from left to right people visualize the past as being on the left of a timeline and the future on the right. So, in order to test the theory researchers had three groups of people one group spoke French and had left hemispatial neglect, the second group was composed of people who had had strokes but didn't have left hemi-spatial neglect, and the third group was composed of normal healthy people. In the experiment all three groups were given facts about a 40 year old man. Some of the facts were from 10 years ago when the man was 30 and some facts were from the future when the man would be 50. After each group was given this information they were quizzed on whether certain facts were from the past or the future, and the results showed that the group of people with left hemispatial neglect did worse than the other groups when remembering facts from 10 years ago (meaning the left side). Which lead researchers to the conclusion that time and space indeed are related.

A new study using specially-calibrated lasers was conducted to test the acuity for pain. Some areas of the body are more sensitive to pain than others. The study found that the spatial acuity was strongest towards the center of the body, and acuity for pain and touch are fairly similar. They both correspond with the amount of nerve fibers in each section of the body, except in the case of the fingertips. 

Researchers have created an assay that can analyze nucleotide sugar transporter functions in plants and characterize them. This assay can provide information that is very beneficial to the genetic engineering of plants. The information learned from the assay has already been used to change plants' biomass sugar composition. This sugar can be a very effective source of energy. The more sugar content the cell walls have, the more energy the plant will be able to provide. 

Researchers have recently discovered that hydroxynorketamine (HNK) may be just as effective in treating depression as ketamine. Studies using rats showed that the drug maybe more useful than ketamine, due to the fact  that it does not act as an anesthetic agent. and it is a lot stronger. HNK could also be used in neurodegenerative disorders because it slows D-serine production, which allows neuron connections to reform. 

Children who are abused are more likely to develop serious health problems later down the line. New research has shown that maltreated children have certain changes to their glucocorticoid receptor gene which controls social functioning. The changes in this gene also impact the hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal axis, causing difficulties controlling emotional behavior and stress levels. The immune system is also affected by this gene. This explains why abused children are more likely to develop certain illnesses as well as emotional problems. 

MIT has been able to create a robot muscle that can go between rigid and squishy states. The wires that can control the heat of the foam and wax in the material of the robot muscle allow it to go from one state to another. This robot muscle can be very useful in shape-shifting robots. 

Scientists have now discovered a way to edit genes in wild populations. The scientists would make an edited version of the organism's gene and insert the CRISPR system, a technology that can cut any given gene. So when it came time for this organism with the edited gene to to mate with others with the normal version of the gene, the offspring would inherit both the edited and normal version of the gene, but the CRISPR system would cut the normal copy of the gene. The cell will then copy the edited version of the gene to fix the damage. Therefore, the offspring would have 2 copies of the edited version of the gene. CRISPR gene drives can be beneficial to people and the environment, but it has its limitations. It will not be used immediately to see what the public has to say about this type of management. 

Lung cancer is able to metastasize quickly. Many lung cancer patients are missing an anti-cancer gene called LKB1. It was recently discovered that LKB1 is important because it sends instructions to a gene called DIXDC1, which keeps the cells in their place. The cancer either deletes LKB1 or takes control of DIXDC1. Scientists also found out that they were able to slow the spread of the cancer by reactivating DIXDC1. This means that patients missing either of these two genes would gain better results from newer therapies which focus on focal adhesion enzymes. 

Materialists scientists have said that DNA stores all the information needed to create a human body. However, the Human Genome Project shows otherwise. The scientists working in the project found that humans have about 20,000 protein-coding genes. That is no where near enough storage to hold all the information needed to make a human being because people are so complex. This shows that genes alone can not fully explain inheritance. 

Recent studies have shown that other species besides humans experience jealousy. Psychology professor Christine Harris designed a study to try to understand the emotion in infants by using dogs. She concluded that jealousy has a basic form that can be found in human infants and other social species. 

The brain has a balance between "gray matter" and "white matter." People suffering from chronic stress tend to have more white matter, which is white tissue with a  myelin coating. Studies have shown that the stem cells in people with chronic stress mature into oligodendrocytes, which produce myelin. As a result, their learning and memory skills are affected because more oligodendrocytes are being produced instead of neurons. It is also believed that stress causes the hippocampus to become strongly connected to the amygdala, weakening the connection to the prefrontal cortex. This means that people with stress disorders have faster fear responses and have bigger responses to stressful situations than they normally would.