Authentic Science Research 2013-2014

Washington University School of Medicine and St. Jude's Children's Research Hospital have teamed up to identify genetic mutations that cause pediatric cancer. There are over 600 patient's genes being analyzed. The tumor cells are compared to the patients healthy cells and the differences are recorded. The program is trying to identify a mutation that causes a healthy cell to turn into a cancerous one. This in turn can help scientists develop new treatments to help young cancer patients.

British scientists have recently restored sight to blind mice by the use of stem cells from mice embryos. These stem cells were put into a lab dish; there, they separated into immature photo-receptors. These were then injected into the mice's retinas, and actually brought sight back into some of the blind. This successful experiment makes scientists hopeful that they can restore sight to blind humans in the future. Although these cells can become very beneficial, they can also turn cancerous. New scientific advancements have bettered the stem cell procedure, but problems with the process are still arising. 

Major environmental devastation is the direct result of human activities. Through the burning of fossil fuels, humans are unintentionally producing acid rain. The sulfur dioxide and nitrogen oxides released from the fossil fuels mix with water, oxygen, and other substances in the atmosphere to create consequential solutions that are spread over miles. Some negative effects of acid rain include aluminum absorption in water (making a toxic environment for aquatic animals), disruption of the food chain (aquatic deaths result in bird deaths, etc.), the robbing of essential nutrients in soil (kills trees), and the deterioration of vegetation's ability to withstand extreme conditions. In order to prevent ecological disaster, it is required that humans stop the burning of fossil fuels. Governments have attempted to use an alternative source for energy, but the harmful effects of the fossil fuel use have yet to wear off. By the conservation of energy, individuals can help stop the destruction of the planet.  

Pediatric patients are surviving their cancer and growing into adults. However, doctors are becoming increasingly concerned about the long-term health effects of the treatments that saved their patient's life. Many serious health conditions go undiagnosed because Doctors do not always think about the conditions that may effects pediatric cancer survivors. There was a study conducted with 1700 participants by St. Jude's Hospital. The participants were 10 years past their diagnosis and underwent lots of tests to determine any long-term conditions they might have. The average age of the study was 33. There are almost 400,000 pediatric cancer survivors and that number will grow. It is imperative to ensure follow up programs are in place and that doctors use minimal radiation.

There is no "magic bullet" in the fight against cancer, but one step towards curing cancer is Immunotherapy. The generally accepted hypothesis is that the immune system is the best tool humans have for fighting disease. Immunotherapy is thought to be less toxic than current treatments, however it is rarely used by itself to treat cancer. There are limitations to the effectiveness of Immunotherapy; the normal immune system cannot sense tumor cells, the response from the immune system is not strong enough when the body does recognize tumor cells, and tumors can defend themselves. There are three types of Immunotherapy Passive, components of the immune system are engineered outside of the body to attack cancer cells; Active, stimulates the body's own immune system to fight cancer; and Combination, uses both passive and active activity. Passive Immunotherapy's use antibodies created outside of the body to provide immunity or help fight off a disease. One type of passive immunotherapy is Monoclonal antibody therapy (mAb), the most widely used form of immunotherapy. Active Immunotherapy work by stimulating the immune system to 'actively' respond to the disease. One type of active immunotherapy is Provenge, a therapeutic prostate cancer vaccine. Therapeutic cancer vaccines are given to patients with cancer to help stimulate the immune system to fight the cancer. Combination Therapy is still in clinical studies but is thought to have a greater potential than active or passive immunotherapy because it combines the activity of both therapies. Immunotherapy may not be the magic bullet to fighting cancer, but when used early and with other treatments it has proven effective.

Mental rehearsal and "dry run" movements greatly improve the performance of athletes and performers. An experiment was executed with high jumpers to test the influence of mental rehearsal and "dry run" on overall performance. With mental rehearsal, the performance of high jumpers improved by 35%. Even better, through mental rehearsal and "dry run" actions, the athletes' performances bettered by 45%. Mental imagery and physical practice both better one's performance because the two use overlapping neural networks in the brain. Therefore, they work together to improve performance. 

Immunotherapy can be used to treat cancer by activating the body's immune system. One way to do this is by using Monoclonal Antibodies which stimulate a variety of immune responses that lead to tumor-cells death. Another type of immunotherapy is deactivating Checkpoint Inhibitors. These checkpoints help to make sure the immune system does not attack healthy cells; deactivating these checkpoints on cancer cells it allows the immune system to attack and has been effective in clinical trials. The third type of immunotherapy is Cytokines, which stimulates a broad immune response against a specific tumor antigen. The last type of immunotherapy is therapeutic cancer vaccines which stimulate the immune system to fight against a tumor's antigens. This is a durable response that tries to activate the immune system to fight the tumor cells. There are many ways immunotherapy can be used to help fight cancer.

Scientists at the Brigham and Women's Hospital as well as scientists at the Dana Farber Cancer Institute have been compiling and analyzing DNA from patients with tumors. The study using a program known as OncoMap, scanned for known mutations. In a new phase of the study, the program OncoPanel, is designed to recognize new mutations as well as previously known mutations. The goal of this study is to help locate these mutations which then could allow scientists to develop new forms of target therapy to combat cancer.

Although cloning a mammoth would be fascinating, it is not needed nor is it necessarily possible. Scientists have hopes to clone a mammoth because of the recent frozen mammoth find in Russia. This mammoth appears to have blood that does not freeze, increasing hopes to find live cells. However, some researchers argue that finding a living cell in the body of the mammoth is not possible. They say that at most, they will find a cell with DNA that is intact enough to use to clone the creature. However, ancient DNA is almost always fragmented, and would therefore, not be able to be used in the cloning process. Doubts also circulate around the idea that the mammoth's blood was able to withstand -17 degrees Celsius without freezing. The sample found may have been under special conditions to allow the blood to remain unfrozen. With the trouble it would take to clone a mammoth, it is not worth it. Scientists can learn more about mammoths through the fossil record rather than from a cloned animal. 

After the successful cloning of Dolly the sheep, scientists are hopeful to clone/bring back the mammoth from extinction. Notably well preserved blood in a recent finding of mammoth remains could lead to mammoth stem cells. With these stem cells and the use of elephant eggs to grow an embryo, a baby mammoth could be born. The stem cells could also form gametes, which, if from a female, could lead to both breeding and cloning mammoths. The method of cloning could be fairly similar to the process used to create Dolly the sheep. Although bringing back the mammoth would be beneficial for science, a debate exists arguing the issues. 

Although physical commitment is required to be successful at a given sport or activity, mental preparation is the key to victory. When individuals are competing at the Olympic level, those competitors have very small physical differences. What separates the winners from the losers is the mental preparation. Practice builds mental strength through memory and confidence; with this strong mentality, competitors are most successful when they let loose and "go with the flow." Letting oneself go in stressful situations or important competitions is crucial because thinking too much can lead to making foolish mistakes from the overwhelming stress a person can put on them self. Once a person starts to focus on one single adjustment, their performance deteriorates. Entering the "flow" state allows a person to perform easily and comfortably without stress. Practice actually betters the brain through the memorization of muscle movements. In order to achieve success, it is essential for one to maintain an alert state of mind. In this, a person is always prepared for what comes next. Keeping calm in important competitions is equally important; practice betters one's ability to do this through hormone and brain chemistry changes. Motivation also affects performance. Only those who have positive mindsets and strong minds are going to win competitions. Sports affect people for the rest of their lives through the mental changes they experience. 

Recent stem cell research has enabled scientists to develop mice inner ears. This new discovery has high hopes to lead to future hearing restoration for humans, and reasoning on hear loss. This astonishing breakthrough is the result of the transformation of embryonic stem cells from mice into sensory epithelia. These epithelia contain hair cells, fragile cells that allow organisms to hear. This discovery is even more shocking through the impossibility for hair cells to grow once they have been destroyed. This exciting accomplishment allows for researchers to study hair cells, and their connection to hearing.

Although popularized by the media as "healthy," vaccinations bring more harm to the human body then they do health. Multiple studies have found that those children injected with vaccinations actually caught more disease than those not vaccinated. Vaccinations are not guaranteed to work, and can actually cause severe complications. Few vaccinations have been successful; these effective immunizations protect against one disease, but increase risk of other viruses. Vaccines contain harmful ingredients that can cause cancers and leukemia, and are even linked to AIDS. Vaccines are also connected to brain damage, lowered IQ, ADD, learning disabilities, and autism. Vaccinations are composed of harmful ingredients, are illogically produced, and cause more diseases than they prevent.

Chinese researches have discovered an ability to transform the cells found in urine into stem cells. Driving these scientists was the remarkable ability that stem cells possess: the ability to transform into other cells. These scientists actually transformed the cells from urine into stem cells, and used those stem cells to create human teeth in mice jawbones. This experiment did suffer several flaws, however. These teeth-like structures did contain a number of components that real teeth are composed of: enamel, dentin, and pulp. Even so, these teeth were only one-third as hard as human teeth. Additionally, this experiment resulted in 70% of the mice absent of teeth-like structures. Despite the flaws through the experiment, this discovery comes close to the regrowth of human features and gives hope to a possible future of regenerated human teeth. Better methods of obtaining cells with the ability to become stem cells exist, further giving the world of science hope in human body repair and regrowth. 

With previous research suggesting that the fostering of long term memories happens during sleep (when the brain is in an oscillating rhythm), current research suggests that listening to audio coinciding with that rhythm can increase memory skill. As an experiment, researchers worked with 11 healthy students who were asked to memorize 120 word pairs before going to bed. As a result, on the night that they listened to the rhythm of their brain, they remembered the most words. This study also revealed that synced audio was linked to a longer deep sleep instead of more deep sleep cycles.

Since the 1920s, researchers have recorded rhythmic patterns or electrical impulses in the brain. Now, rhythm is known to have effects on perception, attention, working memory, learning, and language. Gazzaley, a neuroscientist, wants to determine if these rhythms vary between healthy individuals. He is also interested in exploring what roles these rhythms play in various disorders. In one experiment, Gazzaley worked with the drummer, Mickey Hart, by strapping him to an EEG while playing the drums. Hart's brain was shown on screen, live.

The relationship between music and neuroscience involved many research teams, one coming from the Rotman Research Institute in Canada. For this project, the team arranged a group of 19 volunteers, each given short song excerpts (all familiar with the style). While the participants listened, the brains, being scanned by MRI, highlighted one region: the nucleus accumbens, responsible for the sensation of pleasant surprise. However, this only works when the style is recognized.

Music can have extraordinary affects on the human brain. Looking in on "ear worms" (meaning getting a song stuck in your head), research reveals that what's going on is neural circuits getting stuck in a repeating loop, playing the thing repeatedly in the head. It is also found that, in the process of human evolution, the structures that respond to music in the brain were first to evolve than the structures that respond to language. Further research also looked into the brain's response to musical pleasure, and animals' response to beats.

As a pharmacist, Catherine Ulbricht studied different types of music and its therapeutic effects. There are scientific evidences that support that music influences mood and helps with stress. 5 conditions for which music therapy has good evidence for are autism, dementia, depression, infant development, and sleep quality. However, music shouldn't be listened to at high volumes nor should be a sole treatment for dangerous medical/psychiatric conditions; therefore, safety should be taken into account.

In a survey carried out by Dr. Brown, an author, 86% of the participants reported having experiences that they recall from past dreams. Anne Cleary, Ph.D. has three reasons as to why a moment might seem like a re-experience of a dream: forgetting the experience leading to the dream, connections made during sleep, and mistaking the source. Strongly believing that dreams don't just come from "nowhere", Cleary admits to having "deja vu" experiences before.