Awareness Article #3 is due Mar 27th, 2008.
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Monday, March 9, 2009
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Title: Listening to Pleasant Music Could Help Restore Vision in Stroke Patients
Author: David Soto
Date: March 25, 2009
Source: http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2009/03/090323212120.htm
This article is about how patients suffering from loss of vision can get their vision repaired by listening to their favorite music. Every year, an estimated 150,000 people in the UK have a stroke. Up to 60% of stroke patients have impaired visual awareness of the outside world. This impaired visual awareness, known as 'visual neglect', is due to the damage that a stroke causes in brain areas that are critical for the integration of vision, attention and action. Visual neglect causes the patient to lose awareness of objects in the opposite side of space compared to the site of their brain injury. The researchers behind the study, from Imperial College London, the University of Birmingham and other institutions, suggest that listening to their favorite music may help stroke patients with impaired visual awareness to regain their ability to see. The researchers believe that the improvement in visual awareness seen in these patients could be as a result of patients experiencing positive emotions when listening to music that they like. The team suggest that when a patient experiences positive emotions this may result in more efficient signaling in the brain. This may then improve the patient's awareness by giving the brain more resources to process stimuli.
Kayla M
Reality Bytes: Myths About Video Games Debunked
1.The availability of video games has led to an epidemic of youth violence.
According to federal crime statistics, the rate of juvenile violent crime in the United States is at a 30-year low. Researchers find that people serving time for violent crimes typically consume less media before committing their crimes than the average person in the general population. It’s true that young offenders who have committed school shootings in America have also been game players — 90 percent of boys and 40 percent of girls play. The overwhelming majority of kids who play do NOT commit antisocial acts. While most American kids do play video games, the center of the video game market has shifted older as the first generation of gamers continues to play into adulthood.
2. Scientific evidence links violent game play with youth aggression.
Claims like this are based on the work of researchers who represent one relatively narrow school of research, "media effects." This research includes some 300 studies of media violence. But most of those studies are inconclusive and many have been criticized on methodological grounds.
Title: Two Dying Red Supergiant Stars Produced Supernovae
Author: scienceDaily
Date: March 26, 2009
Source: http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2009/03/090319142405.htm
A star is a large ball of hot gas. Its hot interior hydrogen atoms combine to form helium, which forms carbon. When all the atoms in the centre have turned to iron the fuel is depleted and the star dies. When very large and massive stars, that are about eight times as massive as our sun, die, they explode as supernovae. Some massive stars become red because the intermediate phase when the fuel in the centre is used up. A supernova is visible in the sky for sometime after its explosion before its dust and gas clouds are blown clear.
The Horoscope: An Introduction
Diovanni Paolo Migilore
This article is about the belief of horoscopes. About 3 000 years ago, the study of astrology and the constellations were interpreted into horoscopes. Most modern horoscopes now rely on a system of sun sign astrology, and nearly two thirds of all newspapers carry a horoscope section. Many people believe that horoscopes are complete fiction, but although they are not exact science, there is plenty of math and calculations involved. There are now many different types of horoscopes, ranging from love horoscopes to daily or yearly ones. Horoscopes are found in many different places, including the internet and the local newspaper.
http://www.articlesbase.com/astrology-articles/the-horoscope-an-introduction-756935.html
https://www.amazines.com/article_detail.cfm/750522?articleid=750522
Michelle
Hearing Loss from Listening to an Ipod/MP3 Player
Hearing loss is more common now then before. More then 30 percent of Americans (over the age of 20 – estimating 55 million people) lost some high frequency hearing from a new study from Archives of Internal Medicine. Fifteen percent of that are kids from the age 3 – 19. Depending on the person, depending on how long someone is listening, and depending on the volume that an Ipod/MP3 Player is set to. The people, who have sensitive hearing, may have lost approximately 40 decibels. They will still be able to hear sounds and understand speech but they will have to focus more on what someone is saying. Hearing loss is not from a damaged eardrum. It is damaged deeper; it is the nerve that sends the sound messages to the brain which is connected to the inner ear and involves particular cells (hair cells). When these cells are getting too much decibels for a period of time, they become metabolically exhaust. They are briefly non-functional, so the noise that is heard is louder than someone else may hear it. If these cells are overexposed enough they die and then they lose there functional ability.
Katelyn R.
http://www.time.com/time/health/article/0,8599,1827159,00.html
http://www.thefreelibrary.com/Listening+to+music+too+loud+can+damage+your+ears.-a0120033269
Effects of Microwaving Plastic Wrap
Plastic wrap is one of the most common ways to transport food or keep it fresh. However, microwaving it can do more than just melt on your food.
A cancer causing chemical called di(ethylhexyl)adepate(DEHA), is found in plastic wrap. So you have to wonder, Can cancer-causing particles
seep into food covered with household plastic wrap while it is being
microwaved?".
An experiment has been done which involved micro waving plastic wrap in virgin olive oil. The plastic wraps tested showed that not just the carcinogens but also xenoestrogen was migrating into the oil. Xenoestrogens are linked to low sperm counts in men and to breast cancer in women.
It has been proven that not just plastic wraps but plastic storage containers, grocery bags, sandwich bags, plastic bottles and Styrofoam can be health hazardous when microwaved. In fact, Styrofoam which some are told is safe gives off harmful chemicals when microwaved that cause depression and loss of concentration.
Hannah Tyler
Websites used:
http://www.mail-archive.com/eristocracy@merrymeet.com/msg00102.html
http://urbanlegends.about.com/library/bl-microwave-dioxin2.htm
Sound
Publisher: K. Lee Lerner
Sound is vibration that is produced by some sort of material and all the vibrating objects produce sound waves. Sound wave travels through the air and it eventually reaches our ear. Sound waves share certain characteristics. They have wavelength, they travel through material at a certain speed, and have frequency. A person listening to the music across the room gets sound waves that are moving through the air but the air is not moving across the room. An interesting fact is that Sound travels through the air at about 331 per second.
Links:
http://galenet.galegroup.com/servlet/SciRC?locID=winn39111&bi=SU&bt=Sound&c=4&t=1&ste=21&docNum=CV2644032076&st=b&tc=63&tf=32
http://galenet.galegroup.com/servlet/SciRC?locID=winn39111&bi=SU&bt=Sound&c=1&t=1&ste=21&docNum=CV2434500489&st=b&tc=63&tf=32
Cup of coffee may be good for the brain
by.Sharon Kirkey
There was a research of 1400 middle aged people who later developed dementia found out coffee drinkers had significantly lower risk of getting the memory destroying diseases. People who drink three to five cups of coffee a day had a 65% decreased risk. One possibility is that coffee heighten the sensitization of brain activity could be equivalent to using your rain more, coffee drinkers at mid life had lower risks of dementia and Alzheimer compare to little or no coffee drinkers. Coffee might protect brain isn’t known but doctors have three theories, one coffee is a strong antioxidant, second coffee contains substances that are protective of nerve cells and last coffee may reduce the risk of diabetes.
http://www.winnipegfreepress.com/canada/cup_of_coffee_may_be_good_for_the_brain.html
Aggressive teens have mismatched brains
AFP/Reuters
Tuesday, 26 February 2008
http://www.abc.net.au/science/articles/2008/02/26/2173061.htm
Teenag males who fight with their parents generally have brain structures that are imbalanced. Meaning their emotions develope much faster than the parts of the brain that help them to manage those emotions. The amygdalas, located in the medial tempiral lobes, are involved in the emotional repsonses of males. Aggressive guys have larger amygdalas. They also tend to have smaller prefrontal cortexes, the part of the brain that regulates their emotions.
Entomology
World of Biology. Ed. Kimberley A. McGrath. Online. Detroit: Thomson Gale, 2006.
http://galenet.galegroup.com/servlet/SciRC?locID=winn39111&bi=SU&bt=%2522Insects%2522&c=2&t=1&ste=21&docNum=CV2431500221&st=b&tc=63&tf=32
Entomology is a style of the biological sciences involved with the study of insects. It focuses on the life, history, morphology, physiology, genetics, reproduction, development, and ecology of this most plentiful and assorted group of earthly organisms. The number of species of insects is estimated to be in the range of five to ten million. The overall make up of these species are unknown because scientists have only studied about one million of these species.
http://www.ent.iastate.edu/
http://www.bijlmakers.com/entomology/begin.htm
Jarrell
Title: The faster you run the dryer you stay
Author: Paul Simons
Date of article: October 26, 2006
Source: http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=rch&AN=7EH1397243842&site=ehost-live
When you’re caught in a downpour you are faced with two choices run into the building as fast as possible or walk. For most people the decisions seems simple the less time you’re in the rain the dryer you are, but two scientists proved otherwise. They tested by running and walking 100m and weighed their clothing after, only to discover that their running clothing was 40% heavier then their walking. This is because of running into raindrops and not being as carful so going directly through puddles. So next time you are caught in a storm, walk don’t run.
Additional sources:
http://www.straightdope.com/columns/read/827/which-will-keep-you-drier-running-through-the-rain-or-walking
http://pennyforathought.com/2008/06/30/running-vs-walking-through-rain/
z
Submitted by: Ashley
The science of why a hockey puck bounces
In hockey the players hockey skates melt the ice instead of digging into it. The energy and the heat from the palyers leg transfers to the skate blade and that melts some of the ice. Pucks freeze because they are made of vulcanized rubber. Rubber has a high potential for friction especially when it is wet. Since some of the ice is melted the puck gets wet and frozen. The puck is made of rubber so it bounces when it is not frozen. When the puck freezes it slides.
Teddy
http://www.helium.com/items/1334372-why-freeze-a-puck
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XJtTzty2L-g
Phosphorus Famine: The Threat to Our Food Supply
From the June 2009 Scientific American Magazine
By David A. Vaccari
With the world’s population reaching an all time high, the planet might soon not be able to feed every one. The underappreciated resource Phosphorus is quickly depleting and there might not be enough for people to use by the end of this century. Phosphorus is a key ingredient in fertilizers and with out it, the agricultural business is in major trouble. With more and more farmers turning to natural farming practices the phosphorus levels have tripled the natural rate of phosphorus depletion. Our ecosystems reuse phosphorus in a cycle about 46 times, so when we take out the phosphorus to use it ourselves we disrupt the natural cycle. Even though there seems to be still a lot of phosphorus left for us to use to fertilize our crops and food, most of it is not readily available so we must be careful on how we use this resource cause it would be a big problem if we ran out.
http://www.scientificamerican.com/article.cfm?id=phosphorus-a-looming-crisis
http://waste-reduction.suite101.com/article.cfm/cut_food_waste_save_phosphorus
Title: May Cause Earth Decay
Date of Article: May 19 2009
Source http://www.slate.com/id/2218599/
Corn isn’t healthy for the environment. Modern corn hybrids use up more pesticides and fertilizers than any other crop, meaning that more harmful toxins get released into the environment and more bugs become immune to them. Four million acres' worth of grain corn became HFCS in 2008. That’s more than corn grown than sugar beets and sugar canes, two crops we know as sugar. Most of the sugar eaten in the US is domestically grown. Organic sugar, however, is grown in Brazil, Argentina, or Paraguay. It takes 750 to 5000 gallons of water to grow a sugar cane.
Written by Nina Shen Rastogi
Submitted by Miko
Title: May Cause Earth Decay
Date of Article: May 19 2009
Source http://www.slate.com/id/2218599/
Corn isn’t healthy for the environment. Modern corn hybrids use up more pesticides and fertilizers than any other crop, meaning that more harmful toxins get released into the environment and more bugs become immune to them. Four million acres' worth of grain corn became HFCS in 2008. That’s more than corn grown than sugar beets and sugar canes, two crops we know as sugar. Most of the sugar eaten in the US is domestically grown. Organic sugar, however, is grown in Brazil, Argentina, or Paraguay. It takes 750 to 5000 gallons of water to grow a sugar cane.
Written by Nina Shen Rastogi
Submitted by Miko
Titles
- Volume of Earth’s Oceans
- Distribution of Land and Water on the Planet
Authors
- Glenn Elert
- Head Department of Navigation and Oceanography
Sources
- http://hypertextbook.com/facts/2001/SyedQadri.shtml
- http://www.oceansatlas.com/unatlas/about/physicalandchemicalproperties/background/seemore1.html
Summary
The Earth’s oceans make up over 70% of our planet and help make it possible for us to live here. The world’s oceans help absorb solar radiation from the sun and quite the global temperature relatively stable. The oceans also absorb carbon dioxide, a greenhouse gas, slowing down the process of global warming enormously. The oceans are still somewhat of a mystery to mankind, but we continue to explore them and are continuously amazed at what we find.
http://teenadvice.about.com/cs/parentstalkto/ht/parentrelateht.htm
http://www.xomba.com/why_do_parents_and_teenagers_fight
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