Understanding Allergies (Type I)

Now that allergy season is here, I think it is time to understand what is happening in our bodies that causes an allergic reaction to all those who have allergies. First off let's define allergies.  Allergies is an abnormal way of your immune system responding to a substance (also termed hypersisity reaction), be it pollen, grass, insect venom, food, or even a type of clothing (I have a friend who has an allergic reaction to jean!). A substance that causes an allergic response is called an allergen; thus pollen, for example, is an allergen.

There are 4 types of hypersensity reaction: Type I (Immediate), Type II (Cytotoxic), Type III (Immune Complex), and Type IV (Delayed-Type). I will be discussing Type I since it is the most common. Type 1, or immediate, reaction is one that occurs immediately after the immune system is exposed to an allergen.  Type I can also be called IgE-mediated hypersensity, IgE are antibodies.

Whenever I study for my biology classes I watch videos online because they help me so much with understanding the topic and I can always pause and rewind while taking notes. I put up a viedo which will give a better understanding of how Type 1 reaction occurs in the human body.

Reproduction and Sex

1. On any given day, sexual intercourse takes place 120 million times on earth. Humans are a quickly proliferating species, and with about 4% of the world’s population having sex on any given day, it’s no wonder that birth rates continue to increase in many places all over the world.
2. The largest cell in the human body is the female egg and the smallest is the male sperm. While you can’t see skin cells or muscle cells, the ovum is typically large enough to be seen with the naked eye with a diameter of about a millimeter. The sperm cell, on the other hand, is tiny, consisting of little more than nucleus.
3. The three things pregnant women dream most of during their first trimester are frogs, worms and potted plants. Pregnancy hormones can cause mood swings, cravings and many other unexpected changes. Oddly enough, hormones can often affect the types of dreams women have and their vividness. The most common are these three types, but many women also dream of water, giving birth or even have violent or sexually charged dreams.
4. Your teeth start growing 6 months before you are born. While few babies are born with teeth in place, the teeth that will eventually push through the gums of young children are formed long before the child even leaves the womb. At 9 to 12 weeks the fetus starts to form the teeth buds that will turn into baby teeth.
5. Babies are always born with blue eyes. The color of your eyes depends on the genes you get from your parents, but at birth most babies appear to have blue eyes. The reason behind this is the pigment melanin. The melanin in a newborn’s eyes often needs time after birth to be fully deposited or to be darkened by exposure to ultraviolet light, later revealing the baby’s true eye color.
6. Babies are, pound for pound, stronger than an ox. While a baby certainly couldn’t pull a covered wagon at its present size, if the child were the size of an oxen it just might very well be able to. Babies have especially strong and powerful legs for such tiny creatures, so watch out for those kicks.
7. One out of every 2,000 newborn infants has a tooth when they are born. Nursing mothers may cringe at this fact. Sometimes the tooth is a regular baby tooth that has already erupted and sometimes it is an extra tooth that will fall out before the other set of choppers comes in.
8. A fetus acquires fingerprints at the age of three months. When only a small fraction of the way through its development, a fetus will have already developed one of the most unique human traits: fingerprints. At only 6-13 weeks of development, the whorls of what will be fingerprints have already developed. Oddly enough, those fingerprints will not change throughout the person’s life and will be one of the last things to disappear after death.
9. Every human spent about half an hour as a single cell. All life has to begin somewhere, and even the largest humans spent a short part of their lives as a single celled organism when sperm and egg cells first combine. Shortly afterward, the cells begin rapidly dividing and begin forming the components of a tiny embryo.
10. Most men have erections every hour to hour and a half during sleep. Most people’s bodies and minds are much more active when they’re sleeping than they think. The combination of blood circulation and testosterone production can cause erections during sleep and they’re often a normal and necessary part of REM sleep.

For more facts

Back With Bodily Functions

I had stopped posting facts about the human for a while but I am back again! This time we look at bodily function, for example sneezing. I got these, and the other facts from Yes, I Can't See you.

My favorite fact from this topic of facts is #3 because blinking prevents bacteria and other troublesome from getting inside the eyes and causing trouble. It's nice to see the men have a higher chance of getting eye infections, or eye troubles, than women (sorry boys).

1. Sneezes regularly exceed 100 mph. There’s a good reason why you can’t keep your eyes open when you sneeze–that sneeze is rocketing out of your body at close to 100 mph. This is, of course, a good reason to cover your mouth when you sneeze.
2. Coughs clock in at about 60 mph. Viruses and colds get spread around the office and the classroom quickly during cold and flu season. With 60 mph coughs spraying germs far and wide, it’s no wonder.
3. Women blink twice as many times as men do. That’s a lot of blinking every day. The average person, man or woman, blinks about 13 times a minute.
4. A full bladder is roughly the size of a soft ball. No wonder you have to run to bathroom when you feel the call of the wild. The average bladder holds about 400-800 cc of fluid but most people will feel the urge to go long before that at 250 to 300 cc.
5. Approximately 75% of human waste is made of water. While we might typically think that urine is the liquid part of human waste products, the truth is that what we consider solid waste is actually mostly water as well. You should be thankful that most waste is fairly water-filled, as drier harder stools are what cause constipation and are much harder and sometimes painful to pass.
6. Feet have 500,000 sweat glands and can produce more than a pint of sweat a day. With that kind of sweat-producing power it’s no wonder that your gym shoes have a stench that can peel paint. Additionally, men usually have much more active sweat glands than women.
7. During your lifetime, you will produce enough saliva to fill two swimming pools. Saliva plays an important part in beginning the digestive process and keeping the mouth lubricated, and your mouth produces quite a bit of it on a daily basis.
8. The average person expels flatulence 14 times each day. Even if you’d like to think you’re too dignified to pass gas, the reality is that almost everyone will at least a few times a day. Digestion causes the body to release gases which can be painful if trapped in the abdomen and not released.
9. Earwax production is necessary for good ear health. While many people find earwax to be disgusting, it’s actually a very important part of your ear’s defense system. It protects the delicate inner ear from bacteria, fungus, dirt and even insects. It also cleans and lubricates the ear canal.

Scientific Racism

There are many good things about biology and I enjoy biology a lot. But one thing I dislike about Biology is that it plays a role in racism. Scientific racism is a belief that there is biological difference among races. For example, that blacks have a smaller brain than other people. It is sad that there are some biologist who still believe that one there will be proof to show the world that there is, indeed, a biological difference among races. When saying "biological difference", I do not mean minor differences like hair type, eye color, height, or even speed of metaboloism. Instead, I mean major biologcal differences, like smaller brains.

 

I never thought race was something that was biologically formed. The concept that race is biology started in 1800s the same time as imperialism. To me, that sounded extremely ignorant and it never even crossed my mind. It was a shocker to me to learn that people and scholars in the past actually believed that. In the documentary Race: The Power of an Illusion Series, the Difference Between Us showed that scholars from history compared skull sizes, brain color, and eyes between Africans and whites to find an big biological difference between blacks and whites. However, a microbiologist stated in the movie that all of our (people) genetics are telling us that is not the case and there are no genetic markers that a certain race has and the others do not. In fact, people are among the most similar species. Only one nucleotide is different between people which create the individuality among people. In sports, race being related to biology is big. The video is from Race:The Power of an Illusion Series, the Difference Between Us

 

There are people who think black folks are good at basketball or track because they have some genetic or biological form that whites or others do not have. Some people think blacks have an extra muscle in their body that gives them an advantage over other players. In the article A Feckless Quest for the Basketball Gene, states that genetics do not give a certain race the achievement or the abilities over other race. It makes no sense to me how people think there is an biological advantage in blacks, for example, in sports, but a person’s intelligence is not based on biology. This concept, of genetic advantage for some race, was new for me because I never thought race had anything to do with sports or intelligence or even heard about it before. I know that majority of the basketball players are blacks, but for me the reason for that was because they enjoy playing basketball and they are good at the game because they play daily and practice loads, not because they are blacks and have an extra muscle or their bone structure is different from others. Everyone has a different definition of what race is, and so for some people I guess biology is their definition, but to me that just sounds silly. Regardless of one’s skin color, people all have two eyes, two ears, a nose, a heart, and almost everything the same as one another; so there is no biological difference between me, Pakistani, and my friend who is Cape Verdean.

I read an article that discusses this issue of biology and racism. A researcher by the name of Dr. Bruce Lahn released genetic data that showed that brain size of an African was smaller than other people. This news was spread all over via newspaper and other media. However, other researchers studied his research found out that his research was wrong along with his mathematics. Unfortunately, people disregarded this Dr.Lahn’s mistakes and believed that there is some biological difference among different races. The article goes on of released biology research and information that show that there are genomic differences among people but it is minor and cause the different types of skin, hair, and etc. The article also states that scientist do believe that one day they will gather data and information that will prove that there is a biological difference in the various races that exist.

I fail to understand why people cannot just accept the different races in the world. Imagine a world where there's only white, or only black, or only asians. Everybody would be a clone of one another. Why can't people see how beautiful it is to have so many different traditions and culture and food that come along with the different races. 

 

Mentor? Check!

I finally got a mentor for my biology honors research. Dr.Britt and I met on Thursday and she said she would be happy to be my mentor for fall 2013. She said she will give me the readings and other papers later on. The deadline for the proposal is April 15, but the biology department are really really flexible about deadlie. Our goal is to try to finalize a proposal by the end of this month. I am really glad I am finally moving along with my research projects. Thanks guys for helping me!

Honors Research Update

My issue is getting really frustrating because I am still waiting to hear from Dr.Britt if I am accepted to be in her summer research. If I am, then she will be my mentor for honors research. I applied at the late middle of Febrary and she said she would let me know her chosen students in the first week of March. I never received any information for the first 2 weeks of March so I emailed her to ask her about it. Dr.Britt said she had a meeting to go to on Wed of the week we came back from Spring Break about summer research so she will let students know a few days after her meeting.

It's the last week of March and I still have no news from her. I want to reach out to other professors about joining their research. However, if I start being involved in another prof's research and then I hear from Dr.Britt that I am accepted to her summer research, then it will suck because then I will be wasting the other prof.'s time. So I am a bit stuck on what to do.

I think it is only fair that I go ahead and reach to other profs but I would really like to work with Dr.Britt. The proposal for research of next semester is due April 15. I really want to get started, I do not know what to do. I need ADVICE!!!!!!

Secret Recipes?...Not That I Know Of

I honestly do not think my family has any secret recipes since my mother, who does all the cooking, never talked about such a thing. The food I have eaten at my aunt's, grandma's, other family members', or even family friends never coooked anything that I have not tasted at my own house. That sucks! I wish we had at least one secret recipe. I think it's cool and so much fun. I come from a Pakistani backgroud, we have lots and lots of hot (spicy) food, which I love. I think the most spiciest food my mom makes is spinach, or as we call it saag.

It does not really look as pleasant to eat, but it is really good. I have noticed that food that do not look as pleasant to eat, usually have so much flavor and taste to it. Thus, I try riskful-looking food. Saag is can be made from spinach, mustard leaves, , brocolli, and other green. I'm guessing it is healthy because it has so many greens to it, right? My mom puts lots and lots of crushed peppers and other spices and top it all off with butter. It is really spicy and makes my nose all watery, but yet I never stop eating it. It also has ginger in it. The butter really tops it off and you have to eat it right off the stove. When you first prepare it, it has a strong, unpleasant (I think) smell to it. People always think that Indian food and Pakistani are the same. Though they are, our spices and flavor are quiet different. Pakistani food is way more spicier I must say. So to me Indian food taste a little bland to me. Just a little. I am not so good at cooking, but I usually like to help my mom when she is cooking. That way I am able to seek a few bites. So I know a few steps of making saag. You usually fry ginger and garlic separate and then put in it the saag. It's quit tasteful. I know a lot of Indian people usually have paneer (cheese) and saag, but not a lot of Pakistani people cook that. Paneer is more of an Indian food than it is for Pakistani, though you can find recipes for Pakistani food that include paneer.

I never asked my mom about any secret recipes but I know for sure we do not have any. I mean I spent 20 years with my family, I should've known about it by now if we did have any. But I will still ask her, just in case,

Theses From Library

Yes, I know I am a bit late, but I finally got my hands on a honors research these from the Adams library. I was only able to find one. Actually, I think there was only 2 or 3 biology theses. Maybe I was just not looking right. Anyways I found one and it actually seems interesting. It is called "DNA Sequence Analysis of a Bioluminescent Marine Bacterium" and its from 2008. Including the work cited pages, it has a total of 36 pages. I really like the way the theses is set up. There are pictures, cycles, and tables just in the introduction for readers to fully understand the biology concepts, which I had trouble with while reading. This really helped me understand how everything comes together and organized to form one great project. Everything is so organized and looks so perfect in the theses. Now I am worried. "What if mine looks nothing like this?"

Ty Law's Launch Indoor Trampoline Park (My Review)

 
Open court                                                                                                                           Logo

On Wednesday, me and my friend made plans to hang out since both of us have been busy since college semester has started. So we made plans to hang out but we had no idea what to do. I usually make plans because she thinks I have the best plans (which I always do!). I heard about a new trampoline park that opened up in Warwick. It is called Ty Law's Launch Indoor Trampoline Park and it is located right next to Planet Fitness.

There's only two words to describe this place: Fun! and Entertaining! (yes, both with exclamation point at the end).

I fell in love with this place. It is so much fun. I had no idea who the Ty Law was and neither did my friend (definietly not into sports). After googling his name I found out he is a NFL player (pretty impressive). The main colors for this park is black and neon green. So the inside of the place is black and neon green. There are 4 trampoline courts: Kids' Court, Open Court, Dodgeball Court, and Foam Pit Court. When you first enter the park the worker asks you if you have filled out a waiver and if not then it is no problem. There are 4 computers where you fill out a waiver. The waiver just ask for your name, dob, address, and license number. After filling it out then you are all set and head over to the register. They offer sneakers for customers to borrow. The rate depends on the amount of time you want to spend. For one hour it is $14 each, for 30 minutes it is $8. I am not sure if there is an extra charge for the sneakers because neither me or my friend used them.

After purchasing a ticket you might have to wait to actually go into a court since there are timings. My friend and I had to wait 9 minutes, which is not so bad but of course it was not as busy.  On the ticket it will say what time you can enter and till when your time is up.

In each court there are workers supervising in case of injuries. They all wear a backup. My friend asked what is the deal with the backpacks and the worker said it contains ice packs and other first aid stuff that might be necessary. There are usually one one worker per court except in the Kids' Court, which probably had about 4-5 workers playing with the kids. The Kids' Court also had fun balls for the kids to play with.

Kids' court

The Open Court is is exactly what its name implies. It's an open court for adult to jump all the want. It is a pretty average size. I haven't jumped on a trampoline since the fifth grade so I really enjoyed it. My friend and I decided to go in with our socks which made it even more fun because when we will slip every now and then.

My favorite court was the Foam Pit Court. There are two trampolines laid out side by side. You jump across the trampoline and jump into a pit fill with foam. It is really amusing. I honestly felt like a little kid in this court.

Then there is the Dodgeball Court. It is basically a game of dodgeball while you are on a trampoline. The referee is the worker that is supervising that court.

Dodgeball Court

There is also a mini aracade and a food court. I did not order any food but instead purchased a Pina Colada smoothi, which was pretty decent. I was checking out the menu and the prices are a good deal. Not expensive. One thing that I did not like was how many workers there were. They did not bother you, they just stood there. But it just felt wierd because everywhere you looked there were worker. But the workers were very nice. Mostly young men around the age of 18-22 years old. Maybe I felt this way because there were not a lot of customers there. But overall, I really liked Ty Law's Launch Indoor Trampoline Park. And I honestly felt like it worked me out. Now I do not have to work our for the next two months (joking). Maybe that is the reason this place is right next to Planet Fitness.

Internal Organs

I don't know why but whenever I hear the word "internal organs" it scares me. I feel like if something goes wrong "in there", then you are bound to be sent to the hospital. This semester while taking physiology I have learned so much about how all the organs actually work altogether to keep us living. And the semester just started! What a geeky thing for me to say, right? But here's a list of cool facts about the internal organs. I must admit that for some of the facts listed below, I'm doubting some of them, like number 25, 27, and 29. Two people that I absolutely trust when it comes to science are my biology tutor and my bio professors. So when I get a chance I will have to ask them about these three facts.

1. The largest internal organ is the small intestine. Despite being called the smaller of the two intestines, your small intestine is actually four times as long as the average adult is tall. If it weren’t looped back and forth upon itself it wouldn’t fit inside the abdominal cavity.
2. The human heart creates enough pressure to squirt blood 30 feet. No wonder you can feel your heartbeat so easily. Pumping blood through your body quickly and efficiently takes quite a bit of pressure resulting in the strong contractions of the heart and the thick walls of the ventricles which push blood to the body.
3. The acid in your stomach is strong enough to dissolve razorblades. While you certainly shouldn’t test the fortitude of your stomach by eating a razorblade or any other metal object for that matter, the acids that digest the food you eat aren’t to be taken lightly. Hydrochloric acid, the type found in your stomach, is not only good at dissolving the pizza you had for dinner but can also eat through many types of metal.
4. The human body is estimated to have 60,000 miles of blood vessels. To put that in perspective, the distance around the earth is about 25,000 miles, making the distance your blood vessels could travel if laid end to end more than two times around the earth.
5. You get a new stomach lining every three to four days. The mucus-like cells lining the walls of the stomach would soon dissolve due to the strong digestive acids in your stomach if they weren’t constantly replaced. Those with ulcers know how painful it can be when stomach acid takes its toll on the lining of your stomach.
6. The surface area of a human lung is equal to a tennis court. In order to more efficiently oxygenate the blood, the lungs are filled with thousands of branching bronchi and tiny, grape-like alveoli. These are filled with microscopic capillaries which oxygen and carbon dioxide. The large amount of surface area makes it easier for this exchange to take place, and makes sure you stay properly oxygenated at all times.
7. Women’s hearts beat faster than men’s.The main reason for this is simply that on average women tend to be smaller than men and have less mass to pump blood to. But women’s and men’s hearts can actually act quite differently, especially when experiencing trauma like a heart attack, and many treatments that work for men must be adjusted or changed entirely to work for women.
8. Scientists have counted over 500 different liver functions. You may not think much about your liver except after a long night of drinking, but the liver is one of the body’s hardest working, largest and busiest organs. Some of the functions your liver performs are: production of bile, decomposition of red blood cells, plasma protein synthesis, and detoxification.
9. The aorta is nearly the diameter of a garden hose. The average adult heart is about the size of two fists, making the size of the aorta quite impressive. The artery needs to be so large as it is the main supplier of rich, oxygenated blood to the rest of the body.
10. Your left lung is smaller than your right lung to make room for your heart. For most people, if they were asked to draw a picture of what the lungs look like they would draw both looking roughly the same size. While the lungs are fairly similar in size, the human heart, though located fairly centrally, is tilted slightly to the left making it take up more room on that side of the body and crowding out that poor left lung.
11. You could remove a large part of your internal organs and survive. The human body may appear fragile but it’s possible to survive even with the removal of the stomach, the spleen, 75 percent of the liver, 80 percent of the intestines, one kidney, one lung, and virtually every organ from the pelvic and groin area. You might not feel too great, but the missing organs wouldn’t kill you.
12. The adrenal glands change size throughout life. The adrenal glands, lying right above the kidneys, are responsible for releasing stress hormones like cortisol and adrenaline. In the seventh month of a fetus’ development, the glands are roughly the same size as the kidneys. At birth, the glands have shrunk slightly and will continue to do so throughout life. In fact, by the time a person reaches old age, the glands are so small they can hardly be seen

Next Stop...Hair and Nails

This time let's learn some interesting facts about our hair and nails, two things that I am fond about. I love nail polishes and like to have healthy hair. I don't know why but it always sounds so weird to me when I, or anybody else, say "healthy hair".  I was actually shocked about fact #7. I always thought blondes had the least amount of hair follicles. Things you learn everyday!

1. Facial hair grows faster than any other hair on the body. If you’ve ever had a covering of stubble on your face as you’re clocking out at 5 o’clock you’re probably pretty familiar with this. In fact, if the average man never shaved his beard it would grow to over 30 feet during his lifetime, longer than a killer whale.
2. Every day the average person loses 60-100 strands of hair. Unless you’re already bald, chances are good that you’re shedding pretty heavily on a daily basis. Your hair loss will vary in accordance with the season, pregnancy, illness, diet and age.
3. Women’s hair is about half the diameter of men’s hair. While it might sound strange, it shouldn’t come as too much of a surprise that men’s hair should be coarser than that of women. Hair diameter also varies on average between races, making hair plugs on some men look especially obvious.
4. One human hair can support 3.5 ounces. That’s about the weight of two full size candy bars, and with hundreds of thousands of hairs on the human head, makes the tale of Rapunzel much more plausible.
5. The fastest growing nail is on the middle finger. And the nail on the middle finger of your dominant hand will grow the fastest of all. Why is not entirely known, but nail growth is related to the length of the finger, with the longest fingers growing nails the fastest and shortest the slowest.
6. There are as many hairs per square inch on your body as a chimpanzee. Humans are not quite the naked apes that we’re made out to be. We have lots of hair, but on most of us it’s not obvious as a majority of the hairs are too fine or light to be seen.
7. Blondes have more hair. They’re said to have more fun, and they definitely have more hair. Hair color determines how dense the hair on your head is. The average human has 100,000 hair follicles, each of which is capable of producing 20 individual hairs during a person’s lifetime. Blondes average 146,000 follicles while people with black hair tend to have about 110,000 follicles. Those with brown hair fit the average with 100,000 follicles and redheads have the least dense hair, with about 86,000 follicles.
8. Fingernails grow nearly 4 times faster than toenails. If you notice that you’re trimming your fingernails much more frequently than your toenails you’re not just imagining it. The nails that get the most exposure and are used most frequently grow the fastest. On average, nails on both the toes and fingers grow about one-tenth of an inch each month.
9. The lifespan of a human hair is 3 to 7 years on average. While you quite a few hairs each day, your hairs actually have a pretty long life providing they aren’t subject to any trauma. Your hairs will likely get to see several different haircuts, styles, and even possibly decades before they fall out on their own.
10. You must lose over 50% of your scalp hairs before it is apparent to anyone. You lose hundreds of hairs a day but you’ll have to lose a lot more before you or anyone else will notice. Half of the hairs on your pretty little head will have to disappear before your impending baldness will become obvious to all those around you.
11. Human hair is virtually indestructible. Aside from it’s flammability, human hair decays at such a slow rate that it is practically non-disintegrative. If you’ve ever wondered how your how clogs up your pipes so quick consider this: hair cannot be destroyed by cold, change of climate, water, or other natural forces and it is resistant to many kinds of acids and corrosive chemicals.

-From I Can't See you

I Found One of My Love!!!

I love learning about human body, especially reproductive system. So i finally found a website that shares interesting facts about the human body. How much fun is that!!!! I want to read the whole page all at once, but at the same time I want it to last a while. So I decided read them everyday and share it on this blog. There are 100 facts. I am not quite sure if I want to post only one fact a day. Maybe I'll split into categories like the site has done. So here it is. First, it's the brain:



The Brain
The human brain is the most complex and least understood part of the human anatomy. There may be a lot we don’t know, but here are a few interesting facts that we’ve got covered.

1. Nerve impulses to and from the brain travel as fast as 170 miles per hour. Ever wonder how you can react so fast to things around you or why that stubbed toe hurts right away? It’s due to the super-speedy movement of nerve impulses from your brain to the rest of your body and vice versa, bringing reactions at the speed of a high powered luxury sports car.
2. The brain operates on the same amount of power as 10-watt light bulb. The cartoon image of a light bulb over your head when a great thought occurs isn’t too far off the mark. Your brain generates as much energy as a small light bulb even when you’re sleeping.
3. The human brain cell can hold 5 times as much information as the Encyclopedia Britannica. Or any other encyclopedia for that matter. Scientists have yet to settle on a definitive amount, but the storage capacity of the brain in electronic terms is thought to be between 3 or even 1,000 terabytes. The National Archives of Britain, containing over 900 years of history, only takes up 70 terabytes, making your brain’s memory power pretty darn impressive.
4. Your brain uses 20% of the oxygen that enters your bloodstream. The brain only makes up about 2% of our body mass, yet consumes more oxygen than any other organ in the body, making it extremely susceptible to damage related to oxygen deprivation. So breathe deep to keep your brain happy and swimming in oxygenated cells.
5. The brain is much more active at night than during the day. Logically, you would think that all the moving around, complicated calculations and tasks and general interaction we do on a daily basis during our working hours would take a lot more brain power than, say, lying in bed. Turns out, the opposite is true. When you turn off your brain turns on. Scientists don’t yet know why this is but you can thank the hard work of your brain while you sleep for all those pleasant dreams.
6. Scientists say the higher your I.Q. the more you dream. While this may be true, don’t take it as a sign you’re mentally lacking if you can’t recall your dreams. Most of us don’t remember many of our dreams and the average length of most dreams is only 2-3 seconds–barely long enough to register.
7. Neurons continue to grow throughout human life. For years scientists and doctors thought that brain and neural tissue couldn’t grow or regenerate. While it doesn’t act in the same manner as tissues in many other parts of the body, neurons can and do grow throughout your life, adding a whole new dimension to the study of the brain and the illnesses that affect it.
8. Information travels at different speeds within different types of neurons. Not all neurons are the same. There are a few different types within the body and transmission along these different kinds can be as slow as 0.5 meters/sec or as fast as 120 meters/sec.
9. The brain itself cannot feel pain. While the brain might be the pain center when you cut your finger or burn yourself, the brain itself does not have pain receptors and cannot feel pain. That doesn’t mean your head can’t hurt. The brain is surrounded by loads of tissues, nerves and blood vessels that are plenty receptive to pain and can give you a pounding headache.
10. 80% of the brain is water. Your brain isn’t the firm, gray mass you’ve seen on TV. Living brain tissue is a squishy, pink and jelly-like organ thanks to the loads of blood and high water content of the tissue. So the next time you’re feeling dehydrated get a drink to keep your brain hydrated.

Might Have Something!

So I emailed Dr.Britt last week about joining her research and she emailed me back this past Monday. She told me she did have one or possibly two more spots open in her lab and she is indeed looking for students. She gave me some information about her research and an application to fill out. Her research is about understanding the role of a funagle protein called Bcp1, which is a fungal homolog of a human protein called BCCIP, which is associated with BRCA2, which is a tumor suppressor gene. BCCIP, when associated with BRCA2, may stop cell cycle when DNA is damaged. The organism that will be used is a yeast called S. cerevisiae. S.cerevisiae will be a model of an eukaryotic cell (human are eukaryotic). This yeast does not require a whole lot of taking care of and it is easy to culture (grow); hence, why this yeast was chosen.  Thus, this reasearch will help identify the role of Bcp1 which will tell us the importance of BCCIP, which is an important cofactor for BRCA2 in tumor suppression. I should also mention that mutations (changes, which could be dangerous) to BRCA2 could lead to breast cancer or ovarian cancer.

I also had a one-on-one meeting with Dr. Britt on Tues afternoon. She just gave me some more information abut her research and how it all works.I am a bit scared because Dr.Britt said that she has received a few applications from other students, so I just have to wait til the first week of March. She will let me know if I was "picked". I have my fingers crossed.

Biology Research

Ok, so for my biology research project I have two broad topics that I am interested in. The first one is the Reproductive Physiology, and the second one is Nucleic Acid (specifically, DNA). I want to combine these both topics together, but I'm not so sure how to do that. I have to do more planning. There are two professors that do research on nucleic acid, Dr. Matsumoto and Dr. Britt. On the other hand, there is only one professor doing a research on reproductive physiology, Dr. Hall. I have emailed Dr.Matsumoto, but I am still waiting for a reply. I think I have to drag myself to his office (I have to admit that I am scared of him, though I had him twice). I have emailed Dr.Hall but unfortunately, he told me that he does not have time to work in his laboratory and it'll be better if I find another mentor. I have not emailed Dr. Britt yet. I want to ask other biology major students how is Dr. Britt because I never had her for any of my classes yet.


I wanted to do my research (lab part) over the summer. I am not planning to take summer classes his summer, so I'll have so much free time. And on top of that I'll get paid for the lab research          (pretty good). I have to find a mentor who has funding for the summer. Dr.Hall has emailed me a list of professors who do have funding for the summer. Dr. Britt has summer funding, so more than likely, if anything, I'll do a research with her.

How Did the Internet Start?

 

So I went through a PowerPoint-like webpage here and found out about the evolution of the internet. How it started and et.. The internet all started as a device for the U.S. Military, but it was then called Arpanet. At that time Arpanet only connected five site: UCLA, Stanford, UC Santa Barbara, the University of Utah and BBN. It got the name Internet when it was able to connect to 1000 universities and labs. But now the internet is connected to mare than just 1000 universities and labs. In fact, there's internet to almost all school globally (with some expections). I wonder if there will ever be a time when the internet is not "popular" anymore. I mean I remember when MySpace first came out it was so popular! then it faded and Facebook took its replacement, and now it seems like Twitter and Instagram is taking over Facebook. Hence, I wonder if the internet will be "out of fashion" anytime in the future. I doubt it though. But I hope if it does, then I am alive so see what is the new "popular" item in society.

To Be Scared or Not to be Scared

With so many horror movies about evil ghosts, what does science have to say about it? Like always, science always ruin the exciting facts people like to believe. For example, I always thought that people who saw a white light before they died was a spritual thing. If you saw a white light right before you died, then you would go to heaven. Science shut that belief of mine when my biology professor told me that that was a biology thing (bummer).

So what about ghost? I honestly never thought ghost scientifically. Basically, scientists say that if ghosts are real then we should be able to find scientific evidence for them. But so far they are not any scientific evidence for them; thus, there are no such things as ghost (pheww). Check out the whole article here

Yawning so Early

A fetus is yawing in the womb. Only 24 weeks!
check out more pics of this http://www.livescience.com/24983-fetus-yawning-womb.html

First Timer!

This is my first time on blogger, actually it's my first time on any social media site. I don't have a Facebook, MySpace, Twitter, and so on. I am not a big fan of them (people might think I'm weird). But anyhow, let's get straight to it. I am a sophomore at Rhode Island College. My major is Biology and minor is Chemistry. So please expect to see a lot of science on my blog (Sorry :/ ). I plan on pursuing a career in Ob-Gyn (obstetrician gynecologist) and my second choice is Optometry. If none of those work out then probably dentistry. I just realized I forgot to mention my name. My name is Saman N. I will be posting lots of articles, facts, and so on on many different topics that I think are interesting. For example, science, world issues, and so on. Let's see how this Blogger works out for me!