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