Health | Science Knowledge

On The Benefits of Test-Taking

January 20, 2011 by admin Leave a Comment

A recent study has shown that test-taking does not just assess the knowledge one has already learned—it can be a learning tool in and of itself. Apparently we recall information better if we are tested on it.

The study required participants to read a passage and then be tested on it a week later using various methods of retention. One group simply studied the material repeatedly—a popular method among college students. Another group was told to diagram what they were learning in “concept maps”—a trendy retention method in the education community. Another group was given a test on the material immediately after reading it. The group that was tested on the material outscored the other groups in the later test by 50 percent.

The other methods were only successful in raising the subjects’ confidence in their knowledge of the material. The subjects who studied and did the concept maps predicted they would remember more of the material than the subjects in the testing group predicted for themselves. But in actuality, the tested subjects vastly outperformed the others.

Another study compared only the methods of retrieval testing and concept mapping. In the final assessment, the subjects were asked to draw a concept map of the material from memory. The subjects in the retrieval testing group still did better than the subjects in the concept mapping group, even under these conditions.

These results might be because the subjects who had already been tested on the material were able to recognize things that they missed the first time and revisit them in their minds. It might also be because they were practicing the process of retrieving the information, and were thus more able to retrieve it later.

Does this mean that students should be tested more in the future? It is certainly compelling evidence that testing is an effective tool. But today’s education community prefers methods—like concept mapping—that promote critical thinking, rather than simply memorization. Time will tell.

Filed Under: Health Tagged With: Learning

The Health Effects of Sitting At Your Computer Screen

January 13, 2011 by admin Leave a Comment

Humans now spend an unprecedented amount of time staring at screens. Whether it is the computer screen or the TV screen, or even your smartphone or your Kindl, it most likely eats up hours of your day. Since this is a relatively new development in human history, we are wary of the effects it may have on us in the long term. For years people were sure that cell phones were giving us cancer through radiation poisoning. Even now we can’t help but feel uneasy at the thought of what unknown particles are beaming into our heads all day.

Studies have shown that people who spend more time regularly sitting in front of a screen are more likely to die earlier. But it is not due to any mystery particles. It is because of a much more seemingly innocuous foe—sitting. As our lifestyles become more and more sedentary, our lifespans are put into jeopardy.

A study done in Scotland found that men who spent two or more hours a day sitting in front of a screen had twice the risk of heart attack as men who spent less time in front of screens. And men who spent more than four hours a day were 50 percent more likely to die. These things were true regardless of physical activity in the other twenty hours of the day.

Concerned about how much television your kids are watching? A study in 2009 revealed that children who spend one and a half to five and a half hours a day watching television had higher blood pressure than other kids, regardless of weight or physical activity.

In the United States and Britain, people spend three to four hours a day watching television, on average. This does not even take into account the amount of time people spend at the computers, which is rising all the time as computers become more and more vital to our lives. So, get up!

Filed Under: Health Tagged With: Physical exercise

Lousy Lice

December 15, 2010 by admin Leave a Comment

Imagine you see the hottest new blockbuster on opening night. You are amazed at the action scene, cry when the main characters fall in love and applaud when the day is eventually saved. You walk out of the theater talking about how the great the movie was with your companion and at first you don’t notice how itchy your head is. You have no idea that while you were enjoying the cinematography, little white bugs were finding a new home, your head.

Lice is a common problem with people and is usually transferred via a hair brush or other hair utensils that are shared. They can be transferred using someone’s towel or hat. You can get lice many different ways, but there are many myths about the dreaded head vermin. For example, lice are not attractive to a dirty head over a clean head. The truth is they would rather find a clean head to crawl onto because they can attach to the skin better. And they do crawl; they don’t hop or fly like other insects their size. So, whether or not you get lice has nothing to do with your hygiene and it has nothing to do with your ethnicity, age or social status. It does not matter which combination of these things you are, your head is just as attractive to lice as the next.

If you find the white critters in your hair, think about where and who you have been with the last twenty-four hours. They bugs only live a specific amount of time not on someone’s head, so more than likely you contracted the companions the day before. If you did, you do not need to quarantine yourself inside your house, but head down to the pharmacy and get one of the many products created to get rid of the annoyances and know that you did nothing specific to be one of the many people who get lice.

Filed Under: Health, Science Tagged With: Conditions and Diseases, Food and Drug Administration, Health, Louse, Skin Disorders, Treatment of human head lice

Breastfeeding is Good for Everyone Involved

December 14, 2010 by admin Leave a Comment

Whether you do it in public or behind closed doors, you cover yourself or go full frontal or decide not to do it at all, breastfeeding has health benefits for everyone involved. Everyone knows that breastfeeding your child passes on immunities, helps the baby bond with its mother, and provides your baby with all the nutrients it needs. There are many benefits for the mother too like losing weight and there is evidence to prove that breastfeeding is linked to lower probability of breast cancer in the mother and the female baby.

According to a study posted online by the New York Times, the lower number of women with breast cancer who breastfed specifically targets those who have breast cancer in their families. The study included over 60,000 participants but will continue to further prove their findings. A study quoted by Dr. Jay Gordon shows if you are breastfed as a child, you are 20-35% less likely to develop breast cancer in adult life, specifically post menopausal. This study is just proof that feeding your baby is a substantial way to take care of yourself as well as your baby.

Breastfeeding also burns up to 600 calories a day. This can be a diet all by itself, but would of course be further helped with diet and exercise. Sitting in a chair, bonding with your baby, giving it the nutrition you know it needs and be able to burn calories to lose that baby weight really seems like the ideal situation for mother and baby. The breastfeeding also sends a hormone through your body to hasten the shrinking of you uterus and the hip bones.

It is up to the mother and the family whether or not breastfeeding suits your lifestyle or not, but losing weight quicker and a chance to not have specific types of cancer sound like positive things to consider when making your choice.

Filed Under: Health, Science Tagged With: Breast, Breast cancer, Breastfeeding, Cancer, Health

Chronesthesia

December 13, 2010 by admin Leave a Comment

Audrey Niffenegger was on to something when she wrote The Time Traveler’s Wife. A man who is plagued by a specific incident and keeps going back to it when he is troubled. The concept is called Chronesthesia and it involves mental time travel. More accurately in reality this ability involves being able to the future and do this to a point where it actually has an effect. Most people can remember the past and understand the future, but those with Chronesthesia can be acutely aware of the future.

According to the findings published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, there are two sets of independent processes that facilitate the travel. The first process is figuring out and remembering the specific event you keep thinking about. This can be any number of things and can involve many people. The second process is figuring out what part of time that event falls in; past, present or future. The main question the researchers are asking is “how do you know [any event] happened at a time other than now?”

While conducting studies, the researchers found that specific and consistently similar parts of the brain were used while remembering real and imagined events from the past and imagine events from the future. From their findings they were able to come up with a solid definition for Chronesthesia and in the study they define it as ” a form of consciousness that allows people to think about this subjective time and to mentally travel in it.”

The ability to think about a specific time in the future and being able to experience it is ground-breaking research. Being able to be at your children’s birth or their graduation before it happens. There are many different uses for this research and finding and to think such radical findings are reality and just a work of fiction.

Filed Under: Health, Science Tagged With: Chronesthesia

High Flouride = Low IQ

December 12, 2010 by admin Leave a Comment

Parents start worrying from conception about how to best take care of their children and how to supplement their regular diet to make them as healthy as possible. There has always been a debate over water to use for your child and levels of fluoride. Some toothpastes even market their product as ‘fluoride free’ and safe to swallow using the coattails of that disagreement to sell their products.

Fluoride is, on average, added to 70% of all public drinking water and a study published in Environment Health Perspectives says that there seems to be a link between levels of fluoride in water and the link to lower IQs among children ages 8-13. According to Paul Connett, Ph.D. “This is the 24th study that has found this association.” This last study was monitored very closely and certain variable such as lead and iodine levels were watched very closely so they could not be considered to have an impact on the fluoride effects. The education options were also very similar.

Two cities in China were the subjects of the study. One city had high levels of fluoride, almost twice the allowable amount, and the other city had less than a third of the proper amount. The high fluoride city had only 8% of children considered to be bright and 15% considered to be mentally retarded. In contrast, the low fluoride city had 28% of students who tested to be bright and only 6% who were considered mentally retarded.

This link shows correlation and not causation, but with the findings in this twenty fourth study, the scientist have a more solid foundation to move forward on to show an actual causation relationship between fluoride levels and IQ levels. Many fluoridation tests have been run in most countries, but, Connett says that “no work has been done in the U.S.”

Filed Under: Health, Science Tagged With: Drinking water, Fluoride, Water fluoridation

Denisovans

December 11, 2010 by admin Leave a Comment

Neanderthal, Cave Man, Human and now Denisovans. Which of these things is not like the other? That is a trick question because based on recent findings, they are all closely related species. Scientists found a finger bone and a tooth in a cave in Southern Siberia. The bone was said to belong to a female. When the tests started on the bones, the female was called woman-X. The bone was found by Russian archeologists in 2008 and since then has had many tests run on it. They have extracted enough of the DNA to produce a genome. This genome supports the theory that the Denisovans were a sister species to the Neanderthals. It also supports and independence and split of the DNA between Humans and Denisovans.

After comparing the Denisovan’s genome to that of a Neanderthal, the scientists realized that the Denisovans could have been as spread out as all over Asia. They were not only inhabitants of Siberia. After further analysis, scientist found that the Denisovans have a very close genetic make-up with the people of Melanesia. Although current day Melanesians are a mix of many different ethnicities, mainly because of many people who migrated there via the waterway.

The actual origin of the Denisovans is being debated and researched currently by scientists. There is speculation that the Denisovans were related to the Neanderthals, but split from them when they entered a new continent. Some other speculations is that they met with the Neanderthals and mated with them. Even though their origin in relations to the site where the fossils were found is hot topic, it is of course secondary to the fact that another Human species exists. With this new discovery, scientists will move forward and continue to investigate whether or not there exists more species of human-related beings.

Filed Under: Health, Science Tagged With: DNA, Genome, Human, Neanderthal

Stem Cell Origins

December 10, 2010 by admin Leave a Comment

: Image via Wikipedia

Even though this hot button topic seems to have fallen into the shadows, it is still a viable scientific method. A stem cell can be put into any foreign group of cells and attach itself to the area. A stem cell can be put in a cancer patient to rebuild an organ which has been killed off by chemotherapy treatments. Stem cells can also be used to regenerate any organ in the body which has been damaged.

The three main places to find stem cells are in adults, umbilical cords and embryos. To obtain cells from an adult donor, a doctor will extract them from the bone marrow. This is a painful procedure, but if the actual patient has healthy ones left after whatever necessitates the transfer of the cells, this is the best option. This will ensure the body will take the transfer since it is from the same immune system.

Another option to receive stems cells from is the umbilical cord. There have been movies that deal with this issue, such as My Sister’s Keeper, where the umbilical cord of children is stored to be harvested for cells at a time that may be necessary down the road. The umbilical cord can be donated to science for a fee or kept for your family for just in case situations.

The most controversial source of stem cells is the embryo. In this instance, the cells are extracted when the embryo is still technically considered a blastocyst, which is before the cells start to split and differentiate. The controversy lies in the fact that a blastocyst who has stem cells extracted from it, is then destroyed by the procedure. This is usually done when a woman makes the choice to abort a fetus and allows the stem cells to be taken and used.

This is all to say that knowledge is power and there is truth and honesty even in the largest controversy.

Filed Under: Biology, Health, Science Tagged With: Biology, Biotechnology, Bone marrow, Cell (biology), Cord blood, Cryobiology, Stem cell, Umbilical cord

The Science of Fast Food

November 30, 2010 by admin Leave a Comment

You can’t go down the street or watch an hour of television without being exposed to a fast food advertisement or reminder. They are on every newspaper and even the flyers at football games. There is nothing more appealing late at night or when you are feeling lazy than a great piece of fast food. But for every advertisement you see promoting fast food, there is someone out there speaking about the evils of fast food. Most people will tell you that fast food is one of the worst things you can put into your body. The real question is: how true is that?

Fast food is not good for you, but that doesn’t mean that the food you are putting into your body at home is that much better for you. Take for instance a small Big Mac meal from McDonalds. A full meal is close to 1000 calories. There is nothing healthy about putting that into your body. The quality of the meat isn’t even that good for you.

Now, let’s take that Big Mac meal and put it against a box of Velveeta Shells & Cheese. This has also been a household favorite for years. To get the same amount of food as a Big Mac meal, you have to eat the whole box. The thing to note here is that the box has about 300 more calories in it and is made from the same type of cheap ingredients. The truth is that most of the things in your pantry aren’t any better for you than the stuff you are getting at the local Burger King. You have to take into account that while the calories and fats in fast food are high, it doesn’t always make it the greater of two evils.

Filed Under: Health Tagged With: Big Mac, Fast food, McDonald

New Findings – Why Men Sweat More Than Women

November 24, 2010 by admin Leave a Comment

When you head to the gym, you may notice that a lot of the men are sweating a lot more than most of the women. It has recently been found that the body of a man is actually more efficient at sweating than the body of a woman. It has also been shown that exercise training can help both sexes become more efficient sweating machines, but even then, men tend to sweat more.

When it comes to why men sweat more than women, scientists have come up with a few different theories. Most likely they all work together. One of the biggest findings is that the testosterone level in men helps them produce sweat much easier. It is believed that the testosterone in men helps enhance the response to high heats and exercise, therefor initiating the sweat response. There is also the belief that there are evolutionary factors as to why men sweat more than women, as well. Thought most people tend to try to stay as hydrated as possible, in general, most women have a lot less fluid in their bodies than men do. This causes them to become much more susceptible to dehydration. Because of this, the body will respond with a lower amount of sweat being produced in women, to help the women stay as hydrated as possible. Along with this, men having more body fluids to lose gives them a better efficiency of labor or action.

It has also been theorised that these differences in how men and women react to heat, and how their bodies produce sweat, may also be a clue as to why men and women react differently to temperature changes. Women tend to have a more difficult time dealing with heat waves, and this could simply be because their bodies are not able to produce as much sweat as men, and therefore they are not as easily cooled in the warm weather.

Filed Under: General, Health Tagged With: Heat wave, Perspiration