Lost phone?

Hey everyone!

Do you eve feel paranoid or anxious when you don’t have your cell phone around you?

Then you might have nomophobia, a fear of being without a cellphone.

The word nomophobia was first used to describe the symptoms of certain people. People felt anxious and nervous without having their cell phone. Now I thought this was too silly to believe. However, my term of communication seems to be very different with kids these days. One, there are multiple communication method other than phone and face to face interaction.

Now there are facebook, skype, and other communication tool. And slowly, each communication tool is being specialized in our daily life. I have also seen the commercial with this woman with a buisness suits saying in a commercial that she never leaves her phone away from her.

I was able to live for 3 days without a phone because I had facebook and other tools to talk to. I actually dont see the need of phone.

Nomophobia — fear of being without your phone — is on the rise – latimes.com

What do you think?

America’s New Stand On Climate Change

The other day I read this article on the current standings of global warming http://topics.nytimes.com/top/news/science/topics/globalwarming/index.html. It was a pretty interesting read for me, as my final project has to do with science communications relating to global warming.  This article reiterates the fact that a mounting body of scientific research shows that greenhouse gas emissions continue to rise as a result of human activity. Study of these greenhouse gasses has allowed an indication to be made of a trend in their emissions and at this point scientists fear that it will be extremely difficult to preempt tremendous climate change in the future. With that being said the United States is spearheading an entirely new international effort aimed at reducing these greenhouse emissions.

Researchers show why music is so addictive

In this article, they explain why it may feel like you are ‘addicted’ to music. It turns out that listening to music releases dopamine, which is the chemical released in our brain that makes us want to repeat things that we have previously done. It s also why drugs are also something that people get addicted to. While listening to music that you enjoy, your brain is stimulated by what it is listening to, creating a body response like chills. 

Not only does this explain why some people say that they can’t live without music, but it also explains why music has been around for ages, according to the article.

I thought that the biological explanation was fascinating, since I am one of those people that can’t live without music in my life.  

Man’s Best Friend

            For as long as I can remember my family has always had a dog living with us in the house. Arriving at this realization got me to start to think about why we as human beings generally accept having a different species live amongst us in our homes.  As it turns out the earliest archaeological evidence of the domestication of dogs dates all the way back to China in 7000BC. Scientists have also determined by comparing the proportions of grey wolf haplotypes to modern dogs that the Middle East is the most probable location of the origins of initial domestication of dogs. This early form of domestication probably begun with the domestication of orphaned wolf cubs that studies have shown is possible to be done before a cub is twenty one days old. Over time the DNA of wolves and dogs split giving humans the opportunity to domesticate and cross breed dogs to use as guard animals and beasts of burden. This cross breeding based upon favorable attributes yielded dogs with increasingly juvenile characteristics that prompt cross species protective behavior in most adult mammals, including humans. 

The Thin Line between Genius and Insanity

Working for the Smithsonian Natural History Museum this semester, I’ve met a lot of scientists at the top of their fields.  They all have one thing in common: they’re slightly insane.  Whether only insane people choose to work for the museum or working for the museum slowly makes you crazy is still unclear to me.  One thing is certain though–nearly everyone I’ve met there is more eccentric than your average non-scientist.  A few of their eccentricities include making a hobby out of macerating road kill to clean their skeletons (so as not to waste a good specimen) and enjoying memorizing Latin binomial nomenclature to a ridiculous degree.  Not to mention a generally odd sense of humor which is at times morbid.

I find it interesting that this personality type is often correlated with a career in science.  I wonder what it is is about science that attracts these weirdos (which I say completely affectionately and knowing I probably am or am on my way to becoming just as eccentric).

Final Project

I am going to deviate from our blogs standard of operation and ask a question not related to a science article. My question is regarding the final project we have been working on for the past 3-4 weeks. I would, by no stretch of the imagination, call myself a scholarly writer. Putting words to paper has always been a weakness of mine. However, this project has attempted, whether successful or not, to help break some of my bad habits. Thanks to my project group members I have been able to see, understand, and incorporate several different types of writing. I feel this will have a beneficial influence on me in the rest of my academic career. My question is what other people think of the processes involved with this final project, do you think they have helped you in the long run? I ask because I’m not sure if everything we did as a group had a helpful benefit to it. My group met a lot and on some occasions spent upwards to 11 or 15 hours with each other hammering out parts of the paper. Other times we would meet when we could, whether it was for 1 or 3 hours. I’m curious to know if other groups had the same experience and whether they thought more or less time focusing on the subject is beneficial. I know we will write about all of this in our reflective writing, but I was just curious about what other people thought of the project.

DC’s Derranged Birds

I have always thought birds were sweet little creatures like just tweeted around the town.  Well, coming to DC this year my whole perception of birds changed.  It is like they are a whole other species compared to the normal birds I grew up with. I have been scared on many occasions because I think these tiny feathered animals are going fly straight into me until it swerves last minute and dodges me. It gives me unnecessary anxiety because who knows if one bird is just inept and flies right into.  You never know, it is always possible.

Common knowledge tells me that it must be some sort of food that the birds eat or the culture that were nurtured in. In high school, the birds weren’t deranged but the squirrels definitely were. They would stare you down with their beady little eyes and it’s as if they were going to attack you at any minute. Of course, this gave me as much anxiety as birds darting towards me.

But honestly, based on their habitat why do animals personalities differ.  Clearly these birds and squirrels are less timid, but what made them like this? What makes them so possessed? Please someone help me out on this one.

Dolphins: Cute and Friendly or Rapists and Murderers?

Considered the third most intelligent animals in the world, after humans and chimpanzees, dolphins have long been praised by scientific communities for their superior cognitive abilities. They have been shown to utilize intricate patterns of communication, develop distinct personalities, recognize themselves in a mirror, and perform complicated tricks. The U.S. Navy has even trained them for the use of rescuing lost naval swimmers and locating underwater mines and purportedly, carrying toxic dart guns. Upon learning all of this I had to ask myself what else can they do? Although “extremely high cognitive abilities” may sound positive upon initial mention, further thought leads to the consideration of darker implications; further research proves these implications to be true.

Marine experts are calling it “porpicide”: dophins off the coast of California have been observed and videotaped ganging up on porpoises, ramming them underwater, and drowning them for no apparent reason other than sadism. Ironically, identical injuries have been observed on dead dolphins that have recently washed up on shore.

So, yes, now you know that dolphins can be murderers – but did you also know they could be rapists?  In 2003, an incident occurred involving three male dolphins chasing a female dolphin and forcibly taking her out to sea with them where they then proceeded to take turns violating her. This is not an isolated incident. In the late 1980’s researchers in Shark Bay, Western Australia, recorded abductions of female bottlenose dolphins by male bottlenoses, usually in groups of three, for the specific purpose of forcing copulation on them. Dr. Richard Connor, a marine biologist studying dolphins in Western Australia, has also documented cases of male kidnappers and holding females captive, sometimes for months at a time.

This can come as no suprise. If dolphins are really supposed to be nearly as smart as man, then they must possess almost all of human intelligence: both the good and bad. Needless to say, I will be sticking with the pool this summer.

Electronic Skin

The article “Electronic Skin” presents an electronic device created by John Rogers and the other scientists part of his lab. This device, in the form of something like a temporary tattoo, has the ability to record data about your health: “Placed on a forehead, the device can record brainwaves; on the wrist, blood flow and muscle movement. On the skin of sick patients, it can track vital signs and watch for problems, replacing the bulky equipment usually found in hospitals. And stuck to the throat, it can function as a secret cell phone, activated by the movements of a person’s voice box.” It can even be placed near the heart, where it will pick up information about heartbeats. 

With the size being close to that of a postage stamp, its thickness of half a paper, and its ability to be flexible like the skin, it’s barely felt by the person who has it on them.  

This opens up numerous possibilities- some that are mentioned in the article include the ability to record the brainwaves of a person with epileptic seizures and it can identify throat movements while someone is speaking (helpful for deep-sea divers and spies). With this device, the larger machines may not be necessary.

The article even took it outside of the health world. Coleman says, “If we can monitor the brain signals between teachers and students who are interacting, then maybe we can learn the extent to which they understand each other. That could revolutionize education and training. It’s easy to imagine the possibilities. And if we don’t imagine, then what are we doing?”

It’s crazy what technological innovations have provided for us- I can’t believe how far technology has taken us and how much further it will take us in the future.  

The power of the self-fufilling Prophecy

Have you ever had a book or movie, article or anecdote inspire a wave of self-revelation? I think everyone experiences these unexpected epiphanies, and I’m sure most people would agree with me when I say how surprising it is where they lead you. Walking out of a movie with a friend tonight, we got around to exchanging fatalist philosophies and questions. These musings led me to, of course, a google search, and then to a study released a few years ago by the American Psychological Society, called ”Self-Fulfilling Prophecies: The Synergistic Accumulative Effect of Parents’ Beliefs on Children’s Drinking Behavior.” 

The study involved 115 parents and their seventh-grade children. At the beginning of the year researchers administered a survey asking the parents what they predicted in terms of their children’s drinking patterns for the upcoming 12 months. After the year had passed they collected responses from the kids, asking about their drinking over that time period. Ultimately, the results showed that parents assessed the alcohol use beyond the predicted risk-factors- something that researchers identified as the self-fufilling prophecy effect.

Although the study was very narrow in it’s focus, the questions raised and the results found are incredibly applicable and thought-provoking. As it turned out, parents who overestimated their children’s drinking habits had the strongest self-fuffilling effect. By contrast, parents who underestimated their children’s drinking habits did not have as dramatic an effect. I think that many of us wonder, particularly at our age when there is such a heavy emphasis on our future, to what degree do our assertions alter the direction of our lives? What we do not always consider, and perhaps wrongly so, is the effect that other people’s expectations have on the decisions we make. 

A review of the study suggested its implications in terms of the negative stereotypes that surround certain groups, particularly certain age groups such as adolescents. Although a certain behavior must initiate perceived characteristics, perhaps these stereotypes are as perpetuated by those who perceive certain individuals as they are by those individuals themselves. Perhaps the way we act at each stage of our lives is dictated not by free-will, but by a subliminal influence of those whose expectations we interact with on a day-to-day basis. If some behavior is expected of you by an overwhelming majority of people, even if it is negative, irrational, or irresponsible behavior, do you not, on some level, feel obligated to act accordingly? 

I cannot think of a group of people to who this is more relevant. In college, we are exposed to so many conflicting expectations and standards. There are those of our parents, which by all means vary with each individual. There are those of our peers, which, again, when broken down, depend entirely on those friends we surround ourselves with. In a way, I think it is very much a domino effect; one action can attract attention from a certain kind of person, whose influence can lead to more actions, either of a similar or entirely different nature. 

Not to freak anybody out, I know I get really overwhelmed as is, but I think it’s important to take a careful look at the environments we’re in, how the opinions of others influence our own priorities, and how these priorities, particularly at such a crucially developmental stage, might shape our futures. What do you guys think? Do you find yourself responding more to your own expectations or to those of the people in your life? At what point do you leave it all to chance, to your own self-fufilling prophecy, or to the prophecy of others? Just some food for thought; here’s the article if you’d like to read more! http://www.psychologicalscience.org/media/releases/2005/pr050103.cfm