Anatomy

Scott Pletcher, a molecular biologist from the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, conducted an experiment that held some interesting results. Pletcher experimented on fruit flies and found that by eliminating their sense of smell the flies actually lived a 20% longer lifespan than their peers. It sounds pretty strange, but Scientists have linked the sense of smell with aging. They have also linked food with aging. They found that if a monkey, mouse, yeast, and people, consume less food than they have a longer lifespan, and it lessens the chances of disease.
The odd thing about this experiment was that the change in smell only affected the female fruit flies. Pletcher and his crew haven’t been able to figure out why it was only the females that live longer. They did find that it was the smell of CO2 that causes a rapid aging in fruit flies and they want to discover what specific smell causes it in mammals.

Questions: Do you think this is possible that the smell of a certain thing actually causes you to age? And if it does than what smell do you think causes people to age?

Site: http://www.newscientist.com/article/dn18800-sense-of-smell-makes-flies-time-fly.html

From: http://hsc.unm.edu/som/psychiatry/neuro/images/brain.jpg

Did you know that when we learn things our brain makes us forget it, on purpose. Our short-term memory and little details we forget are all part of our brains network. You know how sometimes you forget something that just happened. Or how everyone remembers something a little different. Such as if there’s an accident and there’s 20 witnesses none of them are going to remember the exact same thing, because as soon as they saw something there brain began making them forget things which id did not find to be important. The thing that makes you forget so much is a little protein called Rac.
This research was found by a group of researchers from several universities around China. They found this out by testing flies with smells, when the protein Rac was blocked the flies retained their memories longer. They also discovered that cases such as mental retardation have to do with mutations in the Rac pathway.
I never knew that our brain deleted our own memories. In fact I don’t think I ever thought about why we loose our short-term memory.

Have you ever had a problem from you Rac deleting your memories? What do you think it would be like if we had no Rac and remembered every little detail imaginable?

Site: http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2010/02/100218125149.htm

Normally when people think of summer camp among other things they think of cutting yourselves with a knife, stepping on a glass bottle in the sand, burning themselves while roasting marshmallows, tripping over a rock and scraping their knee. Although children get injured all the time, a child is less likely to get injured at summer camp than if they didn’t go to summer camp. Regularly children run around, get dirty and end up stubbing their toe or getting hurt daily, but statistics show children are less likely to get injured at summer camp.

The number of injuries of children playing on the playground and those of children playing sports surpass those of children at summer camp. The statistics of children injuring themselves prove this, its safer for a kid to be at camp, except for if a child is at a camp that lasts longer than 2 weeks. Children at summer camp for longer than 2 weeks are more likely to get injured than those playing sports or swinging at the swings on the playground.

This is very interesting who would of thought summer camp was a better plastic bubble than being at home. Do you think this applies to everyone, Is this study accurate? If you believe it accurate why would a child be less likely to get hurt at summer camp?

The site with this information:

http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2009/12/091208162829.htm

Everyone is afraid of something. A phobia of some kind, in a recent survey of Americans this is what they found. From numbers 1-10, 10 being the least of the top phobias and 1 being the scariest thing to Americans today.

Number 10

The fear of going to the Dentist:  Although I think the dentist office smells so bad that it makes me want to puke most people have other thoughts about it. About 14.5 percent of Americans are completely afraid of going to the dentist. They will wait until the pain is so excruciating that someone else has to drag them there, before they step foot into that office. This is mainly due to a previous terrible experience with the dentist or just the fear of the idea of having a bunch of shiny tools in your mouth that can cause you great pain. This fear is called dental phobia.

Number 9

The fear of Dogs:  People deeply suffering from cynophobia may run at the site of a Chihuahua. As funny as this seems, its actually kind of sad. It can develop from being bitten by a dog or witnessing someone else getting bitten. Or you could just never of been near a dog and have no idea how to act around them.

Number 8

The fear of flying:  The Odds of dieing in a car crash are 1:100, the odds of dieing from heart disease are 1:5, and the odds of in a plane crash are 1:20,000. As extremely in favor of the safety of flying compared to driving a car and happening to get a disease there are still 25 million people in the U.S.A. who suffer from aviophobia and will never at all costs get into a plane. The reasons are the fear of dieing in a plane crash and claustrophobia.

Number 7

The fear of Thunder and Lightening:  Severe Weather Phobia holds 73% of the populace of a college in a panic. These people are just afraid they’re palms sweat, their heart rate increases, they may have meltdowns when they come into contact with thunder and lightening.

Number 6

The fear of the dark:  Every kid has had nightmares of some creepy goblin creature coming out and attacking them as soon as the lights go out. But is this fear grows to extremes and stays with them it is soon called nyctophobia.

Number 5

The fear of heights:  Not to be confused with Mrs. Heitz. Acrophobia holds most the populace. If looking off a tall building freaks you out and you want to grab onto something it means you have this phobia.

Number 4

The fear of people:  This is social phobia. It’s the fear of public speaking and not only that but just speaking in front of a few people. Symptoms of this fear include blushing, shaking, stuttering, or just the feeling of wanting to hide in a hole. It’s very common. Most people have this.

Number 3

The fear of no escape:  Not everyone can be a Houdini. 1.8 million Americans suffer from agoraphobia. Its like claustrophobia, except it doesn’t even have to be a small room. People with this fear avoid places like elevators, sporting events, bridges, public transportation, driving, shopping malls and airplanes. They rarely leave their home, do not like traveling in cars and hate crowded areas with a passion.

Number 2

The fear of spiders:  Arachnophobia can be intense. Screaming at the site of a giant spider such as that in Harry Potter or Lord of the Rings is understandable. But Arachnophobia can get intense to the point of screaming at a picture of a spider.

The Number 1

The fear of snakes:  Most people are afraid of snakes. Ophidiophobia is understandable too because researchers say that it may be imprinted into our very nature. One that was extremely helpful during the Stone Age, a very important contributing fact to our survival as humans.

Well there you have it. Everyone is afraid of something, are you afraid of any of the top ten? What do you think would be number eleven on the list of phobias?

To visit the site I got my information from see:

http://www.livescience.com/culture/091023-top10-fear.html

A handful of dirt can contain 10,000 species of bacteria, so what if they told you antibodies were could be made from dirt. Dirt is disgusting packed full of bacteria but it has been the key to finding the antibodies to fight against that bacteria. We have only been using 1% of those microbial bugs to make antibodies. That is because Scientists have found it difficult to analyze the DNA on the other 99% of the microbial bugs. Researchers at Rockefeller University have been able to extract the genetic material from dirt and have been able to analyze the DNA, so now they can have access to many previously unknown organic compounds. They have already found two potential antibiotics.

Over time bacteria grows and changes providing resistance to antibodies, but at the same time bacteria can be monitored so that new antibodies can be produced. These researchers at the Rockefeller University have found a way to find the DNA codes so that they can make an antibody against it. This is really a break though for science because before this scientists have only had antibodies for 1% of the bacteria but now they can have it for much more.

What do you think? Will scientists ever be able to find antibodies for even at least 10% of the bacterium? Bacteria is always growing and evolving so do you think its even worth it to track bacteria and try to come up with new antibodies all the time?

To Visit my site:

http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2008/11/081111211446.htm