The World of Ebooks

Recently, I saw a person reading an ebook. I have never seen an ebook before and to see a person actually using it in daily life was simply fascinating. I approached the person and asked cordially, "Is that an e-book that you are reading?" The person gave me an uneasy glance as if to suggest that I had no business in knowing what she was reading and nodded. I ended the conversation with an awkward "Oh..." and went away. It was interesting to see such a response because I remembered an article in NY times talking about a similar incidence. With the development of ebooks, the author of the article was able to notice less communication. People will no longer know what other people are reading. When a person is reading a paper book, some other people may look at the cover and think about reading that book in the future. I think this is one of the tragic results of development of technology. Technologically advanced devices have given people individual spaces that other people cannot invade. Though privacy is a valuable asset one can possess, people in this technologically advanced days have become less communicative and less social. Another thing that I am worried about ebooks is the strain the screen causes on the eyes. Increased usage and indispensability of computer have already caused failing eyesight in many people. Now, even a book is a type of computer screen? There are certainly countless benefits to ebook. Ebooks are more sanitary and easier to carry around. However, I don't want the paper book disappear because of advancement and spread of ebook. There is something magical about the smell of new book and the feeling of papers flipping through your fingertips that give meaning to reading. And as long as people remember such sensation when reading a paper book, I don't think paper book would vanish because of ebook's domination.

Mirror Movements

I remember when I was young, I used to play "mirror movements" with my sister. In this game, my sister and I would stand in front of each other and pretend that we are the mirror images of the other person. Therefore, after deciding who gets to go first, one person would make ridiculous poses and funny dance movements just to watch the other person follow you with laughter. Recently, Ed Yong and Neurophilosophy both posted a review about a recent scientific article that caused congenital mirror movements. It was surprising to find out there was a disease actually related to mirror movement within an individual's body. In 2002, a Chinese man who is suffering from mirror movement disorder could not enter the military. A gene called DCC was found to be the culprit for this disease. The basic background of this disease is that, a person cannot effectively transfer messages between the left and the right hemispheres due to a defect in the corpus callosum, a white matter connecting the two hemispheres. It is amazing and tragic at the same that that a single letter substitution in a gene sequence can cause such a huge change within a human body.

The Flaw with Merit in the Model: A Blog Response to Eamus Catuli’s “The flaw in the model”

Even though I am not an economist or a businesswoman, I know for sure that the economy of the United States has gone bad. The unemployment rate is lower than ever and the citizens of America are tightening their belts as they work on the long forgotten term: frugality. What happened to us? Is it really because capitalism failed in our country? Eamus Catuli brings up an argument about the failure of capitalism which he believes to be the reason for our current economic sufferings. Greed, he says, is the reason for capitalism’s failure.

Catuli’s criticism toward capitalism is mainly based on ethical principle of virtue. Ethical principle of virtue focuses on decisions that promote good habits of character such as altruism and selflessness. According to Catuli, capitalism, on the other hand, promotes self-interest and greed, meaning that the system seriously neglects virtuous ethics. The blog post starts off with a medieval example of loans without interest and contrasts it with capitalistic bank system—-an obvious demonstration of self-interest. Another example refers to heinous acts of head figures of major capitalist institutions as they demand huge salaries and bonuses at the expense of their own companies’ financial crisis—-a classic case of greed. What capitalistic society refers to as “demand,” Catuli translates it as greed which equals to one of the “seven deadly sins.” And as people attempt to survive in capitalistic society where people’s successes are measured by materialization of “greed,” they slowly learn to lose virtue and adapt to live according to greed.

True, capitalism is, simply put, not nice. It is the world of survival of the fittest. It is a society where niceness often gets manipulated by the greedy hands. But, should capitalism be completely responsible for the mess in today’s financial crisis simply because it failed to teach us how to be nice? I mean, socialism may have been nicer, but it failed in many countries throughout history and they converted to capitalism for a change. Also, there were times when the United States was ecstatic over booms in economy such as in the 1920s (the Roaring Twenties—-well, before the stock markets crashed) and 1950s (it wasn’t just the babies that boomed around that period). So I am guessing that capitalism doesn’t just teach self-interest and greed, but it teaches people something else as well. It teaches people about their rights and duties as an individual. It may fail to teach people to give up some portion of their greed for the benefit of the society. But it teaches other valuable virtues such as endeavor and work ethics for the demands in life.

Following Catuli’s arguments based on the ethical values, one can evaluate capitalism based on ethical principle of rights and duties. Interestingly, the ethical principle of rights and duties is implicitly based on morality. This principle encourages decisions that respect what others are entitled to and/or people’s duties to protect those rights. Rights and duties are interrelated concepts; rights of one person indicate other person’s duties. Catuli mainly focuses on the rights and duties for the others which is quite apparent in his admiration for the ascetic life (demonstrated by Catuli’s examples of saints: Buddha, Gandhi, Jesus, St. Francis, and Mother Teresa). Indeed, these saints are truly admirable. But Catuli should also realize that people have rights and duties for their own lives. People have rights to gain happiness and one way happiness can come is through financial profit. If that is the case, loans with interest might be the perfect system that fulfills both rights of an individual and duty for the others. Through adding an interest, the lender is profiting to some extent for his or her personal gain and at the same time, fulfilling the duty to help the borrower who may be needing money immediately. A win-win situation!

Another way to view capitalism is through the perspective of ethical principle that is based on utilitarianism. Ethical principle of utilitarianism stresses decisions that can bring about the maximum benefit to a maximum number of people. There are two types of utilitarianism based on whether they are the actions or the rules that determine the outcome. Catuli brings up an example of failure in capitalistic society in terms of act utilitarian principle.

We now have heads of key capitalist institutions demanding huge salaries and bonuses even as they destroy their companies, their clients’ investments and their employees’ pension funds.

Once again, greed and self-interest made these heads of capitalist institutions to become blind to the harms stemming from self-interest. They took actions that will benefit only themselves and few others and at the expense of harming the other majority of the people.

Additionally, Catuli belittles Smith’s idea of “invisible hand” and its proclaimed function as the rule utilitarian measure to regulate the forces of excessive self-interest. The abstract concept of the “invisible hand” cannot function well in a capitalistic society because unlike Smith’s intention of increasing the ratio of sympathy, self-interest will always shadow sympathy people feel for the others. Moreover, since people’s success hinges on financial profit, people in capitalistic society have come to accept the misconduct of big bankers or the CEOs as something to be tolerated, or worse, something to be justified.

If that is the case, to some extent, excessive capitalism, a.k.a. greed, is the reason for today’s financial crisis. Granted, those big bankers or CEOs may simply be claiming their rights as they ask for compensation for the high positions that they hold in a society. Usually, in order to reach the top tiers of the social pyramid, much effort, much brain effort, is required whether it be high educational level or great amount of intellectual experience. Such privilege is not something everyone can have. However, if the company or the economy comes to a crash because of the “better” ones’ greed, these “better” ones who gained some amount of temporary cash-success will eventually be affected. And such result will be un-utilitarian for those individuals as well.

Perhaps, in general, the concept of virtue is indispensable when it comes to ethical principles. The core of Catuli’s argument is based on virtue which he considers as the epitome of human value. He even ends his essay with this note: live for what really matters. It is great to live for virtue. Virtue is what really makes human beings different from other species. Human beings have the capability to suppress and regulate natural instincts for something more classy and noble. However, Catuli argues that capitalism forces people to choose something more instinctive, something easier like greed and self-interest. And since capitalism failed to promote ethical principles of virtue, the major concept that influences the other ethical principles, it may have failed in many dimensions regarding ethics.

But there is one distinction to be made in Catuli’s arguments: there are basic, biological human demands that must be satisfied such as food, clothing, and shelter before one can think about ways to live morally. And these necessities are “demands” in life that is inevitable, indispensable and inherent. To equalize the concept of demand and greed might be asking too much for people who are not so spiritual like the saints Catuli mentions. Capitalism urges people to endeavor for the demands in life. If all the demands in life were fulfilled easily, people will be more prone to be selfless.

Unfortunately, that is not true in today’s society for we have to cope with limited resources. This brings up another point: easy attainment of demand may encourage people to become lazy. Therefore, the downside to complete elimination of greed may lead to sloth which is also one of the “seven deadly sins.” Greed is a side-effect from the system that has to work with limited resources and excessive demands. Thus, capitalism may have inevitably caused greed and self-interest to dominate over compassion and altruism. Nonetheless, the original purpose was to promote endeavor and hard work to people with the motivation of earning the needed “demand.”

In essence, capitalism, too, started out with virtuous intents. It is a system that makes people believe in their rights, perform necessary duties to the others, endeavor and work for personal pursuit of happiness. What Catuli sees today is the result of excessive endeavor and a workaholic fight to make ends meet and reach further for the ultimate personal happiness that advances with time as people aim for higher goals. I agree that today, with serious financial crisis, we need to restrain excessive capitalism. As Catuli recommends, enforcing semi-socialism may be a rule-utilitarian solution to rein in capitalism that has gone too far. And Catuli may be right—-perhaps it is time to pay attention to less-prioritized virtues like taking-one-for-the-team.

Nonetheless, condemning capitalism based on its loss of more spiritual virtues is extreme. Every system has side effects. It would be too ideal to believe that a system with perfect moral values exists.

Perhaps Catuli should give capitalism a break. There are flaws in the system, but there are also valid merits. And who knows? The “invisible hand” might just be working its magic as it builds up upon its previous errors. And that “invisible hand” might just be people’s greed to re-build a better ground for another competitive capitalism that can satisfy people’s self interest and stabilize the economy simultaneously.

The 21st Century McCarthyism: the Spread of Anti-Vaccination Movement

The process of vaccination is that people are injected with small, innocuous amounts of specific virus in order to help them form immunity against that virus. This is how human bodies work to protect themselves from viruses and diseases that invade their bodies—-we form immunity against those invaders after we get the taste of them (well, at least the ones that we can fight off). And with this incredible innovation in medicine, human beings have benefited from vaccination for more than two centuries.

Granted, vaccination was not without controversy; it was deemed inappropriate for different reasons since its birth—-religious, ethical, or safety-related. Therefore, it may not be a surprise to see another phenomenal anti-vaccination movement (considering its cycle) arising in the 21st century with yet another interesting head figure named Jenny McCarthy. Jenny McCarthy, an ex-Playboy model, an actress, and the “mother warrior,” is the leading heroine who firmly believes that vaccination causes autism. I’m sure her intentions are genuine, stemming from motherly love. Nevertheless, I must also ponder the oddity of such spread of misinformation in today’s society which we proudly call the Age of Information.

As there is small, but significant growth in non-vaccination, public health officials are becoming worried. The CDC is making an attempt to clarify the misconceptions through carefully explaining the process of vaccination. Also, countless scientific-minded bloggers have explained the misleading arguments that McCarthy presented in her interviews and books. There are three main McCarthy arguments that many people tend to believe: “toxins,” intense “toxins” injection schedule and side-effects.

Many scientific-minded bloggers have already made excellent and hilarious rebuttals about her ideas. Orac summarizes his counterarguments concisely regarding “toxins” which McCarthy believes to be the cause of autism. Steven Novella refutes McCarthy’s and her ex-boyfriend Jim Carrey’s argument about harms involved with too much vaccination injected into young children’s body. CDC explains the potential of side effects of all the vaccinations and the high unlikelihood of getting extreme side-effects. By the way, autism is not even part of vaccinations’ side effect; studies have shown that vaccination does not cause autism quite clearly. So why are people misled when there are resources to clarify their doubts?

Through the advancement of the internet, obtaining information has become easier than ever (just google it). Perhaps such ease in getting information may have given people a double-edged sword as they are bombarded with diverse information. It has become hard to figure out which information is correct because everybody sounds so convincing! And one of the reasons why people can be easily misinformed is that they choose to believe in information that is more palatable and easy to understand. Moreover, parents of autistic children who support anti-vaccination are desperate to find a cure for their children. They want to believe that there is a cause to their children’s illnesses and eventually a cure.

Our society is basically motion without memory, which, of course, is one of the clinical definitions of insanity.

This is how James Billington, the thirteenth librarian of the United States Congress, describes our society in a too-much information age. In fact, many critiques are realizing people’s diminishing attention span as they flip through (no, scroll through) enormous amounts of information on-line. And we don’t peruse it—-we skim it! Nick Carr mentions a research article done by researchers in University College London whose result many can agree.

Internet research shows that the speed of young people’s web searching means that little time is spent in evaluating information, either for relevance, accuracy or authority.

We generalize what we skim through and mash them up with other information to create a whole entire meaning or perhaps no meaning at all. The fact is that we are not allowing ourselves to become analytical readers, but training ourselves to be impulsive readers. Such impulsive reading is spurring people to make impulsive conclusions such as vaccination is the cause of autism.

And what creates such impulse? Stimulating stories! No matter how much scientists and doctors cry out the importance of vaccination, people still find it dubious after watching, say, the Oprah Show, or say, reading Mother Warriors: A Nation of Parents Healing Autism Against All Odds by Jenny McCarthy. It is true that watching Oprah talk with McCarthy about McCarthy’s heart-wrenching stories of her son’s ailment is much more entertaining compared to listening to pedantic, preachy and pathetic-looking doctors. Moreover, reading CDC’s explanation about vaccination is far less influential than McCarthy’s empowering, though batty, story of hope and optimism toward the cure of disease that medical advocates dismiss as incurable.

It is easy to target doctors because it seems highly unlikely that they will understand the plight of parents with autistic children. Doctors sit at the top of the social pyramid, make millions of dollars and play safe for the sake of their golden jobs. Many times, doctors would tell various side effects and potential causes often related to family history—-genetics. The fact that there is some correlation (or worse, causation) to genetics for the disease their children are going through will make the parents feel only guiltier and more hurt. In an attempt to find salvation for their undeserved guilt, it is possible that they found vaccination as their villain. To these parents, finding the cause is just as important as finding the cure. The cause will eventually lead to the cure. Moreover, the cause will exempt them from self-deprecation. Watch this youtube clip from an episode of Doctors. Parents who believe vaccination to be the cause of autism would not hear a word from the doctors and the doctors’ urge to promote vaccination.

People become short-sighted when it comes to accepting something negative happening to yourself, not to mention happening to your own children. The small, safe amount of vaccine seems “toxic” when it is injected into your skin. Words like “autism” and “side-effects” catch your eyes more powerfully compared to the words describing the benefits. What pierces your heart is McCarthy’s unfounded theories dressed up with 30-second close-up of tear-brimmed eyes of a ludicrous yet loving mother. What relieves parents of autistic children is the bashing of vaccination as the cause of all evil rather than facing the truth. Finally, what matters to parents is protecting their children even if that means they have to take the anti-vaccination stance.

What these parents need to know is that currently there is no known cure for autism. However, there are treatment options that can improve autistic children’s behaviors and communication skills. Accusing vaccination as the cause of all evil and preventing autistic children from receiving any vaccination will not only jeopardize their health, but also endanger the health of their community. Vaccination works as a team-play; if a significant number of people within a community are vaccinated against a specific illness, there is less chance that the whole community will become sick, an effect called community or herd immunity. This means that the opposite is also true—-if significant amount of people are not vaccinated, the community as a whole is susceptible to disease in question. A recent study done with Hutterite group in Canada with H1N1 vaccination again emphasizes the importance of vaccination as the best way to prevent an illness for you and your community.

It is important that people see beyond the massive information in the internet, touching anecdote of a good-looking mother warrior, and the necessity to target something for the cause of their beloved children. Though less attractive and less acceptable, people need to heed to medical voice over celebrity appeal in order to make medically safe decisions for their children.

By choosing valid information in the internet such as information posted in the CDC website (which is run by the government), reading the site carefully before coming to a decision, and talking to their doctors, parents will be able to form medically safer decisions for their children. Lastly, although autism does have significant correlation to genetics, parents should not beat themselves too hard for their children’s illnesses, not to mention targeting the cause at unrelated matters such as vaccination. The most important step for parents with autistic children is to find the best treatment option for the children and help them maintain a healthy and meaningful life.

Now is the time to wrap up 21st century’s cycle of vaccination controversy. Anti-vaccination advocates must put on prescribed lenses of scientific truth to look beyond their myopically skewed views. If not, maybe this time they may have no other scapegoat to victimize other than themselves.

Chcolate Addiction

As finals week kick in, students hibernate in the libraries with few absolute essentials other than materials related to studying. Cup of coffee, energy drink, energy bars, and chocolates! Being a chocolate and a caffeine addict myself especially during stressful times, it is quite unsettling to see a study that indicates strong correlation between depression and chocolate consumption. Out of stubbornness or not, I deny to believe that truth because chocolate love does not translate into depression for me and this news will only make chocolate lovers more depressed.

Stephen Hawking and the Aliens

An interesting event happened in the field of astrology that caught the world's attention. Stephen Hawking, the world-renowned British astrobiologist, supported the possibility of extraterrestrial lives and their potential threat to the Earth. My first response to this news was laughter. It's not that I think Hawking's theory is ludicrous (I know for sure that he is way more intelligent than I am), but it was comical that such a scientific minded person would talk about a topic that is easily dismissed as crazy should some other normal person talk about it. Responses vary in the blogosphere. But many seem to just laugh it away. David Ng talks about how the astrobiologists took the news--chuckle and then indifference. I think the 21st century citizens of the planet Earth is too busy focusing on the current Earth life to think about the extraterrestrials floating around the universe to find the next colony.

Power of Music

Music governs my life. I believe MP3 players to be one of the greatest innovations in human history. Without music my life would be devoid of color, happiness, and creativity. And I believe the importance of music is something many people can agree without doubt. An interesting blog about music and its influence in brain activity was posted in a South Korean website. The blog post was based off of an episode from National Geographics. When people hear music that is exciting to the point of making them jumpy and full of energy, that means that music is stimulating the release of dopamine in their brain. Moreover, music brings back memories related to that music. Cognitive Daily also introduces a study that demonstrates the power of music which can affect viewer's character evaluations in a film. I don't think human beings can live without music. It makes us move, it makes us remember, it makes us feel--all the qualities that make us human!

Multitaskers

While in a lecture, it is more interesting to observe what people are doing instead of paying attention to the monotonous and droning voice of a professor. If you allow yourself to sit at the back of the classroom, you can get an open view of other people's distraction. Shopping on-line, Facebooking, eating, drinking Red Bulls, Youtubing, etc. Whew~! These people are spectacular multi-taskers. And with the advancement of digital age, becoming a multi-tasker is a requirement or you won't be able to compete with others with such limited time that we are given. But, how much can we multitask? How much can we perform well in the middle of multitasking? Ed Yong gives a nice overview of our brain in the middle of multi-tasking. Referring to a study done by a Parisian scientist, Ed Yong summarizes that...

They have found that the part of our brain that controls out motivation to pursue our goals can divide its attention between two tasks. The left half devotes itself to one task and the right half to the other. This division of labour allows us to multi-task, but it also puts an upper limit on our abilities.

All in all the study suggests that the most multitasking projects that we can engage in is two. Ahh... I agree, it gets hard when you are trying to eat, call someone, and write a report all at the same time.

Your Heart Won't Allow It

These days when you watch television shows, extramarital affairs seem like a stage in marriage relationships that is painful, yet normal. Plus, then there is the dramatic depiction of progress of those affairs which usually justifies such unforgivable act. Well, Vaughan at Mind Hacks gives another good reason to think again before falling into extramarital love affairs--you can die from a heart attack. There was a case report in the Journal of Forensic and Legal Medicine reporting a death of a women who had a heart attack while having sex with her non-husband. Read further here. Even though your desire may ignore the guilt involved with the affair, your heart will not, according to this study.

The "House" Effect

I am a big fan of HOUSE M.D. series. Hugh Laurie gives an amazing portrayal of a misanthropic, miserable, yet genius Dr. House. An interesting article I read about media's influence on patients appeared in Yahoo News. This article was arguing that the ethical issues portrayed in Dr. House may have a negative effect on the viewers. If you have watched a single episode of House, you will realize that Dr. Gregory House is not so big on keeping the rules or following the ethical standards. Yet, he is respected by his colleagues and loved by many viewers.

A 2008 survey of medical and nursing students conducted by researchers at the Berman Institute of Bioethics at Johns Hopkins University found that 65% of nursing students and 76% of medical students watch the program.

For these pre-health career oriented students, they have a better sense of the unrealistic scenarios depicted in the TV medical drama series. How about the regular viewers? What if they really think that there are leeways to hospital regulations and ways to bend medical staff's ethics? And are these exaggerated, yet amazingly interesting TV series always going to have a negative effect? I was surprised not to see the article mentioning some of the specific negative results from the "House" effect. Instead it said:

Still, a co-author of the new JME study, Ruth Faden, who is the director of the Berman Institute of Bioethics, says there isn't much evidence to support a negative "House effect" in real-life medical settings. She cites a 2002 report in the European Journal of Emergency Medicine as the closest to showing misconceptions about medical-procedure expectations derived from fictionalized TV depictions: in that study, researchers surveyed 820 young adults about their TV-consumption habits, knowledge about cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR) and their expectation of survival of a patient who undergoes CPR in the hospital. The survey found that people who watched medical dramas were more likely than people who didn't to overestimate survival rates for patients needing CPR.

So, does this mean that as long as the viewers have the discretion not to follow the unethical deeds of the characters, the "House" effect can be positive? Yes, quite possibly. By raising commonly misled medical issues like HIV positive women cannot give birth to a healthy child, Grey's Anatomy made an episode that quite successfully clarified the misconception. Sometimes, TV series can be far more effective tool for education purposes because of palatability of information. In that case, TV may not necessarily be an idiot box for us after all.

Maternal Deaths Decline Around the World

WHAT?! There were still that many mothers dying from childbirth in this technology-advanced world? Like women need any more reason to fear child labor! And this article from the NY times says that...

For the first time in decades, researchers are reporting a significant drop worldwide in the number of women dying each year from pregnancy and childbirth, to about 342,900 in 2008 from 526,300 in 1980.

For the first time in decades, it says. Can you believe it? Anyway, because of this positive result of decrease in maternal death, advocates for women's health are urging the politicians to spend more on pregnancy-related health matters. It seems like this progress is a huge one for the safe motherhood movement because there was no impression of progress for twenty years. Well, hopefully, there will be a continuation of decrease in maternal death in the future not only to reduce fear among many women, but also to give birth to a healthy child with a healthy family environment with maternal presence.

William's Syndrome

Recently, science bloggers were talking about an interesting topic in neuroscience. A recent study has brought up an intriguing side to a genetic disease called William's Syndrome. William's syndrome is a genetic disease with a deletion of about 28 genes from chromosome 7. People with William's Syndrome are known to be very sociable and friendly. A new study about William's Syndrome showed that children with Williams do not show racial biases. Most of the time, children show preference to their own ethnicity. However, children with Williams do not. Ed Yong has posted an extensive review about this study. Also, Page 3.14 gives some direction to discussion about this topic.

Tragedy in the Information Age

The advancement of technology has brought amazing convenience in people's lives. I used to dream of talking on the phone and looking at the speaker at the same time through a screen. Well, today I see MP3 players, cells phones with internet services, MSN, etc. These were devices and technology systems that I was only able to dream of during my childhood. Laptops? They were luxuries that only grown-ups-- wealthy grown-ups--can have the privilege of obtaining. Now these dream-devices of my childhood are rather common and essential tools dominating my life. I cannot believe I used to study those long, long hours without my MP3 player or laptop. I do appreciate the popularity and affordability of these amazing devices that govern my life today. However, it is also easy to realize the vices that entails these technological advancements. I blogged about game addiction previously. But for more general negative side effects people suffer, I say lowered concentration range definitely ranks the top five. We are simply overloaded with information today because obtaining information has become easier than ever. Going to the library has become quite unnecessary for many of us, because we can see the PDF files of books and research papers. Claire Evans posted an article about this matter. She mentioned that the plasticity of our brains will sooner or later adapt to the way our computer and technological devices work--fast, multifaceted, ever-changing. One of her concerns that I also agree with is how will this change the way we interact with people?

Now, "like a computer" represents something else entirely: a ceaseless flow of changing, multifaceted, immediately accessible information-particles -- and all the distraction that entails. It's possible that plasticity of our brains allows us to adapt to these factors, but how will that affect the way we think? Or relate to others?

Instead of spending time to talk with a person, we facebook-stalk our interest target. Instead of meeting together face-to-face to talk about a group project, we open a google-chat and maniacally type what we want to talk about without waiting for the other to respond. Meeting with people face-to-face have become time-consuming. Everything is about speed and ease. It is rather sad to realize that too much information, too much comfort, too much speed has brought loss in our ability to wait, ponder and concentrate.

When You Can't Reach for the Stars

There comes a time in our lives when we realize that we will never become the president of the United States, or the Nobel-prize winning scientist, or the world-famous movie star. The dreams that we once dreamed of during our childhood oftentimes vanish wistfully like a mirage as we trod our ways to adulthood. And we wonder in vain, why, then, did the grown-ups tell us that we can become anything that we dream of or to keep our dreams alive? They probably were ahead of us to realize that at one point in our lives reality simply wakes us up. And what is it about reality that makes us give up some parts of our dreams? Among many reasons that I was able to come up with, one dominant one that hit me really hard was the fact that there are better people in the world than me. Jonah Lehrer posted an interesting theory about superstar effect which is a form of mental collapse that people experience when they encounter someone who is simply too perfect to the point where there is no competition. In his blog, an example of superstar was the world-renowned golfer, Tiger Woods. However, we see superstar effect in every sector of our lives. Ever heard of beautiful and smart cheerleader in high school who was adored by everyone? I think the superstar effect has more crippling effect on the others when there is a perfect combination of beauty, smarts and good personality--when that person has everything one can wish for. I honestly do not know how to overcome this effect. The question is what if you just can't reach for that stars? Should you simply be happy with the travel to the star? Maybe, then, it is time to express your extent of positive psychology that I blogged about before. In the view of the Universe, your travel to your pined-for star is just as beautiful and just as shiny and just as small as one among a billion stars among billions of galaxies that it holds.

When You Wish Upon a Star

Indeed, we are so caught up in our own world that it is hard to imagine how minuscule and how insignificant our existence may be compared to the universe and cosmos out there. But, if you have had a chance to look up at the sky and just feel the cosmos staring back at you, you will be amazed at the smallness of the earth and the smallness of yourself. People first thought that the sun revolved around the earth. Then they realized that the earth revolved around the sun. And then they found out that sun is just a star among the billions of other stars in galaxy that revolved around each other. Afterward, people realized that our galaxy is one of many billions in the Universe that is constantly expanding. The more scientist study astronomy, the more they are confused and the more they are surprised by the infinity of the universe. So, when you feel like you are about to explode with your current life, look up in the sky at the darkest hour of the night. What looms as an insurmountable problem will dissipate with time. It's just a small thing happening to a small person in a small earth.

Jenny McCarthy and Jim Carrey Break Up in Twitter

Just found out that McCarthy and Carrey, the Hollywood’s vaccine-causes-autism couple, announced their break-up in Twitter. Will Carrey continue to support McCarthy and her ferocious march against anti-vaccination movement? Hmm…only time will tell. Now that Carrey is slightly distant from McCarthy’s influence, maybe he will re-consider his position about vaccination.

Bowing Bambis

People always dream of an escape, at least I do. Whenever I get too stressed from the inescapable present, I dream of packing up and heading straight to the airport. Destination? It always changes. One day, I’ll be flying to Paris dreaming of walking the halls of the Louvre; some other days, I’ll be staring at the map of New Zealand wondering where the set of the Lord of the Rings must have been. Today, the evanescent shower of the sakura petals led me to daydream my escape to Japan. A recent article in the LA times introduced Japan’s old capital, Nara. Nara has many historical buildings, shrines, and surprisingly… deers! There is a local mythology in this historical city which says that a deity named Takemikazuchi was led by a white deer which guided and protected the deity to arrive to the city safely. Therefore, for the past 1,300 years, deer of Nara has been considered sacred. Naturally, citizens of Nara respect the deers and the deers have become used to such treatment that they roam around the city with liberty—they may follow you to the stores, bathroom, and elevators! However, these Naran deers have also learned to return the favors by bowing down to the people who give them a treat. Therefore, in this city, you can see a quite bizarre scene of people and deers bowing back to each other. I guess that’s another thing to check-out when I’m finally free to enjoy my too-long imagined escape.

Mental Illness

Mental illness is, more than often, viewed as a chronic and pathological weirdness. And weirdness frequently sabotages one’s social life. However, despite its weirdness stigmatization, the mental illness rate is increasing world-wide. Depression, anxiety disorder, mood disorder… There are so many mental illnesses increasing these days. Therefore, I think it is a great idea that the new healthcare bill is including mental illness. Many times, mentally ill patients were rejected from health insurance because they were categorized as chronic disease. A recent article from NY times stated that President Obama signed a law that expands parity to much wider pool so that people suffering from illnesses like bipolar disorder, major depression and schizophrenia can get coverage for health insurance. I think this is a great movement; mental illness should definitely be part of the health insurance. Many times, mentally ill people do not have stable occupation because of their illness which makes it more difficult for them to buy the medications. This new healthcare bill is going to work better for them.

Self-Sabotage or Self-Defense?

I once blogged about positive psychology and happiness. Recently, I found an another interesting psychological behavior: sabotaging success. A fairly recent article in the NY times introduces couple of cases in which some people victimize themselves. For example, the man introduced in the article saw himself as the victim of failed love relationship and bad luck with promotion. By defining himself to be an unlucky guy and blaming others around him for causing such bad-luck, the man in the article was placing himself in further misery and self-defeat. I think many people have these symptoms of self-defeating behavior and I can think of a reason why some people stick to this idea. By defining themselves as unlucky, these people are avoiding possible disappointments in their life. The worse thing than a bad news itself is the disappointment. However, if you define yourself as a person who always does not get what he or she wants, then why get disappointed? It’s meant to be! It is a form of escape that many people seek in order to avoid confronting themselves. Oh, typical me! This can be only happening to me! I knew this was going to happen to me. Sound familiar? By victimizing ourselves, we pardon our shortcomings and defects unconsciously. Self-sabotage? Maybe rather masochistic self-defense. But always remember, playing the victim will not change anything.

Coffee Love

At some point in my life, coffee became an essential part of my life. At first, I would douse my coffee with sweet creamers and sugar to eliminate the bitter taste. Now, I like it dark, or rather black, with no creamers (well, maybe with a little bit of sugar). Most of people see coffee as a drink with quite a few negative effects: caffeine to stunt your growth, sleep-disorder, addiction, etc. Despite all these well-known negative effects, coffee is still one of the most beloved drinks in history. If you are black coffee lover like me, be delighted that you have another reason to love your cup of joe. Black coffees have a stomach-friendly chemical called N-methylpyridium (NMP) which blocks the ability of the stomach cells to produce hydrochloric acid and reduce stomach irritation. NMP is created only when the coffee bean is roasted and it is not in raw coffee bean. Thus, dark-roast coffees can be stomach-friendly and morning-friendly for people like me who have sensitive digestive system and crave for caffeine in the morning.

Drinking Before an Exam Is/May Be O.K.?

I met a friend recently who is majoring in film production. As a graduating senior, his workload is heavier than ever. How does he deal with it? Alcohol. At first, I was worried about him because it seems have grown into a habit. Stressed out? Grab a can of beer and relax. However, he seems to be getting more work done when there is a rush of alcohol running through his body. Dependence on alcohols has always been viewed negatively because of the possibility of becoming addicted to it. Especially when it comes to academics, consumption of alcohol and GPA have demonstrated a negative correlation. Well, Christie Wilcox introduces an interesting study done in Boston University about academic performance after drinking. Unlike the common belief that drinking before an exam will lower students’ performance, this study showed that actually there was no change in performance. Although students felt groggy after drinking, their exam scores were not altered, meaning that the day before drinking had not much effect on long term and short term memory. This study should not be utilized as an excuse to binge-drink before a major exam for the purpose of relaxation. The study still did not look at the long term effect of this habit which probably will indicate drinking’s negative effect on academics. Moreover, this study implies that hard work will not easily go away. If you have been studying hard and diligently, storing equations and facts into your long term memory, a one night of alcohol-frenzy may not ruin what you have built up so strong.

Childhood Obesity Starts from the Mother’s Womb

America has been getting heavier for a long time. Supersize Me? Fast Food Nation? Cartoons, artworks, film productions have used perhaps reasonable hyperbole to describe the obesity of the American people. Well, our first lady is stepping up to deal with childhood obesity. Last month, Michelle Obama promised to end childhood obesity in her campaign. Although controlling obesity during childhood is very important, new research indicates that interventions aimed at school-aged children may be too late. One of the interesting findings was the mother determines the child’s BMI during her pregnancy. Studies show that the mother’s womb in the first environment for the fetus and should that first environment be excessively large due to mother’s oversize, the baby will more likely develop diabetes and have BMI higher than normal throughout childhood. This result demonstrates how parents need to be educated about their children’s obesity management and also learn how the mother’s pregnancy period can affect the way the children will grow.

Vaccination Helps You and Your Community

A recent study done in 49 Hutterite farming colonies in western Canada has provided an excellent proof that flu vaccination to schoolchildren protects a whole community from the disease. This study is receiving acclaim due to its incontrovertible evidence. The sample unit was 187 Hutterite communities in Alberta, Saskatchewan and Manitoba. The control group was injected with the flu vaccine and the placebo received hepatitis A vaccine instead. The school children group that actually received the flu vaccine had less than 5 percent getting the disease. However, the placebo group had more than 10 percent who were confirmed with the seasonal flu. This result validates the American government’s decision to vaccinate children first during the H1N1 flu pandemic because of the “protective effect” for the whole community. The flu shots to schoolchildren will also protect the elderly who are under higher-risk of getting the disease and suffering for extended period of time. Even though the hypothesis that vaccination will help the children who gets as well as the community is somewhat obvious, performing a study and getting the sample unit is pretty challenging in scientific study. The leading investigator, Dr. Loeb had to make “literally hundreds of calls” to the Hutterite communities.

Moon Cream for the Moonlight

Exhausted from staring vapidly into my laptop in a pathetic attempt to figure out a way to finish my essay, I came out of my room and stared into the night’s sky for an inspiration. Full Moon. It was so bright like a giant flashlight in the sky and I was mesmerized by the brightness of the moonlight. Then I wondered, can you be tanned by the moonlight? I mean you can be tanned by the snow when you are skiing due to its reflection from the sunlight. And the moon is shining because of the sunlight as well. So, why shouldn’t people be moon-burn? This interesting and perhaps senseless inquiry remained in my mind until I read a news article in a Korean newspaper. The answer was no because the amount of reflection from the moon is not powerful enough to create a tan on human skin. But, apparently, some other people had similar questions in their mind about the moon-tanning. I’m happy to hear this news. Moonlight is way too lovely to fear it for its ultraviolet effect.

House approval of Health Care Reform… Healthcare Reform Coming to Reality?!

I must say that I am no expert in the legislative procedure of the healthcare overhaul. However, if you have been living in America, the healthcare reform by President Obama is something very, very hard to miss even if you are not interested in any political matters. Today, Sunday, March 21st, healthcare reform bill was passed by the House. However, this historic legislation victory still has many challenges to face. The result of this victory, only time will tell.

Vaccination...Prologue

Last fall semester, my school campus was alarmed by the notorious H1N1 virus which was spreading with surprising speed worldwide. The line for the vaccination of this virus was incredibly long and the images of the chaos caused to get the vaccination decorated the headline news daily. I remember discussing with my friends whether or not to receive the vaccination. In the end, we all got the shots in the health center. Afterwards I called my sister, hoping to receive some commendation for the day’s feat. However, my sister replied in a worried tone that she just read a news article that there was a person who became paralyzed after receiving the Tami flu vaccination (Thanks, sis for the encouragement.) Afterwards, none of my other family members received the vaccination and decided to observe me as the family guinea pig for the efficacy of the new vaccine which was indeed causing several worries for its relatively recent creation. My father actually visited Seoul, South Korea, which had a tad more heat of swine flu syndrome fear. The swine flu chaos was hitting Seoul pretty hard around the end of last year and the Korean broadcast reported several renowned Korean celebrities contracting the flu almost weekly and one of the celebrity’s son died due to complications of the flu. Even these days I see South Korean news channels and blogs reporting recent cases of swine flu in the show business in which idol stars came down with the flu. As for my dad, despite the fact that he traveled around the city, completely dependent on public transportation and exposing himself to more possibility of getting the flu virus, came back home swine-flu-free and healthy. So far, none of the family members (including me) have contracted the swine flu. So was the vaccination necessary? Was it something way too precautionary? I remember discussing this issue of necessity of H1N1 virus vaccination. Some of my classmates thought that vaccination was superfluous. They thought they can survive the H1N1 flu without the help of the vaccination, and that is should they ever contract it. I have always been a supporter of the idea of vaccination. But it turns out that significant amount of people are fearful about this idea of artificial immunization. So, this is my first stab at the controversy over vaccination. Well, then, to be continued.

Procrastination

I hate procrastination, but I am an expert at it. Procrastination has been ingrained in my life for as long as I can remember and college life just intensified that lifestyle to the point where I adopted as my second major. But I see that that is not only limited to my case. The moment I say “I just procrastinated until the last minute,” there are several compassionate nodding heads from my dear colleagues. So, why do we procrastinate? I mean we all know that it is bad and we all know we will be ripping our hair out when the deadline approaches. However, for some reason, we never seem to learn from the debacle created by procrastination. I read an interesting article about procrastination from USC’s campus news paper, Daily Trojan, about college student’s beloved topic—procrastination. This article offers seven ingenious categorization of procrastination that many can fervidly related to: mañana (I’ll do it tomorrow if…), grasshopperism (“I need to have fun beforehand”), escapism (“I need to get out of here and clear my head”), impulsiveness (“I need to change my major/ my university”), music and reading (“I’ll relax and then I’ll do it”) and cavalry to the rescue (“to morrow will be a snow day and class will be cancelled”). After going through this category, I realized that I have mastered all these stages some point in my life. Indeed, procrastination is not the best habit to get used to, but it is not such a sinful habit that needs to be (and probably will be whether you want it or not) punished. Another interesting handout about procrastination states that perfectionism and procrastination go hand in hand. Also, sometimes procrastination simply works. The rush of adrenaline, the slightly healthy level of stress induces you to perform and sometimes perform better than your normal set range. And guess what? Sometimes it does speed things up for you. I must say we need to find the fine balance between good amount of procrastination and punctuality. Also, if you have taken time to really relax your mind or preoccupy yourself with other recreation before doing the needed work, can you really call that a wasted time or rather “procrastinated time”? You might as well call that the preparation period before your superpower engine starts couple of hours before the deadline.

Scent

I once heard that the best memory system running in human body is the olfactory system. To some extent, this idea may be true because whenever I read a novel, a description of a good-looking and charming protagonist usually contains something about his or her scent. For example, let’s look into the characters of Stephanie Meyer’s best-selling novel, the Twilight series. Edward Cullen, the impeccable, beautiful, breathtaking and humane (for he is a vegetarian vampire which means that he does not drink human blood) vampire attracted the heroine, Isabella Swan, not only with his surreal beauty, but also with his cool, attractive breath. On the other hand, Bella Swan drives this beautiful vampire to delirium with her luscious, mouthwatering lilac scent of her blood. Well, this applies to normal, human girls and boys as well. Of course women will be attracted to men who smell good rather than some men who smell like a mass of decomposing molds. As for girls, I think girls are usually successful in attracting the guys smell-wise—better hygiene, more grooming time, better pheromones, whatever.

Considering these powerful effect of our olfactory memory and impressions, I thought it deserves some attention for this post. A study done by Linda Buck, an associate professor of neurobiology at Harvard Medical School, says that sensors cells in nose do not last a lifetime, but are regenerated every 30-60 days in humans. The new nerve cells reach out to find their way back to the same spots in the olfactory bulb to which their precursors were connected. Thus, the pathway of odor map are constantly renewed, but the memory itself remains relatively unchanged. So, if smell can create such powerful memory upon people, a bit of fragrant aroma every morning right before work or school can do the trick for the day.

Positive Psychology = Happiness?

I’m a type of person who would like to have a positive psychology and I try really hard to look at a situation in a positive way. However, there comes a time when it becomes strikingly hard to look at my own not-so-good situation believing that there will be a silver lining beyond my murky clouds. Is positive psychology something that we can all learn and apply to our lives? Or rather, will positive thinking bring more happiness in our lives? I mean, some people are genetically gifted to overlook the negative sides and exponentially multiply the good sides to their situation. On the other hand, some other people are naturally bound to sink themselves into pessimism and tumble in their own Heathcliff-ego. I guess my question is, how happy can we get?
I once took a course about happiness and came to know a book called Authentic Happiness by Martin Seligman. In this book, Dr. Seligman set up an interesting formula about happiness, which is H= S+C+V. In translation, happiness equals the sum of an individual’s set range (S), circumstances of one’s life (C) and factors under one’s voluntary control (V). The set range claims that there is a set range of positive or negative emotion one can feel depending on their genetic makeup. Boom! Well, one of my assumptions is correct according to Dr. Seligman. Next, Dr. Seligman proposes that circumstances are something that is expensive and rather impossible to change and I do agree with that note as well. You can hate your job thoroughly, but sometimes you just have to stick to it. The most important part of this formula is V, voluntary control. Dr. Seligman strongly suggests working with V which is about all you can do to personally increase your happiness level. How to increase your V level? Forget the past, focus on the future, forgive and be thankful! Easy said then done. I have been thinking about this formula for quite a while. But, honestly, would this formula really come into our minds when we are in the deepest pit of sadness or floating in the height of euphoria? I feel like this formula itself limits my optimism. I want to believe that I can be as happy as I want and even aggrandize my happiness despite whatever genetic makeup that I have. Perhaps what everyone wants to believe is the formula, happiness=me. We all want to believe that we can create our own happiness in our lives and that it will come to us very soon. And if positive thinking really increases our levels of happiness, I have to say I am going to follow my own formula despite how insensible it may sound scientifically because that is my way of positive thinking.

Lap Top Germs

Okay, let’s admit it. We all have an experience of dabbing our computer keyboards and mice with red or yellow seasoning powders of our all-time-favorite chip, Cheetos, or with saliva-laden fingertips. Laptops have become essential part in every moment of people’s lives as they are the means of communication, education, entertainment, shopping and accessing personal haven. It is only natural to have one’s laptop running while eating and it is thus also natural to color the keyboards and mice with whatever remnant of your fingertips. But guess what? It is not only the food remnants or fingerprints that linger in your keyboard. Bacteria on our skins also jump off from our dancing fingertips and settle in their new habitat—keyboards and mice. I have always been curious about the sanitation of keyboards and I read an interesting blog post by Ed Yong. What is more interesting is that the community of bacteria and microscopic cohabitors on our skin can identify us to a certain degree. On average, we only share 13% of the bacteria on each other’s hands. Even identical twins develop different population of bacteria on their skin. Noah Fierer from University of Colorado has proposed that these dislodged microbes could help identify criminals in investigation. However, David Foran from Michigan State University’s Forensic Biology Laboratory dissents this view for he claims that although bacteria match can narrow the investigation, it cannot pinpoint the person in question. Plus, if there are multiple users for a computer, it will be difficult to identify who the person in question is. But whatever the case, I think it is pretty gross that we all have bacteria that resembles our DNA leaving traces of us after we touch something. Thank goodness we got Purell these days.

Addiction

We all have some form of addiction in our lives both big and small. One of the recent addictions that started to ring the alarm in the 20th and 21st century is game addiction. As technology advanced, video and computer games became more realistic, more complex and more addictive. I have heard tragic game addiction stories in news before, but one news that I have heard recently in South Korean news broadcast and blogosphere made me realize the seriousness of game addiction once again. On March 4th, a married couple in Su-Won, a city in Gyeonggi Province, was arrested for starving their three-month-old daughter to death. This couple was addicted to an on-line game called Prius On-line which is a role-playing game where the players get to raise an on-line character. The couple met each other through on-line chatting and got married. They spent 12 hours at a PC room per day, leaving their baby daughter alone in their home without anyone to take care of her or to feed her. They returned home one day after playing long hours of on-line game to find their daughter dead. An autopsy at National Institute of Scientific Investigation confirmed that the girl died of starvation. They couple had been on the run for five months until they got arrested. What really shocked me was that this couple was raising a girl character on-line while their real daughter was alone in their house starving. Police has reported that this couple’s on-line game addiction was most likely due to their unstable financial status and stress from childcare. Internet game has become a powerful and popular way of avoiding reality for many people. Although I am not a big fan of games, or rather I must say that I am a terrible game player, I can see why computer games provide a little haven for people under a lot of stress. It creates a new and controllable reality—a reality where one does not have to take responsibilities. A fake name of your choice, a fake identity of your choice and a fake reality where you can do whatever you want is set before your eyes. I understand that we all need a break from reality every once in a while. However, it is important to remember that the reality that we are bound to and the reality that we must always return is the one where we have to take responsibilities. This reality may not be fun and this reality may be stressful enough to drive you nuts. But, this reality is what is real and what makes you real.

Give Me Back My Nap Time

When is your “down” time? What I mean is when is the time of the day when you simply feel so tired and zoned out? For me, I tend to feel sleepy around two to four o’clock in the afternoon when I just finished lunch. During this time, no caffeine will wake me up and no music can boost my energy back to my normal range. All I can manage to do is attempt to pretend taking notes while resting my drooping head on my carefully positioned palms (although I usually fail by clashing straight onto the desk). I asked my friends and I figured out many people have different times of the day when they feel so tired. Then, I would ask myself, why can’t we have nap times like in kindergarten years? Should taking naps throughout the day be considered as lazy or feeble? Well, rest assured. According to this study done in UC Berkeley, an hour nap can boost your energy and brain power! Perfect scientific excuse and justification to taking naps daily! Hooray!

Animal Testing

I have not given much thought to animal research or animal experimentation before. However, my simplest and perhaps ignorant opinion about the righteousness of animal research was that as long as it can benefit large number of human beings, it should be worth it to perform such experimentation. Few days ago, this perhaps time-worn debate about animal research was forming a heated discussion in the science blogosphere. I happened to read couple of them and came to realize that there are several dimensions to this issue. But even after reading those debates, my opinion is that animal experimentation should not be perished just because it is considered to be unethical and brutal. There is a law that prohibits such unnecessary abuse in animal experimentation. And I don’t believe that virtual testing is going to be as convincing as a controlled experiments done on living organism before it actually gets applied for human being’s medical care. There was an argument about the value of life between an ape caged for research experiments versus a criminal receiving a rather humane treatment in prison cell. Although I must agree with the author’s point of view about the unfairness of such innocent animal receiving a heart-breaking treatment compared to a treatment an egregious criminal receives in a cell, I don’t think the comparison serves the purpose of the argument correctly. Strictly speaking, the animal may receive some extent of physical and mental pain, but they serve a greater cause should the experiment be regulated to avoid the most intense pain. Moreover, I don’t think a human life should be compared to that of an animal. I do believe animal experiments should be done under regulation so as to avoid giving the animal unnecessary pain and stress. However, I have to agree that animal experimentation should continue if it serves the purpose of experiment correctly. The experiment should have a valid reason for testing the animals such as testing a drug before applying to human beings. To argue that virtual simulation can substitute all the experiment is rather rash. Even with animal testing, we still cannot be sure that the drug or the surgical procedure is safe enough for human beings. The complex system of living organism is something that scientist must continuously study. And should it ask for the help of animals, we will have to include them as part of the experimentation with respect for they are also “living” lives.

Superconductors!

Have you ever heard about superconductors? Recently, I listened to a lecture by my previous physics professor (Dr. Gene Bickers) about the power and potential of superconductors and became quite interested in it.
Superconductors, which are materials that demonstrate no resistance below transition temperature (Tc), are one of the latest discoveries in the scientific field that proposes wide gamut of possibilities in their applications, ranging from maglev transportation to magnetoencephalography (MEG).

The history of superconductors started in 1911, when a Dutch physicist, Kamerlingh-Onnes, observed an unusual disappearance of resistance when mercury was cooled down to 4 degrees Kelvin. Later, in 1957, American physicist, Bardeen, Cooper, and Schrieffer described theoretical understanding of superconductivity. In 1986, there was a huge step forward in superconductivity when Muller and Bednorz discovered that an alloy of barium, lanthanum, copper, and oxygen compound superconducted at the highest temperature then known which was 30 K. This alloy was a type of ceramics that normally does not conduct electricity well. Expanding from this discovery, researchers soon made combination of alloys that included yttirum which achieved a transition temperature of 90 K. The current world record of highest transition temperature is 164K with mercuric-cuprates (HgBaCaCuO). Also, just recently in 2008, a new class of iron-based superconductors was discovered (LaOFeAs).

Despite the complex and still mysterious behaviors underlying superconductors, making one is not too difficult. The most essential component is copper-oxides or cuprates which are relatively cheap. Next, along with cuprates, add barium, lanthanum or yttrium and bake the mixture at around 900 degree Celsius for about 12-13 hours. Thus, a superconnductor is made by placing rare earth atoms between CuO layers.

Superconductors can be used in wide spectrum of our society. For example, as a strong magnet, superconductors are used in MRI machines. Better the magnetic field, better the resolution of a MRI image. Also, Large Hadron Collider, or LHC, uses many superconductors in order to smash protons in hopes of producing new particles without precedence. A more well-known example comes from maglev trains that use superconductors. In such cases, trains would “float” on strong superconducting magnets and without any friction, will not lose energy through heat which will save incredible amount of energy. A maglev train was constructed in Japan, England, and China, but due to bio-hazard created by strong magnetic fields, wider use of maglev vehicles are being constrained. In addition, the development of a double-relaxation oscillation called SQUID (Superconducting QUantum Interference Device) can be used in magnetoencephalography (MEG) which can pick up magnetic fields in human brain. When SQUID devices are cooled by liquid nitrogen or liquid helium, its superconductivity is capable of sensing a change in a magnetic field and can examine the brain activity without creating too much of a strong magnetic field like the MRI’s.

The history of superconductivity has been relatively short; however, the possibilities of its applications are far-reaching. The fact that superconductors have no resistance means that it has high efficiency which can be used as an alternative energy source, non-invasive biomagnetic and life-saving device, and a high-energy collider. Nevertheless, two of the major obstructions to be overcome is to have a better and fuller understanding of its function and ways to find an economically reasonable way to cool the superconductors. If superconductor’s transition temperature can be raised to the freezing point of liquid nitrogen, the cooling process would be much more affordable.

The lecture ended with my professor’s demonstration of magnetic levitation by a small superconductor which was cooled down with liquid nitrogen. The picture above shows similar demonstration as the one done that day. Although there is much more to be learned about superconductors, perhaps one day, I may be able to transport form city to city with magnetically levitated trains through the power of superconductors.

Reference: http://www.superconductors.org/ & Lecture given by Dr. Gene Bickers of USC on Feb. 1st.

Hand Washing

The importance of hand washing has been emphasized since we were in kindergarten. As we grew up, we became more aware of the fact that hand washing is one of the most important primary prevention for infectious diseases. However, do we know the proper way to wash our hands? Many times I see people in restrooms just briefly running their hands through the water after they finish up their number ones or number twos. Indeed, we are all busy people who need to speed up every possible process in our lives. However, if we can prevent further damage through a simple ritual, I say that it is worth it to make it a habit. According to Center for Disease Control (CDC)’s guidelines, using warm water and rubbing hands with soap for 20 seconds is ideal. And yes, 20 seconds is the proper amount of time one should spend in soaping hands. Also, one must make sure to wash areas like beneath nails and wrists to clean places commonly dismissed. The tedious 20 seconds can be made more enjoyable by singing “Happy Birthday” twice, or singing the “ABC” song. After rinsing hands well under running water, turn off the faucet with the paper towel, not your hand. If water is not available, alcohol-based hand sanitizer is a good substitute, but make sure to rub the product over all surfaces of hands until they become dry. Washing hands not only makes you healthy, but it also prevents disease from spreading to people around you. With clean hands comes healthy body. Let’s make sure that we wash our hands along the rhythm of all-time-favorite 20 second songs, “Happy Birthday,”and the “ABC”s!

Reference: CDC’s website  http://www.cdc.gov/print.do?url=http%3A//www.cdc.gov/cleanhands/

Let’s talk about LOVE~!

In the wake of Valentine’s Day, I want to talk about love! So, what is love and why in the world is love discussed everywhere?! I would say 90% of the songs that I hear are about love-at-first-sight, love-aches, break-ups, betrayal by the loved ones, unrequited loves, etc… And talking about movies, there are always some components of love relationships in storyline and that is what really makes the story interesting. So, what is love and why does it happen? As a student pursuing science, it is sometimes difficult to read articles that state that love is simply a mixture of chemicals and hormones permeating through our bodies when we meet someone who strongly attracts us. Few years ago, the magazine, The Economist, had an article about science of love titled, Love is All About Chemistry. There are some major hormones and neurotransmitters discussed in this article. Although the exact mechanism of love within human brain is not well understood, research on voles can give us some hints about the function of hormones in love relationships. Voles are small mouse-like rodent that practice monogamy. When prairie voles have sex, there is a rise in dopamine level which is a chemical that functions as a reward system in the brain. For example, after mating in voles, there is a 50% increase in the level of dopamine which reinforces the fact that sex is enjoyable. Next comes vasopressin and oxytocin which are hormones that help the brain identify the salient features of one’s partner. Salient features can involve odor of one’s sex partner that creates an olfactory memory on the voles. Thus, these two hormones are important in prairie voles’s monogamous lives. Indeed, for human beings to fall in love based on olfactory memory is unlikely. However, human beings also have vasopressin and oxytocin release during sex. Also, when in love, brain scanner reveals activation in parts of the brain that reacts when it experiences an effect of drugs like cocaine. We simply become addicted to love. Going along the same vein, people in love behave in similar manners to people with obsessive compulsive disorder (OCD). So, the major question to be asked is this: can you manipulate love using these hormones and chemicals, a.k.a., is there such thing as love potions? Luckily this article ended with the note that human brain is way too complex to be easily manipulated by injections of drugs to promote love. Indeed, I also think that despite these trends of hormones and chemical release during the process of falling and being in love, there is yet something special about love despite time, hormones, and chemicals. And perhaps that is the reason why everyone always sings, writes, and search for love that is so mysterious yet magical.

If you want to read more about the article mentioned in this post, please visit:http://www.oxytocin.org/oxytoc/love-science.html

Intro

Okay, I know that the title of this blog is pretty random and perhaps maybe grammatically incorrect. However, I attempted to produce a title that has some relationship and reference to my all-time-favorite childhood novel,

My Sweet Orange Tree

by Jose Mauro de Vasconcelos. So, how did sweet orange tree transform into lime orange tree? Well, Vasconcelos was a Brazilian writer and the title of his novel in its original Portuguese is Meu Pé de Laranja Lima which translates into My Lime Orange Tree. Therefore, my attempt was somehow lost in translation.
I guess the second question that may arise is what is the relationship between this novel and science, the major field that I will be exploring through this blog? Hmmm… well, other than the fact that I love this book personally, I was really touched by the main character, Zezé’s use of imagination to look at the hardships in his life more positively. Although it may sound distant from science, I think imagination and fantasy is what creates science. And childhood imagination has certain power and passion that transforms imagination into reality.
For example, going few years back, the idea that people can call each other while walking around streets with a mobile phone was unheard-of. How about airplanes? Mag-lev transportation? Going to space? Science started with “what-ifs” and all the “what-ifs” came from people’s imagination. Imagination has the motivation and power to create new reality.
Just in case my readers became curious with the title of this blog, I decided to write a brief intro… but, more fun science stuffs are to come! So let’s get started!

Welcome to Lime Orange Tree!

Hey, everyone! Welcome to Lime Orange Tree.
This blog is going to be about science and its application to life in general.
I will explore various fields of science and try to share those topics with you in a fun and informative manner to the best of my ability. Well, then, shall we start this journey together?!