“Fighting Cervical Cancer with Vinegar and Ingenuity”

This article discusses a new form of cervical caner prevention, VIA/cryo, which involves the use of vinegar. Brushing vinegar on a woman’s cervix makes precancerous spots turn white, thereby enabling doctors to freeze them off with a metal probe cooled by a tank of carbon dioxide. It is a relatively straightforward and simple procedure, making it exceedingly useful in developing countries. Formerly, cervical cancer was tested with a Pap smear, and the results had to be sent to labs, with results taking weeks to arrive. Thus women who took these tests, and who had already returned to the areas where they lived or worked, were hard to reach if it turned out they had precancerous lesions. However, cancerous lesions can be detected by the vinegar and frozen off in one visit, eliminating this issue. Also, carbon dioxide can be obtained from any Coca-Cola bottling plant, making it far more accessible than liquid nitrogen. Thailand is a huge proponent for VIA/cryo, and 500,000 of the 8 million women between the ages of 30-44 in the target population have already been screened at least once. The article maintains that vinegar is effective in detecting the tumors because “they have more DNA, and thus more protein and less water, than other tissue.”

VIA/cryo is a revolutionary procedure which shows promise to stunt the growth of cervical cancer in developing countries. While we take for granted the excellent health care our country has to offer, millions of people around the globe die due to diseases that could have been prevented if properly screened. The article quotes a staggering statistic, “Every year, more than 250,000 women die of cervical cancer, nearly 85% in poor and middle-income countries.” Thailand’s commitment to combating cervical cancer should serve as a model for other countries to follow, as they have instituted a multitude of training programs for nurses to learn the skills for VIA/cryo. It is not surprising therefore that “of the 6,000 women (they) recruited 11 years ago for their first trial, not a single one has developed full-blown cancer.” This procedure is one of many inexpensive yet promising medical advances geared towards developing countries, and it has the potential to inhibit the onset of this lethal form of cancer going forward.

I thought this article was well organized and captivating. It was very interesting to learn about this relatively simple procedure which holds so much potential for combating cancer. I would have never thought that household ingredients such as vinegar could have such complex applications as the detection of precancerous lesions. The author adroitly incorporates a variety of statistics to prove the effectiveness of VIA/cryo, as well as quotes from many experts in the field. Unfortunately, the author does not go into great detail on the actual science behind VIA/cryo, nor does he discuss the possible reasons why some developing countries abstain from this cost-effective procedure which has proved so successful. Overall, this article enlightened me on the field of cervical cancer prevention and it was definitely worth reading.

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/09/27/health/27cancer.html?_r=1&ref=science

Review Of Will's Article by Sawyer White

            Will Dougherty’s review of the article “Brain Scans Let Computers Reconstruct Movie Scenes,” was particularly interesting and immediately grabbed my attention due to the impressive title.  The review had many good aspects.  Firstly, it gave enough detail about the experiment to adequately explain how this breakthrough occurred, without giving so much information as to make the review boring.  Secondly, it is succeeds in listing why this breakthrough is important, noting that in the future it could even be used to read minds.  Lastly, the review was very well-written and had good clarity of thought and was easy to follow.  However, the review also had room for improvement.  In describing the experiment, the one place the review was lacking was in stating exactly what the computer did.  I was confused whether the computer was linking the brain activity back to the videos it had stored, and thus displaying them, or if it was simply using the stored videos to show the subjects, and then creating images from scratch sing their brain activity.  Also, I felt that Will could have elaborated more on how this technology could help people with difficulty processing visual information, since this did not make sense to me.  However, the article covered the information so well and had such good logical flow that these issues really did not detract from it at all.  If anything, they only made me want to learn more on the subject. The most impressive part of this article, to me, was that this technology exists at all, which almost literally reads people’s minds to make images, and that it can be perfected in the future to give even clearly and better pictures and thus more insight into the human mind.  A future where dreams, hallucinations, and all thoughts can be perfectly displayed on a screen would be a very interesting place to live in.

Grace Devlin

AP Biology – Article Review

9/25/11

“Australian Aborigine Hair Tells a Story of Human Migration”

This article explained the significance of a lock of hair that was found by a British anthropologist about 100 years ago. It is the hair of an Australian Aborigine, giving scientists their first look at the Aboriginal genome. Nicholas Wade, the author of the article, reports that this genome supports the earlier theory that Aboriginal Australians are the direct descendants of the first humans to leave Africa. The article goes on to review the studies of Dr. Willerslev, an expert in ancient DNA. From the DNA in the Aboriginal genome, he found that their ancestors split away from the first African migration group fairly quickly. It also disproves the idea that Europeans split from Asians, who then went on to form the Aboriginal colonies. The main question left on the table that the DNA cannot solve is where these splits occurred. Another aspect this article explores is the difference in development of the Aborigines because of their genetic isolation. They found that their early tools were unusually primitive compared to the contemporary ones in Europe. They also deduced that around 6,000 years ago, population growth occurred and the domestication of not plants, but dingoes, occurred.

While this article does not introduce life changing information, it does delve into a very interesting topic. A single piece of hair was able to provide scientists with a wealth of information on Australian Aborigines and their ancestors. The amount of data gathered from this single genome is truly remarkable and shows the power of modern day technology. This is article is also important because it clarifies much about the early history of Australia and humans in general. It supports the notion that the ancestors of the Aborigines were of the very first migrations from Africa, a theory that has been in question with many others for a long time. While is does not entirely prove the theory, it gives strong evidence for it. The article also goes into the genetic development of Australians and how it was different due to their isolation. This is important information to study and explore because understanding human history and the past is often the key to the future.

I thought this article was both well written and intriguing. I was surprised to know how much could be learned from a single lock of hair. The data that the author supplied was interesting and the conclusions even more so. What I didn’t like about the article, however, was how it ended. The topic of Aboriginal development and the beginnings of settlements was briefly introduced, but not fully explained. Wade mentioned the domestication of the dingo and the study of that occurrence, but then brought the article to an end. It was rather abrupt and off topic which left me, the reader, slightly unsatisfied. Nevertheless, the article was worth the read.

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/09/23/science/23aborigines.html?_r=1&ref=science

"Brain Scans Let Computer Reconstruct Movie Scenes"

The article “Brain Scans Let Computer Reconstruct Movie Scenes” of Dawn.com describes a recent breakthrough made at the University of California, Berkeley by a team of neuroscientists. In a paper published online Thursday by the journal Current Biology, the group revealed that they had successfully used computers to reconstruct movie clips. The videos were viewed by volunteers in MRI machines and computers then used data from their brain activity to reproduce the clips. While the reconstructed images were only blurry representations, they still mimicked shapes and movement, which is a tremendous breakthrough in the field of neuroscience. The tests were on done on the three co-authors of the report. They were required to remain motionless inside an MRI machine for several hours while the machine used a technique called functional MRI, which shows brain activity rather than anatomy. The computer that was employed had approximately 18 million one-second YouTube clips stored in it. These were then used to predict the brain activity that each of them would evoke. Then, as the subjects viewed 10 to 20 second movie clips, the computer matched their brain activity to that of the stored clips and created a blend of images. Scientists hope to improve the quality of these reconstructed clips by updating the computer with a larger number of stored moving images. Nevertheless, this is “one of the most impressive demonstrations of the scientific knowledge of how the visual system works,” noted Marcel Just, who is the director of the Center for Cognitive Brain Imaging at Carnegie Mellon University.

The implications and possible applications of this development are tremendous. As the technology improves and becomes more readily available, it may be able to help stroke victims and others who have no way to communicate by allowing people to understand their thoughts. Furthermore, some scientists speculate that it might reveal hallucinations and dreams in the future. It could also provide beneficial brain stimulation for those who experience difficulty while processing visual information. Finally, while the technology has the potential for mind-reading capability, experts note that it would only appear far in the future due to scope of information that still remains unknown about the brain.

This article had numerous strengths that made it well written and very informative. I particularly enjoyed the author’s successful integration of quotations. They included numerous quotes from a number of pertinent experts on various issues relating to the article. Furthermore, I found the author’s exploration of the technology’s possible applications to be both insightful and thought provoking. On the contrary, I felt that the author’s description of the experimentation process was slightly confusing. It was not arranged in a logical order and certain sections were redundant. In spite of that, I thoroughly enjoyed this article and learned a great deal.

AP. “Brain Scans Let Computer Reconstruct Movie Scenes.” DAWN.com. 25 Sept. 2011. Web. 25 Sept. 2011. <http://www.dawn.com/2011/09/25/brain-scans-let-computer-reconstruct-movie-scenes.html>.

Single-Sex Schooling Does Not Improve Academic Performance and Can Lead to Gender Stereotyping, Study Finds

Single-Sex Schooling Does Not Improve Academic Performance and Can Lead to Gender Stereotyping, Study Finds

The article I read is about single sex schools. Researchers have found that there is mo difference in academic achievement between single and mixed sex schools. The research was conducted at ASU’s school of social and family dynamics. Although previous studies on this subject show that gender segregated school do well academically, there is no evidence that they do better then mixed gender schools. The article also addresses the myth that boys and girls brains are different, and therefore will learn differently. This is not true, and while boys and girls have slightly dissimilar brains the area of difference don’t have an effect on how I child learns. The researchers from ASU also found that this type of segregation promotes sexism and gender stereotypes in school. Children who go to school in a single sex school experience a form of institutionalized sexism which leads to them growing up over aware of their gender stereotypes.

I think this article is very important. In the past our county has faced educational segregation in race, and it is one of our countries biggest embarrassment. Now we continue to segregate education but by gender. I think that is kids grow up focused too much on weather they are male or female and what that means in society today they might get distracted form the fact that a persons gender does not determine what job they need to take, or what kind of role they need to have in a family.

Overall I think that this article was written relatively well. I think that the author should add more detailed about the how the experiments where conducted, because the article mostly focuses on the results of the experiments. The author did a good job describing the research with languange that the reader could understand, but it would have been better if a few more terms could have been defined.

Arizona State University. "Single-sex schooling does not improve academic performance and can lead to gender stereotyping, study finds." ScienceDaily, 23 Sep. 2011. Web. 24 Sep. 2011.

Longevity Gene Debate Opens Trans-Atlantic Rift

Jack Dennen

This article from the New York Times by Nicholas Wade talks about the debate between British and American scientists on pursuing research on something known as the Longevity Gene. This gene is supposedly used to make sirtuins, a protein involved in controlling cell’s metabolism. The debate sees the British scientists say that the longevity gene is nearing the end of its life, or that the research should no longer be spend researching the gene that makes sirtuins, but the Americans, who have invested a lot of time and money into the gene say that this approach of trying to extend the life of humans still looks to be as promising as ever. This method of trying to extend the life expectancy of humans began when it was discovered that resveratrol, a chemical found in small quantities in red wine, was shown to activate sirtuin. This prompted the pharmaceutical company GlaxoSmithKline to spend $720 million funding a research project to try and create resveratol in the lab. There was an experiment done in 2001 in which roundworms and fruit flies were tested to see if sirtuin made them live longer. Although the tests came out positive, the article says the experiment was flawed because the control group did not have identical genetic make up of the experimental group, therefore, without repeating the experiment many times, a valid conclusion cannot be, therefore, drawn. The scientist redid the experiment in 2009 after learning about, and therefore removing a gene mutation, and still got the same results, although a bit less pronounced.  Also, there has been success in lab rats and mice. When given sirtuins and put on a low-calorie diet, the subjects lived an average of 40% longer than the control group. Although the results are positive, one cannot be certain that the sirtuin is the only mediator of longer life on the low calorie diet.

            This article has a great significance to humanity today. Recently, scientists and regular people alike have been becoming more and more interested in living longer and pushing the bounds of life. If this experiment is in fact relevant and does in fact turn out proven positive results, there will be millions upon millions of people waiting in line to try out this new treatment. There will always, however, be people who are arguing that the ethics behind the discovery is wrong. People will be arguing that it is morally wrong to take a magical treatment that increases your life span.

            I think the article is very interesting and relates to our AP Biology class very much. I think the author of the article could have talked more about the arguments the British and American scientists are making and go deeper into why they are making those claims. It does a good job talking about the different experiments that occurred and how they have been revised and criticized for repetition or fallacy.

Wade, Nicholas. "Longevity Gene Debate Opens Trans-Atlantic Rift." New York Times. 21 Sept. 2011. Web. 21 Sept. 2011. <http://www.nytimes.com/2011/09/22/science/22longevity.html>.

36 Light Years From Here, New Hope for An Earth like Planet.

36 Light Years From Here, New Hope for An Earth like Planet.

By Dennis Overbye

A review

Sajid Chowdhury

The article “36 Light Years From Here, New Hope for An Earth Like Planet” by Dennis Overbye details new findings of a planet that might just be able to hold life. The planet in question is 36 light years away, and orbits the sun at a distance that makes it able to have liquid water. This newfound planet, HD 85512b, is located near the Vela constellation, and revolves around a star in an orbit a quarter of earths own, making its year 58 days. New information on planets like HD 85512b, or the Vela planet, has been discussed in a news conference hosted by the European Southern Observatory. These new findings are the result of a eight-year observing program in the European Southern Observatory, which is in Chile. The two men heading this program, Stephane Udry and Michel Mayor, are revealing new evidence of 16 “super-earths,” planets that have masses less than ten-times earth, and 50 other exoplanets, which are galvanizing the scientific community.

These findings have immense ramifications throughout the world. This new information on habitable planets has the chance to revamp the space programs of many nations. These planets in the Vela constellation and in other areas of space are found to be in a “habitable” orbit around the stars they revolve around. However unlikely that we will send either a manned ship or even a satellite in the next twenty years, these findings are a testament to the new advances in astrological technology since the end of the 20^th century. New telescopes and techniques like observing the warping of light to pinpoint orbits, are allowing us to observe even deeper into the galaxy.

This article was very well written; it informs as well as entices the reader on the possibilities of space. But, that being said, it was rather lacking in its description of the actual science involved in this discovery. There was little written on the eight years these astronomists spent observing, nor on the technology involved. Also, the article mentions opposing viewpoints only in passing, downplaying the controversy over these findings.

Depression Increases the Risk of Stroke

  
          Depression Increases the Risk of Stroke by Amanda Macmillan discusses how strokes and depression are related. People with depression are more likely to have a stroke than mentally healthy people, and their “strokes are more likely to be fatal”, according to a new analysis published this week in the Journal of the American Medical Association. Although this article says that depression is only a minor risk to health compared to high blood pressure, it is still a risk not worth taking. An expert says 4% of the estimated 795,000 strokes that occur in the United States each year can be attributed to depression. This seems like a small risk but if depression is added on with other things, like high blood pressure or being obese, the risk can be deadly. After conducting a research project, Dr. Pan, a scientist says, "We knew that depression raises a person's risk of developing diabetes, obesity, hypertension, and cardiovascular disease," Pan says. "We also knew that depression can occur after patients suffer a stroke. We just didn't have strong enough evidence to know if the reverse was true, or what really comes first."

          This article is very important. It is very important to a lot of people in the world who deal with depression. As the article states, a lot of factors, along with depression can increase the risk of a stroke. Things such as drinking, drugs, and overeating can attribute to both depression and strokes. Another huge problem with people who suffer from depression is the fact that their drugs either make their depression worse or have side effects including strokes. People unaware of these risks, as Dr. Pan says, can suffer and even die. Humanity has to start dealing with these problems because depression is a serious disease. Some people think it is not that serious but it is.
         
          This article does a phenomenal job of explaining how depression can contribute to strokes. An uses research as examples and proves that depression truly increases the risk of strokes. The author talked about the condition in a very serious way, helping people understand the seriousness of it. Although the author clearly states that depression contributes to strokes, She doesn’t explain how other conditions such as alcoholism contribute to strokes. I think that the author could have gone into a little more depth about how depression actually makes people more susceptible to strokes. Overall, the author makes the article very interesting and informative, and helps show how serious depression is.


MacMillan, Amanda. "Depression Increases Risk of Stroke, Study Says - CNN.com." CNN.com - Breaking News, U.S., World, Weather, Entertainment & Video News. Web. 21 Sept. 2011

“Feathers Trapped in Amber Reveal a More Colorful Dinosaur Age"

by John Noble Wilford

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/09/20/science/20feather.html?ref=science

This article is about recent fossil discoveries in Alberta, Canada. These fossil discoveries were in the form of and Amber fossil. Amber fossils, formerly known as fossil resin, are ones in which something is preserved in essentially a plastic. It could preserve bugs or feathers. But what is so interesting about these fossils is there is no bacterial breakdown, everything is perfectly intact the way it was then the resin engulfed the object. In this article Feathers were found in fossil resin. The interesting thing about these fossils was that they were found to have Color pigments that up until now people did not think dinosaurs possessed. These Mesozoic era feathers display evidence of a patterned design on the birds, which they used to be apart of. Scientists who had been studying the relatively bland fossils of the Mesozoic era never thought this colorful feather design was possible. No other Mesozoic fossils have displayed such colors, so this was truly a breakthrough.

I think this article could relate to everyone in the class because I think we all have been to a museum, such as the museum of Natural History. At these museums there are countless displays of dinosaurs and what they may have looked like. All these displays are usually filled with images of dinosaurs in a very bland color scheme, usually containing grey or brown-based colors. But these displays do accurately display the very dry and uninteresting color scheme that dinosaurs had. Until this new fossil was discovered. These Feathers are sure to brighten up some of those displays with more interesting color schemes. Although they will not be the bright colors we see in a peacock, they will certainly be more interesting. The patterns will be very noticeable when placed against greyish colors of everything else in the dinosaur section.

This article does a great job of discussing the latest Mesozoic fossil developments. The author was able to discuss the pigmentation that was discovered and explain how it was unique in a very thorough way. In addition the author conveyed the information in a very receptive style in order to reach a much wider audience. Unfortunately the author makes note of similar developments and findings in china without building on those statements. I think to really improve the article I think the author could have expanded and drawn more parallels between the Chinese findings and those in Canada. This would have made the article much more informative. Also the author mentioned an experimental X-Ray system of determining whether different colors were present in fossils. But the author fails to explain how it works, which would have been very interesting information. Overall this was a very will written piece on a very interesting topic.

Sawyer White's Comment

Carty’s review of “Scientists Take First Step Toward Creating ‘Inorganic Life,’” provided insight into a new form of biology known as “Inorganic Biology.”  Carty’s review was good in defining inorganic biology, as the study of inorganic chemical-based life.  He was also able to skillfully explain how the inorganic cells in question, the iCHELLs, were similar to organic life in their ability to self-replicate, evolve, and have semi-permeable membranes.  Finally, Carty explained how the iCHELLs were important, since they will allow scientists to study evolution in a brand new way and also be able to utilize these new creations in medicine and biotechnology.

            While Carty’s review was very informative, there was some room for improvement.  The review was mired by grammatical and spelling errors, and some of the sentences were confusing because of how they were structured.  Also, the review suffers from vagueness in some places, as it does not explain why or how the iCHELLs’ ability to store electricity could help doctors, fails to establish why some inanimate objects might now be considered alive, and also fails to clearly explain how scientists plan to utilize iCHELLs in the fields of medicine and biotechnology.

            Overall, Carty’s article and review were very impressive because they taught me about a whole scientific field I did not even think existed.  I had no idea that scientists were able to create inorganic life in any form and I found it incredibly informative and fascinating that inorganic biology had already advanced far enough to create these inorganic cells.  Going forward, this could have a huge impact on the entire scientific community.

“Scientists Take First Step Toward Creating ‘Inorganic Life’”

Carty Caruso
9-18-11
Current Event

http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2011/09/110915091625.htm

“Scientists Take First Step Toward Creating ‘Inorganic Life’”

In the article I read, scientists have begun to create the first inorganic cells. These new cells are called iCHELLs. iCHELLs are created by compartmentalising internal membranes that control the passage of materials. These cells are made from inorganic matter and chemicals. They do have characteristics of cells such as; a semi-permeable membrane, self-replicating, and evolving. iCHELLs can have several chemical processes occurring inside them at the same time. One researcher said,

“What we are trying do is create self-replicating, evolving inorganic cells that would essentially be alive. You could call it inorganic biology.” Inorganic Biology is the perfect term to use for the potential of the ability to watch the evolution and production of the chemical based cells, these inorganic cells. These cells can store store electricity, oddly enough, and thus they could be applied in medicine.

This creation of iCHELLs could revolutionize many things. Firstly and probably most importantly, this could change our whole prospective on life and if it could exist elsewhere. The prospect of having inorganic life on other planets is incredible at the least, mostly because of the new possibility that it could come from inorganic compounds. An other way these iCHELLs could affect us is the ability to see life evolve from a different prospective. Previously thought to be inanimate objects could actually be alive. What we could potentially learn from watching the evolution of these cells could benefit our knowledge of organic cells and help us in medicine or biotechnology.

This article was very insightful, but it lacked a few things. First of the article was very short and did not offer much information in this amazing new topic of inorganic biology. The article also did not provide a very detailed description of how the iCHELLs are created, or how many of them there are. This article did do a very good job, however, of providing many theoretical effects of these iCHELLs. Overall I see this article as being the first in many to talk and theorize about inorganic life.

Cold-Water Detergents Get a Cold Shoulder

"Cold-Water Detergents Get a Cold Shoulder" by Andrew Martin and Elisabeth Rosenthal

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/09/17/business/cold-water-detergents-get-a-chilly-reception.html?pagewanted=1&ref=science

Tide, a company owned by Proctor and Gamble, has been working since 2003 to convert the world to a place where laundry loads are done with cold water. People have traditionally used hot water to clean their clothes, believing that the hot water gets rid of stains and dirt more efficiency. However, '"efficiently"should be the last word used to describe hot water loads. Proctor and Gamble conducted a study in 2003 where the realized that about three quarters of the energy use and green house-gas emissions used when doing a load of laundry, comes from the process of heating the water. Proctor and Gamble, after seeing these results, made a goal to convert 70 percent of laundry loads to cold water, versus hot water, by 2020. They estimated that this past year alone, 38 percent of loads were done with cold water. Dawn French, the companies director of North America laundry products research and formula design believes that cold water loads will continue to grow in popularity. Companies such as Whirlpool, have developed new washing machines that have a special cold water function that is designed to work efficiently with cold water detergents such as Tide's products.

This article makes us think of how many ways energy is used today, and how often times it is used inefficiently. For example, not many people think of washing machines as something that uses a lot of energy, but this article makes us realize that there are many things that we take for granted and use in our daily lives, that give off greenhouse-gasses and use a lot of energy. Before reading this article, I really had no idea of the cons of using hot water in laundry loads, and I did not even realize there were certain detergents for cold water loads. That may be because I've honestly never done laundry in my life, but this article definitely makes people view this topic in a different light.

I think that this article has a bias that supports virtually all of the actions that are put forth by Proctor and Gamble throughout this article. I am sure that there are many negative things that come from not washing your laundry with hot water, but this article barely scratches the surface on this topic. I research another article on this subject after reading this one, and it clearly had a different view on the concept of cold load washes. It stressed that in many case, people washed with cold water detergent because they thought it was more eco-friendly, however they realized after their laundry was done, that many stains were not taken out, they then found it necessary to do another load but had to use hot water. This ultimately leads to more energy use and more greenhouse-gas emissions by doing two loads, versus one hot water load. Tide responded to this saying that people should invest in washers that support cold water, and that they will continue to push their scientists to create a more efficient detergent. It was a little aggravating to me that I had to research another article to find counter-points to the article on the New York Times, I wish that the authors of the NYT article had provided us with more cons to using cold water loads as well.

BP Shortcuts Led to Gulf Spill, Report Says

"BP Shortcuts Led to Gulf Oil Spill, Report Says"

by John M. Broder

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/09/15/science/earth/15spill.html?_r=1&ref=science

Bp, in completing the Macondo well in the Gulf of Mexico, which cheap construction created the blowout and oil spill last year, report says. The explosion aboard the Deepwater Horizon was a failure of the cement at the base of the 18,000 foot-deep well that was supposed to contain oil and gas instead. The human and mechanical errors that followed created natural gas to build up pressure that caused an explosion killing 11 members of the crew and an oil spill which took 87 days to control. The report concluded that BP was responsible for the accident and the chief contractors, Transocean and Halliburton are responsible for the fatal mistakes. The Justice Department is currently conducting a criminal investigation that could bring indictments and many fines. Though there had been questions in the past whether the oil spill was directly related the BP’s actions, the report leaves no question that there were human errors and overlooked problems, all of which could have been avoided if BP was not in a rush to complete their Macondo well last year. Instead, now work has halted completely and men are worse because of it.

This article brings into light the real events of last year’s oil spill due to BP. There is hope in seeing that many of the people responsible for short-cuts and poor mechanisms and overlooking the issue of built-up pressure will be held responsible for their actions and will face criminal charges. BP has suffered unpopularity after their oil spill, and have issued apologies and know their own place in this fatal mistake, but just understanding that one is wrong is not the same as coming to reconciliation, and due to the legal actions, hopefully BP will not be so quick to use damaging short-cuts in the future. However, they seem to be fully aware of errors made and even more compromising with the legal action, which will follow. BP is aware that deaths have been caused due to poor judgment, and are ready to face their consequences.

This article paints BP in too positive of a light. They have caused death and destruction, which is unforgivable, but John Broder feels no need to go into the true disaster at the Macondo well last year and just openly says the BP will be willing to face any sort of legal action because they are aware of their wrongs. BP caused an oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico, and it has taken a year to discover that they were the actual cause behind said oil spill, when they have undoubtedly known about their own mistakes for the entirety of that time. Instead of portraying BP has an upstanding company ready to face any troubles they might have for the death of 11 of their workers, Broder should be much more harsh as to say it is the fault of BP and no penance will ever allow those workers back to this world, and that oil spill which now needs to be cleaned up has caused even more damage.

"Scientists Hint at Why Laughter Feels So Good", Amanda Austi

“Scientists Hint at Why Laughter Feels So Good”

By James Gorman

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/09/14/science/14laughter.html

Review by Amanda Austi

Laughter is something that is apart of our daily lives; or at least we hope it is! But why is this action enjoyable to human beings? This question is something that James Gorman reports on. Laughter has always been viewed in a positive way with no real explanation as to why this is the case. Dr, Dunbar, an evolutionary physiologist, has looked deeply into this socially accepted phenomenon. He proposes that laughter feels good to humans, not because of the intellectual affect that we enjoy humor, but because of the physical effect it immerses to humans. Many tests that him and his colleagues have performed, have proven that the muscle exertions involved in laughter give off endorphins into the brain. Endorphins are chemicals that have are neurotransmitters in the brain. Therefore, many of us know them as “feel good chemicals”, because they trigger a positive reaction in our bodies. To first test this, Dr. Dunbar and his team decided that they would test pain resistance of individuals, before and after laughter. The reason why he tested pain resistance is because pain resistance shows the presence of endorphins in the brain. Scientists are not able to analyze endorphins because they are brain chemicals, and thus cannot be seen in blood samples. His results eliminated the commonly known hypothesis that pain resistance is dependent on the well being of a person, rather than laughter. However, to further test these results on a higher level, he carried out further experiments. Dr. Dunbar decided to closely look into “social laughter”, laughter that he would describe as relaxed, unforced, natural, and contagious. In this study, he had humans watch comedy videos (test results of laughter), neutral videos (not intentionally meant to make someone laugh), and “feel-good” videos (positive videos, not made to make one laugh). The time each person laughed was recorded, and their pain resistance was tested before and after the showing of the films. The results of this experiment proved that the more laughter, the higher the pain resistance of a human being was. The good feeling videos had no effect on their pain resistance, and therefore, eliminated the other hypothesis. Therefore, because the laughter generated the most pain resistance, Dr. Dunbar was able to conclude that laughter creates many endorphins in the brain. His conclusions are the reason why we all enjoy laughter.

Laughter is with out a doubt a universal activity in our world. Dr. Dunbar’s discoveries about the benefits have laughter have a major affect on humanity. He has proposed that laughter contributed to the bonding of human beings since the beginning of time. And to this day, laughter continues to make social human beings. This proposal relates back to the study of evolution. Dunbar believes that laughter could have brought together groups of human beings. With out the bonding of humans, communities, towns, cities, countries, and even continents would not exist. Everyone would be on their own. If laughter is something that humans used to bond together, then by evolution theories, it must be an adaptation. This use of inductive reasoning shows that laughter was an early mechanism in primates. This is evident in the laughter of apes. The laughter of apes is them panting. This connection, has proposed that the sounds of apes laughing, “pant- pant”, eventually evolved into the sound of human beings laughing, “ha-ha”. Although this new discovery in science affects our world as a whole, it can individually affect us. Next time we laugh, we now know what is causing us to feel good. Therefore, now that we know that laughter causes endorphins, next time we are feeling down if laughing doesn’t do the trick, we can try to feel better by doing another activity that releases endorphins. For example, a physical activity such as running. Since laughter is a universal aspect of life, the studies of laughter in this article have a huge impact on the study of human beings.

Overall, I thought this article was extremely interesting. The topic chosen is something that is relatable to all readers. Whether you are interested in science or not, the topic was friendly to all interests. Therefore, the topic was relatable and personal to readers. Another strength of the article was the way Gorman followed the studies of one scientist. By doing this, the reader is able to follow the information clearly, with out any ambiguity as to what is being tested. Furthermore, Gorman also did a good job explaining the thoughts of Dunbar through relevant quotes. Last, I thought a strong point of the article was the way Gorman added in the information about evolution. This point makes the article strong because it gives readers insight on how human beings have evolved over time. Although Gorman has many strong points, one weakness was his organization. I think that he presented the information somewhat out of order, and should have grouped some information together as suppose to stating related facts in different sections of the article. However, overall I believe this article was very good and engaging.

Citation:

Gorman, James. “Scientists Hint at Why Laughter Feels So Good” New York Times Online. 15 Sep2011. 13 Sep2011.

An Immune System Trained to Kill Cancer

This article is about a new treatment doctors are experimenting with that uses your own white blood cells to kill cancer. The treatment involves a large number of T cells, which are a form of white blood cells, and injecting them with a form of HIV that carries cancer-fighting genes. When the T cells are put back into the body they begin destroying cancerous cells. So far the treatment has been used on three people with advanced leukemia that was unable to be treated with chemotherapy. The results so far have been very good. Two of the patients went into complete remission, while one entered partial remission. The doctors, however, are far from calling anyone cured, or in any way claiming they have defeated leukemia. Instead they have stated that although the initial results are positive, the treatment is still in its early experimental phase, and will require a lot more work. Other people in the field, however, have exclaimed that the group has made a significant break through. For years researchers have been trying to find a way to make a persons own body fight cancer, rather then having to use radiation to destroy the cells. This treatment is one of the biggest breakthroughs in that study, and could lead to many more discoveries. The treatment itself involves many steps. First the patient’s blood is run through a machine to extract as many T cells as possible. These T cells are then exposed to the gene carrying HIV virus, and frozen. At the same time the patient is given chemo to try to kill every remaining T cell in his or her body, so that nothing can interfere with the genetically modified ones once they reenter the blood stream. Finally the new T cells are put back into the body. Patients who have the treatment are not left completely healthy. The new T cells do weaken the immune system, so injections must be given every few months to stop infections. The treatment still has a long way to go. It can still be dangerous, and must be proven to be significantly more effective them chemo before it will be mass-produced, the groundwork, however, has been laid.

The information in this article affects humanity profoundly. Millions of people die every year from cancer, and even more are forced to live their life in pain from complications stemming from the disease. The way cancer is treated, which is in most cases chemotherapy, is also very bad for the body. This treatment proposes a way that your own body could learn how fight the cancer. This is a better situation then having to use an external force to kill the cancerous cells. This would mean that people who are having their cancer treated would not have to deal with many of the complications associated with chemo, such as general weakness. The immediate impact of this information on society, however, is not that great. The article makes it clear that although early signs are good this treatment will not be mainstream for a very long time, if ever. There are still many things researchers need to figure out before they can start treating more people.

I feel that this article was very interesting. It does a good job of explaining the treatment to the reader in an understandable way. This treatment obviously involves some very serious science, but the author is able to describe it in such a way that anybody can understand. I also think the article does a good job of managing expectations. It does not proclaim that cancer is now cured. It instead tells that reader that although there ahs been a great break through, there is still a lot fo work to be done