You Mean I Don’t Have to Show Up? The Promise of Telemedicine

You Mean I Don’t Have to Show Up? The Promise of Telemedicine

by Austin Frakt

In this article, Austin Frakt discusses the importance of the emerging practice of telemedicine, highlighting the effect of impersonal medical care on patients. The author starts by discussing the problems and barriers present for patients when trying to schedule appointments, travel to doctor's offices, and interpreting complicated diagnoses; all of these issues, he claims, can be alleviated by the growing popularity of medicine through technology. Telemedicine “holds the promise” of giving patients and doctors time back, allowing check ups and appointments to take less time and allowing more time to be spent on diagnosis and treatment. The author discusses some of the faults of the new industry too, claiming that healthcare companies and traditional doctor’s offices are rejecting the practice.

I found this article very interesting, as the topic of medicine shifting from traditional visits to technology-based services. This is important to all people as medicine becomes accessible to all, with the promise of telemedicine having the potential to reach people in third world countries where medical care would not be available otherwise. As self-diagnosis and personal concierge medical help becomes more popular, telemedicine will eventually overshadow traditional medical services, and will become what we rely on in the future.

Overall, this article was well-written and easy to understand. It also included a lot of statistics and information from various sources, which made the article and its information more reliable and viable. I think that the author did a good job of presenting various opinions on the emerging telemedicine industry, both positive and negative. I think that this article was interesting and informative, and taught me about a topic that I would not have learned about otherwise.

Frakt, Austin. "You Mean I Don’t Have to Show Up? The Promise of Telemedicine." The New York Times. The New York Times, 16 May 2016. Web. 15 May 2016. <http://www.nytimes.com/2016/05/17/upshot/you-mean-i-dont-have-to-show-up-the-promise-of-telemedicine.html?rref=collection%2Fsectioncollection%2Fhealth&action=click&contentCollection=health®ion=stream&module=stream_unit&version=latest&contentPlacement=6&pgtype=sectionfront&_r=0>.

How Much Is Too Much Marijuana to Drive? Lawmakers Wonder

Ellie Briskin AP Bio C Even

May 16, 2016 Current Event 20

Bromwich, Jonah. "How Much Is Too Much Marijuana to Drive? Lawmakers Wonder." The New York Times. The New York Times, 13 May 2016. Web. 16 May 2016.

http://www.nytimes.com/2016/05/14/us/marijuana-driving-laws.html?rref=collection%2Fsectioncollection%2Fscience&action=click&contentCollection=science&region=stream&module=stream_unit&version=latest&contentPlacement=4&pgtype=sectionfront

This article discusses how much marijuana can be in one’s system before it is unsafe for that person to drive. Unlike alcohol levels, which can be easily discerned through blood-alcohol tests, blood tests are an unreliable indication of impairment by cannabis. This is an issue for “legislators seeking to create laws on driving while impaired by marijuana… While drunkenness directly correlates to alcohol in the bloodstream, cannabis impairment takes place only when THC makes its way into the fatty tissue of the brain.” This also means that the effects of marijuana differ greatly between people; some aren’t impaired at all, yet the THC could remain in a person’s blood for hours, days, and even weeks. The article doesn’t offer any solutions as to how to gauge a person’s ability to drive while high, but offers much evidence as to why testing blood alcohol levels are ineffective and can lead to faulty arrests and an overall misunderstanding of how marijuana affects a user.

I was initially drawn in with this article because I find the topic of personal safety extremely intriguing. Considering that marijuana consumption is becoming rapidly more popular and widespread, it is imperative that the public knows how to use it safely, without putting themselves or others in danger. We must continue to study the effects of marijuana on the body and their potential dangers, especially so that lawmakers can set regulations on the amount of marijuana one can be influenced by when operating machinery, specifically cars.

Overall, I was impressed by the presentation of this article. Its paragraphs flowed and were ordered in a way that made sense, making it extremely easy for me to follow along. I also felt that it was strengthened by the substantial number of expert quotes, which legitimized the arguments. I also enjoyed the fun, conversational tone that the author used; this was not only easy to understand but also kept me, the reader, captive. However, the one criticism I have of the article is that it was fairly minimalist, to the point of not having enough information. Although some find this better and most manageable, it left me with many questions and just confuses many readers. I would suggest that the author synthesises his information better, not just condensing what he has but really sifting through what is important and what is not, while still maintaining a logical flow. But overall, I thought this article was very well put together, and maintained my interest throughout.

Warmer temperatures increase mortality from sea star wasting disease

In this article a recent phenomena was discussed in which, sea stars have begun to perish at the hands of a virus called sea star wasting disease. Certain populations started exhibiting symptoms of decreased appetite, lesions, uncharacteristic arm twisting, arm loss, and eventually death. The reason that these recent outbreaks of the virus are so curious is because the virus can be found in samples of sea stars dating back at least 72 years. This raises the question of what has recently changed in the life of these sea stars that has made them ill equipped to fend of the virus that has otherwise been harmless in the past. A hypothesis was formed which stated that the reason for the outbreaks was rising water temperatures. Outbreaks in the past were studied and warm water seemed to be a common factor. This hypothesis was tested by taking star fishes from their natural habitats and putting them in either warm or cool tanks. It was observed that those who were placed in the colder tanks displayed a greater ability to fend off the virus but they eventually did succumb at a slower rate. 

While sea stars may not play an integral part our ecosystem, they are very important in their own. If water temperatures continue to rise as they have been then there are bound to be detrimental effects to reef environments amongst others. The question also arises of how often scenarios similar to this one will occur in other animals if the ever warming environment is not counteracted? How many other species will be affected and possibly be eradicated?

The article was very effective at explaining the experiment. The trial and error was described in depth along with the conclusions that were drawn from the results but there was a certain lack of background. There was no description of the nature of the virus or what the discoveries mean for the future. The article concluded that sea stars in cold water survived better but I would have liked to have known what that meant. What about the virus makes it unfit to survive in the cold and how can we use that information to stop the outbreaks?

Blair, Austen. "Wasting Away in Virus-ville." Oceanbites. Oceanbites, 12 May 2016. Web. 15 May 2016.

http://oceanbites.org/wasting-away-in-virus-ville/ 

First eukaryotes found without a normal cellular power supply

The mitochondria with its double membrane, citric acid cycle, 36 ATP, and every other biology fact we can spill out, is important, but maybe not essential to us wonderful blobs of Eukaryotic cells. In fact, in a recent study, scientists have discovered the first Eukaryotas without a mitochondria. The theory is that mitochondria descended from a group of bacteria, which were eventually swallowed up by Eukaryotas. Scientists, and the Ap Biology free-response solutions, concluded that mitochondria and other such energy producing organelles were characteristics of Eukaryotas. But some scientists searched to prove each other wrong, going as far as testing a diarrhea-causing bacteria that seemed to have been missing their mitochondria; however, like many people, the problem just lay in the size, and they eventually found out that the mitochondria was in fact there, it was just small. Recently, though, scientists proposed another bacteria that may be missing their mitochondria, called Monocercomonoides. They obtained a sample from a fellow lab member, and found that the cell lacked mitochondrial genes and in fact did not have the proteins to allow mitochondria to function at all. The scientist working on this experiment, Anna Karnkowska, states that “The definition of eukaryotic cells is that they have mitochondria...We overturn this definition.” Apparently this bacteria, that lives in an oxygen depleted environment in our body, uses enzymes in its cytoplasm to digest food, as for the second function of the mitochondria, which creates iron and sulfur, the bacteria have worked around it be incorporating the DNA of other bacteria to complete this process. An interesting point to note is that the closest ancestor of the bacteria has a mitochondria, suggesting this development in fairly recent in it’s evolution.

This discovery is important for science for multiple reasons. Firstly, it makes the definition of Eukaryotas for scientists, and the college board, more flexible. It also suggests that Eukaryotic cells may be able to develop to exclude the mitochondria, allowing us to live in harsher environments or that our organelles will adapt and change according to our exquisite processed food diet. Overall, it weakens the definition scientists have placed on cells and other parts of the body, opening new doors to research and for finding the exception.

The author of this article was very to the point and straightforward in the middle of the article. She included a lot of quotes from Canadian scientists, who didn’t have to do with the experiment, but which I thought was nice because it further validated its point. Overall it was well written, and easy to understand, a bit dry at sometimes, but people usually are.

Leslie, Mitch. "First Eukaryotes Found without a Normal Cellular Power Supply." Science. N.p., 2016. Web. 15 May 2016. <http://www.sciencemag.org/news/2016/05/first-eukaryotes-found-without-normal-cellular-power-supply>.

Wood that Could be Mistaken as Glass

The title, Wood that Could be Mistaken as Glass, instantly inclines itself to skepticism from the reader, at least it did for me. We all know what wood looks like and what glass looks like, and the difference couldn’t be more apparent. However our presumptions are naturally proved wrong, as we glimpse the picture of the transparent wood in comparison to the average opaque one. Researchers at University of Maryland have managed to transform wood into a solid four times stronger and clearly more transparent. This is all thanks to a simple two-step process. First, it is boiled in a warm bath of water and chemicals including sodium hydroxide which removes the wood color forming molecule called lignin. Next, epoxy was poured over the colorless wood to give it more strength. The benefits of this tougher and translucent wood is that not only is it biodegradable, but the structures that once pumped ions and water is a viable passageway for light, allowing a more direct light flow. However, the biggest translucent wood  is currently about the size of a palm and thickness varying from razor thin to a centimeter. With no indication of how long this hurdle will take to overcome, consumers will just have to wait before this transparent wood can see its way into the market.

The importance of this innovation is the fact that it is not only transparent, but biodegradable and a better insulator than glass. Although this appears more beneficial for architects and home buyers, the significance is that this product, although not a byproduct of nature isn’t going to drastically harm our planet. It isn’t an unknown fact that our landfills are piling up with human waste, and this scientific finding doesn’t lead to harmful effects in our already growing landfills.

Aspects that I enjoyed about the piece were the visual images that displayed the two-step process of wood transformation and the author’s brevity. However, two areas of improvement might be the inner scientific workings behind how exactly sodium hydroxide got rid of the ligand and how the researchers formulated this approach. I think it would have given the piece a stronger scientific backbone. Although it was nice to be given a simplified digestible article, expanding upon the scientific process would have been appreciated.

Citation:

St, Nicholas. "Wood That Could Be Mistaken for Glass." The New York Times. The New York Times, 11 May 2016. Web. 15 May 2016.

Hyperlink: http://www.nytimes.com/2016/05/12/science/see-through-wood.html

Climate-Related Death of Coral Around World Alarms Scientists

     Marine scientists have recently discovered possibly the worst mass bleaching of coral reefs to date, and they believe that climate change and heat stress from various weather events has caused damage to more than a third of the Earth’s coral reefs. Unfortunately, the scientists have also concluded that the coral reefs most likely will not recover from this damage. Bleaching of the reefs occurs when high heat causes the metabolism of the algae to speed out of control, which causes them to create toxins. As the heat stress continues, the corals starve to death. Australia’s Great Barrier Reef was confirmed last month to have the largest bleaching. Climate studies and their effect on coral reefs have proven that these events of damaged or dying coral reefs are happening with increasing frequency. The director of Australia’s Global Change Institute noted, “Rising temperatures due to climate change have pushed corals beyond their tolerance levels,” and if the temperature of the water does not cool, these reefs may never be the same.

     Coral reefs are a crucial element of the ocean’s ecosystem because they provide food and shelter to a quarter of all marine species. More importantly, they support fish that feed more than one billion people. The damage of these reefs is also detrimental to the lives of the people who depend on these fish. It has been estimated that 30 million fishermen and women depend on the reefs, and more than one million of these people are from just the Philippines alone. According to the director of CoralWatch at Australia’s University of Queensland, the bleaching of the coral reefs is a “huge, looming planetary crisis.”

     This article was well written and its concise paragraphs were very easy to follow and understand. I appreciated the author’s inclusion of a map that depicted the severity of various reports of damaged or dying coral reefs worldwide; this image proved that there is an increasing threat of dying coral reefs. Additionally, Innis included several reports from experts on this issue, which made the article even stronger and more credible. I think there should have been more discussion of the bleaching process in the article since an understanding of the damage that this process causes is critical to complete knowledge of this problem. Overall, this article shed light on a very serious issue regarding Earth’s coral reefs that I was unaware of before, and I hope to read about marine scientists finding a way to repair the damaged reefs to maintain our ecosystem’s balance.

Citation:

Innis, Michelle. "Climate-Related Death of Coral Around World Alarms Scientists." The New

York Times. The New York Times, 09 Apr. 2016. Web. 13 May 2016. <http://www.nytimes.com/2016/04/10/world/asia/climate-related-death-of-coral-around-world-alarms-scientists.html?rref=collection%2Fsectioncollection%2Fearth&action=click&contentCollection=earth®ion=rank&module=package&version=highlights&contentPlacement=5&pgtype=sectionfront&_r=0>.