Phys Ed: Why Exercise Makes You Less Anxious

Allison Cane November 19, 2009
Chemistry Article review

Phys Ed: Why Exercise Makes You Less Anxious
http://well.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/11/18/phys-ed-why-exercise-makes-you-less-anxious/?em

Researchers at Princeton University made a new discovery about the brains of rats and exercise. The neurons in their brains react differently in the brains of exercised rats rather then slothful rats. The brains of the exercised rats were more calm then those of unexercised rats. The scientists say that they always knew exercise effected mood, but how it effected anxiety was unclear until now. Other researchers have looked at how exercise alters the activity of dopamine, another neurotransmitter in the brain, while still others have concentrated on the antioxidant powers of moderate exercise. Anxiety in rats and people, have been proven to kill cells especially in the brain. When rats in one experiment were injected with a chemical that induced stress, they became extremely anxious. The intensity of the exercise is also uncertain as of the moment, but there are many experiments that are going on to find out more. Less stress may not come after one jog, but after a few weeks you will notice a difference says one of the doctors.
This article was very interesting. I had no idea that exercise relieved stress from the body. I think that this article was written very well. It included a lot of detail and explained everything well. One thing that I did not especial enjoy about the article was that it was written more for adults. I didn’t understand everything they were talking about so it was a little difficult to follow. Over all it was very good.

Little Progress in Freeing a Rover on Mars

Victoria Corbo 11/19/09
CHEM Block C ODD Mr. Ippolito

Chang, Kenneth. "Little Progress in Freeing a Rover on Mars." The New York Times 17 Nov. 2009. Web. 19 Nov. 2009. .

After being still for about a half of a year, the NASA rover, Spirit, moved. Albeit very little, but, still, it’s an improvement. When the rover first got stuck, back in May, mission managers had to make sure that when it did move it didn’t get more stuck. So they put on tight moving constrictions. Because of this the rover only moved a very little bit. For now the Spirit is awaiting new commands. Engineers are currently figuring out what their next move will be. Although the fact that the Spirit is stuck is a pain, it did get stuck in an interesting place. Geologists say that the sand where the Spirit is stuck is richer in sulfates then anywhere else on Mars that they studied. The sulfates told scientists that there may have been acidic waters in that region a long time ago. This is important for humans because it teaches us a little bit more about the big ol’ universe around us. This was a pretty good article. It was interesting and informative. Two things I didn’t like. One, the end got a little boring. Two, it didn’t really explain why this was important.

Is Doomsday Coming? Perhaps, But not in 20012

Recently there has been some talk about the movie 2012. Well it turns out that this theory based on the end of the Mayan calendar is a hoax, the world will not be ending anytime soon. Both NASA and CERN (European Center for Nuclear Research) have ensured that the world will not be coming to an end. Which is good news for us. In the article it talks about the social buzz the year 2012 has been getting since the Mayan calendar has been found, yet it is still shot down by the contradictory findings of NASA and CERN. This is so much of a hoax that Ed Krupp, director of the Griffith Observatory, in Los Angeles, an expert on ancient astronomy says “Most of what’s claimed for 2012 relies on wishful thinking, wild pseudoscientific folly, ignorance of astronomy and a level of paranoia of the Night of the Living Dead.” Some people such as Anthony Aveni, an astronomer and anthropologist at Colgate University believe that the Mayans should be given more respect. He claims that the Mayans never said anything about the world coming to an end they just stop taking count on their calendar. Basically, people chill out.

I don’t feel as if this article and discoveries can truly help society. It can finally, for most people put to rest a scary fact and give confirmation that the world is not coming to an end anytime soon. The Mayans had been astronomers for as long as they existed, yes. They wrote down everything that had possibly known about astronomy, yes. The Mayans had been serving up a calendar for thousands of years above when they existed. What most of the professors and what NASA and CERN are saying in this article is that the Mayans just happened to stop taking records here and IF they knew the world was going to come to an end in 2012, they would have written about it and we would know by now.

Overall I thought this was a very well rounded article. It consisted of a good author, good points and key facts and most importantly he chose a title and a topic that many people, including me found interesting and wanted to read about. Not only that but he had provided a bit of dry humor which I had personally liked. It gave a twist to what people where thinking about would happen in 2012 and showed them what the true point of this article is. 2012 is a hoax.

Overbye, Dennis . "Is Doomsday Coming? Perhaps, but Not in 2012." New York TImes 16 Nov. 2009. Web. 17 Nov. 2009. .

When Mountain Hunt, They Prey On the Weak

In this article, we learn that the Colorodo Division of Wildlife researched lions' choice of prey, and that the results were very interesting. With sample tissue from male deer carcasses, they discovered that the lions greatly favor hunting deer with chronic wasting disease, a mental disorder similar to mad cow disease. Although we already postulized that predators hunt for the weak prey, chronic wasting disease does not symptons observable by a hunter, therefore the hunter is just as likely to kill a regular deer.

This is an interesting article since it tells the reader something about the mountain lion that was not previously know. They can determine a deer's disorder before a human can. This is extremely fascinating because humans are very smart.

I learned that we do not give lions as much credit as we should, since they are able to make smart choices about what they hunt. Lions have normally just been seen as big cats that growl to me, but now I know they are insightful creatures.

Is Doomsday Coming? Perhaps, but Not in 2012

Alex Adrian

November 16th,2009

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/11/17/science/17essay.html?_r=1&ref=science

Is Doomsday Coming? Perhaps, but Not in 2012

A week ago our NASA program stated that the world is not ending, like some believe that in 2012 the world will come to its final day on november twelfth. Otherwise known as 12/12/12, the doomsday for the earth, has been stated false by both NASA and CERN, the European Center for Nuclear Research. Some people are glad to hear this news that these predictions are false. Some people are are particularly “habitually jittery” aka someone who is afraid of days like 12/12/12/ in the fear that the world will die. Some say that a black hole would be spit out of its new Large Hadron Collider and eat the Earth.YouTube videos and web site postings have gone off of the charts in responds to the worry that the world will end on Dec. 21, 2012 when the the Mayan calendar supposedly ends. The movie “2012” portrays these images that the 5,125 year cycle comes to the final day. The movie shows the sun going berserk resulting in gigantic storms that pour out huge number of subatomic particles, otherwise known as neutrinos. The world would be covered with thick black ash. All of these videos, movies, books, articles, blogs, etc are a bunk according to astronomers. “Most of what’s claimed for 2012 relies on wishful thinking, wild pseudoscientific folly, ignorance of astronomy and a level of paranoia worthy of ‘Night of the Living Dead,’ ” Ed Krupp, director of the Griffith Observatory, in Los Angeles, and an expert on ancient astronomy, wrote in an article in the November issue of Sky & Telescope. If it was true that another planet out there was heading our way, people would have seen it by now. Astronomers say that for the fierce solar storms,the next sunspot maximum could not possibly occur until 2013. This storm will be mild and astronomers support this notion. To further prove that the world will not be coming to an end anytime soon, some say that there will more big earthquakes in California which will happen again, but these earthquakes have the potential to destroy Los Angeles, as the movie portrays this. Plus, the Yellowstone could erupt again with cataclysmic force anytime now. When I say “anytime now” i really mean in hundreds of millions of years. Dr. Krupp, an astronomer and anthropologist at Colgate University say that there is no evidence now that the Mayans believed that something significant would occur on 12/12/12 to make them end their calendars then. The original article expressed different ways that the world could end and the article also describes how these predictions are false. There is no facts to prove that the world will come to its finale on December 12th, 2012, therefore we should all live our lives to the fullest and not expect to end our lives in three years.

"Speech Gene Shows Its Bossy Nature"

Henry Arcano Nov. 15, 2009

Block C Even http://www.nytimes.com/2009/11/12/science/12gene.html?ref=science

Both humans and animals have the gene FOXP2, which controls human speech. However, humans are the only species that can speak. Only 2 out of 740 units of the human gene differ from the chimpanzee form. This may be the reason why chimpanzees cannot speak and humans can. An experiment done on mice shows that there is no major transformation when the human FOXP2 gene is inserted into mice, but that is probably because our last common ancestor lived 60 million years ago. A parallel experiment has recently been completed where the chimp version of the gene was inserted into a human neuron. Because it was not a full brain, the neurons only gave a glimpse of what would happen if the gene was inserted into a full human brain. Even so, this experiment confirmed that the gene controls at least 116 different genes. The gene, as if it was a conductor in an orchestra, makes some of the genes quiet while making others do a lot. The human gene seems to be acting on a much more much more refined set of genes than the chimp gene. Also, it looks like the entire set of genes has evolved to make a language. Some of the genes in the FOXP2 are also linked to speech malfunctions, which confirms that it is important in speech. The FOXP2 system genes aren't the only genes involved in speech though, because while the FOXP2 genes are equally active on both sides of the brain, the use of all of the genes needed in language is not equal on both sides.

This article is important because scientists think that they can learn a lot more about language from studying this new gene. Dr. Daniel H. Geschwind, the leader of the chimpanzee experiment, hopes "to use FOXP2 as a lever to get a view of the molecular machinery in a biological language circuit." Martin Dominguez and Dr. Pasko Rakic of Yale describe this as an important discovery that “provides a starting point for future studies of the molecular basis of language and human evolution.”

I thought that this article was very thorough in explaining the FOXP2 gene, but the wording could be hard for me to understand. I needed to look up neuron and genome, as I did not know either of them. A neuron is a cell that transmits nerve impulses, or a nerve cell, and a genome is the complete set of genes in a cell or organism.

“Signature of Antimatter Detected in Lightning”

Clara Barth 11/12/09
Core Chemistry H Blog - article review


I read an article entitled “Signature of Antimatter Detected in Lightning”. This article was about how, using a Fermi Gamma-ray Space Telescope, high emissions of gamma-rays were recorded when the telescope was pointed at lightning here on Earth. (The telescope is usually used to find gamma-ray concentrations in the universe.) Fermi discovered that gamma-ray emissions of a certain type of energy were produced in lightning. This energy could only have been produced by the decay of energetic positrons. Positrons are the antimatter equivalent of electrons. What Fermi found was unusual because the normal orientation for an electric field in a lightning storm was somehow reversed. Now, scientists are trying to figure out how that could be possible.
Although the subject matter is very interesting, I don’t think that it will really affect anyone’s life other than the scientists involved. The finding of gamma rays in lightning will not affect humanity in any way, good or bad.
I liked this article. I thought it was a little bit short, but it was concise and to-the-point. It was written very well and I felt as if I really got the point after reading it. It also explained a little bit about the technology used to find the gamma rays in lightning. I found that helpful as I am not familiar with most of the terms they used.