Kwashiorkor...say whaaat???

Kwashiorkor is an acute form of childhood protein-energy malnutrition. Kwashiorkor occurs most commonly in areas of limited food supply,famine, and low levels of education, which can also lead to inadequate knowledge of proper diet. Some symptoms of this include fatigue, irritability, and lethargy. Another symptom is an unusually large belly. Increasing the calorie and protein intake will correct kwashiorkor, but that is only if treatment hasn't been started too late. Although, the full height and growth potential of the person will never be achieved in mainly just the children who have had this condition.

Most people think when they are overweight it would be smart to cut the carbohydrates from their diet. Wrong. Your body needs carbs, fats, and proteins in order to be healthy. Carbohydrates and their derivatives play major roles in the working process of the immune system, fertilization, pathogenesis, blood clotting, and development. Carbs are also the most common source of energy in living things.

Have you ever thought about the fact that too much protein can affect your body? The reason for this is because a diet in which protein makes up more than 30% of your calorie intake causes a buildup of toxic ketones. These diets can put your kidneys into overdrive in order to flush these ketones from your body. As your kidneys rid your body of these toxic ketones, you can lose a significant amount of water, which puts you at risk of dehydration. You will most likely dehydrate if you exercise heavily and are in this condition.

This article contains a lot of information and I have learned a lot while researching about kwashiorkor, and also different things that are unhealthy for you with certain diets. I hope you take my information into consideration and remember to check your diet before you start, because you never know when something can go wrong.

Hellooo Nylon!! Goodbye silk...

Wallace Carothers is known for contributing more to our basic knowledge of polymers more than anyone else. He began as a teacher, but preferred to do research instead, and in 1928, he accepted a position with DuPont in order to work on a research program. Wallace produced nylon in the year of 1935, but it wasn’t announced until the year 1938. The research team wanted to make a synthetic fiber that could replace silk, because the United States received their silk from Japan, and trade relations between the two countries were breaking apart. 

The invention of nylon was revolutionary, because nobody had ever thought that it could be done, and it was very convenient compared to silk, due to our relations with Japan being shaky. Also, it was a strong fiber that could stand up well to both heat and solvents. Synthetic materials have changed the products today, because there are so many different fabrics and materials that are being used, such as stretchy materials like elastics. If we didn’t have these materials, I think everything would be made from cotton and wool, because they are easier to reach and find.

The relationship between engineering and science in Carothers work is the fact that he had so much knowledge in his head about science and organic chemistry and he used that knowledge to engineer a new product. He started by studying the chemical structure of polymers and it led him to his great accomplishment of introducing nylon.  

To Clone or not to Clone..THAT is thee question.

       In the past, scientists have experimented with sheep to go through the cloning process to see if it would work. Over 270 attempts were needed in order to make a special sheep named Dolly, and it was born in Scotland in 1996. All of the other sheep were born with health problems, including malformed kidneys, and all but Dolly died prematurely. Knowing this, should humans really be cloned? When I think about this, I try to put myself in the person's shoes when they find out they have been cloned. Would you really want to know that you were made specifically from somebody else's genetic material? I wouldn't! It takes away your identity and people wouldn't be able to have their own personalities. According to theologian Nigel Cameron, "It would be perhaps the worst thing we have ever thought of in the maltreatment of our species". Cameron says," it would be a kind of new slave class... you would have human beings who were made by human beings for their purposes". Another factor that has to due with cloning is the cost. Cloning somebody is so overly expensive that not everyone would be able to do it. I was researching this topic and thought to ask my parents to see what their thoughts were on it and if they thought it was a good idea.

Mom-
"No, I think it is awful. God created everyone individually so why would you even want to think about that!" -Great answer mom!
Dad-
"I think its great. If you could create something good 3 or 4 times over again why wouldn't you? Heck! Id create 2 or 3 more Halle Barrys if i could! haha just kidding!" -Sure dad...suuure!

Sooo, in my opinion, cloning is not a good idea at all. Everyone is created individually and that is the way it should always be.

Video games can be bad for you?? REALLY??

   Summary

     Recent studies have shown that playing video games has increased aggression in the players and may last up to 24 hours after the game is finished. Playing these games causes the user to think about bad things in their head and it causes them to have that aggresion towards other people. These studies were tested by having college students play 6 different video games for 20 minutes each. Some of the games were intense, aggressive games, but others were not. One of the aggressive games was Mortal Kombat, and the non-aggressive game was Guitar Hero. The players were being tested, because half of them were told to think about their performance of the game for the next 24 hours and see if there was anything they could do to improve. This theory was used in order to see if their behavior changed at all. The studied showed that men who played the aggressive game and thought about it for the next 24 hours had an increased intensity level than those who did not. Also, this study showed that women who played the aggressive game did not have a change of behavior. This was the very first study ever to show how video games can increase aggression in people, and this intensity usually lasts for over a long period of time.

Response

Playing video games is not a huge hobby of mine, but my older brother, Tony, asks me to play with him sometimes, and I really don't mind it. The only bad thing is that I am not the best at playing these games, so that makes me want to play more so I can improve.  I have grown up with Tony and he is actually a very intense, aggressive person. Sometimes I feel that he does not know how strong he really is, and that he should probably take it down a notch when doing certain things. haha. I am anxious to see what he says about this article, because knowing him he won't think it is true. He usually plays a lot of football games, and those aren't so intense, but I can definately see where these studies are coming from. Sometimes my brother will play the hard core games and I can see a difference in his attitude, because he gets mad at himself and wants to hurt something. ahhh..!! Although, Tony is a very nice person and would never do something like that!

Water- does it freeze quicker when it's hot or cold?? hmm...

http://www.sciencenews.org/view/generic/id/57551/title/You_really_can_freeze_hot_water_faster_than_cold%2A

Summary!
         New experiments have shown that hot water will freeze faster than cold water under extrememly specific conditions. The Mpema effect is a special case named for Erasto B. Mpemba, a Tanzanian schoolboy. He noticed which making ice cream that warm milk froze quicker that the cold milk. Physicist Denis Osborned and Mpemba published an article of this in Physics Education in the year of 1969. Some other people that noticed this effect were Francis Bacon, Rene Descartes and Aristotle. Most people would think hot water would take long to freeze, because obviously you would think cold water is closer in temperature to zero degrees celcius. This is correct, but some scientific experiments have shown otherwise. “All in all, the work is a nice beginning, but not systematic enough to do more than confirm it can happen,” comments David Auerbach, a water expert , whose done experiments where this phenomenon does occur.

Reflection

            After reading this article I was very surprised, because I never would have thought that hot water would freeze quicker than warm water. Now that I know this I am going to try it on my own and see if it is really true. I am anxious to see the outcome, because even after reading this it is still hard to believe so I will have to find out for myself. Also, knowing this shows that if you are trying to freeze some type of liquid, heating it up first should make it freeze faster than having the liquid cold, correct? Correct! This also means when you are trying to make a strawberry milkshake and it needs to be frozen you should use warm milk instead of cold milk, because the quicker it freezes, the quicker you can enjoy your scrumptious snack!



http://math.ucr.edu/home/baez/physics/General/hot_water.html