CSB #6: Can Caffeine Actually Be Running Through Your Veins?

Scientists from the Harvard School of Public Health, the National Cancer Institute, and other institutions say they have discovered two genetic variations influencing caffeine metabolism, the chemical process that happens in a living organism, depending on the amount of consumption. People with particular variations of two specific genes are more likely to consume caffeine, and to drink more of it when they do, study leader Marilyn C. Cornelis, PhD, of the Harvard School of Public Health. The genes are identified as CYP1A2, long known to play some role in caffeine metabolism, and another called AHR, Aryl Hydrocarbon Receptor, which affects regulation of CYP1A2. All people have both genes, but the study, involving more than 47,000 middle-aged Americans of European descent, finds that people with the highest-consumption variant for either gene consumed about 40 milligrams, equivalent to 1/3 the cup of coffee or one can of soda, more caffeine than people with the lowest-consumption. Many people have become addicted to caffeine and drink it multiple times on a daily basis to avoid pain from withdrawal, the process of ceasing from taking a certain drug. Caffeine effects mutiple medical and physiological conditions. Additionally it affects mood, sleep patterns, energy levels, and mental and physical performances. Does this mean that different people have to take different amounts of caffeine? How does caffeine affect us in the long run?

Sources:

• Photo: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/health-12992374
• Source: Hendrick, Bill. "Crave Caffeine? It May Be in Your Genes DNA May Influence How
  Much Caffeine People Consume, Researchers Say." WebMD. WebMD, 7 Apr. 2011.
  Web. 7 Apr. 2011. .

CSB #5: A Blood Draw to Find Down Syndrome

European scientists were able to diagnose Down Syndrome prenatally, before birth, by giving a blood test to pregnant women, an alternative way to detect the syndrome without the extensive procedures. Pregnant women get blood tests and ultrasounds to find out or the doctor takes some amniotic fluid or a sample of the placenta. These procedures sometimes end in miscarriage, which is the removal of a fetus from the womb before it is able to survive independently. People with Down Syndrome, also known as Trisomy 21, carry three copies of chromosome 21, instead of two. The preliminary report published online is the latest of studies that suggest scientists can spot Down syndrome through fetal DNA particulates in the mother's bloodstream. There's no commercial test available yet, but companies are hoping to release one in about a year. Scientists in Greece, Cyprus, and England said that they correctly identified 14 Down syndrome cases and 26 normal fetuses, but need a larger study in order to confirm their results. Are scientists claiming this has no side effects or risk to the mother? How will informing the mother about their child having Down Syndrome affect the mother's perspective about her child and the way she would raise him/her?

Citations:

• The Associated Press "Mom's blood test can reveal Down syndrome, study says" NY Daily News 6 March 2011.

CSB 4 - Tron: Legacy

"The Recognizer"

Definition:

• Recognizers: the vehicles that attempted to stop the light cycles from escaping the game grid by "stomping" on them, and one of these vehicles was also the type of machine that Sam Flynn "resurrected" with his user powers.
• CLU: (Codified Likeness Utility) is a program created by Kevin Flynn to oversee the development of the Grid, and the primary antagonist of the movie.
• Human(Reproductive) Clone: A genetically identical copy of a human.
• Teleportation: the transfer of matter from one point to another, more or less instantaneously.
• Virtual Reality: Computer-simulated environments simulating physical presence in places.

Summary:

• Sam Flynn, a rebellious 27-year-old, is haunted by the mysterious disappearance of his father Kevin Flynn, a man once known as the world's leading video-game developer. When Alan Bradley receives a page from Flynn's Arcade, he notifies Sam. Reluctantly following the tip, Sam finds secret doorway behind the arcade's Tron game which leads him to a hidden workshop. He begins searching through his father's computer and unknowingly activates a ray which transports him into the digital world. As the confused Sam takes his leave and steps out onto the Grid, he is spotted by a Recognizer, and the programs within assign him to the Games. With the help of the fearless warrior Quorra, father and son embark on a life-or-death journey across a cyber universe -- a universe created by Kevin himself that has become far more advanced with vehicles, weapons, landscapes and a ruthless villain, CLU, who will stop at nothing to prevent their escape in order for himself to enter to the real world.

Discussion:

• Within the movie, there are multiple scientific aspects. To begin, CLU, Codified Likeness Utility, is an example of Human Cloning. Kevin Flynn originally intended CLU to be an assistant in the building of a "perfect reality." Even though, CLU is an exact physical copy of Flynn, he lacks the thinking process of a human. When he realizes that Flynn allowed a new species, the Isomorphic Algorithms (aka ISOs), to enter the Grid, he comprehends them as a flaw to perfection and wipes out their whole race (program genocide). Is that the reason we proscribe cloning? Because, even though the clone may look like a human, it fails to think like one. Additionally, the movie brings up teleportation. When Sam enters the workshop, he unknowingly activates a digitizing ray. This ray teleports Sam into a new dimension. This experience he has is closest explained by virtual reality. Virtual reality allows the person, to psychologically experience a new scenario without leaving the current one. In the movie, the concepts of teleportation and virtual reality are fused. Rather than staying in the present world, Sam is teleported into this new "scenario" or virtual reality. Besides the amazing music and visual effects, the reason I chose this movie was because I enjoyed the overall science-fiction theme. Furthermore, it showed multiple examples of "events" that can be supported with scientific evidence.

Questions:

• Will we ever reach a time where human cloning will become legal? And if so, what would be the circumstances, knowing the topic is extremely controversial.
• What are the setbacks to human teleportation?
• Is there a way we can create a new world (a concept acknowledged in many sci-fi movies as well as movies like The Chronicles of Narnia) that runs parallel to ours?

Citations:

• Disney. "Tron: The Official Site." Disney. DIsney, n.d. Web. 7 Jan. 2011.

• Memodata Corporation. "Tron (Video Game) Definiton." SensAgent. Memodata
  Corporation: Online Encyclopedia, Thesaurus, Dictionary definitions and
  more. , 2009. Web. 7 Jan. 2011. .
• http://images.hitfix.com/photos/515718/Sam-Flynn-is-found-by-a-Recognizer-in-Tron-Legacy_article_story_main.jpg
• http://www.comicbookmovie.com/images/users/uploads/8073/tron-legacy-best-poster.jpg
• http://blog.mousekingdom.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/10/TronRetro.jpg

Comparison between the 2010 poster and 1982 poster for Tron: Legacy (right) and Tron (Left)

CSB #3: You Are What You Eat. Proven By Bees?

Definitions

• larvae - The newly hatched, earliest stage of any of various animals that undergo metamorphosis, differing markedly in form and appearance from the adult.
• methylation - An organic compound in which the hydrogen of the hydroxyl group of methyl alcohol is replaced by a metal.
• Gene expression - the process by which information from a gene is used in the synthesis of a functional gene product.

Summary

• Grow up eating a nutrition-rich diet of royal jelly and you will become royalty, whereas eating honey and you'll turn into a worker. The research, led by Ryszard Maleszka, of the Australian National University's college of medicine, biology and environment, shows that this reflects on humans too. The findings show that diet could modify the ''genetic hardware'' of the brain. Additionally, the bee's diet not only affected its behavior but also its DNA. Two groups of genetically identical female bees developed from differentially fed larvae were studied at the ANU and the German Cancer Institute. One group was fed highly nutritious royal jelly; the others honey. The results showed the honey-fed bees became the workers while those fed royal jelly became queen bees. Also, there was a difference in the two DNA. The implications for human health are brought up because the enzymes that mark the DNA in the bee are the same ones that mark DNA in human brains. The results show the difficulties of the chemical DNA methylation, which has the ability to change gene expression without affecting the genetic code.

Discussion

• I think this topic allows people to relate and look back at what we consume. From a personal perspective, my parents are always "nagging" me to eat right, but I did not know it could impact more than just your behavior and attitude. This article made me think that maybe if the world eats healthier, we could accomplish more in life. By accomplishments, not only the physical ones such as the reduction of childhood obesity, but also mental ones. For example, if someone started eating healthy and had a diabetes problem running through the family, their new diet could affect their future children by removing or lowering the risk. Also, choosing bees for this experiment caught my attention. Normally, these types of tests are on animals rather than insects.

Questions

• Why were bees chosen? There are numerous animals that come close to the human body, so why wasn't the experiment done on one of them?
• Does this mean eating right could create more higher paying jobs? Would we get more doctors, lawyers, scientists, and CEO s in the world just by changing the fries to a salad?
  

Resources

• http://dictionary.reference.com/
• Smith, Bridie. "Bees Prove a Good Diet Can Set Our Path in Life ." The Sydney
  Morning Herald. Fairfax Media, 16 Nov. 2010. Web. 17 Nov. 2010.
  bees-prove-a-good-diet-can-set-our-path-in-life-20101115-17ufk.html>.

CSB #2 Human Robot?

Definitions:

• android - a robot representing a human being
• senility - being mentally or physically weak due to old age

Summary:

• In Tsukuba, Japanese researchers have developed an android that mimics human expressions and can be used as a friend for the elderly, disabled children, and infants. A research group at the National Institute of Advanced Industrial Science and Technology in Tsukuba City, near Tokyo, showed off the Actroid-F. The robot can bow and tilt its head. It can additionally blink and frown. The facial movements can be controlled from personal computers. Eventually, it will be a talking partner for the elderly to help prevent senility. The robot is half the weight of past models and batteries can be charged at home.

Discussion:

• I think this will be a great help to people. Especially for all those parents who have to stay home and support the child or adult in need, will have it easier. They can go back to work and earn more money. Plus it has realistic features, making younger children feel safer and more comfortable with the home environment. I chose this article because I believe that having a robot to help is great, but having an android that blinks and recreates the physical features of a human is fascinating.

Questions:

• If we keep on making androids, will we start becoming dependent on technology and robots?
• Even though robots may help us, isn't it possible that they may harm us in the long run? Letting children be raised by robots rather than their own parents, especially when they are younger, may make the children replace the android as the "parental figure".
  

Resources:

• Information:

1. CNN Network. "She's A Robot? Japan's Latest Creation." West Palm Beach News and
   Forecast. CNN Network, 2010. Web. 13 Oct. 2010.

• Images:

1. http://www.wpbf.com/image/25388586/detail.html
2. http://www.odt.co.nz/files/imagecache/200x200_scaled_cropped/story/2009/03/a_cybernetic_human_hrp_4c_designed_to_look_like_an_5327023114.jpg

CSB #1 Being a Vegetarian Can Save You as Well as the Environment

Definitions:
Vegan: a person who does not eat, use, or wear any animal products

Diabetes: an irregularity of the metabolism that makes you extremely thirsty and produce large amounts of urine

LDL Cholesterol: (Low-density lipoprotein) "Bad" cholesterol that can build up in your arteries and prevent oxygenized blood from reaching the heart.
Summary:
Studies show the fact that eating meat and other animal products can highly increase your chance of high cholesterol, heart disease, cancer, and diabetes.
Animal products are high in fat, and too much fat in the diet are linked to these problems along with many more.
Fruits and vegetables are lower in fat, so a vegetarian or vegan diet lowers your risk.
Soy products and dark green, leafy vegetables, are the main source of fiber and other nutrients that are thought to actively prevent these diseases.
Studies also show that on average, vegetarians live longer than those who eat meat.
Discussion:
I think this article is important for people that have risks of high cholesterol, diabetes, or people looking towards a new lifestyle.

Also being a vegetarian or a vegan, can help people balance their diet.

Being a vegetarian myself it takes dedication, resisting marshmallows, jello, and even meat.

Question:

If people know its good for them and will help them throughout life, then why don't we all go vegetarian?
Resources:
Johanson, Paula. "Vegetarianism and Veganism." Teen Health and Wellness. Rosen, 2010. Web. 16 Sep. 2010..

Image: http://www.naturalnews.com/cartoons/cows_vegetarians_600.jpg