How Researching Babies Can help Us Learn About Stress

In an article published on Science daily researchers at the University of Calgary's Hotchkiss Brain Institute have found that stress circuits learn during the early stages of life. The study was shown to prove the theory that the brains stress response can be detected in babies and not just adults. "These new findings demonstrate that systems thought to be 'hardwired' in the brain, are in fact flexible, particularly early in life," says Bains, a professor in the Department of Physiology and Pharmacology. Bains also says that, "Using this information, researchers can now ask questions about the precise cellular and molecular links between early life stress and stress vulnerability or resilience later in life." Stress is related to so many health problems that can have a profound effect on the future of a person and discovering this could change the way scientists think of the stress response.

I think this article could really help people in the future. Stress is linked to so many diseases and has a huge effect on the body. If doctors can use this information to find a way to help people better cope with stress it could change the lives of many.

Article: http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2013/04/130407133314.htm

Image: http://access.ewu.edu/Images/CAPS/Stress1.png

Is the Treatment for Autism About to be Discovered?

In the article (http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2013/03/130313182019.htm) from Science Daily, researchers from University of California, San Diego School of Medicine have created a theory that has cured autism in mice. "Our (cell danger) theory suggests that autism happens because cells get stuck in a defensive metabolic mode and fail to talk to each other normally, which can interfere with brain development and function," says Robert Naviaux who is the professor of medicine and co-director of the Mitochondrial and Metabolic Disease Center at University of California San Diego. Even though the treatment worked on mice, it is not guaranteed to work on humans  "but we are encouraged enough to test this approach in a small clinical trial of children with autism spectrum disorder in the coming year. This trial is still in the early stages of development. We think this approach -- called antipurinergic therapy or APT -- offers a fresh and exciting new path that could lead to development of a new class of drugs to treat autism."says Naviaux. Autism disorders are complicated and are difficult to understand and treat. When the treatment changes the cell, it alters the genetic makeup which is thought to cure autism.

This article is very important to life today. Autism is a big problem and affects many people worldwide. A treatment to this disorder would change many lives.


image: http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/4/4f/Autism_Awareness_Ribbon.png

More That We Knew About The Human Brain

Caroline Goldberg
Mr. Webb
Science Blog


In the article from science daily (article: http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2013/03/130307123947.htm) shows the development of the brain of a mouse with human brain cells. The study conducted by Dr. Steve Goldman. "We grafted human glial progenitor cells into the brains of newborn mice and then waited for the mice to grow to adulthood," Says Goldman. the mice that had the new cells expressed high activity and brain development. "We then assessed both neurophysiological and behavioral measures of learning and memory, finding that the engrafted mice exhibited more rapid learning of both conditioned associations and goal-directed tasks." says Dr. Miaken.

I think this article, I think, is very relevant in recent science. In the US, our students are falling behind in math and science that the fact that mice showed memory and task improvement with human braincells might give us a chance of changing our schools. If this expanding topic continues, scientists might be able to learn more about the brain and help channel it's amazing powers.


Image: https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEio0TpCyxyDMsOHZUY9mpsrseaNgdRQ9tzRHnfrKZtrLqLRMbTRVKru6IHeqIyMWppmLlt52FDyvE8_7c57feeQGoXba8pBKO8wpwx7FqZ7ESqzveSlycdOCf8NrV2kV74QQ4pchyphenhyphenCiiQWX/s1600/00+1234.jpg

Sleep: How It Helps You Learn

Caroline Goldberg
Science Blog
Mr. Webb

 The article I read this week from Science Daily (article: http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2013/02/130226081155.htm) talking about the importance of sleep. Dr. Ines Wilhelm says, "Studies of adults have shown that sleeping after learning supports the long-term storage of the material learned." She conducted the same study on children and found ""In children, much more efficient explicit knowledge is generated during sleep from a previously learned implicit task." In the study, the data showed that after a full day of learning at school and at different hours of sleep, the children that got the most sleep did a better job remembering and applying the information they learned the day before.
This article is extremely relevant to my life and other serious students. The pressure to do well and still complete the hours of homework we have a night takes a toll on how much we sleep. I think if school directors would look at the study they could reconsider homework, project, and essay outlines.



image: http://blogmedia.eventbrite.com/wp-content/uploads/sleep-on-books-1.10.12.jpg

Dyslexia: More Than a Problem With Reading

Caroline Goldberg
Mr. Webb
Science Blog
Saturday February 23rd 2013


When someone hears the word dyslexia, what comes to mind is a problem with reading, but new research from Northwestern University  shows that not only do dyslexic children struggle with reading but that it is harder for their brain to decode sounds. In an article from Science Daily (article: http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2013/02/130219172159.htm) Nina Kraus says, "We discovered a systematic relationship between reading ability and the consistency with which the brain encodes sounds." Though the study researchers have found that children with dyslexia have trouble decoding sounds they hear because their brain has trouble processing them. The students that were very strong readers could decode sound faster and more accurately than children that were dyslexic or not strung readers. The children with dyslexia had inconsistent coding of the sounds they heard. In a similiar article (http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2011/12/111221140340.htm) Dr. Anne-Lise Giraud states that, "It is widely agreed that for a majority of dyslexic children, the main cause is related to a deficit in the processing of speech sounds." She conducted a study similiar to the one conducted at Northwestern University and ended up with the same conclusion.

Even though dyslexia is not a life threatening medical issue it is hard to live with and can make simple tasks challenging. This research could help doctors find a way to help children learn how to control their dyslexia and maybe even find a way to treat it. Dyslexia is currently not the biggest issue but finding a way to control it would make life easier for many children and adults that struggle with reading.

Image: http://i.telegraph.co.uk/multimedia/archive/01545/childReading_1545929c.jpg

What Makes a Good Science Student?

For the first day of Reaction Quantities, we were given the question, what makes a good science student. In my opinion, a good science student has 3 qualities: creative, open minded, and organized. First off, a chemistry student must be able to be creative because they must be able to infer and make connections that might not be obvious. Being creative also suggests that the student can think outside of the box which can help them understand abstract concepts that aren't exclusively black and white. A science student must also be open minded. Because science is abstract and not always straightforward, a good science student must be able to be open about new and ideas and themes that might be hard to grasp at first. Lastly, a good science student must be organized. Science and especially chemistry requires notes, mnemonic devices, and organization of rules and exceptions of rules. The many complicated and sequential methods are important to learn in a certain order and a lot of science requires a student to refer back to notes, rules, and charts.



image: http://ec.europa.eu/dgs/jrc/site_images/normal_2180.jpg

Changing DNA

Caroline Goldberg
Mr. Webb

A new article that was released on science daily.com (article: http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2013/02/130201090612.htm) states that scientists are getting closer to be closer to another "industrial revolution." In London, researchers might have found a better way to deliver drugs ot patients and make them work more effectively. Scientists think they are now able to re-engineer DNA and mRNA and put the new cells into factories to observe how the cell changes, but in a more efficient way than before. They have shrunk the time down from 2 days to 6 hours to see the new strands of mRNA by changing the first set of DNA. This way of changing DNA also shows the efficacy of drugs given to potential patients.

I think this article is very interesting. I think it's very cool that scientists can look at how different medications effect people before they take them, which I think can really help in the future. It;s great to know that we could potentially look at side effects of medication before we give them people to make sure they are safe to take for any circumstance. This new study could really help change the future because humans or animals won't have to test medications before they are put on the market for people to take.