Eating meat and cancer by Grant Evans

Years of evidence and studies have just linked meat eating specifically processed meats to help cause cancer. It has been found that salting, curing, fermenting, or smoking meat can be a Group 1 carcinogen, which includes smoking and asbestos. Although the eating meat is not as risky as smoking but can still cause cancer. Research suggest that 66 out of 1000 people will get bowel cancer the ones eating the most processed meats receiving cancer. Also the eating of red meat is considered probably carcinogenic. Research recommends eating no more than 500 grams of red meat a week. Curing and smoking meat can cause DNA damage and the way some meat is cooked can cause cellular damage.

Do you think that there are other things we do/eat everyday that are bad for us?

Will this limit your intake of meat?

https://www.sciencenews.org/article/eating-meat-officially-raises-cancer-risk

Magnets might "unlock" parlayzed arm after stroke Jake Dunbar

Strokes are very serious and, unfortunately, very common occurrences in the US. A stroke results from either blocked blood flow which cuts off the circulation to the brain or a burst blood vessel which leads to even more extensive damage. Over 90 percent of these stroke victims will encounter some type of limb paralysis which can be anywhere from complete paralysis to moderate paralysis in limbs. Until recently, doctors had tried to strengthen the hindered limbs through exercise but no strength could be gained. In the past month, scientists have discovered a new type of rehabilitation that could allow serious paralysis victims to regain movement in their limbs. While the patient focuses on grabbing an object, magnetic stimulation is applied to the active part of their brain, allowing the action and the active part of the brain to act simultaneously. So far, the results of this have been very positive in serious paralysis victims, however, the procedure does not work as well in moderate cases.

Could this discovery lead to better treatment for completely paralyzed people?

What can we learn about our brain from this new treatment?

What other purposes could magnetic treatment serve?

http://www.livescience.com/52554-magnet-stimulation-unlocks-paralyzed-arm-stroke.html

Colors by Jack Durfee

It is a question that most people have pondered at one time or another. Does everyone view colors in the same way? Of course there are people with color blindness and other disorders that can change their perception of color. People can take Protanope and Deutanope tests that can test their color blindness. We know that each person has a specific set of rods and cones which activate in a certain pattern in our retina that allows us to see color. But amongst everyone else with normal color vision, can we ever truly be sure that we are all seeing exactly the same thing as each other?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=evQsOFQju08

Why do you think that color blind people can’t see color?

Does everyone view colors in the same way?

Could you ever describe a color in a way that would make that person see the color in their mind?

Jupiter's red spot by Hannah Zenk

A new collection of photos from the Hubble Space Telescope came out of Jupiter. This is part of a new campaign to take photos of the outer planets yearly. It would help show the changes of the planets. As the new photos of Jupiter came in, scientists noticed some major changes. When we think of Jupiter, we think of the Great Red Spot. This is basically a gigantic hurricane far larger than our entire planet. The new photos show the Great Red Spot shrinking. Scientist have know for a long time that the spot is shrinking but it is shrinking slower than first thought. Then, right next to the Great Red Spot they noticed cyclonic storms, which are circulating patterns several thousand kilometers across. These are waves, made of streams of gas that bobble up and down like waves in the ocean. Similar to baroclinic waves in earth's atmosphere. Which are rapidly rotating stratified fluid.

1. If the Great Red Spot took up a good portion of Jupiter, do you think it would affect us here on earth?
2. Do you think there is any way we could live on Jupiter?
3. Do you think the Great Red Spot will ever go away?

http://www.slate.com/blogs/bad_astronomy/2015/10/16/jupiter_new_annual_photos_reveal_loads_of_detail.html

Superfluid Helium by Dakota Layman

Superfluid Helium

You may have heard of superfluids before but let me recap by saying that superfluids are made from elements that are gas at room temperature and put at such a cold temperature that they become liquid. But after the point where most elements would freeze, superfluids like helium will continue to stay liquid. These strange superfluids seem to defy physics, although they do technically follow the rules. They can do things like flowing through molecule thin cracks and climbing the walls of their container. Basically the fluid, rather than combining into a solid and staying still, will continue to have some movement no matter how cold they get. They will however be moving little enough to move through molecule thin cracks in their container. Helium becomes a superfluid at around 2-3 kelvin.

What are some ways that superfluids could actually help?

What other elements besides helium can become superfluids?

Is there any other thing that could happen at extremely low temperatures?

http://www.iflscience.com/physics/supercooled-helium-does-things-dont-seem-possible

https://youtu.be/2Z6UJbwxBZI

Why do we find the universe so miserably desolate? by Andrew Powell

  

Why do we find the universe so miserably desolate? Life has had billions of years to evolve, advance, and spread, but we can seem to find it. The Fermi Paradox questions as to why that is. Some of the potential 100 billion billion earth like planets in our universe should have billions of years more than us to advance to a technological level unimaginable to us. At our current rate of advancement some civilization out there should have a virtual mastery or the universe by now. There’s something called The Kardashev Scale, which helps us group intelligent civilizations into three broad categories by the amount of energy they use:

A Type I Civilization has the ability to use all of the energy on their planet.

A Type II Civilization can harness all of the energy of their host star.

A Type III Civilization blows the other two away, accessing power comparable to that of the entire Milky Way galaxy.

With a generation spaceship that could travel for about 1000 years a civilization could colonize the Milky Way galaxy in a mere 3.75 million years, a virtual blink of the eye in the cosmic timeline. But still we can find anyone who is attempting that, or evidence of a failed attempt. The Fermi Paradox is obviously unsolved but the scientific community has some thought provoking possible solutions.

1. There simply is no one else out there. Saying that humanity is some sort of glitch in an empty universe. This idea is backed by the conceptual Great Filter or the thought that there is some sort of boundary between the pre-life and stage III that life cannot overcome. Depending on where in the timeline the filter lies we are either rare, first, or doomed to extinction.
2. Super-intelligent life could very well have already visited Earth, but before we were here.
3. The galaxy has been colonized, but we just live in some desolate rural area of the galaxy.
4. The entire concept of physical colonization is a hilariously backward concept to a more advanced species.
5. There’s plenty of activity and noise out there, but our technology is too primitive and we’re listening for the wrong things.
6. We are receiving contact from other intelligent life, but the government is hiding it.
7. We’re completely wrong about our reality. There are a lot of ways we could just be totally off with everything we think. The universe might appear one way and be something else entirely, like a hologram. Or maybe we’re the aliens and we were planted here as an experiment or as a form of fertilizer. There’s even a chance that we’re all part of a computer simulation by some researcher from another world, and other forms of life simply weren’t programmed into the simulation.

What would be your solution to the paradox?

Now knowing about this, does it change your perception of the universe?

http://waitbutwhy.com/2014/05/fermi-paradox.html

How Science Explains Ghosts by Daihana Jimenez

How Science Explains Ghosts

Scientists did experiments to show that ghosts are probably just an illusion created by the mind, that is when the mind is dealing with illness or stress. The scientists believe that people that experienced sensations of spirits around them had either a physical or emotional pain that they were dealing with. So what the scientists did in Switzerland were test out some of those theories.

How they made the artificial ghosts were the scientists set up a robot device, that would allow the volunteers to control the movements of a joined mechanical arm with their index fingers. The movements relayed to another robot arm, that would touch the volunteers backs. Each volunteer was blindfolded, there were 12 of them. When they were questioned about how they were feeling, several reported of the feeling of something was close to them or watching them.

Out of the 12 participates, two were so disturbed by the 'artificial ' ghosts, that they had asked the scientists to halt the macabre experiment. Before the experiment was conducted, the researchers had carried out brain scans on 12 patients that had neurological disorders and in the past they encountered what the scientists called FOPs. FOPs means feelings of presence.

So what they wanted to do was show that ghosts are just in our minds, but even with the study some people still believe in ghosts.

Do you believe in ghosts?Why?

Have you ever thought to experience something paranormal?

Do you think that this study did a good job explaining why some people think they have seen a ghost?

Sources

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-2824134/Scientists-create-GHOSTS-lab-Volunteers-brains-tricked-thinking-s-creepy-presence-room.html

http://www.gizmag.com/artificial-ghost-apparitions-epfl/34643/

Virtual Reality by Jon Levinson

1. Therapy for amputees and stroke victims

Virtual reality systems might eventually help people who have lost an arm or a leg and experience excruciating sensations known as phantom limb pain. One man missing an arm reported a dramatic reduction in pain after an experimental treatment in which muscle signals from the end of his arm controlled a virtual limb, according to a case study detailed last month in the journal Frontiers in Neuroscience. That study simply used a computer screen rather than more immersive virtual reality goggles, but other researchers in Vienna have been using the Oculus Rift headset to examine how such a system could help amputees learn to use a new prosthetic limb a sometimes frustrating process.

Virtual reality could also help people who have lost function in one of their arms due to a stroke. A 2011 study found that people who had suffered a stroke were more likely to boost their arm strength if they played virtual reality games than if they underwent a standard course of physical therapy.

2. Controlling robots on Mars

Researchers at NASA's Jet Propulsion Lab in Pasadena, Calif., recently unveiled a rig that allows an operator to use the oculus rift headset to see through the eyes of a robot avatar. The system also includes Kinect 2 motion-sensing software from Xbox One, which picks up the operator's gestures to move the robot's arm. It's not hard to imagine that one day such a system could allow humans on Earth to intimately control robots millions of miles away, in places like on Mars. Oculus Rift goggles have already been used to look at Mars virtually. Paired with the Virtuix Omni treadmill, the headset allowed JPL researchers to take a simulated stroll on the Red Planet using a 3D environment stitched together from images taken by the Mars rover Curiosity.

1.    Could we use virtual reality to connect people in ways we have never done before

2.    Could we ever live in a matrix type reality?

3.    What are some ways we can use this technology to improve our future?

http://www.livescience.com/44384-oculus-rift-virtual-reality-uses-beyond-gaming.html

The Goliath Bird Eating Spider by Isaiah Dupree

The Goliath Bird Eating Spider is argueably one of the biggest spider in the world. This massive spider can be found in nothern South america, Brazil, Venezuela, and other places where there are wet swamps and marsh areas within a rainforest. The Goliath Bird Eating Spider got its name from Victorian era explorers who witnessed the huge spider eating a hummingbird. This spider has a leg span of 11 inches that is about the size of a dinner plate. It can weigh up to 6oz. Despite this spider’s large body it’s eyes are still very poor same as a regular spider. The Goliath Bird Eating Spider relies on its sensory hairs that are spread all over its body to feels the vibration on the ground and also the vibration in the air to warn him that either prey or a predator is near. The spider tends to not travel as far away from its home which is located under the ground. A female can have up to 50 eggs whereas your normal sized spider can lay up to 1000. These spiders can be considered very aggressive. They make hissing noises and stand on its hind legs in threat position to fend off potential dangers. The Goliath Bird Eating spider has its natural predators such as other spiders and snakes but its biggest enemy is the human.

Questions

• If this spider goes extinct how will its ecosystem be affected?

• Who do people have a natural fear of spiders regardless of its size?

• How do you think a spider would feel if you touched it?

Cites

http://www.blueplanetbiomes.org/goliath_bird_eating_spider.htm - Article

http://cdn.inquisitr.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/10/arachnopephobia-hand-massive-spider-141018.jpg -Picture