Spring 2011 End of Trimester Karaoke Potluck!!!!

Who: YOU! and me =)

What: Food + Karaoke = YAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAYYYY!!!!!!!!

Where: Room 505

When: Thursday 4/14 @5:30pm-ish

Why: Because the trimester is over and food is yummy and Karaoke is fun and hanging out for a reason other than studying is the funnest ever!

RSVP: Just put what you are planning to bring in the comments section.

Hope to see and hear you all there!

Week 14: living Diversity and Cognition

Diversity of species

Around where I live there are different kinds of trees, and flowers and grasses. Also there are squirrels, possums,raccoons, rats, cats, dogs, birds, fish, ants, butterflies, spiders, bees, skeeter eaters, worms and humans! I'm sure I'm leaving someone out, but those are some of our neighbors.

Cocoa = yummm and woooo!!!!!!....maybe?

It seems like the Cacao plant is the thing that is beneficial. Chocolate has a lot of things added to it that end up negating the benefits. Consumption of refined sugars is very bad for our health as we learned in the "Question of Balance" in the Chemistry class, refined white sugar is found in the extremely acid forming food section with a pH of 5-5.5 and the note says, "poison! Avoid it." I'm assuming that a healthy food becomes less healthy if you add poison to it...I think.

Studies have shown that milk actually blocks the positive effects of antioxidants. The studies have been done on chocolate, berries, teas, and coffee. Also the processing of chocolate where it is heated multiple times causes the nutritional content to be vastly diminished.

I do believe that diet is a major key in avoiding many of the health problems in our society, but I don't think it it should be based on any one food. Like ecosystems, diets are best when they include a diversity of plants, not just one super plant.

Class Discussion: Vegan Diet and Arthritis

I find diet studies to be extremely beneficial in helping individuals know what types of foods that cause them problems. We are what we eat. Literally, our Qi and cells are made out of the raw materials of the food that we put in our mouths. It is not surprising that we can control many illnesses with changes in diet.

Unfortunately the public is kept in the dark about how important diet is. Everyone knows what we eat is important, but I don't know that we know just HOW important. There is no real profit in changing diet, and doctors are no more knowledgeable about diet and its relationship to health than the general public. Most medical schools don't even require diet to be studied, and the few that do require only a 2-3 hour nutrition course.

In my opinion, diet is the cheapest and easiest way to change our healthcare system. If dietitians were more respected for the invaluable contribution they give with their knowledge of diet and how it effects our health, it would go a long way to keeping our medical expenses down. Prevention is so much cheaper, safer, easier and less environmentally destructive than chronic illness maintenance.

Week 13: Free Radicals and Antioxidants

Do we rely too heavily on supplements to provide antioxidants?

In my opinion, yes. Many people would rather pop a pill than eat some plants. Also many of the plants that are eaten are not the most nutritious like iceberg lettuce or white potatoes, or they are grown in a way that depletes their nutrition such as with the use of pesticides and chemical fertilizers. Supplements are generally trying to be as nutritious as a plant but I would argue that it is impossible to do since we still don't know how the thousands of different vitamins, antioxidants and other phytochemicals interact with each other within the plant, not to mention the fiber, plant sugars and naturally distilled water found in plants.

How might we deal differently with the effects of environmental pollutants?

I think the better plan would be to not worry so much about the effects, and try to do something about the source. We don't really know how to deal with toxic chemicals once they are out in the world, but if we could stop making them in the first place, I think that would be a good plan. Of course, it would mean that we would have to stop producing things that create toxic chemicals as a waste product. And that's almost everything, including the computer I am writing this blog on right now...

Class discussion: hands free faucet = gross!

It was in one way insanely shocking to learn about how the hands free faucets harbored more germs than the traditional faucet, and at the same time, I was not surprised at all. It reminds me of all the things we do to try to defeat nature that blow up in our faces. It was brought up in class that we act like we are separate from nature by trying to eliminate germs and dirt and trees. We always seem to find out in the end that all of those things were maintaining a balance necessary for us to thrive. No matter how much we fight it, we are still human-animals that live as a part of our ecosystem just like the trees, squirrels and germs.

Week 12: Cell Biology

Mitosis vs Meiosis

I like this animation a lot. It was a little bit interactive since we had to click through each step. I t was helpful to see the two processes side by side and have the descriptions of what made them similar and different at each step. Very useful learning tool!

Citric Acid Cycle

This animation was also very good. I really liked having the audio as well so I didn't have to read through as much since the citric acid cycle seems pretty complex. It was very long. Also it took a lot of focus and repeating/replaying steps to grasp the process being presented. I still have a difficult time understanding all the steps, but it was a very good tool for learning. I would probably just need to dedicate more time and effort into understanding all the processes going on there.

Class discussion

The article "Ringing the alarm for Earth" reminded me of dangerous trajectory we are on in terms of over population. A friend once likened all of the good we try to do in terms of conservation and being green, reducing our footprints, etc., to throwing a pebble into the vast Grand Canyon that is overpopulation. There are too many humans on the planet right now already and the population is continuing to grow exponentially. This subject is strangely still very taboo in our culture. For some reason population control is seen as a barbaric, anti-American, anti-freedom idea, and yet, if we do not make the choices to control our population now voluntarily, we will run into the limits of our finite world that will control our population without our say and it will most likely be tragic and terrible. It is a major issue that I grapple with in my own life. The question of whether or not to have children, knowing that it further burdens the few remaining resources left on this planet. It is a controversial and essential debate.

"If you do not change direction, you may end up where you are heading." - Lao Tzu

Week 11: The Chemistry of Life

Animation

I don't know if words with arrows or certain arrangements of words would necessarily qualify as an animation. I thought the "animations" were cool, but would have perhaps enjoyed more of a visual picture instead of flow charts. Although I do know people who really like flow charts. It was also nice to have the expanded information for the periodic table in one place.

Last week's discussions

The nuclear disaster in Japan, though horribly tragic, will hopefully give us pause and allow people to really consider the ramifications of nuclear power and other "as long as it doesn't catastrophically fail we'll be just fine, but if it does we're all totally f*%#ed" technologies. We humans have the ability to use our brains to predict what will happen next, and yet we fail to use that foresight constantly.

I also found it interesting that 98% of radiation exposure comes from drinking milk. Just another reason to not consume dairy! It makes me wonder, how many reasons do we need?

Midterm

I chose Green Chemistry as my topic because I felt I could relate most easily. Being "green" is something I strive to do in my daily life. I feel strongly that we as a species have overstepped our boundaries and have placed ourselves and all other living creatures in a very bad position. the topics of over shoot, global climate change, peak oil and others both fascinate and frighten me. I will continue to do what I can to do the best I can.

Week 8: A Question of Balance

Semiconductor of the Week: Silicon

Silicon by mass is the 8th most abundant element found in the universe! That seems like such an amazing thing to know. I don't know how they figured out all of the contents of the universe, but somehow they know. I also don't know who "they" are, but I'm impressed. On Earth silicon makes up 27.7% of the mass of the Earth's crust making it the second most abundant element in the crust after oxygen. Silicon is a very useful element, able to form everyday things such as glass, cement and ceramics as well as many different kinds of plastics. Silicon has 4 electrons in its outer electron orbital that prefers 8 just like Carbon, giving it the ability to combine with many other elements to make all types of different molecules. We use trace amounts of silicon in our bodies to metabolize plants, which makes me, being solely a plant eater, very appreciative to silicon for helping me consume yummy plants!

Chembalancer

This site was super fun! I really liked doing the balancing games. It was good practice for the math section of my brains that have not been used very often lately.

General Chemistry - Balancing Equations

I didn't like how I had to actually download and save each file on my computer to look at them. That seems somewhat inefficient and generally I would rather just open something in its own website rather than downloading unknown files on to my computer. That being said, I did download the file since I have to do this assignment, and then the darn thing wouldn't open or play or anything. So I didn't get to check out this link even though I tried.