Mirrors!!!!

Mirrors have been fascination objects to the world for a long period of time. They are used in many ways, and they are commonly found in homes. In the bathrooms, bed rooms and special locations, you will find the glass. They can reveal truths that you may or may not want to see. For Scientists, the simultaneous simplicity and complexity of mirrors make them powerful tools for exploring questions about perception and cognition in humans and other neuronally gifted species, and how the brain interprets and acts upon the great tides of sensory information from the external world. Doctors are using mirrors to study how the brain decides what is self and what is other, how it judges distances and trajectories of objects, and how it reconstructs the richly three-dimensional quality of the outside world from what is essentially a two-dimensional snapshot taken by the retina’s flat sheet of receptor cells. Mirrors are also used in medicine to create reflected images of patients’ limbs or other body parts and thus trick the brain into healing itself. The object ‘inside’ the mirror is virtual, but as far as our eyes are concerned it exists just like any other object. Physical self-reflection in the mirror, encourages philosophical self-reflection, you cannot know or appreciate others until you know yourself.

“Although we see ourselves in the mirror every day, we don’t look exactly the same every time,” explained Dr. Epley. There is the scruffy-morning you, the assembled-for-work you, the dressed-for-an-elegant-dinner you. “Which image is you?” Research shows that people, on average, resolve that ambiguity in their favor, forming a representation of their image that is more attractive than they actually are.

The point is that no matter how close or far we are from it, the mirror is always halfway between our physical selves and our projected selves in the virtual world inside the mirror, and so the captured image in the mirror is half our true size.

 

Batteries!!!

Do you ever wonder how double and triple AA batteries power you calculator, cellphone, DVD player and remotes? Most people like to these the things mentioned about working, but focus less on how batteries to what they do. First lets’ take a look at their history; most historians date the start of the development of batteries from the late eighteenth century. In 1938 Wilhelm Konig discovered a 5 inch pottery jar containing a copper cylinder that encased an iron rod in Iraq, he decide that it was a battery. One may think of a battery as a small power plant that converts a chemical reaction into electrical energy. Cadmium, lead, zinc, manganese, nickel, silver, mercury, and lithium. When disposed of in an unlined landfill, a battery can leach its toxic constituents and contaminate groundwater, resulting in possible exposure to humans. Batteries have three parts, an anode (-), a cathode (+), and the electrolyte. Both the negative and positive ends are hooked up to an electric circuit.

Oxidation and reduction reactions make a battery work. Oxidation and reduction reaction are electron transfer reactions; both of them must happen in order for a battery to work. One generates electrons at one electrode and the other uses them up at the other electrode. Oxidation is when electrons are transferred from a substance to oxygen or some other compound. Reduction is when a chemical reactant accepts electrons. It ends up with more electrons than it started with. The reaction at the anode releases electrons, and leaves behind positively charged ions. The cathode soaks up electrons.

If we did not have batteries, there would be wire connections everywhere because almost everything we use today has a battery. Cars, laptops, cell phones, and televisions are made to work by power and energy. Therefore we should be thankful of batteries because without them, we would not be able to control things that way we do.

      

Immune System and Cancer

The immune system relies on an intricate network of alarm bells, targets and safety brakes to determine when and what to attack. The new results suggest that scientists may now be able to combine DNA sequencing data with their knowledge of the triggers and targets that set off immune alarms to more precisely develop vaccines and other immunotherapies for cancer. Scientists have long maintained that the immune system can recognize cancer as a threat either on its own or with the help of vaccines or other immunotherapeutic treatments, which help alert the immune system to the danger posed by cancers. Once the cancer is recognized, the immune system should develop the capacity to attack growing cancer cells until either the tumor is eradicated or the immune system's resources are exhausted. Cancer immunoediting, suggests that some of the mutations in tumor cells are very easy for the immune system to recognize as a threat. If the immune system detects these mutations in cancer cells, it attacks until they are destroyed. At that point, the cancer may be eliminated. But it's also possible that the cancer can be "edited" by the immune system, resulting in the removal of all the cells containing the critical easily recognized mutations. The remaining tumor cells can continue to grow or enter into a period of dormancy where they are not destroyed but are held in check by the immune system. By comparing genetic data from cancer cells and normal cells, scientists identified 3,743 mutations in the genes of the tumor cells.

Our best choice and suggestion from researchers is that we create a vaccine that can help the immune system to recognize and attach some of the mutated proteins in a cancer.

Tech Life

Technology is saving our live in ways we do not know about. If it is not doing so yet, it will soon be. I am not 100% sure that most people agree with me on this, but almost half of the people who think like me would agree with my statement. They would agree because it is not only true but because it has also spread from youths to adults including those with high respected professions. Technology life has taken control and is well ahead of anyone’s understanding. Although it creates may negative views about and for teenagers who use it inappropriately, it has become a very useful tool to adults whose lives are in need of help with short cuts to their everyday goals. For example: Thomas Lee, an orthopedic surgeon’s business cards are stamped with the link to his face book page. He actively tweets, checks in regularly on foursquare, and maintains a Google plus profile. And he does it for his patients. According to him, “it’s an electronic way of extending the conversation” and "It creates a vibrant sense of community and a wonderful back and forth dialogue." Social media makes it easier than ever for patients and physicians to connect outside the exam room. More than 1,300 doctors have already registered with TwitterDoctors.net, a database of physicians who tweet. "These are powerful, tremendously influential tools," says internist Kevin Pho of Nashua, N.H., a popular medical blogger who engages with his patients via Facebook and Twitter. "Doctors should be taking advantage of the opportunity."

I am happy to know that I can chat with my doctor on Facebook when he gets and account. Because tech life is becoming increasing important, we should all consider having at least one tech life, one that will enable us to reach our goals at the end of the day.