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Reading&Writing Practices Booklet

The document is a 40-article booklet covering a variety of topics including psychology, space junk, media systems in Asia, and brain health. It discusses the historical establishment of psychology, the increasing problem of space debris, and potential methods to enhance cognitive function. Each article provides insights into different fields, highlighting both scientific advancements and societal issues.

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0% found this document useful (0 votes)

54 views74 pages

Reading&Writing Practices Booklet

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elm.dmert6075

We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.

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Download as PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd

You are on page 1/ 74

Comp. date: 28.07.

2023-Friday

READING & WRITING

PRACTICES
40-ARTICLE BOOKLET
CONTENTS
1. Psychology
2. Small Satellite Tightens The Net Around Space Junk
3. Asia: Media Systems
4. Brain Glue Holds Memories Longer
5. Can You Supercharge Your Brain?
6. In Case You Missed It
7. Discoveries
8. Renewable Energy's Hidden Costs
9. Question Of The Month
10. Aggression In Schools
11. Understand Water Science
12. The First Civilizations: Egypt 3500-2180 Bc
13. Water At Risk
14. Tough Bacteria Love to Eat Radiation
15. Volcanoes
16. Shyness
17. Pigeons can spot cancer on medical images ‘as well as humans’
18. Revolution In Latin America
19. Lie Detector
20. On Writing
21. The Benefits Of Exercise: Now In Pill Form
22. The Good Side Of Tonsils
23. Austronesian Languages
24. Snooze And You Don’t Lose
25. Richard Wagner
26. Plastic Surgery
27. What’s The Best Way To Get To Sleep?
28. Biodiversity: Its Meaning and Value
29. Measuring the Sensory Qualities of Foods
30. Intrapersonal Intelligence
31. Betrayed By Your Own Blood
32. How To Build The Longest Tunnel In The World ?
33. Homelessness
34. Can Body Fat Protect You Like A Built-In Cushion?
35. Pleasurable Health Hacks That Actually Work
36. Juvenile behaviour
37. Saffron
38. New Experiences Boost Old Memories
39. Local Anesthesia MERT DEMİRCİ
40. Diabetes YTU Depart. Of Electrical eng.-05062402051

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psychology
When was the field of psychology established?

The study of mental processes as a science is relatively new as it is dependent on the

scientific revolution. Wilhelm Wundt (1832–1920) is credited with first establishing
psychology as an independent science. He opened the first scientific laboratory to study
psychology in 1879 at the University of Leipzig. Wundt was interested in investigating
human consciousness through systematic introspection; collaborators would be trained to
report their own sensory experience in response to physical stimulation.

What came before psychology?

Modern psychology is a child of the scientific revolution. Without the systematic

application of reason and observation that forms the foundation of the scientific method,
there would be no modern psychology. Nonetheless, contemporary psychology is not
without precedents, and within Western history there are many precursors, ancestors so to
speak, of psychology as we know it today. Ancient Greek philosophy, medieval
Christianity, and post-Renaissance philosophers of the past several centuries all addressed
the core questions of psychology in ways that both differed from and anticipated much of
what we know today.

What did the ancient Greeks have to say about psychology?

Twenty-five hundred years ago, ancient Greek philosophers turned their remarkably
sophisticated inquiries away from the whims of the gods and toward questions of the
natural world. Questions about humanity’s place in the world naturally followed. What is
knowledge and how do we gain it? What is our relationship with emotions? While some of
their answers to these questions appear bizarre by modern standards, much of it remains
strikingly current.

The Handy Psychology Answer Book, 2011, p.4

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Small Satellite Tightens The Net Around Space Junk
Worn-out satellites and used rocket stages are among the millions of pieces of space junk
that orbit Earth. The junk is to be removed, so a small satellite is trying to catch the
orbiting waste by means of nets and harpoons.

In the morning of 16 July 2015, three International Space Station astronauts wake wake up
to a disturbing message from mission control: a piece of space junk from an old Soviet
weather satellite is heading straight towards the ISS at a speed of some 50,000 km/h – 20
times faster than a bullet.

The mission control experts cannot tell if the space junk is going to hit the space station
or not, but they are sure that a collision would knock a hole in the hull and cause all air
inside it to quickly escape into space. The only thing the astronauts can do is to hide in
the return space capsule and hope for the best.

Luckily, the space junk did not hit, but the incident demonstrates the increasing problem
of space junk. Over the past decades, the quantity of space junk has increased explosively,
and the problem is only getting worse, as still more satellites are launched. The junk is a
mixture of worn-out satellites, parts of space rockets, and fragments from collisions and
explosions in space.

The junk does not only endanger the lives of astronauts, it also threatens to pulverize the
world’s satellite networks and finally block our access to space. So, scientists from the
University of Surrey, England, have launched a satellite that is to try to remove the dead
satellites.

Scientists fear chain reaction

The space junk is monitored by telescopes and large radar systems on Earth, that can spot
objects as small as 5-10 cm. Today, 20,000+ artificial objects with a total weight of some
8,000 tonnes – more than the Eiffel Tower – are orbiting Earth. Up to 1,700 of those are
functional satellites, whereas the rest is junk. In other words, there is 10+ times more
space junk than functional satellites. However, most fragments are too small to be
detected by a radar, so the total number of objects is unknown, but counted by the
million.

In 2009, an inactive Russian satellite hit one of the American Iridium satellites that allow
satellite telephone communication. The collision took place at a speed of 40,000+ km/h,
and apart from jamming the network, it resulted in thousands of new pieces of space junk,
which are now threatening other satellites. Space researchers fear more collisions like this
one, and they are particularly afraid of a chain reaction, in which wreckage from
destroyedsatellites will hit more satellites, causing more space junk. Such a chain reaction

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is known as the Kessler effect, and if it happens, it could have major consequences for
civilisation.

Today, we depend on satellites that allow us to navigate via GPS, get reliable weather
forecasts, communicate over long distances, watch satellite TV, etc. If hundreds of
satellites were destroyed, all people in the world would suddenly lose many of the services
that we take for granted every day. But it would also stop all activity in space. The
satellites would be turned into hundreds of thousands of pieces of space junk, which
would speed about, shrouding Earth in an impenetrable blanket of lethal projectiles. This
would make it very difficult to launch new satellites and reestablish all the satellite
networks that it took decades to expand. Science Illustrated, 2018 Nov., p.75

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Communalities and Differences

Any analysis of Asian media should take into account the profound social and political
divisions within countries. Most countries have a cosmopolitan elite with consumption
habits similar to the cities of the advanced industrial world, but also communities
struggling with poverty, low literacy and lack of communications connectivity. In many
authoritarian systems, government control is usually not total, creating a bifurcated media
space with strict regulation of print and broadcast media but relative freedom online.
Mainstream commercial newspapers – typically the focus of the literature on media
systems – are, in many Asian countries, confined to world of the urban elites and middle
classes. Government broadcasters and community radio are still the main media in rural
hinterlands. In countries with severe restrictions on press freedom (China, Vietnam,
Malaysia, and Singapore), the Internet has emerged as a qualitatively distinct ecosystem

The Concise Encyclopedia of Communication, 2015, p.33

Could Two People Who Aren’t Twins Have The Same DNA?
As a species, humans actually show remarkably little genetic diversity. The DNA of two
unrelated people only differs by about one in every 1,000 base pairs; orangutans differ by
more than double this amount. Even so, there are three billion base pairs in the human
genome, so that’s an average of three million genetic differences between any two
strangers. Most of these differences are ‘single nucleotide polymorphisms’ (SNPs), in
which a single letter of the genetic code is changed. There are about 20 million known
SNPs in the human genome. This means that the odds of someone having the same DNA
by chance is like having a deck of 20 million cards, all different, and then drawing the
same hand of three million cards twice!

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Brain Glue Holds Memories Longer
Can we bolt brain cells together to protect our memories from ageing or Alzheimer’s? It’s
an eccentric idea, but there are signs it could work.

Rahul Kaushik of the German Center for Neurodegenerative Diseases in Magdeburg and
his colleagues have created a molecule to reinforce the connections between brain cells
called neurons, acting like the steel bars in reinforced concrete. Although the approach
hasn’t yet been tested in people, injecting this molecule into the brains of mice seems to
improve their memories.

“It is very clever and has a natural logic to it,” says John Aggleton of Cardiff University, UK.

The connections between brain cells, known as synapses, allow signals to jump from one
cell to another. Our memories are made of networks of strengthened synapses between
millions of brain cells distributed through our heads.

To reinforce this, Kaushik’s team has designed a molecule called CPTX. This chemical
binds to compounds on the surface of brain cells on either side of a synapse, creating an
artificial bridge between the two cells.

In Alzheimer’s disease, people gradually lose synapses for decades before the damage is
enough to start causing memory loss and confusion. “The idea is you don’t allow the
synapses to go away,” says Kaushik. “We don’t let two neurons detach from each other
completely.”

When the team injected the molecule into mice genetically altered to have Alzheimer’s-like
symptoms, they did better in memory tests than the same kind of mice that didn’t receive
the chemical. These tests included having to recognise a new object, and learning that
they would receive electric shocks in a certain location.

When the animals’ brains were examined, those that had received the treatment had 30
per cent more synapses than those that hadn’t, Kaushik told the Federation of European
Neuroscience Societies meeting in Berlin last month.

The effect tailed off after seven days. But the team is developing a gene therapy in the
hope that it will make brain cells produce their own supply of the synapseboosting
molecule. “You could have long-lasting effects up to years,” says Kaushik.

Carol Routledge of charity Alzheimer’s Research UK says that if the technique works, we
would also need better tests to detect the onset of dementia several years befor symptoms
begin. “Lots of people are focusing on early diagnosis. Everyone realises we need to treat
earlier than we are doing.”

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Routledge says the approach might also help people who develop the memory problems
common with ageing. “Whether we should be able to slow down cognitive ageing – that’s a
whole other question,” she says.

A big unknown, though, is whether an artificial synapse strengthener might make it harder
to forget things that we normally want to lose, such as day-to-day trivia.

Aggleton says people shouldn’t get too optimistic about the approach before it has been
tested in people. “There have been a lot of studies that seem to show ways of ameliorating
changes in Alzheimer’s mouse models,” he says, but the same positive effects are rarely
seen when trials are done with humans.

New Scientist, 2018-Aug-18, p.9

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Can You Supercharge Your Brain?
Your brain is the finely-tuned machine that controls all your actions and emotions, so it
makes sense to keep it well-oiled. But, asks Rita Carter, are there any scientifically proven
methods to ensure it works better for longer?

Learn a language or instrument

So far only two types of mental exertion have been shown to improve or preserve overall
cognitive ability. One is musical training; the other is learning a new language, or
practising a second one you have already learned.

Gottfried Schlaug, director of the Music and Neuroimaging Laboratory at Harvard

University, the USA, explains: “Listening to and making music is not just an auditory
experience; it’s a multisensory and motor experience. Playing an instrument changes how
the brain interprets and integrates a wide range of sensory information, and making music
over a long period of time can change brain function and brain structure.”

As for the role of language-learning in boosting brain power, a team at Edinburgh

University assessed mental alertness in a group of 33 students (aged 18 to 78) who
undertook a oneweek Scottish Gaelic course. After the course, they were encouraged to
practise their new language for five hours a week. At the end of the course, their attention
was found to be better than comparison groups who had done other types of courses or
no course at all, and, nine months later, those who had been practising had bumped up
their attention span even more.

Lead researcher Dr Thomas Bak of the School of Philosophy, Psychology and Language
Sciences at the University of Edinburgh, the UK, said the results confirm the cognitive
benefits of languagelearning. “I think there are three important messages from our study:
first, it is never too late to start a novel mental activity such as learning a new language.
Second, even a short, intensive course can show beneficial effects on some cognitive
functions. Third, this effect can be maintained through practice.”

Brain training

Any mental exercise helps cognition by building, lengthening or strengthening the

pathways that carry information between neurons. Generally, the more pathways you have,
the better your cognition.

When you carry out a particular mental skill, connective tissue builds up in the part of the
brain responsible for it, just like arm exercises build your biceps. For all- round cognitive
improvement, therefore, you should do lots of everything: motor skills (ie, physical

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activity), talking, socialising, planning, game-playing, calculating, writing, reading and
talking. But the problem is that we tend not to do everything, especially as we get older.

This is where brain training comes in. Systems like Lumosity, Brain HQ and SmartMind
claim to exercise all parts of your brain, and thus to raise your cognitive abilities generally,
rather than in one particular area. Alas, the proof of this is just not there. Scientists
reviewed the literature that braintraining companies cite to support their products and
found that, while people got better at individual tests, there was no general improvement
in cognition. BBC Knowledge, June 2017, p.72

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In Case You Missed It
Top news from around the world

Spain

Wall paintings previously discovered in three Spanish caves have now been dated

to 65,000 years ago—some 20,000 years before Homo sapiens is thought to have arrived
in Europe. Researchers say this find is the first clear evidence that Neandertals created art.

Borneo

Half of the orangutans on the vast Southeast Asian island died between 1999 and 2015 as
a result of hunting or habitat destruction by oil palm and other industries, a new study
found. Another 45,000 of the great apes are predicted to die by 2050.

Norway

More than 70,000 new crops were added to the Svalbard Global Seed Vault, which brings
the total number of crop varieties in the world's largest seed collection—an international
effort to guard against the worldwide loss of plant diversity—to more than a million.

Myanmar (Formerly Burma)

Paleontologists found a 100-million-year-old spider trapped in amber in northern

Myanmar. They think the ancient species, Chimerarachne yingi, lived in tropical forests
and had a long tail that it may have used to sense prey and predators.

Peru

Ecologists analyzed 142 hydropower dams in the western Amazon basin and concluded
that they are interfering with fish migration and sediment flow. If a proposed 160 more
dams are built, they could cause similar cascading problems for the ecosystem.

New Zealand

Growth rings in “the loneliest tree on the planet,” an isolated Sitka spruce on Campbell
Island, still bear traces of radioactivity from atomic bomb testing in the 1950s and 1960s.
Climatologists suggest the traces could define the start of a proposed age of accelerated
human impact on the planet.

Scientific American, May 2018, p.19

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Discoveries
World’s First Fluorescent Frog Discovered In Argentina

In regular light, the common South American tree frog doesn’t look like anything
particularly special: it’s just a small pale green animal with a pattern of red spots dotted
across its back. But put it in a UV spotlight and it turns into an amphibian disco ball, with
fluorescent light beaming from its body.

The unusual property was discovered by accident by researchers from Buenos Aires,
Argentina while they were studying other properties of the frog’s colouring. Natural
fluorescence has been observed in several species of fish and turtles, but never before in
an amphibian. The psychedelic glow-in-the-dark effect occurs when shortwave light is
absorbed and then re-emitted at longer wavelengths, and is caused by compounds called
hyloins found in the animal’s lymph and skin glands. It increases the frog’s brightness by
around 20 per cent during a full moon, and around 30 per cent during twilight.

The fluorescence occurs at a frequency of light that directly matches the sensitivity of the
frogs’ night vision, making it likely that they can see the glow, the researchers say.

Heart tissue grown on spinach leaves

This takes growing your own to a new level: researchers in the US have created beating
human heart cells using spinach leaves. The technique could eventually allow researchers
to use spinach leaves to grow layers of healthy cardiac muscle to treat heart attack
patients.

“We have a lot more work to do, but so far this is very promising,” said study co- author
Glenn Gaudette. “Adapting abundant plants that farmers have been cultivating for
thousands of years for use in tissue engineering could solve a host of problems limiting
the field.”

The team removed the plant cells from spinach leaves by flowing a detergent solution
through the veins, leaving behind a framework made mostly of cellulose. They then
pumped fluids and microbeads similar in size to human blood cells through the spinach
veins, and seeded them with the human cells found in blood vessels.

“I’d done decellularisation work on human hearts before, and when I looked at the
spinach leaf its stem reminded me of an aorta,” said study co-author Joshua Gershlak. “We
weren’t sure it would work, but it turned out to be pretty easy and replicable. It’s working
in many other plants.”The researchers are now working on refining the technique and
using it to create more complex structures. …BBC Focus, May 2017, p.14

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Renewable Energy's Hidden Costs
Low-carbon power depends on climate-unfriendly metals

Because electricity and heat account for 41 percent of global carbon dioxide emissions,
curbing climate change will require satisfying much of that demand with renewables rather
than fossil fuels. But solar and wind come with their own up-front carbon costs.
Photovoltaics require much more aluminum—for panel frames and other uses—than other
technologies do, according to a 2011 study at Leiden University in the Netherlands. Alloys
for wind turbines demand lots of nickel. Those metals are carbon culprits because they are
produced in large amounts by high-energy extracting and refining processes.

The demand for metals, and their already significant carbon footprint, may grow with a
switch to green energy. Given all the resources needed for new infrastructure, an analysis
last year found that large solar installations take one to seven years to “break even” with
coal power on the greenhouse scorecard. Wind farms take from less than one year up to
12 years. All the more reason to make the switch sooner than later.

Scientific American, Oct. 2013

Question Of The Month

Do guide dogs know that their master is blind?

Although all dogs show signs of having ‘theory of mind’, which enables them to grasp the
fact that we think differently from them, it’s unlikely that they are capable of extending
this to knowing the reason why one person behaves differently to another. The concept of
vision, and therefore the loss of it, is a complex one, so we don’t think dogs have an
understanding of what it means to be blind. But, of course, they can learn what things a
blind person needs helpwith, and adjust their behaviour accordingly. Interestingly, studies
show that guide dogs will still look to their master’s face for cues when begging for food,
just as a sighted person’s dog would.

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Renewable Energy's Hidden Costs:…

Question Of The Month:…

Aggression prevention programs

Although there are hundreds of school- and community-based aggression- prevention

and socialskills– promotion programs being conducted across the country, only a handful
of these programs appear to be effective. For instance, a recent review of schoolbased
aggression-prevention programs for elementary children suggested that there were only
five extremely promising programs (Leff & colleagues, 2001). It was suggested that to be
effective, programs should define aggression broadly, target multiple forms of aggression
(i.e., physical aggression and relational aggression), design and conduct programs in
partnership with school staff and community members, improve methodological rigor, and
focus upon decreasing aggression in the unstructured school settings, such as on the
playground, in the lunchroom, and in the hallways.

Encyclopedia of School Psychology, 2005, p.19

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Understand Water Science
It’s one of the strangest substances in the Universe, but we wouldn’t exist without it. From
H20 to the water cycle, understand the wonderful science of water.

When Earth is seen from the depths of space it appears as a blue dot. This is because just
over 70 per cent of its surface is covered with water. Water is present on many of the
planets too, and several moons of Jupiter and Saturn are thought to have significant water
resources. But Earth is, without doubt, the one body in our Solar System where water has a
defining presence. It’s thanks to water and its physical peculiarities that life has flourished
in the first place. Water is so familiar to us that we often forget just what a remarkable
substance it is.

What exactly is water?

Water is H2O, a simple molecule consisting of two atoms of hydrogen and one of oxygen.
It is the only substance that exists as solid, liquid and gas in the temperature ranges found
naturally on Earth. Water is transparent, but isn’t entirely colourless. Just as the sky is blue
because molecules in the atmosphere scatter blue light more than other colours, so large
quantities of water have a similar blue tinge, whether it’s the ocean or the dramatic blues
of glacier ice (oceans and lakes also reflect a blue sky, making them appear even bluer).
We are extremely lucky to have so much water on Earth because it has remarkable
properties.

What’s so special about it?

Water is an impressive solvent, which means it is extremely good at dissolving things. This
is partly why it’s so valuable for living organisms, acting as a transport fluid for a whole
host of chemicals in living cells. What makes water such a good solvent is its ability to
stick onto and separate the atoms of a substance, which is thanks to unusually strong
hydrogen bonding. This is the effect that makes water so special: an electrical attraction
between hydrogen atoms and other atoms such as nitrogen, oxygen, and fluorine.
Hydrogen bonding between water molecules also makes them hard to separate, pushing
up the boiling point. Without this effect, water would boil at around -70°C. That would
mean no liquid water on Earth

-and no life.

Another essential side effect of hydrogen bonding is that when water freezes, the
hydrogen bonds between the molecules pull the crystals into a particular shape. This is
why snowflakes form with six points, and it means that water crystals have more space in
them than they otherwise would. They form tetrahedrons – shapes with four triangular
sides. As a result, solid water, or ice, is less dense than the liquid form, which is why it’s

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not recommended to put a glass bottle of water in the freezer (the water will expand and
can shatter the bottle), and why ice floats on a pond.

It’s often said that this property of water is unique. This is not quite true, as acetic acid
and silicon, for example, are both less dense as a solid than as a liquid. But it is unusual,
and it’s important. If ice were denser than water, lakes would freeze from the bottom, not
the top, making it far less likely that aquatic life could survive cold winters.

Where in the Universe have we found water?

The chemical elements making up water (hydrogen and oxygen) are plentiful in the
Universe. In fact, they’re the first and third most common by mass. Therefore, it’s not
surprising that water shows up in many places. Every planet in the Solar System has at
least some water, though the furnace-like Venus only has tiny amounts of vapour in its
atmosphere.

Similarly, some moons are well-provided. Our own Moon appears to have ice deposits,
while a number of the moons of Jupiter and Saturn, such as Europa, Ganymede, Callisto
and Enceladus, are thought to have salty liquid water under surface ice. Comets, which
plunge towards the Sun from the outer Solar System, usually contain large amounts of
water ice. Further out, we find water in vast clouds of material between the stars, in the
atmosphere of planets in distant solar systems and in the rotating discs of matter where
new stars are forming. Water is indeed common, though rarely as dominant as it is on
Earth.

How do we know there’s water out there?

We can hardly go out to distant star systems and check for water, but astronomers have
tried and tested methods to detect molecules in space. These rely on spectroscopy, or the
study of the spectrum of light. When light passes through a material, some of the
wavelengths of light get absorbed, leaving dark lines on the spectrum. Spectroscopy was
first used in astronomy to detect elements in stars, but it is now widely used when light
passes through, say, a cloud of matter in deep space.

Different compounds have their own distinct ‘absorption spectra’, like a fingerprint for a
specific molecule. There are even distinctions, for example, between the spectra of liquid
water and water vapour (though as yet we can’t detect liquid water on a planet unless we
can observe it directly).

Detecting water vapour in the atmosphere of a planet orbiting a distant star is more
difficult than detecting standalone water molecules in space, because the signal is harder
to distinguish from the star’s own spectrum. However, a new technique being trialled by
the European HotMol project combines spectroscopy with information about the light’s

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polarisation, which may give an indication of the spectrum’s source. Technology is
increasingly making it possible to discover just how widespread water is in the Universe.

Is water essential for life?

Water is certainly essential to the forms of life we have on Earth, which all have a common
ancestry and require water to function. Life has been found in all kinds of extreme
environments, operating at the limits of heat and cold and even without air. But every type
of life we have discovered contains biological cells that require water to provide their
operating environment. Cells simply could not function without it. It’s not just a matter of
keeping them inflated and moving chemicals around – living cells are full of tiny complex
mechanisms. Many of these mechanisms rely on different sections of molecules either
working well with water, or not mixing with it. Proteins, for example, are the key worker
molecules in living organisms. Proteins have to fold into particular shapes to carry out
their roles, and it is the interaction with water by various parts of a protein molecule that
tell it how to fold. Water isn’t just a solvent: it is intimately involved in the functioning of
our magnificent cellular machinery.

How much water do we have in our bodies?

We humans contain a large amount of water, typically between 50 and 70 per cent by
weight. The majority of this is in the approximately 30 trillion cells that make up the body,
while the rest is in fluids such as blood.

In our cells, water prevents the cell from collapsing and also acts as a medium for various
molecules to get from place to place. This transport role is more obvious where the water
is moving, such as carrying material around the bloodstream. It also lubricates, dissolves
valuable chemicals, and acts as a shock absorber for organs. It’s hard to find a part of the
body where water doesn’t play a role – even bones are around one-third water.
Incidentally, although we do need about two litres (eight glasses) of water a day, we don’t
need to drink it in its pure form, as other drinks can hydrate us too. Plus, we typically get
around half our liquid requirements from water in food.

How did the Earth’s water get there?

Although we’re not 100 per cent certain of the origin of the Earth’s water, it’s generally
thought to be a combination of water from the cloud of matter that initially formed the
Earth, along with additional water from bodies that collided with the planet later. Being
relatively close to the Sun, our planet would have lost some of its initial water during its
formation, but bodies that are further out, such as asteroids and comets, were more likely
to hold onto their water and could have added to the Earth’s supplies when the Sun’s
gravitational pull brought them towards us.

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For a long time, it was thought that a high percentage of the Earth’s water came from
these later additions, but recent research shows that water on most comets and asteroids
tends contain more deuterium – a hydrogen isotope – than water on Earth does. This
suggests that a lot of the water on our planet dates back to the origin of the Solar System
and that much of it might have been protected in the Earth’s early days by remaining well
below the surface. In 2016 it was discovered that rocks at depths of up to 1,000
kilometres could store water.

How does the water cycle work?

Thanks to the Sun’s constant stream of energy, water molecules are continually
evaporating as water vapour from the surfaces of oceans and lakes (as well as plants and
soil), adding to the water vapour in the air. This is carried by winds around the planet.
Where the vapour reaches particularly cold air, and has particles to condense around, it
forms the tiny water droplets that make up clouds, which combine to form larger drops
and eventually fall as rain. When rain falls on high ground, it runs down as streams and
rivers, eventually feeding back into the oceans. This cycle is essential for the many living
things that otherwise live on dry land.

Why do we have to save water when there’s so much of it?

One thing is definite. As a planet, we aren’t short of water. Over 70 per cent of the Earth’s
surface is water – 1.4 billion cubic kilometres of the stuff. This is such a huge amount, it’s
difficult to visualise. A cubic kilometre is a trillion litres of water. Divide the amount of
water in the world by the number of people and we end up with 0.2 cubic kilometres of
water each. With a reasonable consumption of five litres per person per day, the water in
the world would last for 116,219,178 years. And that assumes that we use up the water. In
practice, the water we ‘consume’ soon becomes available again for future use. Water
shortages are really energy shortages – it’s the cost of energy that makes it difficult to
provide usable water. The problem is that water is either in the wrong place, so needs
moving, or needs something removing to make it drinkable – and nowhere is this more
obvious than with seawater.

Why is it so difficult to convert seawater into drinking water?

Living in the UK, surrounded by ocean, it can seem absurd that we ever experience water
shortages. The same applies to many countries with coastlines. And it is perfectly possible
to convert seawater to drinking water. It’s simply an expensive and energy-intensive
process.

Seawater typically contains around 3.5 per cent minerals by weight, mostly the sodium and
chloride ions that form salt when the water is evaporated. The easiest way to make this
drinkable is simply to boil the water and collect the pure vapour. Alternatively, hydrogen

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and oxygen can be separated from the seawater by electrolysis and recombined to make
water, or the minerals can be removed by special membranes which only allow some
molecules through. Practical desalination plants tend to use variants on the evaporation
technique: the process isn’t difficult, it’s just that it takes a great deal of energy to remove
the impurities, usually significantly less energy than is required to get water from other
sources such as the ground or recycling. …BBC Science Focus, March
2017, p.68-73

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The First Civilizations: Egypt 3500-2180 Bc
The first civilizations emerged in areas where high agricultural productivity was possible,
supporting dense populations. In the Old World they appeared along the rivers in
Mesopotamia, northern India, Egypt and northern China. Graft specialization developed,
trade flourished, writing began and rulers were often given elaborate burials. However,
each civilization also had unique features rooted in its own cultural background and
environment.

Life in Ancient Egypt evolved around the Nile, which provided a regular water supply and
fertile soils and thus, by contrast with the surrounding desert regions, made agricultural
production possible. Navigation on the river was easy, as boats could travel northwards
with the current or sail southwards on the northerly winds. From the 5th millennium BG
farming communities along the Nile gradually began to merge into a cultural, political and
economic unit. This process of unification was encouraged by trading contacts and the
need to control the floodwaters of the Nile. To reap the benefits of the yearly inundation of
the river, communities had to work together to build dams, flood basins and irrigation
channels over large areas. In around 3000 BG this co-operation resulted in the
establishment of a single kingdom and the First Dynasty: according to tradition, in 3100
BC King Menes united the delta region (Lower Egypt) and the river valley (Upper Egypt) and
founded a capital at Memphis.

The early dynastic and old kingdom periods

The period of the first Egyptian dynasties was one of great cultural and economic
significance, when hieroglyphic script was developed and administrative centres
established. During the succeeding period of the Old Kingdom (2686- 2181 BC), Egyptian
culture flourished and the great pyramids were built as spectacular royal tombs. The first
was the step pyramid constructed for Pharaoh (or King) Djoser (2667-2648 BC) at Saqqara:
over 60 metres (200 feet) high, it was the largest stone building of its time. The first true
pyramids, with sloping sides, were constructed at Giza, and the largest, built for Pharaoh
Khufu (2589-2566 BC), reached a height of nearly 150 metres (500 feet). Eventually the
rule of the Old Kingdom dynasties collapsed, possibly because of the expanding power of
the provincial governors, or perhaps because scarce rainfall led to famine and unrest.
Central government would be restored with new dynasties during the Middle Kingdom
(2055-1650 BC) and the New Kingdom (1550-1069 BC).

The growth of egyptian trade

In search of building materials, gold and luxury items, the pharaohs established a wide
trade network. During the Old Kingdom period links were forged with many areas of West
Asia, including Byblos on the Lebanese coast, predominantly in a search for timber, and

25
expeditions were sent to mine turquoise, copper and malachite in the Sinai Desert. The
Eastern Desert yielded copper and stone and gave access to the harbours on the Red Sea,
from where trade with East Africa and Arabia was conducted. While these trading missions
were mainly peaceful, the area to the south of the First Cataract along the Nile became a
prime target for expansion. This land, called Nubia or Rush, offered large quantities of
gold as well as connections with the African hinterland, which was an important source of
spices, ebony, ivory and other luxury goods. During the Old Kingdom period, a mining
settlement was established at Buhen - the first step in a process of southward expansion
which would peak in the 15th century BC. Atlas of World History,
2007, p.30

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Water At Risk
Water is one of the most valuable resources on Earth. There should be sufficient water
available to cover the demands of the world population. However, there is a shortage of
clean water due to the increasing pollution.

Colliding tankers, damaged platforms and pipelines, as well as the release of residual oil
from oil tanks, are potential causes for catastrophes. Pictures of dying seabirds show the
extent of such environmental damage. Not all environmental hazards are this obvious.
Water pollution due to pesticides and heavy metals, such as mercury, lead, cadmium, and
zinc, largely remains unnoticed and can be a slow and often invisible process. The
dangerous prior assumption that the oceans could naturally purify themselves without
limit, doubling as dump sites for industrial and nuclear waste, and as final disposal sites
for chemical weapons and discarded ships, has caused possibly irreparable damage.

Not only the oceans, but many creeks, rivers, and lakes have also suffered from human
interference. Many lakes have become polluted due to the chemicals added by household
wastewater and the overfertilization with phosphates in agriculture. Moreover, unknown
effluents from industry and acid rain add to the acidification of water bodies, which
contributes to the decrease of biodiversity. Pollutants accumulate in the tissue of aquatic
organisms that are part of the same food chain as humans.

Groundwater deterioration

Surface water and groundwater constantly interact with each other. Normally, groundwater
is of a higher quality than surface water. This is due to the natural purification process
during the passage of water through various rock layers in the ground. However, this
purification effect is limited. In many areas, the groundwater is relatively close to the
surface and is contaminated by nitrates from fertilizers and pesticides leaking into the soil
due to their excessive usage in large areas. Pollutants may also leak into the groundwater
from contaminated sites or local landfills. Furthermore, fossil water reservoirs, which have
been stored underground forthou- The blowout of an oil well can cause a large oil spill
that leads to severe water pollution. sands of years—for example, beneath the Sahara-
stand the risk of depletion if used extensively for irrigation or industrial purposes.

National Geographic – The Science Book, 2008, p.131

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Tough Bacteria Love to Eat Radiation
Bacteria can live in extreme cold, intense radiation, and corrosive acid. Now, scientists
have discovered microbes that can feed on thin gases, giving new hope to the idea of life
on other worlds...

The sound of field spades that are forced into the rocky ground breaks the silence on the
coast of the world’s most desolate continent. A small group of scientists are standing in
one of Antarctica’s hostile landscapes, where no water, nutrients in the ground, nor
sunlight are available for most of the year. Hence, the harsh environment does not meet
one single one of the basic requirements of life.

Still, back in the lab at the University of Queensland, the Australian scientists can see that
their soil samples include no less than 23 unknown bacteria species. Studies show that the
bacteria feed on nothing but air thanks to special enzymes that can extract energy from
atmospheric gases such as hydrogen, carbon dioxide, and carbon monoxide. This is
unusual, even for extremely die-hard bacteria, and the discovery is only the latest of
many, that have contributed to biologists’ understanding of life.

The extreme life forms can help us free Earth of toxic heavy metals and radioactive waste.
Moreover, the bacteria promise well for the search for life in space, as they can give
scientists an idea of how organisms might survive on other planets and moons.

Life is amazing

On Earth, we have organisms that can survive temperatures of up to 125 °C, whereas
others tolerate temperatures of down to -80 °C. Some live deep in the ocean, where the
pressure is 100 times higher than at the surface. Others thrive in acid or basic
environments, which would quickly corrode the skin of a human. These die-hard life forms
are known as extremophiles.

The vast majority of the world’s species can only survive in environments with moderate
temperatures of 20-45 °C and neutral pH values of 6.5-7.5. All life forms can be
extremophile, but by far the most of the ones that scientists know about today are simple
microbes such as bacteria, yeast cells, and other monocellular organisms.

One of the first spectacular discoveries of extremophiles was made in 1977, when
scientists first explored the hydrothermal vents at the bottom of the deep sea off the
Galápagos Islands. Hydrothermal vents are small cracks in Earth’s crust, where heat from
the planet’s interior escapes into the ocean. The environment around them is extremely
hostile, as the vents emit toxic gases from the underground, heating the water to some
100 °C. Moreover, they are located so deep below the surface that it is pitch-dark, and the

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pressure is intense. Still, marine biologists discovered vivid ecosystems around the vents,
as worms and crabs on the ocean floor could feast on the extremophile bacteria that
specialize in feeding on the toxic sulphuric gases.

Another extraordinary example of how die-hard life can be is the Cyanidium caldarium red
alga. The alga lives in acid lakes with pH values of down to 0.2, which is sufficiently acid to
corrode even metals.

Extremofiles are put to work

In recent years, scientists have begun to research, how the extremophiles' unique qualities
can benefit people. One of the most highly valued extremophiles is the Thermophilus
aquaticus. In order to survive in the heat, the archbacterium is equipped with a heat-stable
enzyme known as Taq, which can quickly copy the cell’s DNA even at temperatures far
above normal life conditions.

Geneticists throughout the world now use this very quality via the PCR technique. By
means of the technology, scientists can take small quantities of DNA from a sample and
multiply it, so much more analyses can be made. That has made life easier for forensic
geneticists, who, thanks to PCR, are able to scrutinize a perpetrator's DNA based on very
little sperm, blood, or hair. The technique is also essential for the cloning of proteins and
organisms, the sequencing of genetic material, artificial fertilization, and gene therapy. In
order to have sufficient energy to separate double-stranded DNA, so the code can be read
and copied, the PCR technique must be carried out at very high temperatures, and for this
very reason, the heat resistant Taq enzyme is indispensable.

Brutal bacterium in record books

One particular extremophile stands out as the toughest of them all. Its ability to resist
even the most lethal environments has earned it an entry in Guinness World Records as
“the world’s hardest bacterium”.

Deinococcus radiodurans is the most radiation-resistant organism on Earth and can resist
no less than 5,000 gray (GY) – a measure of the quantity of energy from ionised radiation
that is absorbed into any given mass. The more radiation energy a life form can tolerate,
the higher the Gy levels that it can resist. 5 Gy is sufficient to kill a human being.

Intense radiation usually destroys a cells’ DNA and proteins. However, radiodurans has lots
of copies of its own hereditary material, so if one DNA molecule is harmed, the substitutes
are ready. Moreover, it has a phenomenal ability to efficiently repair DNA damage.

After a bombardment of radiation, the bacterium collects the fragmented DNA in ring-
shaped structures known as toroids, from which the DNA is recreated.

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Apart from resisting the radiation, the bacterium can also survive extreme cold, vacuum,
hefty acid, and dehydration. Its versatility makes it very usable as a waste collector
following severe environmental disasters such as nuclear plant meltdowns, in which lethal
radioactive waste is spread.

Scientists have manipulated the bacterium genetically, allowing it to spread in areas with
high radiat ion levels and remove environmentally harmful heavy metals and break down
toxic solvents in the radioactive environments.

Space could include extreme life

Radiodurans is so extreme that some scientists have wondered if the bacterium comes
from Mars, where the radiation levels are much higher than on Earth. The idea is that the
bacterium developed on Mars’ hard surface and came to Earth via a meteor.

Apart from its ability to resist radiation, the bacterium is both genetically and
biochemically reminiscent of other Earthly life forms, so few scientists support the idea.

In spite of this, biologists still have reason to be optimistic concerning the search for alien
life. Scientists have long known that amino acids and nucleotides – the main ingredients
for building proteins and DNA – can be found in meteors and comets in space. The next
step is to find microbial life, and in this case, extremophiles are the main candidates.

Several of the environments to which extremophiles have adapted on Earth come close to
the conditions on other planets and even some moons.

The discovery of the bacteria in Antarctica, which live by extracting nutrition from the air,
indicates that life can thrive without complex organic material or sunlight. An atmosphere
made of hydrogen and carbon monoxide, which are very common gases, could be
sufficient.

Although it might be a long time, before scientists can confirm that biological life exists in
other places but Earth, scientists’ new find of exptremophiles has raised hopes.

By studying Earth’s most extreme survival mechanisms, scientists can develop new
theories as to where to search for life.

Science Illustrated, Nov. 2018, p.43

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Volcanoes
When did the first volcanoes form?

Geologists believe that volcanoes were present as far back as 4.55 billion years ago, the
era when our planet first formed its crust. Some scientists believe these early volcanoes
had a major impact on the Earth by providing early atmospheric gases, including water
vapor and carbon monoxide. In addition, huge volcanic eruptions and accompanying
debris may have dimmed the sun's light periodically, contributing to global climate
changes.

What were some early explanations for volcanoes?

Ancient cultures often explained active (and dormant) volcanoes using myths, religion, or
superstition. Because of the violence of volcanic activity, most cultures believed eruptions
and tremblings had to be the fault of humans. Some made offerings to a volcano,
including human sacrafices, to appease gods or monsters. The following lists just a few of
the many cultural beliefs surrounding volcanoes:

1. •The Polynesians believed volcanoes were controlled by the demi-goddess Pele, who
could appear in human form as an old, ugly woman or a beautiful young girl.
2. •Chileans believed a giant whale lived inside volcanoes.
3. •The Japanese thought a giant spider lurked inside active volcanoes.
4. •Indonesians believed the world was held up by the snake Hontobogo, whose
movements shook the ground and caused fire to erupt from the mountains.
5. •Indians thought there was a giant boar or mole living in each volcano.
6. •Ancient Creeks believed volcanic eruptions were the exhalations of the Titans-
giants the god Zeus had buried beneath the mountains.
7. •The people of the Russian Kamchatka peninsula believed volcanoes were young
men that had quarreled over a beautiful girl; they were turned into mountains by a
shaman to preserve the peace.

What is the earliest known record of a volcanic eruption?:

One of the earliest known records of a volcanic eruption comes from the 5th century
B.C.E.: the poet Pindar's ode about the myth of Typon. In this work, he characterized the
Sicilian volcano Etna as a "pillar of the sky" from which fire shot with a loud roar. Pindar
also recounted how white-hot rocks crashed into the sea and land, and how the lava
flowed down the volcano. Geologists believe Pindar was accurately describing the
eruptions of Etna that occurred in 479 B.C.E.
The Handy Geology Answer Book, 2004, p.285

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Shyness
Uneasiness experienced when confronted by new people and situations.

Most people, from social recluses to the rich and famous, probably have experienced
feelingsof shyness at various times in their lives. Physiological symptoms may include
blushing,increased heart rate, sweating, and shaking. Just as these outward manifestations
vary in typeand intensity from person to person, so do the inner feelings. Anxious
thoughts and worries,low self-esteem , self- criticism, and concern over a lack of social
skills, real or imagined, arecommon. The causes of shyness are not known. Some
researchers believe it results from agenetic predisposition. Others theorize that
uncommunicative parents restrict a child'sdevelopment of the social skills that compensate
for discomfort caused by new experiencesand people, resulting in shyness. Variously, it
has been considered a symptom of social phobia or a simple characteristic of introversion.

Psychological research that follows large numbers of children from very early childhood
toadulthood has found that a tendency to be shy with others is one of the most stable
traits thatis preserved from the first three or four years of life through young adulthood.
Learning orimproving social skills through self-help courses or formal training in
assertiveness and publicspeaking are some of the methods used to diminish the effects of
shyness.

Gale Encyclopedia of Psychology, 2000, p.589

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Pigeons can spot cancer on medical images ‘as well as humans’
It seems pigeons may not be so bird-brained after all. A team at the University of
California, Davis has trained the birds to pick out cancerous breast tissue on
mammograms.

After two weeks of training, using food as motivation, the pigeons were able to correctly
identify cancerous tissue 85 per cent of the time. This is a level of accuracy similar to that
of human radiologists.

“Research over the past 50 years has shown that pigeons can distinguish identities and
emotional expressions on human faces, letters of the alphabet, misshapen pharmaceutical
capsules, and even paintings by Monet vs Picasso,” said co-author Edward Wasserman.
“Their visual memory is equally impressive, with a proven recall of more than 1,800
images.”

Even after years of training, physicians can sometimes struggle to correctly interpret
mammograms. The process is also time-consuming, labour-intensive and expensive.
Though it’s unlikely you will ever be booking an appointment with a pigeon GP, lead
researcher Prof Richard Levenson believes that the common birds could play a part in
further developments in imaging and display technologies.

“Pigeons’ sensitivity to diagnostically salient features in medical images suggests that they
can provide reliable feedback on many variables at play in the production, manipulation,
and viewing of these diagnostically crucial tools, and can assist researchers and engineers
as they continue to innovate,” he said.

Write a text about the articles to following space …

The catalyst for change in the European colonies was upheaval in Europe itself. The French
Revolution of 1789 triggered a slave uprising in France’s West Indian colony of St.
Domingue. The territory gained independence as Haiti in 1804, becoming the first black-
ruled state in the Americas.

While Spain and Portugal were engulfed in the Peninsular War in Europe in 1807– 08, their
colonies in Central and South America were in tumult. The local elite creoles (ethnic
Europeans born in the Americas) began a struggle for independence in the Spanish
colonies. Simón Bolívar led the pro-independence forces in Colombia and Venezuela, and
José de San Martín did the same in Argentina, Chile, and Peru. After tortuous and
prolonged conflicts, all the Spanish colonies had become independent republics by 1826.
Brazil split from Portugal peacefully in 1822 and appointed a scion of the Portuguese royal
family as its emperor.

In Brazil and on the Caribbean islands, a large majority of the population was of African
origin. Most were slaves working on plantations, producing crops such as sugar and coffee
for European consumers. Although Britain outlawed trade in slaves in 1807, slavery
continued in British West Indian colonies.

An uncertain future

Slavery was abolished gradually and in a piecemeal way over the next 80 years, with Brazil
being the last country to outlaw slavery, in 1888. After abolition, freed slaves often joined
the lower strata of hierarchical societies in which poverty and inequality were made worse
by unfair land redistribution.

In Latin America, independence did not lead to widespread prosperity or good

government, merely to vacuums of power and economic inequality. Military dictatorships
were common, as were wars and civil conflicts. However, there were areas of successful
development—Argentina, for example, achieved rapid growth in the late 19th century,
attracting a large influx of European settlers. Meanwhile, Brazil experienced a “rubber
boom” from the 1880s. But development was entirely based on investment from Europe
and North America, and was designed to serve the needs of the industrialized countries,
not the local people.

History of the World in 1,000 Objects, 2014, p.320

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Lie Detector
A device intended to detect an involuntary physiological response that all persons exhibit
when lying but never when telling the truth. Because there is no such specific lie response,
the lie detector of popular fancy is mythological. In actual “lie protector” tests, widely used
in the United States, breathing movements, blood pressure changes, and electrodermal
responses are recorded on a polygraph while the respondent answers “yes” or “no” to a
series of 8 to 12 questions. From the polygraph recordings, one can determine whether
“relevant” questions had a greater impact on the respondent than did the interpolated
“control” questions. In the standard lie test used in specific issue investigations, the
relevant questions ask whether the respondent committed the act in question; for
example, “On April 12, did you take $2000 from the office safe?” A typical control question
might be, “In the first 20 years of your life, did you ever steal anything?” If the examinee
reacts more strongly to the relevant than to the control questions, it is inferred that his or
her answers to the relevant questions are deceptive. Because an innocent accused also
may be disturbed by the relevant questions and react more strongly to them than to the
controls, the lie test is biased against the truthful respondent. Research has shown that as
many as 50% of innocent criminal suspects may “fail” controlquestion polygraph tests.

Polygraph tests are also widely used in the United States for preemployment screening.
Screening tests normally do not use control questions, but include instead a series of
relevant questions that are of interest to the prospective employer: “Have you ever stolen
from a previous employer?”; “Have you ever used street drugs?” Strong physiological
reactions to any of these questions are interpreted as indicating a deceptive reply. There
has been no scientific study to prove the validity of this type of polygraph test, however.

Several devices have been marketed for use in lie detection which are alleged to measure
“stress” in the respondent’s voice. Because they do not require attachments to the body,
such devices can be used covertly and can even be applied to broadcasts or to recordings
of the voices of dead people. It has not yet been shown that these devices can reliably
distinguish between different degrees of voice stress. When voice analyzers have been
used for lie detection, in parallel with a conventional polygraph, they have done no better
than chance in distinguishing truth from deception.

In another type of polygraphic interrogation, the “guilty knowledge” test, the relevant
questions name some fact that should be known only by someone who had been present
at the crime; the control questions name alternatives that should seem equally plausible to
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innocent suspects. A differential physiological response to the relevant question suggests
that the suspect recognizes its relevance and therefore that he or she possesses guilty
knowledge. Although it would seem to hold promise as a tool of criminal investigation, the
guilty knowledge test has not yet been adequately studied in real-life applications.
Encyclopedia of Science & Technology, 2007, p.7119

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On Writing
We all start out as readers, don’t we? First, it’s picture books read to us by mum or dad or
teacher. Then we begin to recognise sounds and letters and words, and to take the first
steps towards becoming a reader. Many of us got the reading bug when we were young,
and books read in childhood can stay with us for ever. Not all readers become writers, but
there are plenty of authors who were inspired to write by what they read when they were
growing up.

Reading is often the first piece of advice any aspiring writer is given. It’s not exactly rocket
science. If you want to become a published author, it’s a pretty good idea to take a look at
what’s been published in the past – and to see what’s being published now.

First, read the kind of stuff you yourself want to write. Whatever that is – romance, crime,
sci-fi, thrillers, memoirs, sagas, fantasy, non-fiction… you name it – it’s sensible to see
what’s already out there and to immerse yourself in the best of it.

Secondly, leave your comfort zone behind and take a look at what’s being written outside
your own genre. The more widely you read, the more you’ll learn. Style and structure are
crafts that can be learned. See how others do it and find out what works for you – and
what doesn’t. Learn how successful authors hook their readers and keep them turning the
pages.

Finally, don’t ignore the everyday stuff you can’t get away from: newspapers and
magazines, TV advertisements, websites, social media and so on. As a writer, you need to
use words effectively; to make every word count. If you filter out the rubbish, but take on
board the good stuff – words or phrases, or ways of using words, that strike a chord with
you – you may come across something you can adapt for use in your own writing. It’s all
grist to the mill.

Reading is a win-win activity. On the one hand, you can derive sheer enjoyment from it.
There are few things as satisfying as burying yourself deep in the pages of a book you can
hardly bear to put down. On the other hand, you can almost always learn something,
either consciously or subconsciously, about writing.

Writing Magazine, Nov. 2015, p.20

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The Benefits Of Exercise: Now In Pill Form
We’re all told to exercise more, but for those with physical disabilities that isn’t always
possible. For such people, the benefits of aerobic exercise have always been out of reach.
But now a team at the Salk Institute for Biological Studies in San Diego, California has
developed a pill that engenders such effects chemically, with mice given the drug able to
burn fat more effectively while exhibiting increased stamina.

When people exercise regularly, their bodies become more adept at using fat rather than
glucose as an energy source. It’s been known for some time that this ability is linked to
the expression of a gene called PPARD – mice that were genetically engineered to have this
gene permanently activated proved more resistant to weight gain than normal mice, and
had more stamina.

The new research involved giving mice a chemical compound called GW1516, which also
activates the PPARD gene, over a period of eight weeks. Mice given GW1516 could typically
run for 270 minutes before becoming exhausted, compared to 160 minutes for the control
group. Closer examination showed that when the PPARD pathway is activated, the
expression of 975 different genes within the muscles is affected, with those involved in
burning fat increased and those involved in breaking down glucose suppressed.

“PPARD is suppressing all the points involved in sugar metabolism in the muscle, so
glucose can be redirected to the brain,” explained researcher Dr Michael Downes. “Exercise
activates PPARD, but we’re showing that you can do the same thing without mechanical
training.”

The research sheds new light on the factors affecting endurance, and offers disabled
patients the hope of improved quality of life.

BBC Earth Singapore, Sep. 2017, p.23 Write a text about the articles to following space …

National Geographic – The Science Book, 2008, p.246

Austronesian Languages
The Austronesian languages constitute a very widespread large group of interrelated
languages in the Indo-Pacific and Australasian area. The number of its member languages
is around 1,200, with a total of 230 million speakers. Insular Southeast Asia is its western
region and the New Guinea area, Melanesia, Micronesia and Polynesia its eastern one, and
it also includes Madagascar. Going from north to south in its western region, the original
languages of Taiwan, the languages of the Philippines, Malaysia, and Indonesia are very
predominantly Austronesian, with Malagasy on Madagascar also belonging to them. In the
New Guinea area there are over 300 Austronesian languages, and the languages of
Micronesia and Polynesia are all Austronesian. In addition, Austronesian languages are
found in Vietnam, Cambodia, and on Hainan Island in China (the so-called Cham
languages), and also in the far south of Myanmar. The speakers of Malagasy migrated
1,000 to 2,000 years ago from southern Borneo to Madagascar via southern India.

With few exceptions, the Austronesian languages are closely interrelated, and in spite of
their very large number and the enormous expanse of the territories occupied by them, it
is very easy to recognize their genetic interrelationship. Because of their great similarity to
each other, it is often difficult to establish whether various communalects are different
languages, or dialects of one language. As a result of this, the total number of
Austronesian languages is a contentious issue. Taking this into account, the approximate
number of Austronesian languages of given areas, and the number of their speakers in
these areas is as follows: Taiwan: fifteen living languages, 200,000 speakers; Philippines:
about 150 languages, about 60 million speakers; Vietnam, Cambodia and Hainan Island
(China): ten languages, about 700,000 speakers; Madagascar: one language, 11 million
speakers; Indonesia, Malaysia and Brunei: about 610 languages, 160 million speakers;
Melanesia (without the Indonesian part of the New Guinea area): about 430 languages,
about 1,200,000 speakers; Micronesia: twenty living languages, about 300,000 speakers;
Polynesia: thirty-six living languages, about 700,000 speakers.

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The Good Side Of Tonsils:

Austronesian Languages:

A tendency to sleep at a set time each day defines an individual’s “chronotype”. Although
strongly influenced by genetics and light exposure, age-related body changes play a key
role.

Puberty heralds a notable shift as bed times and wake-up times get later. This trend
continues until 19.5 years in women and nearly 21 in men, then gradually reverses. By 55
we wake at around the time we did as young children, approximately 2 hours earlier than
as adolescents. So a 7 am alarm for a teenager feels like a 5 am start for a person in their
50s.

The reasons are unclear but tally with the hormonal and neural changes of puberty and the
drop in these hormones with age.

This has consequences. A Canadian study compared cognitive performance mid- morning
and mid-afternoon in teenagers and adults. Test scores in teenagers rose by 10 per cent
from morning to afternoon; in adults they declined by 7 per cent.

These findings highlight an important dilemma. Teachers in their 50s will generally be at
their best in the morning, unlike their teenage students, and teachers set timetables. The
tacit assumption for over a century has been that students are most alert in the morning
and more demanding subjects should be taught then. This is wrong for most teenagers.

An adolescent chronotype also leads to another issue: lack of sleep. Teenagers need about
9 hours for best academic performance. Many get far less. The circadian system is not
totally to blame. More relaxed attitudes to bedtimes, ignorance about sleep and the near
addictive use of social media make this worse.

Insufficient sleep is about more than feeling tired at the wrong time. Sleep promotes
memory consolidation and problem solving, while shortened sleep can drive impulsivity,
decreased empathy, self-harm, depression and increased use of stimulants.

In the US, this has led to delayed school starts in several states. California is the latest to
propose this. The logic has been reinforced by research estimating it could add $83 billion
to the US economy over 10 years if done nationally, thanks to better academic
performance and fewer car accidents.

The proposal in the US, where 7 am starts are not unusual, is to begin at 8.30 am or later.
In the UK most teens start around 9 am. Would 10 am be even better? Maybe, but big
studies comparing 9 am and 10 am starts are needed.

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In addition, sleep education must be part of the solution. Teens have a shifted chronotype,
but it can be exaggerated a lot by distractions such as social media. Teaching adolescents
about the importance of sleep, as we do about smoking, alcohol and sex, will at least
allow them to make more informed choices.

New Scientist, Sep.9 2017, p.28

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Richard Wagner
Wagner was a musical innovator who revolutionized opera by creating vast music- dramas
for which he wrote both the music and the words— previously composers had used stories
written by librettists. Wagner wanted to create a combination of all the arts—music,
poetry, drama, and painting— which he called a Gesamtkunstwerk. In addition, each major
character, symbol, or place in his dramas had its individual musical theme, or leitmotif,
that accompanied it throughout the opera. The greatest use of this technique came in his
Ring Cycle, an epic story told over four operas. Wagner’s music was both fiercely criticized
and wildly praised in his lifetime. Even now, people have very strong views about his
music.

The ring of Nibelungen (der ring des nibelungen)

The Ring Cycle is Wagner’s major work. The story revolves around a magic ring that grants
power to rule the world. A dwarf, Alberich, made the ring from gold stolen from the
Rheinmaidens (mermaids from the Rhine River). Over the course of four operas (Das
Rheingold, Die Walküre, Siegfried, and Götterdämmerung), gods, giants, dragons, and
heroes struggle for possession of the magic ring.

DK Great Musicians, 2008, p.24

Plastic Surgery
Plastic surgery is the specialized branch of surgery concerned with repairing deformities,
correcting functional deficits, and enhancing appearance. Unlike most surgical specialties,
plastic surgery is not confined to one specific anatomical or functional area of the body.
Often, plastic surgery is classified as either reconstructive or aesthetic surgery. All plastic
surgery procedures seek to restore or improve patients' appearances, however,
reconstructive surgery focuses on patients with physical problems or deformities while
aesthetic (or cosmetic) surgery often focuses on patients who want to improve their
appearance even though they have no serious physical defect.

The Gale Encyclopedia of Science

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What’s The Best Way To Get To Sleep?
Whatever you do, don’t count sheep.

In 2002 the Department of Experimental Psychology at Oxford University took a group of

fifty insomniacs and got them to try different ways to fall asleep. Those using the
traditional sheep-counting method took slightly longer than average. What worked best
was imagining a tranquil scene such as a beach or a waterfall: this relaxes people and
engages their imagination. Counting sheep is too boring or irritating to take your mind off
whatever’s keeping you awake.

The same study found that ‘thought suppression’ – trying to block anxious thoughts as
soon as they appear – was equally ineffective. This is because of what psychologists call
the ‘polar bear effect’. Told not to think of polar bears, your mind can think of nothing
else. Even the ‘the’ method many insomniacs swear by – repeating a simple word like ‘the’
over and over – only works if the repetitions are at irregular intervals, so that the brain is
forced to concentrate. As soon you lose focus, the anxiety re-emerges.

The ancient Romans recommended that insomniacs massaged their feet with dormouse
fat, or rubbed the earwax of a dog on their teeth. Benjamin Franklin proposed that people
finding themselves awake on hot nights should lift up the bedclothes with one arm and
one leg and flap them twenty times. Even better, he suggested, was to have two beds, so
that one was always cool.

More recently, clinical research has supported Progressive Muscle Relaxation: tensing each
group of muscles in turn until they hurt, and then relaxing them. The idea is that an
‘unwound’ body will eventually lead to an ‘unwound’ mind.

TATT (‘tired all the time’) syndrome is one of the most common reasons for visiting a GP –
one in five people in the UK report some kind of sleep disorder and a third suffer from
insomnia. Sleep deprivation is linked to a quarter of all traffic accidents and to rises in
obesity, diabetes, depression and heart disease.

Some sleep research seems to suggest that punctuating long working hours with brief
‘power naps’ of just a few minutes may actually be good for you. Or you could consider
extending your working hours with new eugeroic drugs. (Eugeroic means ‘well awake’,
from Greek eu, ‘well’, and egeirein, to awaken.) These are powerful stimulants that double
the time people stay awake with no apparent side effects – as well as boosting
concentration and memory.

They are unlikely to catch on in Japan at any time soon. The business of inemuri – ‘to be
asleep while present’ – is a sign of high status, and Japanese politicians and industrial
leaders will openly nod off in important meetings. Their visible need to nap in public
indicates how hard they have to work…The Second Book of General Ignorance,2010, p.308
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Biodiversity: Its Meaning and Value
What is Biological Diversity?

Today the earth teems with many species arranged in many diverse patterns and
relationships spread across varied landscapes. While estimates of the total number of
species vary widely, estimates usually cited fall between 13 and 20 million species on
earth. As human populations have expanded since the industrial revolution, with
technologies becoming more powerful and increasingly capable of pervasive impacts, the
diversity of life is again in decline, this time as a result of human activities, especially the
fragmentation of forests and other wild habitats. Reversing this trend toward biological
simplification has become one of the most urgent of global environmental problems.

By the mid-1980s, participants in the effort to save biological resources began referring to
the importance of protecting “biological diversity.” Then, as part of the preparations for a
symposium organized by the Smithsonian Institution and the National Academy of
Sciences, it was suggested that the phrase be contracted, and the term “biodiversity” was
born amid the fanfare of a large conference (The National Forum on BioDiversity), a stellar
list of speakers, a video, and a traveling Smithsonian roadshow. This symposium was only
one example of a worldwide awakening to perhaps the most distressing of all global
environmental threats: the possible destruction of the accumulated diversity of life on
earth through habitat transformation and other activities. Scientists have estimated that
current extinction rates are at least 1,000 times normal, and they may be as high as
10,000 times normal; they are also believed to be rising.

Because of the urgency of the problem, action is being taken to protect biodiversity, even
as scientists and policy makers are only beginning to understand and describe it. This
situation of uncertainty favors adaptive management, a promising if underdeveloped
approach that encourages learning by doing, and by embedding scientific study within
activist efforts to protect species. The current situation, then, is one where there is
considerable activity intended to protect biodiversity, but there still exists consider able
disagreement about basic concepts and broad theoretical issues. Three questions must be
addressed here:

(1) How should we define the term, “biodiversity?”

(2) What steps must be taken to protect biodiversity?, and

(3) How should we characterize and measure the value of biodiversity?

A Companion to the Philosophy of Biology, 2008, p.3860

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Measuring the Sensory Qualities of Foods
To produce foods that meet consumer needs, food manufacturers need to know the
relative contributions of the various sensory qualities—tastes, odors, and textures—to the
flavor of foods. Arguably, until this is known, it is difficult if not impossible to understand
the consumer’s responses to the product. Such information can be used to guide product
development and ensure a quality product by allowing measurement of the effects of
different production methods, changes in ingredients, and storage.

The process of describing and measuring the sensory qualities of foods and beverages is
known as descriptive analysis (DA). To perform DA, small panels of typically ten or twelve
individuals receive extensive training, often over a period of many months. During this
time, the panelists learn to be consistent in their use of specific labels to describe sensory
qualities. Such intensive training is necessary because of our generally poor ability to
identify odors and flavors. Even with common food flavors, correct identification can be as
low as 50 percent. Despite being able to say that an odor or flavor is highly familiar, we
are often at a loss to identify the correct name. This has been labeled the “tip of the nose”
phenomenon. In addition, to describe texture qualities, an entire vocabulary must be
learned and applied appropriately. Fortunately, our ability to attach names to sensory
qualities improves with feedback and practice. Importantly, too, training allows “concept
alignment”— essentially an agreement as to the meaning of sensory descriptors and what
constitutes examples of the concept. For example, the panel might need to agree that the
term “lemon odor” refers to the odor of fresh lemon juice but not that of lemonade.

Providing labels for sensory qualities actually improves our ability to “see” those qualities
in the midst of a complex food or beverage. To a novice wine drinker, a glass of sauvignon
blanc tastes like white wine; with experience, however, we learn that this wine variety often
has odor “notes” reminiscent of asparagus or cut grass. Providing examples of these notes
allows panelists to perceive these qualities within the wine. As a result, they are
increasingly better able to detect that note each time they encounter this wine variety—in
effect, panelists end up perceiving a collection of sensory qualities, whereas before they
could only identify the taste as that of white wine.

Quantifying the intensity of those qualities that are identified is a key aspect of DA,
allowing us to measure differences between products in a scientific manner. Training
improves our ability to measure sensory qualities using rating scales. Measurements made
with rating scales are always relative—they do not quantify an absolute quantity unlike, for
example, measuring the concentration of a chemical compound. But they can nevertheless
be used reliably with training. Moreover, there are no alternatives. No instrument yet
devised can reflect the complexity of human perception.

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When developing these skills, trained panelists become less and less like consumers of the
product. In fact, the aim is to have them approach the product in an entirely analytical
way, which means ignoring any likes and dislikes and responding as though they were an
instrument.

Once a panel is trained for a specific food, they are able to produce a flavor profile for a
selection, or sometimes all, of the product’s sensory qualities. In effect, this becomes the
“sensory recipe” for that product. While flavor profiles say nothing about whether or not a
product is liked, knowing the flavor profile of foods that are highly preferred can provide
valuable information to guide future product development and predict the effects of
variations in the sensory qualities.

Encyclopedia of Food and Culture, 2003, p.1599

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Intrapersonal Intelligence
Intrapersonal intelligence is characterized by the ability to access and understand one’s
own internal experiences, including a range of emotions, and to draw on internal
experiences as a means of making decisions about, and guiding, one’s behavior. People
with strong intrapersonal intelligence also have an accurate understanding of how they fit
in relation to other people and have a strong sense of self. They have the ability to be both
creative and intimate, and they possess the capacity to be alone. Because this particular
intelligence is psychically manifested, language, music, or other creative expression is
often used to describe the experiences of an intrapersonally intelligent person.

As is the case with interpersonal intelligence, the frontal lobe is involved with personality.
Damage to the frontal lobe can alter personality but leave other cognitive functions intact.
An individual may be irritable or euphoric in the case of damage to the lower areas of the
frontal lobe; or listless, slow, and apathetic if damage occurs in the higher regions. The
development of intrapersonal intelligence seems to start in early childhood, as children
learn to understand their identities in the context of the world around them. A positive
self-concept tends to develop when children are nurtured and loved. Autistic individuals
provide an example of those in whom intrapersonal intelligence is impaired. Although an
autistic individual may not be able to refer to him- or herself, he or she typically
demonstrates extraordinary abilities in mathematical/ logical intelligence or in musical
intelligence. Gardner acknowledges that evolutionary evidence of intrapersonal intelligence
is difficult to identify. However, intrapersonal intelligence is thought to serve the purpose
of assisting people to overcome or manage their basic human instincts after the need for
survival has been met. As the symbol system that most closely maps to intrapersonal
intelligence, dreams offer symbols that relate to aspects of the self. Finally, intrapersonal
intelligence seems to play a role in the advancement of culture, as this particular ability
helps people better understand themselves and perhaps proceed to make choices that
benefit society. Write a text about the articles to following space

53
Betrayed By Your Own Blood
Old blood may damage organs and contribute to ageing. Now a compound has been
developed that seems to protect against this, preventing mouse brains from ageing.

The effects of blood on ageing were first discovered in experiments that stitched young
and old mice together so that they shared circulating blood. Older mice seem to benefit
from such an arrangement, developing healthier organs and becoming protected from
age-related disease. But the younger mice age prematurely.

Such experiments suggest that, while young blood can be restorative, there is something
in old blood that is actively harmful. Now Hanadie Yousef at Stanford University in
California seems to have identified a protein that is causing some of the damage, and has
developed a way to block it.

Yousef has found that the amount of a protein called VCAM1 in the blood increases with
age. In people over the age of 65, the levels of this protein are 30 per cent higher than
they are in under-25s.

To test the effect of VCAM1, Yousef injected young mice with blood plasma taken from
older mice. Sure enough, they showed signs of ageing: more inflammation in the brain,
and fewer new brain cells being generated, which happens in a process called
neurogenesis.

Blood plasma from old people had the same effect on mice. When Yousef injected plasma
from people in their late 60s into the bodies of 3-month-old mice - about 20 years old in
human terms - the mice’s brains showed signs of ageing.

These effects were prevented when she injected a compound that blocks VCAM1. When
the mice were given this antibody before or at the same time as old blood, they were
protected from its harmful effects.

"When we age, we all have decreased cognitive function, decreased neurogenesis, and
more inflammation in the brain,” says Yousef, who presented her findings at the Society
for Neuroscience annual meeting in San Diego in November last year. “If we can figure out
the mechanisms and reverse them, then we could promote healthy ageing. That’s what I
truly believe will come out of this research eventually.”

“It’s a sound study and it has a lot of potential,” says Jonathan Godbout at Ohio State
University in Columbus. He would like to see more data, but is cautiously optimistic that
the work could lead to a treatment that could protect ageing brains.

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Some teams have begun giving plasma from young donors to older people, to see if it can
improve health (see “Fetch the young blood”, below). But for the best chances of success,
we’ll also need to neutralise the damaging effects of old blood, says Yousef.

Miles Herkenham at the National Institute of Mental Health in Bethesda, Maryland, is

impressed with Yousef’s findings. It’s surprising that a single protein seems to have such a
huge effect, he says, but the results need to be replicated. “I like the idea, but I wouldn’t
want to rush into human trials yet,” he says.

A drug that protects people from the effects of old blood would be preferable to plasma
injections, says Yousef. Should transfusions from young donors turn out to be effective, it
would be difficult to scale this up as a treatment for all. Drugs that block harmful proteins
in our own blood would be cheaper, safer and more accessible.

“At the end of the day, nobody wants blood transfusions,” says Yousef. “We want
rejuvenating proteins and antibodies to help people age in a healthy manner.” She is
patenting her compound, and hopes to develop a treatment to protect people from the
effects of ageing.

It is particularly promising that Yousef’s antibody protects mouse brains without needing
to pass through the protective barrier that separates it from the body’s bloodstream - a
stumbling block for many drugs.

Fetch The Young Blood

Does young blood have restorative powers? There's anecdotal evidence that people who
get transfusions of blood from under-25s feel better than those who receive blood from
older donors.

Parabiosis experiments, which stitch together young and old mice, suggest there could be
something in this (see main story). Researchers at healthcare firm Alkahest in San Carlos,
California, recently injected blood from human teenagers into old mice, and found it made
them more active and improved their memories.

However, we don't yet know what it is about young blood that keeps animals youthful.
That hasn't stopped people from starting trials to see if transfusions can treat age-related
diseases. One company, Ambrosia in Monterey, California, is offering such transfusions to
anyone over 35 - with an $8000 price tag.

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How To Build The Longest Tunnel In The World
In June, the Gotthard Base Tunnel, one of the biggest construction projects Europe has
ever seen, is due to open. And it’s all thanks to the 440-metre-long, 3,000-ton mega-drill
in this photo.

In the end, it comes down to just eight centimetres. The length of a credit card is all that
separates the ten-metre-wide drill head from the calculated point of breakthrough. This
incredible feat of precision engineering is the culmination of ten years of intense tunneling
work. During this time, two enormous boring machines have been eating away at 57
kilometres of rock from two different directions before meeting in the middle. They’ve
been laying the foundations for one of the most fascinating projects in the world: the
Gotthard Base Tunnel. A staggering 28 million tons of rock – enough to build five Great
Pyramids of Giza – have been removed from the Alps to create a pair of train-sized tunnels
that will link Switzerland and Italy. Now the £7 billion project is nearing completion. But
how safe is a journey through the heart of the Alps?

How do you evacuate passengers from a mountain?

If a fire were to break out 2,000 metres beneath the Alps, the flames would spread so
rapidly that the tunnel would transform into a fiery hell. The nearest exit might still be
many kilometres away. The solution: two emergency stations will allow trains to cross over
from one tunnel to the other in the event of a fire. In addition, there are escape routes to a
connecting gallery every 325 metres. Ventilation equipment will suck smoke out of the
main tunnel and blast in fresh air through side galleries. Passengers will exit the train and
escape through these galleries, the doors to which can be hermetically sealed – a slight
overpressure will prevent smoke ingress. The doors are strong enough to stop fire, yet are
simple to open. Even a child can do it. There they will have to wait until the inferno dies
down and a rescue train arrives. Naturally, the mega-tunnel’s engineers hope these
evacuation plans are never needed.

Write a text about the articles to following space …

57
Homelessness
For at least 150 years, Americans have used the adjective “homeless” to describe those
without a domicile and to indicate an absence of ties to family or to a place and the people
settled there. Understood in this broad sense of uprootedness, homelessness has been a
recurrent (if not defining) feature of American life, particularly as the coincidence of
livelihood, family and place declined with the rise of the market, the extension of the
frontier and relentless urbanization. Indeed, by the 1870s, intermittent migration and
precarious housing circumstances were such common hardships of working-class life that
they warranted scarce comment. But note, too, an exotic, romantic strain in the
understanding of homelessness in the tramp, at once a figure of menace and colorful
resistance to industrial discipline, or legendary folk heroes who were homeless men like
the Maine logger Paul Bunyan or the southwestern cowboy Pecos Bill. The term could
encompass even the unmarried women who moved to the city for work in increasing
numbers after the Civil War, or, during the Great Depression, families who, though
housed, failed to meet state settlement (residency) requirements for public aid and thus
were conveniently made federal charges. “Homeless” covered a big territory including
routine hardship, defiance, adventure and even bureaucratic expedience.

This diffuse understanding of the term persists in popular culture; it is traced easily
enough in the annals of labor, American bohemia, or the survivalist right. It is used now
more than ever to define a bureaucratic category. During the 1980s, with a renaissance of
shelterless poverty unlike any seen since the 1930s, the word was given a technical cast by
scholars and policy-makers needing to bound survey samples and target eligibility for
special services and housing benefits. They constructed a narrow, operational definition
that counted as homeless only people living in shelters, out of doors, or in places not
meant for human habitation. Whatever injustice it does to history, however it scants the
subtle cultural work of ambiguous words, this definition has the stamp of authority.

Numbers

Estimates of the size of America’s homeless population came to be based on this literal
notion of houselessness. These estimates, some as low as 250,000, rapidly became
controversial because they were based on one-night surveys and seemed too many to
minimize the extent of homelessness, even when narrowly defined. However, by the early
1990s, the development of computerized data systems in some US jurisdictions made it
possible to amass unduplicated counts of shelter users over stretches of time, thus
providing a dynamic enumeration of this population. Data from big cities like New York
City and Philadelphia, PA and smaller cities and counties in New England, the Midwest and
California showed that between 4.4 percent and 13 percent of the local poor made use of
public shelter annually during the late 1980s and early 1990s. A national telephone survey

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found that between 2.4 percent and 3.1 percent of the adult population—that is, between
4.4 million and 5.7 million adults—had been homeless at some time between 1985 and
1990. There is no longer any reasonable doubt that homelessness grew rapidly during the
1980s and had assumed massive proportions by 1990. No evidence suggests that the
situation has changed in subsequent years. As in previous generations, periodic
displacement and resort to a public bed has become a common feature of life for poor
Americans.

Causes

The homelessness that became so visible in the early 1980s resulted, at bottom, from the
increasing numbers of individuals and families who could no longer afford to purchase
housing. In large part, this was a consequence of a precipitous decline after 1974 in real
wages, work opportunities and employment levels for a growing pool of baby-boom
generation workers, particularly poorly educated people of minority status. Similarly, the
real value of most income maintenance benefits plummeted after 1974. In the 1980s many
states or local jurisdictions dramatically curtailed or eliminated altogether General
Assistance, the only welfare program available to able, non-elderly single men and women
or couples without children in their custody—hence their disproportionate presence in
shelters. After the mid-1970s, then, the poor became more numerous and they got
poorer. Not only could fewer poor people establish and maintain independent households,
but also friends and kin could not so readily afford to take them in for extended periods.
Thus, time-honored traditions of mutual aid began to buckle, particularly in African
American communities. At the same time, the nation’s supply of low-cost rental housing
was shrinking as the result of changes in the federal tax structure, rising interest rates and
faltering federal commitment to the production and maintenance of public housing. While
ample growth occurred in the national housing stock throughout the 1980s, the number
of low-end units fell dramatically and the vacancy rate in that sector of the market became
increasingly small. By 1989 there was a 5-million-unit shortfall in housing affordable to
poor people. Part of the “affordable housing gap” consisted of a dearth of “marginal
housing,” mainly the single room occupancy hotels that had for generations provided
regular shelter for the alcoholics, substance abusers and mentally ill persons who had
always comprised some portion of the desperately poor. Such disreputable structures were
systematically destroyed by urban-renewal projects and private gentrification. This has
had an important impact on the characteristics of today’s homeless population, of which
perhaps 30 to 40 percent suffer from a current major mental disorder or a substance use
disorder. The erosion of marginal urban habitats coincided with laws passed in most
states in the 1970s which made it difficult for persons with a mental illness to be
committed to a psychiatric hospital or to be retained there for more than a few days.
Similar laws eliminated the commitment of alcoholics and addicts and jail sentences for

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public drunkenness. This process of “deinstitutionalization”—a de facto change in housing
policy—was intended to be accompanied by readily available residential care in local areas.

Yet, after twenty years (longer in states like California and New York), community care
remains an unfulfilled promise.

Write a text about the articles to following space …

Extra Padding

Having a bigger belly only helps prevent some injuries in the event of a car accident.

Fat can indeed act as a shock absorber in violent collisions. A 2003 study of car-crash
victims found that those with more subcutaneous fat were less likely to suffer abdominal
injuries. But the fat-as-airbag principle only goes so far. When a driver is flung forward,
the heavier his or her body, the greater the force required to stop it.

“Changing demographics create challenges to seat-belt fit,” says Richard Kent of the
University of Virginia Center for Applied Biomechanics. Restraints have long been designed
using crash-test dummies, whose size—about 168 lbs. and 5’7” tall—doesn’t correspond
to most Americans today. (Though one of the world’s leading dummy producers recently
announced plans to release an obese, 271-lb. model.)

The pelvis is the primary load-bearing structure for seat-belt safety, Kent says. But with
big stomachs, seat belts slide up and off the lap. Since a restraint works best once it
engages with the skeleton, any time it spends pressing into soft tissue will delay that
protective effect.

To observe this, Kent defrosted eight cadavers and belted them into car seats for a 30mph
crash. High-speed video showed that the obese bodies flew off their seats, pelvis- and
lower-chest-first. Smaller subjects’ hips stayed in place as their heads and torsos pitched
against the upper harness. That may help explain the pattern of injuries typically seen in
obese crash victims—more damage to the legs, less to the head, and a greater likelihood
of death.

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Genuine, feel-it-in-your-gut laughter triggers the release of mood-boosting endorphins,

which leads to a higher tolerance for pain. Researchers at Oxford University put frozen
wine-chiller sleeves around volunteers’ arms both before and after having them watch
funny sitcoms, stand-up comedy routines or serious documentaries. Those who laughed
could withstand pain longer, and laughing along with others relieved pain better than did
chuckling alone.

Singing prevents a cold

The catch: You have to belt it out with other people. Group singing increases levels of
SIgA, or secretory immunoglobulin A—the fancy name for an antibody that serves as the
first line of defence against bacterial and viral infections. Studies found that choir singers
have lower levels of the stress hormone cortisol and better moods overall, which probably
plays a role in the immune system boost. “There’s something about having to coordinate
your actions with those of others that brings particular health benefits,” says Daniel
Levitin, PhD, a professor of psychology, neuroscience, and music at McGill University in
Montreal, Canada.

Chewing gum sharpens your wits

The same habit that irritates etiquette sticklers may help you concentrate better. British
researchers had two groups of people listen to random lists of numbers and remember
certain sequences; gum chewers had higher accuracy rates and faster re action times than
did non–gum chewers, especially towards the end. Other research suggests gum chewing
may improve a variety of cognitive functions, including memory, alertness and attention,
and enhance performance on intelligence and maths tests.

Watching reruns restores mental energy

You know that little voice in your head that makes you feel bad for getting sucked into
Friends again? Ignore it. According to scientists at the University of Buffalo, USA, reruns
can jump-start your energy. Test subjects who watched a rerun of their favourite television
show after completing an exhausting cognitive task felt more energized. The reason:
reruns don’t require much mental effort (since you already know the plotline) and offer
indirect social time with beloved characters without the energy- draining effects of
interacting with a real person. This combination, researchers speculate, allows mental
resources to build back up so you feel replenished.

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Sipping on ice water defuses a fight

In two experiments, scientists found that participants who literally cooled down by holding
a cold drink were more inclined to see someone else’s point of view. Physical coldness is
associated with “social distance”— or seeing yourself as different from others. Psychology
experts think feeling chilly helps you see the person you’re sparring with as unique from
you, which prevents you from projecting your own biases and opinions, and helps you
better appreciate his or her perspective. Slushies, smoothies and frozen coffee
concoctions work too.

Using a cafeteria tray encourages healthier eating

Some colleges and workplaces have removed trays from their lunchrooms in an effort to
reduce food waste, but if those convenient carriers are still stacked at your favourite
eatery, pick one up: Diners who do are more inclined to take a salad, an entrée and a
dessert, according to Cornell University researchers. A trayless trip through the food
stations, however, probably forces you to leave one or more of these items behind—and
guess which one it is? Study results showed more diners skipped the salad and kept the
dessert.

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63
Juvenile behaviour
The behaviour of sexually immature animals. Like adult behaviour, this is subject to
natural selection. Although some aspects of juvenile behaviour are precursors of adult
behaviour, other aspects are specifically adapted to the survival of the young animal. For
example the alarm responses of herring gull (Larus argentatus) chicks are quite different
from those of the parents. When alarmed, the chicks move a short distance from the nest
and crouch silent and motionless among the vegetation, whereas the adults fly away,
uttering alarm calls. Typical juvenile behaviour includes food begging, play and specialized
behaviour such as hatching. The development of juvenile behaviour is the result of an
interplay of innate behaviour and learning, especially imprinting. The emphasis given to
these differing processes depends upon the habitat and lifestyle of the species. Juvenile
animals occupy a niche that is both typical of the species and of the particular stage in the
life cycle. Sometimes, the lifestyle of the juvenile is quite different from that of the adult.
Examples are the tadpoles of frogs (Anura) and the caterpillar larvae of butterflies
(Lepidoptera). In other species, such as the wildebeest (Connochaetes sp.), the young
animal runs with the herd within a few minutes of being born and has a lifestyle that is
almost identical to that of its parents.

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In addition to its culinary uses, saffron is prescribed as a herbal remedy to stimulate the
digestive system, ease colic and stomach discomfort, and minimize gas. It is also used as
an emmenagogue, to stimulate and promote menstrual flow in women.

Preliminary studies have shown that saffron may also be a useful tool in fighting cancer.
According to a 1999 study, use of the herb slowed tumor growth and extended lifespan in
female rats. A 2002 study done at Indiana University indicated that saffron may not only
be effective in treating certain types of cancer, but significantly less likely to cause birth
defects if given to pregnant women than all-trans-retinoic acid (ATRA), the compound
most often given to treat these cancers. Saffron may thus be a preferable alternative to
treating ATRA-sensitive cancers in women of childbearing age.

A 2004 review of previous research in animal models and with cultured human malignant
cell lines concluded that clinical trials are warranted to define the possible
chemopreventive properties of saffron. A 2006 study at the National Institute of Pediatrics
in Mexico concluded: ‘‘saffron itself, as well as its carotenoid components, might be used
as potential cancer chemopreventive agents.’’

Additional human studies have indicated that saffron has powerful antioxidant properties;
that is, it helps to protect living tissues from free radicals and other harmful effects of
oxidation. In Iran and Japan, pharmacology studies in 2000 and 2002 confirmed that
saffron extract has an anticonvulsant activity.

Two chemical components of saffron extract, crocetin and crocin, reportedly improved
memory and learning skills in learning-impaired rats in a Japanese study published in
early 2000. These properties indicate that saffron extract may be a useful treatment for
neurodegenerative disorders and related memory impairment.

In 2005 in the Journal of Ethnopharmacology researchers reported on the first scientific

study to test the effectiveness of saffron as a treatment for symptoms of mild to moderate
depression. Daily dosages of 30 mg saffron extract (standardized to 0.7 mg of safranal)
were compared to 20 mg of fluoxetine (generic Prozac) in 38 people. Participants were
aged 18 to 55 years. At the conclusion of the six-week trial, both treatments
demonstrated significant improvements in depressive symptoms. There was no significant
difference between the herbal treatment and the drug treatment as far as the amount of
improvement demonstrated. However, participants who took the saffron extract did not
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report side effects, such as sexual dysfunction, tremor, or sweating, sometimes attributed
to fluoxetine. Symptoms were evaluated with the Hamilton Rating Scale for Depression
prior to the study and at intervals of one, two, four and six weeks.

Precautions

Because saffron can stimulate uterine contractions, pregnant women should never take the
herb for medicinal purposes.

Saffron should always be obtained from a reputable source that observes stringent quality
control procedures and industry-accepted good manufacturing practices. Because of its
high cost, saffron is sometimes found in adulterated form, so package labeling should be
checked carefully for the type and quality of additional ingredients.

Botanical supplements are regulated by the FDA; however, as of 2008 they were not
required to undergo any approval process before reaching the consumer market and were
classified as nutritional supplements rather than drugs. Legislation known as the Dietary
Supplement Health and Education Act (DSHEA) was passed in 1994 in an effort to
standardize the manufacture, labeling, composition, and safety of botanicals and
supplements. In January 2000, the FDA’s Center for Food Safety and Applied Nutrition
(CFSAN) announced a ten-year plan for establishing and implementing these regulations
by the year 2010.

Side effects

Although there are no known side effects or health hazards associated with recommended
dosages of saffron preparations in healthy individuals, people with chronic medical
conditions should consult with their healthcare professional before taking the herb. In
addition, pregnant women should never take saffron, as the herb stimulates uterine
contractions and may cause miscarriage.

Despite earlier reports of serious adverse effects from as little as 5 grams of saffron, there
is no scientific evidence as to the toxicity of Crocus sativus. According to Subhuti
Dharmananda, director of the Institute for Traditional Medicine in Portland, Oregon, ‘‘all
recent research reports indicate that saffron is non-toxic.’’ The so-called meadow saffron
(Colchicum autumnale) is highly toxic, however, and is sometimes mistaken for the non-
toxic medicinal plant Crocus sativus.

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New Experiences Boost Old Memories
Recall can improve for events that seem mundane but later prove to be important.

What makes for a long-lasting memory? Research has shown that emotional or important
events take root deeply, whereas neutral or mundane happenings create weak impressions
that easily fade. But what about an experience that initially seemed forgettable but was
later shown to be important? Animal research suggested that these types of older
memories could be strengthened, but scientists had not been able to replicate this ¬
finding in humans—until now. New evidence suggests that our initially weak memories are
maintained by the brain for a period, during which they can be enhanced.

In the recent study published in Nature, psychologists at New York University showed 119
participants a series of images of tools and animals. A few minutes later the subjects saw
a new set of images, with an electric shock paired with either the tools or the animals, to
increase the salience of just one of those categories. The participants’ memories for both
sets of images were then tested either immediately, six hours later or the next day.
Participants remembered images from the ¬ rst neutral series better if they belonged to
the same category (tool or animal) that was later paired with the shock.

The ¬ findings suggest that even if an event does not seem meaningful when it occurs, a
later cue that the experience was important can enhance the old memory. Although
research has not yet demonstrated this effect outside the laboratory, the scientists
speculate it happens often in daily life. For example, imagine you meet several new people
at a networking event. During a job interview days later, you discover that one of those
acquaintances is on the hiring committee, and suddenly the details of your conversation at
the networking event become vivid and memorable—whereas the conversations you had
with others at the event fade with time.

Many questions remain, including how long after a memory is born it is susceptible to
strengthening and what types of feedback will trigger the changes. First author Joseph
Dunsmoor, a research psychologist at N.Y.U., expects that positive or rewarding outcomes,
rather than shocks, will also do the trick.

Scientific American Mind, November 2015, p.11

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Local Anesthesia
Definition

Anesthesia is used to make it possible for individuals to undergo surgery without pain.
Local or regional anesthesia involves the injection or application of an anesthetic, or
numbing, drug to a specific area of the body. This is in contrast to general anesthesia,
which provides anesthesia to the entire body and brain.

Purpose

Local anesthetics are used to prevent patients from feeling pain during medical, surgical,
or dental procedures. Over-the-counter local anesthetics are also available to provide
temporary relief from pain, irritation, and itching caused by various conditions such as
cold sores, canker sores, sore throats, sunburn, insect bites, poison ivy, and minor cuts
and scratches.

Regional anesthesia blocks the sensation of pain over a large area of the body. For
example, anesthesia is commonly injected into the spinal fluid (an epidural or spinal) to
numb sensation in the lower body. Patients who are treated with regional anesthesia
remain conscious, but lose feeling in a large part of their body.

Precautions

People who feel strongly that they do not want to be awake and alert during certain
procedures may not be good candidates for local or regional anesthesia; however, other
medications that have systemic effects may be given in addition to an anesthetic to relieve
anxiety and help the patient relax.

Local anesthetics should be used only for the conditions for which they are intended. For
example, a topical anesthetic meant to relieve sunburn pain should not be used on cold
sores. Anyone who has had an unusual reaction to a local anesthetic in the past should
check with a doctor before using any type of local anesthetic again. The doctor should also
be told about any allergies to foods, dyes, preservatives, or other substances.

Older people may be more sensitive to the effects of local anesthetics, especially lidocaine.
Children may also be especially sensitive to some local anesthetics; certain types should
not be used at all on young children. People caring for these groups need to be aware that
they are at increased risk of more severe side effects. Package directions should be
followed carefully so that the recommended dosage is not exceeded. A doctor or
pharmacist should be consulted about any concerns.

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Diabetes
Diabetes is a chronic disease where the body does not make enough insulin, or becomes
insensitive (resistant) to the insulin that is produced. According to the Canadian Diabetes
Association, over two million Canadians have diabetes, and this figure is expected to rise.

When we consume food, it is broken down into glucose, which causes a rise in blood
glucose levels. Insulin is a hormone secreted by the pancreas in response to that rise in
blood sugar. Insulin’s role is to transport glucose from the bloodstream into the cells to be
used for energy.

There are three main types of diabetes. Type 1 diabetes is responsible for approximately
10 percent of cases and occurs when the pancreas produces little or no insulin. The exact
cause of type 1 diabetes is unknown, but it is thought that the immune system attacks and
destroys the insulin-producing cells of the pancreas. Genetics may also play a role. Type 1
diabetes was previously known as juvenile diabetes or insulin dependent diabetes because
it typically appears during childhood or adolescence, and people who get this form require
insulin injections to manage their blood sugar.

Type 2 diabetes is the most common form, accounting for about 90 percent of people with
diabetes. This form occurs when the pancreas does not produce enough insulin or when
your cells become resistant to the action of insulin. Obesity, inactivity, and poor diet
(eating too many high-glycemic foods) are some of the causes of type 2 diabetes. Other
risk factors are discussed below. In the past, type 2 diabetes affected primarily adults.
However, a growing number of children and adolescents are being diagnosed today.

The third type of diabetes is gestational diabetes, a temporary condition that occurs
during pregnancy. It affects approximately 3.5 percent of all pregnancies and involves an
increased risk of developing diabetes for both mother and child.

All forms of diabetes can have serious consequences if left untreated. There is no cure for
diabetes, but there is much that can be done from a lifestyle perspective to improve blood
sugar control and prevent potentially life-threatening complications.

Signs & Symptoms:

• Blurred vision: High blood sugar causes fluid to be pulled from all tissues, including the
lenses of the eyes, which can affect vision.

• Fatigue and irritability

• Hunger: Your muscles and organs become energy depleted because insulin is not able to
move glucose into your cells, which can trigger persistent hunger.

70
• Impaired wound healing or frequent infections.

• Increased thirst and frequent urination; as excess sugar builds up in your bloodstream,
fluid is pulled from your tissues, which can make you thirsty, so you may drink and urinate
more than usual.

• Weight loss: Even though food intake may be increased, weight loss can occur because
your muscles and fat stores may shrink because they are not getting the necessary
glucose. …

Important Structures In This booklet:

71
Important Structures In This booklet:

72
Important Words In This booklet:

73
Important Words In This booklet:

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