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Simply Scientific: Every spree comes with a fee

Picture this: you’re having a crappy day. You missed your bus, spilled coffee down your front and forgot to print out your assignment that’s due in half an hour. To make matters worse, you skipped out on concealer this morning and now look like an extra in Tim Burton’s ‘Corpse Bride.’ (Side note: this scenario may or may not be a projection of my own experiences).

To make yourself feel better, you pop into Simons to buy yourself a new pair of jeans, a sweater and a couple small accessories. By the time the cashier hands you your receipt, the pit of anxiety in your stomach has melted away. You know this purchase is outside your budget, but hey! you’re treating yourself! You’ve had a bad day, after all.

If this sounds familiar to you, you’re not alone. A 2018 survey published by Finder, an online information service for consumers, found that out of 2,000 Canadians, 63 per cent confessed to shopping impulsively in the last year. In the age of mass marketing, online shopping and hyper-consumerism, it’s easier than ever to fall into the trap of impulsive spending. But these impulses go beyond Boxing Day sales and free shipping. According to science, part of the blame can be placed on our biology.

When your brain anticipates a new purchase, it releases a flood of dopamine – that same neurotransmitter associated with drugs, really good food, and really good sex. One study published in Neuron, a neuroscience journal, found that the brain’s reward centre lit up after subjects were shown a desirable product. So, in short, ‘retail therapy’ can serve as a legitimate pick-me-up after a rough day.

But just like food, sex and drugs, shopping can be highly addictive. A study published by the Society for the Study of Addiction gathered data from around the globe and found that shopping addiction affects roughly five per cent of the population. What’s more, research from Cambridge University has shown that up to 68 per cent of compulsive shoppers suffer from an affective disorder such as depression or anxiety. Experts recommend that those afflicted seek the help of a mental health professional.

For the occasional impulse shoppers out there, the next time you’re tempted, ask yourself: is it me or the dopamine talking?

 

Graphic by @sundaeghost

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Simply Scientific: Spooky Season

You probably costumed up this weekend for the yearly Halloween party where cats don’t look like cats and police officers lack clothing. The holiday of death and fear became a gathering event for university students to celebrate, for the most part, the end of midterms.

But say your professor turns into a werewolf, how would your body react? To tackle that question of paramount importance, let’s dig into what fear is.

Fear is a chain reaction in the brain that starts with a stressful stimulus and ends with the release of chemicals that causes physiological response in your body.

Your professor is finalizing their transformation into a student-eating monster. This stressful situation would send a signal to your brain that will start processing the information. When this happens, all parts of the brain simultaneously work to establish whether your flesh-eating professor is a threat or nothing of importance.

There are two paths that the brain follows in evaluating the situation – the low road and the high road. The former evaluates every situation as the worst-case scenario; a loud sound from your kitchen at night is your end in this world. The latter, however, is your rational analysis of a situation. The high road will evaluate every possible outcome of a situation and link the stimulus to previous similar events in order to make sense of it.

This analysis of the situation happens in a blink of an eye and results in the biological reaction of fight or flight. Your reaction to your werewolf professor pouncing on their first victim will be either to fight them back or just get the eff out.

In both cases, your body will release chemicals like adrenaline and noradrenaline resulting in a racing heart, heavy breathing and activated muscles to be ready to either fight or flee the aggressor.

Now, don’t worry too much. Halloween is only two days away. So, cross your fingers and light up some sage in hope to avoid any encounter with life threatening monsters in the next 48 hours.

 

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Simply Scientific: Caffeine

Do you really think a bunch of journalism students wouldn’t talk about caffeine in a scientific column?

Living off our daily consumption of bitter brew, most of us university students cannot survive a whole day without chugging at least one mug of coffee. In fact, it is so popular that coffee is the second most traded commodity in the world, after oil. But how exactly does caffeine works on your body?

When breaking down ATP, the energy molecule that fuels our bodies, a chemical called adenosine is released. The chemical attaches to receptors in the brain that triggers a set of biochemical reactions, slowing down metabolism and making you sleepy. The more adenosine the body produces, the more fatigued it becomes. This makes sense considering the longer someone is awake, the more they feel tired.

Caffeine, however, is what is called an adenosine receptor antagonist. This means that it has a similar molecular structure to its counterpart and fits almost-perfectly to those receptors, blocking access to adenosine. But since it’s not adenosine, the sleepiness effect does not occur.

In fact, caffeine has similar effects to cocaine, but less intense. It promotes the production of adrenaline and extends the effects of dopamine on the brain.

Quite a clever way to challenge your midterm fatigue. But be careful. The brain responds to the long-term use of caffeine by creating new adenosine receptors to accommodate those pesky sleeping agents, meaning the body needs more coffee to enjoy the same effects. Miss your daily brew and you’re in for a nasty withdrawal – trust me, I’ve been there.

In addition, while coffee can make you feel better and more alert, the increase of adrenaline can raise your heart rate, lead to high blood pressure, create anxiety and, of course, cause insomnia.

Some might think that it is impossible to stop drinking coffee because your brain is now used to responding more efficiently to adenosine. This is partly true. While quitting will result in short-term headaches and nausea, the brain adapts by discarding extra adenosine receptors. In only a few days a coffee addict, like myself, can get back on both feet without that daily dose.

I’m not saying everyone should stop consuming coffee. Au contraire! Never could I completely discard my daily pleasure of sipping on a hot americano, but it is important to stay moderate in our consumption. If not now, maybe after your last midterm!

 

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Simply Scientific: Tardigrades

Objectively, humans shouldn’t have survived for so many years. In fact, compared to all other species, humans probably rank as the worst suited for living on our planet.

Cheetahs, for example, can outrun us without effort. Face to face against a gorilla and it’s an easy K.O. Not to mention some of the smallest organisms such as spiders or scorpions that, with a meaningless sting or bite, can lead to a fatal end. And those are only a handful of examples as explained in an Arte documentary.

On the opposite side of the spectrum lives a tiny eight-legged animal almost invisible to the naked eye that is literally invincible. In fact, that tiny beast survived all five mass extinctions! Tardigrades, commonly known as water bears or moss piglets, can thrive in the harshest conditions known to humans.

Measuring a mere 0.4 millimetres, scientists have recorded these creatures’ presence on top of Everest as well as in the deepest parts of the sea. Their physiology enables them to survive in high toxic or saline environment for years. Suppress their food and water supply? No problem! Their small bodies can endure pressures up to 1,000 times ours. Stick them in a 150º C oven and that’s all games. Absolute zero or -271º C is just an ice bath for them.

If that’s not impressive enough, tardigrades can survive the void of space. In 2007, a group of dehydrated tardigrades were brought into space, where they were exposed to non-gravity conditions. Bombarded with solar UV radiation, no source of oxygen, unimaginable temperatures emanating from the sun and freezing cold temperatures from the nothingness of outer space, 68 per cent of the group revived once they were brought back on Earth.

Their survival abilities are an example of perfectly engineered natural creatures. These small creatures make humans look like wimps.

 

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Simply Scientific: Behind the beauty of Fall

Fall is finally at our doorstep! At last, we can enhance our Starbucks experience from a regular Caramel Ribbon Crunch Frappuccino to our beloved Pumpkin Spice Latte. Fashion just stepped into a whole new level with deep amber backgrounds on the Belvédère making for the perfect Instagram #nofilter posts.

Those jaw-dropping fire-like landscapes are undoubtedly one of the most beautiful times of the year – apart from the weather, of course. But what exactly causes the leaves to turn from their distinct bright green colour to those warm hues?

It all comes down to the amount of light vegetation gets from the sun. In summer, daylight can hit for almost 15 hours straight. During that time, leaves act like small factories that use the sunlight to produce all the necessary nutrients for trees to grow. This food-making process happens in cells containing chlorophyll. Chlorophyll is responsible for absorbing light from sunbeams to provide energy for later chemical reactions in the tree.

So, while you were working at your summer job, tweeting about that annoying colleague, trees and plants were casually thriving under the sun. Jealous, right? Well, hold your horses for a minute, because winter is coming.

As the year goes by, the days become shorter. Leaves stop their food-making process because of the shorter light exposure and the temperature change. Chlorophyll in the cells starts breaking down which makes the leaves lose their bright punchy green.

But you may have noticed that not all leaves have the same colour. This is due to the different concentrations of chlorophyll residues in the leaves as well as a mix of plenty of other chemical reactions happening simultaneously during Fall.

While for us, this season mostly translates to midterms and cuffing season, for trees it is just another step in their natural cycle of life. So, put on those Blundstones and your classy trench coat and enjoy the beauty of Fall.

 

Graphic by @sundaeghost

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Simply Scientific: Planting trees to absorb carbon dioxide

Half a million flocked to the streets of Montreal for the Climate Strike last Friday. A Swedish girl with braids led the crowd alongside Indigenous representatives. Pickets yelled that now is more of a time than ever to redefine tree huggers as regular citizens. Signs, such as “stop deforestation,” bobbed among the sea of people. However, what is it about deforestation that hurts the planet? How does planting trees exactly combat global warming?

The answer is intrinsically tied with the atmosphere, fossil fuels, and something called fixation.

Fixation is not about being excited to see that cute boy Sebastian from class on the shuttle again. It doesn’t reference picking at chipped nail polish or studying profusely. Fixation, for our purposes, refers to the process of converting something in a gaseous state to an organic solid one. Such deposition plays a major role in the growth of plants.

For trees, fixation starts around tiny windows on their leaves called stomata. Carbon dioxide passes through them like little Ellis Islands. From those portals, the gas assimilates into being an integral part of nature’s skyscrapers; used to synthesize sugars crucial to making bark, roots, et cetera. Without carbon dioxide, timberlands would have nothing to be made out of.

When plants evolved into existence, they diversified and spread across the habitable Earth. Vast forests expanded and soaked up tons of carbon dioxide from a prehistoric atmosphere. For millions of years, greenery all over the globe fixated tons of the gas into stalk, leaves, and whatever other arborous body parts that can cross the mind.

As geological eras progressed and different woods died, a lot of their remains became trapped underground. Hidden away by dirt and the ages, the forests of the past (along with some animals) would be pressurized and decomposed into fossil fuel. The same shrub a dinosaur might have eaten also feeds your uncle’s car!

In the period that H.G. Wells wrote The Time Machine, the Industrial Revolution created its own chronological loophole. Humanity began burning natural oil and gas to spark the modern age we live in. As payment for all the progression, the planet has been forced to deal with almost two centuries of greenhouse gases transported from eons ago.

Gaseous carbon dioxide can take hundreds of years to leave our skies. Planting trees is a way to fix the substance into an organic form that won’t absorb the sun’s heat. A garden you like to read in is not only a sanctuary for the brain, but a way to maintain icecaps, safe sea levels, and weather patterns. Every nonelectric car and lawnmower helps pollute our ecosphere with chemicals from before our ancestors had fingers.

 

Graphic by @sundaeghost

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Simply Scientific: The medical future of CBD oil

Stress and sleep are two main topics in well-being discussed in university. Some students find wellness in working out, others by binge-watching a Netflix series. Unfortunately for a few, stress and sleep disorders have become chronic.

While I am not promoting in any way the consumption of the substance, I will discuss some of the benefits found in the use of cannabidiol (CBD); THC’s humble little brother.

CBD is the non-psychoactive molecule found in marijuana. It was popularized in the last couple of decades after helping cure symptoms of Dravet syndrome, according to a study published in 2018. The substance can be administered in many forms, but the most common way is by oil. Unlike THC, CBD does not provoke the secondary effects of smoking pot, like light-headedness.

CBD has recently grown in popularity with respect to treating a wide range of medical conditions, namely anxiety and sleep disorders.

In 2015, for example, a co-led research project conducted by five Israeli pediatric epilepsy clinics administered CBD oil to a group of epileptic children. The frequency of seizures in these children, ranging from ages one to 18, was reduced in 89 per cent of the cases. It was also noted that seven per cent of cases saw an increase in the frequency of seizures which resulted in CBD withdrawal.

This medical advancement shows promising potential in children’s epilepsy treatments, according to the research.

There has also been an increase in recent years of people self-medicating with CBD oil to treat their sleep and stress disorders. While such practices may be effective in some cases, CBD is still to this day under the scrutiny of health organizations, such as the FDA.

 

Graphic by @sundaeghost

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Simply Scientific: Mutual assured destruction

After World War II, all of humanity crossed their fingers, dreading the recreation of another deadly war in a not-so-distant future.

During that time, political tensions escalated again and we brushed up against the possibility of annihilating the human race. According to an article in the Global Research,  the doctrine of Mutually Assured Destruction (MAD) is why humanity is still here today.

This week, Simply Scientific dives into political science and explores the implications of the MAD doctrine.

Prior to the creation of nuclear weapons, traditional warfare was straight forward: two opposing camps fight in a deadly face-off until one group is defeated and the other emerges victorious. This could take hours, days, or years, but it eventually resulted in a clear winner and a loser.

However, during the Cold War, the U.S. and the Soviet Union were confronted with the possibility of a lose-lose outcome. Actually, a lose-lose-lose outcome, according to some political scientists. Some hypothesized the extinction of life on Earth from radioactive fall-outs.

MAD goes as such: countries possessing weapons of mass destruction aim to hinder the use of such weapons, out of fear that initiation would prompt retaliation of the same nature from their opponent.

In other words, engaging in an attack is signing your suicide note.

Therefore, the destructive potential of some countries coupled with the fear of personal annihilation is what saved humanity from extinction during the Cold War.

 

Feature Photo by @sundaeghost

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Simply Scientific: Cultivating plants by farming fish

Imagine cultivating plants with endless sources of natural fertilizer. Considering Earth’s current state, such a process would answer many of our problems regarding food production and the viability of the soil.

Yet, such a sustainable system broke from the imaginary and is now known as aquaponics.

Historically practiced by Aztec and Chinese populations, aquaponics is a combination of fish farming (aquaculture) and soilless farming (hydroponics). Yielding as much as 12 times the amount of crops produced in soil per square foot, aquaponics successfully addresses farming in resource-scarce areas.

But how does it work?

The three main components of aquaponics are plants, fish, and bacteria.

Fish excrete high amounts of ammonia, increasing the toxicity of their environment. That water is then transferred to another tank, where bacteria (Nitrosomonas) break down the ammonia into nitrate. Pumped to the last tank, the nitrate-concentrated water will be utilized as nutrients for the plants. The water, now purified by the plants, is redirected to the fish tank for the process to be repeated.

Some companies in Canada have started using this farming technique. AquaGrow Farms is an aquaponics company and one of its operations runs at The Mississauga Food Bank to provide fresh food to people in need. Around 900,000 Canadians make use of food banks every month, on average.

Aquaponics has incredible potential because of its low need for resources. This helps lower any environmental impact while producing quality goods that are in high demand.

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