Knife Song, A Psychology.

For those of you who don't know what the knife song is...

Many people who see this think it is highly hard and highly dangerous. It's actually pretty easy, just suspenseful to watch. Even more so if the knife you are using looks really deadly. The suspense may cause many people to refuse to do it outright, due to the perceived pain caused. While many people are so suspenseful that they actually do hit their hands, and that pain, or the blood, may prevent any future attempts.

But take the suspense away, and actually doing the knife song is actually pretty easy, and not all that dangerous, and scarcely painful, even if one does hit their hands.

This song has become popular, or in internet jargon “gone viral.” And due to that, many more people are trying it out and uploading videos of their attempts and successes for hopes are stealing their share of the spotlight. This further shows that this feat is quite possible to accomplish with minimal injury involved. The danger present isn't very large, the most obvious danger is getting a cut on your finger, the most common cuts are small flesh wounds. Unlike what the song said, if you hit your fingers, there is very little chance that they'll “come off.” So no worries there.

It's as much of a fad now as the cinnamon challenge was before, and about as dangerous (or not) too. This fad won't last long, and the only lasting scars you may receive is the that your friends and family will now think you are a psychotic masochist. Congrats!

My Class Notes: Plant Movement and Hormones

Photo from Che via Wikimedia Commons

Plants were never one of the topics I thought I would ever be interested in. They are generally stationary, but aside from that, they don't appear to do much. But looks, can be deceiving. Plants live a pretty active world, even though it is in slow motion to us. They not only are active, but they can sense things, similarly, yet differently, than we can as humans. For example, there are three main types of movement:

Phototropism - Plant growth in response to light. The plants tip will tilt towards the sun, due to cells on the darker side growing longer than the cells on the curved side.

Gravitropism – Plant grown in response to gravity. Such as roots, they always grow downwards, always. Even if you tilt a plant after it started growing, it will still grow downward.

Thigmotropism - Plant growth in response to touch – One obvious example is Mimosa, which closes it's leaves when you stroke them. The Venus Flytrap also closes in response to touch.

Phototropism and thigmotropism are both present in relaying the plants internal clock. At night, a plants leaves may droop, and the flower buds, but in the morning, they blossom and point in the direction of the sun. Plants also know what time of year it is, via length of sunlight, this is called photoperiod. Some plants only flower in a specific amount of light, too much, or too little, inhibits blooming of flowers. By using this technique to our advantage, we can artificially induce growth of specific types of fruit and vegetables year round.

Photo from Rude via Wikimedia Commons

Plants also have many different ways of defending themselves, as they don't appear to enjoy being eaten. One way is through physical components, like thorns, and fuzz. Other plants use toxins. And some still enlist the help of other insects in order to kill off the invader. Leaves can send out a chemical signal that attracts a wasp, which will lay eggs on the caterpillar, killing it after a few days.

These responses were what led to scientists discovering numerous different plant hormones. These hormones help the plants grow in specific ways, and can alter based on the plants development, the concentration, and where it is applied. Other hormones do exist, but only five were mentioned. For example:

Auxin – this hormone helps in seedling elongation. This stimulates the lengthening of shoots and roots, making the plants grow taller. It also promotes the growth of fruit.

Cytokinin – Promotes cell division, and balances out the effects of Auxin. It is produced in roots, and actively growing portions of the plants, and causes lower buds to develop into branches.

Gibberelin – Promotes elongation and cell division in stems, and also promotes fruit development and seed germination. It is generally used to treat “dwarf plants” for them to grow taller.

Ethylene – Promotes fruit ripening and programmed cell death. It is the reason why leaves fall off the tree during the fall months, and may be what causes the plant to change colors in the fall.

Abscisic Acid – Prevents plant growth in unfavorable conditions, which as seeds not growing in the cold winter. It also acts as a type of stress hormone, which closes up the plants stomata to prevent transpiration when the plant is dehydrated.

These hormones help the plant in many ways, and are needed to proper plant development. More information is being done to discover the effects and uses of plant hormones, and even plant senses.

The Doomsday Clock Nears Twelve for Bats

Bats are dying by the tens of thousands every year, they fall to sleep and end up plopping to the ground by the hundreds, littering the floors of caves nationwide with bat carcasses with noses covered in a white substance. The culprit? (no, not cocain) A fungus by the name of Geomyces Destructans, a new form of cold-loving fungus that embeds itself insides bats during hibernation, and destroys them from the inside out.

Bats have very few predators and are very resistant to disease, they can even live over 20 years in the wild because of it. Over 1,100 species of bat presently populate this earth, they accounts for about 20% of all known mammal species. But this fungus can make the bat locally extinct in just a few years time, and devastate the bat population. According to Whitenosesyndrome.org:

Bats with WNS exhibituncharacteristic behavior during cold winter months, including flying outside in the day and clustering near the entrances of hibernacula.Bats have been found sick and dying in unprecedented numbers in andaround caves and mines. WNS has killed more than 5.7 to 6.7 millionbats in eastern North America. In some hibernacula, 90 to 100 percentof bats have died.

The main vectors for the fungus to spread to neighboring caves seems to be the bats themselves. And spores that caused the infection may remain inside the cave long after the bats have died out or left, and is also moving south-west at an alarming rate. But why are they dying out? Well, according to Earth Magazine's article on White Nose Syndrome: “One possibility is that the disease interferes with the delicate physiological balance of hibernation.” which may kill bats by forcing them to move about more, using up the fat stores that would otherwise have been used for their winter hibernation. It also erodes and digests the bats skin. Bats infected with the fungus will fly about during the winter, and crawl on the floor, very atypical for a hibernating bat, this dehydrates the bats, and causes hypothermia in the process.

[Scientists] do not yet know if the bats die as a result of the fungal infection or perhaps as a result of the interaction between the fungus and some other aspect of the environment. (Schmidt-french and Butler) Although research suggests it is the the main cause. (Altringham)

The good news, is that more research is being done on the disease, and more information is being spread about this. Larger bats hibernate for a shorter period of time, and they seem to be more able to withstand the brunt of the fungal attack. Bats are a vital resource for eliminating insects, therefore protecting crops, so bats being eliminated isn't a good sign for us.

That is not to say that all bats are at risk of extinction, a great majority of bats migrate, and others are not yet affected by the fungus. The only bats that are in danger are the smaller ones that hibernate during the winter, but at the rate at which they are dying, it could mean huge effects for the bat populations as a whole. Also, scientists and as well as conservationists are pressing for funds to further research into this threat, which might be “a very significant threat to a large number of species” especially hibernating animals. The more information about this predicament the better. But in the lines of John D. Altringham:

I'll leave you to pursue this fast-moving topic, since anything I write will be rapidly out of date.

References:

Earth Magazine June 2011

National Geographic December 2010

Altringham, John. Bats: From Evolution to Conservation. Second. Oxford Biology, 2011. Print.

Schmidt-french, Barbara, and Carol Butler. Do Bats Drink Blood. Rutgers University Press, 2009. Print.

Not really sick... or sick on purpose?

There are two 2 syndromes that your parents might call you if whine about how you don't feel well, or if you try faking an illness. You are either a Hypochondriac, or have Munchausen Syndrome.

We have probably all heard of Hypochondria, you know, the word your friend or dad calls you when you tel him "I think I'm catching a cold," or "I think I broke a bone." This disorder is overly used when referring to people who over-react to stimuli, claiming to have a small illness. But TRUE Hypocondria isn't as funny. True Hypochondria is when someone has the obsessive delusion that they have an undiagnosed life-threatening, illness. Like Cancer, or Rocky Mountain Spotted Fever, or Rabies.

This causes severe anxiety for months, and a lot of this is all thanks for medical information made available to all people! People can now read the symptoms of every disease on earth, and make a self-diagnosis of such. To someone with hypochondria, every cough, every bump, and every small pain is a symptom of a deadly disease.

Munchausen Syndrome is completely different than Hypochondria. Munchausen Syndrome is where a person with a deep need for attention either pretends to be, or make themselves, sick or injured, in order to receive attention, or remain dependent on someone else. They make up their symptoms, and forge false test results to receive attention and other goodies involved with being sick.

This is not to be confused with Munchausen by Proxy, which is a form of severe child abuse where a parent or caregiver poisons or purposefully makes a child or patient sick, in order to continue to care for them long-term. These people enjoy taking care of their patients, and making them sick ensures they will continue to do so.

Now you no longer need to think you have a disorder just because you want to get a breast lump checked, or because you feel a cold coming on. Of course, if you want to visit your doctor weekly to get check ups, your doctors wallet may like it.

Altruism

So, why do we do things that are so selfless in the lines of survival of the fittest? What good does being nice do for us?

Altruism is the word that describes the selfless behavior that we show, but how selfless is it? Vampire bats regurgitate blood into other vampire bats who have not eaten that day, and pseudo killer whales try to share their meal with other pseudo-killer whales, and even nearby humans. It is believed that altruism may seem selfless, but is actually ingrained in our brains to help with the survival of the species as a whole.

It may be that when we help others, we can expect similar help in return if the need arises. This may help in our own personal survival later on. Hank Green also explains it well in his SciShow video about altruism:

Personalities

We all have them, them. More than one. Many of us only have 2. One personality when we are at home, and another when we are outside of home, with friends, etc. Sometimes, this change in personality can be so drastic, that even your voice can change drastically when talking in certain situations, or when talking to certain people.

Many other people can steal others personalities temporarily. This is seen in role models, and when reading books/watching movies/playing games/etc. It's something called Experience Taking. When you feel, act, think, and absorb the personality of a character you like or connect to. I do this all the time, it is fun to do when you are pretending to be Link, or Sly Cooper, experience taking is only temporary though.

Our personalities may arise due to our desire to be someone else. A character, or a role model. These last a lot longer than experience taking. Sometimes, as children, we will even dress up as, and take the persona of a role model we have. We want to be like them, even to the point of being like their twin. But a true role model is someone which we look up to, someone who motivates us to do things, challenges us to be out best, and helps us succeed overall. A mentor, or a sensei, or a coach, etc.

But luckily, all of our personalities don't turn us into Sybil. We still have full control no matter who is dominant at the time. Which makes us all feel comfortable that we are not going to go out of our way and murder a ton of people at a mall anytime soon... hopefully.

What is intelligence?

I, personally, would like to know what exactly intelligence is. I know that animals can do a whole bunch of things, their brains work different then ours, they are programs with a different computing system. Do we really measure their intelligence on whether or not they can use a particular form of communication? Whether or not they can learn how to open up a box using a particular pattern of latches? And whether or not they can think consciously about their universe and about other species?

On what basis do we measure ourselves, us, the environmentally destructive, animal mass-murdering, close-minded (for the most part), polluters of the universe, as the most intelligent?

It's the same thing with IQ. We measure intelligence by the ability to solve puzzles and do math. But we ignore it when it's something like, say, mass thievery  or martial arts, or... say... history. So maybe we are doing the same things with animals. Limiting the perception of their intelligence to few, useless to them, traits.

I think intelligence really cannot be appropriotly measured unless we box it into groups of things labeled as "smart to know" or "useless information." Most everyone is smart IMO, unless you are dead.