Plant Defense

We're all familiar with plant defenses such as thorns and toxins. I had a nasty case of poison ivy two years ago that I don't wish to repeat. This article identifies how barley fights off fungus using a protein in the cell that causes cell death. It's a fascinating situation of cell communication and programmed cell death to 'starve' the fungus.

21st Century Skills

Do you feel like this school (or any school) is getting you ready for your future? This article from CNN addresses the 21st century skills necessary for students to get a job.

Do you agree? Disagree? How well do you think you are being prepared for the future?

Discuss.

Does diet soda cause a bigger waist size?

This MSNBC article has this quote

In one study, people who drank two or more diet sodas a day had five times the increase in waist circumference over a 10-year period compared to people who didn't drink any diet soda. 

The research is also referenced here:

For one study, researchers at the center followed 474 diet soda drinkers, 65 to 74 years of age, for almost 10 years. They found that diet soda drinkers' waists grew 70 percent more than non-drinkers. Specifically, drinking two or more diet sodas a day busted belt sizes five times more than people who avoided the stuff entirely.

What about this study?

The other study may hold the answer. In it, researchers divided mice into two groups, one of which ate food laced with the popular sweetener aspartame. After three months, the mice eating aspartame-chow had higher blood sugar levels than the mice eating normal food. The authors said in a written statement their findings could "contribute to the associations observed between diet soda consumption and the risk of diabetes in humans."



What do you think of this? What other reasons could  cause this? Make sure you read through the entire article and identify the good and bad about the research. 

Update - New article from NBCnews.com

Knuckleball

I love knuckleball pitchers. The knuckleball was one of the first pitches my dad showed me how to throw, and it was one of the first I showed my son. I always thought that it would have been a good vehicle to getting into the pros! Seeing the success of R.A. Dickey has me thinking I should start practicing it again, who knows? Here's a little about the physics of knuckleballs and why they are so unpredictable. I'm not familiar with the pitcher in the clip below, but he has some nasty movement on his knuckleball.

Diet soda's affect on the brain

Diet soda has an effect on the brain's calorie counting region. This Science News article gives a synopsis of research conducted on both humans and rats.

What do you think of this research?

Science by Disney

This YouTube clip about animal pollinators is very interesting. It also happens to come from Disney!

It's good to be dirty?

There are quite a few scientists that have supported the hygiene hypothesis in one way or another. This is another article that identifies that a perfectly clean and bacteria free life style is actually not the most healthy situation. other article

"That finding is a new twist on the hygiene hypothesis, the idea that contact with bacteria early in life is crucial for the development of the human immune system. Skin microbes tied to the diversity of the natural environment seem to teach the body to calm allergic responses, researchers report online the week of May 7 in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences."

The other article also identifies that the recent increase in allergies in children may be due to the lack of biodiversity in the microfauna.


What do you think of these hypotheses?