The Senses: Hearing PowToon

My PowToon video all about hearing is up on youtube! 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DHlU_vbNCFw&rel=0t

sTrEsSeD oUt

So you see finals week is coming up and for some reason I go into crazy psycho Jacob mode. I am so stressed out I am using every second I breathe for studying or keeping up with the stuff I have to do that week.  That is what I view as short-term stress. If you want the textbook definition of short-term stress go here. Just a quick comment on that website I totally agree with what it talks about. I think some stress is good.  Stress for me is a motivation to do better, and to be more efficient. Yeah I know stress is awful but I usually perform better under a slight amount of pressure. Also it helps to be stressed out and push harder so you can get to the light at the end of the tunnel. But you have to find a balance. Too much stress is not a good thing.

So when we talk about long-term stress we are obviously talking about something a bit bigger than finals week.  So then I start to look at the big picture of things. My academic pressure is really stressful. I constantly have to work hard to meet my goal of staying Valedictorian throughout high school and I have to make sure I am studying for the ACT and SAT to make sure I get into a good Universities. The little individual stresses I have in my classes and extracurriculars all pile into one category of long term stress of meeting some long term goals.

I find that I stress out a lot. However, I don't think it is an entirely bad thing. I think it is part of my type-A personality. I regret my stress at the moment but when I look back at it, I am really appreciative that I powered through because it all paid off in the end. I know in finals week I'll be saying things like: "WHY AM I EVEN HERE. I DON'T EVEN LIKE SCHOOL OR PEOPLE OR TEST. LIFE SUCKS. CAN I GO HOME TILL NEXT YEAR? ANYONE HAVE A PAUSE BUTTON I CAN HIT FOR A FEW MONTHS?" And I am not denying this but if you see me saying these things just remind me I'm dumb, and I'll be ok and that it will all pay off in the end.

So in terms of stress reduction? I like to get my mind off of school for a while.  I play tennis which is fun. I like to go running and walking with my dog in the evenings. It means I have to stay up a little later but it's nice to relax for a little bit. I know this sounds weird, but blogging about this is actually making me feel better. I feel like I'm venting to my Anatomy peers and such and It's actually making me feel a little less stressed.  Another thing I think is a good stress reliever is friend support.  Having someone you can talk to and laugh with makes it a ton easier.

Okay, so I have a goal. During finals week in order to remain calm, I decided I am going to do things one day at a time. I found that that has worked in the past. When I have a busy week instead of looking at it as one messy schedule filled week, I chunk it into days and say "If I can just make it through today ok, then I can do tomorrow." and it works. So I am going to try that. As for long term stress I'm not sure what I want to do about that or even if  I want to do anything about it.  We'll check back in soon and get all updated and stuff on my stress reduction strategy.

Weekly Three Questions

What have you completed recently?

Well I had a tennis match on saturday against Onate.  No one on the team lost any games which is awesome because Onate totally got schooled. I actually made little flyers and attached candy to them to hand out tomorrow for my re-election campaign. Voting day is on Tuesday so if for some reason a freshmen finds this page (which i doubt my blog is pretty lame) Vote for me!! Oh I also procrastinated all weekend and built a really cool metropolis on simcity. In terms of doing anything before the weekend I went to large group for symphony and we got a one superior rating (which is the best you can get besides a one plus). And we had this guest clinician come in to help us in band before our large group which is this Thursday.

What have you learned recently?

I don't even remember. Well maybe let me try. We learned about rational expressions in algebra 2. In english we just talked about the Scarlet Letter and took some quizzes. I learned a lot of new vocabulary. Mostly because I forgot how much I like reading so I've been reading a ton lately. I am almost done with my book for anatomy and that has some pretty non-vernacular uses of language.

What do you plan on doing next?

I plan on winning the election and becoming the Sophomore Class President for next year. I also plan on doing well at large group. Um the district tournament is next weekend. I really want to do well. Oh! Section Leader tryouts for band are this week and next week so I really want to do well in my tryout and interview.

The Nervous System

"From an engineering standpoint, this is the greatest challenge one can imagine: trying to restore the most incredible machine in the universe." -Todd Kuiken

So in case you haven't figured it out yet "the most incredible machine in the universe" is the brain and nervous system. The most fascinating yet most unknown machines of all. Our brain powers our body and can remeber incredible things with breathtaking precision. Speaking of breathing, our brain controls that too. It is absolutely amazing.  I think what Todd Kuiken was trying to say that the nervous system is so complex and fragile and everything has to be in the correct place for it to work properly. It is so complex that if an engineer where to tackle the daunting task of restoring it, or perhaps, creating it, it would be one of the biggest challenges in all of history. This quote was an analogy to put in perspective the utter magnificence of the human nervous system. 

Now if you really think about it, the brain is really "the most incredible machine in the universe."  Lets take for example the lab we did in class today. It was to test reaction time by having one person drop a meter stick while the other person catches it with their fingers. Well how did you catch it? Well you had a visual input of the meterstick dropping. This signal was sent to the brain. Then your brain processes the picture of it dropping and has to decide what to do. It needs to catch it. So your brain then sends a response to your hand to tell it to catch the falling meterstick. Now keep in mind this all happens in the matter of a few milliseconds. Isn't it crazy how your brain did that. Now think about this, you were probably imagining this happening in your head or recalling the memory of you doing it. AND you were also reading and comprehending this text while breathing, blinking, and your heart beating. Thats a lot of multitasking if you ask me. If you find a machine that can do all of that you let me know.

So after watching Todd Kuiken's TED Talk, his work is so awe-inspiring. He is helping people with prosthetic limbs use them on a level that is close to that of a real limbs function. The best part is, they don't have to touch buttons or move them manually, it is like they never lost their arm, they literally do exactly what you would do to move your arm. When you clench your hand your brain sends nerve signals to do that. So does hers. This new ingenious idea where you would transfer the arm nerves to the pectoral muscles and let them grow as regular arm nerves and use them to create these actions. The pectoral muscle now contracts in weird ways that the prosthetic detects as a certain type of movement that in turn makes the prosthetic complete a task. They are emerging on an even bigger idea to embellish the already amazing prosthetic. They are trying to not just send signals to the prosthetic, but for the prosthetic to produce feedback to the brain so we can feel hot and cold, sharp and dull, or smooth and bumpy.  They have a base for it. It requires stimulation to the pectoral area that corresponds to a certain part of the arm or hand. It also requires being connected to many electrodes that are still on a computer in the alpha stage. But pretty soon if they continue advancing through the technology, we may see a prosthetic arm that you couldn't tell apart from a real arm at all in the future. 

So the question you may be wondering is how is this important to the nervous system. Well the nervous system is our body's way of interacting within itself and with the outside world. This new technology harnesses the power of the nervous system and uses it to its advantage by allowing prosthetics to respond to messages from the brain like a regular arm. The nervous system that is very complex and nearly impossible to understand has been "tapped into" by prosthetics. The intricately complicated system of the brain and body relationship is being learned about and applied to modern medicine to benefit humanity. 

I'M SUPPOSED TO BE READING A BOOK?

Just kidding I've been reading a book. I'm about 75% done with it. I'm reading The Demon in the Freezer by Richard Preston. I have to say, it is quite the terrifying book. It is a book that focuses on true stories about smallpox. The chapters are each different stories or accounts of smallpox outbreaks, or the scientific parts of smallpox, and even chemical warfare stories.  The title itself was quite intriguing to me.  Nothing is more chilling than a demon in the freezer (no pun intended).  And I know they always say, (read this next sentence in your whiniest voice) "don't judge a book by its cover." But seriously look at this cover isn't it awesome?

Anywho, this book is pretty good and it reminds you that things like smallpox can wipe out billions of people like no tomorrow. Literally. No tomorrow. Because smallpox killed everyone. Pretty scary stuff. This book also makes a few mentions of anthrax and how people mail anthrax powder to people to murder them. (I am kind of self-conscious about opening the mail now.) Very.... enlightening? No.... Eye-Opening is more like it.

Weekly Three Questions

What have you completed recently?

First off I would like to apologize that this is late. I had a tennis tournament on Friday and Saturday so I didn't get a chance to get around to this. Anyways. I finished two books recently. The first one was Divergent (which is now in theatres and I want to see it). The second one was The Fault in Our Stars.  Both book were pretty good. It reminded me how much I like to read a good book. It makes me feel like there is hope for good writing unlike The Scarlet Letter we are reading in english. Ugh. It gave away the entire plot in the introduction in the beginning of the book.

What have you learned recently?

Well in math we were just solving radical equations. English we just read the Scarlet Letter (which sucks because of reasons stated above). Oh yeah! I forgot, I learned how to play French Horn. So I went to rehearsal and picked one up for the first time and I had a lot of fun. I am playing trumpet in top band for large group festival and french horn in second band for large group.

What do you plan on doing next?

Well I really need to finish the book for anatomy and get started on my literacy glog. I'm reading The Demon In The Freezer. I'm about 1/3 done and it's pretty nerve-racking I gotta say.  I need to get new tennis shoes so that will be done some time this week. So yeah. hope my weekly updates are entertaining for my audience of about .5 of a person.  #livingthepopularlife

EC Remote Controlled Roach

Woah, creepy huh? A roach is being controlled by someone other than itself. I assume the device on its back is some sort of a way to tap into its central nervous system. Then there is probably an external remote being used to send nerve impulses to cause different reactions. But what if this were to be created to work on humans? Well here is where we run into an ethical wall. As stated in article's, 1, 3, 4 ,5, and 6, in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, humans are free to their own will and certain attributes that could result from this device are also prohibited such as slavery, and torture.  I do not believe humans should be able to control your movements and thoughts. That is too controlling. If you have ever read the book 1984 by George Orwell (<<<warning spoiler alert) you might have a good idea about what could happen to society if this technology were implemented in the daily lives of humanity.  The technology is on its way to being able to control more complex nervous systems however this technology should never be used on another human because it defies their inalienable rights. What do you think?

HHMI Leech Lab

So I dissected a leech today.... Gross.  Just kittens, it was a virtual dissection so it wasn't bad at all.  The lab was for an introduction into the nervous system.  The leech which has a very simple nervous system reacts in the same way that our complex nervous system works and reacts to stimuli.  The point of the entire lab was to learn the how each different nerve cell types react to different stimuli.  During the lab you discover several cell types which include Types: N, X, R, T, and P.  When stimulating the cells, each of these nerve cells are responsible for a certain relay of message to the brain.  From the lab these data I concluded were: Type N had a lengthy reaction to forceps, Type T had short repeated reactions to the feather, less short repeated reactions to the probe, and a very short reaction to the forceps, Type P had a short reaction to the probe, Type R had an ongoing short reaction to everything including no stimuli at all, and lastly Type X had no reactions to any stimuli.  If you would like a little bit of review about what exactly a neuron is go here (you know sometimes we just forget, it's part of getting older)

An image depicting a neuron with fluorescent dye to show its shape. Much like what we observed in the leech lab. 

http://www.encorbio.com/Album/pages/ChkNFH-neuron1.htm

Without previous knowledge, you might say it's impossible to explain why these different neuron types provided different reactions. Lucky for you, Anatomy and Physiology seems to be consistent. Form and Function. Our motto. The types of neurons are all shaped differently. If its form is different from another type, then so is its function. Crazy right.  I suspect that the way these nerves are formed cause them to relay different messages to the brain. For example the N type might specifically react to pressure and the X Type react only to burns. Obviously hypothetical but you get the point.  I'm excited to learn more about the nervous system. Not really. I'm not too thrilled. Because nothing can be as exciting as the muscular system AM-I-RIGHT GUYS (also joking).

System Update: Muscles

Oh the muscular system. Curious isn't it? All these muscle fibers upon muscle fibers contain little tiny sarcomeres that expand and contract all at the same time. Millions of them working together to cause contraction. Not to mention how our muscles are attached to the bone in strategic places to move our body in what seems like an infinite number of ways. Each muscle is uniquely fitted designed for specific movements and placements. The anatomy of muscle is simply astounding. Lets take our shoulder muscles for example. Brachialis and Deltoid are two muscles that are responsible for working with about 10 other muscles to move the arm in its rotator cuff. When you move your arm around this "system" of muscles work together to produce the desired motion. 

http://www.ehs.utoronto.ca/services/Ergonomics/exercise.htm

Don't even get me started on the physiology... (just kidding this is for a grade so I kind of have to 'get started' on the physiology) Muscles are primarily for movement. That is their main function. How does this happen you ask? Well it all starts out with an Action Potential. An Action Potential in this case is an electrical impulse that causes the change throughout the muscle cell. When the action potential hits the membrane of a muscle cell, there is an activation of Sodium Potassium pumps. The normal diffusion is now affected and the sodium and potassium concentrations go askew causing a depolarization of the cell (the cell flipped charges now its negative on the inside). Because of this the Sarcoplasmic reticulum (The storage center for calcium) releases calcium around the muscle all at once. Then the calcium bonds to troponin and tropomyosin causing them to change shape (and ultimately function) of the protein. The tropomyosin is then changed so the active sites on the actin are now revealed.  I like to think of this as like a rock climber or batman. They have that cool hook thingy on a rope and they throw it on top of something  and propel up. Well I think of the myosin as the grappler thing and the active sites of actin as like the thing it hooks onto.  Here is where we get into the sliding filament theory. The two filaments actin and myosin slide past each other. It is the revealing of active sites that allow the filaments to connect or hook-on to each other and contract. I know long process it seems but, it happens over the course of a few milliseconds. 

Homeostasis in the muscular system works just like any other system. We have a stimulus and a response. A fantastic example to use is when our body is subject to extreme temperatures. 

http://apblogandrewstarck.blogspot.com/2010/09/homeostasis.html

The initial stimulus is the cold outside which starts cooling our overall body temperature.  Our body then decides that it needs to do something. So, it decides to start muscle contraction, which at the cost of ATP produces a byproduct of heat.  Muscles also help us voluntarily act for homeostatic balance. If put my finger in boiling water it burns and my muscles react by pulling my finger out of the water. 

Muscles, gotta love 'em