Article: Sticks and Stones: A New Study on
Social and Physical Pain
Author: Unknown
Site: Bright Surf Science
Scientific researchers decided to preform an experiment that tested if a physical or social event was more painful if relived. These researchers preformed four different types of experiments. In the first two experiments the "participants reported the amount of pain they felt while trying to relive a physically or a socially painful experience." (pg. 1) The independent variable in this experiment is the type of pain (physical or social) and the dependent variable is the amount of pain that is felt during each one. In the second set of the experiment they were asked to do the same thing but to preform "cognitive tasks with different levels of difficulty after reliving a socially or physically painful event." (pg. 1) When they had to relive these experiences the people had higher feelings of "pain and relived the experience more intensely" (pg. 1) then the ones who relived the physically painful experiences. The dependent and independent variable are the same in the second part of the experiment as in the first part. Researchers concluded that the cerebral cortex may be responsible for allowing humans to relive socially painful events.
Reflection:
I thought that this was a very good experiment. I have always wondered if people responded differently to different forms of pain and now I know by reading this article. I think the experiment could be improved if the article gave more information about the experiment and if they stated how many repeated trials there were. I would recommend for a follow up experiment that the researchers preform these tests again to see if their results changed.
Sunday, March 29, 2009
Shaun L.
CNN Health
By Madison Park
New studies are being made to see if this, 'miracle fruit' can really alter your taste buds. The Synsepalum dulcificum or miracle fruit is said to release a sweet flavor, and make any food that tastes bitter, taste sweet. With this type of skill, Dr. Mike Cusnir says he wants to see if it can help cancer patients who've lost their appetites. Dr. Cusnir says many cancer patients who have been through chemotherapy treatments are left with bland taste buds. He also says that this causes them to become malnourished. Dr. Cusnir and other doctors hope that they can make a new pill that will have this 'Miracle Fruit', in it and give it to the cancer patients.
I thought this article was very interesting. I'd never heard of this fruit before, but it sounds really cool. However; I feel they should have told us a little bit more on what chemotherapy is, and why it blands their taste buds.
Lindsay E
Bright Surf Science
The experiment was used to test to see what will happen to people who suffered with anorexia as a teenager. Those people were compared to healthy people throughout their life time. In this experiment the independent variable was the anorexic people because they were compared to the healthy people and what happened to them. There were 51 anorexic people tested so there were 51 trials. Eighteen years after the experiment was initiated they have come to the conclusion that in the anorexic group no one has died, three women still have not recovered from anorexia, thirteen peopled (about 25%) are on disability or have missed work for being sick for six months, and 39% have had another psychiatric disorder and the most common is obsessive compulsive disorder (OCD). Also it has shown that there are many birth problems for the women who have suffered with anorexia. Many of the anorexic groupes' women have had much lighter weight babies than the control, healthy groupes' women. The women who have had the disorder and had babies tend to be very worried about the babies gaining weight. So what I have learned is, pretty much, anorexia will affect you your whole life.
I thought this was a great experiment, they had many trials and people tested, also they compared many different things with the two groups. The only way I could see this experiment improving would be adding more people to each group to get a more accurate results. A good follow up experiment would be to test a different eating disorder in the same way to see if different eating disorders have the same affect of people. I found this experiment very interesting!
Katelyn M.
Science News For Kids
Scientist recently discovered drugs have made their way into wildlife's ecosystem. And it all comes from flushing the toilet. When you take drugs then go to the restroom, the water goes to a waste plant and gets filtered. It then goes to a near by stream, river, or lake. The water only gets filtered for bacteria, not for drugs so the drugs remain in the water and are put into the ecosystem. A while back, researchers discovered fish had antidepressants in their brain, scientists then decided to study if the brand of antidepressant is changed then the fish's response will change. The independent variable was the brand of antidepressants and the dependent variable was the fish's response.
I liked this experiment because they are trying to do something about harming the ecosystem, not just sitting back to watch. I would have liked to know which species of fish they used and which sex.
Saturday, March 28, 2009
Tucker F
The metal detector in your mouth.
Science News For Kids.
This experiment tests to see if there are more than just the five basic tastes. These are salty, sweet, sour, bitter, and umami. The scientists tested to see if there was a new taste, metal. To do this, they needed to find out if special proteins were needed to detect metals taste. They used mice to test this. The independent variable was the mice because some mice had these special proteins and others did not. The dependent variable is the mice reaction to the metal. If they reacted the same, there is no metal taste and if they acted differently, it is a taste. The scientists dissolved metals into water for the mice to drink. This experiment proved that metal is a taste.
This was a very unique experiment. I liked how they used mice. It was also cool that they dissolved the metals into water for them to drink. I was very surprised that metal was actually a taste! I am also excited to see what new tastes these scientists will discover next.
Science News For Kids.
This experiment tests to see if there are more than just the five basic tastes. These are salty, sweet, sour, bitter, and umami. The scientists tested to see if there was a new taste, metal. To do this, they needed to find out if special proteins were needed to detect metals taste. They used mice to test this. The independent variable was the mice because some mice had these special proteins and others did not. The dependent variable is the mice reaction to the metal. If they reacted the same, there is no metal taste and if they acted differently, it is a taste. The scientists dissolved metals into water for the mice to drink. This experiment proved that metal is a taste.
This was a very unique experiment. I liked how they used mice. It was also cool that they dissolved the metals into water for them to drink. I was very surprised that metal was actually a taste! I am also excited to see what new tastes these scientists will discover next.
Thomas East
Metal Dectector in Your Mouth
No Author found
Science News for Kids
In this article it is explaining recent Scientists recently finding there are three proteins connected to a metallic taste, but there may be more metal-detecting proteins. At the Nestle Research Center in Laurianne, Switzerland, scientist are very interested and curious about taste. To test there hypothesis of there experiment they have been exploring the taste of metal. The exterior of your tongue are taste buds, and in those taste buds are molecules that are called molecules. Some proteins detect the taste of sourness and sweetness, those proteins send a message to your brain of what it taste like. The scientist use special mice, some of the test mice did not have the special proteins associated with already known taste. They dissolved different kinds and amounts of metals in water and fed the water to the mice. According to the results of the experiment, the taste of metal is connected to three different proteins. Looking at these three proteins helps the scientists figure out how a taste like metal works. One are the senses is cool and might surprise you. One of the senses is super spices which i think is cool. I really enjoyed this article.
I think the article was very interesting and cool. I thought it was funny and smart about using the mice as part of the experiment. I never new there were proteins on your tongue, and that it helps you taste things. This blog was very interesting and very fun to read
Thomas East
http://www.sciencenewsforkids.org/articles/20090311/Note2.asp
No Author found
Science News for Kids
In this article it is explaining recent Scientists recently finding there are three proteins connected to a metallic taste, but there may be more metal-detecting proteins. At the Nestle Research Center in Laurianne, Switzerland, scientist are very interested and curious about taste. To test there hypothesis of there experiment they have been exploring the taste of metal. The exterior of your tongue are taste buds, and in those taste buds are molecules that are called molecules. Some proteins detect the taste of sourness and sweetness, those proteins send a message to your brain of what it taste like. The scientist use special mice, some of the test mice did not have the special proteins associated with already known taste. They dissolved different kinds and amounts of metals in water and fed the water to the mice. According to the results of the experiment, the taste of metal is connected to three different proteins. Looking at these three proteins helps the scientists figure out how a taste like metal works. One are the senses is cool and might surprise you. One of the senses is super spices which i think is cool. I really enjoyed this article.
I think the article was very interesting and cool. I thought it was funny and smart about using the mice as part of the experiment. I never new there were proteins on your tongue, and that it helps you taste things. This blog was very interesting and very fun to read
Thomas East
http://www.sciencenewsforkids.org/articles/20090311/Note2.asp
Margaret P
Stephen Ornes
Science News For Kids
This article explains unwanted consequences people may cause because of the way they fish. Usually, it says people keep the bigger fish and the smaller ones are thrown back. It is assumed that the bigger fish are older. This results in the smaller fish having to reproduce and scientist have suggested that over time the size of fish will be all around smaller. The independent variable in this experiment is this size of the fish the scientist are removing from groups 1 through 6. The dependent variable in this experiment is the average size of the offspring of the fish that were selected to reproduce. A constant in this experiment is the same species of fish used to experiment on. The conclusions made by this experiment are that it takes less time for a species of fish to shrink than to recover their regular size. So by keeping the larger fish and throwing back the smaller ones, people are causing the size of fish to shrink!
This was an excellent experiment because they are proving an important point to the fishers of the world today. It explains the consequences we will face in the following years if we do not change our ways. Improvement to this experiment would be to make sure all the fish are kept in the same room conditions and have the same water temperature. A good follow up experiment would be to test this experiment on a different species of fish.
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