Alzheimer’s Disease: Possibly Caused From Haywire Immune System Eating Brain Connections?

By: Alexandria Addesso

Memory loss and absent-mindedness has long been seen as an inevitable flaw that comes with old age. Although there is a slew of medications on the market that are prescribed for those suffering from Alzheimer’s Disease, none seem to change it by too large of a margin. This has led scientists to rethink what in particular is the root cause of Alzheimer’s.

New studies done on laboratory test rodents have found that there is a marked loss of synapses, which are a junction between two nerve cells, consisting of a minute gap across which impulses pass by diffusion of a neurotransmitter. Specifically synapses that are located in brain regions that are highly significant and key to memory.



These junctions between nerve cells are where neurotransmitters are released to spark the brain’s electrical activity. Currently, all pharmaceutical drugs on the market for the treatment of Alzheimer’s, focus on eliminating β amyloid, a protein that forms telltale sticky plaques around neurons in people with the disease. But, more β amyloid does not always mean more severe symptoms such as memory loss or poor attention.

Researchers at the University of Virginia, School of Medicine, in Charlottesville found that a protein called ‘C1q’ sets off a series of chemical reactions that ultimately mark a synapse for destruction. After this occurs immune cells called microglia-glial cells derived from mesoderm that function as macrophages (scavengers) in the central nervous system and form part of the reticuloendothelial system, destroy or “eat” the synapse.



“It is beautiful new work brings into light what’s happening in the early stage of the disease,” said one of the researchers at the University of Virginia School of Medicine neuroscientist Jonathan Kipnis.

These findings could mean that treatment that blocks C1q could be pivotal and highly successful in fighting Alzheimer’s Disease. When researchers gave the laboratory rodent test subjects an antibody to stop the destruction of cells by microglia, synapse loss did not appear. This could also mean a slowing in cognitive decline, but according to Edward Ruthazer, a neuroscientist at the Montreal Neurological Institute and Hospital in Canada, using microglia as such a central role to fight the disease is “still on the controversial side.”

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Are the Well Read More Likely to Succeed?

By: Alexandria Addesso

With television, movies, and the internet to entertain us many have been reading less and less. So much information can now be attained in small sound bites or social media posts, which often leaves large knowledge filled tomes on the shelf. According to the National Endowment for the Arts, “reading has declined among every group of adult Americans,” and for the first time in American history, “less than half of the United States adult American population is reading literature.” But could this trend be detrimental? How important is reading and how does it affect a person’s chances at achieving success in their lifetime?



Studies done at The New School, a New York City private University found that reading is crucial for socialization especially in children. Researchers also found evidence that literary fiction improves a reader’s capacity to understand what others are thinking and feeling. In one study done by the university and published in Science, participants read non-fiction/nothing, popular fiction, or literary fiction then were tested on their ability to understand other people’s thoughts and emotions. Participants that read non-fiction/nothing showed unimpressive results. When they read excerpts of popular fiction their test results were dually insignificant. But, when they read literary fiction their test results improved vastly and so did their capacity for empathy.

Reading is also the key for those who want to be leaders or chief executive officers (CEO). Reading in general has shown to increases verbal intelligence, making a leader a more adept as well as a more articulate communicator. Being that reading is a form of leisurely recreation, it has been shown to be a good stress reliever which overall leads to a more peaceful work environment. Some very well read successful people include Steve Jobs the founder of Apple, Phil Knight the founder of Nike, and Winston Churchill who won the Nobel Prize for Literature.



Currently about 60 million Americans suffer from some form of a sleep disorder. A lack of sleep can negatively affect a person’s mental, physical, and emotional well-being. Sleep experts often recommend establishing a regular de-stressing routine before bed to calm your mind and ready your body for rest. Reading is one of the top strategies recommended to add to your routine right before going to sleep. Bright lights from electronic devices signal the brain to wake up, whereas reading a book under a dim light can tell your system to do the inverse.

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Smartphone Usage Linked to Male Infertility

By: Alexandria Addesso

The use of cellular phones, have become so common in our day-to-day lives that the inanimate objects almost become another appendage. Smart phones, the most commonly used type of cellular phones today rely on electromagnetic frequency (EMF) radiation to receive real time messaging. But could this form of frequencies be harmful when they are being transmitted all day?

Being that cell phones are portable, people tend to have them on their person all day. Men, more often than women, usually keep their cellular smart phones in their front pockets. Multiple recent studies have been conducted on whether keeping these cellular devices in such a close proximity to a man’s genitalia while transmitting EMF radiation could be harmful.



“Collectively, the research indicates that exposure to cell phone radiation may lead to decreases in sperm count, sperm motility and vitality, as well as increases in indicators of sperm damage such as higher levels of reactive oxygen species (chemically reactive molecules containing oxygen), oxidative stress, DNA damage and changes in sperm morphology ,” said The Environmental Working Group (EWG) after publishing a scientific literature review of 10 studies linking smartphone usage and male infertility.

Other studies even indicate specifically an 8 percent decrease in sperm motility and an approximate 9 percent decrease in sperm viability.
“Overall, these findings raise a number of related health policy and patient management issues that deserve our immediate attention. Specifically, we recommend that men of reproductive age who engage in high levels of mobile phone use do not keep their phones in receiving mode below waist level,” wrote researcher GN De Iuliis in the study Mobile phone radiation induces reactive oxygen species production and DNA damage in human spermatozoa in vitro published in 2009.



Even though keeping your cell phone on a belt clip has long been seen as more safe, much data has shown that it is only slightly better than carrying it in your front pocket. If a man is trying to conceive a child it is best that he reduces his cell phone usage. Data on smartphone usage and female infertility is still widely unknown.

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The Science of Solidarity

By: Alexandria Addesso

To many Charles Darwin is the utmost authority when it comes to the study of evolution. Many people took his findings about the importance of competition and how it plays a role in evolution and ran with it. Even as far as applying it to society and thus creating social Darwinism. Anarcho-scientist Peter Kropotkin was inspired by the publication of On the Origin of Species to go and do his own observations of a multitude of species and seemed to come to the opposite conclusion of such Darwinism backers. He argued against claims that competition alone led to evolution or ‘survival of the fittest’, and insisted that mutual aid is a major factor of evolution. The following is an introductory excerpt from Kropotkin’s book Mutual Aid: A Factor of Evolution.

Two aspects of animal life impressed me most during the journeys which I made in my youth in Eastern Siberia and Northern Manchuria. One of them was the extreme severity of the struggle for existence which most species of animals have to carry on against an inclement Nature; the enormous destruction of life which periodically results from natural agencies; and the consequent paucity of life over the vast territory which fell under my observation. And the other was, that even in those few spots where animal life teemed in abundance, I failed to find – although I was eagerly looking for it – that bitter struggle for the means of existence, among animals belonging to the same species, which was considered by most Darwinists (though not always by Darwin himself) as the dominant characteristic of struggle for life, and the main factor of evolution.



Kropotkin chronicled his findings while observing a wide variety of insects, birds, sea-life, and different mammals including humans. When it came to who was fittest to survive and further their species, it was most often those who cooperated via forms of mutual aid and solidarity.

As soon as we study animals – not in laboratories and museums only, but in the forest and the prairie, in the steppe and the mountains – we at once perceive that though there is an immense amount of warfare and extermination going on amidst various species, and especially amidst various classes of animals, there is, at the same time, as much, or perhaps even more, of mutual support, mutual aid, and mutual defense amidst animals belonging to the same species or, at least, to the same society. Sociability is as much a law of nature as mutual struggle. Of course it would be extremely difficult to estimate, however roughly, the relative numerical importance of both these series of facts. But if we resort to an indirect test, and ask Nature: "Who are the fittest: those who are continually at war with each other, or those who support one another?" we at once see that those animals which acquire habits of mutual aid are undoubtedly the fittest. They have more chances to survive, and they attain, in their respective classes, the highest development of intelligence and bodily organization. If the numberless facts which can be brought forward to support this view are taken into account, we may safely say that mutual aid is as much a law of animal life as mutual struggle, but that, as a factor of evolution, it most probably has a far greater importance, inasmuch as it favours the development of such habits and characters as insure the maintenance and further development of the species, together with the greatest amount of welfare and enjoyment of life for the individual, with the least waste of energy.



Solidarity scientifically leads to the continuation of life. Through the solidarity of family units, as wells even sometimes larger communities, children are able to be raised and protected. Solidarity is also pivotal for any revolution, social movement, or major change to occur. The slogan “workers of the world unite,” first mentioned in the Communist Manifesto in 1848, called for solidarity among all proletariat (the lower/working class) regardless to nation or ethnicity. These were truly powerful words of unity for those across a particular class line against their oppressors that belonged to the bourgeoisie (the middle/capitalist class).

A major group that unified lower class people across ethnic and gender lines on U.S. soil in the aftermath of the Democratic Convention protests of 1968 was the original Rainbow Coalition. It was formed by the Illinois Chapter of The Black Panthers in Chicago and also included the Young Patriots (a group of white youth who had migrated from Appalachia to Chicago), the Young Lords (a group of Puerto Rican nationalist youth), disenfranchised jewish youth and members of the women’s movement. The Rainbow Coalition epitomized solidarity and intersectionality within the class struggle. Because of its diversity, the Rainbow Coalition was able to bring about treaties among violent rivaling gangs as well as fight against police brutality that did nothing but add to the wave of violence. With unity comes power, and this was highly threatening to both local and national government.



“It seems to me that a lot of the real intense government repression didn’t happen until the Black Panthers started building coalitions,” said Bobby Lee a Black Panthers member who helped organize the Rainbow Coalition along with Deputy Chairman of the Illinois Chapter Fred Hampton, in an interview with Chicago Area. “Once the party departed from the ‘hate whitey’ trip and got serious about building real politics, we were a threat—plain and simple. The FBI were always watching us. But the Rainbow Coalition was their worst nightmare.”

For major changes to occur, for the preservation of life, and to strive towards survival and thus evolution, solidarity is a major factor.

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Myths and Truths about Phlegm, Snot and Boogers

By: Alexandria Addesso

Although Spring is slowly approaching, the cold and flu season is still among us. One of the most unpleasant symptoms of such winter sicknesses as the cold and flu is an increased amount of mucus. Whether, if it's in the form of phlegm, a runny nose or dry booger build-up, an increase in mucus production is a major annoyance and inconvenience.

Although it seems that most people experience an increased production of mucus at least once a year, whether it be during cold and flu season or allergy season, there is still a lot of misinformation about it. Although it seems like a nuisance, mucus actually plays a beneficial role for the human body’s ecosystem. Mucus functions as naturally occurring moisturizer for nasal, mouth, and sinuses, without which the tissue surface could easily become dry and crack. The thick and sticky consistency of mucus also helps prevent bacteria, dust, and other harmful substances from entering the body by trapping it and removing it when it is extracted.



Many parents have taught their children that you can tell what type of common illness you have by judging the color of the snot or phlegm. This is not exactly true, when a harmful virus or bacteria enters the sinuses the enzymes in the mucus contain high levels of iron to combat it thus producing a thick green consistency. When mucus sits for several hours without being expelled, such as when a person is asleep, it becomes more concentrated thus making it a dark yellow or green, thick consistency.

Mucus in all forms; snot, phlegm, and boogers; usually gross most of the general population out. Most believe that they are loaded with harmful germs. Yet, these forms of mucus are actually loaded with a variety of strong antibacterial, antiviral, and other protective chemicals that work to keep you healthy. Now this doesn't mean that you should seek out other people’s runny noses to bask in, but rather just not be too freaked out about it. Especially when it comes to your own. When someone touches snot or phlegm and then touches an object or surface without washing their hands first, the virus will only live on that surface for 24 hours.
Be safe, don’t be too grossed out by mucus, and wash your hands.

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Is the Lose of Religious Liberties Inevitable in a Modern Society?

By: Alexandria Addesso

Religion has long been the scapegoat of many of the world’s problems; poverty, ignorance, immorality, backwardness, and war. It is believed and frequently perpetuated that most wars were started and carried out because of religion, such instances were usually deemed “holy wars”. But do these notions suggest that there must be a war fought against religion itself?

Most first-world Western Nations are highly secularized. Where religions were once used to dictate moral standards and laws, now modern “norms” seem to be the guiding light. Such nations that lean toward secularism seem to hold atheism as the highest intellectual belief structure (or rather lack thereof). So what does that mean for those who still practice religions or formal faith structures?

Religious liberty and freedoms are hot-button topics in current events. The newly elected United States president, just days after being inaugurated, signed an executive order that banned people from entering the country if their visas were from 7 particular countries and if they were also Muslim. And while some may not disagree with these measures and brand the United States as a “Christian” nation, the state department completely disregarded the
Christian genocide that was ongoing in the Middle East and Africa for several years.



What is the cost we pay for progressiveness? Technological and scientific advances seem to push the need for the protection of religious liberties and freedoms further and further away. Would a religion-free society be better than a religious one? There is no doubt that many people would fight to establish the former, and there are currently people working for just that.

But with a look back on history to nations that tried to eliminate religions and make all such practices illegal does not paint a perfect picture, but rather just the gruesome opposite. The Cristero Rebellions in the 1920s where the Mexican government tried to suppress Catholicism and kill off clergy is one such example of such wickedness. The religionless Soviet Union is another. Yet in most of these cases the faith of such adherents only seemed to grow stronger, even unto death. So should these religious liberties be protected like any other human right or should they be part of the “final test”? Stay vigilant.

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The Evolution of Area 51

By: Alexandria Addesso

Area 51 has seemed to exist in two different places for decades, on both the southern shore of Groom Lake about 83 miles north-west of Las Vegas, and in the collective consciousness of those who can only imagine the whereabouts of the military base that has long been kept “top secret” and confidential. Over three-dozen films have been made about Area 51 as well as a host of mini-series despite the fact that very little information about the base has been verified. The idea of Area 51 has definitely evolved over the years.

Area 51 was built in 1941 and was given the official name of “Watertown” in 1956. Other monikers for the test site were Paradise Ranch and Dreamland, the latter was based on a poem by Edgar Allen Poe. The site was originally used as an auxiliary airfield. By 1951 the base was being utilized by the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) to develop the Lockheed U-2 reconnaissance aircraft, an American single-jet engine, ultra-high altitude aircraft nicknamed “The Dragon Lady.” It is believed that over half of the unidentified flying object (UFO) sightings during the 1950s and 1960s were actually U-2 aircrafts.



This of course has helped contribute to the largely believed lure that aliens as well as their spacecrafts have been or are currently held at Area 51. It is true that aside from the U-2, numerous odd looking aircrafts have been developed, held and tested at the base. Most of which are used for spying or other military purposes. Also many of the projects done at the site are deemed confidential, to which information and details of can never be disclosed. Despite this fact many so called past employees of the base have “leaked” information. Retired Area 51 scientist Boyd Bushman released a video in which he describes the base as containing aliens, UFOs, and anti-gravity projects. The video was released right before his death.



Whether or not you believe that the confidential information about what is done at Area 51 has to do with alien life forms or not seems to be influence on your belief in extraterrestrials in general. Top secret projects done at the base having to do with both domestic and international spying is already factually known. Another reason why certain projects at Area 51 are kept confidential is because they can actually harm the general population. In the 1970s and 1980s Area 51 employees were repeatedly exposed to jet fuel toxins. In 1996 Helen Frost, the wife of one of the employees that died from these toxins, brought up a lawsuit against the United States government but it was dismissed because such allegations could not be “confirmed” and the base is exempt from any environmental laws.

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Sweat Sensors

By: Alexandria Addesso

Science and technology seems to steadily progress and the health field is one of the main industries that is reaping the benefits of the new innovations. As our health statuses and test results seem to be at our fingertips, people become more and more health conscious. Researchers at The University of Texas at Dallas have recently designed a biosensor that is capable of checking glucose levels of the person who wears it.

"We've been developing various thin, soft and flexible skin-mounted devices as a next-generation platform for wearable technologies for a few years now," said Dr. John Rogers, the senior author of the study as well as a materials scientist and director of Northwestern University's Center for Bio-Integrated Electronics in Evanston, Illinois. "Now, we've developed such a device to capture and analyze sweat."



The sensor sticks to the skin and is around the size of a quarter, which is a drastic upgrade in comparison to the handheld glucose reading devices that are currently being used. Such devices needed to pluck the user’s finger to draw a small amount of blood in order to read glucose levels, a task most people suffering with diabetes found daunting.

"Fitness trackers that monitor heart rate and step count are very popular, but wearable, non-invasive biosensors would be extremely beneficial for managing diseases," said Dr. Shalini Prasad, a professor of bioengineering at the Erik Jonsson School of Engineering and Computer Science.

"We used known properties of textiles and weaves in our design," said Prasad. "What was innovative was the way we incorporated and positioned the electrodes onto this textile in such a way that allows a very small volume of sweat to spread effectively through the surface."



Sweat and blood are not the only bodily secretions that have been tested to see if they can get glucose readings. Google Laboratories is currently working on a contact lense that can read glucose levels from tears. While none of these new sensors have hit the market or even yet been licensed, there is no doubt that they will soon make invasive blood collecting glucose readers obsolete.

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