Thursday, February 27, 2014

The Moral Issue of Embryonic Stem Cell Research

By Ruth Esther Delina in

Explanation of the depth of the outer space brought man into unending quest for more. The world is experiencing unprecedented developments in science and technology and embryonic stem cell research manifested these developments. This research is believed to be a lead to the development of treatments and cures for some of humanity’s most pernicious afflictions such as Alzheimer’s disease, Parkinson’s disease, heart disease, and diabetes. Indeed it is a breakthrough awaited by the world.

Stem cells are cells with the ability to split and to produce more alike stem cells or to specialize and form specific cells of somatic tissues and more than two hundred kinds of tissues in the human body originate from human embryonic stem cells. These kind of stem cells can be taken through a process called In Vitro Fertilization (IVF) which is the joining of a woman’s egg and a man’s sperm in a laboratory dish. For me, embryonic stem cell research should not be pursued because it’s morally and ethically wrong.

Taking the life of a human being at any stage in development and using it for research is morally and ethically wrong. According to David Prentice, Ph.D., cell biologist, “embryonic stem cell research is not ethical because it relies on the destruction of young human life”. How unethical it is to use these embryos as subjects of research without their consent. They are also human beings who should be forced to be made the subject of research, especially if that research leads directly to their destruction.

Although embryos currently do not talk, walk or laugh, they will if given an opportunity to live. An infant or a teenager in his/her infancy or puberty stage is nothing different from a human embryo in its embryonic stage of development and as potential persons, embryos should be given moral respect and dignity that a person requires.

According to Hug, “Judging the moral status of the embryo from its age is making arbitrary definitions of who is human”. A life lived has a value to the one who lived this life and therefore, whatever moral status a human embryo posses, its life should be protected because it has a value to the embryo itself. Also, we should protect them because it is ethically and morally upright. According to Robert George, McCormick Professor of Jurisprudence, “all human being are equal, and ought not to be harmed or considered to be less than human on the basis of age or size or stage of development or condition of dependency”.

Each and every one of us started our lives as an embryo. If we think that our lives are creditable of respect then embryos should be given the same. Though they currently do not exhibit signs of life they will if protected and not destroyed. Like us, embryos are human beings and no human being should be an instrument for a research that will benefit other people. Embryos deserve to live freely, to live happily and to live this life.

According to Sam Harris, “In every fertilized ovum there is a soul and you can’t privilege the interest of one soul over another soul even if one is in a Petri dish and the other is a man with Parkinson’s disease”.

Sources:
An Overview of Stem Cell Research, Center for Bioethics & Human Dignity
Embryonic Stem-Cell Research: Experts Debate Pros and Cons, My Family Doctor
Funds No Boon To Stem Cells, Wayne Lusvardi
Stem Cells and Morality, Sam Harris
Therapeutic perspectives of human embryonic stem cell research versus moral status of a human embryo - does one have to be compromised for the other?, K. Hug

How Flexible Can Our Phones Get?

By Unknown in Bendable, cellphone, Devices, Flexible, Foldable, Future, Mobile, Tablet, technology

Getting by a day with the absence of one's mobile phone would seem impossible for the majority. We just have to bring our phones everywhere. The innovations of these devices appear exceedingly rapid because of the demand for better ones, hence the advent of smartphones. During the transition of black-and-white feature phones to waterproof with voice recognizing personal assistant ones, a myriad of features were developed in between.

And the evolution would definitely not stop there. This year there’s much anticipation for the arrival of the greatest breakthrough yet in devices since the touchscreen— the Flexible phones.

A number of companies have been expressing their interest for this much-coveted technology for quite some time. Nokia is believed to be the forerunner in giving a substantial concept. In 2005 the company introduced the idea of a Nokia 888 model. “It can change its form depending on the function. ‘Form follows you’,” says Tamer Nakisci, the product designer.

E-motions is a feature of the Nokia 888 which allows the users to send and receive customized forms. How about sending love by letting ones girlfriend witness their phones turn into a heart icon?

It was also 2005 when Sony and Riken (formerly the Institute of Physical and Chemical Research) formed a research team that was able to introduce a display panel which can be rolled up like a paper due to extreme thinness and flexibility. Unlike previously invented e-papers, Sony and Riken’s display is applicable to mobile phones because of its high resolution. Come 2010, Sony unveiled the TFT-driven OLED device to the public.

Samsung followed suit and exhibited their shatterproof flexible screen in 2010. In their video, the display panel was bashed a few times with a hammer but seemed unscathed. Fragility has always been the Achilles Heel of every phone, a factor Samsung certainly considered.

In 2011, Nokia was able to provide an actual demo phone—The Nokia Kinetic Device. Unlike their earlier prototype, Nokia 888, the Kinetic Device does not entirely change its form but is, nevertheless, flexible. The screen may be controlled by the way the sides of the phone is twisted or flexed.

Beside the Kinetic Device and 888, Nokia had conceptualized two other flexible mobile phones: The HumanForm and Morph.

But these two other models are still far from becoming a consumer reality. These devices need much more than a flexible display to be fabricated. The technology of component parts such as the battery, screen cover material and circuits need to keep pace with the before mentioned display advancements. Nevertheless, Nokia seems one step ahead on this with the ability of the Kinetic Device to actually flex a greater part of the phoneWhat the consumers can only expect now are devices that have flexible displays but not entirely flexible phones. Samsung announced earlier this year of the Galaxy Round coming to the market. Galaxy Round is a Note 3 look-a-like only with its sides slightly contoured, hence the model name.

2013 is also the year for the release of LG’s G Flex. Much edge does this phone offer than its predecessor, the Galaxy Round, when it comes to flexibility. The G Flex that exhibits a naturally arched body can be bent flat. Yet, the limitations of the phone were clearly stated by LG, “The flexibility of this product is limited. This phone may be bent flat up to 180 degrees for a limited period of time only. Do not bend inward or twist.”

Should the flexibility of cellular devices be perfected, foldable phones and tables will never be far from materializing. One day they will just be as ubiquitous as the iPads and Galaxy Tabs.

Not everyone’s buying the idea of these flexible phones. Some are apprehensive of the susceptibility of such devices to wear and tear, which is understandable. Others, on the other hand, fail to see the ergonomics of the flexibility feature and consider it as sheer novelty. They are also blind to the greater picture, the significant potential of this technology to other applications.

Saturday, February 22, 2014

Can they really do wonders?

By Kimkate Laforga in Beauty Products, Health

Nowadays, facial products are present in every person’s regimen. Most people only consider their skin type on choosing the right product for them. But we must learn that what we apply on our skin is absorbed directly into our face as well. Surely, nobody wants a harmful ingredient on their face. So here’s a list of some of the dangerous chemicals that these products may contain:

1. Sodium Laureth Sulfate (SLS)/Sodium Lauryl Ether Sulfate (SLES)
This surfactant is an inexpensive and foaming agent that behaves similarly to soap. It has been shown that SLS/SLES causes eye or skin irritation in experiments done on animals and humans.

2. Propylene Glycol
It is a colorless, nearly odorless, clear, viscous liquid that can be found in moisturizers, sunscreen, and makeup products. This toxic ingredient causes many allergic reactions. Research data states that through skin contact it can cause liver abnormalities and kidney damage.

3. Parabens
This is also known as Methylparaben, Propylparaben, IIsoparaben, Butylparaben. Companies use this dangerous ingredient, because it is extremely cheap and extends the shelf life of the product by inhibiting microbial growth. These chemicals mimic your body’s own hormones and can have endocrine-disrupting action that interfere with your body’s endocrine system.

4. Synthetic Fragrances
Synthetic fragrances are mixtures of various chemicals that produce a desired scent. They can potentially cause skin irritation, headaches, dizziness, and rashes. One of the toxic ingredients in fragrances is often phthalates.

5. Diethanolamine (DEA), Momoethnanolamine (MEA), and Triethanolamine (TEA)

These are hormone-disrupting chemicals that have been linked to cancer. These chemicals are already banned in Europe but are still used in different countries. They are used to adjust the pH balance, but toxic and causes eye problems, and dryness of skin and hair.

6. Petroleum-based Ingredients

Petroleum in beauty products goes by many names (mineral oil, paraffin wax, and petrolatum, etc.). It coats the skin, clogging pores and interferes with the skin’s ability to eliminate toxins.

7. Triclosan

Triclosan is antibacterial ingredient common in soaps and soap bars. Studies have shown that this ingredient disrupt thyroid function and the reproductive system. Overuse may promote the development of bacterial resistance.

Let's have a habit of checking the labels, not only of the food that we eat but also the products that we use, because beauty is still skin deep.

Resources:

1 http://en.wikipedia.org/
2 http://www.organichealthandbeauty.com/10-Most-Common-Chemicals_ep_55-1.html
3 http://oneloveorganics.com/blog/2011/09/top-6-ingredients-to-avoid-in-liquid-cleansers/
4 http://www.annmariegianni.com/ingredient-watch-list-synthetic-fragrance-exposes-you-to-hundreds-of-chemicals/
5 http://www.limetreelife.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/11/chemical-list11.pdf
6 http://www.naturalnews.com/031621_beauty_products_petroleum.html#

Friday, February 14, 2014

The Flappy Addiction

By Unknown in

Sometimes, after a tiring and stressful day, when there are no pressing or urgent matters to attend to, playing computer games can be a good way to destress and unwind. In recent times, however, games are no longer played on expensive game consoles such as xbox or playstation. The advent of android phones has unleashed a flurry of games that are more accessible to many people. Filipinos are technology savvy and enamoured in cellular phones that even tricylce drivers and our everyday 'magtataho' do not go out without one. Recent study shows that todays Filipino teens embrace technology, particularly the cellular phones and social networking sites. Thus, the proliferation of android games in many a cellphone users is nothing to be surprised about. There are different types of games that one can play on the android phone or the smart phone. There are the zombie type games, the war type gun shooting games ala Counter Strike, there are the fantasy games RPG (Role Playing Games) like DOTA (Defense of the Ancients), there are the puzzle games like Candy Crush, and many more types of games. And then there is this:

Flappy Bird. This is a 2013 mobile game notorious for its difficulty level developed in Hanoi by Vietnam based developer Nguyen Ha Dong. It's a side scrolling game with the objective of directing a flying bird, which moves continuously to the right between each oncoming set of pipes without colliding with them, which otherwise, ends the game. And what's more, the graphics is so pro! (sarcasm intended). A 2D retro-style graphics reminiscent of Nintendo games.
Some may think or ask, what 's the big deal about an obnoxious little bird trying to weave it's way through pipes? Why, in god's name, would it be addicting? According to Huffington Post, "Flappy bird is an insanely irritating, difficult and frustrating game which combines super-steep difficulty curve with bad, boring graphics and jerky movement". Depsite this, however, many claim that the game is very addicting. Every gamer has experienced the thrill of winning and the agony of defeat. The question that arises, then, is this: what happens in our brains when we play, and why can't we stop playing even punishing games like flappy bird? According to the writer Greg Stevens, the focused feeling when playing addictive games is like the concept of flow, which was coined by psychologist Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi. Flow arises 'when there is a perfect balance between stress and reward. If the task you're engaged in is too hard and you don't succeed, then you're emotions swing in one direction: anxiety, anger and frustration. If the task is too easy, you swing in the other: boredom and disinterest. When challenge and success are balanced, the result can be emotionally intoxicating. '

Flow is the creative process behind many inventors' and creative geniuses' works. Video games can also induce flow if they have that perfect mix of challenge and success. Besides that, playing them also increases the dopamine and adrenaline in our brains, which is why they can be so addictive. In the case of flappy bird, it may actually be a perfect mix of easy and difficult. The interface and gameplay is easy enough in that one just needs to tap to keep the bird in flight. However avoiding the pipes while keeping the bird in flight is actually difficult. Thus, the game can legitimately addicting for most. And here are some comments on just how this Flappy Bird phenomenon can be addicting:

So there we have it. People are indeed addicted to the game. However, some people have taken this addiction to whole new levels like the report about a boy who allegedly killed his own brother over a flappy bird score. This level of addiction may have been the impetus why the creator of the gave has already taken down the game. The mysterious of the worlds most popular free app, has told Forbes that Flappy Bird is dead. According to Forbes, Nguyen told them that "Flappy Bird was designed to play in a few minutes when you are relaxed, But it happened to become an addictive product. I think it has become a problem. To solve that problem, it’s best to take down Flappy Bird. It’s gone forever."
Of course, many Flappy bird addicts would not just sit by and watch this take place. When Nguyen decided to terminate the game, he received many negative responses, death threats, and suicide tweets. One woman even tweeted him a photo of a gun in her mouth, saying, “If you delete flappy bird, I’ll kill myself.” Even if a majority of these messages weren't serious, this gives you an idea of the massive amount of attention Nguyen was forced to endure during the game's sudden rise.
As for me, I would not harm myself or anyone for any games that I play whether it be addicting or not. I have played the famed game and I am about an inch close myself to getting addicted. I guess it was fortunate that Nguyen took it down.

Monday, February 10, 2014

Heavy Traffic: Reasons and Solutions

By Unknown in

Ever since I was a child, my ultimate wish was to learn how to drive. And when, finally, I learned how to drive and became the head driver of the family, I regret that I even pursued learning this skill. Why? Traffic here in the Philippines is just everywhere.

Every time we experience this kind of dilemma, which is every day, we tend to blame others. We blame the government agencies, the malls or schools nearby, the pedestrians crossing, the jeepneys unloading anywhere, the feeling of hunger, and sometimes the alarm clock that caused you to be late. But, really, who to blame?

Last 2007, there were about 5.5 million registered vehicles in the Philippines and about 20% of this is in National Capital Region. Are we that dependent on vehicles? This statistic, which is 6 years ago, might be a lot less than what it is now. Even with the number coding scheme, we can still feel this large amount of registered vehicles throughout the NCR. But these numbers only say that there is a problem that needs to be solved.

According to some people in other countries when going to the Philippines, the cars are much cheaper here compared to the country where they came from. Maybe because of the low cost of living here in the Philippines. This is a huge part of why lots and lots of vehicles are registered and are on the road every rush hour of every day.

The Philippines was one of the early developers of railway system in Asia. However, things have change. Today, we are underdeveloped. We only have 4 lines of railway system in Luzon. These are even above-the-ground railway systems. According to my professor in a Transportation subject in Civil Engineering, the early plans of railway system in Metro Manila were underground. But it never happened and the stations were even few.

Too much dependence on vehicular traveling is not good for the Filipino citizens. This is why the prices of everything here in the Philippines are all dependent on the price of gasoline. Addressing these problems will definitely lessen the traffic problems of everyday. Following the price scheme of cars of other countries and pursuing to extend railway lines will be solutions to this problem. Changed price will be forcing people to look for alternatives and extended railway lines will be that alternative.

Friday, January 31, 2014

Experimental Particle Physics

By Unknown in

Physicist André David Tinoco Mendes conducted a public forum on Experimental Particle Physics and Conseil Européen pour la Recherche Nucléaire (European Council for Nuclear Research) or CERN on January 29, 2014. He started his talk with explaining progress as stepping through paradigms. The discovery of fire led to the invention of the candle. The discovery of electricity led to the invention of the light bulb. The discovery of plasmas led to the invention of the fluorescent tube invention. The discovery of light-emitting diodes led to the invention of LED light bulbs. He evoked that no discoveries will entwine no inventions. Discoveries enable inventions. But discoveries more often than not stem from research with: no direct practical purpose; no immediate profit or gain; no clear path ahead; no support from society; no intention of making discoveries. This makes it hard for society to invest on highly diverse research which André David encourages.

Experimental physics is done in a controlled environment so that actual practical situations will have a better understanding on how to be handled. André David show an example of a situation where a car submerged underwater is to be lifted by a crane truck on land. The problem in the example was the weights were not computed or thought of before the procedure. The result was the car fell back in the water with the truck pulled by it. If a physicist or an expert had been there, he would have thought of the worst case scenario.

Particles have been defined in different ways as time went by. André David showed a figure on the changes of the number of different kinds of basic matter through time. It was believed that everything was different until the four elements were noticed to be a common characteristic in everything: Earth, air, fire and water. Then the types became more complex. Chemical elements were discovered to be organized. Through inventions, atomic to subatomic particles were discovered. Today, there is a standard model of particle physics.

The standard model of particle physics shows the relationship of Leptons, Quarks, Forces and the Higgs boson particle. The success of the standard model of particle physics was briefly discussed by André David. This model provides a paradigm of quantum field theory for scientists. But he noted the issues with the standard model. It does not explain how mass appears. Without a mechanism, the Higgs boson gives inconsistencies at high energies. And, it does not cover the unknown “stuff” such as dark matter and dark energy.

source: http://www.kip.uni-heidelberg.de/~coulon/Lectures/SM/SM.gif

Experimental Particle Physics requires accelerators, detectors, computing infrastructure and, researchers, engineers and scientists. André David discusses experimental particle physics through the advancements in CERN. The European Organization for Nuclear Research was founded in 1954 by twelve European countries. At present, it comprises of 21 member states with 488 million citizens. It receives an annual budget of about 1 billion Swiss francs.

source: CERN official website

Accelerators are machines that make particles collide at high energies to allow scientists to look deeper into matter and create heavy particles that do not exist in a stable state. This came from Einstein’s equation of energy and mass and De Broglie’s equation of Energy and spatial resolution as shown by André David. CERN has several accelerators e.g., the Large Hadron Collider (LHC), the Super Proton Synchrotron (SPS), the Large Electron–Positron Collider (LEP) and the Low Energy Ion Ring (LEIR). The LHC is the most famous accelerator. It costs about 6 billion US dollars on a 20-year investment plan by around 463 million member state citizens. That is around 30 Philippine pesos per person per year.

source: http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/b/ba/Cern-accelerator-complex.svg/800px-Cern-accelerator-complex.svg.png

CERN had plenty of contributions to the modern world. It is where the world wide web was born. André David emphasized the hypertext transfer protocol (HTTP) which was originally developed to help navigate information because it stood strong unlike other protocols. CERN also made contributions in pharmaceuticals. Research on the grid made a fast a more cost effective process. Geographic Information System or GIS by CERN helped in disaster management and in issues of amazon deforestation. CERN collaborated with other international organizations in projects such as in cryogenics for energy. Open Access Publishing was developed to grant access to peer-viewed results of publicly funded research to anybody, anywhere and anytime. CERN also had advancements in medical imaging with the Positron Emission Photography (PET) used for mammography and in medical therapy with the Hadron therapy. On the issue of climate change, from C.T.R. Wilson’s discovery of cloud chambers, CERN started the experiment CLOUD or Cosmics Leaving Outdoor Droplets.

André David demonstrated an active lecture with hints of humour and defined uncommon terms fairly well. Despite the differences of culture of the audience and the speaker, an attentive connection filled the auditorium. His last slide displayed “No Discovery, No Invention”. This last note serve as an advocacy for the audience. The enthusiasm during the question and answer portion certainly proved the interest that developed in the audience. CERN is a shining example of research that led to discovery that led to inventions. Society should invest more in research. Hopefully, the Philippines would embrace this advocacy.

SCIENCE

WEEKLY

The Moral Issue of Embryonic Stem Cell Research

How Flexible Can Our Phones Get?

Can they really do wonders?

The Flappy Addiction

Heavy Traffic: Reasons and Solutions

Experimental Particle Physics

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