Own immediate environment
I took a walk around the apartment community I live in and encountered the following animals/insects along the way: neighbor's cat, squirrels, another neighbor's dogs, dead earthworms (I guess they came out after the rain), butterflies, birds and some flying bugs. So, it's definitely quite a diversity. In my own apartment however, there aren't really any other visible creatures around, but I am sure there are lots of invisible bacterias (good and bad ones) abound.
Cocoa to rid of West's top killer diseases
It's certainly good news that some of the most deadly diseases can be cured with this palate pleaser. But I think exercise should be a must in any health-regime. To live is to move.
And as with everything in life, always follow the way of the mean. So, even though cocoa is a wonderful panacea, I think it should be consumed in moderation. Sometimes there is the idea of "if one is good, two must be better", but this isn't necessarily true. Interestingly, natives never consumed cocoa as food, but only for sacred use. That's something for thought.
Tonight's discussion
The situation in Japan is really devastating. But it's good to know that the radiation levels in the waters off the coast have fallen dramatically. Many faceless heroes have worked hard trying to prevent more leakage of the radiation. The working condition is appalling for these workers, however, these workers still keep going, fighting against something that no one knows when an end will come or when the situation will come under control. Whatever it is that keep them there and keep them going, I take off my hat to these people and their families.
Saturday, April 9, 2011
Sunday, April 3, 2011
Week Thirteen: Free Radicals and Antioxidants
Heavy reliance on supplements
I definitely think that majority of the population rely too heavily on supplements to provide antioxidants. I myself used to take all sorts of vitamins and supplements thinking that I needed those to maintain my health. But now, I won't even take them even if they were handed to me for free. Of course, there are those who'd swear by vitamins and supplements. But I've read lots of articles about the side effects of supplements and they seem to outweigh the benefits. Thousands or even a few hundred years ago, there were no supplements, yet people were very much in great health, in fact, much healthier than the people of today! I think it's our lifestyle which seems to be less and less in tune with nature that there's a need for artificial supplements. But this creates a bad cycle, the more man-made chemicals we feed our body, the less opportunity we give our body to absorb and digest natural food and vitamins and more dependent we become of these chemicals and the more foreign our body becomes to natural foods.
Environmental pollutants
I think the bottom line is to get the government to intervene and set laws and regulations to regulate the wastes that are released into the environment. It's very easy for the rich countries to pack the wastes and dump them in poor countries, but this is unethical and the poor countries shouldn't have to deal with the consequences of actions that weren't induced by them in the first place. Until then, I think we'd be in a passive position whereby we can only respond to problems as they occur, e.g. the recent earthquake that caused the radiation leak. But usually by then it's too late. There are many things been done right now to reduce our carbon footprints, let's pray the pace is fast enough to reverse the damages already done.
Comment on class discussion
It's interesting to read about these seemingly sophisticated hands-free faucets actually harbor more germs than traditional ones. Makes you wonder about many other things that we might consider more technologically advanced, but aren't actually better for us, e.g. air conditioning vs traditional electrical fans. Research shows that air conditioning can aggravate arthritis, neurosis, and sinus inflammation. There are also micro organisms that end up in air conditioning units that cause breathing troubles.
I definitely think that majority of the population rely too heavily on supplements to provide antioxidants. I myself used to take all sorts of vitamins and supplements thinking that I needed those to maintain my health. But now, I won't even take them even if they were handed to me for free. Of course, there are those who'd swear by vitamins and supplements. But I've read lots of articles about the side effects of supplements and they seem to outweigh the benefits. Thousands or even a few hundred years ago, there were no supplements, yet people were very much in great health, in fact, much healthier than the people of today! I think it's our lifestyle which seems to be less and less in tune with nature that there's a need for artificial supplements. But this creates a bad cycle, the more man-made chemicals we feed our body, the less opportunity we give our body to absorb and digest natural food and vitamins and more dependent we become of these chemicals and the more foreign our body becomes to natural foods.
Environmental pollutants
I think the bottom line is to get the government to intervene and set laws and regulations to regulate the wastes that are released into the environment. It's very easy for the rich countries to pack the wastes and dump them in poor countries, but this is unethical and the poor countries shouldn't have to deal with the consequences of actions that weren't induced by them in the first place. Until then, I think we'd be in a passive position whereby we can only respond to problems as they occur, e.g. the recent earthquake that caused the radiation leak. But usually by then it's too late. There are many things been done right now to reduce our carbon footprints, let's pray the pace is fast enough to reverse the damages already done.
Comment on class discussion
It's interesting to read about these seemingly sophisticated hands-free faucets actually harbor more germs than traditional ones. Makes you wonder about many other things that we might consider more technologically advanced, but aren't actually better for us, e.g. air conditioning vs traditional electrical fans. Research shows that air conditioning can aggravate arthritis, neurosis, and sinus inflammation. There are also micro organisms that end up in air conditioning units that cause breathing troubles.
Wednesday, March 30, 2011
Week Twelve : Cell Biology
Mitosis vs Meiosis
Simple, easy way to understand the two processes and the difference between the two.
I also found the following neat summary online:
Citric Cycle Animation
A very clear illustration of the entire citric acid cycle. It's amazing how little cells invisible to the human eye can perform highly-complicated chemical processes to give us energy.
Below is my understanding of the cycle:
Pyruvate supplies energy to living cells through the citric acid cycle. Citric acid cycle is a series of chemical reactions using enzymes as catalysts. The cycle takes place in the mitochondria. The citric acid cycle is involved in the chemical conversion of carbohydrates, fat and proteins into carbon dioxide and water to generate ATP produced in the cycle.
Comment on "it is the network of interactions ......not one of its components."
Although totally unrelated, but this made me think of how Chinese herbal formulas work. TCM herbs are never prescribed individually, but always combined with other herbs to create desired effects. One toxic herb doesn't make the entire formula toxic. However, the word "toxic" would make many who are foreign to Chinese medicine skeptical and doubtful of the efficacy of the medicine. There is a famous Chinese saying, "use toxin to attack toxin". In a well-thought out formula, toxicity of herbs are reduced to minimum if not totally eliminated and each herb's strength is enhanced through the combination. So, it's never about what a single herb can do, but the power released when it is combined with other herbs.
Simple, easy way to understand the two processes and the difference between the two.
I also found the following neat summary online:
Citric Cycle Animation
A very clear illustration of the entire citric acid cycle. It's amazing how little cells invisible to the human eye can perform highly-complicated chemical processes to give us energy.
Below is my understanding of the cycle:
Pyruvate supplies energy to living cells through the citric acid cycle. Citric acid cycle is a series of chemical reactions using enzymes as catalysts. The cycle takes place in the mitochondria. The citric acid cycle is involved in the chemical conversion of carbohydrates, fat and proteins into carbon dioxide and water to generate ATP produced in the cycle.
Comment on "it is the network of interactions ......not one of its components."
Although totally unrelated, but this made me think of how Chinese herbal formulas work. TCM herbs are never prescribed individually, but always combined with other herbs to create desired effects. One toxic herb doesn't make the entire formula toxic. However, the word "toxic" would make many who are foreign to Chinese medicine skeptical and doubtful of the efficacy of the medicine. There is a famous Chinese saying, "use toxin to attack toxin". In a well-thought out formula, toxicity of herbs are reduced to minimum if not totally eliminated and each herb's strength is enhanced through the combination. So, it's never about what a single herb can do, but the power released when it is combined with other herbs.
Wednesday, March 23, 2011
Week Eleven: the Chemistry of Life
Review of Animations
I clicked on the periodic table as well as the metabolic pathways links and found both very interesting. Periodic table is something we are familiar with. The metabolic pathways is interesting, but all the chemistry jargon make it a little difficult to understand. The urea cycle confirmed what we learned in pathology, urea is made in liver and not in kidneys. I'd like to revisit the links again at the end of the course, may be by then I'll have a better understanding of what all the terms mean.
Do our ends justify our means?
In the span of history, with the rise and fall of empires and kingdoms, men have learned how to defend for themselves, how to make the most out of scarce resources and most importantly, how to survive. With the evolution of time and changes brought by the industrial revolution, survival is no longer a concern for most people. People want more than just survival, they want to accumulate wealth, assets, material goods and whatever it is, the bigger, the better, the more, the merrier. And so, through technology and intelligence, mankind have achieved its goal. For most people, they now have easy access to all kinds of food and material goods, yet all this has come at a price. One decade into the 21st century, and we've already had to deal with so many alarming natural disasters, not to mention the man-made disasters fueled by greed. In the past, productivity was regarded more highly than sustainability, but in the wake of all the recent major disasters, it seems we should now once-again be concerned with survival and this time, not about how to get more to survive, but how to cut down and conserve.
I clicked on the periodic table as well as the metabolic pathways links and found both very interesting. Periodic table is something we are familiar with. The metabolic pathways is interesting, but all the chemistry jargon make it a little difficult to understand. The urea cycle confirmed what we learned in pathology, urea is made in liver and not in kidneys. I'd like to revisit the links again at the end of the course, may be by then I'll have a better understanding of what all the terms mean.
Do our ends justify our means?
In the span of history, with the rise and fall of empires and kingdoms, men have learned how to defend for themselves, how to make the most out of scarce resources and most importantly, how to survive. With the evolution of time and changes brought by the industrial revolution, survival is no longer a concern for most people. People want more than just survival, they want to accumulate wealth, assets, material goods and whatever it is, the bigger, the better, the more, the merrier. And so, through technology and intelligence, mankind have achieved its goal. For most people, they now have easy access to all kinds of food and material goods, yet all this has come at a price. One decade into the 21st century, and we've already had to deal with so many alarming natural disasters, not to mention the man-made disasters fueled by greed. In the past, productivity was regarded more highly than sustainability, but in the wake of all the recent major disasters, it seems we should now once-again be concerned with survival and this time, not about how to get more to survive, but how to cut down and conserve.
Friday, March 4, 2011
Mid-term paper
I chose "green chemistry" as my topic because it's so relevant to everyone of us. With the recent change in weather patterns around the world as well as the scale of natural disasters, it is clear that Mother Nature is taking drastic measures to re-balance itself. If we continue to ignore her cries, pretty soon we'd wipe ourselves out of existence. If we can all just make one small change in our lifestyle, e.g meatless on Mondays, together, the effects can be dramatic! One little step at a time...
Wednesday, March 2, 2011
General Chemistry - Balancing Equations - Tutorials
Detailed step-by-step tutorial illustrating how to balance a chemical equation. I think I am beginning to like chemistry.
Welcome to Chembalancer
The game was fun! It was a nice, fun way to learn balancing chemical equations. I think I've finally learned how to balance chemical equations for the first time! despite having learned them many years back in high school...
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