howmanypeopleareinspacerightnow.com says there are 6 people in space as I write this blog.

This blog is mainly inspired by Mary Roach’s 2010 book, Packing for Mars: The Curious Science of Life in the Void. In Roach’s book you will find some of the must entertaining information about day-to-day matters in space, from pooping to mating without gravity and more. Roach never fails to amuse her readers, so if you haven’t read her book I highly recommend you do. Now if you’re time constraint then continue reading and allow me to spoil it for you.

Have you ever wonder what it takes to escape planet Earth or why are planets round, especially the huge gas giants? Or “what is the biggest planet in the whole world?” Ok, this last question is a joke but somehow it’s a Google top search, just type: What is the biggest planet… and you’ll see it at the number four spot of top searches. The human...

If thou examinist a man for illness in his cardia, and he has pains in his arms, in his breasts and on one side of his cardia…it is death threatening him
– Ebers Papyrus

Just recently I finished covering the heart and cardiovascular system of an introductory anatomy and physiology course. As always, I have recorded a fair amount of notes along the way that I would like to share with you all.

But lets start with a few historical facts. There’s no doubt the prominence of the heart was paved by the practices of the Egyptians. Through a forty seven case medical treatise, known as the Edwin Smith Papyrus, we find that the heart was the only organ left inside of a corpse during mummification as it was believed to contain the essence of a person. This essence often referred in the Book of the Dead as the Ka...

The microbial world is fascinating. Textbooks agree with one another stating that air-independent unicellular microorganisms were the first colonizers of our planet. These organisms split into what we now call archaea and bacteria, and dominated the world for approximately 3 billion years. Over our short evolutionary history we have developed a symbiotic relationship with microbes. The most noteworthy of these relationships is the endosymbiotic theory, which states that the power house, otherwise known as mitochondria, within each one of our cells were once independent prokaryotes who were later engulfed by a eukaryotic (animal) cell. These mitochondria thrived inside of eukaryotic cells obtaining the necessary nutrients for survival quid pro quo of energy in the form of ATP to their host.

This will be your one paragraph course on bacteria. Bacteria come in three basic shape-models...

The Walking Dead’s new season has started. Zombies have once again resurrected from the dead. But why are we excited to see decomposed bodies walk across the Bible Belt in search of fresh goods? Why have zombies risen, not just from the dead but also in popularity? I personally like to see the work done by the make-up artists, kudos to them! If you recall in the opening segment of last week’s episode there was a scene where a zombie squeezed himself between the narrow space of two trucks, ripping his skin as if it was a piece of paper. After the scene, I was left contemplating how the body gets to that point. Though the scene was very extreme it lets our imagination lose!

Dead is inevitable. It is enigmatic. The topic of the afterlife and the human soul is left to personal beliefs; what we can discuss, is the physical transition of life and death. Mary Roach describes in Stiff: The...

I began gathering notes on this subject when I first learned the association between sleep and memory consolidation (converting short term memories to long term). In a time when memory collection and recall is highly regarded one is urged to find ways to maximize the efficacy of these, and so I began my search through books, periodicals, scientific articles, and other materials for ways to become an efficient learner. What I found is nonetheless worth sharing.

Sleep is not only essential for learning and memory but also plays an important role in a large number of biological processes. In the past 20 years neuroscientists have learned the importance of sleep regarding the workings of the immune system, hormonal balance, emotional and mental health, and just lately the clearance of toxins from the brain. We know that melatonin, a hormone derived from serotonin and secreted by the...

“Pyramid schemes are illegal” says Aditi Jhaveri, Consumer Education Specialist with The Federal Trade Commission.

Despite criticism against pyramid schemes many companies have experienced abundant popularity in the last decade. Most internet users have noticed an influx of people luring potential candidates through social media to join “business opportunities” for a start-up fee and monthly purchasing commitments to maintain an active status within the company, these same companies provide high energy groups to maintain the momentum and the enthusiasm. But what is behind this business model that one must be skeptical about? Let start by how to identify red flags. The Federal Trade Commission provides two simple points that raise a red flag, these are: 1) Income is primarily based on recruitment not on sales 2) One is required to buy inventory even if the person does not need or want...

with vitamins and minerals…

This question turns out to be not as simple as it seems. In a time of information it is imperative for people to cultivate the ability to learn how to search for reliable information. A couple of years ago I reviewed some articles in an effort to find valid information that would allow me to postulate a well-founded answer. This blog is a brief summary of the information I have collected through courses in organic chemistry, biochemistry, molecular and cellular biology, and the literature.

Discovered in 1965, permitted for limited use 1981, and accepted as a general sweetener in 1996, aspartame is approximately 180 to 200 times sweeter than sugar. It is composed of two amino acid residues and an alcohol, they are: phenylalanine (50%), aspartic acid (40%), and methanol (10%), respectively. You might already know this but amino acids are the building blocks...

If I told you that your 4 month old is equipped with rudimentary skills in mathematics you would probably think I am out of my mind. Popular lore has it that babies are born into the world with a complete blank slate, but that is far from the truth. Karen Wynn from Yale University believes we are programed with certain mental capabilities, like rudimental arithmetic and other pattern recognition skills.

Wynn uses the “looking time method” in her baby lab to detect attention intervals in participants. The principal behind the experiment is to detect what a baby finds surprising or unexpected. Allow me to illustrate this principle, an experimenter shows a stage with two toys, the baby stares for a little and deviates his gaze. The experimenter now shows one toy on stage, covers it with a curtain and shows a second toy entering the stage, the curtain is taken off, the baby sees the two...

I recently found myself contemplating the proficiency of my 3 year old nephew as he skillfully put his iPad to use. YouTube videos, angry birds, minions, and contemporary music plagued the multiple windows of his iPad. Then, I went back in time. The year was 1997. I was sitting, for the first time, in front of my new desktop computer, a Compaq Presario, playing a 2-dimensional game in Windows ‘95 when some friends knocked on my front door and requested we headed out to enjoy fun activities. My generation was the vision of what previous generations thought of a healthy childhood. I feel as if most of us, the millennials, had an intrinsic balance between physical socialization and the primitive cyber-world around us, but perhaps that balance was not much of a choice, rather a circumstance.

Today, technology is often indirectly criticized as a cause for childhood obesity, and antisocial...