Oh Science, How I Love You

As I was researching for a topic in microbiology to present to the class in May, I encountered many different science articles that were quite interesting. I didn't know scientists asked these kinds of questions in the first place! Well, here are the top 5 science articles that I read. Enjoy!

5) Pious "fight death the hardest"

Apparently, people who have the strong religious beliefs tend to do anything and everything possible to try to stay alive, even though they are on the edge of death. People who who had terminal cancers and prayed regularly were three times more likely to receive intensive life-prolonging care than those who relied least on religion. The major issue of this is that people who receive this life-prolonging care ultimately had a massive reduction in the quality of life on their last few days on Earth. Intensive end-of-life care includes ventilator support, resuscitation, having a feeding tube, and non-palliative (non-disease treating) chemotherapy. These treatments were associated with more psychological and physical distress. In addition, the chances of a patient dying in their "preferred place" is reduced.

The reason for this study is primarily targeted to those who give religious guidance to these patients, like the chaplains in a hospital or hospice. It opens the discussion as to if those that provide pastoral counsel to these patients with terminal cancers or any life-ending disease should try to convince these patients to be more comfortable with dying. I would especially like to die at a place of my choice if I'm struck with a terminal cancer. I found this article surprising because I would have thought that a person strong with their faith would be more embracing to their fates. However, perhaps these same patients are looking for a "miracle" that will allow them to live a few years more. If God really wanted them to live a little longer, He would've found a way. Otherwise, if He wants us to come home, He will find a way to that as well.

Also, maybe this article is another way of saying that humanity is afraid to die, regardless of whether or not we are confident on what is on the other side. I think even those that don't seem to be afraid of their deaths are afraid to die. Even though we may not have control on how we will leave this Earth, we have control on how we meet that fate. If I knew that I was going to die in a few days or weeks, the last place I would want to be is in a hospital having tubes shoved in my throat just to live a few minutes more.

4) Kids Curb Marital Satisfaction

A study involving 218 couples found that 90% of them have experienced a decrease in marital satisfaction when they had their first child. Note that couples who don't have children will have a decrease in marital satisfaction as well, but at a slower rate than those who have children. There are key variables that can exacerbate this marital dissatisfaction. Couples who lived together before marriage had more problems after the birth of a child than those who lived separately before marriage. Also, the problems are increased further if the couples' parents fought frequently or were divorced.

To be fair, the article also states that children don't ruin everything. Even though, marital happiness may go down with a child, other forms of happiness, like family happiness, can make the experience of marriage much more satisfying. However, this aspect of the relationship was not a part of this study.

3) Calorie-Burning Fat? Studies Say You Have It

If you especially have taken BIO SCI 98 at UCI, you may have been introduced to the concept of brown fat. It is the type of fat most commonly found in infants to keep them warm since they are unable to shiver when they are cold. However, it was once believed that as we get older and when the shivering response improves, the brown fat goes away. Researchers are proposing that this is wrong.

The paper indicates that most adults have a little bit of brown fat left in them that burn massive amounts of energy (a.k.a Calories) when activated by the cold (the example given to this type of environment is sitting in a room that is between 61 and 66 degrees Fahrenheit). There are also key variables in this study. Thinner people have more brown fat than heavier people, younger people, people with a higher metabolic rate, and women also have more brown fat than their respected opposites. What makes brown fat does its thing is that it is filled with mitochondria, which are the major energy producers found in a cell. Mitochondria also contains iron, which gives brown fat its reddish brown color.

Note that while there is potential that brown fat can be used to curb obesity in this study, it will no doubt take years to actually confirm this to be true and to find out what are the conditions required to make this happen. If it is confirmed, we may find drugs that increase brown fat production in our lifetime. Also, there's the idea of just hanging out in the cold.

2) 10 Surprising Sex Statistics

While there are nine other surprising sex statistics, the one that sticks out was the human papillomavirus (HPV). A startling 50% of sexually active men and women will catch a gential HPV infection in their lives. This can result at the very least genital warts and at the very worst cervical cancer and other forms of cancer. However, note that 90% of HPV cases will be fought off by the immune system in 2 years.

Also, there was another article that stated that HPV is also a chief culprit in throat cancers from those that had given oral sex to more than 6 partners. And who said oral sex was a safer form of sex? What a dirty world we live in, both figuratively and literally.

Note that there was a stastic about the average size of an erect penis in this article. Just looking at the ruler on my desk, I think they meant 4 to 6 cm in circumference, NOT 4 to 6 in.!

1) Our moral thermostat - why being good can give people license to misbehave

This is the article that stood out the most for me. It seems that the more people think of themselves as being good or morally right are also inclined to morally "slack-off" than those that think that their moral identity is being threatened. The study shows that people who describe themselves in a more positive note like "caring", "generous", and "kind" are less likely to give to charity or care about the environment than those that have a neutral descrpition of themselves or even those that thought of themselves negatively.

The researcher states two reasons for this. The first is habits. The more we do good and selfless acts, the more likely it becomes routine (e.g. recycling). Therefore, the effort lessens, the "costs" seems smaller, and the potential for moral licensing fades. The second reason is the standards that people give to themselves. People who satisfy their moral goals tend to award themselves by disengaging from their morally right behavior. Those who give themselves much higher goals are more likely to stay morally right and good.

Perhaps this is why the so-called "religious" people in our society are so damn annoying, or even why the big pastors, priests, and ministers do such heinous or shocking things. I guess our world is indeed filled with "saintly sinners and sinning saints".

In terms of myself, I can describe myself as a good person, but I'm not that good.

That is all.