Monthly Archives: April 2014

Depression leading to Heart Failure

I was reading a little about research done in the medical field on Science Daily.  It was very interesting.  The more and more I read, I realize just how related our physical and emotional states are.  It is incredible just how great of an effect emotional instability (as seen in depression) can play on one’s life.  For example, people with depression have a 40% higher chance of developing heart failure (according to research done by Ms. Gustad – see article on Science Daily).  At first glance this seems like a shocking statistic.  However, upon closer examination, it is quite self-explanatory.  If one is depressed, their lifestyle completely changes.  They are less active and tend to eat unhealthy foods.  It just continues to amaze me how much affect one’s mental state can have on their physical state.

New Virus Found in Russian Tundra

I found this interesting article on the Economist, and thought I’d share. A group of virus-hunting scientists thawed a 32,000-year-old slab of Siberian permafrost and discovered a virus that infects a species of amoeba. While an average virus has 9,000 bases, this virus (named Mimivirus) has more than 1m bases in its genome. It is also huge physically – 600 nm across. Scientists claim that even though this virus is enormous, it is not very dangerous to people/humans. The full article link is- http://www.economist.com/news/science-and-technology/21598612-exotic-giant-virus-thawed-russian-tundra-siberia-strain

Z is for Zebra: Why Zebras have Stripes

Tim Caro and his colleagues from the University of California at Davis believe that they have answered the age old question of why zebras have stripes–they believe the stripes ward off bugs. These scientists did extensive geographic testing on different equis species, using phylogeny to compare the major hypothesis for cause behind the stripes. After determining that the stripes were likely insect repellents, they did testing with tsetse flies and tabanid biting flies, discovering that there is indeed correlation between pattern and where the bugs landed. Apparently flies do not like stripes.

 

Read their article here: http://www.nature.com/ncomms/2014/140401/ncomms4535/full/ncomms4535.html