Science of Music: 8 ways music affects our brain

Music is an integral part of our lives. An upbeat sound can help keep us alive and kicking through a workout.  Happy tunes could easily brighten someone’s day and we all have that song that we always listen to when we’re feeling down.  Indeed, any kind of music always have an impact on our emotions. Based on different studies, music actually does more; it affects our perception, skills, and development. One’s personality is sometimes judged and derived based on his/her musical preferences. Scientific studies revealed that music affects different areas of our brain and here we summarize 8 different ways it affects us. 

1. Music affects our perception of faces

A study by Logeswaran and Bhattacharya, Crossmodal transfer of emotion by music, have shown that when the subjects were asked to interpret neutral faces whether they are happy or sad, while listening to a music piece, they tend to match the emotions of the neutral faces to the emotions of the music that they are listening to.

2. Lower the volume to improve creativity

When we want to keep our creative juices flowing, pumped up tunes and loud music may not be helpful. A moderate noise level increase the difficulty of processing and promotes abstract processing, which leads to higher levels of creativity. So the next time you have to work on something that requires you to think creatively and come up with new ideas, skip the rock playlist and work in an environment with moderate, ambient noise.

3. Different music genres match different personalities

In a study by Rentgrow and Gosling in 2006, Message in a Ballad. The Role of Music Preferences in Interpersonal Perception, couples who are getting to know each other fared well in their personality predictions by judging based on the top ten favorite songs of the other person. Their study revealed the different personalities of people who prefer certain music genres.

4. Your music preference may be a distraction when driving

A study was conducted on teenagers and young adults on how music affects their driving. It revealed that drivers made more mistakes and are more aggressive when their preferred music was playing. On the other hand, music played by the researches were beneficial. Thus, unfamiliar music seem to be the best choice when driving.

5. Music training can help children develop motor and reasoning skills

A study revealed that children who had at least three years of musical training perform better on auditory discrimination, motor skills, as well as verbal and nonverbal reasoning.

6. Enhance visual attention through classical music

In one study, visual attention of stroke patients were improved when they listen to classical music. The effect of noise and silence were also studied, and silence provided the worst results.

7. One-sided conversations are more distracting and annoying

A study revealed that the most distracting conversational noise is a phone call conversation where we can only hear one person talking. In another survey, 82% of the respondents say that overhearing conversations on the cellphone are annoying. A cognitive scientist, Veronice Galván, studied why these are the noise that are most distracting and found out that one-sided conversations easily grab our attention due to unpredictability and lack of context.

8. Music can help us last longer on a workout

The link between exercise efficiency and music have been studied for years. Music helps us exercise better as it grabs our attention and drowns out the fatigue signals of our brain. In a study, the tempo and genre of the music generally plays a role in helping us work

A more detailed discussion on this can be read here.

A Squeaky Experiment

It is impossible for animals to interact with people the way people interact with each other and it is also impossible for the other way around. Most of us might think that maybe there is a way that we are yet to discover. Amazingly, some scientists bridged this gap between humans and animals, particularly, rodents.

There is this experiment, done by Mel Slater and Mandayam Srinivasan at a lab in Barcelona where they have shown a person a way of interacting with a rat. This interaction was not on the real world but it is done over the internet, or we might say virtually. 

Basically, the procedure of the experiment was that there is a person wearing high def goggles, an arena where a baseball-sized robot and a rat is placed and the internet. The aim was for the person to interact with the rat virtually while the rat interacts with the robot, which is controlled by the person's movement. This interaction can be projected on the computer. Both the rat and the person appears to be humans on the computer therefore no one will really know whether the one they are interacting with is an animal or not.

The aim of the experiment was to study further the behavior of rats by somehow interacting with them. This experiment surely will inspire other scientists or even common people to venture or study about this matter further and might try to interact not only with rats but other animals as well.

to know further about this topic, you can go to http://discovermagazine.com/2013/june/03-on-the-internet-nobody-knows-youre-a-rat#.Ux8LK_mSxK0.

No need for designers?

Squarespacelogo is a web app that offers instant branding to whoever wants for as low as $10. This has been only one of the few great design ideas that came out to be successful. And as a designer myself, I have to be honest, I don’t think it’s successful, I think it’s brilliant.

In the Philippines, a customary designer would normally get paid a minimum of P25k for a logo alone; this is not yet inclusive of corporate communication materials, identity manual and other tools that complete a brand. Squarespacelogo on the other hand, only charges clients barely 2% of the usual rate of a Filipino designer, which makes it quite obviously, the best choice there is; especially for clients in search for good designers.

The whole idea of the Squarespace logo has created hostile buzzes in the industry for quite a while now. Apparently the idea hasn’t been very popular to many designers, and honestly, I don’t see that happening anytime soon. It’s no surprise though, because design projects in the Philippines are very hard to find. And to coexist with a web app that is able to provide clients with what they exactly want? That is a designer’s ultimate nightmare. This however, shouldn’t be enough to stop designers from creating. Creativity is a natural ability, it is a mental construct not many are gifted with; it is not something that can simply be taught or transferred or even adapted by technology. I still strongly believe that designers will never run out of jobs or become obsolete so long as they continue producing quality work.       

Check out: http://www.squarespace.com/logo/

Healthy Living

In order to maintain having a healthy body, one must assert the effort of keeping a healthy lifestyle through regular exercise and proper diet.  Consuming too much food and not enough exercise will lead a person to obesity while having too consumed too little amounts of food will make the person get illness and may cause underweight.

There are certain types of food that the body needs in order to maintain good health. The main food groups are proteins, fats and carbohydrates. Just the right of amount of nutrients from the three spectrum would make a vast difference considering if you don’t have a healthy lifestyle today.  Examples of Carbohydrates are potatoes, pasta, bread, rice and sugar. Carbohydrates is a source of energy while proteins are needed for growth and repair of cells. Proteins comprise of cheese, eggs, fish and meat. Lastly, cheese, oils, margarine and butter are examples of fat which are needed also to make cell membranes and to insulate our bodies.  Vitamins and mineral ions are very important to be in our body and these can be consumed through maintenance medicines and foods which are rich in vitamins.

A poor diet may lead to deficiency in diseases. Like for example when you don’t consume food that is rich in Vitamin D it will have a heavy effect on the proper growth of the bones.

It is important to have your regular check up and know which vitamins and kinds of food that you should and should not be eating in order to have a full, balanced and happy life.

Exercising may be tiring and time consuming but it has a lot of relevance in maintaining a fit body. If you really don’t have the time you can do alternatives in your routine like instead of using the elevator use the stairs, if you are used to drinking soft drinks, instead have water and fruit juices. 

Pathogens: Bacteria and Viruses

Pathogens are microorganism that causes diseases; its main types are viruses and bacteria. Bacteria are said to come in many shapes and sizes but are microscopic in form, it releases toxins in the body.  Bacteria have the ability to multiply immediately and once it is inside our bodies, it releases toxins that allow us to feel ill. Some diseases caused by bacteria are typhoid, cholera, food poisoning and so on and so fort.  While viruses on the other hand damage our cells and are said to be way smaller than bacteria. Viruses get to damage a cell by reproducing in a host cell once they are inside of it.  Some diseases caused by viruses are flu, colds, mumps, chicken pox, measles, and AIDs,

White blood cells destroy pathogens by producing antibodies.  Antibodies destroy infectious microorganisms, and antitoxins to neutralize toxins.

Just to be clear, pathogens are the ones that cause diseases and white blood cell ingest these pathogens.  Our bodies will be able to fight and produce more white blood cells through vaccination and a proper healthy lifestyle. There are several types of vaccines that cater to different diseases, some of these vaccines last a lifetime and some last for a certain time only.  Medicines such as antibiotics and penicillin also relieve and kill infectious diseases.

            Many people disregard the importance of having a healthy lifestyle. Many of us do not know but it has been regarded as a need for socio-economic development man. We can avoid such pathogens if we have a healthy lifestyle and give importance to our health. 

Is Geography Susceptible to Change?

                As the common saying goes, change is the only permanent entity in this world. Hence, we should see change with outmost vigour and attention since it only marks room for improvements, and as Geography itself is a discipline as what the paper suggested, it should be open to new and innovative ideas and processes that has the capacity to further develop it.

                The controversy I was very interested at was the “Generational gap” issue that was stated in the reading material, the way I see it, veteran geographers fail to comprehend and appreciate new and fresh concepts being presented by new geographers. I think one way to make a successful linkage between the “old” and the “new” is through a uniform medium of communication, in other words, a functional language, since we all communicate through the use of language, I do think that if only the two parties can effectively exchange ideas through a well versed language, the problem will be diminished, if not eradicated.

         I think now that we have the greater capacity to understand the still unrealizable concepts of Geography, we have focused too much on the sub-disciplines and even further dividing them to more contemporaries, we have overlooked the whole picture and instead, focused on the individual and categorized parts of it, it has been mentioned on the article that geographers have been interested in categorizing the ideas we currently have in Geography into more defined constituents. The problem is manifested by the time these constituents will try to stabilize themselves and then they find out that there already is a subject field very well related to it, like Geomorphologists with Geologists, and Economic Geographers with Economists, and then a shaky solution would be to further glue itself within the realms of Geography, which I think is appropriate but not concrete.

                Lastly, I think one way of limiting the chaotic nature of the definition of Geography is by admitting that there is indeed no definition that can exactly and totally satisfy the ideas of all the esteemed geographers have combined, each will have their own opinion on what should be included and what should be crashed-out, but through a convention of a general thought, not necessarily going to the specifics, we can all free ourselves from endless debates and argumentations.

source (pic):www.prometheanplanet.com

Every Step Counts: How to Make A Road Map by Foot.

                Of all the times to make a road map, we have unwittingly selected a scorching-hot afternoon. It was as if the Sun would burst into flames at any minute, but fortunate as we are, the shade given by the good ole Acacia Trees, proved enough to keep us from melting. It was around three in the afternoon when we assembled ourselves near the AS steps. Jayson, armed with the knowledge of his own pace factor, prepared himself for a more or less two kilometer walk along the paseo of the Academic Oval. At first, he had an energetic pace while walking, while the rest of us scurried along. It was apparently a good start, most of us were functioning well, nevertheless, taking note of the road signs that are to be found around the oval. But as we progressed in our journey, our stamina started dwindling down. Good thing that as soon as we see a road sign, we necessarily have to stop to get salient information to document in our road map, like how many steps were made from this sign to that? Significant questions that needed specific answers to assure the accuracy of our work. The first thousandth step, was exciting, since we felt that we were doing something out of the ordinary, feeling like professional cartographers, we took pride in every sign of progress we had like the increasing amount of steps Jayson has made, the number of road signs we had observed, and we were nearing at least a quarter of the whole Academic oval. But the challenged appeared, when Jayson, our runner, took his 1001^st step, in one way or another we had an epiphany that we have a long way to go with thousands of steps waiting to be crossed. It was a test of patience, as to how much you can further bare walking while counting. As tedious as it may seem, we had no choice but to continue our seemingly hundred-mile walk. The moment we had our 2000^th step, was for me, personally, the most draining, since we now were halfway through, and we had a clue as to how many steps more we were supposed to make. But this time, we at least have accomplished around 50% of our task, so it was somehow a motivational thought. One thing we have realized at this point in our journey was the many road signs people and cars alike tend to defy. I don’t know if they intentionally or not do so, like students crossing the streets without any pedestrian lanes around, cars honking repeatedly at close proximity to a “No blowing of horns” sign, funny but in a way disturbing, and I will be explaining later as to why I found it as such. By the time we have reached our 3000^th step, there was a sense of urgency, “Walk, Jayson, Walk!” became our battle cry, as if punishing him further.  Apparently, we all got excited that we were nearing the end of this seriously tedious task, our strengths have been refuelled with the thought of almost completing our journey. And finally, as Jayson took his 4,076^th step, we felt accomplished.

                The reason why I took time, to expressively convey our experience was to show how difficult it is to be a cartographer; it is a profession that needs patience, endurance, and passion. As I was making this reaction paper, I asked my groupmates as to what their reactions were, Ciesca said, that “Inaccuracies are inevitable, because of the inconsistencies of our limited material used for measuring, like the pace factor, the person, could have unknowingly took a wider step than usual while walking, and things like these, would eventually add up to make a bigger room for mistakes.” Jayson, whom I thought had the biggest amount of work done said, “Mahirap pala maglakad na iniisip at binibilang mo pa ang bawat hakbang na tinatahak mo.” Indeed, I think no one said this was a piece of cake, but we never really knew just how difficult was difficult until we experienced it firsthand.  And since, I think, we have somehow established the fact that making maps are difficult, it is just disturbing that some people do not follow these road signs at all, to the point that we were saying, “Gumagawa pa tayo ng road signs map, eh wala naman palang silbi ang mga road signs.” It somehow added further heat to the already scorching afternoon. Well, c’est la vie.

source (pic): http://miccaldo.files.wordpress.com

Is time still "gold"?

Humans are humans. We make mistakes and learn from it. However, if you were given the chance, will you want to go back in time? In my view, time -travelling is one of the most fascinating concept in science so I decided to comprehend if it is conceivable.

According to physicist Albert Einstein, time is relative. As opposed to what most of us know, time is not constant because it can vary for different observers depending on your speed through space. Time is the “fourth dimension” on earth, together with a three-dimensional arena called space which offers coordinates — such as length, width and height —showing location. Time provides another coordinate — direction — although conventionally, it only moves forward. We are living in a four-dimensional fabric called space-time. Since it’s a fabric, it curves and bends depending on forces that acts upon it. In our case, a certain magnet or core attracts the fabric that causes a dimple or a bending of space-time and this force is called the gravity. (more technical terms coming up) Now, I hope you guys are familiar with the theories of relativity. These theories have been proven with GPS satellite technology that has very accurate timepieces on board. The effects of gravity, as well as the satellites' increased speed above the Earth relative to observers on the ground, make the unadjusted clocks gain 38 microseconds a day.  This resulted to a phenomenon called time dilation that enabled astronauts to travel in time. Yes! Astronauts are time travelers because as they travel in space they are very, very slightly younger than their own self if they have stayed on Earth.

However, aging and time-travelling are not the same. Some scientist say that you can only go back in time if you move faster than the speed of light which is impossible for a normal breathing person because you would have both infinite mass and a length of 0. While Einstein's theories appear to make time travel difficult, some groups have proposed alternate solutions to jump back and forth in time. First was the infinite cylinder or the Tipler cylinder by U.S. astronomer Frank Tipler. He has a simple recipe for a time machine: First take a piece of material 10 time the mass of the Sun, squeeze it together and roll it into a long, thin, super-dense cylinder – a bit like a black hole that has passed through a spaghetti factory. Then spin the cylinder up to a few billion revolutions per minute and see what happens. Tipler predicts that a ship following a carefully plotted spiral course around the cylinder would immediately find itself on a "closed, time-like curve." It would emerge thousands, even billions, of years from its starting point and possibly several galaxies away. There are problems, though. For the mathematics to work properly, Tipler’s cylinder has to be infinitely long. Also, odd things happen near the ends and you need to steer well clear of them in your timeship. However, if you make the device as long as you can, and stick to paths close to the middle of the cylinder, you should survive the trip! The second was balck holes. A black hole is a region of space from which nothing, including light, can escape. One said that when you come closer to it the time slows down. Physicist Stephen Hawking wrote in the Daily Mail in 2010, "Imagine they circled the black hole for five of their years. Ten years would pass elsewhere. When they got home, everyone on Earth would have aged five years more than they had." But one needs to travel as fast as the speed light which is still impossible.  Next was called cosmic strings which makes time-travelling possible in theory because it is a narrow tube that stretched across the entire length of the ever-expanding universe. These thin regions, left over from the early cosmos, are predicted to contain huge amounts of mass and therefore could warp the space-time around them. The last one was time machines that according to experts will only be possible with exotic matter that will make a double-shaped hole envelope that will affect the space-time fabric more than the gravity.

So is time-travelling possible? As of now the answer is impossible but hey, we once believed that the Earth was flat and the center of the universe right? However, let us just hope for the future where everything is possible.

Reference: http://www.space.com/21675-time-travel.html

Pseudoscience: pseudo science?

Dan Brown has yet again lived up to his reputation in the literary fields by publishing the phenomenal book titled "The Lost Symbol". The book indeed escalated the interest of the public for its extravagant plot and concepts involved. Yet amongst the concepts involved in the said book, one caught the most interest: the mention of pseudoscience. Pseudoscience, by definition, "is any belief system or methodology which tries to gain legitimacy by wearing the trappings of science, but fails to abide by the rigorous methodology and standards of evidence that demarcate true science. Although pseudoscience is designed to have the appearance of being scientific, it lacks any of the substance of science". In the book, Mr. Brown has tread the far end of pseudoscience and discussed one concept of it, that is: the human mind has the capability of influence movements,phenomena, etc. In simpler words, telekinesis of some sort. In the book, an experiment was performed to test this. One of the characters observed the freezing of water in a neutral energy environment to which no other brain waves can affect the environment. That particular character performed trials wherein as the freezing process is undergoing, the character thinks of something relaxing and beautiful and the consequence of this is that the ice was crystalized smoothly. On the other hand, there were trials where negative thoughts were being involved and as a consequence, the frozen water did not have a beautiful crystalline structure. To summarize it, thoughts have a power to affect physical objects and the more people think about the same thing, the likelihood of that happening would increase.

If this is in fact true, then this will disturb the natural laws of science and the beliefs science has established. To exemplify this, the early civilization thought that the earth was flat and shaped like a coin. What if this was the reality? Think of it this way. One day one person proposed that the earth was round and everybody was convinced. Starting that day, in everyone's mind, the earth was round. And because of those thoughts, the earth accordingly became round. What if the earth was really the center of the solar system? and everybody was just convinced by Copernicus that the earth revolves around the sun?

If this is proven true, then a lot would dramatically change. New beliefs would then arise, and most probably the whole world will collapse. On the other hand, if this concept of pseudoscience is proven true, it has the potential to be a useful tool for progress. The effect would merely be dependent on how humans would affect it. As said by Ben Parker of spiderman, with great power comes great responsibility.

KAPEKONOMIYA: PROBING THE UP LAND USE

Kapekonomiya, one of the most controversial educational discussions, weighed up the use and development of the land of the University of the Philippines last January 10, 2014 in the School of Economics Auditorium. The talk was facilitated by the UP School of Economics Student Council and the UP Economics Towards Consciousness to help students be aware of the perks and cost of this said topic. The speakers were Prof. Rupert Alonzo, Former Vice President for Development UP System and
Prof. Judy Taguiwalo, a former Faculty Regent and Professor at the College of Social Work and Community Development together with the student reactors, Alex Castro (Chairperson, University Student Council, UP Diliman) Darrelll Magsambol (Chairperson, UP Economics Student Council, UP Diliman) and, Krista Melgarejo (Student Regent, Board of Regents, UP System).  It basically circled around the two speakers. Sir. Alonzo discussed about the positive side of the privatization of some UP Land, providing laws and history on his slides while Prof. Taguiwalo, an activist who advocates several issues: academic freedom, human rights, and equality, argued and told the audience about the problems caused by these capitalists to UP students and the university itself.

It was said that private sector participation is nothing new for our university. Take for consideration the cafeterias in campus, from the UFS monopoly to private concessionaires in the shopping center where students can buy school supplies instead of going to Quiapo or Cubao.Land outside campus were also presented like the UP Basilan Land Grant that produced coconut and lumber plantation up to the 1980s which was sold under land reform program. Another land grant was the Laguna- Quezon Land Grant that logged with NDC up to 1980’s. The most popular privatized establishments today are the UP Ayala Technohub and the UP Town Center that originally designed to provide food services and printing offices to UP students. These said programs were established so that the school can focus on its mission and vision which is the pursuit of academic excellence.

But as opposed to the previous argument, I also want to point out that higher education is a public good, an item that is not decided by individual consumer but by the society as a whole and financed by taxation. The construction of Ayala Technohub and the Shopping Center and other non-academic buildings in the land area of the University of the Philippines-Diliman that constitutes about 493 hectares was acceptable for these institutions generate revenues for academic use. However, the UP Town Center was just out of purpose and it is not convenient to Iskos and Iskas but rather to other universities downtown. The University of the Philippines should have a greater use of these lands that focuses in academic rather than business. Once again, UP is a public property. It should not be privatized. The administration always says that these public investors give more income to the university but if it does so, why do students rally to scrap the STFAP? Why do we have to increase the tuition fees of the students if these companies are investing enough to provide profits and we are maximizing the use of the UP Land System? Based on the previous scandals regarding pork barrel, we are in the position to say that the government has a lot of money but at the same time we also have a lot of corrupt officials. So maybe the administration should think about all these factors before giving the burden to the students.

Slug-inspired Glue Can Mend a Broken Heart (on Biotechnology)

As I was searching STS trends to blog about, I came across this site which talks about science issues/trends/facts or anything related to Science. I found an interesting topic related to Biotechnology and it is about Slug-inspired glue which researchers said in a literary manner "could heal a broken heart." What they actually meant to say was that this glue they have been studying could be used to heal wounds on the heart after an open heart surgery.

Doctors and other professionals found out a way to heal the heart after surgery that does not include any staples or stitches which puts life of humans at risk due to toxic materials or just aren't sticky enough to bind wounds and this is the "Slug-Inspired Glue." As we can observe, slugs emit or excrete extremely sticky adhesives that according to research work on wet surfaces. Because of that, Professionals thought of mimicking that adhesive which is sticky, water and blood proof and dries fast under UV light and biodegradable as well.

They called the adhesive Hydrophobic Light-Activated Adhesive or HLAA. They have tested it on pig's heart which is quite similar to human's heart. They were successful and actually sealed the hole on the heart but despite the success, they still need further study and tests on this matter.

Well, this project of them really interests me. They have said that it promotes faster healing and could really help a lot of people especially those newborn babies who have congenital heart defects. If this "Super glue" is quite cheaper and less risky compared to that of surgery involving stitches and other not-so-sticky heart glues, then it would be a lot of help and more convenient for all of us. I hope this matter would be publicized to a larger audience and make them be aware of it. Who knows, in few years time, it would be of help to at least one of us who became aware of it. Thumbs up to this Super Glue.

for more info on this, you can visit http://blogs.discovermagazine.com/d-brief/2014/01/09/slug-inspired-glue-can-heal-a-broken-heart/#.UuEZbRCwrIU