Medical Marijuana Could Help Patients Reduce Pain With Opiates

ScienceDaily (May. 15, 2012) — A UCSF study suggests patients with chronic pain may experience greater relief if their doctors add cannabinoids -- the main ingredient in cannabis or medical marijuana -- to an opiates-only treatment. The findings, from a small-scale study, also suggest that a combined therapy could result in reduced opiate dosages. 

What I understand is that, scientists discovered that Cannabinoids, one of the main ingredients of the Medical Cannabis or commonly known as medical Marijuana, can be used to reduce the pain of patients who are in Opiates treatment. The study shows that if Cannabinoids are included in these patients' therapy, their pain can be reduced drastically.

Why am I interested in this article? It is interesting that an illegal drug can help make some people's lives better. Especially Cannabinoids one of the major components of Marijuana. This can have a huge impact on the people to see that a drug, such a marijuana, that is believed to be bad for people's  health and for society, actually is good to cure a disease and that it might have even more uses yet unknown to us.

What connection do I have with this article? Connection? Well, one connection this article can have with my life is that I want to study Psychology and possibly specialize in the treatment of patients who have diseases that involve chronicle pain and are under opiates treatment.  This treatment is very common and chronicle disease patients are usually treated by psychologists. These patients are usually treated by psychologists because most of the times chronicle diseases are associated with psychological factors such as stress. So, when I start to work as a Psychologist, and one of my patients has one of these diseases, I will know what I can give them medical Marijuana to reduce the pain and make their lives better.                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                     

Area of interaction: Health and Social Education: Cannabinoids is a main component of medical marijuana that a group of scientists and doctors discovered that can be useful to reduce pain in patients who have a chronicle disease involving pain. Chronicle pain, is a disease that can't be removed but it can be reduced. It is caused by many psychological factors such as insomnia, stress, and so on. And many times, these diseases are treated with different techniques such as therapy, natural medicine, and so on.

Human Ingenuity: This type of medicine was discovered by scientists and doctors and they use advanced technology to prove if that medicine can be useful to cure or reduce diseases.

Link: http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2011/12/111206151448.htm

Jellyfish On the Rise in World's Coastal Ecosytems

ScienceDaily (Apr. 18, 2012) — Jellyfish are increasing in the majority of the world's coastal ecosystems, according to the first global study of jellyfish abundance by University of British Columbia researchers. 

In a study published in this month's edition of the journal Hydrobiologia,UBC scientists examined data for numerous species of jellyfish for 45 of the world's 66 Large Marine Ecosystems. They found increasing jellyfish populations in 62 per cent of the regions analyzed, including East Asia, the Black Sea, the Mediterranean, the Northeast U.S. Shelf, Hawaii, and Antarctica.

"There has been anecdotal evidence that jellyfish were on the rise in recent decades, but there hasn't been a global study that gathered together all the existing data until now," says Lucas Brotz, a PhD student with the Sea Around Us Project at UBC and lead author of the study.

"Our study confirms these observations scientifically after analysis of available information from 1950 to the present for more than 138 different jellyfish populations around the world."

Jellyfish directly interfere with many human activities -- by stinging swimmers, clogging intakes of power plants, and interfering with fishing. Some species of jellyfish are now a food source in some parts of the world.

"By combining published scientific data with other unpublished data and observations, we could make this study truly global -- and offer the best available scientific estimate of a phenomenon that has been widely discussed," says Daniel Pauly, principal investigator of the Sea Around Us Project and co-author of the study. "We can also see that the places where we see rising numbers of jellyfish are often areas heavily impacted by humans, through pollution, over fishing, and warming waters."

Pauly adds that increasing anecdotal reports of jellyfish abundance may have resulted from an expansion of human activities in marine habitats, so the study also provides a concrete baseline for future studies.

The study also notes decreases in jellyfish abundance in seven per cent of coastal regions, while the remainder of the marine ecosystems showed no obvious trend.

 According to the university of British Columbia, Many people have seen many Jellyfish in the ocean. Scientist state that these happened because of the pollution, over fishing, and warming waters. For these reasons, many people can't do activity in the ocean because the among of the jellyfish in the water.

Why am I interested about this? I , as I say always in other articles, interested about the animal who lives in the oceans, and this article, impacted me because I didn't realized that the jellyfish, or other living animal can change their habitats because of the among of food, or warm water, over fishing and so on. This can be very dangerous because these of fish, is one of the marine animal who has the most dangerous poison in the world. Many people died by those types of fishes.

Connection that I can make? What I want to do can connect with my life, I want to be a Marine biologist. And since they are talking about the environment of the Jelly fish and how they live, I need to know why would they go where the pollution is present.

Area of interaction: Environment, since we are talking about the animals and where they live and they move to other parts.

http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2012/04/120418135343.htm

Winning Makes People More Aggressive Toward the Defeated

ScienceDaily (Feb. 29, 2012) — In this world, there are winners and losers -- and, for your own safety, it is best to fear the winners. A new study found that winners -- those who outperformed others on a competitive task -- acted more aggressively against the people they beat than the losers did against the victors.


What I understand is that people when they're competing, and they win, they become more aggressive because they start to think that they are the best because they won a match, and they start acting aggressively to the people who lost in this match. And I think that why people who always win a match and this they don't they start to hit the person who won the match because they don't accept that they loose.


This is a serious mental and emotional problems because the people it can be become aggressive and they can kill people just because they have lost a match. And now that I think, movies who talks about competition were right, people who win a match, start to became more aggressive and arrogant. 


I like this article, because, actually is very interesting of how the people react when they win a competition and how they react when they loose a competition. And how the brain can react arrogantly and aggressively. This is a good lesson to the people that if they don't want to be primitive and change your attitude, don't compete, even if it's good or you have to.


This article connect a lot with me. Because, in fact, I practice TKD (Tae Kwon Do) and I need to compete in the tournament, and with this article, now I know that winning can affect your life like becoming more aggressive, I need to be careful and if I win a competition, I need to respect my self and the people who lost.

This is a Health and Social Education Area because they are talking about the people reaction when they win a match, why and how can this happen.

I find this info in http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2012/02/120229104746.htm

Clam Cleanup

January 1, 2009 — Biologists are able to determine the sources of toxins in water by using clams as pollutant traps. Clams naturally clean water by feeding absorbing toxins in their tissues as they draw in water. By placing the clams downstream of industrial parks and highways, they can be analyzed for pollutants. Biologists open the clams after exposure to these waters and detach them from their shells-- various lab tests reveal contaminants in the waterway. 

What I understood, is that clams, cleans the water and make it healthy to others aquatic animal by feeding toxins. A toxin is a poisonous substance produced within living cells or organisms. The clams is like trees, they feed poisionous subtance and they keep mantain the world in a better place.

Why am I interested to read this article? 

Because I didn't know that the clams are the responsible to feed toxins and waste of water. And we used them as a food. I just realise that we are animal in one place or the other and this will not going to change. We destroy trees to use it as many things, and also we use clams as a food. 

We need to change our minds, and I know that we are reducing the use and cut of trees, I know that we are reducing the CO2 emmisions but, we are just caring about us the suppose "Animals, and land", what about the water and sea, what about the waste of oil and split it in the sea, and using clams as a food and didn't knowing that they are just cleaning the water for the waste and toxins that we spill over the sea.

What connection can I make with my life and this article: 

I think, not only me have a connection with this, many people should have. My connections is that I care much about the planet, and think about what can I do, as a community, to save my planets when I grow up because, as my biology teacher says, we, the kids are the future and me as well because I am just a kid. And reading this article, we can do something to save the water, and is to use less clam as a food. I know it is a little part of saving the water but, a few step, can make a huge traces. 

Area of interaction: Environment, since we are talking an animal and water and waste, it is an environmental article.

Where did I get this information: 

http://www.sciencedaily.com/videos/2009/0110-clam_cleanup.htm

Madagascar Dinosaur Bone Is Most Massive Osteoderm Ever Found

ScienceDaily (Nov. 29, 2011) — What more can we learn about long-necked dinosaurs that we don't already know? A Macalester professor and her colleagues have found that Madagascar dinosaurs carried giant, hollow bones in their skin that may have helped them survive the harsh environments they inhabited. This discovery has shed new light on the anatomy and function of these bones in the biggest animals to ever walk on land.

Biology/Geology Prof. Kristi Curry Rogers is the 


lead author of a paper in Nature 

Communications about bizarre, gigantic bones that grow in the skin of Rapetosaurus, a species 

of huge plant-eating dinosaur from the island country located in the Indian Ocean off the 

southeastern coast of Africa.

"This is the biggest osteoderm ever found for any backboned-animal," said Curry Rogers, "The 

fact that it's hollow debunks all sorts of ideas about how these bones functioned in long-necked 

dinosaurs.

What I have understood is that new species of dinosaur is discovered by a teacher named 

Macalester and his colleagues in Madagascar. Ruin or artefact was only the head but 

apparently for the teacher is sufficient evidence to know that the dinosaur was huge. This 

makes changing the history of dinosaurs because many people thought that there was no more 

razes of dinosaurs, but in this century, showed that they were wrong, there are still new fossils 

that man has not come to find out.

Why I like this article?

For this article, shows people that not all dinosaurs have been discovered. And always, in the 

fate of the earth, we will discover unique dinosaur that neither the human imagination cannot 

imagine, as in the case of fossil dinosaur discovered in China that had only one finger, or the 

study of the tyrannosaurus was not a hunter and, as this case, arapetosaurio and the world's 

largest dinosaur, for now.

What connection have my life with this article?

I, since childhood, I was interested in dinosaurs and also want to be an archaeologist and I 

liked all types of excavations, from Fossil, to the remains of civilizations.

What Area  of Interactions is being used to view this article?

Environment: Because, it is talking about a fossil dinosaurs and dinosaurs is related to life science and environment means All living and non living things living in the Earth.

Where I get this information: http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2011/11/111129125014.htm