Ever watch your favorite TV show and wonder if Hollywood seriously takes into account the main subject on which the show is based? I was watching the TV show "Bones" the other night and an idea for a paper popped into my head; the show centers around the subject of forensic anthropology, its uses to the law and is based on a series of life-based novels written by forensic anthropologist, Kathy Reichs. But what I really want to know is whether or not Hollywood got its science right. I believe that the aspects of forensic anthropology, more specifically the subdivision of biological/physical anthropology, are not portrayed as they should be because the show chose to be focused on the drama between characters and their relationships. I decided that the best way to approach this paper was to just lay out my research and then try to draw from it whatever conclusions I possibly could.

The best place to start would be with the basic scientific subject of the show- forensic anthropology. Anthropology as a whole is comprised of three main sub-fields which are archaeology, cultural anthropology and physical anthropology (1). Forensic anthropology is a sub-discipline of the sub-field of physical anthropology and is primarily used by forensic anthropologists to better understand people around the world; the word forensic is simply referring to the application of this particular sub-field in a court of law (3). Forensic anthropologists often make huge contributions, as far as important research of the collections of human skeletal remains is concerned. The two main collection facilities in the US are the Hamann-Todd Collection located in the Cleveland Museum of Natural History and the Terry Collection located at the Smithsonian Institution down in Washington, D.C. (3). Most people who enter this field of work are usually professors, work with an allied forensic team or work in some type of museum setting as a consultant (3). The show "Bones" focuses mainly on the possibility of a crime-fighting job as being the most common for its forensic anthropologists, but neglects to mention that the other jobs of professorship and museum consultant are more likely to be had (1). This research lends its support to my hypothesis.

Professor Grobstein

11/20/06

Web Paper #2

Intersex—the third sex?

Race Wars: The debate on the importance of race as a method of classification

How do we as humans characterize and categorize ourselves? Do we look at

ourselves as one race, that is, the human race? Or do we look at ourselves as a multitude

of races of which people can belong based on varying characteristics, such as geographic

origin, facial features and skin color? During the Tuesday lab of Biology 103, the

students were asked to make an observation of two planets, Nearer and Farther.

 

If an organism is able to breathe, circulate blood, and exhibit basic physical functions, we assume it is alive. What if this same organism is without a critical part of its brain, and thusly is deaf, blind, and wholly unconscious– is this organism still alive?  How are we able to define what makes us human, or better yet, what makes us whole? Within an animal or plant life, we might consider these characteristics to be unremarkable, but within a human it is an atrocity. There are babies whose entire conception, gestation, and lives are lived out in a black hole of unconsciousness, brought on by the congenital disorder anencephaly. This disease raises more questions than it does answers; above all, it brings heartbreak to those affected by its occurrence.

What Causes Smoking Addiction:  Nicotine or Dopamine?

Growing up, I have always been told that smoking is bad.  Smoking is hazardous.  Smoking costs money.  Smoking looks unappealing.  Smoking kills.  Yet, despite all of these warnings and lessons, that surely most people have heard before, millions of people still light up.  Why, why do people continue to participate in an activity that is commonly associated with health risks such as cancer?  The most frequently used answer is an addiction to nicotine.  And this notion that nicotine causes addiction was continuously lectured to me in past mandatory health classes.  Yet, at the same time nicotine was used as an explanation, it was an incomplete reason.  What role does the substance play to result in this need for a cigarette?  Nicotine stimulates dopamine, a chemical in the brain that affects learning, motivation and pleasure [1].  Scientists have further explored the role of dopamine on addiction and are now suggesting theories that dopamine is the cause of addiction.  So, perhaps it is not nicotine that causes the addiction, but the role dopamine plays that causes the need to smoke.

When Rose E. Frisch began her research over twenty years ago, there was little interest in the subject of a woman's menstrual cycle and its connection to body fat. In fact, few knew that there was a connection, or cared to explore the idea. However, Frisch, a professor in population sciences at the Harvard School of Public Health, began receiving phone calls in the mid-seventies from women who were having fertility problems. Frisch saw a growing connection among women who were unable to conceive and their extremely slim, lean build (2, p. 14-15). Over the years, an increasing number of studies have examined the relationship between a woman's body fat percentages, its connections to fertility rates, and the effects on the menstrual cycle. Frisch's research, along with that of her colleagues, shows that there is a minimum weight according to one's height that will allow you to maintain a regular period, and therefore have children. While this may seem to be a simple concept, it was one very new to the scientific community thirty years ago, and has effected much of the way the female menstruation cycle is viewed today. More specifically, the focus has been on female athletes and the greater implications of losing one's period, including disordered eating, and loss of bone density. The relationship between body fat and one's ability to produce offspring has become an integral part of the study of women's health.

The Controversy

Earlier this November, scientists from the University College London Institutes of Ophthalmology and Child Health and Moorfields Eye Hospital were able to restore vision to blind lab mice. This scientific breakthrough signifies that millions of people with optical conditions such as macular degeneration (loss of sight experienced by the elderly), diabetic retinopathy, and a variety of other forms of blindness could be able to regain sight through a remarkably simple procedure. However, the fact that the procedure requires stem cells from foetuses—currently viewed as a highly controversial method by many politicians—has prevented this procedure from becoming more publicized in the U.S. (1).

The Breakthrough

 

Smiles are generally accepted as a universal facial expression of happiness or joy. We get instincts about which smiles are more genuine, are more felt than others, and which are more forced and more politely construed. I wanted to find out whether smiles are a social reaction- something learned amongst society- or whether there’s an actual biological reason why, when we are given a positive stimulus, our cheeks bulge and the corners of our mouths turn upward. I started with the understanding that because it would be difficult or impossible to define happiness on an individual level, which I am taking to be the stimuli of the smiles themselves, the results would have to be more generalized and the findings would probably be somewhat controversial and less conclusive. I proposed that smiling was more directly linked to a physical, neurobiological response than to social interactions, because I assumed that there had to be some reason why even the most creative and brilliant of thinkers followed the rest and smiled to show pleasure.

The ocean floor of the deep sea has its own mountains, called seamounts, which rise from 500 to 1,000 meters above the surrounding sea floor. (1, 2)  It is not known exactly how many seamounts lie beneath the big blue, but it has been estimated that the Atlantic Ocean possesses 800 or more and that the Pacific has 30,000 plus. On harder portions of the seamounts “ancient forests” made up of “cold water corals, soft seapens, sponges, and seawhips grow.” (1, 2) These organisms house other sea creatures such as crustaceans and sea spiders. On top of that, seamounts also provide protection to small sea fish such as the orange roughy and deepwater oreo who swim close to the seamounts in order to prevent being swept away by the current. On the softer sediment of seamounts grow worms and more slipper lobsters. The seamounts number one threat is bottom trawling.