About a week ago, I felt like I was getting a cold. Rather than down some DayQuil and move on, I decided to take a different approach. I entered into a small, patchouli-smelling store called Arrowroot on Lancaster and looked around for some alternative cold medicines and found one named Coldcalm. The directions said to let two tablets dissolve on the tongue every two hours, and the sufferer’s cold symptoms would be relieved. Hating cough syrup and interested, I decided to buy the package of white pills and was happy to find that they really helped. Even though I still had a cold, it was entirely manageable.

Then my mother called me, telling me to get a flu shot. It’s not that I am not scared of needles, but I don’t particularly like getting shots (although, who does?). So I decided to do research and see if the whole needle-in-arm event could be avoided this flu season. I found that it’s not necessary to be vaccinated, although getting a shot isn’t a bad thing. I know that I, for one, will not be going to the Health Center for a flu shot this year.

Homosexuality is an issue that has sparked tumultuous debate in the United States, and has been brought to the forefront in the last fifty to sixty years. While the legal and social implications has captured the attention of the media, the lingering question of biology remains at the core of the debate. Is it possible that one is born with the characteristic of being homosexual, or is it solely a learned behavior embedded in cultural norms? Researchers since the nineteen-fifties have studied homosexuality in a variety of ways, through genetics, animal behavior, and even birth order. While few have come to a conclusive answer, important progress has been made since the time homosexuality was merely considered a mental disorder that could be cured.

Is chocolate really as harmful as the world makes it out to be? I remember coming home one night after trick-or-treating and gazing into my huge pillowcase full of candy. I can vividly recall selfishly eating most of it all in one night and feeling incredibly ashamed and guilty that I had done so. My mom spitefully reproached me with all the horrible things that were going to happen to me if I continued to act so carelessly. Chocolate has attained such a negative reputation throughout the years, and it is often referred to as the devil’s candy. Unfortunately, not many people know that this sensuous and sinful candy actually produces beneficial health related results.

Every evening after finishing my yoga session, I leave the yoga studio feeling strong, calm, revitalized, and, above all, incredibly sweaty. The combined effects of a heated yoga studio and physical exertion always seem to challenge my body temperature, resulting in the feeling that every square inch of my skin is oozing with perspiration. My yoga teachers have always told me that sweating is very healthy, and it helps the body get rid of toxins and excess energy. In looking into this question of why we sweat, I will examine the biological basis for sweating, and why it varies from person to person.

Whether for spiritual, scientific, or ontological purpose, the matter of defining life is an ancient and serious quest. The Gaian theory of earth science – so named for Gaia, the Greek goddess of the Earth – proposes that the physical Earth upon which we live is just as alive as we animals and the plants are. The scientist James Lovelock proposed in the mid 1960s that the Earth, far from being just a mobile mass in space hospitable to animal and plant life, is a self-regulating ecosystem that calls on the fields of geology and physiology to explain its potential status as a live organism.

 

 

The continent of Africa is one of the largest land masses of the world and known for its struggles with poverty, AIDS, and civil war. Yet an issue that hasn been discussed or portrayed in the media as openly is the issue of malaria; specifically, prevention of the disease. The World Health Organization (the WHO), has been grappling with this issue since the 1950's. Now, a resurgence of support for the employ of the pesticide DDT to combat the malaria- carrying mosquitoes has sparked controversy. Scientists and politicians seems to be going backwards on such an issue- it as if the environmental revolution never happened! That such polluting practices can continue to be allowed is unjust and exploitative to lesser-developed countries. What is even worse is the pro-DDT propaganda, which denounces the findings of scientists like Rachel Carson that DDT, in any dose, is lethal.

Many things that people take for granted, such as butter, milk, honey, cheese and gummy snacks are off-limits to Vegans. Even things like some multi-vitamins use animal by-products in their processing or composition. Vegans, for several reasons, will not use or eat anything that comes from an animal. This differs from less strict forms of Vegetarianism which allow for the consumption of all things mentioned above. Veganism as defined by Wikipedia: "Veganism is a philosophy and lifestyle that avoids using animals and animal products for food, clothing and other purposes"[1]. These life choices are often times controversial and seen as somewhat radical. Many people do not know exactly what is the difference between veganism and vegetarianism. It has also been debated for several years whether or not this lifestyle is nutritionally sound. This paper seeks to explore some different aspects of veganism and help to further a discussion on the health of a Vegan way of life.

The first thing I think of when I hear the words 'shark attack' is the Hollywood blockbuster, JAWS. Hollywood has done an amazing job of terrifying the public of such a magnificent, prehistoric creature. There are so many myths and legends about sharks and shark attacks that none of them seem quite real to me anymore. So, being of a curious nature, I decided to do a little research and see if I could possibly separate the difference between myth and fact. I have been quite interested in this particular topic for a while now, and I made the most out of this opportunity to learn something new and possibly prove myself wrong on some of my hypotheses.

It has been known that killer whales speak in dialects since at least March 10,1990, when Leigh Dayton published “Killer Whales Communicate in Distinct Dialects”. In Dayton’s paper, J. Ford, the curator of marine mammals at Vancouver’s Public Aquarium, discovered this through listening to the two main communities of killer whales that were then divided into pods, each with its own dialect. Based upon these facts Ford concludes that since dialect is dependent upon pod the dialect is genetic. (2) Since Leigh Dayton’s paper in 1990 more has been found about orcas (killer whales) and their dialects with respect to their social structure along with the fact that dialect is not restricted only to killer whales but many other species of whale.

In the U.S. alone, over half of adults have trouble sleeping at least a few days a week (1). Trouble sleeping, also called insomnia, can be found in mainly two different forms. Mild insomnia (insomnia only lasting for a week or two) is most likely caused by sadness or anxiety. Chronic insomnia can be a result of depression or other psychiatric illnesses. More and more in the last decade, insomnia sufferers have been turning to the hormone melatonin for relief.