Charged Magazine

Category: Articles

  • All About the April 2024 Eclipse

    All About the April 2024 Eclipse

    Eclipses are captivating astronomical phenomena that occur when the alignment of celestial bodies results in one object obscuring another, either partially or entirely. This article explores the two main types of eclipses – lunar and solar – and delves into the scientific principles behind them. It also examines the recent eclipse event in April, highlighting its unique characteristics compared to past occurences.

    What is an Eclipse?

    NASA considers an eclipse to be when a heavenly body, such as a planet, star, or nebula, moves into the shadow of another. There are two types of eclipses: lunar and solar. A lunar eclipse occurs when the Earth is between the Moon and the Sun. The Moon blocks light from the Sun and casts a shadow on Earth. Lunar eclipses can either be Total or Partial. On the other hand, a solar eclipse occurs when the Moon is between the Earth and the Sun. Solar eclipses can either be Total, Partial, or even Annular. 

     

    The 2024 Solar Eclipse

    The total eclipse in April serves as a recent example of this celestial phenomenon. This eclipse offered some unique characteristics compared to previous events.

    Wider Path of Totality

    The path of totality, the region of Earth where the Moon entirely covers the Sun, was significantly wider in 2024 compared to the 2017 eclipse, encompassing a larger geographical area.

    Increased Visibility

    The wider path resulted in the eclipse being observable by a larger population, with an estimated 31.6 million residents residing within the path of totality ocmpared to 12 million in 2017.

    Extended Totality Duration

    The 2024 eclipse offered a longer period of totality, lasting approximately 4 minutes and 28 seconds, compared to 2 minutes and 42 seconds in 2017.

    Heightened Solar Activity

    The 2024 eclipse coincided with a period of heightened solar activity, with the Sun approaching solar maximum. This potentially increased the visibility of solar prominences and coronal streamers during totality.

     

    What was the perspective from Atlanta, Georgia?

    Atlanta experienced ~82% of the eclipse’s totality with the peak viewing time at 3:04 PM.

    Many Georgia Tech students were outside to view the solar eclipse (including myself). Not many people had access to eclipse glasses, but those who did shared them with people around them. Some students also used a colander to view the eclipse indirectly.

    We had students travel to see the eclipse as well. 50 of GT’s Astronomy Club traveled to Ozarks, Missouri on April 7 – 9 to see the eclipse in the path of totality.

    Viewing the Eclilpse Safely

    You can’t look directly at an eclipse because the concentrated solar rays will burn through any other filter (camera lens, telescope, binoculars) and cause serious eye energy. Your pupils are more dilated as the eclipse occurs, allowing more harmful rays to enter your eyes than on a normal sunny day.

    If you decide to view an eclipse without safety gear, you risk the following:

    1. Acute solar retinopathy (eye retina is severly damaged by looking straight at the Sun)
    2. Blurry Vision
    3. Headache
    4. Blind Spot
    5. Increased Sensitivity to Light
    6. Distorted Vision
    7. Dyschromatopsia

    If you would like to view the eclipse safely, use safe solar viewing glasses or safe handheld solar viewers. To verify that you have the appropriate safety gear, make sure it complays with the ISO 1231202 international standard.

     

    When’s the next eclipse?

    The next total solar eclipse is on August 23, 2044. The next total lunar eclipse will be on Marh 14, 2025. Remember, make sure you keep your eyes safe when you’re looking at these amazing scientific phenomenons!

     

    References

    “Eye Safety During a Total Solar Eclipse.” NASA, n.d., https://science.nasa.gov/eclipses/future-eclipses/eclipse-2024/safety/

    “What is an eclipse?” The European Space Agency, n.d., https://www.esa.int/Science_Exploration/Space_Science/What_is_an_eclipse

    “Why is a solar eclipse dangerous to look at without proper eyewear? What to know.” NBC Chicago, April 8, 2024, https://www.nbcchicago.com/news/local/why-is-a-solar-eclipse-dangerous-to-look-at-without-proper-eyewear-what-to-know/3404331/

    Bressler, Neil M. “Safely Viewing a Solar Eclipse.” JAMA Ophthalmology, 2024, https://doi.org/10.1001/jamaophthalmol.2024.0401.

    Fulco, Charles. “Eclipses and Eye Safety: Dispelling Myths about Viewing Eclipses.” Science and Children, vol. 54, no. 7, 2017, pp. 58–61.

    Interrante, Abbey. “How the 2024 Total Solar Eclipse Is Different than the 2017 Eclipse.” NASA, Jan 30, 2024, https://science.nasa.gov/solar-system/skywatching/how-is-the-2024-total-solar-eclipse-different-than-the-2017-eclipse/

  • What’s Up (Literally) With Cloud Seeding?

    Dubai, one of the richest and driest cities in the world, is flooding. Many have been quick to blame cloud seeding, a climate-engineering strategy the city uses to wrench every drop of moisture it can from its dry air.

    Is cloud seeding really to blame? And regardless of if it is… what even is it?

     

    What is Cloud Seeding?

    Clouds form around nuclei, small particles that cool the area around them, causing water to condense and form the early wisps of clouds. These clouds then grow and take shape as more water condenses in the atmosphere, forming larger clouds. Eventually, clouds break, giving way to a deluge of rain.

    It stands to reason then, that if there were more of these small particles in the atmosphere, more clouds would form and there would be more rain. Governments in dry areas, like state governments of the American Southwest and city, state, and national governments in the Middle East and South Asia have been quick to turn to cloud seeding as an opportunity to increase rainfall and bring more moisture down from the atmosphere. Specifically, governmental cloud seeding programs tend to use planes and cannons to seed clouds with dry ice and liquid iodine, creating more cloud nuclei and thus more and denser clouds (Borenstein and Peterson, 2024).

    While the practice makes sense in theory, weather scientists disagree on whether or not it actually works (Al Hosari et al., 2021). In particular, the difficulty of proving anything weather related due to the complexity of cloud formation processes and shifting climatic patterns has made cloud seeding a difficult to test subject (Bruintjes, 1999).

    Some studies, like this one by the United Arab Emirates’ National Center for Meteorology, argue in favor of cloud seeding, highlighting results that prove an average increase in annual rainfall by 23% over seeded areas (Al Hosari et al., 2021). The center reports that cloud seeding practices have increased storm volume by over 150%, area cover by just over 70% and lifetime by roughly 65% (Al Hosari et al., 2021). Surely such explosive results are significant?

    And yet, many scientists still cast doubt. A study by the American Meteorological Association argues against cloud seeding, stating that the variation in “precipitation formation mechanisms” between locations and at a location given shifting climatic patterns weaken the scientific credibility of cloud seeding’s reported progress (Bruintjes, 1999). As AP News reports, “cloud seeding, although decades old… has been hard to prove [to do] very much” (Borenstein and Peterson, 2024).

     

    Did Cloud Seeding Cause Dubai’s Floods?

    The resounding consensus: no.

    According to AP News, while many blame cloud seeding, it certainly is not the cause of Dubai’s recent floods. The record breaking storm was “forecast days in advance” and more or less expected by climate scientists (Borenstein and Peterson, 2024). Cloud seeding, while potentially effective, can not create water out of moisture-less air, and to state that cloud seeding could cause the deluge is “akin to [believing in] perpetual motion technology” (Borenstein and Peterson, 2024). At its best, cloud seeding can bring more water from the atmosphere down to the ground, but it cannot create moisture where there wasn’t any before. Regardless of whether cloud seeding works – the storm must’ve gotten moisture from somewhere.

    Where did that moisture come from? Scientists blame climate change. As the climate warms, so does the atmosphere, and warmer air can hold more moisture (Borenstein and Peterson, 2024). The strangely large concentrations of moisture in an otherwise dry region are likely due to a warming global climate, one that allows for larger build-ups of moisture and stronger storms. These storms, termed “whopper storms” have been predicted (with statistical significance) to increase over the southeastern Arabian Peninsula, forewarning of more storms to come (Borenstein and Peterson, 2024).

    At the end of the day, cloud seeding did not cause Dubai’s record-breaking storm. Climate change did.

     

    Citations

    Al Hosari, T., Al Mandous, A., Wehbe, Y., Shalaby, A., Al Shamsi, N., Al Naqbi, H., Al Yazeedi, O., Al Mazroui, A., & Farrah, S. (2021). The UAE Cloud Seeding Program: A statistical and physical evaluation. Atmosphere, 12(8), 1013. https://doi.org/10.3390/atmos12081013

    Borenstein, S., & Peterson, B. (2024, April 18). Here’s why experts don’t think cloud seeding played a role in Dubai’s downpour. AP News. https://apnews.com/article/dubai-united-arab-emirates-oman-flooding-cloud-seeding-2f8c12854017e11ac7438579646b3758

    Bruintjes, R. T. (1999).  A Review of Cloud Seeding Experiments to Enhance Precipitation and Some New Prospects. Bulletin of the American Meteorological Society, 80(5), 805–820. https://doi.org/10.1175/1520-0477(1999)080<0805:AROCSE>2.0.CO;2

  • Growing Red Gold

    Saffron is the world’s most expensive spice. Its rich red stigmas and the difficulty in growing and harvesting it lend it the name of “red gold.”

    Nowadays, saffron’s biggest use is as a spice for flavoring. Historically, saffron has been used as a medicinal plant, treating a plethora of ailments. Today we’ll take a look at the process it takes to grow and harvest saffron, and its medicinal uses– both historical and contemporary.

    —

    Saffron comes from the flower crocus sativus. The spice itself is made up of the bright red threads known as stigmas that grow as the flower blooms. I’ll be using the term saffron interchangeably with the flower from now on– but know that it isn’t the entire flower that produces spice.

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    Saffron corms are planted in late summer. You often use a tool known as a dibber to make a hole in the ground for the corm to rest. Corms look a lot like bulbs but aren’t the same. Although both are energy storage for plants, bulbs are a layered base from which a plant stem grows; whereas corms are solid, and are where the flower stem grows from.

    Here is a closer look at one of the corms. The compact corms are small, brown globules that can measure as large as two-inches in diameter, have a flat base, and are shrouded in a dense mat of parallel fibers referred to as the “corm tunic”. Do you know the difference between a corm and a bulb? Both corms and bulbs are parts of the plant that store food to help it grow and bloom. A bulb is a plant stem and leaf that grows underground in layers. A tiny version of the flower is at the center of the bulb. Tulips, lilies, iris, daffodils and onions are examples of bulbs. A corm is an underground stem that serves as the base for the flower stem and is solid, not layered.

    By early October, saffron sprouts become visible. Saffron has thin, blade-like leaves that splay out once flowers bloom. The flowers themselves are a rich lilac color, and bloom for about three weeks. As the flowers begin to bloom, they can be picked and you can start to harvest saffron. Three stigmas grow in each bloom, and are best harvested in the middle of the morning on a sunny day, right when the flowers are open and fresh.

    Pretty much as soon as the flowers are picked, you need to process it to remove the stigma. Waiting longer than a day will cause it to crumble, making it a time-sensitive process. Harvest season lasts around two to three weeks, and means all hands on deck for saffron farmers. It takes about 250,000 flowers for a single pound of saffron.

    Once the strands are picked, they have to be dried. The spice is heated over a small fire. Heating it preserves both its color and aroma, but also shrinks its down to a fifth of its original weight. Once they’ve been processed and stored in the dark, saffron keeps for several years with no problems.

    Because of how delicate the flower is, every part of the process is a manual task. The sheer number of blooms it takes for a usable amount of spice means an intense amount of labor.

    —

    So what have people used saffron for?

    Saffron has been used by several nations as a spice, a dye, and perfume. Across the past four millennia, it has had the most number of applications across all medicinal plants, and has been used in the treatment of over 90 different conditions. The table below shows a list of several historical treatments involving saffron.

    A table listing common medicinal applications of saffron

    As you can see, the spice can help aid a plethora of conditions. How does it actually achieve this?

    Let’s take a look at its chemical structure to find out. A chemical composition of saffron reveals over 150 individual components in the stigmas, but there are three dominant ones- crocetin esters, picrocrocin, and safranal. These are responsible for its color, taste, and aroma respectively, and all are contributors to its medical effects.

    Crocetin esters have been shown to aid the gastrointestinal, cardiovascular, endocrine, reproductive and immune systems. It’s believed this is due to its properties relieving oxidative stress, which occurs due to an imbalance between free radicals and antioxidants in your system. Free radicals are oxygenated molecules with an uneven amount of electrons, which allows them to react easily with other molecules in your body. This propensity can set off large, potentially harmful oxidation reactions.

    Oxidative stress can be a cause of several degenerative diseases such as diabetes, cardiovascular diseases, epilepsy, and cancer. Antioxidants are able to neutralize free radicals, and safranal and crocin are incredibly effective ones.

    —

    Although medicinal usage of saffron has dropped off recently due to the advent of newer medicines, there’s been a recent resurgence in research about its medicinal effects. As scientists find more novel uses for the spice, however, climate change is rapidly reducing the viability of saffron farming.

    Declining rainfall and a lack of irrigation networks has drastically reduced the amount of viable harvest. Take a look at Kashmir, where changing climate conditions have reduced harvest down to 13-15 pounds per year. For reference, forty to fifty years ago, the harvest from the same area was 90-110 pounds.

    Saffron is more than just a spice to the people who grow them, it’s also their economy and culture. Over 19,000 families in Pampore, Kashmir are dependent on the spice. It’s integrated into cultural food and drink, and harvesting the stigmas is a family activity. It was once unimaginable for a saffron farmer to have any jobs outside of farming. But the reality of shifting weather patterns means that the labor-intensive practice of growing the spice is simply unsustainable.

    Saffron is a rich and varied spice, with medicinal applications still being discovered. But if we don’t take better care of our planet, it’ll soon be impossible to continue growing.

     

    Works Cited

    Bashir, Aliya. “The World’s Finest Saffron Is in Danger of Disappearing.” _Saveur_, 4 June 2019, www.saveur.com/worlds-finest-saffron-is-in-danger-disappearing/.

    Dai, Rong-Chen; Nabil, Wan Najbah Nik; Xu, Hong-Xi. The History of Saffron in China: From Its Origin to Applications. Chinese Medicine and Culture 4(4):p 228-234, Oct–Dec 2021. | DOI: 10.4103/CMAC.CMAC_38_21

    “Growing and Harvesting Saffron at My Farm – the Martha Stewart Blog.” _The Martha Stewart Blog | It’s a Blog about Martha Stewart and Her Daily Adventures._, 17 Nov. 2022, www.themarthablog.com/2022/11/growing-and-harvesting-saffron-at-my-farm.html.

    José Bagur, María et al. “Saffron: An Old Medicinal Plant and a Potential Novel Functional Food.” _Molecules (Basel, Switzerland)_ vol. 23,1 30. 23 Dec. 2017, doi:10.3390/molecules23010030

    Khazdair, Mohammad Reza et al. “The effects of Crocus sativus (saffron) and its constituents on nervous system: A review.” _Avicenna journal of phytomedicine_ vol. 5,5 (2015): 376-91.

    Nanda, Sanju, and Kumud Madan. “The role of Safranal and saffron stigma extracts in oxidative stress, diseases and photoaging: A systematic review.” _Heliyon_ vol. 7,2 e06117. 10 Feb. 2021, doi:10.1016/j.heliyon.2021.e06117

    Mousavi SZ, Bathaie SZ. Historical uses of saffron: Identifying potential new avenues for modern research. Avicenna J. Phytomed 2011;1:57-66

  • Rating Neurotransmitters by (Personal Preference?)

    What is a neurotransmitter? 

    Neurotransmitters are the chemical messengers used for communication between neurons. They are released into the synapse (gap between neurons) by the neuron referred to as the presynaptic neuron and then cause some sort of response (generally excitatory, inhibitory, or modulatory) on the postsynaptic neuron (Hook et al, 2019). 

    Some traditionally recognized neurotransmitters include serotonin, dopamine, and adrenaline.

    However, the scope of what a neurotransmitter is has been expanding to include a broader range of signaling chemicals. Now, substances like Nitric Oxide (NO) and ATP (yes, adenosine triphosphate, the one made in the powerhouse of the cell) are beginning to be included as well. 

    Now let’s make a tier list…

    For the purposes of this list, we will be focusing on some of the more traditional neurotransmitters.

    Serotonin

    To start off, we’ll go with one that is pretty well known: serotonin. This monoamine is involved in the signaling for a huge variety of systems including regulation of mood, sleep, digestion, and more. It is commonly associated with depression and a common treatment for depression for decades has been SSRIs (Selective Serotonin Reuptake Inhibitors) which essentially stop processes that clear serotonin from the synaptic cleft (Preskron, 1997). So serotonin is pretty cool, pretty popular, and I guess with it being linked to our ability to be well, not depressed, it should be pretty high up. 

    But to put it in the S tier feels too basic. And recent advances in depression treatments support a new theory of depression involving a different neurotransmitter (more on this coming soon). So I say serotonin gets a solid A. 

    Acetylcholine

    Acetylcholine is one of my personal favorites. It’s most commonly known for being used by pre synaptic neurons at the neuromuscular junction which is where nerve meets muscle. This means the release of acetylcholine is essential for movement. My favorite acetylcholine fact is that botulinum toxin can be used to inhibit its release at these junctions which is actually what botox does (Nigam, 2010). Can’t wrinkle if those muscles can’t move. I’m giving acetylcholine an A!

    GABA

    Ah, the primary inhibitory neurotransmitter in the central nervous system. Inhibition is so important and honestly quite underrated. Without GABA, there would be too much activity which  could lead to a whole host of consequences. Low GABA levels are linked to diseases like epilepsy, motor disorders like stiff person syndrome, and even schizophrenia (Levy & Degnan, 2013). And of course, this inhibition is also crucial for sleep which is a personal favorite activity of mine. So, for the essentialness of inhibition, I think we have our first S tier neurotransmitter.

     

    Epinephrine 

    I may or may not be wearing my epinephrine (aka adrenaline) necklace as I write this; however, I can not say I am a huge fan of this molecule, at least, not as a neurotransmitter. It’s associated with sympathetic nervous system activity which is the part of our autonomic nervous system that responds unconsciously to stressful situations, often referred to as the fight or flight response (C.C medical). When epinephrine is released in my body, I generally want to get out of whatever situation I am in. I almost want to put this guy in D tier, but I guess the responses in my body due to epinephrine helps me get out of that situation so I’ll cut it some slack and put it in C. 

    Norepinephrine 

    Norepinephrine (Noradrenaline) is also involved in that fight or flight response and is generally important for arousal and alertness (Tank, 2015). I’m going to go ahead and put this one near its very chemically similar friend epinephrine in the B row. 

    Glutamate 

    Now we have our primary excitatory neurotransmitter (the anti-GABA). Glutamate is essential for learning and is believed to be essential in neuroplasticity (aka our brains ability to change which is very cool). Recently, glutamate has been theorized to have a role in depression and ketamine is being utilized as a way to treat treatment resistant depression (Pal, 2021). The results are very impressive and cause long term positive impacts from small doses. I like learning and I like treating depression, so S tier! 

    Dopamine

    Ok, I admit, I have a favorite. Dopamine is extremely important and one of the key processes it is involved in is motivation (Olguín et al, 2016). Its role in reward makes it an important molecule in guiding our behaviors as the presence of dopamine is associated with pleasurable feelings. It is also involved in movement; Parkinson’s disease, a movement disorder, is actually attributed to a decrease in dopamine production in a region called the substantia nigra.

    In my eyes, dopamine is a great example of the complexities of the nervous system because it has involvement in multiple systems and its dysregulation can have a huge range of impacts. Its association with pleasurable feelings displays how in moderate amounts dopamine offers positive feelings but in excess we see how it can become harmful like in the case of addictions. So with that I say, S+ tier!!! 

    To sum it up…

    While creating this list, I thought long and hard about how to compare these neurotransmitters and found myself using the approach of, ‘which one could be removed’. The answer: none of them. Each of these neurotransmitters is involved in multiple systems and some dis-regulation of them can cause widespread consequences. So to completely remove any neurotransmitter would be detrimental. This demonstrates how fine tuned our brains are to function in a way where the production and use of neurotransmitters is precise and modulated. All this to say the rankings of these neurotransmitters was quite arbitrary and are based essentially on just my own opinions, but I hope you learned a little bit about the epic chemicals that allow neurons to communicate along the way! 

     

    References

    C. medical. (n.d.). Epinephrine (adrenaline): What it is, function, deficiency & side effects. Cleveland Clinic. https://my.clevelandclinic.org/health/articles/22611-epinephrine-adrenaline 

    Hook, V., Kind, T., Podvin, S., Palazoglu, M., Tran, C., Toneff, T., Samra, S., Lietz, C., & Fiehn, O.. (2019). Metabolomics Analyses of 14 Classical Neurotransmitters by GC-TOF with LC-MS Illustrates Secretion of 9 Cell–Cell Signaling Molecules from Sympathoadrenal Chromaffin Cells in the Presence of Lithium. ACS Chemical Neuroscience, 10(3), 1369–1379. https://doi.org/10.1021/acschemneuro.8b00432

    Juárez Olguín H, Calderón Guzmán D, Hernández García E, Barragán Mejía G. The Role of Dopamine and Its Dysfunction as a Consequence of Oxidative Stress. Oxid Med Cell Longev. 2016;2016:9730467. doi: 10.1155/2016/9730467. Epub 2015 Dec 6. PMID: 26770661; PMCID: PMC4684895.

    Levy, L. M., & Degnan, A. J.. (2013). GABA-Based Evaluation of Neurologic Conditions: MR Spectroscopy. American Journal of Neuroradiology, 34(2), 259–265. https://doi.org/10.3174/ajnr.a2902

    Nigam, P. K., & Nigam, A. (2010). Botulinum toxin. Indian journal of dermatology, 55(1), 8–14. https://doi.org/10.4103/0019-5154.60343

    Pal M. M. (2021). Glutamate: The Master Neurotransmitter and Its Implications in Chronic Stress and Mood Disorders. Frontiers in human neuroscience, 15, 722323. https://doi.org/10.3389/fnhum.2021.722323

    Preskorn S. H. (1997). Clinically relevant pharmacology of selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors. An overview with emphasis on pharmacokinetics and effects on oxidative drug metabolism. Clinical pharmacokinetics, 32 Suppl 1, 1–21. https://doi.org/10.2165/00003088-199700321-00003

    Tank, A. W., & Lee Wong, D. (2015). Peripheral and central effects of circulating catecholamines. Comprehensive Physiology, 5(1), 1–15. https://doi.org/10.1002/cphy.c140007

     

  • Virtual Nature: Could it yield the same effects?

    I recently went on my first backpacking trip and was able to spend my time immersed in a natural environment. Among those trees and streams of water, I felt a sense of serenity and peace that I do not normally experience in my day to day life in Atlanta. I am not alone in feeling a relief and escape in nature. Research over the last couple decades has consistently demonstrated that time in nature has positive impacts on well being due to stress relieving benefits and increasing cognitive function (Berto, 2014). Environments with these benefits are often referred to as restorative environments and a recent focus in research on the therapeutic benefits of these environments has been an effort to recreate them within VR environments. 

    So far, the research seems promising. One study exposed participants to a forest nature environment and a neutral environment both utilizing virtual reality. The simulation utilized both visual and auditory sensory components. The natural environment exposure was found to lead to an increase in cognitive performance, lower perceived stress, and higher restorativeness when compared to the neutral environment (Mostajeran et al., 2023). However, in a review of 21 similar studies, the results across the board were more mixed. There is a generally observed decrease in negative effect from exposure to restorative VR environments, but this review noted limited positive affect (Frost et al., 2022). 

    Overall, where the research on VR based nature interventions seems to be lacking is in comparison between the VR exposure and physical immersion into a nature environment. A key component of VR design that this relates to is the idea of presence vs immersion. Immersion refers to the sensory environment created by the technology and is therefore a reflection of the technology itself. On the other hand, presence is more related to the psychological state of the user and how integrated they feel they are in the environment. Presence is more subjective and can be influenced by the perspectives and experiences of the user (Berkman & Akan, 2019). However, both of these factors influence each other and greater immersion can generally increase feelings of presence. In restorative therapies utilizing VR nature exposure, both presence and immersion are essential, but the immersion is likely lacking. 

    In nature exposure research, there is a general gap in exploring different sensory modalities. Much of the research is highly focused on visual components. Within VR, visual and auditory components are the easiest to replicate so VR technologies are limited in their scope of creating an immersive sensory experience. For example, a key sensory route of positive affect from nature exposure is olfaction. One study examined the impact of indoor plants on psychophysiological health and cognitive performance, and they looked at both visual and olfactory components of the stimuli. The results indicated that “visual, olfactory and combined stimuli all induced spontaneous neural oscillations related to relaxation or cognitive function, and significant changes in metabolic pathways associated with antidepressant, anti-inflammatory or neuro-protective effects were observed” (Li et al., 2024). Another study compared the effects of visual stimuli and olfactory stimuli in park and forest environments and their results suggested that olfactory stimulation may have a greater role in facilitating stress reduction than visual stimuli (Hedblom et al., 2019). 

    Overall, the multi-sensory experience seems to be key to reaping the benefits of restorative environments which is something VR environments are currently unable to replicate. Furthermore, VR exposures may be limited temporally. These interventions would provide a brief, non tangible escape from the environment of the regular lives of those in urban environments. But after the interventions, the environment that could be causing higher stress is still present. Looking at the bigger picture, VR interventions are a bandaid on a bullet hole solution to higher stress levels brought on from urbanization. To reach the root of this problem, it may be more effective to examine what could be done to the environments themselves. 

     

    So, how can we alter the environments we spend our time in to be better suited for stress reduction and increased cognitive function? Biophilic design!  

    Biophilic design is the idea of integrating the restorative elements of nature into buildings, cities, and public spaces. The ideas of biophilic design relate to the Biophilia Theory which emphasizes the importance of human interaction with nature on the basis of our evolution alongside it. In Kellert and Calabrese’s book, Biophilic Design: The Theory, Science, and Practice of Bringing Buildings to Life, they outline several key components of biophilic design: direct experience with nature, indirect experience with nature, and experience of space and place (Kellert & Calabrese, 2015). Furthermore, the goals of good biophilic design go beyond allowing people to experience nature in their everyday environments; they aim to also be sustainable both environmentally and economically. Kellert and Calabrese also emphasize experiencing nature through different sensory modalities as a key aspect of designing buildings and cities. One literature review examined evidence for the benefits of biophilic design on wellbeing and found that the direct exposure to nature and the presence of natural elements had the most significant positive impact (Gillis & Gatersleben, 2015). 

    One recent example of Biophilic design in action can be seen in the Living Building Project. This initiative aims to design buildings that are self-sufficient, have a positive impact on individuals interacting with them and with the natural systems involved, and that connect people with natural light, space, air, nature, and food (What is The Living Building Challenge, 2024). 

    Ultimately, more research is needed for both VR as a restorative approach and biophilic design. However, biophilic design provides a multi-sensory element that VR currently lacks and both increases the level of positive exposure and decreases the source of negative affect. The increased focus on use of VR in the context of nature based restorative therapies has its merits but with the current limitations and the overall unanswered question of if it could truly replicate experiences in nature remaining, it might be better to focus on alternative approaches that could be more effective like changing the environments people are already present and immersed in. 

     

    References:

    Berto, R.. (2014). The Role of Nature in Coping with Psycho-Physiological Stress: A Literature Review on Restorativeness. Behavioral Sciences, 4(4), 394–409. https://doi.org/10.3390/bs4040394

    Berkman, M. I., & Akan, E.. (2019). Presence and Immersion in Virtual Reality (pp. 1–10). https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-08234-9_162-1

    Frost, S., Kannis-Dymand, L., Schaffer, V., Millear, P., Allen, A., Stallman, H., Mason, J., Wood, A., & Atkinson-Nolte, J. (2022). Virtual immersion in nature and psychological well-being: A systematic literature review. Journal of Environmental Psychology, 80, 101765. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jenvp.2022.101765 

    Gillis, K., & Gatersleben, B.. (2015). A Review of Psychological Literature on the Health and Wellbeing Benefits of Biophilic Design. Buildings, 5(3), 948–963. https://doi.org/10.3390/buildings5030948

    Hedblom, M., Gunnarsson, B., Iravani, B., Knez, I., Schaefer, M., Thorsson, P., & Lundström, J. N.. (2019). Reduction of physiological stress by urban green space in a multisensory virtual experiment. Scientific Reports, 9(1). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-019-46099-7

    Kellert, S. R., & Calabrese, E. F. (2015). The practice of biophilic design. https://biophilicdesign.umn.edu/sites/biophilic-net-positive.umn.edu/files/2021-09/2015_Kellert%20_The_Practice_of_Biophilic_Design.pdf 

    Li, Z., Zhang, W., Cui, J., Wang, L., Liu, H., & Liu, H. (2024). Biophilic environment with visual-olfactory stimuli contributes to psychophysiological restoration and cognitive enhancement. Building and Environment, 250, 111202. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.buildenv.2024.111202 

    Mostajeran, F., Fischer, M., Steinicke, F., & Kühn, S.. (2023). Effects of exposure to immersive computer-generated virtual nature and control environments on affect and cognition. Scientific Reports, 13(1). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-022-26750-6

    What is the Living Building Challenge?. International Living Future Institute. (2024, April 5). https://living-future.org/lbc/ 

  • Beats to Cellularly Divide To

    Beats to Cellularly Divide To

    When it comes to learning key biological concepts, it can be helpful to connect new material to something you’re familiar with or passionate about. In this vein, I chose to put together a short playlist that draws parallels between popular songs and the phases of mitosis by assigning each phase of mitosis to a song on the playlist. Linking this biological process with music can serve as a learning tool to help deepen a student’s understanding and memory of the cellular division process. With that said, here is my list of “Beats to Cellularly Divide To”:

    1. Prophase: Pompeii by Bastille

    This alternative song conjures a vivid image in the listener’s mind of the disruption caused to civilization by the volcanic eruption at Pompeii. Indeed, prophase can be thought of in a similar vein: it begins the resource-intensive process of mitosis, which will ultimately result in two daughter cells. The lyric “And the walls kept tumbling down in the city that we love” is particularly on the nose, as the nuclear envelope (analogous to the “walls” described in this lyric) disappears during prophase, as cellular division begins.  

    1. Metaphase: The Middle by Grey, Maren Morris, and Zedd

    This classic pop tune reiterates the phrase “why don’t you just meet me in the middle?”, the same sentiment reflected by the second phase of mitosis: metaphase. During this part of mitosis, the chromosomes align at the metaphase plate near the center of the cell, forming a line. Just like the song describes how you may want a friend to ‘meet you in the middle’ during a time of conflict, the chromosomes similarly meet in the middle during the second phase of mitosis. 

    1. Anaphase: Drift Away by Uncle Cracker

    “Drift Away” is a rock song which describes the feeling of enjoying a piece of music so much you seem to get lost in it, or ‘drift away’ from reality. In a similar manner, anaphase involves the separation of sister chromatids as they are pulled apart by kinetochore fibers, ‘drifting away’ from each other to opposite sides of the cell. 

    1. Telophase: We Are Never Ever Getting Back Together by Taylor Swift

    This Taylor Swift song describes a break-up, boldly declaring “We are never, evеr, ever gettin’ back togеther”. This aligns with the aims of telophase, as this stage of mitosis involves the cell permanently splitting into two new daughter cells. Reformation of the nuclear membrane takes place, and nucleoli reappear and remain in each of the two new cells. Both cells now contain a complete copy of the original cell’s genome. Thus, they are completely separate and ready to exist apart, similar to the speaker in the song “We Are Never Ever Getting Back Together” post-breakup. 

    This concludes my “Beats to Cellularly Divide To”. My hope is that this playlist can serve as a learning tool to help would-be students comprehend and remember the phases of mitosis and the process of cellular division. It also serves as a fun way to musically engage with the sciences. The full playlist can be found on Spotify at this link: https://spotify.link/0NoUZST4JIb. Happy listening!

  • What Even Is Cuteness?

    What Even Is Cuteness?

    Have you ever seen something so cute you want to squeeze it? Maybe it was a puppy or kitten, or perhaps a teddy bear or doll. You may wonder why you feel this way – after all, it seems rather strange to mimic violence against something endearing. What makes cute things just so emotionally powerful, and what makes them cute in the first place?

     

    Cuteness as Affect

    In an article by the University of Oxford, Associate Professor Morten Kringelbach explains that cute things draw in our senses, attract our attention and spark rapid brain activity in the orbitofrontal cortex – a region associated with emotion in pleasure. In fact, the presence of something cute (in the case of this research article, a baby’s face) can activate the orbitofrontal cortex in 140 ms, or just under a seventh of a second (Kringelbach, 2016). Cuteness overloads the emotional state of the brain, drawing in mental attention and the five senses.

    The feeling of cuteness, what researchers call its “affect,” has very interesting roots. From a biological perspective, an emotional response to cuteness may be derived from an evolutionary need to protect babies from harm. As Dr. Kringelbach explains, the evolved instinct to protect and care for babies may drive our wider perceptions of cuteness. Humans tend to express affection not only for babies and small children, but also for animals with baby-like features, and even dolls, teddy-bears, and miniature objects. These animals and objects trigger similar evolutionary protective desires – as well as a drawing in of attention and a general increase in emotional pleasure.

    If cuteness is an evolutionary instinct to care and protect, why do we feel “cuteness aggression” – the “urge to squeeze or bite cute things” without causing harm (Alba and Stavropoulos, 2018)? Researchers at the University of California, Riverside, took on this challenge and made some interesting findings. Summarizing greatly, cuteness aggression was found to be an evolutionary response to the overwhelming emotions of experiencing cuteness (Alba and Stavropoulos, 2018). Evolutionarily, it would be less than ideal if early humans were “incapacitated” with emotion (as the researchers put it) in the presence of cuteness, and thus experienced a counter-emotion (scientifically called a “dimorphous expression” – when human action expresses the opposite feeling as to what they feel, like laughing when you cry). In the case of overwhelming cuteness, this dimorphous expression of playful harm held an evolutionary role to stop early humans from being too affected by cuteness.

     

    Cuteness as Aesthetic

    While this simple definition of cuteness – an evolutionary instinct to care for and be emotionally attached to babies (and by extension, baby-like animals and objects) – contains an incomplete and shallow understanding of how cuteness exists as a concept in society. As Joshua Paul Dale writes in his academic publication, The Aesthetics and Affects of Cuteness, “cuteness occupies both the aesthetic and affective realms” – and the modern extent of research places extensive focus on the affective side and avoids discussing the aesthetic. Note that in this usage, Dale does not mean aesthetic to mean cottage-core or punk – instead, the word is used within its sociological background, to understand how cuteness exists in the modern world.

    Dale writes that the emotional response of cuteness is “manipulated for a variety of purposes” – including commercial, artistic, and social (Dale, 2016). The feeling of cuteness is emotionally powerful, and for that reason, is manipulated (malevolently and selfishly at times, yes, but also largely in acts of self-expression) to produce action. As Dr. Kringelbach discovered in her article for the University of Oxford, cuteness invites such powerful emotions that it drives the subject to action, causing them to put in work to continue to be able to receive and engage with the source (Kringelbach, 2016). Socially, cuteness has further effect than its core, biological and evolutionary response. In the modern world, cuteness causes the subject “catharsis” (as Dale writes) that fosters a need to protect a vulnerable object from harm (Dale, 2016). This effect of cuteness links it to vulnerability, a link that Dale dives into (in more depth than is relevant for this article) to understand the connections between violence and cuteness. Remember that cute thing you wanted to squeeze? The association between cuteness and vulnerability may be why. As Dale writes, cuteness is disarming and tender, but also “involves a cognitive reaction in which the power differential between subject and object comes into play” (Dale, 2016). Cuteness is, in many ways, an expression of a power dynamic.

    So… what is cuteness? There’s the affective component: baby-like things trigger a biological response that draws attention and fosters feelings of care, and there’s the aesthetic component: cuteness is linked with vulnerability, intensity of emotion, and power dynamics, defining its socially constructed half. Together, these components create the feeling of cuteness that we understand today. It’s youthful, tender, disarming, attention-grabbing, and (in large part, but not entirely) biological.

     

    References

    Dale, J. P. (2016). The Appeal of the Cute Object: Desire, Domestication, and Agency. In The Aesthetics and Affects of Cuteness (1st ed., pp. 35–55). essay, Taylor & Francis Group.

    Kringelbach, M. L. (2016). How cute things hijack our brains and drive behaviour University of Oxford. How cute things hijack our brains and drive behaviour. https://www.ox.ac.uk/research/how-cute-things-hijack-our-brains-and-drive-behaviour

    Stavropoulos, K. K., & Alba, L. A. (2018). “It’s so cute I could crush it!”: Understanding neural mechanisms of cute aggression. Frontiers in Behavioral Neuroscience, 12. https://doi.org/10.3389/fnbeh.2018.00300