The thought of having an identical twin has always peaked my interest. To think that there would be someone that shares all of the same DNA as you is something that is almost unbelievable. This is why identical twins became the forefront of experimentation during World War II. When twins would get sent to the concentration camps they would be separated for the rest of the group. The group of twins would be treated better than everyone else and got privileges that the other residents did not get like eating everyday and playing sports. This was the good, the bad was when the experimenting started. They would sometimes infect one twin with a disease, like TB, and left to die and then the healthy twin would be killed so that they could compare them. Sometimes blood would be taken from one twin and transfused into another. They would also use painful eyedrops in an attempt to create blue eyes, these drops would cause infection and blindness. The though behind these experiments was that since the twins were identical in every way, they could see the changes that would occur when they were infected with a disease or see if there is a change when they were injected with the others blood. The reason that identical twins have the same DNA is because they are from the same fertilized egg. After the egg is fertilized it splits into two embryos that will be, basically, identical. The identical nature of the body parts of twins makes them perfect donors for each other. There was a story recently about a pair of twins that both underwent a rare breast surgery when they were diagnosed with breast cancer. One of the twins didn't have enough extra skin to be able to reconstruct the damaged breast so the other donated skin to help. This was also see back in the 1950's when one twin donated their kidney to the other. What makes twins so interesting is that many have no idea how they are conceived and how they can contain the same DNA, which is why they were the subjects to the testing back in war torn Germany. The unknown makes the science community go crazy and experiment so that the unknown can become the known.

References 

1. http://www.slideshare.net/guest54eeb4/nazi-experimentation-and-treatment-of-twins-1313734

2. http://www.nbcnews.com/health/identical-twins-share-breast-cancer-rare-surgery-2D11600484

Why is One Never Enough?

When it comes to junk foods, you can never eat just a single chip or one piece of candy or when it comes to a recent study done by undergraduate students at Connecticut College, one Oreo. Using rats they wanted to test the theory that food, especially junk food, can have an addictive quality and the availability of said junk food in low income households has contributed to the obesity epidemic in America.
Rats were put into a maze that was split into two sides, on one side the rats were given rice cakes and on the other, Oreos. After their exposure to the food they were given the choice of what side of the cage that they wanted to go to. They compared the time that was spent on each side of the maze to a similar experiment where the rats were given cocaine or morphine on one side and saline on the other. They also looked at the pleasure center of the brain of the rats while eating Oreos.
What they concluded  was that they spent as much time on the cookie, or "drug," side of the maze as the rats that were exposed to actual drugs. They also noticed that the pleasure center of the brain was more active while the rats were eating the Oreo than the rats that were injected with drugs. This, in turn, proves that Oreos, and junk food in general, have an addictive quality. These results could be used to understand why, even though it is a known fact that junk food is bad for us, we still eat it and have a hard time stopping.
The "addictive" nature that this study showed junk foods have could give light to the reason why obesity is a problem. The availability and affordability of junk foods makes it easy to obtain and for people that don't have the money to buy fresh produce, such as fruits and vegetables, fall into the trap of buying all this unhealthy food. This shows that people who have a hard time controlling their food intake, especially if they only have junk around the house, are susceptible to obesity. These findings could help find a way to control the "addiction" that the pleasure of having sweets gives us.

References
Wilson, J. (2013, October 16). Oreos as 'addictive' as cocaine in lab study. Retrieved from http://thechart.blogs.cnn.com/2013/10/16/oreos-as-addictive-as-cocaine-in-lab-rat-study/

Your Brain on Exercise

Photo by Danielle Sarracino

Have you ever had one of those day where you are just feeling down in the dumps and feel like there is no way to boost your mood? Well do I have the perfect boost that you need...EXERCISE!
It may sound like a crazy idea, I mean who feels great after exercising it is so tiresome, but the truth is that it is proven to boost your mood. When doing any kind of physical activity from playing a sport to even just walking, you are releasing dopamine, a hormone that gives that warm and fuzzy feeling, into your system because it binds to receptors that help to diminish the feeling of pain. It is very similar to the effects that people get when on morphine without any of the adverse effects of being on a drug. Over the winter and summer breaks I was suffering, and still am, from anxiety and the one things that helped me every day were my walks. I would just go and walk for about an hour or more a day, every single day, with a bouncy ball, to rid all of my anxious tendencies. Even though this only helped a slight bit, it was something that made me feel good about myself and turned into something that I can do whenever I have an anxious thought or feeling. With that in mind, exercising daily is proven to make you feel good about yourself, get rid of anxious thoughts, rid you of feelings of depression, even distress you from a long dayAll I can say is that I endorse exercising to get rid of things that are stressful and get the endorphins flowing because it not only boosts your mood, but boosts how you feel about yourself.

Photo by Danielle Sarracino

These pictures might seem a bit random in this entry, but these are some pictures that I took over the winter break when I would go on my walks.









Reference
http://www.webmd.com/depression/guide/exercise-depression

Spider Bite: A LIfe Story

Photo by Danielle Sarracino

A few weeks ago I got bit by a spider...or so I think. The truth is, it is very rare to get bitten by spiders and since venomous spiders are not common in this area the likely hood that it cause this infection is very slim. With this thought in mind I went on a search to figure out if I did in fact get bit by a spider or if it was just a bad infection.

Photo by Danielle Sarracino

When I saw this really large, round boil on my leg I was very confused because I had no idea where it could have possibly came from. My first thought was a bug bite and when I asked around that is what everyone else was telling me. I didn't think much of it until it started to get really hard to walk because of the pain that this bite was causing me.

Photo by Danielle Sarracino

This is when I finally went to the doctor. They said that it was most likely a bite, gave me antibiotics and told me to check back in a few days to see if it got any better. It didn't, I had to go to the hospital to get it drained and get it tested for MRSA. A few days later I went back to the hospital to get it checked on again and they told me that it was most likely an infection caused by a spider bite because the MRSA test came back negative. That was a huge relief and now I have this huge circular scar on my leg because of this.

Photo by Danielle Sarracino

There are many times that infections, like MRSA, and other insect bites get confused for spider bites. This makes people very skeptical about if the bite is truly a spider bite or not, at least that is what I witnessed when I was telling people what it was. I could not tell you what kind of spider bit me, but all I have to say is, if you think you might have an infection of any kind get it checked out because the repercussions of not getting it treated are worse than thinking it is nothing at all.

Why do Rats Get Such a Bad Rep

Photo by Danielle Sarracino

Whenever I would bring up the idea of getting a pet rat almost everyone would question why I would want to have a rat as a pet. The negative reputation that rats have gained because of things that happened in the past and through the media has impacted how people think them. Many things that people think about rats have an element of truth to them, but are mostly false due to the over exaggeration of the negative aspects and not enough focus on the positives. One of the earliest thoughts of rats being dirty creatures is during the middle ages when they "spread" the black plague, when in fact they were only carriers of the true vector, the flea. There is no denying that most of the time in the wild, if you could call the underbelly of large cities the wild, in areas that are quite filthy, which is due to the fact that they are creatures that are around to be food to other animals and scavenge for food that the larger creatures, including humans, have left behind. A lot of time they are shown in the media living in the sewers and subway system of the large cities and I know that when I have been in New York City I have seen rats in the subway, but that doesn't mean that all rats live like that. In fact, they are the smartest member of the rodent family because they are able to use problem solving skills to figure out their next step, which is why they are used in science experiments.

Photo by Danielle Sarracino

As a matter of fact, the albino rat was created specifically for experimentation because the locus for albanism is right next to the locus for tameness making them the perfect specimen to work with. They are known to be very playful creature, can be taught to do tricks, and even have a laugh. Some people compare rats to dogs because they can be taught tricks, like fetch, love to play around with, get pet, and even lick their owners. Rats are very loving and easy-going, which is what makes them very good pets and since they are compared to dog, and don't cost as much, they are the perfect pet for the college student. I can say that it is a pleasure having a rat as a pet because they are such easy pets to take care of and as long as they are given the love and attention that they need will be so well behaved. The only downside is that they are nocturnal and all my rat does at night is climb on his cage and chew on his chew sticks. I enjoy having a rat as a pet and I think that all of the negative things that are said about rats make them a cooler pet to have.

Photo by Danielle Sarracino

References

http://www.rainingratsrattery.com/rats-kids/

The Biology Behind Rugby Injuries

Photo by Isabella Sofia

In my life I have played many sports, but none of them compare to rugby. Rugby has to be on the top of the list of my favorite sports of all time and definitely my favorite sport to play. Within the 2 years I have played this sport, I have witnessed many different injuries, whether it be on myself, fellow teammates, or the other team and let me say they range from little cuts to major breakages.

1. Cuts and scrapes- One of the most common and plentiful injuries that happen during a game, usually cause by getting tackled and rubbing against the ground, or getting scratched in the process of getting tackled. Simply enough, it is the breakage of skin due to pressure against the skin from a foreign object. This could either just cause a burn appearance, where just the top layer of skin breaks and exposes a deeper layer, draw blood, meaning that is much deeper, or it is a mixture of both. 
2. Bruises- Another very common injury that is acquired during play time. If a player is seen at any point after a game, at least one bruise could be seen on them, trust me on this one. It is caused by capillary breakage under the skin, and no skin break, with the blood pooling under the skin, giving it the black and blue appearance. This injury is usually cause by player on player contact of some kind, usually a tackle.

   

   Photo by Isabella Sofia

3. Dislocations- This happens every once in a while usually after a player tries to tackle another player. This happens with poor arm placement while trying to tackle another player running at speed and the arm gets hyperextended. The shoulder gets dislocated at the joint and, from what I have witnessed on the field, just kind of resets itself or will have to get reset by the paramedics. It is very painful and is caused by the joint popping out of the socket and the ripping of the tendons that hold the bone in the joint. It causes the injured player to be taken out of play.
4. Bloody Nose- Caused by force from one player to the nose of another causing bleeding to occur. This could happen with many different plays from being tackled to getting stiff armed to rucking. That force causes the capillaries in the nose to burst and start bleeding. For this the player would need to apply pressure to the nose to try and stop the bleeding. The player will be taken out of the game for an indefinite amount of time pending if the bleeding could be controlled, if it could be the player will be put back into play.

   

   Photo by Isabella Sofia
5. Broken Bones- The worst injury of all to witness. This is cause by any different things and the ones that I have witnessed have been when a player has been sat on, has tried to tackle, or has been tackled. Bones break when a very large amount of force is put on it in a direction that the bone can not handle. The bone will either have to be set back into place, like a hand, or there are some bones that will just have to set on their own, like ribs. This will cause a player to be taken out of play and sent to the hospital, which will have them out of games for a long time, usually the rest of the season.