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by Jacob L. Dunn, age 12
Many teenagers engage in risky behavior, such as committing crimes, due to impulsiveness. There are various factors that influence teenagers to be so impulsive, including social and peer pressure and a difficulty in controlling their actions.
In social situations, teenagers can experience peer pressure and stress related to their social environment. This can lead some teens to commit actions that could put them in scary or dangerous situations that are unknown to them. While many people may assume that a contributing factor for why teens engage in such risky behavior is because they underestimate the possible negative outcomes of their actions. However, the opposite is the case, according to postdoctoral student at New York University, Agnieszka Tymula.
“Relative to adults, adolescents engage more in unknown risks than they do in known risks,” stated Tymula. She claims that instead, teens are more open to this sense of the unknown, which serves as one explanation for the ways that the teenage brain works when it comes to high-risk situations.
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by Jessica Lopez, age 12
Did you know that the body releases gasses that indicate certain illnesses? Recent studies are testing the use of headphones to sniff out these gasses. Instead of using needles to collect fluid samples from patients, now doctors can get information based on gas collection from these headsets.
Moamen Elmassry, a microbiologist at Princeton University who didn’t participate in the project said, “The ear is a good place to monitor.” This is because the ear has a thin layer of skin so gasses can easily escape from the skin's pores.
For example, studies in Japan discovered that alcohol could be detected from the skin of people's ears. Similar to a breathalyzer, their system with the right sensors could detect alcohol from an individual’s body. In the future, they believe the sensors can actually find diseases in our system more quickly than blood tests.
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by Dulce Maria Vazquez, age 13
Surprisingly, the Bubonic plague, known to cause one of the deadliest disease outbreaks in history, only lasted for only four years. During those four years, two million people died in the country of England alone. In total, the plague killed over 20 million people worldwide. Due to the large death poll, the Bubonic plague is commonly known as the Black Death.
The pandemic started in Italy around the year 1346 and rapidly spread through the continent of Europe. Many decided to leave everything they owned behind just to flee the plague. Others decided to stay in their homes, which usually resulted in their death. In 1349. The disease left victims with painful boils on their bodies gave them high fever, nausea, and delirium. Various villages and towns were nearly wiped out by the Black Death.
Very little was known about medicine during the Middle Ages, leading doctors at the time to be incapable of fighting the disease. Rumors began to spread just as quickly as the plague, numerous people believed that the Black Death was a punishment sent from God. Although many thought that the plague affected only sinners, major fear and panic continued when people realized that the disease affected everyone alike.
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by Abby Comerford, age 13
If somebody told you that the way you were washing your dishes could potentially harm your children, would you believe them? According to Bill Hesselman, an assistant professor at the University of Gothenburg in Sweden, washing your dishes in a dishwasher can decrease exposure to trivial threats of bacteria and other germs, preventing your child from building up an immune tolerance to such bacteria.
Researchers in a recent study, led by Hesselman, followed approximately 1,000 children and their families in the Gothenburg area of Sweden. They were looking for information such as: how the families wash their dishes, what kind of foods they ate, and where they purchased their food. After gathering this data, they continued their study to see if the kids had any allergies.
The results of the study showed that overall, homes that only washed their dishes by hand experienced half the rate of allergies compared to homes that used dishwashers. When dishes are washed in the dishwasher, all of the bacteria and germs are washed away. This can become a problem when it comes to building up your immune system. If you’re not exposed to the bacteria left on a hand-washed dish, you can’t build up a tolerance to them. This can potentially turn into a food allergy. Additionally, allergy rates in homes that ate fermented and locally farmed food were even lower.
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by Eowyn Gomez Cruz, age 14
Older men are more likely to be diagnosed with cancer and die from the disease compared to older women. But in recent years, this has not been true for younger women, according to a new report from the National Institutes of Health.
According to the report, recent studies show that more young women between the ages of 20 to 49 are dying from cancer compared men. Cancer rates fell 0.7 percent for men each year between 2011 and 2015, but they rose 1.3 percent every year for women between the ages of 20 to 49. The most common cancer for younger women between 2012 and 2016 was breast cancer, which is most aggressive in women of that age group. Death rates were twice as high for breast cancer in comparison to any other type of cancer.
Dr. J. Leonard Litchfield, interim chief medical officer of the American Cancer Society said, “This rapid change shows us how important it is to continue working to find effective treatments for all kinds of cancer.”
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by Levi Burris, age 14
In a time when dogs have been trained to sniff out drugs and land mines, scientists are still finding other ways to use canines' superior sense of smell. One of these ways is training them to sniff out terminal diseases in places like Africa, where people generally do not receive convenient access to healthcare. By using dogs in this method, doctors could expand the medical field and save countless lives.
The nose of a dog has lots of potential for disease detection and control. A dog's nose is non-invasive and powerful. According to an article published in
Wired.com
, "it is able to detect substances at concentrations of one part per trillion—a single drop of liquid in 20 Olympic-size swimming pools." A dog can be easily trained to detect disease due to neophilia “which means [dogs] are attracted to new and interesting odors,” states Claire Guest, director of Medical Detection Dogs, an organization that focuses on canine biodetection research. A trained dog can be placed at certain outposts to protect against the spread of diseases. Also, the dogs can help accelerate the development of much more advanced technology.
The use of this technology could be beneficial for limiting the spread of dangerous diseases such as malaria. The World Health Organization, in its latest malaria report, states that “decades-long progress in fighting the disease has stalled and is in danger of reversing.” This disease kills half a million people annually, mostly children, even though the disease is treatable. Plus, the disease has evolved to allow it to spread to more hosts. Research conducted by James Logan, Head of Disease Control at the London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine found that malaria-causing
Plasmodium
can make infected humans smell tastier to mosquitos. People affected by the disease were found to emit a variety of volatile compounds that are a potent potion for attracting mosquitoes.
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by Sanaai Brazil-Broach , age 12
Are genetically modified foods safe to consume?
Over the last two decades, food that consumers have eaten contains genes from other plants that make them either grow faster, taste better or stay fresher for a longer period of time. Foods that have been altered this way are called “genetically modified foods.”
Some reasons companies may modify food is because they want it to look more appealing, or they are trying to give people the vitamins that their bodies need. Each year, for example, around half of a million children go blind, and one or two million children die from the lack of vitamin A. So scientists have developed vitamin A in rice and put it in other foods to help solve this problem.
[read more]
Surprisingly, the Bubonic plague, known to cause one of the deadliest disease outbreaks in history, only lasted for only four years. During those four years, two million people died in the country of England alone. In total, the plague killed over 20 million people worldwide. Due to the large death poll, the Bubonic plague is commonly known as the Black Death.
[read more...]
Many teenagers engage in risky behavior, such as committing crimes, due to impulsiveness. There are various factors that influence teenagers to be so impulsive, including social and peer pressure and a difficulty in controlling their actions.
[read more...]
Scientist Elmassry suggests the new system could also help tell if a child’s ear infection is a bacteria or a virus. The fact that each kind of infection produces different gasses could guide the treatment plan. For example, ear infections with bacteria respond with antibiotics; viral infections do not.
[read more...]
If somebody told you that the way you were washing your dishes could potentially harm your children, would you believe them? According to Bill Hesselman, an assistant professor at the University of Gothenburg in Sweden, washing your dishes in a dishwasher can decrease exposure to trivial threats of bacteria and other germs, preventing your child from building up an immune tolerance to such bacteria.
[read more...]
Over the last two decades, food that consumers have eaten contains genes from other plants that make them either grow faster, taste better or stay fresher for a longer period of time. Foods that have been altered this way are called “genetically modified foods.”
[read more...]
Older men are more likely to be diagnosed with cancer and die from the disease compared to older women. But in recent years, this has not been true for younger women, according to a new report from the National Institutes of Health.
[read more...]
In a time when dogs have been trained to sniff out drugs and land mines, scientists are still finding other ways to use canines' superior sense of smell. One of these ways is training them to sniff out terminal diseases in places like Africa, where people generally do not receive convenient access to healthcare. By using dogs in this method, doctors could expand the medical field and save countless lives.
[read more...]
Children are typically known as the pickiest eaters, but what happens when this behavior continues into adulthood?
[read more...]
If you ask a class of 3rd graders what color the sky is, most of them will tell you it's blue. According to scientists, colors aren’t always labeled the same to everyone. It depends on how you feel about it. At least, according to Zach Zorich.
[read more...]
Wisconsin is struggling with lead poisoning among children; however, children lead-poisoning cases are opening in Milwaukee. A troubling report reveals that Milwaukee's lead-poisoning prevention program has not been taking the most basic of steps to protect its youth.
[read more...]
We consider doctors to have little to no bias in their professions. However, when a condition cannot be seen in any tests or examinations, will that lack of bias stand?
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Have you ever had rumors spread about you? Have you ever been shoved in the school hallway on purpose? If so, you may have been bullied. Bullying is a serious issue. If you are ever bullied, you should tell someone who can help you.
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Skipping that extra cookie at dessert time maybe hard, but it could be worth it after all. Though people of all ages can be susceptible to obesity, children are much more vulnerable.
[read more...]
Schizophrenia is a severe mental illness that affects a surprising amount of people. It can alter lives--not just for schizophrenics, but for those around them, too.
[read more...]
How much do you know about your senses? Humans typically have five senses: sight, hearing, touch, smell, and taste.
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Rabies is a fatal virus that claims the lives of 60,000 people every year. The group most afflicted by this terrible disease is children in Asia and Africa.
Rabies usually enters the human body through a bite or broken skin and is commonly carried in the saliva of wild dogs. While most people contract rabies through dog bites, the virus can also be carried by bats, foxes, raccoons, and other wild animals.
[read more...]
Medicine is important for treating illnesses. Doctors, nurses, and pharmacists all work together to keep people healthy.
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Studies from the early 21st century show that by using scorpion venom to highlight cancerous tissues in the brain, doctors can detect and remove cancerous tissues more accurately.
[read more...]
For some, Jamaican coffee is a staple. Whether it helps you wake up at the crack of dawn or it complements your afternoon doughnut, the world seems to run on coffee. Unfortunately, Jamaican coffee has been in decline for years. But there just might be hope for Jamaican coffee farmers and lovers, in the surprising form of birds.
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Toshiba began to develop electronic technology in the 80's and 90's. Recently, the technology company has expanded its reach to include agriculture. In their indoor grow rooms, called “clean rooms,” Toshiba grows lettuce, spinach, and sprouts.
[read more...]
According to a 2016 report by the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering and Medicine, bullying is a problem across the country, likely affecting 18 to 31 percent of young people. This serious issue can no longer be treated as child's play; it must be prevented.
[read more...]
Bees are important pollinators; however, they have recently been declining in population across the country. In response to this alarming trend, Ortho, a pesticide company and a and part of the Miracle-Grow family has decided to remove neonicotinoids or neonics, a chemical that may harm bees, from their home and garden products by 2021.
[read more...]
When most people think about summer, they think of fun, relaxing, and warm days. For many dogs, it is completely the opposite.
More than half of all dogs suffer from "noise anxiety." During the summer, with window-rattling thunderstorms and earsplitting fireworks, it is quite a stressful season for them. A dog's senses are much better than a human's are, and one of their greatest senses is hearing. While a human might think fireworks are loud, to dogs the impressive Fourth of July displays are even louder. Their keen hearing abilities amplify the sounds, thus creating a panicky environment for our loyal companions.
[read more...]
In East and Central Africa, many farmers and their families rely on the production of bananas. East Africa produces and consumes the most bananas in Africa. Unfortunately, a plant virus called Banana Xanthomonas Wilt (BXW) threatens to knock out production in this booming market. This alarms farmers because bananas are staple for them to provide food and income security.
[read more...]
Football is a sport that has captured many peoples' hearts. The interceptions, the touchdowns, the excitement, the passion and, most importantly, the aggression – many would be devastated if the NFL ended. But that just might happen soon.
[read more...]
Why do humans need to breath? Breathing is a part of the process that maintains levels of oxygen in the body. When we stop breathing, no oxygen gets to the brain, which can very quickly lead to brain damage and even death.
[read more...]
A recent study conducted by an international team of scientists reported that agriculture's arrival in Europe 8,500 years ago altered human DNA. Specifically, Earth's populace saw changes to its height, digestion, immune system, and skin color. The study, the first of its kind, considered differences between genetics from living Europeans and their ancestors. This allowed researchers to see genetic changes that occurred over thousands of years.
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Just because a person wants to eat, it doesn't mean he or she is truly hungry. Hunger is caused when blood vessels lack nutritive materials and a message is sent to the hunger center of the brain. The brain tells the stomach and intestines to become more active; that's why a hungry person hears his or her stomach rumble. A calm individual can live longer without food while, an excitable person uses up the food they have stored quicker.
[read more...]
In the twenty first century, many people are having accidents caused by cellphone distractions. With the recent rise in cellphone use, distracted walkers have caused problems. In fact, there are many more people than ever before going to emergency rooms because of these accidents.
[read more...]
Regardless of what parents may think, a recent study shows a strong possibility that playing video games could make you smarter. The study tested 152 adolescents who played at least 12.6 hours a week. The study found that video game play is associated with greater “cortical thickness,” meaning greater density in specific brain areas that affect decision-making.
[read more...]
Did you know that coffee, and even decaffeinated coffee, might help your liver? Yes, this bitter liquid could have some sweet benefits for those who drink three cups per day, according to a 2014 study.
[read more...]
Breathing might seem like the easiest and most natural thing in the world, but it actually involves complex processes.
[read more...]
If a current study reported in the journal Science Transnational Medicine is confirmed to be plausible, bacteria may save lives instead of disrupt them.
[read more...]
The Ebola outbreak caused quite a scare throughout the world in 2014. The Ebola virus is a serious illness that can be fatal, if untreated. The 2014 outbreak is the largest and most complex outbreak since the first, with a death toll larger than all the other outbreaks combined. According to many sources Ebola has an average mortality rate of 50 percent. The disease was first discovered in 1976, when there were two outbreaks at the same time in separate places. One of these outbreaks was near the Ebola River in the Congo in Africa, hence the name, “ebola.”
[read more...]
Sugary snacks like Twinkies, Hershey bars and other candy, along with salty foods like chips and some pretzels can cause weight gain. Kids who constantly eat junk food are much more likely to develop childhood obesity.
[read more...]
The immune system plays an important role in your body. It is made of tissues, cells and organs, which work together to protect your body from illnesses.
[read more...]
We need to take care of our bodies by eating the right foods. In order to keep healthy, we need to make sure that we are eating the right amount and portions of food. There are three primary sources of food: carbohydrates, fats and proteins.
[read more...]
Your brain is the structure inside your head that controls your entire body— your actions, emotions, and even thoughts.
[read more...]
Every move you make depends on muscles, even when these movements go unnoticed.
[read more...]
Some say the eyes are the opening to the soul. They are also the opening to the world. Without your eyes you wouldn’t be able to see anything. Everything in your eyes has a purpose.
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For those who smoke, quitting can be hard. Many try to stop before smoking becomes a bad habit.
[read more...]
Scientists have recently uncovered the secrets of the red miracle berry, this berry tricks your taste buds, coating your tongue with a juice that makes sour foods, like vinegar and lemon, taste super sweet. For four decades, why this type of berry changes sour flavors to sweet has been a mystery. Researchers at the University of Tokyo have discovered the miracle berry’s secrets.
[read more...]
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