Microbes, singular for the population of bacteria called microbiomes, boom in the body, outnumbering human cells by a ratio of 10 to 1. These microbiomes play a vital role in the breaking down of some nutrients found in one’s diet in order to turn them into a form useful to the human body. Researchers suspect that microbiomes also determine how vulnerable one is to certain diseases.

For scientist to test their hypothesis, they needed to see how healthy adult microbiomes look like.
Gastroenterologist Jeffrey Gordon and his colleagues from the Washington University in St. Louis collected 532 fecal samples from individuals of all ages. More than half the individuals lived across the Unites States while the remaining individuals were based in two villages in Venezuela and the others in rural Malawi communities. The samples were frozen, pulverized and extracted for DNA. They then used 16S rDNA that is common in all microbes to discover what species where present in the microbial community based in the gut.

They discovered that the microbiomes represented in all three populations did mature in a similar way. Small children had fewer microbe species only for their gut to resemble that of an adult by the age of three. They also found that the microbiomes of the Venezuelan and Malawians were similar while those of the Americans were significantly different. This was because they were less diverse and had 25 percent less species than the Venezuelan microbiomes. This means that Westerners microbiomes were less diverse.

By picking and sequencing 110 of the available samples, researchers did find differences in the genes represented in the adult microbiomes in all three countries. The enzyme that breaks down starch was generally more common in Malawi and Venezuela microbes while enzymes that break down amino acids and simple sugars were more common in US samples. The researchers suspect that this is due to the differences in the food consumed in these three countries. In Malawi and Venezuela, their food diet is mostly corn and cassava while for the Americans it is more of proteins and sugars.

Studies from Gordon’s group showed microbiomes indeed do correlate with diet. In general, Amerindian microbiomes look like those in herbivorous mammals while in the U.S microbiomes look like those in carnivorous mammals. But as microbiologist David Relman at Stanford University School of Medicine in Palo Alto, California says, “Although the current study represents a heroic effort, we still have a long way to go before we have a truly global picture of variation in the human microbiome.” In essence, you are what you eat! So mind what food you put in your stomach.

Scientists at Salk Institute for Biological Studies in California claim that they have developed a method for transforming skin cells into fully functional neurons. This could mean a breakthrough in mental disorder treatment as it is a much more noninvasive and personalized approach to the old, conventional methods. Many believe the current approach to treating mental disorders is flawed, and for good reason.

The way psychiatrists approach treating these issues is as follows: they give patients different types of drugs until one of them works. Pre-testing different drugs on skin cells taken from patients could help in determining which drug works best. After the team of scientists at Salk Institute collected skin cells from patients with mental disorders, they successfully reprogrammed them into stem cells.

Using these newly formed stem cells, the team then used a special biochemical substance to turn them into brain cells. After comparing the brain cells of healthy donors with those from the schizophrenic patients, they noticed a significant difference between them: the brain cells from the latter did not form as many connections and were also smaller in size.

After conducting further tests in petri dishes, the scientists noticed that the neurons from schizophrenic patients responded positively to five types of drugs. One of these, loxapine (a commonly used drug to treat severe mental disorders), successfully altered the connections among the neurons, giving a small demonstration as to how it would affect the patient.

• Pen
• Paper
• A die, or two dice

What to do

1. Draw up a grid five squares wide and five squares tall. If you don’t want to draw them, you can download a sheet here. (Six grids per page.)
2. Imagine this grid is a paved area, and it’s just starting to rain. Draw where the first nine raindrops might fall, trying to be as random as possible.
3. Take some time to look at how the rain fell on your paving. Do you think it looks random?
4. Consider the following two questions:
   • Did more than one of your drops fall into any of the squares?
   • We can see that 16 out of the 25 squares are on the outer edge of the paved area. This is more than half. From your nine drops how many fell on the outside squares?
5. Now repeat the activity, but use rolls of a die to work out where the drops fall. Roll for the row and then the column. Re-roll any 6s (because there are only five columns and rows)
6. How does this new pavement compare to the first one? Which one is more random?

What’s happening?

In this activity there are 16 pavers on the perimeter. Each raindrop has a 16/25 or 64% chance of falling in a box on the perimeter, which means that overall, there’s a pretty good chance that more drops will fall there. Maybe more surprisingly, there’s an almost 90% chance that two or more raindrops will fall on the same paver.

There are many mistakes that people make when they try to fake a random process. Some people assume that random numbers are more likely to happen near the middle or average. True random numbers happen all over the place, and a result all the way in the corner is just as likely as one in the middle. In fact, it’s more likely, because there are four corner pavers, and there’s only one middle paver!

Because the chance is the same for each paver, you might try to spread the dots out as evenly as possible. You might look at your grid and put the next dot in the largest gap. A random process will sometimes put a dot in the biggest gap, but sometimes it will put it in a small gap, or in the same square as another dot.
Applications

Imagine you did this activity with several classmates, and at the end, you mixed all the grids you drew together into a big pile. Do you think you could separate the made up ones from the ones drawn with dice?

Some of the made up pavements might be very easy to spot. If the drops make a smiley face, or they make a checkerboard, then there’s a very low chance they came from the dice. A statistician would be able to spot more detailed patterns. In one demonstration, statisticians were able to pick between 100 flips of a coin, and a made up list.

Detecting fake random numbers is very important for stopping crimes. These sorts of techniques have caught people cheating on their taxes, and even detected possible vote tampering in elections!

Try to put drops as randomly as possible.

Use this table to help you find the right square.

If you have two different dice, you can roll row and column at the same time!

Compare the dice roll results with the fake random grid you did first.

The fact that dark matter is plentiful in the universe means that it interacts with human beings everyday. It is said that it interacts with an average person’s body approximately once every 60 seconds. Even now as people read this article, dark matter is busy bombarding with their body’s and they don’t it.

As earlier stated, the greater part of the universe is made up of matter that we cannot see and that is why many scientists have pursued this subject, to try and explain the known unknown though they have till date never been able to find it. One of the theories that have been brought into the open is that one of the materials of dark matter constitutes of something referred to as Weakly Interacting Massive Particle or WIMP in short. WIMP has proved to be promising in trying to decipher what dark matter is and what it is made up of though no tangible results have been arrived at.

Cosmologists have agreed that though no tangible results have been arrived at in respect to trying and locating dark mater, it is part of the universe and they have published their theories in newspapers stating that the universe is made up of a open and free matter that is not visible to the eye.

They have been able to ascertain because of its properties as earlier mentioned, dark matter does not interact with normally with other matter in the otherwise we would be able to see it. It is speculated that this dark matter interacts with both the hydrogen and oxygen nucleus and changes their spinning direction and speed. They have gone ahead and used an average human for this experiment weighing about 70kg to see how these interactions of dark matter and regular matter take place e.g how many WIMP interactions take place in a minute though it has been said that maybe less than 10 may interact with the human body’s nuclei in any given year.

As I delved into the study of the appetite for fatty and salty foods, such as guacamole, some temptations that were out of the ordinary crept into my head. The bowlful of chips at the edge of the table, as well as that of deliciously luring salsa was urging me to consume more and more of them. The bowl seemed to say to me, “We are sure you want us and you can’t deny it. After all, are we not mouth-watering?” In a matter of some few minutes the bowl was empty, and my willpower gone with the contents.

I just couldn’t muster enough willpower to say no to the bowl of chips although I had made the decision to reduce my weight. I’m sure I’m not the only person going through this kind of dilemma. Foods such as chocolate, chips and burgers are daily pushing people’s weights up and up. And they are doing nothing about it. Obesity has wrecked our health and our healthcare economy is crippled. The Center for Disease Control and Prevention published a study in 2010 that unmasked shocking revelations. Two thirds of all American adults were overweight and one thirds of all American children and adolescents were obese. The findings of the study further revealed that some nine states in the US had an obesity rate of 30%. This was totally unprecedented. The study further revealed that treatment for issues related to obesity accounted for 10% of the American medical expenditure. The once called normal weight has become abnormal.

This era of overweight people has been dubbed by the American Medical Association’s Journal as the “age of obesity and inactivity”. It is an indubitable truth that if this widespread weight gain goes unchecked the lifespan of the average American citizen is going to be greatly decreased. This is going to have a reversing effect upon the gains made from reducing the risk factors as a result of smoking, cholesterol and hypertension. We all know what we should do to overcome obesity. We know we should eat less and exercise more but no one seems to be following this. Research has shown that 43% of women and 25% of men attempt to lose weight each year. And about 5% manage to keep it off for a long time.

We all might wonder why our bodies seem to be working against their own health. Many neurobiologists maintain that the problem is our heads and not our stomachs. This is because while we know the dangers, we keep on eating the wrong quantities of the wrong foods. However, scientists have embarked upon a study of the brain that might discover a powerful hormone that is going to help our minds stay conscious and strong enough to resist the allure of foods that make our weights increase.With this you will be able to enjoy your food, brain keeping everything in check.

Crayfish is a creature that has unique characteristics unmatched to any marine animals, when you keenely look at the male species the claws differ in size and strength. Moreover, the size of the animal does not matter when it comes to territorial domination, research has shown that dominance can be attained by those that are of comparatively smaller size.

Territorial dominance is successful when there are fights amongst the male genus of crayfish, this dominion can only be achieved when one challenges the opponent in broils. During this stage, the act of deception to win the clash is overshadowed by deception, which is a natural instinct amongst animals.

Claws are the deciding factor during these brawls, the bigger and stronger the claws the higher the chances of winning the fight. It has been scientifically proven that not all big crayfish have big claws, and some relatively small crayfish have astonishing big claws. This gives them an advantage over the opponent, deception is always at high levels amongst these crustaceans.

Research done by Michael Angelita of Arizona state University, case study of crayfish claws on male chirax dispar trying to determine the strength of individual claws, the results showed that the same size of limbs could exert different levels of pressure on the tweezer like instruments. The size of limb did not actually determine the stenghth of the specific claw, some big claws were relatively weak. Contrary to expectations, the same size of limbs could exert varying pressure.

During these fights, deception is the art of war, size and strength of claws matters even if the limb is weak it might be waved to distract the opponent. While a small stronger claw waiting to be unleashed on the enemy. The different in sizes of these claws is caused when the claws regenerate after brawls.

Deception is wide spread in nature and crustaceans have exhibited this character during the broils to fool their opponents. This work is an essential part of study into how cheating and bluffing has evolved over the years, it hints into the very vice of dishonesty.

However, despite crayfish strange characteristics they are a delicacy in many cultures, you can enjoy these meals when on holiday or just at home. The many cooking methods and recipes used will make you forget about the claws and male domineering traits. What you have to do is prepare onions, add cut green pepper, garlic in butter on your pan, you can also add seasoning to make it tastier. Cook on medium heat until tender crisp then serve. This is the reason that it is accepted as one of the sea food that is recommended for you eat to be more healthy, it is very nutritious try it out.

The author might have some intriguing ideas in his guide book but rather the content is not written or outlined in a clear to understand manner. The language used is in fact jargon and thus the message might not get home in most of the settings. The major underlying principle in this book is that if two foods share common flavor compounds, they can be paired up conveniently to create a great meal. That is why fruits such as sauternes, cherries, and aged sake which all contain sotolon are best if you drink them together or in conjunction with dishes that contain fenugreek seeds, walnuts, and maple syrup. These dishes also contain sotolon.

Grass fed beef contains skatole and therefore would pair well with jasmine. Serving jasmine infused potatoes with butter beat ups can be a foolproof scheme in determining the compatibility of different food substances. The flavors in these two foods might not really get along well. The sharp purple bath lotion scent produced by jasmine might tend to override the much more pleasing beef tang and give a result that might not be so welcome by the nose. A bad smell that is!

Considering chemistry in pairing foods might be a good idea and more so it has been explored by many researchers. For instance Belgium food pairing has seen success in matching foods basing on their chemical components. Take for instance, try out a beverage that blends caraway and mint basing on the principle that these herbs contain carvone as a major flavoring molecule. Caraway component would mint the enantiomer and create the much desired tasty substance. In that case, foods might not have similar tastes but have the same internal structure and therefore can blend well.

Definitely you would love to get to all lengths to catch up with the richness of information offered in this book. The only issue is that the author of this book at times tends to use some hard facts which might not make sense to most people. Such terms might trigger some element of questionable utility or more so be viewed as being downright dubious. The book is also littered with many technical terms thus giving the user no ability to exercise their freedom of choice because most of them cannot crack some of these terms. Another issue that puts the relevance of this book on the line is that all the sixteen chapters tend to address one type of food, flavor, molecule or ingredient. It might not offer the richness of information any consumer would want to get. Probably you would need to get other books to give you a clear insight into the whole element of food and science.

The children who participated in Kendal’s study tried to reach the boxes which contain the food or sticker reward by shaking the sliding door from left to right and when that did not work, by pushing any of the two buttons in order to move the opening, the last thing the kids tried is to turn the switch in the boxes using one of the available colored holes in order to slide the door further.

Compared to the both the chimp and capuchins group which took 30 hours before a chimp figured out how to open the puzzle box, the group of kids only took less than 3 hours and several children in a group managed to reach the last level. The main difference between the two groups is not the hours but the lack of strategies spread throughout the chimps. The reason it took so long for the chimpanzees to solve the puzzle is because there was no shared knowledge or teaching techniques exhibited by the chimpanzee and capuchins group.

Kendal’s team have expressed that these four or five member group children have at least two kids who were able to solve a 3 stage puzzle while the other members reached the second stage. Compared to the chimps and capuchins group, rarely one can manage to reach beyond stage one. Researchers have noted that in primates, there is no sharing of rewards or teaching methods employed. The Chimpanzees copied each other actions during the early stages but not during the higher stages.

According to Kendal herself, there is a big difference between both the chimpanzees and capuchins and the kids. The contrast in supporting cultural ability was made evident during the experimental stage. Kendal’s research is the first to use the same method in order to study the difference between the social learning’s of three different species.

There have been previous researches regarding grouped children doing problem solving tasks. However, these have mostly focused on teaching, sharing, and imitation among humans. Anthropologist Joseph Henrich of University of British Columbia in Vancouver have stated that these kinds of behaviors exhibited by the kids are what proves the human capability for knowledge and technological advances. But there has yet been no studies which explains how and why this procedure works.

In a published commentary in the Issue of Science, University of Pennsylvania in Philadelphia Psychologist Robert Kurzban and University of California, Los Angeles Anthropologist H. Clark Barrett have both agreed that Kendal’s grouped children puzzle-box research study is a useful reflection of how people use their mental specialties like inferring other individuals intentions or language reasoning.

* A grid containing each of the numbers from one to one hundred. You can download one here
* Several colours of pencil or texta

What to do

In this activity, you will find all the prime numbers under 100. A prime number can’t be divided evenly by any whole number except one and itself. For example, three is a prime number. Six can be divided evenly by two and three, so it isn’t a prime.

1. Start out by circling 2. Two is a prime number because it can only be divided by one and two. However, any other number that is divisible by two isn’t prime. Using one colour of pencil or texta, cross out every other even number. You should find they form neat rows.
2. Now circle 3. Three is also a prime number, but any other multiple of three is not, so cross out all the multiples of three with a different coloured texta. You’ll notice these run in diagonal lines across the page.
3. The next number that isn’t crossed out is 5. Five is a prime, so you can circle it, and then cross out all the multiples of five with a third colour. These should be easy to find – the only ones you haven’t yet crossed out should be directly below the 5.
4. Find the next smallest number that isn’t circled or crossed out. Circle it and then cross out all of its multiples. Keep repeating this process until all the numbers on the grid are crossed out or circled.
5. Through this process you have crossed out all the numbers that aren’t prime. The circled numbers are all the prime numbers under 100.

What’s happening?

This method of finding prime numbers is thousands of years old, and was probably invented by an ancient Greek called Eratosthenes in the third century BCE. It’s a good way to make a list of prime numbers relatively quickly.

When you’re using this method, you might find you stop crossing out numbers a lot earlier than you thought. If you start with 100 numbers, you shouldn’t need to cross out any numbers after you cross out all the multiples of seven. That’s because those multiples have another factor that is smaller.

If your grid was larger, you’d need to cross out multiples of larger primes. If your grid went up to 121, you’d need to cross out a multiple of 11, and if it went up to 400, you’d need to cross out multiples of every prime smaller than 20. With each new prime number you come to, the first box you’ll cross off is that prime number multiplied by itself.
Applications

This method is good for finding all the prime numbers, but in a lot of cases, not all of them are needed. For example, prime numbers for a code are often really big, with hundreds of digits. There isn’t enough space on all the hard drives on the Earth to keep a list of the primes that large, so this method can’t be used. If a list of all the big primes could be made, they wouldn’t be very good for making codes!

To find big prime numbers for codes, computers start with a big random number, and then check to see if it’s prime. If it isn’t, they try a different number. This way, there’s a very good chance that it will find a prime no one has ever found before.

What you will need.

Circle each prime number, and then cross out their multiples.

Use different colours for each prime to show some interesting patterns.

If you want people to send you secret messages over the internet, you could make yourself an RSA key pair. RSA keys require two large prime numbers – these are usually several hundred digits long. You then multiply them together, and put this product on the internet for everyone to see. People can use this ‘public key’ to encode messages to send to you, but they can’t use it to decode those messages.

In order to decode messages, you use the prime numbers to make a ‘private key’. As long as you keep your prime numbers secret, no one should be able to read messages encoded with your public key. However, if someone takes the public key and works out which prime numbers you used, they can break the code.

No one has found a quick way to break public keys without a clue. However, if two public keys share a prime, those keys can break each other. This shouldn’t happen very often, because there are so many prime numbers to choose from.

Researchers from a Swiss university took lots of public keys from the internet and looked for shared primes. Around two in every thousand keys they checked shared a prime and were broken by the researchers. The problem was not in the maths of RSA, but how some software generated prime numbers. This flawed software sometimes generated the same prime numbers for different people.

This research doesn’t mean that internet security is completely broken. Only a very small proportion of keys can be broken in this way. However, it just goes to show that what works on paper doesn’t always work as well in the real world.