Vanier College Science Newsletter
Science Matters* at Vanier
* courtesy of The Gazette
Issue 1
Did You Know That
• A tree which is 50 meters
high has roots that are 2.5 meters long?
• It takes eight minutes for
sunlight to reach the Earth?
• Per square inch, the tongue
is the strongest muscle in the
body?
• A male praying mantis loses
his head to the female after
mating?
• The small intestine is 7 to 8
meters long, whereas the large
intestine is only 1 to 1.5 meters long?
• There are more stars in
space than there are specks of
sand on the Earth?
• Even the longest dream only
lasts for eight seconds?
• The first computer produced
by Howard Aiken in 1944
was 15 meters high and
weighed several tons?
• Seven tenths of the Earth's
surface lies under water?
• If at this moment a star dies
out 10 light years away, we
will only know about it 10
years later?
• Light can travel around the
earth at it's equator 7.5 times
in 1 second?
• A butterfly
warms its body
up to 27°C before flying?
Published under the direction of
Student Services Vanier College
Editors: Linda Doan
Diana Dragomir
Suggestions or Comments:
[email protected]
MARCH 2000
SLEEP MORE, LEARN BETTER
Scientists from Harvard
Medical School are giving
us one more reason to get a
good night's rest. Research
indicates that thos e who get
at least six to eight hours of
sleep at night are more capable of learning; after obtaining the requisite hours of
sleep, you are more likely to
improve the new skills
you’ve just learned.
The study, which appears
in the March issue of the
Journal of Cognitive Neuroscience, indicates a relationship between memory and
the two stages of sleep. The
first two hours of sleep that
are spent in deep, slow wave sleep and the last two
hours are spent in rapid eye
movement (REM) sleep,
during which dreaming occurs. A person can get substantial amounts of both
types with the minimum of
six hours of sleep. What's
more, those who are well
rested improve upon
their ability to recall
previously learned
tasks.
"If you're learning
the types of mater ials where you have to learn
how to understand a new
concept, and if you don't go
to sleep and have a good
sleep, you might not remember what you learned. You
could lose 20 to 50 percent
of it," says sleep expert Carlyle Smith from Trent University in Peterborough, Ontario.
The key to the improved
performance is getting a
good dose of both slow -wave
sleep and REM sleep. During the first two hours of
slow-wave sleep, certain
chemicals in the brain drop.
Information moves from the
memory region into the cortex. In the next four hours,
this new information is distributed into respective net-
THE SCIENCE OF RAGE
Believe it or not, rage
is often influenced by
biological characteristics. In such cases, there
is little the angered person can do to restrain it.
Most of the brain consists
of the cerebrum, which is
divided into two hemispheres. Each one of those
contains four lobes (frontal,
parietal, occipital, and tem-
poral). According to
behavioral neuroscientist Bruce Pappas,
the frontal lobes can
exercise “executive
control” over behavior. People with frontal-lobe
damage are often unable to
behave appropriately in soc iety. Hormones play a role in
aggression, as does food. As
expected, alcohol and drugs
works and
categories.
A
slow
process of
protein synthesis starts
to strengthen the connections between those nerve
cells that have acquired the
new information. In the last
two hours of sleep, as the
cortex goes into active
dreaming, the brain chemistry changes. The memory
region is shut off from the
cortex and the brain goes
over the newly learned information, strengthening the
new connections throughout
its memory banks.
For those who don't get
between six to eight hours
of sleep, this stage is cut
short, and new skills they
learned don't get reinforced.
So instead of your usual
last-minute cramming, try
getting a good night’s rest
instead!
affect hostility as well.
Most of the above mentioned factors can be controlled, although not always
easily. Therefore, do not
count on being able to suppress anger when it arises,
but instead take precautions
before rage ever has a
chance to strike.
Source: Equinox, no. 109,
March 2000
PAGE 2
SCIENCE MATTERS* AT VANIER
ISSUE 1
Science Challenge: Enter Contest to Win!
Question 1: Who discovered Saturn's rings?
A) Einstein B) Copernicus
C) Galileo D) Da Vinci
Question 2: What science deals with
the motion of projectiles?
A) Geology
B) Hepatology
C) Ballistics
D) Criminology
Question 3: What's the name of the
point at which condens ation begins?
A) Dew point B) Boiling point
C) Freezing pointD) Lookout point
Question 4: What does a horologist
measure?
A) Length
B) Ocean depth
C) Distance
D) Time
Question 5: What country would you
come up in if you drilled a hole straight
through the center of the Earth from
Buenos Aires?
A) Taiwan
B) Egypt
C) China
D) Europe
Question 6: What kind of beam derives
its name from 'light amplification by
stimulated emission of radiation?
A) Balance beam B) Laser
C) Radar
D) Tractor beam
Question 7: What's the Fahrenheit
equivalent of 100 degrees centigrade?
A) 451 Degrees Fahrenheit
B) 212 Degrees Fahrenheit
C) 312 Degrees Fahrenheit
D) 150 Degrees Fahrenheit
You Smoke, You Choke!
How quitting works
By now I’m sure you know
the many health risks related to cigarette smoking.
Still, a smoker can never be reminded
enough. Approximately 45,000 deaths
in Canada were attributed to cigarette
smoking last year. But enough statistics; here’s something that might motivate smokers to get healthy. It’s never
too late to quit; the moment you stop
smoking, your body will immediately
begin to heal itself. See for yourself:
After 20 minutes: Blood pressure and
pulse rate decrease to normal. Body
temperature increases to normal.
After 8 hours: Carbon monoxide levels in blood drop and oxygen levels
increase to normal.
After 24 hours: Chance of a heart attack decreases.
After 48 hours: Food will taste and
smell better.
After 2 weeks to 9 months: Coughing,
congestion, tiredness and shortness of
HOW MANY PLANETS?
You may have heard of the discovery of extra -solar (outside of
our solar system) planets. During the past four years, 29 such
planets have been discovered.
Now, here’s the catch: all of
those are gas giants (huge planets mostly consisting of gas)
like Jupiter. That means that
there is practically no hope of
finding life on these planets. A
solid surface, liquid water
and a breathable atmosphere are the
conditions required in order for life to
exist, and those gas giants do not fit
the description. Yet the universe is
enormous and there is still hope. In
2010, NASA will be launching a new
project, called TPF (Terrestrial Planet
Finder), thanks to which we might be
able to detect Earth-sized planets
(which are very small, at the astro-
Question 8: What is the term for mass
per unit volume?
A) Density
B) Height
C) Width
D) Diameter
Question 9: How many sides does a
decagon have?
A) Five
B) Fifteen
C) Ten
D) Twelve
Question 10: What month is showing on
the calendar when the Earth
is closest to the sun?
A) July
B) January
C) October D) December
Submit answers to The Learning Centre
(B205) by Ap ril 14 and win prizes!
breath decrease. Your overall energy
increases.
After 1 year: Risk of heart disease is
half that of a smoker.
After 5 years 10 - 15 years: Chance of
lung cancer decreases by almost a half.
Risk of dying is similar to someone
who has never smoked.
FOR MORE SCIENCE NEWS AND
FUN SCIENCE FACTS, CHECK
OUT THESE WEBSITES:
www.theworldofscience.com
www.sciencedaily.com
www.sciencenews.com
nomical scale). Although we will probably not be
shaking hands with strange creatures in the near
future, we are making a lot of progress toward that
most-awaited (or most-dreaded) day.
Source: Equinox, no. 109, March 2000