The sole responsibility for the content of this publication lies with the authors. Its contents do not reflect the opinion of the University Students’ Council of the University of Western Ontario (“USC”). The USC assumes no responsibility or liability for any error, inaccuracy, omission or comment contained in this publication or for any use that may be made of such information by the reader.

INSIDE THIS ISSUE, YOU’RE GOING TO FIND...

Bendable televisions and cell phones for the flexible consumer. Page 3

A scientific pioneer who was born and died on his birthday, René Dubos. Page 5

The effects of red wine on testosterone levels. Page 6

Scientific facts underlying sport and recreation. Pages 4-5

The best damn comics section in the league. Page 7

The SSC’s Official Science Newspaper thecurrent@westernssc.ca

Volume 3 — Issue 5

Awake and awareYour Science Students’ Council connects you to Dr. Adrian Owen’s world famous search for the soul

NEUROSCIENCE

Caitlin Martin-NewnhamOutreach Editor

...CONTINUED ON PAGE 6

Follow us on twitter!For every Current, there

is an equal and opposite Twitter feed @TheCurrent_SSC

“If you are aware, raise your left hand,” Dr. Adrian Owen instructed the audience. He was demonstrating a concept called ‘com-mand following’ that allows researchers to measure awareness. Awareness and wake-fulness are the two components that define consciousness, which is exactly what Owen is trying to find in vegetative state patients. Vegetative state patients can open their eyes, have sleeping and waking cycles, and appear to look around at their environment, but they cannot fixate their gaze on any-thing. Unlike coma patients, vegetative state patients display ‘wakefulness’. It is awareness that is difficult to deter-mine in a patient that cannot physically or verbally respond. They cannot say, “Yes, I am aware,” and they cannot raise their left hand, as the audience was capable of doing. It was in Cambridge, England, with a patient named Kate that Owen’s interest in the topic began. Kate came to the hospital presenting flu-like symptoms, and then fell into a vegetative state that persisted for five months. At the time, Dr. Owen was working in brain imaging, and decided to put her in an MRI machine to see if she had any brain activity. Owen admitted, “I don’t know why we did it, actually.” They showed her pictures of her friends

and family and, like healthy patients, her fusi-form gyrus lit up. “This was completely aston-ishing at the time,” Owen explained. They proceeded to investigate the language regions of the brains of other vegetative pa-tients by looping pre-recorded speeches, and saw great success. A major turning point in Owen’s research occurred when he asked, “What do we have

to do to convince ourselves that the patients were conscious?” The answer was ‘command following’. Dr. Owen discovered that he could ask vegetative patients in an MRI machine to imagine playing tennis, and one area of the brain would light up. This corresponded to the same area of the brain that would light up in healthy patients that were given the same in-structions.

It showed that the patients were able to follow commands. He then had the same success with in-structing patients to imagine moving around their home, causing a different area of the brain than “tennis playing” to show a burst in activity. Owen now had a way to ask “yes/no” questions to vegetative state patients. He could ask any question, and the patient re-sponded with “yes” by imagining playing tennis, and “no” by imagining moving around their home. He began asking questions to the pa-tients he did not know the answers to in or-der to eliminate the possibility of influencing the results. This was to determine if the veg-etative patient was conscious enough to fol-low commands and make decisions. For example, one patient’s family gave him a list of names, and one was the patient’s father’s name. He asked the patient which name was their father’s name, and had them answer yes or no to each name by imagining playing tennis or navigating their home. The patient did, in fact, pick out the correct name and answered a number of other questions correctly. One patient was even able to confirm that their sister had a child, and pick the child’s name, which was astonishing because the sister’s child was conceived after the pa-tient entered their vegetative state.On February 5th, British neuroscientist and current Western University Research Chair

Dr. Adrian Owen gave a seminar challenging the traditional definition of conciousness.

”“

What do we have to do to convince ourselves that the

patients were concious?

- Dr. Owen

My cousin’s friend asked: “So what do you want?” To which he replied, “I’ll take the addie, 30mg extended… oh and the Vyvanse caps too.” Before the small baggie was handed off, I saw a glimpse of orange and white starch cap-sules, some marked with the letters ‘XR’. The innocuous exchange was made in the library parking lot before my cousin’s prep session. It was definitely SAT season and I had witnessed a transaction completely normal to many students at this time of year. During the drive home, I asked how many kids at his preparatory school took stimulants. Nonchalantly, he replied, “Half the kids de-

Academic steroidsThe unspoken student addiction

Joseph RyuCurrent Contributor

PHARMACOLOGY

velop ADHD before senior year rolls around and the other half buys off them.” The figure was undoubtedly an exaggeration, yet his re-sponse was inexplicably unsettling. According to a Kaiser Permanente study published in the journal JAMA Pediatrics, ADHD diagnosis has increased 25% in the last decade, most prominently among the upper income class. In North America, the number of pre-scriptions for people ages 10 to 19 have risen 26 percent since 2007, to almost 21 million yearly (IMS Health). The rate of abuse of non-prescribed medications, such as methylphenidate, is es-timated to be between 5% and 35% of North American college-individuals (JAACAP). As well, The Canadian Medical Associa-tion Journal notes that in a study conducted

...CONTINUED ON PAGE 6

Page 2 The Current—February 2013

Current StaffSteven Robillard — Editor-In-Chief

Daniel Tovbis — Creative EditorJameera Mohamed — Compilation Editor

Rajiv Lakhani — Compilation Editor Ivan Urosev — Copy Editor

Harmony Hsieh — Features EditorRuiLin Guo — Features Editor

Caitlin Martin-Newnham — Outreach EditorMathura Thiyagarajah — Images Editor

Current ContributorsSamantha Horkoff, Joseph Ryu, Cecilia Kwok, Nadine Abdulkarim, Lakshman Vasanthamohan, Simon Oh, Mitchell Thom

Make like an acid and contribute to our base:thecurrent@westernssc.ca

LIFE NOT AS WE KNOW ITOur planet is home to many awe-inspiring organisms. If you’re fascinated with life on Earth, but don’t want to get out of your chair to explore the

world, here is a glimpse of a few bizarre, exotic, or unconventional creatures your lazy eyes might have otherwise never seen.

Think kiwi is just a type of fruit? Think again. Apteryx haastii, or the Great Spotted Kiwi, is the largest of five species of kiwi birds. They are flightless birds of the Ratite family, which includes birds such as the emu and ostrich. They have wings but they are quite small and are hard to see within their plum-age. These birds are highly aggressive and due to their large size can defend themselves against predators including ferrets, stoats, weasels and even pigs. These birds hold the record for having the largest egg in proportion to their body size. The mother does not eat during the one month gestation period due to the amount

GREAT SPOTTED KIWI HERCULES BEETLEof room the egg takes up in her body. This spe-cies of kiwi is distinguishable from other kiwi species as they lay only one egg per year due to the amount of energy required by the mother to carry it. Once the egg is laid, the father incu-bates it while the mother guards the nest. Don’t expect to see these birds around London however, as they are endemic to New Zealand and cannot fly to anywhere else!

—Samantha Horkoff

The largest of the rhinoceros beetles is deserv-ingly named the Hercules Beetle, Dynastes hercules. This gentle giant is native to South America, where the largest of the males reach to a length of nearly seven inches, and the larva can be as big as the palm of a grown man’s hand!

Most notably, the male beetle has horns that can sometimes grow to a size longer than its body, which are used to fight other males for mates (the females lack the horns entirely).

One of its signature moves is to pick up the other beetle with its horns and slam it on the ground head first, killing him and classically wins the girl. The horns are also quite a handy tool to move impeding ob-

jects out of the way, and proves to be a great display to attract mates (intuitively, the longer the horn, the more desirable).

Also recognized for its incredible strength, the Hercules Beetle is known to be the strongest creature on earth, as it can carry 850 times its own weight!

—Cecilia Kwok

The marvellous mycena luxaeterna looks more like a product of science than a strain of mushroom, but rest assured, it is 100% natural.

The mushroom can be found in the lush rainforests of Brazil, and scientists are keen on understanding its mysteries. It was first dis-covered in 2009 by a team from San Francis-co State University led by Dennis Desjardin.

One of an increasing number of bio-luminescent species of mushrooms, the luxaeterna emits its glow 24 hours a day which already proves to be better than the glow in the dark stars in your room. The bright light is actually emitted by the thin stems as opposed to the larger floppy caps.

MYCENA LUXAETERNADesjardin hypothesized that the

glow attracts nocturnal animals which spread the mushroom’s spores.

However, what truly sets the lux-aeterna apart is that it was named af-ter Mozart’s famous “Requiem”. Now what other fungus can boast that?

—Lakshman Vasanthamohan

OCEAN SUNFISHNo, this is not a Pokémon that evolved horribly wrong; the Ocean Sunfish is the world’s larg-est and heaviest bony fish. Weighing a whop-ping 1200lbs and measuring a length of 1.8m on average, this fish has an odd body shape as well as an odd scientific name; Mola mola.

It mostly resembles a flattened cir-cular fish head with no tail, and uses two fins to propel itself. Their teeth fuse into a beak-like structure and they are unable to fully close their mouths.

Despite its massive weight and height, the Ocean Sunfish will leap from the surface up to 3 meters in the air and crash back in the wa-ter in an attempt to dismantle skin parasites.

The Ocean Sunfish is harmless, subsisting on a diet of jellyfish and other small sea crea-tures, and can be found in tropical and temper-ate oceans near the surface of the water basking in the sunlight or curiously approaching divers.

—Nadine Abdulkarim

Courtesy of thestar.com Courtesy of nationalgeorgraphic.com

Courtesy of nationalgeorgraphic.com

Courtesy of nationalgeorgraphic.com Courtesy of nationalgeorgraphic.com

Courtesy of Ted’s Fish Compendium Courtesy of nationalgeorgraphic.com

LIFE NOT AS WE KNOW IT The Current— February 2013 Page 3

TECHNOLOGY

The advent of twisted technologyBendy televisions, smartphones soon to come

By the numbers

631The number of chemicals

needed to produce the aroma of coffee

5.97x1024 Approximated mass of the

Earth, in kilograms

2.4 Grams of sugar in a Hershey’s

kiss chocolate

1/1500The chance of being born on leap

day (February 29th)

-89.2The coldest temperature ever

recorded on Earth in degrees celsius (Antarctica)

10,924The depth in metres of the deepest part of the ocean,

located in the Marianas Trench in the Pacific Ocean

GENETICS

Dreams, Shakespeare, and DNAAn organic solution to a digital problem

The future of technology is arriving faster than ever, and things are about to get very, very small. Scientists have proved that it is possible to record large amounts of data on synthetic DNA – yes, good old deoxyribo-nucleic acid may one day replace our current information storage techniques! What’s more, if the costs of making DNA continue their decreasing trend, this tech-nique could be economical in just ten years. The approach was detailed in the Janu-ary 23 issue of Nature and shows promise as a method for long-term storage. DNA is light, compact, and can be kept intact for decades if stored in dark and cool conditions. The first files stored in DNA? Scientists successfully stored around 750 kilobytes of data as a text, PDF, JPEG, and MP3 file: 154 Shakespeare sonnets, Watson and Crick’s paper describing DNA, a colour photograph, and an excerpt from Martin Luther King Jr.’s “I Have a Dream” speech, respectively. The research team was led by Nick Gold-man, from the European Bioinformatics Insti-tute in Cambridgeshire, England. Scientists there converted the files into

bits, or rather, a triplet code using 0, 1, and 2. They then translated that into As, Ts, Cs, and Gs, the four nitrogenous bases found in DNA. For example, the letter “T” in the Shake-speare text file would read TAGAT. They also incorporated a correction code and a way to index the data. The code was sent to Agilent Technologies in California, an instrumenta-tion company, and millions of DNA molecules were created. Everything fit in a test tube the size of a pinky, and was shipped back to England via FedEx! The research team sequenced the DNA and was able to reconstruct the data, er-ror free. While this method won’t be replacing our USB drives, there is great potential in the next decade for storage of long-term infor-mation, from government records to library texts. It all comes back to the power of sci-ence, innovation, and one truly interesting molecule.

Before all, crawling out of the primordial soup, there were the cathode rays. Their rule was long and wise, but then the upstart LCDs and Plasmas took the battleground. These days, those horses are running their final races as LED TVs enter the prime of their life – but their reign will not last forever, as the new Organic LED (OLED) televisions take the stage. These OLEDs are nothing more than or-ganic semi-conductors. Semi-conductors, in general, are what kick-started the electronic revolution. Semi-conductors (such as Silicon), are unique in that their conductivity increases as they are heated, meaning that they can be switched “on” and “off” by controlling their tempera-ture, unlike typical conductors or insulators. Otherwise, your laptop would be on all the time, and knowing its battery life, you prob-ably wouldn’t be a big fan of that. But what’s the big deal? OLED technol-ogy has been around for years, first being dis-covered by French researchers in the 1950s. OLED displays have been around for much of this decade. However, the technology was marred by lower lifespans, colour balance issues, and susceptibility to water damage. These and the relatively high costs of the organic tech-nology led to its limited implementation. Even these days manufacturers prefer AMOLED (Active-Matrix OLED) screens, which are cheaper and much more trustworthy, but alas, their bendiness is nowhere to be found. As the days go by, production prices drop, reliability increases, and the novelty of having a bendable smartphone becomes more and more appealing.

Samsung has just unveiled a new bend-able 5.5 inch Smartphone display, along with a 55” OLED television. Competitors are stepping up to the plate, with Nokia and LG developing their own smartphones, while Sony aims to curb the TV market, promising to bring OLED TVs to the masses by 2013. Televisions have come a long way from the big wooden boxes they were, and cellphones these days resemble nothing of the “bricks” they were once compared to. Still though we find ourselves in an awkward period of transi-tion. We’ve got sliding doors, giant airplanes, and we can talk to other people face to face through portable screens. Where are our flying cars? Where are the crystal towers and togas that we saw in 20th century visions of the fu-ture? As a race we’re finding ourselves in the

metaphorical backseat, asking “Are we there yet?” Soon enough. Advancements like these smartphones, which you’ll be able to wear around your wrist, are dragging us into the “future”, bit by bit. We’ll get there eventually – stick with The Current and you won’t get left behind.

Daniel Tovbis is your average guy who some-how fell into the editorial trap. He

enjoys books, technology, and the occasional sushi date. He currently

resides in Elgin Hall and Felix Steiner, one of his closest friends, has described him

as ‘a pretty cool guy’.

Courtesy of trickmik.com

112The number of known

elements

Courtesy of Josh Miller/CNET

”“

[Traditional]LED TVs.....will

not last forever as thenew Organic LED(OLED) televisions

take the stage.

RuiLin GuoFeatures Editor

HOW interesting, you might ask?

We share an estimated 95-99% of our DNA with chimps, as opposed to the paltry

1-4% shared with early neanderthals. That’s bananas.

Daniel TovbisCreative Editor

Page 4 The Current— February 2013

SCIENCEYou can’t argue that there isn’t scientific process behind human movement, biomechanical brilliance underlying locomotion, or

quantifiable function supporting physical prowess. Well you could, but then you would just be stupid.

The editors at The Current have compiled various facts and facets to support the theory that, after all, sport and recreation is just applied science.

Canadian Milos Raonic delivered the 3rd fastest serve ever recorded at 155.3 mph at the 2012 Rogers Cup in Toronto!

Whereas traditional ball-striking sports tools such as a baseball bat and a ping-pong paddle are designed to propel the projectile forward by maximizing the transfer of energy in the swing, tennis racquet strings, under a tension of around 60 lbs, are pliant enough to undergo a small deformation when the come in contact with the tennis ball - essentially ‘throwing’ the ball forward.

Tennis strings are often made by hyper-twisting collagen fibres extracted from the serosa of cow intestine due to it being significantly more flexible than the majority of synthesized polymers present in other racquets.

I bet you never thought about the relationship between cows and tennis!!

TENNIS

Steven Robillard, Editor-in-Chief

Shorter, lighter skaters have a defined advantage, since tall skaters require more force for jumping, have larger moments of inertia (slower spins), and have higher centres of gravity (making spinning difficult and falling easy). One of the tallest skaters ever, Simon Shnapir, the US pairs champion this year, is 6 foot 4, 16 inches taller than his partner!

The g-force felt by the arms during a jump or spin may exceed 4 G’s.

The Guiness World Record for the fastest spin on skates is by Natalia Kanounnikova (Russia) with a maximum rotational velocity of 308 rotations per minute!

Rotation speed depends on the initial angular momentum and the distribution of body mass. While angular momentum cannot be increased after entry into a spin or jump, bringing mass (pulling in arms or legs) closer to the rotation axis increases speed.

FIGURE SKATING

RuiLin Guo, Features Editor

The Current— February 2013 Page 5

Background image courtesy of adgully archives

ARTISTIC GYMNASTICS

Mathura ThiyagarajaImages Editor

A gymnast’s own momentum is the force that propels him/her when rotating on the bars. The run before a vault’s take-off is also for building momentum.

Gymnasts can increase rotation speed by tucking their bodies towards their rotational points.

Gymnasts use chalk (magnesium carbonate) on their hands to absorb sweat in order to maintain adequate grip during their routines.

Male and female artistic gymnasts compete on different apparatuses that are suited to their body types. The centre of gravity for females is at their navel, which is better for balance apparatuses such as the 10-cm wide balance beam, while males have their centre of gravity near their chest. The larger upper bodies of males make them better suited for the pommel horse and rings.

BADMINTON

Harmony Hsieh, Features Editor

Badminton is the fastest racquet sport in the world; the shuttlecock has reached more than 200 mph in the playing field! Definitely not your typical backyard game.

The most preferred shuttlecocks come from the left wing of a goose, and only the 4th to 11th feathers are used. Four geese provide 4 feathers each to make up the 16 feathers of a shuttle-cock. The feathers provide significant drag, causing the deceleration of the bird to be much slower than other racquet sports.

In a typical two-game match, a player runs approximately 2 km. Not bad for a court only 6.1 m wide and 13.4 m long!

AMERICAN FOOTBALL

Jameera MohamedCompilation Editor

The maximum speed of a football is generated by a place kicker or punter rather than the quarterback. The average speed of the ball reaches 70mph for professional punters and 80mph for professional place kickers. Place kickers can run up to the ball, allowing this 10 mph increase in speed.

When testing the ability of a quarterback to accurately hit the bull’s-eye of an archery tar-get, Drew Brees, quarterback for the New Orleans Saints, threw the football at a 6 degree angle, a speed of 52 mph and spin of 600 rpm. He hit the bull’s-eye on each of his first 12 tries.

Researchers rate the shock absorbency of a football field with a metric called G-Max. The lower the G-Max, the lower the absorbance of energy by the player compared to the field. Synthetic surfaces can have a G-Max of up to 120. The hardest turf is frozen grass.

Features page designed by Steven Robillard, Harmony Hsieh and RuiLin Guo

Page 6 The Current—February 2013

THIS MONTH IN SCIENCE HIST RY

2.29 million B.C: First evidence of tool-use by a homininae

110 - 168 AD: Claudius Ptomely theorizesthat the Earth is the center of the universe

1642: Sir Issac Newton is born

1843: James Prescott Joule proposes the first law of thermodynamics

2011: The gods of genetics arecruel, blessing Snooki with a functioning uterus

Astronomer Clyde Tombaugh discovers the now former planet, Pluto! Pluto has now been reclassified as a dwarf planet and plutoid, as it is only one of several large bodies in the Kuiper belt (a re-gion at the edge of our Solar System). The discovery of Pluto actually came by accident. Calculations which later turned out to be erroneous predicted a planet beyond Neptune based on the motions of Neptune and Uranus. Not knowing the calculations were wrong, Tombaugh continued to search care-fully for Pluto. To discover Pluto, Tombaugh used a machine called a blink comparator which quickly shifts back and forth between two

photographs to create the illusion of move-ment. After searching for almost a year Tom-baugh confirmed that he had indeed found Pluto. Contrary to popular belief, Tombaugh did not name his newly discovered planet after Goofy’s dog, but after the Roman god of the same name, who ruled over the underworld. Interestingly, Charon, the name of Pluto’s larg-est moon, is the historic ferryman who brought lost souls across the river Styx. If you are to ever visit this great vacation spot, please be sure to bring your Canada Goose Jacket as the surface temperature rang-es from -235 to -210 degrees Celsius.

FAMOUS BIRTHDAYS: René Dubos

“Man not only survives and functions in his environment, he shapes it and he is shaped by it.” René Dubos was a French-American microbiologist, environmentalist, civil rights activist, educator and author. Talk about a well rounded man. Dubos’ major research in-volved tuberculosis, pneumonia, acquired im-munity, natural susceptibility and resistance to infection. Dubos’ work revolved around isolating micro-organisms from soil. This seemingly boring and expendable job led to his discov-ery of some major antibiotics. In 1939, Dubos discovered gramicidin an antibacterial agent that inhibits the growth of gram-positive bacteria. Gramicidin comes from the bacteria Bacillus Brevis. This antibi-

otic was used during World War II, in topical form, to treat wounds and ulcers. Gramicidin is still used today as one of the three compo-nents of the over-the-counter antibiotic oint-ment Polysporin®. Thanks to René Dubos, who launched the antibiotic era and prompted other sci-entists to continue research, we have discov-ered one of the most widely used antibiotics, Penicillin, whose research was once stalled but resumed after Dubos’ discovery of grami-cidin.Aside from his discovery of antibiotics, he is also well known for coining the infamous phrase “Think Globally, Act Locally”. René Dubos passed away on February 20th,1982, the day of his 81st birthday.

...CONTINUED FROM PAGE 1 This result demonstrated that affected peo-ple might be able to develop new memories after they become vegetative. Owen has found that only 17% of veg-etative patients are able to respond using the MRI machine methodology. However, new tools for studying consciousness are being developed, which could possibly tap into dif-ferent dimensions of awareness – thus poten-tially accessing more patients who couldn’t previously respond. Owen’s colleague, Damien Cruse, is working with EEG technology, which is a much less expensive, more portable, and faster apparatus than the MRI machine. Owen’s work has enormous implications for the ethics involving vegetative state pa-tients, knowledge about consciousness, and the concept of the soul. Although he has ‘big’ topics to approach, he has already influenced Kate – the woman who started it all. She is now able to commu-nicate by pointing at letters to spell words, and she emails Owen almost daily. She end-ed one email with words that resonate with everything that Owen is striving to do, “It was

like magic, it found me.” Hopefully, Owen can find a voice for all of the individuals who are trapped in an unre-sponsive body.

The search for conciousness

Amongst numerous other academic accolades, Dr. Owen has also:

- Served on the mental health committee of the UK’s largest non-government biomedical research program.

- Spent 8 years working as the deputy Editor-in-Chief of the European Journal of Neuroscience.

- Published the world’s largest test of com-puter-based public brain training, including the use of lobular-stimulating games in co-ordination with the BBC.

in two Canadian provinces, 21% of highschool students who received prescribed stimulants had given or sold their medication. Adderall, Ritalin, Dexedrine and other medications prescribed for ADHD are shown to modulate levels of norepinephrine, dopa-mine, and serotonin, especially in the reward circuitry of the brain (hence the likelihood for abuse). Although the mechanism of action for amphetamine, methylphenidate, and other compounds is not completely fleshed out, the consensus – users and researchers included – is that they serve to tunnel your focus and im-prove productivity. The general reason behind their rampant use is attributed to an increase in the self-re-ported dedication to accomplish a task. Some students care that others are taking them, and do so themselves so that they “don’t feel be-hind” (NYTimes). Some students partly attribute their suc-cessful score on exams, standardized tests, and papers to their medication. As well, the statistics for off-label use

show that it does indeed work for some people: Sean Esteban McCabe of the Univer-sity of Michigan’s Substance Abuse Research Center reported that 4.1% of American un-dergraduates had taken stimulants without prescription. At one school, the figure was twenty-five per cent and more than thirty-five per cent at another small college. These “academic steroids” have long been present both on and off campus. In the past, the US Air Force has reported using these drugs during prolonged missions and usage has been documented in the Weh-rmacht during WW2. Ethical questions related to the use of these drugs in academic environments also arise. Would the use of these drugs consti-tute an unfair advantage for the students who have access to them? With the mount-ing tests and homework this time of year, it is certain students – both with and without prescriptions – will take these drugs. The only concrete piece of information however, is that usage of “Good Grade Pills” is dramatically increasing, along with the in-tense pressure to succeed.

...CONTINUED FROM PAGE 1Academic steroids

THE DISCOVERY OF PLUTO

February 18th, 1930

Courtesy of nationalgeographic.com

February 20th, 1901

Courtesy of peoples.ru

Notable Awards:

Albert Lasker Award for Basic Medical Research, 1948.

Pulitzer Prize in General Non-Fiction, 1969, for “So Human An Animal”

2011: The gods of genetics arecruel, blessing Snooki with a functioning uterus

FAMOUS BIRTHDAYS: René Dubos

The Current— February 2013 Page 7

NEUROPHYSIOLOGY

A bright futureExposure to light during pregnancy may benefit fetal retinal cells

Simon OhCurrent Contributor

One of the most mysterious species known to mankind is the Architeuthis dux. Many re-fer to it as the Sea Vampire, Devilfish, or Krak-en but it is better known as the Giant Squid. On January 27 Discovery Channel’s Cu-riosity series aired an episode all about the magnificent voyage to capture live footage of the Giant Squid in its natural habitat. For hundreds of years there were reported sight-ings at sea and washed up corpses of this animal, but how this animal lives and how large it can actually grow are only a few of the numerous questions that remain unan-swered. Washed up corpses have given re-searchers an understanding of the anatomy of the Giant Squid. Weighing in at an esti-mated 600 pounds, the creature has 3 hearts, a triple lobed brain, razor sharp beak, 8 arms (each with 200 suction cups), 2 longer feed-ing tentacles, and very large eyes (the size of a human head!). The eyes of Giant Squid have pupils that are about 3 ½ inches across and they’re colour-blind but can still detect light which assists them in the low light en-vironment found in the depths of the ocean (1000-3300 ft below sea level) where they dwell. The maximum length that a Giant Squid can grow up to is still unknown, but the average length of found corpses of fe-

MARINE BIOLOGY

Proverbial sea vampire caught on cameraJameera MohamedCompilation Editor

Capturing live footage of the elusive Giant Squid

Researchers led by Richard Lang and David Copenhagen at Cincinnati Children’s Hospital’s Hospital Medical Centre and the University of California at San Diego have dis-covered that it is vital for pregnant mothers to be exposed to light in order for a fetus’ eyes to develop correctly.

Prior to this research, scientists believed that light only played a role in the develop-ment of the eyes after birth.

Richard Lang, Study co author, PhD, a researcher in the Division of Pediatric Oph-thalmology at Cincinnati Children’s Hospital Medical Centre stated, “We have identified a light-response pathway that controls the number of retinal neurons. This has down-stream effects on developing vasculature in the eye and is important because several ma-jor eye diseases are vascular diseases.”

This newly discovered light-response pathway activates a protein called melanop-sin directly in the fetus, to help initiate normal development of blood vessels and retinal neurons in the eye.

This light-response pathway suppresses blood vessels in the retina from forming. With-out light these blood vessels grow unchecked putting intense pressure on developing eyes, potentially leading to severe damage and blindness.

Melanopsin is a protein present in both humans and mice. The research team led by Lang and Copenhagen conducted several experiments on laboratory mice that allowed them to identify the light response pathway’s

specific function and components.The researchers placed pregnant mice

in the dark to observe comparative effects on vascular development of the eyes of the fe-tuses, and then verified the function of the light response pathway by mutating a gene called Opn4, which produces melanopsin.

Both types of mice displayed extensive expansion of hyaloid vessels and abnormal reti-nal vascular growth. This unchecked vascular growth is driven by protein vascular endothelial growth factor (Vegfa). Melanopsin and the light response pathwaymodulate Vegfa, and help to prevent vascular growth in the retina.

Lang and Copenhagen’s research team is continuing to study this light response path-way and its influence on the susceptibility of pre-term infants to retinopathy of prematurity and other retinal diseases.

males is about 43 ft and about 33 ft for males. However, sightings of Giant Squid of over 100 ft in length have been reported, but never sci-entifically documented. The Giant Squid can be found off the coast of Norway, in the Gulf of Mexico, and in the waters surrounding New Zealand and Ja-pan. Scientists and researchers that embarked on the journey to capture live footage of this sea giant went to Chichi-jima (also known as the Galapagos of the Orient), an island off the coast of Japan. It gets its nickname for the wealth of endemic species that can be found there. The three leading researchers of this ex-pedition (Edith Widder, a bioluminescence re-searcher, Steve O’Shea, a marine biologist, and Dr. Tsunemi Kubodera, a zoologist) took three very different approaches to luring in the Gi-ant Squid with the hopes of acquiring live footage. In rotations, each researcher went to a depth of about 2000 ft in a submersible with cameras all round to try their “bait” and wit-ness for themselves a Giant Squid in action. Edith Widders used a bioluminescent ball to mimic bioluminescent jellyfish, a staple of the squid’s diet. On her first descent in the sub-mersible, she was unable to locate any species of animals. On her second try, she witnessed bait balls and octopuses but again, no Giant Squid. However, on her second dive, she also lowered a camera, she called “Medusa”, with infrared light and the bioluminescent ball that could record footage for about 30 hrs. On day

18 of the trip, “Medusa” was returned to the surface and the video examined. It captured a Giant Squid! The Giant Squid was about 11 ft long but was missing its two feeding ten-tacles that were most likely eaten by this spe-cies’ only enemy, the sperm whale. Nevertheless, the search continued to eliminate controversy of whether the squid captured was in fact the Giant Squid. But, she failed to observe one on her final dive. Steve O’Shea’s approach was on the oth-er end of the spectrum. He decided to con-coct a mixture of squid to use as an aphro-disiac. On all three of his dives, he witnessed many species but never the Giant Squid. He even observed the very rare Octopus Squid that was only ever filmed by Dr. Kubodera. Dr. Tsunemi Kubodera seemed to go old school in his approach. He used other squid to bait the Giant Squid. On his first and second dives, he witnessed many cool spe-cies such as jellyfish and octopuses but no Giant Squid. Coincidentally, on Kubodera’s final dive and the final dive of the voyage, live footage of the Giant Squid feeding on Kubodera’s bait was captured for an entire 23 minutes! It was definitely a magnificent sight to see! Many questions remained unanswered about this strange sea giant but are now one step closer to solving the mystery of the Gi-ant Squid.

The red wine testThe influence of red wine on testosterone

Mitchell ThomCurrent Contributor

If you’re an aspiring athlete, on a sports team at Western, or even just wish that you had a purple tracksuit like any of the athletes on campus (like I do), then reading this article may give you an athletic edge.

Most of us have all heard of the health ben-efits of red wine before; the flavonoids in red wine, Cabernet Sauvignon especially for any of you wine fanatics, have been found to signifi-cantly increase overall cardiovascular health.

Professor Declan Naughton of Kingston University (London, UK) and his team of re-searchers have found that drinking red wine can actually increase the amount of the hormone testosterone produced in your body. Not only that, but red wine may also help athletes to beat anti-doping tests.

A compound in red wine called quercetin actually partially inhibits the activity of the en-zyme UGT2B17, which is responsible for send-ing a message to the kidneys and telling them to excrete testosterone via urine.

A competitive athlete is banned from con-suming synthetic testosterone because tes-tosterone boosts muscle mass, stamina, and reduces recovery time. These new findings on the effects of quercetin in red wine mean that a person’s body will lose testosterone at a slower rate, which therefore will lead to a higher con-centration of the hormone in a person’s body. Keep in mind, you do not need to be doping in order for this process to occur.

Also, an athlete who consumes perfor-mance-enhancing drugs will, in theory, be less likely to be caught by drug tests since the con-

centration of testosterone in their cup of pee won’t be as great as the urinary testosterone concentration of the average doper.

The researchers also found similar re-sults for non-alcoholic red wine and red wine extract in supplement form. So, don’t think that this gives you more of an excuse to have a “wine club” night and see who can finish their bottle of wine the fastest with all of your friends.

On the other hand, if you’re a fitness fa-natic, maybe you should order a glass of red instead of a beer the next time you find your-self at the bar.

PHYSIOLOGY

Courtesy of mywinetribe.com

Courtesy of ocean.sci.edu

Courtesy of Women’s Health Database

Don’t keep your baby in the dark.

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Hey, @JMarieS2! Hope this one’s tricky enough for you!

It has been brought to our attention that in the previous issue a comic reprinted in this section had not been properly cited. The comic in question, in the

top left of December’s issue, is attributed to Zach Weiner of SMBC comics (www.smbc-comics.com).

The Current’s editorial team apologizes sincerely for this editorial oversight.

Did you hear? Our old chem teacher died.

What a shame.

Yeah, so now they’re going to have to...BARI- Just stop.

Roses are Red, Violets are Blue,Naturally,I select you!

Happy Valentines Day from The Current!

Are you made of Copper and Tellurium?

Because you’re

Cu Te

Courtesy of our hero in the cartoon realm,Zach Weiner

PS: If you know what THIS is, you’re awesome!

Image courtesy of giant bomb media