Science/Math Article of the Week

Phobias

Fears! Frightening moments! Phobias!

Wait.. phobias?

What are phobias

Yes, fears are called phobias, and this is the most common problem amongst us humans these days. Phobias are found in almost every creature, from the squirrel that ran away from you today, and the elephant that screamed when it saw a rat (yes, elephants are afraid of rats), and the girl you saw who screamed her head off when she saw a spider.

Fears run through almost every normal human being. Some common phobias are: arachnophobia (the fear of spiders), ranidaphobia (the fear of frogs), and acrophobia (the fear of heights).

Just like animals and earthquakes have classification systems, phobias also have classification systems. There are three categories of phobias: Specific phobia, Social phobia, and Agoraphobia.

The phobia categories

Agoraphobia = the fear of getting into a situation with no escape.
Example: A person who is prone to getting panic attacks can avoid going out of his/her house so he/she      will not get a panic attack outside, where no one can help immediately.

Social phobia = the fear of social events or situation where a group of people are around.
Example: A person who has social phobia can fear going to groups because they might mock him for anything he says.

Specific phobia = the fear of specifics.
Example: A person with arachnophobia is scared of a specific thing, spiders.

The phobia reactions

Physical and mental reactions are possible while getting a phobia.
There are several ways we can react to phobias:

Physical: Hand and leg quivering, shortness of breath, heart pumping, and so on.

Mental: Scared, triggers, and remembrances of bad moments.

What causes phobias

Three ways phobias can form are:

Environmental factors: Our surroundings or past events that trigger our phobias.
Example: If a spider crawled on somebody that must have caused their fear of spiders.

Family factors: Our inheritance, or just "learning" our phobias from our family.
Example: If our parents scream after seeing a cocroach in their house, their children can also learn and become scared of cocroaches.

Biological factors: Chemicals that cause our phobias
Example: If our serotonin level goes low, then we get a phobia.


Source: prior knowledge, did a report on phobias.

Discussion Topic of the Week

This week's topic is:

Is it the world changing around us that makes scientists research more about what is going on, or is it the necessity and need of research that makes scientists research more about this world?

Thanks for the comments on last week's discussion topic!

People had strong choices on whether or not others should point out our mistakes. 

Here are the results:

People should point out our mistakes: 4

People shouldn't point our our mistakes: 4

People who said that people shouldn't point our mistakes and should point out our mistakes' votes got counted on both.

Optical Illusion with Reason of the Week

Today's Illusion is going to be a geometric illusion.

Real life things we see are 3d, as that is how our brain sees it. When we see a 2d image, our brain gets confused, and tries viewing it as a 3d image which can what create an illusion.

An optical illusion is tricks the eyes play to the brain, or tricks the brain play to the eyes. It is usually when our eyes and brain see something in an image that there isn't.

Here is one of the most common illusions:

This is one type of a geometric illusion, where our brain tries to arrange crooked black and white squares into straight lines. This causes us to see the lines in between non parallel, or slanted.

These lines are actually parallel, and are straight.

It is amazing what our brain does to us, and how the tricks make us receive the wrong information.

Image from: http://cs.brown.edu/~deus/courses/optical/Geometric1.htm

Quotes of the Week

Clever Sayings!!!

All these quotes are by unknown authors:

A diamond is just a piece of charcoal...
that handles stress exceptionally well.

A little preparation saves a lot of frustration.

All the water in the world cannot sink a ship unless it gets inside of it.
All of the negativity cannot sink a person unless it gets inside of their mind.

                          A rose can live among the thorns and yet never be injured by them.

                                                  A wise man adapts himself to circumstances, 

as water shapes itself to the vessel that contains it.

These are my favorite set of quotes!! They are so inspirational...

Source for these wonderful quotes: http://www.spiritual-quotes-to-live-by.com/clever-sayings.html

Current Event of the Week

This may be a favorite post for all those basketball viewers!!

Recently, the Miami Heat won the NBA playoffs, and it was an interesting series. Spurs gave great play, and it went up to game seven!

Each playoffs has a story behind it.. and this year's story is:


In the 2007 NBA playoffs, when Lebron James was in the Caveliers, and the Spurs and Caveliers were playing.
Just then, Lebron James was the most important person in that team, and he was just about the team itself. However, the Spurs beat Lebron and his team 4-0.
This year, in Lebron's new team, he was going to face the Spurs again, and was ready to take revenge.
With a new, and better team he won the 2013
finals, taking the revenge he deserved.




Image source: http://www.eurweb.com/2013/06/lebron-james-out-for-revenge-tonight-against-spurs/

Riddle of the Week

What's easier to give than receive? 

The answer will be posted next week, please comment to give your answer!!

Science/Math article of the week

Scientists just got to know about black holes...

Black holes aren't really holes.. But they are the opposite, just a mass or clump of many things.
As they are invisible, they suck in just about everything that gets near it, including light.
The video above shows a recent discovery how black holes can create beautiful light shows.

Let's talk about the inside of this black hole. As you go inside.. If you go feet down, your feet will be pulled into the center of the black hole, stretching your body like gum. This process is called spaghettification. Eventually, your body becomes a spaghetti noodle and enters the center of the black hole, where everything is kept as a point.

However, black holes aren't just vacuum cleaners in space that take everything that passes by. Only if something gets too close, like a star, the black hole sucks it in.

Recently in Hawaii, people could spot a flare of light from a distance galaxy. This was a black hole sucking in a star that was dying by the black hole. The star was getting shredded into pieces, and because of all the heat the star started glowing, and the black hole started glowing.

Black holes do contain a lot of mysteries, and scientists have a lot to find out!!!


Source of information and video: http://www.sciencenewsforkids.org/2013/05/black-hole-mysteries/

Discussion Topic of the Week

Do we improve more if others point out our mistakes, or if we find our own mistakes?

Changes Made

Hi Everyone,


The schedule is changed:
Friday: Optical Illusion with reason of the week
Saturday: Discussion Topic of the week
Sunday: Math/ Science article of the week
Monday: Riddle of the week
Tuesday: Poll
Wednesday: Current event of the week
Thursday: Quotes of the week


Thank you!

Summer Again!

Hi Everyone,
I finally got the chance to run this blog again. I started it last summer, and time runs so fast, it is summer again! I thank all the people who regularly looked at my blog, and sorry for not updating this everyday. I'll try to catch up on my blog, as I understand having a successful blog requires regular posts. Thank you, and once again, sorry!
Thanks, 
Vishruti