- I had no idea that mathematicians were actively working on what shapes I could use to tile my bathroom. There are now 15 different pentagons that I can use, after a new one was discovered. Here are the options, the new one is the yellow one in the bottom right hand corner.
Photograph: Ed Pegg/Wikipedia - Polio may be eradicated during our lifetime. Roadblocks to this are more social than scientific.
- Neural activity in a fruit fly larva can be mapped at near single-neuron resolution. Mice are next; possibly humans somewhere down the line?
- Possible first flower discovered.
Monday, August 17, 2015
Summer Assignment 8.18
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
47 comments:
It would be extraordinary if polio were to be able to be eradicated during our lifetime. This idea, though previously doubted, may be able to happen because Africa has recently gone one full year since its last case of polio. For Africa, this is a massive milestone, because only a couple of decades ago, polio paralyzed more than 1,000 children every day. When the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, UNICEF and Rotary International, and Gates Foundations joined together to eliminate polio around the world, they predicted it could be done by 2000. However, there were many obstacles in the way of their goal which caused it to take longer than they had planned. For example, Nigerians' were suspicious of Western medical interventions, so Muslim religious leaders in northern Nigeria preached against polio vaccination campaigns because they were distrustful of the vaccine. This caused a massive vaccine refusal and a polio outbreak in Nigeria and bordering countries. Since then, Nigerians' have changed and have created new campaigns with the purpose of getting the vaccine to where it was needed. The campaign started health camps, where children could receive vaccines and other medicines that would be beneficial, "hit and run" teams in conflict zones, and emergency operations. centers. All of these strategies have helped Africa to be on its way to be "polio-free," which it can only be considered when it passes three years without a case. I think that not having a case of polio for one full year is a milestone for AFrica. The mentality of Nigerians' have changed profusely, from distrusting Western medicine to a public immunization done by President Muhammadu Buhari for his granddaughter. Although they have come a long way, the problem is not over. Any number of things could disrupt the vaccinations, but the people have to stick together and trust each other and Western countries.
The article on the new discovery of a mathematical tile is very interesting. The idea is simple in theory: while the regular pentagon cannot tile the plane or cover a flat surface using copies of the same shape without gaps or overlaps, however some non-regular pentagons are capable of this task of tiling the plane. However, this task isn’t as easy to accomplish, as it is to explain and understand. It’s the simplicity of the problem in the sense of understanding that makes for quite the elegant problem. In the article, one of the mathematicians’ methods to finding the new pentagon includes exhaustively searching through possibilities. With this, they could use a similar method in finding a new pentagon and then find a pattern to make an algorithm to further simplify the process. Even though what may be the endless problem for the search of these pentagons that has already gone on for over one hundred years allows us to find different tiles for our bathroom floors, this discovery is still remarkable.
The article on the possible discovery on the first flower is very fascinating since it touches on the idea that a few species of plants eventually gave rise to the many different types of flowers that now live on the Earth today. We continue to make discoveries every single day and with more discoveries we learn more about the past and the Earth before we knew it as well as the plants and animals before us. In the article, Dilcher mentioned how the discovery of the “first flower” raises questions about the evolution of flowering plants and how the plants affected the evolution of other living things. The evolution of multiple species of plants from a select few results from adaptations to the environment that eventually cause the differentiation of species. Many organisms are reliant and dependent on other organisms. Not only in the sense of predator and prey, but also in symbiotic relationships. The presence of a predator could cause the prey to have an adaptation to defend itself. In addition, not only the presence of a predator but also climate could cause an organism to have an adaptation, for example in the case of the arctic hare. Evolution is such an interesting topic to think about, and the fact that from the discovery of the “first flower” it could potentially answer many questions about the range of different flowers that populate Earth today.
Just by looking at the intricate designs in the accompanying picture, the article about the new tiling pentagon interested me. I did not realize prior to reading this article that so many mathematical calculations and equations are used to figure out what types of shapes can tile a plane completely without gaps. Mathematicians recently discovered this 15th pentagon that can tile, and it has taken over 25 years to do so. It is crazy how this process has taken so long; fitting shapes together without gaps seems as though it is a concept that a child could easily understand, yet the specifics concerning the patterns in which tiling is successful are much more difficult to comprehend and discover. The tiling abilities of shapes are not only functional in bathrooms and kitchens, however; the article mentions how structures in nature are forced by geometry to fit together to form larger structures, like crystals and viruses. It is really incredible how much geometry and mathematics in general play a role in literally “shaping” the world that we live in today. In addition, the article about the polio-free year in Africa was certainly interesting as well. Polio is a completely debilitating disease, and it is heartbreaking to know that so many people have suffered with it even though there is a preventative vaccine available. The fact that over five million children are born in Nigeria alone each year highlights the importance of vaccinations in containing and abolishing the occurrence of diseases; the spread of such diseases would be rapid, especially amongst the youth, and would leave so many suffering. Hopefully, the polio disease will remain nonexistent in Africa for three years, so the continent can truly call itself “polio-free” and the people can remain safe and healthy for many years to come. The article about the fly-larvae brains also proved itself to be quite interesting. By genetically modifying neurons to fluoresce while firing, researchers have been able to take video of the neural activity within both the brain of a zebrafish larvae and the entire central nervous system of a fruit fly larvae. Performing this type of experiment on mouse embryos is next, and, if successful, I imagine that this would be used on human embryos in the future as well. Further research on the neural activity of human embryos could help us to learn more about life before birth, for instance, the neural abilities or mental capacities of babies throughout the stages of embryonic and fetal development. Finally, the article about the first-ever flower was truly intriguing as well. It is amazing to think that Montsechia vidalii grew in freshwater lakes in Spain 125-130 million years ago; the flower lived at the same time as dinosaurs like the brachiosaurus. Presumably, this flower was green and lacked specific “flower parts” like petals and nectar structures, unlike the flowers that inhabit our planet today. It leaves one to speculate what could have happened over the course of millions of years to evolve such a simple flower as the Montsechia vidalii into a relative of the blossoming flowers we see right outside our windows each day.
The articles this week were all pretty astonishing in their respective ways. The three I found interesting dealt with some geometry, polio’s perhaps future eradication, and maybe the first flower discovered. The first article had to do with a shape that beholds mathematicians today: the pentagon. Math is a fascinating subject to discuss about, as it stands proudly besides its own language. In this article, an accurate pentagonal shape could tile with the help with computerized enumerations. The thing is that pentagons involved with tilings are a peculiar subject to revolve brains around. While all triangles and quadrilaterals tile the plane, in 1963, it was proven that only three types of convex hexagons tile planes. Consequently, pentagons may be a simple topic to teach to children, but it is quite a complex and coiled subject to wrap our heads around. Additionally, pentagonal tilings may have potential applications, as many of their structures are seen in nature, such as in crystals or viruses. I found this pretty awesome, as shapes in our daily lives affect us minutely, yet so largely. Furthermore, I personally think that it would be cool to see pentagonal tilings in houses, buildings, schools, and more. This article provides hope for future discoveries that do not have a stop sign to watch out for. Overall, it was great to see a tiny, but major breakthrough in the mathematics field.
The second article I found amazing discussed the unfortunate disease of polio. It was great news to hear that it has been one year since the last case of polio. However, Africa cannot be considered “polio-free” until the World Health Organization can confer that the continent passes three years without a case. As a result, all the countries in Africa will still continue to vaccinate children against the saddening disease. Personally, I would be glad to see any process that can quicken eradicating the disease. Maybe quarantining diseased people and giving a plethora of vaccines to multiple susceptible people can be possible suggestions. Additionally, I would be incredibly impressed if social media websites and technology can form campaigns or organizations to help spread more positivity in fighting this illness. If polio could be eradicated, it be a sure relief for many. Eradicating diseases is not only a cure, but a massive achievement. Imagine little children in third world countries, as well anyone else knowing polio is not at risk for them. Remember smallpox? It became one of the biggest moments for scientists and the world once it was eradicated. It just proves to show that extraordinary changes can improve the world, as well as bring more hope. Similarly, the third article mentions more optimism: the discovery of the first (probably) flower, the Montsechia vidalii, which grew abundantly in freshwater lakes from about 125 to 130 million years ago. To me, it seems quite significant and important to trace back to the ultimate roots of where everything started. When paleontologists and scientists subdivided the evolution of human beings over time (Homo sapien, Homo erectus, etc.), an answer was given for people for who their past ancestors were. For example, several years ago, paleoanthropologists working in Ethiopia discovered a 2.8-million-year old jawbone, making it the oldest fossil in the human ancestral line ever found by more than 400,000 years. With this, much more could be investigated in the right direction, serving as a previous example for this first flower fossil. Therefore, all the discoveries that are occurring as we speak give proof for much to be unravelled about the world.
It is amazing that we found a way to eradicate polio. Afriaca has been dealing with the disease for years and been causing mass destruction. Killing thousands of children and cause sadness to their families. The problem is that Nigerian were suspicious about the vaccination and wanted my information about it. These problems can cause the vaccination to be approved
The most intersting article is the discovery of the first flower. This shows the evolution of species and new information about life. We also discover information about that past and how the earth was back then. This information is very intersting and will solve clues about the past that we didn't know of.
The article about how the activity of a fruit fly larvae’s full central nervous system was captured on footage for the first time fascinated me. Although there is extensive information on the central nervous system, its activities have never been fully filmed before. It is especially amazing how the neural activity was captured in such great detail, so that the viewer could observe single neurons. The video provides useful insight as to how the brain and nerves interact with one another to generate actions such as crawling. I think this footage both demonstrates how far technology has progressed and foreshadows what can be expected in the future. The article states that researchers are planning to work with mouse embryos, but perhaps in the future they will be able to examine the human central nervous system as well. Observing how physical activity is generated at this level in humans could provide very useful information. For instance, seeing how the brain works in relation to the central nervous system to produce movement could potentially be beneficial to those who are physically disabled or paralyzed.
Furthermore, the article about the potential eradication of polio in Africa also interested me. I think the discussion in the article highlighted how social factors and scientific innovations can affect one another. Although a vaccination for polio had already been discovered and proven to be effective, speakers who preached against the vaccination influenced many. People believed that the vaccination would be detrimental to them, and rejected it, leaving them vulnerable to the disease. However, once social issues were addressed, people began to trust the vaccination. This exemplifies how powerful social interactions can be in helping promote vaccinations and other cures. I think this relationship could be especially useful when the Ebola vaccination is developed and distributed throughout the population to ensure that the public accepts and trusts it.
To be honest the picture to open up the first article made me interested to read with all the different combination of shapes and colors. I have never really thought of ways to redesign floor or wall tile in houses. A good amount of the time you see either rectangular or square tiles and its normal to me. What interested me the most was that there are people out there trying to figure out new styles of tile but it wasn’t the concept of the new tiles it was how they were finding them. The fifteen new pentagon tiles were all found using many mathematical expressions and great amounts of time. I am sure this is not an easy task and that it is very frustrating to sit here and fail constantly. Personally I would not be able to do this job but it is very interesting how the select few people figured out fifteen solutions and who knows, maybe one-day I will have pentagon tiling in my house.
The next article I chose to read was about the neurological patterns of the fruit fly. I found this very interesting for more then one reason. The first was that I find the brain and what happens in the brain very interesting. The path of neurons, how they connect to other parts of the nerve and how they react amaze me. The brain is so complex and it is amazing how they can tract all this information. The other thing that I found very interesting was the fact that they performed and figured out all this information on a fruit fly. Fruit flies are so small and their brain is even smaller, probably microscopic. And they way the are able to figure all these things out on how they move and what goes on in their brains interests me greatly. I would look forward to hearing more things about other animals brains and their neurological patterns.
It was interesting to read that it was almost a hundred years ago that German mathematician Karl Reinhardt discovered five types of pentagons that can tile a plane. It took another fifty years until another three more were found by R. B. Kershner. By 1985, there were fourteen known types of pentagons that could tile. Casey Mann, Jennifer McLoud, and David Von Derau of the University of Washington Bothell discovered the fifteenth one using a computer searching through the set of possibilities. It is possible that more types of pentagons that work can be found.
The idea of eradicating a disease is pretty amazing. It has been a year since the last polio case in Africa. Although Africa cannot be considered “polio-free” until three years has passed without a case, this is great progress for the continent, and children will continue to be vaccinated until it is official. The World Health Organization and other health organizations planned to end polio by the year 2000, but many setbacks pushed back the plan. For example, in 2003, Muslim religious leaders started speaking out against the vaccinations in Nigeria stating that they were intentionally contaminated to sicken and sterilize children. People began to refuse the vaccines. This led to the disease spreading back into countries that were already rid of it. A mutation occurred causing a new infectious strain of polio. Conditions later changed in Nigeria when a new tactic was used. “Health camps” where children received vaccines and parents could get other health needs such as aspirin, cough syrup, soap, and bed nets were set up so that parents would take their children for vaccines. Traditional leaders were engaged to help convince people to agree with the vaccine campaign. Posters were made of new president Muhammadu Buhari dripping the vaccine into his granddaughter’s mouth. Keeping Africa free of polio will be difficult, but the World Health Organization is on the right track.
The article that I found the most interesting this week is the one about polio. I find it remarkable that it has been a year since the last case of polio in the continent of Africa. However, Africa has to go through three years without a case of polio in order to be considered polio free. There have been many polio eradication struggles including Muslim religious leaders in Nigeria who believed that the use of the vaccination was a plot to make the children sicker. After this, Nigeria counted for half of the world’s polio cases. The fact that Nigeria is the continent’s most populous country shows that it will be hard to keep the continent free from this horrific virus. It will be hard to gain trust that the vaccinations will indeed help their children. I find it a horrible thing that trust is the issue on saving lives of children.
The other article that I chose to write about is the one about the discovery of the new tile. Before reading this article, I never really thought that mathematicians actually work on discovering new shapes, as it seems like they could be spending their time doing something bigger and more important. However, apparently a regular pentagon cannot tile the plane, but some non regular pentagons can, and that is what they discovered. Who would have thought that there was actually a hunt to find and classify pentagons that can tile a plane which has been ongoing for a century. In 1984, a fourteenth pentagon was discovered and that had been the most recent one until now! Pentagons are of interest to mathematicians as it is the only –gon that is not totally understood.
Two particular articles caught my interest this week, and I would like to discuss them and their significance. I’ll begin with the article titled, “It’s Been One Year Since Africa Had a Polio Case. Can This Last?” This article focused on the crippling disease that has plagued the world for decades and has especially tormented the residents of African nations. While polio has been eradicated in the Western world for quite some time, Africa has had cases left and right, especially in the more impoverished nations like Nigeria. The quest to wipe polio off the face of the Earth began in 1988 when the World Health Organization among other groups took the leap to actively combat polio in Africa. They vowed to make it disappear by 2000, but they fell many years late due to several setbacks. Many natives of Nicaragua resisted to Western vaccination due to the belief that the vaccine was actually a serum that caused their children to fall sick in the first place. This is where scientists began to realize that ending polio isn’t a scientific issue, it is more of a social issue. Many people felt like they were being told what to do and their self respect led them to resist against vaccination that would make their lives better. Although in our eyes it may seem foolish, we need to put ourselves in their shoes for a moment and think. If a foreign nation marched into America claiming to have vaccinations for the common cold, and they began setting up camps to vaccinate all of our children, how would we feel about it? What the Nigerians required was a gentle explanation. Through several different strategies, including seeking personal conversations with Nigerian natives, the World Health Organization was able to vaccinate the majority of children in the nation. Although it was a big step forward, there are still several social roadblocks before we can say goodbye to polio for good. Next I would like to move on to the article regarding the mythical “first flower.” A paleobotanist named David Dilcher at the University of Indiana along with several of his European colleagues has identified a prehistoric freshwater plant as one of the first flowering plants on the Earth. This discovery raises several questions that regard the evolutionary history of plants and animals alike. The plant in question grew in freshwater environments in what are now the mountains of Spain. This fossil could be very important in figuring out at what point these angiosperms branched off from their ancient ancestors to become the common plants we know today.
The most interesting article this week was the one pertaining to filming the neural activity of a fly larva. The resulting video is a step up from the earlier film of neural activity in the brain of a transparent zebra fish larva. The newer video of the fly is important because instead of just showing activity in the brain, it also shows activity throughout the central nervous system. As researchers refine their methods and technology, they will be able to film the neural activity in more complex organisms. This may lead to the eventual ability to film the neural activity of a human embryo. If this became possible it could allow scientists to find out what is really going on as human embryos develop. Knowing the activity of the entire central nervous system at such an early stage of human life has the potential to lead to some ground breaking discoveries. This could include anything from being able to point out mental disabilities in a fetus, to finding new evolutionary connections to other species. Another interesting article was about the dwindling cases of polio in Africa. Recently, Africa was able to mark one year since its last recorded case of polio. I wasn't even aware that not too long ago polio was a major problem in Africa. After reading the article it was clear that many social reasons played a part in the polio outbreak, along with environmental conditions. As organizations helped polio vaccines gain much needed support, the polio epidemic began to subside. Present day Africa hasn't seen polio for a long time and hopes to keep it that way to be truly considered polio-free. This week an article that discussed a possible first flower also caught my attention. Although a true "first flower" is nearly impossible to find, the fresh water plant Montsechia vidalii is most likely one of the earliest flowering plants. Using extremely precise methods scientists were able to age the specimen at 125 million to 130 million years old. As more research is conducted, scientists hope to eventually connect the Montsechia vidalii to other species of plants and discover how it led to the wide variety of plants found on earth today.
The discovery of new type of Pentagon interested me the most. To think that we are still making discoveries on an entity we thought we knew everything about, shows that we have more work to do. As for this news in the world of mathematics, a new pentagon means another possibility when it comes to home projects, but also a new way in which we can analyze structures in nature. Perhaps we may uncover a new organism or maybe there is already one out there that shows this pentagon in any one of its anatomical parts.
Next, the article about neural communication in fruit flies brings up a couple of thought provoking points. First of all, what's unique about neural communication in fruit flies is that the neurons fire in the opposite direction of the motion of the body. The way in which this evidence was captured also raises the question, "Can this be applied to humans?". Scientists got a video neural activity in action by genetically modifying neurons so that each cell became fluorescent when it fired, then fired sheets of light into the brain to record the activity. With some modifications and further tests, perhaps a this sort of experiment can be applied to humans in hopes of learning more about neurological disorders.
Lastly, the discovery of the fossil of what could be the first flower to exist on Earth has been made. The flower named Montsechia vidalii lived in freshwater in the the present day mountainous regions of Spain. Paleobotanist David Dilcher says that the Montsechia vidalii resembles the modern Coontails or Hornworts which raises questions about whether the two have evolutionary ties.
I read the article on The polio case in Africa and I thought that it would not be fair for Africa to be in a case like this espically with childern. Another thing is that this type of diesase was vanquished as recent as 1980 and paralzyed about 1000 childern everyday. They orginally planned to get rid of this diease in 1990, but instead they got it in 2000. Parents complained that the focus on polio did not address health needs that was more important to them. This lead to creation of health camps for childern where they recieved the vaccines and their parents could just obtain whatever they needed for the kids. The president of Nigera said that this was a social issue instead of science issue because he said the people were not being explained of what to do and gain confidence which was a mistake. I also believe that trust is an issue because they dont trust the western medicine and the people from the western countries. Only these countries have what is needed in order to keep Africa safe from a good amount of dieases espically this polio case. Overall, keeping Africa from polio may not be easy, but hopefully people find a way in the future to get rid of all our problems that relates to diseases and trust each other so they get far in life.
This week, the newly discovered pentagonal tile was very interesting. The concept of mathematical tiling is remarkably simple – copies of a single shape must be able to cover a plane perfectly – but when it comes to pentagons, tiling can become tricky. Regular pentagons are unable to do this, but a select few non-regular ones can. From 1918 to 2015, a grand total of 15 pentagonal tiles have been discovered. However, from 1985 to last month, there were no discoveries. With the help of a computer searching through a massive collection of pentagons, Casey Mann, Jennifer McLoud and David Von Derau of the University of Washington Bothell discovered a new, fifteenth pentagon capable of tiling a plane. Though it has taken 30 years to discover this new pentagonal tile, there still may be other new, undiscovered tiles in existence, and their discovery may be hastened with a computer searching tirelessly for new possibilities.
The monitoring of neural activity from a fruit fly larvae is quite mind boggling. Being able to record the way the activity moves from the brain and throughout the central nervous system with such detailed precision could open countless new doors and help the scientific community understand more about the brain and central nervous system in not only fruit fly larvae, but possibly even humans.
Polio has caused a lot of harm, so the thought that polio could be obliterated is a really big achievement. As recently as the 1980s, more than 1,000 children were affect by polio everyday. UNICEF and rotary international created a plan to eliminate the disease. It may have taken longer than expected, but the plan may be coming to effect now. Many obstacles were created causing the world to wait for Polio’s death certificate. One being that Nigeria didn’t trust western medical interventions. The opposition trigged vaccine refusal, which was a big setback because a large portion of polio cases came from Nigeria. According to the article, the continent of Africa has gone one full year since the last case of polio had been spotted. Although Africa cannot be considered polio- free until the continent passes three years without a case, all the countries in Africa will continue to vaccinate children. Africa has gone one year without a polio case because, after Nigeria realized that the polio disease needs to come to a stop, Rotary’s PolioPlus program staged health camps. Here children could be vaccinated, and parents could get aspirin, soap, cough syrup, and anything else a community would need. Also, the CDC set up emergency operation centers where vaccinations would be given to kids that have been turned away. These organizations have come a long way to get rid of the polio disease. If people continue to work together and keep getting vaccinated, Africa can go another 2 more years without a polio case. Then Africa can finally be considered a polio-free continent.
The new pentagon discovery was the first article that I chose to read and I can say that prior to reading this article I had no clue that such complex mathematical calculations were used to figure out what types of shapes a tile can fit without gaps! Finding tiles that can cover a plane has been a century long quest initiated by a mathematician named Karl Reinhardt. The new research findings recently occurred last month at the University of Washington Bothell. With the help of precise computer technology and some brilliant mathematicians it has led to the discovery of the new 15th pentagon. Fitting shapes together may seem an easy task, however pentagons remain the area of most mathematical interest when it comes to tiling because of its complexity it is still not yet fully understood. Seeing this new finding is awe inspiring and benefits me by giving me a new choice for tiling floors.
The possibility of polio being treated effectively enough to re-leave Africa of the burden of a viral crisis is extraordinarily good news. It has been exactly 1 year since the last reported case of polio in Africa and it will take another 2 for the World Health Organization to designate it as a "polio-free" zone. Thanks to the help of a host of health organizations that vowed to eliminate the disease totally (estimated to take around 10 years) their impact greatly helped the world's health. Nigeria was the main concern in Africa and with the use of the vaccine on afflicted and children the disease quickly died down in numbers. Understanding national health crisis and becoming proactive to stop them has proved to save countless lives while making a better environment.
The article "Attack on the pentagon results in discovery of new mathematical tile" immediately caught my interest just by looking at the picture. I had no clue there were that many varieties of pentagons to tile the plane, or cover a plane leaving no gaps or overlaps. To find the 15th type of pentagon to do this is so astounding, especially after considering the fact that for 30 past 30 years this is the only one discovered. In the mathematical world this is definitely no ordinary accomplishment. In fact, it is one that will prove to be extremely useful for not only careers focused primarily on math, but careers that use tiling and different shapes for art and layouts. This shape is so interesting because of its many potential applications connecting to the real world. Just from using this pentagon, several creative ways to use it will be created. Furthermore, pentagons are the only "-gons" that are not fully understood as of yet, so the chance of something else proven about them in the future is possible! Technology has definitely come in useful because it has been used to exhaustively search and find this new pentagon, and when there is enough data found in the future, specific predictions can even be tested.
The article "It’s Been One Year Since Africa Had a Polio Case. Can This Last?" also stood out to me. The idea that Polio might be eradicated during our lifetime is fantastic. As for the entire continent of Africa to be Polio free for one entire year- that is pretty amazing too.In 1988 different Health organizations such as the World Health Organization, the US Centers of Disease Control and Prevention, UNICEF, Rotary International and the Gates Foundation vowed to eradicate Polio worldwide for good. However, due to many hindrances along the way this was not possible. Muslim religious leaders in Kano state in northern Nigeria supported anti polio vaccinations because of their distrust of Western medical interventions. This led to Nigeria having half of the world's Polio cases. Keeping Africa as a whole Polio-free may be difficult because of the lack of vaccinations, but because of the drive to be Polio free, it is possible.
The first article I chose to read was the article about fruit-fly larva. I found it very interesting when reading how the neural activity allows a larva to move forward while the force goes in the opposite direction. That is a concept that is confusing to grasp but also pretty amazing how the brain can work that way. Researchers were even able to take a video of the brain activity of a zebrafish larva and the most recent footage of the more complicated fruit-fly larva. The researchers even had to modify their microscopes to be able to see the waves of neurons traveling through the brain of the larva. Researchers are working to use these techniques in further studies such as mouse embryos.
The next article I was drawn to was the one about polio. I found it amazing that Africa has been free from a deadly disease as severe as polio for a year. Although it is really great that polio has not been as serious, I find it devastating that Nigeria did not want their children to receive the vaccine because they believed they had been contaminated with efforts to sicken children. This resistance against the vaccination caused there to be a second epidemic, which took a toll on Africa. Keeping Africa polio-free will not be easy, but hopefully they will gain trust in the vaccination.
As per usual, the article about the old dusty fossil that was dug up caught my interest right away. The fossil for the "first flower" has just recently been dug up and we now have evidence of a flower that is older than what we knew as the oldest flower. The aquatic flower, Montsechia vidalii, might not even be recognized as a flower to most people and that's what I find most interesting. This "first flower" is so drastically different than the flowers that we know today that so many people would not even see this fossil as a flower. The flower contains no visible flower part, however it does how a fruit with a single seed which gives it its spot as the very first flower in existence that we know of. I still think it is incredible how we can find these new species of plants and animals so frequently. It occurs so often that our entire outlook on past species can be very different in the matter of a few years. It is very possible that in the matter of a week or two another dig can provide a different fossil that might be even older than the Montsechia vidalii that was just found and that is the most intriguing concept of this field.
The other article that caught my interest was the one involving the pentagonal tiling. I never knew that something as seemingly simple as bathroom tiling could have so much math and research behind it. I find it really cool have so very few pentagons can be used to tile a plane. And the fact that a entirely new pentagon was found that can do this. As I was reading the article, I found myself thinking about how ridiculous that it seemed but as soon as I saw the pentagon with all sorts of mathematical formulas plugged into it, I knew that this concept was nothing simple. But now it seems we have new pentagonal bathroom tiling to look forward to with our new mathematical tiling formulas for the perfect pentagon. Honestly, the most intriguing aspect about this is how unusual it is. I never thought that tiling took so much research that a shape must have very specific criteria in order to qualify as a shape that can be used in tiling.
I found the article talking about polio in Africa the most interesting for this week. It amazes me that the far reaching effects of modern medicine have yet to reach some places, such as Africa. From our perspective, the children of countries afflicted with polio need this vaccine and all we think is that we need to get it to them no matter what. However, as mentioned in the article, the issue is not just a scientific one but also a social one. The distrust of the West in Nigeria is one such example of this. They have been wronged in the past with vaccination testing, so I feel they have a right to speak out against the vaccine. We cannot keep forcing treatments on them that they are skeptical of without first making an attempt to show the people how beneficial the vaccine is. I was happy to read that the new president of Nigeria, Muhammadu Buhari, stepped up and publicly vaccinated his own granddaughter. Hopefully this may help to ease people's minds when getting their children vaccinated and prevent further outcry so that polio can be eradicated from Africa.
Could polio be gone forever? The thought is perplexing. However, virologists claim that we may have almost completely eradicated the disease from existence. As Tuesday August 11th, 2015 marked the one year anniversary since Africa has seen a polio case, the thought of a polio-free world is coming hurdling into view. Thanks to vaccine-promoting campaigns, people in Nigeria – Africa's most populous country and home to the mossy cases of polio – are now becoming more accepting of and confident in the vaccinations being offered for their children. To think about what it means to rid the world of a disease is mind-boggling. It is also somewhat disappointing, because somewhere in the back of all of our heads we know there's surely a case of undocumented polio raging in the Congo or in a small tribe in the jungles of Brazil. But, on an official basis, the world is coming closer than ever before to being free of polio. On an unrelated note, as the article "Fly larvae brains filmed in action," has announced, scientists are now able to capture footage of neural activity in a fruit fly's brain. Although they are tiny, they have complex central nervous systems that are fueled by/involved in this neural activity. The release of the zebra fish footage was only a small stepping stone compared to this remarkable feat. Neural activity is hard to trace for several reasons, A) because action potentials fire in a fraction of a second, B) because neurons are microscopic, and C) because there are millions of neurons firing at once and controlling all different reflexes, movements, and functions of the body. Imagine the future of psychology students, watching actual footage of neurons firing rather than the textbook-companion-website-generated animated gif of a knee being hit with a mallet.
I think the most important article week has to be about the polio vaccine. I don't say this because of the disease itself but rather what was discussed to have kept polio from being eradicated. Quite plainly speaking, social issues are the biggest debate in any science, especially biology. Thinking about other articles we've read this year, I just have to wonder if those in the sciences realize that their greatest folly is that people feel like they're doing whatever they want without thought to others. Look at the polio story. The people were scared, they didn't understand what they were taking, just that they were told to take it for a disease. That's why people refused to take it for years, they didn't understand, and their leaders were rightfully scared. But when given the vaccine with other services and leaders being onboard and understanding, Africa is now one year polio free. That's what every part of the scientific community should be doing. Show people that you're only aiming for good, and you'll see a lot less barriers standing in your way than if people think you're just playing god because you can.
It's very interesting to me that people may be preventing the eradication of polio. A distrust of Western medicines in Nigeria is understandable, although one would hope for people to be more welcoming of a potential solution. The refusal of the vaccine turned out to be beneficial as it caused an outbreak that devastated not only Nigeria but also surrounding countries. However, soon enough the hole in the strategy was realized. People feel the need to understand what is happening, rather than being told to simply do something. After getting leaders to join the movement, vaccinations became more widespread. Even so, there are many challenges ahead to keep Africa polio-free.
Additionally, the ability to capture neural activity on video is quite intriguing. For now, it is on a small scale as researchers had to strip the larva/s body to be able to record the neurons and their movement, but the potential is irrefutable.
I was most intrigued by the article about polio. For a continent like Africa to have gone a year without a case of polio is amazing, but the next two years must also remain polio free in order for Africa to receive the “polio-free” designation. Polio is a potentially fatal disease that has been eradicated mainly in the West. There are still people around the world who suffer from this deadly disease. Fewer than four decades ago, thousands of children were paralyzed by polio every day. A group of health organizations took steps to eliminate the disease on a global level, predicting to be successful by the year of 2000. Things haven’t gone as planned with quite a few setbacks in Africa, specifically Nigeria. Polio vaccinations are available to children across the continent but the problem is a social issue. As Dr. Oyewale Tomori states, “’I think we made a mistake, at first, by assuming this was purely a scientific issue,” he said by phone. “In fact, it is a social issue. People felt they were being told what to do, but we did not explain to them, we did not try to gain their confidence.’” When people lose faith in the vaccine, boycotts arise, convincing the common person to believe that the vaccine is unsafe. The article mentioned many instances of protest and resistance, one example being the 2003 resistance by Muslim leader in northern Nigeria, preaching against vaccination campaigns. They distrusted Western medical interventions, claiming that the medicine had been contaminated to sicken the children. Massive vaccine refusals resulted in a massive outbreak, spreading to countries that had already eradicated polio. To strengthen the vaccine campaign, “health camps” were set up to address the medical problems of the whole community, not just treat polio. Health camps like these would bring parents in to not only get their children vaccinated, but also get the treatment and medicine they needed. Another obstacle was the growing concern about dangerous areas due to extremist attacks. The idea of “hit and run” teams would allow those who are trapped in war zones to get vaccinated when there is a ceasefire or lull. Setting up emergency operations centers has enabled officers to determine where and who has been treated. Sadly, the focus has changed from how many children got to vaccine to how many missed the treatment. Every year, more than five million children are in Nigeria and vaccinating millions of children could easily be disrupted by militant attacks or a loss of faith in the vaccine. Even now, boycotts against the polio vaccine are taking place, possibly encouraging more and more people to resist the vaccine. Encouraging leaders to support the vaccine, such as President Muhammadu Buhari who is advertising a picture of his granddaughter taking the vaccine, will help in changing people’s minds. Keeping the faith and trust is an extremely difficult, but not impossible task. It will continue to be a long road ahead but complete eradication of this disease may be in the near future.
The first article of interest to me was the article about the new pentagon. Tiling means, “…to cover a flat surface using only identical copies of the same shape leaving neither gaps nor overlaps…”. All triangles and parallelograms can be used to tile a surface, but there is a case with pentagons. Not all pentagons can tile a surface since regular pentagons will not tile successfully. Mathematicians are trying to identify which irregular pentagons can tile perfectly. Recently, Casey Mann, Jennifer McLoud, and David Von Derau discovered a new pentagon that can tile a surface. Before reading this article, I never knew that mathematicians focused a great deal on tiling. I also found it interesting that a common shape is very hard to tile.
The article about polio was also interesting to me. The article points out that Africa has not had a polio case for a year. Social issues are to blame for why Africa was so late (when compared to other countries) to have no cases of polio. The West was able to eliminate polio decades earlier due to mass vaccination. Africans were wary of Western medicine after they were taken advantage of during a vaccination trial. Due to the fact that people were not vaccinated, the polio cases were high in the continent. Eventually, campaigns in Africa and support for the vaccine allowed Africa to remain polio free for a year. Hopefully, polio will be eradicated from Africa.
This week the article that caught my attention was the one about Africa being eradicated of polio. Polio is a potentially fatal disease that has been eradicated mainly in the West. There are still many cases of polio in the African nations. Fewer than four decades ago, thousands of children were paralyzed by polio every single day. A group of health organizations took steps to eliminate the disease on a global level. They must promote and persuade the Africans to take these vaccinations in order to rid themselves of this disease. However, most Nigerians, which house the most population of Africans hold a steady distrust of the west and our products. This issue is more social than scientific. This issue caused many people not o take the vaccines and resulted in many cases of polio. There are many campaigns against this vaccine which can cause and persuade many other Africans to lose hope of the vaccine. There is a long road ahead, but I believe that if the hope and faith are still alive for the positive effects of the vaccine that many will believe it and stand against the campaigns against the vaccine.
The first article about the discovery of the fifteenth pentagon that can tile a plane was really interesting. I have always been fascinated by shapes and figures that were able to fit into one another in a certain way to completely fill a space or plane. In 1918, Karl Reinhardt discovered the first five types of these pentagons. Specifically, he discovered five classes of convex pentagons that can be described by an equation. Centuries later, the number was brought up to fourteen by many mathematicians through the years. This year, Casey Mann, Jennifer McLoud and David Von Derau searched through endless possibilities to find this new type of pentagon. Looking at the picture of this pentagonal tiling and the way the shape fits into the other pentagons is absolutely mesmerizing. I am clueless on how these mathematicians could possibly discover this. Pentagonal tiling can apply to many aspects of this world from the structure of crystals, to viruses, and even tiling floors. There is still more research to be done on pentagons and maybe a sixteenth will be found soon. The other reading on polio left me with feelings of hope and joy. Polio has been affecting millions of people around the world. Africa has now passed one year without a case of polio. This is a huge milestone and the disease could be eradicated forever!
This week, the article that I found to be the most interesting was the one titled "Its been one year since Africa had a Polio case. Can this last?" In this point in time, medicine is at its highest peek so far in history and new methods of treatment to get rid of diseases and illnesses are taking place everyday. Yet in some countries like Africa, modern medicine and treatment methods are not very easy to come by. Diseases like polio still affect the children in Africa even though a vaccine has already been created for the disease. The main reason why people in Africa do not take such a life changing vaccine is because in the past, vaccination tests have been proven to go wrong and so they may not trust that the vaccine will actually help them. In order for them to believe and accept that this vaccine is actually very beneficial against diseases like polio, Muhammadu Buharu who is the new president of Nigeria publicly vaccinated his own granddaughter. Since he did this, people are now accepting that the vaccination for Polio is safe and so more and more people are taking it. This will greatly help stop Polio in Africa.
The article on possibly the first flower discovered was very interesting. David Dilcher a paleobotanist form Indiana university, with his colleagues have identified a 125 million to 130 million year old freshwater plant as one of earliest flowering plants on earth. The aquatic plant Montsechia Vidalii grew in freshwater lakes. It's riveting to know that the fossils of the plant were discovered more than 100 years ago in the limestone deposits in the central Spain. The fossil found is large compared to small fragmentary pieces of fossils. Montsechia is not like other flowers with petals or nectar producing structures for attracting insects. In terms of appearance Montsechia is identified in the study as Ceratophyllum. It is a dark green aquatic plant whose coarse, ruddy leaves make it a popular decoration in the modern aquarium and koi ponds. It doesn't end with this much information, David and colleagues want to understand more about the species connection Montsechia and Ceratophyllum. There's still much to be discovered. It's very impressive how David wants to go to the core of this flower. I would be delighted to know more about it.
This article fascinated me because Africa had one full year without a case of polio. I want to be a nurse and anything in the healthcare field interests me so the possibility of polio being eradicated from Africa is nothing short of spectacular! Since 1980 the polio virus has been paralyzing 1,000 children everyday and in 1988 The World Health Organization and a bunch of other organizations banded together to try to eradicate polio from the rest of the world, they thought it would take only ten years but they just ball parked the year 2000 just to be safe. The goal of 2000 was not achieved because the Nigerian government convinced it's people that the vaccination was actually meant to hurt them after a mishap with a meningitis vaccine. The World Health Organization set up mini health camps that distribute aspirin, bed nets, cough syrup etc. the workers would rush in to help people once fighting had dulled down in the countries. When new president Muhammadu Buhari publicly immunized his granddaughter which changed the entire country's' view on the polio vaccine. But in order to be considered completely polio free the country must have no polio cases for three years. I believe that Africa can finally eradicate polio once and for all.
Africa has been a polio-free nation for a year now, and that is quite a feat to accomplish. However, in order for Africa to actually be considered a polio-free zone entirely, it must go 3 years without a single polio case. Sadly, this nation can't be declared a polio-free nation just yet. Due to Nigeria, a country in Africa which is home to half of the world's population of polio infected humans, more cases of polio have erupted and has stopped Africa from being declared a polio-free nation. The country's failure to trust the Westerns' vaccination kept their citizens from being able to get cured from this horrifying disease. Now that polio has broken out in Nigeria again, it won't be long until it catches on to other nations as well.
Polio is an extremely terrifying disease. It has paralyzed 1000s of Africans every day until finally, the World Health Organization decided to make a plan to vaccinate the Africans until the disease was eradicated. They estimated about 10 years until the disease was gone, but said 2000 years just to be safe. Unfortunately, they didn't even reach their goal of 2000 years, let alone 10 years. Finally, Buhari showed the country what the vaccine could do and people eventaually started taking them. Now, it has been one year since Africa has had a case of polio, and let's hope it stays that way.
The first flower is very interesting considering it doesn't look like a flower. It doesn't have petals or flower-like characteristics, but according to the article, there was one seed inside the fruit. its amazing to think that around 130 million years ago, this was the only type of "flower" that ever existed on the earth. After it got more abundant and more and more flowers started coming in, evolution differentiated the flowers into different species and started making more flowers. This article was very interesting to read and I hope to learn more about the "first flower" and how it even came to be.
The article that most interested me was the one on the eradication of polio in Africa. Thankfully, Africa has been polio free for the year, but the country cannot be deemed completely polio free until three years have passed without a polio case. The biggest help in making this big of an improvement in Africa is with the help of the effort from Nigeria. However, Nigeria wasn't always helpful at first. When muslim religious leaders in Nigeria learned of the vaccines, they rejected them believing it was a set up and would just make the kids sicker. Unfortunately, after they rejected the vaccines, Nigeria counted for half of the worlds polio cases since it is also the most populous country in Africa with 5 million kids being born there every year. That being said, it will be especially hard to keep them polio free for the next 2 years. I think it is very upsetting that the reason for them to not take vaccinations is trust issues. These vaccinations can be very beneficial to them and will help them in the long run. Overall, I feel the next two years will require a lot of work and effort in order to keep Africa polio free.
The other article I felt that was interesting was the one on the discovery of what can be the fossil of the first flower on earth. The flower is known as Montsechia vidalii and it lived in freshwater in the present day mountainous regions of Spain. This flower has similarities to the present day Coontails or Hornworts which makes people wonder if the two have evolutionary ties.
Out of the articles I read this week I found that the eradication of polio in Africa was the most interesting. The last polio case in Africa was recorded over a year ago. This was a major milestone that was kept quiet. In order for Africa to be labeled Polio free it has to hit 3 years under the World Health Organization. To find out that in the 1980s, the disease paralyzed over 1000 children every day. This disease could have been eradicated a while ago but because of the Nigerians distrust in the Western medications, they refused the polio vaccine. The campaign for vaccination acceptance in Nigeria set up health camps. These camps have children the vaccine and gave parents aspirin,cough syrup, soaps, and beds. Although keeping Nigeria polio free will be hard due to the high birth rates each year. The campaign will continue to vaccinate the 5 million children born each year.
The article about the pentagonal tiling appealed to me first because of my interest of art and mathematics. I thought it was interesting that all triangles and quadrilaterals can tile the plane, but polygons that have seven or more sides cannot. It was proven that there are exactly three convex hexagons that are able to do so, but the search for all the tiling pentagons has not ended yet. The most interesting discovery to me was by Marjorie Rice. She was interested in math and art like I am, and this passion led her to discover four new pentagons that tile the plane and to create her own way to discover them - as well as creating patterns from the geometric shapes. Now, there are 15 known so far, and I'm looking forward to hearing about the next one that is possibly found!
The article about the eradication of polio also intrigued me. The whole continent of Africa has just gone through one year without an outbreak of polio. Two more years must pass before Africa is considered free of polio, but that year was a big achievement compared to what happened a decade ago. In northern Nigeria in 2003, people began preaching against the vaccination because of many people's suspicions about Western medicine. Their wariness was understandable and could even be supported by what happened to the people of Nigeria in 1996 as a result of a huge meningitis epidemic. Pfizer gave Trovan, instead of ceftriaxone, to 200 children. The effect was dozens of of the children experiencing side effects, such as paralysis; 11 children even died. This shows that pharmaceutical companies should take care to fully research their products before they are used on humans. Fortunately the opinions of many were changed after people spoke to leaders of the communities, and Africans became more open to vaccination. Although there will be problems along the way, such as the Kenya’s Conference of Catholic Bishops encouraging people to boycott the vaccine recently, hopefully another case of polio will not rise up again.
Africa has gone a whole year without a case of polio, but the continent has to go three years without any case of polio to be polio-free. More than 1,000 children were paralyzed from the virus in the 1980's. Multiple organizations devoted themselves in order to try to eliminate the disease. Health camps were established to provide anything a community needed like aspirin, cough syrup, soap, and bed nets. An emergency operations center helped vaccination teams and their logistics officers because it let them pinpoint certain problems and quickly find a solution. This is a time saving way to get the job done fast. There are still many obstacles that come with trying to get rid of this illness like getting people to see that the vaccine is good, not harmful. If we can get to that point, there will be no more boycotts or any other means of refusal.
As a perspective neurologist, I found the article on mapping neural activity to be especially fascinating. The technique Philipp Keller and Misha Ahrens was ingenious: modifying neurons to glow when firing, and then using microscopes to study and record the neurons firing. They studied a fruit fly larvae, which is very hard to map due to the opacity of the central nervous system. Nevertheless, the two brilliant scientists managed to record brain, and the entire CNS, activity. They even managed to take out the central nervous system and discovered that it still transmitted messages to and from the brain for up to an hour. The scientists are now working on mouse embryos, and hopefully soon they can analyze human babies and completely revolutionize the way we view the human brain.
I also found the article on the polio vaccine to be very heartwarming. It is a great accomplishment that the continent of Africa has been polio-free for a year now, and the streak continues every day. When the goal of eradicating polio started in the 1980's, the original goal was to have it wiped off the face of the Earth by 2000, but the charity organizations hit a roadblock when nations refused to trust the vaccines. Many nations, including Muslim leaders, began preaching against, and boycotting, the polio vaccines, and only recently did they begin accepting the western medicine and seeing change in their nations. It is remarkable how an epidemic so great was stopped by the dedication of these charity organizations, and we can begin to enjoy the peace of having a polio-free Africa and a polio-free world.
Many people think that polio that is a disease long gone. It left the west a long time ago; but for a while, it has been paralyzing more than 1000 children everyday in more poverty rich areas. The goal was to get rid of it completely by 2000, but it took a little longer. Africa, specifically Nigeria , played a major role in the setbacks. This is due to many of the religious leaders not wanting to involve themselves and their people with the vaccinations. Eventually however, health camps were all over giving the vacciantions out. On August 11th 2015, Africa crossed a huge milestone; no case of polio was
reported for a full year. The World Health Organiztion says its not yet polio free because the continent needs to pass 3 years before considering it polio free. We can only hope for the best now!
-Akanksha Kale
Many scientists working for the benefit of the human race try to find ways to eliminate deadly diseases that have claimed hundreds and thousands of lives over the years. One such deadly disease, polio, has left numerous children immobile and without hope for the future. Though a number of health organizations banded together with the intention of eradicating the illness from our planet, many setbacks caused them to miss their target date. The recent polio epidemic across Nigeria and its neighboring countries devastated those working to get rid of the disease. However, by realizing that this epidemic was not only a scientific issue, but also a social issue, they were able to use a new angle to regain the trust and support of the people who had refused to vaccinate their children against polio. It is important for scientists to be able to see issues such as these in different lights; it allows them to find new, and perhaps more efficient ways to find solutions to the problems at hand.
Plants are known to be the basis of the earth's ecosystem, as they convert sunlight into the oxygen and energy necessary for the survival of all living organisms. Discovering what the earliest plants were like, and how they have evolved to become the modern day plants we see today, can help us better understand how plants will continue to evolve and how they have and will contribute to evolutionary processes of other organisms. It is astonishing that paleobotanists have identified a freshwater flowering plant that is 125 million to 130 million years old. To be able to find and analyze fossils so ancient is incredible on the part of the scientists, and they are lucky to have discovered these fossils well preserved and intact. The analyses of the fossils are incredibly important to scientists who continue to try to decode the evolutionary processes of plants and how other organisms that relied on plants changed as well. If we continue to make discoveries like these, it is certain that we will learn more about the earth's past and how we can apply the knowledge for a better future.
After reading and watching the short clip showing neural activity in a fruit-fly larva’s brain, I have become thoroughly amazed at how the brain works. In order to move the larva forward, the brain starts its neural signals in the back part of the organism working its way all the way up into the brain of the larva. When moving backwards, the surge flows from the brain to the bottom of the larva. Before capturing the neural activity of a larva on video, scientists had already filmed a zebra fishes neural activity. The difference between the two miraculous videos is that the larva video captures the activity of the entire central nervous system, where the zebra fish video only captures signals in the brain. Scientists also found that up to an hour after removing the central nervous system of the larva, they were still able to observe nerve signals that indicate crawling. Next, scientists are working on mapping neural signals in mouse embryos. This new technology may one day help scientists film human neural activity and help better understand how the human nervous system works. It may also help people who have nervous system and spinal cord problems, which can greatly benefit science and people as a whole.
The next article that captured my attention was the one about Africa's polio-free milestone. Polio was a huge issue in the 1980s, especially in Africa, so in 1988 health and disease organizations came together with only one goal, to rid the world of the deadly polio disease. At first they thought they would complete their agenda in a mere ten year, but unfortunately the battle with polio is still going on to this day. Part of the reason for this is because in 2003 Muslim religious leaders in Nigeria began to preach against the polio vaccine claiming it will sicken children. Although there are no cases in Africa anymore, there are still campaigns that are against the polio vaccine in places like Nigeria. It really amazes me how people could be so skeptical and negative towards such a great opportunity. They have the chance to become rid of this awful disease, yet leaders decide to let their people become sick and die. Ebola is also a huge outbreak in Africa currently and to add polio to the mess would just be extremely unfortunate. I hope that in the years to come there will not be any polio relapses as well as an end to the Ebola virus.
The article that interested me was the polio eradication article. The fact that polio may be eradicated in the near future is amazing. Polio has paralyzed thousand of kids everyday. The prediction by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, UNICEF, Gates Foundation was that polio would be gone by 2000, obviously that didn't happen but so much progress has been made since its been a year since Africa had a case of polio. Although there were some bumps in the road, I believe that we are advancing and will eventually eliminate polio.
Poliomyelitis is inherently deadly. A small percentage of the victims suffer from muscle weakness and some even die, which is what makes it so important to cure. A year passing without the sign of polio in a country where it is extremely susceptible to being spread (Africa is poverty-filled and generally unsanitary) is ground-breaking. As more resources from the west are invested in helping the world, we will be able to completely extinguish any trace of the disease. It is difficult to vaccinate something like this when a huge religious group is discouraging the vaccine. In all honesty you couldn't blame them; there are numerous times when Africa has been taken advantage of by the rest of the world. You might wonder what could possibly prompt them to deny the vaccine to such a huge number of people that need it, but keep in mind these are the same people that we've used for experimental meningitis vaccine trials. The Islamic religious leaders, or Imams as they're called, simply wouldn't support the vaccine. I also find it honorable that the program, PolioPlus, persevered beyond the lack of support. The program has also focused on getting teh vaccine to other areas where Polio may still reside, mainly areas that are heavily muslim-populated and who have also denied that they need the vaccine (ie india pakistan etc.) Dr. Oyewale Tomori, a virologist who is president of the Nigerian Academy of Science, put right when he said that it was more a social issue than a science issue. Although we COULD securely vaccinate countries that need it, it is more important that we establish a sense of trust with these nations so that incase an epidemic ever rises, we'll be able to help.
I think keeping Africa Polio-free for the next two years will be challenging, but completely achievable. It is amazing how advanced modern day medicine has gotten over the past few years--just 30 years ago, people were dying from polio and like the article said, more than 1,000 children were paralyzed from the virus. At one point in the article, it was noted that curing polio in Nigeria was not only a scientific issue, but also a social issue. I completely agree with this. Some parents may feel uncomfortable that their children are being treated with shots and other forms of medication that they have never heard about or experienced before. Personally, I think it is important that the people feel comfortable and informed about the treatment before actually carrying it out. I thought the health camps that they established were a good idea because not only did it provide treatment for those who needed medical help, but it also created a safe and comfortable environment. Nigeria, after rejecting the vaccines, is very prone to another outbreak of polio. With over 5 million people living there, I think it will be very hard to keep Africa polio-free for the next two years. It is known that Africa does not have the best sanitation of living conditions. Unless Nigeria and the other countries in Africa accept the vaccine, I don't Africa will be polio-free.
Polio, also known as poliomyelitis, is an infectious viral disease, which has the ability to cause an organism to become paralyzed due to it affecting the central nervous system. This horrifying disease has infected Africa for decades. It had caused more than 1,000 children a day to become paralyzed. However, with the help of the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, World Health Organization, UNICEF, and Rotary International, they promised to get rid of this disease around the world. They predicated that it would take them about 2000 years to finally get it eliminated. However, there were problems they had to deal with. Nigeria’s Muslim religious leader had been against the polio vaccination, so he had started campaigns to stop it. This caused there to be a setback on the elimination of polio because half the world’s polio inflected victim were located in Nigeria. However, there was the creation of new campaigns, which helped to start health camps, so children were able to receive the vaccine. However, Africa is not completely considered to be “polio-free” because it has only been without polio for one year, three years would make it “polio-free”
Polio is a crippling disease that had made its way through the continent of Africa for several decades, which caused more than 1,000 kids to become paralyzed as early as the 1980’s. In poor areas of the continent, this newly acquired disability subjected these children to a life of discrimination and poverty. On August 11, 2015, it marked one full year since the last case of polio on the continent of Africa. This is a remarkable achievement for not only Africa but the entire world, and it is highly possible that Polio may be eradicated during our lifetime. However, until the continent passes the three year mark since the last case of polio, Africa can not yet officially be considered “polio-free”. These countries in Africa that suffered greatly from tis disease will continue to vaccinate their children until Polio is completely eradicated. The long journey that the civilians of this continent went through to reach the point they are at now had many setbacks along the way. The US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Rotary International, and later on the Gates Foundation set a goal to completely eliminate this disease worldwide a decade later by the year 2,000. However, it took longer than planned to eradicate this disease, and there was a series of drawbacks that was causing polio to spread at rapid rates throughout the Continent of Africa. The country of Nigeria particularly played a significant role in pushing the world farther and farther away from a cure. It all started when Muslim religious leaders in Northern Nigeria began protesting against polio vaccination campaigns. They greatly distrusted Western medical interventions, due to a meningitis vaccine that took advantage of them, and this caused them to believe that the drops were deliberately contaminated to sicken and sterilize the children. A massive vaccine refusal was triggered, and new vaccines in Nigeria led to a wave of polio cases across Africa. Half of the world’s polio cases were in Nigeria, and the disease began reseeding in countries that had fought it off. A second epidemic occurred in Nigeria and border countries from a vaccine-derived polio outbreak. The country was spiraling downward at an accelerating rate, and something had to be done. A vaccination campaign was created to slow down the massive outbreak of polio. Health camps were staged to address more pressing health commands. Children were able to receive vaccinations, and parents were able to obtain basic resources that the community needed. Also, “Hit and Run” teams were positioned near conflict zones to step in when needed. This vaccination was able to convert the distrust of the civilians to support. Even though polio is gone from Africa at the moment, disrupted militant attacks and loss of trust can easily disrupt the vaccinations. I found it interesting that one country was able to have devastating effects on an entire country. Even though it won’t be easy keeping Africa polio free, I have faith that this disease can one and for all be eradicated.
Since most of my house is covered in carpet of various textures and most tiles I’ve seen are a generic square, tiles of other shapes have never really crossed my mind. To come across pentagons potentially covering my bathroom floor was interesting to read about, both in mathematical and decorative perspectives. I wasn’t aware that the geometric ratios of the sides and angles had to be so precisely calculated; I just assumed pentagons would fit in without clashing because they’re awesome. Rather, this hunt for perfectly fitting pentagons has been a source of mathematical interest since 1918 started by the German mathematician Karl Reinhardt. The application of the new pentagon has potential, either in nature or for future architectural purposes. As for the fruit fly, it’s neurons really are beautiful to look at especially when considering how small a fruit fly is and how enlarged the diagram had to be just for the flashes to be visible. It was taken in a split second, to capture the instantaneous rush of the surge from the top of the larvae’s body to the bottom as a result of it walking backwards. The flashes were constant to mimic the movements of an actual fly. Since the reactions were so fast, researchers had to increase image rate by 25 fold just to capture the movements. That itself is amazing, the fact that scientists have progressed from zebrafish larvae to fruit flies. Who knows how long it takes before humans are mapped out.
Though the article on the videos of neural activity in a fruit-fly larva's brain and central nervous system is short, I found that a pretty interesting topic. I find it pretty cool to know that in a larva, there is a surge of neural activity that flows forwards or backwards depending on how the larva wants to move. The technique scientists had to use to film the nervous system of the larva was definitely very tough. The new technique involves live-imaging of both the brain and nerve cord of the larva, allowing the scientists to identify which neurons make the animal crawl in different directions. The fluorescent wave of neurons from the CNS is what coordinated patterns of crawling activity and other behaviors in the larva. Technology has become extremely advanced and the fact that now scientists can actually film the brains of fly larvae in action is amazing. The next article I chose was the one about the mythical 'first flower'. There are billions of different species of flowers from since earth was first born till now. Many paleobotanists find great history of plants every day but identifying a 125 million to 130 million-year-old freshwater plant is a big finding. The fact that this freshwater flower could be the “first flower” is just a myth and like the article said it’s like thinking about the “first human”. But, it is definitely one of the earliest flowering plants on Earth. One of the biggest ideas to think about from all of this is how these simple, early plants created such a vast species of flowers in our modern world today.
Post a Comment