The Veg-FruitWed, 01/16/2013 - 9:39pm by nfocha   Tags:

Week 1

 

My diet is the sun and moon; when I eat well (about 95% of the time), I

am a bit health-crazy.  However, if I decide to take a leisurely retreat

from my healthy habits, I enjoy my break thoroughly.  My diet most

days can be termed a vegetarian diet.  A loose definition of

vegetarianism is a diet that excludes meat, fish, and poultry. 

Therefore, meals can be expected to consist of vegetables, fruits, nuts,

grains, etc.  Of course, this is excluding that 5% of the time when I

ache for a steak.  Anyway, the main reason I became a vegetarian was

that I wanted to be just like Tina Turner, also a vegetarian.  No, just

joking.  Actually it was a decision made during my years at community

college.  A boy handed me a flyer with a website on it that, out of sheer

curiosity, I looked up. 

Tina Turner singing "Simply the Best"

For twenty minutes I watched blood drain from animals while they

were still alive and I saw animals beaten, kicked, cursed, and tortured. 

After that, it did not really matter whether it was a gimmick or not; I

just could not go back to meat.  I later learned that 18% of the world’s

pollution was due to animal production and that the overconsumption

of meat in American was leading to our population’s increase of

obesity, cancer, and heart attacks (Bittman).  Although I believe that

vegetarianism was a wonderful decision for me, it did require me to

find new edible favorites.  One of these discoveries was olives, which

do not just have interesting origins, but delicious and amazingly

healthy benefits.

Olives are fruits of the Olea europea tree (a remarkable tree that

typically lives for hundreds of years).  As just-picked olives are too

bitter to eat, curing methods depending on the olive variety, region

cultivated, and desired taste, texture, and color are used to reduce

their intrinsic bitterness before they are consumed.  Contrary to belief,

olive color does not always correlate to olive maturity.  Some olives

start green and remain green or

end up black, while others start black and remain so or turn green.  For

instance, the California Mission Olive, which is the olive that is

particularly unique in the United States, are typically picked green and

un-ripened, lye-cured, and exposed to air to trigger the oxidation and

conversion to a black outer coat (Slevkoff).  In addition to the olive’s

scrumptious taste, they are known to promote numerous health-

protection nutrients.  Most recognized are the olive’s considerable

antioxidant and anti-flammatory properties.  On another note, diets

containing olives also decrease the risk of osteoporosis in estrogen

lacking individuals; a health benefit discovered by French researchers

testing the effects of olive rich diets on ovary-less rats (Olives).

As olives are a delectable treat and remarkable source of antioxidant

and anti-inflammatory phytonutrients that have the potential to protect

from diseases in the cardiovascular, respiratory, nervous,

musculoskeletal, immune, inflammatory, and digestive systems, I think

we all have a perfect excuse to eat these black and green treats daily.

 

Bibliography

Shifko, Robert. “Nutritional Benefits of Black Olives”. LIVESTRONG.COM

The Limitless Potential of You. 17 October 2010. eHow Health. 16

January 2013. < http://www.livestrong.com/article/281836-nutritional-

benefits-of-black-o....

“California Mission Olive”. Slow Food USA Supporting Good, Clean, and

Fair Food. Mission Olive Preservation, Restoration and Education

Project (MOPREP). 16 January 2013.

< http://www.slowfoodusa.org/index.php/programs/ark_product_detail/

califor....

Slevkoff, Jack. “How I Cure: Olives – Using a solution of water and

lye”. GemWorld. 16 January 2013. < http://www.cureolives.com>.

“Vegetarianism in a Nutshell”. The Vegetarian Resource Group:

Vegetarianism in a Nutshell. The Vegetarian Resource Group. 16

January 2013. < http://www.vrg.org/nutshell/nutshell.htm#what>.  

“Olives”. The World’s Healthiest Foods. The George Mateljan

Foundation. 16 January 2013.

< http://www.whfoods.com/genpage.php?

tname=foodspice&dbid=46>. 

Fried Cats and Human DogsTue, 01/22/2013 - 4:12pm by nfocha   Tags:

Week 2

I did not have a furry friend to cuddle up with during my years living at

home; however, it was not for the usual reason that parents provide

their children.  My mum, whose wacky sense of humor I inherited, told

me that in Vietnam, my mum’s home country, dogs are eaten and not

kept as pets.  I don’t really remember, but I believe I was shocked.  I

can say that I had a vivid image of my mum serving up my would-be-

cat on a platter, so I withdrew my plea for a black, fat, and selfish

feline.  Of course, soon after I realized that my mum would not actually

fry a mammal in her frying pan; however, by then I was used to the

“no pets” rule in our house.  Even though I had a happy pet-less

childhood, I improvised as much as I could with spiders, rolly-pollies,

furry orange catapillers, and a very large mouse which kept me fairly

busy.  For fun, I would like to ask you what would be your ideal pet. 

Mine would be the gluttonous and loyal Garfield as he always makes

me laugh. 

  Garfield's Snack Attack

In any case, the artwork that interested me most was the Hox Zodiac

project created by our professor Victoria Vesna and Siddharth

Ramakrishnan, who is a Neurosience and Integrated Applied Science

researcher at Columbia University.  This project especially interested

me because even though, as a senior at UCLA, most of my schooling

has been focused on the sciences, I have always been awed by the

beauty, individuality, and variety of art.  The Hox Zodiac project

combines the fascinating medical potential of the Hox gene with the

mysterious Zodiac system developed to help maintain health and

balance.  Discussing about this project in class reminded me of the

Vietnamese Zodiac, called Tu Vi, based on the Eastern Zodiac system. 

Basically, each year in the zodiac system is represented by a yearly

animal sign and its personality attributes (there are twelve animals). 

Slight differences in the animal representations set Tu Vi apart from

the Chinese Zodiac (i.e. the ox and rabbit are replaced by the buffalo

and cat).  Instead of repeating only every twelve years, however, the

five earthly signs (Wood, Fire, Metal, Water, and Earth) are combined

with the twelve animals to create a cycle of 60 years.  To look up your

own horoscope, please go to this

website: http://www.viethoroscope.com/.  I, myself, was born in 1994

and therefore I am a wood dog and should be loyal, dependable,

unselfish, intelligent, open-minded, stubborn, lazy, and cynical.  I very

much hope that I am not lazy or cynical, but the others sound better

than I expected.  Anyway, I close with a link to a trailer of a very cute

Japanese manga series that I used to watch that builds its storyline

around the legend of the zodiac.  I hope you have fun watching it and if

you would like to watch the full series, there is always Hulu!

Japanese Manga (Fruits Basket) link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?

v=Qtyj2o5CNyY.

Bibliography

 

Cohen, Barbara; Ngoc, Huu. “The Vietnamese Zodiac”. ThingsAsian:

Experience Asia Through the Eyes of Travelers. 1 March 1998. Global

Directions, Inc. 22 January 2013. < http://www.thingsasian.com/stories-

photos/1198>.

“Fruits Basket”. Wikipedia: The Free Encyclopedia. 22 January 2013.

Wikimedia Foundation, Inc. 22 January 2013.

<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fruits_Basket>.

“People: Lab Member Profile: Siddharth Ramakrishnan”. Bioelectronic

Systems Lab. 22 January 2013.

<http://www.bioee.ee.columbia.edu/~siddhur/>.

Ramakrishnan, Siddarth; Vesna, Victoria; Yoldas, Pinar. Hox Zodiac. 22

January 2013. UCLA Art/Sci Center.

<http://artsci.ucla.edu/hox/#body>.

 “VietHoroscope: Your #1 source for Vietnamese horoscopes and

zodiac signs”. VIET horoscope. 22 January 2013.

<http://www.viethoroscope.com/>. 

 Bloody Bats…Fake DNA?Thu, 01/31/2013 - 3:27pm by nfocha   Tags:

Week 3

Last Thursday’s class, Romie Littrel conducted a fun and enlightening

workshop that utilized polymerase chain reaction or PCR to find those

in the class who have the gene that encodes for bitter taste

perception.  I have always been curious about PCR because, even

though I learned about it theoretically from my community college in

biology and organic chemistry, my lab experience in replicating DNA

was by using bacteria (i.e. the “old way”).  PCR is quite fascinating in

that it speeds up what usually takes days, in to just about two hours. 

In those two hours, the PCR enables researchers to produce millions of

copies of a specific DNA sequence through cycles that consist of

heated denaturation, annealing left and right primers, and Taq

polymerase (a thermostable DNA polymerase enzyme that synthesizes

DNA molecules from its nucleotide building blocks) synthesizing new

DNA.  Using PCR in class brought to mind an application of PCR that,

being a murder-mystery fanatic when I am not pounding away at my

textbooks, I encountered in the past: fabricating DNA evidence.  In

2009, Israeli scientists developed a means of fabricating blood and

saliva samples containing DNA from a person other than the donor of

the blood and saliva.  In addition, they even found the method of using

a DNA database profile to construct a sample of DNA to match without

obtaining any tissue from the profiled person.

New use for pig's blood...planting evidence.

There are two methods to obtain fabricated DNA.  The first method is

the most simplistic and requires a real, if small, sample of DNA which

can be then amplified into a large quantity of DNA using whole genome

amplification.  The concept of whole genome amplification, also known

as WGA, arose as PCR was adapted to replicated regions of genomes

that are of biological interest.  WGA is the process where genomic DNA

is copied multiple times over to produce larger amounts DNA; basically

an akin process to PCR.  A sample of blood is then obtained from one

person and centrifuged to remove the white blood cells.  The leftover

red blood cells (RBCs) that lack genetic material are injected with

another person’s DNA, thus giving the blood type of the first person

along with the DNA of the second.  The second method requires access

to DNA profiles, usually found in law enforcement databases.  These

databases contain libraries of genomes from which the scientists can

clone tiny DNA snippets represntng the common variants at 13 spots in

a person’s genome.  To prepare a DNA sample matching any chosen

profile, researchers mix the proper DNA snippets together (they

believe that about 425 different DNA snippets would be enough to put

together every conceivable profile).  All in all, even though fabricated

DNA has the potential to lead to faux evidence and is a potential

invasion of personal privacy to others, it is an extraordinary use of PCR

and makes for a very twisted plot in a thriller. 

Bibliography

1) http://molecular.roche.com/About/pcr/Pages/ApplicationsofPCR.aspx

2) http://www.lgcgenomics.com/whole-genome-amplification

3) http://www.popsci.com/scitech/article/2009-08/scientists-prove-dna-

evidence-can-be-fabricated

 Love Is In the NeurochemicalsTue, 02/19/2013 - 1:26pm by nfocha   Tags:

Week 6

 

The lovely workshop last Thursday on Valentines’ Day with Christina

centered on aphrodisiacs and the controversial disembodied cuisine

and cultured meat.  Aphrodisiacs are substances (in this case foods)

that increase sexual desire.  The term “aphrodisiac” originates from

the greek goddess of love and beauty, Aphrodite.  There have been

many foods and drinks alleged to help Aphrodite accomplish her claim

to creating love and sexuality.  However, these allegations may just

have a placebo effect, i.e. they create love and sexual feelings because

those who eat them believe that they will, or there may be actual

sound science.  Researching some foods that have claims to being

aphrodisiacs, I found several that may actually promote attraction.  For

instance, watermelon is rumored to act similar to Viagra but not in the

sense that it directly boosts libido or treat erectile dysfunction, but

because it relaxes blood vessels and improves blood flow increasing

chances of romantic feelings.  Other examples of these kinds of foods

are oysters (which are said to increase testosterone) and chocolate

(which increases release of tiny molecules called neurotransmitters in

the brain like serotonin). As you can see, most of these foods do not

directly promote attraction between individuals but increase chemicals

in the brain (neurochemicals), block receptors (molecules on the

surfaces of cells that receive neurochemicals or signals). 

 A chocolate love.

Learning about these foods abilities to play with molecules in our

bodies reminded me of studies done on prairie voles, a small vole

found in central North America that looks a bit like a mouse but the

size of a rabbit, and the monogamous love that they and only about

5% of mammals experience.  Scientists studying these cute creatures

found that oxytocin in female voles promote the mother and child

bound during their pregnancy; the curious thing is that oxytocin (a

hormone that acts as a modulator in the brain) also creates the pair

bond between voles after mating for twenty-four hours. 

Just had to share this picture... 

Since male voles cannot undergo pregnancy, vasopressin (a hormone

found in most mammals) receptors were significantly higher in male

voles’ lateral septum to create the same parent-child bound and

vasopressin release in the hypothalamus causes pair-bonding,

monogamy, displays of jealousy, and preference for one partner.  All in

all, food may be the cause of our happiness, but neurochemicals are

the reasons we love and attract.    

Sources: 

1) http://www.sciencemag.org/content/322/5903/900.full

2) http://science.howstuffworks.com/aphrodisiac3.htm

3) http://health.usnews.com/health-news/family-health/sexual-and-

reproducti...

4) http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aphrodisiac

5) http://www.nytimes.com/2006/07/18/health/18real.html?_r=0

6) http://www.dnalc.org/view/2376-Love-Pair-Bonding-and-Prairie-

Voles.html

Event - Female Competition and Dispersal Patterns in Chimpanzees SeminarSat, 03/23/2013 - 1:54am by nfocha   Tags:

Week 10

 

 

I attended the Female Competition and Dispersal Patterns in

Chimpanzees seminar on Monday, February 25th where Anne Pussy, a

professor Evolutionary Anthropology at Duke University presented her

research on mother-infant relationships and effects of maternal

conditions on behavior of young chimps.  Most interesting in her

lecture was that mothers on a high fiber diet lose about 10% of their

body weight and show a significantly higher rejection factor to their

offspring than do mother’s on a lower fiber diet (and therefore, I

suppose a higher weight).  To compensate for this mother aversion,

progeny will increase their attempts at contact.  Further trials have

revealed that the lower the mother’s weight, the more rejecting she

would be.

A mother chimp and her child...

 

Other important findings of Professor Pussy’s research was that infants

are not passive recipients of maternal care decisions and that infants

have adapted to respond to variations in maternal behavior.  I have

usually found studies of chimps interesting because of their highly

intelligent behavior compared to rats or mice that I usually use in my

lab studies.  I am happy to say that I found the correlation between

weight and rejection of mother’s to be astounding, as I would have

thought that the lower the female’s weight, the healthier she would be

and the more she would be willing to take care of her progeny.  Also

the discovery that young chimps adjust their behavior depending on

their mother’s reactions and behaviors is very human-like and an

impressive find.    

Event - LASER (March 7th)Sat, 03/23/2013 - 1:30am by nfocha   Tags:

Week 10

 

To the left, Marepe's amplifying head and to the right is Tschape's

Transmogrification of the Woman.

On March 7th, 2013, I went to the Leonardo Art Science Evening

Rendezvous (LASER) event and listened to several of the most

inventive and exciting artists, authors, researchers, and so on.  Some

of these people include Madeline Schwartzman, Amisha Gadani, Seri

Robinson, Blanka Buic, Allison Carruth, and more.  One of the projects

that captured my interest was Madeline Schwartzman’s, an artist and

author, book called “See Yourself Sesing: Redefining Human

Perception.”  Schwartzman’s book explores the relationship between

design, the body, technology, and the sensations over the last fifty

years.  Some of these innovative ideas that she includes in her books

are seeing with your tongue and plugging your nervous system directly

in a computer. My favorite in her book is the Acoustic Head by Marepe

which is designed to amplify singing and the Transmogrification of the

Woman by Janaina Tschape. 

Defensive

Procupine

Detaching-Skink-Tail Dress

Another favorite presenter of mine was Amisha Gadani, an artist, who

designed defensive dresses.  One such dress was a porcupine dress

with quills that stand erect when the wearer hunches over in a

protective position. Another fascinating dress is a mimic of the skink’s

ability to detach its tail when captured by a predator.  Listening to

these presentations was a wonderful opportunity and made me curious

enough to explore fields and ideas that I would never had known

about.