Final Blog Entry

Every time I heard the phrase “Love is in the air”, I never assumed that this had any truth to it.  It was nothing more than just a phrase that Hollywood had probably coined and Hallmark later took over to make some extra cash out of the sappy consumers of America.  While I used to believe that attraction to others is purely based on physicality or personality, I was surprised and shocked to find out this semester that love and attraction to the opposite sex can also be triggered by a person’s or animal’s special “scent”, otherwise known as pheromones.  These volatile molecules are given off by one animal or human and  can be picked up by another of the same species using olfaction.  While studies have proven their definite effect on mating and habits of animals and insects as shown by research done on Tanzanian cockroaches by Dr. Allen J. Moore in 2001, there has yet to be a definite impact on the lives of human beings (Milius, 2001).  Despite this fact, many love-seeking men and women continue to strive for this type of “secret love potion” and have willingly purchased pheromones in hopes of increasing their chances at love.  In 2007, Human Pheromone Sciences, Inc., a leading producer of these products had a net revenue of $389, 000 showing that even if they have not necessarily been proven to have an effect, they have enough appeal to warrant sales (PR Newswire, 2008). This biological phenomenon really brings a “fresh” (hopefully) perspective on why and how people really do find their mates, and I think that ultimately it proves that deep down humans still have the same complex internal processes that many other species share.

So if you want to be the next to experiment with the success rate of human pheromones, make sure to check out this online store: http://shop.naturalattraction.com/main.sc

Sources:

Human Pheromone Sciences Announces Quarterly and  Full Year Results.  PR Newswire.  Mar 31, 2008. http://proquest.umi.com/pqdweb?index=0&did=1456801291&SrchMode=1&sid=3&Fmt=3&VInst=PROD&VType=PQD&RQT=309&VName=PQD&TS=1209356998&clientId=2335

Roach Females pick losers with good scents. Susan Milius. Science News. March 3, 2001.  http://proquest.umi.com/pqdweb?index=4&did=69374158&SrchMode=1&sid=5&Fmt=3&VInst=PROD&VType=PQD&RQT=309&VName=PQD&TS=1209358343&clientId=2335

When the concept of motion parallax was first presented in class, I was never fully aware of exactly how it worked.  I had always been able to comprehend the portion of the theory about how the stationary objects around the vehicle I was moving in appear to be moving in the opposite direction, but I still was confused as to why everything beyond the point of fixation was supposed to appear to move in the same direction as the car.  So in order to investigate this concept further (and since I don’t have a car to test the theory on the road) I decided to youtube a video of a car traveling down a freeway.  Of course, I picked a freeway near and dear to my heart, the 405 in Orange County, CA.  Even though the driver isn’t the most cautious or patient on the road and I almost got carsick just watching them weave in and out of traffic, I finally understand and can see the perceived motion for myself.  It took me a minute to just focus on the median of the freeway and use my peripheral vision to notice how the trees far in the distance were moving “forward” just like the car I was watching.  Just in case anyone else wants to see more of the real “OC” or motion parallax in action, just click on the link: http://youtube.com/watch?v=P-iwPhrI9mY&feature=related

Arts and crafts wasn’t necessarily my strong point in elementary school, and I always got mad that the colors would turn to a horrible shade of black when I decided to mix them all together.   From that point on, I always figured that when you mix colors together (in what I now know as subtractive coloring) they always turn into a darker color until it gets to be enough color that all light cannot pass through it.  When I first learned about color television and how that technology works, I was naturally very complexed as it went against everything I knew about how color worked.  Since my lowly fifth grade background in arts & crafts wasn’t sufficient to explain why it was that the televison worked in the exact opposite way, I was pretty confused as we learned in science class that red, green, and blue light are additive and together produce white light.   Upon further research and thought, I finally was able to accept that fact, but it took the help of an actual projection screen with colors being shown simultaneously to understand this phenomenon at first.  To help my mind comprehend it, I will never forget the “analogy” that I used to describe the fact that color is all about light.  While the colored light adds up together, as in television, to produce “brigher” white light, paint works in the opposite way by taking away light because it is so thick and as a result produces a “dark” layer over a place that could potentially have been light.  While this may seem like a crude way to look at such a complex phenomenon, it definitely helped get me out of my 5th grade science class!

The nature vs nurture debate comes largely into play in the development of a normal visual system.  One has to consider whether or not a child is born with the visual system of a fully grown adult, or if the experiences that this child has during their lifetime indeed affect their ability to see.  While there has been significant evidence in favor of the “nature” side of the argument, it is still not enough to completely rule out its opposition.  Personally, as I was pondering this question, I began to think of possible experimentation for how to test the hypothesis that the development of a child’s visual system is a result of natural phenomenon and not the environment that they are exposed to.  The best idea I came up with blindfolding a child at birth and continuously taking measurements of neural activity and responses to visual stimuli every few weeks, but this solution seemed neither probable or humane.  In addition to this, if the child were to show a reduced sense of vision after the experiment, there still might not be definitive evidence that the child experienced this loss as a result of their “nurturing” or not-so-”nurturing” environment.  Overall, I think the debate and research in this area will continue for years to come, and ideally the researchers performing this task will think of more scientific and moral ways of testing the hypothesis than harming innocent children.

What are some consequences of the duplex solution of vision?

One of the major consequences of the duplex solution of vision is that we can see in both night and day.  While in the daytime, we are able to use our cone receptors with better visual discrimination and acuity, at nights we are forced to use our rod receptors to gather as much light information from the environment as possible.  One result of this system is the fact that if we are in a brightly lit atmosphere and then quickly move into a dark area, it takes our eyes a minute to adjust.  This adjustment not only involves the noticeable contraction of the pupils, but the adaptation of taking in information from the opposite type of photoreceptor.

When thinking about the duplex solution of vision, I thought of the phrase,  “It’s as different as night and day”.  The two really are so different in terms of what you are able to perceive and translate into neural information.  The phrase really sheds light on how the visual system works and how we are able to process information.

For my blog, I started looking up different optical illusions websites.  I found many different options just doing a simple search on google, but I decided on one final one to write my blog on based upon the simple fun factor and how this site actually shows you just how fooled you really were.  The illusion I chose to write about is called the Mueller-Lyer Illusion and it can be found at this website: http://www.michaelbach.de/ot/sze_muelue/index.html.  The basic structure is that it has two arrowheads facing opposite directions and then you have to place a third arrowhead as close to the middle of the line connecting them as possible.  Every time I attempted and thought I was so smart and finally getting the hang of the illusion, I would still be about the same distance to the left of center as I was before.  Apparently, the direction of the angles of the arrows creates the illusion that one side is farther away from center than the other.  Despite evidence that they are not any different, it was frustrating to see how I was still unable to locate the center due to how the retina processes the information.  In conclusion, you should all try this experiment for yourselves and see how off you are too!!!

Save the Last Dance was my favorite movie for years.  I loved if for its positive and thought-provoking message, the high energy hip hop dance scenes, and probably most importantly because Sean Patrick Thomas played the main character.    I wasn’t alone in this obsession with the movie, and all of my friends and I later went out to purchase the soundtrack so we could relive the scenes and make up our own dance routines to these songs at home.  As we were first listening to the tracks on the CD, we finally came across track 8, “Murder She Wrote” by Chaka Demus & Pliers.  As we were trying to figure out the singer’s thick accent and learn the words to the song, we came across one line that pretty much shocked us all.  Chaka retold his story along with the music, “I know a little girl, her name is Maxine. The b*tch is like a bum the floor. ”  We knew that we must have been wrong in hearing this outlandish statement, especially with how in every other line he seemed so in love with this Maxine girl.  After looking up the real lyrics to the song, we realized that the true version of that second line was “Her beauty is like a bunch of rose.”  To this day, we still sing ”our” version of the song instead of the real one just to remind us of how wrong we were in hearing this off-color mondegreen.

In addition to this, my roommate from freshman year introduced me to this hilarious website, www.kissthisguy.com, full of these mondegreens. The site is an archive for people to come in and type in their own mondegreens including a listing for the age they discovered just how wrong they were, if they think their version is better than the original, if they have been able to convince others that their version is correct, and lastly if they take ”interesting medications”.  If you are ever bored, feel free to check some of them out!

Today,  I realized that I talk way too much for my own good.  If it weren’t for the acoustic reflex, I would have been dealing with hearing my own voice at an amazingly high volume for hours upon hours each day.  This sound comes in strong, loud, and clear and would no doubt do extreme damage to my sense of hearing because of the fact that it is generated from my mouth less than a foot away.  I realized that due to the acoustic reflex, I have learned to essentially (but of course not totally)  tune out my own voice.  I get accustomed to hearing it at the times that I decide to speak, and have the experienced the noise long enough to know not to expect any variations or surprises in it.   I think that reliability in the vocal quality is often taken for granted thanks to processes like the acoustic reflex until I get sick.  I immediately hear any minute changes in the way my voice slowly becomes scratchy or deeper while others I talk to may not even notice there is anything wrong.  Overall, I am so thankful for the phenomenon of acoustic reflex because without it, I might decide to become mute just to preserve my sanity!

Only 9 “bumps”.  According to the test’s website, only 9 bumps inside the little ring on my tongue implies that I am not a supertaster.  I guess I should’ve known this when in 8th grade science class we did a test on who could taste PROP on a small sheet of paper, and I had no idea there was anything even on it besides the paper itself.  In comparison, my best friend in the class started making these ugly faces and asked for a drink of water following the experiment.  So it really should be of no suprise to me that almost 8 years later, I have reached the same conclusion from a different experiment.  After calling her up and reminiscing about those awkward junior high years for a bit, I explained to her about this class and the assignment I was doing and she agreed to do it with me.  She counted 28 papillae in the same space that I counted a mere 9–confirming the fact once again that I am a nontaster and she is a supertaster.  This could possibly be why she used to complain about the bitter taste of Diet Coke while I didn’t notice much of a difference from the original version or how when we would go to Molcasalsa, the 24-hour Mexican food restaruant, she would always complain about how spicy the salsa was on her burrito.  I almost feel bad for always giving her a hard time about these little things when really it was completely out of her control because of the simple fact that the same food can evoke a completely different reaction from two people depending on the amount of papillae or “bumps” they have on their tongue. 

I will never forget my first visit to Disneyland in Anaheim, CA.  I was probably no more than 4 years old or so, but I can still remember my thoughts of joy and excitement as we drove the 15 minutes down the 57 freeway and pulled into the huge parking lot.  Getting me to sit still on the tram ride to the theme park was almost an impossible task for my parents, and when we finally pulled up to the huge Disneyland sign, I was ready to get into the park.  Years later, I still get excited about walking down the Main Street entrance because of one simple sensation–the smell. They do an amazing job of creating the perfect atmosphere of childhood because not only are all of the windows decorated in bright colors and lights, but they also have a world of sweets and stuffed toys on display.  The temptation is only further increased by the fact that they market their treats by pumping out the smells of cotton candy, popcorn, and churros.  I don’t think I have ever made it down that 100 yard street without purchasing at least one of those items.  I am positive that the double sensation of smelling the food that I am already craving due to the visual stimulation makes it nearly impossible for me to pass up the opportunity of tasting the delectable treats.  I find it ironic how my first trip to Disneyland was not remembered for the wild themed rides or the chance to meet my favorite Disney characters, but rather for the smells that are associated with all the different types of foods I loved to treat myself to as a child.