Sci Tech

EFFECT OF CAFFEINE IN MEMORY

Caffeine. Good or bad? It's not always easy to know. Chances are you have some real misperceptions about caffeine. For starters, do you know the most common sources of caffeine? Well, maybe two of the sources aren't too hard to name -- coffee and tea leaves. But did you know kola nuts and cocoa beans are also included among the most common caffeine sources? And do you know how much caffeine content can vary from food to food? Turns out it's quite a lot actually, depending on the type and serving size of a food or beverage and how it's prepared.Caffeine content can range from as much as 160 milligrams in some energy drinks to as little as 4 milligrams in a 1-ounce serving of chocolate-flavored syrup. Even decaffeinated coffee isn't completely free of caffeine. Caffeine is also present in some over-the-counter pain relievers, coldmedications, anddiet pills. These products can contain as little as 16 milligrams or as much as 200 milligrams of caffeine. In fact, caffeine itself is a mild painkiller and increases the effectiveness of other pain relievers.Dosages of caffeine do have significant effects in the body. But does it really affect our brains performance when it comes to memory?The effects of "caffeine" onshort-term memory(STM) are very controversial. Findings are inconsistent, as many effects of caffeine sometimes impair short-term andworking memory, whereas the other studies indicate very enhancing effects.Auditory-Verbal Learning Test is a memory test that assesses recall of lists of words on single and multiple trials given through the subjects' auditory system. Caffeine subjects recalled fewer words than did control subjects, and caffeine subjects showed a greater deficit in recalling the middle- to end-portions of the lists.Caffeine has been thought to have some benefits when testing working memory by investigating thetip of the tongueeffect, the idea being that, if caffeine were present in one's system, then one would be less likely to experience tip of the tongue effect, or the feeling of knowing a familiar word but not being able to immediately recall it. A study has found that there are more correct tip of the tongue answers with a caffeine group than those of the control group. The finding is not that caffeine improves performance; it was finding the priming of the phonological-system-effecting responses. When attempting to comprise tip of the tongue effects, subjects were primed with similar-sounding words to the target word; as a result, priming the target word was reached faster regardless of caffeine intake.Short-term memory has been thought to be influenced differently throughout the day when caffeine has been ingested; in the morning, STM performance will be different from at the end of the day. As the effects of caffeine wear off, there would be some effect on STM. Three groups of caffeine intake (low, medium, and high) were compared during four daytime hours (01:00, 07:00, 13:00, 19:00). People with low caffeine intake have a decreased performance later in the day, compared to moderate and a high-level caffeine intake. Results are interesting but do not conclusively determine that caffeine impairs or improves short-term memory compared to a control group. (Terry,2013)

CORNTASTIC FACTS Corn is called maize by most countries, this comes from the Spanish word maiz. Corn is a cereal crop that is part of the grass family. An ear or cob of corn is actually part of the flower and an individual kernel is a seed. On average an ear of corn has 800 kernels in 16 rows. Corn will always have an even number of rows on each cob. A bushel is a unit of measure for volumes of dry commodities such as shelled corn kernels. 1 Bushel of corn is equal to 8 gallons. With the exception of Antarctica, corn is produced on every continent in the world. There are over 3,500 different uses for corn products. As well as being eaten by the cob, corn is also processed and used as a major component in many food items like cereals, peanut butter, potato chips, soups, marshmallows, ice cream, baby food, cooking oil, margarine, mayonnaise, salad dressing, and chewing gum. Juices and soft drinks like Coca-Cola and Pepsi contain corn sweeteners. A bushel of corn can sweeten 400 cans of soft drink. Corn and its by products are also found in many non-food items such as fireworks, rust preventatives, glue, paint, dyes, laundry detergent, soap, aspirin, antibiotics, paint, shoe polish, ink, cosmetics, the manufacturing of photographic film, and in the production of plastics. Corn is also used as feeding fodder for livestock and poultry and found in domestic pet food. As of 2012, theUnited Statesproduces 40% of the worlds total harvest making it the biggest maize producer in the world (273,832,130 tonnes produced in 2012). An area termed the "Corn Belt" in the US where growing conditions are ideal includes the states of Iowa, Illinois, Nebraska, Minnesota, Indiana, Ohio, Wisconsin, South Dakota, Michigan, Missouri, Kansas and Kentucky. In the days of the early settlers to North America corn was so valuable that it was used as money and traded for other products such as meat and furs. Corn is now a completely domesticated plant so you're unlikely to find it growing in the wild. Corn can be produced in various colors including blackish, bluish-gray, purple, green, red, white and the most common yellow. (sciencekids,feb2015)

PROJECT LOON

Billions of people could get online for the first time thanks to helium balloons that Google will soon send over many places cell towers dont reach.On the floor far below are Google employees who look tiny as they tend to a pair of balloons, 15 meters across, that resemble giant white pumpkins. Google has launched hundreds of these balloons into the sky, lofted by helium. At this moment, a couple of dozen float over the Southern Hemisphere at an altitude of around 20 kilometers, in the rarely visited stratospherenearly twice the height of commercial airplanes. Each balloon supports a boxy gondola stuffed with solar-powered electronics. They make a radio link to a telecommunications network on the ground and beam down high-speed cellular Internet coverage to smartphones and other devices. Its known as Project Loon, a name chosen for its association with both flight and insanity.Google says these balloons can deliver widespread economic and social benefits by bringing Internet access to the 60 percent of the worlds people who dont have it. Many of those 4.3 billion people live in rural places where telecommunications companies havent found it worthwhile to build cell towers or other infrastructure. After working for three years and flying balloons for more than three million kilometers, Google says Loon balloons are almost ready to step in.It is odd for a large public company to build out infrastructure aimed at helping the worlds poorest people. But in addition to Googles professed desires to help the world, the economics of ad-supported Web businesses give the company other reasons to think big. Its hard to find new customers in Internet markets such as the United States. Getting billions more people online would provide a valuable new supply of eyeballs and personal data for ad targeting. Thats one reason Project Loon will have competition: in 2014 Facebook bought a company that makes solar-powered drones so it can start its own airborne Internet project.Googles planet-scale social-engineering project is much further along. In tests with major cellular carriers, the balloons have provided high-speed connections to people in isolated parts of Brazil, Australia, and New Zealand. Mike Cassidy, Project Loons leader, says the technology is now sufficiently cheap and reliable for Google to start planning how to roll it out. By the end of 2015, he wants to have enough balloons in the air to test nearly continuous service in several parts of the Southern Hemisphere. Commercial deployment would follow: Google expects cellular providers to rent access to the balloons to expand their networks. Then the number of people in the world who still lack Internet access should start to shrink, fast. (MITtech, 2015)