So as you might already know, I'm a pretty big fan of science. Anything to do with biology, chemistry, or physics is something I find completely amazing. Everyday I find stuff that just seems impossible and truly awe inspiring, which is where this column comes in! Every Saturday I'm going to be posting an article about the coolest, craziest, and truly incredible discoveries in science this week, so that everyone can get a taste of what makes science so great! This could be ranging from health related discoveries, so us finding out that Saturn's moon TITAN can possibly hold life (true story). So stay tuned and get ready to have your mind blown away!
LEXUS CREATES A HOVERBOARD
The future is upon on, everyone! Lexus has officially created their first functional hovercraft skateboard, but it won’t work on all surfaces. The skateboard is designed to be used on certain metal surfaces which cause the board to repel, causing the hovering. There is also a superconductor inside of the board which allows the board to carry more weight and to hover freely without needing extra magnets. Because magnets and superconductors get super hot when they are being used, the board is cooled off via liquid nitrogen, which is surprisingly cheap. It is effectively the “gas” of the hoverboard, because without it the board would overheat and wouldn’t be able to run. While this is really awesome in concept, Lexus is unfortunately not going to produce anymore that one of these. It was just a viral marketing stunt for a new car which slightly disappoints me. Actually, it really disappoints me…
INSULIN PATCH FOR DIABETICS
Researchers in North Carolina are testing a patch that can give people with diabetes insulin without having to prick themselves every time. The patch, which is about the size of a penny, can deliver insulin painlessly and quickly to anyone who has low blood sugar. It uses a bunch of super small needles that contain insulin to detect the blood sugar of said person and inject with just enough insulin to regulate their blood sugar. While this isnt a cure for diabetes, this is pretty awesome! Having to only worry about changing patches every week or even every day would help alleviate some stress that comes with having diabetes. Monitoring insulin levels by insulin shots is very imprecise and has a lot of room for human error. But because this patch uses an enzyme found naturally in the body to detect insulin levels, the patch will work like a non-diabetic pancreas does (which supplies insulin normally). This would allow diabetics to worry less about their blood sugar and more about just living their lives.
HIGH FAT AND HIGH SUGAR DIET MAY CAUSE LOWER BRAIN ACTIVITY
Researchers at a lab in Oregon State University have been testing high sugar and high fat diets on mice to see if there are any changes in their cognitive ability. And come to find out, there were changes, and definitely not for the better. They tested mice on regular diets and high sugar and fat diets for their physical and mental function and have found the high sugar and high fats diets lower both significantly. The high sugar and fat react with the bacteria in our stomach, some of which send neurotrasmitters to out brain, which help it to function correctly. There is a loss of signal when ingesting higher sugar and fat diets, causing out ability to process information to be compromised. While these tests have only been done on mice and rats so far, their brain’s function very similarly to the way human brains do. People have always known eating healthy keeps the body in good shape, but now there is more evidence that is also affects our mental capacity as well.
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