Being Multicellular

beingmulticellular.wordpress.com Explorations in science and medicine. AS student: Biology, Maths, Chemistry, History.

[biomedicool]

My heart skip skips a beat

HEARTBEATS!!

The pause is to allow the atria to fully empty into the ventricle.

Heartbeat on an ECG trace

P Interval (Ventricular Diastole)

Atria and ventricles are relaxed

blood is flowing into the atria from the veins. 

Atrial pressure increases above that of the ventricle, AV valves open allowing blood to flow into the ventricle

P Wave (Atrial Systole) P-Q

Signal transduction from SA to AV nodes. 

SA node fires 

Atria contract causing atrial systole 

which forces all blood into the ventricles

emptying the atria.

Q Interval (End of Ventricular Diastole)

Depolarisation of interventricular (IV) septum 

AV valves remain open - all remaining blood squeezed into the ventricles. 

impulse from the SA node reaches the AV node 

which spreads the signal throughout the walls of the ventricles via bundles of His and Purkinje fibres

R peak is the end of ventricular diastole and the start of systole.

R Interval (Ventricular Systole)

Ventricular contraction

All blood is now within the ventricles

so pressure is higher than in the atria - AV valves close

ventricles start to contract although pressure is not yet high enough to open the SL (semilunar) valves

ST Segment (Ventricular Systole)

Ventricular contraction

Pressure increases until it equals Aortic pressure,

SL valves open

blood is ejected into the Aorta (and pulmonary artery) as ventricles contract

At this time the atria are in diastole and filling with blood returning from the veins.

plateau in ventricular arterial pressure

T Wave (Ventricular Diastole)

T= moment of Ventricular repolarisation immediately before ventricular relaxation

Ventricles relax

ventricular pressure is once again less than the aortic pressure 

so SL valves close

[beingmulticellular-blog]

Remember to add to your notes on this.

[startswithabang]

The First Climate Model Turns 50, And Predicted Global Warming Almost Perfectly

“The big advance of Manabe and Wetherald’s work was to model not just the feedbacks but the interrelationships between the different components that contribute to the Earth’s temperature. As the atmospheric contents change, so do both the absolute and relative humidity, which impacts cloud cover, water vapor content and cycling/convection of the atmosphere. What they found is that if you start with a stable initial state – roughly what Earth experienced for thousands of years prior to the start of the industrial revolution – you can tinker with one component (like CO2) and model how everything else evolves.”

In 1967, a groundbreaking paper in climate science was published, detailing the inputs and feedbacks for the first accurate climate model. You don’t have to look far to find contentions that climate models are wrong, inaccurate and unreliable: 8 of the first 10 results on google state it. Yet if you look at the science, the original model, even at age 50, does a remarkable job of getting things right. The biggest success? Understanding how large-scale processes work, including the thermodynamic effects of adding additional greenhouse gases to Earth’s atmosphere. The increase of temperature – approximately 2 degrees C for a doubling of CO2 – was well known then, and continues to be well known today. There are uncertainties and difficulties in modern models, but that doesn’t mean there’s uncertainty surrounding global warming. Quite to the contrary, the evidence has never been better.

The time for debate has long since passed, and claiming we live in a post-fact era doesn’t change the scientific truth or the urgency and necessity of global action. Come get the science today.

[beingmulticellular-blog]

What is Raynaud’s?- Raynaud’s Awareness Month.

Raynaud’s is a disease that causes parts of the body but usually the fingers and toes to feel numb and cold due to cold temperatures and stress. Other  affected areas may include the ears, nose, lips and nipple [2] It is quite a common condition with 20% of the adult population having it worldwide and 10 million being estimated to have it in the UK [2].

In most, cold temperatures cause the fingers and toes to lose heat because the blood vessels underneath the skin spasm, slowing down blood supply [2].  In those with Raynaud’s it’s like the arteries overreact to this temperature change and the small blood vessels become narrower than what is normal which further constricts blood flow. Strong emotions like stress can also cause this response. Read more.

[beingmulticellular-blog]

It’s OCD Week of Action and I wanted to say...

Everyday, we hear phrases like, “I’m so OCD!” or “Mind my OCD!” and we laugh about it because it’s funny to make fun ourselves and what is wrong with us (for some reason) but, the thing is, how many of us really know what it is like to have OCD?

Obsessive Complusive Disorder is a disorder that affects all ages. I’d like to focus on how an obsessions is an ‘unwanted and unpleasant thought, image or urge that repeatedly enters your mind, causing feelings of anxiety, disgust or unease’- NHS. Therefore, if you like making sure that everything is ordered and nice to look at, you don’t have an obsession because that’s something you enjoy and an enjoyment you control; it doesn’t control you. Equally, a compulsion is defined ‘as repetitive behaviour or mental act that you feel you need to carry out to try to temporarily relieve the unpleasant feelings brought on by the obsessive thought.’

The fact that people with OCD are reluctant to seek help due to being embarrassed or ashamed rubs more salt in the wound- by using word like ‘OCD’ in everyday conversation are we ridiculing or discouraging those that actually have it? It's overused. If we laugh about whatever habits we have, does it discourage those that actually have a genuine problem from talking about it?

Mental health isn't something that should be a flippant remark- we need to be more mindful of what we're saying.

I think that this Week of Action is the perfect opportunity for us to look at ourselves and realise that we have no idea and that most of us will never know what it is like to have to do something to a point where we put our entire live on hold. In this Week of Action, I call to action all of us to be more sensitive; mental health is not something to joke about especially when we don’t understand what we’re joking about, the reality of the lives of individuals that actually have this disorder. That’s my goal in the Week of Action and beyond.

Tell me what you think .

[beingmulticellular-blog]

Female Nobel Prize Winners in Chemistry and Medicine/Physiology

There have been four female laureates on the Chemistry award out of 175 individuals. The average age of all of these winners is about seventy, they would have been born in a generation when women were more discouraged to do science and this gives hope for the next seventy years. Read Full Article.

Ada E.Yonath- 2009

She became the first Israeli woman to win the prize but she herself said, despite being the first lady-winner in chemistry in 45 years, that there was nothing special about a woman winning the prize. Her work was in the study of the structure and function of the ribosome which allowed for structure- based drug design to be pioneered by showing that the ribosome is a ribozyme (an RNA molecule which can act like an enzyme, as a catalyst) and that they are  suitable for peptide bond formation as they  join amino acids together. Her understanding on this allowed her to identify which and why antibiotics would target ribosomes, providing insight into antibiotic resistance and how ribosomes can become resistant to pathogenetic bacteria. She used ribosomal crystallography revealed how the peptide bond is formed and the involvement of ribsosomes in cell regulation.

“The ribosome is a complex of proteins and RNA chains; its structure is extraordinarily intricate; it is unusually flexible, unstable and lacks internal symmetry, all making crystallization an extremely formidable task.”

Dorothy Hodgkin- 1964

Hodgkin was born in Cairo, Egypt to two British archaeologists. She was also the third woman to graduate with a first class honours degree in Chemistry at Oxford University in 1932. She also worked in the field of protein crystallography, as well as X-ray crystallography which allowed her to find the three dimensional structure of molecules like penicillin and vitamin B12 (this was especially difficult as the only element that she knew was present was cobalt but was still able to deduce a ring structure called pleochroic, allowing it to absorb different wavelengths of light) . This method is important because understanding the structures of biological molecules is the first step to understanding its function and how this function is carried out.

“I once wrote a lecture for Manchester University called ‘Moments of Discovery’ in which I said that there are two moments that are important. There's the moment when you know you can find out the answer and that's the period you are sleepless before you know what it is. When you've got it and know what it is, then you can rest easy.”

Irène Joliot Curie- 1935

Curie was born in France, the daughter of Marie and Pierre Curie and she won the Noble Prize alongside her husband, Frédéric Joliot-Curie for their work in artificial radioactivity. The couple worked on the nuclei, discovering the ‘positron’ and the electron and their research replaced the ‘plum-pudding model’ of John Dalton. They were able to turn one element into another by irradiating the element with an alpha particle; doing this with aluminium made unstable phosphorus. This synthesis of new radioactive elements was important because radioactive metals were becoming important in medicine and their research made it easy to produce these metals in bulk quickly and cheaply. Their research also led to other scientists discovering nuclear fission.

“We have shown that it is possible to create a radioactivity characterized by the emission of positive or negative electrons in boron and magnesium by bombardment with alpha rays.”

Maria Skłodowska-Curie- 1911

Curie was the first person and woman to win the Nobel Prize twice and the first woman to win a Noble Prize. She coined the term radioactivity as well as pioneering how to isolate radioactive isotopes. She successfully produced radium as a pure metal and documented the properties of radioactive elements and their compounds. This was important because radiation became important in treating tumours.

“Nothing in life is to be feared, it is only to be understood. Now is the time to understand more, so that we may fear less.”

There are twelve female Noble Prize Winners for Physiology or Medicine out of 211 individuals.

Read more...

[beingmulticellular-blog]

“When I felt rather overcome with my father’s opposition, I said as firmly as I could, that I must have this or something else, that I could not live without some real work.”- Elizabeth Garrett Anderson

Elizabeth Garrett Anderson was the first female doctor to qualify in England, slipping through a loophole which allowed her to take the Apothecaries exam, teaching herself French in order to qualify in Paris- she was still barred from the British Medical Register. Despite this, she still founded the hospital now called Elizabeth Garrett Anderson Hospital.

I’m inspired by her because she gained plenty of opposition, just like many do today, even if the opposition is more ‘subtle’; if she could do it in the 19th century, there’s nothing that I can’t do today. No matter what anyone says or thinks about my place in society, “I could not live without some real work.”

[biomedicool]

Anatomy & Physiology Overview - The Ear

Outer ear 

Pinna (auricle) - visible part of the ear outside of the head.  

External auditory canal 

Ceruminous glands - specialized sudoriferous glands (sweat glands) located subcutaneously in the external auditory canal. They produce cerumen (earwax) by mixing their secretion with sebum and dead epidermal cells.

 Middle ear: air filled 

Tympanic membrane -  vibrates in response to sound waves 

Malleus, incus and stapes - 3 small bones that transmit vibrations to each other

Inner ear: fluid filled 

Mechanoreceptor for hearing and balance 

Vesibular apparatus - balance

Semicircular canals 

Cochlea

 • Organ of Cor -  sensory epithelial cell

Cochlea

Perilymph = similar in compositon to plasma – Na+ 

Endolymph = high in K+ 

Organ of Cor: contains hair cells – move due to pressure waves 

50-100 stereocilia on each cell 

Longest embedded in tectorial membrane 

In the cochlea that the vibrations transmitted from the eardrum through the tiny bones are converted into electrical impulses sent along the auditory nerve to the brain. 

The cochlea is a tapered tube which circles around itself 

The basilar membrane divides the tube lengthwise into two fluid-filled canals joined at the tapered end. 

ossicles transmit vibration to the cochlea where they attach at the oval window

resultant waves travel down the basilar membrane where they are “sensed” by  16-20,000 hair cells (cilia) attached to it which poke up from a third canal called the organ of Corti. 

Organ of Corti transforms the stimulated hair cells into nerve impulses 

Waveforms travelling down the basilar membrane peak in amplitude at differing spots along the way according to their frequency 

Higher frequencies peak out at a shorter distance down the tube than lower frequencies

The hair cells at that peak point give a sense of that particular frequency

The distance between pitches follows the same logarithmic distance as our perception of pitch i.e. the placement of octaves are equidistant.

[beingmulticellular-blog]

Always so informative. Thanks @biomedicool

[beingmulticellular-blog]

Definition: a sleep disorder characterized by walking or other activity while seemingly still asleep- Psychology Today.

Synonyms: somnambulism, parasomnia.

Sleep walking usually occurs when a person is in deep sleep and most sleep walking episodes last for less than ten minutes. 30% of all adults are thought to have sleep walked at least once in their lives. Sleep walking itself is only one of the complex behaviours carried out while a person is asleep like sitting up in bed and looking around, some even drive! Why does this happen?

Sleep walking happens near the end of the NREM phases (non-rapid eye movement phases) –which is strange since it’s in the REM phase that the brain’s neuronal activity is most similar to when we’re awake- when the body is only semi- unconscious as suggested by scientists that believe that sleep walking is caused by the brain trying to transition from a deep sleep to being awake.

The most common thought at the moment is associated with the functioning of Gamma- Aminobutyric Acid (GABA) which is an amino acid that acts as a neurotransmitter. It inhibits the activity of the brain’s motor system GABA is an amino acid that acts as a neurotransmitter in the central nervous system therefore allowing us to have a normal sleep due to muscle movement being regulated.

Due to children having neurons that are still developing, the neurons that release GABA haven’t familiarised themselves with a network of connections to control motor activity. This is why children (1 in 10 six to twelve year olds) sleepwalk more than adults (1 in 50) and the adults that do sleepwalk had a poor maturation of the brain leading to regular muscle tension allowing automatic actions like walking to be carried out. However, if GABA isn’t matured in children, then why don’t more children sleep walk? 10% doesn’t seem to account fully for this theory.

Sleepwalking is also something that is passed down from parent to child with there being a 45% chance of a child being a sleepwalker if a parent is and 60% if both parents are. There is currently no explanation of this though genetics is assumed.

Those that are depressed are three times more likely to sleepwalk. Other triggers include sleep deprivation, stress and anxiety, infection, drinking, recreational drugs and certain medication types but fundamentally there is no psychological or psychiatric cause for sleep walking. It can be argued that many of these triggers are linked to depression in a general sense.

What do you know anyone who sleep walks, what do you think of the theories covered? Let me know in the comments!

Read More at beingmulticellular.wordpress.com

[beingmulticellular-blog]

The Health Risks of Female Genital Mutilation...

Female genital mutilation is a procedure where the female genitals are ‘cut, injured or changed’ [1]. There are four types of the procedure: clitoridectomy where part/ all of the clitoris is removed, excision where part/all of the clitoris and the inner labia are removed, infibulations where the vaginal opening is narrowed. The fourth type is when the area is burnt or pierced. I am aware of the fact that there is no medical need for the act, religious stipulation and that it is illegal in the UK. This post will be focused on the health problems FGM cases present with.

Harm caused by FGM includes:

Constant pain caused by the cutting of the nerve endings and the sensitive genital tissue. The more severe the method, the greater the pain. The genital tissue can also swell due to an inflammatory response because of the tissue being damaged or due to an infection... Read More.

[beingmulticellular-blog]

Just a Thought about Equality

For there to be true equality between men and women in the workplace, there must be equality at home, meaning the role of raising the kids should be shared by both parents as much as possible. Meaning that the ROLE of a man and a woman would be to provide and to care for the family, reducing the feeling that men who can’t work or who lose their jobs are failures or that women that work longer hours instead of being at home are heartless. 

The way things are to today cause our own destruction, shown by how 76% of suicides are male and there are the least organisations to help these individuals because men need to be ‘strong’- we don’t even know what true strength is. True strength is being true to yourself and we squash that every time we trap each other into a corner. We are not ‘home-bearer’ and ‘breadwinner’, we can be bother and work TOGETHER.

Just a thought.

[beingmulticellular-blog]

Women's Role in Medicine Over Time.

As an aspiring surgeon, I am interested in how women’s role in medicine has changed over the decades, especially in hearing the chatter about the participation of girls in science and other areas of work like surgery.

In medieval texts, the supervisors of pregnancy were all women; the mothers and female family members of the mother and midwives. Female healers were trained by their male family members [1]- there seemed to have been plenty of opportunity in terms of how long ago this was.

In fact, it was education as an establishment that began to separate women from…Read more

[beingmulticellular-blog]

“When I felt rather overcome with my father’s opposition, I said as firmly as I could, that I must have this or something else, that I could not live without some real work.”- Elizabeth Garrett Anderson

Elizabeth Garrett Anderson was the first female doctor to qualify in England, slipping through a loophole which allowed her to take the Apothecaries exam, teaching herself French in order to qualify in Paris- she was still barred from the British Medical Register. Despite this, she still founded the hospital now called Elizabeth Garrett Anderson Hospital.

I’m inspired by her because she gained plenty of opposition, just like many do today, even if the opposition is more ‘subtle’; if she could do it in the 19th century, there’s nothing that I can’t do today. No matter what anyone says or thinks about my place in society, “I could not live without some real work.”

[beingmulticellular-blog]

The Media and Medicine

Whilst reading The Greatest Benefit to Mankind by Roy Porter, he spoke of the role of the media being "to raise alarm more than our spirits" in terms of the stories published about the NHS and medicine in general. This got me thinking about the last time I heard something positive about the NHS...I couldn't think of one. So, today, I decided to assess whether the role of the media in drawing attention to healthcare is constructive or just destructive and to "raise alarm".

We've all seen the articles and the news stories on the NHS crisis and this negative and chaotic impression of the health system is even more stressed during this winter season; from clicking onto the Guardian website, one of the top stories on the NHS page was that 52 NHS hospitals had sent patients elsewhere in their busiest week yet- is it beneficial for us to be talking so negatively about a system which is doing the best it can under funding cuts and resource shotages? What I mean is , we're all aware that there's a problem; the extent to which some media outlets speak about our health system seems less to inform us and more to make the threat of impending privatisation a reality, to reduce our morale as a country who have relied on the NHS for 60 years.

Generally, it seems that these days, the media is not just "raising alarm" but crushing "our spirits"- maybe this is the cost of the machine being able to publish whatever they want and to withhold stories that won't paint the picture of the country or the world that is beneficial to them. Don't get me wrong, the media can be great but there's always a cost.

Am I overreacting or should there be a balance of the difficulties and the hope, the perseverance of a staff fighting against the odds to care for the health of a country of 64 million people with a budget that can't cater for them all?  I'd love to read your thoughts!

[tobeagenius]

I made this to put on my wall for revision, but I thought it might be helpful for some of you guys too so I thought I would share it!

[beingmulticellular-blog]

Thank you!

[chemistryaqa-blog]

Chem 1 Definitions

Alkane

Hydrocarbon with the general formula CnH2n+2

Alkene

Hydrocarbon with the general formula CnH2n and containing at least one carbon-carbon double bond

Atom Economy

A measure of the proportion of the reactant atoms that become part of the desired product in a balanced chemical reaction

Catalyst

A substance that increases the rate of a reaction by providing an alternative reaction pathway with a lower activation energy. The catalyst is chemically unchanged at the end of the reaction

Structural isomerism

Molecules with the same molecular formula, but with different structural formula

Chain isomerism

The same molecular formula, but a different arrangement of carbon atoms in the chain

Positional Isomerism

The same molecular formula, but the functional group in a different position

Functional Group Isomerism

The same molecular formula, but the atoms are arranged differently to form different functional groups

Complete Combustion

Burning a Hydrocarbon completely in Oxygen to produce CO2 and H2O only

Dative Covalent Bonding

A Covalent bond formed when one atom provides both of the shared electrons 

Also called Co-Ordinate bonding

Cracking

Breaking Long-chain Alkanes into smaller Hydrocarbons

Crude Oil

A mixture consisting mainly of Alkane Hydrocarbons that can be separated into different fractions

Cycloalkane

A type if alkane which has one or more carbon rings 

Delocalised electron

An electron that is not attached to a specific atom

Electronegetivity

The ability to attract the bonding electrons in a covalent bond

Empirical formula 

The simplest whole number ratio of atoms of each element in a compound

First Ionisation energy

The energy needed to remove 1 mole of electrons from 1 mole of gaseous atoms to create one mole of gaseous ions

Fractional distillation

a method of separating crude oil fractions by boiling point

General Formula

An algebraic formula that can describe any member of a family of compounds

Giant Covalent structure

A structure consisting of a huge network of covalently bonded atoms. they’re sometimes called macro-molecular structures 

Giant Ionic Lattice Structure

A regular repeated structure made up of ions

Giant metallic Lattice Structure

A regular structure consisting of closely packed positive metal ions in a sea of delocalised electrons

Group

A column in the periodic table

Halide

A negative ion of a halogen

Haloalkane

a alkane with at least one halogen atom in place of a hydrogen atom

Homologous Series

a bunch of organic compounds that have the same general formula and similar chemical properties

Hydrocarbon

A molecule of just hydrogen and carbon

Hydrogen bonding

The strongest inter-molecular force. it occurs when polarized covalent bonds cause hydrogen atoms ti form e=weak bonds with lone pairs of electrons on the Nitrogen, Oxygen, Fluorine atoms of other molecules 

Incomplete combustion

Burning a Hydrocarbon in a poor supply of oxygen to produce carbon monoxide, water and sometimes carbon

Inter-molecular forces

 The Forces between molecules e.g Van Der Waals, Permanent Dipole Dipole, Hydrogen Bonding

Ion

A chraged particle formed when one or more electrons are lost or gained from a atom or molecule

Ionic Bonding

Electrostatic force of attraction between oppositely charged ions

Ionisation

The removal of one or more electrons from an atom or molecule, resulting in a ion forming

Isotope

An Atom with the same number of protons as another atom but a different number of neutrons

Isotopic abundance

The amount of each isotope present in a sample

Lone pair

A pair of electrons in an atom that is not shared

Macromolecular structure

A structure consisting of a huge network of covalently bonded atoms. Theyre also called giant covalent structures

Mass number

The total number of protons and neutrons in the nucleus of an atom

Mass Spectrum

A chart produced by a mass spectrometer giving information on relative isotopic mass and relative abundance of isotopes

Molar Ratio

The ratio of the moles of each reactant and product in a balanced chemical equation

Mole 

The unit of substance

One mole is roughly 6*10^23 particles

Molecular formula

A way of representing molecules that shows the actual number of atoms of each element in a molecule

Percentage Yield

A comparison between the amount of product that should for during a reaction and the amount that actually forms

Permanent dipole-dipole forces

Inter-molecular forces that exist because the difference in electronegativities in a polar bond causes weak electrostatic forces of attraction between molecules

Polar Bond

A covalent bond where a difference in electronegativity has caused a shift in electron density in the bond

Relative Atomic Mass

The mass of the atom divided by one twelfth of the mass of one carbon 12 atom

State Symbols

Symbols placed after the chemicals in an equation to tell you what state of matter each one is in

Structural formula

A way of representing molecules that shows the atoms carbon by carbon with the attached hydrogen and functional groups

Sub-Shell

A Sub-division of an energy level (shell). Sub-shells may be s,p,d or f subshells

Theoretical yield

The mass of product that should be formed in a chemical reaction

Van Der Waals Forces

The weakest intermolecular force caused by temporary dipoles, which causes all atoms and molecules to be attracted to each other

Yield

The amount of substance you get from a reaction

[beingmulticellular-blog]

I feel enlightened.

[themathsstudent]

Complete the sentence in a reblog: You know you're too studyblr when...

@lisastudyin @studywithhope @studyforlife24 @nutmegstudies @beingmulticellular @academiics @studypetals @studygeeklife

[beingmulticellular-blog]

...your first instinct is to take a picture and post your notes instead of revising from them. 😊

[themathsstudent]

208 followers : get to know me TAG

Thank you!!! We’ve reached my goal of 200 followers before the first anniversary!!! What a Christmas present!!!

My blog has always been anonymous but to celebrate I’d love to get to know you guys better and let you know a little more about myself. I also tag everyone by specifically the following supporters to do the same: @beingmulticellular, @ar-tsy, @academiics, @the-fangirl-who-studies, @nutmegstudies, @studyblrolo, @artofstudyblr, @uniofnottingham ;)

Comment below with:

1) subjects you’re studying 2) what you want to do 3) if you have a studyblr

And submit your questions about me

Merry Christmas

[beingmulticellular-blog]

1)Hi, I'm studying biology, maths, history and chemistry and will continue all of them through to A Level. 2)I want to do medicine with aspiration to become a neurosurgeon. 3)I have a wordpress blog about science and medicine but I still consider myself part of the tumblr studyblr community. 😊

My question would be: How did you find what made you stand out, in terms of applications and in life in general?