Total Thought Reform
Tom Baumer on the psychology of brainwashing
Ever found yourself sitting in a lecture, and as you glance around you notice many of your peers have a strange, almost mesmerized appearance to them as they stare at the lecturer? Or how about when you are busy shopping and various religious groups hand you flyers and ‘spread’ their news?
These situations, albeit perfectly normal, may have something a little more sinister to them. Perhaps a better way to explain is to use a well documented example:
The Human Papilloma Virus
Priya Raj on raising awareness of this all too often forgotten STI
Most students have heard of the famous STI’s such as HIV, gonorrhoea, Chlamydia and syphilis: but few have heard of HPV.
Human Papilloma Virus (HPV) is an example of a sexually transmitted infection transmitted specifically by skin contact.
Strange but true: how the sun can make you sneeze
Have you ever squinted into a sudden burst of sunlight and started sneezing uncontrollably? Up to a third of the population has been found to answer this question with a ‘yes’. The process of sneezing as the result of being exposed to a bright light—known as the photic sneeze reflex—is a genetic quirk that is still unexplained by science, even though it has intrigued some of history’s greatest minds.
The Greek philosopher Aristotle mused about why people sneeze. He concluded that the heat of the sun radiating on to the nose was probably responsible.
Treating the Common Cold: What's the alternative?
Suffering with a cold may not necessarily mean the usual medication fix. Priya Raj investigates
It’s that time of year again….the coughing, sneezing and sore throat season has officially begun. With students living in some of the most inhabitable, cramped housing; they are often primary victims of the aerosol transmitted common cold.
The common cold, also known as a viral upper respiratory tract infection, is a self-limited contagious illness that can be caused by a number of different types of viruses, specifically picornaviruses (including rhinoviruses) or coronaviruses. It is thought that more than 200 different types of virus are responsible for causing the common cold.
Opposites attract:
Richard Wood discusses the impact of magnetism on everyday life
Most of us have never wondered how magnetics have an impact on our everyday life.
For the majority of students, their exposure to magnetics came in primary or secondary school science courses, where it seemed pretty cool that there was this clearly strong, yet invisible force able to stick things together and create electricity where there was none. Some of you might remember the converse, creating electromagnets by winding wire round a nail. Everyone had a compass at some point, but this is where most people’s knowledge stops. Even for physics or engineering students, it’s generally one or two modules over a three-year course. When you consider the impact that magnetics have on our daily lifestyle, this is quite staggering. How many magnetic devices do you think you have in your house right now, for example? You might be thinking that your fridge has a magnet in the door, or maybe you have some magnetic letters or words on it, about a hundred or so. Maybe you remember that the electric motor in your washing machine contains two or more permanent magnets. You probably can’t think of anything more.
Sometimes happy, sometimes sad...
Suffering with bipolar disorder is emotionally draining, and has an increasing prevelance amongst students, explains Priya Raj
Bipolar disorder (BD) is a type of mood disorder. It has been referred to as manic depression in the past, and this term is still used. It is a psychiatric illness that causes major disruptions in lifestyle and health.
Most people start showing signs of bipolar disorder in their late teens with the average age of onset being 21 years. On occasion, some people have their first symptoms during childhood, but the condition can often be misdiagnosed at this age and improperly labelled as a behavioural problem.
Winds of Change
In a bid to increase the use of renewable energy sources, the government is waking up to the value of windfarms. Richard Wood investigates the implications for the future of Britain's power
In a sign of the changing times, Gordon Brown addressed the annual British Wind Energy Association (BWEA) conference via video message last week. He was supported by both Boris Johnson and the Minister Of State For Energy, Mike O’Brien MP, who both attended the event. In a united front, their addresses focused on the importance of wind energy to the future of the British energy market. The positive effects of planned increases in onshore and offshore wind power generation was emphasised, and a twelve-year action plan laid out.
In June of this year, the Government launched a new renewable energy consultation in an effort to meet their target of generating 15% of the country’s electricity from renewable sources by 2020. It was further pledged that one third of all electricity in the UK should be generated by wind power by that date.
Strange but true
Why Calories Taste Delicious: Eating and the Brain
The obesity epidemic has led to increased scientific interest in how the brain controls human feeding behaviour. Why do we get hungry? What biological mechanisms tell us what to eat and when to stop eating?
It’s long been assumed that two neurobiological mechanisms largely govern food intake: one that controls the need to eat and one that controls the desire to eat.
Studying Schizophrenia
In the UK, the prevalence of schizophrenia is increasing and there is, as yet, no cure. Priya Raj investigates
Schizophrenia is a debilitating mental illness that affects one percent of the population in all cultures. It is found in equal numbers of men and women, but often has a much later onset in women. The condition is described as having both negative and positive symptoms, with ‘positive’ effects including hallucinations, voices that converse with or without the patient, and delusions are commonly paranoid. Negative symptoms include loss of sense of pleasure, loss of will or drive, and social withdrawal.
There are five types of schizophrenia: paranoid, disorganized, catatonic, undifferentiated, and residual. Paranoid schizophrenia is characterized by a preoccupation with one or more delusions, or frequent auditory hallucinations. Cognitive function remains relatively well preserved. Disorganized schizophrenia causes haphazard speech and behaviour, whereas the Catatonic strain is characterised by immobility, excessive purposeless motor activity or peculiarities of voluntary movement (e.g., posturing, prominent mannerisms, grimacing). A patient is said to have undifferentiated schizophrenia if none of the criteria for paranoid, disorganized, or catatonic types are met. Residual schizophrenia is characterized by the continued presence of negative symptoms and at least two attenuated positive symptoms. A patient is diagnosed with residual type if he or she has no significant positive psychotic features.
Love Wales, keep it tidy
As the June 23 approaches you will be unable to avoid the slogan of ‘Keep Wales Tidy’. Even in the first week of the new month ‘please show your love for Wales’ has infiltrated the multi media outlets of Cardiff. With television adverts, Internet sites and posted pamphlets, it is evident that a nationwide campaign has been launched by the organisation.
And its aim? Well, it is all in the title. For a week in June, beginning the 23rd and ending the 29th, Keep Wales Tidy are to put the dominant concerns of the population (Wales’ aesthetic appearance needs a spring clean) to the test. They are doing this through inviting the whole Welsh nation to help ‘tidy’ (see what I did there!) the littered and vandalised black spots in towns, villages and the countryside.
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