Biocomplexity Still A Mystery

After every seat in the NCSA auditorium filled up on November 3rd, 2011, students and TAs began lining the walls, seated and standing, to hear Professor Ray Goldstein speak on the evolution of biocomplexity. Goldstein, a professor of Complex Physical Systems at Cambridge University, looked young, determined, and focused as he took the remote clicker from Professor Saintillan of UIUC, the host of the event.

His presentation started off with the big question, the question that had brought all these students and professors to this small auditorium on the edge of campus: Why did single-cell organisms evolve into multicellular organisms? And how did these cells become differentiated?

The idea is that as the total number of cells in an organism rises, so do the number of cell types. So as organisms grow larger, they grow more complex. But why?

As it turns out, they didn't have an answer yet. What Goldstein did present, however, with a significant amount of poise, expertise, and enthusiasm, was his experiments with a eukaryotic species called Volvox Carteri, which evolved from the single-cell Chlamydomas Reinhardtii to become an organized sphere of Chlamydomas Reinhardtii that can move through fluid much faster with so many more flagella paddling. "Think of a slave galley," Goldstein said. "Think of all those rowers. Now Volvox can move that much faster."

They can also turn the organism, moving their flagella in synchrony or asynchrony. However...Volvox has no central nervous system. "Volvox Carteri is like a rowing crew with no cocksun," Goldstein said. The answer turned out to be light; each cell has a photoreceptor. But it still doesn't explain how they stay together, or why.

"The project is in motion," Goldstein said, showing the names of the researchers in his group. "We're getting somewhere. It just might take a while to get there."

Improved Performance after Dreaming

Click to play podcast.


(Cue yawn.)
Want to ace that final? Forget pulling the all-nighter and try taking a nap instead.

According to a research project led by an assistant professor in psychiatry at the University of California in San Diego, a nap with dreams may improve academic performance. REM, or rapid eye movement, is a period of sleep when dreams can occur.

Professor Sara C. Mednick’s 2009 study tested 77 volunteers with IQ tests. Participants spent a day without sleep, with REM sleep, and without REM sleep. The tests revealed that there was a 40% improvement in performance with REM sleep overall.

But what actually happens during REM sleep? What makes it a magical performance booster?

As Mednick puts it, dreams create alternate worlds in which we put polar ideas together—something we would not do if we were awake. In REM sleep, it is more likely that we put odd ideas together and create a solution.

And what if you are not a dreamer or don’t have REM sleep?

Further investigation revealed that sleep without REM still resulted in better performance than no sleep at all. In other words, a nap-REM or none might help you ace the final. It is a win-win situation.

This is Lyanne Alfaro and Becky Savitt for Science in the Media-good luck and good night!


Produced by Lyanne, Becky, Olivia, and Madison.

 Works Cited

Bakalar, Nicholas. “Behavior: Better Performance After a Dreaming Nap.” The New York Times. 22 June 2009. Web. 3 Nov 2011.

“Stages of Sleep: REM and Non-REM Sleep.” WebMD. 2011. Web. 3 Nov 2011.

Trip to WCIA

Most of the field trips for my discovery class have incorporated science and media together. Our last field trip leaned more toward the media aspect of the class. I did not think a lot about where I was heading as I followed the given directions. I am not as interested in science as I am in the media; as a journalism major in the College of Media, I am very interested in the media. I was amazed that we were allowed to see what goes on at an actual news station.

Due to our large class, our tour guide split the class into two groups. I was part of the group who was in the director’s room to start off. Each person in that room seemed to have a very important job. There were many people in the room, but the most important man was the director. The director told us that he always directs when they film live because he has the most experience. He made every decision as to what would be shown on television in viewers’ living rooms; he chose which camera would be on television, and he gave orders to the people being filmed. I tried to hold in my excitement as he gave all of the orders, because we were told to be very quiet.

My group then switched to the studio. They filmed a segment called “CI Living." First we saw Andy Dallas from Dallas and Co. show some of his new Halloween products. We saw a smoke bubble machine and an assortment of masks. As we watched, I could not help noticing that the interviewer was very good at making lines up as the show went on. Another segment we saw was about interior design. Again, the interviewer was able to keep conversation going whether it was because she had a prompter or she just knew what to say. At ciLiving.tv, you can watch some of their episodes, including the one with Andy Dallas which I was present for.

A Trip to WCIA 3's TV Show: ciLiving.tv

On October 25, 2011, a college journalism 199 class joined WCIA 3 behind the scenes of the shooting of ciLiving's latest topic: Spooky Make-Up Tricks with Dallas & Co.

The students were astonished to learn that it took three camera men to shoot different angles of the same scene and that there was a control room filled with five people accompanied by countless computer screens.They also learned that commercial breaks are not intended to allow them to run to the kitchen for a break snack, but serve as rehearsal time for the talk show host.

Wait a second. Did she just pull out a small piece of paper and quickly memorize her TV script during a commercial break? Oh,yes, she did. The camera man yelled out "1 minute" and the talk show host gazed into the camera, showed her luminous, white teeth, and began to quietly rehearse her lines from a piece of paper. 45 seconds remained and the camera man tells her to move forward. "I can't anymore. I will fall out," she said. 15 seconds remained and she looked to the screen on her right. She smiled and her time was up.

In the control room, the director had a head piece on and yelled out "Cam 1. Cam 2. Back to Cam 1" indicating which camera should displayed at different intervals.

While being on AIR, not only did the camera man on the right suck on a lollipop, but he also snapped his fingers furiously in order to get the attention of another camera man.The talk show host maintained her position and ignored anything that went on behind the scenes.

This seems to be a typical work day for Heather Roberts, a WCIA 3 talk show host for ciLiving.tv.

By Sara Rosario

Reaction from the Channel 3 Newsroom

Going to visit the Channel 3 news station for WCIA in Champaign was an extremely unique experience--one that I won't soon forget. Being able to go behind the scenes in all phases of the TV broadcast was intriguing to watch and see how each person worked together to put on the show. In the "control room," (the name brings up images of NASA guiding a spaceship) a five person crew handled the entire production.

I was suprised to see such a small crew; even with a small TV production like "CI Living," I figured there had to be a small army of workers pressing buttons and pulling levers to make the show work. However, the process was much less chaotic than I anticipated. The director calmly commanded orders to the producer to flip the camera view back and forth at lightning speed ("1, back to the hands, back to 1, zoom out!"). Off to his right, another man was putting together digital images that would appear on the screen to transition back and forth from commercials. Behind the three of them, one man worked the sound board, while a woman had a direct microphone into the host's ear to relay quick messages such as "1 minute left" or "Hold that up toward the camera!"

When we switched over to being on the live floor of the show, the people in charge all seemed very composed under the stressful conditions of live entertainment. I kept thinking of how strange it must be for the host to basically be talking to herself, but must look completely normal to the audience of people in front of their TV's. Also, with our experience from the control room, I now knew the juggling act the host must preform, with one ear listening to the director's commentary for where to look, while still keeping the show rolling.

By: Steve Bourbon

What Goes on Behind the Camera at WCIA

I don’t have a TV in my room, so unless I’m watching in a friend’s room or going home I rarely see any kind of programming produced in the Champaign area. I’d be lying if I said I’d heard anything about the WCIA station before I actually opened the email that said we would be visiting the station. Thanks to Anchorman and 30 Rock I had a really vague idea about what goes on behind the scenes at a TV station, but I’d never been to a station myself to see any of it happen. When we first walked into the building it felt more like a waiting room at a doctor’s office, not what I’d thought a TV station would look like. But as soon as news director Andy Miller took us back into the actual studio, it definitely fit what I was expecting. The mood in the control room was downright intense; all of the different directors yelling back and forth with the camera men back in the studio, a dozen different monitors showing a dozen different images being controlled by a dozen different controls, and the constant pressure of meeting the time limitation for each segment. Being able to go in the studio and see each segment being broadcast live was really interesting, I had always thought that lifestyle shows like that were pre-recorded and shown later. The host’s ability to improvise questions to ask guest Andy Dallas and play off of his responses was really impressive. The conversation didn’t seem too staged nor unprofessional. Even with all of the people running around doing different jobs, the atmosphere in the studio was extremely friendly. The staff was happy to answer any questions we had and, in the case of the weather team, encourage us to major in just about anything but communications.

Podcast: Science of coin flipping

CLICK TO PLAY PODCAST

Enrique, Mubarak, David, Stephen

Mubarak: Most of us can say that we’ve flipped coins in order to come to a decision between 2 things. Tossing 2 coins is supposed to be a 50/50 chance. However, it may not be as objective as you thought. (Tone rises scary music)

Enrique: The two outcomes of a typical coin are not equally likely. The proposition isn’t 50-50 but 51-49. The coin contains a 1% bias at minimum if not more. There is actually physics in coin flipping. According to the Dynamical Bias in the Coin Toss written by Persi Diaconis and Susan Holmes from Standford and Richard Montgomery from University of California Santa Cruz, coin flipping is more than just random chances.

David: What the researchers found was astonishing. If a coin is thrown in the air and caught, there is a 51 percent probability that it will land on the same side it was originally thrown from the hand. Although the small difference in percentage seems trivial, it creates complexity in coin flipping, allowing people to build strategy.

Stephen: The findings of the research suggest that one should always try to be the tosser and the chooser in order to have a higher possibility of winning. Another interesting fact is that a coin is 80% likely to land on the heavier side if it is spun rather than tossed. With these premises, people can now build strategy in order to win this seemingly fair game.

Sources:

http://www-stat.stanford.edu/~susan/papers/headswithJ.pdf

http://www.codingthewheel.com/archives/the-coin-flip-a-fundamentally-unfair-proposition

Bilingual Babies

https://netfiles.uiuc.edu/jefollis/Podcasts/Final2Podcast.mp3?ticket=t_ra0TmH4V

It was once believed that children would grow up with "language confusion" if raised in bilingual homes, but recent research conducted at the University of Washington shows that infants can actually differentiate between languages. In addition to these findings, there are benefits to this childhood environment. Because of this exposure, bilingual children grow up with highly developed mental skills, and even have "more cognitive flexibility" than monolingual children.

This podcast is based on Hearing Bilingual: How Babies Sort Out Language by Perri Klass M.D. Published on October 11, 2011 in the New York Times, both in print and online.

Produced by Colleen Buss, Amanda Adreani, Sara Rosario and Sneha Shukla.

At the University of Washington, researchers compared the brain scan results from a group of bilingual infants to a group of monolingual infants to understand their reaction to hearing multiple languages.

Before the study, scientists were able to analyze how infants respond to stimulants such as familiar noise or movement.

On researching, It was observed that before 10 months, both groups of infants could identify different spoken sounds when exposed to different languages.

Whereas, bilingual infants followed a different developmental path— after 10 months they still recognize multiple languages.

As times goes by, these children have higher levels of mental processing which gives them better skills in problem solving and multitasking.

So watch what you're saying around your babies. They can probably understand better than you think!

News Broadcast Station Experience

When walking into the news broadcast station, I felt as if I had been there before. Although that was my first time there, it was very easy for me to connect this experience with my trip to North Carolina two years ago. During my junior year of high school, my family and I won an auction at the CURED fundraiser for my good friend, Jori. We received the opportunity of flying out to Wilmington, North Carolina to be extras in the popular television show, One Tree Hill. We had the chance to meet the whole cast and watch how an episode was put together and eventually shown on television to be seen around the world. During our class field trip, the atmosphere felt extremely familiar, and all of the noises and voices brought me a sense of nostalgia.

After our class watched the woman film her section of the news report, we observed the process from behind the scenes. The task of incorporating different cameras and lighting seems extremely arduous, but at the same time, very exciting. Although this was a news report and not a television show, the behind the scenes work is very similar to each other. It is very important to incorporate everyone on camera and make sure everyone is seen. Having the opportunity to watch both of these processes from a different perspective was beyond entertaining. I felt as if I was a part of the crew. After my trip to North Carolina, and after this field trip, I have an extreme interest in media and working behind the scenes. I am so glad our class was able to experience this, because there is nothing like it.

A Day At WCIA

My eyes follow the director's hands in awe as he sits before the plethora of monitors in the control room. His fingers move up and down, to and fro -- swaying as if he were conducting a grandiose orchestral piece.

"Switch to Camera Two...to Paige...now to Camera One," he instructs through his headset. "I need a visual, people!"

Heather Roberts' face appears in the last seconds of the clip and costume shop owner Andy Dallas presses the button on the bubble maker. The video fades out to commercials and the director announces, "beautiful!" As he makes this remark of approval, the graphic designer removes his hand off the computer mouse for the first time since the segment began. The teleprompter operator leans back in his chair and gives himself a pat in the back.

On set, Heather continues to converse with Dallas in her unwavering bubbly personality. Within a matter of minutes she will be interviewing Dallas on-air again as she hosts the Living section on WCIA's channel.

Journalism 199's trip to the WCIA station showed that it takes a large team  to put forth a production -- let it be a “Living” segment or the five o’clock news. The class learned that unlike any other job with 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. shifts, a job never ends at a broadcast station. There are people occupying the offices at all hours during the day. Viewers need news and in order for there to be coverage delivered at all times, a staff must be present at all times as well.

The broadcast station is a tightly-knit network in which all parts are important. The Science in the Media’s trip to WCIA demonstrated that although broadcast is demanding, in the end there are satisfying results.

Lyanne Alfaro