Biophysics Week 2

Acupuncture as effective energy medicine

Obviously, since I have spent the last 3 years of my life studying acupuncture, I believe that it is a very effective medicine yet there are times when I am hesitant to describe it as an "energy medicine." I have come across quite a few people who think that acupuncture is a crazy new-age medicine and telling them that it's an energy medicine doesn't help them accept it as a true medicine.

What conclusions can you draw from Kirlian photography?

I believe that it could be used as a very effective diagnostic tool and could also be used as evidence for the patient before and after a treatment. I still don't understand it enough to make a firm decision on the practice of Kirlian photography, but what I've seen is pretty amazing.

Human intent as it effects health

I believe that human intent can have a great effect on health. It is amazing how you can see two practitioners do a very similar treatment and the one who puts their own intent in their treatment gets better results.

Biophysics Week 1

I know that I am a "living system" because...

There are many reasons that I believe that I am a living system. I affect and interact with the environment around me. I breathe oxygen and expel carbon dioxide, have the ability to think and make decisions, I need to eat and drink, and I have the ability to reproduce.

Biophysics and Oriental Medicine

I think that a lot of comparisons can be made between Biophysics and Oriental Medicine, but one thing really jumped out at me from last week's reading. The article entitled "Sondra Barrett Found God Through a Microscope." In the article they talk about how under a microscope, certain substances "look like what they do." Many of the herbs in Chinese Medicine are the same way. For example, there are certain kidney shaped herbs that directly affect the kidney. I found this very interesting.

Week 12

Describe connections between cell biology and your TCM studies

I guess the most basic connection would be that cell biology is the study of he cell and its inner workings and in my TCM studies I'm studying the body and its inner workings. They are both ways of trying to understand a very complex object.


How Cells Divide: Mitosis vs. Meiosis

I really liked this website because I am a very visual person and being able to see an animation about it really helps me to figure out what is going on.

Diversity of Species

I'm not sure if I'm understanding this assignment correctly. My immediate environment is my apartment and I'm pretty much the only species in there. I tend to kill plants so I don't have any(unless you count my roommates red-tinsel christmas tree). There is an ant that managed to make it inside my window somehow and I just noticed a few small spiders in the corners. Outside my apartment there are many types of plants. Outside my front window I can count 7 different types of plants, including the grass.

Week 11

Thoughts on Gene Therapy

I really have mixed feelings about this.  A part of me is a little scared at what we are able to do these days.  I guess I've always looked at our genes as the basic building blocks that make us who we are as individuals.  I find it a little strange that we have the ability to change that.  I guess if I or someone I care about had one of the diseases that they are trying to cure such as cystic fibrosis, hemophilia or muscular dystrophy, I would welcome the chance to cure it.  I guess the question is how far do we take this?

Chemistry of Life

I checked out the link that was given and I like the definition for biochemistry that states that "Biochemistry is the chemistry of life, a bridge between biology and chemistry that studies how complex chemical reactions give rise to life."  I feel like this is a simple way of explaining what biochemistry is.

Animations

I watched a few of the animations and I thought they were a little strange because I wasn't totally sure what I was looking at with a few of them.  I did like the chain reaction animation because I felt like it was pretty self explanatory.  

Week 10

Semiconductor of the week

My semiconductor is silicon.  Silicon's chemical symbol is Si.  Its atomic number is 14.  Apparently, it was first identified by Antione Lavoisier in 1787.  According to Wikipedia, the applications for Silicon are mainly in alloys, electronics and in silicones.  It is most widely used as a semiconductor because it remains a solid at higher temperatures than germanium.

Welcome to Chembalancer!

I really liked this link.  I tried the quiz and got almost all of them correct on the first try.  What I really like about the quiz is that it showed a little graphic of how many of each element there was.  I got a little frustrated because sometimes the graphic wouldn't work and I would have to actually do it in my head.  Lazy, I know.

Week 7

Alkali Earth Metal of the Week

My alkali earth metal is Radium.  Radium's chemical symbol is Ra and its atomic number is 88.  According to some information I found on Wikipedia, Radium is highly radioactive.  It is white, but oxidizes quickly after being exposed to air.  It has a half life of 1602 years.  It was discovered in 1898 by Marie Sklodowska-Curie and her husband Pierre.

Avogadro's Hypothesis

I got each of the questions on the quiz section correct.  I thought it was an interesting article!  It was interesting to see how these people came up with their hypotheses.

What is a mole?

The mole is a unit of measurement.  According to the article, the mole is the amount of substance of a system which contains as many elementary entities as there are atoms in 0.012 kilograms of carbon 12. 

Week Six

Halogen of the Week

My halogen of the week is Chlorine.  Chlorine's symbol is Cl and its atomic number is 17.  Carl Wilhelm Scheele is credited for discovering chlorine in 1774, but according to Wikipedia, failed to establish it as an element.  Instead, he thought it was an oxide.  It wasn't classified as an element until Sir Humphry Davy did an experiment in 1810.

Alchemy: Science, Magic or Art?

I believe that alchemy is a little bit of all three.  I feel that there is definitely an element of art involved since there has to be some sort of creativity in even coming up with the ideas that they did.  I always thought of alchemy simply as the act of trying to turn crappy metal into gold, but after reading a little more about it, it seems like there was so much more to it.  Wikipedia even says that alchemists even made contributions such as producing gunpowder, inks, dyes, etc.  It also goes on to say that some early alchemists viewed alchemy as a spiritual discipline.