Videos – The Scientist In Me

Helping the world by becoming selfish

Have you ever asked yourself what would happen if we were all selfish? Not in the common way we currently think of selfish, rather what I’m thinking about is how we can all become selfish in order to help the world we live on grow together in innovation and technology.

It’s been a while since I last posted, lets begin by once again focusing on something new, something that could actually help the world. A recent video posted by the YouTube channel, Kurzgesagt (In a Nutshell) visually depicts what can be described as egoistic altruism.

The words Egoistic can be defined as “being centred in or preoccupied with oneself and the gratification of one’s own desires” (source)

Altruism can be defined as “the principle or practice of unselfish concern for or devotion to the welfare of others” (source)

Together, egoistic altruism is clearly a oxymoron as both contradict one another. However, what if this was a good thing? What if being selfish was in fact a positive thing?

As described in the video, around 0.1% of all of human history can be described as a positive sum world, something which described humans and how we’ve developed over the past few hundred years.

By innovating and growing each and every market, from pharmaceuticals to agriculture, we’re able to increase productivity and enhance the way we live. – This being what the video points to as being an egoistic.

As the positive sum world continues, making sure to allow everyone in the world access this technology and innovation can further enhance the way nature of the world. This being what the video points to as altruism.

The video mentions this beautifully as it describes that the more people are well off, the better your life is. This done through innovation as well as the supply and demand for a service or product.

Ultimately, the more people we have capable of innovating, the larger the supply and demand for most things like research in different cancers to space travel! Watch the video yourself and tell me what you think.

The True Power of CRISPR

CRISPR or Clustered Regularly Interspaced Short Palindromic Repeats has been getting a lot of attention recently. The power of CRISPR allows for a number of different and exciting things to happen; this includes genetic engineering to biomedicine.

The power of CRISPR can allow for us to disable or correct genes for certain diseases and disorders from ever appearing in someone, although complicated, it is a very promising technique which can be used in multiple beneficial ways. The recent YouTube video by Kurzgesagt explains CRISPR and some of it’s history, as well as the power it holds in improving life for the future.

The video above describes CRISPR and it’s benefits. However, with techniques like these, there is always a problem in terms of it’s effectiveness as well as the law, rules and ethics involved in utilising the technique in a useful way.

Nevertheless, with any such techniques, there are many more positives compared to negatives, therefore as time goes on, and as more tests and research is done, I believe the technique will be the key within genetic engineering.

So what are your thoughts on CRISPR and it’s future? Go ahead and comment, lets chat.

The Five Senses and Neuroscience

Have you ever wondered how we as humans work? How we feel, taste, see, hear or even smell? Well, there are some great resources available to read which are just a Google search away. If however, you wanted a couple of videos which can explain and get you up to speed on how we as humans we interact with our surroundings, then 5 videos below will definitely be of help.

The videos below cover all the five major senses of sight, sound, smell, taste and touch. They were produced by Neuro Transmissions/Alie Astrocyte.

How do we see?

If you’ve wondered how we see, Alie explains everything involved in the visual system as well as how information that comes from light is translated into something useful using your brain.

How do we hear?

A very informative video explained by Alie on how our ears translates all sound in our surrounding and how we use it in everything that we do.

How do we smell?

Scent is very important, it allows us to distinguish between different things even when we’re blindfolded. Alie explains everything about smell and the nitty gritty of how it related to neuroscience.

How do we taste?

Taste, one of the major sensory functions in our body, it allows us to distinguish between something that tastes totally disgusting to something nice like ice cream. Alie explains everything from the amazing receptors and how they can detect taste.

How do we feel?

Fantastic video which covers everything from touch to feel. Touch is a very important factor, it is what keeps is safe from harm such as something that may be too cold or too hot. Alie cover it all in this great video.

After watching the above videos, I learned a lot, especially how the five senses all related greatly to neuroscience, on top of which the videos are very well done and very informative. If you feel like you’ve learnt a thing a two, tell us in the comment section. Be sure to subscribe to the Neuro Transmissions YouTube channels if you want to see more amazing science videos.

So you know, I’m not associated with the channel or person, I liked the videos and the wealth of information they provide, so felt like sharing these.

Molten Copper vs Large Jawbreaker

Who doesn’t love a good jawbreaker, I certainly do. With an increase in size of such a hard sweet, getting through it into the middle can be a hard task. Even with an increase in temperature it can be a hard task. Here is a interesting video putting molten copper on top of a large jawbreaker.

After pouring molten scrap copper onto a 1 pound jawbreaker, the layers begin to peel and melt forming a black liquid, consisting of flavouring and sugars, surrounds the jawbreaker as it continues to burn.

Definitely an interesting and sweet video. Be sure to share it with people who will enjoy watching it.

The Zika Virus Explained (Video)

If you haven’t heard of the Zika virus, then the video below will aid in explaining what exactly it is, how it spreads and who are likely to be affected the most.

Credit to Vox for creating a short and informative video, although not everyone is affected by this virus, it is very important to be aware that the WHO (World Health Organization) has declared the Zika virus a global emergency.

Zika Virus Transmission Cycle [credit: BBC]

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