I work in a group for a research project to learn more about a current event or major ethical issue. Researching can be done on a very broad range of topics* from medical biotechnology to discoveries of a young scientist to an advancement in agricultural biotechnology products. This project allows students the opportunity to learn more about inventions, ideas, and issues that occur presently in today's society. For future scientists, regardless of what field, this is important because science and learning revolves around communication of thoughts. People can build of each other's work and data; wrong results can help the next person gain a better understanding of the topic and improve the design of the experiment. As a scientist, you need to be capable of expressing new ideas and be willing to listen to other people's suggestions or comments. Researching current events is extremely important because it can introduce new possible interests, broaden education of our modern society, and improve presentation skills.
Current Events In The Fields Of Science
Biology
First Current Events Presentation
E-cigarettes Bioethical Presentation Animal Testing in Medical Labs Research Topic Advancements in Prosthetics |
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Invention of E-cigarettes
September 16, 2014
Vaping and E-cigarettes: For the first presentation on a current topic, my group chose to research the pros and cons of vaping and e-cigarettes. As a group, we reached an agreement that vaping can still be detrimental to a person's health and can cause severe accidents, such as house or car fires, from recharging the cartridge. In our presentation, we began by delving into the creation and background of e-cigarettes.
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We discussed both the benefits and negative affects e-cigarettes have on our current society. We chose this problem because recently, several news articles brought up incidents with e-cigarettes and laws against vaping. Through our research, new questions also arose and the discovery of new facts interested my entire group.
Reflection: This certain research was intriguing because we focused on a major health issue that concerns the entire world. Both smoking and vaping are extremely hazardous to a person's health, but people claim e-cigarettes are less detrimental to the body. One question that is being researched in labs is, "Does this claim give a false sense of health even though vaping is just as bad as smoking?" The contradicting viewpoints on both sides gave our group an idea of the many reasons to either ban or encourage e-cigarettes.
We were curious about the opinions of cigarette companies because vaping causes an increase of profits, but it is at the expense of their clients' health. Another issue was the safety of e-cigarettes, so we wanted to learn more about the improvements made to the cartridges to decrease the hazards of fires or choking to death. Other interesting facts that we discovered through our research was the large amounts of news articles and information found within the past several days; while researching our topic, new sources of incidents were announced the next day. We also found that it was interesting our society discovered a way to utilize nicotine. It is slightly ironic that our society makes intellectual advancements, but these advances are harmful to the people and citizens.
Ethics Concerning Animal Testing
October 30, 2014
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Ethics of Animal Testing: This project, we mainly researched the treatment of animals in science labs. We discovered the cruel and inhumane conditions the test animals were subjected to and strongly believed it violates the human values for life. Although animals can be useful for medical or scientific purposes, it is unjust to force unwilling animals to participate in the experiments. Many animal tests are not even utilized in human society; animals are used to prove lawsuits and just observe for reactions
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to certain poisonous toxins that end lives. We found that there are other methods to testing products and procedures instead of killing millions of animals(26 million animals died in labs just in the United States). Currently, there are government actions around the globe trying to prevent the harsh experiments tested on animals.
Reflection: Throughout the research process concerning animal testing, our entire group was dedicated to advocating for ethical rights for animals. I was very passionate about this subject and I believe this motivated me to work more efficiently in order to share my views with the rest of the class. This motivation led to more research and lots of practicing of our presentation. Another positive point to this project was the collaboration of each group member. Our entire group was dedicated to our research and we worked efficiently with each other. However, there were still a couple of issues that arose with this project. First of all, the first day in class, the computers had difficulty connecting to the internet. This caused problems creating the PowerPoint so we needed to use alternative methods to record and share our notes. Another issue was that there was a controlling group member that took over the project. I don't mind being open to new ideas and constructive criticism, but this person completely controlled our entire presentation. This became very frustrating when I wanted to suggest additions to our topic and was ignored.
I truly enjoyed researching this topic because people often try to hide negative parts of our society. However, through research, our group discovered horrific things occurring to innocent animals that affect their entire lives. I am still interested in learning more about the cost for animal treatment. As a group, we only looked at the cost for the actual experiments, not including the price of space, food, water, and medicine for the animals. I'm aware that animals are kept in poor conditions to lower the overall cost in exchange for harming the animals' health, but it would still be expensive to observe animals over long periods of time. I also want to learn more about other ways to test products that society would be satisfied with and personal changes I could make to help the lab animals. Laws are already set in place to require animal testing so major corporations are forced to inhumanly treat animals. Is there a way to convince people that animals are not needed for testing and stem cells or smaller organisms could be used to test the same product? Would people still buy the product if it was not previously tested on animals? As a single person, what changes in my life could I make to help the animals? These are all questions I will research in the future to increase the amount of knowledge about the topic.
I truly enjoyed researching this topic because people often try to hide negative parts of our society. However, through research, our group discovered horrific things occurring to innocent animals that affect their entire lives. I am still interested in learning more about the cost for animal treatment. As a group, we only looked at the cost for the actual experiments, not including the price of space, food, water, and medicine for the animals. I'm aware that animals are kept in poor conditions to lower the overall cost in exchange for harming the animals' health, but it would still be expensive to observe animals over long periods of time. I also want to learn more about other ways to test products that society would be satisfied with and personal changes I could make to help the lab animals. Laws are already set in place to require animal testing so major corporations are forced to inhumanly treat animals. Is there a way to convince people that animals are not needed for testing and stem cells or smaller organisms could be used to test the same product? Would people still buy the product if it was not previously tested on animals? As a single person, what changes in my life could I make to help the animals? These are all questions I will research in the future to increase the amount of knowledge about the topic.
Advancements in Prosthetics Technology
May 27, 2015
May 27, 2015
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Prosthetics: The incorporation of science and technology into medical fields has shown incredible potential to improve the lives of the disabled, either from physical impairments or diseases. Prosthetics are artificial limbs that give amputees or
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victims of paralysis. New prosthetics give patients the ability to regain functionality of the limb(s) lost and pursue their dreams. There are more advanced prosthetics that involve computer programs to connect the brain's activity directly to the artificial limb. This new development allows people who are paralyzed to use their thoughts to control their own limb; it also gives amputees the ability to have more direct thought controlled motions over their prosthetic. Despite the immense improvements achieved over the past decade, there is still an abundance of possible factors that continue to improve.
Current Events In The Fields Of Science
Physics
Ethics Research (COSMOS)
Fiber Optics Involved in Internet |
I have added a couple of pictures to my research paper. Check out my COSMOS project for a more detailed explanation.
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Current Events In The Fields Of Science
Chemistry
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*Topics(not limited to): Science policy, Economics in research, New model systems, Nanotechnology, Mathematical models in biotechnology, Bio-engineering, Forensic science technology, Young scientist, Molecular biology discovery, Bio-ethical issue, Treatment for human disease, Agricultural bio-technology product, Medical bio-technology