Inside Your Head

INSIDE

YOUR HEAD

The Future of VR

Treating Degeneration

The effects of virtual reality on its consumers

An update on the treament of neurodegenerative diseases

by Image

Brain Tumors

Types, developments, effects, and treatments of brain tumors

Fest

Clipart

Nanotechnology

Technology down to the nanometers

Homework: Help or Hindrance?

Discover the different opinions of experts on homework

Table of Contents Letter from editor.............................3 Contributers Page............................4 Anatomy of the Brain......................6 The Future of VR..............................8 The Timeline of VR........................12 Brain Tumors..................................14 Types of Brain Tumors...................18 Homework: help or hindrance?...20 Subtracting the work from homework.......................................24 Big Impact, but Very Small...........26 Nanotechnology.............................30 Treatring Degeneration.................32 Photo source: Adobe stock

Letter from the Editor This magazine sprung from a group of people with completely different ideas of where we should go. Everyone either came into the group with a set idea of what we wanted to write about, or with no idea at all. But all of us were interested in science and technology, so we decided to hone in on a more biological component of this field: the brain.

I was excited to make this magazine, mainly because neuroscience intrigues me. The brain is a part of our body that we are only now starting to understand the functions of, and all of these different aspects of technology involved in discovering how it works are fascinating. And it turned out to be a great thing that people had all these ideas for what to write about, because it meant that we were super passionate about what we were writing.

My hope for this magazine is that you leave knowing more than before. We all have a brain, but it’s shocking how little we know about it. This magazine covers a wide variety of topics, from basic anatomy to the effects of things we do everyday.

I couldn’t have asked for a better group of people to work with. This group was full of spirited and opinionated people who worked hard to create this final product.

Thank you, and enjoy!

Drue Gillentine, Editor

Photos of Drue Gillentine taken by Anaya Mehta

Inside Your Head | 3

Anaya Mehta

Anaya is a freshmen at LASA who loves playing the violin, enjoys learning about science and math, and her best friend is her phone. She loves Harry Potter and dish soap, because it smells so good. In her free time, she tends to her virtual reef on her phone, plays chess with her parents, or wrestles with her sister. Her favorite opening to a book is the beginning of The Invention of Hugo Cabret by Brian Selznick, because it’s a pretty drawing.

If she could only drink one thing for the rest of her life she would drink masala soda, a family drink made out of ginger ale and Indian spices. Her ideal LASA hall pass would be a life size cutout of her.

Chinmay Murthy Chinmay is a freshmen at LASA that in his free time likes to study chemistry and calculus. His favorite food is rava idli, and he loves Star Wars. His favorite opening to a book is the beginning to Lord of the Rings. If he could drink one beverage for the rest of his life he would drink orange juice, because of the “citrusy” taste. His ideal LASA hall pass is either a quantum computer or a NMR spectrometer.

Delvia Zhang Delvia is a freshman at LASA. She has played the flute for 5 years, and currently plays in the LBJ marching band.

In her free time she enjoys sleeping and playing video games. Delvia’s favorite opening to a book is “If you are interested in stories with happy endings, you would be better off reading some other book. In this book, not only is there no happy ending, there is no happy beginning and very few happy things in the middle,” from A Bad Beginning by Lemony Snicket. If she could drink one beverage for the rest of her life she would drink coffee, because it is essential to LASA life. Her ideal LASA hall pass would be a container of excrement so no one would ever use the restroom.

4 | Inside Your Head

Drue Gillentine

Drue is a LASA freshmen that enjoys Spongebob, listening to Disney soundtracks, and cracking awful puns.

She is a clumsy person, but somehow manages to plays soccer and run cross country, albeit very slowly. Her favorite opening to any book is the same as Meg’s from A Wrinkle In Time: “It was a dark and stormy night.” If she could only drink one thing for the rest of her life she would drink lemonade, because sometimes it’s sweet and sometimes it’s sour. Her ideal LASA hall pass is one of those gaudy happy birthday hats.

Gerardo Benitez

Gerardo is a 15 year old freshmen at the Liberal Arts and Science Academy that runs track and sleeps. He doesn’t have one favorite food, but if he had to choose, he would pick tacos. His favorite color is blue because it reminds him of water, even though water is clear, not blue. His favorite opening to a book is the first scene in Macbeth,

by William Shakespeare. If he could drink one beverage for the rest of his life he would drink Coke, because it’s better than Pepsi. His ideal LASA hall pass is a timer so the kids will know how long they’ve been gone.

Contributor’s Page Photos taken by Greta Quill, Anaya Mehta, and Drue Gillentine.

Inside Your Head | 5

ANATOMY OF FRONTAL LOBE

TEMPORAL LOBE

BRAIN STEM 6 | Inside Your Head

THE BRAIN PARIENTAL LOBE

OCCIPITAL LOBE

CEREBELLUM

Inside Your Head | 7

The Future

of VR

The effects of virtual reality on its consumers

By Delvia Zhang

W

hat would it be like to soar over the Grand Canyons? To transverse the Fields of Rohan in Middle-earth? To roam the halls of Hogwarts? Or even “to splash and swim in unicorn piss?” suggested Parker Wheeler.

Not only is that achievable with virtual reality (VR), you are finally allowed the chance to be in someone else’s shoes. [around] $35 thousand. And really uncomfortable. And the next thing about the Oculus is it’s very light and comfortable.”

“VR is kind of an empathy tool and it could raise The VR industry is already finding out ways to mass produce people’s empathy, especially when you expose — virtually virtual reality machines and to make them consumer-ready, expose — them to an environment they have never been to,” said but are consumers ready? How could VR impact humans?

Jie Yin, a student attending Harvard’s school of public health and a member of Harvard’s augmented reality/VR lab.

Many consumers are concerned about the potential dizziness In an age where technology is essential to both the present and the future, virtual reality is emerging to be a prominent technology. Consumers are allowed out-of-this-world experiences, but what about the in-this-world experiences? If used properly, virtual reality could have beneficial psychological effects on humanity when undergoing experiences that would have otherwise proved impossible or hard to achieve, and they could be utilized to benefit, educate, and empathize us.

“One of the things that’s happened recently is that the development of the Oculus Rift and the VIVE, they are a lot cheaper.

In previous years,” said Dr. Mary Hayhoe, a professor at University of Texas at Austin, Texas. “I don’t know, it’s somewhere

8 | Inside Your Head

that could be induced with the long term use of VR, one not dissimilar to motion sickness that could result from reading while the car is moving. “Your body likes to have consistent information, so if something happens that you see, you want the same,” Hayhoe said. “However, as the resolution improves, the dizziness induced will be less obvious.”

That brings the question into how the brain tricks itself into believing that something that doesn’t exist, does. “VR is not eluding the brain, per se. However, the form factor is still not optimized. VR is not comfortable enough for extended use times. And the cost is still too high for mass consumer adoption,” said Robert Brackenridge, a developer at GameFactore.

VR is kind of an empathy tool and it could raise people’s empathy, especially when you expose — virtually expose — them to an environment they have never been to

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Inside Your Head | 9

A soldier using VR for training.

Image by Wikimadia Commons

However, many have hopes for the expansion of VR into people’s daily lives in the future. As Yin said, “I’m an optimistic person, so I think it will offer people another kind of opportunity, especially in people who are working, and who do not have access to nature, and we could use VR to provide them some kind of experience in immersive experience.”

However, VRs are not just limited to entertainment of consumers. “A thing I have seen is helping to train medical students. Right. So they can have a realistic experience without doing any damage.” Hayhoe said.

Not only could it aid in training medical students, it could itself also be used to conduct research in the medical field that may not have been possible otherwise. An excellent example Jie Yin gave was “similar findings have been doing a lot of research on VR field including post traumatic stress disorder and phobia and some other diseases. I’m personally doing some project at Harvard with virtual reality to measure people’s physiological response when we expose them to chemicals, because there’s a disease called multiple chemical sensitivity.

Which means people are really sensitive with a lot of chemicals, but we do not know if they’re really sensitive to those chemicals or [if] they just thought they are sensitive to those chemicals.”

VRs could also make exploring and understanding the brain further possible.

“Another interesting application that I think needs to be developed further is in a whole lot of clinical populations. So for example, if you’ve had damage, brain damage after stroke. Right, and then you have some kind of rehabilitation procedure, so you want to know, let’s suppose it’s like in the visual system had damage, in the visual part of your brain, trying to train your tion. So you

A Playstation VR being worn. Image by flickr.

10 | Inside Your Head A woman having a driving simulation in VR., Image by Wikimedia Commons.

A woman waering a VR helmet. Imgae by Wikimedia Commons.

want to see if I have gotten good vision, you don’t want to put somebody in the car and see if they have an accident. You can put him in a virtual car or you can have them walking around a virtual room like this, and we want to see if [he] can detect [the obstacles]. You know if they are not seeing down here, you don’t want them driving yet, but it’s virtual, so you can test the effectiveness of rehabilitation procedures,” Hayhoe explained.

However, some parents may be concerned with the aspects of the VR influencing their children, and encourage violence. The good news is, “there is no correlation between violence in games and actual behavior. I would expect this to be true for VR as well. Whether or not VR induces more empathy could also be argued. It depends on what is actually being measured.” Brackenridge explained.

Yin’s thoughts were similar: “I think we should do some classification, which means, some of the game should not be accessed by kids. But some of the games, adults can play with, I think there is no harm for them. But for younger generations, we probably need some limitations.

Especially when you [are exposed] to VR environment for a long time, you will feel dazzled and frustrated.”

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All in all, many have expressed hope for the use of VRs in the future. “I believe in the future we will [add] another, some kind of things, like smelling and touch, a lot of things into VR. So in that case people will have more, kind of mimic, of immersive experience when they are in the virtual environment.” Yin said. With the aid of VR, mankind may improve yet a little more.

MIXED REALITY (MR) REAL ENVIRONMENT

AUGUMENTED REALITY (AR)

AUGUMENTED VIRTUALITY (AV)

A chart demonstrating the ranges of mixed reality. Image by Delvia Zhang.

VIRTUAL REALITY (VR) Inside Your Head | 11

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The Timeline of Virtu

1838

1929

1930s

1950s

1960

1968

Artificial Reality Sword of Damocle

Stereoscopic Photos and Viewers ‘The viewing of two side by side photos through a stereoscope gave the user a sense of depth and immersion.

1969

The First Flight SImulator

Science fiction Sory Predictes VR

A small motor- Writer Stanley G. Weinbaum driven device presents the mimicking turbulence and idea of a pair of goggles that let disturbances was created for the wearer expesafer training rience a fictional for U.S. pilots. world through holographics, smell, taste and touch.

12 | Inside Your Head

Morton Heilig’s Sensorama

The first VR Head Mounted Display

Morton Heilig’s next invention Cinematographer was the Telesphere Morton Heilig Mask (patented developed the Sen1960);the first sorama (patented example of a head1962; an arcademounted display style theatre cabinet (HMD).

The headthat would stimulate set provided stereoall the senses. It has scopic 3D and wide stereo speakers, a vision with stereo stereoscopic 3D sound. display, fans, smell generators and a vibrating chair.

The first VR / AR head mounted display (Sword of Damocles) that was connected to a computer and not a camera. It was too heavy for any user to comfortably wear and was suspended from the ceiling (hence its name).

Myron Kruegere a virtual reality computer artist developed a series of experiences in which he termed “artificial reality.” The developed computer-generated environments responded to the people in it.

Occulus Rift

HTC Vive

An Occulus Rift Helmet

ual Reality

By Delvia Zhang

A HTC Vive Helmet

Price: $599

Price: $799

Requirements: Windows 7, 8 or 10; Oculus recommends an Nvidia GTX 970 graphics card or better and at least 8GB of RAM

Samsung Gear VR

A Samsung Gear VR Helmet

Price: $99

Requirements: Requirements: Windows 7, 8 or Samsung 10; HTC Galaxy flagship recommends an smartphones Nvidia GTX 970 graphics card or better and at least 4GB of RAM

1999 1987

The Name Virtual Reality was created Jaron Lanier, founder of the visual programming lab (VPL), popularised the term “virtual reality”.

1991

1995 The Matrix

Virtuality Group Arcade Machines The public gained access to virtual reality devices.

Players would wear a set of VR goggles and play on gaming machines with realtime immersive stereoscopic 3D visuals.

Nintendo Virtual Boy The Nintendo Virtual Boy was a 3D gaming console that was the first ever 3D portable console.

However, due to commercial failure the production and sale of the device discountinued the next year.

Microsoft Google Razer OSVR ZEISS VR HoloLens Cardboard One

The film features characters living in An Microsoft HoloLens a simulation. The Matrix had since become a major Price: curtural impact and $3000 brought the topic of reality simulation to the masses.

Require-

A Google Cardboard

A Razer OSVR Helmet

Price: $15 Price: $300

Requirements: Any ments: Android or Internal iOS hardware smarphone powers the device

A ZEISS VR One Helmet

Price: $120

Requirements: Can Requirebe run on ments: a mid-tier Any Angaming PC droid or iOS phone between 4.7 – 5.2 inches

Sources: - vrs.org.uk - bgr.com

Brain Tumors

image of brain tumor in the center oif the brain Photo Source: Vimeo

By: Gerardo Benitez

A brain tumor is condition that affects over 200,000 people in the U.S every year. It can make life difficult depending on the severity. The tumors can affect any part of the brain and there are many symptoms that can affect a person’s daily life. Depending on its severity a person may have to undergo surgery or treatment because it could possibly be life threatening.

Some symptoms of brain tumours are severe headaches, nausea, problems with smelling, and confusion. However, in some cases, there could be no signs of a brain tumor and that could be a problem if it increases in size. Treatments include chemotherapy to kill fast growing cells, craniotomy in which a piece of the skull is removed, tomotherapy, and radiation

14 | Inside Your Head

therapy. Peter Giulietti has had a brain tumor for about five years, and fortunately it hasn’t gotten worse.

“For a couple of years, it affected me probably for 80 to 85 percent of the time. It was pretty annoying but now it is a lot less, less than 10 percent of the time,” said Giulietti.

People with brain tumors are affected by it in many different ways depending on the size of the tumor, and its location in the brain. A person can have blackouts because of the brain tumor and that affects how a person goes on with their daily life. Some people’s lives are affected by memory loss, where they forget at times what they were doing. Giulietti’s symptom is that he only smells smoke, this is one of the symptoms of a brain tumor. But he says his daily life hasn’t been affected.

neurologist for any abnormal brain activity and he does a lot of testing for any kind of abnormal electrical malfunction, basically.

But as far as treatment goes I haven’t had any treatment. There is really no treatment for this kind of a tumor,”said Giulietti.

Depending on the size of the brain tumor, a person can receive many different treatments from medication to surgery to get rid of it.

For tumors like Giulietti’s no treatment is required because of how small it is. If it increases in size he will need to receive treatment for it.

Giulietti’s tumor is a Choroid plexus papilloma tumor. It is a slow-growing benign tumor. It grows inside the choroid plexus which is close to the center of

the brain. It’s an area of the brain that is responsible for the creation of spinal fluid so if it inhibits the flow of spinal fluid that portion of the brain it can cause a lot of problems. “As long as I’m not having severe headaches then I’m okay, and right now the tumor is nine millimeters in diameter and they don’t do anything with it unless it gets to at least 10mm to one full centimeters.” said Giulietti.

If a tumor gets too big, it could interfere with functions of the brain and keep things that are needed from working. In Giulietti’s case, it doesn’t affect functions of his brain because of its size. If grows it could affect the function of his choroid plexus.

Image of a chorid plexus papilloma brain tumor Photo Source:Wikipedia

“Some people get the smell of rotten food and those people have a really hard time with it and it just ruins their life. It can make them not want to eat. It really impacts their way of life and it’s been know to cause people to kill themselves because they get so unhappy about it” said Giulietti.

The symptoms of a brain tumor can also affect a person’s life. One symptom can even cause some people to commit suicide because

it can be so severe. This symptom causes you to smell odors that aren’t there. The smell varies from person to person. Another symptom is blacking out. If a person has blackouts, they won’t be able to

“Some people get the smell of rotten food and those people have a really hard time with it and it just ruins their life.”

I did start to blackout I wouldn’t be able to drive anymore; I would immediately have to forfeit my licence for obvious reasons like blacking out behind the wheel. If the medications didn’t work then they would consider surgery and they would also consider it if it got bigger and started to cause an obstruction in that part of the brain” said Giulietti.

Two common treatments to cure brain tumors are tomotherapy and radiation therapy. Tomotherapy is a process in which radiation is used on the brain tumor from many different directions. It reduces the damage to nearby tissue. Radiation therapy kills abnormal cells using x-rays.

“So once a year I have an Magnetic resonance imaging(MRI). I just had it done and I’m happy to say I just heard from my nurse saying that there is no change. It’s stable but my doctor still wants to see me every year and I’ll still go see the neurologist. But there is nothing to worry about after. Five years it’s drive because the blackouts could been okay” said Giulietti. happen at any time.

People with brain tumors have to “Mostly it’s blacking out, losing track check in with their doctors to make of time and the neurologist said it sure that the size isn’t increasing. can even be just as simple as spacing Giulietti is scheduled to get an out for five seconds and you don’t MRI every year to make sure that remember how you got there from the tumor hasn’t grown to 10mm. five seconds ago.” said Giulietti.

That size is when the tumor could start causing problems and would In Giulietti’s case he hasn’t had any require treatment. of these symptoms. But if he did, it could potentially mean that the tumor has grown,and he would need to get treatment.

“If I started having symptoms like that, the first thing to do would be to medicate, and my neurologist said there are different things they can use but they all have side effects, none of which are great but would be better than blacking out, but if

MRI of a brain tumor Photo Source:: Wikimeida commons

MRI of Brains Photo Source: abode photo stoc

Symptoms for diffrent cancers Photo source: Wikimedia commons

“I got a voicemail in my phone one day and they said they found something on [my] MRI and that [I] have a 9mm tumor in my brain, which is not something you want to hear you know so you know your first reaction is to freak out a little bit or a lot” said Giulietti.

Giulietti first found out about his tumor back in 2012 and has had it for five years now. He found out about it after he had gotten an MRI because

he had been smelling smoke even though there wasn’t any. At first he said he was freaking out like any person would but later had everything figured out once things were explained to him.

New treatments are being developed. One of these treatments is to inhibit glioblastoma cells for people with glioblastoma (GBM). This is just one of many new treatments to help people with brain tumors live a long and better life.

Inside Your Head | 17

Types of Brain Tumo meningioma: a diverse set of tumors arising from the meninges, the membranous layers surrounding the central nervous system.

Many meningiomas produce no symptoms throughout a person’s life.

By: Gerardo Benitez

Astrocytomas: They orig lar kind of glial cells, sta cells in the cerebrum cal This type does not usual the brain and spinal cord

Gliomas: A type of tumor that starts in the brain or spine. Gliomas can be classified according to whether they are above or below a membrane in the brain called the tentorium.

Craniopharyngioma: a type of brain tumor derived from pituitary gland embryonic tissue

1970s: CT scanns provides first clear Image of brain Tumors

18 | Inside Your Head

1975–1980: Radiation established as standard treatment for glioblastoma

CNS Lympho primary intra tumor appear mostly in pat with severe im nosuppressio cally patients AIDS).

1980s: MRI Greatly Improves Ability To Diagnose And Monitor Brain Tumors

1994: National Cancer Institute Establishes Brain Tumor Research Networks

Learn more about the types of brain tumors and how it affects our brains. Learn about the history of treatments used to treat brain tumors.

ors

ginate in a particuar-shaped brain lled astrocytes. lly spread outside d.

Glioblastoma: is the most aggressive cancer that begins within the brain.

Acoustic Neuroma: A noncancerous tumor on the main nerve leading from the inner ear to the brain.

oma: a acranial ring tients mmuon (typis with

1999: New oral chemotherapy drug increases survival rate

chordoma: A chordoma is a rare type of cancerous tumor that can occur anywhere along the spine, from the base of the skull to the tailbone

2005, 2008: Researchers Begin Mapping The Genome Of Glioblas-

2009: Gene mutations linked to tumor aggressiveness

2010: Nine-Gene test can predict glioblastoma outcome

toma

Inside Your Head | 19

Sourses: http://cancerprogress.net/timeline/brain http://thejns.org/doi/pdf/10.3171/foc.2005.18.4.1

Homework:

Help

or

by Anaya Mehta

Hindrance?

The “Homework Debate” has gone on for ages, but what do Austin educators say about the matter?

Psychology Display at the Seay Building in UT Austin.

Photo by Anaya Mehta

ever was I the normal kid at the

of homework per week. Many were outraged by

birthday parties. “You don’t have

the data, others justified it by saying that those

homework at your school?! Lucky!”

hours were spent well, like Liberal Arts and Science

Every kid I talked to would say

Academy high school principal, Stacia Crescenzi.

something like that when I mentioned my middle school didn’t hand out any assigned

“Figuring out that for a test on Friday, I should

homework. Parents would gasp, and if they were

be studying 20 minutes a night for the four nights

brave, they would whisper, “But how does she learn

before, that seems to me a really good use of

anything?” Was my school getting it all wrong? What

time,” said Crescenzi, when listing off the uses of

is the answer to “The Homework Problem?”

homework. “If you can’t figure out how to — you’d much rather be playing video games, watching TV,

According to a national homework survey in

talking with your friends, whatever, and you don’t

2014, from the University of Phoenix, on average,

know how to force yourself to, like, buckle down

high school students were assigned 3.5 hours of

and do your homework, then college is going to be

homework a night. This equates to about 18 hours

difficult.”

20 | Inside Your Head

Crescenzi elaborates that many of the skills learned

might do it really quickly, and for somebody else, that’s

in school have to be practiced outside of school hours

going to be a struggle.”

so class time is not wasted on something that can be practiced at home. But, some critics say that homework

Laura Sandefer, principal at Acton Academy, and a

takes away from other out-of-school activities, or family

homework critic, disagrees with Crescenzi on whether

time.

or not to assign homework. “I just don’t even imagine how homework can enhance a child’s life when they’re

“I think it’s about balance and I wish more parents

pre-10 years old,” says Sandefer. In 2009, Sandefer

had conversations with their children about, ‘You can’t

created an elementary school called Acton Academy,

do everything,’”

which never assigns

says Crescenzi in

homework. Since

response. “So you

then, the school has

can’t be on the

branched out into a

swim team, and

middle school and

still be in Girls

high school as well.

Scouts, and still do all the stuff with

When deciding

your church, and

the logistics of her

still be with your

school, Sandefer

friends, and still

recognized that,

have family time.

“Families should

But it seems to me,

have the freedom

of those things, the

of choice of what

first thing to throw

to do when they

out would not be

get home from

homework.”

picking their child up from school.”

But how can a teacher make homework more

Sandefer, and

Brain Experiment Display in lobby at the Seay Building in UT Austin.

Photo by Anaya Mehta

her husband, Jeff Sandefer, focused

adaptable to their students, and less stressful on the

on curiosity rather than, “adding stress to a child’s

brain? According to Crescenzi, “The thing that’s really

life with assignments that they don’t necessarily find

difficult when you’re talking about something like

meaning in,” which they thought was, “detrimental

homework, is that no two students are created equal. So,

to [the child’s] perception of how they can learn and

what would take one student 20 minutes to do, could

achieve independently.”

take another student 90 minutes to do — So you try to find something that feels like it’ll be reasonable to the

Instead, Sandefer uses peer teaching at Acton to solidify

most people in your class, but by all means, somebody

information. “The peer teaching is probably the more

Inside Your Head | 21

Homework:

Help

powerful thing in our model than doing homework and then coming back and talking about it, because you actually have to help someone understand it so that they can then achieve what you’ve achieved,” says Sandefer.

But what do psychology experts say about this matter?

Art Markman, a professor and Ph.D. of psychology at

“Walking outside in the

sun and seeing the trees and just allowing yourself to be a little bit the University of Texas at Austin, expresses concern about the amount of homework students get. “We have to have a system that values that breadth of experience, that values the opportunity for people to discover the things that they might love. And, some of which might become a career, some of which might just become the thing that they do on the side that enhances the rest of their life. You know, somebody might love science, but then enjoy reading mystery novels, which we’re never going to assign in school. You know, and you won’t find out you like that if you never have any downtime.”

Although he isn’t for the excessive amount of homework, Markman says, “I think that a little bit of homework, particularly when you’re developing skills matters, a lot.

So, you know, when you’re younger and you’re learning

22 | Inside Your Head

A student working to finish her math homework.

Photo by Anaya Mehta

or

Hindrance? your addition and multiplication tables you just have to get a certain number of repetitions in.” But, once in awhile, “walking outside in the sun and seeing the trees and just allowing yourself to be a little bit,” isn’t harmful, says Markman.

Another point Markman makes is the obvious sluggishness that comes with homework. “I mean there’s this concept in psychology of the delay of gratification, right? There’s almost always something lovely I could do right now. And then there are times where there’s something that’s important to do now because of its benefits, years from now. And one of the things we all have to balance is how much am I going to spend time and- how much my time am I going to spend doing things that are enjoyable right now? How much time am I going to spend doing things that will make my life more enjoyable in the future?” Balancing and planning out time is crucial to finding time to do all the things that you want to do.

But what is the best answer to this question? We’ve covered many problems and solutions. Homework can take away family time, but sometimes that repetition is necessary. Although homework can add stress to a child’s life, it might help them practice how to manage their time. There are many different approaches to the homework problem, and finding the best solutions for you is the most important decision you can make.

Inside Your Head | 23

How to Subtract the “Work� from Homework Doing homework everyday seems like an unnecessary, but unavoidable chore. But with some careful planning, homework can be completed in a breeze.

By Anaya Mehta

24 | Inside Your Head

1 Who?

Doing homework involves people. It will definitely include you, but maybe your friends or a teacher if you need a little help. If you do decide to study with a friend or group, make sure you have a plan of action so that you don’t get off task. Asking, “what is my goal for this study session?” you start can help you and your friend get on the same page. This clarity will help your efficiency in completing your homework.

2 What?

Lots of students forget or miscalculate what exactly the requirements are for homework or when it is due. This confusion can easily be relieved when the seemingly endless homework is planned out and tracked. One traditional, but effective way to keep track is to use a planner, on paper or online (such as Google Calendar). Another way is to use an phone application, such as myHomework.

3 When?

Doing homework after a loaded day of school always makes everyone more sleepy than they were before. But, finding a productive time for you, and sticking to that time will help you. Another effective method of time-management is using the Pomodoro technique, which is basically working religiously for about 25 minutes, and then taking a break and starting that cycle again.

4 Where?

Finding a good place to do homework is challenging. There are different requirements such as having an outlet to charge your computer, or having a quiet place without feeling lonely. Knowing what kind of work environment you work best in will help you find a successful place to finish your homework. If you can’t find a good place to work at home, ask your parents to create a workspace, or see if you can work at school.

5 Why?

This is one of the biggest questions that every student asks. Why? Why do we have to complete homework, and why is it so torturous? This question can be answered in a few ways. One way is to ask your teacher why doing this is going to help you.

Nothing is wrong with asking the purpose of a task. If you feel as though your teacher is giving you menial work, politely ask them why they made you do this.

Meaningless work shouldn’t go unanswered, and asking the right questions should help you figure that out.

Inside Your Head | 25

Copyright: Hwanafsu Adobe Stock

Big Impact, but Very Small

by Chinmay M.

I

magine this — In 2045, you are told that you need surgery, as you are experiencing severe mood swings and depression. You are put to sleep, and an extremely small sensor is implanted in your brain.

This nanometer-sized sensor merges seamlessly with your brain, and starts transmitting information about concentrations of neurotransmitters to an app on your doctor’s phone. The doctor informs you that some of your neurotransmitters need to be adjusted, and they give you a medicine. The sensor keeps

“The main thing is to make it biocompatible, something that your body does not have sensitivity to, something that does not hurt your body. ” monitoring your brain to tell the doctor how well the medication is working and whether it needs to be adjusted or changed.

This situation could become a reality sooner than 2045, thanks to a fast-growing sector of science that is revolutionizing how we research the brain. This science involves manipulating, creating, and harnessing materials that are only a few hundred atoms thick — nanotechnology. Currently, in universities across the world, scientists and engineers are trying to harness nanoscience and nanotechnology for applications in a variety of fields.

“There are two common definitions,” says S.V.

Sreenivasan, a professor and nanotechnology researcher at the Cockrell School of Mechanical Engineering at the University of Texas at Austin (UT), in Austin, Texas. “One is technologies that involve materials of less than 100 nanometers in size.”

Nanomaterials, like quantum dots, are 2 to 50 nanometers wide, corresponding to 10 to 250 atoms in diameter and a total of 100 to 500,000 atoms, which is very tiny on the visible scale. The second definition deals with another important aspect of a material — its properties.

“The other definition,” says Sreenivasan,”which I think is more interesting, is the dimension at which material properties change dramatically because it is small enough that things change.”

What this means is that a piece of a material that is big enough that anyone can see it with the naked eye

Carbon nanotubes. Carbon nanotubes are extremely strong, making them useful in a variety of applications Copyright: Marc Vidal

will have different properties than if reduced to a couple of nanometers.

A large amount of a particular material, called bulk material, can be an insulator, but on the nanoscale, the same material can be a strong conductor. This change in properties allows for a wide range of uses in varied fields.

“People are investigating the use of nanoparticles to deliver drugs,” says Dr. Anne Andrews, a neuroscientist and nanoscientist at the Semel

Institute for Neuroscience and Human Behavior at the University of California Los Angeles (UCLA) and the California NanoSystems Institute. “For instance, there’s a lot of research into delivering anticancer drugs using nanoparticles.”

Many anticancer drugs only need to be applied to specific areas of the body, and being able to inject particles that will activate the drug just in the area needed would be a benefit for many who have to struggle with the side effects of anticancer drugs causing collateral damage by affecting other parts of their body. But the uses of nanotechnology extend much further than just drug delivery.

“One of the things I’m working on is making what are called silicon nanowires or nanotubes, which are very useful in making batteries, as well as in basically sensors that are highly-sensitive,” says Sreenivasan.

Silicon is a good material for nanomaterials because its conductivity can be changed by small adjustments in its composition, and it can be purified without many problems. Silicon nanotransistors are now finding their way into biomedical devices that can be implanted into the body. The problem is trying to find nanomaterials or a method for making nanomaterials that will not be rejected by the body. In our bodies, if the immune system finds something it doesn’t believe is native to the body, it tries to expel it, which

A molecular structure of dopemine.

Dopemine is a neurotransmitter that can be studied using nanotechnoogy.

Copyright: Jynto

Inside Your Head | 27

can cause complications.

“The main thing is to make it biocompatible, something that your body doesn’t have sensitivity to, it does not hurt your body,” says Dr. Shideh Kabiri, a postdoctoral fellow at the Akinwade Research Group at UT. People have found some ways around this by using carbonbased materials; since carbon is the basis for all life, it may be accepted more readily by the body.

Nanotechnology has promise in many areas of medicine, notably in neuroscience. Brain cancer is an area where nanotechnology could be useful. Doctors have a difficult time attempting to use drugs on brain tumors. Nanomedicines may make

Quantum dots. These nanoparticles reflect vivd colors when light is shined on them.

Copyright: Marc Vidal

it easier to target drugs to hard-toreach places like the brain.

“The brain is protected by something called the blood-brain barrier, and people have looked at nanoparticles as a way to get drugs across the blood-brain barrier,” says Dr. Andrews.

According to Andrews, the bloodbrain barrier is a cellular barrier that only lets certain types of molecules come in contact with neurons, which causes difficulties when trying to get something like a drug into the brain. Nanotechnology can be used to disguise small drug-carrying particles so they can penetrate the barrier’s net.

“The thing that is most interesting to me is, and I’ve done some

28 | Inside Your Head

work on this area, is the concept of targeted drug delivery,” says Sreenivasan, “and we’ve seen very promising early results already in this area.”

Targeted drug delivery means the ability to deliver drugs to a specific area of tissue and not have it affect any other tissue. This could be vital to preventing things such as hair loss during chemotherapy for cancer patients. Nanotechnology could be used also to create better medicines to save even more lives.

Besides letting drugs into the brain, nanotechnology may be able to help us measure levels of neurotransmitters like dopamine and serotonin, which carry information about mood, movement, and pleasure.

One method currently under development is to measure neurotransmitter concentrations using small silicon transistors than have a nanometer thick semiconductor material like indium oxide.

“We construct field-effect transistors with thin-film indium oxide,” says Dr. Andrews. “And when serotonin binds to artificial receptors on the transistor, the indium oxide experiences a change in electric field. That small change allows us to detect neurotransmitters at low concentrations.”

A related area of research is to measure electrical signals in the brain by wrapping a sheet of biocompatible material loaded with nanosensors around the brain.

One material with promise for this application is graphene, a sheet of carbon only a few atoms thick.

“People are claiming that you can wrap [graphene] around the brain and study the electrical signals of the brain to a level which has never been possible before,” says Shreenivasan.

Graphene, because of it’s carbonbased structure, is very likely to be biocompatible. Although they are extremely thin, graphene sheets can be very large. And since it is able to fold into many different shapes, it might be possible to integrate graphene with silicon sensors to record data on electrical signaling in the brain at small scales. This could drastically improve our ability to understand how information is processed in the brain. However, there are challenges to manufacturing specific nanomaterials with specific properties.

A chunk of silicon. Silicon is a very useful semiconductor that has lots of promise in nanoelectronics.

Copyright: NASA

“Controlling the exact electrical properties of a material is challenging; it is not impossible, but is challenging,” says Kabiri.

Another challenge that nanoscientists face is reducing the cost of fabrication, as procuring the equipment and materials is expensive. However, those in the business have high hopes for it.

“You can make miniaturized versions of many devices, like a system miniaturized in a very small area, and as a result it reduces the cost,” says Kabiri. “Many times you can improve the functionality of the device, and as a result, the system — also you can save energy.”

All these benefits help the system save money and valuable resources such as space and energy. This allows companies to manufacture these

items on a large scale and sell them cheaply to large markets, even when there might be poor electricity coverage and frequent power cuts. Currently, scientists are working on utilizing nanotechnology for many purposes.

Nanotechnology is a group of technologies based on tiny materials with small nanoscale dimensions that have big implications for the world at large. In the brain, they can detect things like neurotransmitters and electrical signals, and hopefully stop the hardest-to-reach tumors in the most protected part of the body. But the main question is — What do you hope nanotechnology will do for you?

Fullerene Nanogears. Fullerene is an allotrope, or form, of carbon perfect for use in nanotechnology.

Copyright: NASA

A diagram of the molecular structure of graphene. Graphene has wide-ranging applications, especially in studying the brain.

Copyright: Wikimedia commons

Inside Your Head | 29

Nanotechnology

Gain a basic understanding of nanotechnology and its potential in the world.

Materials Silicon

Silicon is a semiconductor, which means its conductivity an be finely tuned to whatever amount of conductivity that is needed. This makes silicon perfect for nanoelectronic applications. Silicon transistors are already being used in nanocomputers, and they could play a major role in wearable electronics.

Graphene is a sheet of carbon only a few atoms thick. Its carbonbased structure makes it perfect for biological applications like collecting data from inside the human body.

30 | Inside Your Head

Use 1 Targeted Drug Delivery

Many times, especially for something like cancer, doctors want to target only one particular part of the body, like a tumor.

Many times though, tumors in places like the brain are difficult to access without harming extremely important areas of the body. Nanotechnology could change all that, with the ability to penetrate difficult-to-access parts of the body; and because it’s so small, it will be able to a specific area and work there without harming any other tissues. This could radically change cancer treatments like chemotherapy, which causes a lot of pain by affecting everything in the body just to kill one tumor.

Use 2 Measuring Neurotransmitters

According to the National Library of Medicine, neurotransmitters, like serotonin, are the chemical signals used by your neurons to communicate with each other.

But most of the time, it’s very difficult to measure them, as most of the sensors that measure neurotransmitters are not biocompatible. Nanotechnology could bridge this divide by integrating silicon sensors with graphene sheets, which are thin and biocompatible. This could make it much easier to measure neurotransmitters, and so find out more about how emotions and mood are impacted by what our neurons send to each other.

Devices Using Nanotechnology

Computers

Computers use things like silicon nanotransistors, which are essentially off-on switches, to increase the processing power of the CPU, the core of a modern computer.

Soon, we could have small computers with more power than anything before.

Televisions

Many new TVs use a type of nanomaterial called quantum dots that reflect a more vivid color than what is directed at them, thus making TV color more vivid. This technology is being used by companies like Samsung and Sony.

Sources: Wikipedia, National Library of Medicine

Inside Your Head | 31

Written By: Drue Gillentine One of the most perplexing problems in neuroscience is neurodegenerative diseases, such as Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s. Several professionals weigh in on the best up-and-coming treatments to solve the problem of neurodegeneration.

In the year 2050, one American will be diagnosed with Alzheimer’s every 33 seconds, according to the Alzheimer’s Association of America, and there will be 11 to 16 million Americans and 115.4 million people around the world with Alzheimer’s Disease, a neurodegenerative disease that causes

cause of death in the United States, and currently there are no remedies or treatments that permanently prevent that neural degeneration.

“We have an amazing thing in our head; we just don’t appreciate it until it goes wrong, usually… and then

We have no drugs to treat almost any of these conditions

extreme memory loss. As of 2006, there were an estimated 50,000 new cases of Parkinson’s Disease,

you realize we have no drugs to treat almost any

a neurodegenerative disease that causes loss of motor

of these conditions because we don’t know how it

skills and cognition, diagnosed in the U.S. each year,

works,” said Dr. James DiCarlo, the Peter de Florez

and about 500,000 total.

Professor and head of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology Department of Brain and Cognitive

Neurodegenerative diseases like these are becoming epidemics. Alzheimer’s is currently the sixth leading

Sciences.

Degeneration of neurons in the brain can have

“For most neurodegenerative disorders there’s

many effects. These can be loss of memory,

hundreds of genes affected...it’s not as simple as

cognition, motor control, disorientation and

‘oh, one gene got broken and then if we just fix

possibly a loss of the ability to speak. One in nine

that one gene and figure out what that gene does

Americans over 65 are experiencing some forms of

we’ll cure the disease,’” explained Dr. DiCarlo.

these symptoms. Around the world, neurologists

“Many genes are involved. Many genes interact in a

and scientists are trying

complicated way to build

to figure out what causes

a complicated brain which

this degeneration and how

then later shows some

to prevent it. But even the

disruption in complicated

leading experts in this field

way.”

are unsure how to approach this issue. Almost all of

This is the main reason

the medication currently

why there are no

given to patients is made to

treatments. Neurologists

manage the symptoms of

are struggling to figure

the disease, but not to stop

out how to alleviate

the neural degeneration.

multiple problems within the brain in order to cure

A common treatment for Alzheimer’s Disease is cholinesterase

these diseases. There Drawing of the brain by Science over a Cuppa

inhibitors, but

are a couple of possible treatments undergoing tests and clinical trials right

instead of preventing disease progression these

now. But not many have then improved the status

inhibitors block the breakdown of acetylcholine, a

of the patient.

neurotransmitter that is important in new memory development, which makes it easier for the patient

“I would say that the largest unmet medical

to form memories. But this medication doesn’t

need right now for any indication is Alzheimer’s

prevent degeneration.

Disease. There’s not a drug out there that helps the

progression of Alzheimer’s Disease and there are

accumulated,” explained Rundle.

a lot of clinical trials underway to help with that,” said Dr. Joyce Suhy, vice president and head of

Another reason why neurodegenerative diseases

neuroscience at Bioclinica. Suhy mentioned a

are a problem is because it’s extremely difficult to

drug produced by Biogen, called Aducanumab,

diagnose them before major symptoms begin to

which is showing encouraging studies where it’s

show. When a patient has degeneration, it doesn’t

making a difference in the brains of patients with

happen immediately. It’s a long build up that

Alzheimer’s Disease. Suhy stated, “We won’t know

takes time. Consequently, it is difficult to treat a

until, of course, the trial is over how that’s going

disease after it has already had major impacts on a

to go, but for right now there’s great promise and

patient’s brain.

hold in that agent.”

This brings up another problem that neurologists Aducanumab has been shown to clear amyloid

are trying to solve. As Rundle said, “One of the

plaques, the accumulating proteins that are found

questions will be, is there any way we can identify

in brains with Alzheimer’s, and slow the loss of

patients that are going to develop this disease?

cognition in patients before they start to lose

What are the factors that make these patients

major memories.

more susceptible, or that makes them prone to have this disease?”

Another possible treatment is immunotherapy, says Dr. Valerie Rundle, a neurologist with Seton

Neurodegenerative diseases will continue to be

Medical Center, in Austin, Tex. Immunotherapy

a problem until neurologists and scientists can

is using the body’s immune response to prevent

figure out exactly how this degeneration takes

the disease. “There’s an abnormal protein

place, whom it takes place in, and how it can be

accumulating, and what we do is that we are

stopped. However, there are many treatments and

targeting that protein with a vaccine … Our body

ideas currently being developed that hold a lot of

kind of creates an immune response to that

promise for patients in the future.

abnormal protein and that way it doesn’t get

34 | Inside Your Head

How the neurons interact in the brain from Wholesome Emotial Recovery

Alzheimer’s Disease is found on chromosome 19, photo from National Human Genome Research Institute

Inside Your Head | 35

Image by pixabay