Sci-Ed Update 333

Preparing A&P learners for uncertainty, watch the whole video to stay engaged, smart insulin, human variation resource, seeing through animal eyes, short walks consume more energy, gut health, more...

Nov 18, 2024

Reboot your immune system with intermittent fasting. Help your ‘good’ bacteria to thrive with a plant-based diet. Move over morning coffee: mushroom tea could bolster your anticancer defences. Claims such as these, linking health, diet and immunity, bombard supermarket shoppers and pervade the news.
Beyond the headlines and product labels, the scientific foundations of many such claims are often based on limited evidence. That’s partly because conducting rigorous studies to track what people eat and the impact of diet is a huge challenge. In addition, the relevance to human health of results from studies of animals and cells isn’t clear and has sometimes been exaggerated for commercial gain, feeding scepticism in nutrition science.
In the past five or so years, however, researchers have developed innovative approaches to nutrition immunology that are helping to close this credibility gap. Whereas nutrition scientists have conventionally studied the long-term impacts of loosely defined Mediterranean or Western diets, for example, today they have access to tools that allow them to zoom in on the short-term effects — both helpful and harmful — of narrower food groups and specific dietary components, and to probe the molecular mechanisms underpinning the effects of foods on immunity.

Kevin Patton comment→ The article goes on to give examples of recent research.

Walking in short bursts found to consume 20% to 60% more energy than walking continuously for same distance

A team of pathophysiologists at the University of Milan has found that climbing stairs or walking for short bursts allows people to consume 20% to 60% more energy than if they do the same activity nonstop for the same distance. In their study, published in the Proceedings of the Royal Society B, the group asked volunteers to walk on a treadmill or climb stairs while also monitoring their oxygen intake.

Kevin Patton comment→ The article goes on to explain the mechanism.

New camera technology lets us see colors of the world through the eyes of animals

https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pbio.3002444.g001

A new camera system is making it possible for humans to see colors in the way animals do, opening up a vivid new perspective on the natural world.
Led by researcher Vera Vasas, who has spent years studying animal vision, this innovative project is changing how we understand what animals actually see.
In collaboration with colleagues from the Hanley Color Lab at George Mason University, Vasas has developed a tool that lets us experience the world through the eyes of different species.

Kevin Patton comment→ I’ve found that a brief comparison of animal and human color vision helps students better understand what’s going on in the human retina.

Illustrated Encyclopedia of Human Anatomic Variation

This is part of a free digital library curated by Ronald Bergman PhD. It’s an awesome resource for proving that humans vary from each other much more than a standard textbook, atlas, or digital model can represent. Prepare to spend a lot of time browsing!

‘Smart’ insulin prevents diabetic highs — and deadly lows

Scientists have designed a new form of insulin that can automatically switch itself on and off depending on glucose levels in the blood. In animals, this ‘smart’ insulin¹ reduced high blood-sugar concentrations effectively while preventing levels from dropping too low.
For people with diabetes, controlling blood-sugar levels is a crucial — but demanding — task. Insulin keeps blood glucose in check, helping to prevent the many long-term complications associated with high blood sugar, such as cardiovascular disease, chronic kidney disease, stroke and blindness. A large proportion of the estimated 422 million people with diabetes worldwide require insulin injections.
But excess insulin can cause blood-sugar levels to dip too low, a condition called hypoglycaemia, putting people at risk of serious complications, such as loss of consciousness, seizures and even death. Even mild or moderate hypoglycaemia can cause anxiety, weakness and confusion. People with diabetes — particularly those with type 1 diabetes, who always need to inject insulin — can have drops in blood-glucose concentrations several times a week, says Michael Weiss, a biochemist and physician at Indiana University in Indianapolis. “It really impairs quality of life.”
For decades, researchers have been working to develop a system that can automatically adjust insulin activity based on the amount of glucose in a person’s blood. One common approach has been to make a compound containing deposits that release insulin when glucose concentrations rise. But a key disadvantage of this method is its irreversibility — once insulin is released, it can’t be reined in.

Watching full videos is a better fix for boredom than mindless scrolling, study finds

We’ve all done it: mindlessly scrolled through video after video on social media in an effort to stave off boredom. But according to research published today in the Journal of Experimental Psychology: General, swiping though endless snippets may actually bore us even more. Across seven experiments, which included more than 1200 participants, people consistently believed swiping from one short online video to the next—a behavior that academics call digital switching—would help alleviate boredom. But when they were asked to watch a single, 10-minute YouTube video of their choice through to the end, they reported feeling more satisfied and engaged and found the content more meaningful than switching between shorter clips or fast-forwarding through longer ones.

Kevin Patton comment→ Something to encourage our students to watch that WHOLE pre-class video that we’ve so carefully prepared for them…they’ll be more engaged if they do!

Preparing Learners for Uncertainty in Health Professions: A Handbook for Educators

This book serves to fill a critical gap in existing healthcare education resources, by raising healthcare professional and healthcare educators’ awareness of uncertainty tolerance. This handbook explores the impact health professions education (and educators) can have on the future healthcare workforce’s ability to manage uncertainty effectively, and provides practical approaches (including exemplar curricular templates) for supporting this essential workplace-ready, transferable attribute.

Kevin Patton comment→ This open educational resource can be downloaded at no cost at the link below.

The Uncertainty Effect with Michelle Lazarus

Dr. Michelle Lazarus, author of the new book, The Uncertainty Effect: How to Survive and Thrive through the Unexpected, joins host Kevin Patton for a lively discussion of of uncertainty in science, medicine, and academia.

00:00 | Introduction
00:50 | Dr. Michelle Lazarus
05:31 | Why Is Uncertainty Important?
17:49 | The Uncertainty of Teaching A&P
28:05 | Uncertainty and Inclusion
36:38 | Uncertainty and Risk
38:48 | Book: The Uncertainty Effect

To listen to this episode, click on the play button above ⏵ (if present) or this link→ theAPprofessor.org/podcast-episode-135.html

The A&P Professor Science & Education Updates

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