Since I want to become an optometrist, I wanted to discover what would happen if you placed a paper over a lense that was shining the image on a screen. The image becomes dimmer. This is becase the paper is covering half the numeber of photons that are coming in through the lens, making the image less bright. Blocking a portion of the lense reduces the number of phtons that are refracted by the lens, which relates to the intensity of the image. Intensity related to brightness which explains the dimmer image. Lenses are very cool to learn about. There are many different kinds of lenses, convergent and divergent. These lenses change the placing of the image, as it could be virtual or real, depending on the type of lens. 

Today I wanted to speak about phone usage before bed. My parents always told me to never bring my phone in my bedroom, and I always found that funny that they would tell me that. Now that I am older I understand why they told me this. Not only does it disturb your sleep but it also is very bad for your eyes. Looking at a bright screen before bed disturbs your sleep waves, and it disturbs your deepest sleep phase, also known as Rapid Eye Movement sleep. This part of sleep is very important as it can help develop the brain of an enfant. It is also the part of our sleep where we dream which takes up about two hours.  recommended by doctors, it is important to get rid of your phone two hours before bed. this will ensure a good night sleep.  Lastly, it is important to not look at your screen before bed, because the blue lights are too heavy on your eyes. Blue light has a negative affect on your eyes and it is important to put your phone on “yellow light “ night mode settings if you do plan on using it before bed.

I am intrigued by psychology, even though I am a biology major. One thing I want to learn more about is anxiety. My mom has anxiety and I would like to know more about it. Firstly, there are many kinds of anxiety disorders. I wanted to only hghlight two as the list would be infinite to name all the anxiety types. The main one is general anxiety disorder.  This kind of disorder proves thatt the person will feel anxiety everyday or most days for at least 6 months. The things they will be anxious about can be anything, such as health, work, social interactions or just small thngs that happen during the day. These fears and anxieties can cause significant problems in areas of their life such as social interactions, grades, or athletic performance. Panic disorders on the other hands happen by panic attacks. These panic attacks come from tightness in the chest and the individual can just feel anxious for a triggering reason or it may be for no reason at all. During an attack, the individual may be screaming, trembling, shaking, hyperventilating, etc. 

There are three types of point mutations. There are missence mutations, nonsense mutations, and silent mutations. Missence mutations happen when there is a change of a single base pair. This tiny change causes te substitution of a different amino acid in the protein. This small letter change may have no effect, if the individual is lucky, but it may render the protein malfunctional. An example of this would be sickle cell anemia. Second type of point mutation is nonsense mutation. This leads to an early stop codon. Unfortunately, when there is an early stop codon, the protein as a whole cannot be fully developed. This would be very bad if this protein is necessary to the individual. Lastly, silent mutation. This one is very interesting as it actually is not bad for the individual. This kind of mutation changes a base pair, but the amino acid stays the same, as some amino acids have different base pair letterings, but pair for the same protein.

Viruses are genetic material inside a protein coat. To be more specific, there  is a caspid, and some viruses can have an envelope which is outside of the capsid. It is interesting to know that viruses are actually not alive, not like bacteria. They contain DNA and RNA. Bacteriophage, is the process of viruses infecting bacteria. There are fiive phases of virus replikcation. The first is attachment, in which the virus attaches to host. The second is entry, when the viral genetic material enters the host. Thirdly, there is the synthesis of new viral particles, it uses host machinery to build new viral genetic mterial and protein coats. Almost there, but second lastly, assembly of viral particles. and lastly, there is an explosion, which is a burse/release from the host

Recently, one of my teammates got a concussion as she tripped and fell and banged her head against a hard couch. This resulted in her having a moderate concussion in which she needs to be absent from school for a week and refrain from any physical acitvity. I wanted to to focus my writing on concussions today as it is something I have not done much research on. Concussions are brain injuries that result in a temporary loss of brain function. It alterates your brain function, and sometimes the patient will not be aware of what day it is, at severe cases what year it is. A concussion can affect many things such as memory, reflexes, balance, speech and muscle coordination. More  than 300,000 concussions are sport related, usually being Hockey or Football. Additionally, it is very common in soccer as they can bonk heads with another player, or even on the ground after a hard fall. Symptoms include headaches, an inconsistancy of thoughts, and difficulty looking at a screen. Unfortunately, concussions are hard because once you get a single concussion, you are prone to get another one very easily. Thankfully, rest is key, and doesn't need any further medications. Recurrent concussions can however be unsafe, and can result into Chronic traumatic encelphalopathy, also known as CTE. 

Lebanon is currently crying as there are massive forest fires occuring and it is very unspoken of. It started in the Blazes, and it started in Lebanon's western mountains.  Heavy smoke was seen over Beirut and the city of Sidon. This was the worst fires that Lebanon has been in the history of its' fires. The areas most heavily affected were in the Chouf and Metn regions, in the lush Mount Lebanon range, Greece is responding to the wildfire by sending two planes. Additionally, there is heat waves, and this is abnormal for October in Lebanon. 

I went to Haiti in Febuary and decided to use that as my topic tonight. Haiti may be suffering with poverty and a lack of food, but they are happy as the culture and the people hold them to place. They are extremely happy in their country (minus the current government), but together they unite. They have been united since 1804, when Haiti declared independence. There are many statues of Jean-Jacques Dessalines in Haiti and the citizens of the country take pride in him, as I have asked them. I met a couple guys during myvisit who have family in the United States (thus they can move there), but when I asked them why they wouldn’t go there, they said “How can I leave Haiti”. Thus, what holds them to their country, despite the hardships, are the people. Haiti also has a wide variety of wildlife, but is very near to the equator, so it makes it a little harder, as species like to be cool. It is however it is one of the most biologically significant countries of the world. I would like to go back and discover the flore and fauna.