tokiokobayas's blog

    In organic chemistry, there is this concept of aromaticity that is very important in determining the stability of a compound. In order to determine if a compound is aromatic, anti-aromatic, or non-aromatic (there is a difference between anti- and non-), the number of pi electrons must be determined. This can be done very simply using 3 simple rules that follow a hierarchy system. This essentially means that out of the three rules, if one rule applies compared to the other, one of the rules will override the other due to it having a higher priority. The three rules are as follows; if a carbon is bonded to a double bond, then it’s counted as 1 pi electron. If the carbon has a lone pair of electrons, it is counted as 2 pi electrons. If the the carbon as a positive charge, then it is counted as 0 pi electrons. The priority of the rules follow the order in which the rules were explained earlier. For example, if a carbon was bonded to a double bond but had a positive charge, that carbon would be counted as 1 pi electron instead of 0. When a compound demonstrates 4n + 2 (n=number of pi electrons) pi electrons, then the compound is aromatic. If the compound is antiaromatic, it will exhibit 4n pi electrons. Any other number of pi electrons means that the compound is non-aromatic. In terms of stability, aromatic compounds are the most stable, non-aromatic compounds are the second most, and antiaromatic compounds are the least stable.

    To what degree is music theory necessary for modern music? Nowadays, there is a multitude of artists who have a very basic and crude understanding of music theory, and yet are able to succeed with the lack of it. This hasn’t been a modern phenomena either. There are some musical icons who are considered legends (like John Lennon) who were unable to read notation (something very basic) until very far into their careers as musicians. Currently there are artists out there who bleed music theory like Jacob Collier, who likes to play around with the boundaries of current theory to create new sounds and new music. A lot of Jacob’s music for example, plays around with polyrhythmic patterns like septuplets layered on quintuplets, with a melody following cut time (4/4). Yet when we look at modern day pop songs in comparison, for the most part they follow a simple 4 chord progression layers with electronic drum kits layered to form a beat. Some of it is a bit more complex with bass lines, vocal layering, and harmonics, but some of the best songs are really simple. The song “suede” by Anderson Paak for example, is a two chord progression throughout the song, yet was one of his most popular songs amongst the entire album.

     The axon hillock of a neuron is dense with sodium voltage-gated channels, which acts as a spike-initiation zone. Once the charge is increased significantly, an action potential propagates across the neuron in an all-or-nothing action. This means that once the signal is going to go through, nothing can stop it.
    Neurons have myelin sheaths along their axons which facilitate current flow. These are found in Schwann cells in the PNS, oligodendroglia in the CNS, and help with saltatory conduction. The space in between each myelin sheath is called a Nodes of Ranvier. When a neuron is sending an action potential, the signal jumps across nodes of ranvier, to allow faster propagation of the signal. If the insulation is lost, the conduction of velocity slows. This can be seen in multiple sclerosis, which is an autoimmune degeneration of myelin sheaths.

    Every once in a while, I will look through home decor and interior design. Recently, the rustic mediterranean aesthetic has become the trend and in almost every type of design in this category, there exists a pile of old books stacked up in some corner of a room. The idea is that the books are supposed to fill in “empty” space by giving the space meaning.
    Yet all of these books are books with worn down spines, all with covers in earthy tones with white, gold, or black texts. These books that are supposed to add “depth” to a room when in my personal opinion, add a “shallowness” instead.
    The reason why I believe so is because I believe the people who put these kinds of texts in their houses for an aesthetic, have no idea what the books are about; let alone what the title of the books even are. I believe books only add a depth into your library when you have read the book and know what the books lying in your house are about. I would much rather see books like Calvin and Hobbes lying around knowing that whoever’s house it is, knows how much Calvin hates his babysitter--or have a marketing book lying around and they can discuss viral marketing schemes or the importance of word of mouth marketing with me.
    If I were to pick up a novel in someone’s house and it reads “Amadeus and the Python”, I’m going to have questions. I find it ironic that if I pick up an object that’s supposed to make you look smarter and more sophisticated, you respond otiosely with “oh I just bought those because they look nice, I don’t read”.

    There exists a multitude of times when complexity is included in modern concepts for the sake of “information shortening”. Information shortening is a term that describes the action of using a smaller number of words to express the same information. For example, calling a cylindrical tube of mouthwash “toothpaste” is a form of information shortening.
    This concept exists in a multitude of ways. In science, acronyms are constantly used to talk about specific concepts, like DNA, RNA, qPCR, CDK, etc. It is undeniably easier to say “CRISPR” instead of specifically saying “CRISPR-Cas9”. These acronyms and short-hand forms of specific concepts are not what I want to talk about.
    What I wish to discuss about is when it’s being used in bilingual communications. I personally speak 4 languages, English, Japanese, French, and Korean. When I speak with my friends who can speak two of these languages, something interesting happens. We begin to mix words from both languages in order to convey our thoughts better. For example, I was speaking with a friend of mine who can also speak Japanese, and instead of saying “he didn’t like that”, I said “あいついかれていた。けど、it’s whatever”. The reason why this conveyed the thought better, was because using “あいつ” (which means “him/they”)  has a negative connotation with it (I didn’t like the person who we were talking about). Then “いかれていた” means annoyed, but to a degree that’s a bit more than annoyed but isn’t infuriated. It defines this sense of feeling that does not have a similar term in English. Then ending with “it’s whatever”, conveys this feeling of “I don’t care”, which does not have an exact translation in Japanese.
    By utilizing the two languages, I was able to convey a thought that was much more complex than what I could’ve done with only one. I think it’s interesting because this fusion of languages helps us understand each other better in a way that is not doable with people from only our cultures alone.

    At the University of Massachusetts, Amherst, there lies an interspecific interaction that in principle is dangerous, yet seems to be a regular occurrence for the majority of dormitories. At the university, access to the dormitories require a specific ID in order to unlock the doors. These ID’s are only acquired if a person is given permission to own one and is approved by the university. This includes paying expensive housing fees, attending the university itself, and paying tuition. In essence, there is a very high requirement in order to gain access into any of these buildings. Yet on the contrary, if you happen to catch a resident leaving the building at the same time someone else is trying to enter it, it is likely that the resident will exit the building, and then hold the door open for the other person so they can go inside. This occurs so frequently, that it’s very likely that if someone were to wait outside one of these dormitories, eventually someone will notice and invite them in. The buildings are so easy to get into, that it begs the questions as to why we have ID card authorization as a security measure. I hypothesize that its functionality serves as a formality, rather than as security like it was originally intended.

    At the University of Massachusetts, Amherst, there lies an infrequent interspecific relationship at all dining commons. Although the relationship occurs infrequently, it still occurs from time to time. Whenever students are dining at the dining commons, and in the kitchen glassware is broken, the sound is usually capable of reaching into the dining rooms where the students can hear it.
    When glassware or silverware is broken, it is sometimes followed by an applause. Yet this does not happen all the time. In fact, the reaction is quite inconsistent even amongst each dining commons.
    For example, in dining commons closer to the southwest region of campus, the applause is usually louder and cheering can typically be heard as well. Yet in dining commons closer to the northeast region of campus, the applause is much quieter (if at all), and usually consists of scattered clapping. Yet across all dining commons, a common factor includes the possibility of no clapping occurring.
    The reaction varies by the time of day as well. It’s much more likely that an applause is heard during night time, compared to day time. From personal experience and other testimonies from other UMass students, very few have actually heard an applause occur following the breakage of glassware during the day, yet at night it’s much more likely to occur.

    At the University of Massachusetts, Amherst, there lies an interspecific interaction that while in principle is dangerous, it seems to be a regular occurrence for the majority of dormitories. At the university, access to the dormitories require a specific ID in order to unlock the doors. These ID’s are only acquired if a person is given permission and is approved by the university. This includes paying expensive housing fees, attending the university itself, and paying the tuition.
    In principle, there lies a very high requirement in order to gain access into any of these buildings. Yet on the contrary, if you happen to catch a resident leaving the building at the same time you’re trying to enter it, more likely than not the resident will leave the building, and hold the door open for you to go inside. This occurs so frequently, that it’s very likely that if you were to wait outside one of these dormitories, eventually someone will notice you’re standing outside and invite you in.
    The buildings are so incredibly easy to get into, that it almost doesn’t make sense to have the ID card authorization a requirement to enter the building. It’s functionality serves as more of a formality, rather than security like it was originally intended.

    As I keep writing these varying drafts I’ve slowly started to notice how a lot of my other peers in this course are writing about scientific topics, whether that be about ocean acidification, feathers, the conservation of ecosystems, etc. I’ve started to become uneasy as maybe the possibility exists that I’ve been doing these drafts wrong, even though I’ve read the drafts PDF on Moodle several times and am quite confident I haven’t been doing anything wrong.
    It’s quite fascinating that even though I draft about topics that are more similar to journal entries, just because I see other people write about scientific subjects, I feel uneasy about continuing these kinds of drafts. What causes that uneasiness? Why do we have the feeling of uneasiness in the first place?
    Is it possible that the feeling of easiness arose as a way for us to signal to ourselves that we’re “out of place”, and that could be a detrimental component to our survivability? It’s interesting to see how biologically speaking we’ve evolved to go with the status quo, when nowadays it’s praised to go against it. Is it possible that we would eventually evolve to never feel uneasiness anymore, since maybe the future of society condones the idea of conforming to the point where it is more beneficial to not have that trait anymore?
    Then again, there are times when having that trait helps us continue to survive. For example, driving down a road with no lights in the middle of night, with no other cars in sights could potentially make you feel uneasy--and that would be for good reason. We are usually taught to make sure we are safe in whatever surroundings we found ourselves in, so it would still beneficial to own some uneasiness in that regard.
    To me, it seems that the feelings of uneasiness is similar to pain in the regard that no one wants to feel these feelings, but it’s important to be able to feel both of these sensations for our own survival.

    Recently I had just came back from Boston for the weekend, and needed to make myself some sort of meal in order to substitute my dinner (I had volleyball coming up in a few hours, so to eat a whole meal before it would be a bad idea). I remember I had half a loaf of ciabatta sitting in my dresser where I store all my dry ingredients, so I decided to make a bruschetta.
    Unfortunately, when I had began to slice into the bread, it was almost completely stale. This baffled me because I had only been gone for a couple of days. I’ve had bread sit around at home for almost a week and it’s still very fresh.
    This made me wonder, what causes bread to become stale? I know already that some sort of dehydration occurs, so leaving it in a paper bag was probably not the most optimal way of storing it. After some research, it turns out that the water in the starch moves towards the crust, causing the starch to become hard and crunchy. Yet why does the water in the starch move like that? Is it in some way similar to passive diffusion? Or maybe the crust of the bread is very electropositive, causing the water to be attracted and move out of the starch by that kind of interaction? I find it also interesting that the main reason is due to the loss of water in the bread as a whole. I would assume that if a loaf of bread was exposed to air, water would eventually evaporate out of the loaf, causing the bread to become stale overall. If the water moves towards the crust, then why is the crust still really hard as well? Is it because it’s easier for water to evaporate through the crust rather than through the starch itself?
    In my opinion, the entire mechanism of bread becoming stale seems a lot more complex than it actually seems. Is it possible we can use the same mechanism in other scenarios that end up becoming beneficial in a way? Not the dehydration part, because that is already being used in a lot of places (instant ramen, bouillon cubes, etc.) but the mechanism in which water “moves” from the starch to the crust. I feel like a similar mechanism is used for air-dry clay, but I’m unsure if the two are related.