Early Birds or Night Owls

Are you an early bird or a night owl? Have you ever wondered why your sleeping patterns are what they are? New studies are showing that these patterns are hereditary, not just based on the environment that you’re in. Scientists have found that although you actions are controlled by your brain, your basic behavior including your mental clock, is genetically encoded, meaning that it is something you are born with in your genes. So you can predict how a person will act, just by looking at some skin cells. With these new discoveries come new possibilities. People are now starting to look into using this knowledge to create new medicine to help people with sleep disorders have more regular sleep schedules. Hopefully people with sleep disorders will sleep easy wit this knowledge.

Owen, James. "Early Birds, Night Owls: Blame Your Genes." National Geographic. 28 Jan. 2008. 30 Sep. 2008. <http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2008/01/080126-sleep-genes.html>.

"Smells Influence Dreams"

What if you could control what kind of dream you had. Scientist are now looking at something that could do just that. In a recent study, scientist found that if someone smelled a rose while they were asleep, they had more pleasant dreams while people who smelled rotten eggs had bad dreams. No, they didn't dream about roses or rotten eggs, just the mood of the dream changed. It is widely known throughout the scientific community that your sense of smell is closely linked to the part of your brain that deals with emotion, but this study even surprised specialist in that field. The study tested 15 healthy women (widely believed to have better noses) in thir 20s. When they entered REM (rapid eye movement) sleep, they got a ten second burst of scent, then were waken up 1 minute later and asked about their dreams. Only one person dreamed about the scent they were smelling. Some people are saying that if they had slept longer, the sent might have incorporated itself into their dreams, but no one knows for sure. More test will be conducted to address this and other theroies.

Carrol, Rebecca. "Smells Influence Dreams, Study Says" National Geographic. 23 Sep. 2008. <http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2008/09/080923-smell-sleep.html>.

"Palin's bubble: Will it bulge or bust?"

This article, found on MSNBC, addresses a question that most campain follower, especially democrates, have been asking. How long will Palin be front page news? Ever since to first primaries last year, the media has been favoring Barak Obama, even over Hillary Clinton. But after the announcement of McCain's running mate, the media has fled to Palin, leaving Obama in the dust. This has been great for republicans everywhere, the author argues. The publicity is helping republicans running for the house or senate secure seats that before were in jepordy. And, for the first time since this race started, McCain seem to have a major chance at winning. But be warned my republican friends, it isn't all good news. The "Palin effect" can't last forever. The author tells us that since the news is so favorable for the republicans now, if they can't come out on top in the polls, they will not win the election in November. This is as good as it is going to get. I don't know who will win in November, but be warned. A lot can change in 50 days.


Todd, Chuck. "Palin's bubble: Will it bulge or bust?" 18 Sep. 2008. <http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/26676452/>

Welcome

Hi, welcome to my blog. This blog is for outside reading in my Enriched English 10 class. I will try to update frequently, but I don't guarantee anything. Thanks for visiting. I hope you enjoy my blog (and if you don't, that's too bad).