Pain has been classified into several types: prickling, burning, deep or referred pain. They are all characterised by the different perceptions of the person suffering. There is however one more type of pain, which frankly is quite unusual - it is the phantom pain. Is is chracterised by tactile and movement perceptions that remain after amputation of parts of the body! This really sounds quite interesting, doesn't it? Apparently, adults are more likely to experience such pain rather that children. Hmm...

I'm only writing to confirm that revising for exams is beneficial indeed. Apart from gaining the knowledge, we find out lots of interesting information! This might sound dull, but I've never heard of what happened to Bob Dylan in 1997... Well, from my little revision folder I found out that he suffered from acute pericardial fungal infection! Interesting...

In one of my biodiversity lectures, my lecturer showed a very easy way of remembering the order of taxa classification. I thought, I'd write about it here, so all of you who find it a bit hard to memorise the order, could make some use of this tip. Here it is:

K ing
P hilip
C ame
O ver
F rom
G lorious
S pain

K ingdom
P hylum
C lass
O rder
F amily
G enus
S pecies

It's good, isn't it?
xx

I'm not sure if many of you are familiar with the above term, but it applies to biodiversity, more specifically means that animals are capable of predicting the quality of a patch they occupy in terms of food resources. What happens is, species of animals occupying a certain area distribute themselves between the several patches. I really wanted to mention this to show that clearly animals are "sensible" and I find it quite amazing how ideal they are in predicting the patch quality!

("ideal" means that the animals are ideal in assessing the patch quality and "free" means that they are capable of moving from one patch to another)

J xx

Right, I'm only writing this because I find some of the methods of counting the species simply interesting. In 1982, the Erwin study took place - basically Erwin desperately wanted to find out how many species are there in the world. Of course it would be rather impossible to count every single organism, therefore he decided to focus on beetles only. He particularly studied them in Panama and then later on did some more research in Brazil. Now, here is the part I am excited about: he fogged 19 types of trees over 3 seasons (this of course was in the tropical forests, because that is the area of the most heterogeneity of insects, particularly beetles) and then collected all the dead insects that fell off the trees. I had to write about this, because in my opinion this is such an unique way of approaching the desire to count up loads of different species of insects. Apart from all the dead organisms he managed to collect, he also considered the rest of insects living in the forest floor and then added it all up together. In the end he came up with quite a controversial amount, namely 30 million insect species in the tropical forests themselves! There have been quite a lot criticism from other scientists and beetle experts in reaction to Erwin's study. One of the most important issues regarding his research is the fact that Erwin could have underestimated biodiversity simply due to the fact that he was not aware of what amount of diversity of beetles from the tress he was sampling. Oh well, I guess it's not a really easy task to do... Currently, it is predicted that there are between 5 to 50 mln of species on Earth (1.5 have been already described).

xx

The vast majority of population is well aware of the Cretaceous-Tertiary extinction, which gained its recognition due to the disappearance of dinosaurs. It took place around 65 mln years ago and wiped out a huge part of the past flora and fauna. The suggested theory is commonly known too - the asteroid hitting the surface of the planet. The mentioned mass extinction however, was not the only one throughout the Earth's history. Interestingly, there are said to have been at least 5 mass extinctions throughout the planet's life. The other four include:

- End Triassic extinction - around 200 mln years ago, presumed to have been caused by lava eruptions and massive floods, 22% of life in the oceans vanished;

- Permian Triassic extinction - took place around 250 mln years ago, this was probably the most destroying one, it is estimated that 95% of all species existing back then disappeared from the surface of the planet, we need to bear in mind that life back then was not fully evolved and consisted mainly of organisms occupying waters, the causation is said to be a comet or asteroid striking the planet;

- Late Devonian extinction - happened around 370 mln years ago, cause is unknown also more details are hard to define;

- Ordovician - Silurian - around 450 mln years ago, caused by the drop in the sea levels and the forming of glaciers, followed by the melting of these and causing mass decrease in numbers of organisms;

Interestingly, some scientists argue that we are currently stepping onto the sixth mass extinction. Their argument is supported with various facts, such as the present biodiversity crisis. The action bioscience website lists the following reasons for the biological diversity loss:

- "human destruction of ecosystems
- overexploitation of species and natural resources
- human overpopulation
- the spread of agriculture
- pollution"
(http://www.actionbioscience.org/newfrontiers/eldredge2.html)

Let's hope the 6th extinction will be at least slowed down...
x

Yes the exams are coming up, and frankly I have not got much time left to revise. Although I have been quite a good girl and did lots of revision. Revision is what I want to write about briefly. I find it very amazing how some people start revising literally the night before the exam! I personally need at least two weeks to prepare myself both academically and mentally. And don't get me wrong, it's not like I have to memorise everything... I do work during the year and generally would feel confident if didn't revise... But my point is that I would not be able to leave everything until the last minute, because I would simply FREAK OUT! I know someone who does all his assignments or revision right before the deadline or exam and gets amazing grades. And on top of that - nothing phases him, he just goes into the hall and writes the exam. I absolutely cannot work like this. It's quite interesting that people approach essay writing/revising differently...

x

Well, this has not been confirmed yet, because costs a lot of money, but hopefully I will manage to do it this summer. What am I talking about? I am talking about the unbelievable opportunity of observing the amazing gorillas in the wilderness and spending some time with the Masai people in Masai Mara, all in Kenya! This will probably be the most exciting experience of my entire existence! Can you imagine? If I get to see the gorillas in their natural habitats, it will be like an anthropological dream coming true! It makes me shiver, even when I think about it! Right, let me calm down a bit... I originally was googling voluntary work in Africa, because one of my friends helped kids in Kenya with some basic things, such as sharpening pencils or teaching basic English. I wanted to do something similar and apart from all these institutions organizing voluntary work in Africa, I found a website of the Exodus, where they give people an opportunity of seeing the gorillas and visiting the Masai villages! I looked at it very briefly, and immediately felt it was my destiny!!! This is sooooo what I want to do, but I never expected I would be considering doing it during my undergraduate studies... Oh, please keep your fingers crossed! I hope I will cope financially and be able to go on this enbelievable trip!!!!!!!!!!!

http://www.exodus.co.uk/

xx

I have always been interested in biology. Nature is the most amazing feature of my live and focusing on it is actually of paramount importance for me. Biological diversity or anthropology, anything that relates to what lives on the Earth, really intrigues me a lot. Having studied biological sciences for ages, it makes me wonder how far can humans' ability to learn reach? I could say, I know more less all important aspects of biology, there are still however so many areas that I have not covered, and every single day I discover new bits and pieces and I so desperately do not want them to escape from my tired (revising for the exams...)brain. How much knowledge is there? Is it all possible that human brain is able to memorise the entire information about a particular subject? I think, it definitely depends on what subject we're talking about, but as far as I know, science has become so advance and of course keeps developing, that it will never reach an end. Every single day, interesting discoveries are being made, and the exact same ideas are approached in different techniques very often giving results that do not match each other... surprisingly. This is what makes science so fascinating! The possibitlies of discovering, testing and challenging!
x

For all biological anthropologists, osteologists or osteoarchaeologists who have not heard of the British Association for Biological Anthropology and Osteoarchaeology I am providing a link where you can sign up and become a member of this organisation. Yup, and it is so worth joining! All you ambitious people with millions of ideas will be able to present your papers and simply broaden and share your knowledge!

here's the link: http://www.babao.org.uk/

xx

While studying anthropology, I notice a lot of interesting things. One of them are different styles of writing ethnographies by different anthropologists. I am not generalising of course, but for example I noticed that British authors seem to be a bit detached and tend not to express their emotions or opinions on particular approaches of the studied culture. American authors on the other hand, sometimes get emotionally involved and become very closed with the native inhabitants of the place they are studying. I find both styles very inspiring...

Well, yes as I already mentioned in one of my previous notes, I have visited the beautiful country of Turkey. More specifically, I went to Istanbul. And yes I had the most awesome time ever. I absolutely loved the place. The geographical location and history make Istanbul a great spot for all who love learning new things and of course travelling. My anthropological studies influence nearly all my approaches and wherever I go, I tend to look at things differently. And that’s how it was this time. I could not stop thinking about the Muslim religion – Islam. I encountered so many interesting rituals, such as the prayers broadcasted from mosques 5 times a day! This in particular made me shiver  Then some others cultural approaches of the Turkish – such as the male and female differences in day-to-day actions or even types of clothing. I am starting to think I would be exciting to write my own ethnography, I would however like to work with some African indigenous peoples. We’ll see. Anyway, yup Turkey was amazing and I am finding it so hard to get used to the reality in England, especially that I have my final exams coming up soon… I don’t even want to think about them!!! Argh…

xxx

Sorry about the short notes, but I was in Turkey and didn’t have much time to write properly. I have found the last two notes quite interesting, so thought I would put them here.

“A recent study found that the romantic cliche of children disobeying their parents' choice for what type of person they should marry to be true.”

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/discussion/2008/04/10/DI2008041002354.html?nav=rss_nation/science

Right, this is probably the craziest thing I’ve heard recently. Some anthropologist at Florida Atlantic University “has used new reconstructions of Neanderthal vocal tracts to simulate the voice. He says the ancient human's speech lacked the "quantal vowel" sounds that underlie modern speech.” This is quite amazing, I am stunned by the things modern humans are able to create.

Do visit the link below in order to read the whole article, it’s worth it.

http://www.newscientist.com/channel/being-human/dn13672-neanderthals-speak-out-after-30000-years.html?feedId=online-news_rss20

Peter and I went to Port Lympne on Wednesday. I guess it was one of the spontaneous decisions, having been there before myself I told Pete all about it, and he seemed pretty amazed by the fact that you can go on a safari a kind of a real one… African Experience it’s called…
I do not support captivity ideas at all, I find them cruel and freedom-depriving, Port Lympne however is not a typical zoo, it’s a Park that has unbelievably lots of space and really has got this nice feeling to it. What I absolutely love about that place is of course, that endangered species of animals are bred there and released into their natural habitats. Even though I am always quite sceptical about this due to lives led differently in captivity and wilderness (such as people feeding animals, choosing mating partners, providing medical care etc., these you see are unavailable to the animals in the wilderness), stunningly staff at Port Lympne have successfully put animals back in the wild (animals are monitored and there is evidence they are mixing well with the indigenous inhabitants of their land, which is great). Every single species that visitors can observe has a note displayed somewhere outside their occupied area that informs of what numbers are left in the wild or if they’re extinct in the wild and all sorts of other information. It’s so good that Port Lympne spreads the awareness of dangers and ecological issues.
There is one more thing that I definitely need to mention, namely the gorillas. There was this metal box on the wall and had three holes on the top. I have no clue what the box contained, it could have been probably either water or some kind of a liquid food. Anyway, what happens is the gorillas want to get this something out of the box, but obviously they find it quite difficult to do this. Well, read carefully, we actually saw a gorilla pick up a stick, put it through the hole in the box, take it out with the food on the other end and consume it!!! I have never seen primates use tools in reality. I’ve only seen a few documentaries where chimps were using rocks to crack nuts open. I was absolutely stunned…

Yup, we had a great time!

xx

I’m sure you all have heard of Fairtrade products and know what this approach is about. I feel quite proud in a way of people that want to make difference in the world. We all enjoy having nights out with friends – drinking and eating. Not everyone, probably thinks even for a moment, how some products are made. But not in a literal, technological way, but what workers sometimes go through while producing the product. For example, farmers of Third World countries, live in terrible conditions that a lot of wealthy people cannot even imagine. It annoys me so much that some of the products I consume hide upsetting life stories. This is the reason why I support Fairtrade entirely. I admit that I’ve always drunk coke, but have recently decided to try my best to support Fairtrade approach. Fairtrade products are more expensive, but at the end of the day – aren’t they worth the price? By buying the products we can help these farmers with conditions of their day-to-day lives (their whole family’s)…. On the subject of coke, I attended an “Echo-Logik” party the other day (held at my university) organised by Conscious Consumers (love this name!) which had a beautiful aim – promoting Fairtrade! There I had a chance of trying the Ubuntu Coke, an alternative to the regular coke! And what is my impression? – no difference in taste at all, and on top of that it feels so good drinking it, because gives you an awareness of helping others, being fair. One can costs around £1, but again is totally worth the money. And I don’t really drink that much coke anyway, so once a week is not going to hurt anyone so I encourage you all to look for Fairtrade marks on shelves, and get at least 1 product, because it will make the difference. Fairtrade products are more expensive because:
- “the aim of Fairtrade is to pay a fair price to the producer and this usually means paying more;
- the aim of Fairtrade products has to include the cost of providing an international inspection system that can guarantee the Fairtrade standards are being met;
- the volume of Fairtrade sales is still relatively low compared to conventional products so there are not sufficient economies of scale to bring prices down substantially” (Canterbury City Council “Fairtrade Guide 2008”)

Are you a conscious consumer? Try to make the difference!

xxx

Will it ever be absolutely possible to create computer systems that are entirely alike humans? This is definitely not an easy question with a straightforward answer. Maybe I should distinguish here between - "is it possible" and "if it is possible then whether it will be a negative or positive invention". Well I don't regard myself a computer expert and probably never will, thus I have no idea how them clever people will make a human intelligent design. But, observing what is possible in today's world, it wouldn't surprise me if in tens or hundreds of years, there were robots walking around, sharing the world with Homo sapiens. Whether these would be exactly the same as humans is of course hard to define, but in my personal view - they won't. Human mind is extremely unique, we think in spontaneous ways and are able to give opinions, express emotions. To me, computers are represented by symbols and numbers; they are programmed to follow precise rules.

But we shall see...

xx

Well the end of the term is approaching… and what are my anthropological thoughts at this time of the academic year? Firstly, going to university is the most exciting activity you can ever imagine. The main reason for this is of course anthropological! You get to meet people from all over the world, which gives you possibilities of getting to know other cultures and customs, languages and behaviours. There is one thing I particularly love observing in my seminars. Apart from following the topic and listening to people’s interesting comments and discussions, I have been observing the human differences arising from various cultural backgrounds. I feel like I really need to mention the difference of the American and British style of leading seminars by lecturers. And I am definitely not generalising or judging here, just noting my observations! I have/had these two lecturers. One is American and the other one British. Their seminars are held in such different ways, it feels amazing. Also all students with various backgrounds seem to express themselves in different ways to others and vice versa. I am so happy I get to study anthropology. It is making me see the world in a way I’ve never seen it before. I notice things that are indeed very important and unbelievably beautiful!

xx

Just a few funny pics on human evolution It's hilarious what people can come up with...

http://www.cs.uni.edu/~wallingf/blog-images/humor/evolution-of-programmer.jpg

http://www.indiana.edu/~jah/teaching/2001_03/images/fs_cake_eater.gif

http://www.joe-ks.com/archives_apr2006/EvolutionOfMan.jpg

http://www.talkorigins.org/faqs/homs/march.gif

http://www.miqel.com/images_1/navpics/trans_human_evolution.jpg

http://z.about.com/d/politicalhumor/1/0/_/e/1/romney_evolution.jpg

http://www.jayspeaks.com/images/the_evolution_of_man.jpg

I wish I was good at drawing...

I cannot believe how many things our brain is responsible for. The most amazing capability that I admire so much is our ability to learn and fluently speak languages. I went to London the other day and apart from English I of course heard million different languages. Listening to those various sounds made me stop for a few seconds and think what an unbelievable phenomena this is. For example, I am myself of a different origin to English and able to speak three languages. Polish and English I have been exposed to since I was a child, but German I have been learning for ages and can speak it. I know a lot of other people that are able to speak different languages, and I find it so fascinating that we can communicate through the use of various words and sentences.

This was definitely one of the most enjoyable lectures I have ever attended! Yes dear readers, Prof David Bellamy himself gave an amazing lecture at my uni! How exciting is this? It was this Annual Darwin lecture, all important people came and it felt really nice to be there Prof Bellamy talked about natural history in general, the title itself was: "Natural History: It had to happen". He emphasised the importance of natural selection and showed how humankind smoothly fits into biodiversity. I loved how sceptical he was about global warming and have to admit that I was quite fascinated by this particular view. Namely, he does not believe in all those statements claimed by all sorts of scientists or environmentalists! Polar bear populations were said to be actually bigger than some years ago, not smaller and endangered, which I found pretty interesting, because most of the papers I've read so far claim that global warming is particularly threatening for the polar bears... which probably would be if it was happening! On top of his broad knowledge and experience, I was impressed by his cheerful personality. His jokes made me laugh my head off! It was such a very good lecture!!! you ought to wish you were there!

xx

Language is generally perceived as unique to human beings. Furthermore, communicating in sentences is quite complicated and requires big brains. Nearly all animals make certain noises, which are ways of communicating, but some of our amazing close relatives have been found to use a similar way of communicating to ours... Yes, "Researchers have found that monkeys combine calls to make them meaningful in the same way that humans do" (Highfield, R. 2008). Now, this can be a step in understanding evolution of human language! This study was carried out among wild putty-nosed monkeys of West Africa , the most impressive outcome is "mixing different alarm calls to communicate new meanings to fellow members of a troop" by these creatures! Scientists have noted that the monkeys make two specific noises: "pyows", that mainly warn about approaching predators such as leopards; and "hacks" used in the same way but with regards to eagles. Even though, the two sounds have particular purposes, they also get combined in order to mean something different - such as "let's go".

This does sound very convincing!

ref:
- Highfield, R. (2008) Monkeys communicate in sentences available electronically at: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/earth/main.jhtml?xml=/earth/2008/03/10/scimonk110.xml, accessed 16/03/2008 11:25 am

Unfortunately, some of my lecturers and other members of the department of anthropology will be leaving at the end of this academic year... I know, this is what happens everywhere, people come and go, but these lecturers are the ones I like in particular! This is very sad... It's quite funny how much I get used to people around me and find change quite hard to accept. Hmm...

x

Some researchers from Northwestern University and the University of Haifa have found biological reasons for girls' better language abilities than boys'. Overall, girls tend to have more abstract and boys sensory language processing. Biologically speaking, "both areas of the brain associated with language work harder in girls than in boys during language tasks, and that boys and girls rely on different parts of the brain when performing these tasks." (Leopold 2008). Brain activity, in this particular research, was measured by the use of functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI). Both gender groups were given visual and auditory tasks: "When visually presented, the children read certain words without hearing them. Presented in an auditory mode, they heard words aloud but did not see them." (Leopold 2008). In conclusion, language activation areas of the brain, were working more effectively in girls than in boys. This study might be quite helpful in teaching techniques in classroom. "Given boys’ sensory approach, boys might be more effectively evaluated on knowledge gained from lectures via oral tests and on knowledge gained by reading via written tests. For girls, whose language processing appears more abstract in approach, these different testing methods would appear unnecessary." (Leopold 2008)

ref:
- Leopold, W .(2008) Gender differences in language appear biological, available electronically at: http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2008-03/nu-gdi030308.php, accessed 8/03/2008 12:05 pm

This is something I have been thinking about since I started attending secondary school. Namely, following principles we all believe in/promote. I'm about to explain this in more detail...

Some beginnings of my "following principles" contemplating can be found in my early childhood, when I would always listen to my knowledgeable parents talking about the awful disadvantages of alcohol consumption, cigarette smoking and even staying up late. I remember it like it was yesterday: if you stay up late, you'll be very tired and your brain will not be able to help you think efficiently... etc. So there I was, being all good and following the adults' instructions, always in bed by 8 pm (up to about 10 yrs old of course). Having woken up in the middle of the night once, I marched through the living room, where... my parents were still watching TV. I sort of looked at them and repeated: if you stay up late, you'll be very tired and your brain will not be able to help you think efficiently.... They of course would always reply: oh, we're older and wiser, you're a child and you need a lot of sleep... Which of course was fair enough, but as kids start approaching puberty, most tend to get a bit rebellious, and I remember getting sooo annoyed with my parents doing all these forbidden things! Anyway... The massive question mark first appeared in my head when I tried smoking a cigarette. Being in love with biology and having some medical knowledge (actually even reading labels on cigarette packs), I always knew how "naughty" it is to smoke them. Yet, I still tried... at the age of 18... when I considered myself quite aware of stuff in general, you know what I mean, not a silly teenager anymore, but someone more grown up. I have no idea what it was that pushed my to try, but I guess the majority of us did at some point. Unfortunately I need to admit that I have smoked cigarettes for a few month later on in my early twenties... and until today I just cannot figure out W H Y. Now - lots of my teachers/lecturers/doctors, specialised in certain things, who so passionately promote some principles... did/do not follow them! Such as cardiologist smoking cigarettes or biologist talking about high blood pressure and then admitting he "stuffs" himself with cholesterol (and smokes on top of that as well!)... I find it quite interesting, that people passionately encourage others to do things, but themselves do not really follow these principles they so much believe in. I am sure there are particular reasons for this, maybe... addictive personalities. Very often I heard someone say: yes it is bad, but I've done it for 20 years and got heavily addicted, no you should not do it... Or is it something to do with laziness? Or just simply excitement (adrenaline in some harsh cases)? I am for example well concerned about globalisation, but find it to expensive to buy fair-trade products only and... yes I do drink coke... but I will work on this, because want to follow principles I stand for!!!

xx

ref:
-http://www.cartoonweb.com/images/globalization/globalization1.gif

Most of us are aware of what global warming is and its consequences. Apart from all scenarios predicted by environmetalists or other scientises or even plans that some politicians put forward, there seems to be another reason why global warming may have a negative impact on our planet and life on it. A recent article titled: Lesson from America’s tropical epidemic claims that global warming may cause spread of harsh diseases such as the yellow fever, “as the range of where mosquitoes, ticks, mice and other carriers of disease can live expands” (26/02/2008).

"It's a very ugly disease — things like eyes bleeding, nose, ears, some pretty gruesome symptoms," Crosby says. "But then it also causes internal bleeding. And one of the telltale signs of yellow fever is what they call 'black vomit.' It's from digesting internal bleeding." (26/02/2008)

oops…

x

ref:
http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=19241319&\1ft=1&\1f=1007