Science club

Kickin’, snatching, threatening, slapping sounds: that was what Anne heard when she was standing behind the wall. She was so heartbroken. She wanted to do something to stop the thieves who were hurting her father but she couldn’t do anything. What can an eight year old child do!

She was crying and thinking why is this world filled with these kinds of people?

You wanna know why? Then let’s begin!

Crime

A crime is an unlawful act that is punishable.

• Genes(a basic unit of heredity that transfers characteristics from parents to their children)
• Poverty
• Environment
• Parenting
• Drugs addiction
• Emotions

Let’s dive into details of each!

Studies have found that the two genes MAOA gene and Cadherin 13( CD13) are responsible for the criminal behavior of a person.

MAOA also called warrior gene basically codes for enzymes(a substance that speeds up a chemical reaction) that control the amount of dopamine(a chemical that makes you feel happy) and serotonin(a chemical that reduces stress) in the body but due to the mutation(change is genes) this gene causes aggressiveness. An abusive environment can cause negative changes in this gene that causes anger.

CD13 is the gene that can cause drug abuse and various neurodevelopment disorders in the human body.

Poverty:

Just imagine yourself as a child. You see the things that your neighbors or other people have but you don’t have and you want those things very badly. Will you not take any step to get them? Ofcourse! You would so for getting those things you’ll find a quick way to get them and you’ll simply steal. What’s easier than that!

Environment:

A child does what he sees. If a child lives in an environment where there are criminals and he spends time with them so he’ll think they are not doing anything bad. In such conditions, he is more likely to be a criminal like his parents or anybody else.

Parenting:

When parents scold their children, act strictly with them, don’t give them time, don’t show love, abuse them then their children feel so helpless and lonely that they try to find someone who loves them so they may choose someone evil and they may involve in crimes.

Drug:

Drugs can also make a person criminal because drugs reduce a person’s self- control and his ability to make decisions.

Is it possible to reduce crimes?

Yes, it is possible reduce crimes.

Here’s how:

If you are a parent then love your children and don’t keep that love in your heart express it so your children can know that you love them. Don’t compare your children. Don’t give priority to any one child. Provide your children with a non-violent environment.

If it’s possible for you then make a child educated. Because when he has education he’ll have a hope that he can earn with good means.

If someone uses drugs help him/her to overcome the use of drugs.

What steps can the government take to reduce the crime rate?

• The government can provide justice to people.
• It can make illegal weapons unavailable.
• It can reduce poverty in a country.
• It can reduce trade of drugs.

Emotions:

A human let himself be led by his emotions but some persons control themselves and others lack self control. The one who lacks self control may commit suicide or he may have a keen desire to take revenge. On the path of taking revenge, he may also take someone’s life which is also a crime.

Everyone has emotions but we should maintain our self control because everything can’t happen the way we want. it to happen. Right?

Olivia always wonders why her aunt smokes too much even though she knows it’s harmful for her. Then why! Do you also wonder why?

Here’s the answer but before knowing it you need to know about drugs.

Addictive Drugs

An addictive drug is a chemical substance that makes a person dependent on it.

Now let’s move to your question.

There’s a part of your brain called a limbic system that controls behavioral and emotional responses.

There’s a pathway in the limbic system called the reward pathway. This pathway links the different parts of the brain that control your feelings of pleasure.

When a person takes drugs, the reward pathway activates and neurons release dopamine ( pleasure chemical). As a result, you feel good.

When you see that drug again or even think about it, your hippocampus(brain part involved in memories) makes you remember the pleasure that you had when you took drugs. To get that pleasure again you try to take that drug again.

As you continue to take drugs, your brain reduces the ability of your cells to respond to the drugs. To get the same pleasure you’ll take more drugs and at a point, you will begin to use too much drug that you may die.

The names of some addictive drugs are given below:

• Alcohol
• Nicotine
• Marijuana
• Opioids
• Cocaine
• Heroine

What health problems can drugs cause in your life?

Addictive drugs can cause the following problems:

• Kidney failure
• Weak memory
• Reduced decision making ability
• Poor attention
• Lungs disease
• Increase in body temperature

Can drugs addiction cause suicide?

Drugs can intensify the feelings of loneliness, sadness and hopelessness that can cause depression. As a result, a depressed person can commit suicide.

What are the risk factors that cause the use of drugs ?

• Environment
• Hereditary factors

Environment:

If you have an abused environment, you are at a greater risk to use drugs. Because in these environments you can’t get peace and pleasure so for getting pleasure you use drugs.

If you have peers that use drugs then you may also start using drugs under the pressure of peers.

Hereditary factors

Hereditary means the characteristics that parents pass to their offspring.

If any of your family members is a drug abuser or has been a drug abuser so you are a greater risk to be a drug addict.

Drunken bee:

While understanding the principles of drug addiction, researchers found that bees have the same impact of drugs as humans have. When bees were given alcohol, they became calm and sleepy. In addition to this, they had a negative effect on their working performance and social behavior.

Aren’t they so much like humans?

Isn’t it possible to quit drugs?

Yes, it’s possible!

Below are ways that might help you:

• Don’t go to those places where you used to use drugs.
• Avoid going to areas where drugs are available.
• Learn how to control anxiety and other intense feelings like: sadness and anger.
• Be with your friends or family members who don’t use drugs.
• Make your relationship better with your family and friends.
• Exercise regularly.
• Keep yourself busy.

Some lines for you:

There’s a time when you’ll quit using drugs but it may be possible that you start using drugs again due to emotional pressure, physical discomfort, strong urge to use drugs etcetera. But the thing that you need to remember is that you should never give up because a person learns from mistakes.

Bacteria! Bacteria! bacteria! Everyone keeps on saying and talking about bacteria but what are bacteria? Where did they come from? Why do they hurt you?

So many questions! Take it easy, I’ll tell you everything.

Bacteria

Bacteria (plural of bacterium) are single celled organisms that are present everywhere.

A cell is the building block of life; it means all life starts from a cell. Some organisms have millions of cells but the bacterium has only one cell.

Bacteria also eat!

Some bacteria make their own food.

How? Bacteria make their own food by using sunlight, a gas called carbon dioxide, and water. This process of making food is called photosynthesis.

Some bacteria are choosy, they don’t like the food prepared from photosynthesis so they add chemicals like ammonia, nitrogen, sulfur and others in addition to sunlight, water and carbon dioxide. This process of preparing food is called chemosynthesis.

But some bacteria are lazy. They don’t make their food instead they eat already made products like substances from dead bodies.

Some bacteria are similar to you in this way because they also like eating already made food. By the way, I also like already made food.

So are you ready to see what’s inside bacteria!

I know you are ready so let’s start!

There’s a castle named bacteria with many walls and in the middle of that castle is a secret room where all the secrets and history of the castle lies. These walls protect the secret room.

The outer wall of the castle is called capsule. It helps the castle from drying out. Then there comes a wall called a cell envelope. This wall has three sub divisiond: cytoplasmic membrane, cell wall, and outer capsule.

They work together. Means that the cell wall protects the cytoplasmic membrane. The main function of the cell wall is to protect the castle from bursting due to high water pressure.

The cytoplasmic membrane is the innermost wall of the castle it protects the castle from inside.

Inside this wall, there’s a hall where the secret room known as nucleoid lies. That hall is called cytoplasm.

Now, the secret that lies in the nucleoid is: it has the information for the formation of a new bacteria. It also has the information of making different kinds of proteins.

Did you know the castle is also moveable? It moves with the help of a tail-like structure called flagella. Around This castle there lies hair-like structures as well that allow the bacteria to attach with other bacteria.

There are small substances in a bacterial cell called ribosomes. These ribosomes make proteins according to the information that nucleoid gives and then these proteins perform all functions in the cell.

Where did bacteria come from?

Scientists believe that bacteria came from an organism called thermophiles. These are the organisms that used to live on earth many many years ago when earth was too hot, acidic and had high radiations of the sun.

Then the temperature changed. Earth cooled down and these organisms changed(evolved) into bacteria.

Do bacteria talk?

Yeah, they do talk!

Let’s take an example: when you get a wound. The bacteria release chemicals. When these chemicals reach other bacteria, they come and attack the wound. When they are together they have qualities of some multicellular organisms. In this way, bacteria shut down when there are some antibiotics. When antibiotics are gone, they turn themselves on again.

Clever little creatures!

This process of communication between bacteria is called quorum sensing. The chemicals responsible for communication are called N-Acyl homoserine lactones.

How does your body protect you from bad bacteria?

There’s a system in your body called the immune system. This system protects you from bacteria.

Let’s understand how it works!

When any bacterium enters your body. Your body produces soldiers called antibodies. These soldiers fight and if they are strong enough, they kill that bacterium. At the same time, your body produces memory cells that remember that outsider (bacterium).

So if that outsider comes again your body will already have soldiers.

Vaccines work in the same way. But the difference is that the outsider is artificial, means that humans inject the weak or dead version of the virus in you. Then your body makes soldiers. So when the real virus enters in your body, there are already soldiers in your body to kill it.

Isn’t it amazing!

Are there any bacteria in space?

Yes, there are bacteria in space even some of the earth bacteria can also live in space.

Scientists found a bacterial species on the moon called streptococcus mitis.

This species also lives in your mouth. It can also cause infection in the inner surface of your heart which can lead to stroke, kidney failure, and backward flow of blood in your heart.

Do all bacteria look the same?

No, they don’t look the same. There are five basic shapes of bacteria:

• Spherical
• Rod
• Spiral
• Comma
• Corkscrew

Bacteria have different shapes for survival in different environments. Like the bacteria that attaches with your cells and damages them are rod shaped and have hairs on them which helps them to attach with your body cells.

Want to know some more about bacteria?

There are two types of bacteria:

• Gram positive bacteria
• Gram negative bacteria

The main difference between these two types is that gram-negative bacteria have an extra outer membrane to protect them from antibiotics(substances to kill bacteria or to stop their growth).

How were bacteria discovered?

Once there was a cloth merchant named Antoni Van Leeuwenhoek. He built the first microscope ever.

One day, he was studying pond and rainwater and he discovered little creatures in water. He called them animalcula—little animals. Those little animals were bacteria.

Are all bacteria evil?

No, some bacteria are good. These bacteria are called probiotics. They help you in faster digestion of food, they make your immune system strong and they also have many more roles.

Some of the names of these bacteria are:

• Lactobacillus Casei
• Lactobacillus gasseri
• Bafidobacterium lactis

From where will you get these bacteria?

These bacteria are present in cereal, soya milk, cottage cheese, and sour cream.

Evil bacteria

There are bacteria around you that only exist to hurt you but some of you are strong to fight bacteria but not all of you are strong. So if you are not strong enough then you have to be and I’ll tell you how.

Below are some bacteria that are responsible for most deaths:

• Campylobactor
• Clostridium prefrings
• E. coli
• Listeris
• Norovirus
• Salmonella

Sources:

• Raw milk
• Chicken
• Shellfish
• Turkey
• Contaminated water and food
• Beef
• Soft cheese made from raw milk
• Feces
• Eggs
• Nuts
• Uncooked fruits and vegetables

It doesn’t mean you stop eating them. It means that you should do the following:

• Drink boiled milk
• Drink clean water
• Cook food properly
• Wash hands
• Avoid eating raw food
• Wash your fruits properly

What harm can bad bacteria cause?

They can reproduce(make organisms like themselves) in your body and can release toxic chemicals that can damage your cells and cause illness.

Do you want to know why it’s so peaceful to hug your mom, dad or any of your loved ones?

Yes? It’s because of a hormone called oxytocin that is responsible for making you happy, lovely, calm, peaceful and creating emotional connections.

Do you want to know more about hormones?

Hormones are the chemicals that your body parts use to communicate with each other.

Looks like our body parts also chat!

Where do hormones come from?

There are cells in your body that make hormones. These cells are called endocrine glands.

After production where do hormones go?

When endocrine glands release hormones they travel through blood and reach the targeted cells.

Let me give you an example:

Take a deep breath.

You felt good?

Now let me tell you why. When you take a deep breath, you tell your brain that everything is alright. As a response, your brain releases oxytocin and you feel good.

How do hormones work?

The hormones bind with the molecules called hormone receptors that then produce response.

Just imagine hormone receptors as a lock and hormones as a key. When you insert the wrong shaped key in the lock, it will not open(produces response). But when you insert the right key it will open.

Just like this there are different shapes of hormone receptors. So a response will only produce if a right shaped hormone receptor will bind with hormones. It means if oxytocin will go to stress hormone receptors there will be no response.

What are the roles of hormones in your body?

• Start or stop of growth
• Wake and sleep
• Mood swings
• Immune functions—protection against bacterias.
• Digestion
• Fighting
• Running
• Hunger
• Reproduction—production of children from parents.

Do you want to know the details?

So let’s read together!

Start or stop of growth:

The growth hormone is also known as somatotropin. It breaks down fats and increases the rate of protein making for your growth.

There are pea-shaped glands in your brain called pituitary glands that release this hormone.

Head injury, brain infection and brain surgery can badly affect your growth rate.

Why do humans sleep at night not in the morning?

Because our brain releases a hormone called melatonin in response to darkness. As an action, we fall asleep.

That’s the reason why when you use a mobile at night with high brightness, you don’t feel sleepy.

Why do you sometimes feel happy and sometimes sad?

Your brain has a part called hypothalamus that releases a hormone called serotonin in response to a pleasant moment that then makes you feel happy.

Your sadness or stress is because of a hormone called cortisol. Your adrenal glands release this hormone. Adrenal glands are present on the top of each kidney and are controlled by your hypothalamus.

Do hormones play a role in digestion?

Yes, they do play a role in the digestion of food. Medulla—a part of brain— is responsible for the production of digestion hormone.

There are cells on the lining of the stomach that produce a hormone called gastrin. These cells release gastrin when you eat something. This hormone then triggers the release of hydrochloric acid in stomach; this acid is responsible for digestion.

Estrogen:

Estrogen is the hormone that is responsible for enhancing the immune system.

Adrenal glands make a small amount of estrogen. But the main source of estrogen is ovaries.

Why do your heart beat faster when you are scared?

This is because of the hormone called adrenaline. It increases your heart beat because it’s preparing your body for fighting or running faster than you usually do.

Adrenaline glands release this hormone. This hormone is released when you encounter some danger.

Reproduction and hormones:

Estrogen and testosterone are your hormones that help you in reproduction.

Testes in males releases testosterone that triggers the production of sperm cells and testosterone is produced in pituitary glands. Your body starts preparing testosterone at age between 10 and 14.

Estrogen triggers the production of egg cells and estrogen is formed in hypothalamus. Ovaries start producing egg cells between age 8 and 13.

When these egg and sperm cells come in contact they form zygote. Zygote then continues its growth in the mother’s womb and develops into a baby.

Did you see how much hormones are important for you?

So shouldn’t you enhance your hormone level? Of course, you should!

Here are the ways :

• Exercise regularly
• Eat healthy food
• Maintain moderate weight
• Lower sugar intake
• Reduce stress
• Get enough sleep

Why do your parents have such a strong bond with you?

Again it’s because of oxytocin.

How! It’s because when you and your parents had skin interaction, your body released oxytocin which created an emotional connection between you and your parents.

Do plants also have hormones?

Yes, they also have hormones.

Auxin is one of the hormones in plants. Auxin is a hormone that plants release as a response to sunlight which helps plants to bend towards light.

Plants stems and roots tips produce auxin.

But if hormones are responsible for growth then why do tall parents have tall children and short parents have short children?

It’s because of the genes ( structure that is responsible for transmission of characteristics from parents to offspring). The genes give instructions for the formation of growth hormones or any other hormone.

Some lines for you:

Do you think that the hormones that make you feel stressed, sad and scared should be removed? If yes, then these hormones are important because if you learn from them you’ll have improvements. Let’s say: you had a test and you didn’t do well as you wanted to and you became sad. That time you had to face pain. But if you would not have experienced pain then you have not worked more hard. So these emotions are bad for the short term but if you learn from them you’ll get long term benefits.

Eyre is 10 years old. She loves spending most of her time with plants. One day, she was changing the location of the pea plant. She noticed that the roots of the every pea plant are directed towards the lake.

She was so surprised. She told this to her mother. Her mother explained that plants can respond to sound vibrations. She got so excited that plants could hear.

What are plants?

Plants are the multicellular eukaryotes and have a cell wall.

Multicellular means having more than one cell.

Eukaryotes are the organisms with proper nucleus. The brain controls the human body and the nucleus controls cell.

Cell wall is the covering around the cell.

Can plants see?

Plants don’t have eyes like we do so they can’t see like us. But plants can sense light.

Researchers experimented and found that plants were bending towards the sunlight.have seen the sunflower bending towards light. Didn’t you?

Have you ever seen the sun flower bending towards light?

There’s a video for you to see how sunflower moves towards the sun.

Do you want to know how plants detect light?

Plants have photoreceptors—a structure in living organisms that is responsible for detecting light— that are located on the leaves of plants. These photoreceptors are responsible for observing sunlight that then helps plants to grow.

can you see the plant’s structure with me?

So let’s begin!

Plants have:

• Roots
• Stem
• Leaves
• Reproductive system

Roots

It’s a part of a plant that is under the ground for the absorption of water and minerals (solid substances) from ground.

Stems

The stem is the connection between roots and the leaves. It helps in the transfer of water and minerals to leaves.

Branch

The stem further divides into branches. These branches help in the transfer of food, minerals and water in the plant.

Leaf

Leaf is the outgrowth of a branch. The leaves are those parts where food is formed and a gas called carbon dioxide from air enters into plants.

Reproductive system

Reproduction means the development of an offspring from a parent and reproductive system is the system of organs and parts through which the process of reproduction occurs.

The reproductive system includes these parts of a flower:

• Stamens
• Pistil
• Sepal
• Petals

For knowing the details click here: https://cooldata.science.blog/2022/08/24/flowers/

Do plants eat

Of course, they do!

What do they eat?

Plants eat glucose and starch.

Plants take water and minerals from the ground and carbon dioxide from the air. They cook these ingredients with the help of sunlight and make their favorite food called glucose and starch. They also release oxygen for us during this process.

Looks like plants are great chefs!

How do ocean plants cook their food?

In oceans as sunlight is less so plants can’t cook their food alone. So they take the help of a bacteria called cyanobacteria. And this bacteria further takes help from proteins called phycobiliproteins. These proteins help in the absorption of light for plants.

Can a plant smell?

Oh yes! Plants do smell.

A botanist named Daniel Chamovitz experimented. In this experiment he put a dodder vine pot in between the wheat plant pot and tomato plant pot. He noticed that the vine was going towards the tomato.

Looks like plants are choosy too!

But how do they smell?

Plants don’t have a nose so they release chemicals in the air. These chemicals turn the genes—gene is a structure that is responsible for transmission of characteristics from parents to offsprings—on, as a result a plant responses.

Read this, https://cooldata.science.blog/2022/08/26/genes/ if you want to go in depth about what genes are.

Now don’t think that plants can also feel pain! If you have thought then no they don’t feel any pain.

From where plants came on land?

Land plants have come from blue green algae that is present in the ocean.

With the passage of time, plants adopted some changes for survival in the land’s environment. They developed roots (as land was dry), stems, leaves and the two copies of each gene (if sun radiation damages one then another can carry out functions) and lignin—it’s a molecule that makes efficient tissues so that they don’t leak the fluid.

Can plants feel the touch?

There is a plant known with many names like touch me not, shame plant and mimosa pudica.

Whenever you touch the shame plant it will close its leaves. So it means plants do feel when you touch them.

How can this happen?

When we touch these plants they release chemicals. These chemicals get the water out of the leaf and store it in the base of the leaves. As a result, it closes.

Do you know some plants eat meat?

Don’t worry, they will not eat you; I am talking about insects.

Venus fly traps are one of those plants.

Let’s know how it eats!

First, it produces sweet juice called nectar to attract insects. Then when insects come, it closes and eats them.

What a clever plant!

Let’s know a little more: these plants have small hairs. When a crawling insect touches its one hair it closes a bit and if that insect touches its other hairs in 20 seconds it closes more. If the insect is large then the insect will touch its other hairs within 20 seconds and it will close itself completely. But if the insect is small then that insect will not be able to touch its hairs in 20 seconds so it will not close. In this way, venus fly trap doesn’t have to waste energy on less nutritional meals.

Isn’t it smart!

Once a marine archeologist was measuring the area of the ship wreck under the water. Suddenly, he spotted a village.

Archeologists continued their research on that village and they found remains of rectangular houses, hearth-places, and well.

They also found some bones of wild animals in the well. Scientists assumed that: maybe some people threw the bones in the well when it was out of use.

When they examined the houses, they found the burial of a woman and a child. They found that they were suffering from tuberculosis—it is an infectious disease that is caused by bacteria and affects lungs, but it can also damage other body organs.

There were also skeletons with ear damage. Scientists assumed that it was because of the cold water. Near those skeletons, they found some arrowheads, blades and axes. It was looking like they were going to hunt for fish.

Studies have shown that this city was drowned due to a tsunami that was caused by a volcanic eruption— it’s a process in which lava and gas comes out of a volcano.

The name of this city was Atlit-Yam that was present in Israel. And it’s age is between 8900years and 8300years.

Isn’t it interesting? I have more interesting information for you but first just have a look at the definition.

Underwater city

These are cities that might have been sunk due to tsunamis or earthquakes.

Let’s continue our journey!

Pavlopetri, Greece

This city is unique because it’s the only city that has complete towns, streets, buildings and tombs. It was discovered by Nichols Flemming. Scientific studies have found that this city is about 5000 years old.

It sank due to earthquakes.

Baia, Italy

The ultra wealthy people only used to take a trip to this city. It was a fun place for the Roman empire.

This city was also famous for its unlawful acts.

The water level around the city kept rising and one day there was a volcanic vent—it is an opening in Earth’s surface from where lava, steam and gas come out— that rose water level even more that caused the city to sink.

Who wants to hear the tale of this city?

You? So let’s begin:

There was a woman named Julia. Her husband was the king. They had a son named Nero. Julia wanted his son to be the king so she poisoned the king. Somehow, he survived. Then she continued his tricks and one day she gave him the poisonous wild fruit. He died. And her son became the king.

Port Royal, Jamaica

The old name of the port royal was Tiano. Here people used to live peacefully. But then Spain attacked there and captured it. After that, the British attacked and they took over the land and gave it the name of the port royal.

After that the Spanish pirates came over and started attacking. Due to this bad situation, the British called the other pirates to be on their side. They helped them and captured the city. Then these pirates started living there and getting richer day by day.

Then the situation got better and the Jamaica government felt that there is no need for pirates to protect the city so they killed all the pirates.

The time kept on passing and one day an earthquake came and the city sank. According to scientists this city is 513 years old.

Lion city, China

Lion city is located under the Qiando lake. Once it was the hub for politics and economic matters. Then the government started a project for making a dam there. They wanted to make the way of water through this city. The government emptied whole city. And it was purposely flooded. It’s about 1300 years old.

Heracleion/Thonis, Egypt

The divers discovered a warcraft under the water. Then the archeologists began to research. And they found a city that was named as Thonis.

This city was ruled by Pharaoh and it was constructed on the delta of river Nile. This city was famous for it’s trading facilities. Scientists also found very valuable things there like: gold coins, statues, Jewelry, ceramics, ritual objects and architectural elements.

Scientists found that this city was sunk due to an earthquake and this city is about 27,000 years old.

How do scientists know the age of these cities?

There are three methods for knowing the age of old things:

• Radio carbon dating
• Luminescence dating
• Uranium-thorium-lead dating

Radio carbon dating

When organisms are alive some of them take in carbon and some take out. But, when an organism dies it stops taking in or out carbon. But there are some carbon atoms left on the surface of dead things that may be reduced to nitrogen. So what scientists do is they measure the amount of these atoms left and they put these values into a formula to find out the age of that object.

Let’s say there’s a plant and it has 18 grams of carbon left.

Scientists know that the half life of carbon is 5,730 years. Half life of carbon means the time taken by carbon to become half of its original amount.

Then what will happen is that:

18g➔9g➔4.5g ➔2.25g ( it means three half lives)

How old: 3×5730= 1,7190

That plant is 1,7190 years old.

Isn’t it fun?

Luminescence dating

It’s the method of knowing the age of non- living objects that are buried under the ground like coins.

The objects that are buried under ground have stored energy. When they are exposed to light, they give out their energy in the form of light and get ready to store energy again. So by knowing how much energy they release, we can calculate their age.

Uranium-thorium-lead dating

Scientists use Luminescence dating method to measure the life of rocks that are the most old objects on Earth.

Uranium and thorium decay into lead. So scientists measure the amount of these elements in the rocks and calculate their age just like they do in carbon dating.

Once there was a nice couple living in a house along with their kid named Neville. One night, they heard a child crying. They went out and saw a child on the road. They picked it up. They searched around but there wasn’t anyone. They named him Alex and loved him as Neville. Every night, their parents tell them stories. One day, their father saw that Alex was reading by himself. He was amazed that only a four year old boy could read. Then his father went to Naville to see if he could read too but he couldn’t, even he was also four years old.

But, how could Alex read and Naville couldn’t?let’s know this together.

Intelligence

It’s the ability of the brain for understanding, learning, planning, and problem solving.

It means Alex is more intelligent than Naville as well as he is a gifted child.

Now let’s see what a psychologist named Robert J.Sternberg said about intelligence in his theory.

Triarchic theory

In this theory, he has described three types of intelligence:

• Practical intelligence
• Creative intelligence
• Analytical intelligence

Practical intelligence

It’s intelligence that helps a person to spend a better life in his environment. This intelligence increases as he gets different experiences.

Creative intelligence

In this type of intelligence, a person has the ability to make new things from the old ones.

Analytical intelligence

A person rich in this intelligence has the ability to do well academically. This type of person scores more in class than his peers.

How can you have practical intelligence?

Well, some people born with this. But others have to generate this in themselves. For generating it, the best way is to learn from your mistakes and keep on improving. It’s the way of getting success in practical life.

How can you have creative intelligence?

Again some people are born with this. But if you are not born with this then you need to listen to creative people, read creative books, be confident, don’t be afraid of making mistakes, and come up with new ideas.

How can you have analytical intelligence?

This is also inherited– it means you get this from your parents. But if you want to be good academically then you have to join debate teams, read books to know the writer’s opinions, go in depth of a problem to solve it, try brain games, and do maths as much as you can.

Are there any factors that affect intelligence?

Yes, there are.

• Heredity
• Environment

Heredity

Heredity means transfer of characteristics from parents to children. Scientists have observed that children inherit intelligence between 57% and 73%.

Environment

The environment of our home, school, and anywhere we stay matters. Studies have found that the children living in poverty are less intelligent than the children of upper class families. The reason for this is the lack of nutrients, resources, and health facilities. Due to these issues the brain can’t develop well and children face intelligence problems.

How is the brain involved in intelligence?

Scientists are not yet sure but the most acceptable theory says: intelligence is dependent on the efficiency of connections between frontal–a part of the brain that is responsible for movement, language, planning, and power to achieve a goal–and parietal lobe–a brain region that manages sense of smell, taste, touch, hear and sight.

How do scientists examine our intelligence level?

There are tests that are made to test your intelligence. These tests are known as IQ tests.

But, how do they calculate?

It’s the ratio of a person’s mental age to chronological age multiplied by 100. Let me give you an example.

There’s a girl named Jane. Her age is 14 and according to IQ test her mental age is 16 then this will happen:

16÷14×100=114

It means her IQ level is 114.

It’s so easy!

Can you increase your mental age?

Of course you can! Here are the ways:

The more you learn and use your brain the more connections between your nerves cells(cells that help your body parts to communicate with each other and with brain) will form so try puzzle, drawing, and maths.

One other way is exercise. Along with making you physically strong it will also make you mentally strong. It also improves cholesterol level( cholesterol is a waxy substance in your blood that improves immune system, acts as antioxidant, helps in digestion and so on), improves blood flow, and reduces mental stress.

Now let’s see how exercise works:

Research has found that exercise increases blood vessels that bring more oxygen to the brain regions that are responsible for thinking. It also increases connections and numbers of nerve cells.

Why does everyone say that when you’ll be 18 years old you get mature?

Studies have found that at age 18, your brain is at its peak in processing power and memory capacity.

Gifted child

Mom’s searching and calling: Alice, Alice, Alice. Her mother found her crying on a school bench. Her mother hugged and asked her why she was crying? She said: nobody likes me, i have no friends, everyone says you are different.

Her mother has noticed Alice herself that she is different so she got worried she thought maybe she has some brain problem. She brought her to a psychologist. The psychologist took an IQ test of Alice and found that her IQ is 130. Then they understood why she is different She is a rare and gifted child. She can think that others can’t.

For your comfort let me define what a gifted child is: a gifted child is a child that is born with above average abilities that others don’t have. A gifted child can have an IQ ranging from of 115 to 160.

Few lines for you

Some children are born with talents and others don’t. If you are not born with natural abilities then you can generate them. If you want to do something and you don’t have abilities then you have to work on it and put effort in it.You only have a single life so keep on trying till your dreams get real.

What are you waiting for? Go and start now!

Once upon a time there was darkness everywhere. In this darkness, there was only a small spot containing a lot of power and energy. One day it burst and formed a universe.

Universe

The universe is everything like: stars, galaxies, planets, black holes, you, me, energy, matter and even time.

Are you ready to know the details of these objects!

Stars

When gas and dust combine together due to gravity, they form stars. It takes about millions of years to make a star.

Planets

After the star formation, there is always some matter left around the stars. This matter keeps on combining and forming planets. That’s the reason why earth is revolving around the sun(a star).

Galaxy

The galaxy is a group of stars, planets, dust, gasses and black holes. And these all objects stay in a group due to gravitational pull–the force of attraction between all masses in the universe.

Black holes

These are holes in the space where gravity is so strong that even light can’t escape from them. Black hole is formed when a star collapses in itself.

If black hole is black then how do scientists know it’s present?

They know this because its gravity keeps on pulling dust and gasses in itself till it fills enough and bursts. And one more thing is: when a black hole and a star are revolving near each other, black holes consume energy of stars that produces a lot of light.

Will the universe be of the same size as it is today?

Once there was a scientist named Edwin Hubble, he used the world’s largest telescope and observed that galaxies are expanding and it will keep on expanding due to a mysterious force called dark force. This force works oppositely as gravity means that gravity pulls everyone and dark force pushes everything away.

How did scientists know that the universe came from a tiny spot?

Belgian astronomer Georges Lemaître used Hubble‘s amazing discoveries to suggest an answer to this astronomy question. He said that if the universe is expanding then billions of years ago, it might be so small.

The space is really big! How do scientists measure distance there?

There are different ways of measuring distance there such as:

• Trigonometry
• Parallax
• Standard candles
• Supernova brightness
• Galactic red shift

Wait! We are going to understand them one by one.

Trigonometry

It’s like the trigonometry that you use in school. But it is only used for small distances.

Parallax

It’s the real size and distance of objects to one another and the distance of the size of objects from the observer’s eye.

Standard candles

We can measure the magnitude of a star by its mass. And by comparing this magnitude( how bright it looks to us) we can calculate distance.

Supernova brightness

It’s a two star system. In this one star dies and other lives. Dead star take energy from the living one. When it’s taking energy, it releases a lot of light. So scientists measure this brightness and calculate the distance of galaxies.

Galactic red shift

When light is moving away from us it looks red and when it’s coming towards us it looks blue. This is called red shift. By plotting different red shifts and known distances, it’s possible to know the distance of far galaxies.

Why are some planets large and some are small?

Some planets are small due to heat. In high temperatures, atoms and molecules of the planets escape that’s the reason why mercury is small.

What’s the reason for the difference in gravity?

Some planets have more gravity than others because of their masses. More mass means more gravity. That is the reason why the moon has less gravity than earth.

Why do some planets have an atmosphere and some Don’t?

It’s also due to the heat. When there is more heat, atoms move with very high speed so they can’t form an atmosphere.

Does life exist somewhere else?

Well, yet no planet has been discovered that can have life but it’s possible that some planets may have life. Who knows!

Just imagine yourself as an ant. You are in a building and you are looking for a new life. You couldn’t find any life in that building and you are saying “we have searched dozens of floor tiles, we haven’t found any life”. We are just ants in front of the entire universe and we have just researched a bit but it’s not enough. So we can’t conclude that life exists somewhere or not.

Last day of this universe

There are many hypotheses regarding the last day but a hypothesis named ” Big Freeze”is gaining the ground. It says: the universe will keep on expanding and one day the energy needed for the star formation will reduce to zero and then black holes will dominate and as time passes, they will also vanish by emitting Hawking radiation– it’s a radiation that reduces energy and mass of black holes. Because of this radiation, black holes will not have any energy left so they will shrink and ultimately vanish.

Have you seen a movie in which a person controls others by hypnosis? Yes? Cool, but the reality is hypnosis doesn’t work in this way. Then how it works! I am going to tell you.

What’s hypnosis?

It’s a condition in which focus and response to suggestions increases. In this state a human is half-conscious.

Did u see what it really is?

Don’t worry, we’ll go into details as well!

How does it work?

Imagine, there is only water and rocks under you and you are standing on a bridge. If you don’t pass that bridge soon a lion will eat you who’s chasing you. But, you are scared of heights. How are you going to pass! But a voice is coming and it’s saying cross it. Cross it. You can do it. You are special. A time came when you finally passed it and you are saying: yes, I did it! And suddenly it fell and the lion drowned away. Yes! Victory.

It’s how hypnosis works. Your psychologist will tell you to make such images and that voice will be his too. And once you face your fear, it will not look scary anymore. And it’s not necessary that you’ll get over your fear over one night. It will take some time alone with your efforts. A psychologist alone can’t do anything.

Other benefits of hypnosis

It can help you with the following:

• Quit smoking
• Free from anxiety
• Loss weight
• Free from fear
• Get over embarrassment

You want to know how Hitler benefited from hypnosis? Ok, read this:

At the end of the first world war, Hitler experienced hysterical blindness__it is the sudden loss of sense of vision due to anxiety. Then he studied a lot about hypnosis and went to a psychologist. He hypnotized him. And during hypnosis he suggested to him that you have great powers that can cure you from hysterical blindness. And the amazing thing is, he recovered himself.

As it’s a brain process so we should also know what happens in our brain during hypnosis. What do you think?

Scientists have found that there is a region in our brain called the dorsal anterior cingulate cortex__a part of the brain that controls emotions, behavior, learning, choice making and conscious functions__ that becomes less active during hypnosis. Scientists also found that in the brain the regions that respond to suggestions become more active.

Fact and myths about hypnosis

A person can’t make you do what he wants because you know what’s happening around you. You only do what you want to do.

Not everyone can be hypnotized. A person that can easily go to the imagination world is more easily hypnotized.

None can hypnotize you till you want to be.

Warning

There are many people who will offer you hypnosis but you should first research whether he is really an expert or not. If you don’t go to an expert you can face these problems:

• Dizziness
• Headache
• False memories
• Stress
• Drowsiness

How to know if someone is an expert?

You can find an expert by asking people that have already been to him. Or by asking different questions to that person.

What else you need to know

Hypnosis can be used for evil. There are people out there who can use you. They can make you think that: everyone else is just a thing, you are superior and you have to make them die. They will make you do this by hypnotizing you through fear, repetition of words and many other means.

What I mean by repetition of words is: you have heard your country’s leaders saying the word “change”. They repeat this over and over because it develops an image in your mind of the change that you want. You think that this leader will bring your desired change and you get attracted towards him.

Where did hypnosis come from?

The journey of hypnosis started from a German physician who believed that there is some force inside the human body that influences human beings that was named as “animal magnetism”. It was rejected by other scientists but it also influenced some scientists because it helped many people to recover from certain mental problems. Then a scientist came named James Braid and he introduced the term “hypnosis” which means “sleep”. Then scientists found that it has nothing to do with sleep instead sleep and hypnosis has a thing in common that is external focus.

By watching this you may have experienced how much your will matters. If you want, you may have stopped staring at it. It’s your will who makes you do whatever you do none can make you do as they say till you want to.