My Forensic Chemist Podcast

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Heart Disease Found in Acient Mummies!

Mummies. In this day in age, we think of them as dead Egyptians that are stored in really cool gold cases. Most people care about how the person has been mummified, but some scientists wanted to look deeper into the subject. Specifically, to find out how they died.

A Little Something You Should Know:
To be mummified, you were usually one who has a higher standing, for instance, Pharaoh of the King of the Egyptians, or a priest/priestess. The Egyptians consumed a hearty amount of beef, duck, and goose, which are foods that have plenty of protein, but full of saturated and trans fats. You cannot find out the diet of the mummy, but by what scientists know about the Egyptians 3,500 years ago, they ate those types of foods listed.

What the Scientists Found:

What scientists have found in a 3,500-year old mummy, is heart disease. Shocker, right? Most of you reading this are probably wondering, "What is the big deal about mummies having heart disease? People die from it everyday now this day in age." Which is exactly the point. Heart disease is a generally modern disease, which is why, this is a big deal. The main causes of heart diseases are smoking, unhealthy diets, or a sedentary lifestyle. For those of you how don't know what sedentary means, it means to have little or no exercise. Scientists first got into the subject of mummies having heart disease from when they went to the Egyptian National Museum in Cairo (the capital of Egypt) for a medical conference. They came upon a mummified Pharaoh who's description said that he had died from clogging of the arteries. Otherwise know as heart disease. As scientists looked deeper into the subject, they looked at mummies and in 16 of them, the found traces of blood vessels and cardiac tissue saying that the mummy, when alive, had heart disease. In four of the mummies, scientists could identify that the hearts had a disease.

How the Mummies Obtained the Heart Disease:
The reason why the mummies that did die from heart disease was due to the fact they consumed a hefty amount of cattle, geese, and duck. These are all filled with protein, but have saturated fats and trans fats.

In My Opinion:

This article was one of the most interesting things that I have ever come across. I usually would not care how the person who was mummified died, I would care about how you mummified the person who died. This makes you think deeper into the subject of mummification and how similar things were 3,500 to today. You can learn more about this article at:

http://www.livescience.com/history/091117-mummy-heart-disease.html
I found the picture at:
http://www.historyplace.com/specials/slideshows/mummies/mummies1.jpg

Do Cell Phones Really Cause Brain Tumors? That's a Tough Call.

On livescience.com, there is an interesting article that I thought might appeal to most people in the school, since most of us have cell phones. DO cell phones really cause brain tumors? Well, scientists say, "NO!" This topic is one of the most over talked about, over hyped topics there is in the news today. There are magazines, such as the Healthday that says, "...no overall link..." Even thought they have this in the magazine, they have a header that goes with it that says, "Study Suggests Link Between Cell Phones and Brain Tumors." Smooth move Healthday magazine!

This whole thing started when the director of the University of Pittsburgh Cancer Institute told his faculty that cell phones might cause a risk for cancer. Evidently, science has proven him wrong. According to a columnist for the Bad Medicine article, Christopher Wanjek, he says, "There's no convincing evidence that cell phone radiation can cause cancer. Nor is there a plausible biological and physical reason for it to cause cancer." Though, there are some scientists that do ask, if you are talking on the phone, that you use a headset. Unless people are driving, I highly doubt they are going to wear a headset.

Right on cue, the cell phone companies STRONGLY disagree with that. One cell phone company told the L.A. times that whether the answer is cell phones can cause a risk of a brain tumor is the matter of who you ask, or they said something to that extent. The truth to this rumor, is that more people are susceptible to it than others.

In My Opinion:

No one should be afraid of getting a brain tumor from your cell phone. There are many people who say that you will get one from using your cell phones, but chances are, you aren't. Quite personally, I think this was a rumor written by a mom who wants her child to stop talking on his or her cell phone because he or she talks too much. As for the Heathday magazine, I think they should try to start making sure what is in the article and what is in the header, more cohesive. All and all, I think this is a very interesting article for a person like me, who loves to talk, to read about. I found this article at: http://www.livescience.com/technology/091014-cell-phone-cancer-tumors.html

I got the picture from:http://caise07.idi.ntnu.no/gifs/cellphone.gif

Teen Brith Rates Climb High Religious States

I went to www.livescience.com and found an article that seemed, to me, of an bit oxymoron. The header read " Teen Birth Rates Higher in Highly Religious States". Some of the states who are on the top ten list include Mississippi, Kentucky, and Tennessee, all three states are highly religious, which begs the question, "Why would they have some of the highest teen birth rates in the United States?" Some of the babies are premarital. Others are not. Some researchers say it is because these states live differently than the rest of America. That the teenagers feel that they are responsible enough to have sex and that, due to their beliefs, will have sex without contraception. Others say that it maybe the teenagers who are not very religious or not religious at all, who are the ones getting pregnant. The researchers, at this point, just do not know. It is a topic that the researchers have not dug into deep enough yet to understand whether these teens are married or not.
In My Opinion:

This was a very interesting article to read about. However, I found that the more I read it the more upset and frustrated I became with the article and the The states involved in this. I did not like the fact that the highly religious people, who "never do anything wrong in the Lord's eyes", were the ones who this article was about. They all preach about how they will do no wrong towards the Lord and they were they have the highest birth rates. I know that they are human and that they make mistakes too, but I felt that it is a little hypocritical to say that you can do no wrong with the Lord and that some of the your teenagers are having premarital sex.I have to say, I am not liking the South right now. This was a very interesting and frustrating article. Please keep in mind for all of you who disagree with my article, this paragraph was in my humble opinion. You can learn more about this subject at:
http://www.blogger.com/www.livescience.com/culture/090916-religion-teen-pregnancy.html

The website that I got my picture off of was: https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgQA-abD3LFh9e8dCfrIqmR8QdLqmBJ2SFCqu51zzBGl8aMsBwuVaiWVKrUmkEU6Fk5uO-9gmixY4yBA6zE1-yDuAxylu7mgFyzVwbrTzVQ-oefRvc0VrinFFWGl97FDIxr4Zr1r2VRK40/s400/pregnant.jpg