Pub Date : 2024-01-11DOI: 10.3389/frym.2023.1257749
Flavie Detcheverry, Sneha Senthil, Sridar Narayanan, A. Badhwar
As adults get older, their body functions decline. This can cause a build up of harmful substances, called reactive oxygen species, which can damage the cells: the process is called oxidative stress. Luckily, the body uses superhero chemicals called antioxidants to fight against oxidative stress, with the most common being a chemical called glutathione. We were curious to know whether glutathione levels change with age, and how. In previous studies, some researchers measured glutathione levels in the brains of healthy individuals and in the preserved brains of people that had passed away. Other researchers measured glutathione levels in the blood. We analyzed all the results to see how they fit together. Compared to young adults, glutathione levels in older people were either higher, lower, or unchanged depending on the brain region scientists looked at. In blood, glutathione levels were usually lower with increasing age. This means that oxidative stress contributes to aging by damaging the cells in different parts of the brain and in the body, and that the superhero chemical provides protection by fighting oxidative stress.
{"title":"A Molecular Superhero That Helps Fight Aging","authors":"Flavie Detcheverry, Sneha Senthil, Sridar Narayanan, A. Badhwar","doi":"10.3389/frym.2023.1257749","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.3389/frym.2023.1257749","url":null,"abstract":"As adults get older, their body functions decline. This can cause a build up of harmful substances, called reactive oxygen species, which can damage the cells: the process is called oxidative stress. Luckily, the body uses superhero chemicals called antioxidants to fight against oxidative stress, with the most common being a chemical called glutathione. We were curious to know whether glutathione levels change with age, and how. In previous studies, some researchers measured glutathione levels in the brains of healthy individuals and in the preserved brains of people that had passed away. Other researchers measured glutathione levels in the blood. We analyzed all the results to see how they fit together. Compared to young adults, glutathione levels in older people were either higher, lower, or unchanged depending on the brain region scientists looked at. In blood, glutathione levels were usually lower with increasing age. This means that oxidative stress contributes to aging by damaging the cells in different parts of the brain and in the body, and that the superhero chemical provides protection by fighting oxidative stress.","PeriodicalId":73060,"journal":{"name":"Frontiers for young minds","volume":" 12","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2024-01-11","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"139625306","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2024-01-11DOI: 10.3389/frym.2023.1237191
Anthony Nasser
Do you ever think about how people can skip, hop, run, and jump? It is largely thanks to our incredible tendons! Tendons connect muscles to bones, with the special job of transferring the muscle’s power to the attached bones to help us move. Tendons are strong and do not change shape easily. This helps ensure our bodies move efficiently. Did you know that there are thousands of tendons in the body? The largest of all is the Achilles tendon, in the ankle. Whilst tendons are strong and resilient, they can become injured. The most common injury to tendons is called tendinopathy. Exercises are commonly used to treat tendon pain. In fact, exercise makes tendons stronger and helps people return to doing the activities they love.
{"title":"Can Exercise Help Our Tendons?","authors":"Anthony Nasser","doi":"10.3389/frym.2023.1237191","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.3389/frym.2023.1237191","url":null,"abstract":"Do you ever think about how people can skip, hop, run, and jump? It is largely thanks to our incredible tendons! Tendons connect muscles to bones, with the special job of transferring the muscle’s power to the attached bones to help us move. Tendons are strong and do not change shape easily. This helps ensure our bodies move efficiently. Did you know that there are thousands of tendons in the body? The largest of all is the Achilles tendon, in the ankle. Whilst tendons are strong and resilient, they can become injured. The most common injury to tendons is called tendinopathy. Exercises are commonly used to treat tendon pain. In fact, exercise makes tendons stronger and helps people return to doing the activities they love.","PeriodicalId":73060,"journal":{"name":"Frontiers for young minds","volume":" 11","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2024-01-11","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"139625903","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2024-01-11DOI: 10.3389/frym.2023.1286330
Shoham Choshen-Hillel, Yair Nahari
Distributing resources between individuals often leads to difficult dilemmas. Imagine, for example, a father who wants to give out five lollipops to his two daughters. He can give two lollipops to one girl and three to the other, which will make things unequal between the two girls. Alternatively, he can give two lollipops to each girl and throw away the fifth. This will maintain equality but will be wasteful. In this article, we will review recent findings on how children and adults resolve the tension between unequal distribution and waste. In particular, we will describe findings showing that children, and even adults, often waste resources to avoid inequality. This tendency develops at a young age and is observed in multiple countries. Finally, we will describe ways to distribute resources fairly without wasting them, which can make people feel good and avoid waste.
{"title":"The Dilemma of Dividing Five Candies Between Two Children","authors":"Shoham Choshen-Hillel, Yair Nahari","doi":"10.3389/frym.2023.1286330","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.3389/frym.2023.1286330","url":null,"abstract":"Distributing resources between individuals often leads to difficult dilemmas. Imagine, for example, a father who wants to give out five lollipops to his two daughters. He can give two lollipops to one girl and three to the other, which will make things unequal between the two girls. Alternatively, he can give two lollipops to each girl and throw away the fifth. This will maintain equality but will be wasteful. In this article, we will review recent findings on how children and adults resolve the tension between unequal distribution and waste. In particular, we will describe findings showing that children, and even adults, often waste resources to avoid inequality. This tendency develops at a young age and is observed in multiple countries. Finally, we will describe ways to distribute resources fairly without wasting them, which can make people feel good and avoid waste.","PeriodicalId":73060,"journal":{"name":"Frontiers for young minds","volume":" 11","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2024-01-11","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"139626657","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2024-01-11DOI: 10.3389/frym.2023.979294
Elisa Corti, Manuela Rizzi, Carlos B. Duarte, Emily Osterweil
Imagine that your mom just baked a pizza, and you immediately take a bite of it. Bad choice—it is really hot, and you burn your tongue! You learn a lesson from this experience, but what is happening in your brain? When the burning sensation reaches the brain, some brain cells, called neurons, become active and communicate with each other. Thanks to a process called synaptic plasticity, neurons can increase the strength of their communication and store new information. The next time your mom prepares pizza, the same neurons that were active the first time will start talking again, and you will know to wait for it to cool down before taking a bite. In this article, we will describe some properties of neurons and what happens to these cells when you create new memories. We hope that you will learn something new and share it with your friends, as neurons would do!
{"title":"The Play-Doh Brain: How Shapeable Neurons Help You Learn and Remember","authors":"Elisa Corti, Manuela Rizzi, Carlos B. Duarte, Emily Osterweil","doi":"10.3389/frym.2023.979294","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.3389/frym.2023.979294","url":null,"abstract":"Imagine that your mom just baked a pizza, and you immediately take a bite of it. Bad choice—it is really hot, and you burn your tongue! You learn a lesson from this experience, but what is happening in your brain? When the burning sensation reaches the brain, some brain cells, called neurons, become active and communicate with each other. Thanks to a process called synaptic plasticity, neurons can increase the strength of their communication and store new information. The next time your mom prepares pizza, the same neurons that were active the first time will start talking again, and you will know to wait for it to cool down before taking a bite. In this article, we will describe some properties of neurons and what happens to these cells when you create new memories. We hope that you will learn something new and share it with your friends, as neurons would do!","PeriodicalId":73060,"journal":{"name":"Frontiers for young minds","volume":"1 12","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2024-01-11","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"139438133","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Have you heard of ADHD? It stands for attention deficit hyperactivity disorder, a condition that makes focusing difficult. Under the right conditions, video games can be used to treat ADHD. People with ADHD often have a harder time completing tasks than people without ADHD. When playing a serious video game designed as a treatment, a person with ADHD can improve their ability to concentrate on completing a task. This works when video games are designed to reward the player after each success, because it trains the player’s brain to focus on one task at a time. In this article, we will provide an overview of attention and ADHD, discuss the benefits and risks of video games, describe the features of serious games, and highlight the first video game that doctors prescribe to kids with ADHD.
{"title":"Can Video Games Improve the Ability to Focus?","authors":"Celeste Gonzalez Osorio, Amaniya Hayat, Sunwoo Kim, Shubhi Nanda, Nico Osier","doi":"10.3389/frym.2023.1148196","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.3389/frym.2023.1148196","url":null,"abstract":"Have you heard of ADHD? It stands for attention deficit hyperactivity disorder, a condition that makes focusing difficult. Under the right conditions, video games can be used to treat ADHD. People with ADHD often have a harder time completing tasks than people without ADHD. When playing a serious video game designed as a treatment, a person with ADHD can improve their ability to concentrate on completing a task. This works when video games are designed to reward the player after each success, because it trains the player’s brain to focus on one task at a time. In this article, we will provide an overview of attention and ADHD, discuss the benefits and risks of video games, describe the features of serious games, and highlight the first video game that doctors prescribe to kids with ADHD.","PeriodicalId":73060,"journal":{"name":"Frontiers for young minds","volume":"86 12","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2024-01-10","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"139440635","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2024-01-09DOI: 10.3389/frym.2023.1107801
Colin Gregoire, Steve Majerus
Have you ever sat next to someone in class who cannot stop talking? You would like to focus on your teacher, but you cannot avoid listening to your talkative classmate. This is what inhibition is useful for! Inhibition is the ability to ignore, suppress, and resist irrelevant information coming from the environment or from our own minds. Inhibition is more difficult for young kids, is optimal in young adults, and becomes more problematic as we age. How does inhibition work? Why does inhibition change as we age? Can we train inhibition? In this article, we will try to answer these questions.
{"title":"Wait! How We Control Our Thoughts and Actions as We Age","authors":"Colin Gregoire, Steve Majerus","doi":"10.3389/frym.2023.1107801","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.3389/frym.2023.1107801","url":null,"abstract":"Have you ever sat next to someone in class who cannot stop talking? You would like to focus on your teacher, but you cannot avoid listening to your talkative classmate. This is what inhibition is useful for! Inhibition is the ability to ignore, suppress, and resist irrelevant information coming from the environment or from our own minds. Inhibition is more difficult for young kids, is optimal in young adults, and becomes more problematic as we age. How does inhibition work? Why does inhibition change as we age? Can we train inhibition? In this article, we will try to answer these questions.","PeriodicalId":73060,"journal":{"name":"Frontiers for young minds","volume":"38 3","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2024-01-09","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"139442954","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2024-01-09DOI: 10.3389/frym.2023.1096038
Emily Rowlands, Tamara Galloway, Kirstie Jones-Williams, Clara Manno
Antarctica is the least populated place on Earth, but the frozen continent and its surrounding Southern Ocean are still affected by human activities. Scientists have found large pieces of plastic such as fishing nets, and microscopic-sized pieces of plastic, too. Some plastics can be hundreds of times smaller than a grain of sand, and these are called nanoplastics. The Southern Ocean, which surrounds Antarctica, is also warming faster than other oceans and is becoming more acidic. Thus, Antarctic marine animals that have lived in an untouched, stable environment for millions of years are now being exposed to plastic pollution and human-caused climate change. We are studying how Antarctic marine life is coping with plastic pollution in this quickly changing ocean. We focus on Antarctic krill, a small crustacean that supports the Antarctic marine food web. Findings show that krill embryos subjected to ocean acidification and nanoplastics develop less than embryos in ordinary seawater conditions.
{"title":"How Might Plastic Pollution Affect Antarctic Animals?","authors":"Emily Rowlands, Tamara Galloway, Kirstie Jones-Williams, Clara Manno","doi":"10.3389/frym.2023.1096038","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.3389/frym.2023.1096038","url":null,"abstract":"Antarctica is the least populated place on Earth, but the frozen continent and its surrounding Southern Ocean are still affected by human activities. Scientists have found large pieces of plastic such as fishing nets, and microscopic-sized pieces of plastic, too. Some plastics can be hundreds of times smaller than a grain of sand, and these are called nanoplastics. The Southern Ocean, which surrounds Antarctica, is also warming faster than other oceans and is becoming more acidic. Thus, Antarctic marine animals that have lived in an untouched, stable environment for millions of years are now being exposed to plastic pollution and human-caused climate change. We are studying how Antarctic marine life is coping with plastic pollution in this quickly changing ocean. We focus on Antarctic krill, a small crustacean that supports the Antarctic marine food web. Findings show that krill embryos subjected to ocean acidification and nanoplastics develop less than embryos in ordinary seawater conditions.","PeriodicalId":73060,"journal":{"name":"Frontiers for young minds","volume":"95 7","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2024-01-09","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"139444521","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2024-01-09DOI: 10.3389/frym.2023.991723
Tamara Citlali Ochoa Alvarez, Antonio González Rodríguez
Natural systems are made up of countless interactions between living beings. One of the most essential interactions is when a plant is eaten by an animal. Why is this so important? When plants are eaten, their growth and ability to reproduce decrease, and we all know that plants are critical because they provide us with food, medicine, and wood. They also provide homes for other living things, produce the oxygen we breathe, keep soils healthy, regulate humidity, and contribute to climate stability. Plants have also developed smart strategies to defend themselves from animal attacks. Some plants have evolved protective structures like thorns and thick leaves, while others have produced defensive chemicals. Together, plant protection mechanisms can reduce or prevent the damage that plant predators may cause. In this article, you will learn many strategies plants evolved to protect themselves from plant-eating animals.
{"title":"How Do Plants Protect Themselves Against Animal Attacks?","authors":"Tamara Citlali Ochoa Alvarez, Antonio González Rodríguez","doi":"10.3389/frym.2023.991723","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.3389/frym.2023.991723","url":null,"abstract":"Natural systems are made up of countless interactions between living beings. One of the most essential interactions is when a plant is eaten by an animal. Why is this so important? When plants are eaten, their growth and ability to reproduce decrease, and we all know that plants are critical because they provide us with food, medicine, and wood. They also provide homes for other living things, produce the oxygen we breathe, keep soils healthy, regulate humidity, and contribute to climate stability. Plants have also developed smart strategies to defend themselves from animal attacks. Some plants have evolved protective structures like thorns and thick leaves, while others have produced defensive chemicals. Together, plant protection mechanisms can reduce or prevent the damage that plant predators may cause. In this article, you will learn many strategies plants evolved to protect themselves from plant-eating animals.","PeriodicalId":73060,"journal":{"name":"Frontiers for young minds","volume":"35 12","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2024-01-09","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"139442908","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2024-01-09DOI: 10.3389/frym.2023.1055909
Paula Meyer, Lena Szczepanski, Milan Büscher, Julia Schächtele, Florian Fiebelkorn
Think about what humans will eat in the future. Could you imagine eating meat produced without the extensive farming of animals? This scenario is not as unlikely as you might think. To protect our planet, we must reduce the irreversible damage we are doing to the environment. Eating less meat is a major part of this, because the way we produce most meat today has a tremendous impact on the environment. Plant-based meat alternatives are already available in stores, but it is hard to imitate the taste and texture of meat if no animals are involved. Therefore, scientists have been working on an alternative, called cultivated meat, that is made from real animal tissue but does not require the death of the animal. Cultivated meat shows great promise to become an environmentally and animal-friendly alternative to conventional meat. However, there are still limitations to cultivated meat products that prevent them from being sold in stores.
{"title":"Future Food—Can Cultivated Meat Save Our Planet?","authors":"Paula Meyer, Lena Szczepanski, Milan Büscher, Julia Schächtele, Florian Fiebelkorn","doi":"10.3389/frym.2023.1055909","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.3389/frym.2023.1055909","url":null,"abstract":"Think about what humans will eat in the future. Could you imagine eating meat produced without the extensive farming of animals? This scenario is not as unlikely as you might think. To protect our planet, we must reduce the irreversible damage we are doing to the environment. Eating less meat is a major part of this, because the way we produce most meat today has a tremendous impact on the environment. Plant-based meat alternatives are already available in stores, but it is hard to imitate the taste and texture of meat if no animals are involved. Therefore, scientists have been working on an alternative, called cultivated meat, that is made from real animal tissue but does not require the death of the animal. Cultivated meat shows great promise to become an environmentally and animal-friendly alternative to conventional meat. However, there are still limitations to cultivated meat products that prevent them from being sold in stores.","PeriodicalId":73060,"journal":{"name":"Frontiers for young minds","volume":"38 22","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2024-01-09","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"139442895","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2024-01-08DOI: 10.3389/frym.2023.1175538
Rebecca A. Pickering, Kristin Doering
Silicon is a crucial nutrient that can join with the element oxygen to form a substance commonly called silica. Silica, commonly known as glass, is found in rocks in the Earth’s crust and dissolves into the oceans, where organisms like algae and sponges use it to build their glassy skeletons. This process, called biosilicification, is extremely important in the silica cycle. Over time, organisms have changed the silica cycle. Today, because of these organisms, the oceans no longer contain much silica. However, when the Earth was younger and these organisms had not evolved yet, no biological processes affected silica in the oceans. The evolution of these oceanic organisms across time has removed silica from the oceans. In this article, we discuss how the evolution of silicon-using sponges, as well as tiny organisms called zooplankton and algae, have changed the amount of silica in the world’s oceans through geologic time.
{"title":"Did Algae Eat All the Silica in the World’s Oceans?","authors":"Rebecca A. Pickering, Kristin Doering","doi":"10.3389/frym.2023.1175538","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.3389/frym.2023.1175538","url":null,"abstract":"Silicon is a crucial nutrient that can join with the element oxygen to form a substance commonly called silica. Silica, commonly known as glass, is found in rocks in the Earth’s crust and dissolves into the oceans, where organisms like algae and sponges use it to build their glassy skeletons. This process, called biosilicification, is extremely important in the silica cycle. Over time, organisms have changed the silica cycle. Today, because of these organisms, the oceans no longer contain much silica. However, when the Earth was younger and these organisms had not evolved yet, no biological processes affected silica in the oceans. The evolution of these oceanic organisms across time has removed silica from the oceans. In this article, we discuss how the evolution of silicon-using sponges, as well as tiny organisms called zooplankton and algae, have changed the amount of silica in the world’s oceans through geologic time.","PeriodicalId":73060,"journal":{"name":"Frontiers for young minds","volume":"41 3","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2024-01-08","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"139444948","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
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