Featured Discussions - SCI-ART LAB2024-03-28T14:33:29Zhttps://kkartlab.in/forum/topic/list?groupUrl=some-science&feed=yes&xn_auth=no&featured=1How scientific illiteracy can harm you...tag:kkartlab.in,2017-04-02:2816864:Topic:1449492017-04-02T06:42:23.074ZDr. Krishna Kumari Challahttps://kkartlab.in/profile/DrKrishnaKumariChalla
<p><span> Interactive science series</span></p>
<p></p>
<p>“Science literacy is a vaccine against the charlatans of the world that would exploit your ignorance.” — Neil deGrasse Tyson</p>
<p class="author-p"><a href="https://quotefancy.com/neil-degrasse-tyson-quotes"></a></p>
<p><span>Q: After reading your articles on …</span></p>
<p><span> Interactive science series</span></p>
<p></p>
<p>“Science literacy is a vaccine against the charlatans of the world that would exploit your ignorance.” — Neil deGrasse Tyson</p>
<p class="author-p"><a href="https://quotefancy.com/neil-degrasse-tyson-quotes"></a></p>
<p><span>Q: After reading your articles on <a href="http://kkartlab.in/group/some-science/forum/topics/is-post-truth-another-name-for-science-communication-failure">post-truth</a> </span> and <a href="http://kkartlab.in/group/some-science/forum/topics/the-science-of-politics">the-science-of-politics</a> , I am asking this question: How do people of religion, politics etc. manipulate things to make people make bad decisions on issues like climate change, GM foods etc.?</p>
<p><span>Krishna: In the scientific community, we give some examples to make general public understand how this Manipulation could be done. One of these examples is the story of Dihydrogen Monoxide Hoax.</span></p>
<p>A student wanted to test how people's opinion can be manipulated. </p>
<p class="gmail-qtext_para">In 1997, a 14-year-old boy did a science-fair project around this. He surveyed 50 random people, and asked if dihydrogen monoxide should be banned.</p>
<p class="gmail-qtext_para">He told them that this chemical:</p>
<ul>
<li>Causes skin burns in its gaseous form.</li>
<li>Is a main component in acid rain.</li>
<li>Can be found in cancer cells.</li>
<li>Can kill if inhaled.</li>
<li>In its solid form, was a major contributor to the Titanic sinking.</li>
</ul>
<p></p>
<p class="gmail-qtext_para">Not only does Dihydrogen Monoxide have all of the negative effects listed above, it has so many more harms.</p>
<ul>
<li>It is found in all unhealthy fast foods</li>
<li>Overconsumption of it will kill you</li>
<li>Prolonged exposure to its solid form can damage your skin</li>
<li>It’s given to terrorists before their missions</li>
<li>It is found in human urine and faeces</li>
<li>It’s an industrial strength cleansing agent</li>
<li>It’s extremely addictive; quitting the addiction can often cause death</li>
<li>In the United States, around 10 people die from inhalation of Dihydrogen Monoxide every day: from 2005–2014 there were 3536 fatal incidents of Dihydrogen Monoxide Inhalation in the U.S.</li>
</ul>
<p class="gmail-qtext_para">It’s just as dangerous outside of human contact</p>
<ul>
<li>It is widely agreed that the main cause of the Titanic’s sinking is Dihydrogen Monoxide, though the fact is not widespread outside of scientific communities</li>
<li>It can contaminate many chemicals</li>
<li>It accelerates bacteria growth, so care is sometimes taken to remove it during an experiment</li>
</ul>
<p class="gmail-qtext_para">It’s also everywhere.</p>
<ul>
<li>All of our water resovoirs have been found to contain this substance</li>
<li>Newborns are found to already contain Dihydrogen Monoxide in their bloodstream</li>
<li>Traces of Dihydrogen Monoxide has been found in clouds</li>
<li>It is a component of contrail - “jet trails”</li>
<li>Not even the distilled water you buy from chemists is safe as they often contain this substance</li>
<li>It has been found in ancient glaciers</li>
<li>The level of Dihydrogen Monoxide is high for most sources of groundwater tested</li>
<li>Dihydrogen Monoxide can be found on the ocean floor</li>
<li>Traces of Dihydrogen Monoxide has even been found on Mars!</li>
</ul>
<p class="gmail-qtext_para">The majority of people who had consumed Dihydrogen Monoxide had been found dead at some point.</p>
<p class="gmail-qtext_para"><b><i>A resounding 47/50 people the student surveyed after telling them these 'differently told truths' said that it should be banned totally!</i></b></p>
<p class="gmail-qtext_para">2 people were undecided, and 1 was a strong supporter of dihydrogen monoxide.</p>
<p class="gmail-qtext_para">Now...get ready for the twist in the tale...</p>
<p class="gmail-qtext_para"><i>Guess what dihydrogen monoxide is also called?</i></p>
<p class="gmail-qtext_para"><span style="color: #800000;">H2O. Also known as…<b><i>Water. </i></b></span></p>
<p class="gmail-qtext_para">Obviously, water should be banned, according to 94% of the population, the student surveyed.</p>
<p>Why did they think so? Because the student tried to trick them into believing that water is harmful. Please go through once again what the student had told about water to manipulate their minds. Each point is correct in 'certain conditions' but not that relevant in our right use of water daily!</p>
<p><span>The </span><b>dihydrogen monoxide hoax</b><span> involves calling water</span><span> by the unfamiliar chemical name "</span><b>dihydrogen monoxide</b><span>" (</span><b>DHMO</b><span>), and listing some of water's effects in an alarming manner, such as the fact that it accelerates corrosion and can cause suffocation. The hoax often calls for dihydrogen monoxide to be regulated, labeled as hazardous, or banned. <span style="color: #800080;">It illustrates how the lack of scientific literacy</span></span><span style="color: #800080;"> and an exaggerated analysis can lead to misplaced fears in the scientifically illiterates. </span></p>
<p>That is what happens if you are not aware of scientific facts. People can manipulate your mind in any way they want and that is what politicians and people of religion in certain countries are trying to do.</p>
<p><span> In the late 1990s when a 14-year-old student, Nathan Zohner,</span><span> collected anti-DHMO petitions for a science project about gullibility (1).</span><span> The story has since been used in science education to encourage critical thinking</span><span> and avoid the appeal to nature</span><span> fallacy (<span> is an argument </span><span>or rhetorical tactic </span></span> in which it is proposed that "a thing is good <i>because</i> it is 'natural', or bad <i>because</i> it is 'unnatural' .</p>
<p>We, the science communicators, are fighting a tough battle to make general public realize this.</p>
<p>Importance of science literacy ...</p>
<p class="qtext_para"><b>(i)</b> science literate citizens have greater knowledge to make evidence-based right judgements about everything</p>
<p class="qtext_para"><b>(ii)</b> are better equipped to take advantage of ideas that may improve their quality of life, and</p>
<p class="qtext_para"><b>(iii)</b> are able to recognize frauds effectively and avoid harm associated with them.</p>
<p class="qtext_para">After reading this article people asked me to give more examples. So here are some...</p>
<p class="ui_qtext_para">Q:Your article "How scientific illiteracy can harm you" gives a good picture of our state of mind. Can you give more examples to convince more people? </p>
<p class="ui_qtext_para">Krishna: Sure. People 'mistake' one medical condition for another one. One person had a severe kidney malfunction. His feet were swollen. When I asked him to visit a doctor immediately after seeing his symptoms, he said, ' No need to visit a doctor. Last night I was sitting at my desk the whole night. That's why my feet look like this. Today I would go to bed early, the swelling will disappear by tomorrow morning!" And when it didn't, I had to convince him a lot to go to a hospital and when he finally did, his condition required immediate dialysis as he had a severe kidney malfunction.</p>
<p class="ui_qtext_para">Another one had a heart problem. As he has asthma too, he didn't take his 'breathlessness' seriously. Again I had to goad him to see a heart specialist after noticing his symptoms which told me he had more than 'mere asthma' when they didn't respond to regular-using inhalers and nebulizers. My hunch was correct. He had pericardial effusion and the resultant irregular heart beats. </p>
<p class="ui_qtext_para">There are some other real life stories that tell you why science knowledge is important in other areas. Like this one...</p>
<p class="ui_qtext_para"><img src="https://qph.fs.quoracdn.net/main-qimg-59fd775a1e70144e6f6e2db97995e3a2"/></p>
<p></p>
<div><p class="gmail-ui_qtext_para">DO you know why the hair on these boys' heads is raised like that and is standing like grass growing on Earth?</p>
<p class="gmail-ui_qtext_para">Because they are about to be stricken by lightning! Science tells us <span>it’s best to crouch down with your shoes touching the ground, but a bad idea to lie flat on the ground.</span></p>
<p>Here is the position the Boy Scouts of America teaches boys to use when in this situation.</p>
</div>
<p><img src="https://i.stack.imgur.com/x6hGp.png" alt="enter image description here"/></p>
<p class="ui_qtext_para"><span>Understanding science can save your life. Failing to do that can kill you.</span></p>
<p class="ui_qtext_para"></p>
<p class="ui_qtext_para"><span>If a lightning storm catches your group in the open, spread out so that people are at least 100 feet from one another. Further limit your risk by crouching low with only the soles of your shoes touching the ground, and take off your hat if it has any metal parts. You can also use your sleeping pad for insulation by folding it and crouching upon it.</span></p>
<p class="ui_qtext_para"><span>Why does your hair raise and warn you before lightning strikes you? Your hair is responding to the electrical potential difference that has occurred between the Earth and the clouds. The earth (which you are standing on) is positively charged and the cloud base becomes negatively charged. Once the potential difference is large enough nature will seek to equalize the imbalance and a large flow of electrons occurs...lightning. You can simulate this by taking a plastic comb and rubbing it on a wool sweater. Which gives it a charge. Then pass the comb near your hair. You will get the same result.</span></p>
<p class="ui_qtext_para"><span>Only a person who has scientific knowledge knows these things and can protect himself or herself and others around. Otherwise, like the ignorant boys above who were just enjoying the fun will get burnt or even get killed! </span></p>
<p>Another example: Recently I read a story in the news papers here. According to the story a car hit an electric pole at high speed and the high tension wires fell on the car and when the people inside tried to come out of it, they got electrocuted. How can people save themselves in such situations?</p>
<p> In such situations usually people panic. But car tyres are made up of rubber and will work as an insulator. The metal surface of the car acts as a <b><i>Faraday cage</i></b><i> </i>due to which the electric field inside the car is zero. There is no need to panic. It would be better to stay safely inside a car till help arrives. You should also make people around alert so that they don't touch the car. <b>If your car</b><span> is still working, then slowly drive the </span><b>car</b><span> away from the power line until it </span><b>falls</b><span> off </span><b>your car</b><span> and you're well clear of it. </span><b>If</b><span> you come across a power line on the ground then stay away. It is possible to get electrocuted because the voltage fans out from the </span><b>wire</b><span> before going down into the ground.</span></p>
<p>If the car is not working, and when there is fire, one should not step out of the vehicle in such cases without taking precautions, if you do so you will complete the circuit between wires and earth and you’ll be fried in no time. What is safe to do is pick up the floor mats in your car and throw them on the ground where you could reach by jumping, make sure you cover maximum area with mats, then open the car door widely ( roof top is preferable) then jump onto the mats which you placed earlier. Make sure you remove two legs at once( keeping one leg inside may complete circuit). Don’t walk over there just slide your feet like jam over bread( you need greater knowledge in physics to understand this). Make sure that you <b>jump completely free of the vehicle </b>with both feet together to avoid contact with the live car (metal) and the ground at the same time. Once you jump from a car with a power line on it, the danger may not be over. Electricity can spread out through the ground in a circle from any downed line. <b>Hop as far away as possible from the vehicle keeping both feet together. </b>Do not try to help someone else from the car while you are standing on the ground. If you do, you will become a path for electricity and could be hurt or killed!</p>
<p>If you are wearing boots that act as insulators, that would really help!</p>
<p>The difficulty in actually implementing this safe procedure successfully can be surpassed only when one has complete knowledge of physics, electricity and bio-mechanics. Hmmm! So learn these things! Science helps you. Sure it does. But only if you make it your pal!</p>
<p class="ui_qtext_para">These are life and death situations. Scientific illiteracy can kill you sometimes.</p>
<p class="ui_qtext_para">Here is another real story: <span> A few days back it was reported in the media here that an illiterate relative of a patient was asked to carry an oxygen cylinder along with the patient into an MRI chamber by an illiterate ward boy. This resulted in the death of the relative as the iron oxygen cylinder he was carrying was sucked into the MRI machine with such speed that hit him on the head so severely that he was killed instantly. A scientific literate would have definitely avoided such a mishap!</span></p>
<p class="ui_qtext_para"><span>Another person told me this story:</span></p>
<p class="q-text qu-display--block qu-wordBreak--break-word qu-textAlign--start"><span>Migration infertility.</span></p>
<p class="q-text qu-display--block qu-wordBreak--break-word qu-textAlign--start"><span>A couple of years ago my girlfriend F (who is a gynaecologist and urologist) was consulted by a man and his wife. They came from Egypt, and they needed help.</span></p>
<p class="q-text qu-display--block qu-wordBreak--break-word qu-textAlign--start"><span>They wanted a sixth child (yes indeed), and she didn’t seem to get pregnant.</span></p>
<p class="q-text qu-display--block qu-wordBreak--break-word qu-textAlign--start"><span>So his sperm was analyzed, some more medical examinations were performed, and then a rather interesting conclusion came out …</span></p>
<p class="q-text qu-display--block qu-wordBreak--break-word qu-textAlign--start"><span>He was born with a congenital defect due to which there was no sperm in his ejaculate, nor had it ever been.</span></p>
<p class="q-text qu-display--block qu-wordBreak--break-word qu-textAlign--start"><span>None of his five children were his, and now his nonexistent sperm needed help.</span></p>
<p class="q-text qu-display--block qu-wordBreak--break-word qu-textAlign--start"><span>Of course this help never came.</span></p>
<p class="q-text qu-display--block qu-wordBreak--break-word qu-textAlign--start"><span>F gently explained that there was no sperm in the ejaculate, and </span><span>extremely gently</span><span> explained in between lines that there might have never been. Usually, the typical paradoxes were quite different: men who underwent a vasectomy(on his wife's command ), and years later suddenly the same wife</span> is pregnant — stuff like that.</p>
<p class="q-text qu-display--block qu-wordBreak--break-word qu-textAlign--start"><span>Now it was the other way around. The dual world.</span></p>
<p class="q-text qu-display--block qu-wordBreak--break-word qu-textAlign--start"><span>And still, while his wife knew all too well there was a different father for all of their children, </span><span>she</span><span> was the one who wanted the sixth child! </span><span>S</span><span>he</span><span> was also the one who wanted to consult a doctor.</span></p>
<p class="q-text qu-display--block qu-wordBreak--break-word qu-textAlign--start"><span>And instead of admitting the whole shebang, her explanation was:</span></p>
<blockquote class="q-relative qu-color--gray qu-borderWidth--retinaOverride"><p class="q-text qu-display--block qu-wordBreak--break-word qu-textAlign--start"><span>“so strange — in Egypt we got pregnant really easily, but since we moved …”</span></p>
<div class="q-absolute qu-borderRadius--pill QTextBlockQuote___StyledAbsolute-an1wlz-0 dHUDep"></div>
</blockquote>
<p class="q-text qu-display--block qu-wordBreak--break-word qu-textAlign--start"><span>And he bought it — every. single. word.</span></p>
<p class="q-text qu-display--block qu-wordBreak--break-word qu-textAlign--start"><span>Migration infertility.</span></p>
<p class="q-text qu-display--block qu-wordBreak--break-word qu-textAlign--start"><span>What a wonderful and ignorant world?!</span></p>
<p class="q-text qu-display--block qu-wordBreak--break-word qu-textAlign--start"><span>-----</span></p>
<p class="ui_qtext_para"></p>
<p class="ui_qtext_para"> This 's also a real story told by a resident doctor recently...</p>
<p class="ui_qtext_para">Most people in India don't donate blood thinking it leads to perpetual weakness!</p>
<p class="ui_qtext_para">So In India, if someone needs blood from blood bank, the protocol in a government hospital is that someone from the side of person requesting blood needs to donate blood (a relative or a friend).</p>
<p class="ui_qtext_para">A pregnant female brought to our hospital recently required blood because her haemoglobin was less than 7g/dl.</p>
<p class="ui_qtext_para">The obvious choice in such cases is husband. But he refused point blank.</p>
<p class="ui_qtext_para">The reason - he had sex yesterday with her. If he donates blood - it will cause even more weakness that he won't be able to do it again ever!</p>
<p class="ui_qtext_para">This is the state of mind most people are in not only in our country but in several parts of the world.</p>
<p class="ui_qtext_para">That is why we stress on science education. </p>
<p>Citations: </p>
<p><a rel="nofollow" class="external text" href="http://www.snopes.com/science/dhmo.asp"></a><span>Dihydrogen monoxide from </span><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Urban_Legends_Reference_Pages" class="mw-redirect" title="Urban Legends Reference Pages">Urban Legends Reference Pages</a><span>, retrieved September 25, 2006.</span></p>
<p></p>
<p><span>Read here what scientific literacy means: <a href="http://kkartlab.in/group/some-science/forum/topics/literate-people-living-in-urban-areas-are-scientifically-illitera">http://kkartlab.in/group/some-science/forum/topics/literate-people-living-in-urban-areas-are-scientifically-illitera</a></span></p>
<p><span><a href="https://storage.ning.com/topology/rest/1.0/file/get/9134751669?profile=original" target="_blank" rel="noopener"><img src="https://storage.ning.com/topology/rest/1.0/file/get/9134751669?profile=RESIZE_710x" class="align-full"/></a></span></p>
<p></p> What might happen when you take lots of medicines...tag:kkartlab.in,2016-03-07:2816864:Topic:1367722016-03-07T05:55:39.475ZDr. Krishna Kumari Challahttps://kkartlab.in/profile/DrKrishnaKumariChalla
<p>What might happen when you take lots of medicines...</p>
<p>One of our uncles died of liver cirrhosis ten years back. He never touched alcohol in his life. He didn't have any viral infection to cause this. He didn't have diabetes, heart problems and he was not obese. Actually there was no reason that doctors could identify that might have caused this condition in him.</p>
<p>But, when they learned that he took lots and lots of medicines even for small ailments like headaches, stomachaches,…</p>
<p>What might happen when you take lots of medicines...</p>
<p>One of our uncles died of liver cirrhosis ten years back. He never touched alcohol in his life. He didn't have any viral infection to cause this. He didn't have diabetes, heart problems and he was not obese. Actually there was no reason that doctors could identify that might have caused this condition in him.</p>
<p>But, when they learned that he took lots and lots of medicines even for small ailments like headaches, stomachaches, sleeplessness, they realized reaction to drugs could have caused his condition. He used to take them even as a preventive measure in anticipation of health conditions! Because he was a medical store in-charge of a hospital and he had almost all the medicines at his disposal! I still remember the big blue plastic box in his cupboard he used to keep his medicines in.</p>
<p>My mother used to suffer from several ailments. Diabetes ( sometimes hypoglycemia) , BP, arthritis, osteoporosis, bronchial asthma, oedema, severe anemia, indigestion, sciatica, fungal infection of fingers and toes because of diabetes despite taking several precautions, frequent lung, dental and other infections, weakness because of old age, irregular heart beat, pericardial effusion and in the end brain stroke.</p>
<p>Doctors used to prescribe lots of medicines for her*. One body, multiple drugs: It can be a recipe for disaster! The risk increases with age. And my mother was old and frail! I used to wonder what might happen if she took several medicines for all those conditions mentioned above. I even discussed this with doctors and pleaded with them to prescribe medicines for her only if they're absolutely necessary. I used to ask them to tell me what they were prescribing and why she needed them. And I gave her medicines only that were necessary for her survival.</p>
<p><span> *When a person 's prescribed several different medications at once in order to treat one or multiple health conditions—the phenomenon is known as polypharmacy. (4)</span></p>
<p>While giving all those medicines to her ... these things crossed my mind several times...</p>
<p>These are chemicals! Although tested for human safety, clinical researchers usually weigh pros and cons and select the ones whose positives outweigh negatives. But still there will be negatives - what we call side effects. Despite these ill effects we use them because they are necessary for the survival of patients or to prolong their lives. Taking medicines or drugs is a necessary evil in such cases!</p>
<p>And the most important thoughts that disturbed me were ... when people take several medicines like my mother used to ... they can ...</p>
<p>1. Interact with one another</p>
<p>2. produce over dose of a drug because too much of one drug remains in your system because of the interactions</p>
<p>2. reduce or increase the potency of one another if they act in opposite or similar ways</p>
<p>3. nullify one another's potency if one drug can’t be absorbed or metabolized properly</p>
<p>4. produce other toxic and harmful products after reacting with one another inside human bodies</p>
<p>5. interfere with the patient's normal metabolic processes</p>
<p>6. cause damage to body organs</p>
<p>7. cause several other severe health conditions as a result of the above processes</p>
<p>-and this one is a positive one-</p>
<p>8. successfully suppress an existing health condition and help us find a new cure for diseases that don't have medicines yet!</p>
<p>These thoughts of mine have solid base as I know about the research going on in the clinical field ( now I can understand why they say ignorance is a bliss. At least you don't have to worry about these things in the beginning and can have mental peace but only up to a certain extent. When once you and your family members and friends start suffering severely because of your ignorance, the saying sails out through the window . Although we worry a lot because of the knowledge we have, we can take precautions and keep ourselves and our loved ones safe for a long time ).</p>
<p>Interactions can vary from person to person because of changes in the absorption, distribution, metabolism, gut microbes and excretion of the drug within the body. Because of this, drug reactions largely are unpredictable, even with known interactions.</p>
<p>There are hundreds of possible interactions between commonly prescribed medicines that very few people seem to have heard of. People routinely use these medicines, without much thought because, well, they are medicines and are suppose to cure their ailments! Not enhance them. But unfortunately sometimes they do just the second one as a result of drug interactions! So why do they happen, and why do they matter?<br/> The drug interactions happen mostly because of competition!</p>
<p>Some drugs work in complementary or opposite ways at the same sites in the body. If they're given together, they can compete with each other, reducing (or sometimes increasing) the effect of one or both. A good example is the beta-blocker, which is given to people who've had a heart attack or heart failure, or sometimes high blood pressure. If you have asthma, one of the main treatments is an inhaler called a beta agonist (commonly called Ventolin or salbutamol). A beta agonist makes the beta receptors in your body work better - a beta-blocker stops them. If you have asthma, some beta-blockers can bring on an asthma attack or stop your inhaler from working.</p>
<p>Most medicines you take as tablets get into your bloodstream. After a few hours, they're removed through your kidneys or your liver, which act as filters not just for medicines but for all sorts to toxins and products your body makes. Your kidneys and liver are incredibly complicated organs, with hundreds of different chemicals called enzymes working all the time to stop toxins from building up in your body. If two medicines are broken down by the same enzymes, they can interact. That means that, for instance, if you're taking a statin tablet called simvastatin, you shouldn't also take antibiotics like erythromycin or heart tablets called diltiazem, verapamil and amiodarone. Bizarrely, even drinking grapefruit juice can affect how simvastatin is broken down, so taking the two together can lead to dangerously high levels of simvastatin in your system.</p>
<p>Another danger is, if the side effects are similar, they can add up. For example, if you take allopurinol (Lopurin or Zyloprim) for gout and add the drug azathioprine (Imuran) to treat rheumatoid arthritis, the azathioprine can further suppress your immune system, possibly putting you at risk of a serious infection. And, both aspirin and the blood-thinning drug warfarin (Coumadin) decrease your blood's ability to clot, so if you're taking warfarin for cardiovascular disease and aspirin to ease your migraine problem, you could be unknowingly going for a life-threatening bleeding episode!</p>
<p><span>Sildenafil (viagra) and Nitrate (sorbitrate) tend to cross-react</span><span> and can create hypotension (BP fall) they are pharmacologically </span><span>contraindicated </span><span>as combination.</span></p>
<p>And - this is very important - many herbal products and medicines from your alternate medicine kits can interact with other medicines. These include 'natural' remedies for depression.</p>
<p>Moreover if you take alcohol or some vitamin and food supplements, they too might interfere with the medicines' potency and sometimes can cause severe toxic effects and even death!</p>
<p>Alcohol often has harmful interactions with prescription medications, over-the-counter drugs, and even some herbal remedies. Alcohol interactions with medications may cause problems such as:</p>
<p>nausea and vomiting, headaches, drowsiness, dizziness, fainting, changes in blood pressure, abnormal behavior, loss of coordination and accidents.<br/> Mixing alcohol and medications also may increase the risk of complications such as:</p>
<p>liver damage, heart problems, internal bleeding, impaired breathing and depression.</p>
<p>In some cases, alcohol interactions may decrease the effectiveness of medications or render them useless. In other cases, alcohol interactions may make drugs harmful or even toxic to the body.</p>
<p>Even in small amounts, alcohol also may intensify medication side effects such as sleepiness, drowsiness, and light-headedness, which may interfere with your concentration and ability to operate machinery or drive a vehicle, and lead to serious or even fatal accidents.</p>
<p>Hundreds of commonly used prescription and over-the-counter drugs may adversely interact with alcohol. These include medications used for: Allergies, colds, and flu, angina and coronary heart disease, anxiety and epilepsy, arthritis, blood clots, cough, depression, diabetes, enlarged prostate, heartburn and indigestion, high blood pressure, high cholesterol, infections, muscle pain, nausea and motion sickness, pain, fever, and inflammation, seizures, severe pain from injury, post-surgical care, oral surgery, migraine and sleep problems.</p>
<p><span>Alcohol is metabolized in the liver, and a lot of drugs are metabolized via the same pathways. So it has the potential to interact with a whole host of drugs, including things you might not think are related at all.</span></p>
<p>One should never drink while on antibiotic treatment.</p>
<p>Certain dietary supplements can change absorption, metabolism, or excretion of a medication and therefore affect its potency. You may be getting either too much or too little of a medication you need if you take these supplements. Dietary supplements are widely used by people and include vitamins, minerals, and other less familiar substances—such as herbals, botanicals, amino acids, and enzymes. Children are more vulnerable in case of drug and supplement interactions.</p>
<p>Natural does not always mean safe. For example, many weight loss products claim to be “all-natural” or “herbal,” but their ingredients may interact with medications or may be dangerous for people with certain medical conditions.</p>
<p>My mother used to take several ayurved medicines prescribed by well qualified ayurved doctors for her knee problems. Some 15 years back she developed severe diabetes with her blood sugar levels going up to 500 - 600 mg/dL. The main stream doctors when consulted asked us about the medicines she was taking. When told about the ayurvedic medicines, they asked us to immediately stop using them. They told us some of them contain steroids that enhance the diabetic conditions several fold if people are vulnerable and genetically predisposed to them.</p>
<p>Warfarin (a prescription blood thinner), ginkgo biloba (a herbal supplement), aspirin and vitamin E (a supplement) can each thin the blood. Taking any of these products together may increase the potential for internal bleeding or stroke.</p>
<p>Antibiotics can limit body's ability to uptake analgesics: <span>Disruption of the microbiota, whether induced by dietary changes</span><span>, antibiotic administration or invasive pathogens, can disturb the balance of the microbiota and alter metabolic networks. These disturbances can affect the biodisposition of certain drugs, which can ultimately lead to adverse drug</span><span> reactions (2). There are many diverse mechanisms the gut microbiome can use to alter the disposition, efficacy and toxicity of drugs and foreign substances. These can include the expression of enzymes that can activate or inactivate drugs, the direct binding of drugs to a bacterial organism, the reactivation of drugs by microbial expressed enzymes, and the direct competition between the host and microbes for host metabolizing enzymes. For example, an association between pre-dose, gut-derived urinary metabolites and response to the commonly used analgesic acetaminophen has been reported. Research results suggest that exposure to amoxicillin or ampicillin/neomycin can alter the pharmacokinetics and metabolism of acetaminophen, and that these alterations could be due to changes in gut microbiome composition. Shifts in the composition of gut microbiota can disturb the balance of organisms, which can influence the biodisposition of orally administered drugs (3).</span></p>
<p>Grapefruit juice can be part of a healthful diet—most of the time. It has vitamin C and potassium—substances your body needs to work properly. But it isn’t good for you when it affects the way your medicines work. Grapefruit juice and fresh grapefruit can interfere with the action of some prescription drugs, as well as a few non-prescription drugs. This interaction can be dangerous. With most drugs that interact with grapefruit juice, the juice increases the absorption of the drug into the bloodstream. When there is a higher concentration of a drug, you tend to have more adverse events. For example, if you drink a lot of grapefruit juice while taking certain statin drugs to lower cholesterol, too much of the drug may stay in your body, increasing your risk for liver damage and muscle breakdown that can lead to kidney failure. Drinking grapefruit juice several hours before or several hours after you take your medicine may still be dangerous. So it’s best to avoid or limit consuming grapefruit juice or fresh grapefruit when taking certain drugs. While scientists have known for several decades that grapefruit juice can cause a potentially toxic level of certain drugs in the body, more recent studies have found that the juice has the opposite effect on a few other drugs.</p>
<p>Examples of some types of drugs that grapefruit juice can interact with are:</p>
<p>some statin drugs to lower cholesterol, such as Zocor (simvastatin), Lipitor (atorvastatin) and Pravachol (pravastatin)<br/> some blood pressure-lowering drugs, such as Nifediac and Afeditab (both nifedipine)<br/> some organ transplant rejection drugs, such as Sandimmune and Neoral (both cyclosporine)<br/> some anti-anxiety drugs, such as BuSpar (buspirone)<br/> some anti-arrhythmia drugs, such as Cordarone and Nexterone (both amiodarone)<br/> some antihistamines, such as Allegra (fexofenadine)<br/> Grapefruit juice does not affect all the drugs in the categories above. Ask your health care professional to find out if your specific drug is affected.</p>
<p>The opposite effect grape fruit juice can have on drugs is important too. It involves the transportation of drugs within the body rather than their metabolism, according to doctors. Proteins in the body known as drug transporters help move a drug into cells for absorption. Substances in grapefruit juice block the action of a specific group of transporters. As a result, less of the drug is absorbed and it may be ineffective.</p>
<p>(Don't confuse grape fruit with grapes - some people who read this article have asked me whether they have to stop eating grapes while taking medicines. The grapefruit is a subtropical citrus tree known for its sour to semi-sweet fruit. Grapefruit is a hybrid originating in Barbados as an accidental cross between two introduced species, sweet orange. I am adding pictures of grape fruit and grapes to help you distinguish between the two types of fruits.<br/> <br/> <br/> <a href="http://storage.ning.com/topology/rest/1.0/file/get/2866685764?profile=original" target="_self"><img src="http://storage.ning.com/topology/rest/1.0/file/get/2866685764?profile=original" width="309" class="align-full"/></a> Grape fruit<br/> <br/> <a href="http://storage.ning.com/topology/rest/1.0/file/get/2866685847?profile=original" target="_self"><img src="http://storage.ning.com/topology/rest/1.0/file/get/2866685847?profile=original" width="242" class="align-full"/></a> Grapes</p>
<p>So what can you do now after learning about these things? Discuss with doctors! Stick to one doctor, if possible, who knows your complete health profile and the medicines you are taking..</p>
<p>When you're getting a new medicine from your doctors, tell them about all the medicines you're using. Don't fail to recall and let them know about medicine changes from hospital clinics, dentists etc. And don't forget to mention medicines you get without prescription - even paracetamol or aspirin. That way, your healthcare professional can assess the situation properly and reassure you that they're safe to take together.</p>
<p>Many medicines now come with a patient information leaflet, which should tell you about and other medicines yours might interact with.</p>
<p>Adjust the timing. Some medications interfere with others by keeping the second one from being absorbed in the intestine. For example, antacids can interfere with the body's absorption of tetracycline and some other antibiotics. In those cases, just adjusting the timing a bit will alleviate the problem.</p>
<p>Change the dose – or the drug. Sometimes two drugs interact to increase or decrease the effectiveness of the other. Nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs, for example, can blunt the effects of drugs that treat high blood pressure, sometimes making it necessary to increase the dose of the blood pressure medication. If a drug increases the effect of another, lowering the dose of one may help. In other cases, your doctor can switch you to a different drug that provides the benefits without the interaction risk (4).</p>
<p>Monitor closely. In some cases you need all the drugs you are taking, even if they have the potential to interact. When that happens, your doctor will need to monitor you closely, usually through frequent blood tests. Unless a problem is detected, the risk of taking you off a medication – or perhaps even changing the dose – may be worse than the risk of interactions in such situations.</p>
<p>Although this is usually the choice of last resort, doctors must sometimes prescribe a third medication to help alleviate the problems that an interaction between two other drugs is causing! For example, if you need both NSAIDs (non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs, also known as NAIDs, non-steroidal anti-inflammatory agents/analgesics) and corticosteroids, yet taking them together causes stomach upset or increases your risk of developing a stomach ulcer, your doctor may prescribe a third drug to ease your stomach upset and reduce your ulcer risk.</p>
<p>The best thing to do is ... please don't take medicines unless they are absolutely necessary and unless your doctor stresses the need to take them. I don't too! And strictly stick to your doctor's advice. Don't tread the path of misadventures by following what your friends, neighbours and relatives suggest if they are not qualified to give you guidance on health issues.</p>
<p><span>One more thing: gut microbes may contribute to the dramatic variability that is observed in side effects and efficacy between different patients (1). So what we see in labs is not seen inside human bodies making things very complicated.</span></p>
<p></p>
<p>Watch this video that confirms exactly what I said above:</p>
<p></p>
<p><iframe width="560" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/iGze_gjJTos?wmode=opaque" frameborder="0"></iframe>
</p>
<p></p>
<p>References:</p>
<p>1. <a href="https://medicalxpress.com/news/2019-06-gut-microbes-medication.html?utm_source=quora&utm_medium=referral">https://medicalxpress.com/news/2019-06-gut-microbes-medication.html?utm_source=quora&utm_medium=referral</a></p>
<p>2. <a href="https://medicalxpress.com/news/2020-03-antibiotics-limit-body-ability-uptake.html?utm_source=nwletter&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=daily-nwletter">https://medicalxpress.com/news/2020-03-antibiotics-limit-body-ability-uptake.html?utm_source=nwletter&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=daily-nwletter</a></p>
<p>3. <span> Michael A. Malfatti et al. Manipulation of the Gut Microbiome Alters Acetaminophen Biodisposition in Mice, </span><i>Scientific Reports</i><span> (2020). </span><a href="http://dx.doi.org/10.1038/s41598-020-60982-8" target="_blank" rel="noopener">DOI: 10.1038/s41598-020-60982-8</a></p>
<p>4. <span>Leal Rodríguez C, Drug dosage modifications in 24 million in-patient prescriptions covering eight years: A Danish population-wide study of polypharmacy, </span><i>PLOS Digital Health</i><span> (2023). </span><a href="https://dx.doi.org/10.1371/journal.pdig.0000336" target="_blank" rel="noopener">DOI: 10.1371/journal.pdig.0000336</a><span>. </span><a href="https://journals.plos.org/digitalhealth/article?id=10.1371/journal.pdig.0000336" target="_blank" rel="noopener">journals.plos.org/digitalhealt … journal.pdig.0000336</a></p>
<p></p>
<p>Latest research on this:</p>
<p></p>
<div><span>Any drug that is taken orally must pass through the lining of the digestive tract. Transporter proteins found on cells that line the GI tract help with this process, but for many drugs, it's not known which of those transporters they use to exit the digestive tract.</span></div>
<div><span>Identifying the transporters used by specific drugs could help to improve patient treatment because if two drugs rely on the same transporter, they can interfere with each other and should not be prescribed together.</span><span><br/></span></div>
<div><span>Researchers </span><span> </span><span>have now developed a multipronged strategy to identify the transporters used by different drugs. Their approach, which makes use of both tissue models and machine-learning algorithms, has already revealed that a commonly prescribed antibiotic and a blood thinner can interfere with each other.</span></div>
<div><span>One of the challenges in modeling absorption is that drugs are subject to different transporters. This study is all about how we can model those interactions, which could help us make drugs safer and more efficacious, and predict potential toxicities that may have been difficult to predict until now.</span><span><br/></span></div>
<div><span>Learning more about which transporters help drugs pass through the digestive tract could also help drug developers improve the absorbability of new drugs by adding excipients that enhance their interactions with transporters.</span><span><br/></span></div>
<div><p>The researchers tested 23 commonly used drugs using this system, allowing them to identify transporters used by each of those drugs. Then, they trained a machine-learning model on that data, as well as data from several drug databases. The model learned to make predictions of which drugs would interact with which transporters, based on similarities between the chemical structures of the drugs.</p>
<p>Using this model, the researchers analyzed a new set of 28 currently used drugs, as well as 1,595 experimental drugs. This screen yielded nearly 2 million predictions of potential drug interactions. Among them was the prediction that doxycycline, an antibiotic, could interact with warfarin, a commonly prescribed blood-thinner. Doxycycline was also predicted to interact with digoxin, which is used to treat heart failure, levetiracetam, an antiseizure medication, and tacrolimus, an immunosuppressant.</p>
<p>To test those predictions, the researchers looked at data from about 50 patients who had been taking one of those three drugs when they were prescribed doxycycline. This data, which came from a patient database at Massachusetts General Hospital and Brigham and Women's Hospital, showed that when doxycycline was given to patients already taking warfarin, the level of warfarin in the patients' bloodstream went up, then went back down again after they stopped taking doxycycline.</p>
<p>That data also confirmed the model's predictions that the absorption of doxycycline is affected by digoxin, levetiracetam, and tacrolimus. Only one of those drugs, tacrolimus, had been previously suspected to interact with doxycycline.</p>
<p>In addition to identifying potential interactions between drugs that are already in use, this approach could also be applied to drugs now in development. Using this technology, drug developers could tune the formulation of new drug molecules to prevent interactions with other drugs or improve their absorbability. </p>
<p><span>Screening oral drugs for their interactions with the intestinal transportome via porcine tissue explants and machine learning, </span><i>Nature Biomedical Engineering</i><span> (2024). </span><a href="https://dx.doi.org/10.1038/s41551-023-01128-9" target="_blank" rel="noopener">DOI: 10.1038/s41551-023-01128-9</a></p>
</div> Literate people living in urban areas are too scientifically illiterate!tag:kkartlab.in,2016-02-20:2816864:Topic:1360872016-02-20T02:23:14.207ZDr. Krishna Kumari Challahttps://kkartlab.in/profile/DrKrishnaKumariChalla
<p><em> "If you are scientifically literate the world looks very different to you"</em></p>
<p></p>
<p>Literate people living in urban areas are scientifically illiterate too! And we want to test this opinion of experts. </p>
<p>It is a common misconception that people living in urban areas and those who are literate have good knowledge in things scientific. It is nothing but an illusion.</p>
<p>Yes, these people are good at using technology. But they learn it by just…</p>
<p><em> "If you are scientifically literate the world looks very different to you"</em></p>
<p></p>
<p>Literate people living in urban areas are scientifically illiterate too! And we want to test this opinion of experts. </p>
<p>It is a common misconception that people living in urban areas and those who are literate have good knowledge in things scientific. It is nothing but an illusion.</p>
<p>Yes, these people are good at using technology. But they learn it by just observing others! They don't have background knowledge on how to use the things they are using properly. With the result that they either misuse or underuse it. Anyway using technology more than others doesn't mean they are science literates. And we have observed that most of the people in urban areas and literates with a degree are too highly scientifically illiterate!</p>
<p>Moreover, it was observed by volunteers of various science communication bodies working at ground level (like JVV) that people living in urban areas are highly superstitious too and follow several irrational things. </p>
<p>Just because somebody knows a few scientific terms doesn't mean the person is 'literate scientifically'. Majority of scientists think science literacy has an interesting meaning. Let us now see what these scientists say about it.</p>
<p>"Scientific literacy is the knowledge and understanding of scientific concepts and processes required for personal decision making, participation in civic and cultural affairs, and economic productivity". A scientifically literate person is defined as one who has the capacity to:</p>
<p><strong>* comprehend what counts as science and able to differentiate between science, pseudo-science and their relationship with culture<br/> * understand. experiment and reason the basic scientific facts and their meaning<br/> * ask, find, or determine answers using methods of science to questions derived from curiosity about everyday experiences<br/> * ability to think critically and scientifically and use scientific knowledge in problem solving<br/> * describe, explain, and predict a wide range of natural as well as technical phenomena scientifically<br/> * read and perfectly understand articles about science in the press and to engage in social conversation about the validity of the conclusions<br/> * identify scientific issues underlying national and local decisions and express positions that are scientifically and technologically informed<br/> * evaluate the quality of scientific information on the basis of its source and the methods used to generate it<br/> * design scientific inquiry and experiments - describe and appraise scientific investigations and propose ways of addressing questions scientifically<br/> * interpret data and evidence scientifically – analyze and evaluate data, claims and arguments in a variety of representations and draw appropriate scientific conclusions<br/> * pose and evaluate arguments based on evidence and to apply conclusions from such arguments appropriately.<br/> * appreciate it and be comfortable with science<br/> * grasp the risks and benefits of science in an unbiased manner</strong></p>
<p>The ability to engage with science-related issues, and with the ideas of science, as a reflective citizen is a difficult situation for a large number of the people even though they are literates. Most of the people in this country as well as the world are not willing to engage in reasoned discourse about science and technology in the right way.</p>
<p>How many urban literates can do the above mentioned things? Experience in dealing with these people tells us not many Graduates and Postgraduates in even science can follow this path of science! Science communicators working at the ground level told me even some PhDs in science believe in irrational things! Just knowledge is not enough. Neutral reasoning abilities using facts rightly is more important than mere knowledge, according to experts.</p>
<p>Attitudes about science can have a significant effect on scientific literacy. Understanding of content and analyzing it lies in the <strong>cognitive domain</strong>, while attitudes lie in the <strong>affective domain</strong> ( part of a system that was published in 1965 for identifying, understanding and addressing how people learn).</p>
<p>Thus, negative attitudes, such as fear of science, can act as a filter and an impediment to comprehension and learning goals. Inability to think neutrally and critically about the content makes a person non-scientific. You need multiple forms of reasoning to understand complex science, but they should all be neutral and strictly fact-based. <span>The </span><a href="https://www.aeaweb.org/articles?id=10.1257/089533005775196732" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Cognitive Reflection Test (CRT)</a><span> measures how much people rely on two forms of information processing: “fast,” preconscious, emotion-driven forms of reasoning, often called “System 1”; or a conscious, deliberate, analytical, “slow” form, designated “System 2.” Scientific reasoning demands a high degree of proficiency in System 2 information processing. But as ordinary members of the public become more adept at this style of reasoning, they don’t think more like scientists. Instead, they become more reliable indicators of what people who share their group commitments think about culturally contested risks and related facts. Genuine evidence has zero impact on such thinking. Emotional and material well-being is more important for this system 1. Under these pathological conditions, people will predictably use their reasoning not to discern the truth but to form and persist in beliefs characteristic of their group, a tendency known as “identity-protective cognition.” This is the reason why even literate people are rejecting man-made climate change consequences, evolution, relationship between smoking and cancer, relationship between pollution and bad health and other expert evidence based facts in most parts of the world.</span></p>
<p>What is the status of scientific literacy in India’s population? We do not have the numbers! Very sad! In fact, hardly any nationwide effort has been made to gauge the level of scientific literacy among the citizens of India. All that we can do right now is try to estimate the scientific literacy while interacting with people around at various levels.</p>
<p>That analysis doesn't give a very good picture. In fact, even with qualified people, the scientific literacy is poor and people of science find it extremely difficult to explain things scientific to them, make them understand and apply them in their day today lives in the way they should be done!</p>
<p>But there are many who see scientific literacy aligned with ‘knowing science’ and this view is particularly prevalent on the internet. There is a general agreement that the term ‘scientific literacy’ is used somewhat metaphorically. It thus goes beyond any notion of reading and writing. You read about cancer. You try to understand with a limited knowledge you have and try to interpret with a mind that is conditioned by things other than scientific. You get a peculiar sense of what it is - depending on your cognitive biases. But you think you know about the disease fully and feel you are hundred percent right!</p>
<p>But an expert sees things differently from you. And s/he can identify the loopholes in your understanding and knows your analysis and grasp is limited by various factors governing the process and therefore is not perfect! T<span>he world presented to many by their perceptions is nothing like scientific reality.</span><a href="http://cogsci.uci.edu/~ddhoff/PerceptualEvolution.pdf"></a><span> </span>That is what we mean by scientific literacy in our societies is very poor.</p>
<p>I will give some examples here. After reading my articles <a href="http://kkartlab.in/group/some-science/forum/topics/pvc-and-cpvc-pipes-should-not-be-used-for-drinking-water-supply">pvc-and-cpvc-pipes-should-not-be-used-for-drinking-water-supply</a> and <a href="http://kkartlab.in/group/some-science/forum/topics/can-rust-from-old-drinking-water-pipes-cause-health-problems">can-rust-from-old-drinking-water-pipes-cause-health-problems</a> let me tell you how different people interpreted the things I mentioned in them.</p>
<p>A graduate in Agriculture sciences told me this when I asked him what he understood about my articles: <span style="color: #993300;">Toxic chemicals leach into the water only when they are exposed to sunlight. PVC and CPVC pipes are safe when used inside a home and in the shade! Moreover, they are dangerous only when installed on roof tops when they are exposed to direct sun rays. When installed in balconies where slanting says fall on them, they are perfectly okay to carry drinking water!</span></p>
<p><span style="color: #993300;"><span style="color: #003300;">Now where did all that come from?</span> </span>Did I mention these things in my first article? No! When I asked him to read my article once again he revisited it and told me these things are not there in my article. Then why did he interpret it in the way he did?</p>
<p>He told me he read somewhere that w<span>hen sunlight shines on the earth at a lower angle (Sun closer to the horizon), the energy of the sunlight is spread over a larger area, and is therefore weaker than if the Sun is higher overhead and the energy is concentrated on a smaller area.</span></p>
<p><span>And only these words of mine caught his attention and got registered in his mind because of his previous exposure to the piece of information mentioned above: <span>Leaching increases with the increase of temperatures during the day time when the Sun's rays fall on the pipes, if they are exposed to Sun's rays ( strangely, rest of the content in my article didn't pass through his mind!)</span></span></p>
<p>He thought this applies to the PVC pipes carrying water and therefore thought and understood in the way he did!</p>
<p>Now let us see how a civil engineer understood my article... <span style="color: #993300;">PVC and CPVC pipes are okay to use for drinking water supply! Only the synthetic adhesives used to join them are dangerous. Chemists should identify safe adhesives so that we can use cost-effective CPVC pipes without any worry!</span></p>
<p>Again I had to ask the civil engineer to go through my articles the second time. After he did that I asked him ''Did my article say CPVC pipes are safe to use for drinking water supply?'' 'No' was his reply. 'Then why did he say that they were safe?'</p>
<p>He told me two things influenced his thought process here...(1) the cost effectiveness of CPVC pipes - they are cheaper than iron pipes and (2) he studied in his college about some of the chemicals ( like benzene, acetone, and methanol) I mentioned while talking about the adhesives but never heard about dioxines I mentioned when dealing with CPVC pipes! So his mind ignored about the harmful effects of the chemicals he is not familiar with! Very interesting!</p>
<p>The above mentioned people had some exposure to science and technology. But still they couldn't understand my articles in the way they should be understood! And now I am going to tell you how a person who had no science background perceived my articles.</p>
<p>This person is a lawyer. And it is important to understand the perception of a person of law because lawyers will have to grasp the forensic scientists' evidence in the courts in the right way to argue their cases and do justice to the innocent people. </p>
<p>He read my article and asked me, <span style="color: #993300;">"Both CPVC and iron pipes are harmful for drinking water supply. So, what should we use? Clay pipes and steel pipes?"</span></p>
<p>Well his lack of exposure to some science like the above two persons made him follow exactly what I wrote in my first article mentioned above. His perception that CPVC pipes are harmful is right. But despite my mentioning that rust is okay when taken in small quantities like with drinking water coming through rusted pipes, he thought such water is not safe! Why?</p>
<p>He told me in his childhood his teachers and parents had told him that when injured by old, rusted nails, people would get tetanus! 'The rusted pipes look ugly. How can water coming through these rusted pipes be safe?', he asked me.</p>
<p></p>
<p><img src="https://encrypted-tbn3.gstatic.com/images?q=tbn:ANd9GcShVFy1_j7PTX7FbN2OplHp7aYLoSha76eTLqTxfChzKbQkIep6" alt="Image result for rusted pipes/pics"/></p>
<p></p>
<p>So what the teachers and parents told him in his childhood had stuck in his mind and influenced his perception! Ugliness of a thing influenced his thoughts and not the facts. Despite my mentioning that a bacterium found in dust is the real culprit here not the rusted pipes, he still couldn't grasp it!</p>
<p>My interaction with people who read my articles and listened to my talks and explanations made me realize even if your explanations are perfectly clear, people don't understand things you mention exactly you want them to be grasped. Several things interfere with the processing procedure in their minds and people mix up things and perceive in peculiar ways! Scientists and Science communicators, we have a very big problem!</p>
<p>To solve this problem now I am asking people to forget for sometime everything they had learned earlier about the things I am talking/writing about and just concentrate and analyse them with clear and unbiased minds. Can they do it? Well, there is no harm in trying. Let me see whether I can succeed in making them understand perfectly things scientific in this way.</p>
<p>Now we invite people reading this article to honestly evaluate themselves whether they are really scientifically literate or not. Can you do the following things?</p>
<p>A person with Intellectual (Higher Order of Scientific Thinking Skills)...</p>
<p>1. uses concepts of science and of technology, does an informed reflection of ethical values, in solving everyday problems and making responsible decisions in everyday life, including work and leisure;</p>
<p>2. locates, collects, analyses, and evaluates sources of scientific and technological information and uses these sources in solving problems, making decisions, and taking actions;</p>
<p>3. distinguishes between scientific and technological evidence and personal opinion and between reliable and unreliable information;</p>
<p>4. offers explanations of natural phenomena testable for their validity;</p>
<p>5. applies skepticism, careful methods, logical reasoning, and creativity in investigating the observable universe;</p>
<p>6. defends decisions and actions using rational argument based on evidence; and</p>
<p>7. analyses interactions among science, technology and society.</p>
<p>Attitudinal: 8. displays curiosity about the natural and human-made world;</p>
<p>9. values scientific research and technological problem solving;</p>
<p>10. remains open to new evidence and the tentativeness of scientific/technological knowledge; and</p>
<p>11. engages in science/technology for excitement and possible explanations.</p>
<p>Societal: 12. recognizes that science and technology are human endeavours;</p>
<p>13. weighs the benefits/burdens of scientific and technological development;</p>
<p>14. recognizes the strengths and limitations of science and technology for advancing human welfare; and</p>
<p>15. engages in responsible personal and civic actions after weighing the possible consequences of alternative options.</p>
<p>Interdisciplinary: 16. connects science and technology to other human endeavours e.g. history, mathematics, the arts, and the humanities; and</p>
<p>17. considers the political, economic, moral and ethical aspects of science and technology as they relate to personal and global issues.</p>
<p>If the answer is <strong>yes</strong>, to all the points raised above, you are scientifically literate. If you can't do that even for a single one, you are not. In science, there won't be any "in-betweens". Sorry!</p>
<p>We would like to hear from you if you are a scientifically literate person. Contact us at kkartlabin@gmail.com<br/> We want to see how many of you fit the bill of scientifically literate person. And please mention about your educational qualifications when you get in touch with us.</p>
<p>Look forward to hearing from the real scientific literates...</p>
<p>Some peopel asked me the Question why scientific literacy is relavant. Read here what I told them: <a href="http://kkartlab.in/group/some-science/forum/topics/how-scientific-illiteracy-can-harm-you">http://kkartlab.in/group/some-science/forum/topics/how-scientific-illiteracy-can-harm-you</a></p>
<p>( I have seen people using both the words ... science literacy and scientific literacy. I asked some experts regarding this and whether <span>dichotomy does exist or they could be used interchangeably. According to experts - science literacy encompasses scientific literacy since scientificity is part and parcel of science however it is not tantamount to science itself. </span></p>
<p><span>Anyway, I was told, even though science literacy sounds more appropriate, both the words can be used.)</span></p>
<p><span>PS, an interesting story: Recently I came across an interesting discussion on the net. Somebody asked the Q, " What type of radiation do our cell phones emit? " to which a person answered, </span></p>
<p class="ui_qtext_para u-ltr u-text-align--start">There are three kinds of radiation that come from cell phones:</p>
<ol>
<li>Light. The screen glows.</li>
<li>Heat. The phone is warm. (A purist would say that even when it’s off, it still radiates heat more or less as a blackbody. Let it float around in deep space for long enough and it will eventually cool to approximately the temperature of the CMB.)</li>
<li>Radio waves. Cellular towers are radios.</li>
</ol>
<p>Then another person(A) proposed , '<span>Four. Acoustic radiation'.</span></p>
<p><span>A lady(B) protested: Sound is not radiation, any more than ocean waves are. Like ocean waves, sound can exert a mechanical force, but it is not radiation, it’s mechanical energy being propagated through a medium.</span></p>
<p><span>Then the person who proposed acoustic (sound) radiation(A) said he googled it :If you google on “acoustic radiation” you’ll find a lot of articles that deal with it.</span></p>
<p><span>A third person(C) explained: </span></p>
<p class="ui_qtext_para u-ltr u-text-align--start">I suggest you actually READ what you Google.</p>
<p class="ui_qtext_para u-ltr u-text-align--start">You'll find out that you are wrong.</p>
<p class="ui_qtext_para u-ltr u-text-align--start">“Acoustical Radiations” are actually physical structures in the brain that deal with auditory signal processing. It is how our brain “hears”.</p>
<p class="ui_qtext_para u-ltr u-text-align--start">Then there is “Acoustical radiation force”</p>
<p class="ui_qtext_para u-ltr u-text-align--start">It is the physical force on an object caused by the object interfering with the propogation of an acoustical wave. The acoustical wave is not radiation.</p>
<p class="ui_qtext_para u-ltr u-text-align--start">Sound is a MECHANICAL WAVE, not radiation.</p>
<p class="ui_qtext_para u-ltr u-text-align--start">You remain wrong despite your “Google it” assertion.</p>
<p class="ui_qtext_para u-ltr u-text-align--start">A: <a href="https://link.springer.com/chapter/10.1007/978-3-662-07296-7_5" rel="noopener nofollow" target="_blank" class="external_link tooltip_parent">https://link.springer.com/chapte...</a></p>
<p class="ui_qtext_para u-ltr u-text-align--start">Another person (D): <span>Read the first sentence in the abstract of that paper. It talks about how sound radiates outward from a source under certain conditions.</span></p>
<p class="ui_qtext_para u-ltr u-text-align--start">B, the ladY: <span>The presence of a term on Google does not mean anything. “Radiate” has a pretty clear meaning outside of physics, and I can totally see how people think that sound radiates. In common speech it does. But not in physics. Electromagnetic radiation does not need a medium to carry it. Sound does. Sound transfers energy through a mechanical wave that can push on a mass when it impinges on it, just as a wave in water can deliver energy to an object. That isn’t radiation.</span></p>
<p class="ui_qtext_para u-ltr u-text-align--start">D: <span>That article is about the “</span><i>radiation of sound</i><span>”, where the word ‘radiation’ is a verb, relating to how sound radiates through a medium.</span></p>
<p class="ui_qtext_para u-ltr u-text-align--start">B, the lady: <span>Sound radiates. It is not radiation. The verb is not the same as the noun. Sound is a mechanical wave.</span></p>
<p class="ui_qtext_para u-ltr u-text-align--start"><span>E: A, You’re conflating the concept of something radiating with something being radiation.</span></p>
<p class="ui_qtext_para u-ltr u-text-align--start"><span>So, even if you google something, or read it from a genuine source, if you don't understand properly, you can mistake it for something else. So be careful!</span></p>
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