Look to the Horizon

This is a picture of the research ship Atlantis where the experiment behind this fact was conducted. The photo was taken from http://www.gulfofmaine-census.org/education/research-technology/platforms/.

Are you one of those people who become seasick when you're on a boat? Well, the answer to not being seasick lies ahead of you (literally!). According to a recent study in the famous journal Psychological Science, gazing at the horizon eliminates seasickness. This is because when a person stares at the horizon, he or she become more steadier. Also, when a person gazes into the distance, they can feel the change between the natural movement of their body and the swaying of the boat. Thus, if people are stable when they are on a boat, then they have a lesser chance of being seasick.

This fact is actually based from an unique experiment conducted on a research ship called the Atlantis during an exploration across the Gulf of California. In the experiment, volunteers were first asked to stand on a force plate on dry land, an instrument that measures the natural movements of their body. The typical natural movement of people swaying back and forth on dry land is four centimeters every twelve to fifteen seconds. Next, volunteers were asked to stand on a force plate on the boat Atlantis over water. Each time they stood on the force plate, they were asked to stare at the horizon or at something forty centimeters in front of them. When they stood on dry land, they were more stable when staring at closer point rather than at the horizon.

As you can see, the fact that staring at the horizon to overcome seasickness would be helpful to people who become seasick instantly when on a boat. In addition, this fact would be helpful in the future because it could enable scientific researchers to create an invention that would aid people to overcome seasickness when they are on a boat. For instance, researchers could create goggles that people wear that are programmed to make them look directly at the horizon!

Information taken from http://www.livescience.com/health/staring-at-horison-gives-sea-legs-110127.html.

Beetles Used as Food Dyes

This is a picture of a woman checking the label of a product in a supermarket.

Imagine a girl eating a red-colored ice pop on a hot summer day. Drops of artificial red food coloring run down her hand.She picks up the box of the ice pop and notices an ingredient called Red 4. She wonders what Red 4 stands for and walks away. The ingredient Red 4 is commercial name for the substance carmine. The name of the substance carmine might seem like a harmless name but its origin's are gross.

Carmine is a substance from made from red cochineal beetles. These beetles are cultivated, accumulated, and pounded to create a red pigment called carmine. The crimson-colored pigment has been disguised as "natural and artificial flavoring" on a product's label. However, now, the FDA requires food manufacturers to clearly put on their product label by the substance's common name of carmine on the label. This is because some people are highly allergic to cochineal extract. Also, if the presence of the insect-produced dye is clearly shown, it will greatly benefit vegetarians because they will know that the presence of an insect is in their food.

A safer red chemical that is widely used by manufacturers is called Red 40. Red 40 is used for coloring deep red products, such as Hawaiian punch. This chemical is also safe for vegetarians because it is made from organic petroleum, not from red cochineal beetles.

In my opinion, the use carmine should be banned from being used.The absence of carmine will positively impact vegetarians and people who are highly allergic to it because they don't have to worry about a product having carmine when they go grocery shopping at the supermarket.

The information in which this blog used as information came from the following source: http://www.livescience.com/health/beetles-used-for-artificial-coloring-110111.html.

The picture used in this blog came from the following source:
http://www.corbisimages.com/Enlargement/42-15203766.html.