Why is Ibogaine illegal in the US?

Heroin is an illegal drug commonly used by young people in the US. It is considered to be dangerous because of its side effects and is very addictive. 

Ibogaine hydrochloride is a naturally occurring psychoactive substance that has been proved to cure heroin addiction. The reason for which only few people know about this is simple: drug companies don't want to produce it due to the patent has expired. 

Ibogaine works within 48 hours and without withdrawal symptoms, it seems utopic but it's not. Pharmaceutical companies know about the effectiveness of this alkaloid, but they refuse to produce it because it means less money. Drug companies earn more by selling less effective medications than by selling ibogaine. 

If ibogaine is so effective, why is it illegal in the US? Because the patent expired, so no drug company can make a profit of it. No one will pay for ibogaine to go for FTE (full time equivalent) trials. 

Obviously this is wrong! Hundreds of lives could be saved, diseases such as hepatitis B and HIV could be prevented if these people decided to do what's best for society. 

The TV show "Law and Order Svu" dedicated an episode to this issue in 2009, becoming one of the first programs in making this alkaloid known. That's how I found out about this.

Others have already started to disclose about ibogaine, what are you waiting for?

White over Gray in your Teeth

A long time ago, for an extended period of time, deontologists started using amalgam—material originated from the alloy of mercury with other metals such as silver, copper, tin, zinc or gold—as the best known substance to replace the lost pieces of carious teeth in a treatment known as restoration; however, this material is no longer believed to be the most suitable one for this treatment nowadays, given that this metallic compound had been making fools of us for many years.

Dentists need to give that cavity already produced by the caries a specific shape to be able to put this mixture of metals in the damaged tooth; they use a device named high-speed handpiece—in simpler terms, a dental drill—to remove the caries from the contaminated tooth. The shape that is given to this new hollow space in the tooth is similar to a trapezoidal prism, which helps to keep the amalgam in its correspondent place, since this alloy expands to the remaining walls of the tooth.

The issue with this material is that it does not stick to the teeth and this leaves a space between the amalgam and the tooth, which lets the caries pass in the middle of them and turns the problem into a worst situation. On the other hand, composite—the white material used for restoration nowadays, made of synthetic elements—does not depend on the cavity made by the dental drill, and this material attaches to the tooth thanks to the acid—a blue substance that produces tiny holes in the cavity and has a sour flavor—and the adhesive—paste that makes the composite stick to the tooth.

This is the main difference between these two materials and the reason why deontologists do not use amalgam anymore. Another reason why people prefer composite over amalgam is because no one likes those gray spots in their molars.

Photoshop & Celebrities: Do They Share the Red Carpet?

Most people know Photoshop, and some of us even have this software in our laptops or computers. For those who do not know what Photoshop is, it is a software developed by Adobe Systems, an American computer software company, which major use is in editing images.

Many artists (and by artists I mean singers, dancers, actors, etc.) are fond of Photoshop and they find it a good opportunity to look attractive for their fans. At the same time, they supply their need of looking as young and nice as in the moment they became famous, and project an image of immortality and everlasting beauty and fame, although the image they show is an idealistic version of them.

Photoshop at its best: Madonna, singer

But when is it too much? Some artists have overused this useful tool turning it into an enemy that reveals their necessity of others’ recognition, not only in the artistic field (the one that really matters), but also in the physical and superficial field. Singers and actors tend to use Photoshop as if it was the only mechanism to attract the masses, sometimes with unsatisfactory results.

Another example of Photoshop: Tyra Banks, model

From bigger breasts and smaller waist to different skin color, artists have used this now worldwide famous software to make fans and public in general feel attracted to first impressions, and in this case Photoshop is the right weapon to draw our attention to them. But what would happen if there was not any software to edit one’s appearance? Would beloved celebrities be as popular as they are now?

P.S. If you want to watch Ellen DeGeneres talking about Photoshop (hilarious!), click here.

Human Reproductive Cloning: Today, an irresponsible idea.

Have you ever heard about Dolly, the sheep? If you have not, I can tell you that Dolly was the first mammal cloned. In 1997, a group of Scottish scientists succeeded in cloning this sheep using adult cells from another sheep. When Dolly was born, she was genetically identical to her mother, and she didn’t need a father to be procreated. With her mother’s DNA was enough!

Cloning has been a huge step in science. In Human Cloning, therapeutic cloning produces cloned cells from adults to be used in medicine; so this should be promoted because many lives can be saved because of it. However, reproductive cloning should be banned because involves the unnatural creation of cloned humans.

In Reproductive Cloning, the cloned embryo is implanted to the uterus of a female host, where it stays and develops until its birth. The problem is that there is a huge probability of failing: many of the clones would die in the gestation process, which would be a risk for the mother health. Also, cloned humans would have serious health issues because their cells are older in age. Most of them would birth with anomalies that sooner would make them die. Their life expectancy is not as longer as a natural human being.

Reproductive cloning would kill the sense of individuality. In addition, this type of cloning would develop the thinking of the human being as something material and manipulated.

This process should be banned in order to protect those “cloned lives”. It would be irresponsible to clone human knowing the risks. The cloning process should be improved, and maybe then, it could be a possibility for procreation, or at least, for human creation.

Minimally invasive surgery

Are we witnessing the dawning of new technology that will allow us in a no distant future being able to overcome medical problems without the need of an invasive surgery? Well, apparently we are.

Needless to say to anyone that has had a surgery how undermining it is to your health being cut and opened for your relief. The problem is that after you had your procedure, you find yourself under a big discomfort and in danger of having post-surgery implications such as infections, bacteria, or any possible affliction, consequence of being invaded through cuts in your skin and tissue in the sake of health. Luckily in the last twenty years there has been a change of approach among the medical community, especially in the surgical field, were the focus of the treatment comes from inside the human body.

Modern surgery as a medical treatment has existed for over two hundred years; it has evolved along with modern science;moreover, in the last years the use of laparoscopy interventions has increased because it minimizes the damage upon the human body. This type of minimally invasive surgery has successfully evolved into using miniature-sized cameras, which allows surgeons to observe and even heal medical problems.  In addition, in the last years it has been developed a machine called the da Vinci Surgical System which is basically a robot that helps surgeons to be more precise and harmless to the patient’s body.

All of these breakthroughs make us wonder were science can lead us and in what way is this going to benefit us.

The Importance of Studying Disciplinary Text in English Language.

To study the disciplinary text in English is a very important issue for us as future teachers who are trained to teach children, teenager and also adults in a college class.

 While the English language is becoming a more and more important skill in professional life, texts in English language as study material and as a requirement to publish research is becoming more popular in academic life as lingua franca not only in the field of technology and international business, but also in all kinds of disciplines (such as: biology, law, physics and even in education) to publish research

One way to publish research is through the “scientific article”, but each discipline has needs of its own that can only be satisfied by a discursive genre of its own. Publishing research and scientific findings is essential to college life, publishing is a need for post graduates and to read these publications is a need for undergraduates.  According to Ibañez (2008) “it is considered essential for university students to have psycho-discursive skills that allow them comprehend disciplinary texts successfully.”

I would go further to say that it is essential for a college student to be able to produce this kind of text as well as to understand it, not only in his or her native language, but also in English since this language has become a sort of trading money in the scientific world. For the students of scientific programs, is fundamental to learn to understand and to produce this kind of text since they will be required to do so during their professional life and during post graduate programs. Thus the understanding and production of disciplinary text in English language comes as a matter that should be important to us as future teachers and also as a challenge for college education, since the system that exists now shows little awareness about this matter.

Should testing on rats be banned?

In the recent time people from all over the world have claim that animal testing should be banned, however only few of them appeal for the rats, the real victims of science.

Lab rats are locked inside a cage with nothing but food and water holders, they are used for humans to professedly "cure" the world, and I haven't seen any demonstration on this topic.
It seems that people have forgotten about rats, and the only thing they care about is big animals such as cows, pigs or endangered animals. 

Rats have always been the scientists' favourite to taste their products on because their organism is the most similar to humans. Scientists claim on their favour that these trials are needed to save human lives, especially nowadays that more and more diseases are appearing. 

Even though what scientists claim may be truth, it does not give them the right to conduct an experiment with rats, why? They are unable to give their consent. We don't have to damage, hurt and kill innocent animals in name of science, we are not neanderthals anymore, so this practice should stop. 

If we know rats are suffering, shouldn't we do something about it?  Sure, but if we do that, we will have to come up with a solution to the dilemma: "It's either animal research or quit trying to find cures for diseases".