Over the course of two months, I photographed a hyacinth bulb growing, flowering, and dying. All of this started before the coronavirus pandemic started, so I added a little tease at the beginning to what it was like pre and post virus.
A bit about the logistics: It was roughly 15,000 images taken as jpegs with my dslr camera. I took a photo every 5 minutes, although I think that timespan is too fast now. I’d have dialed that down to 10 minutes to decrease the amount of footage I had to deal with afterwards.
I also spent about 3 months post-processing the images and cutting each of the flowers out. Many of the comments on youtube indicated how much work that is. It’s true, but there is a bit of a shortcut. After Effects has a roto brush tool that uses AI to figure out what the next frame should be. So, I probably did 40 full cutouts and then another 200 or so adjustments to those as the roto-brush tool did it’s thing. It was still a ton of work though as the computer took a long time to process each image.
Recently, I was doing research for a project at an entomology lab in Ecuador. I was researching behaviors of different groups of insects so that I could place them into certain “functional groups” (a grouping of organisms into some niche such as herbivore or predator). While doing so, I started to come across the same problem: there are so many things we do not know about so many of these invertebrates, especially regarding their behavior. Additionally, it seemed that most of the research I was citing was quite old now, and at first glance, there did not seem to be a lot of new natural history work being done.
During my training as an ecologist, I have briefly heard about a debate surrounding the decline of natural history—that natural history may be “dying”—and the idea that some do not consider it to be a true scientific practice. This, together with my inability to accurately complete my models from lack of behavioral information, got me thinking about natural history’s current place in science and ecology. To explore this issue, we must first understand what natural history is and how it is connected to everyday science and everyday life.
Observing nature
There is something special about observing nature up close. As children, many of us spent hours watching various creatures in their natural habitat: bees buzzing in the flowers, ants carrying a seemingly impossible load across difficult terrain, a bird working tirelessly to feed a nest full of chicks. Many biologists share that these experiences are what made them pursue this career. Even for those who aren’t biologists, nature inspires something inside of us. Today, when it seems our connection to nature is threatened by growing cities and depletion of natural habitats, interest in nature continues to be important, whether through camping, visiting wildlife refuges, ecotourism, bird watching or watching varied and popular wildlife documentaries.
When we take the observation of nature one step further and begin to watch for patterns, describe interactions, identify what makes one species different from another, and record the world around us it’s called natural history.
A White-Whiskered Hermit (Phaethornis yaruqui) hovers near a flower of a Cepillo tree (Callistemon viminalis) in Quito, Ecuador Photo: Kirstynn Joseph
What is natural history?
Natural history is basically the study of flora and fauna in their environment, yet depending where you look, can be defined slightly differently:
A quick Google search will tell you that it is “the scientific study of animals or plants, especially as concerned with observation rather than experiment, and presented in popular rather than academic form.” The Merriam-Webster dictionary definition is: “the study of natural objects especially in the field from an amateur or popular point of view”.
Essentially, it is the close observation of the behaviors and interactions of organisms to help describe the patterns in nature. However, consider the words “popular” or even “amateur” in these definitions.
Natural history is considered the root of many disciplines of biology, especially ecology, and the basis of many important theories and discoveries, historically and recently. Despite this, there is sometimes a stigma that “natural history” is not a valid, modern science because scientists say it lacks careful experimentation and control of variables. A post from The Lyman Entomological Museum briefly discusses this debate and shows how important natural history is to modern science. However, what other evidence is there?
Is natural history science?
The difficulty with defining natural history as a science likely comes from the fact that you can have people who observe nature quite “amateurly” without using much of the scientific method; they may come up with conclusions based on observations alone, and that becomes complicated. Observations can also be biased, but with proper control and repetition they become very useful.
These observations, from scientists and amateurs alike, can develop theories or aid in conservation and management, as shown in this blog article and more research papers below. Many projects around the world are beginning to rely more on citizen science and observations, by using platforms such as eBird or iNaturalist or simply by communicating with people directly about their experiences, whether it is hunters and fishers from an area or local indigenous groups.
An ant (Ectatomma sp.) from Yasuni National Park, Ecuador. Photo: Santiago Palacios
In fact some wild interactions can only be deduced by making careful, repeated observations in nature; many organisms are difficult, if not impossible, to raise in a lab and some scenarios impossible to simulate. Even some small organisms like insects (many species of ants) are almost impossible to rear in a laboratory setting and must be observed directly in their habitat.
As an example, a recently published paper on the interactions between rhinos and oxpeckers showed that the birds’ warning calls help rhinos detect humans sooner. This was discovered through multiple field tests where rhinos were approached, with or without oxpeckers around, and their behavior was noted during each trial. This information is crucial to help with rhino conservation in regard to poachers; if we can help make sure oxpecker populations are doing well in rhino habitats, they may have a better chance at avoiding poachers.
This paper, Natural History’s Place in Science and Society, from 2014, noting the decrease in natural history over time, gives multiple examples of natural history being an important scientific practice in everything from ecology to human health and understanding disease. There are multiple published papers that also speak to natural history and citizen science as important tools for conservation and other research (some examples below).
These examples support natural history as a valuable and important science that can contribute to modern science. In saying so, is the practice, general interest in, and respectability of natural history in decline? Are we not spending enough time in the field observing our study systems? Is there a decline in natural history education? In short, is natural history dying?
What does the data say?
A quick look at Google Trends does show a decrease in searches of “Natural History” from the early 2000s through the present. While the Google Ngram Viewer shows that we are clearly past the peak of books published about natural history, titles have decreased since the 1930s, remaining somewhat steady after that.
On the other hand, the Web of Science citation analysis tool shows a clear increase in publications and citations with the topic “natural history” over time. Now, of course we must take into account that there likely has been a great increase in publications overall in this time, but surely this shows that natural history is not entirely dead?
These results suggest that natural history is not entirely in decline in terms of publications and books, but there are more opinions and lines of evidence to be explored. Let’s take a look at both sides of this debate.
Yes, natural history is dying!
In the late 1980s it was already known that natural history was underrated by the public and scientists alike but extremely important for conservation management and science in general (one example here). But where do we stand now?
Let’s start with schooling. As technology and science become more advanced, and statistics and modeling become more complex and important, it is widely argued that natural history classes are being pushed aside in order to train new biologists in theory rather than direct interaction with nature. This elimination from curriculums may be due to the stigma mentioned earlier.
As a new ecologist, I personally studied in a very different way than those from 20, 30 even 5 years ago. My university had a very strong statistical and theoretical curriculum (which I am very thankful for in many ways) but may have forfeited natural history study. I cannot say we never went to the field or learned interesting natural history facts, but I certainly spent much more time behind a screen than in the field.
As for graduate-level work, the immense pressure to finish your thesis, publish, and continue to be a competitive publisher, can edge out time for in-the-field study. Terry McGlynn argues this point quite well. In academia, this pressure doesn’t exactly lift after grad school, making it difficult to spend a lot of time on projects that require more time spent studying things more closely in situ. The stigma surrounding natural history as amateur science may also be a barrier to publishing in many journals.
Then there is funding. Funding tends to come more easily for projects focused on scientific trends, such as genetics, and as Google search showed, “natural history” isn’t exactly a burning topic.
Lastly, is there room in the workforce for natural history? There seems to be a drastic decrease in true jobs for naturalists and a worldwide decrease, removal, or consolidation of museums in different institutions. So, as much as you may love natural history, perhaps it is no longer seen as an employable field of study and the time spent outside observing interactions could be better spent at the computer learning the latest in coding for biological statistics.
No, natural history is not dying!
Like any argument there are two sides, and here we find a convincing argument that natural history is not threatened.
In many universities, there is surely a drop in courses that are strictly natural history, but perhaps we only have so much we can teach our students in an academic setting? As science progresses, may it not be more pressing to use classroom time to train these complicated math and modelling skills? Perhaps it is important to focus on learning how to navigate this new and important technology while trying to keep interest in natural history alive as the base of these projects, encouraging students to find other opportunities to get out and observe these systems when they can. Of course the ideal would be to offer and encourage natural history courses, or at the very least teach natural history skills, like identification, or facts about animal behavior throughout courses with heavy mathematical content, to remind students what we are studying and why.
Though there is a clear decline in these studies in some universities, many still offer animal behavior courses (e.g.zoology). There are also great university-sponsored programs that help students stay connected to natural history roots, learn how to conduct quality field work, and study nature, such as The Bamfield Marine Sciences Center in BC, Canada.
The issues of funding, publishing, and finding jobs are not exclusive to natural history but affect all scientists. So maybe the greater concern is to make science in general a priority in our society.
See also the large number of natural history museums worldwide, and that universities and institutions are investing in applications/webpages based on biodiversity and natural history. This certainly supports natural history’s relevance and popularity.
Furthermore, it is arguable that natural history can never be dead, because it is the foundation for ecology; to understand complex models properly you do need to understand the pieces of your study system and the behaviors and interactions within that system (see Fox and McGlynn). The complex models and statistics that are the landscape of modern science still rely on understanding nature and how it works, just through different approaches.
As seen in the graphs above, there are still publications and citations for natural history, and the numbers are even increasing. Each day there are fascinating papers and books released on the natural history of organisms, such as The Encyclopedia of Insects. Furthermore, though new technology is used in conservation work carried out across the world, it usually relies on a lot of direct observation and understanding the system first-hand or through communication with other groups as mentioned earlier.
While technology sometimes can be seen as the enemy, it also makes it easier to stay connected and share ideas, sightings, observations, and knowledge. Platforms like ebird, initiatives like The City Nature Challenge, and more are enabling and encouraging us to get out and see, enjoy, describe, and understand nature together. Additionally, wildlife filmmaking is becoming more widespread and popular and is an amazing way to share natural history between scientists and the public alike. All this information can be used to aid in public interest in nature and biology and in real scientific research. Perhaps, natural history is not only proving its relevance, but becoming a more well-rounded and useful tool than ever before.
Why should we care? Why is natural history important?
An iconic Galapagos Tortoise, one of the animals that helped Darwin with some of his first theories of evolution Photo: Kirstynn Joseph
Whether or not you think natural history is dead, dying, or as alive as ever, there is no denying that it is an important science that deserves recognition and our time. We are far from even describing how many species there are on Earth, let alone understanding their life histories and behavior, so we can hope that there is much more to come.
From getting students interested in nature, or reminding adults about its magic, to making important scientific discoveries, being a good ecologist, improving conservation practices, understanding ecosystem interactions, and advancing medicine and human health, natural history holds an important place in the scientific community. From the first observations of Darwin, that gave birth to the ecology we know today, or modern novel observations that lead to incredible discoveries about our natural world, to the light in children’s eyes as they learn for the first time how long a whale can hold its breath, or a biologist having that eureka moment while walking in the forest… natural history will always be a part of life. And it is so important that we do not forget that.
All the incredible science that is done every day helps advance the understanding of our big, complex, beautiful world, but we must not forget how important and helpful it can be to take the time to sit back, watch, and listen.
You can go to The Naturalist Histories Project to see a range of discussions on the revitalization of Natural History. In addition, here are some great resources:
Online learning has become the next big thing with all the major changes in businesses digitalizing their approach. Educational institutions have followed this cue and they now offer online courses to students.
At first, this practice was done for simpler courses that do not have extra complications, but slowly more technical and specialized skills are being taught online. Those skills include biological studies that are also available from online education institutions. Here are the best free online courses intended for aspirant biologists.
Lactation Biology
Coursera, one of the world’s leading online course providers, is offering a course titled Lactation Biology. The course is much needed for individuals who see their future working in the business of producing milk.
You can access this course for free online to understand the basic physiological principles involved in the process of lactation. The material provided can help you understand this field better and when paired with the best online resources for students, your understanding will be far more broadened.
Synapses, Neurons and Brains
Synapses, Neurons, and Brains course from Coursera but this one shifts its focus to the study of the brain and the function of neurons. If you would like your biology future to be based on studying neurology and how the human brain works, this course is for you.
The brain is one of the most complicated creations of all time, the networking capabilities of millions and millions of neurons is just more than what we can fathom.
You can try to understand the little bits and pieces to grasp the principles of how the brain functions. The course will give you a great introduction to that field of study.
And if you still face difficulty, dig up useful information from Samplius while looking for science essay examples. The examples there are of great quality and trusted by students and even teachers across the globe for their academic requirements.
Animal Feed Production: Feed Safety
The Queen’s University, in collaboration with the European Institute of Innovation and Technology, runs the Animal feed production free online course. Although the name of the parties involved may suggest that this course teaches European principles, the truth is the skills can be used anywhere in the world.
The main focus of the online course is teaching potential biologists the importance of keeping their animal feed manufacturing plant healthy and profitable.
A buzzword that keeps on popping up during this course is food safety, which is a term you may be familiar with in human food preparation. The course highlights how important it is to optimize food safety for animals, too, just like it is essential for humans.
Introduction to sustainability and development
Deakin University is offering the Introduction to Sustainability and Development course for free of charge online. The course only requires an investment of 3 hours per week, which is not demanding and should not derail you from your other studies. The main focus of the course is helping students identify the activity of human life on planet Earth.
With that information, the students will learn how to implement certain measures to create a sustainable future for everyone. Students can get basic information on how resources should be used and everything pertaining to creating sustainable development for future generations.
Image Analysis Methods for Biologists
FutureLearn provides this free Image Analysis Methods for Biologists course to aspirant biologists that want to get a basic understanding of analyzing images. The course covers the fundamentals of how you can acquire images and how they are analyzed afterward. If you are looking into pursuing a biology career that needs these skills, it recommended taking this free course.
It will be better to learn more about Image Analysis after you have received the basic training provided by this course. That will make your study time much more fruitful when studying it at a university or college class. The course also covers the basics of the latest developments in using automatic image analysis.
The bottom line
You can get going on your biology goals by starting to learn the basics using these free online courses. During these free online courses, you can identify if the biology sector is really the one for your goals and if it what you expected. Sign up today to start getting a better understanding of the biology sector you will potentially work in.
Author’s Bio:
Emma Rundle is an online tutor and a virtual academic coach for school and college-level students. She’s also an exceptional academic writer and works part-time covering thesis, essays and dissertations. When she’s not at work, she attends Zumba classes, watches the latest web series and cooks South Asian food for her family.
In the light of recent events, especially the Covid-19 pandemic, the profession of a medical worker is valued more than ever before. Doctors and nurses are in high demand in every place in the world. The profession is already being promoted, and students will be encouraged to pursue a career in medicine even more now, and there are lots of viable reasons to do so. Working in medicine might be one of the best career choices available in 2020.
Why Should You Study Medicine?
There are lots of reasons why you should consider studying medicine in 2020. They do not only involve great career prospects, but also the massive contribution you can make into the well-being of humankind. Here are some of the top reasons.
Discovering New Drugs and Cures
The world desperately needs talented researchers and scientists in the domain of medicine who can discover new drugs. There are lots of diseases that have been plaguing the planet for ages, and no remedy has been found to eliminate them yet. As a medical worker, you can become one of the discoverers who change the course of history and invent a new future, free of certain illnesses and diseases.
Always Being in Demand
Considering the current state of global affairs, there is no way being a doctor can become unnecessary. This profession will not be secondary for many decades to come. It means that you can always expect to have a steady job and a great number of job opportunities. You can travel the world and work in any country you want, as this profession is so unique that it does not really get you attached to a certain location.
Having a Variety of Career Options
Medicine is a world of its own. There are lots of professions you can pursue as a medical worker. You can study dentistry, pharmacy, nursery, physiotherapy, and many other fields of medicine. You can even choose to become a surgeon and decide on a narrow type of surgery to specialize in. For example, you could go into cardiovascular surgery and become as successful as Denton Cooley, one of the best surgeons in the history of the USA. In his own time, he studied various reasons for people getting cardiovascular diseases, and he was actually the very first surgeon to perform an artificial heart transplant in a human being.
Easing People’s Suffering and Pain
There are also high moral standards behind studying medicine. As a medical worker, you will hold the great power of helping people get rid of their pain and have a happy and healthy life. You will be able to help your patients manage stress and insecurities, give them hope and new chances to live, and simply bringing joy to everyone you interact with.
Top 5 Healthcare Majors to Choose in 2020
The landscape of medicine is very dynamic, it is constantly changing, and you need to choose the right healthcare major to secure better career prospects and more learning opportunities. Here are the majors that will meet the highest demand in the upcoming years:
Registered Nursing
People with this major will have abundant learning opportunities around the world in the years to come. Registered nurses get to work directly with patients, diagnose, and help manage their conditions. You can also choose a specific group of people to work with, like only children or only elderly people. The studying itself can get quite challenging, so if you feel like you are overwhelmed with all of your assignments, consider reaching out to a medical essay writing service to easily manage your studies.
Healthcare Administration and Management
Working in medicine does not automatically mean that you have to become a nurse or a doctor. You can also work in medicine and take a managerial position where you get to organize and synchronize the work of medical staff. Healthcare administration and management professionals are facing a rising demand from employers. Running operations within healthcare facilities and making sure everything is in good order is essential for the successful performance of medical institutions. As someone working in the field, you will get to learn financial and business management along with healthcare-specific instructions.
Adult Health Nursing
One of the reasons why adult health nursing would be an excellent choice in 2020 lies in the fact that there are more and more prospects for graduates. This is due to the fact that the adult population is considerably higher than the US underage population. It means that at a point, there will be many elderly people needing the services and assistance of nurses and carers. What’s more, compared to other majors like surgery, this one is considerably more affordable to pursue. There are lots of aspects of healthcare that are focused on adult patients, so you will have many narrow-field options to choose from.
Dietetics Nutrition Services
With each coming day, the world is getting more and more into a healthy lifestyle and sports. A healthy lifestyle is promoted on social media every day, with all the fit influencers around. Many young people have already embraced the power and potential of regular exercise, and they do their best to watch their diet. In addition, they seek help and professional consultations from the medical workers who are knowledgeable in the field of nutrition. Choosing such a major will give you a chance to work not only at a hospital but also to offer consultation services, which pays very well.
Maternal and Child Health
The world is becoming more conscious of the importance of healthy motherhood experience. People are discovering the bonds between a healthy pregnancy and the whole life of a child after being born. Pregnancy and reproduction are some of the top fields of medicine to study as they have to do with the future of the world. As a professional in the area, you will get to study the health of families, children, and women.
Article by Joy Mayo
Joy Mayo is a professional writer with more than 15 years of experience now in the essay industry. She writes on different subjects, including history, English, linguistics, business, economics, and politics. Her passion is journaling, but she also helps with essay support and is one of the best essay writers in the field.
One would think, at first glance, that there is no link between luck and science. Luck is just something that occurs naturally, a winning streak on a game, or just someone who always seems to be in the right place at the right time, right?
Is there a way to improve your luck?
However, luck is no more than the odds of something happening, given a certain set of circumstances. There are two types of luck that you’ll come across: real luck and false luck. Today we’ll see how both of these play out in the wild.
Real luck = probability
Real luck is based on probability or odds.
When you type into Google “What are the odds of” you get a few interesting suggestions: What are the odds of getting pregnant, What are the odds of winning the lottery, What are the odds of getting struck by lightning.
The odds of getting pregnant is a combination of the virility of the man, the fertility of the women, the day of the cycle, and the health of both people (among a few other factors). WebMD says “for most couples trying to get pregnant, the odds are 15% to 25% in any one month.”
The odds of winning the lottery can be calculated by the number of numbers available to choose from vs the number of slots and position. According to quick maths, for the US Powerball, “the probability of winning the big prize is 1 in 292,201,338.”
The odds of getting struck by lightning depend on whether you live in a place where electrical storms are common, if you go outside during electrical storms, etc. According to the National Geographic, the odds of getting struck by lightning are around 1 in 700,000.
Casino games can be easy dupes for players who believe in pure luck and superstitions. If a person is ‘feeling lucky today’ or has on their favourite shoes, they may believe they’ll get a winning streak on the slots. While it can happen, slot games give you on average over 90% return to player. What that means is that as your spins increase towards infinity, you’ll only receive 90c for every dollar played. You can get a lucky streak – as a coin flipped 100 times is hardly ever 50 times heads and 50 times tails – however, it is not predictable (except in the case noted below!). The more you play a game, the more likely you are to come out at a loss overall – your chances of winning do not increase the longer you play.
If someone seems to be having endless luck in a game or other field where luck is at play, then there is likely something funny going on behind the scenes.
Let’s investigate a couple of famous cases.
Russian hackers uncover the secret to winning on the slot machines
A man walks into a casino, takes out his phone, plays a slot machine for a few rounds, then leaves. His win/loss profile? What it would regularly be. Shortly after, he does the same thing, but this time he cleans up big time.
Suddenly, this starts happening in a few different casinos, all over the world – with the same slot machines, from the same game maker.
Of course, it wasn’t luck that had these players raking in the dough on the slots.
The phones were used in the first instance to record the plays the machine went through. From those recorded plays, they then went to a back office, who had worked out the algorithm behind the random number generator used on the machine (as well as the reels on the machines). Once they knew where in the sequence the random number generator was at, they could determine which symbols would come up next – and thus what to play to win big.
A fake lottery ticket nets millions before a suicide exposes the secret
In 2009, a man named Edward Putman presented the National Lottery with a crumpled up winning ticket, missing the original barcode, for a £2.5m jackpot – just in time before the winnings expired.
However, the man wasn’t lucky at all. He had simply been the lucky recipient of a collaborative plan with a man on the inside at Camelot – Giles Knibbs, a friend of Putman’s. After experimenting with various different false tickets, they finally got lucky.
Both men wound up unlucky in the end. Knibbs killed himself after an argument about the split of the winnings, after first telling multiple other friends about what the pair had done. 3 years after the win, Putman was already in jail for benefit fraud, and now 10 years later, he has finally been convicted of the lottery fraud – with sentencing still to follow.
Our brains are hard-wired to work towards things we desire. When we think of something we want or need, our brains release a chemical called dopamine that spurs us on to get that thing. It was a great idea in prehistoric times to keep us fed, sheltered, and reproducing but it’s taken a sinister turn in the modern era.
Simple yet so nice
Now with the advent of online shopping, gambling, on-demand sex and drugs, 24-hour everything, fast food, and literally anything else that you can quickly buy, discover, or download on the internet, this chemically-activated urge is more powerful than ever… and not necessarily helping us in the “survival” department.
The scary part is that companies have really picked up on this and leveraged the power that it has over human beings to increase profits, keep us wanting more, and creating a feedback loop of neural circuitry that is as devious as it is brilliant.
What is Dopamine?
Dopamine, first discovered in 1957, is one of 20 or so major neurotransmitters, a fleet of chemicals in the brain that are released to send signals to nerves, neurons, and other cells in the body.
Dopamine is largely associated with desire, addiction, ambition, and sex drive. It causes us to seek reward but not to reward us, also causing frustration and anxiety. Marketers use this feature best when they tell us that the deal won’t last long or that supplies are limited.
People even get dopamine tattoos, a tip of the hat to this neurotransmitter that controls so much of our behaviour and lives.
This evolutionary survival mechanism that worked so effectively for our primal ancestors, has unfortunately found its way into our modern-day lives too.
Neuromarketing
No other field of inquiry sees the exploitation of dopamine more than the burgeoning realm of neuromarketing, or consumer neuroscience. It’s basically the study of the brain with the goal of predicting or even manipulating consumer behaviour.
Interest in neuromarketing started in the early 2000s when graduate student researchers began to show significant connections between branding, advertising, and other marketing tactics and consumer decision-making. Their findings showed measurable impacts on the brain from the bombardment of dopamine by means of various stimuli.
The promise of reward, whether monetary, sexual, indulgence, or status triggers an immediate release of dopamine to the brain. These stimuli propel us to desire something that we may not desire of our own accord. This confusion of reactions in our brains causes us to buy, do, or otherwise crave a product or activity that we may not have had any prior interest in.
Social Media & the Internet
There is no better example of the powerful effects of dopamine than in the online world of social media and the internet. The founding president of Facebook, Sean Parker, has even said that this is not by accident — but rather by design.
He admitted that the social network was founded not to unite us, but to distract us with that little hit of dopamine every time we get a like or comment on a post that keeps us coming back for more. It’s the same principle that addicts people to drugs, except in this form, it is a social-validation feedback loop, a blatant exploitation of human psychology.
Examples abound of people being glued to their smartphones, checking, rechecking, and triple-checking their social media accounts, sitting glued to YouTube for hours, or blowing up their Instagram with photos to get that all-important “Like”.
Games & Music
The gamification of activities such as loyalty programs is a hugely dopamine-driven method for encouraging consumer participation. The McDonald’s Monopoly Game or the Starbucks for Life reward program are great examples of this working extremely well and creating a drone-like consumer following, each one hell-bent on collecting the most game pieces or stars.
Catchy slogans or, when put to music, jingles have long been used to remind us of products every time we hear them. The addictive music used in online casino slot machines, video games, and keno machines reminds us of something that gave us pleasure in the past. In turn, our brains release the all-important dopamine, which triggers inspiration to pursue that desire once again.
Food
Over time and with more “hits” of dopamine to the brain, the neurons start to become less responsive to familiar rewards. For example, eating an amazing steak and lobster dinner would be great the first few times… but what about the 74th time in a row?
This is why dopamine-savvy companies are constantly changing their food menus, adding new items all the time (with the same manipulative marketing) to keep our receptors coming back for more.
It’s not only something you can see in marketing either. If we stick with the Starbucks and McDonald’s examples, we get a glimpse of food that is manufactured with the perfect combination of salt, sugar, and fat to increase our dopamine production and make us crave the “reward” almost irrationally.
These ingredients (and chemical additives) combine to create engineered food that hits every pressure point in our brains, literally hijacking our mental circuitry until we get what we’re craving.
A Vicious Cycle
Dopamine fuels addiction and keeps us coming back for more even when we’re not actually happy with the outcome of our purchase, actions, or meal.
The downside of dopamine is that although we feel really good when we’re engaging in the reward-seeking behavior, the feeling is gone when we’ve accomplished our goal.
Over time the dopamine receptors in our brain become less sensitive and we build up a tolerance that only ever-higher levels of dopamine can affect. Like a potent drug, we keep going back time and again to try to experience that same satisfying “high” as the first time.
Depression is never fun for anyone. The feeling of lifelessness, the feeling that you don’t want to do anything, it can take a toll on your mental health. While certain things such as CBD can help temporarily reduce those low feelings, are there other ways to reduce depression symptoms? The answer is yes, and we’ll talk about how you can naturally reduce these symptoms to make life a bit easier.
Reduce Your Processed Food Intake
Processed food that’s not part of a healthy Mediterranean diet has links to depression. It doesn’t provide vitamins and minerals, which help your body. Along with that, they also have white sugar, artificial sweeteners, and MSG, which cause a spike, and then a sudden decline in your blood sugar, and your own general well-being.
While changing your diet may not fix it right away, it can help with reducing the instance of this, and combatting that slow, sluggish feeling that you feel when you’re depressed.
Plus, it’s better for the body and helps reduce the chances of heart disease, stroke, and diabetes as well.
Get outside
Getting outside is a mindful activity. You can walk around and get some fresh air. It also helps stimulate your nervous system naturally, since you’re not just sitting around. Being mindful of the world around you is good for your mental health because it builds awareness on what’s going on in life.
Awareness is good, and mindfulness is known to naturally boost your own chemicals in the brain plus, walking around a pretty butterfly garden or park identifying butterflies is a relaxing activity.
You should definitely consider this if you’ve been feeling down due to being cooped up all day.
Get some Exercise
Finally, get some exercise.
Excise produces endorphins, which will naturally make you happier. It also increases circulation all around to different parts of the body, improving cell formation and the connections between the neural circuits. Physical exercise works better in most cases than SSRIs, so it can naturally help uplift your mood. Exercise is powerful, and it promotes brain growth too.
Of course, that doesn’t mean you have to exercise every day for hours on end. Even just thirty minutes a day is incredibly helpful and worthwhile since it’ll work to naturally regulate those neurotransmitters.
Get Help
If you’ve tried the natural way, however, and you’re still feeling down, it’s important to seek out alternative means. BetterHelp therapy is one solution. They offer convenient online therapy on the go, and you can speak with a counselor right away. Sometimes the solution isn’t just going outside or eating healthy. While these can help, don’t discount actual therapy, for it can assist you with combatting some of those thoughts.
Depression is a real issue for many people, and natural means might be a better solution for you currently. If you’re taking SSRIs and want to switch over to something else, or don’t want to take those, then it might help you to look at these natural means to reduce depression symptoms. While it won’t naturally disappear, it can help you.
I made a seal video for the New England Aquarium! How exciting is this.
Sometimes I do work with zoos and aquariums and sometimes I get to make behind the scenes videos about it. I made this short film at the New England Aquarium and was pretty amazed at how much everyone cares. I see this all the time with zoos and aquariums, but marine mammal folks really are one of the nicest groups. I hope this short was able to show that.
Coronavirus has brought up some issues around human-wildlife interactions. Could this pandemic be one solution to wildlife conservation of certain animals? Probably.
If I’ve learned anything about conserving animals though, is that there are thousands of solutions and there is nothing that’s black and white. We all need to think outside of the box if we’re going to make an impact. (you’re helping by helping me share these stories)
So this story, is a success story. It’s not directly related to what’s happening in the pandemic, other than it made it more difficult to shoot. But it is a great example of how a group of people are helping with something that seems so simple. I think we can all learn from this. Maybe it’ll allow others to think about alternatives to our current approaches in the other areas that need our attention.
Stay healthy and stay in if you can. Thanks always for watching the videos I put out. I’ll probably be able to put out more in the coming months, as I lost all my current storytelling jobs. Literally this pandemic is shutting all of my travel down. But that’s cool (I guess), because I still have a lot to share.
Because of that I want to give a big shoutout to all of you. While the number is still small, it does allow me to keep moving forward on this platform. That’s amazing.
Studying living organisms? Isn’t it interesting! Biology has become a mainstream subject in the last few years of school. Choosing biology or showing interest in life automatically makes you lean towards a plethora of career options.
As per 2018 statistics, 25% of the students in the UK choose to study biology. Some students already know they are going to be in the healthcare industry while choosing biology while others are simply interested in studying life. In this article, we are going to list the main career options that pop up when you are a biology student. Some of the career opportunities might surprise you.
1. Doctor
The first and foremost career opportunity that people think of is being a Doctor. It is one of the well-paid and prestigious job opportunities in the field of biology. Being a Doctor is not difficult but you need to be patient and ready to face challenges at every step. It is a 4-6 years course depending on the country. The journey is quite long and tedious. One more thing is that you do not automatically become a doctor after finishing med school. You need to prepare yourself for those cross-roads.
2. Food Science Specialist
Food scientists are supposed to come up with innovative ideas for food production. They monitor every step from raw material to final processing. They are the people who prevent harmful chemicals from being added and preserving the food’s nutritional value. They usually go through an intensive course of 4 years and then apply for vacant positions.
3. Lab Technician
Every hospital or diagnostic center requires laboratory services to provide accurate results. They form the backbone of diagnosis. As a biology student, you have a lot of essays to finish. You can check this site out and leave them to this writing service. Meanwhile, special degree courses are available to develop the skills. Salary depends on the hospital and whether the institution belongs to the private or public sector.
4. Pharmacist
Another favorite career for biology students apart from being a doctor is being a pharmacist. It is easy to get in the courses and it will definitely be less expensive than medicine itself. A pharmacist may get involved in research and production of medicines or selling medicines.
5. Dentistry
If you like to see bright and clean smiles, dentistry is the perfect job for you. It is one of the best biology jobs for students to choose from. After a year of internship and a 4-5 year course, you may be eligible for the license to practice after passing an exam. Even in dentistry, several specialties exist among which you may choose.
6. Nursing
Nurses are the people without whom the hospitals won’t function. They perform a number of procedures and give IV medications as and when required to patients. Nursing courses vary from 2-3 years depending on the country. If helping people is your agenda, nursing is the best option.
7. Psychology
It is a huge field with various career opportunities. So there are 2 options, you may become a psychiatrist after completing your medicine or just study psychology and become a psychologist. As a psychologist, you can work as therapists or as counselors in school. They basically help patients to talk about your problems and understand them. They might not be able to prescribe any medication but can offer certain exercises to overcome the problem.
8. Research
Research is the most interesting field for a biology student. Clinical research is a varied field where you can choose to perform research in a designated area. Whatever you study in medicine based on clinical research. Clinical trials, biotechnology, Bio-IT training, bioequivalence studies, the opportunities are countless. The courses are of different time periods. It is a developing field and has great career options.
9. Teaching
If you want to continue the knowledge you got, you can get into teaching jobs. Teaching is an art that cannot be given without proper training. Teaching courses are available for 2-3 years. This is an important responsibility as you are teaching the budding future biologists.
Conclusion
That is a summarized list of biology degree jobs available for all students. Many more opportunities exist like an agriculturist, botanist, zoologist, and life science specialist to name a few. Biology comes with limitless options. All you need is your interest to explore the living and the dead too (Forensic medicine).
The career possibilities are an umbrella under which many subdivisions of the field occur. As you get into the medical field and specialize your way to narrow your field. There is an overall growth of about 7% in the medical field from 2018-2028. This refers to the fact that there is more opportunity for biology students.
During my training as an ecologist, I have briefly heard about a debate surrounding the decline of natural history—that natural history may be “dying”—and the idea that some do not consider it to be a true scientific practice. This, together with my inability to accurately complete my models from lack of behavioral information, got me thinking about natural history’s current place in science and ecology. To explore this issue, we must first understand what natural history is and how it is connected to everyday science and everyday life. 
