Signature Assignment ePortfolio Reflection

Lyna Phan
Salt Lake Community College
BIOL 1090
April 24th, 2023

After completing my News Analysis assignment, the way I thought about science did change in a

positive light. I appreciate the continued research on neurological disorders. In one of my

psychology courses, I learned that there is not a lot of research on Alzheimer’s and there are

medications and remedies to help but there is no cure for Alzheimer’s disease. When new

research is conducted some new findings are found and will help support more research. In 2019,

Laura Lewis, a neuroscientist from Boston University, was involved with research regarding

strong waves of cerebrospinal fluid washes through our brains while we sleep back. Possibly

finding that when we sleep it “cleans” the brain. Which made me not surprised by their level of

advocacy because the research teams have been working on this information for a few years.

This article did not make any connections to other disciplines because it is still in the

process of being reviewed however, I believe if the neuroscientists could find that spinal fluid

could be manipulated enough to give the brain a deep clean while awake, it could have some

connections to economics and possibly humanities. For example, if doing this deep clean can

somehow help prevent Alzheimer’s from getting worse or relieve other neurological disorders.

Other companies would get involved in the research to be able to provide treatment for people.

Sometimes it could be for human benefit or for profit.

Intro to Biology has impacted my views on the environment. Realizing how much we need to do

to help with global warming. We need to take better care of the planet and reduce emissions. One

of my main hobbies involves cars and I used to appreciate loud cars that don’t have a catalytic

converter because it sounds nice, but I believe we as humans can give that up to make a

difference with the environment and we could give up more as well.

Another view that I did not know about was the use of antibiotics. I did not know that the

more we use antibiotics the faster bacteria and viruses can evolve to be immune to those

antibiotics. This could be dangerous because what if pharmaceutical companies cannot keep up

with research to keep antibiotics a step ahead of bacteria? How terrifying would it be to go to the

doctors for help and they do not have any medication that could give you relief? People should

only use antibiotics if they truly need them and not just to quickly get rid of the bacteria.