Japanese Researchers Succeed in Growing Ancient Microbe

Petri dish
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Physics major Matt Kafker studies a range of soft and hard science subjects as a university student. In addition to studying psychology, linguistics, and foreign languages in school, Matthew “Matt” Kafker is involved in research related to microbial ecology, a field that studies bacteria colonies in varying environments.

In August 2019, a team in Japan announced that it had successfully grown a simple organism from mud that had been collected from the seabed. This success came after 12 years of attempts, and could serve as the missing link between complex and simple cells.

The entire process began in 2006 when the Japan Agency for Marine-Earth Science and Technology obtained a sample of seabed mud brought up from the Omine Ridge, a 2,500-meter-deep ridge of the coast of Japan. Researchers eventually discovered microbes in one of the tubes of mud. Some of these microbes belonged to the class Asgard archaeon, a specific type of microbe that scientists believe played a role in the formation of mitochondria about 2 billion years ago.

These microbes are very difficult to detect and study since they grow slowly and in inhospitable environments. However, the scientists in Japan were able to get enough of the microbe to study after about 20 days. This ultimately led to them growing arachaea prometheoarchaeum syntophicum, a single-cell organism that contained some of the same genes found in eukaryotes, which are sophisticated microbes found in plants, humans, and other animals.

Though it’s not clear whether this microbe was a true ancestor to eukaryotes, the ability to grow Asgard archaea will help advance additional studies into microbiology and the early stages of life.

A Literary-Historical Account of The Gulag Archipelago

Gulag
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University student Mathew Matt Kafker loves reading. One of the books Matt Kafker is reading in 2019 is “The Gulag Archipelago: An Experiment in Literary Investigation” by Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn. 

The Gulag Archipelago is a historically vivid description of the horrors committed by the Soviet Union government on its own people held in labor camps following the Bolshevik revolution of 1917 through all the way into Stalin’s rule. Gulag is an acronym for the Soviet Union’s governing agency for labor camps, while archipelago is a metaphor that aptly captures how these labor camps were spread out, like a chain of islands.

The book draws heavily from the experiences of the author, himself a survivor of the prison camps, and those of other prisoners. It also borrows from historical sources, including letters. The book gives readers outside the Soviet Union a picture into the regime’s brutality, describing how camps that only held a few people in 1917 saw their numbers swell to 15 million in the 1940s, many of whom were “politicals.” It chronicles how these people were transferred from camp to camp all the while being subjected to starvation, rape, torture, and inhuman living conditions.

The first volume of the book was published in 1973 in Paris, France. Afterward, the Soviet press denounced Solzhenitsyn. He was arrested a year later, charged with treason, and exiled from the Soviet Union.

Learning, Service, and Fun at Global Works Costa Rica Trip

Teens having fun
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Mathew "Matt" Kafker was a high honors and high credits student at his former high school, Middlesex School. During his time there, Matt Kafker took part in a Global Works trip to Costa Rica, where he helped renovate a local school. 

Global Works is an organization that provides teens with travel experiences that also incorporate community service, cultural exchange, adventure, and language immersion. These travel programs benefit not only the teens involved, but also the foreign communities the teens visit. These communities receive assistance in funding and in completing service projects. 

During the trip to Costa Rica, for example, Kafker and his friends were housed by a family in La Lucha. They interacted with the family over meals and even helped prepare local delicacies like tortillas and picadillo. They also interacted with local children through games like tag, sack racing, and jump rope, and even taught the local kids some American football. 

For their service work, the team helped renovate a local school. They mixed and poured cement for the school’s new side walk, painted the school’s exterior with fresh paint, and covered its drainage system with dirt. They also assisted the students in planning for English lessons. In between all this, they got to tour San Jose, paddle in deep forest rivers, dance salsa and merengue, marvel at the hot springs of Baldi, and go zip lining across the canopies.

An Introduction to the Three Stages of the Memory Process

University student Matthew “Matt” Kafker focuses much of his schooling on four main fields: computer science, physics, math, and literature. Over the years, Matt Kafker has taken dozens or classes relating to these academic interests, as well as courses in psychology.

One of the more basic concepts of psychology is that of memory. According to most psychologists, the human memory process involved three stages: encoding, storage, and retrieval.

The process of receiving and combining information from the outside world is referred to as encoding or registration. During encoding, the brain perceives visual, semantic, and acoustic stimuli from a person’s surroundings and uses them to either create a short-term or long-term memory. When creating short-term memories, the encoding process is more shallow since these types of memories are easily forgotten.

Once encoded, the brain stores information in several different areas. It’s believed that most adults are capable of storing between five and nine short-term memories that are about zero to 30 seconds long. Meanwhile, they are capable of storing an unlimited amount of long-term memories. Despite this ability to have an unlimited number of long-term memories, humans rarely remember every memory for their entire lives. This has always been a controversial subject that is mostly tied to the retrieval stage of memory.

The final stage of memory involves calling back stored information for use in an activity or process. In many cases, this recall ability is a response to a cue that has been tied to the creation of the memory, such as a specific smell or sound. One of the most common reasons why memory fails is because a person loses the ability to retrieve specific memories. However, issues with memory can stem from any of the three stages of the memory process.

Key Health Benefits of Dreaming During the REM Sleep Phase

Matthew Kafker is dedicated to his university studies and holds diverse interests in linguistics, literature, physics, mathematics, microbiology, and computer science. In his spare time, Matthew Kafker also enjoys listening to classical music by Johannes Brahms and is learning about topics such as mythology and ancient cultures, the old testament, and the health effects of dreaming.

Dreaming positively impacts human well-being by easing emotional stressors experienced during time awake. Research suggests that experiencing dreams during REM-sleep helps to provide resolution to these emotional problems by the morning time. During dreams, key memory and emotional-related brain structures are reactivated during REM sleep, the only time when the anxiety causing hormone noradrenaline is not present in the brain. When this reactivation occurs, stressful memories can be processed in a calmer and safer environment because noradrenaline is not present.

Creativity and problem solving are also enhanced during dreaming that occurs with REM sleep. It’s at this time that the brain can process vast amounts of acquired knowledge to find answers to previously unsolvable problems and combine memories in novel ways to enhance creative abilities.

What Is Organizational Psychology?

University student Matthew (Matt) Kafker maintains a full course load as a physics major in Boston. To receive a well-rounded education, Matt Kafker also studies social sciences, including psychology. 

One of the newest branches of psychology is the study of groups and organizations. Emerging in the early 1900s, organizational psychology focuses on the impact of organizations on individual behavior. While most organizational psychologists study behavior in the workplace setting, these professionals can be found in diverse industries, including advertising and education. 

As competition for the best talent increases, organizational psychologists are increasingly in demand. The job outlook for the profession is expected to grow by 8 percent within the upcoming decade.

Organizational psychologists work with companies in-house or as consultants. They use data and research to assess areas such as hiring, retention, and employee well-being. Companies may also work with organizational psychologists to develop and modify training programs and improve workplace diversity initiatives.

Qualities of DNA and RNA

University student Matthew “Matt” Kafker graduated from Middlesex School as a National Merit Commended Student and a National AP Scholar. Since then, he has studied computer science, math, physics, and literature at an undergraduate level. During his pursuit of a physics degree, Matt Kafker has completed courses relating to such areas as biophysics.

A unique scientific field, biophysics explains how all of life works. To this end, it deals with a variety of areas, including topics such as DNA and RNA.

Two of cell biology’s most important molecules, DNA and RNA store and read the genetic information required for all life. Both are structured as strands, and they share the nucleobases of adenine, guanine, and cytosine. 

Further, both DNA and RNA consist of phosphates and sugars. Despite these similarities, the two do not perform the same functions.

DNA, or deoxyribonucleic acid, is a double-stranded molecule. The two strands are in a double-helix form. RNA, or ribonucleic acid, is a single-stranded molecule, though it does occasionally form a double-helix structure.

Beyond structural differences, the location of DNA and RNA differs. Normally, DNA is found within the nucleus of a cell and sometimes in the mitochondria. Since RNA is primarily responsible for carrying out genetic code transfers according to the DNA’s blueprints, RNA is usually found in different regions of the cytoplasm.

Differences between French and English Vowel Sounds

University student Matthew (Matt) Kafker has a strong interest in linguistics and foreign languages. When he was attending Middlesex School in Concord, Massachusetts, Matt Kafker was an excellent language student who won accolades for his progress in the French language.

English speakers learning French can improve their pronunciation and listening skills by learning the phonetic differences between the two languages. Distinctive features of French vowels include a lack of diphthongs and the presence of nasal vowels. 

English speakers tend to over-pronounce diphthongs, a sound that is a combination of two vowels when only one vowel is present. French vowels are generally pronounced as they appear. For example, in the French word “sot” (crazy), the final letter “t” is dropped, and the “o” is pronounced sharply.

Further, English does not contain any nasal vowels, while French has four. When forming a nasal vowel, air passes through the mouth and nose simultaneously. 

Unlike English, in which only consonants are nasalized and do not alter a word’s meaning, French nasal vowels are distinct phonemes. For instance, the French words fine (delicate) and fin (end) are only differentiated by the nasal and oral pronunciation of the “i.”

Ernest Hemingway's Later Years

University student Matthew (Matt) Kafker enjoys reading both fiction and nonfiction. One of Matt Kafker's favorite novelists is Ernest Hemingway, a prolific writer who struggled with depression and illness.

Hemingway earned considerable recognition for his work, including the 1954 Nobel Prize in Literature, but his later years were a personal struggle. He continued hunting and fishing in exotic locales and survived multiple plane crashes. 

These and other injuries made him go to Cuba to convalesce. During this time, he wrote the well-known memoir of his time in Paris, A Moveable Feast.

Hemingway’s physical and mental health continued to deteriorate, however, even as he continued to write. He moved from Cuba to Idaho, where he would spend the rest of his life, though neither his physical nor mental health recovered completely. In 1961, Hemingway committed suicide, leaving behind a legacy as a legendary writer who faced great personal struggles.

The Comedy Career of John Mulaney

University student Matthew (Matt) Kafker enjoys watching stand-up comedy in his free time. One of Matt Kafker's favorite stand-up comedians is John Mulaney, a former writer for Saturday Night Live, who has had a long, circuitous career in comedy.

Mulaney established himself in comedy after he graduated from Georgetown University, where he studied English and theology. After a successful run as a stand-up comic, he joined Saturday Night Live's writing staff, where he helped create the popular character "Stefon." 

Mulaney left SNL in 2014 to perform in a self-titled sitcom, but the series was unsuccessful. He blamed himself for many elements of the show's failure, though he also attributes some of the sitcom's weaknesses to creative changes made during its move to a different television network.

After his show was canceled, Mulaney returned to stand-up comedy, honing a reputation for the precise use of language and a bitterness that seemed unusual for a comedian under 40. While his success has come primarily from comedy enthusiasts rather than the mainstream audience, Mulaney returned to SNL in early 2018, but this time as the week's host. He remains optimistic about his long-term prospects in comedy.

How to Prepare for Mindfulness Meditation

Matthew (Matt) Kafker, a dedicated university student, divides his time between coursework and research. In his free time, Matt Kafker practices mindfulness meditation.

Helping practitioners reduce stress, increase their productivity, and boost their feelings of happiness, mindfulness meditation sessions should last only five to 10 minutes in the beginning. These sessions can be performed in the morning and evening, or just once a day, depending on each person’s schedule. From there, the length of sessions can gradually increase to an hour.

Before starting, practitioners should set the desired length of their session on a timer. This gives them the ability to clear the mind and focus only on the meditation. 

Practitioners then should find a quiet area and sit in a comfortable position on the floor, a cushion, or a chair. Once seated, practitioners can focus on their upper body. 

The spine should naturally curve and the shoulders and head should be relaxed, not stiff. The upper arms should be parallel to the upper body, and the chin should point slightly downward. From this position, practitioners can begin their meditation.