badchad

I'm not sure of the competitiveness. I'd suggest two things: 1. Decent grades (over a 3.0 at least) 2. What I feel is just as important (if not more): Experience. Experience will look very good on a resume. Volunteer at a hospital for at least a year. I'd select a major in a science field, bio, chemistry etc. although it's not absolutely essential to have a bus-load of science. I always remember the story of the "Film studies major" who got accepted to medical school here at my university. Good luck!

You do realize that the taboo on drug use is idiocy imposed by jerk-offs?

caffeine is a stimulant marijuana grows naturally, cocaine comes from the cocoa plant, and opiods are derived from plants for god's sake! Similar to someone having pre-marital sex. Blasphemous! those people have no respect for others and must be morons. When the little "cheer girls" get knocked who has to pay their welfare to take care of their kids? your taxes at work. clorox bleach? WTF?!?! I've never heard of it being used recreationally. Well it's good you have your priorities in check. Drugs=BAD. copious amounts of sex with multiple partners=GOOD You should be proud. Your chances of having an STD are extremely high, but as long as you don't do drugs, or get knocked up you'll be allright.

I'm pinning my hopes to the solution of this predicamenton "Survival of the Fittest". As someone previously said, the population problem is occuring mainly in impoverished and third world countries. While the population in these countries will grow exponentially, the availabilty of resources will not (mainly because industrial countries monopolize the majoirty of these resources). Thus, the impoverished countries will reach a "carrying capacity", after which they will completely be devoid what little resources they have now. (no sanitation, healthcare etc.) When this happens, the death rate will spike large enough to counter the population growth. This is just my personal hypothesis though.

I think the point of the experiment was to get hands on experience in the laboratory.

I wish I could find the reference, but I thought I read somewhere that the actual language can affect the thought process. For instance, when asked a series of "subjective" questions which were used to describe a person's mood, or emotional state, their responses would vary depending on what language they answered or "thought" in.

I was just getting ready to request my first intergalactic pen-pal....darn

Why would you put a dog into a coffin with a dead body in the first place?

http://drblayney.com/Asclepius.html#worm That was the explanation I was taught in school. Basically, in ancient time the Dracunculus medinensis, which is some type of worm (a parasite I believe), invaded the body. To get it out, a physician would cut into the patients skin, and remove the worm by wrapping it around a stick.

Preoccupations and behaviors associated with romantic and parental love. Perspectives on the origin of obsessive-compulsive disorder. Leckman JF, Mayes LC. Child Adolesc Psychiatr Clin N Am. 1999 Jul;8(3):635-65.

Just for the sake of argument, there has been talk of an association between marijuana use and psychosis (e.g. schizophrenia). it may be worse for you then you think.

From what I know, submarines are most easily detected by their soundwaves. I assume it's because some of the properties of water allow sound waves to carry very easily. While the sub may run quietly, I would think launching a torpedo would create a large amount of noise which is very easily located.

The main receptor is actually the 5-HT2A receptor subtype; as others have said, this is a serotonergic recepto. It is interesting that LSD is classified as a partial agonist. This means that in some tissues, LSD acts as an antagonist, and blocks the action of serotonin, while in other areas in can activate the receptor and mimic serotonin. This is a simple picture however, as LSD can bind to many types of serotonin receptors (not simply 5-HT2A) as well as dopaminergic, and adrenergic receptors. As fafalone stated, LSD will inhibit firing of the raphe nuclei. The raphe nuclei project to cortical brain areas, which are usually associated with "higher cognitive function" sensory perception etc. However, the cessation of raphe nuclei is more then likely not the main mechanism by which the drug exerts it's effects. There are two schools of thought regarding the effects of LSD on neuronal firing: 1. One group states LSD can increase neural activity and firing; another says the opposite (I can provide these if you're interested). The reason for flashbacks is unknown. One of the best (and very recent) reviews I've read is by Nichols et al. Pharmacol Ther. 2004 Feb;101. The pubmed link is: http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/entrez/query.fcgi?cmd=Retrieve&db=pubmed&dopt=Abstract&list_uids=14761703

Well, I'm no economist, so I don't have a very valid opinion on how much is "enough". IMO the major concepts of reaching mars, colonizing the moon etc. are "putting the cart before the horse". Imagine if we had a relatively cheap way to get into space, and colonize the moon or mars. Even if we got there, the colonies would have to rely on earth. That is, even if we could get to mars or the moon, and establish colonies there, we would have to import all of our resources from earth. To me, this doesn't seem to be reasonable or efficient. There are other priorities that would benefit us on earth immiedietly, as well as space in the future. For instance, what if we developed an extremely abundant, and renewable "fuel-source", which could generate endless amounts of power and electricity. Then, through advancements in engineering, we develop the ability to construct humungous greenhouses. Now we have greenhouses, and enough power to light them to create food. Through some sort of agricultural advancement, we could then increase crop yields along with developing technology to create water, etc. etc. Thus, if all these things came to be, they would benefit us on earth (renewable energy resources, enough food to feed everyone). Then once this technology became better and more affordable it would allow the development of self sufficient space colonies, which would be far more useful then simply getting to mars for the sake of doing it, then turning around and coming back. My point about funding is similar to what someone said earlier about how although space exploration doesn't yield much now, it may in the future. I think the opposite. The funding could go to projects with shorter term goals, which would benefit us quicker, which would allow easier space travel and exploration in the future.

Agreed. My intro to psych. class was 350-400, and I went to a very small school (about 8,000). A buddy of mine went to Penn State and had over 800 in intro to bio. My point was that I still learned a lot from my intro classes, so it's possible for one professor/teacher to educate a large amount of people. For argument's sake, after you get over 75-100 students there isn't any personal interaction between professor and student, so 100 students isn't much different from 1,000. Yes, in my later years of undergrad the classes were much smaller. Even in higher level education, there is very little, (if any) one-on-one student professor interaction however. In my graduate classes we'd have a single professor teach one lecture then leave. I guess my point is that teacher pupil interaction (and the quality of teacher) is most important in the youngest years (K-8th grade). A potential solution is to shuffle the balance of teachers, and have class sizes remain small until high schoolish age, where I feel a teacher could handle a large class.

I think a quality teacher can make up for a large amount of students once high school hits. In college, you'll have a single professor lecturing to upwards of almost a thousand kids.

I agree with you Sayo, although opponents of restrictions will point to data that suggest otherwise (which doesn't necessarily mean it's correct). Isn't it possible though that our weather patterns follow a humungous cycle that can't yet comprehend? For instance the day to day weather is constantly changing (we have an unseasonably warm day in december, a cold day in June, etc.) What if the weather patterns move in such a large cycle that we're having an "unseasonably warm century" or a "cold decade" etc.......

public transportation. Have parents bring their kids to "Satellite" drop-off stations. Then bus them in. Either that or rework the traffic system (e.g. stoplights etc.).

I think we spend way too much considering the cost VS. rewards. Have we learned anything immediately useful from space exploration? What was the cost of the mars rovers? Wasn't it around 600 million? And we discovered that water was once on mars. Admittedly, I don't know specific details of the mission, but it doesn't seem like we learned very much. Then there are always the 100 million dollar probes that malfunciton. Oops..there goes your tax money. IMO the money is better spent elsewhere.

In addition the new focus is on gene chip and microarray. This is because there can be hundreds of genes involved in an individuals response to a given drug and/or disease. While the analysis becomes difficult, these techniques allow a scientist to survey a much larger number of genes.

Here's a link through my school that might help you: http://ublib.buffalo.edu/libraries/e-resources/ft.html This is just the list of journals my school can get to. You can see the list, but you won't be able to access the content without a subscription.

Sanjay, there are literally hundreds, if not thousands of journals. It would be easier to locate a journal based on topic. Look at the current literature pertaining to the subject your interested in. What journals are the recent publications coming out of?

I thought I read somewhere that yawning was a response to inadequate amounts of oxygen and/or balancing our levels of CO2. If this were the case, we would take our cue from others in the room. One person yawns signaling the lack of oxygen, you'd likely follow..

If you're asking about how to publish in nature; I apologize for being blunt, but you'll never get in. Nature is the top science journal around (along with "Science"). Unless you've done something to merit the noble prize, try a lower tier journal (Go for one specific for your area of interest).