Schizophrenia

Hello everyone, my second presentation is about schizophrenia.

Every year 1,5 million people worldwide are diagnosed with schizophrenia. It is a mental illness which has periods called ‘psychotic episodes’. During a psychotic episode, a sufferer shows disturbing changes in behaviour. They may seem very cold and unemotional, using few facial expression, and say strange things in a slow, flat voice. They may lose all interest in life and spend days doing nothing at all, not even washing or eating. These distressing symptoms are shocking for family members who, of course, remember what the sufferer was like before the illness.

During a psychotic episode there may be hallucinations. Hearing voices that other people do not hear is the most common type of hallucination. The voices give orders and carry on conversations. Sometimes the voices swear and make threats.

Someone with schizophrenia may have delusions, believing for example that they are famous, a historically important person, or that people on television send them special messages.

People with schizophrenia may not think logically. They are isolated because the conversation with them is very difficult, so they have no one to communicate with.

It is relatively common for schizophrenia sufferers to commit a suicide – 10 per cent of people with schizophrenia (especially younger adult males) kill themselves. Violence and threats against other, on the other hand, are not symptoms of the illness.

There is medication that can reduce the symptoms, but it often has bad side effects, and some sufferers discontinue treatment because of this. Although many sufferers can continue to lead a relatively normal life, it has been estimated that no more than one in five individuals recovers completely, and most will require long-term treatment.

Here some tips how to behave and talk with a schizophrenic.

We do not yet know the cause of schizophrenia. Researchers have looked at links with genes, with brain development, with infections before birth, and with traumatic life events.

Question to movie 1: What do you think the schizophrenic looks like? Would you know that the person in the movie has schizophrenia if she did not not say it?

Do you know anybody with this illness or maybe you met such people?

Write your opinions on how you imagine a schizophrenic person.

Few interesting facts about water (1)

Few interesting facts about water (1)

Everyone knows that life comes out from water, that we ought to drink about 2 liters of water a day and that it covers a greater part of our planet. But there are still facts about this substance which can amaze anyone. Here are a few of them which I found interesting to describe.

First topic which may be interesting is : why can we play ducks and drakes?

Known from ancient times but described for the first time in 2004 by a French scientist. They recorded throne stones in slow motion. They used in this experiment a special catapult which allowed them to control speed of the projectile and the tempo of its rotation. They discovered that it is necessary to make stone jumping on water as it has to cross some threshold value. Otherwise the projectile will glide through water and it will stop and sink. Scientists discovered that during all stones’ way its vertical speed is constant while its horizontal speed decreases. Also what is necessary to play duck and drakes, the throne stone must rotate with sufficient speed to stabilize its movement. And the last condition which has to be executed is to throw the stone at a proper angle. There is a magic angle , around 20 degrees, at which stone must be leaning to reach the longest stone flight.

The world record is 51. Here is the video with the record and also the site where you can find tips how to achieve the best stone skip.

http://www.spryciarze.pl/ciekawostki/rekord-swiata-w-puszczaniu-kaczek-na-wodzie-51-odbic

http://prostoneskipping.com/index.htm

It appears that about water we know everything but it is not true. There are different types of clouds: cirrus’s, cumulus’s and other which we know from the lessons from the college. But there is one type of clouds which was not described: the mammatus. Translation from latin means, that these are clouds in the shape of breasts. If you do not believe here are the pictures.

Their shape is smooth and bulging. First documented mammatus clouds we can find on the XVI century paintings, but just a few years ago first serious researches were initiated. Mammatus cloud can form from every type of cloud and even from the smoke from a jet plane or smoke from volcanic eruption. Scientists who were into this “sky breasts” reported that from time to time they were from the ice crystals, another time they were formed from heavy rain drops.

The newest researches of these clouds resemble mammography. Clouds are scanned by the radar in high resolution to notice what the air circulation looks like inside. Till now no one can tell what the cause of its clouds’ shape is.

How many stone skips on water is your best score?

Do you think that researches on mammatus can help people to understand nature better?

Dou you think we know a lot about the world or it is only the top of the iceberg?