Andrzej Missala

 Tonight I read an article entitled "Five ways the pandemic surge in hand sanitisers may not be great news in the long term" It is true that the use of hand sanitisers and other antibacterial and antiviral cleaning products has sharply increased worldwide since the pandemic started. It has certainly helped to stop the increase in viral infections, however, it has some side effects. I learned that one study found that the regular use of ethanol to sanitize hands resulted in relatively low but measurable levels of ethanol in the blood. While this was below acute toxicity levels, continued use can result in "chronic toxicity", increasing the risk of health problems such as eczema or skin cancer. It can even be fatal at times. Repeated use of alcohol-based hand sanitizers can cause antimicrobial resistance and increase other infections. Research has also shown that ethanol leaking into lakes, ponds, rivers and oceans can harm aquatic species. I believe that despite the ...

One week ago I read an article entitled "Five vampire traits that exist in the natural world" by Louise Gentle. The author of the text has produced five examples of animals with the features of a mythical vampire. The first was a vampire bat that feeds only on blood. They must feed every two days to survive. I found out that these bats share their food with other bats. The second example is tardigrades. You could say that they are almost immortal, just like vampires. The jellyfish is “immortal” because it can change from a medusa back into a polyp when stressed. This reverting back to a previous form then redeveloping into the latter form could aid our understanding of repairing and regenerating damaged tissues. Another example is the rat naked mole that avoids sunlight, these moles are known for their longevity. The fourth example are bears and sharks, which have an acute sense of smell just like vampires. The last example are facial octopuses that can change their shape. I ...

 Two days ago I read a very interesting article entitled "Crocodiles today look the same as they did 200 million years ago - our study explains why" by Max Stockdale. Surely everyone has heard that crocodiles are called "living fossils". Scientists have explained where the name comes from in the article. They examined the found remains of prehistoric crocodiles and found out that these reptiles did not differ much from today crocodiles. I think the lack of change is unique and very interesting considering that there are so many different species of animals on the earth today and there are only 25 species of crocodiles in the world. Research by scientists suggests that crocodiles have remained unchanged for such a long time because they have reached a state of equilibrium that does not require frequent changes. When crocodiles evolve at a pace, it is likely because their environment has changed and it forced them to adapt. However, it turned out, that these great rep...

 Recently I read an interesting article entitled "Spitting cobras may have evolved unique venom to defend from ancient humans" by Taline Kazandjian, Harry Greene, Nicholas Casewell and Wolfgang Wüster.  I learned a lot about cobras and their habits. These fascinating snakes are mainly known for their defense mechanism called hooding, when the sides of their necks flare out. However, as the authors write, hooding is not the only defense mechanism of these animals. Some cobras can spit venom up to 2.5 meters away, generally hitting their opponent's eyes with poison. I found out that this unique adaptation had evolved three times independently in a small group of Afro-Asian snakes. Spitting cobras use their venom only for defense, not for preying on other animals. Scientists have the theory that it was man who influenced the evolution of cobras. The timing of the venom spitting evolution coincides with key dates in the evolution of early human ancestors. This kind of defense...

 Last week I red an article tittled "Five ways boredom could be changing your behavior, for better or worse". The text was written by Wijnand Van Tilburg. The article is about the impact of boredom on our behaviour. On the one hand, boredom may seem rather trivial experience, a privilege of people who have a lot of time. On the other hand, scientist proved through various experiments that boredom can be both good and negative. The author of the text showed five changes wich you can experience: impulsiveness, worse mental health, aggression, looking for new things and finding meaning in life. Boredom is an emotional state that makes us change our behavior to be positive, such as looking for new things, learning new things, finding meaning in life, or negative, self-destructive, bad for us and our surroundings. It depends on the person and their situation. https://theconversation.com/five-ways-boredom-could-be-changing-your-behaviour-for-better-or-worse-155784

 Recently, I read an interesting article wrote by Barbara Jacquelyn Sahakian, Christelle Langley, Fei Li and Jianfeng Feng entitled "How the pandemic may damage children's social intelligence". The text is about the negative effects of the lack of contact of younger children with their peers and the elderly. Usually children learn fast and develop skills such as sharing, conflict solving and empathy at a rapid pace. Before pandemia many children used to attend toddler groups or nursery before they started school. So even if they had no siblings, their emotional and social cognition could develop. I learned that social cognitive development begins in the first year of life, when children begin to develop “theory of mind”, which means understanding what others are thinking, which continues through age five. That is why contact with other people is so important at this age. U nfortunately during the COVID-19 lockdowns, many opportunities for social learning have been lost. S...

  Recently I read an interesting article entitled "Narcissistic leaders: even children fall for their superficial charms" by Eddie Brummelman. The text tells about the problem of narcissism among children and leaders. I had some knowledge of Narcissism before, because I am interested in psychology and mental disorders. However, thanks to this article, I learned a lot of new things. Interestingly, narcissism develops already in early childhood. From the age of seven, there are stable differences between children in their levels of narcissism. As adult narcissists, they often appear as leaders in groups. The psychologists decided to check whether the same is happening among children. They conducted an experiment. The researchers recruited a group of 332 children aged 7 to 14. They assessed their level of narcissism and then asked the children to write down the names of their classmates whom they saw as "the true leader". It turned out that as many as 98% of the select...