ntd-thesis

About you

Take a look at yourself

Glance in the mirror. What makes you, you? Three hundred years ago, René Descartes postulated that, even if all else around him were illusory, the fact that he was noodling on it must mean that, at bare minimum, he could ponder. His consciousness told him: I think, therefore I am. But does consciousness make us who we are?

"As far as the sense of self and consciousness, that's somewhat controversial and, to be quite honest, I almost treat it as a hobby," says physics professor Jack Tuszynski, who holds the Allard Chair in Experimental Oncology. In his spare time, he is popping the hood on human consciousness to find out where it lies physically.

Where his job and his hobby intersect are the polymers called microtubules that exist in each of our cells. They provide structural stability and act as conduits between various parts of the cell - a kind of road along which motor proteins move cellular material. On the hobby side of things, he is looking at quantum behaviour, the odd behaviour of microtubules at the atomic or subatomic level.

"At least parts of their interaction could be at the quantum level," he says. He points to anesthesia as evidence. Tuszynski's team has demonstrated that microtubules conduct electricity and anesthetics appear to shift the frequency of the jiggling proteins in microtubules, slowing them down.

Despite 150 years of using anesthesia, we don't have a good understanding of how it flips the switch that turns us off. Tuszynski might be getting there. "We've done some studies trying to find out if anesthetic molecules bind to proteins in microtubules - they do. In the absence of anesthetic molecules in the microtubules, consciousness comes back."

If, as Tuszynski believes, he has found the physical seat of consciousness, the place in each cell where you live, it makes consciousness a field of scientific inquiry rather than strictly in the domain of philosophy or religion.

About your brain

A philosopher said

"It's common to think of us as removable from our physical selves," says Nathan Kowalsky, '98 BA(Hons). Even the divide between mental and physical health demonstrates our inclination to imagine our brains as things apart from our bodies. As if a living brain in a vat could somehow still be us. Kowalsky is a professor of philosophy and faculty member in the multidisciplinary Science, Technology and Society program and he specializes in environmental philosophy. "We are always 'being' in our relation to other things," he says. "To understand our humanity, we must understand ourselves as situated in a place. Cut off, we lose part of ourselves. We are a composite and we cannot divorce ourselves from our actions and interactions."

Andy Maguire

You, by the numbers

23andme and you. Should you get a DNA test?

325: The approximate number of dollars (U.S.) it will cost to have a direct-to-consumer DNA testing company such as 23andMe find out a whole lot about you - from the presence of a widow's peak to how you metabolize caffeine to whether you have a higher-than-average risk for certain diseases.

CLOSE TO ZERO: The possibility that health information revealed by a consumer DNA test will surprise you, according to Timothy Caulfield, '87 BSc(Spec), '90 LLB, a professor in the Faculty of Law and School of Public Health.

TWICE: It sounds like big drama when you talk about doubling your risk for disease. "But if you learn that you're at double the risk for heart disease or cancer, that isn't necessarily bad news," Caulfield says. "You might have gone from a 0.5-per-cent chance to a one-per-cent chance."

10,000: The number of abstracts a 2016 British Medical Journal reviewed that found consumer DNA tests don't motivate people to change their behaviour to reduce health risks.

120/80: The uppermost numbers on a blood pressure monitor, worn at rest, that are indicative of good health. Caulfield says this number, and the one you see on a bathroom scale, are more relevant to your personal health than any you'll find on a consumer DNA test result.

32: The number of years between his last known crime and the murder charges brought against the Golden State Killer, after police uploaded his DNA profile into GEDmatch, a third-party company that allows users to compare DNA profiles with others for genealogical research.

Eric Chow

Friendly advice

Your friendships in a time of #FOMO

When I look at my buddy's social media feeds, it seems like he's got a lot more friends that I do. Why is that?

He's more popular than you.

Wait, what?

Don't feel bad, it's not your fault - it's just sociology. It comes down to something called the friendship paradox: the counterintuitive idea that most people are less popular than their friends. The phenomenon was first observed by sociologist Scott Feld in 1991, way pre-Instagram.

What does this have to do with my problem?

David Brake, a communications researcher and instructor at the U of A, breaks down the phenomenon like this. Popular people have more friends, so it follows that more-popular people are more likely to be your friend than less-popular people. Your odds of being friends with Gregarious Greg are better than your odds of being friends with Quiet Quinn because Greg has more friendships than Quinn. Brake points to 2016 research in the journal PLOS One showing that the friendship paradox has found new life on social media.

But why does it seem like my buddy's having a blast all the time?

Your situation is exacerbated by the kinds of photos people like to post. Your buddy's choice to not share boring stuff paints a life that looks more fun and glamorous than the genuine article. It can contribute to your feelings of anxiety and inferiority because we all have a tendency to compare ourselves to others, leading to major #FOMO.

GIPHY

You are your tech

A television explainer

In February, Netflix launched its spectacle, Altered Carbon, based on Richard Morgan's novel - produced and written in part by Steve Blackman, '97 LLB. The cyberpunk show takes place centuries from now when all your life's experiences are recorded on a piece of technology that is implanted in your neck. When your body dies, the device can be moved into another body or even be reanimated in a virtual space.

But if it's a storage device for your consciousness, would that tech really be you? In other words, are we inching nearer a time when people are that closely tied to their technology?

"That's an interesting question," says Andrew Ede, a historian in the Faculty of Arts and director of the Science, Technology and Society program. He points to 1811 England when the Luddites, weavers who saw their livelihood threatened by increased automation, began breaking looms in protest. Known as frame-breaking, new laws soon made it a capital crime.

Busting up a loom as an act of high rebellion might seem charmingly anachronistic, but there are modern parallels. "Most industrial countries have laws preventing attacks against the internet or communications networks," Ede says. And the penalties can be very serious.

We are inseparable from our tech if you consider that all tools are technology. And where would we be without clay pots, sharpened rocks or urban infrastructure? "Technology is a system, and we couldn't survive without it," Ede says. Our technology is a hallmark of our humanity. And maybe it really is what makes us … us. So when we rail against these things - a thumb drive, a computer network, a loom - we rail against ourselves.

Who's a good boy?

Does your dog really love you?

We love to look at our dogs but what they see when they look at us? Modern animal science is at last giving us a glimpse of how Canis lupus familiaris views Homo sapiens. The research shows that dogs don't see themselves as human, nor do they consider us dogs, says Connie Varnhagen, professor emeritus of psychology at the U of A. Dogs who live in shelters surrounded by other canines become less stressed if they spend time with a human.

"After even 15 minutes, dogs show lower cortisol levels in their blood, their saliva and their urine," Varnhagen says. Their stress decreases and they get something out of human interaction that they don't get with dogs. Varnhagen, who teaches a course about researching the animal-human bond, says petting a dog causes its brain to release oxytocin and other feel-good chemicals, just as our brains do when we pet them.

But does Fido get excited when you come home because he loves you or because and it's dinnertime? Varnhagen isn't sure. "But does that really matter?" she asks. "If dogs have learned that humans are associated with food and love and protection … isn't that how we come to love other humans?"

Eric Chow

The stethoscope files

5 things about health care and you

Your doctor calls. The bad news? You're at risk of diabetes. The good news? Blood tests have found it 10 years before you develop the disease. With changes in diet and lifestyle, you'll probably be able to avoid it altogether. At the heart of this scenario is a science called metabolomics. It's a key to tailoring care for each patient based on that person's makeup at a molecular level. "There's a huge impact in terms of lives saved and quality of life, not to mention dollars," says researcher David Wishart, '83 BSc(Hons). Here are five things to know about the new field:

Metabolomics is the study of metabolites, tiny molecular compounds produced by, or involved in, metabolism.
Some metabolites are biomarkers that can predict diseases before they start.
There is even a urine test to detect colon cancer, not yet available in Canada, with the potential to reduce health care costs by about $2 billion annually.
Potential applications of metabolomics research include personalized nutrition, agriculture, veterinary science and ecology.
Wishart's lab makes its data freely available to anyone. The database, the Human Metabolome Project, is accessed by millions of users each year.

Raise your hand

Are body weight and body mass index still the best ways to measure health?

"People can have the same weight, the same BMI, but their proportion of muscle and fat can be different. We're studying the relationship of low muscle to health. When you don't have enough muscle, you can have a variety of health problems. In an effort to advance precision health, we have opened our unit up to the public. You can use specialized equipment to measure your body composition and your energy metabolism."

- Carla Prado, '09 PhD, director of the Human Nutrition Research Unit, Faculty of Agricultural, Life & Environmental Sciences