It's almost Christmas and what have I accomplished?

This year was bittersweet and busy.

Teaching is busy, lab is busy, driving is busy and life is just....busy. Sometimes it's hard to get myself up in the morning and go for a run because it's an earlier start to a busy day. Perhaps I'm not getting enough sleep, stress builds up, cortisol levels rise and my body tries to slow itself down the only way it can...chemically.

When the body feels over-worked the psyche can also experience burn-out. Have you ever just felt like a zombie? All your senses are ignoring theirs duties and you're experiencing what it's like to live a half-life.

Stimulants like caffeine can help jump start your blood pressure and your memory. It's been shown that a little bit of caffeine can improve short-term memory, initiate vasoconstriction and gets your heart pumping harder in the morning.

So can exercise.

The difference is that caffeine is a quick-fix and to be quite honest I don't think human bodies have evolved to keep up with the fast pace of technology and chemical enhancers. This is why I think so many people are at odds with their bodies; they simply don't know how to balance out their lives and despite that, the human body is always going to do what it's been programmed to do. It's programmed to balance out its external environment.

So when you step out into the cold, you're going to start shivering. Your muscles start moving to generate its own heat and your internal environment tries to equilibrate itself to it's external environment. Aaah homeostasis at its finest.

When you're super-stressed, your body also tries to accommodate for this change. Blood pressure rises, more adrenaline is released, heart beats faster and you have trouble sleeping. Chronic stress can lead to chronic heart problems because you're tiring your lub-dubber out.

I know I'm just reiterating everything the health books say, but sometimes I need to remind myself to just slow down. Eating won't solve anything, caffeine won't improve my mental capacity, sitting in front of the tube will not abolish my problems. Not handling my problems in an effective fashion will only hurt those around me as they experience my tempestuous moodiness.

So, put on your running shoes, enjoy the fresh air and remember that activity will do more wonders for you stress than you can imagine.

Possums and gardens

I went for a run yesterday with this German girl from the hostel. We ended up running across the "Yarra river into the Royal Botanical gardens. I always marvel at how even in such cold weather (it's not quite 60 degrees) the rainforest section is still keeping up pretty well. These plants aren't used to the cold yet they seem to be doing just fine. MAybe they do lose a couple here and there.

But Melbourne also has a water shortage. This is evident in how the artificial lakes appear to be dried up and actually look like several smaller lakes instead of one big one. Certain animals have adapted to these conditions and can sometimes live in mud (as opposed to water). One such animal is the catfish...and there have been many a gigantic catfish living in swampy lands due to their ability to outlive most other fish and their low standards in eating garbage.

But here the water level is just depressingly low. Even though it's drizzled everyday here, part of the tourist in me wants it to stop, while the water conservationist agrees that more water would be better.

Then there are possums. These are mostly nocturnal marsupials that look a great deal cuter here in Australia as opposed to the states. They come right up to visitors to beg for food (despite the signs that tell visitors to not to feed them).

Question: Remember the movie "Over the Hedge"? When an ecosystem is invaded by humans, how do some animals adapt to human presence?

First day down!

So.....despite the fact that qantas upgraded my flight to the A380 and swapped out my jetstar flight for a qantas one, I'm doing pretty well. I arrived in this briskly cold city feeling a bit under dressed and jet-lagged, but still abel to locate one of the largest shopping hubs in the city (by accident); Bridge Street. Still, my circadian rhythm's been upset and it will take a while for me to adjust.

For those of you who are unfamiliar, circadian rhythms are like biological clocks that rely on the amount of light that's available. Living in california, we average out 8-9 hours of sleep in darkness every night...well imagine how humans are adapted to live in far north places like Alaska....a midnight sun and occassional entire weeks of only moonlight.

Plants and animals in those climes are adapted to rely on certain amounts of light...imagine that if a plant was in the light all the time, it would constantly undergo photosynthesis and may overload itself on work. Plants rely on a special type of circadian rhythm called photoperiodism.

This is evident in plants that only bloom during certain times of the day; either to conserve energy or to cater to pollinators that only come out at night.

Question: If you put a plant adapted to short amounts of light under constant light, what do you think would happen to the plant?

Also....saw a bunch of colorful parrots today on the street....stopped to take pictures and caught the fat cat also watching them...

One week until takeoff

People keep asking me if I'm excited, and...the answer is a resolute ...no! I need to make sure that my kids pass their biology classes and it's stressing me out because I won't start packing until finals are done.

BUT! I am now scuba certified. Bad news is... It's 57 degrees in Melbourne...and it's rainy AND NPR said this morning that there's a swine flu outbreak in South Australia. They said that Australia is the tipping point in announcing a world-wide pandemic. It's weird how timing is everything because conditions suggest that I'll be cold, increase my exposure to a flu pandemic, and be on a plane for about 16 hours. The immune system is a resistant and beautiful thing, but it's failed quite a few swine flu victims.

Question: Does increased exposure to different flu strains increase immune resistance to future flu strains?