Drugs

In pharmacology, a drug is "a chemical substance used in the treatment, cure, prevention, or diagnosis of disease or used to otherwise enhance physical or mental well-being." Pharmaceutical drugs may be used for a limited duration, or on a regular basis for chronic disorders.In other words,Drugs are articles that are intended for use in the diagnosis, cure, mitigation, treatment, or prevention of disease in humans or animals, and any articles other than food, water, or oxygen that are intended to affect the mental or body function of humans or animals. Drugs have been defined to include such things as herb tonics, cold salves, laxatives, weight-reduction aids, vitamins, and even blood. Narcotics are defined by laws as substances that either stimulate or dull an individual's senses, and that ordinarily become habit-forming (i.e., addictive) when used over time. Manufacture and sales of drugs are regulated by the Drug Regulatory bodies.The regulation of narcotics falls into two areas. Legal narcotics are regulated by the laws and are generally available only with a physician's prescription. The production, possession, and sale of illegal narcotics—commonly called controlled substances—are banned by statutes.

Recreational drugs are chemical substances that affect the central nervous system, such as opioids or hallucinogens.Alcohol, nicotine, and caffeine are the most widely consumed psychotropic drugs worldwide.These are chemicals that alter, block, or mimic chemical reactions in the brain. This causes an alteration of the body's normal processes, causing physical (Faster heartbeat, deeper respiration etc.), or mental (Elevated mood, new thought processes etc.) changes. 

Nootropics, also commonly referred to as "smart drugs", are drugs that are claimed to improve human cognitive abilities. Nootropics are used to improve memory, concentration, thought, mood, learning, and many other things. Some nootropics are now beginning to be used to treat certain diseases such as attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder, Parkinson's disease, and Alzheimer's disease. They are also commonly used to regain brain function lost during aging. Similarly, drugs such as steroids improve human physical capabilities and are sometimes used (legally or not) for this purpose, often by professional athletes.

In the scientific community, drugs are defined as substances that can affect a human's or animal's biological and neurological states. They may be organic, such as the chemical tetrahydrocannabinol (THC), which occurs naturally in marijuana; or synthetic, such as amphetamines or sedatives, which are manufactured in laboratories. Drugs can be swallowed, inhaled through the nostrils, injected with a needle, applied to the skin, taken as a suppository, or smoked. Scientists categorize drugs according to their effects. Among their categories are analgesics, which kill pain, and psychoactive drugs, which alter the mind or behavior. Some psychoactive substances produce psychological highs or lows according to whether they are stimulants or depressants, respectively. Others, called hallucinogens, produce psychedelic states of consciousness; lysergic acid diethylamide (LSD) and mescaline are examples of such drugs. Marijuana is placed in its own category.

Administering drugs

Drugs, both medicinal and recreational, can be administered in a number of ways. Many drugs can be administered in a variety of ways rather than just one.

Bolus is the administration of a medication, drug or other compound that is given to raise its concentration in blood to an effective level. The administration can be given intravenously, by intramuscular, intrathecal or subcutaneous injection.

Inhaled, (breathed into the lungs), as an aerosol or dry powder. (This includes smoking a substance)

Injected as a solution, suspension or emulsion either: intramuscular, intravenous, intraperitoneal, intraosseous.

Insufflation, or snorted into the nose.

Orally, as a liquid or solid, that is absorbed through the intestines.

Rectally as a suppository, that is absorbed by the rectum or colon
.
Sublingually, diffusing into the blood through tissues under the tongue.

Topically, usually as a cream or ointment. A drug administered in this manner may be given to act locally or systemically.

Vaginally as a suppository, primarily to treat vaginal infections.

Types of Drugs 

Drugs can be classified in many ways. For example, they can be classified according to:

Uses (medicinal or recreational)

Effect on the body (the specific effect on the central nervous system)

Source of the substance (synthetic or plant)

Legal status (legal/illegal)

Risk status (dangerous/safe)

One of the most common and useful ways of classifying a drug is by the effect that it has on a person's central nervous system. The brain is the major part of the central nervous system, and this is where psycho-active drugs have their main effect.

The below sub-section summarises the major classifications of drugs including stimulants, depressants and hallucinogens. The group 'others' includes those psycho-active drugs that do not fit neatly in any other category. Some drugs can be classified in a number of categories, e.g. cannabis and ecstasy.

Classifying drugs by their effect on CNS

Stimulants

Tend to speed up the activity of a person's central nervous system (CNS) including the brain.

These drugs often result in the user feeling more alert and more energetic.

Examples include:

Amphetamines
Cocaine
Pseudoephidrine (found in medications such as Sudafed, Codral Cold and Flu)
Nicotine
Caffeine

Depressants (also known as relaxants/Sedatives)

Tend to slow down the activity of the CNS, which often results in the user feeling less pain, more relaxed and sleepy.

These symptoms may be noticeable when a drug is taken in large amounts.

It is important to note that the term 'depressant' is used to describe the effect on the CNS, not mood.

CNS depressants are more likely to result in euphoria than depression, especially in moderate use.

Examples include:

Alcohol
Major tranquillisers
Benzodiazepines (e.g. Valium, Temazepam) Opioids (heroin, morphine)
Volatile substances (can also be classified as 'other' (glue, petrol, and paint).

Hallucinogens

Have the ability to alter a user's sensory perceptions by distorting the messages carried in the CNS. A common example is LSD (trips).

Hallucinogens alter one's perceptions and states of consciousness.

Examples include:

LSD
Psilocybin (magic mushrooms)
Mescaline (peyote cactus)

Other

Includes psycho-active drugs that do not fit neatly into one of the other categories, but which are clearly psycho-active, such as antidepressants (e.g. Zoloft) and mood stabilisers (e.g. Lithium).

Examples include:

MDMA (ecstasy)*
Cannabis*
Volatile substances (petrol, glue, paint)

* Both ecstasy and cannabis can produce hallucinations, especially in cases of heavy use, or inexperienced users. However they are usually considered primarily as CNS stimulants and depressants respectively, as these effects are almost always present.

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Intellectual Property Rights (IPR)

Archaeological Dating Methods (2)

Absolute Dating

Absolute dating assigns fixed dates to the age of an object, people or intangible concepts, such as human language development.It means absolute dating methods produce specific chronological dates for objects and occupations. Absolute dating largely relies on scientific developments of the 20th century, but it also can derive absolute dates from history and archaeology.These dating methods provides a computed numerical age in contrast with relative dating which provides only an order of events.In archeology, absolute dating is usually based on the physical or chemical properties of the materials of artifacts, buildings, or other items that have been modified by humans.This type of dating employs many dating techniques* like atomic clocks, carbon dating, annual cycle methods, and trapped electron method. 

*After 1950, the physical sciences contributed a number of absolute dating techniques that had a revolutionary effect on archaeology and geology. These techniques are based upon the measurement of radioactive processes (radiocarbon; potassium-argon, uranium-lead, thorium-lead, etc.; fission track; thermoluminescence; optically stimulated luminescence; and electron-spin resonance), chemical processes (amino-acid racemization and obsidian hydration), and the magnetic properties of igneous material, baked clay, and sedimentary deposits (paleomagnetism). Other techniques are occasionally useful, for example, historical or iconographic references to datable astronomical events such as solar eclipses (archaeoastronomy).

Prior to the discovery of radiometric dating which provided a means of absolute dating in the early 20th century, archaeologists and geologists were largely limited to the use of relative dating techniques to determine the age of geological events.Though relative dating can only determine the sequential order in which a series of events occurred, not when they occur, it remains a useful technique especially in materials lacking radioactive isotopes.The Law of Superposition was the summary outcome of 'relative dating' as observed in geology from the 17th century to the early 20th century.

The most popular method of radio dating is radiocarbon dating which is possible because of the presence of C-14, an unstable isotope of carbon. C-14 has a half life of 5730 years which means that only half of the original amount is left in the fossil after 5730 years while half of the remaining amount is left after another 5730 years. This gives away the true age of the fossil that contains C-14 that starts decaying after the death of the human being or animal. Dendrochronology is another of the popular method of finding the exact age through growth and patterns of thick and thin ring formation in fossil trees. It is clear then that absolute dating is based upon physical and chemical properties of artifacts that provide a clue regarding the true age. 

The absolute dating methods most widely used and accepted are based on the natural radioactivity of certain minerals found in rocks. Since the rate of radioactive decay of any particular isotope is known, the age of a specimen can be computed from the relative proportions of the remaining radioactive material and its decay products. By this method the age of the earth is estimated to be about 4.5 billion years old. Some of the radioactive elements used in dating and their decay products (their stable daughter isotopes) are uranium-238 to lead-206, uranium-235 to lead-207, thorium-232 to lead-208, samarium-147 to neodymium-143, rubidium-87 to strontium-87, and potassium-40 to argon-40. Each radioactive member of these series has a known, constant decay rate, measured by its half-life, that is unaffected by any physical or chemical changes. Each decay element has an effective age range, including uranium-238 (100 million to 4.5 billion years) and potassium-40 (100,000 to 4.5 billion years).

Radiometric dating - Principles and History 

In 1896, French physicist Henri Becquerel discovered radioactivity: the spontaneous emission of particles and energy from unstable nuclei of elements.The atoms of some chemical elements have different forms, called isotopes. These break down over time in a process scientists call radioactive decay. Each original isotope, called the parent, gradually decays to form a new isotope, called the daughter. Each isotope is identified with what is called a ‘mass number’. When ‘parent’ uranium-238 decays, for example, it produces subatomic particles, energy and ‘daughter’ lead-206.

Isotope:  A version of an atom that differs from other atoms of the same element only in the number of neutrons.  Different isotopes of an element have similar chemical properties (undergo similar chemical reactions) but have different physical properties (such as evaporation rates).

Stable Isotope:  An isotope that persists forever because it has a “stable” ratio of protons to neutrons.  For example, carbon-12 is a stable isotope.

Radioactive (or unstable) Isotope:  An isotope that decays into another element because it has an “unstable” ratio of protons to neutrons.  For example, carbon-14 is a radioactive isotope.

During radioactive decay, the radioactive parent isotope changes to a stable daughter isotope giving off heat in the process.  There are 3 types of radioactive emissions:

Alpha ray: Equivalent to two protons and two neutrons (essentially a helium nucleus).

Beta ray: A free electron is released when a neutron converts to a proton.

Gamma ray: Consists of a photon (a packet of energy).

Some radioactive parent isotopes decay directly to a daughter isotope.  However, some radioactive atoms decay to the daughter atom through a series of intermediate steps (called a decay series).  The U238 decay series is a good example.The half-life is the amount of time required for one half of the parent to decay to daughter.Initially, there are many radioactive parent atoms so there are more radioactive emissions.  As decay proceeds and there are fewer parent atoms and fewer emissions.  By the 1st half life, 50% of the parent atoms will have decayed to daughter.  By the 2nd half life, another 50% of the remaining parent will have decayed (leaving 25% parent and 75% daughter).

Absolute age dating is based upon the decay of radioactive (unstable) isotopes.Since the decay rate is constant over time, the parent:daughter ratio can be used to calculate the age of the mineral or rock.

Dating basically depends upon 3 measurements:

1) the amount of unstable parent isotope in the mineral

2) the amount of stable daughter isotope in the mineral

3) the decay constant (l) of the particular radioactive parent isotope.

Radiometric dating (also called radioactive dating) is a technique used to date materials such as rocks, usually based on a comparison between the observed abundance of a naturally occurring radioactive isotope and its decay products, using known decay rates (In radiometry, the rate of radioactive decay of a specific element provides an absolute date).The use of radiometric dating was first published in 1907 by Bertram Boltwood and is now the principal source of information about the absolute age of rocks and other geological features, including the age of the Earth itself, and can be used to date a wide range of natural and man-made materials. Together with stratigraphic principles, radiometric dating methods are used in geochronology to establish the geological time scale.Among the best-known techniques are radiocarbon dating, potassium-argon dating and uranium-lead dating.

Radiocarbon dating measures radioactive isotopes in once-living organic material instead of rock, using the decay of carbon-14 to nitrogen-14 .Carbon-14 dating is probably one of the best-known dating methods, but the half-life of Carbon-14 is approximately 5730 years, plus or minus 40 years. Because of the fairly fast decay rate of carbon-14, it can only be used on material up to about 60,000 years old. Geologists use radiocarbon to date such materials as wood and pollen trapped in sediment, which indicates the date of the sediment itself. 

The atmospheric C 14 is incorporated into carbon dioxide molecules (CO2).  Organisms acquire C 14 from the air and water (along with 13C and 12C), and they acquire the environmental ratios of these isotopes.  However, when organisms die, they stop acquiring any carbon and the C 14starts to decay back to N 14 via beta decay.  The C 14 :N 14 ratio decreases over time, and this ratio can be used to calculate a material's age.All organic matter (bones, shells, wood, charcoal, cloth, and limestone) contains C-14and can be dated with this technique.

Carbon-14 has a relatively short half life of 5,730 years.  It is good for dating young rocks and artifacts.  Beyond 60,000 - 80,000 years, there is too little Carbon-14 left in the sample and this technique cannot be used.

Potassium-argon dating is another absolute dating method that is used to determine the age of igneous or sedimentary rocks. This, in turn, should provide some evidence for the dates of the fossils within the rocks. In this method, an absolute date is determined by measuring the amount of decay of potassium-40, a radioactive isotope of the element potassium that has transformed into the stable isotope argon-40.Potassium-40, for example, decays into Argon-40 with a half-life of 1.25 billion years, so that after 1.25 billion years half of the Potassium-40 in a rock will have become Argon-40. This means that if a rock sample contained equal amounts of Potassium-40 and Argon-40, it would be 1.25 billion years old.

Fission-track dating is a more recent application of the decay of radioisotopes, but this technique does not use the ratio of parent to daughter isotope to obtain an age.

Most U 238 undergoes alpha decay.  However, a very small proportion of U 238 nuclei undergo fission and the nucleus splits to form two smaller but very energetic nuclei that move away from each other.  When this happens in a mineral, the two departing nuclei leave behind a trail of destruction in the crystal lattice.  The trail is called a fission track.

The density of fission tracks in a mineral increase with age and can be used to calculate the mineral's age.

Fission track dating is ideal for samples from “recent” times back to 100,000,000 years.  Beyond 100,000,000 years, the density of the tracks becomes so great (saturated) that they cannot be counted reliably.

Fission tracks can “anneal” or heal with reheating, and so this method is affected by metamorphism.

Note : 

Measuring isotopes is particularly useful for dating igneous and some metamorphic rock, but not sedimentary rock. Sedimentary rock is made of particles derived from other rocks, so measuring isotopes would date the original rock material, not the sediments they have ended up in. However, there are radiometric dating methods that can be used on sedimentary rock, including luminescence dating.

All radiometric dating methods measure isotopes in some way. Most directly measure the amount of isotopes in rocks, using a mass spectrometer. Others measure the subatomic particles that are emitted as an isotope decays. Some measure the decay of isotopes more indirectly. For example, fission track dating measures the microscopic marks left in crystals by subatomic particles from decaying isotopes. Another example is luminescence dating, which measures the energy from radioactive decay that is trapped inside nearby crystals.

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Archaeological Dating Methods (1)

Dating is a technique used in archeology to ascertain the age of artifacts, fossils and other items considered to be valuable by archaeologists.Archaeologists use different dating techniques to determine the age of a particular artifact, fossil,site, or part of a site. Two broad categories of dating or chronometric techniques that archaeologists use are called  relative and absolute dating . Relative dating determines the age of artifacts or site, as older or younger or the same age as others, but does not produce precise dates.Absolute dating methods produce specific chronological dates for objects and occupations.This method is not available to archaeology until well into the 20th century.

Relative dating

Relative dating is the science of determining the relative order of past events, without necessarily determining their absolute age.Methods for relative dating were developed when geology first emerged as a formal science.Stratigraphy is the oldest of the relative dating methods that archaeologists use to date things,it is the science of rock strata, or layers.Stratigraphy is based on the law of superposition-like a layer cake, the lowest layers must have been formed first .Layering occurs in sedimentary rocks as they accumulate through time, so rock layers hold the key to deciphering the succession of historical events in Earth’s past.In other words, artifacts found in the upper layers of a site will have been deposited more recently than those found in the lower layers. Cross-dating of sites is still used today in which one compares geologic strata at one site with another location, and extrapolates relative ages in that manner.This method is used when sites are far too old for absolute dates to have much meaning.

However, geological strata are not always found to be in a neat chronological order. Wind and water erode strata and some areas are uplifted or even tilted. These processes result in geological unconformities , or breaks in the original stratigraphic sequence. In addition, people and other animals dig holes, resulting in a mixing of material from different strata.All of these processes confuse the stratigraphic record. In many cases, however, it is possible to reconstruct the original sequence of strata so that they can be used for relative dating.

For instance, if we find a fossil bone below the strata 3 rock level shown in the illustration above, we assume that the animal most likely lived at a time before that layer was formed. However, we must be careful to note whether or not the fossil comes from the mixed strata zone of the filled in hole.

When two objects are found in the same strata of a site, it is usually assumed that they date to the same time period. This is an application of the principle of association. However, the assumption of contemporaneity may not always be correct. This is due to the fact that one or both of the objects may have been moved or redeposited into a different location. In other words, they may no longer be in their primary context.

Biostratigraphy

Biostratigraphy is the use of fossils in stratigraphy. It relies on the study of in situ fossil distributions. Various fossil groups can be found in different sedimentary environments. The two main environments are land (terrestrial) and sea (marine).When the bones of our early ancestors are found in the same geological strata as those of other animals that are known to have lived only during a specific time period in the past, we assume that these ancestors must also have come from that time. This is referred to as dating by association with index fossils (also known as guide fossils, indicator fossils or zone fossils), or biostratigraphy .

Fluorine Analysis

When bones, teeth, or antlers are found at a site, fluorine analysis can be used to tell us whether or not the animals they were from actually lived at about the same time. This relative dating method is based on the fact that there are specific progressive chemical changes in skeletal remains that result from burial underground. As time passes, the organic components of bone (mostly fats and proteins) are lost primarily through bacterial action. Since these components contain nitrogen, there is a progressive loss of that element. At the same time, percolating ground water deposits trace amounts of fluorine and other elements, such as uranium, into the bone. As a result, the amount of fluorine and other trace elements progressively increase. If the bones of two animals are buried at the same time in the same site, they should have the same relative amount of nitrogen and fluorine. If they do not, they most likely come from different eras, despite the fact that they were found in association with each other.

Fluorine analysis can be used only as a relative dating method because the rate of decay and the amount of dissolved minerals in the ground water varies from site to site.Fluorine analysis is primarily used for verifying whether or not two fossils in the same strata at a site were in fact contemporaneous. If not, then at least one of them must be physically out of context.

A good example of the value of fluorine analysis was in bringing to light the Piltdown Man hoax. In 1912, Charles Dawson, an amateur paleontologist, found what was thought to be an early human skull and jaw in the Piltdown gravel deposits of England. Because it had an ape-like jaw and was found in association with the bones of extinct animals, this "Piltdown Man" was also believed to be a very ancient human. It was popularly referred to as "the missing link" in human evolution. In 1949, the Piltdown bones were finally tested for fluorine content by Kenneth Oakley and the fraud became apparent. After reexamining the strata at the Piltdown site, the evidence of a hoax was published in 1953. This was verified through the use of X-ray fluorescence examination. The skull and jaw clearly were not from the same time period. The jaw was likely to have come from a modern young adult orangutan. It had been cleverly carved to fit the skull and stained to look ancient. In addition, the associated bones from extinct animals had much older fluorine and nitrogen ratios than either the jaw or the human skull.

Geochronology

A relative dating method based on the association of early human sites with changing features of the land, such as the advance and retreat of glaciers or the rise and fall of sea levels. When these events are well dated, geochronology could be considered a reliable calibrated relative dating technique.

Artifact time marker

An artifact type that was made by a particular culture during a limited time period. When discovered clearly in association with ancient humans in an archaeological site, they are an indication of at least the relative time of the occupation. When the independent dating of the artifact types is reliable, this can be considered a calibrated relative dating method.

Seriation

When a stratigraphic sequence is lacking, another relative dating technique known as seriation may be applied. This technique dates a site based on the relative frequency of types of artifacts whose dates of use or manufacture are known. The basic assumption underlying seriation is that the popularity of culturally produced items (such as clay pipes or obelisk gravestone markers in America) varies through time, with a frequency pattern that has been called the "battleship curve." An item is introduced, it grows in popularity, then its use begins to wane as it is replaced by another form. Certain types of artifacts have been identified as particularly useful temporal markers, for example, gravestones, projectile points, lamps, pottery sherds.The frequency of artifact types in a stratum can be compared to known frequency changes previously recorded for an ancient culture. In this way, the stratum can be dated relative to other strata or sites. When a seriation sequence has been cross-calibrated with reliable chronometric dating methods, it can be considered a calibrated relative technique. Before being able to interpret materials found at a site, an archaeologist faces the task of sorting the artifacts into manageable units for analysis. This is frequently a difficult task. Sorting is usually based on form and function. What does it look like? What is it made of? Is it decorated in any way? Have you ever seen it before?

Patination

Patination is a technique involving the measuring of the patina on an artifact. The patina is the outermost surface of the artifact that differs in color, texture, luster or composition from the rest of the artifact. This difference is the result of chemical, physical or biological change in response to the surrounding soil and environmental condition. Although it is not an actual dating technique, patination is used when multiple artifacts of the same type are found in the same area and under the same conditions. The use of this technique is to determine the age of the artifacts, relative to the others, by comparing the thickness of the patina on them. There are many variables that have to be calculated, and this makes dating lithics from patina formations a relative dating technique.

Palaeontolgy - Dating by analysing Animal Remains 

This method is based on the assumption that changed climate will bring about the occurrence of different animals and plant species i.e., with change in climate,some species become extinct.This assumption helps in establishing relative dates.

Social Intelligence - Basics

Intelligence, as defined in standard dictionaries is individual's ability to learn and reason.

What is Social Intelligence (SI)?

Social Intelligence (SI) is the ability to get along well with others, and to get them to cooperate with you. Sometimes referred to simplistically as "people skills," SI includes an awareness of situations and the social dynamics that govern them, and a knowledge of interaction styles and strategies that can help a person achieve his or her objectives in dealing with others. It also involves a certain amount of self-insight and a consciousness of one's own perceptions and reaction patterns.As originally coined by E.L. Thorndike (1920), the term referred the person's ability to understand and manage other people, and to engage in adaptive social interactions.E.L. Thorndike divided intelligence into three parts, pertaining to the ability to understand and manage ideas (abstract intelligence), concrete objects (mechanical intelligence), and people (social intelligence). More recently, however, Cantor and Kihlstrom (1987) redefined social intelligence to refer to the individual's fund of knowledge about the social world.

Moss and Hunt (1927) defined social intelligence as the "ability to get along with others" . Vernon (1933), provided the most wide-ranging definition of social intelligence as the person's "ability to get along with people in general, social technique or ease in society, knowledge of social matters, susceptibility to stimuli from other members of a group, as well as insight into the temporary moods or underlying personality traits of strangers"

Persons with high social intelligence are usually good in recognizing subtle facial, verbal and behavioral clues in other people that can indicate their emotions and intentions. Social intelligence includes the following abilities:

a) the ability to observe and interpret very subtle facial expressions that signal particular emotions or intentions in other people;

b) the ability to detect and understand hidden meanings in verbal expressions of other people - such as when people say one thing, but actually mean the opposite;

c) the ability to interact with other people verbally and through gestures in such a way that these partners feel comfortable, relaxed and understood.

d) the ability to intentionally provoke other people through cynicism, mockery or insults;

d) the ability to tell and understand jokes;

f) the ability to motivate other people to actions by providing verbal encouragement;

g) the ability to incite rage, fanaticism, or (religious) ecstasy in other people;

h) the ability to coordinate one's actions with the behavior of other people;

Social intelligence should not be misunderstood as a particular political or social conviction, such as humanitarianism. All people with social intelligence may not have noble sentiment. Social intelligence is often used for political manipulation or brutal suppression of other people. Leaders such as Napoleon Bonaparte, Genghis Khan, Mao Zedong, Pol Pot, Adolf Hitler or Josef Stalin were able to initiate raw emotions and blind obedience among their followers at extreme levels. Religious leaders have been able to incite hundreds of millions of people with some of the deepest human emotions possible. Political and military power is not generated primarily by brutal force and suppression, but by winning over the "hearts and minds" of followers. We might not like it, but there can be no doubt that powerful political and military leaders must have high social intelligence to manipulate other people.When social intelligence is used for benign purposes it can lead to some of the most uplifting and noble human experiences.

Nicholas Humphrey points to a difference between intelligence and social intelligence. Some autistic children are extremely intelligent because they are very good at observing and memorising information, but they have low social intelligence. Similarly, chimpanzees are very adept at observation and memorisation, sometimes better than humans, but are, according to Humphrey, inept at handling interpersonal relationships. What they lack is a theory of other's minds.

More recently, popular science writer Daniel Goleman has drawn on social neuroscience research to propose that social intelligence is made up of social awareness (including empathy, attunement, empathic accuracy, and social cognition) and social facility (including synchrony, self-presentation, influence, and concern).Goleman’s  research indicates that our social relationships have a direct effect on our physical health.

Educational researcher Raymond H. Hartjen asserts that expanded opportunities for social interaction enhances intelligence.This suggests that children require continuous opportunities for interpersonal experiences in order to develop a keen 'inter-personal psychology'.Traditional classrooms do not permit the interaction of complex social behavior. Instead, students in traditional settings are treated as learners who must be infused with more and more complex forms of information. The structure of schools today allows very few of these skills, critical for survival in the world, to develop. Because we so limit the development of the skills of "natural psychologist" in traditional schools, graduates enter the job market handicapped to the point of being incapable of surviving on their own.

Relation with Emotional Intelligence : 

Social intelligence is closely related to cognition and emotional intelligence.

The emotional intelligence quadrant defines the four key competencies that enable a person to perform at their optimum in any given situation.

EI Quadrant

Social intelligence comes from our ability to be socially aware and to manage our relationships intelligently: the ability to pick up on emotions in other people and to work out what’s really going on with them; to appreciate another person’s perspective; to understand and appreciate the impact of your communication on others; to cultivate rapport and be attuned with a broad diversity of people; to manage interactions effectively; to engage with others for mutual benefit.

Social intelligence is separate from, but complimentary to emotional intelligence.Some deficits in SI arise from inadequate development of EI, conversely, some deficits in SI may lead to unsuccessful social experiences which may undermine a person's sense of self-worth which is part of EI.EI is about Self-Mastery, SI is about your ability to lead and inspire other people through your ability to influence, empathize and care.

Relation with Brain : 

Brain research in the last three decades has established that thinking and feeling originate from separate centers of the brain. The centers have been termed the “thinking mind” and the “emotional mind” respectively. The thinking mind is located in the cortex part of the brain while the emotional mind is in the area of the brain known as the limbic system. In particular, the amygdala in the limbic system is the structure that stores emotional experiences associated with various events. That structure is, therefore, the emotional center.

One of its functions, from what research has shown, is to communicate information of an emotional nature to the cortex — particularly to the prefrontal lobe of the cortex, instructing it to go into action or behavior mode. The prefrontal lobe considers the instructions from the amygdala in the context of the actual situation. Directly following that, it then decides whether to ignore the instructions or carry them through to action. If a person’s physiology is compromised — from drugs, alcohol, or moderate to high stress — the prefrontal lobe may fail to block the instructions from the amygdala, as it would in a more healthy state. In other words, we feel before we think. Emotions turn into action before the cognitive processes have a chance to interrupt the reaction.

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International Politics

International politics is closely related to international relations, which is defined as the political relationship between foreign countries,study of the roles of sovereign states, inter-governmental organizations (IGO), international non-governmental organizations (INGO), non-governmental organizations (NGO), and multinational corporations (MNCs). IR explores how global, regional, and domestic factors influence relations between actors on the world stage.The study of international relations takes a wide range of theoretical approaches.Many theories of international relations are internally and externally contested, and few scholars believe only in one or another. In spite of this diversity, several major schools of thought are discernible, differentiated principally by the variables they emphasize — eg. military power, material interests, or ideological beliefs.

 International Relations - Theories : 

Realism

Realism is an international relations theory which states that world politics is driven by competitive self-interest.It emphasizes the role of the nation-state and makes a broad assumption that all nation-states are motivated by national interests, or, at best, national interests disguised as moral concerns.States are self-interested, power-seeking rational actors, who seek to maximize their security and chances of survival . Cooperation between states is a way to maximize each individual state's security (as opposed to more idealistic reasons). Similarly, any act of war must be based on self-interest, rather than on idealism. Many realists saw World War II as the vindication of their theory.

Realism is a tradition of international theory centered upon four propositions:

1.The international system is anarchic.

• There is no actor above states capable of regulating their interactions; states must arrive at relations with other states on their own, rather than it being dictated to them by some higher controlling entity.
• The international system exists in a state of constant antagonism .

2.States are the most important actors.

3.All states within the system are unitary, rational actors.

• States tend to pursue self-interest.
• Groups strive to attain as many resources as possible .

4.The primary concern of all states is survival.

• States build up military to survive, which may lead to a security dilemma.

In the domestic arena, the theory asserts that politicians do, or should, strive to maximize their power, whilst on the international stage, nation states are seen as the primary agents that maximize, or ought to maximize, their power. Most scholars and politicians during the Cold War viewed international relations through a realist lens. Neither the United States nor the Soviet Union trusted the other, and each sought allies to protect itself and increase its political and military influence abroad.

Realpolitik

Realpolitik is related to the philosophy of political realism, and both suggest working from the hypothesis that it is chiefly based on the pursuit, possession, and application of power. Realpolitik, however, is a prescriptive guideline limited to policy-making (like foreign policy), while realism is a descriptive paradigm, a wider theoretical and methodological framework, aimed at describing, explaining and, eventually, predicting events in the international relations domain.

Realpolitik -- "realistic", "practical", or "actual" politics -- is politics or diplomacy based primarily on power and on practical and material factors and considerations, rather than explicit ideological notions or moral or ethical premises. It is a system of politics based on a country's situation and its needs rather than on ideas about what is morally right and wrong.

In international politics it strives to be non-ideological, as in doing what is best for the national interest without getting hung up on unjustified diplomatic habits or popular sentiment.An example of Realpolitik would be the United States reaching out to China in the 1970s, despite protest that America should not associate with communists.

To its detractors, Realpolitik is sometimes seen as Machiavellian, based on "the ends justify the means," coercive, and amoral. To its proponents, Realpolitik is simply acknowledging reality and doing the best one can in international politics in light of obvious realities.

Liberalism

Liberalism is the theoretical perspective based on the assumption of the innate goodness of the individual and the value of political institutions in promoting social progress.According to liberalism individuals are basically good and capable of meaningful cooperation to promote positive change. Liberalism views states, nongovernmental organizations, and intergovernmental organizations as key actors in the international system. States have many interests and are not necessarily unitary and autonomous, although they remain sovereign.

Liberalism claims the following:

• The world is a harsh and dangerous place, but the consequences of using military power often outweigh the benefits. International cooperation is therefore in the interest of every state.
• Military power is not the only form of power. Economic and social power matter a great deal too.
• Exercising economic power has proven more effective than exercising military power.
• Different states often have different primary interests.
• International rules and organizations can help foster cooperation, trust, and prosperity. 

Example: Relations among the major Western powers fit a model of complex interdependence very well. The United States has significant disagreements with its European and Asian allies over trade and policy, but it is hard to imagine a circumstance in which the United States would use military power against any of these allies. Instead, the United States relies on economic pressure and incentives to achieve its policy aims.

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Liberalism resembles a family portrait of principles and institutions, recognizable by certain characteristics~such as individual freedom, political participation, private property, and equality of opportunity-that all liberal democratic societies,by definition, share to some degree. Political theorists identify liberalism with an essential principle: the importance of the freedom of the individual.Above all, this is a belief in the importance of moral freedom, of the right to be treated and a duty to treat others as ethical subjects and not as objects or means only.

The ideal version of liberalism is marked by a shared commitment to four essential institutions.First, citizens possess juridical equality and other fundamental civic rights such as freedom of religion and the press. Second, the effective sovereigns of the state are representative legislatures deriving their authority from the consent of the electorate and exercising their representative authority free from all restraint apart from the requirement that basic civic rights be preserved. Most pertinent, for the impact of liberalism on foreign affairs, the state is subject to neither the external authority of other states nor the internal authority of special prerogatives held, for example, by monarchs or military bureaucracies over foreign policy.Third, the economy rests on a recognition of the rights of private property, including the ownership of means of production. Property is justified by individual acquisition (e.g., by labor) or by social agreement or social utility. This excludes state socialism or state capitalism, but it need not exclude market socialism or various forms of the mixed economy.Fourth, economic decisions are predominantly shaped by the forces of supply and demand,domestically and internationally, and are free from strict control by bureaucracies.

Liberal internationalism consists, at its most fundamental level, in the attempt to promote the aforementioned principles and institutions across national borders and apply variations thereof to international relations.

Contemporary scholarship on liberalism and international relations looks back at three distinct traditions of liberalism, attributable to three groups of theorists: John Locke-the great founder of modern liberal individualism, who claimed that states have themselves rights derived from individual rights to life and liberty (political independence) and property (territorial integrity), thereby providing the liberal foundations of international law; Adam Smith, Baron de Montesquieu, and Joseph Schum peter-brilliant explicators of commercial liberalism and what they saw as its natural result, liberal pacifism; and finally, Immanuel Kant and Giuseppe Mazzini-liberal republicans who theorized an internationalism that institutes peace among fellow liberal republics.

Idealism

Idealism is a specific school of liberalism that stresses the need for states to pursue moral goals and to act ethically in the international arena. Idealists believe that behavior considered immoral on an interpersonal level is also immoral in foreign policy. Therefore, idealists argue that dishonesty, trickery, and violence should be shunned.

Neoliberal institutionalism (also called “neoliberalism” or “institutional liberalism”) emphasizes the importance of international institutions (Kant’s “federation of free states”) in maintaining peace. 

Cosmic Dust

Every ingredient in the human body is made from elements forged by stars. So are all of the building blocks of your food, your bike and your electronics. Similarly, every rock, plant, animal, scoop of seawater and breath of air owes its existence to distant suns.

All such stars are giant, long-lived furnaces. Their intense heat can cause atoms to collide, creating new elements. Late in life, most stars will explode, shooting the elements they forged out into the far-flung reaches of the universe.

New elements also may develop during stellar smash-ups. Astronomers have just witnessed evidence for the creation of gold and more during the distant collision between two dying stars.

Another team discovered the light from a long-gone “starburst” galaxy. Shortly after the universe formed, this galaxy churned out stars at an amazing speed. Special star factories like this one might help explain how enough elements built up to create the solar system.

Such discoveries are helping scientists better understand where everything in the universe got its start.

After the Big Bang

Elements are the basic building blocks of our universe. Earth hosts 92 natural elements with names like carbon, oxygen, sodium and gold. Their atoms are the amazingly tiny particles from which all known chemicals are made.

Each atom resembles a solar system. A tiny, but commanding structure sits at its center. This nucleus consists of a mix of bound particles known as protons and neutrons. The more particles in a nucleus, the heavier the element. Chemists have compiled charts that place the elements in order based on structural features, such as how many protons they have.

Topping their charts is hydrogen. Element one, it has a single proton. Helium, with two protons, comes next.

People and other living things are chock full of carbon, element 6. Earthly life also contains plenty of oxygen, element 8. Bones are rich in calcium, element 20. Number 26, iron, makes our blood run red. At the bottom of the periodic table of natural elements sits uranium, nature’s heavyweight, with 92 protons. Scientists have artificially created heavier elements in their laboratories. But these are extremely rare and short-lived.

The universe didn’t always boast so many elements. Blast back to the Big Bang, about 14 billion years ago. Physicists think that’s when matter, light and everything else exploded out of a fantastically dense, hot mass the size of a pea. This set in motion the expansion of the universe, an outward dispersion of mass that continues to this day.

The Big Bang was over in a flash. But it kick-started the whole universe.

After the Big Bang the only elements were hydrogen and helium. That was just about it. Assembling the next 90 took a lot more time. To build those heavier elements, nuclei of lighter atoms had to fuse together. This nuclear fusion requires serious heat and pressure. It takes stars.

Star power

For a few hundred million years after the Big Bang, the universe contained only giant gas clouds. These consisted of about 90 percent hydrogen atoms; helium made up the rest. Over time, gravity increasingly pulled the gas molecules toward each other. This increased their density, making the clouds hotter. Like cosmic lint, they began to gather into balls known as protogalaxies. Inside them, material continued to amass into ever-denser clumps. Some of these developed into stars. Stars are still being born this way, even in our Milky Way galaxy.

Converting lightweight elements into heavier ones is what stars do. The hotter the star, the heavier the elements it can make.

The center of our sun is some 15 million degrees Celsius (about 27 million degrees Fahrenheit). That may sound impressive. Yet as stars go, it’s pretty wimpy. Average-size stars like the sun don’t get hot enough to produce elements much heavier than nitrogen. In fact, they create mainly helium.

To forge heavier elements, the furnace must be immensely bigger and hotter than our sun.Stars at least eight times bigger can forge elements up to iron, element 26. To build elements heavier than that, a star must die.

In fact, making some of the heaviest metals, like platinum (element number 78) and gold (number 79), might require even more extreme celestial violence: collisions between stars!

In June 2013, the Hubble Space Telescope detected just such a collision of two ultra-dense bodies known as neutron stars. Astronomers at the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics in Cambridge, Mass., measured the light emitted by this collision. That light provides “fingerprints” of the chemicals involved in those fireworks. And they show that gold formed. Lots of it: enough to equal several times the mass of Earth’s moon. Because a similar smash-up probably takes place in a galaxy once every 10,000 or 100,000 years, such crashes could account for all of the gold in the universe.

Death of a star

No star lives forever.Stars have a lifespan of about 10 billion years .

Gravity is always drawing the components of a star closer together. As long as a star still has fuel, pressure from nuclear fusion pushes outward and counter-balances the force of gravity. But once most of that fuel has burned up, so long star. Without fusion to counter it, “gravity forces the core to collapse,” .

The age at which a star dies depends on its size. Small to medium-size stars don’t explode.

While their core of iron or lighter elements collapses, the rest of the star expands gently, like a cloud. It swells into a huge growing, glowing ball. Along the way, such stars cool and darken. They become what astronomers call red giants. Many atoms in the outer halo surrounding such a star will just drift away into space.

Bigger stars come to a very different end. When they use up their fuel, their cores collapse. This leaves them extremely dense and hot. Instantly, that forges elements heavier than iron. The energy released by this atomic fusion triggers the star to expand yet again. At once, the star finds itself without enough fuel to sustain fusion. So the star collapses once again. Its massive density causes it to heat up again —after which it now fuses its atoms, creating heavier ones.

Pulse after pulse, star steadily builds up heavier and heavier elements. Amazingly, this all happens within a few seconds. Then, faster than you can say supernova, the star self-destructs in one ginormous explosion. The force of that supernova explosion is what forges elements heavier than iron.

Atoms go blasting out into space. They go a long way.

Some atoms drift gently from a red giant. Others rocket at warp speed from a supernova. Either way, when a star dies, many of its atoms spew into space. Eventually they become recycled by the processes that form new stars and even planets. All of this element-building “takes time” . Perhaps billions of years. But the universe is in no rush. It does suggest, however, that the longer a galaxy has been around, the more heavy elements it will contain.

Blast from the past

Consider the Milky Way. When our galaxy was young, 4.6 billion years ago, elements heavier than helium made up just 1.5 percent of the Milky Way. Today it’s up to 2 percent.

Last year, astronomers at the California Institute of Technology, or Caltech, discovered a very faint red dot in the night sky. They named this galaxy HFLS3. Hundreds of stars were forming inside it. Astronomers refer to such celestial bodies, with so many stars springing to life, as starburst galaxies. “HFLS3 was forming stars 2,000 times more rapidly than the Milky Way,” notes Caltech astronomer Jamie Bock.

To study distant stars, astronomers like Bock essentially become time travelers. They must look deep into the past. They can’t see what’s happening now because the light they study must first cross a vast expanse of the universe. And that can take months to years —sometimes thousands of millennia. So when describing star births and deaths, astronomers must use the past-tense.

A light-year is the distance light travels over a span of 365 days — 9.46 trillion kilometers (or some 6 trillion miles). HFLS3 was more than 13 billion light-years from Earth when it died. Its faint glow is just now reaching Earth. So what has happened in its vicinity during the past 12-billion-plus years won’t be known for eons.

But the just-arriving old news on HFLS3 did offer two surprises. First: It turns out to be the oldest starburst galaxy known. In fact, it is almost as old as the universe itself. “We found HFLS3 when the universe was a mere 880 million years old,” says Bock. At that point, the universe was a virtual baby.

Second, HFLS3 didn’t contain just hydrogen and helium, as astronomers might have expected for such an early galaxy. While studying its chemistry, Bock says his team discovered “it had heavy elements and dust that must have come from an earlier generation of stars.” He likens this to “finding a fully developed city early in human history where you were expecting to find villages.”

Lucky us

Astrophysicists think HFLS3 might help answer some important questions. The Milky Way galaxy is some 12 billion years old. But it doesn’t make stars fast enough to have created all of the 92 elements present on Earth. It’s always been a bit of a mystery how so many heavy elements built up so fast. Maybe starburst galaxies are not all that rare. If so, such high-speed star factories might have given the creation of heavy elements an early boost.

By about 5 billion years ago, stars in the Milky Way had generated all 92 elements now present on Earth. Indeed, gravity pulled them together, packing them into a hot cosmic stew that together would eventually coalesce to form our solar system. A few hundred million years later, Earth was born.

Within the next billion years, the first signs of life on Earth appeared. No one is exactly sure how life here got its start. But one thing is clear: Elements that formed Earth and all life upon it came from outer space. Every atom in your body was forged in the center of a star or from collisions between stars .