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WHYVILLE HELP : GALLERY : DR. LEILA : SEARCH : SUBMIT : STAFF : HOME Jul 5, 2009

 

Whyville Popularity: Revealed

An anonymous author reveals what it takes to be "popular" on Whyville.

Have you ever wanted to be "popular" on this site called Whyville? Be friends with those people who always whisper to each other at the Sun Roof, while you watch from the background enviously? You know them. You wish you could be friends with them.

I have.

After many years - and sometimes, that's all it takes - I have successfully obtained the title "popular". Not only that, I have acquired the skills to be one of the popular people on any website I go on. And now you can too.

Ladies and gents, this is Whyville Popularity: Revealed.

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   MEDIA
Jonas Brothers World Tour: Vancouver
Ocean10kv attends an amazing concert.

   MEDIA
Movie Review: Princess Protection Program
Holiday50 reviews one of Disney's new movies.

   PEOPLE
Waiting to Believe
AEis4Me realizes her true feelings.

   PEOPLE
The Plus Side of Dating Someone in a Band
Obvibeaut likes dating a musician.

   ENTERTAINMENT
Attack of the Bad Tour Guide: Part 2
Shaniqua gives a tour of the Beaches of Whyville!

 

 

   SAVE THE REEF
Save the Reef
Emalee3 wants to save the Southern Reef.

   MEDIA
Less and Less Real Music
AJsmom shares her feelings on today's popular music.

   MEDIA
Music and Academics
Mychemfan showcases her research on the ties between music and academics.

   PEOPLE
Happy Birthday
X3Rachx shares about the day she became a big sister.

   ENTERTAINMENT
The Fantastic Two
KirsKooki and Cohenlm start a new comic about a super duo!

Bigger Brains, More Cancer?

DrRabiah disagrees with an article in a journal that suggests a link between intelligence and cancer risk.

Scientists at Georgia Tech last week published research in the journal Medical Hypotheses (abstract only) that suggests a link between intelligence and cancer risk. Specifically, the researchers believe that the increased brain capacity in humans, compared to chimpanzees, may explain why we get cancer more often than our primate relatives. Cancer results from errors in apoptosis, or programmed cell death, which is when a cell commits suicide. If a cell acquires a mutation it can't fix, or encounters other serious damage, apoptosis is critical to prevent a damaged cell from replicating and potentially affecting the rest of the body. Apoptosis is also a normal, healthy part of the life cycle - a classic example is during frog development; tadpole cells undergo apoptosis to get rid of the tail and make a mature frog. (See the super-short, but helpful apoptosis video below).

When apoptosis this process goes awry, damaged cells can divide uncontrollably, leading to cancerous tumors. The scientists behind this new study argue that since human brains are larger (and therefore require more cells), the increased brain size may have required the cell-death process to be less efficient. As a result, the authors of the study suggest that cancer could be an unfortunate side effect of our increased intelligence.

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