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Biology 103 1994-2005

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Illegal Drugs

Biology 103
2002 Second Paper
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Illegal Drugs

JR

There is a terrible problem that plagues the nation in the year 2002. It is one word that does considerable amounts of damage—drugs. Over the years, the level of teenage drug use fluctuates. "The prevalence of illicit drug use among America's teenagers dropped slightly in 1998. The decrease follows a leveling off in 1997, and suggests that the increasing use of drugs by teenagers that marked most of the 1990s may have begun to turn around."(1) . However, recent reports conclude that drug use is on the rise. In October, the Boston Herald reported that cocaine use was the leading cause of overdose in the Boston area. Illegal drug use interests me because I see it first hand and teens don't know what the long term effects are or even that there are any. Most teens are going to jail or even killing themselves because they are so addicted. What is most surprising among drug users is they don't know the long term effects of drugs- they are just in it for the ride; however, most rides end up deadly.

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Religion vs. Science

Biology 103
2002 First Paper
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Religion vs. Science

By Student Contributor

I grew up with the impression that science and religion were incompatible. Maybe it was because I went to Catholic school, and my religion teacher thought I was trying to be sarcastic when I asked things like, "If the pope is infallible, why did he say that Galileo was wrong about the sun being the center of the universe?". When she answered, "Because the pope didn't know any better", I said, "Isn't he supposed to know better if he's the pope?", and the teacher told me to stop asking dumb questions and said we'd get into it later (which of course we never did). So out of fear of flunking fifth grade religion AND science, I adopted the policy that what was taught in Science class applied only to science, and ditto for Religion.

Nine years later, I realize that maybe my questions weren't so dumb. Some people spend their lives trying to bring out the similarities between religion and science, while others spend their lives trying to tear the two apart. For my paper, I wanted to explore possible reasons why these two opposing sides have never been able to find common ground enough to unite upon (fade in War: Why Can't We Be Friends?).

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Magic Seeds

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Eastern and Western Shingles Treatment

Biology 103
2000 Second Web Report
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Eastern and Western Shingles Treatment

Allison Hayes-Conroy

Shingles, or Herpes Zoster, is an infectious disease that effects nearly twenty percent of the US population at some point in their lives. Resulting from a reactivation of the varicella-zoster virus (the same virus that causes Chicken Pox) shingles plagues the skin and nervous tissues. Often, the disease is very painful and although the skin blisters that result generally heal in a mere one to three weeks, severe nerve pain can last months to years (1). The treatment of this nerve pain, as well as of the shingles blisters, is the focus of this paper. For the sufferers of such a disease with no known cure, the discovery of treatments from both eastern and western medical traditions which can help alleviate the symptoms is paramount.

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