trying to keep those brain cells alive

1. Word of the day: pundit, which comes from pandit, which is an Indian Sanskrit word meaning teacher. Pundit is someone with great authority on a subject who provides his/her opinion. That's what I gathered.
Also, he/she is erudite (possessing great mental faculty. ish.)

I realized that since my brain became less plastic in high school, even though I'm reading a lot, my vocabulary is extremely static. I don't like that. I want it to grow. Grow, dang it, grow.

Lessons for the day:

HOW FLUORESCENT ANGIOGRAM WORKS: (used in diagnosing ocular diseases in which blood vessels leak like diabetic retinopathy or idiopathic choroidal vitreopathy):
You inject a sodium based eye in the arm which makes its way to the eyes in a matter of *seconds* (super cool). Then you apply a laser with a wavelength such that it excites the sodium electrons to an energy level that interacts with photons at an energy corresponding to wavelengths above the visual spectrum. When the electrons relax, they release the same amount of energy in the form of fluorescence (basic principle of fluorescence). You can then see the early and late characteristics of the blood flow in the eye to identify leaks and the dynamic nature of any leaks.

HOW MICROWAVES WORK: (only slightly related)
The microwaves apply an electromagnetic field which causes any molecules with a dipole to align to it. It's like an MRI machine kind of, but way less strong. (Microwaves are of a pretty long wavelength.) The movement of the dipoles aligning with the induced field produces heat energy. Because water has a dipolar much higher than any other molecules naturally found in food, it will produce the most heat, cooking the food the most.
Good home experiment: (Not perfect since the cups will have moisture/dipoles in them themselves) take a cup of water and a cup of oil and a cup of alcohol and put them in the microwave for like one minute. The alcohol should boil away (maybe not but close), the water should heat up a lot but not boil, and the oil shouldn't heat up nearly as much. Science in action! :-)