- I met with Dr. Morgan in his office located in the Leonard Davis School of Gerontology. It is an amazing feeling to walk around such a prestigious campus, knowing I am meeting with a top thinker in his field.
- Dr. Morgan first took me to see the rat exposure lab. In the experiment, exhaust collected from the 110 freeway near USC was funneled into tanks containing male and female mice. It is surreal to think that these mice are being tested with the very air we breath on the freeway daily.
- Dr. Morgan next took me to see the memory testing room. There, he showed me the different machines they use to measure the memory of the mice after they had been exposed to air pollution. In one of the machines, they had a large wheel with pathways extending from the center of the wheel. The researchers put treats in one of the pathways and let the mice find it. They would spin the wheel and see if the mice could remember where the treat was by looking at different visual markers.
- The next machine was a maze. It was a large metal box with connecting corridors. It contained treats, and it had the ability to shock mice. Mice were put in the box to see if they could find the treats. If the mice went the wrong way, they were shocked. This maze was used to test whether the mice could remember where the treats were and if they could remember where they got shocked.
- The next machine was a treadmill. This was to test the physical strength of the mice. In the machine, the mice would be forced to run or be electrically shocked so researchers could monitor the physical conditions of the mice.
- While studies are ongoing, mice showed increased risks of Autism, decreased strength, and memory loss. The environmental impact of the air we breath can have detrimental effects — particularly when concentrated in this fashion. Most people don’t think about this, but their very health may be in jeopardy. Much more research is needed to see what other effects the environment has on health.
Environmental Science and Its Application to Health 