College can be seen as an amazing experience which opens doors to endless opportunities and possibilities both academically, and socially. Lately, however, rates of depression and anxiety among college students has been unprecedented, becoming the top reasons for students to seek counseling.

Approximately one in every five college students are currently coping with anxiety or depression. Psychiatry professor at Wayne State University, David Rosenberg set out to determine the factors involved with this mental health epidemic.

Rosenberg cites technology as one of the most common factors of depression and anxiety among college students. While our obsession with social media may lead us to feel more connected to the world around us in some ways, in other ways it only leads people to feel more isolated. Social media can be particularly harmful because it creates a barrier of competition between one’s real life and one’s virtual life.

People are finding it increasingly more difficult to simply live in the moment because they are constantly feeling the need to update their Facebook or Instagram profiles. Instead of just experiencing things, people now stress about how they can share their experiences with the world and worry about how others will receive their ‘virtual life’.

Numerous other studies have also shown correlations between mobile phone addiction and excess smartphone usage with sleep disturbance, depression, anxiety and overall stress.

Technology is certainly not the only serious factor influencing anxiety and depression in college students. Other factors include the dependence and prevalence of stimulant prescriptions, pressure from parents and peers to succeed academically, financial stress due to college loans in addition to the fear of not finding a job after school, genetic predispositions, cyberbullying, cigarette usage, homesickness, and parental over-involvement in a child’s college experience. With so many anxiety and depression triggers already out there, it poses the question of whether our technology is truly worth it.

Every so often, we see those interesting comparisons that we don’t usually get to see. And it’s only when we get to see them side-by-side that their secrets indeed get revealed.

This lovely Great Dane is named Elliot named after his dragon companion. The first photo was taken when Elliott was a puppy at about four weeks old and the other when he was around two years of age. At his shoulders, he is as tall as 32 inches, so Danes tower over almost all other dogs—and when standing upright on their hind legs, they are even taller than most humans! They say Great Danes are widely known for being gentle giants as they are very devoted to their families; patient and natural people-pleasers, they can easily make friends.

How incredible is this photo taken of the same tree but during different seasons? The photographer behind this evolving landscape is Jozef Morgoš, who captured the same cherry tree in Žabokreky, Slovakia, throughout all the seasons of the whole year. The changing periods highlight its perseverance and the breathtaking beauty of the area. Žabokreky nad Nitrou is a quaint little village and municipality in Partizánske District in the Trenčín Region of western Slovakia, and the history of this town dates back to 1291.

These beautiful Sequoias stand high over this couple in the winter snow. Sequoiadendron giganteum or the giant Sequoia, also known as giant redwood, Sierra redwood, Sierran redwood, Wellingtonia, or merely big tree, is the sole living species in the genus Sequoiadendron. Giant sequoias are the most prominent trees in the world and can grow to a height of 50–85 m (164–279 ft) with trunk diameters spanning from 6–8 m (20–26 ft). Interestingly, the name Sequoia was thought of by the Austrian botanist Stephan Endlicher in 1847.

Mussel is the name used for several families of bivalve mollusks, from saltwater and freshwater habitats. One single freshwater mussel can filter up to 10 gallons of water every day. They feed on microscopic particles that cause turbidity; as a result, freshwater mussels take out vast amounts of algae, bacteria, nitrogen, phosphorus, and other chemical compounds in rivers and lakes. What isn’t used is repurposed into little baskets of food for other aquatic organisms. In this picture, you can see the quality of the water within an aquarium, one with mussels and one without.

Alzheimer’s disease is a difficult diagnosis for anyone, and still, William Utermohlen created a heart-wrenching final series of self-portraits before his passing in 2007. His work constitutes a rare testimony to the inner life of a patient who has Alzheimer’s disease, which lasted roughly five years until he could barely recognize his face. In his last works, William’s style changes dramatically. Chronicling the steady decay of his mind, he created incredibly stark drawings, which were even displayed to medical students as learning material.

Russel Crowe shares a revealing photo of a fire and the amazing power of rain. The contrasting images show it’s a brand new beginning and a chance for fresh greenery to spread in the blackened areas. Many seeds are stored on the forest floor, and they germinate after a fire. New branches sprout from the buds of burnt down trees. What’s more, some plant species need blazes to grow, like the jack pines and lodgepole pines that are sealed tightly with a resin that can only be broken at very high temperatures.

The Peruvian guinea pig on the left looks stunning thanks to its shiny coat, which makes for a remarkable resemblance to the young boy’s hair. But gorgeous hair doesn’t come without a price, as these pets are known to be high maintenance. You need to maintain a Peruvian guinea pig’s coat every single day, making sure it’s tangle-free and clean. That also involves trimming the fur so that your fluffy companion does not carry around every bit of dust it runs into!

May 18, 1980, proved to be a horrible day as an earthquake triggered the most massive landslide to have been recorded on Mount St. Helens in Washington State. It was soon followed by a volcanic eruption that took the lives of 57 people. When surveying the damage, US President Jimmy Carter said, “someone once said this area looked like a moonscape. But now the moon looks more like a golf course compared to what’s up there.” The land resembled a scene from the apocalypse as hundreds of square miles were reduced to a wasteland.

The notion that cars take up way too much space when compared to bicycles and public transport is nothing new. But somebody decided to set these images side by side to help us better visualize just how much space is saved when we go on foot or choose a bus over a car. According to the research, a cyclist uses just 7% of the area that a car owner does, while someone traveling on foot uses only 2% of the space a car takes up.

A starfish is an incredible sight, but if you think starfish with four or six arms are weird, wait until you realize that within the species, there are those with 10, 20, and even 40 arms! Out of the many starfish species, the most common variety is the one with five divisions as we most often see in cartoons, movies, and photos. Another interesting fact is that some scientists are pushing to rename starfish sea stars because they’re well, not fish!

The summers in Seattle are short, warm, and dry, while the winters are very cold, wet, and cloudly. Why does it rain so much in the city of Seattle? The city is located right in the natural path of a weather pattern that regularly brings in a lot of moisture from the sea and is carried by weather patterns up over the Olympic Mountains, where it cools, and the evaporated water condenses into droplets of rain. So if you’re thinking of visiting Seattle, pack a jacket and an umbrella, just in case.

A social media user shared the images and noted that they depict the city of Porvoo in southern Finland. As far as we know, Porvoo is the second-oldest city in the country, with its beginnings dating back to a solid 800 years ago. For centuries, the idyllic city has been a source of inspiration for many artists, both Finnish and foreign. The red shore houses that are visible in the painting above were used to store merchandise and commodities from exotic countries, and today are one of the city’s main tourist attractions.

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NASA is always seeking to unravel the secrets of our universe, its origins, evolution, and search for life among the stars. Back in 1995, NASA’s Hubble Space Telescope became known for their iconic photo called the “Pillars of Creation.” The photo on the left is from a powerful regular telescope, and on the right, we can see the amazing image taken by the Hubble Space Telescope. The incredible infrared image shows “the very ends of the pillars that are dense knots of dust and gas.”

Bushfires ravaged the Australian state of New South Wales for more than 240 consecutive days in 2019/2020. News of the devasting fires spread all across the world, as they affected every region in the country, destroying 3,000 homes, killing 28 people, and up to a billion animals. On the east coast sits the state of New South Wales, which was hit the hardest. The bushfires were finally contained in February 2020, partly due to the torrential rains that flooded the affected areas.

Here we see the comparing the tip of a hypodermic needle, a viper’s fang, a spider’s fang, and the stinger of a scorpion. This would not be the first time that nature has served as inspiration for man-made inventions. High-speed trains are rumored to be designed with the kingfisher’s beak structure in mind to avoid the loud noise of early bullet trains. And it’s believed that geckos’ unique ability to stick to surfaces might be related to the invention of scotch tape in 1992. Furthermore, many believe that LED light bulbs could have been inspired by fireflies.

If you happen to be keeping a watchful eye out for counterfeit bills, there are a few things that you can do to accurately spot them. Here is a close up of the watermark face on this counterfeit $50 bill. Genuine currency has a slightly raised ink, while the printing quality is much higher. Be sure to compare the note that you suspect to be counterfeit to another one of the same denominations, in the same series or date. That should give you clues as to what might be off.

The infinite expanse of the universe is humbling, and we like to think this photo does it justice. The two photos are stacked to show the difference in exposure is one vs. 120. The Reddit user, who is pictured in the image, said in a thread: “I have never actually been able to see the Milky Way with my own eyes, as I lived in central India all my life, which is a very light-polluted city. So one night, I decided to take my camera out to the roof, clicked 120+ shots, and this was the result.”

This happy-go-lucky youngster was pictured on the first day of school on the left, and the second day of school on the right. Taking into account that the school year America runs from the end of August or early September, up to the end of May or early June, he will probably get used to his new everyday life. It’s the one day that never goes as planned but is ALWAYS captured on film, and we think he handled it pretty well. At least the holiday breaks are there to help him to adapt. Don’t worry, he will be fine!

This anti-paparazzi scarf has been taking the celebrity world by storm; we see it here with and without a flash photo. Hollywood celebs like Paris Hilton, DMX, and Nick Jonas were all spotted wearing this anti-paparazzi scarf. Known as the ISHU scarf, it has been infused with thousands of nano-spherical crystals that reflect the light from a camera’s flash back into the camera. As a result, the wearer is turned into a shadow while the scarf quite literally takes the spotlight!

Cactuses, or cacti, as some prefer to say, belong to the Cactaceae family with 1750 different species, and they are known as one of the most resilient plants that can easily outlive humans. Could we ever have imagined that a cactus can grow to be this tall? The longest-living species is the Mexican Giant Cardon, at 300 years. And when fully hydrated, the tallest Cardon ever recorded was featured in the Guinness World Records at 63 feet! Impressive, huh?

It’s not just facial features and mannerisms that get transferred down from generation to generation. Here we see a man and his grandfather in medical school, 70 years apart! For one generation to pass on its principles to the next, two things are essential. First of all, the strong bonds made between family members by spending more time together, which will lead to more similar ways of thinking and perspectives. The second important thing for value transmission is the social-cultural context.

Now that’s one majestic ball of fluff! This is Myrcella, a Ragdoll cat, and in these pictures you can see how her fur changes in the summer and the winter. It’s easy to drown in the depths of this Ragdoll cat’s glowing eyes, but her real enchantment is her silky coat. It’s short hair on the face, blossoms around the neck, then short again on the shoulder blades, and, finally, lengthens toward the tail. Naturally, they need regular grooming to keep their striking coat in good condition.

Advocate Afroz Shah is an Indian lawyer and environmental activist from Mumbai, who spearheaded the beach clean-up project at Versova in 2016. The United Nations named Shah as a Champion of the Earth for leading the clean-up of Mumbai’s Versova Beach. In an interview, he said the biggest challenge when it came to clean up the river, which runs through the city, is to educate and train the large number of people living along its banks to keep it clean.

The picture on the left was of Spokey at the local SPCA. Not much was known about her, besides the fact that they found her in rural West Virginia. The staff there described her as very calm-tempered, but they were having some trouble getting her to eat and drink, but that can be normal with rescue dogs. But one day, someone fell in love with Spokey and returned to the SPCA every day until she was available for adoption. The picture on the right shows how happy Spokey was after her adoption!

Everyone’s beautiful just as they are. But working towards a goal that’s good for you is always commendable, and we all want to get the most out of life. Certain behaviors like moving lots and eating well allow us to experience a higher quality of life than if we have serious health issues. If you’re thinking of losing weight, it’s crucial that you talk to your doctor beforehand because losing too much weight too rapidly can be dangerous for your health. Here are two t-shirts that show the difference after this amazing person lost 400 pounds!

This is a side by side look at the beautiful city of Barcelona during the day vs. the night. With a teeming population of 1.6 million, the bustling municipality is situated on the coast of northeastern Spain. It’s well-known for being the cosmopolitan capital of Spain’s Catalonia region. They say it is incomparable and one of a few must-see cities with its own personality. This is partly down to the generation of early-20th-century artists and architects.

Here we have the world’s smallest computer compared to a grain of rice. This computer measures 0.33mm on each side! Currently, the tiny network serves as an accurate temperature sensor. It uses electronic pulses to transform temperatures into timed intervals. Since the temperature sensor is so compact and biocompatible, it is being used to investigate variations in temperature within a tumor compared to healthy tissue – to see if we can use changes in temperature to determine whether the results of certain kinds of therapy are favorable.

It sure seems like Ken was happier in the ’80s – this is how he looked in 1985 vs. Ken in 2018. Many people complain about the beauty standards women are subjected to every day, but this clearly shows that men should also look a certain way. According to the research done by the Good Men Project, it has become increasingly prevalent in media and advertising to focus on the beauty of the “ideal” male form. These studies have shown that the percentage of men admitting to body dissatisfaction is growing at a shockingly fast rate.

When Redditor Thermochopps shared the photo, we come to realize just how precious life is. Along with his post, he said that the older we get, the more relevant we feel it is to preserve our ancestors’ stories. He said, “my baby sons’ great-grandmother worked on a farm all her life, and she lives with my mother-in-law on their small farm in rural Korea.” He continued, “Like many elderly Korean women who led physically hard lives, she’s bowed over like that permanently.”

The color and flavor of this natural sticky delight depend on the nectar that bees extract and collect from a variety of blossoms. In the United States alone, there are over 300 unique types of honey that all come from different flowers and plants. In this picture, we can see the different colors of honey harvested in the spring, summer, and fall! According to the National Honey Board, “as a general rule, light-colored honey is milder in taste, and dark-colored honey is stronger.” Most microorganisms do not grow in honey, so sealed honey does not spoil, even after thousands of years!

The Natural History Museum in London houses an impressive specimen of a blue whale skeleton that spans 25 meters. Their skeletons can weigh up to 18 tons, with their skull alone coming in at almost five tons! What we would all like to know is how did conservators get such an enormous skull through the Victorian doors? The team had removed the front doors altogether! The Head of Conservation Lorraine Cornish said that everyone breathed a collective sigh of relief once it was safely delivered.

Quetzalcoatlus northropi is a pterosaur (or flying reptile) known from the Late Cretaceous period of North America and one of the biggest flying animals ever. Their very first fossils were discovered in Texas at Big Bend National Park in 1971 and dated back to around 68 million years ago. Recent estimates put the wingspan of Quetzalcoatlus between 33 and 36 feet (10 to 11 meters). It would have been at least 9.8 feet (3 meters) tall. Recent research shows that it probably weighed 440 to 550 pounds (200 to 250 kilograms).

This handbag seems to be made similarly to the anti-paparazzi scarf that uses retro-reflective materials. These are fabrics, synthetics, or metal that reflect light to its source. Like when we drive a car and see our headlights light up road signs that are very far away, then we’ve encountered retro-reflective materials. Reflective materials reflect a lot more light on the camera than everyday fabrics. To get a bit technical, this manipulates the camera to send out a preflash before the main flash, causing the scene to appear brighter than it is, causing it to reduce the flash output.

Natural lighting makes all the difference, just look at how this painting changes when sitting in front of a window. Landscape artworks started gaining popularity in the 18th and 19th centuries in Europe as Romantic painters increasingly embraced them. They saw scenes as allegories full of “ancient significance” as a reaction to the scientific advances of the era. Meanwhile, in the United States, landscapes gained popularity in the early part of the 19th century. They represented idealized versions of unspoiled nature and embodied the belief that America was full of opportunities and prospects.

This is the contrast between corn as we know it today and before it became domesticated from the plant teosinte in Central America as early as 9,000 years ago! Some scientists maintain that maize could have been cultivated by our hunter-gatherer ancestors thousands of years ago. It’s thought that corn spread out from Mexico via trade routes. It was consumed as a staple food in what’s now known as the southwestern United States around 3,200 years ago and appears in the eastern US approximately 2,100 years ago.

Blue whales are the biggest animals living on Earth at the moment. When compared to this fearless swimmer, we can really marvel at their size. These majestic marine mammals dominate the oceans at up to 100 feet (30.5 meters) long and upwards from 400,000 pounds (200 tons). So yes, they are humongous…

A 61-year-old grandmother and her 12-year-old granddaughter placed side by side. Some notable physical features get carried down each generation. That’s why when we look at family photos, we can see that we might have our aunt’s eyebrows, our grandpa’s nose, our great-uncle’s elbows, or our great-great grandpa’s toothy smile. The characteristics that get passed on from generation to generation mean that they are most probably linked to dominant alleles, as opposed to recessive ones. Examples of a dominant allele would be freckles or a widow’s peak.

This perfectly illustrates what a lion’s head looks like when compared to a man’s head. Known as the king of the jungle, this big cat can grow up to three meters (9-10 feet long) and weigh around 250 kilos (550 pounds.) When on a hunt, this massive cat can run up to 50mph and leap as far as 36 feet, which is almost the length of a school bus! They’re pretty good vocalists, too—an adult male’s roar can be heard as far as five miles away.

Hummingbirds are incredibly impressive, and they are the smallest of birds, with most species measuring 7.5–13 cm (3–5 in) in length. With over 330 species of hummingbirds, they’re a very diverse family. Hummingbirds have speedy metabolisms, and to keep their wings beating so fast, they need to eat every 10 to 15 minutes and stop by 1000-2000 flowers every day. But hummingbirds don’t only drink nectar, they also eat small insects, including ants, mosquitoes, wasps, and beetles.

This is the size of a tiger paw compared to a human hand! Isn’t it amazing how diverse and different we are despite living on the same planet? Unfortunately, tigers have been listed as endangered since 1986. The primary reasons for their decline in population include habitat destruction, habitat fragmentation, and poaching. Their claws can reach up to 5 inches in length, and their forefeet have five claws, including a dewclaw, while hind paws have four claws without the dewclaw.