This is the ALS challenge that Katherine Albrecht took part in in October 2014 when the GCNLive.com network decided to participate in a fundraiser. In typical Katherine fashion, she went all out with a live science experiment! See what happens, and share in the laughter. For more information on ALS see: https://www.alsa.org/fight-als/ice-bucket-challenge.html . Katherine decided not to engage in the Ice Bucket Challenge but instead made up her own version of the challenge for this very important cause. Donate to the ALS web site today! Your funds will go to critical research https://secure2.convio.net/alsa/site/Donation2?df_id=27420&27420.donation=form1

From the ALS web site above-mentioned:

"Amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS), often referred to as "Lou Gehrig's Disease," is a progressive neurodegenerative disease that affects nerve cells in the brain and the spinal cord. Motor neurons reach from the brain to the spinal cord and from the spinal cord to the muscles throughout the body. The progressive degeneration of the motor neurons in ALS eventually leads to their death. When the motor neurons die, the ability of the brain to initiate and control muscle movement is lost. With voluntary muscle action progressively affected, patients in the later stages of the disease may become totally paralyzed.

A-myo-trophic comes from the Greek language. "A" means no or negative. "Myo" refers to muscle, and "Trophic" means nourishment–"No muscle nourishment." When a muscle has no nourishment, it "atrophies" or wastes away. "Lateral" identifies the areas in a person's spinal cord where portions of the nerve cells that signal and control the muscles are located. As this area degenerates it leads to scarring or hardening ("sclerosis") in the region.

As motor neurons degenerate, they can no longer send impulses to the muscle fibers that normally result in muscle movement. Early symptoms of ALS often include increasing muscle weakness, especially involving the arms and legs, speech, swallowing or breathing. When muscles no longer receive the messages from the motor neurons that they require to function, the muscles begin to atrophy (become smaller). Limbs begin to look "thinner" as muscle tissue atrophies."