Daily Science Dose

The retired head of the University of Alberta’s physical and theoretical chemistry department, Professor Gordon Freeman thinks so. And he has been studying the site for almost thirty years. Too bad he’s not an archeologist.

Wait, Gordon Freeman…Where have I heard that name before…oh, yeah, Half-Life.

Anyhoo, Freeman has been studying a site east of Calgary, Alberta, and he believes that this 26 square kilometer (16 miles) site is a host for a very precise calendar, made of stones and dating to 5000 years ago. That’s older than both the Pyramids at Giza in Egypt or the other Stongehenge in England.

By the way, Stonehenge is only 30 acres in size. This Canadian “stonehenge” covers more than 10,000 acres. So if this Canadian upstart were a calendar, why so big? How can a calendar this big be accessible to those needing it? These are just the questions that I have, having not been on site, obviously, but still, it is odd to have a community calendar in such a remote place and on so big of a site.

You can read the whole article by clicking the link here, but it is kind of one of those “is it?” or “isn’t it?” scenarios. You see, Freeman is not a trained archeologist, but he is a highly trained scientist. Archeologists have dismissed this particular site as only glacial-strewn rocks known as erratics. The stones are “erratically” placed in the eyes of the archeologists, and not placed by early man in any kind of pattern. Well, there may be one part in the middle that may have been human-power, but that is it and even that is doubtful.

But Freeman has 28 years of careful photographic evidence that the 28 radials to a central stonework that he found and believes to not only mark out positions of the sun but also correlate by length to a lunar calendar. Equinoxes and solstices are also precisely recorded in notches in large rocks that line up to the central cairn.

Freeman’s own research is being denied for publication in scholarly journals, which he thinks is because he is not a member of the archeology gang. Or it may be because he really is just finding tremendously accurate but accidental coincidences.

Canada, stonework, calendar, early North Americans, Native Americans, archeology, chemistry, research, Calgary, Alberta, Pyramids, Stonehenge, lunar calendar, early calendar, equinox, solstice, sun

We humans are in quite a noodle. We need energy. Both in our bodies in the form of food and in our creature comforts in the form of fuel. Crops need good soil in which to grow, and there is only so much good soil in the world. Our fuel choice du seicle are fossil fuels, and though they sure do create a lot of energy, they also create a lot of carbon dioxide and other environmentally-detrimental substances. So-called biofuels are those that are not based upon deposits of petrochemicals underground, but instead rather on renewable (read re-growable) plant or other organic matter. Seems like these fuels would make a better choice for humanity’s power lust, but…

Some biofuels are better than others.

Japtropha

Jatropha curcas, also known as the Barbados Nut and the Physic Nut is a perennial shrub that produces black seeds or “nuts” that contain a large amount of oil that can be used directly in some generators and can also be processed into a higher quality bio-diesel. The seed is about one-third oil, and one hectare of jatropha bushes can produce over one metric ton of oil in even poor soils.

And that is the real bonus of jatropha. Jatropha bushes can grow just about anywhere. The bushes only need about 10 inches of rain a year, and that is only when they are young. Additionally, the Jatrophas are long-lasting producers and can live for 40 years.

Jatropha up until recently was not cultivated as a domesticated crop, but that may be changing as the potential of jatropha is being researched and developed in such developing countries as Zambia, Mali, India, China and the Phillipines. Jatropha originates in the Central America, and was exported to colonies to grow as live hedges to keep livestock and crops safe. The bushes are poisonous to most animals, so it acts as a great fence, in addition to acting as a good wind break for more delicate crops. The bushes were also inter-planted among field crops, and it was found that the bushes grew very well as companion plants.

Oh, did I mention that Japtropha has no need for pesticides and deters pests from entering the field? Yeah, jatropha is naturally disease- and pest-resistant. And the matter that is left over after the seeds have been pressed for oil is naturally high in nitrogen, phosphorus and potassium, which are the big three nutrients used to fertilize other crops.

Let’s review. Jatropha can grow in poor soils that won’t grow other crops and needs very little water. It can be interplanted among other crops as a secondary crop, and acts as a pest-deterrent. It needs no fertilizing, and it’s waste matter makes a great fertilizer rich in nutrients. Jatropha produces a biofuel that can be used to run generators in small villages as well as processed to produce biodiesel.

In addition to biofuels, the jatropha oil can also be made into soap, charcoal, and mosquito repellant.

jatropha, jatropha curcas, biofuels, biodiesel, fossil fuels, carbon dioxide, crops, agriculture, energy, fertilizer, pesticide, nutrients, soil

It seems that nothing will escape the ravages of global warming, not even weeds. Nothing else can stop them, but maybe accidentally, mankind has figured out a way to heat up our world so much that even those plants that will survive anywhere and in large maddening numbers will finally be vanquished.

Oh, I am just being glib.

But we do need some good science news from time to time, and I aim to please. Researchers from Princeton have realized that global warming may help the fight against invasive species in the Western United States. Areas that once welcomed any and all plants may not be as inviting to pests like cheatgrass, yellow

starthislte, spotted knapweed, tamarisk and leafy spurge.

But before we get too excited, remember a door doesn’t close without a window opening. And the same could be said for this seemingly good news. Hotter and drier temperatures in the American West may hinder some species from taking over, but in other parts of the world, the increasing temps will only serve to make previous unattractive areas a paradise to other invasive species.

The researchers assessed the relationship between climate change and the distribution of five prominent invasive plants in the western United States - known colloquially as the “kudzus of the West” - cheatgrass; spotted knapweed; yellow starthistle; tamarisk; and leafy spurge. Such plants are defined as invasive because they were brought into this country from other lands and now dominate and alter ecosystems in ways that threaten native wildlife, agriculture, and ranching. All have greatly expanded their ranges in recent decades in the western U.S., causing millions of dollars in damage to farmlands and rangelands. Invasive plants are increasingly expensive to control, and it is widely believed that global warming will make the problem worse.

But Bradley and her co-authors find that global warming may also reduce the competitiveness of some invasive plants if conditions become climatically unsuitable to the weeds, “creating opportunities for restoration in areas currently dominated by intractable invasive species,” according to the study.

The five species were selected in part because they represent the most problematic plants in the western U.S. The study authors created “bioclimatic envelope models,” wherein the authors identified where the invasive plant species occurred, and identified critical climate variables such as precipitation patterns and temperature patterns that are associated with the presence of the invasive plants under investigation. The authors then determined what combined set of climate variables best described the distribution of these weeds, and mapped all of the places in the U.S. where these climate conditions occur.

Developing such models is important because scientists can use them to assess how changing climate conditions might affect the distributions of invasive plants. Maps of how invasion risk is likely to change with global warming are also important for land managers designing long-term protocols for fighting invasive plants.–WWS at Princeton news release

And maybe it is just me, but I feel the need to point out that if areas of the American West are going to be becoming less and less hospitable to invasive species, won’t those same areas equally be as inhospitable to us?

However, the bright side of this changing climate pattern paradigm is that maybe department of natural resources people will be able to get a leg up on some really, pesky invasive species. And if the time is right, it will only be our own fault for not taking advantage of this opportunity.

global warming, climate change, invasive species

It finally happened. A reputable scientist from a top organization has put it out there, and it was a team of scientists from probably the top organization in the US for this kind of work.

The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration has a team of scientists that just published a new study basically saying that once carbon levels reach a certain peak, there will be some dire consequences. Ok, got that. But the problem is that once a peak is reached, say 450 parts per million of carbon dioxide in the atmospehere (we are currently at 385 ppm), there will be no going back. Alright, “no going back” is a bit extreme, but what I mean is that once a certain threshold is crossed, and we most likely have already passed one of those thresholds, certain permanent* changes will be inevitable whether or not we cut all carbon emissions once past certain thresholds.

*Please be aware that nothing on this planet is permanent. I use this word to explain certain long-long-term weather and climate patterns that will change and become seemingly “permanent.”

The study looks at certain thresholds for carbon dioxide concentrations in our atmosphere: 450, 600, and even up to 1000 ppm. The research finds that once a threshold is reached and certain climatic changes are taking place, it would be more than one thousand years before any drastic cuts in carbon emissions would mitigate the situation.

“Our study convinced us that current choices regarding carbon dioxide emissions will have legacies that will irreversibly change the planet,” said [Susan]Solomon [NOAA senior scientist], who is based at NOAA’s Earth System Research Laboratory in Boulder, Colo.

“It has long been known that some of the carbon dioxide emitted by human activities stays in the atmosphere for thousands of years,” Solomon said. “But the new study advances the understanding of how this affects the climate system.”

The study examines the consequences of allowing CO2 to build up to several different peak levels beyond present-day concentrations of 385 parts per million and then completely halting the emissions after the peak.

The authors found that the scientific evidence is strong enough to quantify some irreversible climate impacts, including rainfall changes in certain key regions, and global sea level rise.

If CO2 is allowed to peak at 450-600 parts per million, the results would include persistent decreases in dry-season rainfall that are comparable to the 1930s North American Dust Bowl in zones including southern Europe, northern Africa, southwestern North America, southern Africa and western Australia.

The study notes that decreases in rainfall that last not just for a few decades but over centuries are expected to have a range of impacts that differ by region. Such regional impacts include decreasing human water supplies, increased fire frequency, ecosystem change and expanded deserts. — SPX via TerraDaily

Not all the peaks showed dire climatic changes, but they all showed substantial climate changes, and the length of those changes were made longer by the heat-transfer of the ocean, which is standard physics and cannot be stopped. In fact, a big problem that this study exposes is that warmer water takes up more space, simple by the physics of the water molecules. Heat them and they expand. Water will expand.

And if water is going to expand due to higher temperatures, then water levels will rise, whether or not glaciers and ice caps melt. The NOAA team found that base water rise, from just the expansion of the ocean water itself, will account for up to 3 feet in sea level rise.

So, in closing, this new study says, we are screwed.

carbon dioxide, study, National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, NOAA, water, sea levels, climate change, global warming, melt, climate , climate patterns

In a very creepy Children of Men kind of way, this recent development in the state of our world’s water resources could be the first step to lower fecundity in humans, which yes, in an extreme case like the world of 2027 in Children of Men, could lead to diminished birth rates.

Guess I’ll stop worrying about overpopulation…

A British joint-research project finds that increasing numbers of new chemicals such as those used in pharmaceuticals and fertilizers — the very things that make life worth living, am I right? — are showing up in our water supplies. These chemicals may have a rather harmful and decidedly less fruitful side effect on a man’s reproductive system.

And on a fish’s reproductive system. Studies in the past have shown that male fish are being “feminized” due to female hormones in the water supply. Certain hormones in the water are turning the fish into girl fish, kind of in some cases and literally in others. These estrogens are making it through the water treatment process after passing through women taking birth-control pills. To be fair, chemicals that act like estrogen also have the same effect on fish, and those chemicals are coming from industrial manufacturing.

Now, researchers are finding new chemicals they are calling “anti-androgens.” These are acting much like the estrogen and faux-estrogen. Androgens are male hormones like testosterone, and serve to support sperm production.

In fact, the researchers says they really don’t know where some of these chemicals are coming from.

“We have identified a new group of chemicals in our study on fish, but do not know where they are coming from. A principal aim of our work is now to identify the source of these pollutants and work with regulators and relevant industry to test the effects of a mixture of these chemicals and the already known environmental estrogens and help protect environmental health.” [quote from Lead author on the research paper, Dr Susan Jobling at Brunel University's Institute for the Environment]

Senior author Professor Charles Tyler of the University of Exeter said: “Our research shows that a much wider range of chemicals than we previously thought is leading to hormone disruption in fish. This means that the pollutants causing these problems are likely to be coming from a wide variety of sources.

“Our findings also strengthen the argument for the cocktail of chemicals in our water leading to hormone disruption in fish, and contributing to the rise in male reproductive problems. There are likely to be many reasons behind the rise in male fertility problems in humans, but these findings could reveal one, previously unknown, factor.”–SPX via TerraDaily

These anti-androgens are known to cause a condition called testicular dysgenesis syndrome. Even the name tells us what is going on — dys means “ill” and genesis means “birth“. The anti-androgens can cause developmental damage to the reproductive system in embryos and the syndrome is becoming more and more common unfortunately.

We are what we drink. The ultimate anti-androgens, Women.

Yet more bad news for our water supply.

fertility, reproductive health, men, mens health, water, water pollution, androgens, anti-androgens, fish, feminizing, fecundity, Children of Men, overpopulation, sperm, pharmaceuticals, fertilizers, hormones, estrogen, testosterone, manufacturing, chemicals, water treatment, testicular dysgenesis syndrome, embryos, developmental damage

Just when you did not think that the healthcare crisis in the United States could get any worse, some disturbing new information has been released by the National Institutes of Health could mean just that. Increased and better testing for Diabetes is showing that more and more Americans are at risk for this disease.

For a system that is already stressed and underfunded, diabetes is already a huge burden on the nation’s health. Putting more diabetes patients into a system that can hardly handle what patients it already has may prove to be disastrous for our current system.

Type 2 Diabetes is one of those diseases that preventative care could prevent. The idea behind preventative care is simple — educate people and teach them to care for their bodies in ways that will help to prevent certain lifestyle diseases. Of course, some people will get Diabetes no matter what, but in most cases of Type 2, healthy changes in lifestyle can be a game changer.

Let’s look at some numbers. The new survey looked at two studies which tested people in two ways. The Fasting Blood Glucose (FBG) test is the standard way to test for diabetes. It’s cheap and it’s quick, but it is not the most accurate test. The Oral Glucose Tolerance Test (OGTT) is the newer diabetes test and it is more accurate and better at diagnosing diabetes in older patients as well as diagnosing a pre-diabetic condition that may or may not become diabetes (but usually does because most people don’t realize they are pre-diabetic and therefore do nothing to change their ways and prevent the onset of actual diabetes).

The survey says that 13% of adult Americans have Diabetes, but 40% of those people do not know it yet. The highest number is in the elderly and minority populations. Additionally, 30% of adults have pre-diabetes.

“We’re facing a diabetes epidemic that shows no signs of abating, judging from the number of individuals with pre-diabetes,” said lead author Catherine Cowie, Ph.D., of the National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases (NIDDK), a part of the NIH. “For years, diabetes prevalence estimates have been based mainly on data that included a fasting glucose test but not an OGTT. The 2005-2006 National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey, or NHANES, is the first national survey in 15 years to include the OGTT. The addition of the OGTT gives us greater confidence that we’re seeing the true burden of diabetes and pre-diabetes in a representative sample of the U.S. population.” — NIH News

So, if these numbers are even kind of accurate, the percentage of American adults who could have Diabetes in the next decade or two could be 43%. That is crazy epidemic numbers. There is obviously something very, very wrong with our American lifestyle (which we are more than happy to export to everywhere).

Diabetes, healthcare, United States, National Institutes of Health, testing, type 2, health, disease, epidemic, pre-diabetes, Americans, lifestyle

You may have heard something along the lines of pharmaceuticals showing up in our water supply, as so many of us are taking more than an aspirin and still calling our doctors for more. Well, the good news is that yes, pharmaceuticals are showing up in water and in great concentrations in what is removed from our water — sewage sludge. The bad news is that there is a lot more stuff in that sewage sludge than just antidepressants.

Biosolids and You

As the EPA says, “The terms sewage sludge and biosolids are used by EPA interchangeably, but others often use the term biosolids to describe sewage sludge that has had additional processing for land application.” So in this case, biosolids are solid and biological in origin, that is it comes from humans and animals. These biosolids are often converted to fertilizers as our poo and pee have lots of nitrogen and other beneficial nutrients. That’s why manure is used in organic farming, after all. Well, sometimes that manure is yours.

Or was yours, rather.

What the report says is that there is a whole lotta sh*t in our sewage sludge, and I’m not talking feces here. The EPA looked at samples from 74 water treatment plants in 35 states, and here’s what they were looking for in all that sludge.

four anions (nitrite/nitrate, fluoride, water-extractable phosphorus)

28 metals

four polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons

two semi-volatiles

11 flame retardants

72 pharmaceuticals

25 steroids and hormones

Many of the 145 chemicals tested for were present nationwide. Biosolids from all of the 74 large treatment plants surveyed contained the same 27 metals, but only zinc, molybdenum, and nickel exceeded standards for application to fields. Almost all of the 11 flame retardants on the list were present in every sample. Twelve of the 72 pharmaceuticals were similarly ubiquitous.

Two of the most common drugs were the antibiotics triclocarban and ciprofloxacin. Although the average concentrations were similar to those in previous small-scale studies, several samples harbored up to 440 parts per million of triclocarban, which is added to antimicrobial soap and other personal care products. That’s almost 10 times higher than ever reported in biosolids and “astonishingly high,” Halden says. One question is whether the antibiotics harm soil microbes, or aquatic life if enough leaches into streams, Halden says. “We really don’t have the answer.” –Science

Remember how some people warned everybody about using antibacterial soaps because they would breed super germs? Seems like that was the least of our worries. If sewage sludge continues to accumulate antibiotics, and if that sewage were processed through into fertilizer, the antibiotics could end up creating major issues in agricultural soils which depend on beneficial microbes and bacteria to break down nutrients for crops.

And that’s just the downside to antibiotics…we haven’t even gotten into the other stuff yet.

EPA, sewage sludge, sewage, fertilizer, crops, soil, water, water treatment, antibiotics, antidepressants, water supply, waste, human, agriculture, chemicals, organic farming

Setting: Kruger National Park Wildlife Reserve, South Africa along the Mozambique border

Three dead crocodiles were found within the park. The victims suffered a painful death. The fat within their bodies hardened into a rubber-like state. The victims were rendered powerless to move. The crocodiles could not move to eat or drink, and soon they died of either starvation, thirst or exposure.

That was last May. Now, over 170 crocodiles have perished in much the same way within Kruger National Park, a showcase national park that hosts a good number of top predators like lions and leopards in addition to other large mammals like elephants, hippos and rhinos.

The science has come back on what is killing these huge crocs, the Nile variety of crocodile. Pansteatitis or “Yellow Fat Disease” is not a pretty disease and it affects other animals as well as the crocodiles. Domestic cats have been found to suffer from the disease, and also birds and fresh water turtles may become afflicted with this mysterious disease.

The condition attacks fat stores, depleting anti-oxidants and inflaming the fat in a process that scientists believe is very painful.

“There was a big concern that other species could be affected,” Jan Myburgh, veterinarian specialising in toxicology, told AFP.

The chief worry was for lions — seen feeding on the dead crocodiles — and other cat species, based on the susceptibility of domestic cats, but no dead or sick felines have been found, he said.– TerraDaily

The real problem is that no one can figure out how or why this disease strikes. Most of the scientists working on the case (as well as similar cases over the years) are pointing to strained river resources in the area. The rivers within the Park include the Olifants, the Timbavati, and the Sabie.

The Kruger deaths occurred in a remote gorge which has faced increased siltation from a dam in neighbouring Mozambique, and is fed by one of South Africa’s hardest working rivers which supports various heavy industries.

Clues are now being sought by a multi-pronged programme looking at the entire river system to get a better understanding of the cause and effect links around the deaths.

So, this could be any number of reasons that these Nile crocodiles, which can grow up to 5 meters or 15 feet long and weigh up to 500 pounds, are dying off in such a disturbing way. Not enough fresh water, warmer water, polluted water, diseases spreading in from upriver, a decline in the general health of big carnivores or scavengers willing to eat their own kind.

Disturbing all the same.

crocodiles, South Africa, Kruger National Park, disease, yellow fat disease, pansteatitis, rubber, muscle, health, wildlife, predators, Africa, Mozambique, rivers, water resources

A new study lays out the idea and the evidence that wild harvested fish, animals and plants are becoming adaptive to aggressive harvesting by humans. So adaptive in fact that the species are maturing at smaller sizes and at earlier ages. These rapid mini-evolutionary changes are so alarming that the researchers behind the study warn of “imperil[ing] populations, industries, and ecosystems.”

Human consumption of food stuffs, animals included, is reaching such an imbalance that animals are growing smaller, literally. Size and weights are reduced by 20%, and females are reaching reproductive maturity at younger ages by 25%. That may not seem like such a big idea, but if you are 6 feet tall or 72 inches, if you lost 20% of your height, you’d be a tad shy of 4 feet 10 inches tall. That’s a big difference. Additionally, females having offspring at younger ages usually results in smaller broods in the younger years, leading to a net loss in offspring overall. When smaller animals breed, the resulting offspring will be smaller as well, further reducing the stock size.

The study looked at the food-gathering practices for a number of species, and found that the species that humans found the tastiest have proved the quickest adapters. Not out of anything but necessity, mind you. When a species loses more of its adult population, younger fish will naturally try to fill the procreative gap. In the case of more than 20 species, those natural (yet anthropogenic) changes are occurring at rates that are more than double the rate that other not-so-aggressively harvested species are changing.

This is disturbing news. Not only from the affected species point of view, but from a human standpoint, the food we rely on to feed the six plus billion of us is going to be getting smaller. Smaller food means less food. This burgeoning population know as the human population will be needing more food, not less. These findings are also proof that common fisheries practices that only allow the largest animals to be harvested is a faulty method that is ensuring that smaller representatives of the species will be the only adults left to create the next generations.

mammals, food, wild harvest, fish, animals, plants, adapt, evolution, population, reproduction

The nation of Liberia (on the western African coast, right above the lower left corner of the bulbous top part of Africa) has declared a state of emergency in its Bong County area, along the Guinean border. African army worms are devastating the crops in such numbers that the Liberian government is asking for international aid to combat the infestation.

The African Army Worm (AAW) is a nasty devil that is a remorseless eating machine if ever there is one. The two-inch long worms get their moniker from the worms tactics of moving en masse from field to field, consuming everything in its path. Kinda like a real army, in the Napoleonic sense.

The Liberian Minister of Agriculture told news organizations that so far 19 villages have been decimated by the marauding worms. Not only is the problem with the voracious appetites of the AAW’s, but also the, um, aftermath of the feasting.

This is not the first time that the African Worm Army has terrorized an African country. Three years ago, Zimbabwe faced starvation situations when army worms showed up. Kenya and Tanzania had their outbreaks in the late 90’s.

So, here’s the thing, army worms are generally controlled by pesticides here in the US and in other nations where even the small farmer can afford chemicals to grow stuff. The good majority of African farmers are organic farmers, not because it is the cool thing to do, but rather because that is all they know and can afford. Why would these farmers start using chemicals just when the world is hopefully moving away from chemical-based agriculture?

Unfortunately, this is a sticky subject. You don’t want the sustenance farmer to die due to a pest infestation that could have been prevented by a safe-enough pesticide, but then again, we really don’t know the long-term effects of said pesticide…what do you do?

African army worms are naturally contained by something that eats them, so how can poor African farmers foster an environment in which the natural enemy of the AAW is welcome to cull the AAW population and attempt to keep the numbers in check. That takes trees.

Birds eat the worms, right? And birds live in trees and bushes, in other words, birds need strong natural habitats full of trees and bushes. Unfortunately, Liberia and most of Africa is experiencing problems with deforestation. A growing human population needs room, and trees are the first to go.

Also, there are better ways to farm organically, and education is needed to attempt to grow adequate amounts of crops for not only the farmer and his or her family, but also the village and the nation.

Liberia, african army worms, Africa, crops, damage, agriculture, state of emergency, Bong County, Guinea, Tanzania, Zimbabwe, Kenya, deforestation

Methane was in the news this week, after it was finally confirmed that methane plumes are present on Mars and in another study, decaying plants were found not to contribute methane to the air, but instead transpire methane from other sources, such as microbes in the soil.

Mars’ Methane Madness

NASA announced this past week that scientists have confirmed the presence of infamous greenhouse gas methane on the lonely redrock planetary neighbor. Plumes of methane have been detected at three different locations on Mars, and the plumes only occur during the summer. My question now is what exactly is a Martian summer? Does Mars enjoy a tilt like Earth, or is it when the planet is closest the sun in its elliptical orbit?

The answer is that Mars has an axial tilt of about 25 degrees, similar to Earth’s 23ish degrees.

So methane is there, but what is it that produces this gas? On Earth, methane is produced by certain microbes that live, well, everywhere…even in your stomach. Methane is the major component of our own natural gas.

So does this mean that there is life on Mars? Maybe. Maybe not. Methane is also a product of volcanic activity. Volcanoes release the gas into the atmosphere, and that gas may have been trapped underground for quite some time. On Earth, methane is trapped under heavier ocean water as well as the permafrost in the arctic and antarctic regions of the Earth. So it may mean that there could have been microbial life on Mars some time ago, or it could mean that Mars also has a goodly amount of methane trapped under its volcanically active surface.

Methane Doesn’t Come from Decaying Plants…Kind of.

Ok, methane may come from plant matter, but it’s not the plant’s fault. A few years ago, Frank Keppler ran a test to see if plant matter produces methane. His experiment concluded yes, but it made other scientists question the experiment. So some other scientists ran another experiment.

“This finding was shocking,” recalls Euan Nisbet of Royal Holloway, University of London, in Egham, U.K. If true, both plant biochemistry and global methane budget would need a major reexamination. It could also mean that the human contribution to global warming is less than previously thought.

Nisbet’s team set about to investigate Keppler’s findings by growing the same plants, including celery (Apium graveolens) and a type of rice (Oryza sativa), in the absence of external sources of the greenhouse gas. The group found no trace of methane, suggesting that the plants alone cannot make the gas. In a separate experiment, the team placed the plants in water containing dissolved methane. Sure enough, the roots drew up the methane-soaked water and the leaves then pushed out the gas and water vapor–a process known as transpiration. –Science

The same group of scientists also tested some chemical paths that could allow the plant to create methane, but nada, the plant’s did not have the same pathways that methane-producing microbes have. Keppler gives the new science a nod to the transpiration of methane finding, but still holds on to the idea that an unidentified pathway exists.

methane, Mars, plants, NASA, science, greenhouse gas, atmosphere, emissions, decomposition, microbes, chemical, transpiration,

File this one under archeology…

An Oregon widow was discovered to have in her possession something illegally taken from Panama. This little old lady was the head of an international theft ring that specialized in tomb raiding for gold pieces…and she would have gotten away with it, too, if it weren’t for those meddling kids at the FBI.

Ok, so that is not entirely true. True, a widow was in possession of several pre-Columbian artifacts and true, the FBI investigated the matter and returned those artifacts to the nation of Panama. No international tomb raiders, though.

According to the FBI, the woman’s husband, who passed away in 2004, was a teacher on a United States military base and during his time in the country, he began acquiring the clay pots and gold jewelry during the 1980’s. The man married a Panamanian woman (aforementioned widow) and when he returned to the US, he brought more than his new bride. The couple brought several artifacts into the US, and that, my friends, is illegal.

The couple did sell some of the artifacts at antiquities markets and online. I’m sure the FBI is following up on those pieces as well. It doesn’t matter if you purchase the pre-Columbian pieces or not, Panama passed a law (and it’s in the country’s constitution as well) making it illegal for anyone to even own antiquities from that small Central American nation. The Panamanian Government are the rightful and lawful owners, and only it may give permission to anyone or anything institution to possess such items.

However, the FBI will not be pressing charges against the widow.

Panama, pre-Columbian, artifacts, antiquities, Oregon, archeology

I may have given up my subscription to TIME magazine last year, but I still read it online. I ran across this little article by Dr. Sanjay Gupta — who seems to be everywhere lately, media-wise. Gupta gives us his reasons for not legalizing marijuana.

The great debate over marijuana is one that makes no sense to me. Granted, marijuana may not be the best thing for your health, but the question over the legalization of marijuana should not be based on health consequences unless those that criminalize are also willing to criminalize other more harmful substances like alcohol and tobacco.

Oh, yeah, we tried banning alcohol and that didn’t go over so well. Crime rose and people still drank. Police departments were stretched thin and people still drank. Huh, sounds like the same thing with pot. People still smoke. But unfortunately, those caught with even what is considered a “personal” amount may face time in prison for it. And our prisons are overflowing due to drug crimes.

In last week’s article, Dr. Gupta brought up the upcoming ballot initiatives in Colorado and Nevada that will legalize the possession of marijuana for adults over 21 years of age. Gupta then explains why he would vote no on that initiative. He points out the obvious, that pot may possibly lead to addiction. Furthermore…

What are other health consequences? Frequent marijuana use can seriously affect your short-term memory. It can impair your cognitive ability (why do you think people call it dope?) and lead to long-lasting depression or anxiety. While many people smoke marijuana to relax, it can have the opposite effect on frequent users. And smoking anything, whether it’s tobacco or marijuana, can seriously damage your lung tissue. — Time

Ok, seriously, this is why you would vote no, Doctor?

The criminalization of marijuana is built on faulty reasoning. Lots of things are dangerous for us, but the government doesn’t spend millions of dollars every year enforcing ridiculously punitive charges against people that are getting high “off the books.” If you could grow your own tobacco, do you think the government and their corporate benefactors would allow you to do so? This “crime” is based on politics rather than science.

Alcohol is still legal, and I am sure that Dr. Gupta would agree with me that alcohol is much more dangerous in terms of potential for addiction and deleterious health consequences. Cigarettes are legal, so smoke damage can not be the real reason for pot being an illegal narcotic.

And what doesn’t cause depression and anxiety in people? And who cares if you are depressed, your drinking water has residual anxiety and depression pharmaceuticals, so you’re covered. Alright, that was glib, but if you think about it, smoking pot can be considered a form of “self-medication.” So why are researchers and scientists and eggheads looking into why people feel the need to self-dose? Another glaring lack of science in the criminalization of pot argument.

First, I would like to see some hard science to back up the reason that marijuana is illegal and alcohol and tobacco are fine. And for a doctor to not address that the ban on pot lacks the science to effectively show that pot is more dangerous than other legal controlled substances is just silly to me. I would have been more impressed if Dr. Gupta had called for similar bans on other more harmful substances that are sold to us ad naseum during sports events.

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This is rather unsettling. I ran across this article today about brown pelicans literally falling from the sky along the Pacific Coast. And no one knows why…yet.

Some scientists are initially pointing their fingers at demoic acid. Demoic acid is produced by nasty phytoplankton and has made news lately for its effects on sea lions and other marine creatures.

Brown pelicans are being found many miles inland, along freeways, in yards, and parking lots. The birds are disoriented and feeble. Some birds are so weak that people can walk up to them and pick them up, which is not at all usual. Many of the symptoms are those of demoic acid poisoning, but other symptoms are leaving researchers and rescuers stumped.

While some of the symptoms resemble those associated with domoic-acid poisoning — an ocean toxin that sometimes affects sea birds and mammals — other symptoms do not. Domoic acid also apparently has not been found in significant amounts offshore, although more tests are needed.

Rescuers are wondering whether the illness is caused by a virus, or even by contaminants washed into the ocean after recent fires across Southern California. Many of the birds also have swollen feet. — Seattle Times

The Brown Pelican is the only pelican species that lives only along sea shores. Other species may be found inland, but not the Brown pelican, which makes these inland suicide runs all the more troubling. The Pacific population of Brown Pelicans has been on the Endangered Species list since June 1970. Recently, the species has been considered for delisting, but this troubling news may prevent that. The species was initially listed, like many large birds, due to DDT poisoning. The East Coast population has been de-listed, but the Pacific population has been growing more slowly.

Bodies of dead birds and blood samples have been sent off to the US Fish and Wildlife Service in addition to the California Department of Fish and Game for testing. Bird rescue organizations along the coast are alarmed at the numbers of dead or sick adult birds they have seen in the last week and a half.

In the last few years, numerous reports have been published about increasing numbers of Brown Pelicans starving along the Pacific Coast. So this new development may be related, or could have facilitated whatever is plaguing the brown pelicans.

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That has to be one of the more literal titles I’ve used in a while…

Back in high school, I had a friend that smoked and lived with parents that smoked. She stank — so much so that my dad would ask her to remove her ubiquitous suede jacket (can’t fault her for being stylish) before coming into our house and leave it outside in the garage. I gave my dad sh*t about it, but secretly, I thanked him.

Seems Fritz was bringing in toxic substances with that coat — and probably her hair, her shirt, her shoes. Scientists are finally giving a name to that toxic residue from cigarettes.

Third-Hand Smoke

And it is just as dangerous as first- or second-hand smoke. That smell that lingers after your morning drag is toxic, and it clings to clothes, walls, furniture, carpets. The children that parents think they are protecting by not smoking around them may still be sucking on that cigarette when they crawl around the house, gum a toy, or sit in the car.

Dr. Philip Landrigan, a pediatrician who heads the Children’s Environmental Health Center at Mount Sinai School of Medicine in New York, said the phrase third-hand smoke is a brand-new term that has implications for behavior.

“The central message here is that simply closing the kitchen door to take a smoke is not protecting the kids from the effects of that smoke,” he said. “There are carcinogens in this third-hand smoke, and they are a cancer risk for anybody of any age who comes into contact with them.” — NY Times

Researchers from Mass General’s Children’s Hospital did a phone survey to see how many people knew about the dangers of third-hand smoke and how they smoked around their kids.

“Everyone knows that second-hand smoke is bad, but they don’t know about this,” said Dr. Jonathan P. Winickoff, the lead author of the study and an assistant professor of pediatrics at Harvard Medical School.

“When their kids are out of the house, they might smoke. Or they smoke in the car. Or they strap the kid in the car seat in the back and crack the window and smoke, and they think it’s okay because the second-hand smoke isn’t getting to their kids,” Dr. Winickoff continued. “We needed a term to describe these tobacco toxins that aren’t visible.”

Third-hand smoke is what one smells when a smoker gets in an elevator after going outside for a cigarette, he said, or in a hotel room where people were smoking. “Your nose isn’t lying,” he said. “The stuff is so toxic that your brain is telling you: ’Get away.’” — NY Times (again)

The study found that 65% of non-smokers and only 43% of smokers believed that “‘breathing air in a room today where people smoked yesterday can harm the health of infants and children.’” It’s scary that more than half of all smokers questioned didn’t think that cigarette residue would pose a health danger to their children. Children take in more air than adults, percentage-wise, and therefore usually feel the effects of environmental contaminants more profoundly.

And we wonder why so many kids have asthma?

Here’s a short list of the the many, many chemicals and toxic substances that can be found in cigarette residue.

arsenic

lead

carbon monoxide

butane

hydrogen cyanide

toulene

polonium-210 (which is radioactive)

Gee, and I was worried about flame retardants…

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