Humans and the occasional antelope aren't the only beings training their eyes on South Africa for that World Cup thing. Indeed, there are a few artificial spectators as well, hovering above, hundreds of miles in orbit. These are their stories. More »
South Africa - World Cup - sport - Soccer - Competitions
Assistant to the President for Energy and Climate Change Policy Carol Browner takes your questions about the Deepwater BP Oil Spill and the Federal response to the disaster.
Carol Browner looks like she’s barely holding it together for this little “take your questions” session that they held online on Friday.
Her answer to the question on why they are still allowing the use of the dispersant is classic: It’s still being used because it’s on the list of EPA approved dispersants. Even though it’s banned in England. So it’s being used because it’s approved. BP thinks its perfectly OK to use it here, even if it does rot your flesh, and give you cancer and make appendages turn black and fall off; or whatever else Corexit does. It’s not healthy stuff.
Until recently the EPA was not releasing Corexit’s ingredients to the public, but last Friday they made public a list of, supposedly, all of the ingredients on their website. Until Friday, some of the chemicals in Corexit were still a protected trade secret. That means that BP was granted the right to experiment with its chemicals on people and wildlife, while keeping those ingredients secret. If one of the clean-up workers had to be treated by an emergency doctor, the doctor did not even know what chemicals caused the damage to the patient. How can doctors treat people when they don’t even know what possible toxins they are trying to counteract? From Greenwire:
Three ingredients of the two Corexit formulas were already available on material safety data sheets that outline the human health risks of using the dispersants in the workplace. Corexit 9527, used in lesser quantities during the earlier days of the spill response, is designated a chronic and acute health hazard by EPA. The 9527 formula contains 2-butoxyethanol, pinpointed as the cause of lingering health problems experienced by cleanup workers after the 1989 Exxon Valdez oil spill, and propylene glycol, a commonly used solvent.
Corexit 9500, described by Pajor as the “sole product” Nalco has manufactured for the Gulf since late April, contains propylene glycol and light petroleum distillates, a type of chemical refined from crude oil. Nalco had previously declined to identify the third hazardous substance in the 9500 formula, but EPA’s website reveals it to be dioctyl sodium sulfosuccinate, a detergent and common ingredient in laxatives.
We’re supposed to believe that only the “safer” Corexit has been used since April? Neither BP nor the EPA has been even remotely honest with the public, as we are just now finding out. Apparently, the EPA had the list of ingredients of Corexit from the beginning and withheld it from the beginning.
If they didn’t, that means they approved of the use of a dispersant without even knowing all the ingredients in it. How could they do that?
Obama’s new “science-driven” EPA thinks this poison is perfectly fine to dump in the ocean, [...]
In case you had not heard yet, various news agencies reported this week that Indonesia officials "accidentally" found a 157 year old woman in their country while taking a country wide census.
From an ABC news article:
"Census officials have said they believe the woman's [157 year old] claims to have been born in 1853, when Giuseppe Verdi's La Traviata debuted in Venice, the Crimean War erupted and San Francisco got its first street signs at intersections."
"There's no authentic data to prove her age but judging from her statements and the age of her adopted daughter, who's now 108 years old, it's difficult to doubt it," statistics bureau official Jhonny Sardjono said Monday.
...
"Despite her age she still has an incredible memory, clear sight and has no hearing problems. She speaks Dutch quite fluently," he said.
...
"He said Ms Turinah burnt all her identification documents to avoid being linked to an alleged communist coup in 1965."
Here is another case of a centenarian who has successfully avoided the media, the public, scientists, and the Guinness World Book of Records; yet she lives among us today.
John R. Mabry on the importance of telling stories.
by Clifford Thies
The blagosphere, both right and left, is abuzz with titulation concerning Sarah's girls, following her appearance at Belmont race track, to root for a horse named "First Dude".
Sarah, ever the fashionista, was dressed in a tee, sunglasses and a sporty cap. Accompanied by her amazingly handsome husband (the real First Dude), limo driver and entourage, she made quite a splash. Beauty, charm and power, all "in the moment," what a package!
The left-blagosphere was aghast. Especially by one photo that showed Sarah's vuluptuous figure in a very flattering way. Comparing her curves in that photo to her curves in others, they asked, Is Sarah enhanced?
Not that cosmetic surgery would be a bad thing for, say, Speaker of the House Nancy "Michael Jackson" Pelosi.
But, no, my dear left-socialist friends, Sarah's not enhanced. It's called a bra. Remember those things you burned during the 1960s? Bras are used by women with curves to keep the girls in place, and fashionistas have a range of bras appropriate to the occassion. Sports bras that flatten and bras that you wear to better fill out a tee, and there are others. Hence, the different profiles.
As for us Libertarian Republicans, we see in Sarah Palin an affirmation of our values: a person who is happy to be who she is and who uses her mind to express herself, to be productive and to enjoy life.
(H/t Memeo)
Carly Fiorna is getting raked over the coals already by some in the liberal media, for a post-nomination mis-speak caught on an open mic.
From CNN:
Waiting to be interviewed by affiliate KXTV Wednesday morning, Fiorina is clearly heard taking a dig at her rival for the California Senate seat, Sen. Barbara Boxer, D-California.
"God, what is that hair?" a laughing Fiorina said, while quoting a friend who had recently seen Boxer on television. "So yesterday."
(H/t Memeo)
Breaking from Rasmussen this morning...
Republicans may add an unexpected pick-up in the Governors races. Rasmussen reports:
Just like in 2006, the rematch between Republican Bob Ehrlich and Maryland Democratic Governor Martin O’Malley is proving to be a close one, at least early on. The two men are now tied, according to a new Rasmussen Reports telephone survey of Likely Voters in the state.
O'Malley earns 45% of the vote, as does his GOP opponent whom he took the governorship away from in the previous contest. Five percent (5%) prefer some other candidate, and another five percent (5%) are undecided.
O'Malley had been leading Ehrlich as much as 49 to 43%.
Note - O'Malley, a fierce liberal champion and former longtime chief staffer for Barbara Mikulski, as Baltimore Mayor compared President George W. Bush to a "9/11 Terrorist," for "severe budget cuts to state and local governments." Ehrlich is best known to libertarian Republicans as a supporting legalization of medicinal use of marijuana first as a Congressman, then later as Governor.
Photo of Gov. Ehrlich and Lt. Governor Michael Steele
Former Republican Governor of New York George Pataka is traveling the country warning Americans of the socialist takeover of health care.
From NewsMax:
Pataki said:
“In just six short weeks, 125,000 Americans from every walk of life and every corner of our country have signed the Revere America petition to repeal and replace ObamaCare.
Chaired by Pataki, Revere America is dedicated to advancing common sense public policies rooted in our traditions of freedom and free markets that will once again make America secure and prosperous for generations to come.
Revere America’s national petition drive to collect one million signatures of like-minded Americans who want to repeal and replace ObamaCare was launched in Boston on April 18th – the 235th Anniversary of Paul Revere’s Ride and has since traveled coast to coast with more stops planned in the weeks and months ahead.
Pataki is already a hero of sorts to libertarian-leaning Republicans for having suggested as Governor in the late 1990s, that the drug war was a failures, and alternative means of sentencing needed to be utilized for small-time drug offenders.
From the Editor:
We are grateful to Dave Weigel, conservative movement columnist for the Washington Post for linking LibertarianRepublican.net in an article on New Hampshire's hot congressional contest.
How the Family Research Council convinced a GOP candidate in N.H. to 'evolve'
Manchester, N.H. mayor Frank Guinta is one of the GOP candidates most likely to flip a House seat -- I'm unaware of a poll that shows Rep. Carol Shea-Porter (D-N.H.) leading him. But I've heard some critics of Guinta wonder how, exactly, he won the endorsement of the Family Research Council, even if he does hold a clear advantage among GOP primary voters. In the early part of his career, Guinta was more libertarian, voting against parental consent for abortion and endorsing Rudy Giuliani for president.
"Guinta came into the race with a libertarian streak," acknowleged Connie Mackey, president of FRC Action PAC.
Weigel linked to our article from February, on Guinta at "voting against parental consent." The article was titled "Libertarian-leaning GOPer has comfortable lead over incumbent Dem for Congress." Weigel actually quoted a commenter in our comments section on Guinta's voting record.
Read the full column at WaPo. And you can enjoy Dave's weekly column at the same link. We urge our readers to add it to your Favorite's bar.
For many it’s either tin foil conspiracy theory or an action packed Hollywood Armageddon flick. For the National Aeronautics and Space Administration it’s a serious threat, with the potential to wipe out the technologically driven lives we’ve become so used to.
Our sun is approaching a period of high turbulence, referred to as the solar maximum, with many scientists suggesting a peak in activity around 2013. The cycle occurs every 11 years, and the next time around it is predicted to be one of the weakest in decades. However, some contrary opinions hold that the next solar maximum may be stronger than we expect, citing a 26,000 year galactic alignment cycle, scheduled to occur on or around 2012, eerily coinciding with the end of the Mayan calendar.
One organization that isn’t taking any chances is NASA. As the sun begins to awaken, scientists are keeping a close eye on space weather:
“The sun is waking up from a deep slumber, and in the next few years we expect to see much higher levels of solar activity. At the same time, our technological society has developed an unprecedented sensitivity to solar storms. The intersection of these two issues is what we’re getting together to discuss.”
The National Academy of Sciences framed the problem two years ago in a landmark report entitled “Severe Space Weather Events—Societal and Economic Impacts.” It noted how people of the 21st-century rely on high-tech systems for the basics of daily life. Smart power grids, GPS navigation, air travel, financial services and emergency radio communications can all be knocked out by intense solar activity. A century-class solar storm, the Academy warned, could cause twenty times more economic damage than Hurricane Katrina.
A 132-page NASA funded report titled Severe Space Weather Events—Understanding Societal and Economic Impacts, suggests that the right magnitude storm could be devastating:
The problem begins with the electric power grid. “Electric power is modern society’s cornerstone technology on which virtually all other infrastructures and services depend,” the report notes. Yet it is particularly vulnerable to bad space weather. Ground currents induced during geomagnetic storms can actually melt the copper windings of transformers at the heart of many power distribution systems. Sprawling power lines act like antennas, picking up the currents and spreading the problem over a wide area. The most famous geomagnetic power outage happened during a space storm in March 1989 when six million people in Quebec lost power for 9 hours.
According to the report, power grids may be more vulnerable than ever. The problem is interconnectedness. In recent years, utilities have joined grids together to allow long-distance transmission of low-cost power to areas of sudden demand. On a hot summer day in California, for instance, people in Los Angeles might be running their air conditioners on power routed from Oregon. It makes economic sense—but not necessarily geomagnetic sense. Interconnectedness makes the system susceptible to wide-ranging “cascade failures.”
To estimate the scale of such a failure, report co-author John Kappenmann of the Metatech Corporation looked at the great geomagnetic storm of May 1921, which produced ground currents as much as ten times stronger than the 1989 Quebec storm, and modeled its effect on the modern power grid. He found more than 350 transformers at risk of permanent damage and 130 million people without power. The loss of electricity would ripple across the social infrastructure with “water distribution affected within several hours; perishable foods and medications lost in 12-24 hours; loss of heating/air conditioning, sewage disposal, phone service, fuel re-supply and so on.”
“The concept of interdependency,” the report notes, “is evident in the unavailability of water due to long-term outage of electric power–and the inability to restart an electric generator without water on site.”
What if the May 1921 superstorm occurred today? A US map of vulnerable transformers with areas of probable system collapse encircled. A state-by-state map of transformer vulnerability is also available: click here.
The potential for major disruptions to our lives and our modern day just-in-time delivery systems could lead to total chaos in affected areas:
“A contemporary repetition of the Carrington Event would cause … extensive social and economic disruptions,” the report warns. Power outages would be accompanied by radio blackouts and satellite malfunctions; telecommunications, GPS navigation, banking and finance, and transportation would all be affected. Some problems would correct themselves with the fading of the storm: radio and GPS transmissions could come back online fairly quickly. Other problems would be lasting: a burnt-out multi-ton transformer, for instance, can take weeks or months to repair. The total economic impact in the first year alone could reach $2 trillion, some 20 times greater than the costs of a Hurricane Katrina or, to use a timelier example, a few TARPs.
Had the report(s) come from a random SHTF Planning and Preparedness site, we could understand skepticism from the general public. But, since the warnings are coming from NASA, we suggest that citizens interested in preserving their well being, safety and security take note.
While the Quebec incident was a short-term, nine hour down-grid scenario, the US power grid is very much susceptible to a cascading, domino effect across our electrical infrastructures. As suggested by NASA, this would not be limited to your inability to watch television or turn on the lights, but could be much more widespread, affecting critical utility and transportation systems that deliver our food and fuel.
It is quite reasonable to suggest that any significant adverse solar weather event could lead to mass chaos across the entire country as people scramble to acquire necessities like food, water, medicine and secure shelter.
And if the response from our federal, state and local government officials is anything like Hurricane Katrina or the BP oil spill, an event of such magnitude may take weeks, perhaps months to mitigate.
Author: Mac Slavo
Date: June 7th, 2010
Visit the Author's Website: http://www.SHTFplan.com/
Written by Cassandra Anderson
Rockefeller Family
ludlow_massacre_of_april_20_1914_postcard-p239994290141481210qibm_400
The purpose of this article is to give a brief outline of how the elites, and the Rockefellers in particular, are using food as a weapon. Since the Rockefeller family came to power (especially after gaining a monopoly in 1914 with Standard Oil) they have manipulated our government into ruining our financial system by way of the Federal Reserve, energy through oil dependency and food with GMOs (Genetically Engineered Organisms). The intention is to rob us blind and kill us. It's time to wake up.
The official name of this program is Agenda 21 Sustainable Development. It the overarching blueprint for depopulation and total control over America and the rest of the world. There is no question that Americans are targeted for depopulation: GMO (Genetically Modified Organism) food has saturated American farmlands. GMOs are dangerous and the proliferation of corn crops (used as sweetener, animal feed, processed food, etc) in America is shortening our life spans.(1) Our water is polluted, containing over 60,000 chemicals, most of which have never been tested for safety.(2) Our air is toxic, and the US is one of the most targeted areas for chemtrails.(3) This is just the tip of the iceberg, the things we know about.
While Agenda 21 was introduced in 1992, the elite collectivists, lead by the Rockefellers, have been pushing population control on America and the world for generations. In 1992, this depopulation and control policy was modernized and given a name: Agenda 21, or the Agenda for the 21st century. The premise for depopulation and control is to preserve the environment. One would have to be an idiot to disregard environmental concerns, however, the solutions that Agenda 21 offers fail to address the real issues. The primary tools that Agenda 21 Sustainable Development uses are global warming lies, water shortages (like the man made drought in California, which also causes food shortages) and the Endangered Species Act (designed to take away private property, which is the base of wealth creation and freedom).(4) The focus of this article is revealing the link between the Rockefellers and their intended use of food as a weapon, which is more powerful than military domination and energy control.
Food control goes hand in hand with population control. The eugenics (improvement of humans through selective breeding, often using brutal methods like genocide and forced sterilization) program of the Third Reich in Nazi Germany was revealed after WWII. Obviously, people did not have a high opinion of eugenics, so, according to William Engdahl (author of "Seeds of Destruction", the Rockefeller strategists shifted their profile to champion the causes of the environment, resource scarcity and overpopulation.(5) The policy of population control remained, despite the illusion of caring concern- which is simply marketing; the word eugenics has been renamed as "human genetics". This scheme for improving their image worked for them before with their "philanthropy" and tax-free foundations, after the Rockefellers became very unpopular following the Ludlow Massacre.
The Ludlow Massacre took place at a Rockefeller owned coal mine in Colorado. The mines were notoriously unsafe, which caused many deaths and the workers were paid in scrip (currency substitute that is often credit), to be spent at the Rockefeller company stores. When the workers went on strike, they were evicted from their homes and lived with their families in tent cities. Then they were provoked through murder, machine gun spray, harassment, etc, in order to goad the workers into violence.(6) This was used as a pretext to get the National Guard involved; the state militia opened fire on the tent cities, resulting in up to 53 deaths, 13 of whom were women and children. So, the Rockefellers created a propaganda campaign to polish their tarnished image through tax exempt foundations. These foundations are hardly philanthropic; they are used to fund the destruction of America (please read this excellent transcript by G. Edward Griffin to discover the true nature of tax exempt foundations).(7)
Why do you think Senator Jay Rockefeller(8) is pushing so hard to censor the Internet?
Today, the Rockefellers use coercive population control tactics and food as a weapon through a front organization, CGIAR (Consultative Group on Agricultural Resources) as the Rockefellers are trying to distance themselves from public- just like the Rothschild clan has done. Engdahl reports that CGIAR operates under the umbrella of the UN World Bank, and its primary focus is the spread of GMO crops. CGIAR was created by the Rockefellers and the Ford Foundation, along with the UN World Bank in 1971 with $350 million dollars a year in funding.
The Rockefeller's "Green Revolution", which was the implementation of new farming methods in developing countries, like Mexico, India and Asia, increased crop yields, but ended in disaster; the program lasted from the 1940's- 1970's.(9) The "Green Revolution", funded by the Rockefeller and Ford Foundations and the US government, was a farming experiment with these results:
* Hybrid rice was planted that is often sterile in subsequent generations
* Intensive water usage, which depleted water sources
* Use of pesticides and herbicides, which causes cancer but made the manufacturers wealthy
* Use of synthetic (petroleum based) fertilizers that damaged the environment, but created untold wealth for the Rockefeller owned Standard Oil
* Created a monoculture (only a single crop is grown), which means that the food supply can be destroyed in one season
Bill Gates wants to have a new "Gene Revolution" in Africa. Bill Gates has teamed with the Rockefellers, Monsanto and the government of Norway in the Doomsday Seed Vault, in which organic seed is stored for some anticipated world catastrophe.(10)
The Rockefeller Brothers Fund created the ISAAA (International Service for the Acquisition of Agri-biotech Applications) and the Rockefeller Foundation is a major donor. The ISAAA is involved in promoting proprietary GMO seeds to developing countries. Its sponsors include Monsanto (USA), Dow AgroSciences (USA), Cargill (USA), Bayer CropScience (Germany), and a mysterious "Anonymous Donor "(USA), and US-AID of the State Department, per William Engdahl.
It is worth mentioning that Robert Deitch's book, "Hemp: American History Revisited" explains that the Great Depression was not caused by the Wall Street stock market crash of '29, but by Prohibition (the 18th Amendment that prohibited alcohol from 1920 until it was repealed in 1933). Other businesses, besides the production of alcoholic beverages, that also used alcohol were ruined. Deitch claims that the big oil interests, like Rockefeller (Standard Oil) and Mellon (Gulf Oil) demonized alcohol, not on propagandized moral grounds, but to eliminate competition. The automobile industry was in its infancy and they wanted to corner the market on energy, so they devised a plan to knock out the competition of alcohol powered vehicles.
Later, in 1937, after relentless lobbying, they did the same thing with hemp, and through deception and demonization of marijuana, hemp was outlawed. Hemp contains only miniscule trace amounts of THC (the active agent in marijuana), yet it is considered a 'controlled substance'. Hemp is a low maintenance plant that needs no pesticides or herbicides, and can produce oil, paper products, biodegradable plastics, medicine and textiles (it is also a super nutritious food). Because the Robber Barons (Rockefeller and Mellon- oil, DuPont- chemicals and Hearst- paper) were threatened, they joined together to outlaw hemp.
Hemp was later needed during WWII, so its cultivation was allowed. Hemp was a threat to the Rockefellers not only because it produces oil, but also because Cannibis has uses as a medicine, thereby threatening their pharmaceutical drug monopoly. Nelson Rockefeller, as governor of New York, in 1973, established marijuana as a Schedule I narcotic drug, through the "Rockefeller Drug Laws" which had harsh penalties for the possession and sale of drugs (including marijuana) that could result in a sentence of 15 years to life. As other States followed suit, this was the genesis of America's abysmal 'War on Drugs'.(11)
California was the first State to defy the federal government in de-criminalizing marijuana for medical use, through the 10th Amendment (States' rights). Fourteen other States have followed suit. California will be vote on marijuana legalization in November; this may pass because the government wants to tax it. Ironically, in 2006, a bill to allow hemp farming passed both houses of the California legislature, but collectivist Arnold Schwarzenegger vetoed the bill because he said that marijuana and hemp are indistinguishable under federal law. Hemp could go a long way toward saving California's bankrupt economy.
Fifteen other States have introduced or enacted legislation to grow hemp, but they fear the federal Drug Enforcement Agency.(12)
Interestingly, California will have an initiative on the ballot in November to legalize marijuana. This means that if it passes, anyone can smoke marijuana for any reason, as opposed to limiting it to medical marijuana use. This is important for 2 reasons; first, it would open the door for hemp cultivation for food, oil, natural plastics, paper, etc. The second reason this is important is because it would nullify the federal drug law, thus enforcing the Tenth Amendment for state sovereignty.
Thanks to F. William Engdahl, author of "Seeds of Destruction"
1. http://www.theholisticoption.com/Pages/Video_King_Corn_Documentary_219.aspx
2. http://www.naturalnews.com/028638_EPA_water_supply.html
3. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nD9ezi55mO4&feature=related
4. www. MorphCity.com
5. http://www.mindfully.org/GE/2005/Geopolitics-GM-Food6mar05.htm
6. http://www.newdemocracyworld.org/Bill-Gates-3.pdf
7. http://www.realityzone.com/hiddenagenda2.html
8. http://www.infowars.com/murder-of-the-internet-and-the-free-market/
9. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Green_Revolution
10. http://www.globalresearch.ca/index.php?context=va&aid=7529
11. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rockefeller_drug_laws
12. http://www.naturalnews.com/020625_hemp_farming_politics.html
So, you’re pretty good at math, are you? I was playing with math problems online, and ran across a NASA post called “Space Math”. This is designed for students. I thought it was fun, so I’m putting a few up here. Let’s see who can solve them. I’ll post the answers in the comments before I post the riddle tomorrow.
Problem 1: Capella is three times larger than Regulus, and Regulus is twice as large as Sirius. How much larger is Capella than Sirius?
Problem 2: Vega is 3/2 the size of Sirius, and Sirius is 1/12 the size of Polaris. How much larger is Polaris than Vega?
Problem 3: Deneb is 1/8 the size of VY Canis Majoris, and VY Canis Majoris is 504 times the size of Regulus. How large is Deneb compared to Regulus?
Problem 4: Aldebaran is 3 times the size of Capella, and Capella is twice the size of Polaris. How large is Aldebaran compared to Polaris?
Problem 5: Antares is half the size of Mu Cephi. If Mu Cephi is 28 times the size of Rigel, and Rigel is 50 times as large as Alpha Centauri, how large is Antares compared to Alpha Centauri?
One More: The sun’s diameter is 10 times the diameter of Jupiter. If Jupiter is 11 times larger than Earth, how much larger than the Earth is the sun?
Okay, get those brains in gear and have fun. You shouldn’t need your calculator, but we won’t laugh at you if you do. We’ll just work on those self esteem issues ’cause you’re smarter than what you’re giving yourself credit for. I got a kick out of these, they remind me of the “what color is the bear” problem. And everybody thank NASA for always coming up with fun ways for our kids to learn about math and the universe.
Effects of exposure to a mobile phone on sexual behavior in adult male rabbit: an observational study.
“The accumulating effects of exposure to electromagnetic radiation emitted by a conventional mobile phone (MP) on male sexual behaviour have not yet been analyzed. Therefore, we studied these effects in 18 male rabbits that were randomly divided into phone and control groups. Six female teasers were taken successively to the male’s cage and the copulatory behavior was recorded. Serum total testosterone, dopamine and cortisol were evaluated. The animals of the phone group were exposed to MPs (800 MHz) in a standby position for 8 h daily for 12 weeks. At the end of the study, the copulatory behavior and hormonal assays were re-evaluated. Mounts without ejaculation were the main mounts in the phone group and its duration and frequency increased significantly compared with the controls, whereas the reverse was observed in its mounts with ejaculation. Ejaculation frequency dropped significantly, biting/grasping against teasers increased notably and mounting latency in accumulated means from the first to the fourth teasers were noted in the phone group. The hormonal assays did not show any significant differences between the study groups. Therefore, the pulsed radiofrequency emitted by a conventional MP, which was kept on a standby position, could affect the sexual behavior in the rabbit.”
Photo: flickr/Climbing Rocks
Related content:
Discoblog: NCBI ROFL: OMG uv got chlamydia, srsly.
Discoblog: NCBI ROFL: Why you should always put bull semen in your carry-on (but don’t worry about the embryos).
Discoblog: NCBI ROFL: Want your rat to get it on while high on ecstasy? Play loud music.
WTF is NCBI ROFL? Read our FAQ!
80beats aims to bring you all the science news that’s fit to turn into bytes of digital information, but sometimes DISCOVER’s other bloggers get to the juicy news stories first. To make sure you don’t miss anything, here are a couple of links:
Dr. Isis and I recently had similar reactions to John Tierney's NYTime's piece Daring to Discuss Women's Potential in Science. What's so "daring" John? It's been discussed. Over and over and over and back again. I was as bored as Isis, until I reached his uh, "daring" question:
I'm all in favor of women fulfilling their potential in science, but I feel compelled, at the risk of being shipped off to one of these workshops, to ask a couple of questions: 1) Would it be safe during the "interactive discussions" for someone to mention the new evidence supporting Dr. Summers's controversial hypothesis about differences in the sexes' aptitude for math and science? And then I was just frustrated. I mean really, do we have to continue to "debate" this? Sure it sparks a lively comment thread, but I'm tired of it. Furthermore there are so many aspects of gender disparity Tierney fails to mention that have a role in academic performance. So I wasn't impressed and decided not to re-write the same post I've composed countless times in the past. Fortunately, the domestic and laboratory goddess did have the stomach to respond, so go take a look...
| NEXT> |
Who doesn’t miss the excitement, the curiosity, the baking soda volcanoes of the typical grade-school science fair? Even the cutting-edge artists behind NYC’s Flux Factory got a little nostalgic recently, and decided to host a science fair of their own–but the displays are decidedly atypical, and there’s nary a volcano in sight. Try quantum physics and robots instead.
The science fair art exhibit was inspired by “the similarity between the creative and scientific process,” according to the organizers. And did we mention the trophies? Shiny awards were handed out to artists at an award ceremony last night for the best projects in such categories as “Big Violence,” “Most Empirically Rebellious,” and “Most Metaphysically Pursued.”
Science Fair runs through this weekend, so head over to Queens to check it out. Or you can click through this gallery for a selection of our favorite projects.
| NEXT> |
Molecular biologist Mark Roth has found a way to bring frozen worm embryos and yeast cells back from the dead: he makes them hold their breath. In a paper to appear in the July 1 issue of Molecular Biology of the Cell, Roth questions the relationship between low oxygen, low temperatures, and life after death.
Freezing almost any living thing means certain doom, but, on occasion, organisms inexplicably make it through the cold. Even some humans have come back from what seemed an icy demise, for example the Canadian toddler Erica Nordby. In 2001, Nordby’s heart stopped beating for two hours and her body temperature dropped to 61 degrees Fahrenheit before rescuers found her and brought her back to life. Apparent miracles like these inspired Roth to hunt for the biological mechanisms at work.
This study did not freeze humans. Instead, Roth looked for a common life-preserving link in two frozen organisms very different from each other. He chose the nematode embryo and the yeast cell, and found that successful resuscitation in both organisms required extreme oxygen deprivation before freezing.
Roth and colleagues found that under normal conditions, yeast and nematode embryos cannot survive extreme cold. After 24 hours of exposure to temperatures just above freezing, 99 percent of the creatures expire. In contrast, if the organisms are first deprived of oxygen and thus enter a state of anoxia-induced suspended animation, 66 percent of the yeast and 97 percent of the nematode embryos will survive the cold. Once normal growth conditions are resumed–upon rewarming and reintroduction of oxygen–the organisms will reanimate and go on to live a normal lifespan.[Science Daily]
A developing nematode embryo rapidly divides its cells. When frozen, the embryo cannot divide these cells properly–and errors mean death. Roth believes that first reducing the organism’s oxygen, pauses it (as seen in the video, below) and keeps it from carrying out its job incorrectly.
The mechanism … has to do with preventing the cascade of events that lead to biological instability and, ultimately, death…. “When an organism is suspended, its biological processes cannot do anything wrong,” Roth said. “Under conditions of extreme cold, sometimes that is the correct thing to be doing; when you can’t do it right, don’t do it at all.” [Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center Release]
Though this research does not explain the medical mysteries of frozen children coming back to life, Roth believes that this line of research into slowing organisms’ natural functions might eventually help preserve human organs for transplant or help in surgery.
Roth’s laboratory studies the potential clinical benefits of metabolic flexibility–from anoxia-induced reversible suspended animation to metabolic hibernation brought on by exposure to agents such as hydrogen sulfide. The ultimate goal of this work is to find ways to temporarily lower metabolism–like dialing down a dimmer switch on a lamp–as a means to “buy time” for patients in trauma situations, such as victims of heart attack or blood-loss injury, by reducing their need for oxygen until definitive medical care can be given. [Science Daily]
Related content:
DISCOVER: Suspended Animation
80beats: Scientists Clone a Mouse From the Deep Freeze; Woolly Mammoths Could Be Next
Science Not Fiction: Eleventh Hour: Hydrogen Sulfide, A Stinky Way To Hibernate
Science Not Fiction: The Middleman Cryonics-a-go-go
Image: flickr / ianduffy
