Illawarra beaches among cleanest in state

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Oct. 6, 2014, 3:30 p.m.

Illawarra beaches have received a glowing report card from the state government.

Enjoying Wollongong City beach all to himself, William Horspool 4 of Mount Saint Thomas. Picture: ANDY ZAKELI

Illawarra beaches have received a glowing report card from the state government, with almost every beach in the region praised for its cleanliness.

The latest State of the Beaches report from Beachwatch, ranking 249 beaches around the state, rated 20 of the Illawarras 21 beaches as good or very good for cleanliness.

Only the Entrance Lagoon Beach was rated as poor'.

The Beachwatch 2013-14 report rated ocean beaches, estuarine beaches and lagoon or lake swimming spots.

Overall, 83 per cent of all swimming locations were graded very good or good compared to 81 per cent in 2012-13; 97 per cent of ocean beaches were ranked in the top two categories; and 71 per cent of estuarine beaches were ranked highlycompared to 67 per cent in the last report.

According to Beachwatch, some of the cleanest beaches in the Illawarra include Stanwell Park, Austinmer, Woonona, Warilla, Shellharbour, Seven Mile Beach and Werri Beach.

Each beach was placed in the lowest category for microbial presence, meaning swimmers have less than a one per cent chance of contracting gastrointestinal illnessand less than 0.3 per cent chance of contracting fever and rashfrom using those beaches.

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Illawarra beaches among cleanest in state

Since creation in 2010, astronomy concentration draws no students

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Since its creation in 2010, the astronomy concentration has had no concentrators, despite healthy interest in both astronomy courses and the related concentration of astrophysics.

Astronomy offers an A.B. degree and requires 11 to 12 courses, while astrophysics leads to an Sc.B. and requires 18 courses. Several physics professors and astrophysics concentrators cited this difference as the main reason for the lack of astronomy concentrators. Sc.B. programs enable students to study the subject in greater depth, and they better prepare students to pursue science in graduate school, they said.

If you have the astrophysics Sc.B., there will be a greater number of (graduate) programs that will be available to you, said James Valles, professor of physics and chair of the department.

There are few other differences between the two concentrations both are offered through the physics department, and all the courses required for astronomy concentrators are also required for astrophysics.

I knew I wanted an Sc.B. because I knew I wanted to do physics and do physics grad school, said Chris Bonnadonna 15, an astrophysics concentrator.

At first, I just thought of astronomy, because when I was reading Brown Focal Point I saw astronomy as the listed one, said Jahmour Givans 16. But after talking to the physics concentration advisor, Professor of Physics Robert Pelcovits, Givans said he decided astrophysics would give him a stronger foundation in physics. It would also be much easier to get into graduate school with an Sc.B., Givans added, though he is not sure whether he will pursue graduate studies in astrophysics.

Astronomy concentrators interested in obtaining a Ph.D. in the field would most likely have to complete additional courses after graduation in order to be eligible for a doctoral program, said Professor of Physics Ian DellAntonio, adding that there are masters degree programs intended as stepping stones for such students.

Despite being billed on Browns Focal Point website as one of the oldest continuously taught subjects in the Brown curriculum, astronomy is actually a fairly new concentration, created in 2010. Before that, students were able to take astronomy courses through the physics department, and a few pursued independent concentrations in astronomy, DellAntonio said.

We decided to make (astronomy) a formal concentration because we had a few students inquire about it, he said. But the astrophysics track was also introduced at the same time and has been more popular, he added. In the class of 2012, there was one astrophysics concentrator, and that number has increased to six in the class of 2016.

Despite its unpopularity, keeping the astronomy concentration is worthwhile, multiple physics professors said. The astronomy A.B. was introduced particularly for students who were not sure they wanted to go on to graduate study, and even more specifically for students who decided they wanted to study astronomy in their second year, DellAntonio said, adding that astrophysics is a very hard degree to complete if embarked upon after students first year at Brown.

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Since creation in 2010, astronomy concentration draws no students

Three-parent babies are ‘genetic engineering’ and be banned

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In a letter seen by the Sunday Times to the Commons science and technology committee, which is holding a one-day inquiry into three parent embryos on October 22, a group of scientists said: "The safety of mitochondrial replacement therapy is not yet established sufficiently well to proceed to clinical trials."

However, an editorial in New Scientist said mitochondria "play a key role in some of the most important features of human life. This raises the ethically troubling prospect ... that children conceived in this way will inherit vital traits from three parents."

Stuart Newman, a cell biologist and professor at New York Medical College, will submit his objections this week and said the importance of the outer part of the egg, donated by the second woman, was being played down.

"The mitochondria are ... participants in the development of the organism. This clearly makes any person [brought into being from the procedure] a product of wholesale genetic engineering," he said.

The Human Fertilisation and Embryology Authority, which backs mitochondrial replacement, said it could "see no reason for changing its in-depth and considered views on this matter".

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Three-parent babies are 'genetic engineering' and be banned

Q33. Can I get HIV from contact with my doctor, dentist, or other health care professionals? – Video

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Q33. Can I get HIV from contact with my doctor, dentist, or other health care professionals?
From the HIV Avatar Project, posted by the Department of Behavioral Science and Community Health at the University of Florida hiv-avatar-project.com http://b...

By: UF Behavioral Science and Community Health

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Q33. Can I get HIV from contact with my doctor, dentist, or other health care professionals? - Video

Science of fear: Clowns, dead things can terrorize, traumatize

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Editors note: This is the first in a four-part series about fear.

A rainbow-headed clown in floppy red shoes twisting a balloon into the shape of a dog is amusing to some people.

But others see that red nose, and their hearts pound, they feel faint or dizzy and their instinct tells them to run.

From clowns and ghosts to escalators, cockroaches and even vomit, fear can take almost any shape.

When it interferes with everyday functioning, that's when people tend to seek professional help, said Heather Chik, a clinical psychologist and director of the Anxiety & OCD Behavioral Health Center in Munster.

"Specific phobias are the most treatable anxiety problem out of all the anxiety disorders," Chik said.

An effective treatment is exposure therapy and often can be done in one full-day session. She described a "fear ladder" or hierarchy, in which the patient and psychologist establish challenges to overcome, which gradually become more intense.

If a person is afraid of dogs, the therapy might start by looking at pictures of dogs, then looking at videos of them, then going to a pet store, then touching the glass and eventually taking a dog for a walk, Chik said.

"We never go to the next level until they're comfortable with the level before that," she said.

Exposure therapy teaches patients that anxiety does not last forever.

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Science of fear: Clowns, dead things can terrorize, traumatize