Global Darkening

Sure, Canada lost its ice up North, some polar bears are starving, thousands of people are starving to death on the African continent, storms are increasingly violent... I could go on. But here is something I didn't know about "Global Warming" aka Climate Change - it's going to be really itchy. Why? Poison Ivy.

Not that kind. This kind:

Evidently, other scientists knew back in 2006 that Poison Ivy was going to be stronger, and more itchy, with increasing CO2 and increasing temperatures. (Remember, I was in grad school with my forhead in the corner, so I missed this, too.)

A woman scientist, Jacqueline E. Mohan, is studying this problem at the Marine Biological Labs:


http://www.mbl.edu/news/features/feature_ivy.html

Sure enough, this summer, in the middle of those 107F days, I got poison ivy. I did not touch it. It just hangs above my entire neighborhood, hovers where I park my car, and decorates the path to my friends' houses. It. Was. Itchy. There were creams, and pills, and steroids, and rashes, and sleeplessness from the misery. All balanced with nursing a baby. Hot. Itchy.

There are many people who deny that our planet is changing, or worse, claim that it's because of God. I thought John Stewart already proved Global Climate Change with the "Global Darkening" skit:

The Daily Show with Jon Stewart
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Sigh. Blame what you will, but if we don't change our ways, plan ahead, and come together on these issues, it will be a dark globe, and itching will seem silly when we are hungry and can no longer grow food. Just ask Africa. *scratch.

Lady Science Nails It

Sure, there are some pretty talented entertainers out there. I don't actually know who they are, since I don't watch movies, or TV, or listen to much modern music. But other people do and I heard on NPR that it's Grammy time. So, somebody must be entertaining to a lot of people. Instead of pop culture, I've spent 5 years of my life in grad school. The first year and a half I pretty much hit my head against a pink cinder block wall, wondering how I possibly got stuck with such a horrid project. I wasn't even sure how to express such a sentiment without looking like (a) a brat (b) ungrateful for my admission and TA position or (c) un-science worthy.

But, here it is. Nailed it.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Fl4L4M8m4d0

Done by the Zheng Lab at BCM. They do real work on Alzheimer's Disease.

http://www.bcm.edu/labs/zheng/

Fortunately, some people have a sense of humor about their not-entertaining work. A good-natured attitude will go far in project (stress) management. Good for them!

Plastic in the Ocean - not all BS after all

So, my skeptical mind has wondered about that "island of plastic the size of Texas" floating out in the ocean. "The extra continent"? Really?

Sure, I switched from plastic bottles to stainless steel for drinking water, and use canvas bags for my groceries - but I live in land locked Kansas. I did that to help my delicious bovine neighbors not ingest so much plastic (also actually a problem!). But, here is a video of the team that actually collected data and did some number crunching to estimate the amount of plastic in the oceans.

http://www.crypticmoth.com/2006/07/internet-debut-of-alphabet-soup.html

See for yourself.

HFCS - High Fructose Corn Syrup or Highly Flawed Corn Stuff

In the last week my colleagues (being briallinat and well informed as they are!) informed me that corn syrup manufacturers use a process that includes mercury in their production... yuck! Paper found here:

http://www.ehjournal.net/content/pdf/1476-069X-8-2.pdf

So, instead of reaching for Pepsi, I reluctantly drank water... then I was considering a Dr pepper or SOME sort of contraband liquid to a healthy diet - and in walk some other colleagues, who quickly inform me of the OTHER toxic substances in HFCS, now killing our bee populations.

http://pubs.acs.org/isubscribe/journals/cen/87/i33/html/8733scic2.html

The worst part - is the totally weak conclusion found at the end of the C&ENews article - that the information on toxic HFCS is important to bee keepers! Duh. What about the humans??