Selling Science to Everyone

I have stumbled across the most hilarious podcast that I've listened to in a while called Stuff You Should Know from HowStuffWorks.com. This is from the Discovery Communications business that has its hand in pretty much everything.

The show is funny, and mostly factual (sometimes a little off topic, but those are the best bits). Actually this show is in danger of making you burst out laughing in the middle of the train/bus ride and making you look like you belong in the loony bin. And for the most part, as far as I know they get most of the science pretty much correct. *** Disclaimer: I have little to no clue about medical knowledge and their concussion podcast I was assuming that most of what they say is somewhat true... like the part where you brain hits your skull causes concussions.***

And I will admit that the Discovery Communications group doesn't get everything right and lots of the errors arise from trying to make science sound more interesting to the 'average Joe' than it really is (and surprisingly they don't succeed as most real life science things are pretty neat anyways!). Their television channel is full of these examples.

On the flip side, the argument is if these podcasts, television shows, blogs, etc. are dispersing knowledge and the ability to do science for fun, shouldn't we (science community) be a little more forgiving instead of trying to pick these apart to shreds. And I know... picking apart to shreds is what science is about (peer review anyway) and always about precision and accuracy in EVERYTHING. That is always the goal to strive for but if we have difficulty overcoming the general idea that science is hard, boring, and full of anal people with sticks up their bums, then we shouldn't act like that to people/companies/etc who try to do the science is fun/important thing.

Friday TED Talks XV

Astrolabe - a device for taking measurements of the altitude of the sun/stars for navigation.



Technology is a wonderful thing... watch Tom Wujec & his astrolabe

Friday TED Talks XIII: Nullius in verba

Friday Ted talks returns!

David Deutsch talks about explaining explanations. Highly recommended... and he gives talks just like me! Watch this (especially if you want to know what nullius in verba means).

Good News Edmonton!

Alright, great news everyone! Jay Ingram from the Discovery Channel is going to be at the University of Alberta to give a speech on November 18th. The UofA alumnus will be recieving an honorary degree in the morning and giving a talk in the afternoon at the Myer Horowitz Theatre.

His talk will be about Charles Darwin and his findings in honor of Darwin's 200th Birthday Anniversary.

Tickets are on sale at Ticketmaster for $15.00 an adult.

The only thing better would be if he gave the speech with Adam & Jamie from the Mythbusters!

Mapping Land Use

So lately all I have time for is looking through other people's blogs and reading what is goin' on outside of the campus (which is definitely more fun than reading what is goin' on at the campus), but I read Highly Allochthonous today, and found this post by Ms. Jefferson.

Land use has been mapped globally and regionally and everywhere in between looking at different use practices to use types (and yes those are different). However, what caught my attention to this was the use of the word "biome". It is a word that is usually applied to natural ecosystems that share climatic characteristics that affects the biotic systems found in those areas. Consequently, those biomes would also affect the land use. This map plots the types of usage, but more interestingly these land use types roughly approximate the biomes that are found there as well.

Picture from http://www.ecotope.org/ "A Framework for Ecology & Earth Science in the 21st Century" by Erle C. Ellis and Navin Ramankutty

Picture from Wikipedia entry "Biomes" - Vegetation - No Legend

Pretty much the general trend is that humans will use whatever land they can (or plants can) survive in. I would like to see what they mean by each of the types of land use, such as the definitions of their use of "Rice Villages" and "Irrigated Villages". However, this is a great example of GIS and land use mapping. Now, to see if I have time to explore more of the Ecotope website...

Friday TED Talks XII

Cary Fowler talks about saving genetic diversity through cold storage of seeds.

He is the Executive Director of Global Crop Diversity Trust where their mission is to store their seeds in a safe remote place.

However good the message is (and I agree with keeping a seed bank to preserve genetic diversity for other reasons), I question the seeds' value if the temperature rises as "in many countries the coldest growing seasons are going to be hotter than anything those crops have seen in the past." If these crops have not seen these temperatures in the past, what good will they do if kept for the future because of systematic crop failure? They couldn't have evolved different mechanisms to live in the hotter climate.

I Can't Get No BMI Satisfaction

from my seedling, but I try. Oh how I try...

First of all my disclaimer… I am not in the public health field, and nor will I ever be. However, I do (as most people should) have an interest in certain findings especially if they relate to me and my family. I have a “pre-teen” girl, so these findings are interesting as I am already aware that she is conscious of her body image. Sometimes she likes it and at other times she doesn’t. I just want to know if I’ll be paying for her therapy for years to come.

The study (soon to be) published regarding overweight children and their "happiness" regarding their self-image has interesting results. What was most surprising is that normal weight boys overall had a more negative image of themselves than girls did. However, girls’ satisfaction with themselves was reduced when their BMI increased.

Girls - Poor body satisfaction
Normal 5.7%
Overweight 10.4%
Obese 13.1 %

Boys - Poor body satisfaction
Normal 7.6%
Overweight 8.4%
Obese 8.1%

Now the reason why this is so interesting is that there have been previous studies that claim that poor body satisfaction can be indicative of their future health (namely eating disorders). The authors also claim that the satisfaction of body image can change over time. Are the children at risk for eating disorders always unhappy with their bodies or just sometimes? I can see that I have to read many more papers to see if someone answered that question. Also, these numbers seem relatively low. Only ~13% of obese girls feel that they have poor body satisfaction?! That is not a lot. Less than 10% of all of the boys in each of the 3 different groups felt they had poor body satisfaction. I am surprised because I expected that over 50% of the obese children would feel that they don't like their bodies from the girls and the boys. Very surprising. (And they took a relatively large sample size; over 2000 girls and boys each were analyzed).

Oh well... I will keep my little seedling active (with hockey, soccer, and dance) and save up some money for her therapy ('cause you know its gonna happen; if not this she will have to go because I kept her too active as a child and she missed lounging around and that ruined her for life). But she will keep questioning her image. I know I still do (and I’m relatively happy with my body… all the parts are in the right places, lol, oh my! how expectation lowers as you get older!)

And Open Access:

Austin, B.S., Haines, J., Veugelers, P.J. (2009). Body satisfaction and body weight: gender differences and sociodemographic determinants. BCM Public Health. (In Press) Accessed (August 28, 2009): http://www.biomedcentral.com/1471-2458/9/313/abstract

BioMed Central (2009, August 28). 10- And 11-year-olds Feel Pressure To Have A Perfect Body. ScienceDaily. Retrieved August 28, 2009, from http://www.sciencedaily.com­ /releases/2009/08/090826191843.htm

Wildlife in My Backyard

In my yard, we have a new visitor which is quite interesting to watch. The Goldenrod Crab Spider (Misumena vatia) was found preying upon innocent bumblebee's (not sure the exact sp. sorry...I try not to touch other things' lunch, lol) Try and see if you can see it in the picture on the left (click on pics for a closer view). Its in between the two petals in the front. That fuzzy black blob in the yellow centre is its lunch. A poor fuzzy little bee. (I know bee colonies are currently in trouble because of Colony Collapse Disorder, but I can't help it. Watching these spiders attack their prey is fascinating!) These spiders are found throughout Alberta, and due to its size (~7mm), I think that this was a female Goldenrod Crab Spider. (I say "was" because while researching on the type of spider, etc. I haven't seen it since taking the pictures). During my research, I found that these spiders can range in colour from yellow to white, but always has the darker red stripes down its abdomen which is visible in the fuzzy picture to the left. It is very good at blending into this Shasta Daisy (Leucanthemum x superbum var. Alaska), but can be found anywhere waiting for its next snack. After I finished taking its picture, I sat with my little seedling and watched as it dragged the bee across the flower to nestle it between two rows of petals. The next day, it was gone!

Acorn, John and Sheldon, Ian. 2000. Bugs of Alberta. Pg.150. Lone Pine Publishing. Edmonton, AB.

Scientific Poetry

I LOVE this blog...
The Digital Cuttlefish

Check it out... you'll know why a couple of the posts have been featured in OpenLab...
my absolute favorite is The Evolutionary Biology's Valentines Day Poem :)

Friday TED Talks X

Biomimicry as a blueprint for design...

Janine Benyus talks about using nature as a muse and to take advantage of millions of years of trial and error (aka evolution).

Wisdom from Unlikely Places

I just finished reading "The Wisdom Of Whores: Bureaucrats, Brothels, and the Business of AIDS" by Elizabeth Pisani. It was well written and the narrative format gave a natural progression through her experiences from a somewhat hopeful to a battle-worn epidemiologist. The collective struggle with politicians, religious leaders, and the bureaucratic nightmare that are individual countries and global programmes is nothing short of heroic.

As an inspirational epidemiologist, she does not hide behind organizational red-tape/policies, but truly tells the science and the reasoning behind each prevention method. Use condoms... have needle exchange programs... find ways to protect the people. It doesn't matter who the people are or what they do. They are still people.

If I could nominate her for a Nobel prize, I would. But I have a feeling that there are many people doing the same type of work just like her. However, I do want to hear her on TED Talks. She is truly inspirational and her book is a must-read. You may not agree with the methods or policies and you may not like who the "people most at risk" are, but it is important to know for preventative measures. This IS something that can be fought with good prevention policies, and there are some innocent victims.

'Killer Spices' Provide Eco-friendly Pesticides For Organic Fruits And Veggies

Original Article at ScienceDaily
A new study from UBC about botanical pesticides. Great idea, but I'm not sure if these will be effective (enough) pesticides. The author notes that most of the essential oils are very volatile, and some cannot last longer than a couple hours.

This can create some problems:

- If researchers modify the oil structure or add other compounds to last longer, then "organic" farmers can't use them any longer.
- As well, will they be testing for food safety both before and after the modification? (Herbal remedies are not tested or regulated, and some can be extremely dangerous to your health)

- Will the oils alter the growth of the target plants at all? Some plants create the oils to inhibit growth of neighbouring plants as well as repelling insects.

I feel that this area would need a large amount of research before using, but also look at who is funding research (a botanical pesticide company)... I would be looking for similar research as well to be sure that they are not only publishing data that they like.

I do agree, however, with the concept. This is following the trend of looking to nature for ideas and concepts before starting from scratch (This is going to be this Friday's TED Talk), and using already-tested ideas.

Remember that everything that comes from nature is not necessarily better for you.

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Friday TED Talks IX

So I apologise,
and yes, it will probably happen again (Soon, I think as my reg. classes start in 2 weeks!), but I took a little break while I was completing a summer course. Lets just say that cramming a 4 month class into 12 days is not fun.
Anyways, here is another installment of Friday Ted Talks. The video is a little old (gimme a break people!), but still and always relevant.

Micheal Pritchard invents a water filter...
(and he's got balls to drink it after too! Ewwwwww)

and a PRI podcast about science which also talks about water scarcity in parts of the world... Cambodia and the Middle East.

All Botanists.... on your mark.... get set....

Go! Find the journal article that describes the new plant ...

** Hattip to Mr. Flynn for letting me know about this. I haven't looked at my RSS feeds in 3 weeks (because of my French class... which is done tomorrow... yay!) so I have missed all the up-and-coming news to share with everyone!

This story is one of the reasons why I wanted to become a botanist. It always seems that there is nowhere left to explore, and then surprisingly, people discover new plants in remote regions. I'm hoping that there will still be some left for me to find... (I'm still looking for someone to fund my trips around the world *hint, hint*)

Another reason I'm never getting married...

Ala xkcd

Algae’s Strange Bedfellows

Currently, there is (a minor) debate as to whether algae is a plant or not. Most do not include them as plants because they lack complexity in the cell, and do not share a few (but key) characteristics with plants. (However, that does not stop my old Bot Prof from asking what the oldest plant is and the “correct” answer is a type of green algae…grrrr)
Anyways, I digress… a new exciting branch of research is experimenting with producing oils from algae to be used instead of traditional fossil fuels (which ironically enough is probably fossilized algae too!) Craig Venter (of the Human Genome Project fame) is one of the leading scientists engineering algae to create the biosynthetic oils. However, he is catching some bad PR because of his strange bedfellow, ExxonMobil. This company, alike most of the prominent gas & oil companies around, are not too concerned with their energy gathering and environmental use. So, let’s critically think about what they are trying to do and see if this is a good idea or not:

(Photo on Left is of the Kelp Forest at Monetery Bay, Calif)

Using Algae as a Biosynthetic Oil Producer

Pros
Renewable resource – Algae takes little to grow and will produce lots considering size
Use excess fertilizer – Can create a market for using excess fertilizer and maybe even creating fertilizer as a byproduct (making less ammonia using Haber-Boscht?)
Defer energy crisis – could also be considered a con because this will prevent people from reducing the amount of energy they are using with their lifestyles. Because most North Americans, Australians, and Europeans have a resource-rich lifestyle, and refuse to reduce the amount of resources they are using, this also creates a large inequality with other countries around the world. Most developing countries will expect to have the same benefits as the post-industrial countries.

Cons
Continuation of Bad Energy Sources – Using algae will make other renewable resource energy sources such as photovoltaics and wind less attractive because of fluctuation. If people are lazy and choose the easiest type of energy source, they will not change their habits and therefore, problems will still exist.
Bioengineering – Plants have a nasty history of becoming less efficient as they become more bioengineered. Also, it creates a possible bottle-neck of genetics which becomes a possible endangerment of the whole industry if a disease outbreak occurred. Remember the one great maxim that everyone learns in Intro Bio: Genetic Diversity is Important. (For numerous reasons, but that’s another post for the future)
No Net Carbon Sink – It cannot be considered a carbon sink because if creating oil & gas as an energy source, it will be released in the near future. However, if used for creating other petroleum products that will be a sink for a long time to come (plastics, etc), it may be considered a sink, but as a fuel its not. That is the problem we have now is too much carbon (and frankly a lot of other greenhouse gasses that everyone ignores like methane and NOx’s and SOx’s).

Also, another con would have to do with the prominent Oil & Gas company. Would they be willing to clean up after themselves? What happens when this bioengineered algae escapes (ooooh good plot line for a novel), and oil slicks cover the water and suffocate many organisms (less air-water interactions mean less O2 dissolved in the water), or create a huge algae bloom and creates more dead zones in the oceans. Mmmmm. I have great respect for Craig Venter, lets see what he'll do.

Borrell, Brendan. 60-Second Science Blog. “Clean dreams or pond scum? ExxonMobil and Craig Venter team up in quest for algae-based biofuels”. http://www.scientificamerican.com/blog/60-second-science/post.cfm?id=clean-dreams-or-pond-scum-exxonmobi-2009-07-14

The Wrong Garden in 2003

Oh Noes! Where was I? This garden totally passed me by the first time…
James Dyson created the “Wrong Garden” at the Chelsea 2003 Garden Show. This included the water-flowing-uphill water feature, inverted cone planters, non green plants and benches that do not look like they would hold weight. This is fantastic engineering!
http://www.chelsea.dyson.co.uk/
http://www.dyson.co.uk/insidedyson/#wronggarden

Performance Feedback Revision

There is a great podcast through the Naked Scientists with the rapper Baba Brinkman from Vancouver!

Performed for Charles Darwin's birthday celebration in February. The podcast is a little long but its well worth it, and you might learn something too!

http://www.thenakedscientists.com/HTML/podcasts/specials/darwin-festival-09/show/2009.07.16/

Canada's Ocean Observatory

Canada may now lead the world in sustained underwater ocean research through the NEPTUNE program and observatory through the University of Victoria.
Could this be like the hubble for the ocean? Notoriously, the ocean is the least known part of the entire world. Some parts of the universe are more explored than certain parts of the ocean.
Maybe Canada can do something to change this...

World's largest ocean observatory takes shape

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or straight from the horse's mouth
http://communications.uvic.ca/releases/release.php?display=release&id=1046

Prisons can Lead Environmental Change

Scientific American has a wonderful article today about inmates pitching in to help save the environment. I believe that this is a wonderful start, and that this idea should also be used in Canada.
All of the inmates in Canada have the ability to contribute something useful and because the environment is something that everyone shares, this may help them (and frankly, the general non-incarcerated population as well) to realize that this is a problem that is shared by a whole community.

I recently read a book, Deep Economy by Bill McKibben that explained that when people feel that they are in a community and inclusive group that they started acting less individually. The needs of the group were placed at an equal or higher value than the needs of an individual. Now, firstly I am all for individuality and individual choices. However, the two are not mutually exclusive of one another. Now, when people make decisions about family, work, environment, etc., never does community play a role in the outcome of those choices. This must change. You can have individuals making choices, but the community must be thought of within respect to those choices and how the choices reflect the needs and values of the community as well.

If we can get the general population of prisons helping outside communities, this will a) improve the environment and b) give the prisoners a sense of accomplishment and worth. I would rather these prisoners having the chance at operating large composts, manufacturing wind turbines, etc and using their skills instead of them watching TV and rioting. If they feel needed within the community (and for this it can be Canadian Community, Provincial Community, etc), it is a great way for them to reenter society and build skills in order to be a fully functioning member of society. Often prisons just teach prisoners how to be better criminals. Let us make them all tree-huggers instead.