Polluted Water Interferes With Drug That Combats Parasitic Scourge

Yeager, Ashley. "Polluted Water Interferes with Drug That Combats Parasitic Scourge." Science News. N.p., n.d. Web. 28 Oct. 2013.

             In the article, Polluted Water Interferes With Drug That Combats Parasitic Scourge, by Ashley Yeager it talks about how water that is contaminated with arsenic maybe blocking the effectiveness of a drug that doctors use deal with leishmaniasis.  For those of you who don’t know what leishmaniasis is it is a deadly parasitic scourge that is spread by sand flies. 

            Alan Fairlamb of the University of Dundee in Scotland and colleagues saw that there was a resistance to antimony- based treatments in regions where there was arsenic- laced water.  A region of the world where this water is commonly found is India.  Arsenic is a poisonous chemical often used in herbicides and pesticides.  Fairlamb and his colleagues conducted an experiment to see if the antimony-based treatments were the true reason as to why the drug was not effective.   In this experiment scientist gave mice the contaminated drinking water filled with arsenic and then gave them Lesihmania parasites.  Next the scientists moved the parasites in a second group of mice that had also drank the contaminated arsenic water. Some of those mice got an antimony –based treatment, Pentostam.  Finally it was proven that the parasites in the treated mice made them resistant to the drug.  So this proves that arsenic contamination could contribute to the ineffectiveness of one out of the four drugs doctors use the treat lesihmaniasis.

            I thought this article was very informative.  The plus side to this article was that is gave many facts.  The downside to it was that is didn’t give that much detail so at some points while reading it, was hard to understand.   It was short which made me never get bored while I was reading.  From reading this article I now know that when I travel to certain countries I have to be careful when drinking their water. 

Skull Fossil Suggests Simpler Human Lineage

In a recent article, published by the New York Times, scientists have come to a conclusion about a 1.8 million year old skull found in the Republic of Georgia. After eight years of debate scientists have decided that this skull may tell us that instead of having many Homo species there might have just been variation among one species. Scientists were led to believe that the different bone structure among historic skeletons might just mean that they looked different. Just like how we each look different today. This skull was called skull 5 and had many primitive features. It was found in a cave with 4 other skulls, this lucky find gave scientists the chance to compare and contrast the 5 skulls.

 This has a big effect on our history as humans. Instead of our development being explained as a merge of multiple species, our history could be explained as one or two species that came together to create humans. This find means that our lineage as humans is much more simple than scientists had previously thought. Scientists believe this is one of the most important discoveries yet. They believe this because it is a key component is the understanding of the development of the early Homo species.

 This was a really good article and had a lot of information. The article could have been a little more detailed about what had happened and why it took them eight years to figure out what this skull meant or where in Georgia the skull was found. The article did have a lot of information, which was helpful, but the author could have put in more detail, but the author did give a lot of background information that helped me understand the article better.

 Wilford, John N. "Skull Fossil Suggests Simpler Human Lineage." Newyorktimes.com. New York Times, 17 Oct. 2013. Web. 19 Oct. 2013. <http://www.nytimes.com/2013/10/18/science/fossil-skull-may-rewrite-humans-evolutionary-story.html?ref=science&_r=0>.

Corruption in Peru Aids Cutting of Rain Forest

Corruption in Peru Aids Cutting of Rain Forest

By William Neuman and Andrea Zarate

            This article discusses the effects of cutting down trees illegally in Peru and other countries. More than half of Peru is covered by dense forest, and the preservation of these forests is crucial to combating global warming. Also, the forests protect many species that live only in this region. In the past, Peru has passed laws to try to stop illegal logging, one of which was a 2007 trade agreement with the United States. Recently, large quantities of timber are illegally cut and are sometimes sent to the US to be used for flooring and furniture. It is believed that the cause of the corruption was authorities being bribed in order for loggers to cut down and take away the trees.

            This article is important because illegal logging is still an issue today, and people need to become aware of what is happening around them in order to stop it. It’s important for people to understand the effects of logging and to figure out a way to try to prevent corruption in these countries. International demand for cheap illegal products is a main cause for illegal logging around the world, and because of this animals are losing their homes, the environment is suffering, and systems are growing more corrupt. The more awareness this gains around the world, the more people can try to prevent it from happening.

            I thought this was a good article, but there were a few things that were missing. I think that the author should have included more information on the effects of illegal logging and how to prevent people from logging, because if this issue hasn’t been stopped already there is obviously more to it. The article was written in a way that was easy to understand, and helped me learn about a topic I wasn’t aware of before.

Neuman, William, and Andrea Zarate. "Corruption in Peru Aids Cutting of Rain Forest."The New York Times. The New York Times, 18 Oct. 2013. Web. 20 Oct. 2013. <http://www.nytimes.com/2013/10/19/world/americas/corruption-in-peru-aids-cutting-of-rain-forest.html?pagewanted=2&ref=science>.

http://www.nytimes.com/2013/10/19/world/americas/corruption-in-peru-aids-cutting-of-rain-forest.html?pagewanted=2&ref=science

Amid Heavy Pollution, Beijing Issues Emergency Rules to Protect Citizens

Tatlow, Didi Kirsten. "Amid Heavy Pollution, Beijing Issues Emergency Rules to Protect

Citizens." Sinosphere Amid Heavy Pollution Beijing Issues Emergency Rules to Protect Citizens Comments. The New York Times, 17 Oct. 2013. Web. 20 Oct. 2013. <http://sinosphere.blogs.nytimes.com/2013/10/17/amid-heavy-pollution-beijing-issues-emergency-rules-to-protect-citizens/?ref=science>.

            In Beijing, China, there is a new system to try to reduce air pollution. For years, the air in cities in northern China, like Beijing (the capitol), has been heavily polluted by things like asbestos, ultraviolet radiation, and tobacco smoke. Substances like these are known to be cancer-causing substances. Air pollution in China gets especially bad in the winter when coal-powered heating systems are used. Now, when there is heavy air pollution, a blue alert will be put in place and an extra street cleaning will take place. When there is even heavier pollution, a yellow alert will be put out and another street cleaning will happen. One three days of predicted pollution, there will be an orange alert and factories and construction sites will close. When three days of serious pollution are predicted, the above actions will take place, as well as certain cars being able to drive on alternate days and schools will close. Also, the Chinese government has announced a project to clean the air, but it will not be easy or quick.

           

            Issues like this are relevant in cities all over the world. Air pollution is a major issue and is the cause of many diseases, including cancer! The fact that schools have to close, not because of a naturally occurring issue, but because of a man-made environmental issue, is very bad. No country should be compromising the education of the next generation for needs that cause excessive pollution. Also, the fact that people are dying of diseases cause by air pollution is horrific. This issue can be fixed, and its very important that it does get fixed.

            I enjoyed reading this article because it was very informative yet straight to the point. It wasn’t difficult to read and it kept me engaged. One thing that I would’ve liked to read more is statistics about the pollution and maybe statistics about the diseases it causes. Overall, I thought this was a very good article and I learned a lot from it.

Study Sees a Higher Risk of Storms on the Horizon

           In this article called Study Sees a Higher Risk of Storms on the Horizon it talks about how in the eastern and central United States we are likely to see a bigger risk of extreme weather. This is mostly predicted to happen in the middle of this century, because the gain in temperatures is triggering atmospheric changes, which will cause storms. Not only, will there be storms, but the data also suggests, but does not flatly predicts, that the warning of tornadoes will increase as well. The scientists measured the increases in temperatures on conditions that are mostly known to produce big thunderstorms. Dr Diffenbaugh says “We can look starting in the recent past and analyze how many severe thunderstorm environments there are in each model, in each year, all the way out to the end of 21^st century.” There were 10 models, and all of them showed an overall increase in the extreme weather days in the spring and autumn around the 2040s. Kevin Trenberth, a scientist, says, “The likelihood of severe weather is probably fairly robust and prospects worrying”. There are many different types of weather conditions that help cause thunderstorms, but the most important ones would be humidity, wind, and atmospheric instability (“Which can cause warm air to rush upward through colder air”).  Scientists say that they have a big challenge to try and understand whether or not there have been any changes to these weather conditions.

The climate changes that are happening are causing the change in the weather that is yet to come. This article shows what the scientists are telling us to expect in whether later in the century. They want it to get better, and they do not want any of the tornadoes or the extreme thunderstorms to occur. Those could be very dangerous towards people, because the thunderstorms and the tornadoes could take the people’s houses away, which will be very disastrous.

            I think that the author did a very good job explaining this article. He used really good descriptive words, which helped me understand the article better. The author could have used more statistics in his article, to show the percentages or the chances of the thunderstorms and the tornadoes that are bound to happen. I found this article very interesting, because it gives you a small description on how the weather and a little bit of the life will be in the future.  Before reading this article, I never thought about the weather in the future, and I hope that these extreme weather conditions will change. 

http://www.nytimes.com/2013/09/24/us/study-sees-a-higher-risk-of-storms-on-the-horizon.html?ref=globalwarming

The Mystery of Earth's Oxygen

I read the article The Mystery of Earth’s Oxygen by Carl Zimmer. This article talked about research that Dr. Canfield, a geochemist at the University of Southern Denmark, did along with his colleagues regarding Earth’s changing oxygen supply. To know whether we are at risk of a dwindling supply of oxygen, the scientists look at rocks in order to examine the chemical fingerprints left behind. They know that certain rocks could have only formed in the presence of oxygen, and from there they can conclude that the more of these molecules found, the more oxygen was present in the air during the formation. When they look at the oldest rocks on earth, there are no traces of oxygen, and research points to the conclusion that earth’s atmosphere had been made of mostly carbon dioxide, methane, and nitrogen. Although the sun had produced oxygen, it dispersed as soon as it was formed. Because oxygen is highly reactive, it bonds easily with other molecules so Earth was like “a giant oxygen volume in its early years.” Evidence shows that three billion years ago the atmosphere had only 0.03 percent of today’s oxygen levels. That was a huge shift in the Earth’s chemistry, because sunlight couldn't have produced that much light, only life could have. Microbes photosynthesized, creating the oxygen, and when they died, they sank to the bottom where the oxygen couldn't react with their carbon, so the oxygen remained. From there it was said that the oxygen source remained fairly scarce for the next few hundred million years, but during that period, Earth’s vacuum was getting weaker. In addition Earth was cooling, so there was less volcanic movement, so not as much Hydrogen was produced to react with the oxygen. And then once again, the oxygen levels declined when carbon rich rocks were created from the microbes on the sea floor, which were brought up to dry land, and reacted with the oxygen.

                This research is directly linked to our lives, and is relevant so we can know how much longer our oxygen levels will stay stable. Over the past two billion years, life and earth have had the oxygen levels bouncing around and not constant. This creates a scare because today as forests shrink, oxygen levels become lower, and makes our future unpredictable. The question that this situation arises is whether Earth’s oxygen supply will remain or begin to decline again. This leaves us worried as to how long our oxygen supply will last.

                I think the author did a really good job of explaining Earth’s atmosphere in the past, and how the oxygen levels have changes with time. I really liked how much information was put behind how they know about the changing oxygen levels. I wish that the author had included more information about what objects today are acting as vacuums, sucking up the oxygen gas, and whether that is something we can change or not. I also wish there had been ways we can help, aside from stop cutting down forests and plant trees, to keep our oxygen level high. Also I wanted to know if our population continues to grow, whether it will affect the oxygen levels, since so much oxygen is being taken in. 

http://www.nytimes.com/2013/10/03/science/earths-oxygen-a-mystery-easy-to-take-for-granted.html?ref=science

Energy Saving Secret of Jellyfish

http://www.nytimes.com/2013/10/08/science/energy-saving-secret-of-jellyfish.html?ref=science&_r=0

                In “Energy Saving Secret of Jellyfish” by James Gorman. The moon jelly or also known as the common jellyfish have been clogging up the Swedish nuclear power plant for more than a month now. In South Korea they have invented a robotic blender to liquefy the jellyfish. They have been known to be 2 inches to even 15 inches long. Brad J. Gemmell, a scientist along with the US Navy, are trying to  figure out how to use their energy.

                It would be helpful for the Navy to figure this out for ocean vessels that need to, maintain a certain position or move at a slower pace. Their energy has been useful for them throughout a long time and they have survived like this long period of time ago.

                One way this author has done well and bad, was how it all flows together and you understand what the author is trying to explain.  Something he does wrong is that he doesn’t explain that many examples from where or what has cause the Navy to develop this theory. And also how they want to experiment on Jellyfish.