The Great Debate

The article “Study Links Temperature to a Peruvian Glacier’s Growth and Retreat”, by Justin Gillis, can be found under today’s date (2/25/14) on the New York Times Environmental Science section.

The direct link to the article is…

http://www.nytimes.com/2014/02/26/science/study-links-melting-peruvian-ice-cap-to-higher-temperatures.html?ref=earth

“Study Links Temperature to a Peruvian Glacier’s Growth and Retreat” by Justin Gillis, covers a topic that people all over the world have argued about for years, global warming. It is a scientific controversy in which some people put the blame on the change on temperature while others put the blame on limited snowfall. The author of the article writes about a new group of scientist are presenting findings, after years of studies, suggest “temperature is the main factor” controlling the retreat of ice caps. But not all scientists are truly convinced that this is true.

Justin Gillis, the author of this wonderful article, introduces and explains a group led by Justin S. Stroup and Meredith A. Kelly of Dartmouth College in Hanover, New Hampshire.  This group has used elaborate techniques to date the waxing and waning over the past 500 years of the glacier, Qori Kalis. The team found that sometimes the glacier grew during periods of time were ice accumulation in the area was very low and had retreated when ice accumulation was ice. Dr. Kelly and Mr. Stroup concluded that the glacier is reacting to temperature and the amount of snowfall is a secondary factor.

Qori Kalis, a glacier descending from the Quelccaya ice cap in Peru, is melting rapidly. This image was taken in 2008.Credit Lonnie Thompson/Ohio State University

But author Justin Gillis throws in his article another group of scientists that have another take on global warming. They believe that precipitation can have more of a role than temperature when it comes to glacier growth and retreat. One interesting point they had was that, glaciers in the tropical regions receive intense sunlight almost year-round and ice on top of these glaciers can simply evaporate without turning into a liquid first. So sunlight is their (the glacier’s) primary factor.

While reading this many connections with Biology class jumped into my mind. We talked awhile back about human impact on global warming through car emissions and greenhouse gases and many more. Human emissions have had a significant impact on our world, and while some are well aware, other may no attention to it. Global Warming is a problem and human emissions can harm the world immensely. If we all are aware of the impact we are causing then I believe that people will start to change and become better citizens of the world. Be the change you want to see!

Pictography...

"Qori Kalis, a glacier descending from the Quelccaya ice cap in Peru, is melting rapidly."  This image was taken in 2008.CreditLonnie Thompson/Ohio State University, http://www.nytimes.com/2014/02/26/science/study-links-melting-peruvian-ice-cap-to-higher-temperatures.html?ref=earth 

Tiger Population Conservation Has Some Not So Pawsitive Effects

This week I read the article, Tiger Population Grows in India, as Does Fear After Attacks. by Ellen Barry and Hari Kumar of The New York Times, http://www.nytimes.com/2014/02/12/world/asia/tiger-population-grows-in-india-as-does-fear-after-attacks.html?ref=science ,this article explains the conflicts that humans are facing with the rebounded tiger population.

With their increasing population through species preservation, the tiger's contact with humans is becoming a heavier concern. These conflicts are occuring precisely in the areas where the tiger population is being protected. Unfortunately these massive animals are enroaching on settlements that are not accustomed to their presence, therefore the people living in these settlements treat the tiger's visit with noisy furor instead of the subdued, systematic method used by earlier generations used to the presence of tigers.

The nature of the tiger's attacks of humans noticeably changed after a short period of time as a result of the tigers discovering how easily accesible humans are as prey and also the fact that these tigers are becoming fond of having humans as a part of their diet. Ullas Karanth, a wildlife biologist who also runs the India program of the Wildlife Conservation Society said, "These conflicts are the price of conservation success." This conservation program is providing protection to these tigers, and because of this the protection of humans in the area of these tigers is declining to a hazardous level. Therefore tigers who beome man-eaters must be killed, but are exceptionally difficult to catch.

Across the state border in Uttar Pradesh, gunmen have been summoned and provided the license to kill. The forests in which the tiger is believed to be inhabiting are so immensily dense, that the gunmen have no other choice than to hunt the man-eating animal on foot rather than riding on the backs of elephants as they customarily would do. Last weekend brought the 10th death in six weeks attributed to these animals, hopefully the growth of the popluation will continue, however only at safe consiquences to their human neighbors.

I was shocked that these efforts to conserve the population of these animals turned out to have such a negative effect on humans. I find that the killing of the tigers who start to become dependent on having humans as a part of their diet is unfortunate but necessary. If these animals were not killed, there is a possibility that they could evolve and become adapted to having humans as their desired choice of diet. This article relates to the topic of the food chain that we had talked about previously this year. Humans efforts to prevent the extinction of tigers is obviously concerning the balance of the food chain involving this species. Also since the species is increasing in population, they have started to seek alternative sources of prey,which unfortunately happens to be humans.

There is definetly some controvery in this article about how people will react if this problem becomes more serious or uncontrollable. Some may have different opinions on the fact that the tigers should be completely protected and separated from humans, and others may have opinions more about the issue of human safety regarding these attacks. Its hard to accept that the strenuos efforts to conserve the tiger species have resulted in such a way that they may have to be killed to enforce human safety.

Whale They Continue to Beach?

    The article Marine Biologist Baffled by Beached Whales in Florida by Sun Sentinel, http://www.newsela.com/articles/whale-beachings/id/2659/, is about the large amounts of whales that have been popping up on shore all around Florida’s coastlines.

     All types of whales are a huge part of ocean life as we know it. But do you know how many whales are beaching each day in different parts of the world? Within the past two months, 90+ whales have been found stranded on a ton of different beaches all around Florida, which is about three times the average amount. These outrageous occurrences have marine biologist baffled as to why so many whales are appearing on the coastlines. But one thing that they’re pondering the most is that it’s not just one type of whale. It’s many different species.

      Biologists are trying to come up with possible theories as to why all these whales are beaching. One theory is that the whales might be carrying morbillivirus. It says in the article, “The ailment is similar to canine distemper, which can kill dogs, and has been attacking dolphins along the East Coast this year. But examinations of dead whales have failed to confirm this.”

     Another theory made by marine mammal biologist Erin Fougere is that the cold fronts that have been moving through Florida for this past month could be a factor. She said, “Any kind of front or a hurricane disorients the animals, and they come in. Nothing so far is definite. There are cases where we just never know the cause.”

     Authorities said that about 200 whales wash up to shore each year in Florida and about one “mass stranding” happens every three years in the state. But yet, just in the past two months, about 93 whales have washed up to shore, and 91 out of 93 were involved in a mass stranding. Fougere says in the article, “Mass strandings aren’t necessarily rare, but to have two so close together is.”



     The occurrences have a massive amount of whales coming up on the coast in such short amounts of time. It says in the article, “On Dec. 4, 43 pilot whales got caught in the shallows of Everglades National Park on the state’s southwestern coast, and nine died. Four days later, 11 pilot whales, part of the same pod, beached at Snipe Point near Key West, and all of them died. From Jan. 19–22, 12 pilot whales beached themselves between Naples and Fort Myers, and eight died or were put to sleep. On Jan. 23, 25 more whales, most believed to be part of the same pod, were found dead on Kice Island, south of Marco Island.”

     Florida seems to have the highest count of beached whales this year, and generally, California is pretty high up there as well. But to have this many whales pop up in just Florida alone is highly unusual.

      I thought this was a good article because it has to do with our unit on food chains. If all of these whales are beached and dying, ocean life populations of their prey will continue to grow and eventually become too large because they will not have as many predators to balance out their growth.

Jaime I

                                                Are Dolphins Becoming Extinct?

            The article, Focus on Ocean’s Health as Dolphin Deaths Soar ,by Lizette Alvarez on http://mobile.nytimes.com/2013/12/23/us/focus-on-oceans-health-as-dolphin-deaths-soar.html?from=science is an article about how dolphins, especially bottlenosed, are dying rapidly.

 

 Dolphins are mysteriously showing up dead on the shores from New York to Florida. 124 dolphins have shown up since the beginning of July. Scientists hypotheses are dolphin deaths are occurring from water pollution some pollution may be leftover oil from the BP oil spill in 2010. The other hypothesis is, dolphins are infected with the disease, pathogen.

                                                                                

http://inhabitat.com/what-is-causing-dead-  dolphins-to-wash-ashore-on-the-east-coast-of-the-u-s/

 

Scientists need to work fast to help these dolphins from becoming extinct, because “Marine mammals are very good sentinels for ocean and human health, and they really act like the proverbial canaries in a coal mine,” They give us an idea what’s occurring in the environment.” Said Dr. Greg Bossart. This quote means that dolphins give us an idea of what is occurring in the marine environment because dolphins are top predator, live long lives, and live close to the coast.

 

Scientists will soon not have an idea of what is happening in the environment, as the article states “whatever happens coastally impacts them and potentially us.”  This means whatever is happening in the dolphins life’s right now could soon strike upon humans.                                                                                                                            

What is happening to the dolphins connects to what we learned in biology class. We learned in the movie, The Lorax,  that pollution can harm animals and you don’t even care enough to see that the animals around are being negatively affected by it. This happened to the Lorax when he made a factory and it polluted the whole land and all of the animals died or tried to find other land. He didn’t care enough to help until it was too late.

I think that scientists should continue research on why so many dolphins are showing up dead on the shore. Scientist should also find out if the places they are showing up dead have high pollution levels like traces of oil left over from the BP oil spill 2010. If dolphins keep dying we will be lost on what is occurring environmentally in the ocean, because Dr.Bossat said they help us find out what is happening in the marine life. I hope dolphins will soon have a great come back.

 

 

Starfish Losing Their Famous Shape

I recently read the article “Researchers looking for cause of starfish deaths” off of the Boston Globe website. You can find it here at http://www.boston.com/news/nation/2014/02/09/researchers-looking-for-cause-starfish-deaths/nQC2LUOWjDTALz4qKk3OSI/story.html .(No author listed.) In Anchorage, Alaska starfish were showing signs of a wasting disease that has been reported up and down the West Coast.




This wasting disease caused eight starfish at the Anchorage museum to be euthanized in the fall. The article states that the starfish are dying from sea star wasting syndrome. The Anchorage Daily News describes sea star wasting syndrome as “an affliction that causes white lesions to develop on the starfish’s skin and an unnatural twisting of the arms”. The starfish die from the loss of their arms and the softening of their tissues. The first discovered evidence of sea star wasting syndrome was off the coast of Alaska.

Scientists do not know how many starfish are being affected by this disease. They say it could be anywhere from the low millions to tens of thousands. At the anchorage museum, it hasn’t seen anymore starfish come down with the disease. They have started to control water temperatures better and limit the amount of times hands are placed into the tank. Scientists and researchers plan to further research this and better their understanding the wasting syndrome.

I could not be more interested in this. Starfish were my favorite thing to find at the beach when I was little and I couldn’t imagine not being able to find them anymore! I thought that this article provided a clear, brief summary that had all the necessary details. I wish that maybe there were a little more extra details because now I still have some questions; Is this something to be worried about for all of the other creatures in the ocean? Also, is this dangerous enough as to potentially wipe out a significant amount of all the starfish in the ocean? And lastly, how do the starfish acquire this disease?




While reading this article I thought back to what I learned in biology class was that starfish reproduce by regeneration. Regeneration is a type of asexual reproduction where the loss of a part off of a parent grows into a whole other organism. When reading this article it seemed weird to me that the starfish were dying because of their loss of arms because I thought that they just grew back as a result of regeneration. Anyone interested in sea life should check this article out!


images from lukemiller.org and livescience.com

The First Step Towards Simple and Bioethically Accepted Stem Cell Research

In my last blog post, I wrote about how stem cells could possibly benefit our lives. For anyone that didn't read it, here's a quick recap: stem cells are pluripotent, meaning that they can become any type of cell. Their "on and off switches" have not yet been set, and Sir John B. Gurdon and Shinya Yamanaka received a Nobel Prize for resetting the switches in matured cells, thus making mature cells into stem cells.

I recently read the article Scientists discover a new, simpler way to make stem cells by Carolyn Johnson. It describes a new technique developed by Haruko Obokata and Dr. Charles Vacanti that has similar results to the method of Sir Gurdon and Yamanaka, but is far simpler. This new technique is to bathe matured cells in an acid bath until the environmental stress turns the cells into STAP cells.

In 2001, Dr. Vacanti discovered a way to turn matured cells into STAP cells, but his lab was highly ridiculed and he decided to keep it to himself. Eight years later, Haruko Obokata showed up at his lab and began working with Vacanti to learn about STAP cells. They discovered that the cells were produced when matured cells were stressed by environmental conditions.

STAP cells are a type of stem cell that, though they don't multiply indefinitely and don't live as long, are similar to stem cells from embryos. However, it was found that when put into petri dishes with the right growth medium, STAP cells behave just like embryonic stem cells. Yamanaka stated that "From a practical point of view toward clinical applications, I see this as a new approach to generate iPS-like cells". [iPS cells are embryonic stem cells]. The director of the stem cell transplantation program that Boston Children's Hospital, Dr. George Q Daley, said "Its a startling result that makes you stand up and go, 'Wow!' with an equal dose of amazement and skepticism."

This article made it quite clear that STAP cells may be the future for stem cell research. Although they are not quite as amazing as iPS cells, they are similar and are far easier to create. Also, there was quite a lot of controversy over embryonic stem cells, and this new technique completely changes where the cells can be taken from, thus limiting the bioethical concerns. They are truly the future for stem cell research.

I think that this research should be continued. As I mentioned in my last post, stem cells can help regrow lost tissue and organs for those who need an organ transplant but are hard to match with donors. I am amazed at how simple it is to create STAP cells, and the possibilities that are now created with our new technique to create STAP cells. This simple technique is how we will rewrite the programming in cells, and how we will write the future for medicine. There is still a lot of research to be done, but this is the first step.

A Chubby Recovery Leaves Republicans in Doubt

This blog post references two articles

http://www.theverge.com/2014/2/5/5380912/oregon-chub-proposed-for-removal-from-endangered-species-list

http://www.spokesman.com/stories/2014/feb/05/house-republicans-target-endangered-species-act/

The first article, “Oregon chub is the first fish saved by Endangered Species Act” written by Rich McCormick, was published on February 5th in The Verge on theverge.com. The article discusses the impending removal of the Oregon chub, a small minnow native to Oregon, from the endangered species list.  This species would be the first fish to be delisted since the creation of the US Endangered Species Act in 1973. The article states “The Oregon chub was placed on the endangered species in 1993 after the loss of floodplain habitats and predation by non-native fish. At the time, fewer than eight populations of Oregon chub existed, with fewer than 1,000 fish.” The little fish has successfully been saved by a recovery plan, and its population now exceeds 150,000. The US Fish and Wildlife Service proposed on February 4th that it be removed, and it seems that should be in order.

The second article is titled “House Republicans target Endangered Species Act” was written by Matthew Brown, published on February 5th in The Spokesman-Review. The article is about the Republican request for reform of the US Endangered Species Act.  It is ironic that this proposal occurred on the same day that the removal of the chub from the list was proposed. Republicans state that the act is more of an effort to list endangered species rather than to protect them, and want to give states more authority over endangered species within their borders. “Republicans have seized on the fact that only 2 percent of protected species have been declared recovered – despite billions of dollars in federal and state spending.” The 2% figure, however, has been disputed as ignoring the hundreds of species that are currently recovering.

These articles raise a connection to our biology class. During our ecosystem unit, we learned about endangered species and what may cause their endangered status. Much of the risks posed to animals are human related. Hunting, fishing, destroying their habitats, polluting water, and much more can put animals in danger. Since humans are usually the cause of the problem, we also must be the ones to solve the problem.  We also learned during our carbon cycle unit ways to keep excess carbon emissions down, protecting the environment. Finally, I can connect this back to the Lorax. In the end of the movie, the young boy is giving the last Trufulla seed, representing a chance to start over. Through human intervention, the Oregon chub has been given a new chance. The Lorax would be proud.  

Combined, these two articles raise a few very important political-environmental issues and cause some tension. The most prominent question raised by these two article is: How much is our environment worth? Although it is easy to say that our earth is priceless, do we, and should we,  really believe this?  The congressmen who propose an overhaul of the US Endangered Species Act pose this question. At what point does the government need to spend their money elsewhere? Economically, the US endangered Species Program has proved very ineffective. However, completely ignoring the environment would be a terrible mistake, and it is our job to fix the problems we have created. This proposed reform could be effective in saving government money, as well as providing for endangered species. Conversely, it could let animals that could have been saved go extinct. All these questions are very difficult to answer, and I have no strong stance either way. No matter the outcome, at least we saved the Chub.