Looking to Cities, in Search of Global Warming’s Silver Lining

          The article, “Looking to Cities, in Search of Global Warming’s Silver Lining,” by Guy Gugliotta, discusses how urban areas are being used as testing grounds for environmental scientists today. Dr. Lewis H. Ziska, a plant physiologist for the Department of Agriculture, is included in the article for his studies of how plants are reacting to rising levels of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere. Ziska and other researchers are performing experiments in cities, which can have similar environmental conditions to temperate climate zones on a heated planet in years to come if global warming continues as predicted. Dr. Kevin L. Griffin, a Columbia University ecophysiologist, is studying the “heat island effect” on red oak trees. He and his students performed a study in which the trees were planted in New York City and in the Catskill Mountains. The results of the experiment supported the theory that buildings and other man-made structures absorb heat from the sun and help the trees grow, also in addition to increased levels of carbon dioxide, nitrogen oxides, and ozone in the atmosphere that affect plant function. The point overall was that cities provide good places for scientists to test how future environmental conditions will affect plant growth, and that while certain aspects in the city, like a surplus of heat, may benefit plant growth, others, like pollutants, may not.

            I found this article to be well written in terms of diction and rhetoric, but partly scattered in reference to its flow of ideas. The article had different points mixed in without sensible order, which made for some confusion. I had to read certain parts over again, but the main idea could be understood. I thought the piece should have been organized by listing each scientist and their studies in consecutive order.

           I found this article to be very interesting. I also believe that this article is very important. The future of our planet depends on the work of environmental scientists like these much more than anyone might know or care to know. Many people readily expel concerns for the environment from their mind, while the powerful negative affects are already upon us.

posted for D. Borcich

Nature Fatal Attractions

http://www.nytimes.com/2012/11/27/science/in-nature-fatal-attractions-can-be-part-of-life.html?pagewanted=2&ref=science

This article is about a male Antartic fur seal pursuing a King penguin as a mate. This article raises two unnatural points that not only did this seal pursue its natural prey, but it also pursued a completely different species of a different class of animals. As Mr. Scott observed the seal pursue the King penguin, once it failed the seal acted out very aggressively and tore the penguin to shreds. While this seems disturbing it is not that uncommon in nature, and in fact science has labeled this “misdirected mating.” Some argue that it is in fact normal behavior as nature is not perfect and a genetic mutation or some behavioral change can ignite this behavior and interest in sexual predation. All of this behavior is under the realm of reproductive interference and occurs in not only mammals but, spiders, worms, frogs, and birds as well. Although all these do not end fatally, the general frustration of reproductive interference calls on sexual trauma and has been noted in several places, one being, the case of seal corpses which are said to have lacerations on the nose and face from sexual trauma. In this case Dr. Harris and Dr. Miller believe that the shift in demographics to more male otters than female otters started this behavior towards seal pups. And in fact otters are naturally aggressive matters and in fact female otters often die from sexual trauma.

            This article is significant in understanding the animal mating world. While acts described in this article are often considered unusual acts of violence and thought to be some rare occasion, this article proves that “misdirected mating” and reproductive interference are natural and normal events in nature. It also points out that like humans, animasl can have genetic mutations, which cause them to have different attractions to different species, or an environmental affect such as a demographic affect can affect their choice in mate. Another thing we have to note is that animal violence as seen here in sexual trauma is not always preventable and is the natural way of things.

            Overall I thought this article was very interesting, however what was most striking was the fact that misdirected mating is so common. It is hard to believe that an animal is so unaware of its surroundings and so unaware of its inability to distinguish between different species. It sparks an interest in me to see how animals distinguish how to choose a mate and in the cases of misdirected mating, how does choosing a mate differ.   

Prototype; Customized Skis, Tailored by Science

AP Biology                                                                                                            Petey DeJoy

Current Event Review                                                                                     11/24/12

Prototype; Customized Skis, Tailored by Science

Laporte, Nicole. "PROTOTYPE; Customized Skis, Tailored by Science." The New York Times. The New York Times, 25 Nov. 2012. Web. 25 Nov. 2012. <http://www.nytimes.com/2012/11/25/technology/customized-skis-tailored-by-science.html?ref=science>.

            This article discusses a relatively new technology that allows the producer, Wagner Skis, to produce a personalized ski. Pete Wagner founded the company in 1998 after he had an experience in which he realized he had been skiing on a ski that did not suit him for a long time, and felt that something needed to be done to prevent this from happening to other ski-enthusiasts. A self-proclaimed “science-nerd”, Wagner has a degree in mechanical engineering, and put it to use to begin his company. He invented an algorithm that, by synthesizing many different facts about a skier, including but not limited to height, weight, preferred terrain, previous ski, and ability, can produce a ski that is perfect for the customer. However, this complicated process comes with a cost. The skis go for an average of $1750. Regardless of the pricy nature of these handcrafted masterpieces, many are willing to pay. In 2011, 1000 people bought Wagner skis. It is interesting that this new process has been founded, and may point to a brighter future for skiers everywhere as all skis begin to be personalized.

            This article has a special pertinence to me; I spend a ton of time skiing. I think this new process is very interesting, and I would like to try these skis. I often find that a ski does not suit me; it is either too stiff or too dramatically shaped. This new process seems like a solution to my problem. Furthermore, this article drew my attention because I have been to the manufacturing headquarters of these skis before in Colorado, and have taken a good look at them firsthand. They seem like very nice pieces of work. The process in general combines an old-fashioned handcrafted touch with an exploitation of technological advances in its algorithm. It has the potential to help skiers of all levels be better off.

            Although this article was written well, I have a few critiques. It was written well, but I would like to know a little more about Wagner’s process and how he goes about crafting the skis. I would also like to know about how he advertises; he does not get much business, so I have to assume he advertises somehow, as to get more customers. However, other than these, I think the article is written nicely.

New HIV Cases Falling in Some Poor Nation, but Treatment Still Lags

McNeil, Donald G. “New HIV Cases Falling In Some Poor Nations, but Treatment Still Lags.” The New York Times. 20 November, 2012. 21 November, 2012. <http://www.nytimes.com/2012/11/21/world/new-hiv-cases-falling-in-some-poor-nations-but-treatment-still-lags.html?ref=science>

            “New HIV Cases Falling in Some Poor Nations, but Treatment Lags” is a New York Times science article dedicated to the statistics of HIV cases. According to its author, Donald McNeil, the total number of HIV cases is many poor and middle-income countries have dropped by fifty percent in the last decade, including in places such as Africa, where AIDs and HIV epidemics are widespread. The amount of new infections has also decreased, by twenty-two percent since 2001. This good news is the result of the achievements of treatment groups that targeted not only babies, who had a high infection rate, but gay men, prostitutes, and drug addicts. These people are looked down upon in many societies, where they cannot receive treatment because of who they are. In places like the Middle East, gay men may not even confess to having symptoms, because that would cause them to reveal their sexuality in a place where homosexuality is illegal. However, despite these encouraging developments, the fight against AIDs and HIV has yet to proceed to a point where the two diseases will be permanently in decline. One of the largest issues is money, because, while $16.8 billion was spent on treatment last year, the amount of money needed to effectively continue with such work is $24 billion a year. Another problem is that many people, especially children, are not getting the medicine they need to fight the disease. Every country will need to choose the tool best suited to it for fighting its own epidemic, be it one type of medicine or another.

            HIV and AIDs are both worldwide problems, so any developments in the battle to prevent and cure them are important no matter where one lives. The statistics mentioned in the article provide hope that, someday, HIV and AIDs can be cured, but they also inform us that this day could very well be far off. The number of deaths caused by AIDs is falling but not everyone is receiving treatment. I chose this article so that I could stay informed upon the topic and because I know people who work for charities devoted to helping prevent HIV and AIDs. Educating ourselves, as well as others, about these problems can also help alleviate them, as more people will know what is going on around them.

            While this article was interesting, it was hard to follow because of the large amount of statistics that it cited. Mr. McNeil should have used fewer statistics, by only using those that were most important. Also, the article has little flow, as it jumps around from topic to topic. It briefly mentions treating gay men, prostitutes, and drug addicts in the second paragraph and only comes back to this topic in the fourteenth paragraph. The article could have been written in a more coherent, precise way that presented the developments in AIDs and HIV treatment, the positive news, and the problems that have yet to be solved. In conclusion, this article is important to our society and, while it is optimistic, it shows that we have a long way to go before HIV and AIDs epidemics are under control.

The Problem Is Clear: The Water Is Filthy

http://www.nytimes.com/2012/11/14/us/tainted-water-in-california-farmworker-communities.html?pagewanted=1&ref=science

            This article addresses the water problem in the town of Seville, in Central Valley California. The focus of this article is mainly on the poor quality of the water in an already poverty ridden town. This article says how the area, which is predominantly agricultural, suffers from years of pesticide use and over irrigation. While these are two common practices of farming, they are detrimental to the surrounding land and more importantly the surrounding water. These pesticides and toxins infiltrate to ground water supplies in rock and such and contaminate water that we tap into for municipal use. Brown says how the town of Seville has such dirty water that they are unable to use any tap water and one of the first things they are taught is “No tomes el agua”, as this is Spanish community. The article addresses problems such as how expensive, but necessary, it is to use bottle water for everything; and how the school has an unbelievably low $100-$500 budget to satisfy the needs of their students. Without bottled water the water in this area has been linked to thyroid disease and “blue baby syndrome” which essentially limits the body’s blood capacity to carry oxygen.

            While this article is not directly related to biology it addresses a key part of science today: environmental science. Water is one of our most precious resources and as it is being depleted this article has much significance on humanity. Not only are our resources of fresh water being depleted, those that we have are being contaminated. This article exemplifies how dangerous our past decades of farming methods and such have been on the environment and show why we need to make a change. There are many situations like that in Seville where the water is contaminated by chemicals and toxins and puts a strain on the community to provide itself with what seems like such an accessible substance. While this doesn’t affect us directly, all around the world towns like Seville are suffering without water and children are susceptible to horrible water borne diseases as a result of drinking contaminated water.

            This article I believe was really easy to ready and understand. While it wasn’t complex like many other previous articles, many having to do with biological advancements and such it is just as informative of an important finding. It gives details on possible diseases such as thyroid disease that has been linked to water borne diseases and shows why we need to improve the quality of our groundwater. It also states how previous use of chemicals and pesticides in farming have resulted in this contaminated groundwater and therefore show us that to improve the quality of water we simply need to omit these substances and use more organic ways to improve yield. The only thing that could have been improved I believe is it talked a lot about the money involved in supplying water bottles and such and how the government is involved when I think it should have been primarily focused on ways to clean contaminated water and stay more to a purely science article.             

Malaria Vaccine Candidate Gives Disappointing Results

Jr., Donald G. Mcneil. "Malaria Vaccine Candidate Produces Disappointing Results in Clinical Trial." The New York Times. The New York Times, 10 Nov. 2012. Web. 13 Nov. 2012. <http://www.nytimes.com/2012/11/10/health/malaria-vaccine-candidate-produces-disappointing-results-in-clinical-trial.html?ref=science>.

Donald G. McNeil’s article, “Malaria Vaccine Candidate Gives Disappointing Results,” reports on the recent results of the GlaxoSmithKline Company’s malaria vaccine. The vaccine was given to children in seven different African nations and it has been administered through three shots, known as RTS, S. Last year, the vaccine was found to protect 55 percent of children against detectable malaria and 47 percent against severe malaria. This year, those numbers are down to 31 percent for detectable, and 37 for severe. Malaria is a disease caused by mosquitoes infecting people with a deadly parasite. To further protect the test patients, the company supplied all of the families with protective nets, and all but 14 percent of the families used them. Although people wished that these results had been more promising, Moncef Slaoui, the chairman of research at Glaxo, said, “… if a million babies were vaccinated, we would prevent 260,000 cases of malaria a year. This is a disease that kills 655,000 babies a year — 31 percent of that is a very large number.” Therefore, the company wants to continue its research. The Gates foundation, which helps fund the project through the PATH Malaria Vaccine Initiative, also plans to continue funding the project (at least until 2014, or when this set of trials ends). Bill Gates understands that, “…developing a vaccine against a parasite is a very hard thing to do.” The reason for this is that the parasite changes its form as it travels through the body. Also, it is hard to develop immunity against this deadly disease.

This article is very important, for malaria kills over half a million people every year. So far, there is no vaccine that can prevent people from being infected by the disease. Two New York University scientists, Ruth and Victor Nussenzweig, were the first to find RTS, S. These are proteins, which are on the parasite’s surface that provokes an immune reaction. Many were hoping that this latest trial would have more positive results, for that would mean that we were closer to finding a cure. With these less hopeful results, though, scientists are once again going to have to reevaluate the vaccine, and hopefully find something more successful. Although scientists have found cures to many different diseases, there are still many that are beyond science’s current reach, such as HIV and cancer. This article reminds the reader that the field of science still has a lot of work to do, for there are still many unsolved puzzles in our world.

            This article was very informative and well written. I liked that it had links to other articles that were related to this topic. For example, it had a link to an article that was published on October 12, 2011 that talked about previous results from the vaccine trials. My main critique, however, with this article, was that it did not mention any reasons for why there was a change in data from 2011 to 2012. Based on this article, the only difference between the two trials was that in 2011 it was administered to children up to 17 months old, but in the 2012 trial, it appears that only babies younger than 12 weeks old were given the vaccine. It would have been interesting to see if researchers had any idea why the same vaccine had two different results in the two years.