"Young Adults Can Face Severe Cases of COVID-19, Too"

Olivia Conniff

AP Biology

Current Event 20

3/22/20

Jesus, Erin Garcia de. “Young Adults Can Face Severe Cases of COVID-19, Too.” Science News, 20 Mar. 2020, www.sciencenews.org/article/coronavirus-covid19-young-adults-can-face-severe-cases.

For my 20th current event, I chose to read the article “Young Adults Can Face Severe Cases of COVID-19, Too” by Erin Garcia de Jesus. The article describes a new analysis of COVID-19 cases that shows that while elderly people are still the most likely to become seriously ill, young adults do still have the potential to become extremely sick as a result of COVID-19.  The earliest data from China suggested that most severe COVID-19 cases and deaths happen in adults aged 60 or older as well as those with underlying conditions. But the first analysis of U.S. cases, which was recently released by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, shows that 1 in 5 people ending up in the hospital as a result of COVID-19 are actually 20 to 44 years old. France and Italy are also reporting more young people suffering seriously from this illness.

This article is extremely relevant to society right now as our country and the entire world suffers and makes sacrifices to help deal with the spread of COVID-19. It was previously believed that the virus could only seriously affect elderly people but this article has now introduced the idea that it can seriously affect younger people as well.

While overall this is a fairly strong article, there are a few things that Garcia de Jesus could do to improve it even further. While it included very interesting information from the analysis of the CDC, I felt that she could have included some more quotes from experts on the topic, because the one that she did is not that strong. However for the most part it is a very informative and interesting article. 

Why Some Heart Patients May Be Especially Vulnerable to COVID-19

Mariana Apostolatos
March 21, 2020
AP Biology Even C
Current Event 20

Cunningham, Aimee. “Why Some Heart Patients May Be Especially Vulnerable to COVID-19.” Science News, 20 Mar. 2020, www.sciencenews.org/article/coronavirus-covid-19-why-some-heart-patients-especially-vulnerable.

According to a recent article by Aimee Cunningham, some heart patients may be especially vulnerable to COVID-19. In Italy, where the number of deaths has now surpassed those in China, public health officials reported on March 17 that among 355 people who died, a whopping 76 percent had hypertension and 33 percent had heart disease. And among more than 44,000 confirmed cases of COVID-19 in China, the case fatality rate for people with underlying conditions was highest for those with cardiovascular disease, at 10.5 percent compared with the overall fatality rate of 2.3 percent. Cunningham explains that to invade a cell, SARS-CoV-2 latches onto a protein called ACE2. This protein is found on cells in the lungs, allowing the virus to invade these cells and cause respiratory symptoms. Cunningham then describes drugs such as ACE inhibitors and angiotensin II receptor blockers that are getting some scrutiny during the COVID-19 pandemic. Cunningham adds that an infection also stresses other parts of the cardiovascular system, notably where arteries are narrowed by plaques. As the body’s immune system fights the virus, “inflammation can cause a plaque rupture,” Cunningham quotes from preventive cardiologist Erin Michos of the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine. That rupture induces blood clotting that can block an artery and lead to a heart attack.

COVID-19 is a global pandemic that holds a range of severity among people depending on age and underlying health issues. Although about 80% recover from the disease without needing special treatment, COVID-19 could be fatal for heart patients. During these uneasy times, we must all practice social distancing and stay home, taking care of ourselves and protecting especially the elderly and those with underlying health issues that are at a higher risk of COVID-19. 

I decided to read this article because COVID-19 is such a relevant and important topic in today’s world. Cunningham clearly explains the science behind why some heart patients may be especially vulnerable to COVID-19. She also includes quotes by leading cardiologists and Dr. Anthony Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases and member of the White House Coronavirus Task Force. However, Cunningham doesn’t include any background information of COVID-19. Including a quick summary on COVID-19 explaining what it is and how it originated would enhance the reader’s knowledge. 

This is the First Deep-Sea Fish Known to be a Mouthbreeder

Rory Christian
3/19/20
AP Biology
Current Event 20

Buehler, Jake. “This Is the First Deep-Sea Fish Known to Carry Its Eggs in Its Mouth.” Science News, 10 Mar. 2020, www.sciencenews.org/article/parazen-deep-sea-fish-mouthbrooding. 

A recent study reveals the first known fish from the deep sea to carry eggs in its mouth. Many fish breeds cast their gametes outside of their bodies, leaving their young to develop on their own. 2 percent are "mouthbreeders", as they keep their eggs protected in their mouths. Recently scientists found over 500 eggs inside of a parazen's mouth, the first deep-sea fish known to do this. Randy Singer, an ichthyologist at the University of Michigan Museum of Zoology was identifying fish when he noticed a red fish pass by the camera. He later identified it as a parazen, a poorly known species found in the deep West Atlantic and West Pacific. When examining the fish later he peeled back its gill to find a "big, gnarly clump of something in its mouth”. Looking closer, he realized that the clump was a mass of eggs. Using a CT scan, they estimated that there were 530 developing embryos in the mouth. 

This discovery is very unusual because deep-sea fishes spawn externally, this being the first deep-sea fish to mouthbrood. In general, mouthbrooding is very difficult and costs more energy than simply letting the young develop on their own. The parazen is also choosing to invest much more in protecting their young that scientists would have predicted. This raises an interesting question about why this certain fish has chosen to take this route. It is possible that the environment favors mouthbrooding. This discovery shows that there is a greater diversity of reproductive strategies in the deep ocean than we have known. Scientists are now looking deeper to unveil more about how fish have adapted to deep-sea living. As Singer says, "I would expect people to see many more new discoveries coming rapidly in the future". 

Overall this article was well written and one of the more detailed and thorough articles I've read. Still, I wish that the article had expanded more upon the mouthbrooding process in more detail. Nonetheless, this article was very informative. I especially liked the image of the CT scan of the fish's mouth. This was very interesting and a great visual representation of what the article was about. In the image, I could clearly see the mouth full of eggs, as the egg masses were colored bright red to show their placement. 

Brain Waves Common During Sleep Also Show Up In Awake Sheep.

Rachel Roberts

3/11/20

Sanders, Laura "Brain Waves Common During Sleep Also Show Up In Awake Sheep." Science News. N. p., 2020. Web. 12 Mar. 2020.

https://www.sciencenews.org/article/sleep-sheep-spindles-brain-memory

In the article “Brain Waves Common During Sleep Also Show Up In Awake Sheep,” the author, Laura Sanders, discusses how sleep spindles have been found within sheep’s brains while awake. Sleep spindles are “zags” of neutral activity. Usually, “these bursts help lock new memories into the brain during sleep.”  and “might be doing something similar during periods of wakefulness, the researchers speculate.” A neurobiologist at the University of Cambridge, Jenny Morton, and her colleagues studied six female merino sheep with electrodes that scanned their brains. They collected the electrical patterns for two nights and a day. They found that while the electrodes caught the spindles during the day while the sheep were awake, they looked different from the ones found at night. Morton stated that they had different densities and also the “wake” spindles were “less abundant and more localized, captured at single, unpredictable spots in the sheep’s brains.” She hypothesizes that the results of the experiment show that the “wake” spindles may help the brain handle certain kinds of information that may not be managed during the night. 

Sheep and human brains are very similar. While sleeping, humans experience the same “zags” that sheep do. The “wake” spindles haven’t been found in human brains yet but, with the finding in sheep, they may have them too. If humans also have them, they would most likely be doing similar activities as the sheep. Jenny Morton also found that the spindles found within sheep as the slept were “akin to those in people during non-REM sleep.” These findings show how the similarities found between human and sheep brains allow for more learning to be conducted about the inner workings of both as scientists can use results for either to expand their knowledge. This would be especially helpful as changes in sleep spindles in humans have been linked to aging, and diseases such as Alzheimer’s. Parkinson’s, and Huntington’s. With the knowledge gained about the spindles from sheep brains, there might be new ways to learn about these disorders. 

When reading the article by Laura Sanders, there were many good aspects of her writing. 

She explained the information in the article very well. I was able to understand it even though I have no previous knowledge of the topic. Also, she integrated the story of how the sheep’s brain energies were behaving in her article while also giving the main details of the research. This allowed me to get a full picture of how important this topic was and how it could affect the lives of people with diseases such as Alzheimer’s, Parkinson’s, and Huntington’s. While Sanders did an excellent job explaining the research and the story, the article was very brief. While the article acknowledges the information is very new, there is not much said about it. I would have rathered if she spent more time explaining small details that were not necessarily important. Lastly, while her article was grammatically correct, there were several areas where it was very wordy and made me go back and read the sentence multiple times. For example, Sanders wrote, “The purpose of sleep spindles, which look like jagged bursts of electrical activity on an electroencephalogram, isn’t settled.” When writing articles for a website that is open for anybody of any career or interest to look at, it is much better to stay with more simple syntax and grammar so more people would be able to understand fully. 

Retreating Glaciers May Potentially Create New Salmon Habitats, But Can Just As Easily Hurt Them

A review of:

Pitman, Kara J, et al. “Glacier Retreat and Pacific Salmon.” OUP Academic, Oxford University Press, 11 Mar. 2020, academic.oup.com/bioscience/article/70/3/220/5799047.

A recent article published in the journal BioScience explores the possible impacts of glacier retreat on salmon populations. As climate change raises the temperature of the planet, glacial ice begins to melt - a concern to salmon populations, whose habitats are shaped by glaciers. Glaciers have been rapidly retreating from the range of many salmon populations. Glaciers are predicted to lose up to 80% of their ice volume in western North America. Glacier retreat can alter the habitats currently inhabited by salmon, and also has the potential to create new ones. The scientists cite examples of such activity as evidence, stating that glacial runoff majorly impacts water temperatures, hydrology, and biogeochemical refluxes, among other things. All of these impact the conditions of salmon populations both in freshwater and nearshore marine habitats. This can strain populations of adult salmon and create poor habitats for reproduction and spawning, though cooler temperatures may be beneficial to juvenile salmon, and it is possible that new habitats that are able to support salmon may be formed as a result of flooding and glaciation. The scientists hypothesized that the coming decades will result “in areas in which salmon populations will be challenged by diminished water flows and elevated water temperatures, areas in which salmon productivity will be enhanced as downstream habitat suitability increases, and areas in which new river and lake habitat will be formed that can be colonized by anadromous salmon.”

Essentially, the impacts of glacier retreat can’t be fully predicted. The scientists wrote that “Effective conservation and management of salmon habitat and populations should consider the impacts of glacier retreat and other sources of ecosystem change.” Salmon are not the only fish species that will be impacted by glacier retreat, and it is important to remember that glacier retreat is going to be another factor piling on top of the problems that salmon populations and habitats are already facing, which include habitat destruction, climate change, and fishing practices that decrease salmon biodiversity. It is in our interest to protect these economically and culturally important species.

The scientific article was very thorough - it provided various images, charts, tables, and graphs. In my opinion, it lacked bias and fairly addressed all possible outcomes, instead of leaning towards the negative, as these things tend to do. The only weakness of the article was its extensiveness, and the bit of repetition within the article. The article ended with a positive outlook and a call to action, once again reinforcing the importance of protecting these water-dwelling species.

Ellyn Paris

3/12/20

AP Biology

Current Event 19

J.B. Pfaller et al. Odors from marine plastic debris elicit foraging behavior in sea turtles. Current Biology. Published online March 9, 2020. doi:10.1016/j.cub.2020.01.071.

https://www.sciencenews.org/article/sea-turtles-smell-plastic-ocean-food

In his article, Jonathan Lambert discusses the issues turtles have distinguishing the smell of food from the smell of plastic. He explains that when drifting in the ocean, plastic releases a chemical that resembles the smell of food to sea turtles as well as marine birds. The gas is called dimethyl sulfide, and is the same gas release by phytoplankton, “a key food source for many marine animals” (Lambert, 1). Recent studies have shown that this is unfortunately the case for the loggerhead turtle. Studies down on captive loggerhead turtles drew the conclusion that plastic has the potential of inducing foraging behaviors, which would explain why many turtles end up eating the plastic or entangling themselves in it. It should be noted that the turtles only responded to plastic that contained traces of food or were ocea-stewed.

This article is highly relevant to our present society. Humans destroying the environment and endangering marine life is a prominent topic that is important to discuss. As human impact on the planet increases in forms such as climate change and plastic production, the environment will continue to degrade. Studies like those mentioned in Lambert’s article are important in convincing the public as well as lawmakers that it is crucial to take steps in order to reduce our negative impact on Earth. The oceans make up a large part of our planet, therefore polluting them is ruining the balance that ecosystems desperately need to survive and thrive. 

This article was very interesting to read. The language was simple to understand which made it much more pleasant to learn about. Furthermore, the studies that were described were cited and a link as added to their website. This would allow the reader to pursue further information if they wished to do so. However, this article was short and did not expand enough on the impact the research will have on our modern society. To improve his article, the author could develop more on the importance of the results on loggerhead turtles found will have.

Beaches are shrinking, and its already too late

Caroline McGrath

3/03/20

Current Event 18

Kann, Drew. “Half of the World's Beaches Could Disappear by the End of the Century, Study 

Finds.” CNN, Cable News Network, 2 Mar. 2020, 

www.cnn.com/2020/03/02/world/beaches-disappearing-climate-change-sea-level-rise/index.html 

The article written and published by CNN goes into detail about the extent Climate Change has on our ever loved beaches. The study found that “Even by 2050 some coastlines could be unrecognizable from what we see today, with 14% to 15% facing severe erosion.” The coastlines’ disappearances will vary, with the most severe coming towards areas of highest density-like the East Coast of the US, South Asia, and Central Europe. The article states that by 2100, the coastline could retreat by nearly 330 feet in some cases. The scientists use 100 meter (330 feet) to measure this erosion, because after this measurement, if any more of the beach is lost, it is likely lost for good. The beaches support more than just the tourism economy, they house countless animals. The biggest reason for this change is climate change, but the article suggest that development near and around coastlines also impact the beach’s ability to move and halt: a natural process for seas. The scientists in charge fear that we have already lost this battle, and the lasting effects are immeasurable at this time. 

I think the article did a good job of summarizing the effects and causes of the receding beaches, but lacks statistics. Except for one or two sentences, the article has very little numbers to back up their findings, and even less about the possible effects in the near future. I also think the author needed to state specific studies, they mostly spearheaded the issue as an overview of all beaches, without providing certain areas that were observed and analyzed. 

This article relates to our society for obvious reasons: climate change is ruining our world. In a few years the world’s most popular destinations for vacation may be gone, without any replacement. It also made me more aware of our impact on the beaches aside from the classic global warming. It mentioned development near the beaches, a popular trend that seems to be only growing, and this is something I had never thought about before. But after reading more about it, it makes perfect sense, and it is also something that might not be too late to change.