Chip, Implanted in Brain, Helps Paralyzed Man Regain Control of Hand

For my current event I read the article “Chip, Implanted in Brain, Helps Paralyzed Man Regain Control of Hand” by Benedict Carey. The article follows the story of Ian Burkhart who five years ago broke his neck diving into the ocean, and permanently lost feeling in his hands and legs. He was able to regain control in his right hand using technology that transmits his thought to his hand bypassing his injured spine. It is the first account of limb reanimation in a quadriplegic. Two years ago a chip was placed in his brain, and doctors have been helping him focus his thoughts to move his hand. This chip can not cure paralysis. Mr. Burkhart is only able to use his hand when connected to a computer in the lab. This instance of limb reanimation is significant because the patient’s hand was no longer directly connected to the brain. To put in the chip in they made a small incision just above the left ear, the chip is the size of an eraser head with 96 microelectrodes. The computer used to decode his thoughts was constantly being recalibrated, since Mr. Burkhart was learning how to move.

The study done in this article could have profound effects on rehabilitating people with partial paralysis. Though the process takes a lot of time, and patients must be in a lab to perform tasks this technology could be a stepping stone for the future. It is interesting that the thoughts used to move the patient’s hand are able to get there even though they bypass the spine.

This article did a good job of telling the story of Ian Burkhart, and his specific rehabilitation. It did not talk much about the significance of the experiment on others, or how this technology could develop. It would have been nice if the author compared this method of reanimation with others currently in practice. The author made the science behind the chip easy to understand by not including too much detail, and explaining it in simple terms.

Carey, Benedict. "Chip, Implanted in Brain, Helps Paralyzed Man Regain Control of Hand." The New York Times. The New York Times, 13 Apr. 2016. Web. 19 Apr. 2016. <http://www.nytimes.com/2016/04/14/health/paralysis-limb-reanimation-brain-chip.html?rref=collection%2Fsectioncollection%2Fscience&_r=0>.

The Water in Your Glass Might Be Older Than the Sun

St. Fleur, Nicholas. "The Water in Your Glass Might Be Older Than the Sun."The New York Times. The New York Times, 15 Apr. 2016. Web. 17 Apr. 2016. <http://www.nytimes.com/2016/04/16/science/the-water-in-your-glass-might-be-older-than-the-sun.html?rref=collection%2Fsectioncollection%2Fscience&action=click&contentCollection=science®ion=rank&module=package&version=highlights&contentPlacement=1&pgtype=sectionfront&_r=0>.

In this article, the author explained how water on Earth may be even older than the Earth or the sun. Water as we know it is made up of 2 hydrogen atoms and 1 oxygen atom, however, some samples of water known as “heavy water,” contain “hydrogen’s chunky twin, deuterium.” Deuterium is a hydrogen atom, but with a neutron in the nucleus, thus making it heavier. Deuterium has been found on other planets and moons, leading scientists to believe that it formed in an interstellar cloud: the accumulation of gas, plasma, and dust.  Scientists attribute water’s appearance on Earth to the ice specks floating in a cosmic cloud in space before the illumination of our sun or the creation of Earth. It is believed that these ancient ice molecules survived the heat and rays from the sun, to form the water here on earth, other planets and moons. Thus, water you are drinking could be over 4.6 billion years old.

This article is very interesting, because water is commonly thought to have come to earth later;  that the planet formed and then water. The ice could have collided with Earth, or been brought by asteroids or comets. I think that this shows how there is still a lot to learn about what makes up our planet and where it came from. Since the water on our planet came from space, there is a likelihood that there are many planets that have water that we are unaware of.

I thought that this article was written in a entertaining way. The author connected it well to our lives and how this discovery changes the way we think about the water that we drink, knowing that beyond coming from the faucet, it could have been floating in space as ice 4.6 billion years ago. I thought however, that there could have been quotes from scientists on this study, or other studies like it. I also felt that there could have been more information on how scientists came to this conclusion, what other tests they performed and those results. Overall, I thought that it was a very interesting article, which altered my perception of water, and leads me to question the formation of other aspects of Earth and their origins.

Health Officials Split Over Advice on Pregnancy in Zika Areas

As the Zika virus infiltrates the United States, federal health officials are divided over the political and ethical predicament of whether they should advise American women to delay pregnancy in areas where the virus is circulating.  Infectious disease experts are arguing that avoiding conception is the only way to prevent the births of deformed babies, according to outside researchers who work for various advisory panels.  However, women’s health specialists state that the government should not be allowed to tell women what to do with their bodies; federal health officials have never advised all the women in a region of the country to stop having children.  Furthermore, most babies conceived in Latin America during the Zika epidemic have been born healthy.  Dr. Thomas R. Frieden, the director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, described the internal debate as “a very long conversation...we do not have a recommendation to not become pregnant.”  On Wednesday, the CDC confirmed what many experts already believed: that Zika virus, which is usually mild in adults, can cause severe brain damage in infants.  As a result of the gathering evidence, health officials in countries affected by the Zika epidemic, including El Salvador and Colombia, have urged women to avoid pregnancy.  Dr. Marcos Espinal, the director of the Zika response of the Pan American Health Organization, an arm of the World Health Organization, stated in an interview that advising women to avoid conception during an epidemic’s relatively brief peak months, as Colombia did, is “sound advice.”

The Zika Virus is an epidemic that causes microcephaly in infants.  With such a dangerous disease that causes serious severe brain damage, it is interesting to see the role of the government; do they have the right to advise women on whether to conceive or not?

This article clearly described the political and ethical predicament of whether the government should advise American women to delay pregnancy in areas where the virus is circulating.  It had great quotations from experts in their field.  The article could have been strengthened with statistical analysis such as how many infants have had severe brain damage and where in Latin America.

Mcneil, Donald G. "Health Officials Split Over Advice on Pregnancy in Zika Areas." The New York Times. The New York Times, 14 Apr. 2016. Web. 16 Apr. 2016. <http://www.nytimes.com/2016/04/15/health/zika-virus-pregnancy-delay-birth-defects-cdc.html?action=click&contentCollection=science®ion=rank&module=package&version=highlights&contentPlacement=2&pgtype=sectionfront&_r=0>.

SpaceX Sticks a Rocket Landing at Sea in Historic First

Ford Neild March 12th, 2016

Current Event AP Biology

SpaceX Sticks a Rocket Landing at Sea in Historic First

On April 8th, 2016, Spacex made a truly space age leap forward in the process of commercializing space travel: Elon Musk and his company landed a autonomous rocket, Falcon 9, on an unmanned sea craft, “Of Course I Still Love You.” This was the company's fifth attempt at landing a ship on the sea platform. Other attempts failed because, although the spaceship made it to the sea platform, it was unable to stick the landing successfully. This was also the first attempt of one of Musk’s ship to carry the dragon, a cargo payload to be delivered to the International Space Station (ISS). The dragon, which reached the ISS two days after launch, carried tools and equipment as well as a compressed biosphere that could expand as needed by astronauts on the ISS. This expandable habitat, called BEAM, will be the first of its kind to be occupied by humans in space. Another important factor of the dragon, is it ability to reenter the atmosphere without burning up. This means that we are able to have two way transport with the ISS, where we can send up supplies and they can return scientific samples for further research. Moving forward from this point, SpaceX plans to send up many more flights like this one at a faster pace. Hans Koenigsmann, VP for flight reliability at SpaceX, said "It is true we have to pick up the pace, and we will pick up the pace," he said, adding that the next scheduled launch for the company will come near the end of April, with another set for the beginning of May.

"So the time between the missions will get shorter and shorter...And we hope we're going to be able to launch basically every other week by the end of the year."

This article's implications on future space travel are unbelievable. On a broader scope, musk and his team are passionately working to commercialize space travel and have already done so. Musks price for delivering space equipment is only 60 million, one third that of his nearest competitor. Musk estimates that these prices could reach as low as 500,000 dollars as every part of his spacecraft, besides the 200,000 dollar fuel, is completely reusable. Looking forward we can expect to see not only scientific advancements in space travel, but also commercial ones. Vacations are already being discussed by Musk and his team and with the rapid recent progressions, these dreams may not be dreams for long.

I felt this article was very well written, as it explained a very complex and scientific topic in a digestible manner. This makes it more appealing to non scientist who simply are interested in the coming of the space age. Although concise and made readable to a non scientist, there were some aspects of this article that I felt could have been improved upon. As previously mentioned, the author attempted to remove much of the scientific knowledge behind this topic to make it easy to read. However, this cost the article as it lacked any science at all and merely summarized the launch without providing details that could help give credibility to the author's work. To improve on this, I would recommend not removing scientific language from articles, but rather simplify it. In doing so, the author both teaches the reader a little bit about science and also makes the process fun and easy.

Cofield, Calla. "SpaceX Sticks a Rocket Landing at Sea in Historic First."Space.com. N.p., 8 Apr. 2016. Web. 12 Apr. 2016.

http://www.space.com/32517-spacex-sticks-rocket-landing-sea-dragon-launch.html

A Big Australian Crayfish, Pretty and Endangered

The large Murray crayfish, usually about a foot in length, has been observed to have had a 91 percent drop in its numbers in parts of a stream called the Goobarragandra habitats over about six years. This crayfish is a pretty beautiful creature, wielding bright white claws and a shell with blues, greens and hints of red, depending on the light. This crayfish lives in Australian rivers like the Murray and in small mountain streams, and this is where researchers from Australian National University in Canberra investigated how it fared in different habitats in the streams. The crayfish is extremely vulnerable to changes in habitat, and it was found that there was a 91 percent drop in its numbers in parts of a stream called the Goobarragandra habitats over about six years, observed by Mae M. Noble and Christopher J. Fulton. The stream itself had taken a beating, with  scouring of its bed during floods and loss of trees and shrubs on the banks from land clearing. Also, it accumulated sediment, and many of the small spaces between boulders where the crayfish live had been filled in. However, these crayfish did much better in a similar stream in a national park where land clearing had not occurred and habitat loss was less. These crustaceans, though, are not extremely well suited to live very long, considering it takes eight or 10 years for them to reach reproductive age, yet they still manage to live up to around thirty years of age.

Although these crayfish may not be extremely popular, they are still very important crustaceans, and another extinct species is not a joke. These Murray Crayfish are also endangered because of overfishing, which is another great issue in the world today. There is much controversy over the hunting of animals that are vulnerable to endangeredness and extinction, and this issue with the Murray Crayfish fits right into that. It was said in the article, though, by Dr. Fulton, that the good news was that “there were still places in the damaged stream where the crayfish survived in good numbers and where the banks could be replanted and the kind of rocky habitat the crustaceans like could be rebuilt.” The scientists reported their findings in the online version of Aquatic Conservation: Marine and Freshwater Ecosystems. Ultimately, an extinct species is an extinct species, and really shouldn’t benefit the world with its ceasing to exist, so the endangeredness of these Murray Crayfish is a pretty important issue.

I felt this article had many strengths. I thought that the writer, James Gorman, did a great job giving background information about these crayfish and the important characteristics it had that made it unique. Although the article had some strengths, there were also many weaknesses that could be addressed. For example, this article, although very interesting, was very short. I thought it was a very interesting topic so I chose this article, but I found myself having to do a lot of background research on these Murray Crayfish because of the simple lack of more information by the author. Gorman gave good general information about the Murray Crayfish, but I felt this article lacked more detailed information about the crayfish. This article could be improved by Gorman if he decided to include more detailed information about the crayfish, like maybe a more detailed description of their habitats and their lifestyles.

Gorman, James. "A Big Australian Crayfish, Pretty and Endangered." The New York Times. The New York Times, 10 Apr. 2016. Web. 11 Apr. 2016. <http://www.nytimes.com/2016/04/11/science/a-big-australian-crayfish-pretty-and-endangered.html?action=click&contentCollection=science®ion=rank&module=package&version=highlights&contentPlacement=5&pgtype=sectionfront>.

Sierra Nevada Snow Won’t End California’s Thirst

It has been very clear over the past few decades that water is scarce on the west coast.  This year, however was what many hoped to be the end of a long drought because it is an El nino year.  However, recently Dr. Roger C. Bales and other members of the Sierra Critical Zone Observatory have noticed that not nearly enough snow has fallen for that to be true.  Although they have seen a dramatic increase in precipitation levels, much more of it was rain and not snow as they had hoped.  This causes a much quicker release of water which is not as beneficial as the slow release from melting snow because the ground is not able to use all of the water efficiently in such large amounts.  Much of the specific facts for total snow pack and rainfall have not been compiled yet but it is obvious, there has been a dramatic change from the old norm.  They have found that this change is so dramatic that water is flowing off the mountains two weeks earlier than it used to.  This is also due to trees.  Trees use a lot of water not only to grow and photosynthesize but also just by catching snow and rain on their leaves and absorbing the heat from the sun causing a large portion of the snow and rain to evaporate rather than run into the water supply.  Furthermore, the warmer conditions are causing faster tree growth and a shorter period of “shut down” for the trees because it is warm enough for them to operate for longer.  This only adds to the amount of snow that the trees are using up and takes more from the water supply.  This is not only affecting people but also many trees are being affected in late summer due to lack of water.  Furthermore, the author notes that we are part of the reason the trees are taking so much of the water.  By keeping a constant policy of quick suppression of small forest fires which are beneficial in nature and would clear many trees, we are preventing a lot of snow pack by keeping a high tree density.  If we allowed these natural fires to occur, the snow-pack would dramatically be increased.  

This topic is relevant because this water problem has become very important in California.  Now, many regulations have been put on water use forcing big users like golf courses and hotels either out of business or to find new landscaping methods.  Furthermore, many people are not able to water their lawns or even have drinking water at the prices they used to.  California recently built a desalination plant that would add to the water supply but at a very high cost compared to collecting runoff.  The fact that even in an El Nino year, we are not able to use all of the water because it was not in the right form does not bode well for the future and signifies that something drastic needs to be done now.  

Overall this article was very well written and thoughtful with only a few minor flaws.  I felt like this article was a little ahead of its time, the author should have waited until the rest of the facts were compiled to write this article because it would have dramatically added to the credibility of the story.  On the other hand, the author did a very good job at describing the whole situation and quoting scientists and some other facts to really make it clear what the problem is and how important and pressing this issue is.  To improve this article, I would suggest the author add a little more info about past snowpack and how it has changed over the years and compare that to what we have seen this year to give the reader some context.  

Fountain, Henry. "Sierra Nevada Snow Won’t End California’s Thirst." The New York Times. The New York Times, 11 Apr. 2016. Web. 11 Apr. 2016. <http://www.nytimes.com/2016/04/12/science/california-snow-drought-sierra-nevada-water.html?rref=collection%2Fsectioncollection%2Fscience&action=click&contentCollection=science®ion=rank&module=package&version=highlights&contentPlacement=1&pgtype=sectionfront&_r=0>.

Climate Models Underestimate Global Warming by Exaggerating Cloud Brightening

I recently read an article called “Climate models underestimate global warming by exaggerating cloud brightening.” The article spoke of how our current climate models were likely inaccurate, for they didn’t account for the changing color of our clouds. To elaborate on this, our current models for climate change show clouds to be brighter than they actually will be. As stated by the article, “As the atmosphere warms, clouds become increasingly composed of liquid rather than ice, making them brighter. Because liquid clouds reflect more sunlight back to space than ice clouds, this "cloud phase feedback" acts as a brake on global warming in climate models.” When researchers went back and corrected the incorrect brightness of the models’ clouds, they found that “the climate sensitivity increased from 4 degrees C in the default model to 5-5.3 degrees C in versions that were modified to bring liquid and ice amounts into closer agreement with observations.” This common mistake in our current models on climate change has proven to have quite a drastic effect on the predicted change in global temperature of an entire degree Celsius. Overall, this group of researches found that the incorrect information on the “stabilizing cloud feedback” led, consequently, to the acquisition of incorrect information on the change in temperature in the world, and we are in even more trouble than we previously thought.

This article is extremely relevant to our society today. Global warming is an issue we try to prevent every day. In my opinion, nothing is scarier than the idea of Earth itself becoming uninhabitable. As we near this doomsday, we begin to consider how we might stop it from happening. This article shows us that this point of destruction is coming at us at a faster rate than we previously thought. Not only is this very relevant to our lives, but it also gives us somewhat of a call to action. Our planet is decaying, and we need to do something to stop that. Some efforts have been made to stop this process, like reducing, reusing, and recycling, but that is not enough. We need to use more alternative sources of energy, like solar and wind power. Above all, no matter what we do, we need to do it now, because we don’t have much time to wait.

This article had its ups and downs. One reason I liked it was that it provided a stunning new piece of information about the increasing temperature of our planet. Also, it informed me more about the topic of “stabilizing cloud feedback.” This was something I had never heard of before, and I am now able to have a better grasp of how cloud color relates to temperature, and thus the state of matter of H2O. Though there were many positive sides to this article, there were also some things I didn’t like. For instance, at times, I found the article extremely confusing, and much of it sounded like environmental jargon: “Using a state-of-the-art climate model, the researchers modified parameters to bring the relative amounts of liquid and ice in clouds into agreement with clouds observed in nature. Correcting the bias led to a weaker cloud phase feedback and greater warming in response to carbon dioxide.” Statements like these confused me greatly, and made me less willing to go on with my reading. If i could give one suggestion to the author of this article, it would be to eliminate this type of speak and give a layman’s version of these confusing details. On the whole, however, I loved the article and found it very informative.

Citation:

"Climate Models Underestimate Global Warming by Exaggerating Cloud Brightening." ScienceDaily. ScienceDaily, n.d. Web. 12 Apr. 2016.

Hyperlink:

https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2016/04/160407221445.htm