http://www.macroevolution.net/dust-bunnies.html
This article explains where dust bunnies come from. Some airborne particles are blown in from outdoors. House dust can contain very harmful substances, this should be a concern to parents. Children may end up inhaling these toxins or even ingesting them by sucking or licking dust infected toys. Scientists found out that over 60 percent of house dust originates outdoors.
I believe that this article is very informational. Homeowners should know the effect that dust mites have on their household. Parents especially should take precautions making sure that their children's surroundings are clean. Also this article reminds us that we should keep our house clean.
Friday, September 10, 2010
Coral Bleaching- Hannah Moerk
http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2010/08/100816170839.htm
Summary:
Scientists have observed that the rise in temperature in the Indonesian waters, has resulted in coral bleaching. Coral bleaching occurs when algae living within tissues are expelled. It also is an indication of stress caused by environmental triggers such as temperature fluctuations. Temperatures last May in the Adaman Sea reached a high of 34 degrees, 4 degrees higher than the long term averages, which may be a major contribution to the coral effects. An initial survey indicated that over 60% of corals were bleached, in addition, scientists found that 80% of some species have died since then. What needs to be done if anything to help, and what can we do?
Opinion:
These coral reefs are some of the world's most biodiverse and are essential to other plants, animals, and humans. It is obvious that their bleaching is much more severe than we've ever seen before or thought about, and action needs to be taken to help. The coral reef's contribution and connection to plants and animals is obvious, but what people don't know is their connection to humans as well. Humans in these regions depend on the reefs for food and livelihood. Many attempts are already being taken place such as communities maintaining fish biomes and attempts to curse climate change, but the truth is that we must act fast if we want these reefs to be around in the future.
NIH to resume funding stem cell research for now
WASHINGTON – The government said Friday it's back in the business of funding embryonic stem cell research — at least for now — after an appeals court temporarily lifted a judge's ban.
The National Institutes of Health said it is resuming its own research and will again evaluate applications from scientists who are seeking taxpayer money to do the work, a process that has been frozen since late last month.
An appeals court on Thursday temporarily stayed a judge's preliminary order barring that funding until it could hear full arguments in the next few weeks.
In the meantime, the NIH said it is lifting its suspension of all grants and contracts involving use of the cells.
"We are pleased with the court's interim ruling, which will allow promising stem cell research to continue" while the court battle is waged, said the NIH's statement.
Scientists who already had received NIH grants had been told to continue working until their dollars ran out, but that 22 projects due to get yearly checks in September would have to find other money.
Now the question is whether the NIH will finish the reviews required for those projects during what could be only a temporary reprieve. No matter what, the case is certain to be bouncing around the court system for many months before there's a final resolution.
"We believe it's a shame that they would rush to push funding of embryonic stem cell research, and a waste of taxpayer money," said Steven H. Aden, senior legal counsel for the Alliance Defense Fund, which is involved with the lawsuit that challenged the government funding.
Embryonic stem cells are master cells that can turn into any tissue of the body, and researchers hope one day to harness that power in ways that cure spinal cord injuries, Parkinson's disease and other ailments.
Culling them from embryos left over after fertility treatment kills a days-old embryo. A 1996 law prohibits the use of taxpayer dollars in work that harms an embryo, so batches have been culled using private money. But those batches can reproduce in lab dishes indefinitely, and government policies say using taxpayer dollars to work with the already created batches is permissible.
Last month, U.S. District Court Judge Royce Lamberth disagreed, in a sharply worded preliminary injunction in which he argued that the research violated the intent of the 1996 law. Lamberth left little doubt that he is inclined to issue a final order barring funding, which will set off a new round of appeals.
Amid the back-and-forth, researchers are struggling to figure out how to secure long-running experiments.
"I take no solace in the ruling because so much uncertainty remains about the future of human stem cell research," said Dr. George Daley, a leading stem cell researcher at Children's Hospital Boston. "I won't rest peacefully until there is a clear and unambiguous vote of support from the Congress for this vital research."
Congress twice passed legislation specifically calling for tax-funded stem cell research, which President George W. Bush vetoed. Some Democrats are considering whether to try the legislation again.
The lawsuit was filed by two scientists who argued that President Barack Obama's expansion of the number of stem cell lines available for government funding jeopardized their ability to win grants to research adult stem cells — ones that have already matured to create specific types of tissues — because of extra competition.
Many scientists believe the more flexible embryonic cells have more promise, but lots of work is under way with both kinds. The NIH's estimated budget for next year would spend more than three times as much on research for adult stem cells as embryonic ones, said Patrick Clemins of the American Association for the Advancement of Science.
Stem cell research is back to business, when they appealed to the judge who had banded it. "We are pleased with the court's interim ruling, which will allow promising stem cell research to continue" while the court battle is waged, said the NIH's statement. The people against it belive differently and states "We believe it's a shame that they would rush to push funding of embryonic stem cell research, and a waste of taxpayer money," said Steven H. Aden, senior legal counsel for the Alliance Defense Fund, which is involved with the lawsuit that challenged the government funding. Some time last month, U.S. District Court Judge Royce Lamberth disagreed, in a sharply worded injunction in which he argued that the research violated the intent of the 1996 law. Lamberth left that he is inclined to issue a final order barring funding, which will set off a new round of appeals. Congress has gone Congress twice passed legislation specifically calling for tax-funded stem cell research, which President George W. Bush vetoed. Some Democrats are considering whether to try the legislation again.
I'm glade that stem-cell research is continuing. What if they create a cure that cures your nerve damage. How knows one day I could be in a car accident and damage my nerves and can't walk I would want to be fixed up and run and walk again and have fun instead of living life in a wheel chair. How would you feel being stuck in a wheel chair? It will stop people from going to other countries to have stem-cell surge done and there hopes are crushed. They lose all that money for nothing. What do you believe in?
Cure for Aids? -Ben Snider
http://www.buzzle.com/articles/biology-current-events.html
A Big job for medical researchers now a days is to find the cure for AIDS. They are trying to replace normal HIV cell of a patient With HIV resistant cells through an operation called bone marrow. Which is where they take your destroyed cells from your body and take healthy cells from another persons bone marrow which by the way produces new healthy cells, and they stivk the healthy cells into your body. There was a patient in Germany Who had leukemia and aids and the scientists performed a bone marrow transplant, to see if it would work. Now Genetic engineering is going on to see if they can use this breakthrough for AIDS. Will they find a cure to AIDS? Only time will tell
A Big job for medical researchers now a days is to find the cure for AIDS. They are trying to replace normal HIV cell of a patient With HIV resistant cells through an operation called bone marrow. Which is where they take your destroyed cells from your body and take healthy cells from another persons bone marrow which by the way produces new healthy cells, and they stivk the healthy cells into your body. There was a patient in Germany Who had leukemia and aids and the scientists performed a bone marrow transplant, to see if it would work. Now Genetic engineering is going on to see if they can use this breakthrough for AIDS. Will they find a cure to AIDS? Only time will tell
Turning a new page on anti biotics.
http://www.biologynews.net/archives/2010/09/08/turning_a_new_page_on_antibiotics.html
Antibiotics have been misudes and managed for too long, causing a crisis recently adressed at a conference in Sweeden. The conference was held at Uppsala University, with 190 people from 45 countries atending it. The issue at hand was simple, what wil happen when we become immune to antibiotics? The tolerance people are able to build up to them is troubling, and theatens to cuase simple infections to again become deadly like in the middle ages. It was agrreed that new steps need to be taken to better handle the situation involving the anti biotics and their misuse.
I believe that this is a very good thing, and should have been discussed earlier actually. If we begin to build yup a tolerance to these treatments, it could mean multiple catastrophies, if it gets to an extreme point that is. I don't think its nearly even close to that point yet, but it is beginning to be an unsettling problem, and it's comforting that it's being adresse before it gets to that extreme. I like that they hve decided to take the first steps to act on limiting the opportunity to misuse antibiotics.
Antibiotics have been misudes and managed for too long, causing a crisis recently adressed at a conference in Sweeden. The conference was held at Uppsala University, with 190 people from 45 countries atending it. The issue at hand was simple, what wil happen when we become immune to antibiotics? The tolerance people are able to build up to them is troubling, and theatens to cuase simple infections to again become deadly like in the middle ages. It was agrreed that new steps need to be taken to better handle the situation involving the anti biotics and their misuse.
I believe that this is a very good thing, and should have been discussed earlier actually. If we begin to build yup a tolerance to these treatments, it could mean multiple catastrophies, if it gets to an extreme point that is. I don't think its nearly even close to that point yet, but it is beginning to be an unsettling problem, and it's comforting that it's being adresse before it gets to that extreme. I like that they hve decided to take the first steps to act on limiting the opportunity to misuse antibiotics.
Crops in the Cold
Scientists have recently found a gene in plants that is the cause of why they slow down in growth during the winter. It's a gene called Spatula! It causes the plants to slow down in cooler temperatures, around winter-time, so they can adjust and still live. But researchers at the University of Edinburgh think that they can change the gene around to where they can make the crops do the opposite; grow faster in colder climates and produce food. They researched this Spatula gene and found out that when it was low, the plants would grow about twice as fast in lower temperatures than they would normally, and they found this out after they messed with the gene. This could create more food supplies for future developing countries and future populations.
Personally, I am for and kind of against this. I'm against it... really because I just don't want people to be altering plants and making them produce more food only for us, just to benefit us. I don't know why but there is just something in me that when people mess with nature, it makes me mad. But some of the reasons I am for this is that if there are more food supplies, we can support other countries and if not only for us, we could probably use that food to benefit some of the surrounding wildlife, assuming the plants that are used are some things that the wildlife could eat, like corn, carrots, etc. But all in all I'm really just iffy about this, mostly because I don't really want humans to be messing with nature, because I just don't think that it's right.
Personally, I am for and kind of against this. I'm against it... really because I just don't want people to be altering plants and making them produce more food only for us, just to benefit us. I don't know why but there is just something in me that when people mess with nature, it makes me mad. But some of the reasons I am for this is that if there are more food supplies, we can support other countries and if not only for us, we could probably use that food to benefit some of the surrounding wildlife, assuming the plants that are used are some things that the wildlife could eat, like corn, carrots, etc. But all in all I'm really just iffy about this, mostly because I don't really want humans to be messing with nature, because I just don't think that it's right.
Risk of Beetle Outbreaks Rise, Along With Temperature, in the Warming West
http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2010/09/100908171158.htm
Scientist from the USDA Forest Service predict that in the coming decades that there will be a rise in beetle population. They tested this theory with species of bark beetles and known effects of the climate change. One type of bark beetle, the spruce beetle, reproduced annually rather than every two years as they normaly do. Their test also showed the possiblity of the mountain pine beetles to increase in numbers and to expand across the US into the eastern parts. The lead scientist said that this tests were important so they will know how the beetles will react in different climate changes so they will know how to manage the changing populations.
In my opinion I think this research was needed because in their test it showed that in a warming climate the beetle population would grow significantly. Because of their research they will be able to control the population of the beetles but i want to know how they would be able to do that with the vast amount of space the beetles cover. Maybe they might make it to North Carolina and could collect a bunch, go to China and sell them, and buy a Ferrari for my 16th birthday.
Scientist from the USDA Forest Service predict that in the coming decades that there will be a rise in beetle population. They tested this theory with species of bark beetles and known effects of the climate change. One type of bark beetle, the spruce beetle, reproduced annually rather than every two years as they normaly do. Their test also showed the possiblity of the mountain pine beetles to increase in numbers and to expand across the US into the eastern parts. The lead scientist said that this tests were important so they will know how the beetles will react in different climate changes so they will know how to manage the changing populations.
In my opinion I think this research was needed because in their test it showed that in a warming climate the beetle population would grow significantly. Because of their research they will be able to control the population of the beetles but i want to know how they would be able to do that with the vast amount of space the beetles cover. Maybe they might make it to North Carolina and could collect a bunch, go to China and sell them, and buy a Ferrari for my 16th birthday.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)