Amid Brazil’s Rush to Develop, Workers Resist

Parana is northwestern state in Brazil that is home to many major tributaries of the Amazon River, the largest being the Madeira River. In this region, the Brazilian government has been building many hydroelectric dams in order to accommodate the surging demand for electricity, which is said to  increase 56% by 2021. However, several strikes and riots have occurred in recent years at several dam building sites, the most recent being a 26 day strike by 17,000 workers less than  month ago at the Jirau dam project along the banks of the Madeira River. The workers argued that their wages were very low considering the rising cost of living in Brazil. They also argued their living and working conditions in Jaci Parana, a village who’s population has risen from 6,000 to 14,000 people due to the need for laborers for the dam. The advance of the projects has opened Brazil to criticism from environmental groups, which say that the displacement of indigenous peoples and the flooding of swathes of rain forest-potentially releasing large amounts of methane gas-outweigh the dams’ benefits.

            I selected this article for review because it relates to me very much. Much of my extended family resides across Brazil, and I have a cousin who is from Parana. This also relates to me because I have visited the Amazon river, including the Rio Negro and the Madeira river, it’s two largest tributaries. I think that the dams need to be built because Brazil can’t afford to preserve this vast trove of natural resources. That being said, I also believe that it is the government’s job to protect the native people who are being displaced by the construction of the dam. They also need to ensure the well being of the rest of the rainforest and the thousands of species of animals who live in it.

            I enjoyed reviewing this article for several reasons. I wanted to review it because It affects my family, but also because the field of environmental science intrigues me very much.

ROMERO, SIMON. "Brazil's Rush to Develop Hydroelectric Power Brings Unrest." The New York Times. The New York Times, 06 May 2012. Web. 07 May 2012. <http://www.nytimes.com/2012/05/06/world/americas/brazils-rush-to-develop-hydroelectric-power-brings-unrest.html?pagewanted=2>.

Robot Reveals the Inner Workings of Brain Cells

          The basics of the article, "Robot Reveals the Inner Workings of Brain Cells" can be described rather simply. It is mainly about gaining access to the neurons in the living brain and the information it yields. At the same time, while this information we know is important to making life-changing discoveries, the art of gaining entry to said neurons is a tricky and time consuming task that takes months to master. Recently, researchers at MIT and Georgia Institute of Technology have developed a way to automate this process through the use of a robot arm guided by a cell-detecting computer algorithm. The team of researchers determined that the reason why this method is so efficient, is due to the fact that the robot can sense when it touches the cell, and therefore will not pierce the cell membrane, granting a much higher success rate. To describe this process, it consists of bringing a tiny glass pipette in contact with the cell membrane of a neuron, then opening up a small pore in the membrane to record the electrical activity within the cell. This process is known as whole-cell patch clamping. This process done by the robot arm has 90% accuracy when detecting a cell, and can establish a connection with the cell 40% of the time. They have also found an easier way to detect the shape of the cells through injecting dye.
        This article was related to humanity, and affects my life since apparently this method could help study some serious disorders. Said brain disorders include Parkinson's Disease, Schizophrenia, autism and epilepsy. I really can say that this is very important for me to know since I know plenty of people who suffer from these disorders. These are very common disorders, therefore any research or discoveries made on them will affect lives on a global scale. The robot also opens doors to many other fields of neuroscience in which robotics could be used.
       This article was very interesting, and I found the information relative to my life and the average person's live, which is extremely important. But, there was a ton of information to gather, and it at some points in the article it was hard to follow due to the language used and the length of the article. If you could get past the complicated language and some of the less important points of the article, it was easy to gather the significance of this new method to gaining access to the mysteries of the living brain.

"Robot Reveals the Inner Workings of Brain Cells". Biology News Net. May 6th, 2012. Web. May 6th, 2012. http://www.biologynews.net/archives/2012/05/06/robot_reveals_the_inner_workings_of_brain_cells.html

Dow Corn, Resistant to a Weed Killer, Runs Into Opposition

http://www.nytimes.com/2012/04/26/business/energy-environment/dow-weed-killer-runs-into-opposition.html?pagewanted=2&_r=1&ref=science

                To those who do not know 2,4-D is a powerful herbicide and was used in the notorious Agent Orange defoliant which was used in the Vietnam war to expose Vietnam guerrilla fighters. Years later it was discovered that Agent Orange lead to birth defects, cancer, and other health problems. Now 2,4-D is being used as a weed killer on corn that has been genetically mutated by the company DOW, to not be damaged by this herbicide by making a protein that is able to break down 2,4-D so that the chemical is not harmful to the plant. DOW and its allies have said that linking the 2,4-D chemical to the harmful medical side effects of Agent Orange because the harm done by Agent Orange was actually from a different ingredient (2,4,5-T) which has been of the market for many years. There is still argument today weather or not 2,4-D should be considered a human carcinogen. The dept. of Agriculture in D.C. has started leaning toward the approval of this genetically mutated corn and many farmers believe that there is an almost urgent need for this kind of corn like Mr. Hurst a farmer in Missouri who says "I think it's a crisis , and we need something to have a solution to get rid of resistant weeds". This corn is also not the only on of its kind Dow is working on soybeans and cotton also immune to 2,4-D along with other agricultural giants like Monsanto. The history of using genetically mutated plants that are immune to certain pesticides has been a success but not all good. Monsanto created a soybean that had been mutated to not be damaged by the chemical glyphosate commonly known as Roundup was so successful that about 90% of the soybeans grown in the states were from this genetically altered plant. Now years after farmers have used roundup so much that the weeds have also developed an immunity to the chemical and farmers are forced to weed their whole fields by hand. There is also the issue of the 2,4-D chemical drifting from one farm with plants immune to the chemical to another farm where the plants are still seseptable. The chemical can also vaporize and travel for miles in the air. DOW says that they are working on now formulations of 2,4-D that is far less prone to vaporization. DOW will also force those who purchase its genetically altered corn to also buy their new pesticide.

                We should pay close attention to this article for now in our modern time we are seeing more and more foods altered in labs to be more efficient for the companies and in a way making agriculture more like a factory with the exact same product every time. This article is also important because this is a growing ethical issue for the planet if it is wise to manipulate nature in a way for our own good and that we don't become too reliant on these mutated plants. This article is greatly important to our Biology class because we have just recently been learning about genetic mutation in plants and the pros and cons about them and I think it really relates to what we have been studying showing that what we learn in class can be directly relate to the real world.

                This article was a pretty easy read it was a little long but very interesting on the whole. I really enjoyed this article and the knowledge I gained from reading it. I think it was very interesting how we were just taking about genetic mutation in class. I would say anyone interested in this subject should read this article. 

Posted for M. Ribka        

How Selective Hearing Works in the Brain

Selective hearing is an involuntary tendency to focus on an individual speaker in any environment. Humans who have selective hearing are able to ignore all that is occurring around them. What makes people with selective hearing different from people who just decide to tune out the rest of their environment is that people with selective hearing do not realize or choose when to tune out the environment. The article, “How Selective Hearing Works in the Brain,” tells how UCSF neurosurgeon Edward Chang, MD, a faculty member in the UCSF Department of Neurological Surgery and the Keck Center for Integrative Neuroscience, and UCSF postdoctoral fellow Nima Mesgarani, PhD, worked with three patients that went through a brain surgery for their severe epilepsy. The UCSF team performed an experiment on the patients. The patients had to listen to two speech samples (that played at the same time) where different phrases were spoken by different people. After, the patients had to identify words that they heard were spoken by one of the two speakers. In the end, the UCSF team found that neural responses in the auditory cortex (the part of the brain that deals with hearing information) only reflected those of the targeted speaker. Edward Chang stated, “The algorithm worked so well that we could predict not only the correct responses, but also even when they paid attention to the wrong word.” This experiment opens the door toward conducting more research and focusing on ways of examining disorders like attention deficit disorder.

            When was the last time you completely ignored what someone was saying to you, and not even notice that the individual was talking to you? Well, that would be selective hearing. People use selective hearing throughout their lives to focus on something that they want to hear. Selective hearing occurs involuntarily throughout some humans. Unfortunately, selective hearing does not have a cure. However, selective hearing it is not harmful (it will just make the person speaking to you mad).  

            This article was very educational, and interesting. Before reading this article, I did not understand the scientific explanation of how selective hearing works in the brain (but know I do). However, the article should have talked about the percentage of human population that suffers with selective hearing.

"How Selective Hearing Works in the Brain." Biology News Net. 18 Apr. 2012. Web. 26 Apr. 2012. http://www.biologynews.net/archives/2012/04/18/how_selective_hearing_works_in_the_brain.html. 

http://www.biologynews.net/archives/2012/04/18/how_selective_hearing_works_in_the_brain.html

Dow Corn, Resistant to a Weed Killer, Runs Into Opposition

                 To those who do not know 2,4-D is a powerful herbicide and was used in the notorious Agent Orange defoliant which was used in the Vietnam war to expose vietnam guerrilla fighters. Years later it was discovered that Agent Orange lead to birth defects, cancer, and other health problems. Now 2,4-D is being used as a weed killer on corn that has been genetically mutated by the company DOW, to not be damaged by this herbicide by making a protein that is able to break down 2,4-D so that the chemical is not harmful to the plant. DOW and its allies have said that linking the 2,4-D chemical to the harmful medical side effects of Agent Orange because the harm done by Agent Orange was actually from a different ingredient (2,4,5-T) which has been of the market for many years. There is still argument today weather or not 2,4-D should be considered a human carcinogen. The dept. of Agriculture in D.C. has started leaning toward the approval of this genetically mutated corn and many farmers believe that there is an almost urgent need for this kind of corn like Mr. Hurst a farmer in Missouri who says "I think it's a crisis , and we need something to have a solution to get rid of resistant weeds". This corn is also not the only on of its kind Dow is working on soybeans and cotton also immune to 2,4-D along with other agricultural giants like Monsanto. The history of using genetically mutated plants that are immune to certain pesticides has been a success but not all good. Monsanto created a soybean that had been mutated to not be damaged by the chemical glyphosate commonly known as Roundup was so successful that about 90% of the soybeans grown in the states were from this genetically altered plant. Now years after farmers have used roundup so much that the weeds have also developed an immunity to the chemical and farmers are forced to weed their whole fields by hand. There is also the issue of the 2,4-D chemical drifting from one farm with plants immune to the chemical to another farm where the plants are still susceptible. The chemical can also vaporize and travel for miles in the air. DOW says that they are working on now formulations of 2,4-D that is far less prone to vaporization. DOW will also force those who purchase its genetically altered corn to also buy their new pesticide. 

We should pay close attention to this article for now in our modern time we are seeing more and more foods altered in labs to be more efficient for the companies and in a way making agriculture more like a factory with the exact same product every time. This article is also important because this is a growing ethical issue for the planet if it is wise to manipulate nature in a way for our own good and that we don't become too reliant on these mutated plants. This article is greatly important to our Biology class because we have just recently been learning about genetic mutation in plants and the pros and cons about them and I think it really relates to what we have been studying showing that what we learn in class can be directly relate to the real world.

This article was a pretty easy read it was a little long but very interesting on the whole. I really enjoyed this article and the knowledge I gained from reading it. I think it was very interesting how we were just taking about genetic mutation in class. I would say anyone interested in this subject should read this article        


"http://www.nytimes.com/2012/04/26/business/energy-environment/dow-weed-killer-runs-into-opposition.html?pagewanted=2&_r=1&ref=science"http://www.nytimes.com/2012/04/26/business/energy-environment/dow-weed-killer-runs-into-opposition.html?pagewanted=2&_r=1&ref=science 

Mysterious Comsic Rays Leave Scientists in the Dark

Imagine a burst of energy 100 million times greater than the greatest man made burst of energy ever created.  Charles Choi wrote the article, “Mysterious cosmic rays leave scientists in the dark,” that talks about how scientists have recently gained new evidence of this burst of energy named a, “Cosmic Ray.” A cosmic ray is a streak of subatomic particles across deep outer space.  University of Wisconsin professor and leader of the “IceCube” observatory preached how nature is very capable of doing this.  He followed by explaining, “There are basically only two ideas on how she does this — in gravitationally driven particle flows near the supermassive black holes at the centers of active galaxies, and in the collapse of stars to a black hole, seen by astronomers as gamma-ray bursts.”  More studies suggest that this ray can emit as much energy as the sun over its entire lifetime in a couple of minutes or even in a couple of seconds.  In the past scientists have believed that the cause of this rare event was due to gamma ray bursts but new evidence suggests that this is not the case.  The IceCube observatory has been the leading researcher on this topic over the past few years.  They created special detectors that can detect sub atomic particles passing through it in order to obtain neutrino astronomy data.  With this data they recently partially ruled out gamma rays as instigators of these cosmic rays.

            This recent news really connects to our lives as human beings.  This new evidence of cosmic rays enhances the gap in knowledge of what’s going to happen in our future.  I don’t know if it’s just me but I don’t really think these rays bode well for our planet.  The information and research that we have gathered on cosmic rays seems very nebulous to me.  What if these large bursts push our planet or another planet off their course.  If that were to happen then there could be collisions and that’s certainly not what we want to happen in the future.

            I thought that this article was very well written.  Choi made it easy to understand through his tone and word choice.  I really liked how he chose quotes that really fit the article.  The quotes went along with his argument smoothly.  Also I liked how he broke the article into sections.  This allowed for better understanding and allowed for me to keep up with the story.   One thing that I thought Choi could have done better was that he could have provided more research about past studies of cosmic rays.  Overall, I thought this was a very good article and a great read.  I recommend this article to anyone with a curious mind.

Choi, Charles Q. "Mysterious Cosmic Rays Leave Scientists in the Dark." Msnbc.com. Msnbc Digital Network, 18 Apr. 2012. Web. 18 Apr. 2012. <http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/47089794/ns/technology_and_science-space/>.

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/47089794/ns/technology_and_science-space/#.T49gTBxBRfA

The Power of a Radically Affordable Irrigation Pump

I read the article “The Power of a Radically Affordable Irrigation Pump”, posted onto the National Geographic website by Sandra Postel. This article gave insight into the use of the recently invented treadle pump. This pump is based for agricultural families in Southeast Asia and Sub-Saharan Africa. These families are in poverty and are hungry because they don’t have the technology or the resources to make enough crops during the dry season. The treadle pump, invented by Norwegian engineer Gunnar Barnes, is extremely helpful to farmers as, “The operator pedals up and down on two poles (called treadles), which activates a cylinder that suctions water up through a shallow well. The water then empties into an irrigation ditch and travels down the field to irrigate small plots of rice and vegetables.” The great thing about this pump is that it will only cost these families $35. Farmers can irrigate up to half an acre worth of crops with this simple device. The families can produce more crops to escape hunger, and as they make higher value crops, they can escape poverty as well. Eighty-four manufacturers make treadle pumps in Bangladesh and over 1.4 million pumps have been sold since 1984.  Now the International Development Enterprise has set up local posts to sell more pumps to Bangladeshi families in need. Along with the IDE, a non-profit company called KickStart has been giving variations of the treadle pump to farmers in Sub-Saharan Africa. This new affordable pump is changing lives and helping troubled families escape poverty and hunger.

                At this point in history over 850 million people are hungry in the world. Most of them cannot feed themselves or their families because they do not have the resources or the technology to produce enough food. Troubled farmers in Africa and Asia cannot produce enough crops during the difficult dry season, but thanks to the treadle pump, the families can irrigate their fields and have enough food to support their family and sell higher priced crops to the market. Hunger is such a big problem in our world today and so many organizations have been working towards helping people, and the treadle pump is helping the cause to giving everyone food. Each treadle pump sold gets us even closer to our goal of making sure that no one goes hungry.

                Reading the article “The Power of a Radically Affordable Irrigation Pump”, posted by Sandra Postel, really made me happy because I love reading stories about new inventions that help troubled people. Farming life in Sub-Saharan Africa and Southeast Asia is extremely tough, and many farmers have troubles during the hard dry season, but Gunnar Barnes creates a simple way to irrigate their fields. This article is well-written and describes the overview of the treadle pump really well. I really enjoyed this article and I hope my classmates enjoy it as well.

http://newswatch.nationalgeographic.com/2012/04/18/the-power-of-a-radically-affordable-irrigation-pump/

posted for J. Flannery