Current Event 12

Megan Barker 5/16/19

Bio C Odd Current Event 12

University of Leeds. "Nearly a quarter of West Antarctic ice is now unstable."

ScienceDaily. ScienceDaily, 16 May 2019. <www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2019/05/190516114601.htm>.

In the Article “Nearly A Quarter of West Antarctic Ice is Now Unstable” from the University of Leeds,  an experiment is described in which scientists were able to discover that nearly a quarter of West Antarctic ice is now unstable, and that much of this is due to climate change. The article begins by explaining how the experiment resulted in the finding that glaciers have thinned up to 122 meters, meaning that they are losing more mass than they are gaining through snowfall. The article also explains that since 1992, the thinning of glaciers is now five times faster than it was. The article then goes on to explain how the study was conducted. 800 million measurements of Antarctic ice sheets were measured between 1992 and 2017 by satellites, allowing causes of melting to be separated by changing weather patterns or legitimate climate change. They did this by measuring surface height change to simulated changes in snowfall, and attributing greater discrepancies to climate change. The researchers were then able to conclude that climate change is the leading cause of much glacial thinning. The article then adds how this has resulted in a rise in sea levels, and how satellites are important in determining how our environment is changing.

Climate change is incredibly problematic and impacts everything on the planet. The damage being done to the Earth through the use of factories, excessive greenhouse gasses, and lack of proper garbage disposal will result in irreversible damage. Although humans have generally believed that they were above animals and other beings throughout history, when it comes to climate change, all are equal. The Earth will be ruined and uninhabitable, no resources will be renewable, and most life will die off of the Earth if nothing is changed. The article proves how serious climate change is, by proving that climate change is the cause of thinning glaciers and rising sea levels.

This article was very thorough and well-explained. It goes through the experiment in a concise way that includes all of the main ideas, and explains the experiment’s significance. One critique of this article, though, is that the article mentions significant “signals of glacier imbalance that have persisted for decades” (Leeds), but fails to explain more about these imbalances. One suggestion for this article would be to include more context and explanation as to what these imbalances are and why they have persisted for decades. Including this detail would help to make the article more clear.

Ben Davis 
May 16, 2019 
Core Bio
Current Event 12

Ferreira, Becky. “Bedbugs Menaced the Dinosaur Age Before Moving Into Our Mattresses.” The 
New York Times, The New York Times, 16 May 2019, 
www.nytimes.com/2019/05/16/science/bedbugs-dinosaurs-evolution.html.

For this week's current event I read Becky Ferreira’s article, “Bedbugs Menaced the Dinosaur Age Before Moving Into Our Mattresses.” In her article, Ferreira discussed the origin of the infamous bedbugs. She wrote, “The team’s findings, confirmed that bedbugs originated at least 100 million years ago when dinosaurs roamed Earth.” This notion discredits the former belief of bedbugs and can help scientists anticipate the bugs next moves in an era of climate change and expansive human activity. Bedbugs are tens of millions of years older than humans their origins as past believed cannot be related to homo sapiens. Ferreira recounts the travels of researchers around the world. She states, “In addition to requesting specimens from hundreds of researchers, the study’s authors personally collected bedbugs around the world. The team braved knee-deep piles of bat feces in Texas, donning masks when carbon dioxide concentrations became too high. In one Kenyan cave, they took care to avoid contamination from the deadly Marburg virus, which can be transmitted to humans from fruit bats.” Scientists believe that bedbugs are closely related to the Cimicidae family tree and the Hopi folklore. It was originally thought that bats were the first hosts of bedbugs. That belief has since changed, Ferreira wrote, “It’s now clear that the parasites were sustained through the age of dinosaurs by more ancient animals. But the identity of the earlier host, or hosts, remains a tantalizing mystery, as fossil evidence is scarce, Dr. Reinhardt said.”

The article by Becky Ferreira is very relevant in today’s society. People around the world are scared of the thought of bugs in your bed while you are sleeping. As the old saying goes don’t let the bedbugs bite. Bedbugs are often found across the countries. They have been famously found in many hotels and motels across the country. If bedbugs are found in your hotel it will most likely be shut down. Sometimes that shutdown will be permanent. This article is also a breakthrough in evolution. We learn that bedbugs are not related to homo sapiens and have been around since the time of the dinosaurs. 

Overall Ferreira did a great job with her article. There are many things she did well and there are things she can improve on to make her writing better. One thing Ferreira did very well was incorporate quotes from experts on the study. Ferreira quoted  Dr. Reinhardt. who wrote, “To make a prediction about the next species that hops onto humans, we would have to look into species that were originally specialists, but then started to expand their host portfolio.” One thing Ferreria should have included her review was how bedbugs affect people. While her article was good it could have been a lot better if it had information about bedbugs interacting with humans. 

Current Event 11

Rachel Roberts

5/8/19

Patel, Neel V. “An Asteroid's Water May Offer Clues to the Origin of Life on Earth.” Popular

Science, 3 May 2019, www.popsci.com/asteroid-water#page-2.

For Current Event 11, I read the article, “An asteroid's water may offer clues to the origin of life on Earth” by Neel V. Patel. The article focused on an asteroid called Itokawa, which is 1,800 feet long and 1,000 feet wide and a remnant of a larger asteroid. Nine years ago, the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency, or JAXA gathered samples of Itokawa and brought them down to Earth. And to scientists’ surprise, they found that the samples contained water. Maitrayee Bose, a cosmochemist at Arizona State University said, “Before we embarked on this work, our back of the envelope calculations showed that it is indeed possible for the Itokawa grains to retain the original water in the right proportion from when the asteroid formed” However, they found it unlikely as Itokawa has been heated up to 1,500° Fahrenheit and has been impacted by other rocks which would have made it extremely hard to preserve the water. Bose convinced JAXA to make five sample grains of the 1,500 available for study. In those five samples, two of them seemed to contain pyroxene which on Earth, is a mineral that holds water in its crystalline structure. This led Bose to believe that maybe asteroid pyroxene contained water as well. He used his university’s NanoSIMS instrument, an ion mass spectrometer with the ability to measure mineral grains with extraordinary sensitivity. They found that the pyroxenes in the asteroid were rich in water with a large amount of 0.1%. While this may not seem like much in comparison to the amount we see on Earth, it is much more than any scientist predicted as Itokawa is a very dry asteroid. The discovery of water in the small samples taken from Itokawa lead researchers to speculate if the asteroid could harbor more and how many other dry asteroids could contain water.

The information and research gained from discovering the 0.1% of water in the Itokawa asteroid samples could help scientists figure out how and why the Earth is rich in water. Scientists like Bose make their research aimed at how small bodies in the solar system acquire and sustain the building blocks for life. He said, “We find ourselves on this ‘pale blue dot,’ a planet full of water, rich in organics and supportive of life, we know of no other such planet. My aim is to find out how.” A theory for this issue is that asteroids and other small satellites could be able to send materials and life to planetary bodies. Bose said, “The most popular scenario is that water-rich asteroids delivered water on Earth from the outer solar system during different periods of planetary formation. Small asteroid bodies in the inner solar system could be a source of water for Earth and other planets. You can think of these small bodies… as being the fundamental building blocks of planets, bringing water and other materials, like organics, to the planets.” The discovery of water in Itokawa supports this theory as it shows how materials needed for life can travel on asteroids and brings us a step closer to discovering the beginnings of life.

When reading the article by Neel V. Patel, there were many good aspects of his writing. He explained the information in the article very well. I was able to understand it although I have very limited to no previous knowledge of the topic. Also, he integrated the story of Bose finding water in the asteroid into his 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 research. While Patel did an excellent job explaining the research and the story, the article could use too many scientific terms without any explanations. It often confused me as I wouldn’t know what was being mentioned at the moment. It would be much better if there were information mentioned directly after or in parentheses so there could not be any confusion on the topics. When writing articles for a website that is open for anybody of any career or interest to look at, it is best to be specific when introducing new information and topics so more people would be able to understand it fully.  

The Lithium future

Chris Aherne
Mr. Ippolito
Core Bio
5-8-19

Gramling, Carolyn. “The Search for New Geologic Sources of Lithium Could Power a Clean Future.” Science News, 7 May 2019, www.sciencenews.org/article/search-new-geologic-sources-lithium-could-power-clean-future?tgt=nr.

Ever since the cars conception in 1893, humans have begun to rely on this piece of technology. However, we did not know that the fuel, that would later power every car across the planet, would not be a sustainable source of energy. From its high price to its destructive properties, gasoline would inevitably have to go. In the article "The search for new geologic sources of lithium could power a clean future", by Carolyn Gramling, she describes how the use of lithium batteries could solve our oil issues. Lithium batteries are our only current option to a clean renewable source of energy for everything we need. Although many people are skeptical of this new energy source, Gramling points out that lithium batteries have already been in high demand, since these are what powers our phones, and that people have nothing to worry about if they already carry around a phone all day. Because if people will carry these batteries with them everywhere they go, they should trust them in the hoods of their cars.

The most popular electric car to date is the Tesla, which has been using lithium ion batteries in all of their cars up until this year. Also occurring very recently, is the large boom of electric/ hybrid cars coming out of almost every car company on the market. And with more car companies making these cars, the more lithium batteries will be used. Gramling suggests that this is a very good thing for our environment, since automobile emissions are one fifth the total amount of pollution in the US. Even stating that with every gallon of gas used, 24 pounds of carbon dioxide and other harmful gasses are released. It has become evident that these gas emissions are a large contributor to global warming, which will only further our planets decay.

I would say that overall Gramling did a great job with this article. She was very thorough and made sure that she included everything surrounding the topic.She also gave good reason for everything that she mentioned. However, I felt as if she could have given us more insight into what this would mean for the future of automobiles. For example, she never explained how this would affect the stock market, and she never once mentioned how much money would be saved or lost in the transition to lithium batteries. Overall, she did a great job and I learned a lot. 

Griffin Patterson

Core Bio

Current event 10

May 1st 2019

Singh, Maanvi. “Endangered Green Sea Turtles May Be Making a Comeback in the U.S. Pacific.” Science News, 26 Apr. 2019, www.sciencenews.org/article/endangered-green-sea-turtles-may-be-making-comeback-us-pacific.

For current event 10 I decided to read  “Endangered green sea turtles may be making a comeback in the U.S. Pacific” by Mannavi Singh. The author begins the article by stating that the “Beleaguered populations of green sea turtles living in and around Hawaii and American Pacific island territories are increasing in number”. These sea turtles have been non existent in  Hawaii and American Pacific island territories and now there population is increasing 8 percent per year. The author even says in the article” The number of green sea turtles spotted around Hawaii increased by an average of 8 percent each year, the team reports April 24 in PLOS ONE. Around American Samoa and the Mariana Islands, the turtles’ numbers increased by an average of 4 percent per year”. As you can see the number of so called “endangered” sea turtles are actually gaining populations in many places around the world. The number of sea turtles has been increasing the last two decades and we didn't even now. The author say in the article “ The number of green sea turtles nesting in Hawaii and some Pacific island regions has been slowly increasing over the last two decades. But until now, scientists have had little information on how hatchlings fare once they leave their sandy cradles and venture out into the ocean”.

This article is extremely relevant to society because we thought these rules were endangered but they are actually slowly increasing in population. These turtles are relevant in society because they clearly play important roles in marine ecosystems. ... Whether by grazing on sea grass, controlling sponge distribution, feasting on jellyfish, transporting nutrients or supporting other marine life, sea turtles play vital roles in maintaining the health of the oceans. We overall need these turtles because they balance the marine ecosystem. If the sea turtles where to go extinct it would cause declines in all the species whose survival depends on healthy sea grass beds and coral reefs. That means that many marine species that humans harvest would be lost.  As you can see, if sea turtles where to go extinct the marine ecosystem would be very off balance.

I think Mannavi Singh did a excellent job writing this article. the author was able to explain the importance of the sea turtles but also explain the growth in population of these animals. The author also did a great job explaining her point and supplying facts and data about the sea turtles growth. As this article was written well well, there is still room for improvement. There could have been some outside information from the people in the water with the turtles. If we had information from the people experiencing face to face action with the turtles more data could be created. Although, there was room for improvement this was a very well written article and I enjoyed reading it.    

Current Event 10

Tenzing Pixley

Core Biology C ODD

Current Event Review 10

Tuesday, April 30th, 2019

Murphy, Heather. “Sooner or Later Your Cousin's DNA Is Going to Solve a Murder.” The New

York Times, The New York Times, 25 Apr. 2019,

www.nytimes.com/2019/04/25/us/golden-state-killer-dna.html.

In the article, Sooner or Later Your Cousin's DNA Is Going to Solve a Murder by Heather Murphy, the author documents the use of what is quoted to be an “unconventional technique that relies on DNA submitted to online genealogy sites,” investigators have solved dozens of crimes. The method involves the use of mostly female DNA samples acquired from genealogy sites. Through this, law enforcement officials have been able to cross reference with left-over, non fallacious DNA at the site of violent crimes. Although it can be used in more recent investigations, investigators primarily employed it in solving cases which have been left inconclusive, sometimes decades after work has ceased. And despite only using samples from distant relatives, it has been remarkably effective when used in the branch of violent crimes.

The use of cross referencing DNA from genealogy databanks, albeit knew, has profound effects on the way crime is and will be solved for the foreseeable future and even beyond. First and foremost, this method is being used to conclude many investigators wrote off as “impossible”. A prime example of this would be the notoriously dubbed “Golden State Killer”, Joseph James DeAngelo, a man responsible for at least 13 murders, 50 accounts of rape, and a minimum of 100 burglaries from the mid 70’s to 80’s. For decades the case went on without a single strong suspect, until in August of last year when investigators cross referenced DNA with that found online to catch DeAngelo, who fit witness descriptions perfectly.

Murphy did a great job writing the article for a multitude of reasons. Taking the spotlight would be how she provided many real-world examples of how it has been used, not just theoretical usages which may or may not occur in the future. One of these being the example of how they apprehended the Golden State Killer. This helped the article stay grounded in reality rather than the the realm of possibility. She also brought up how it can be used for sexual assault victims, not just violent crimes.

Caroline Hulbert    

4.30.19

Bio 10H

Current Event 10

Schwartz, Alex. “Antibiotics Save Lives-but Misusing Them Could Lead to Millions of Deaths.” Popular Science, 29 Apr. 2019, www.popsci.com/antimicrobial-drug-resistance-deaths-2050.

For this current event, I decided to review the article, “Antibiotics Save Lives-but Misusing Them Could Lead to Millions of Deaths,” by Alex Schwartz. The author begins the article by describing something that has become a huge problem in the world, which is the overuse and misuse of antibiotics and antimicrobial medicine. According to the infectious disease unit of the United Nations, this could lead to “devastating infectious disease outbreaks in the coming decades.” The described overuse of antibiotics has led to infectious diseases, like tuberculosis, MRSA, and malaria harder to treat because they are becoming resistant to the drugs commonly used to treat them. Not only does this put healthy people at risk, but people undergoing medical procedures are under threat as well. Some of the suggested solutions to the growing issues were taking more holistic approaches to disease care, having countries put more regulations in place regarding the drugs, as well as doing research to create better versions of them and ending agricultural reliance on them. The article then goes on to talk about the fact that because of genetic mutation, microbes become resistant to drugs over time, which is why its overuse is such a huge problem.

This article is extremely relevant to society, as it discusses an issue that endangers millions of people around the world. Antibiotics have always been thought to save lives and while they do, there are also many people suffering from the misuse of them. The article mentions, “around 700,000 people die from drug-resistant diseases each year—that number could skyrocket to 10 million if countries don’t take action.” Having more coverage about this issue in media will hopefully make people more aware of the harm that the overuse of antibiotics has caused and the immediate need for action.

I think that this article was very well-written. The author was able to describe a complex subject matter in a way that made it easy for readers to comprehend, while still being sophisticated and using advanced vocabulary. Including details and statistics about the issue at hand helped establish its severity and make a connection with readers. However, Schwartz jumps right into discussing the misuse and overuse of antimicrobial medicine at the beginning of the article. It would have helped make more of an impact on readers if he had included some background information about the topic first or describing the good aspects of antibiotics. It also would have helped if he had provided more details about where the antibiotic issue is most prevalent in the world. Despite these areas of improvement, I thought that Schwartz’s article was very detailed and touched on a serious issue in the world that many people are unaware of.