John Oliver takes on climate change, with a bit of help from Bill Nye.
“I think I know why people think this issue is open to debate. Because on TV, it is.”
The mystery of MH370, and the science behind tracking it
The mystery of MH370’s disappearance seemed to have been solved when Inmarsat used satellite ping data to narrow down its last known location, but a deep sea sonar search of the area has yielded nothing (even though a few audio pings were heard that may have been the plane’s black boxes). Investigators are re-examining all data, and this is raising questions about Inmarsat’s calculations and assumptions. There’s a really fascinating article at The Atlantic that talks about this in great detail…how the location is determined, and what some concerns are about the conclusions reached to date. Cool stuff, and worth reading (quick summary – the conclusions don’t appear to align with the data, and need further explanation).
Adding to the confusion is a geological survey company’s findings in the Bay of Bengal, which they say appears to be a large aircraft at the bottom of the sea, where previous data had showed nothing. They used a really cool technology…essentially, the data shows what elements are found on the sea floor, and this shows large concentrations of aluminum and other key elements. However, their findings are being mostly ignored, apart from a couple countries in the area that have dispatched ships to check things out.
Looking ahead…Inmarsat has offered to provide a free tracking service to all passenger airlines, though international agencies like the ICAO and IATA are currently discussing what to do about plane tracking.
DEKA arm receives FDA approval
Dean Kamen’s DEKA R&D Corporation has been working on an advanced prosthetic arm for many years, and has just received FDA approval. Next step is to find a manufacturing partner, then they can bring this device to market and provide a level of functionality not before available to amputees. This arm is controlled by electrodes placed on the remaining portion of a wearer’s arm, and translates those signals into actions in the arm, and is the first of its kind to be able to perform multiple simultaneous robotic actions. It may sound mundane..but this arm has enough control to allow users to pick up even fragile objects like grapes and eggs without breaking them, giving their users enormous gains in ability.
Check out the video below from 60 minutes to get a better sense of what this arm is all about:
RNAi GMO – RNA-interference GM crops
There’s a new category of genetically modified crops on the horizon that utilize a technique known as RNAi, or RNA interference. For a recap of what RNA does, check out wikipedia, but in summary: it’s primarily a messenger, carrying instructions from DNA to control the synthesis of proteins. RNAi is an attempt to interfere with this process; an insect (the corn root worm, in this case) takes up small siRNA (small interfering ribonucleic acid molecules) from a corn plant, which then turn off the production of critical proteins in those pests, killing them. It’s a pretty amazing technology, and one that’s also being explored in the fight against cancer, to interfere with cell division of cancerous cells.
So there lies the concern. The medical field is looking at ways to help the human body absorb those siRNA molecules. The food industry wants the opposite, for there’s justifiably a lot of uncertainty and concern about the effect this may have on the body. Some scientific studies have indicated that the body might be absorbing this, most find no evidence of that. It seems much of the uncertainty comes from the difficulty in detecting these very small molecules in the first place. There is also uncertainty about what other insects may be harmed by this (one study found that ladybugs were one victim). On the plus side, this has the potential to reduce or eliminate two techniques currently employed – spraying crops with Roundup (that then gets into our food supply), or using corn that is genetically modified to produce BT Toxin (which we then consume).
Monsanto is convinced they’ve studied the issue enough, and have applied for approval to sell this new corn variant. There still seems to be quite a bit of valid scientific debate over that subject…but if history has taught us anything, it’s that big business will win out over science and public health concerns.
You can read more about this at the NY Times or in the Boulder Weekly.
WhistleOut – cool site for comparing cell phone plans
I’m stuck in a contract with Verizon, but if you’re shopping for a new cell phone, I found a cool site called WhistleOut that helps you compare plans for the US, UK, New Zealand, and Australia. I liked the UI, where you can select the type of phone, how many minutes, data, texts you want, etc. Even lets you indicate whether throttled data speeds is OK (after a certain baseline amount).
ISS Earth-cam
NASA has finally installed an Earth-facing HD webcam on the ISS, and is streaming the video for all to enjoy…check it out below! If the image is black it means the ISS is on the dark side of Earth, gray means the feed is currently down. Flying discs in the image mean Martians are about to invade my favorite planet.
Facts about GMOs
With all the news about GMOs…what do you really know about them? Ignoring the health concerns for a moment, it’s good to look at some facts about how widespread they are, and that’s what this article at the WSJ does. Some key points:
- GMO crops have grown, on average, by 10 million hectares a year since 1996 (when they were introduced).
- Most of the world’s GMO crops consist of four types of plants: soybeans (48%, by acreage)), corn (33%), cotton (15%), and canola (5%).
- Five countries are responsible for about 90% of GMO crops. US (40%), Brazil (23%), Argentina (14%), India (6%), and Canda (6%) – leaving other countries at 11% total.
- In the US, most major crops are GMOs, more than 90% of our top crops like corn, soybeans, and cotton. I think that goes a long way towards explaining opposition to GMO labeling!
- Over 75% of GMO seed designs are owned by 10 companies (some of those are GM, some are non-GM but still considered proprietary). Selling seed is a $34.5 billion business.
You can read more at the WSJ article linked above. I’m a huge fan of using science to improve our lives, but believe it cannot be selective science like GMOs are. What I mean is, new seeds are designed, but long term health effects are not adequately studied before the seeds are introduced to market. Instead, seeds are put on the market, making us all guinea pigs, but without adequate control of the variables, any health concerns that may someday surface cannot be accurately tied to any single crop. There can be no accountability, and with neither accountability nor laws requiring extensive testing, there is no incentive for companies to be sure their products are human-safe. While some GMO efforts are likely benign, the idea of engineering corn to produce poison to kill insects for example (read up on BT Toxin)…and then telling us it’s OK for us to eat that poison…that’s a real stretch.Oh, and that picture of a blue strawberry? That’s not photoshop, that’s GMO at its finest, and you can read more about that here.
A new book about socio-economic inequality
There’s a lot of talk these days about economic inequality in this country, and now there’s a new book on the subject that seems to be getting a LOT of attention, Capital in the Twenty-First Century by Thomas Piketty. The video below has Paul Krugman and Bill Moyers discussing the book; Paul Krugman says “even those of you who talk about the 1% don’t really get what’s going on.” The issue is that inherited wealth is playing a bigger and bigger role in society and politics; economic inequality is becoming more and more entrenched in society.
The video below is long (24 minutes), but if you’re not prepared to tackle the 696 page book, it’s a good way to get some quick insight into this very important issue.
Turn your phone 90 degrees!
Funny video – but not for young kids (a bit of blood…there’s that part about ‘if you don’t, I’ll break your knees’…). There are few things that bother me more than videos shot in portrait mode…
Do you realize you’re consuming Roundup?
High levels of glyphosate (the weed-killing chemical in Roundup) have been found to be present in genetically engineered soy beans (all tested samples were grown in Iowa). It’s not terribly surprising, for one of the main reasons crops like soy are genetically engineered in the first place is to be resistant to Roundup, so that they may be sprayed with that to control weeds. The chemicals get on the food, the food ends up on your plate…simple as that. It’s not something you can just wash off either, as glyphosate is absorbed by the plant, it’s inside your food.
The study (here’s a link to the source) found levels of Roundup to be 9mg per kilogram, which is double what Monsanto themselves deemed ‘extreme’ way back in 1999 (link). The level deemed ‘safe’ by governments is 20mg/kg in the US…but the interesting thing is that it used to be 0.1mg/kg until it was raised in 1999. Europe did the same, raising the ‘safe’ limit from 0.1 to 20mg/kg in 199. Brazil raised their ‘safe’ level from 0.2mg/kg to 10mg/kg in 2004 (but only for soybeans!). There is justifiably concern that the ‘safe’ levels were not raised based on scientific evidence, but rather for business reasons.
The study looked at a total of 31 soy samples, some were GM (qty 10), some were conventional soybeans (qty 10), and others were organic soybeans (qty 10). Without exception, all GM samples showed high levels of glyphosate, and none was detected in the non-GM samples.
So why is this a big deal? Well it’s not a chemical that has been scientifically shown to be safe…and quite the opposite, there are concerns that there may be a link between glysphosate and digestive issues, obesity, autism, Alzheimer’s, depression, Parkinson’s disease, liver disease, and cancer. Note that none of that is proven, just that there does appear to be some biological disruption caused by glyphosate, and that sort of biological disruption may explain the above. There’s a bunch of health-related information at this link or this one.
This trend of shipping untested product like this and making us all human guinea pigs is really disturbing. The reality is that if there IS any link here ever proven, it will be impossible to hold anyone accountable. Hence no incentive for people to do real, scientific testing beforehand.
It probably goes without saying, but…I recommend buying organic food whenever you can!