What I’ve Noticed
Finding effective treatments for Lyme disease and other chronic illnesses has become much more difficult. As usual, it’s all about the money:
The problem, they say, started back in 1980, when Ronald Reagan changed the rules governing how scientists (and the entities they work for) profit from their work. Where scientists used to gain fame and fortune by publishing and sharing their work in conferences and journals — and were thus rewarded for furthering general knowledge — the new rules encouraged them to hoard their discoveries as trade secrets; and then leverage their patents and their seats on medical boards to write the disease definitions, mandate approved treatments, and completely control the scientific discourse in order to maximize the profits they made.
This story shows we need to make very big changes to how we deal with chemicals and their effects in the workplace. Right now, workers must prove that a specific chemical caused their problem. This is often absolutely impossible to do. Perhaps a better system would be to hold the employer responsible if workers exposed to a certain chemical show symptoms of exposure to that chemical. It would certainly encourage employers to be more responsible and careful about exposing their employees to dangerous chemicals.
Best review of Watchmen
Dr. Isis takes on more sexism in science, specifically this frustratingly common misconception: one of the requirements of scientist-hood is a lack of femininity or sexuality.
A guest at Shakesville on adoption, abortion, and choice:
I’m the birth mother of an adopted child, vehemently pro-choice, non-Christian, very unsuited to motherhood, and after over a decade, have got some things to tell the world about adoption. It’s been stewing since I heard about the recent rash of pre-abortion ultrasound legislation. While I am touched that so many men in such various states are so deeply worried about women possibly being all sad from having an abortion, I wish to point out to these compassionately bleeding hearts that the alternatives are not exactly without their own emotional consequences.
Holy crap. The world O Magazine has actually acknowledged that lesbians and bisexuals actually exist and that gender and sexuality are, well, complicated.
Freedomgirl writes about her experience with marriage:
After the wedding, this circle of people treated us differently. Our relationship was more serious, our status was higher. People pressured us about having children, buying a house.
All well and good. But we were doing this thing without understanding the whole story. We aren’t straight. There is nothing we can do to pass in the everyday world as mainstream and ordinary without denying some fundamental facts about who we are. Which is precisely what we did for a long time.
Most depressing evidence yet of America’s failure to educate its citizens: Only 53% of adults know how long it takes for the Earth to revolve around the Sun. via Bad Astronomy.
Have I mentioned how much I love A Softer World?
VOLCANO!!!!
A good take-down of the “morality comes from god” idea:
Gloom and Doom
Science was not taken very seriously at all by the Bush administration, and Obama is working hard to restore scientific integrity in the executive branch. Last week, the White House issued a memorandum as part of its effort to correct the ignorance and manipulation of science to fit ideological goals. It stated that
Political officials should not suppress or alter scientific or technological findings and conclusions. If scientific and technological information is developed and used by the Federal Government, it should ordinarily be made available to the public. To the extent permitted by law, there should be transparency in the preparation, identification, and use of scientific and technological information in policymaking. The selection of scientists and technology professionals for positions in the executive branch should be based on their scientific and technological knowledge, credentials, experience, and integrity.
I’m so glad that our country is moving in the right direction on this issue, but like EcoTone points out
This memo should be reassuring to the scientific community. Yet the fact that it was necessary to explicitly state these seemingly obvious expectations is disconcerting.
We have a lot of work to do. It isn’t just isolated species or “sensitive” animals like frogs and salamanders that will go extinct, it’s likely that climate change will render our ecosystems unrecognizable. An administration that listens to what scientists have to say about challenges like climate change is necessary.
Goddamn Götterdämmerung
Cyanea superba ssp. superba
This week’s extinction Thursday features not one, but TWELVE species all from the same genus. Cyanea arborea, Cyanea comata, Cyanea cylindrocalyx, Cyanea dolichopoda, Cyanea giffardii, Cyanea marksii, Cyanea pohaku, Cyanea pycnocarpa, and Cyanea quercifolia are extinct. Cyanea pinnatifida, Cyanea superba, and Cyanea truncata are extinct in the wild.
Cyanea species are members of the Bellflower family, like Clermontia peleana, another extinct species that I wrote about a few weeks ago. Cyanea are endemic to Hawaii and are very morphologically diverse – from small branching plants to large shrubs to 30m tall trees! These species went extinct because of us – introduced pigs and invasive plant species devastated these extinct species and have caused many other Cyaneas to become endangered. Logging and cattle grazing also threaten Cyaneas.
Grey wolves haven’t gone the way of the Cyaneas yet, but if protections are lifted it’s unlikely they’ll survive. Go, write a letter!
Migraine Log – Week 16
I’ve been taking Petadolex for over three months now and haven’t noticed any improvement at all in my migraines. As of today, I’m going to stop taking it. However, because I only kept track of my migraines for a week before I started taking Petadolex, I am going to keep track of my migraines for another month to see if they get worse.
What do you know?
LL Cool Joe started an interesting meme a couple weeks ago and Leo tagged me.
The rules:
1. You’ve got to post a link from the person who tagged you.
2. List 8 things that you know about on your chosen subject. You get to choose the subject.
3. You don’t have to tag anyone but you can if you want. If you do, let them know on their blog that they’ve been tagged.
4. List the rules.
Leo gave some awesome tips on baking light bread, and I considered telling you about cornbread or cookies, but, inspired by my plant chemical ecology seminar this week, I’ve decided to share some interesting ecological tidbits instead. While most people are somewhat aware of the interconnectedness of our world, most people miss out on all the fantastic details.
- Fruit flies are not very common in the desert because they like a lot of water. A few species in the Sonoran, however, survive on rotting cacti. Cacti generally produce lots and lots of nasty chemicals and different cacti produce different nasty chemicals. Each species of fruit fly can only handle certain nasty chemicals. The fruit flies figure out which cacti have the right nasty chemicals by smell – but not the smell of the cactus. Each kind of cactus has its own unique community of microbes that produces its own unique smelly chemicals that the flies recognize.
Fogleman, J. (2001). Chemical Interactions in the Cactus-Microorganism-Drosophila Model System of the Sonoran Desert Integrative and Comparative Biology, 41 (4), 877-889 DOI: 10.1093/icb/41.4.877 - Maculinea butterfly caterpillar skins “smell” like ant larvae, so when an ant stumbles across one of these caterpillars it’s like “OMG MY BABY ISN’T IN THE NEST” and takes it home and feeds it at the expense of actual ant larvae.
Nash, D., Als, T., Maile, R., Jones, G., & Boomsma, J. (2008). A Mosaic of Chemical Coevolution in a Large Blue Butterfly Science, 319 (5859), 88-90 DOI: 10.1126/science.1149180 - As carbon dioxide increases in the atmosphere, many plants end up with a higher carbon (sugar) to nitrogen (protein) ratio. This is bad news for the herbivores because there’s already way more sugar than protein in plants and the herbivores need protein badly. When the carbon to nitrogen ratio goes up, herbivores often have to eat more and take longer to develop. This eventually leads to fewer herbivores: Since they’re around longer, they are eaten more often by their predators. Since they have to eat more to get enough protein, they ingest more of the toxins plants produce – and plants can produce more toxins because of the extra carbon. And since there’s so much more sugar than protein, the herbivores can starve to death – a candy diet wouldn’t work out so well for you either.
Scrub Oaks And Sky, Grayton Beach State Park, FL 2008 by Lone Cypress
STILING, P., & CORNELISSEN, T. (2007). How does elevated carbon dioxide (CO) affect plant–herbivore interactions? A field experiment and meta-analysis of CO-mediated changes on plant chemistry and herbivore performance. Global Change Biology, 13 (9), 1823-1842 DOI: 10.1111/j.1365-2486.2007.01392.x
- Mycorrhizae are a mutualism between plants and fungi. The plant provides the fungus with carbohydrates and the fungus helps the plant get nutrients from the soil, like nitrogen. Plants make carbohydrates from carbon dioxide and sunlight and their growth is usually limited by nitrogen. While fungi can absorb nitrogen and phosphorus from the soil, they can’t make their own carbohydrates. Elevated levels of atmospheric carbon dioxide help the plant grow more, but also mean that the plant requires more nitrogen. So, if carbon dioxide is higher, the plant gives away more carbohydrates to the fungi in exchange for more nitrogen. Remember, though, that the fungi need nitrogen, too. Some species of mycorrhizae grow so much when the plant is exposed to elevated levels of carbon dixoide that it uses up all of the nitrogen instead of giving it to the plant – not only does it steal the carbohydrates the plant makes, it takes up all the soil nutrients the plant needs.
Mycorrhizae
ALBERTON, O., & KUYPER, T. (2009). Ectomycorrhizal fungi associated with seedlings respond differently to increased carbon and nitrogen availability: implications for ecosystem responses to global change. Global Change Biology, 15 (1), 166-175 DOI: 10.1111/j.1365-2486.2008.01714.x
- Even if the soil is wet, a plant can still be too dry, especially if it’s cold outside. When water is cold it becomes more viscous. You may not notice that cold water is thicker than warm water, but to a plant it’s the difference between milk and a milkshake.
Lopushinsky, W, & Kaufmann, M (1984). Effects of Cold Soil on Water Relations and Spring Growth of Douglas-fir Seedlings - Plants use long dead cells to transport water. You can think of a bunch of them together like a bunch of tiny connected pipes. Water is not pushed through the pipes from the ground (with a positive pressure)– it is pulled through the plant like water through a straw (with a negative pressure). Transpiration – the evaporation of water from the leaves – is what pulls water through the plant. This is only possible because water has a very strong tensile strength. Water molecules tend to cling to one another very tightly so that in a plant, there is a column of water from the roots to the leaves that is stretched like a rubber band.
Water conducting cells in plants
Dixon, & Joly (1894). On the ascent of sap Annals of Botany
- The system plants use to get water works pretty well, but there can be some pretty serious problems. Plants basically suck water from the soil. When the soil is dry, they suck harder. Sometimes they suck so hard that air comes through the sides of the water conducting cells. Once air gets in, it expands and fills up the cell and “breaks” the column of water. This is called cavitation. Since there are lots of these cells and lots of little water columns, this isn’t usually a big deal, but if it happens too often, the plant can die. Different plants experience cavitation at different levels of water stress. I study pinyon pine trees that grow with juniper trees. Pinyon pine water conducting cells cavitate in much “wetter” soils than juniper. For example, these two pictures show a pinyon juniper woodland at two points in a particularly dry year. In the first picture, you see both pinyon and juniper. In the second picture, almost all of the living trees are juniper.
Pinyon-Juniper Woodland
Juniper woodland
Linton, M., Sperry, J., & Williams, D. (1998). Limits to water transport in Juniperus osteosperma and Pinus edulis: implications for drought tolerance and regulation of transpiration Functional Ecology, 12 (6), 906-911 DOI: 10.1046/j.1365-2435.1998.00275.x
- The world is complicated: there are countless interactions between organisms and predictions can be nearly impossible. What we are sure of is that people are changing the climate very quickly and our ecosystems are also changing in ways that will very likely have terrible consequences for us and other species. I study ecology not just because it’s beautiful and fascinating, but also because it may give us the information we need to live better in the world.
I’ll tag Brooke, Lights, Carpe Omnis, Eugenie, Transient Theorist, Karina, and FreedomGirl.
Femmes and femininity
Dr. Isis wrote a moving, insightful post last week on what we tell girls and women about their bodies. I’m going to quote liberally, but it’s definitely worth reading the entire thing. Along with Sublime Femme’s recent “Femme Myth’s” post, it’s inspired me to finally write about how as a femme woman, I am often considered weaker/less intelligent/less etc.
Changes to Dora the Explorer’s clothing as she goes to middle school are getting a lot of feminist criticism. As Dora becomes more feminine in middle school, they suggest she’ll stop being smart and adventurous and strong. To be honest, this “feminist” criticism reminds me of what Dr. Isis and many girls go through in middle school:
It didn’t occur to me that there was anything unusual about Barbie battling Skeletor and Darth Vader. She could wield a light saber and the Power Sword like a champ. It didn’t occur to me, that is, until the fifth grade when my little girlish figure began to change from being twiggy to distinctly more hourglass. It was at this age that the girls in my class, girls who had known each other for years, began to change the way they treated each other. They started to use words like “slut” and “tramp,” although none of us really understood them. Certain girls, those of us who developed feminine features ahead of the mean, started being labeled as having “done it,” even though most of us had no concept of “it” and were only just learning that some people used their tongues when they kissed.
I like skirts. I like wearing makeup. I really like cute shoes. I’m also pretty nerdy (yeah, I had a Pi Day Party Saturday), adventurous (I went to a small town in China for a year on 3 weeks notice when I didn’t speak any Mandarin), and pretty goddamn tough.
But sometimes I feel like many feminists and nearly everyone else are telling me that I can’t have both. I hate that when I put on heels and makeup I have to work so much harder to be taken seriously. I wish everyone got it like Dr. Isis gets it:
I don’t see why Dora can’t grow up to be all of those things while still choosing a skirt and ballet flats. I can still write a differential equation in a pair of Naughty Monkeys. But, 59% of responders to a New York Daily News poll deemed the new Dora too sexual based on her silhouette alone.
This all makes me realize that much of the disdain young women feel towards their developing forms, the self-loathing at being perceived as potentially sexual beings, comes in part from how we treat them. To say that the new Dora or the old Barbie are too sexual because of their narrow waists and widened hips, even when we put them in the role of President, teaches girls that they are defined primarily by their physical form — that the development of secondary sexual characteristics means their primary identity is sexual. These secondary characteristics are, thus, something to be ashamed of.
We shouldn’t teach people that women have to wear makeup and heels or be thin with impossibly huge breasts to be beautiful. But we also shouldn’t teach them that appearing feminine makes them less intelligent or weaker.