Ponderings of a Scientist

I have a subscription to Science News magazine.  The magazine is a weekly, summarizing important journal articles and other findings from a wide range of scientific disciplines.  These are some highlights:

1.  G.W.’s FY07 budget cuts ~3 million from EPA’s library budget, forcing multiple libraries to close and limiting EPA scientists’ and the public’s access to environmental documents.  The kicker - the library system brings in a profit of close to ~30 million a year.  Um, you do the math!

2. A group of ecologists and economists measured the energy effectiveness of producing biodiesels from soybeans and corn.  Accounting for the costs of production, including farming equipment, pesticide and soil treatment use; and the manufacturing costs to refine the product, then comparing those figures to the amount of energy yielded, corn ethanol provides 25% more energy then it consumes and soybeans provide 93% more energy than the process uses.  Additionally, soybeans per unit of energy gained require 1% of the nitrogen, 8.3% of the phosphorus and 13% of the pesticides required to grow corn.  Compared to burning traditional gasoline, corn ethanol reduces greenhouse emmisions by 12%, soybean diesel reduces emmisions by 41%.  So why do American car companies favor corn?  Could it be all the subsides we give the corn farmers (I mean the big businesses that own the corn fields - and some of the car companies - and some of the mainstream media).

Not mentioned in this article, but also interesting: sugarcane biodiesel is supposedly the best out there.  Countries in South America are producing more than they can use, so why don’t they import to the U.S.?  Oh yeah, we have a 100% tariff on sugarcane biodiesel!  Um, protecting the corn field owners again?

3.  Scientists have created a new atomic clock based around the ultraviolet electromagnetic wave oscillation of a mercury ion.  Compared to the gold standard cesium atomic clock, this new clock is 10 times more precise, erring only 1 second every 70 million years.  This new clock has all sorts of applications.

4.  Just incase you were worried, you will be happy to know that a group of chemists have developed a taste sensor that can distinquish among 18 commercial beers.

I just re-examined the Northeast Seafood Watch pocket guide and I would like to add the following:

I think its fine to eat Sea Scallops and Haddock (both on the avoid list). The scallop fishery is booming right now, just expect high prices as demand is high. Haddock stocks have recovered much better than Cod and new gear devices that specifically select Haddock (avoiding Cod and the flatfish - flounder, sole, plaice, etc.) have increased the viability of the fishery. Shrimp fishers caught tons of Gulf of Maine shrimp this spring (the season is now over), the stock appears healthy and the fishery will likely improve in years to come. This year the industry had a hard time selling product because all of the onshore infrastructure disappeared when shrimp disappeared in the 1990s. However, if you can find frozen northeast caught shrimp go for it.

No wonder our country has a big issue with childhood obesity, they no longer have to walk to the bus stop! I got stuck behind a school bus this morning (in Mass.) which literally stopped every 100 feet! Granted we were on the main road through town with little to no side walk in most places, but still these were middle school kids, they should be able to get to the neighbor’s house without getting hit by a car. What makes my experience particularly pertinent is that yesterday the State of Massachusetts decided to ban all sugary drinks from public schools in an attempt to fight the bulge, citing the lack of walking to the school bus stop as one reason for childhood pudge.

In the name of full disclosure I feel it necessary to lay
out my ideological framework for any of you who haven’t already had the
pleasure of debating with me or listening to my verbose ranting, usually as the result of reading some new book or listening to NPR.-*Warning advice coming, avert eyes as desired, author is not responsible for injury* READ!! and listen to NPR (I recommend the Diane Rehm show…most intelligent conversation on the radio…again I don’t know how to link our I would direct you to her site for podcasts and other archived media). NPR is the only non-conservatively biased news broadcast in the U.S. and its only slightly liberally biased, which really means it caters to intelligent people who make obvious decisions based on the facts in front of them.

Well thanks to my drifting from the thesis sentence of
paragraph one you can begin to get a sense of my ideological framework, aha my scrabbled thought process actually has an underpinning of order. Back to business with a little anecdote: before upgrading to my current career, I was
a high school science teacher and my loving students (they really did love me…ah to be a teen idol again) would say to me “Mrs. H. you’re a tree-hugger”. They were right, in the sense that I care about the environment, drive a hybrid car (wot, stop the over consumption of
fossil fuels), eat organic food (wot, stop the over consumption of poorly
treated animals, pesticides and genetically modified organisms), and think
whales are cute. Well, I don’t really think whales are cute, as a fisheries biologist I have much deeper, more scientific, opinions on cetaceans and the role they play in the ocean, but that is for another day.

I wouldn’t call myself a hippie (think 1960’s), but I do live my life while being conscience of our Earth and how its mistreatment pollutes nature and ourselves (although I’m not perfect, unfortunately I’m currently commuting 100 miles each day for work- stupid economy- and spend too
much money on fashionable clothing). In fact, I live my life more conscientiously then many of the true 1960’s hippies currently do. Dad what happened to you and your buddies??? To many once objectors of the status quo are now conservative, nascar car watching, rednecks (this is meant to be minimally offensive and thought provoking to former hippies near and dear to me). I applaude those of you that have not let the big business, wasteful, consumer-driven bandwagon (that word again!) plow you over. As for the rest of us, all I’m saying is take the extra minute to think about the decisions you make everyday. For example, next time you are at the market buying fish, select something local and support your neighbors, not a foreign country, select something caught sustainably and support the continued consumption of fish as a good quality protein instead of supporting the collapse of fish populations. If your grocer doesn’t know the answers to
your questions or can’t supply you with good quality products (this goes for
things besides fish for those of you not seafood inclined) go somewhere else,
your dollars spent in the correct places, whether you like it or not, help
force change, more than just about anything else you can do.

As you can see I have a lot of things to get off my chess. Apparently, I should have started this blogging thing earlier (Zipy and others no comments please). In an attempt to not scare off my small, but growing, readership I will end here today, take a deep breath and when I blog again I will have a clear focus. I will give you my biased view on only one topic and I will hopefully present it in a persuasive, yet not offensive manner.