Honestly, the day job has been very busy, something had to give, and lately that has meant fewer science posts.  But, in an effort to stay current, we’re going to try something new: Very condensed posts about more things we find very interesting provided a little less often.  Hopefully, at least weekly.  We’ll see if this works.  And in the mean time let us know what you think.  The best way is to send a tweet to: @daveoei or post a comment on the site.  Enjoy!

Earth

• As stolen emails makes headlines, the climate continues to warm.  Scientific American
• Is that a seismometers in your pocket or are you just glad to see me?  Caltech via Pasadena News
• Acidification of ocean waters from high CO2 levels may yield larger shells and thus not necessarily spell doom-and-gloom for all shelled creatures, though, it is certainly bad for some.  Woods Hole Oceanographic Institute

Space

• A good guide to beginning astrophotography. Space.com
• A more advanced astrophotography guide, this is a newer edition to the one I currently have. Amazon.com
• Not sure if this is the largest picture ever, but 800,000 digital photos stitched together form a 120 ft long view of just 50% of our galaxy. NASA JPL
• Solar tsunami.  What could go wrong?  NASA

Health

• New mathematical model points to at least two stable weights per individual, does not offer suggestion on hitting the lower of the two. Harvard
• Very early intervention certainly isn’t a cure for autism, but the apparent marked effectiveness of therapies starting at 18 months certainly makes the effort worthwhile.  University of Washington

Getting back, here are some of the best images of the just-completed mission STS-119.  You won’t find any of astronauts with frizzy hair, or astronauts in gravity-defying poses (that’s so 1990).  You will find juxtapositions of Earth, with the ISS, astronauts on EVA, and of course, the shuttle.

Here are the pictures, enjoy, and a word of warning – they’re quite large!

How Udderly Odd - Cows with Built-in Magnets Confirmed?

Last year, after looking at over 8000 images of domestic cattle on Google Earth, a group of scientists led by Hynek Burda and Sabine Begall found that something interesting: Cows tended to align their bodies north-south.

While the reason for why cows did this was elusive, the methodology they used was such that anybody with a computer and internet access could have reached the same results.

Google Earth, a monster of a program, is a free one by Google that provides detailed satellite images, topographic maps, etc… of our planet.  These researchers simply looked at a lot of cows spread across Earth and made this simple discovery.  But was this cause of this mystery-behavior the work of magnetism or the sun?  The researchers suggested it was magnetism because cows were seen pointing north-south even in cloudy conditions.

But there was one way to find out definitively.

Enter Google Earth again.  Except this time, they focused on cows…under high-powered electrical lines.

Contrary to popular belief, the Earth’s magnetic field is very weak, measuring in at no more than 60 microteslas.  Just for reference, a typical refrigerator magnet pulls in at about 5,000 microteslas.  Which means that electrical lines, despite being some distance off the ground from these cows could still provide enough of a disruption to Earth’s magnetic field to confuse cows.

And confuse cows they did.  The researchers found that cows under electrical lines were oriented randomly, not in neat north-south orientations.

Of course, none of this explains the picture I provided above.  It’s not from Google Earth, but from Microsoft Live.  It’s a picture of cows from the Netherlands, which if correctly depicted, shows them oriented more east-west (see the link below if you don’t believe me).  None, in fact, are oriented north-south.

Perhaps it’s just another example of things being done a little differently over in Holland.  Or maybe there are underground wires that are interfering with these cow’s internal compass. Regardless, for now go ahead and put me on the skeptical but highly amused side.

Image source: Live.com

Tigers, Whole Foods, Global Warming & Orangutans. What's the Link? Photo by Dave Watts.

Palm oil.

Palm what?

If you pay as little attention to your food as I do then you’re probably just as surprised as I am that: 1) Some palm trees make edible fruit; and 2) Some of this fruit is linked to endangered species destruction and deforestation.

It so happens that for the last 50 years or so, palm oil has been making head-ways into the foods we eat.  It’s also in bio-fuels we burn and cosmetics some of you may use.  Recently, there’s been a huge push for the introduction of palm oil in U.S. foods because of new trans-fat reporting requirements.  Because palm oil doesn’t have any, it’s been used as a choice to replace non-trans-fat-free shortening.

And while we are collectively healthier for eating less trans-fat, there are measurable global consequences that have resulted from this relatively tiny shift in our dietary habits.  Namely, deforestation on a vast scale and threatened species nearing extinction.

Much of this palm oil is grown in Indonesia and Malaysia.  According to the Associated Press, the amount of deforestation needed to accommodate the growth in palm oil plantations is on the order of 670,000 acres every year.  Or, to put that into perspective, it’s an area of forest that’s cleared and replaced with palms that’s greater in size than the cities of Los Angeles and New York (including all 5 boroughs) combined.  Every year.

That’s a lot.

As a result of the forest clearing, there have been increasing incidents of sumatran tiger incursions with forest villagers, and consequently, deaths on both sides.  Naturally that’s very unfortunate both ways, but considering there are likely less than 1000 of these tigers left, it’s easier to feel sorry for the tigers.  But considering the high rate of poverty in Indonesia, I’d also hate to be that mauled logger who was only trying to pay the bills.

Other prominent victims include the orangutan and pygmy elephant.  Both rely on the native forest habitat for survival, but the pygmy elephant has been specifically targeted because they thrive on palm fruit.  As you can imagine, that doesn’t make palm plantation owners too happy.

Orangutans are also frequently cited as victims, an assertion flatly rejected by the American Palm Oil Council, an association of palm oil developers, producers, refiners, etc…  But there is one glaring problem with the APOC’s arguments – they focus to absolve Malaysia producers of any wrongdoing.  But they fail to mention Indonesia at all in their counterpoint, the other very large palm oil producer.  I wonder why.

Which brings us to global warming.  One could argue that replacing forests with productive palm trees is at worst a carbon-neutral event.  Perhaps.  Yet it remains to be tested or demonstrated.  But replacing native peatland with palm trees almost certainly is not.  And unfortunately, the world will have to face the consequences of this as a result of the Indonesian government’s February 2009 decision to lift a ban to replace peatland with palm plantations.  Estimates of carbon released over the next few years as a result of this is…staggering.

Is there a silver lining anywhere in this story?!  Yes, well, maybe.  Whole Foods announced earlier this month that it will only sell palm oil obtained through sustainable means in its products starting in 2012.  Everything else will be banned.  Surely a bold move.  Though I can’t figure out why it will take three years to implement this ecologically-minded idea.

It should be as easy as saying, “Ok, I don’t want to buy any more of your palm oil, I’ll buy this other palm oil instead.”  Or, perhaps Whole Foods realizes the grim truth – doing the “right” thing is very hard.  Which in turn does not bode well for the average consumer: If Whole Foods is going to have a tough time telling which palm oil producer is good and which isn’t, how are we supposed to know?

USS Mullinnix as it's getting sunk as part of naval tests in August 1992. Photo by USSMullinnix.org.

The path to science discovery and application does not always follow a straight line.  This is one such example.

For years the U.S. Navy has conducted tests of the explosive variety in an effort to make ships stronger and bombs more potent.  I can only assume they’re succeeding in doing a very good job at both.

But since these tests tend to take place over open water, there’s collateral damage of the marine variety.  In particular, dolphins and turtles.

Currently, the U.S. Navy takes measures to ensure that high-valued creatures such as these are a safe distance away from test sites before the bombs go off.  But the nagging question has always been – how far is far enough?

In order to answer that question, the U.S. Navy joined forces with scientists from the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution.  Together they collected carcasses of turtles and dolphins which died of natural causes, embedded pressure sensors within them, and subjected them to underwater explosions from varying distances.

They found that while pressures of 300 pounds per square inch turned the insides of dolphins to mush, the same could not be said of turtles which recorded some but not significant internal damage.

They suspect the shell’s composition, shape, or some combination thereof helps protects turtles from these otherwise insane pressures.  Maybe it’s how the shell is basically an extension of the turtle’s ribcage.  To answer that question, further research is needed.  And if they find an answer, the hope would be to better improve the effectiveness of body armor and helmets.

You know, just in case you happen to be too close to an exploding ship.

Source: Woods Whole Oceanographic Institution

Does coffee help prevent strokes? Photo courtesy of Starbucks.com.

Doctor David Liebeskind of UCLA et al. announced late last week at the International Stroke Conference an interesting finding with regard to the relationship between coffee consumption and…wait for it…strokes.

While previous publications have touted the seemingly beneficial effects of coffee drinking, how it relates to strokes was not established.

But after looking at daily coffee intake amongst a sample of over 30,000 individuals (of which, over 9,000 were coffee drinkers), they found lower incidences of strokes in those who drank more coffee.  In other words, those who imbibed at least 6 cups a day had fewer strokes than those who drank 3-5, who had fewer than those who drank 1-2, who had fewer than those who didn’t drink any.

If that wasn’t enough, the incidence of cardiac disease, diabetes, and hypertension was also lower for those who drank more coffee.

Right about now you might be asking why this is. Is coffee good for you? Should I drink more? The simple answer is, nobody knows.

Which implies that despite these findings, caution is in order.  The results represent correlations, not necessarily cause and effect.  The authors state that the mechanism behind these “benefits” is as yet unknown and more research is required.

For example, it is possible that those who drink a lot of coffee have greater wealth and thus better access to health care than those who drink less.  After all, last I checked 6 cafe mochas at Starbucks can easily set you back $20 a day. Which is about the cost of a very good PPO with a very good health insurance company here in California.

Source: International Stroke Conference Oral and Poster Presentations

To get all the details, you should jump straight to the source. In a nutshell, NIH funding increases by $10 billion, compared to a total budget of $29.5 billion last year. Plus, just over $1 billion will go to support various wellness programs and training for health professionals.

It’s clear that doctors and related scientists won’t be hurting any time soon, although the stimulus package mandates significant changes to the way doctors manage and safeguards patient information. But perhaps the biggest winner falls into an area you may have heard little about. Well, we suspect that will change shortly.

There is a branch of medical studies called comparative effectiveness research which recently received a nice bump, upwards of $1.1 billion in new funding. That’s over a 3x increase as compared to last year.

But what is comparative effectiveness research? Simply, the branch evaluates the risks and benefits of not just a particular drug, medical device, or surgical procedure but also those of competing or alternative treatments to determine their impact on the patient. As a simple example: Does aspirin work better than ibuprofen? What about naproxen sodium? Surprisingly, until recently no U.S. government or business entity existed to answer the question. But in today’s climate of ever-increasing health care costs, the question suddenly bears great relevance.

Source: New England Journal of Medicine

Inauguration 2009. Can you find Yo-Yo Ma? Photo by David Bergman.

This is what appears to be a blurry picture of the 2009 presidential innaguration.  In fact, it’s 220 images stitched together, taken with a Canon G10 and the Gigapan Imager by photographer David Bergman.  The Gigapan Imager is a robotic mount that moves a regular digital camera along  panoramic tracks while taking pictures along the way.  The result is what you see above – a very very very scaled down version of the final 1.47 gigabyte image.

Yo-Yo Ma with iPhone

While you can view and pan around this Gigapan image here, I’ve collected a list of some things I challenge you to find:

1. President Obama (easy)
2. Teddy Kennedy
3. Tipper Gore
4. Yo-Yo Ma with iPhone
5. Newt Gingrich not paying attention
6. Snipers(?) on the Capital
7. Snipers on another building
8. Tents lined up in an unusual place

Actually, I’ll show you what Yo-Yo Ma looks like.  What’s he doing?!  Good luck hunting!

La Jolla tide pools at sunset in January 2009. Photo by Dave Oei.

2 year old curiosity at the tide pool. Photo by Dave Oei.

Nestled along the shores of La Jolla, California lie some of the best tide pools offered in San Diego.  While these can’t compete with the likes of what is found in Monterey Bay, the La Jolla tide pools are no more than a few minutes drive for most San Diegans, and their ease of accessibility makes visiting them well worth the while.  There’s an abundance of wildlife, including starfish, a variety of crustaceans, mollusks, and octopus.  And usually, without trying to hard, you’ll be able to spot seals and dolphins.

Did I mention that it’s gorgeous?

A clump of different colored starfish in La Jolla. Photo by Dave Oei.

My family and I visited the pools a few weeks ago.  We arrived late in the afternoon when the tides were predicted to be quite low and we found ourselves shedding off the sweaters in the 70 degree weather.  That’s right: 70 degrees, by the beach, in January.  It really does happen in San Diego.

To go tide pooling, you’ll need to see to two pieces of logistics: Planning and Parking.

Planning is easy.  If you want to see the tide pools, you’ll have to go during low tide.  If you don’t have a tide predictor, there are online resources, such as the  tide plotting tool offered by the Scripps Research Institute.

Interpreting the plot is easy.  The vertical Y-axis will give you the tide height while the horizontal X-axis displays time.  You’ll want to visit when the tide is at least 0 feet or -1 feet to view the creatures best.  Once you’ve found what time low-tide corresponds to, plan on arriving at least an hour before that since it’s better to be situated early and let the tide roll out, instead of the other way around.

Tide pool parking. From Google Maps.

Parking can get tricky.  The beach is beautiful (it is San Diego) and surfing is popular.  Most people probably park at Kellogg Park adjacent to La Jolla Shores beach.  But it’s almost a mile south of the tide pools and parking is iffy.  A better spot could be found at the intersection of: El Paseo Grande and La Jolla Shores.

Actually, if you can find parking anywhere along El Paseo Grande you’re in good shape. And just west (left) of the “A” marker on the map, there’s a parking lot for those affiliated with UCSD.  But unless it’s a federal holiday (or you’re affiliated with UCSD), I wouldn’t chance it.

Once you park, make your way to the beach.  There’s access directly west from the “A” marker.  Or, if you parked further south, enjoy a leisurely stroll north up the beach.

The place you’re heading for is just north of Scripps Pier, pictured on the map.  It’s an easy hike – my 2 and 5 year old kids didn’t complain.  Much.

La Jolla tide pools rocky outcroppings. Photo by Dave Oei.

Once at the tide pools you’ll be treated with several large sections of rocky outcroppings comprised of many small roundish and slippery boulders. Usually that spells disaster if you’re worried about little ones falling down.  But we found that using our bare feet worked best.  And, doing so had other benefits.

What I’m getting at is this sad fact: Walking along the tide pools results in destruction of tide pool habitat.  To get a great view of what’s going on, you have no choice but to destroy the homes and some creatures in the process.  It’s double-edge sword, like zoos.  But I digress.

Going barefoot helps.  First, you’ll have a better feel for where you’re stepping and will less likely walk onto an anemone.  And second, you’ll have a natural inclination to walk where others have already tread – minimizing additional damage to otherwise untouched areas.

There’s a lot to see and I suggest to explore it all.  Often you’ll see people congregate around one area – usually signifying a “major” discovery.  But the truth is, a lot of the most interesting creatures are spread out across the entire expanse and tend to stay hidden.  If you’re mindful, patient, and keep a keen eye, you can make your own discovery while keeping it a secret.

Which is what happened while peering at a lone starfish.  Our youngest son reached out and touched it’s hard, nubby surface, when out of nowhere a couple of foot-long arms reached out to investigate his fingers.  We were both initially startled, but immediately realized this was an octopus.  Sure enough, a few more legs emerged, but never the whole body.  We had this little guy all to ourselves.  And as the octopus explored it’s surroundings, we sat fascinated while I did my best to describe the intricacies of the creature.

Mussels everywhere. Photo by Dave Oei.

If you’re lucky, you’ll also spot sea cucumbers and sea slugs.  Be careful if you touch them – they’re very delicate!

Other creatures are very plentiful.  Starfish are easy to find and are either loners or hand out in clumps.  We also found many little hermit crabs and even some odd-looking snails.

Plentiful too are the mussels and barnacles.  They’re not as sexy as the starfish or eight-armed bandits, but they’re role in the ecosystem is no less important. They’re filter feeders, and as a result help keep the waters clean.  And, mussels reside highest along the low-tide areas making them easy to see.  Of course, during low tide they’re clamped shut, but their numbers provide great visual interest often overlooked.

Sea anemone at La Jolla Shores. Photo by Dave Oei

Another creature hard to miss is the sea anemone.  When completely immersed in water they open up, tentacles spread out like these two pictured left.  They’re carnivorous but generally harmless to you and me.  If you gently touch a tentacle, you’ll feel a slight tug from their stinger, or nematocyst, which is what they use to capture prey.  Play with them too much and they’ll retreat, closing in on itself like a flower at sunset.

On the flip side, when anemone are out of water, they take special precautions to make sure they don’t dry in the warm San Diego sun. While these little guys don’t use sun screen, they instead make their own umbrellas. Out of sea shells!

Sea anemone exposed. Photo by Dave Oei.

This is where you need to be very careful where you tread.  As you explore the tide pools you’ll see odd concentrations of seashells on the surface of some rocks.  It’s odd because seashells do not normally clump together – on the beach you’ll find them scattered throughout.

But if you’re look closely, you’ll notice that these shells are held in place by something not quite firm and not quite soft.  In fact, thousands of anemone are holding tight onto these shells to reflect the sun’s rays while maintaining their moisture.  Yet to the casual observer it’s just a bunch of shells.  So be sure if you see this to give the anemone a wide-berth and enjoy them from afar.

Our trip to the La Jolla tide pools ended just after a wonderful sunset as we were fortunate to visit the area with a low tide in the late afternoon.  But spurned by the neat experience and our kids’ enthusiasm, we set out to find and others in San Diego.  In fact, the next day we visited one at Swami’s, just north of Cardiff by the Sea.  It’s geology is completely different.  And, I was pleasantly surprised to find that the native wildlife also different significantly.

But that’s another story.

But, there ain’t no such thing as a free lunch.  With corn and corn-related products at an all time high due to soaring food demand and the likes of ethanol, this Everglades deal will no doubt exasperate the corn pricing problem.  You see, US Sugar is currently producing about 10% of our current consumption of sugar.  Which means that either current surgar consumers will have to find other sources of sugar or switch to an alternative.

Well, just over 20 years ago most carbonated beverage makers made the switch to high-fructose corn syrup.  That was due to high tariffs on imported sugar and subsidies to corn farmers, which drove down corn prices while maintaining artificially high sugar prices.  But with corn already in very high demand and the sugar lobby still very protectionist, I figure Joe Consumer will have a lot to cry about once the Everglades deal goes through.

Don’t get me wrong.  Getting the Everglades back is qualatitively a very “good” thing.  But, by setting aside comprehensive planning and exploring potential impacts of this deal, the politicians involved may have just taken a draw from your pocketbook without you knowing.

Which is why flushing HIV out of T-cells has been on the forefront of medical science for years. Through experimentation it’s been shown that two naturally occurring plant compounds, Prostratin and DPP, in combination with other drugs are able to push HIV out of T-cells with about 80% efficacy. Sure, it’s not 100%, but experimentation had been hampered by the availability of these compounds.

They come from scarcely found plants from far away places and produce variable yet meager quantities of these valuable compounds. In other words, they must be extremely expensive and hard to come by.

Fortunately, there are real people out there who actually performed very well in Organic Chemistry. And it is they who come to this story’s rescue.

Stanford chemist Paul Wender and his fellow colleagues were able to devise a method to create prostratin and DPP in the laboratory, using nothing but materials that are easy to obtain in a method that is sustainable. To top it off, they detail the process of its creation and hint at areas in the process where the compounds may be tweaked or grossly modified to potentially produce the 100% effective HIV flusher.

So if you ever wondered where your studies of aromatic hydrocarbons were going, this is a great example of a noble cause.

And with over 30 million people in the world living with HIV today, let’s hope they (and possibly you) get to a solution soon.

Source: Stanford
Photo: AIDS Information, Switzerland

The folks at Fee lab at MIT were on the case.

Their subjects: zebra finches.  Which reminds me of why I never pursued an advanced degree in biochemistry.  It wasn’t until the last year of biochemistry, specifically during biochem lab, that we started experimenting with mice.  I’m not sure why it never occurred to me that the vast majority of biochemistry research was done with animals, but it certainly brought the issue to focus right then and there.  And while I commend the people (and lab animals) that operate under long hours with no guarantee of success, I found it’s not something I can do.  Which is why I fell into computing.  And marketing.

But I digress.

Yes, zebra finches.  They’re small, cute, and must be easy to work with.  Because somehow these scientists at MIT were able to disable parts of their brains, only temporarily mind you!, to discover that there existed two pathways toward song development.  Rather than a single pathway that slowly matured with age, there were two, and the adult-controlled motor cortex simply took over the other once the babble turned into a finely crafted song.  But for these birds, it appears that one song’s all they ever really need.

Interestingly, once the finch’s motor cortex took over, the song then never changed or varied.  Which implies an inability to learn.  But with the motor cortex temporarily disabled in adults, the juvenile pathway kicks in and the babbling returns.  Which marks a great difference between birds an us – we for the most part can continue to learn and adapt our speech and language over a lifetime.

Source: MIT
Photo: Aaron Andalman at Fee Lab

The bad guy?  In this case, nicotinamide adenine dinucleotide phosphate-oxidase, or NADPH for short.  We have it, and so do mice.  For a living, it resides in neutrophils (bacteria/fungi eating white blood cells)  and creates superoxides that destroy foreign pathogens.  That is, unless they go out of wack, in which case they apparently feast on something a bit closer to home: Your brain.

Folks in Cornell studied the role of NADPH in mice suffering from an Alzheimer’s analog and found that when this enzyme was switched off, the mice were able to regain some functions lost as a result of their disease.  Slices of their brains showed that turning off NADPH had no effect on decreasing the size of brain plaques, rather, it simply halted the progression of the disease.

And, since the role of NADPH is to create these superoxide free radicals, these scientists speculate that the use of brain-targeted antioxidants may the an answer to if Alzheimer’s kicks in.  Seems like a good start, but it also sounds like the have a ways to go.

Source: Cornell

If you don’t fish, you may not be aware that for many game fish species only those that exceed a certain size may be kept while the remainder are thrown back. For example, in California there is a 10 inch minimum on bocaccio, a type of rockfish. Any smaller and they’re free. Larger ones go in the BBQ.

What the folks at Scripps found was that taking only the larger, and presumably older and mature fish had highly destabilizing effects on fish species populations and the overall area ecology. Thus, they advocate to instead leave behind the older fish as they tend to eat less, help maintain the population pyramid, and produce more viable young.

Sounds good to me since what’s implied is that an overall balanced ecosystem should also improve yields in the long term. For now, we’ll see how long it takes lawmakers to make the change, but don’t expect the fishing lobby to go down without a fight.

Source: Scripps Institute of Oceanography
Photo: Finding Nemo @ Disney

Sigh. If only it were true.

Folks over at the Scripps Institute of Oceanography in San Diego are presenting donors with an opportunity verging on immortality. They (meaning possibly you) can have their name live in perpetuity by making a sizable donation to the Institute, and in return receive naming (and bragging) rights for a number of newly found ultra-cool-looking critters.

Like this guy above, the….thing-a-ma-gig. Or, if you’re feeling generous, you could name a sea creature after your favorite science blog.

I think vermiaquaticus tinyscium has a nice ring, don’t you? It’s certainly better than billius gatesium.

Because of the high demand, don’t bother bothering them unless you can fork over at least $5k, with the primo unnamed creatures setting you back a cool $50k.

Do you have name ideas? Send them in a comment below and I’ll forward the lot to Scripps.

Source: Scripps Institute of Oceanography

Uh oh.

Instead, it turns out Synechococcus developed a method for bypassing the carbon-fixing step of photosynthesis, which it utilizes in areas of the ocean which are iron deficient. Unfortunately, that includes a rather large chunk of ocean. And when Synechococcus uses this no-carbon-fixing pathway, it means carbon dioxide is not getting removed from the atmosphere as quickly as Al Gore (or nearly anybody else) would like.

And, whereas previously scientists estimated cyanobacteria carbon dioxide uptake by simply analyzing satellite imagery and measuring chlorophyll concentrations, they’ll now have to take into account levels of nutrients as well. And I’m not sure how you do that with satelites.

Yikes, it looks like someone’s job just got a bit harder. And, an even better reason to trade in for a Prius. Wait, oh yeah, one more pathway to learn in Bio 1A and Biochem 126.

Source: Stanford

Photo: Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory

Source: University of Washington
Photo: M. Snyder, starknakedfish.com / divingmaluku.com

Source: BBC

It’s hard to be surprised. For thousands of years the Chinese have used/eaten just about anything in the name of herbal remedies. Not that there’s anything wrong with that. That is, unless you ask Tiger what they do to his bones. Or worse, his penis. Then there’s Rhino whose horn of fingernail-cartilage is driving it to extinction. Supposedly those practices are on the decline, which is great, but considering we’re still receiving news of this type, who really knows?

It’s a shame, really, that the 20th century hasn’t delivered on the promise of providing a solid science background and a healthy dose of skepticism to the next generation in an effort to help eradicate mysticism and unsubstantiated health claims. It’s not just the minds of tomorrow that are suffering – don’t be surprised if your kids’ only exposure to these creatures is some backwater blog.