Geminid Meteor Shower, Source: NASA

The Geminid Meteor Shower doesn’t usually get the full-court press offered to the two other notables, namely the Leonids and the Perseids.  However, recent studies point to an expected increase in meteor shower activity from the Geminids that will continue for the next few decades.  Why? Jupiter’s gravitational influence is going to steadily push more of the stream of ejected material from the extinct comet Phaeton our way over this course of time. Fortunately, we don’t have to worry about Phaeton slamming into us, which is now technically just an asteroid.

At worse, about 100 streaks an hour can be expected starting around midnight local time in North America.  Start by finding Orion, look at his arrow-wielding arm, follow it “up” until you reach the constellation Gemini.  That’ll be where it appears the shower is coming from.

What of the prediction of increased shower activity? At they high end, you’re looking at possibly 200 streaks an hour.  Wow!

Source: NASA

Virgin Galactic SpaceShipTwo (SS2). I'll wait for version NCC-1701.

Perhaps sometime later in my lifetime I will have mustered the gumption, not to mention the cash required to jump onto Virgin Galactic’s tour of outer space.  But for those of you who not only have enough of both but have been one of the first to reserve your seat into one of the first of such rides for the paying public, aside from those willing to fork over $1M for a jouney on the ISS, here’s what your ride will look like.

The rest of us will just have to sit back and drool.

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

Stellarium (courtesy of Stellarium.org)

Ever wonder what is that third star from the right?  Could that planet be Jupiter or possibly Venus?  Or, are you just planning a stargazing trip to someplace distant sometime in the far off  future and are wondering what you can expect to see?

Then, Stellarium is just for you.

While the free downloadable software (Windows, Mac, Linux) has been around for a while, it still hasn’t hit version 1.0.  As of this article, it’s on version 0.10.2.  Still, despite my best efforts, I could not get the program to crash, and I run an old P4 1.73Ghz PC.  I can only imagine how it will work on a newer computer.

As you can see from the screen shot, Stellarium will give you a view of the night sky, as if you walked outside your home on a clear, dark night.  But, that’s just the beginning.

Aside from helping identify any planetary, nebular, galactic, or stellar object in the night sky, it will draw out the constellations, attach names to objects, and, if desired, sketch the path of the planets as they travel across the elliptic.

Though the benefits are immediate for any amateur astronomer, Stellarium makes for a great learning tool for children and teens.  For example, one concept that can be difficult to fathom involves the relative movement of the planets, stars, and moon with respect to us, and that’s simply because few of us are out at night, every night, observing.

Stellarium makes that easy.  Just launch the program, configure your location (F6 key) and enter the current date/time.  Now turn on planet trails (F4 key).  Then fast forward to midnight, using your mouse to click on the right-most arrow on the bottom menu.  Once you get to around midnight, pause.  Now, to see what the night sky looks like tomorrow, hit the “=” key(equal sign).  Or, keep the button down and watch Stellarium zoom from midnight today to midnight tomorrow to all the midnights from now until when you take your finger off the “=” key.

It’s hard to see everything at once.  But if you’re interested in observing the direct vs. retrograde movement of planets over the course of days, keep your eye on Mars.  Although this movement makes a certain amount of sense in textbooks, there’s nothing quite like taking control of the helm and seeing it happen for yourself.

Stellarium is perfect for amateur or professional astronomers, even those who have telescopes with built-in star maps.  But for those without a telescope, you can consider Stellarium a fine substitute.  Don’t know what I mean?  Power it up, use the arrow keys to navigate to someplace interesting, and hit the page-up button.  You’ll see detail that will rival some of the best amateur telescopes today, allowing you to stargaze from comfort of your living room…or computer lab.

Galileo never had it so good!

Get Stellarium here for free!

The Sun, as of 19 June 2009. Courtesy of the National Solar Observatory/AURA/NSF.

If you’re a geek like me, you’ve kept your telescopic solar filter on the shelf for more years than you care to remember because of the lack of anything of interest on the sun. Well, time to dust it off. At least, if the scientists at the National Solar Observatory have the right idea.

Scientists have observed that solar activity waxes and wanes on an 11 year cycle. Why? Nobody yet knows. But when solar activity increases, all sorts of havoc gets wrecked onto our satellites and telecommunication systems, and at the same time we see a marked increase in aurora activity. For amateur astronomers, as even professional ones I suppose, increased activity means that sunspots are back. And peering at the sun with a telescope fitted with a high-grade solar filter suddenly becomes interesting again.

Getting back, these scientists theorize that movement of the solar jet stream across the sun’s 22′nd degree of latitude is an indicator of the upcoming switch from inactivity to activity.  And, they just noticed the streams make that crossing, 2 years later than normal.  Which means, if they’re right, we should see sunspots within the next few years.

Source: Science

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

Discovery at the Vehicle Assembly Building in January 2009. Photo courtesy of NASA.

The again-delayed shuttle mission STS-119 is supposed to be special for a number of reasons.  First, three of the would-be astronauts are first-timers, and of those two are former educators.  Joseph Acaba and Richard Arnold were both former high school teachers who were elevated to the ranks of Mission Specialists after undergoing NASA’s standard training for all astronauts.  The hope, of course, is to continue to spark the imagination of students everywhere and engage them on an academic level.

But this mission seeks to accomplish much more.  As the 10th-to-the-last shuttle mission ever (unless things change), STS-119 seeks to install the final set of solar arrays onto the International Space Station and fix the failed toilet to tap urine conversion system.

Of course there will be a wealth of on-board science experiments and ISS construction that will ensue over the 14 day mission.  But one interesting bit includes a one-off heat shield tile that will be placed under the left wing.  It will sport an irregular bump of 0.25 inches and will be monitored during re-entry at Mach 15 to understand the heating effects on that tile.  I can’t wait to catch the video on YouTube.

Oh, why is this mission delayed?  Endeavor’s flight in November 2008 was marred by a failure of a hydrogen flow control valve, one of three that adjusts the flow of gaseous hydrogen to fill the void of liquid hydrogen used during assent.  Fortunately, this particular failure was compensated for by the other two and the assent proceeded without a hitch.  But upon landing and an inspection of the valve, engineers were left with answering a basic question: Could this failure have led to catastrophe?

Well, it’s 6 days before the intended launch date of February 27.  And without a firm answer, NASA has wisely decided to postpone the mission.

More to come…

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

Photo courtesy of NASA. Artist's rendition of Earth's magnetic field.

If you recall, THEMIS is the awful name given to the amazing set of satellites charged with learning about how the solar wind affects Earth’s magnetic field, auroras, and shortages to our power grid.

Without getting into the nitty gritty, late last year initial results indicate that indeed our magnetic field is leaky as previously predicted.  However, what surprised scientists is the finding that more solar particle penetrate Earth’s magnetic field when it’s aligned with the sun’s magnetic field, not against it.

And it’s when the sun’s magnetic field switches orientation that ours tears open, ultimately wrecking havoc yet yielding amazing auroras.  For the science intense, you can go straight to the source.  For those looking for auroras, look no further than here.

Once you’re done, enjoy the pictures that follow.

Photo by Joshua Strang. This image was taken over Alaska, and was voted Wikipedia Commons Picture of the Year for 2006.

Photo courtesy of NASA. This image, taken from the International Space Station in February 2, 2003 shows green and red aurora. Depending on conditions, the ISS can travel through, above, or below aurora.

Photo by Don Pettit, ISS Science Officer in 2003.  Here’s another instance of the ISS going head to head with a green aurora.

Photo by Bud Kuenzli, courtesy of NASA.  This photo, taken over an Alaskan lake captures not just an awesome aurora, but a shooting star and the the Pleiades. You can find the original description here.

Extreme global warming, far, far away. Photo courtesy of NASA.

Most climate experts believe a 3 degree Fahrenheit increase in out planet’s temperature over the next 100 years would spell disaster. 10 degrees would be catastrophic. What about 1000 degrees?

Ursa Major. Photo courtesy of Wikisky.org

There’s a Jupiter-sized planet that orbits a star 190 light years away located in the constellation Ursa Major, or what most of us recognize as the Big Dipper.

The star is actually a binary – the two of which can been seen together with a good pair of binoculars on a clear night.  You can find it by first locating the Big Dipper, than seeking out the front knee of Ursa (the Bear).

Still lost?  Try Wikisky.org.  A web-based star/galaxy map with lots of great astronomic pictures.

While many of the recently discovered extrasolar gas giants orbit very close to their sun, this one follows a highly elliptic orbit.  As the furthest point from it’s sun, it’s about 1 AU away.  But at it’s closest, it’s about 0.03 AU.  Tie that in with a relatively quick orbit of just over 100 days, and the result is extreme global warming and extremely global cooling at very regular intervals.

What’s the significance?  By understanding heating and cooling patterns scientists can better understand how extrasolar planets absorb and shed heat.

Scientists reached these conclusions after observing the planet with the Spitzer space telescope.

Source: NASA.

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.

Secretary of Energy, Steven Chu. Source: Lawrence Berkeley Nat'l. Lab

If you were like me, you spent most of Tuesday working, only to return home and sit glued to your TV watching the inauguration  on your DVR.  Yes, Obama is president.  Which also means, yes, we again have people in government who put their faith in Science.

One of those people is Steven Chu, the just affirmed Secretary of Energy.  He’s got his work cut out for him.  Not only has Obama charged him with reducing our dependence on foreign oil, but he has to figure out how to curb greenhouse gasses while making our country more energy efficient.  And if he can turn every car into a plug-in, call it icing on the cake.

Of course, like everyone else on Obama’s cabinet, Chu has serious street cred.

Not only was he a professor of physics at Stanford, but he ran the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory where they do serious rocket science (and other amazing things).  But perhaps most notable is his receipt of the Nobel prize just 10 years prior.

The prize was for his work on discovering and creating optical tweezers to cool and hold atoms and molecules in place so they can be studied and observed.  Such as, DNA.  Or, an enzyme in the process of utilizing a single molecule of ATP.  Cool stuff.

What’s I find most intriguing is his collaborative approach.  While not unusual in academia, often the drumbeat to publish can feel pretty cut-throat.  And that’s putting it mildly.  Which is why I was fascinated by Chu’s account of how the Nobel Prize came to be.  He protrays himself as a man was  eager to learn, humbled by his discovery, but does not miss to remark on each and every shortcoming, mistake, and area of ignorance.

It’s a good read if you have a chance.  You can either find the Review of Modern Physics, 70, 685 – 706 (1998) or just download it here (also available on Google).  By the end, I think you’ll agree there’s light to be found at the end of this tunnel.

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