Some text here really.

Here’s a bit of background about why nitrogen is so important for plants:

The lack of nitrogen for plants is a limiting factor to their growth, as nitrogen is the backbone to proteins.  You might be thinking “How perfect, Nitrogen constitutes 78% of the air around us”, sadly it’s not that easy.  For plants, absorption of nitrogen is akin to Samuel Taylor Coleridge’s famous line: “Water, water, every where, Nor any drop to drink.”, Nitrogen is ubiquitous, but right now, plants can’t absorb it as a gas, but these scientists aim to change all that.

How will they do this?  They’ll be using the science of genetic modification to reach their goals.  I’ve been following the GM ‘debate’ rather closely since arriving here, and I imagine this may boil up again.

I’ve found the main anti-GM arguments that have been put forth have been rooted in scientific ignorance and have had a distinctive groupthink flavor (reading the‘GM protesters’ arguments in the paper, is a bit like seeing footage of people speaking in tongues).

During the recent Rothamsted fiasco, the protestors against their small wheat trial, claimed that there would be contamination of the surrounding plants.  This of course is impossible, because wheat self-pollinates in a natural setting (I’ve conventionally cross wheat by hand before, it’s supper hard).

Perhaps more striking is the lack of arguments about the policy surrounding the ownership of genetic info in the first place.  Farmers getting ripped off or sued, causing food prices to skyrocket is the real cause of concern here.  Yet there hasn’t been analysis and dialogue about what can and will effect farmers in the coming years.   Sorry to say it, but a greater amount of GM crops is inevitable, it’s about getting the policy right the first time, but trying to rip out plants that are meant to improve the environment.

The environment is the priority after all, isn’t it?  Not everyone may like the means, but the ends are what really matters.  The population is growing, and we don’t want to use up more land to grow inefficient varieties that require a tonne of chemical or more space for the same yield.  Turns out, trees are important for animal habitat, and don’t work great in an agricultural field (they cause some shadiness).  I personally would like to see as many still up as we can manage.  I wouldn’t mind clean water surrounding them either if we could swing it.

You might see genetic modification as creepy or unnatural, but I fail to see how any of our society is particularly ‘natural’ in the hunter-gatherer, Adam and Eve kind of way.  Humans are clever little monkeys that have figured out ways to transcend the limits of nature time and time again.  It’s lead to some really grizzly outcomes for other species, and the environment itself.  I reckon, we might as well use our clever monkey ways to mitigate the damage we cause.  I tend to think an individual has equal power to ruin someone’s day, or make someone’s way.  I think the same goes for the human race.  We’ve ruined lots of stuff, but we can use that same innovative spirit to mend what we’ve broken.

We need efficient varieties that don’t need fertilizer, insecticide, herbicide, fungicide, desiccants or any other chemical applications if we can avoid it.  Frankly, the people that are actually hungry can’t afford them, and neither can the environment.

GM is a means to a very important end: feeding the world and doing it on as little land as possible.  It’s the most powerful technological tool we have.  The policy to accompany GM use needs to ensure safety and fairness.

If it’s for the environment when it’s about to collapse, sometimes you’ve gotta do, what you’ve gotta do.

Ceara Crawshaw

More about the author

Although much has lately been made of the divisions in our societies resulting from inequalities in wealth and social status, we largely ignore perhaps the most serious of all divisions: fundamental access to our knowledge about the world and its inhabitants.

The CBC recently eported that the British government has announced it will make all government-funded research available for free by 2014, a move that is being speculatively seen as prefacing a similar EU-wide initiative.

The maxim ‘Scientia potentia est’ (knowledge is power) has been variously attributed to Sir Francis Bacon, Thomas Hobbes, and to the Book of Proverbs. Regardless of whomever uttered it, the phrase has stuck, and is no less true today than it was one hundred or one thousand years ago.

Currently, research papers are published in peer-reviewed journals, which are in turn published and distributed, usually by large publishing houses. Three of these companies, Reed Elsevier, Springer, and Wiley, are purported to have accounted for almost half of the journal articles published in 2010.

This means that half of the new knowledge produced by scientists in vital fields like physics, engineering and health & medicine is being withheld by three for-profit companies, which release the research only on payment. (A notably humane exception to this is the health sector; the Canadian Institutes for Health Research mandate that all papers originating from their funding must be publically available for free 6 months after publication.)

It is not uncommon for those without the costly annual subscriptions to be asked to pay 40$ or more for access to a single research paper, while subscriptions to some journals cost several thousand dollars annually. This obviously presents a formidable barrier to any inquisitive members of the general public looking to check facts or do their own research.

At one stage this was somewhat of a necessary evil; before the advent of the internet paper copies of journals had to be produced and distributed to libraries and universities in physical form. However, in the days of easy online publishing researchers are beginning to have a change of heart.

In 2010, in light of Elsevier reporting an annual revenue of $3.2 billion US (half of which was profit), nearly 7500 researchers worldwide, including Canadians, announced that they would no longer be publishing their work with the Dutch publishing house. Yet the Elsevier group is certainly not alone in making a buck meting out science to only those who can pay up.

It’s a strange contradiction indeed that we expect people to make informed, responsable decisions without enabling them access to the knowledge that would help them do so; the modern intellectual equivalent of Sir Fulke Greville’s lament for humanity: “Created sick, commanded to be sound”.

Can we realistically expect people to make good decisions on scientific or social policy, or even to care what science has to say at all, while denying them access to the products of that enterprise, even when they paid for the research themselves through taxes?

This is not to suggest that the accessibility of these documents will make scientific readers out of the whole population. It’s doubtless the case that media will still fill the important role of translating and interpreting the technicalities and implications of scientific work through engagement with experts. However, at least in the UK, the general readership will soon be accorded the adult consideration of being able to check for themselves if they so desire.

In his excellent book The Demon-Haunted World: Science as a Candle in the Dark, the well-known science populariser Carl Sagan bemoaned the overwhelming science illiteracy of young Americans as a dangerous societal failing. We Canadians should not assume we are any better off.

This price barrier between the public and science, then, is an obstruction blocking the way to real popular engagement with science, something a healthy modern nation so desperately requires. Although we do not yet know the details of, and so cannot judge, the upcoming UK access system (much less the EU-wide version), the fact that this issue is being given serious action by a government is a heartening step forward.

Although the days of true public freedom of access to journals are no doubt far-off yet, it would be a great advance for Canada to follow in the footsteps of the UK, and at least start by giving all Canadians admission to what we’re already paying for.

Erik Delaquis

More about the author

The video (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-E-8_wDgN7c&feature=related) shows a shimmering and iridescent blanket-like creature filmed by a deep-sea research module. The being undulates and twists past the camera, at times getting close enough to make out a mesh-like hexagonal pattern.

(Image:www.greenprophet.com)

The public reaction to this footage was predictable; calls of ‘monster’ and ‘undiscovered creature’ abounded across the web. However, as strange as this creature is it’s hardly undiscovered… in fact it was discovered 45 years ago!

When confronted with uncommon animals, the natural reaction is to find it monstrous. Body plans are often so foreign to us that it’s difficult to relate to what we’re seeing. However, for those with some knowledge of marine life this video is really not that perplexing at all.

It didn’t take the folks over at http://www.jellywatch.org/ very long to chime in with the answer. The ‘sheet’ is actually the flattened bell of a deep sea jelly, while the whitish coloured bits betray gonads and oral tentacles.
The culprit in this case is Deepstaria enigmatica, a seldom-observed but nonetheless well-known species first described in 1967. The morphological description of the species (http://species-identification.org/species.php?species_group=zsao&id=2434) even describes the network of gastrovascular canals (basically a branched gut) that make up the hexagonal pattern seen in the video.

It may seem strange that an organism so easily identified by researchers could equally easily obtain the status of ‘alien monster’ online. The phenomenon is similar to that frequently seen with ‘blobsters’, decomposing marine animals which wash up on beaches causing conspiracy theorists and self-styled ‘cryptozoologists’ to jump to incredible conclusions. Many photos of these and other ‘cryptids’ circulated on the internet are easily identified by those familiar with the appropriate branch of biology, yet they persist online as ‘proof’ of monsters among us.

For those unfamiliar with the entire families these animals belong to they do indeed look fairly alien. There’s also a certain thrill attached to the idea of finding something unknown. People will no doubt continue to be attracted to the monstrous, the cryptic and the undiscovered, sometimes to the point of ignoring the amazing animals we’ve already begun to get to know.

Take a look at the following video of well-known colonial sea organisms taken in Southern Australia. (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5EQGA_4BZ5s ).  If I were to film some shaky footage of giant pyrosomes and upload it with no description, there’s a good chance that we would have another ‘monster’ on our hands in no time.

(Image: www.jellieszone.com)

These animals are a reminder that we have a very limited chance to ever come in contact with 90% of the huge array of life on our planet. A look into nearly any branch of life on our planet beyond the typical familiar animals reveals incredible and surprising organisms. It’s a shame that they often need the monster brand before people take notice.

Erik Delaquis

Turns out, abandoning your super huge, super powerful jungle monsters into the wild yonder, isn’t the smartest.  (Especially in sensitive ecosystems like the Everglades).

Let’s back-peddle for a moment to fully grasp what we’re dealing with here.  The Burmese python is in the top six of the worlds largest snakes, on average they measure 3.7 metres (12 feet) (that’s two tall guys in length).  They are tough as nails – having been reported to eat alligators of all things! They are also (you guessed it) native to Southeast Asia.

So yeah, they’re large and in charge (not to mention very robust and adaptable).  More and more so now that they are breeding like rabbits in the Florida everglades. A 2009 government reports capturing 1330 snakes (which is just the tip of the iceberg).

So, how’d these guys get there anyways?  Escapees resulted largely from the damage caused by Hurricane Andrew, which was supplemented by general abandonment of pets who outgrew their surroundings (surprise surprise- apparently one of the worlds largest snake species gets BIG…).

They have been termed invasive and measures are being taken to control their numbers, but what kind of damage is happening to the flora and fauna in the everglades?

Well, Smithsonian scientists have recently found that these ginormous snakes are not only eating birds themselves but weaseling their way into nests and eating eggs. Bird eggs have not been a reported component of Burmese Python diets until now.  They have also found that these slithery Sams have been eating 25 species of birds (some endangered) in the ‘already taxed’ ecosystem.

In conclusion – maybe it isn’t so bright to have a pet like this.  Other than the obvious risks of your pet escaping and eating your baby – they simply aren’t suited to be pets, for anyone.  Sorry to burst your bubble, weird guy carrying a snake down the street, but those are the cold hard facts.

Ceara Crawshaw

More about the author

Sidewalks, parking lots, driveways, roofs and compacted lawns are the top culprits for runoff and are also known as impervious surfaces. In Vancouver alone, it is estimated that 50% of the area is covered with impervious surfaces. (10% is threshold that separates minor impact to significant impact on a neighboring watershed [http://www.env.gov.bc.ca]). Impervious surfaces allow water to bypass the absorption process, transporting it, often to storm drainage where it then enters a nearby waterway. This undoubtedly affects the saturation of the surrounding ground and ultimately affects the natural landscapes.

Local schools, churches, business complexes and grocery stores are doing something really great in a small way. Nice rain gardens are being created next to parking lots, sidewalks, driveways and overly manicured sitting lower in the ground and filled with native plants that help slow the drainage process and help the water percolate through to the thirsty soil beneath. Not only that, it improves water quality, protects rivers and streams, reduces mosquito breeding (Can we get an amen for that?), reduces potential of home flooding and creates habitats for birds and butterflies (Birds and butterflies? I’m in!). Best of all, you can easily create your own rain garden! http://www.raingardens.org offers great tips on how to get started!

So next time you take a stroll down the way, take a moment to see the small things that can amount to a big difference.

Cougar Canyon Elementary School is one example of how a school community saw a problem and found a simple solution, and not only that, found an attractive one too.

Helen Yip

More about the author

It’s no secret that we’re running out of, well, everything. According to many analysts we’ve already passed peak oil, and rare earth metals like rubidium and paladium are becoming increasingly… rare. Worse still, projections from the Institute for Sustainable Futures predict peak phosphorous occurring around 2030 (http://phosphorusfutures.net/peak-phosphorus). No phosphorous, no fertilizer, no food. In our immediate future possession of these minerals may redraw the international power balance in the same way that oil has over the last 50 years.

A particularly intriguing case is that of lithium, a rather unusual element. This component is critical to power the high-tech batteries used in all the devices mentioned in the first paragraph, as well as those in electric cars. The lightest of all solid metals, lithium is a soft element commonly present in trace amounts in seawater and salty brine. However, the earth’s sizable deposits occur underneath salt flats.

Here’s where Bolivia enters the picture. Long the poorest country in South America, Bolivia has a secret weapon that could propel its economy sky-high in just a few decades. In the extreme Southwest of the country, there’s a big, flat, salty expanse called Salar de Uyuni. Over 10,500km² its height varies by less than 1m. It’s so flat that it’s commonly used to calibrate earth-observing satellites.

Underneath all this salt, Bolivia hides a treasure: possibly up to 70% of the world’s lithium deposits. And they’re not touching it.

Evo Morales, Bolivia’s first indigenous leader, does not want to repeat the mistakes of the past. For centuries the country’s mineral wealth has flowed out in a veritable river of silver and copper, yet the people remained destitute even by South American standards. Morales’ political philosophy is left-leaning in the vein of Venezuela’s Hugo Chavez, and the Bolivian socialist has repeatedly expressed his resolve to reject international involvement when the time comes to extract the resource.

For the moment, the leader is content to sit and wait as the dawning of the lithium age pushes the market price ever-higher. Some countries, however, are not into playing the waiting game.

China currently accounts for approximately 97% of global rare earth element extraction, an extraordinary figure. This is even more amazing considering that they only possess 37% of proven reserves. Rare earth metals are used in various high-tech applications from super strong magnets and computer parts to lasers and aerospace components. However, China’s peak rare earth period has already passed; the government has recently announced plans to decrease extraction by 35%. Last September China stopped production entirely in 3 of its 8 major sites in a bid to protect the resource for the future.

However, some soon-to-peak elements are much more essential than either lithium or rare earth elements. Some of them are essential for life itself.

Morocco, the coastal Northwest cap of the African continent, is the world’s fifty-seventh largest country by area. But this sliver-like Kingdom bordering the Sahara has something worth much more than gold or diamonds: phosphate.

Declining phosphate reserves has been known as a problem for quite some time. In 1938 Roosevelt issued a warning about the dire effects of diminishing phosphate levels in American farmland.

Morocco possesses an estimated 75% of the world’s rock phosphates, a stable form which can be extracted through mining.

In many ways Morocco is a political outsider as well. With a reigning monarchy and a powerfully influential military, the state also has the distinction of being the only country on the African continent which is not a member of the African union.

Part of this animosity results from the kingdom’s thirst for mineral riches; in 1979 Morocco fully seized power of the iron and phosphate-rich former colony of Spanish Sahara (which now appears on the map as ‘Western Sahara’, with a contested Northern border between it and Morocco).

International condemnation of this move led to countless rebellions and strained relations with Algeria, who still support the independence movement and have a permanently closed border with Morocco. To this day the UN refuses to recognize Moroccan authority over the area, despite the fact that the latter has military and administrative control over the former.

As resources become exhausted in the rest of the world, the doors of opportunity will be flung open for many countries not traditionally seen as resource-wealthy. Whether the exploitation of these resources will result in positive development or not is another question entirely, and one that is case-dependent.

One thing is for certain: like it or not, these countries will be setting the future agenda when it comes to their resources. If you want lithium, you will be dealing with Mr. Morales. Everyone needs phosphate, and two-thirds of them will be dealing with his highness King Mohammed VI. Time will tell how they decide to proceed.

Erik Delaquis

more about the author

Thanks to Grist.org for bringing this to our attention!

Ceara Crawshaw

More about the author

It’s time to take the muffin back. I like the idea of a muffin: the convenience, inexpensiveness and of course, their versatility.  You can put just about anything in them.  Whether you’re loving in-season berries like blueberries, raspberries, cranberries or blackberries, or their drier counterparts like craisins, raisins and apricots…  Perhaps you like a bit of indulgence in the morning, like some nice chocolate chips, the possibilities are limitless!

Anyways, I’ve worked with numerous muffin recipes to develop this one! Very simple to make, absolutely fat free (what?! Yeah that’s right…absolutely no butter or oil), moist in texture and not overly sweet, these muffins deliver on satisfaction and nutrition. Check it out!

Helen’s Healthy Muffins

Ingredients

1 ½  cup oat bran

1 cup nonfat milk or milk alternative (almond milk, soy milk)

1 large banana

1 egg or equivalent egg substitute

¼ cup honey

½ tsp vanilla

1 cup whole wheat flour

1 tsp baking soda

1 tsp baking powder

½ tsp salt

1 cup mix-ins (chocolate chips, blueberries, raisins, nuts, etc.)

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 375°F
2. Mix together oat bran with milk in a medium bowl and let sit for 10 minutes
3. In another bowl, mix together flour, baking soda, baking powder and salt
4. After 10 minutes, add banana into wet mixture and mash it (I like to keep some chunks, but if you don’t like banana chunks, mash before mixing in to ensure even consistency).
5. Then add vanilla, egg and honey into mixture. Mix well.
6. Combine wet and dry ingredients. Add in mix-ins.
7. Grease muffin tin and scoop mixture into each tin.
8. Bake for 8-15 minutes depending on size of muffin tin (small muffins=~8 minutes , large muffins = ~15 minutes). Check periodically with toothpick method.
9. Remove from muffin tin and place on cooling rack.

10. Enjoy!

Helen Yip

More about the author

It turns out this fine fungi – Pestalotiopsis microspora can survive solely on digesting polyurethane, (which many things are made of nowadays due to its versatile and inexpensive nature).  B ut I’m still not convinced that these Yale scientists have got this whole thing figured out. Do they actually like eating plastic? I think PETA should move in on this one (what’s the difference between force-feeding these guys plastic, and the preparation of foie gras? I mean really).  But hey, f these little go-getters can take a bite out of Garbage Island, I commend them.

So kudos to you little mushroom….just think, one day the world will be yours.  It’s lucky that you came around, now you can handle this previously indestructible material, and we can make more unsightly spandex suits.  If you want more information, check out a summary of the whole story at:

http://www.fastcoexist.com/1679201/fungi-discovered-in-the-amazon-will-eat-your-plastic

Helen Yip

More about the author