Fang

Glass Beach, Northern California

From 1950 to 1967, residents of Fort Bragg, California chose to dispose of their waste by hurling it off the cliffs above a beach. No object was too toxic or too large such as household appliances, automobiles, and all matter of trash were tossed into the crashing waves below, eventually earning it the name The Dumps. Then in 1967, city leaders closed and reclaimed the beach. Various cleanup programs were undertaken.

Long Term Exposure of Mating Gold Fireflies

New cancer radiation therapy treatment with no harmful side effects

Shortly after the discovery of the neutron in 1932, some scientists recognized the potential of boron neutron capture therapy (BNCT) as a cancer treatment. But despite decades of research, the problem of finding a delivery agent that would more effectively target the tumor without harming surrounding tissue persisted. Researchers at the University of Missouri may finally have found a solution. BNCT traditionally involves injecting tumors with the non-radioactive boron-10 isotope capture agent that is then radiated with a beam of epithermal neutrons that interact with the capture agent to produce a biologically destructive nuclear caption reaction. This results in the formation of boron 11 with the release of lethal radiation in the form of alpha particles (helium-4) and lithium ions that kill the tumor. Although numerous clinical studies have demonstrated the safety of BNCT, the challenge has been finding more tumor-selective boron delivery agents. Taking advantage of the fact that cancer cells absorb more materials than normal cells, MU Curators’ Professor M. Frederick Hawthorne and his team got cancer cells to take in and store a boron chemical designed by Hawthorne. When it captures a neutron, the boron chemical releases lithium and helium atoms that penetrate the cancer cell and destroy it from the inside without harming neighboring healthy cells. […] The team’s study was recently published in The Proceedings of the National Academy of Science (PNAS).

Fukushima, Two Years Later Two years have passed since the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear disaster, which followed the Tohoku earthquake and tsunami on March 11, 2011. One of the world’s foremost experts on the consequences of Fukushima as well as 1986’s Chernobyl disaster is biologist Tim Mousseau of the University of South Carolina’s College of Arts and Sciences. Mousseau studies the effects of radiation on wildlife in their natural surroundings. […] “The most important thing we’ve learned so far is just how little we understand about the role played by low-level, low-dose radiation in natural environments,” Mousseau said. “What we’ve learned over the last seven or eight years – in Chernobyl in particular – is that the impacts of radiation under natural conditions, in the field, are much greater than what people had seen in the laboratory setting, and they’re much greater than people had seen for the so-called ‘pure’ external-dose radiation, such as much of the work that has been done with atomic bomb survivors. “It’s very clear, based on recent studies by other folks in addition to us, that the effects of radiation on natural populations – those that experience the full range of natural stress, in addition to the radiation – are much larger than the effects in the other settings.” Mousseau’s work also challenges the widely held notion that low-level radiation, below a certain threshold, is in fact harmless. “We see no threshold,” Mousseau said. “We see consequences – such as in terms of mutation rates, or lowered fertilities and other population consequences – all the way down to very low levels, levels that are much lower than what people previously had thought could be measurable in the wild. […] In contrast to Chernobyl, the situation in Fukushima remains difficult to assess because it’s still very early since the radioactivity release. “It’s been two years, and we’re just starting to get a handle on what’s going on there,” Mousseau said. […] “There was a really wonderful study done by a group of Japanese scientists at Okinawa University,” Mousseau added. “They demonstrated that the butterflies living in Fukushima were experiencing dramatically elevated rates of genetic mutations, and this was being reflected in all sorts of developmental abnormalities – deformities in the wing structure and in their legs and antennae that were clearly impacting their ability to survive and reproduce.” Research support remains a significant problem, though. “The truth is that there is minimal funding available for independent scientists to conduct research in either place,” Mousseau said. “Among the scientific community that is not associated with the nuclear industry or the nuclear agencies, there is virtually no funding for this kind of work.” […] More information concerning Mousseau’s research in Chernobyl, Fukushima and other “hot” places can be found on his website: http://cricket.biol.sc.edu/chernobyl/

Scientists test skeletons for Black Death bacteria Scientists digging a new railway in London have uncovered 13 skeletons that will be tested to see if they died from the Black Death plague in the 14th century. The lead archaeologist of the Crossrail project, Jay Carver, says the location of the bodies and historical records suggest that the skeletons were found in a burial ground that opened at the start of the plague. Carver says scientists will study the bones to establish cause of death, and hope to map the DNA signature of the plague bacteria. The plague began ravaging Europe in 1347, spreading quickly and killing an estimated 30 percent to 60 percent of the European population. Some 75 million people in all are believed to have died in the four-year pandemic, including 25 million Europeans.

Source: phys.org

Physicists Look at the Conditions Necessary for Carbon-Based Life in the Universe In a new study, physicists look at the conditions necessary for the formation of carbon and oxygen to form carbon-based life in the universe. Life as we know it is based upon the elements of carbon and oxygen. Now a team of physicists, including one from North Carolina State University, is looking at the conditions necessary to the formation of those two elements in the universe. They’ve found that when it comes to supporting life, the universe leaves very little margin for error. Both carbon and oxygen are produced when helium burns inside of giant red stars. Carbon-12, an essential element we’re all made of, can only form when three alpha particles, or helium-4 nuclei, combine in a very specific way. The key to formation is an excited state of carbon-12 known as the Hoyle state, and it has a very specific energy – measured at 379 keV (or 379,000 electron volts) above the energy of three alpha particles. Oxygen is produced by the combination of another alpha particle and carbon. […] In new lattice calculations done at the Juelich Supercomputer Center the physicists found that just a slight variation in the light quark mass will change the energy of the Hoyle state, and this in turn would affect the production of carbon and oxygen in such a way that life as we know it wouldn’t exist. “The Hoyle state of carbon is key,” Lee says. “If the Hoyle state energy was at 479 keV or more above the three alpha particles, then the amount of carbon produced would be too low for carbon-based life. “The same holds true for oxygen,” he adds. “If the Hoyle state energy were instead within 279 keV of the three alphas, then there would be plenty of carbon. But the stars would burn their helium into carbon much earlier in their life cycle. As a consequence, the stars would not be hot enough to produce sufficient oxygen for life. In our lattice simulations, we find that more than a 2 or 3 percent change in the light quark mass would lead to problems with the abundance of either carbon or oxygen in the universe.” The researchers’ findings appear in Physical Review Letters.

In an area of the United States where a 50 year old building is considered ancient history sits the Hovenweep National Monument.  Starting with the hunter-gatherers 10,000 years ago, this high desert outpost just an hour north of the Four Corners on the Colorado / Utah border, is a frequently overlooked treasure of the region’s cryptic past.

All too often, visits to the other major archaeological sites in the area like Chaco Canyon or Mesa Verde end up feeling like a trip to the mall with its accompanying crush of people and visual clutter of signs and rope fences.  Hovenweep, with an average of only 25,000 visitors each year, is the complete opposite.  It is a uniquely personal, remote and beautiful experience that is well worth the drive.

Named for the Ute word for deserted valley, Hovenweep lives up to its name, sitting on the 30 mile long Cajon Mesa in the Great Sage Plain in near silence.   Standing out there it seems inconceivable that thousands of people once lived and farmed in such a harsh and, to us, remote place. 

Starting around A.D. 500 ancestral Puebloans began settling in the area; by A.D. 900 they began living at Hovenweep.  The six villages that make up the monument were built starting around A.D. 1200 and ultimately abandoned by the end of the thirteenth century due to a combination of a 20 year drought, increased population, and hostilities in the area.  The ruins left behind are a conglomerate of unique architectural styles, many still standing on their own some 700 years later.

Start at the visitors’ center and the Square Tower complex behind it.  Keep in mind that at one time the sage plain that surrounds you had farm fields spread out over an area the size of 300 city blocks in every direction, and you will begin to understand the enormity and complexity of what was once a very busy place.

Stay at the 31-site campground near the visitors’ center and explore all six ruins, or spend a few days and take in some of the adjacent Canyons of the Ancients National Monument’s 176,056 acres and 6,000 recorded archeological sites.

Guide Note: Hovenweep at National Park Service website

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