United States Warming

The White House released a study about climate change. I was not surprised about the findings: the United States has already been affected by climate change and stands to suffer dire consequences if fossil fuel emissions are not limited. Scientists have been sounding the alarm on global warming for more than a decade. There were two interesting issues. One, the study focused exclusively on the United States. A collection of 28 scientists, all from US government labs or universities, outlined best and worse case scenarios for all US regions. The “global” warming issue now becomes a “United States” warming issue. The predictions are startling; a difference in just 2 to 10 degrees Fahrenheit in the next century is projected to cause flooding through a combination of elevated sea levels and increased rainfall, increase hurricane intensity, increase wildfires, increase insect and water borne diseases and decrease biodiversity. All of this is projected to occur in the United States.

Image by Getty Images via Daylife

The second, even if the scientists were motivated purely by science and dispensing the truth, the political ramifications are real. A similar study was released in 2000. As I recall, the previous administration downplayed and even questioned the findings. So far, it appears that this president is more willing to accept the findings of the scientific community. As I write this post, the legislative branch is pondering placing limits on fossil fuels. For the sake of our future, I hope this president will continue to adopt a different stance than the last one.

Acknowledgments
http://features.csmonitor.com/politics/2009/06/16/global-warming-affecting-every-corner-of-the-us-report-says/
http://www.sciencenews.org/view/generic/id/44737/title/White_House_releases_report_on_climate_change

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"Science" teacher sues school board

Typically this blog is reserved for advances in biology but there is a pressing issue. In a bizarre turn of events, a science teacher sued the Mount Vernon school board for religious harassment and a slew of other charges. Apparently, John Freshwater was fired for insubordination when he refused to put away several bibles that were in his classroom. There are conflicting reports so more time is needed to know exactly what happened. The most outrageous claims are that Freshwater taught intelligent design in his classroom, distributed bibles to students, decorated his room with religious paraphernalia and burned students on their arms with the image of the cross.

In a quote to the public, Freshwater said, "...I look forward to resolving this situation so I can get back to teaching science." If the claims are true, I counter that Freshwater never actually taught science. Aside from the obvious transgression that denies separation between church and state, Freshwater seems guilty of a heinous crime. Religion belongs in a religion class, or history, or english or almost any class other than science. Despite what Intelligent Designers would have us believe, ID is not science--it is religion packaged as science. Intelligent designers may actually be correct, but there claims are not scientific ones: the ideas are based on faith, not science. Science is clear and unified that evolution explains the diversity of life. Of course there are scientists that disagree, but they are in the small minority. You could find scientists who argue that AIDS is not caused by HIV. I can not say what really happened with Freshwater but I do know that science teachers should teach science. If a science teacher refuses to teach science, then he/she should be fired or apply for another teaching position.

Acknowledgments
Source: http://www.knoxpages.com/?NewsID=7289&CatID=1
Other source: http://pandasthumb.org/archives/2009/06/freshwater-brin.html
Image: http://pandasthumb.org/archives/2008/06/19/MTVERNON.jpg

Human Parts Grown from Pigs?

I recently read an article at BBC News about a recent breakthrough in stem cell research; namely, scientists have transformed adult cells from pigs into stem cells. Stem cells are important because their only job is to replace dead or injured cells. Stem cells may be able to replace nerve cells in a paralyzed person or white blood cells in an AIDS patient. The medical applications are numerous. So far, scientists have experimented with stem cells from embryos, which is controversial because the embryos have to be destroyed in the process. Another source is the stem cells from adults, which have not been so successful. This breakthrough is important because it may potentially mean that we can close the debate about using embryonic stem cells.

In the study, the scientists took ear and bone marrow cells and "reprogrammed" them by using a virus to introduce a host of chemicals into the cells. The adult cells were successfully transformed into stem cells.

Maybe one day, we will be able to harvest human organs grown in pigs. If someone is born with a birth defect or someone develops a disease or someone gets into an accident, their organs can be replaced with these pig-grown human organs. This may be a little unsettling because we may start to view pigs as just organ donors, but I think this is much better than killing human embryos.

Pig Stem Cells

View more presentations from Student Wilsonsbiologylab.

Acknowledgments
Article: http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/health/8078996.stm
Background: http://stemcells.nih.gov/info/basics
Image: http://www.zmescience.com/human-skin-cells-ordered-to-be-embryonic-stem-cells

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