week 12

Fukushima radiation near Half Moon Bay?

This title is enough to get us all a little worked up.  But the author maintained the radiation at the beach is from naturally occurring elements in the sand that doesn't pose a threat to human health.  In fact they came about when the Eatrth was being formed, which is pretty cool.  But it shows how worried people are about it all and how we can get upset pretty fast with a viral youtube clip.  My boss recently gave me a bottle of pills containing some blocker against radiation for when the radiation arrives in the ocean currents.  "Its not a matter of if, its a matter of when" he said smugly.   
Another article we read last week "Radioactive Fukushima Waters Arrive at West Coast of America" said "the amount of Fukushima radioactivity in this seawater is minisucle…and poses no concern at all. And never will."  Those italics get me a little worked up.  Never?  Didn't they already cause come concern?   Its a topic that gets people heated but it was interesting to read these articles and learn more about the scientific data so we can be more informed about this topic and follow this event with a little better background and more informed perspective.  

Week 12

Bacteria - crazy little critters!

It is so cool how bacteria live symbiotically with us and other organisms.  They are responsible for doing so much--manufacturing vitamin K in our gut for us and putting the sour in San Francisco sourdough.  They come in a variety of shapes and sizes, and they are one of the oldest organisms on the planet and they live in all corners of the world.  They can also cause a lot of harm to humans if they get out of control.  This article talks a little about the development of antibiotics and how it revolutionized medicine.  People must have been truly amazed at the power when antibiotics first became available. It is interesting that antibiotics often work by targeting the ribosomes of bacteria which are slightly differentn from eukaryotic (as in human) ribosomes. In that way the bacteria is killed iwthout damaging the eukaryotic cell.  Pretty neat.


Also super cool are the archeans--"tiny prokaryotic organisms that live only in extreme environments: boiling water, super-salty pools, sulfur-spewing volcanic vents, acidic water, and deep in the Antarctic ice."  They live only in the harshest of neighborhoods.  The article does not elaborate on archeans.

Life in Oceanic Crust- Woah!

'Parallel universe' of life in oceanic crust could be Earth's largest ecosystem

Pretty wild stuff.  Its awesome to imagine the largest ecosystem on earth existing in a place no one had really considered before, living in a way never thought possible before.  The scientist said "we need to stretch our brains to consider that there should be much to discover."  I think thats the best part--stretching our brains to think about life in a new way, and being open and excited about discovery.

The author drives home the message that life will find a way, no matter the obstacles.  Though the comparison is weak, I remembered how I love seeing tiny wildflowers growing on high mountain passes, or a dwarfed tree clinging to a cliffside seemingly growing out of the granite.  Blasted by wind, covered most of the year by snow, life will pop out when given the chance of a few sunny days.  There are people who's lives are so foreign to ours that maybe we would deem it inhospitable for life.  Likewise, microbes are making a go of it on the ocean crust.

The author also points out the likelihood for life on other planets.  Why wouldn't there be?  It will just be in a form we will have to really stretch our minds to even begin to see.  Pretty cool to try to think about!