For this essay I’ve decided to fulfill a promise I made to myself and write a compendium of mini essays on loosely related topics-all at least, science related with some math thrown in. Since much of my country is in the throes of writer storms, I have decided to focus first on the miserable wind chill factor, its limitations, and how to read a wind chill chart.

Basically, animal skin reacts to the wind’s drying affect.  Think back to the last time you stepped out of a pool, lake, or shower and felt cool until you dried  off.  Why did you feel cool?  We always have evaporation from the skin’s pours taking place and as it does, heat escapes into the atmosphere.  The colder the air and the stronger the wind, the colder we feel.  A blowing fan  produces the same effect.  Now, the question becomes “does a blowing fan cool a room down?”  The short answer to the question is NO!  Heat from the electric  motor can actually increase the room temperature ever so slightly.  Now, for the question, “Are inanimate objects affected by the wind?”  With some environmental exceptions, the general answer is again No.

You read a wind chill chart just like a road mileage chart, . For example, if the temperature is 5 and the wind speed is 20 mph, then the wind chill is -15.

By Tom Skilling

• Chicago Tribune
• A good approximation of the wind-chill temperature can be found by multiplying the wind speed by 0.7 and then subtracting that value from the air temperature. For example, if the air temperature is 20 degrees and the wind speed is 25 mph, use the formula 20 – (25 x 0.7) to determine that the wind-chill temperature is 2.5 degrees.
• The actual wind-chill temperature calculated from National Weather Service tables is 3 degrees. The wind-chill temperature assumes a human face at a height of 5 feet above the ground on a clear night.
• Wind speed magnifies the effect of cold temperatures. Cold air blown by wind increases the rate of convective heat loss from human skin much more rapidly than calm air. Bright sun increases the wind-chill temperature by 10 to 18 degrees.(Skilling, T.)
• QUIZ 1 (answers after reference)

1. If the temperature is -15 and the wind speed is 35 mph, how long will it take for frostbite to occur?

2. What is the wind chill factor in question 1?

3.At what temperature & wind speed will the chill factor be -4?

For those of you in the Southern Hemisphere who are enjoying summer, I have included a discussion of the heat index.

Classification Heat Index Effect on the body

Extreme Danger 125°F or higher Heat stroke highly likely

Danger 103°F – 124°F Heat cramps or heat exhaustion likely, and heat stroke possible with prolonged exposure and/or physical activity

Extreme Caution 90°F – 103°F Heat stroke, heat cramps, or heat exhaustion possible with prolonged exposure and/or physical activity

Caution 80°F – 90°F Fatigue possible with prolonged exposure and/or physical activity

Quiz 2

1.What is the heat index with a temperature of 85 °F and relative humidity of 85 %

2. What is the level of concern at 86 °F & 60% humidity?

Converting from Fahrenheit to Celsius

0 degrees Fahrenheit is equal to -17.8 degrees Celsius:

0 °F = -17.8 °C

The temperature T in degrees Celsius (°C) is equal to the temperature T in degrees Fahrenheit (°F) minus 32, times 5/9:

T_(°C) = (T_(°F) – 32) × 5/9

or

T_(°C) = (T_(°F) – 32) / (9/5)

or

T_(°C) = (T_(°F) – 32) / 1.8  (Easier, I think) 

Sample: Convert 68 degrees Fahrenheit to degrees Celsius:

T_(°C) = (68°F – 32)/1.8 = 20°C

Some important conversions

98.6 °F 37 °C normal body temperature

212 °F 100 °C boiling point of wate

Stay tuned for the next installment.

Quiz 1

1. 10 minute

2. -48 degrees

3. 10 degree, 10 mph

Quiz 2

1. 102 dgrees

2 Extreme caution

In the last essay we learned the role that pedigrees have played in  tracking given traits or conditions from generation to generation.  We also  learned some different patterns of inheritance. I also dropped a hint or two that the eugenics movement of the early 20^th  Century had some lofty goals to improve humanity but soon took a turn down the wrong road to self-destruction that involved the dihybrid (two trait) cross .and was used to support the idea that genetic differences between “races” could be a rationale for prohibiting inter-racial marriages and more.  These social reformers called eugenicists  thought they could use Mendelian genetics to solve difficult social problems.

The dihybrid cross was introduced in Essay LII and combines two separate  and independent traits into one Punnett square.  You might recall the cross Mendel made involving seed color and seed shape in garden peas in which two hybrid plants heterozygous for both traits were crossed and resulted in  a 9:3:3:1 ration of:

9 yellow ,Round

3Yellow, wrinkled        

3 green, Round          

1 green, wrinkled                 seeds

As stated earlier, the only way the eugenicists could achieve their goal of irradiating genetic diseases, poverty, crime, alcoholism, mental illness, and sexual immorality was through controlled breeding , thus eventually eliminating harmful genes altogether.  They also believed they could raise the average intelligence level by preventing the feeble-minded from, reproducing by forced sterilization as described below.

The Supreme Court Ruling That Led To 70,000 Forced Sterilizations

In 1927, the U.S. Supreme Court decided, by a vote of 8 to 1, to uphold a state’s right to forcibly sterilize a person considered unfit to procreate. The case, known as Buck v. Bell, centered on a young woman named Carrie Buck, whom the state of Virginia had deemed to be “feeble-minded.”

Author Adam Cohen tells Fresh Air‘s Terry Gross that Buck v. Bell was considered a victory for America’s eugenics movement, an early 20th century school of thought that emphasized biological determinism and actively sought to “breed out” traits that were considered undesirable.

“There were all kinds of categories of people who were deemed to be unfit “to procreate” Cohen says. “The eugenicists looked at evolution and survival of the fittest, as Darwin was describing it and they believed ‘We can help nature along if we just plan who reproduces and who doesn’t reproduce. “

All told, as many as 70,000 Americans were forcibly sterilized during the 20^th Century. The victims of state-mandated sterilization included people like Buck who had been labeled “mentally deficient ” as well as those who were deaf, blind, and diseased. Minorities, poor people, and “promiscuous” women were often targeted. (Cohen, A) 

Read on

 On June 4, 1924, a girl was admitted to the Virginia State Colony for epileptics and feeble-minded. She was white, dark-haired, and 17 years old. She became colony inmate 1692. The medical superintendent of the colony examined her. He declared her healthy, free of syphilis, able to read, write, and keep herself tidy. And then he classified her as feeble-minded of the lowest grade, moron class. With that designation, this young woman, who’d already lost more than many people could bear in a lifetime, was set on a path she didn’t choose. What happened next laid the foundation for one of the most tragic social experiments in American history, the forced sterilization of tens of thousands of people. (Blair, W.)

This story has resonance even today. It’s about how science and the law, tools that we have created to help improve our lives, can easily become instruments of prejudice and oppression. It’s a story of hubris and about good intentions gone awry. (Eugenics and the science of better breeding. Blair, W.)

  Some of the eugenicists including Francis Galton, (Darwin’s half- cousin) subscribed to the belief that there were hereditary differences between socioeconomic groups; some were over reproducing and would eventually lower the world intellect. According to Davenport: a “race is a more or less pure lived group of individuals that differs from other groups by at least one character, or strictly, a genetically connected group whose gene plasm is characterized by a difference, in one or more genes, from other groups ” (Davenport as quoted by Shotwell, M.)

 To borrow an example from Shotwell, Davenport believed “ a blue-eyed Scotchman belongs to a different race than  the dark skin Scotch, and by a strict criterion, could even be considered members of a different elemental species.” Wow!

  Furthermore, the races were thought to differ in temperament, behavior,  and, as suggested earlier, in mental ability. For example, Galton considered the I Q level of blacks to be two  grades below the average Englishman. Thus, the reason for intermarriage, was established.  The proper term “race crossing” was born. Davenport even believed incorrectly that skin color, eye color, and hair color were examples of Mendelian inheritance (one gene-2 alleles). Remember, this was his misguided thinking.

            White                         ×      black

            AABB                    aabb

            High IQ                               low IQ

            High ambition                    low   ambition

It has been known for a long time that each of these are the result of polygenic inheritance.  In fact, skin color results from the interaction of two gene pairs with at least two alleles each, .as shown in the table below. Considering the range of skin colors possible,  one can only imagine that there probably are more than just two alleles. Take the example of two people with medium brown skin (with AaBb or AAbb or aaBB genotypes)  for both parents, any two of the above may result in a range of skin color from very dark to very light phenotypes depending on the parents’ genotype . Two more human traits following polygenic inheritance noteworthy of mention  are height and eye color

Some human disorders resulting from polygenic inheritance include cleft lip and/or palate, hypertension, diabetes and schizophrenia.

As mentioned earlier, Davenport believed that intelligence, temperament, and personality, like physical traits, followed Mendelian inheritance patterns as did criminality and immorality.

 Eugenicists, including Davenport believed that race crossing between widely different races would result in “disharmonious” genetic combinations in future generations and would produce some incompetents. However, in-Davenport’s defense, he was a strong proponent of civil liberties for all races.  Many other eugenicists fervently. considered blacks  subordinate to whites both physically and mentally.  Two prominent eugenicists, Paul Popenoe and Roswell Johnson in their popular-textbook, Applied Eugenics (1918) claimed that  social discrimination was justified against blacks. They based their conclusion on several controversial arguments:

• Blacks had made no original contributions to the world’s civilization.
•  Discounting several studies that showed little difference between blacks and whites in mental abilities, they argued. that the differences could only be measured using newly developed “intelligence tests”.
• Popenoe and Johnson also concluded blacks were deficient in farsighted thinking, intuitiveness, imitative persistence, and sexual inhibition which were largely due to heredity.
• Finally, Black Americans seemed to lack resistance to tuberculosis and typhoid fever.
• They cited the 16-year deficit life expectancy that proved their lower Darwinian fitness.
• Popenoe and Johnson cited the fact that black-white interracial marriages were illegal. in 28 States. (Shotwell, M.)
  

Summary and my thoughts

Eventually the biased, slanted, pseudo-science of eugenics lost its luster as geneticists put science ahead of prejudices.

Now, to correct the flaws ‘in eugenicists thinking:

• They assumed that because a given trait was familial (appeared in every generation), the trait was  genetically determined. They ignored possible social and environmental influences on the trait.
• Their second mistake was in assuming that traits were inherited by a single gene with only two alleles-one dominate and one recessive, ignoring the possibility of several alleles with  each one contributing a small effect.
• Thirdly, the eugenicists allowed their prejudices to block out any semblance of objectivity.

Aside

   Have we Americans lost  all sense of objectivity. that when all (and I do mean all) evidence  and at least 31 court decisions,  numerous witness accounts under oath, video and audio  evidence, etc.). points us in a singular direction, that we still exist in a make believe world? Are we  so blind to the truth, have such tunnel vision, are so ignorant to the obvious, or just in denial  to the truth?  Yes, there are some skeptics who still say that President Kennedy survived the assassination attempt of November 22, 1963, that a man never walked on the moon, that Elvis (Presley) never died that August day in1977, and that there was widespread-voter fraud in the 2020 election. Oh, and also those summer Senate hearings are  a Hollywood movie.  Have we not heard enough. egotistical lies in the past six  years by a self-centered person who would advise people to inject a bleach-like substance into themselves to treat COVID, discredit the very science that saved his life, and who denies that climate-change exits. and that there is no anthropogenic component to said  process, all  by a prima donna who was recently characterized in a newspaper editorial that I read as “that’s what happens to a rich brat-when he grows up.”  . I would add this; “who was an embarrassment to the office that he held”. And this from a registered Republican (because in my county in a state that does not have open primaries, the Democratic ballot is practically a waste of papers. Some time ago I watched in horror a campaign speech prior to the 2020 election as the Republican candidate delivered a speech that caused chills up and down my spine. It reminded me of speeches made by Adolf Hitler in 1930’s Germany. The rhetoric, the fever pitch vocalizing, the fist pounding, and the mind manipulation were almost identical.

I’ll get off my soapbox now and return. to sum up my opinion about eugenics and the whole race issue.

For a long time, I have held that there is no biological basis for different races in Homo sapiens. We are all just one race.  Maybe we should remove- the word from our vocabulary. I have decided that in the future I will refuse to fill in that area on various forms.

References

Baumer, L. Essays on Science for the Common Good:  Part: LII Bluehost & WordPress

Blair, W.  February 18, 2019 The Eugenics Movement And Forced Sterilization: NPR WNIJ Northern Public Radio DeKalb, IL

Cohen, A March 7, 2015 The Supreme Court Ruling that Led to 70.000 Forced Sterilizations NPR WNIJ Northern Public Radio

Mader, S. Biology eighth edition, 2004 McGraw-Hill Boston

Shotwell, M.  The Misuse of Genetics:  The Dihybrid Cross & the Threat of “Race Crossing” The American Biology Teacher Vol 81 No 1 2019 The University of California Press Oakland, CA

The major focus of Essay LIII is the historical development of pedigree charts, their purpose, and how they have been used by misguided individuals to promote racial injustice.  Simple genealogical charts have been around for centuries. Bacteria, fungi and other living organisms
with short life cycles serve as excellent subjects for genetic studies for obvious reasons. Humans, on the other hand, make poor subjects simply because no one lives long enough to observe several generations.  Furthermore,  a major tool of genetics is based on a controlled experiment which is highly unlikely since it means requiring (forcing?) two “purebred” individuals (for certain traits)to mate to study a given trait Consequently, geneticists have relied on case studies, twin studies, and pedigree charts.

Pedigree charts are a series of horizontal  lines which connect mates and siblings and vertical lines that connect generations. Circles represent females and squares represent males (and yes, I used to tell the boys in my classes that “they’re telling use we’re square!)” Affected-individuals for the trait (condition) are usually shaded in; carriers (heterozygotes) are usually half shaded squares or circles and dominant homozygotes (unaffected) individuals) are colorless. Pedigrees can now be used for testing as specific as single nucleotide differences in genes. Below, please find two pedigrees for hemophilia in the Royal family of England.

Pedigrees play a very important role in medical genetics and genetic counseling but what most people don’t know (including me until recently) is that pedigree analysis had a dark beginning in that it was developed by eugenicists who used the principles of genetics (a true science) to further  the pseudoscience of eugenics and apply it  to a social movement with the goal of controlling human heredity. The name most associated with eugenics is Charles B. Davenport, who tried to apply Mendelian genetics to social conditions such as alcoholism, criminality  and feeble- mindedness. In other  words, eugenicists used pedigrees to  try to explain a genetic link to mental, emotional, and behavioral characteristics. Their claims lacked scientific scrutiny, (hypothesis generation, empirical data collection, observation, peer review, etc.).    Davenport first introduced pedigrees in 1911 when his book Heredity in Relation to Eugenics was published and when the field of genetics was in its infancy and long before the chemical and physical basis of the gene and especially the DNA molecule were elucidated.  In fact, only a few years before Friedrich Miescher, a German physician had isolated a little-known chemical in the cell’s nucleus that was sugary, was slightly acidic, and contained phosphorous. Robert Feulgen, another German in 1914 found that it stained red when a dye, fuchsin, was applied and before the long debate among biologists and biochemists of which molecule, protein or DNA contained the hereditary code.
And what a fascinating story that was! See essay XX. (Baumer, L.)

When examining a pedigree to determine the specifics of a given trait or condition, the first thing to do is to determine the mode of transmission.   In other words, is the trait autosomal dominate (autosomal meaning the gene(s) is (are)) found on chromosome l-22, autosomal recessive (two non-dominant alleles (i.e., rr or hh)) and found on chromosome 1-22, X– linked dominant (like autosomal dominate meaning only one allele for the trait is required for the trait but unlike autosomal, the allele is found on a sex chromosome (X or Y)), or  X- linked recessive, needing only one allele for the trait to show up.  Perhaps you are wondering why I said  only one recessive allele is necessary for the trait to show up?  This is  because in sex (X) linked traits, the Y chromosome is very small and is devoid of many genes (alleles) that are only found on the X chromosome.

When completing this pedigree with autosomal recessive inheritance, individuals that are shaded are expressing the recessive phenotype and have a genotype of, say, “rr”. Use this knowledge and additional knowledge about how genes are passed from generation to generation to complete the remainder of the pedigree.

  It is possible to work backwards to determine the genotypes of the parents if the phenotype of a child is known in an autosomal recessive trait.  For example, if the child has the condition in unknown autosomal recessive traits, the parents must be heterozygous carriers but don’t have the condition.  A skipped generation, is often a clue of an autosomal recessive trait.

Examples: Cystic fibrosis, Sickle cell anemia,Tay-Sachs disease

Patterns for Autosomal Recessive Inheritance

After filling in the genotypes for individuals in several family trees that exhibit this mode of inheritance, some patterns that can be noticed are:

• Males and females have the same chance of expressing the trait
• You can only express the trait if you are homozygous
• If both parents express the trait, then all their offspring should also express the trait
• If the offspring express the trait but their parents don’t, then both parents are heterozygous
• If one parent expresses the trait, then their offspring who don’t express it are heterozygous
• The trait can skip generations

On the other hand, an autosomal dominate trait in an offspring cannot come from two  unaffected parents.  Skipped generations are not a sign of an autosomal dominant trait.

When completing this pedigree with autosomal dominant inheritance, individuals that are non-shaded are expressing the recessive phenotype and have a genotype of “rr”. Use this knowledge and additional knowledge about how genes are passed from generation to generation to complete the remainder of the pedigree. Shaded individuals will either have a genotype of “Rr” or “RR”. .

Examples: familial hypercholesterolemia,  hypertrophic cardiomyopathy (HCM), Marfan’s syndrome (MFS)

Patterns for Autosomal Dominant Inheritance

After filling in the genotypes for individuals in several family trees that exhibit this mode of inheritance, some patterns that can be noticed are:

• Males and females are equally likely to have the trait.
• There is male to male transmission.
• Traits do not skip generations (generally). If the trait is displayed in offspring, at least one parent must show the trait.
• If parents don’t have the trait, their children should not have the trait (except for situations of gene amplification).
• The trait is present whenever the corresponding gene is present (generally). If both parents possess the trait, but it is absent in any of their offspring, then the parents are both heterozygous (“carriers”) of the recessive allele.
• Homozygotes for the dominant condition have a more severe form of the condition.

Remember:

• Genes act in pairs, one from each parent.
• Gene pairs separate during meiosis and the formation of the sex cells along with the chromosomes.
• When the sperm fertilizes the egg, the father’s genes (and chromosomes) join the mother’s, or both contribute to the genetic makeup of the offspring.
• One form of a gene may be dominant over another form which is recessive and the dominant form would be expressed. (MI Genetics Resource Center)

The next step is to determine if the trait is autosomal or X-linked.   If the condition favors one sex (i.e. males) more than the other sex, it is sex-linked and if females don’t have the-condition (i.e. genotype X^RX^R or X^R X^r), and only males have the trait,(X^rY), it is an X- linked recessive trait. (Shotwell, M)

When completing this pedigree with X-linked recessive inheritance, use the symbols X and Y in the genotype to represent the sex chromosomes passed on from the previous generation. The X chromosome will contain the alleles for the trait and the Y chromosome will have no alleles for this trait. When completing this pedigree with X-linked recessive inheritance, shaded females who are expressing the recessive phenotype can only have the genotype of X^rX^r, the shaded males who are expressing the recessive phenotype can only have the genotype of X^rY, and the non-shaded males who are expressing the dominant phenotype and can only have the genotype X^RY. U

Examples: red-green color blindness and hemophilia A

Patterns for X-linked Recessive Inheritance

After filling in the genotypes for individuals in several family trees that exhibit this mode of inheritance, some patterns that can be noticed are:

• The trait is more common in males than in females.
• If a mother has the trait, all of her sons should also have it.
• There is no male to male transmission.
• It has the same inheritance patterns as autosomal recessive for human females.
• The son of a female carrier has a 50 percent chance of having the trait.
• Mothers of males who have the trait are either heterozygous carriers or homozygous and express the trait.

Real Examples: Hemophilia, Muscular Dystrophy and Fragile X.

Remember:

• The father passes his X sex chromosome (and all its genes) to his daughters and his Y sex chromosome (with its genes) to his sons.
• Genes act in pairs, one from each parent for the females. For this mode of inheritance, males get their gene for the trait from their mother.
• Gene pairs separate during meiosis and the formation of the sex cells along with the chromosomes.
• When the sperm fertilizes the egg, the father’s genes (and chromosomes) join the mother’s, or both contribute to the genetic makeup of the offspring.
• One form of a gene may be dominant over another form which is recessive and the dominant form would be expressed.

When completing this pedigree with X-linked dominant inheritance, non-shaded females who are expressing the recessive phenotype can only have the genotype of X^rX^r, the non-shaded males who are expressing the recessive phenotype and can only have the genotype of X^rY, and the shaded males who are expressing the dominant phenotype and can only have the genotype .X^RY.

Examples:Renal phosphate transport disorder, Vitamin D Deficiency, Rickets

Patterns for X-linked Dominant Inheritance

After filling in the genotypes for individuals in several family trees that exhibit this mode of inheritance, some patterns that can be noticed are:

• All daughters of a male who has the trait will also have the trait.
• There is no male to male transmission; the trait follows the inheritance of the X-chromosome.
• Sons can have the trait only if their mother also has the trait.
• Same inheritance pattern as autosomal dominant traits in human females.

Remember:

• The father passes his X sex chromosome (and all its genes) to his daughters and his Y sex chromosome (with its genes) to his sons.
• Genes act in pairs, one from each parent for the females. For this mode of inheritance, males get their gene for the trait from their mother.
• Gene pairs separate during meiosis and the formation of the sex cells along with the chromosomes.
• When the sperm fertilizes the egg, the father’s genes (and chromosomes) join the mother’s, or both contribute to the genetic makeup of the offspring.
• One form of a gene may be dominant over another form which is recessive and the dominant form would be expressed.

Returning to the dark side of the eugenics movement, the dihybrid cross was employed to support claims of genetic differences between races and a rationale for prohibiting interracial marriages. Eugenics misguided thinking probably reached its most radical extreme in Nazi Germany with Adolf Hitler’s experiments to produce a “super” race which takes us back to the beginning arguments for people not being good subjects in genetic matings. The eugenics movement can be traced back to Francis Galton who just happened to be  Darwin’s half cousin. We will finish the eugenics movement in the next essay.

References

Baumer, L. Republish date Aug. 12, 2020 Part XX: DNA or Protein; The Great Debate Bluehost/WordPress

MI Genetics Resource Center genetics@michigan.gov

Shotwell, M. 2019 The Misuse of Genetics: The Dihybrid Cross & the Threat of “Race Crossing” American Biology Teacher

In the last essay (Part LI), we found that Mendel’s brilliant work was lost for some thirty two years. The April 1900 issue of Berichte der Deutschen Botanischen Gesellschaft (Reports of the German Botanical Society), University of Amsterdam’s botany professor Hugo de Vries (1848-1935) reported that he had previously discovered the same principles of heredity that Mendel had discovered; de Vries gave Mendel credit but had become aware of that fact only after his own discovery. His paper was titled Spaltungsgesetz der Bastardo (the law of segregation in hybrids). Not to be left out, Carl Correns (1864-1933) of the University of Tubingen claimed that he too had recently found the same laws but also had no knowledge of Mendel’s discovery beforehand. Finally, in the June issue, Erich Tschermak von Seysenegg, (1871-1962) made the same claim.

All three apparently came to the same conclusion independently of each other. Over the years many researchers have investigated each of the claims and have come to different conclusions. Since then, many papers and books have been written on the subject. (Zevenhuizen, Erik)

Moving on, within two years Archibald Garrod confirmed that transmission of alkaptonuria followed Mendelian principles. At this point, a clarification of Mendelian genetics needs to be made. Mendelian genetics refers to single gene traits.  Over 7,000  human diseases are known to be caused by a single gene.

Before proceeding further, we need to understand two very important processes that take place in all sexually reproductive organisms—meiosis and fertilization.  We have two kinds cells, somatic and sex. Somatic cells have a full set of chromosomes (diploid, 46 in humans), the normal number whereas the sex cells (egg and sperm), have the haploid number, 23 in humans.  Meiosis is the process of reducing the number of chromosomes from the diploid to the haploid number. Also called reduction division, the process occurs in the sex cells (gametes)  and involves two stages meiosis I and meiosis II. The real reduction in chromosome number occurs in meiosis II.  This must happen so that later when fertilization occurs, the offspring will have the proper (diploid) number of chromosomes in the body for that species.  The details of meiosis can be somewhat complicated; the main thing to remember is that the number of chromosomes has to be halved to maintain the correct diploid number of chromosomes from generation to generation which is very important in genetics.  Most students found meiosis to be a difficult concept to understand and without some visual aids, they found genetics to be very difficult.  We biology teachers often became frustrated and one year I attempted to just skip that chapter (meiosis) but eventually had to go back and cover it before continuing on with genetics.

For an overview of the principal events of meiosis including differences between spermatogenesis and oogenesis, see “For further understanding” at the end of this essay. Of extremes importance is Mendel’s Principle of Segregation which states that the alleles of a given locus segregate into separate gametes during meiosis.

 
     At this time, allow me to discuss the typical and historical way to represent a genetic cross using a Punnett square. In another essay I will present an alternative method of doing this but for now we will use Punnett squares. Let’s do a cross between a homozygous (purebred) tall pea plant with a short plant.

Homozygous tall = TT X short (homozygous) = tt

                     The result of meiosis is shown by the separation of alleles in the two TT’s representing ,say, the pollen (male sperm , ♂) and tt in, say, the egg (in the ovary of the pistil, female ♀) The offspring are represented in the interior squares.  As a result of this mating, you would expect 100% of the offspring to be hybrid tall (dominate)*.  (National Human Genome Research Institute)  This was Mendel’s original mating and represents Mendsl’s Principle of Dominance.

The next cross typically produces  25% homozygous tall (TT purebred), 50% hybrid tall (Tt), carrying one recessive allele, form of a gene and represented by a letter (i.e. T or t), and 25% short (tt) and represents Mendel’s second generation and principle which says that recessive traits are always dominated or masked by dominant trait. :For example, when pea plants with round seeds (RR) are crossed with plants with wrinkled seeds (rr), all seeds in F1 generation were found to be round (Rr).

Will you always get a 3: l ratio of tall to shout plants? No; I always told my students there is a 75% chance that any seed produced will grow up to be tall and a 25% chance of a short plant but if you have a bag of 100 seeds you  may have a different ratio. (You may pull out, say, four short seeds in a row). It’s all a matter of chance. Punnett squares will work for two or three trait crosses but become very cumbersome.  A monohybrid (one trait) cross such as those above require 4 interior squares(4¹ = 4). The superscript represents the number of traits being considered, in this case, height of plant. If we jump to a dihybrid cross (i.e. height and say, seed color) we need 4² =16 total and for a trihybrid let’s say, round vs. wrinkled seeds added, we need 4³ = 64 squares.

Principal of independent assortment

A good example of independent assortment is Mendelian dihybrid cross. The presence of new combinations – round green and wrinkled yellow, suggests that the genes for the shape of the seed and color of the seed are assorted independently

Glossary

Allele An allele is one of two or more versions of DNA sequence (a single base or a segment of bases) at a given genomic location. An individual inherits two alleles, one from each parent, for any given genomic location where such variation exists. If the two alleles are the same, the individual is homozygous for that allele. If the alleles are different, the individual is heterozygous

Gene The gene is considered the basic unit of inheritance. Genes are passed from parents to offspring and contain the information needed to specify physical and biological traits. Most genes code for specific proteins, or segments of proteins, which have differing functions within the body. Humans have approximately 20,000 protein-coding genes.

Genotype A genotype is a scoring of the type of variant present at a given location (i.e., a locus) in the genome. It can be represented by symbols. For example, BB, Bb, bb could be used to represent a given variant in a gene. Genotypes can also be represented by the actual DNA sequence at a specific location, such as CC, CT, TT. DNA sequencing and other methods can be used to determine the genotypes at millions of locations in a genome in a single experiment. Some genotypes contribute to an individual’s observable traits, called the phenotype.

*Dominant, as related to genetics, refers to the relationship between an observed trait and the two inherited versions of a gene related to that trait. Individuals inherit two versions of each gene, known as alleles, from each parent. In the case of a dominant trait, only one copy of the dominant allele is required to express the trait. The effect of the other allele (the recessive allele) is masked by the dominant allele. Typically, an individual who carries two copies of a dominant allele exhibits the same trait as those who carry only one copy. This contrasts to a recessive trait, which requires that both alleles be present to express the trait. Dominant, as related to genetics, refers to the relationship between an observed trait and the two inherited versions of a gene related to that trait. Individuals inherit two versions of each gene, known as alleles, from each parent. In the case of a dominant trait, only one copy of the dominant allele is required to express the trait. The effect of the other allele (the recessive allele) is masked by the dominant allele. Typically, an individual who carries two copies of a dominant allele exhibits the same trait as those who carry only one copy. This contrasts to a recessive trait, which requires that both alleles be present to express the trait.  National Human Genome Research Institute.

For further understanding:

Meiosis I

Prophase I

Metaphase I

The homologous pairs of chromosomes are aligned on the equatorial plate.

Anaphase I

The homologous chromosomes are pulled on the opposite poles. The sister chromatids remain attached to each other.

Telophase I

The nuclear membrane reforms and chromosomes decondense.

Cytokinesis I

The cell divides into two haploid daughter cells.

Meiosis II

Prophase II

Chromosomes condense and nuclear envelope breaks.

Metaphase II

The non-homologous chromosomes aligned on the equatorial plate.

Anaphase II

Sister chromatids move to opposite poles.

Telophase II

Chromosomes decondense and nuclear membrane reforms.

Cytokinesis II

The cell divides into four haploid daughter cell.

Credit to: BYJU’S

Note that in spermatogenesis four viable sperm cells are normally produced but in oogenesis only one viable egg cell is normally produced.  Why?  See answers below references.

References

• Zevenhuizen, E.  Recognizing Mendel’s Rediscovery, Discovery, or Neither?  American Biology Teacher, Vol 84         No 1 January 2022
• Talking Glossary of Genetic Terms – NHGRI – National Human …https—www.genome.gov › genetics-glossary National Human Genome Research Institute.

Why Does Spermatogenesis Result in Four Spermatids but Oogenesis Only in One Ovum?

Spermatogenesis leads to the formation of four spermatids from each primary spermatocyte, whereas each primary oocyte produces only a single ovum during oogenesis. This is due to the fact that during oogenesis meiotic division is unequal. The primary oocyte produces one larger secondary oocyte and a tiny polar body. Similarly, the secondary oocyte produces one large ovum and a tiny second polar body. The ovum retains the bulk of the cytoplasm and polar bodies degenerate.

          Credit to: BYJU’S

And to that I would add that it is nature’s method of birth control.

For the past year or so even though I have focused-on two main topics, COVID-19 and climate change, I have not had the well-defined essays from both the content and the organizational angles. This includes a lack of content outlines that characterized my earliest essays. I’m sure regular readers have also noticed that the quantity of essays has diminished and to that, all I can say is, that life’s other demands and responsibilities have taken precedent as well as age related, (health) issues (not only my own) have been a factor too. A high school classmate at a recent monthly breakfast marveled how I have the energy and desire to write and publish at the age when most other friends choose to take life as easy and relaxed as possible. I sometimes think my wife would prefer that I would do just that.
All that having been said, I plan to revisit one of my favorite areas of biology, one of two or three that I most enjoyed teaching– genetics. – and delve deeper into this fascinating and increasingly controversial area of biology. I begin with the one with whom the field originated, Johann (Gregor) Mendel.

Early Life
Mendel was born to a meager farming family near Heinzendorf
(now Hyneice) in the  Czech Republic. Young Mendel., who disliked the idea of someday inheriting the family farm dreamed of furthering his education but, as we will soon see, suffered from periods of depression throughout his young life. Eventually he was able to attend a”gymnasium” in nearby Troppau (now Opava,  Czech Republic) (I remember from my French class in college that a gymnasium in most European countries is like our high school in America). After graduating from the gymnasium in 1840, he entered the Philosophical Institute at the University of Olomouc. Under considerable stress of studies and trying to support himself, he returned-home the next year. The following  year his older sister and husband agreed to take over the farm and his 12 year old sister Theresia loaned her dowry to help sustain his education, quite an act of love on her part. But even that was not enough. However, his physics professor, Friedrich Franz, who was also a priest guided him to the Augustinian Order of the Catholic Church in Brno where he entered the Abbey of St. Thomas in what is now the Czech Republic. Yet, more troubles beset Mendel, now called Gregory. Related to his depression tendencies. failed his exams due to test anxiety.

He was then granted special dispensation to attend the University of Vienna at the age of 29, thereby ensuring that he would attend a university.  There, he studied under Christian Doppler (Doppler effect), Andreas Von Ettingshausen, (mathematics) and Franz Unger (botany).  Now, he was well equipped to begin his incredibly famous experiments on the garden pea (Pisum sativum). 

Mendel’s Research

Originally, Mendel’s organism of choice was mice but was not allowed to experiment with them, so he switched to the garden pea.  Other than Franz Unger’s influence why did Mendel select the garden pea?  Well, they were commercially available, easy to cultivate, grew rapidly, and moreover, the reproductive parts normally are protected by large petals which means the plants tend to self-pollinate which promotes breeding true. (Curtis & Barnes)

The difference between Mendel’s success and other researchers before him lie in the following strategies:

• Mendel spent two years breeding his plants until he was sure his P (parent) generation “bred true”, that is, in today’s vernacular, was homozygous for the. . .
• seven traits he selected for study. . .
• which sorted out independently during meiosis , which means the “elements” as he called what we now know as genes, were found on different chromosomes. 
• Patience—Mendel diligently examined around 300,000 seeds over nine years . . .
• And kept well organized records of them. (Evans, J.)

In case you are wondering what seven traits Mendel studied, here is a  list and the actual numbers of second generation (F₂) plants for each trait.

From his mentor von Ettingshausen, he learned to use mathematical formulas and calculations to arrive at his now famous Principles of Genetics. Later Mendel repeated his experiments on other plants including beans, snapdragons, and corn, concluding that the same principles applied. to other plants.

Mendel and Genetics-Looking Back

 Johann (Gregor) Mendel’s humble beginning. is a reflection of his life, his great, yet obscure contribution to science, and his relatively unknown and uneventful death.   Little could he have known and comprehended how his work with a simple plant, the garden pea, would be the keys that would unlock the mysteries of inheritance of all living things, lead to the knowledge of many biological diseases, affect already established disciplines such as agriculture (including worldwide food production), medicine (including thousands of genetic conditions) , gene manipulation, and many other unnamed spin-offs.  As stated in essay XXX, his presentation to the  Brunn Natural History Society in 1865 entitled Versuche uber Pflanzen-Hybriden (Experiments in Plant Hybridization) was neither understood nor appreciated and faded in obscurity for many years until rediscovered (?) in the early 20^th Century.  More will be written about that in my next essay.  His scientific research ended in 1868 when he became abbot of St. Thomas.  Failing eyesight and detereating  health resulted in his death on February 6, 1884 at age 61(Evans, J.)

Again, for a more complete account of his presentation and reaction (or lack of) from those present and the forty copies he sent to other scientists, including Charles Darwin, I refer you back to Essay XXXVI.  In addition to reasons cited previously for the long lack of interest and influence of his work, scholars have suggested that

• Mendel was ahead of his time, or to say it another way, the sciesntific community was not ready.
• Mendel was outside the scientific sphere of influence. After all, he was
  “just” a monk and considered an amateur.
•  Mendel fit the image of a monk- shy, meek, not inclined to vanity.

Lessons  learned and Looking Forward

A critical lesson should be that poor humble beginnings are no indication of future achievement and contributions to society. History is full of such men and women in the sciences, arts, humanities, etc… First up in my mind is Abraham Lincoln. Further, “thinking outside the box” often works. Mendel’s use of mathematics is a good example..
Mendel spawned the birth of a new science, one that can improve the quality of life, but if used wrongly can be a daunting, harmful, haunting black mark on civilization. There already have been as we shall see in future essays.

References

• Baumer, L October 6, 2020 lessonsonscience.com Part XXXVI Gregor Mended & Charles Darwin Bluehost / WordPress
• Baumer, L. August 21, 2020 lessonsonscience.com Part XXX  Did Darwin read Mendel.
• Curtis, H. N. Sue Barnes, Biology  (1989). Biology. New York: Worth Publishers Inc.
• Evans, J. Still Learning from Gregor Mendel after 200 Years  The American Biology Teacher Vol 84 No 1 January, 2022
• Photo of Gregor Mendel courtesy of Science Learning Hub

Part LI: Mendel: His Life, Work, Lasting Importance of

Part LII: Meiosis, Mendel’s Principles, Representations

Part LIII: Implications on Evolution

Part LIV: The Dark Side or the Intended Side

A. The Eugenics Movement

B. Where do we go from here

I dedicate this essay to the memory of a long time friend, Gary Anderson (since kindergarten and Sunday School–nearly three quarters of a century ago) We both played trumpet in band, often playing duets at Christmas Eve and Easter Services, were confirmed together at Zion Lutheran Church, loved sports (especially the Chicago Cubs) played intramurals and pickup basketball and softball as young adults, both earned two degrees from Northern Illinois University, both taught in the Rockford, Illinois School District (different buildings), and for the past several years were golfing buddies. When he could no longer golf, he would ride with me and often helped me find my ball. After two years of renal dialysis, Gary left this Earth on January 10, 2022. Gary was like the brother that I never had. So long my friend but not good-bye for we shall meet again.

If  you want to experience firsthand the greatest impact global warming has on the Earth, go either to the Arctic or Antarctic.  But since most  (virtually all ) of us must rely on second or third hand information that’s where I and other  writers come in.

I will begin with a newspaper article from 2019 titled “Scientists set sail on Arctic expedition”, a year long journey by 600 scientists from 10 countries. The United States, France, Russia, Britain. And China are among the countries represented that departed the North Sea port of Tremsoe, Norway.  “The Arctic is the epicenter of global climate change” according to expedition leader, Markus Rex of Germany’s Alfred Wegner Institute for Polar and Ocean Research.  (For more about Alfred Wegener, (Baumer,L. see Essay III).  That is the area that is least understood as far as climate change is understood.

What separates this expedition from previous ones is that MOSAIC (Multidiscipinary drifting Observatory for the Study of Arctic Climate) is that researchers will be able to study Arctic processes over an entire yearly seasonal cycle.  Sea ice physicist, Stefanie Arndt was especially looking forward to recording changes in density, size, and type of snow.

How much light snow reflects back into the atmosphere, how much it absorbs, and how much light reaches the upper ocean are all important according to Arndt.  Energy from light affects algae growth and ocean temperatures, which in turn affects sea ice melts from below.  Recent changes in these streams have allowed warm moist air from lower latitudes to move north and at other times chilly blasts of Arctic air, the polar vortex, have allowed deep freeze conditions to reach the U. S. and Europe (Jordans, F.)  A follow up story about this expedition will conclude this essay.

Climate change is writing a new chapter across nine million square miles at the top of the world.  Instead of the permafrost thawing gradually as once thought, it is thawing almost overnight in geologic terms.  And as it does melt, it releases masses of carbon that have been frozen for millennia,to enter the atmosphere as either carbon dioxide (CO₂) or methane (CH₄.) 

Now, for a little aside, and this is a phenomenon of physics.  Light colors reflect light and heat.  That’s why we tend to wear light colors at night (unless we don’t want to be seen) and during the day to reflect the sun’s rays away from the body.  Conversely, we wear dark colors which absorb heat and light to keep our bodies warm.  I loved to use a magnifying lens to focus the sun’s heat coming through the classroom windows on light colored construction paper and then on black paper and watch the black paper ignite into flames.  I shouldn’t admit this but as kids we used to fry ants (dark color) on the sidewalk with a magnifying glass.

Now, aside aside, there’s  a lesson here. As glaciers, ice flows, and snow melt exposing the dark soil underneath, warming of the affected earth proliferates at a faster rate accelerating global warming.  This is a major factor and reason why the Arctic and Antarctic are warming faster than any other area of our planet. 

Sergey Zimov. A Russian ecologist has been studying the mysteries of a warming Arctic for decades.  Over the years he has helped to dispel conventional but incorrect ideas that the north even back as far as the Pleistocene ice ages was a desert of ice.  However, a huge abundance of mammoths’ fossils and fossils of large grazers at Devanny Yar and other sites indicate that Siberia, Alaska, and western Canada had been fertile grasslands, herbs, and willows.  As these plants and animals died, the cold slowed down their decomposition release and windblown silt covered them, locking them in permafrost.  From past essays we found out that decomposition releases CO₂ into the air; however, until recently when a warming earth unearthed them setting greenhouse gasses Co₂ and CH₄ free, no one knew how much was freed. 

Now for the bad news; it is now believed, based on new evidence, that for every one-degree Celsius rise in Earth’s temperature (average), permafrost may release the equivalent of four to six years’ worth of coal, oil, and natural gas emissions, which is  two or three times as much as previously thought.  Normally permafrost thaws each Arctic summer and refreezes during the much longer Arctic winter.  However, a crew in the spring of 2018 near Cherskey, Siberia found dirt that had never iced up over the winter.  Three years ago, the temperature  of the ground above the permafrost was -3° C (27° F) Sergey said.  “Then it was minus 2; then it was minus 1.  This, year the temperature was plus 2 degrees.  A few days ago, before the group landed in Siberia, they were in Lakselo, Norway 240 miles or 386 kilometers north of the arctic circle where it was 32°C (90°F).  In a corollary to the above discussion, warmer temperatures mean microbes feeding on organic material which also emits CO₂.  Lots of principles of biology chemistry, and physics interact to change our world, processes which have anthropocentric implications.

As permafrost disintegrates, buried ice melts too.  As water drains, it carries heat that exacerbates thawing leaving behind tunnels and air pockets.  Subsequently, the ground sinks to fill in those cavities creating depressions that fill in with rain and melt water which  deepens the pools which grow to become  ponds, and ponds become lakes which raises the ground temperature, which increases ice melt.  Called “abrupt thaw”, this can trigger landslides and massive ground slumps.

Permafrost thaws result in greenhouse gas emissions.  The problem is that carbon dioxide is not the only greenhouse gas emitted.  Methane is 25 times more potent.  University of Alaska, Fairbanks ecologist Katey Walter Anthony who has studied CH₄ emissions for 20 years published her findings in 2018.  Her calculations suggest that lakes created by abrupt thaw could nearly triple greenhouse gas emissions.

As reported before, the planet has already warmed by about 1.6°since the 19^th  Century (2.8° F).  Limiting global warming at 1.5°C instead of two degrees would expose 420 million fewer people to frequent heat waves and would reduce by 50% the number of plants and animals facing habitat loss.  As the permafrost thaws and the growing season lengthens, the Arctic is greening up but  the additional CO₂ sequestration from more vegetation, unfortunately, won’t offset the negative effects of permafrost thawing.  (Welch, C.)

Let’s pause for a moment for another aside, a lesson in secondary ecological succession.  Everything I’ve written above changes the ecosystem of the Arctic region and that changes the habitat for flora (plants) which changes the makeup of the fauna (animals), decomposers, etc. But let’s back up a few steps and we  find climate changes on our planet since Earth existed, but like a sealed aquarium that sat on a ledge in a high school biology classroom that I shared which remained ecologically stable  for years , the Earth which was ecologically balanced for billions of years is horribly out of balance.  And since we humans alone have the ability to suddenly or slowly change the world’s climate. we have no one but ourselves to blame!   

To return to my succession story, snowshoe hares can find winter food, thanks to willows that are tall enough to poke through snow.  Lynx which prey on hares have followed them hundreds of miles northward following moose which eat willows.  (Welch, C) Many species of producers, primary, secondary, and even tertiary consumers (plants and other photosynthetic, hebivores, and carnivores) have had to “migrate” north or south (depending on hemisphere) to escape warming temperatures in more temperate regions. And now even the tundra ecosystem is warming.

The summer evenings were warm enough for the soldiers to sit outside with their shirts off.  Is this a group of reserves in a high elevation training location in a northern state? No, it is a Danish military camp, Station Nord, 575 miles away from the North Pole. 

The Arctic is part of a global cooling system and as rising temperatures accelerates  the loss of sea ice, that system is breaking down.  From spring into fall, the soldiers host a group of sixty scientists, support people, pilots, and engineers.  The scientists led by Thomas Krupen from Germany’s Alfred Wegner Institute leads aircraft-based surveys that measure sea ice thickness, among other things.  Observations are fed into climate models,  complex computer programs that use equations and thousands of pieces of data that project climate changes.  Other researchers dig pits into the snow to look for changes in structure while others use their instruments 24/7 while still others loft weather balloons. (Kingsley, J.)

The North Sea port of Bremerhaven, Germany

The icebreaker the RV Polarstern has arrived from its year’s long scientific study to the Arctic.  “We’re bringing back a trove of data, along with countless samples of ice cores, snow and water” according to Markus Rex.  Much of the information will be used to improve global warming models, especially those of the Arctic region.  ( Jordans, F.)

Just when you think you’ve heard all of the latest hypotheses and theories about global warming, along comes another.  This one is centered around ocean floor bacteria with a possible correlation with Arctic weather.  When tiny (often microscopic) phytoplankton (phyto–plant like , plankton-free floating) die, their bodies sink to the ocean floor becoming food for certain bacteria.  Then under the right conditions, the bacteria are swished to the surface and then lifted into the air by surface winds.   Once airborne they may become “seeds” that promote the growth of ice crystal’s necessary for Arctic cloud formation.  Previous research suggests that ocean microbes can enhance cloud formation. To test the hypothesis, Jessie Creamean of Colorado State University and his team set off to the Bering and southern Chukchi Seas and from late August to mid-September, 2017 collected seawater samples suspended 20 meters (66 feet) above the ship and measured the abundance of ice nucleated particles which can seed clouds.  They also analyzed seawater chemistry and  chlorophyll concentrations hoping to get a baseline reading of cloud seeding particles.  On August 29, they measured extremely high levels.  Using DNA analysis and microbial culturing , they observed that airborne particles were mostly bacteria, Powerful local winds had stirred the ocean bringing some of the bacteria to the surface where they could be kicked into the air.  Over the years evidence has shown that microbes can brighten clouds, supercharge storms, and help stir up large hailstorms.  Since Arctic clouds  can be very low—as low as 100 meters,  it’s very possible that they can interact with clouds.  (Stone, M.)

References

·        Baumer, l., (2019) lessonsonscience.com Part III, Constructive and Destructive Forces, Bluehost/ WordPress

·        Jordans, F (Sept. 22, 2019) Scientists set sail on Arctic expedition rrstar.com printed in Milwaukee, WI

·        Jordans, F, (October 21, 2020) Scientists return from Arctic with wealth of data on climate change, rrstar.com printed inMilwaukee, WI

·        Kingsley, J ( Sept. 22, 2019) Eyes on the Ice  National Geographic Washington D. C.

·        Stone, M. (November 17, 2019) Ocean floorbacteria could influence Arctic weather

·        Welch, C. (September, 2019) The Threat Below National Geographic  Washington D. C.

 Introduction

At the risk of overkill, I will limit myself to two more essays on global warming, this one on a review of the past two years and the final one on present conditions of the Arctic and Antarctic regions.  From late 2019-, “Study after study published in recent months has underscored the rapid pace of global warming and the need to -urgently cut emissions of greenhouse gasses.” Teresa Ribera, Spanish environment minister, said “we have to do more in less time” in a prelude to the IPCC meeting in Madrid which expects to draw about 25,000 scientists, heads of state, negotiators, and activists.           

 Pre Glasgow and media remarks

The main agenda items include:

1. finalizing rules on worldwide carbon markets *

2. agreement on how poor countries should be compensated for destruction caused by rich country’s emissions * *

 “Global warming is going faster” Climate impacts are occurring earlier and we are approaching potentially irreversible thresholds earlier than we previously thought” according to Germany’s co-director of the Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research.

*The idea for emissions permits is that putting a price on carbon dioxide and gradually reducing the available permits will encourage countries and companies to cut their emissions mainly by shifting, to renewable energy sources
* * Compensating poor countries for environmental degradation damage by floods, hurricanes, and on CO₂ and sea level rise is hard to attribute to allowing carbon emissions at this time. (Parra and Jordans )

Glasgow

Now fast forward to December 2021 as the Glasgow summit was beginning. Natural disasters are becoming common and the science so refined about what needs to be done.

Just last year (I’m writing on January. 1, 2022) a heat dome over the Pacific Northwest fueled unprecedented wildfires, floods in other areas, and droughts in still other places displacing thousands and millions in China to the point scientists issued a “code red for humanity”. That’s good news in that renewable energy (wind and solar power} have helped reduce predictions from a 4° rise (7.2°F) by the end of the century to 3°C rise (3.6°F), still a terrifying thought. At the level of change, it is postulated that 1 in 3 people would suffer severe heat (1 in 7 now), fresh water would be scarcer, and crop yields would significantly increase famine.

• President Biden has pledged to cut U. S. emissions in half by 2030 and reach net zero by 2050.
• Europe is pledging a 55 % reduction by 2030.

* China is only talking about-beginning to reduce by the end of this decade.
• India is shunning a net zero promise.
• Russia is hoping to reach net zero by 2060.

The United Nations admitted these weak nations have made little progress on “previous pledges but the delegates will make even more unrealistic promises at Glasgow which signifies the disconnect between rhetoric and what they are willing to do. Climateers should be honest and stop pretending they can alter the climate and think more about adapting to climate changes.

At the Glasgow conference last month the unofficial slogan was “we are fighting for survival of humanity.” Action was centered around three lofty goals:

1. Countries must promise to  reduce carbon emissions by 45 % by 2030 compared with 2010.
2. Rich countries should contribute $100 billion per year to aid poor countries.

3. Half of that must go toward adapting to climate change’s worst effects.

Under the Paris Agreement of 2015, nations must revisit their previous pledges every five years and announce plans to cut even more and do it faster. The goal of the Paris agreement was to limit worsening to 1.5°C (2.7° F) since pre-industrial times.  However, the world has already  warmed 1.1° C (2.°F) since then. At the present rate, we will cross that rate in the 2030’s. Furthermore, trust between poor and rich nations is low and tension is high. Rich nations are accused of causing the problem but are asking poor nations to help pay the cost of solving the problem. (Borenstein. and Jordans)

• For protesters and activists, the phase is “1.5 to stay alive.” and scientists mean a multiyear average of 1.5° . 
• A recent  report from the Global Carbon Project found that there are 420 billion tons of CO₂ in the atmosphere and this year spewed 36.4 billion tons. (Borenstein;) The overall goal is to achieve “net zero” by the middle of this century which means adding the same amount of greenhouse gasses into the-atmosphere as plants, oceans, and phytoplankton remove. (Borenstein)   What effect does increased carbon dioxide in the atmosphere have on life in the sea? The following sequence of events is one example of the interdependence of the physical , chemical, and biological components of our world.   If the equations look familiar, look back to essay XLV. (Baumer)                      

                                 carbonic acid          hydrogen ion bicarbonate ion        hydrogen ion  

  CO₂ +  H₂O ←-→            H₂CO₃           ←–→H⁺           HCO₃^–  ←→  H^{+     _←   →}

                  Rx   1                                                  Rx  2                                      Rx    3
                                     _{carbonate ion                 calcium ion      calcium carbonate}                                                

             _← ^→                +    CO₃ ^{– 2               +}                      Ca^{+ 2} ←-→  CaCO₃            

Rx  4                                                                            

CO₂ + H₂O are the reactants for reaction 1 producing carbonic acid which becomes the single reactant which dissociates in reaction 2 producing  bicarbonate ion  & hydrogen ion; the bicarbonate ion dissociates in reaction 3 to produce  hydrogen ion  &  carbonate ion;  carbonate ion  (Rx 3) reacts with calcium ion to produce calcium carbonate (Rx 4) in the forward reactions.

Calcium carbonate is used by  calcifers  (i.e, coral, shellfish, crustaceans) for making shells or exoskeletons. However, if the reverse reaction in Rx 3 is favored, calcifers cannot use bicarbonate ion resulting in weak shells or exoskeletons.   Those animals become more vulnerable to predators, a classic example of survival of the fittest to say nothing of less sequestration of CO₂ which lowers the pH, thus making the ocean slightly acidic. (if carbonic acid sounds familiar to you it’s probably because it produces the fizz in our soda pop.)

Post Glasgow and beyond

• Although some progress was made at Glasgow, most nations, especially the U.S. and China have not achieved their goals from the 2015 Paris Accord and climate warming has continued to rise and we continue on a collision course with catastrophe.
• If you hoped that the 2021 Glasgow conference would save the planet then you were greatly disappointed. But if you expected some progress and a base on which to build in the future, you got that. The focus at Glasgow was to not forge a new treaty but add on to the existing one and build on it which it did in some aspects but failed in others. They agreed to explicitly target coal use and fossil fuel subsidies. As far as rich countries’ payments to poor countries, an agreement was reached in which  “deep regret” was expressed and payments would become a high priority (Jordons)
• On the Home front, President Biden rejoined the other IPCC nations and promised an out effort to attain net zero status by 2050 by increasing solar and wind renewable resources, sources that are cheap. General Motors recently announced that it hopes to go all electric for light duty vehicles by 2035. and Biden has pledged to build charging stations.(Borenstein)

References 

Baumer, L, Part XLV: The Chemical Basis for Smog and Particulate Matter; When Bad Air Meets Good Air

Borenstein, S., F. Jordans, Oct. 21, 2021 Everything is as stake as world gathers for climate talks, , Rockford Register Star, printed in Milwaukee, WI

Borenstein, S., Date Unknown, The magic 1.5 climate talks’ key goal,  Rockford Register Star, printed in Milwaukee, WI Parra, A., F. Jordans, Dec. 1, 2019, Science warnings, US retreat adds urgency to UN climate talks, Rockford Register Star, printed in Milwaukee, WI

Jordans, F.,  Nov. 15, 2021 Positives emerge from new climate deal, Rockford Register Star, printed in Milwaukee, WI· 

Once again, I say that COVID-19 and global warming are the two most important world issues facing humanity today and while Carona Virus (hardly anyone uses that term anymore) is perhaps thought, by many, to be the more pressing problem, climate change could be the longer lasting and more severely challenging issue.  Therefore, I will begin Part XLVIII with further discussion on that topic. The United Nations Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change issued its Sixth Assessment Report recently to address the most recent assessment of the climate system and climate change. A central theme in the report focuses on the urgency for action and the dire consequences of inaction.   For those of us in the Midwest, we can expect higher water and air temperatures. The following other changes expected to occur include:  

• The Arctic  is warming much faster than the rest of the planet because of exponential loss of sea ice and the Arctic temperature change has changed the polar vortex making it”wavy”. The United States has received less frequent but more intense ice storms.
   
• Longer, hotter summers can be expected in the Midwest but many other parts of the world can expect much higher average temperatures. 
• The growing season has lengthened up to 2 days per decade since the 1950’s.  At first glance one might think this is good. However, coupled with precipitation changes, this may lead to changes in crop selection and more genetic alterations of maturity lengthy, drought resistant varieties and that may open another can of worms– the long-term effects of GMO’s.

•   The hydrosphere (oceans, lakes, etc.) lithosphere (solid earth), and atmosphere (including the biosphere, that part of the atmosphere in which living organisms live) are very intrinsically related and when one is adversely affected, there is a ripple effect in the others. Consider, forest fires such as the Bootleg Fire in Oregon, the largest one in the US at 646 square miles or the Dixie Fire in Northern California. Huge areas burnt by fires and left barren of vegetation have become prone to flash flooding prompting flood watches in parts of seven states from Montana to New Mexico.  Nearly 22, 000 firefighters and support personnel battled 91 wild fires covering over 2,813 square miles, mostly western states. Besides the obvious effect of hundreds of families that have been uprooted which has its own financial ripple effect through the local and regional economy; consider the biological / ecological effect on the ecosystem (producers, primary, and secondary consumers, and even tertiary consumers) and consider all the fauna that either die or are displaced, the length of time it takes for succession to occur, and consider how the food chain is disrupted resulting in food scarcity. Consider the fact that the tremendous heat generated by the mega-fires exacerbates drought conditions and the effect that the smoke with its particulates has on people’s health as it drifts eastward.  For days we noticed the haze in the sky over Northern Illinois from  those  fires.  Think about the fact that the very trees that have been planted in thousands of acres to curb climate change are being destroyed. And, think about the simple chemical equation that all this burning produces and releases carbon dioxide into the air–tons of CO₂. Trees that were supposed to pull CO₂ out of the air thereby reducing the greenhouse gas are instead contributing to CO₂ buildup. The Oregon fire mentioned above which burned for about six weeks in late July and August wiped out 24% of a huge carbon offset project. According to the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection Chief Tom Porter, the blazes in the West took out years of work combating climate change.  The heat generated by these forest fires just prolongs the heat wave thereby increase the chances for more fires.

For the skeptics and nonbelievers. the next sentences may be more important than the report’s content itself.  The IPCC has compiled the data from hundreds of peer-reviewed scientific studies. That means that the sample size of data is something short of enormous, thereby ensuring that the reliability coefficient is high. That pretty well ensures that many views are included.  See Essay II for more on the nature of science.

      Also, for the doubters, you, like the rest of us are already being hit in the pocketbook by commodity changes in food, fire and flood insurance, cost of  repairs,  and environmental health, agriculture, fisheries, forestry, and the  reductions in greenhouse gas emissions. Simply put, the message is the longer we wait to make major changes, the more drastic the consequences.                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                   Insurance Program (protects farmers from crop loss) produced the following

Year (s)                                             Subsidies (averages)

2001-20h0                                                  $4. 1 billion
2011 alone                                                  $10. 8 billion
2014-2018                                                   $6.2 billion
219 and 2020                                              $6.2 billion

        As predicted (by hundreds of research papers by some very brilliant people, many with PhD’s), we are now experiencing the gloom if not the doom of not listening or if listening of not believing those predictions. I still believe that a major reason, if not the major reason for so much disbelief / confusion is because of a lack of knowledge– based on research–not on someone’s opinion on social media… If you want information on something, go to a reliable source; go to a book, or a respected magazine or encyclopedia (online is about the only kind now except in libraries). Go to a reliable website but not to, say, Facebook. I encourage you, the reader, to read or reread Essay XXXVII. 

From forests in California and other western states, we visit almond country in California’s rich San Joaquin Valley where a longstanding drought is threatening the almond crop.   Climate change is having an effect on an area which produces about 80 percent of the world’s almonds which also happens to be California’s top agricultural export. The industry. already depends highly on irrigation.

 Finally, from drought in California to flooding in Tennessee where at least 23 people were killed when 17 inches of rain fell in Humphreys County

To generalize, from Barcelona, Spain, a report, The Groundswell Report projects how the slow onset climate change such as water scarcity, decreasing crops productivity, and rising sea levels could lead to climate migration within a country by the year 2050 under three different scenarios.  Under the most pessimistic scenario, the report forecasts up to 216 million people moving within their own countries across six regions which are:

1. Latin America
2. North Africa
3. Sub-Saharan Africa
4. Eastern Europe
5. South Asia
6. East Asia and the Pacific

In the least serious scenario, 44 million people could be forced to move elsewhere in their own country.
These findings reinforce the potency of climate to force migration of humans within their country. The report didn’t consider migrating outside one’s country’s borders.

Essays XIII through XIX and XLIII through XLV also discuss Climate change.Featured image credit to DAVID MCNEW / GETTY IMAGE.

Note: I do not have a reference list for this essay. My apologies.

For those of us who live in a temperate climate zone (four seasons) we look forward every fall to the changing colors. Indeed, many people plan short trips or plan vacations around the color changes. But what makes the trees turn the bright yellows, oranges, reds, or rustic browns? What environmental factors and anatomical/physiological influences are responsible for these changes? Well, first of all, the lowering of the high and low temperature is a major factor as well as the deceasing number of daylight hours. But why does the duration of daylight hours decrease in the fall? Good question, right? Indirectly, the tilt of the earth on its axis is the root cause of changes in light duration. As the process continues to occur, leaves gradually cease to make chlorophyll and then the other pigments that were already present but masked by chlorophyll become visible. With decreasing daylight hours comes lower temperatures which also contributes to the process. It all starts inside the leaf. Leaves have color because of chemicals called pigments, and there are four main types of pigment in most leaves:

Chlorophylls (green)

Xanthophyll (yellow mainly)

Examples:

Quaking aspen

maples (some)

Autumn Gold Ginkgo

Carotenoids (orange mainly)

Examples:

hickory tree

serviceberry

dogwood

maples (some)

Anthocyanins (reds)

Examples:

sugar maple

red maple

sumac

Biology and chemistry

So, now that we have determined the conditions that bring about the degradation of chlorophyll, the question becomes why must the leaves change color and fall to the ground and why does chlorophyll production have to cease? The simple answer is that chlorophyll production takes a lot of energy and there just isn’t enough sunlight available in the winter to maintain production. Furthermore, there isn’t enough liquid water available to keep the deciduous trees alive and produce chlorophyll too. So they go dormant. So why don’t evergreens drop their leaves (needles). I just gave a clue. First of all, they do drop them or at least some of them periodically. Remember the relationship of surface area vs. volume from essay XIV and the anatomy of the leaf, especially the epidermis and most especially the lower epidermis? Like our skin the leaf has small (microscopic) pores called stoma (stomata) that allow CO₂ in and O₂ out as well as excess H₂O (transpiration) Therefore, broadleaf trees lose their leaves to conserve both energy and water.

Physics of light

When I used to tell my students that the wall of the classroom looked blue or yellow because those were the colors of light that reflected back to our eyes and absorbed the other colors of the rainbow (spectrum), I usually got strange looks of astonishment, confusion, disbelief, or all of the above. Therefore, trees, grass, etc. appear green because chlorophyll a absorbs light in the range of 450 nm and again in the 680 nm (violet) and chlorophyll b in the 490 nm and 650 nm range. Note that this is in complete agreement with my earlier statement that we see the color of light that is being reflected back to our eyes.

Although the fall colors may be gone in many parts of the Northern Hemisphere, their beauty remains etched in our photographs and our memories. Next up in my part of the world is the beauty of winter and for those in the Southern Hemisphere temperate zone, the joy of summer.

Welcome to the City of Belvidere, Illinois’ “City of Murals”.  Belvidere is located in North Central Illinois, 25 minutes south of the Wisconsin border. Only 75 miles from downtown Chicago, 83 miles from downtown Madison, Wisconsin, and 88 miles from downtown Milwaukee, Belvidere is attractive to businesses and residents that want to work or play in the area.  

History*: When the first European settlers come to the region around 1835, they camped along the Kishwaukee River, now the center of Belvidere. The settlers decided to name the town Belvidere, for the Latin meaning of Belvidere is “beautiful to see”. By the mid to late 1800’s, Belvidere became an industrial hub. Commercial transportation began in 1851, the National Sewing Machine Company became the largest employer of the city around 1900, and the Green Giant Company came to town in 1911. Now, the Chrysler Corporation Belvidere Assembly Plant, and General Mills all call Belvidere home.

Despite the emergence of industries, Belvidere  draws from its proud agrarian roots and heritage as you will see in the pictures and text associated with the Boon County Fair which is considered  by many the premiere county fair in Illinois, has been rated among the top 15 fairs in the Midwest at times, and is in its final day for the year today, August 15, 2021.    Of the 102 counties in Illinois, Boone is the second smallest. (Only Putnum County in central Illinois is smaller.)

All the time I was growing up the population hovered around 8,000.  Then in 1964 when I was in college something happened that forever changed Belvidere.

The Good

Belvidere Assembly Plant and Belvidere Satellite Stamping Plant

3000 West Chrysler Drive, Belvidere, Illinois, United States

Floor Space: Nearly 5 million square feet

Acreage: 280 acres

Products: Jeep_® Cherokee

History and facilities[edit]

The factory was built in 1964 and 1965 in the south part of Belvidere, Illinois, adjacent to U.S. Route 20. The first production line vehicle was made on July 7, 1965.

The Belvidere Assembly Plant is adjacent to the Chrysler operated Belvidere Satellite Stamping Plant. The stamping plant produces sheet metal parts for the production lie.^[ The factory has 5,300,000 square feet (490,000 m²) of floor space over 280 acres (1.1 km²) of land, and had produced 5.9 million vehicles by the end of the 1993 model year.

Past products (model years)

Some of the past models made at the plant included:

• Simca-Talbot Horizon/Chrysler Horizon (1979-1988)
• Dodge Omni/Plymouth Horizon (1978-1990)
• Dodge Charger (L-body) (1982-1987)
• Chrysler New Yorker (1988-1993)
• Dodge Dynasty (1988-1993)
• Chrysler Imperial (1990-1993)
• Chrysler New Yorker Fifth Avenue (1990-1993)
• Plymouth Neon (1994-2001)
• Dodge Neon (1994-2005)
• Dodge Caliber (2007-2012)
• Dodge Dart (2013–2016)
• Jeep Compass (2007–2016)
• Jeep Patriot (2007–2016)^{[18]  (Wikipedia)}

Chrysler brought with it a huge influx of people and by the early 2000’s Belvidere’s population soared to  approximately 25,000 and gradually became a diverse ethnic community with a high percentage of Hispanics and Boone County was the 87^th fastest growing county in the country and the third fastest growing county in Illinois. Then another major event changed that—the Great Recession just after District 100 built the second high school. I served on the committee that now some think made a bad mistake. But who could have known what was on the horizon (no pun intended regarding one of the models produced here).

1969 MISS AMERICA JUDI JUDITH ANNE FORD AUTOGRAPH PHOTO MISS ILLINOIS BELVIDERE

For Judi’s talent portion of the competition she performed on the trampoline; she was excellent at gymnastics too and became a PE teacher. Constant media updates were posted locally all during the week leading up to the finals; she was a constant front runner. I’m sure every TV set in Belvidere was on the night of the finals.

                                                    The Bad and Ugly

Friday April 21, 1967 started out pretty much as a normal April day with students, teachers and the general population looking forward to a nice spring weekend. I was soon to finish my first year of teaching at Hamilton Junior High in Loves Park. By mid afternoon the sky turned ugly and as I prepared to leave to make the 15 mile trip home it was raining hard.  By the time I approached Belvidere from the west there was an eerie greenish color to the sky.  By the time I was ready to make a left turn onto E. Lincoln Ave. I could hear sirens screaming like I had never heard before so I continued to the downtown area and just followed the sirens until I could drive no further because of downed power lines and uprooted trees.  I parked near St. James School and walked east on Logan Ave. and then south on East Ave.  (I know, lots of avenues).  Soon I met a group a people approaching me.  I asked what had happened.  What a dumb rhetorical question that was.     “Tornado” “Anyone killed?”  another dumb question! By the time I reached the high school I was in utter shock and disbelief.  Devastation all around me; the new high school in its first year of operation heavily damaged.  It looked like a bomb had totally destroyed blocks and blocks of homes.  It reminded me of some of my war movies and documentaries, only this was real.

I did something that I probably (definitely) should not have done. I entered the school either through a door that either the tornado ripped off or had been taken taken off its hinges for a reason I will explain momentarily and made my way to the gymnasium and saw the most grisly sight ever in my life. There on the gym floor were rows of sheet covered bodies that had been brought there on doors removed from the building, a temporary morgue

I wept as I left, sorry that I had entered.

Two days later Govenor Kerner toured the area. I was just a few paces behind his entourage as a light snow fell on the landscape, sort of a sign of peace and tranquility amidst all the sorrow. A school bus driver that was killed was a respected member of my church. In all 24 souls lost their lives that day. I could tell stories that came out over the years, stories of sadness but also of heroics. During the summers of my college years and after I split my time working at Green Giant and the Belvidere Oasis on the I90 tollway at the Standard Oil gas station. That summer I talked to some people that were traveling on the tollway that day and saw the tornado. Later it was classified as an EF4 tornado.

The Good

Belvidere is known as the City of Murals, and Jay Allen, owner and president of ShawCraft Sign Co., Inc., in Machesney Park, Ill., is a big reason why.

Born and raised in Belvidere, Allen is an original member of the Walldogs, a passionate group of mural-painting artists. Since their founding in Allerton, Iowa, in 1993, Allen and fellow artists have completed more than 700 murals across 14 countries.

“Whenever we go to a community, we always see a new sense of spirit,” says Allen, also a board member of the Boone County Arts Council. “I’m addicted to helping communities improve.”

Allen helped to create 10 murals in downtown Belvidere during the city’s Walldog Festival back in 1997. As a result, Belvidere received the 1997 Governor’s Art Award from the Illinois Arts Council and was given the City of Murals nickname by then-Gov. Jim Edgar.

There are 31 murals in Belvidere, and the Walldogs created 11 of them. Several other artists, including local high school students, created the remaining murals. Each one depicts a piece of Belvidere’s rich history, says Allen.

I will add a few of those pictures

“Every community needs to hang its hat on something in order to have a sense of community pride,” he says. “The murals help give Belvidere an identity.”

Many of the murals can be found in the downtown district along State Street, from Hurlbut Street to Logan Avenue. Other murals can also be found along First Street.(rrstar 7/2/2020)

The Pride of Boone county-The Boone County Fair

In the August 9, 2021 edition of the Rockford Register Star (Winnebago county) “Illinois’ most popular county fair returns after last year’s fair was canceled due to the COVID-19 pandemic. In 2019 the Boone County Fair saw a record 222,131 people in attendance according to the Illinois Department of Agriculture records.” “People just can’t wait for it to happen” said Tom Ratcliffe, advertising director for the Boone County Fair “…many fair favorites will be back this year, including the Queen of the Boone County Fair Pageant …” “There are daily horse shows, live music, and an agricultural exhibition with roughly 4,000 head of livestock ranging form cows and horses to chickens and alpacas. “There are about 200 vendors including the volunteer firemen donuts and the Cosmo Sweet corn and many other eateries.

Granges began in ‘the early 20th century as a social organization for farming families.

A friend who used to snowbird in Florida told the the story of meeting a local who upon seeing his Illinois license plates asked where in Illinois he lived. When told Belvidere the guy said they plan their vacation each year around the Boone County Fair. Quite a story!

Finally some photos of my favorite local parks

As kids will do, we used to swing the bridge as much as possible. One summer I lived on the north side of the Kishwaukee River and worked as a troubleshooter for Belvedere (spelled correctly) Products who made automatic hair washing machines & other salon equipment on the south side. I sometimes rode my bike to the bridge, carried it up several steps, rode across the bridge,and carried bike down stairs to continue to work.

Hope you enjoyed the tour.

I originally intended to modify this essay in a presentation to my 60 year high school class reunion mainly for the benefit of out-of- town class members but we canceled the reunion last week due to variant concerns.

• In the Rockford Register Star April 22, 2021 edition, there appeared a small article titled Study: Millions in U. S. breathe polluted air. The study was done by the American Lung Association. According to the report 40 % of Americans. (135 million) live where the air is polluted and that people of color were 61% more likely to live in in an unhealthy area than white people. Climate change was blamed for air pollution.  Two kinds of pollution were included in the reports
• Smog (ground-level ozone)
• Soot (particulate matter)

Smog forms on hot days and vehicle exhaust exacerbates the problem.
          Sun
    O + O₂————-→O₃

Normally oxygen in the atmosphere is a diatomic molecule (O₂). However, radiant energy of the sun may split O₂ molecules which then may combine with normal oxygen molecules to form O_3.  Ozone may also form as a result of running certain machines.  I vividly remember the pungent odor of ozone in the copy room of one of the schools I taught in. An aside: I was taught in high school never to end a sentence with a preposition. Therefore, to honor the late Dorothy Bennett (Miss Bennett to us) who was my English grammar and literature teacher for three years (English II, English IIII and English IV.  I will rephrase that sentence to read “I vividly remember the pungent odor of ozone in the copy room of one of the schools in which I taught.” Sounds weird doesn’t it. Many years later I learned that rule had been relaxed.
Back to the essay; smog is also formed from power plants and industrial smoke stacks. Really hot weather again exacerbates .the whole problem. (Can you tell I really like that word exacerbates ?) Next, particulate matter (larger particles) is more deadly causing more premature deaths than ozone pollution. Next, to my California readers, sorry but your state is the most polluted one with Los Angeles the top city followed by Bakersfield.   Visalia and Fresno topped the list for particulate pollution. For those who are interested, Barrington, Vermont, Charlottesville, Virginia, Elmira, Corning, New York, Honolulu, and Wilmington, North Carolina were the least polluted according to this report. (Rice)

In an article written by Doyle Rice, the level of O₂ is higher now (2020) that it has been in 3. 6 million years. “Human activity is driving climate change” says Colm Sweeney of NOAA’s Global Monitoring, Laboratory. The Earth’s atmospheric temperature has risen to levels that can’t be explained by natural causes according to scientists. Here are some thoughts to ponder.

•The world’s temperature has risen about two thirds of a degree in the last 20 years.  That may not seem much but in 100 years that figure changes to 3.5° worldwide. • “We’re completely certain that the increase in CO₂ warming is the planet”

Kate Marvel a climate scientist at NASA said:

• “I’m even more certain CO₂ causes global heating than I am that smoking causes cancer. The world is already more than 2 degrees warmer than it was before the Industrial  Revolution.      

• The global surface average for CO₂ was 412.5 ppm (parts per million) during 2020. (Rice)

Sea levels are rising at an ever-faster rate as ice and snow shrink, and oceans are getting more acidic and losing oxygen according to the climate Intergovernmental Panel on climate change (IPCC). Another aside: As I pointed out in an earlier essay, as a body of water is heated its kinetic energy increases (energy of molecular motion) because molecules are bumping into each other at a faster rate. Thus O₂ molecules are forced to the surface and go into the atmosphere. As many aquarium enthusiasts know, the increase in water temperature if left unchecked will kill the fish.  Believe me, I know from experience. Now think about this concept of physics on a global oceanic level and its effect on all ocean animal life.  Added to this is the fact that this also promotes algal bloom which chokes out zooplankton and all marine animals, which just as you guessed, exacerbates the problem. This is already happening on a world-wide basis. Additionally, (another favorite word) rising ocean temperatures spawn hurricanes and other tropical storms. And I called this just an aside!

The annual increase in atmospheric methane, CH ₄, a far more potent greenhouse gas, was 14.7 ppb (parts per billion), the largest annual increase since 1983 when such measurements began. (Dole Rice)
It’s no wonder the oceans are warming since they absorb more than 90% of the excess heat in the atmosphere as well as much of the CO₂ making the upper water layer slightly acidic The chemical equation for the reaction is:                                

                       CO₂  +  H₂O   →  H₂CO₃: (carbonic acid)

Next step:  H₂CO_{3     ←→       H} +          HCO₃^–
              carbonic acid        hydrogen ion    bicarbonate ion

 In a reversible reaction if the forward reaction is favored, then a hydrogen ion
(a hydrogen atom that lost an electron and thus simply has one proton in its nucleus) which explains the + and a bicarbonate ion which gained that charged electron are formed. If however, the reverse reaction occurs which will happen once the _H + and HCO₃^– concentrations are in excess (> [H₂CO₃]). Then eventually everything comes to a new equilibrium but that equilibrium is different from the old.  So what does this all have to do with the first equation? Absolutely nothing!  Well sort of but if you followed my reasoning, it was a lesson in logic and organic and biochemistry.
So if you are into statistics as I sometimes am (besides baseball stats and my own website analytics), then consider these.
The world’s oceans (and I love this) have been taking the “heat” for climate change for decades.

• Seas are now rising at one seventh of an inch a year which is 2.5 times faster than the rate from 1900 to 1990.
• From 2006 to 2015 Greenland ice melt plus that from Antarctica, and
  the world’s mountain glaciers has increased and now equals 720 billion tons of ice annually.  That is equal to about 8 million modern aircraft carriers!
• Marine animals are likely to decrease 15% and fishery catches by 21% by the end of the century.
  I caution readers that these are estimates and projections and rely on many factors, any one of which can significantly alter the figures for the good or bad. (Borenstein)

References:

Borenstein, S. We’re all in big trouble, September 26, 2019, Rockford Register Star

Rice, D., Study: Millions in U. S. breathe polluted air.  April,22 202, Rockford Register Star

Rice, D., NOAA: Earth’s carbon dioxide levels highest in over 3 nillion years, date unknown

My absence from writing the past few months is only partly explained by the fact that spring, summer, and fall bring about extraordinary responsibilities and time demands, demands which, I’m sure, everyone reading this can relate to. It’s not for a lack of available material on global warming. On the contrary, part of the problem-is too much material from one source-newspapers.

To be perfectly honest a major obstacle revolves around convinceability.  Another corollary to COVID-19. Either you accept and believe it’s real or you don’t and little I write can change people’s minds. However, there is a middle ground, a third alternative, and that is, acknowledgement that it exists but denial that it is anthropogenic. I’m sure you know which side of the fence I reside.

If your position is on the other side, then you may also believe that man never set foot on the moon and That President Kennedy survived the gunshot wounds and lived incognito for several years. According to Elizabeth Watts in an article in the American Biology Teacher journal 70% of Americans acknowledge that climate change is occurring and believe it will cause future generations harm. In the same article, while less than 30% of Americans say they are greatly concerned about climate change 72% of those individuals are Democrats and 24% are Republicans. Does that remind you of a point I made in a recent essay on vaccines? Five years ago I would have found that hard to believe but not so today. By the way, in a report I read recently, 40% of people worldwide have never heard of climate change.

Many people reject climate change for religious reasons. They may believe that God gave us the earth to use as we see fit or that God won’t allow such harmful occurrences to happen   While 97% of all Americans are aware that global warming is taking place, only 49% believe that rising temperatures are human caused. Thus, while Americans are ahead in awareness (third worldwide), there is a huge gap between recognition and blame assessment.  There is a large gap between awareness and our ability to mitigate climate change. Bridging the gap will require ingenuity in education. The sad part is that many people either don’t realize the damage already done or refuse to believe it’s seriousness, Consider in the above  example, that they believe “future generations” will be harmed while ignoring the carbon footprint the present generation is leaving. (Watts, 2019) According to economist John List, the problem resides in the perception of the immediate costs with the projected benefit 50 – 200 years in the future. List believes you can change beliefs-but over generations not overnight. Additionally, where the public gets their information is extremely important.   Most people get most of their information from social media that is, from indirect, informal, and mediated sources. (This time I refer you back to Essay XXXVIII).  International agencies such as UNESCO have recognized the need for better educational programs such as Sustainable Development.  A program the Climate Change Education Act (CCEA) was recommended to Congress in 2016.  Such a program would be in line with the earlier cited data in which 82% of surveyed Americans supported increased research into renewable sources of energy. However, as of May 2016 the date this article was written, that bill never passed.  Even though public opinion is split on such anthropogenic influence, a significant majority agrees that climate change should be an integral part of school curricula.(Watts,2019)

A comprehensive study by Pennsylvania State University concluded that 70% of surveyed middle science teachers and 87% of high school biology teachers report that they teach climate change in their classes (average time about 4 classes). At least that is a start.  Sounds encouraging, yet how the subject is presented remains unclear since that was not in the research. For example, the National Earth Science Teachers Association found that 47% of teachers were teaching both sides of the climate change debate rather than as clear evidence in the affirmative. No mention was made of whether the “human imprint” was stressed or even mentioned.
In Watt’s concluding remarks she proposes a strategy for effective teaching about climate change. In it she strongly emphasizes a methodology that stresses the nature of science in a straightforward manner in which students can make scientific evidence-based judgments for themselves rather than forced learning and rote memorization. I couldn’t agree more. For a complete summary of the nature of science scroll all the way back to Essay II and for past essays on global warming see Essays XII through XVIII.

References

Watts, E. Teaching Climate Change to Increase Understanding & Reflectivity, The American Biology Teacher, Vol. 81, No 5 May, 2019

Teaching Climate Change to Adolescents, Featured image credit to Beach, R. etal,, Routledge, May 23, 2017

Looking back on the past 14- 15 months, we have learned quite a bit about coronavirus and ourselves. We have learned that a tiny particle that exhibits characteristics of life and non-life can bring us to our knees. We now know that we as an inhabited  world was not prepared for such an onslaught and may not be ready for the next catastrophe if we don’t prepare for it and not as a whole accept the cruel truth that we are not invincible. We need to accept that the experts in their respective fields know more than we do and that science and faith in a Supreme Being can be our guideposts for they do not lie and this is a preview sentence for the transition back to climate change. I understand that people are tired of masking up, of practicing social distancing, of small group limitations, of curbside pickup, online learning, and all the rest of it. I also know that here in the United States, vaccines, wearing masks, and social distancing have become a political football. Generally speaking, they have become a sign of party affiliation, not a medical issue. With exceptions, if you are a Democrat you will “follow the rules” and if a Republican you won’t. According to Dr. Deborah Birx when interviewed on CBS’s 60 Minutes, the lack of leadership set us back at Least a month in the late winter of 2020 in terms of recognition of the seriousness of the virus and not listening to the science experts. Watching Republican rallies reminded me of Nazi propaganda in the early and mid 1930’s and we saw the horribly disturbing results on January 6. 2021 and these words coming from a “registered” Republican.

This may be passé now but it was reported near the end of March that the AstraZeneca vaccine provided strong protection for adults of all ages. The study concluded that that the shot was effective 79% of the time at preventing asymptomatic cases of the virus in trials involving 30,000 people. No severe illnesses or hospitalizations were reported among volunteers who received the vaccine compared to five such cases among those who received a placebo. Additionally, there were no side effects or increased risk of blood clots. It was suggested that emergency use could be granted by mid- April (now), a boost to U.S. and world supply. The study reportedly included different age groups, racial and ethnic groups, and people with underlying health conditions. The vaccine, a viral vector contains a harmless cold virus to carry genetic material from the COVID virus spike protein into the body which primes the immune system to fight the real viral threat. (Cheng, M., L. Neergard
Then just a few days later came news that Astra-Zeneca may have included “out-dated information” in touting the effectiveness of the vaccine to which the company was urged by NIH (National Institute of Health) to provide the most accurate up-to-date data. (Neergard, L,)

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B R E A K ING N E W S

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April 13, 2021 9:30 am CDT My wife just informed me that the government has just halted use of the Johnson & Johnson vaccine after several people have developed blood clots.

COVID-19 may be the beginning of global pandemics according to Doyle Rice, a USA Today writer in a September, 2020 article. In the journal ” Cell”. Dr Anthony Fouci and Dr David Morens, a medical historian say that “We have entered a pandemic era in which climate change may also play a role.   Deforestation and urban crowding were listed as causes. To be more specific the virus (perhaps most pathogenic viruses) thrive in warmer temperatures. Even though the viruses tend to live longer in colder climates which suggests that global warming would favor a lesser threat, higher temperatures usually force people inside into air conditioning which would help to control the spread the disease. However, seeking cooler temperatures would simulate isolation which, according to meteorologist Jeff Masters could increase the spread of the disease.  So much for isolation as a means of regulating disease spread. However, that goes contrary.to current thought, in my opinion. We do know that climate change alters how we relate to other species on Earth and that matters to our health and our risk for infections” that from Dr. Aaron Bernstein, Harvard University’s T. H. CHANGE program director.

As the earth heats, animals, both terrestrial and aquatic, migrate north (or south) to escape the heat. As a result there is an overlapping of habitats which results in new ecological relationships (predator-prey, symbiotic, and pathogenic). Many of the worst viral diseases are the ones whose vectors are mosquitoes which thrive in hot humid conditions. Malaria, Zika, and West Nile virus are some diseases that will probably spread into new areas in the future. Some scientists believe that pandemics like COVID-19 are exacerbated by global warming. (Rice., D.)

 Dr. Ross Powell, a distinguished research professor in the Department of Geology and Environmental Geosciences at Northern Illinois University asks “Can we learn anything from facing a global pandemic to help understand how to deal with climate change”? Medical scientists have pretty well convinced politicians that COVID-19 will require a massive change in lifestyle and mobilization to combat it. Comparing graphs of exponential increases in COVID-19 cases and deaths- and increasing greenhouse gasses and global warming are similar. Nature greatly impacts humans just as humans impacts nature and COVID-19 illustrates that natural crises are best dealt with by taking swift action. We have been so slow to take action against greenhouse gas emissions that they must be cut in half in the next decade to avoid catastrophic effects. The biggest polluting countries are not living up to even their minimum commitments of the 2010 Paris Agreement and 2019 will go on record as the highest year for greenhouse gas production. The point here is we should approach the climate crisis with the same zeal with which we have fought COVID-19. Even though it may be here for a long time climate change is still more of a threat to mankind and assuredly more permanent. COVID-19 has shown nearly total world agreement with masking, social distancing, and quarantine. But how long will that last? That question is important because that sense of unity will become even more important in solving the warming problem. (Powell, R.)

In a column written by Dr. Allen Williams, MD and Joan Letourneau it’s common knowledge that breathing dirty air leads to a greater risk of heart attacks, lung disease, cancer, and to become seriously ill from COVID-19.  More than 100, 000 Americans die each year from diseases related to overexposure to air pollution and minorities (African American and Latino neighborhoods) are at greater risk. A longtime study by a Harvard research team found that minorities and low income families have a significantly higher risk of premature death linked to exposure to particulate pollution (PM 2.5).  The main source of this fine matter– you guessed it–the burning of fossil fuels. So people living near high traffic areas, train yards, warehouses, and manufacturing plants, etc., lack access to quality health care and are a living time bomb waiting to explode. It’s no wonder that people of color are experiencing significantly higher infection rates as well as deaths rates from COVID-19. There is legislation in Congress to keep fossil fuels in the ground. It is the Energy Innovation and Carbon Dividend Act (HR 763) and if passed would place a rising fee on carbon from coal, oil, and gas.

Let me summarize this essay by selecting an article that I almost misplaced because it ended up at the bottom of a pile I had clipped and saved. (I know I rely heavily on newspapers but remember there aren’t many books written and published yet on COVID-19. . I have used some internet articles in the past.) This article was written by Mr. J. Maichie “Mike” Brown, a member of the Climate Reality Project Northern Illinois Chapter, a group I was invited to join but just never did. Titled “Climate crisis jeopardizes long term pandemic recovery” let me summarize it. The pandemic is a painful reminder of the interdependence of individual and population health to the overall well-being of society. Many individuals think that we can reopen society and pick up where we left off but this is not practical where public health is concerned. The complicity of effectively responding to the pandemic is jeopardized by the exponentially larger global climate crisis. The complexity and frequency of climate-related extremes lead to displacement infection control and disrupts health care and other critical services. The need to address both crises must acknowledge the fragility of both systems. Then Mr. Brown lists several facets that support society such as manufacturing and commerce, emergency response, health care, public health, climate change, energy, transportation, and education. He makes the point that the current system is inadequate to meet basic needs especially impacting low income communities of color. “There is unanimity for a robust recovery that benefits everyone, ideally by solutions that reflect care of each other by:

1. preventing or minimizing future emergencies and
2. developing personal and community resilience to rebound from adversity.

Specifically he cites access to quality health care, fair wages, and climate change solutions as critical areas to address.

References

R

Bacon, M.January 20, 2021, Climate crisis jeopardizes long term pandemic recovery, Rockford Register Star, printed in Milwaukee, WI

Cheng. M. l. Neergard, March 23, 2021 Data shows vaccine effective for all adults, Rockford Register Star, printed in Milwaukee, WI

Neergard, L., March 25, 2021, US: AstraZeneca results may have included outdated info, Rockford Register Star, printed in Milwaukee, WI

Powell, R, Dec. 10, 2020, COVID19 response needed for climate change, Rockford Register Star, printed in Milwaukee, WI

Rice., D., September 11, 2020, Climate change and COVID-19, Rockford Register Star, printed in Milwaukee, WI

Wialliams, A, J. Letourneau, COVID-19, air pollution and social justice, Rockford Register Star, printed in Milwaukee, WI

The first part of the following essay was adapted from an article by Jonathan Corum and Carl Zimmer that appeared in The New York Times on February 24, 2021.  All diagrams as well as the text were modified for the purpose of this essay.

Johnson & Johnson is testing a COVID-19 vaccine known as JNJ-78436735 (also known as .COV2.S ).  It is a single dose vaccine exhibiting an efficacy rate of up to 72 percent.  The SARS-CoV-2 virus is covered with protein spikes which it uses to enter body cells.  Fortunately, these “daggers of danger” also can be used against the virus since they can be used as targets for potential vaccines.

The Johnson & Johnson vaccine uses the virus’s genetic blueprint for building the spike protein.  But the Johnson & Johnson vaccine stores instructions in DNA, not RNA which because it is double stranded is more stable.  The DNA (gene) for the coronavirus spike protein is inserted into another virus belonging to  the group of adenoviruses; in this case adenovirus 26 which has been modified so it can enter cells but can’t replicate or cause illness.                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                   

As pointed out above, the adenovirus based vaccines are more rugged than mRNA vaccines plus the tough outer coat of the adenovirus helps to further protect

the DNA inside. That explains why the Johnson & Johnson vaccine can be stored for up to three months at 36-46°F (2-8°C).  Upon injection the viruses bump into cells and latch onto proteins on their surface. The cells engulf the virus by phagocytosis and eventually enters the nucleus where the gene for the COVD-19 spike protein can be read by the cell and copied into an mRNA molecule.

 Next the mRNA leaves the nucleus having done its job and the cells begin assembling spike proteins.

Immune cells, B cells, may bump into the COVID spikes or free-floating fragments and lock onto the spike portions and begin to pour the antibodies that target spike proteins preventing spikes from attaching to other cells.  If these B cells are then activated by helper T cells, they will start to proliferate and pour out antibodies that target the spike protein.

Some of the spike proteins form spikes that migrate to the cells’ surface protruding the spikes through the surface which can then be read by the body’s immune system. Furthermore, the adenovirus initiates the cells’ alarm to activate nearby cells’ response. As vaccinated cells die, (as all cells do; we lose millions of cells every day) the spike proteins and protein fragments can be assimilated by special cells that help raise the alarm.

The antibodies can attach to the spikes, tag the virus for destruction, and prevent infection by blocking the spikes from attaching to other cells.

Other immune cells, T cells that have been activated in the process, can also destroy the spike protein fragments as well.

According to Johnson & Johnson, their one-shot vaccine provides good protection against COVID-19. Admittedly, it might not be as effective or last as long as Pfizer or Moderna’s two dose formulas and was significantly weaker against the South African mutated version but it may provide an acceptable alternative and from a scientific point of view, a good model for comparison (Please note, and this is significant, the word mutated. Yes this is evolution at work for those doubters of science, especially those distrustful of the word evolution).  

 Johnson & Johnson has a lofty goal of providing 200 million doses to the US by June and a billion doses worldwide by the end of 2021. As of January 30, 23 million Americans had received the first dose of the Pfizer or Moderna vaccine. I received my first dose of the Pfizer vaccine a couple weeks ago and will receive the second on March 13 (a pre-birthday gift). As per-expectation, I suffered no ill effects However, the consensus is that the Pfizer vaccine, generally speaking, does produce milder side effects and the second shot for both kinds is more of a killer. I asked the nurse who administered mine if she was aware if anyone in Boone County (population about 53,ooo) had had any serious side effects so far and her answer  was “no”.                                                                                                                                                                                         The following table summarizes the test results.    

 0verall

Effectiveness                       US                     Latin America          South Africa 66%*                                    72%                               66%     57%

85%**                                                                                                          

*Preventing moderate to severe symptoms  

**Preventing most severe symptoms

Here comes perhaps the most important part of this essay. The experts say the more the virus is allowed to spread, the more opportunities it has to mutate. (Neergaard, and Johnson) PROVEN DOCUMENTED, SCIENTIFIC FACT, NOT SOME WHACKY SCIENTIST’S CONSTRUCT, HYPOTHESIS, THEORY, ETC. This is true for most pathogens and has been known for a long,long time and THE MORE IT MUTATES THE HARDER IT IS TO ERADICATE. And how do we prevent it from spreading: 

BY WEARING MASKS, BY PRACTICING SOCIAL DISTANCING, AND BY GETTING THE VACCINE, ESPECIALLY BY BEING VACCINATED.  ENOUGH SAID!!!!   

A major concern is that the variants appear to spread more easily and that they are more resistant to the vaccines.  Furthermore, they may undermine tests for the virus as well as reduce the effects of some treatments.  Researchers are really concerned about variants from South Africa and the United Kingdom. (Liu and Stobbe)

Will COVID-19 become endemic?

 Recently Dr. Fauci dismissed the idea that it would be eradicated in a few to several years. Here are some definitions /descriptions of the word endemic:

1. Spreads at a baseline level every year without causing major disruption to people’s lives.
2.  Constant and/or usual prevalence of a disease within a population in a certain geographic area.
3.  Is present for long periods of time without interruption, continuously circulating in the population like the common cold.
4. A sudden increase of a disease above what is normally expected among the population in a certain area.

And finally:

5. A disease can be endemic in one country, an outbreak in another country, and an epidemic in another country.

What are some endemic diseases?

The four common cold viruses are endemic in most parts of the world. Many childhood diseases are endemic such as measles, and backing up to epidemics, not all epidemics are caused by pathogens. Diabetes, obesity, and drug addiction can become epidemics. (Rodrigues)

Doses Available — Doses Needed

The title of one large article I am looking at now says “Poll: A third of US adults skeptical of COVID shots. The Associated Press Hope Center for Public Affairs Research conducted the poll so I assume it is fairly accurate and reliable! It found that 15% of Americans surveyed are sure they won’t get vaccinated and 17% probably won’t. Reason for not range from doubts about the safety of the vaccine to their effectiveness, worries of side effects, to the speed of development to mistrust of the government. (Stobbe and Fingerhut) (As my ENT doctor told me the other day how many of those people would go.to the beach without sunscreen protection or the North woods without insect repellant on. To bring it down to a very personal level after receiving my first shot I realized that people with thrombocytopenia run a risk of severe repercussions and at least one person died almost immediately I’ll let the reader figure that word out. Got a good dictionary? But who’s to say what effect, if any, it had on his death.  A quick check with my hematologist put my mind at ease by being told that the risk posed, by not getting the vaccine was far greater than the risk of it’s serious side effects. I received my second vaccine last Saturday with absolutely no side effects, not even a sore arm.

Incidentally, the picture at the top of the essay is of one of the new variants.

References

Liu, M. and M. Stobbe, Jan. 29, 2021, Virus variant from South Africa detected in US for 1st time, Rockford Register Star, published in Milwaukee, WI

Neergaard, L. and L, Johnson, Jan. 30, 2021, One shot vaccine proves effective, Rockford Register Star, published in Milwaukee, WI

Rodrigues, A.Feb. 18, 2021, Officials say coronavirus will likely become endemic, Rockford Register Star, published in Milwaukee, WI

Stobe, M. and H. Fingerhut, Feb. 11, 2021, Rockford Register Star, published in Milwaukee, WI

PS It’s been a tough two months but we are slowly getting used to the quietness of the house, the change in routine, coming home to an empty house, etc. We have ashes to bury under the pines of the front berm near Buster and Bandit (“little nose & big nose”) when the frost is out of the ground. Spring outside work & golf will be good therapy for me.

I am publishing this post again to commemorate the thirteenth observance of the tragic shootings at my alma mater.

I especially grieve for the families of the deceased and the wounded students and others in the class.  Beyond that I grieve for the NIU community at large.

I was on campus yesterday morning.  I spent an hour with the biology department chairman.  I attended a lecture in molecular evolution in Montgomery Hall where I took graduate and post graduate classes (i.e. genetics & human A & P).  I walked through Faraday Hall past a large lecture hall, laboratories, and a small classroom where I took general chemistry & organic chemistry classes.  I strolled past Davis Hall where most of my undergraduate biology classes were held and past Swen Parson library (where I spent hundreds of hours studying) as I made my way to lunch at Holmes Student Center.  I left campus at approximately 12:30 pm not knowing the tragic events that would soon unfold. Several former students from Kishwaukee College attend NIU or have graduated from there.

When I arrived home, I returned an e-mail from a former classmate and biology major who had become aware of my visit but who, like me, is retired.  He is a past faculty member in the biology department and also dean of the graduate school.  Then I e-mailed a former Kishwaukee College and present NIU student who assisted me last year in collecting data from the Kishwaukee River in the state’s RiverWatch program.  This all took place minutes before the shooting began.

At approximately 3:00 one of my sisters called and asked if I had the TV on and when I said no, she told me to turn it on but warned me that I would be shocked.  I watched in horror as the live coverage wrenched my heart.  It was a somber drive a couple hours later as my wife and I drove to a Valentine Day dinner at an East State Street restaurant, made even more somber by the sight and sound of helicopters flying to nearby St. Anthony Hospital from DeKalb.

 We have season football tickets, recently attended a men’s basketball game, and I play(ed) in the alumni band at homecoming.  As you can see I still have close ties with NIU and my wife has taken graduate classes there too.  We grieve for you NIU but in our grief we know that you will endure and become a better, stronger institution.  May God bless you in these terrible hours and beyond.

Like Bandit before her, Brandie developed stenosis and neuropathy of the lumbar spine along with arthritis in both hips and knees, with slight canine cognitive dysfunction (animal equivalent to Alzheimer disease). The neuropathy resulted in deteriation of the myelin sheath (like insulation on wires) She lost control of the hind limbs with muscle atrophy. I built the ramp shown below and eventually just let her potty on the snow covered deck and finally we used dog pads inside. The last few days she could not get up by herself. That’s when we knew that it was time.

       Brandie

Brandie our Brandie

You’re sweeter than candy

You love to play football

It’s your most favorite game of all

You are so athletic

You make other dogs look pathetic

You catch and shake the toy coon

Morning, evening, and afternoon

We take walks in the park

During daylight and dark

You sometimes pick up a big stick

And may even eat part of it

Eating bad things was never a chore

You just went back again for more

The carpet you did chew

Your toys and your bed too

Rubber bands, pins, plastic; you ate them all

Winter, Spring, Summer, and Fall

You love to jump and run

It’s always been so much fun

You’re so smart and so bright

You even know left from right

Though everything I’ve said is true

We will always love you

My goodness, my golly

You’re such a good collie

June 10, 2009–January 12, 2021

(11 years 7 months 2 days)

It is really hard knowing that there will never again be a dog in our home . I have always said I would rather be without a dog late in life than for a dog be without me. They are the most loving and devoted creatures on earth. The thing that will remain with me forever is the way that Brandie especially would put her head against my leg and look up to me with the most adoring look in her eyes. That image will always remain. For childless couples our pets are our children, But now I must live my faith and say with conviction it is well, it is well with my soul. Tears are streaming down my face as I type this. Except for brief interludes I have had a dog for 37 years. A chapter in my life is closed and I must look forward to a new one.

Please feel free to make comments on this post or any of them. I especially would like to hear from relatives, friends, classmates, etc.

Profile

I graduated from Northern Illinois University in 1966 with a Bachelor of Science degree in Education and earned a Master of Science degree in Education also from NIU in 1973.   I taught in the Harlem School District (5 years), a Chicago suburb (1 year), and the Rockford, IL School District for 27 years (26 at East High School). I culminated my teaching career  at Kishwaukee College (8 years) Two important events occurred  in 1988: I married my wife Angie and I received a summer teacher’s research fellowship through  the University of Illinois School of Medicine at Rockford.  My primary responsibility was light microscopy and Scanning electron miscroscopy of rabbit renal arteries (effect of high cholesterol diet).  For 14 years I was a citizen scientist for the Illinois Department of Natural Resources in their RiverWatch program (monitoring water quality) My hobbies and activities include gardening, golfing, bowling, downhill and cross country skiing, photography, including photomicroscopy and time lapse photography, spending time with my wife and our dog, and in the winter playing around in my small home biology & chemistry lab.

Beyond what I have written in past profiles, in the early 1980’s I was an EMT with the Boone Volunteer Ambulance & Rescue Squad (BVARS) which fit in nicely with my science training and teaching. I also enjoy public speaking and made frequent scholarship presentations to graduating seniors and outstanding middle school students through the former Belvidere Y’ Men’s Club.  I also made power point presentations of the RiverWatch program. But I most enjoyed making presentations at my high school reunions.  Thanks guys for allowing me to do this. 

Every pet has a special place in the heart of its human companions.  Shadow, the first g helped me get through some difficult times during my longer than normal single life. 

My future wife, Angie, decided early in our relationship that a guy who had a collie couldn’t be too bad a guy.  Like me, she had grown up with cats so I knew the perfect gift for her first birthday after we were married would be a kitten.  I just knew that Shadow would accept the adorable fuzz ball which he did.  That was 1989 and they became constant companions until that fateful fall day in 1995 when suddenly we had to say good-bye to our 12 year old canine buddy.

Within months I was ready for another puppy.  I had always loved dogs and was partial to collies since the earliest Lassie movies. (I have virtually every one on DVD).  Angie agreed but didn’t want another sable and white dog since it would remind her too much of Shadow. 

We had saved an abandoned tri-color collie months earlier but couldn’t keep him permanently.  Angie had temporarily given him the name “Bandit”.  So when we (I) selected our new puppy the next summer, his name had to be Bandit.  My wife selected the name and I selected “the one with the white tipped tail” and to top it off, he was born on March 14, my birthday!

We went through the usual trials and tribulations of life with a new puppy and whereas Shadow licked Buster’s ears and kept them clean, Bandit loved to chew on them.  Over the years they became good friends and we felt Bandit helped keep Buster young.  They affectionately became known as “big nose & little nose”. 

In 2004 we moved from town to a quiet subdivision just outside of town.  Our daily walks changed from an extraordinary long block to the one half mile circle of the subdivision or the longer walk down a hill, past the horses (with occasional pauses to greet them), past a cornfield, and to the conservation district woods.  He usually didn’t want to go into the woods except in the winter when I would take him cross-country skiing.  Well, I would ski and he would follow behind until we headed homeward; then he took the “point”.  By then I was partially retired, teaching 3 days a week at a two year college 35 minutes away.  Needless to say, we both enjoyed the additional time together.

In May, 2007 we had to give up Buster after a long gradual decline.  Sadly we buried him under the pines of the front berm.  Less than two weeks later we almost lost Bandit to pancreatitis but with the aid of some very good iveterinarians he pulled through.  Dr. Lendman spent virtually all day every day over a long holiday weekend with Bandit because he was determined we weren’t going to lose two pets in 10 days.

           In March or April 2007, I noticed that he would sometimes drag his feet on the pavement as we walked.  In June Sherry, the groomer, called and said Bandit was having a lot of trouble.  We had to carry him to the car. We took him to the clinic and after a few tests Dr. Frost wanted to get X-rays.  They confirmed that he had a form of neuropathy in which the spinal cord was deteriorating.  He said that Bandit would eventually lose control of his hind legs.  He told us that there was an experimental medicine that we could try.  But Dr. Frost said to be prepared for 2-5 months.  That devastated me.

          Shortly after that he also started to exhibit strange behavior like getting confused and going to the wrong side of the door to get out.  Internet research led us to believe that he was also suffering from canine cognitive dysfunction, the animal equivalent of Alzheimer disease.  So we started him on a very expensive pill for it.  We were already giving him a pill for arthritis.  His appetite started going downhill and in late August I stayed home with him while Angie went down to her folks.  During this time he was barely eating.  Then he started circling a lot–a new problem.  Dr. Frost then began to suspect that he had either had a mild stroke or had a brain tumor.  To help with the arthritis, his appetite, and to reduce inflammation in case of a tumor, he suggested taking him off the arthritis medicine and putting him on a steroid, prednisone.  Now he started to eat like a pig, gained some weight, and began walking again, eventually back to 1/2 mile every couple days.  This was October now and we had hope even though the confusion and circling became progressively worse. Around Thanksgiving he really took a turn for the worse and we just hoped to get him through the holidays.  Angie’s parents, bless them, agreed to come up for Thanksgiving and when they saw how bad he was said they would come back up for Christmas.  December was horrific.  By Christmas we (usually I) had to help him outside and carry him down the step to go to the bathroom.  We had a lot of snow in December and I would scoop out areas for him to go.  The last few days we just let him go out on the deck and I would cover it over with snow or scoop and throw it.  Even though he was a large dog, he loved to sleep on the bed with us (if you can imagine two people and a large dog on a bed).  I would sleep with my head at the foot of the bed to keep him from falling off.  Someone had to be nearby most of the time.  Finally, we decided that the day after New Year’s Day we would have to end his misery.  Yet, he was eating well, was taking all his meds, and still loved and recognized us.  But his circling was almost constant and had to be guided everywhere.  So on January 2, I gave him his last treats-one for every year of his life and took him one last time to State Street Animal Clinic and we said our last good-byes to our wonderful friend and companion.  Angie collected some of his fur left from the shaving procedure and saved it.  We had already made arrangements to have someone dig his grave near Buster’s grave. 

          During the fall I prayed that he would get better but then I realized that God had given us one miracle a year and a half earlier to enjoy him more than before.  In addition, he had too many other health issues.  On that last day the vet told us that because of the limited success with the experimental drug, they were now trying it on another patient.  We like to think that Bandit paved the way for other dogs, at least at our local animal clinic. 

SHADOW

Shadow my friend your were so dear

From the beginning this was clear

You looked just like the hero Lassie

And to us you were just as classy

At first there was just you and me

Then came Angie to make it three

And when we got that fury kitten

You were not the least bit smitten

You took him in like a little brother

And sometimes acted more like his mother

For you washed his ears and kept them clean

And to Buster you were never mean

When the sirens screamed you howled like a wolf

They nearly drove you through the roof

You were so patient, devoted, and kind

You are still in our soul and mind

It’s been a long time since we had to part

But you will always be in our heart

You were the very first dog we had

And for that we will always be glad

God rest your memory for eternity

And for the dog you will always be.

Bandit

Bandit our Bandit you’re still the one

I knew it from the starting gun

With your tail so pure and white

I just knew that you would be right

Your fear when the weather got stormy

Seemed to us a little bit corny

The only one that you loved to fight

Was Buster the cat whom you liked to bite

He hissed and kicked to no avail

For you were soon back on his trail

We went for walks in all the seasons

You and me for many reasons

And in the winter we would ski

Alone together just you and me

You chewed right through the trimmer cord

Because you were mischievous and bored

You are so handsome and so bright

Everyone thinks you’re a beautiful sight

And now you’re old and a little bit frail

But we still love your pure white tail

And when you’re gone you will have left your mark

In everyone’s life and in their heart

You’ve been so devoted, kind, and true

There will never be another you

You’ve touched our lives and made them whole

With your eyes as black as coal

You made us laugh, you made us cry

And we will love you till we die

BUSTER

He is a present, a gift from Larry

He makes us laugh, he makes us merry

He is a tiger, a little kitty

And oh his coat, it is so pretty

He has a huge vertical leap

A secret he just can’t keep

He runs the stairs and jumps the wall

To the great amazement of us all

He sometimes stays outside at night

And comes home after a fight

He once went into the storm sewer

We thought his days would be fewer

Of his nine lives he’s used a few

But if you were he, you would have too

His first canine friend washed his ears

The second one only brings him fears

He’s older now, and sleeps a great deal

And sometimes doesn’t eat all of a meal

But that’s OK, we love him still

We just give him a little pill

The best cat he will always be

To both of us, Angie and me

The subject of this poem you know who

Of course, it is our Buster Boo

With a heavy heart I must announce that today, Tuesday, January 12, 2021 at 11:42 am CST we said goodbye to our precious girl Brandie. I have almost finished my tribute to her and expect to publish it tomorrow.

As a prelude to Part XXXVIII I am making a disclaimer that, first of all, I am not a COVID-19 expert, nor do I pretend to be.  I am more of a reporter with a science background (especially in the field of biology with 41 years of teaching junior high, high school, and college). I also would like to address another issue at this time.  In an earlier essay I made an opinion statement in which I said that I was becoming more and more convinced that the COVID virus was a product of artificial selection rather than the result of natural selection.  I have read one article that suggests that that is not true but only one. Apparently not too much has been written on that subject.  Having said that, I still leave the possibility of man-made open and I am aware of the idea that the virus is thought to have first appeared in bats.

Why certain COVID patients die

Continuing on with the topic of coronavirus (since there really is only one other hot topic (the U. S. election in which I will not get embroiled), I would like to address the topic of why some people are asymptomatic, some become only mildly sick, and others die.  0bviously, genetics plays a part somehow, someway. Advancing age, certain predisposed conditions (i.e. diabetes, high blood pressure, obesity, etc…)are factors.  Ten percent of nearly 1,000 COVID-19 people who developed life threatening pneumonia had antibodies that disable interferons, important immune system proteins.  In a study done recently these antibodies called autoantibodies which attack the immune system itself were absent in 663 patients that were asymptomatic or had  only mild symptoms and only four, of 1,227 healthy people had the autoantibodies. In a separate study done by the same group an additional 3.5% of critically ill patients had mutations in genes that control the interferons involved in fighting viruses and there are between 500-600 such genes-in our genome.  Interferons alarm and activate other virus fighting genes. One researcher compared interferon both to an alarm system and sprinkler system.  Yet interferons somehow are suppressed in some people with coronavirus. Interferons are especially important in fighting viruses new to the body. (Szabo,) Personal experience proved the effectiveness of interferon a few years ago. Patients didn’t make autoantibodies in response to the virus; instead they apparently already had them but were dormant until infected with COVID-19.

COVID-19 and- Blood Vessels

As scientists have learned more about the virus they have zoomed in on the vascular system, the vast network of arteries, capillaries, and veins. In the relatively short period of time it’s been around, they have found that it warps the thin single slayer of endothelial cells (endothelium) located on the inside of blood vessels’ inner lining). In a study headed by William Li, a vascular biologist, the team compared lung tissue of people who died of COVID-19 to those who died of influenza. The lung tissue of those who died of coronavirus had nine times as many blood clots as those of the flu victims. And those in the first group exhibited severe endothelial injury.
The strange part is that the virus shreds the tiny cells from the inside out thus blocking the vessels and forming clots. Chief among the functions of the endothelium is the prevention of blood clots because of their ultra-smooth surface. . They also help to regulate blood pressure and help fend off germs. The virus enters cells via a specific receptor called the ACE2 on the cell membrane but just how it actually harms the cell (the mechanism) is not yet understood. It may attack the endothelial cells directly or begin somewhere else and the endothelium suffers collateral damage along the way as the immune system reacts and maybe sometimes overreacts. Like interferon discussed above, the endothelium alerts the body to impending danger. Ironically the very structures and processes that-normally protect us can turn against us.  According to Li, the common denominator in COVID-19 patients is endothelial dysfunction. The body gets a double whammy resulting from the- system’s runaway nature resulting in extensive inflammation in the bloodstream. As the inflammation spreads, a condition known as endothealitis, blood clots all over the body, can form starving tissues and organs from oxygen. Endothelial damage also causes elevated levels of von Willebrand protein (blood clotting factor IX). Interesting enough for years I thought I was deficient in factor IX (I even wrote a paper on it for a graduate genetics class) until newer tests revealed a deficiency in factor XI resulting in hemophilia C, a somatic recessive condition. Back to the COVID-19 patients; those suffering from blood clots are now put on aspirin. (Stone)

Why some infected individuals don’t get sick

 It has become extremely important to learn why some people test positive but never show any symptoms and feel fine. No one knows how many people have been infected by them. No other known virus seems to vary so much in its degree of severity even within a single family. It appears that a person’s immune system as much as anything helps to determine the severity and that means that one’s genetics plays a big part. In a study conducted in the San Francisco area involving 3ooo participants who were invited to be tested whether sick or not, 53 % of those who were positive had no symptoms.  Some reports suggest that the antibody response to the virus in asymptomatic people is weaker than in people with severe symptoms which is contrary to earlier assumptions. Perhaps other parts of the immune system such as T-cells (type of white blood cell) that functions in the immune system.  Lymphocytes are also known as leucocytes (Krieger).

COVID-19 Treatment

        A high official at a local regional hospital says that treatment of coronavirus has evolved since the pandemic began last winter. One of the biggest changes is that clinicians now use a breathing tube as a last resort. Now they use a high flow oxygen therapy which reduces the need for ventilation and intubation, which wasn’t the right method. Another major change was the availability of the antiviral drug Rendesivir which is very effective. The FDA has approved the use of the monoclonal antibody bamlanivimab. The monoclonal antibodies soak up the virus so it can’t do what it does. Another breakthrough was the realization that not everyone needs the same treatment. Going back to the ventilators once it became known that this was not a disease just of the lungs the need for ventilators was not so great. The disease can affect many organs including the heart and brain. The use of steroids is a fifth treatment change (Watson). Not really a change in treatment strategy is the fact that hospitals are better stocked for personal protection but that is nullified by a staffing shortage and I would add, based our recent local and national news, doctor, nurse, and other health provider burnout.

The vaccines

Most everyone now is aware that the early vaccines use mRNA technology but just what is mRNA? From essay IX (organic molecules), we learned that like DNA. (deoxyribonucleic acid), RNA, ribonucleic acid is composed of nucleotides that in turn are comprised of a phosphate and sugar backbone with a nitrogenous base (adenine, thymine, cytosine, and guanine in DNA) and the base uracil in place of thymine of DNA in RNA . Unlike DNA, RNA is single stranded and has one more oxygen atom. During protein synthesis, DNA splits down the middle with each half serving as a template for manufacturing a complementary strand of mRNA (m stands for messenger). This takes place in the nucleus and is called transcription. Next during translation mRNA serves us a template to attach to free floating tRNA (transfer RNA) in the cytoplasm. Each tRNA segment contains an amino acid; tRNA molecules arrive at a ribosome (rRNA) where they join to form a polypeptide and when long enough-a protein; mRNA was first discovered in the late 1960’s but was not fully understood until the 1990’s.

The vaccine produced by Pfizer-BioN Tech and also Moderna uses a nanoparticle delivery method to contain and protect the mRNA segment. It has a lipid component. (Fats which are water insoluble. are examples of a lipid).  Incidentally, nano refers to one thousand millionth (10^-9). (Reuter’s staff)

According to Dr. Dan Anderson, professor of chemical engineering and health sciences at MIT, the method took years of research,

. The encapsulated mRNA package can travel through the bloodstream and reach target cells and enter cells of organs that filter blood.-liver, spleen, bone marrow, and kidneys. It enters cells by endocytosis (McManus) which refers to a process in which substances cross the cellular membrane to enter a cell. Depending on the type and size of the substance it may called phagocytosis (large particles i.e. how amebas ingest food particles), pinocytosis “cell drinking” when liquids  enter a cell, and receptor mediated endocytosis which is a form of pinocytosis. (Mader)

The mRNA contains a genetic code to give our cells instructions to make a harmless piece of the “spike protein” to stimulate our immune system to make antibodies against the spike protein. Once the mRNA instructions are inside the immune cells, cells use them to make the protein piece, Then the cells break down (degrade) the mRNA in 15-30 minutes. Our immune system recognizes the protein and produces antibodies to protect us. “The speed is a reflection of years of work that went before” Dr. Fauci told a news conference. Billions of company and government funding helped to speed up the process. It starts with a snippet of genetic code that carries instructions for making proteins. Pick the right protein to target and the body turns into a mini vaccine factory. Fifteen years ago Dr. Drew Weissman’s lab at the University of Pennsylvania figured out how to let a lab grown RNA segment slip undetected into cells.  Other researchers added a fat coating to help it enters cells and start producing the right protein. (For a more complete summary of protein synthesis see essay IX). In the meantime, a group of researchers headed by Dr. Barney at the NIH figured out the right target in the immune system. Surface proteins (receptor sites) have a certain shape and thus the nanoparticle has to match that shape. Choose the wrong isomer (my term) (alternate shape) and the molecule can’t enter the cell (Neergard).

A word about science and how it progresses.  A favorite movie of mine “Day One” about the Manhattan Project (development of the atomic bomb) illustrates how science worked very well.  In the movie General Groves, obviously a military man was put in charge of the entire project. In his first meeting with the core group of scientists he encountered them sitting around kicking some ideas around.  He sternly rebuked them for not working and wasting time on such an important endeavor.  When they tried to tell him that is the way science works, he insisted they work in the military way.  My point is that science works in slow uneven spurts not in linear fashion. Seth Borenstein in an Associated Press article a few months ago points that out in the search for a COVID-19 vaccine.  He says that “While the world wants flashy quick fixes for everything, especially massive threats like coronavirus and global warming . . . remind us that in science, slow and steady pays off.  Science builds upon previous work with thinkers ‘standing on the shoulders of giants’ as Isaac Newton put it , and it starts with basic research aimed at understanding a problem before fixing it. Nobels usually reward, years or decades after a discovery, because it can take that long to realize the implications. Slow and steady success in science has made researchers hopeful in the fight against the pandemic.    The coronavirus was sequenced in a matter of weeks, testing became available quickly, and vaccines that would normally take years may be developed in a year or less, and It’s all been built on the back of basic science advances  that have been developed in the past three decades.” (Marcia McNutt, president of the National Academy of Sciences) As an example, gene sequencing and polymerase chain reaction (PCR) which allows for multiple copying of precise DNA segments won the 1993 Nobel in chemistry. (Borenstein)

Hope for the World (we’re back to science and religion)

Post Script

It has come to my attention that social media contains a lot of misinformation, false information, and in some cases outright lies and no, I’m not so naive to think this is something new or relative just to COVID-19. Let me address a couple things. For example consider the following:

Fact check: 2020 has been more deadly in the US compared with recent years

The chart, with a title “USA Deaths By Year,” has a column for the year, the number of deaths reported that year by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the total U.S. population each year, and the death rate calculated from number of deaths. It says the average death rate is 0.8%, though from 2017 to 2019 the death rate is listed as 0.9%. 

According to the chart — which lists the CDC, Census data and USA TODAY as sources at the bottom — in 2020 there have been 2,533,214 deaths, a population of 330,619,870, and a death rate of 0.8%. The information is dated Nov. 22.

The U.S deaths numbers from 2009 to 2018 were released by the CDC, and a USA TODAY article does list the total number of deaths and the U.S. population through 2018. The death rate is correct as listed for those years.

However, the 2019 and 2020 data is less clear. The CDC has not released official numbers for either. Provisionally it has said 2,855,000 Americans died in 2019, which does not match the chart’s total of 2,794,146. Data provided by John Hopkins Medical Center (Landeck)

ALSO

Chart comparing 2020 US death toll with previous years is flawed, uses incomplete data

Posts on social media are attempting to downplay the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic using a chart that shows that the 2020 U.S. death toll hasn’t changed much from previous years.

The chart, titled “US deaths per year,” displays figures comparing deaths in the country for the last five years, ranging from just over 2.7 million in 2015 to 2.9 million in 2019. It says the toll for 2020, as of Nov. 16, is “2,487,350.” Some versions also include a whole-year projection of 2,818,527.

“People died before Covid. Amazingly the death rate hasn’t changed. How can that be with such a deadly virus????” one user wrote.

But the comparison is flawed for a few reasons. The 2020 statistics cited are not the final figures, and the Centers of Disease Control and Prevention has estimated that hundreds of thousands of excess American deaths are attributed to the virus this year. Lastly, it ignores that COVID-19 has killed over 290,000 Americans to-date, the highest virus death toll in the world. 

The post was flagged as part of Facebook’s efforts to combat false news and misinformation on its News Feed. (Read more about our partnership with Facebook.) 

The numbers listed from 2015 through 2018 are legitimate and come from the CDC. The health agency reported 2,712,630 deaths in the U.S. in 2015, 2,744,248 in 2016, 2,813,503 in 2017, and 2,839,205 in 2018.

While the final numbers for 2019 have not been released, the CDC’s provisional count for the year — 2,855,000 — comes close to the chart’s 2,900,689 figure, though it’s not clear how they reached the number.

The chart’s 2,487,350 figure leading up to the week of Nov. 16, 2020, reflects CDC data, but it’s not a complete depiction of how many Americans died in 2020. 

Not only does the figure not account for the final six weeks of the year, it doesn’t represent the first few weeks, either. The weekly provisional deaths table doesn’t begin until the week ending Feb. 1, 2020. What’s more, these numbers are continuously updated due to reporting lags, which the CDC says can range from one week to eight weeks or more, depending on the jurisdiction and cause of death.

PolitiFact is regarded as one of the most reliable websites on the internet for anything politics and many newspapers and media outlets openly say they check their own facts against it before going to press. Open Secrets follows the money. We all know that money is power in Washington and Open Secrets traces it wherever it can.

For facebook readers,

How much of what you read on Facebook is carefully written and referenced from reliable sources? How trustworthy are their comments and just what are their hidden agendas? Everything I write is referenced (except for the first few essays and my sources are college textbooks) or comes from my prior training/experience as a science teacher. Read some of my past essays and judge for yourself.

Sincerely,

Larry Baumer

References

• Borenstein, S. Date unknown Nobel Prizes and OCID-19:  Slow, basic science may pay off  Rockford Register Star
• Krieger, L. Aug 3, 2020 Why don’t people get sick despite being infected? Rockford Register Star
• Landeck, K. Dec. 24, 2020 USA Today
• Mader, S. 2004 Biology, 8^th edition McGraw /Hill New York, NY
• McManus, R,  Sept. 4, 2020  Anderson Explains Role of Nanoparticles in Vaccines https://nihrecord.nih.gov/2020/09/04/anderson
• Neergard, L. Dec. 8, 2020 Years of research laid groundwork for vaccine  Rockford Register Star
• Putterman, S, Dec. 11, 2020 PolitiFact
• Reuters staff   Dec.5, 2020 Fact check: Lipid nanoparticles in a COVID-19 vaccine are there to transport RNA molecules http://www.reuters.com/article/uk
• Stone, W. Nov. 26, 2020 Is virus a disease of blood vessels Rockford Register Star
• Szabo, L. Nov. 15,2020   Breakthrough finding reveals why certain COID-19 patients die Rockford Register Star
• Watson, A, Nov. 29, 2020 COVID-19 treatment evolves Rockford Register Star

To my past readers, my apologizes for the long period of inactivity, a bevy of late summer and fall activities (mostly outdoor) including tons of yard work, ongoing garage cleaning and organizing, designing, building, and modifying a ramp for our failing dog who requires nearly constant attention, extensive dental work for some of us, and yes, some golf rounds while the weather permits have all contributed to my absence. I probably will not be fortunate to come close to last year’s record of golfing on the third to the last day of the year. Oh, and I still have to trim roses and a huge clematis, service the push mower (I let the experts service the riding mower), and I have yet to completely get the snow blower ready. The big question now is whether we can /should travel for Thanksgiving while COVID is raging again and Illinois is on or near the top of the list of confirmed cases. Thus, the debate in my mind on what to write on next is settled. I will concentrate on:

• the ongoing search and research for faster and more reliable testing methods of detecting COVID -19
• types of tests and what the results mean
• a safe and reliable vaccine (development of)

A viral test tells you if you have a current infection.

• A positive test means you currently have COVID -19. Isolate yourself at home, wash hands often, wear a mask, and social distance. Contact your healthcare provider if your symptoms get worse.
• A negative test only mean you did not have COVID-19 at the time you were tested.
• An antibody test might tell if you had a past infection. Antibody tests check for antibodies in your blood that your immune system produced in response to viral infection. Antibody tests are available through your healthcare providers and laboratories.
• If you test positive you may have antibodies from COVID-19 or a virus from the same family even though you never felt sick. (asymptomatic) Talk to your healthcare provider.
• If you test negative you may not have ever had COVID-19.  Consult your doctor.A viral test tells you if you have a current infection.

Undoubtedly, one of the questions most people ask is, “why does it take so long to get a vaccine for COVID-19” (or any other virus or bacteria for that matter). The diagram above taken from March 18, 2020 edition of the Rockford, IL Register Star is a summary of the overall protocol for vaccine development. First of all, vaccines are given to healthy people (or at least not positive for the disease for which the vaccine is intended). As Dr. David Relman, professor of microbiology and immunology at Stanford University says “you don’t want to make healthy people sick.” So you want to make sure your vaccine is completely safe. Vaccines prime your immune system to fight a potential disease; they don’t treat or cure it. As we know, viruses can only reproduce inside another host cell. Once inside it travels to the nucleus where it hijacks the cell’s genetic machinery and compels it to make more viruses (see essay XXXII). Once in your body viral reproduction occurs; your immune system produces antibodies (various kinds of white blood cells) in response to the antigens released during viral replication
and the war is on. Think about it, when your doctor suspects an infection, he may order a complete blood count to look for an increase in  white blood cells (wbc) (Fig I & II).
A vaccination may consist of being inoculated with a weakened form of a virus or killed virus particles that tricks your immune system to think it is the “real thing” thereby producing antibodies thus protecting you from the REAl THINGS. Some vaccines protect you for a lifetime but most do not. Thus, you need one or more booster shots. One of the big questions being addressed now is how long will a COVID-19 shot last?
All new vaccines have to be approved by the FDA and licensed before they can be given to the public.  They must first be tested on animals, usually mice, for several factors (Fig. III) before clinical tests can begin on humans. This may take months to years. Currently, several vaccines are in these stages of development. The same article quoted Dr. Anthony Fauci of the National Institutes of Health as saying hope for a vaccine could come by year’s end. Also in that article FDA Commissioner Stephen Hahn promised that “career scientists, not politicians will decide whether any coronavirus vaccine meets clearly stated standards….” Additionally, Hahn stated that “science will guide our decision. FDA will not permit any pressure from anyone to change that.” As of November 3, 2020 that promise will be a lot easier to enforce as well as a lot of other science guided hopes and dreams.   I recall an interview with a doctor on a Chicago sports radio station in which he said that if vaccine development as well as mask wearing and social distancing were guided by scientific principles and not by politics this pandemic would not reach the depth that it has. How true and that’s all I will say on that subject; otherwise this essay would be a full chapter in a small book.

Potential coronavirus vaccines

One type of vaccine that a few months ago held more promise than today is plasma therapy. Remove red and white blood cells and what’s left is essentially an almost clear liquid, plasma which still contains antibodies that were produced by various types of white blood cells. Patients who recovered from C0VID-19 can and have volunteered to donate their blood plasma to be used in vaccine development while the wbc’s, rbc’s, and platelets are returned to their bodies. However, plasma therapy has had a mixed success in the past. It’s also time consuming, and hard to do on a large scale although other methods can take a long time too. (rrstar)
Researchers at the University of Pittsburgh under the direction of Louis D. Falo Jr. have developed a vaccine that uses laboratory-mode viral protein to build a person’s immunity to the virus. Antibody production in tests in mice were encouraging. Their research is a follow-up to a vaccine they were developing in 2003 for SARS, another COVID virus but was canceled because the virus was contained in July by the World Health Organization (WHO).

The same group developed a vaccine for MIERS (Middle East Respiratory Syndrome, another COVID virus that jumped from animals to humans. Instead of developing a shot in the arm, their vaccine would consist of a patch with 400 tiny needles worn on the arm. Here’s the strange part; the needles each 0. 5 mm long would consist of a sugar and protein patch. The advantage is that the vaccine doesn’t have to be frozen especially when being shipped to other countries. Additionally it would release a highly concentrated, smaller amount of viral protein. Using DNA molecules made in the lab, the vaccine would prevent the viral protein spikes from entering human cells. . Others say it focuses on treating those already sick rather than preventing infections. Dr. Fauci likes the idea of an upper arm injection. However, he added that science should first demonstrate that COVID antibodies currently administered intravenously work. Those in favor of continued development argue that until a vaccine is available, the shots offer the most plausible method of prevention “Convalescent” plasma is already in widespread use and preliminary data deem it safe. The antibodies can be delivered in a drug called immune-globulin, or Ig in either drip form or in a shot.(Milwaukee Journal Sentinel)

According to WHO, as of today (Nov. 25, 2020) these are the numbers for:

Preclinical Phase I Phase II Phase III Approved

164 37 17 6 0

In summary, The last 10 months have seen some of the most tumultuous events in modern history, a pandemic that may become endemic, political, social, and racial unrest, raging forest fires in Western United States, and more. But there’s hope on the horizon. The key to our future lies with us. We make most of our problems and with God’s help we can solve them.

References

Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC),Nov. 20, 2020, Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19), Atlanta

Johnson , M., April 19, 2020, Researches have developed a potential coronavirus vaccine, Milwaukee Journal Sentinel as read in the Rockford Register Star

Rockford Register Star, March 18, 2020, Gannett Co., Inc., Milwaukee,WI

Welse, E & M. Johnson, April 19, 2020, Early COVID-19, patients try experimental plasma therapy, USA Today as read in the Rockford Register Star,

Since Gregor Mendel and Charles Darwin were contemporaries and both contributed immensely to biology, the question naturally arises, were they acquainted with each other’s work? One source I read begins with the assertion “read no further if you want a definite answer to this question.” However, the author concludes that “the unsolved mystery, therefore, remains: did Darwin actually receive a copy of Mendel’s paper and if yes did he bother to read it? (David Galton) Another source I read began “One of the great “what if” question that has fascinated historians of biology is how differently Darwinian evolution would have been received had Darwin known of Gregor Mendel, the Augustinian monk who is now considered the founder of the science of genetics.” (John Farrell)  Farrell continues “But Darwin never knew of Mendel. He never read his published findings outlining the basic laws of genetic inheritance.” A pretty bold statement to be sure. Now for a third source, “There is clear evidence that Mendel read “The Origins of Species” and mounting evidence that Darwin had heard of Mendel’s work. Their places in the scientific world were a universe apart.

Darwin shocked the world in 1859 when the Origins of Species was published.  It was an instant hit. Mendel presented his paper. Versuche uber Pflanzen-Hybriden (Experiments in Plant Hybridization) in February 1865 to the Brunn Society of Natural History in Brunn, Austria  which remained in obscurity until 1901 when copies were discovered independently in Europe and in the United States More about that later. Whereas Darwin’s book sold out almost immediately, there were no question asked, nor discussion made when Mendel finished his presentation.  Some authors and textbook authors have suggested that not one of the 40 or so present had any idea what he was talking about. Indeed genetics wasn’t even in its infancy yet.   However, there were some prominent scientists in attendance including the noted astronomer and botanist G. von Niessl, Karl Whilhelm, a Swiss a botanist and geologist, and German botanist and embryologist Matthias Schleiden who also worked on the cell theory.  Hugo Iltis who wrote The Life of Mendel suggests some reasons for the silence.  Mendel’s presentation was upstaged by an immediate discussion of Darwin’s book and   Mendel’s paper was full of mathematical calculations and ratios. Having read all 40 pages I can attest to that.)  Applying mathematics to biology was a concept before its time. The hot topic for biologists at the time was to try to explain the extraordinary multiplicity of living forms. Mendel wasn’t opposed to the theory of evolution. He had read Origin of Species and other related books. He even wrote notes in the book’s margins. Mendel had said that his experiments were designed to  “support or illustrate the influence of the environment on plants”‘ in support of Lamarck’s theory of blending characteristics which held that when gametes combine there is a mixing of hereditary material that produces a blend like mixing black and white ink to form  gray ink. Thus a mating between a black animal with a white one would result in a gray one and likewise between two plants, one producing black flowers and one with white flowers.

Thus, F₂ (second generation) plants and animals as well as future generations would also be gray since once blended colors could never change.  Obviously, this theory ignored skipping generations, a well observed phenomenon.

Blending inheritance presented special problems for Darwin and other evolutionists since evolution depends on natural selection.  If blending inheritance was true, hereditary variations would disappear resulting in complete uniformity. Thus, matured relation would have no new material on which to act and evolution would cease to occur. (Curtis and Barns)  Back to Mendel’s experiments; even though he expected such results, his experiments suggested much different results. Mendel concluded that “This much already seems clear to me, that nature does not modify species in any such way, so some other force must be at work.”
Mendel ordered 40 copies of his paper to send to famous European scientists. By then Darwin certainly qualified as one of the most famous. This was in 1863, four years after origin of species was published. Reprints were also sent to Schleiden and the Swiss botanist Karl Wilhelm.

Differences in their work

               ‘”It requires, indeed, some courage to undertake a labour of such far-reaching  extent  This appears, however, to be the only right way we can finally reach the solution of a question the importance of which cannot be overestimated in connection with the history of the evolution of organic forms.  This paper now presented records the result of such a detailed experiment….  Whether the plan upon which the separate experiments were conducted and carried out was the best suited to attain the desired end is left up to the friendly decision of the reader”’ –Gregor Mendel  And what a legacy it has been.  Approximately 10 years conducting a single long experiment involving over 27,000 plants.

               Now we come to the real heart of this essay.  Did Mendel read Darwin and did Darwin read Mendel?  According to David Galton “Mendel had, of course, read and studied the Origin of Species in the German translation as soon as the second edition appeared in 1863.  He bought most of Darwin’s other books and studied them carefully making frequent annotations.  Of the 40 copies of Mendel’s work a few ended up in learned societies throughout Europe including the Royal Society. The Linnaean Society, and Greenwich Observatory in Britain.

               If Darwin did receive and read Mendel’s article, he would have found a detailed analysis of the frequencies observed from different inherited traits.  However, Mendel’s results were in the form of mathematical tables and Darwin felt that there was no place for mathematics in biology. Some of Mendel’s final remarks give strong implications that he had discovered laws that could predict the appearance of different hybrid characters in successive generations of the edible pea and probably would apply to other species as well. Mendel’s conclusions  virtually eliminated blending inheritance which Darwin apparently accepted.

Even if Darwin didn’t receive a copy of Mendel’s paper, be had other chances to read Mendel’s work. Herman Hoffman, a professor of Botany had written about plant hybrids in 1869 and included a long section of Mendel’s paper. Darwin’s copy of the book, now preserved in the Cambridge University Library contains handwritten remarks in the margins of surrounding pages but not page 52 the one with references to Mendel.

               Furthermore, a certain George Romannes in preparing an article for the Encyclopedia Britannica on plant hybridization requested Darwin to suggest names of eminent botanists who should be included.  Darwin’s answer included sending him a book by William Focke who summarized Mendel’s work on pages 108-111. But apparently Darwin never read it.  Darwin had done plant breeding experiments using over 50 plant species but never with the idea of studying the transmission of plant characters… The problem of plant hybrid vigor and its role in evolution…. and whether seeds from cross- fertilized flowers would produce superior plants than seeds derived from self- fertilized flowers interested him more. (David Galton) According to John Farrell, Darwin states that “the laws governing inheritance are quite unknown.” (1^st edition) Farrell quoting an article by Daniel J. Fairbanks and Scott Abbott writes that while Darwin knew Mendel, Mendel not only knew of Darwin’s work but even adopted some of his terminology and concepts in evaluating his experiments.  Fairbanks-and Abbot examined. Mendel’s German translation of Origin of Species with marginal notes and then matched Darwinian phrases that Mendel adopted for the conclusion part of his paper.  The color coded words and phrases in his original paper matched those from the passages Mendel marked in his German translation.  Then they used a different color to denote word and phrases not in the passages Mendel marked but found elsewhere in Origin of Species.  Both types of phraseology were collectively found in the papers
Result: phraseology from passengers marked in Origin of Species are more frequent and more diverse in the 10^th and 11^th sections (last two) of his paper.  Fairbanks and Abbott concluded that Darwin’s book influenced Mendel’s writing. Example: Ten times in the concluding remarks only, Mendel used the Darwinian term “element” and in every instance he used it to refer to his conception of material units now known as alleles.  Although it doesn’t offer outright proof that Mendel had become a Darwinian, it is rather suggestive.   And they emphasize that even though special creation by God was still a powerful force, Mendel’s failure to declare it as a personal belief might suggest his acceptance of evolutional theory.

And finally:

• Apparently Mendel realized how important his work was for Darwin’s theory.
• While many biologists accepted evolution during Darwin’s time many did not because of the problem of how-to combine natural selection with a convincing theory of inheritance of traits in species.

References

Ciskanik, M. Gregor Mendel and Charles Darwin: Two Men and a Theory, Magiscenter.com July 31,2020

Curtis, H. N. Sue Barness, (1989). Biology. New York: Worth Publishers Inc.

Farrell, J. How Mendel Channeled Darwin, www.forbs.com 2017

Galton, D. Did Darwin Read Mendel?QJM: An International Journal of Medicine, Volume 102, Issue 8, August 2009,

Originally I intended for my next several essays to treat the historical controversial battle between science and religion but changed my mind to return to the subject of viruses for obvious reasons.  Let’s review some basic viral facts.  First of all, viruses are composed of just two kinds of organic molecules, an outer protein coat and an inner nucleic acid core comprised of DNA, or RNA, but not both. The nucleic acid component may be single stranded or double stranded DNA or RNA. From essay IX we learned the following facts about both DNA and RNA: the  basic unit of structure of nucleic acids is a nucleotide. A nucleotide of DNA consists of a sugar (deoxyribose), a phosphate group, and a nitrogenous base (adenine, guanine, cytosine, or thymine). The DNA molecule is a long double stranded molecule that is twisted into a double helix. There are many kinds of RNA but they all differ from DNA in that the sugar is ribose (with one more oxygen atom); uracil is substituted for thymine,

As you can see from the diagram below a virus is not necessarily considered a living “thing” It can only live in or on another living organism (There are viruses that inhabit virtually every living being).  They can reproduce only when they are inside another living cell making them an obligate parasite. Unlike any living organism, they can be crystalized, put on a shelf almost indefinitely, then rehydrated and can proceed to invade a cell, reproduce, and carry on all known life processes.

Now let’s look at an image of coronavirus

Some viruses are very specific as to not only the host species but also in some cases the specific cell type, tissue, or organ. A virus attaches to a specific receptor site on the host cell membrane through attachment proteins in the capsid or via glycoproteins embedded in the viral envelope. For example hepatitis viruses attack the liver The specificity of this interaction determines the host—and the cells within the host—that can be infected by a particular virus. (Lumen Learning)

According to MLB.com, yes that’s major league baseball, a novel coronavirus is a new coronavirus that has not been previously identified… On February 11, 2020, the World Health Organization announced an official name for the disease that is causing the 2019 novel coronavirus outbreak, abbreviated as COVID-19. In COVID-19, ‘CO’ stands for ‘corona,’ ‘VI’ for ‘virus,’ and ‘D’ for disease. There are many types of human coronaviruses including some that commonly cause mild upper-respiratory tract illnesses Originally, the following symptoms were listed as most common:

• Fever
• Fatigue
• Cough
• Shortness of breath

Since then many others have been added.  I’m not going to spend much time here going over all the symptoms since most everyone is aware of them. 

The most common symptoms of COVID-19 are fever, tiredness, and dry cough. Some patients may have aches and pains, nasal congestion, runny nose, sore throat or diarrhea… Some people become infected but don’t develop any symptoms and don’t feel unwell. Most people (about 80%) recover from the disease without needing special treatment. Around 1 out of every 6 people who gets COVID-19 becomes seriously ill and develops difficulty breathing. Older people, and those with underlying medical problems like high blood pressure, heart problems or diabetes, are more likely to develop serious illness. People with fever, cough and difficulty breathing should seek medical attention.

People can catch COVID-19 from others who have the virus. The disease can spread from person to person through small droplets from the nose or mouth which are spread when a person with COVID-19 coughs or exhales. These droplets land on objects and surfaces around the person. Other people then catch COVID-19 by touching these objects or surfaces, then touching their eyes, nose or mouth. People can also catch COVID-19 if they breathe in droplets from a person with COVID-19 who coughs out or exhales droplets.  Older persons and persons with pre-existing medical conditions (such as high blood pressure, heart disease, lung disease, cancer or diabetes) appear to develop serious illness more often than others. (WHO)

Early on I was hearing from many people that COVID-19 was “just like the flu” in symptoms and severity.  COVIC -19 isn’t the flu; it’s worse, it is deadlier, far more contagious, and is much more disruptive to our health care system.  It’s hard to get an accurate figure on yearly averages here in America and other countries for flu occurrences and deaths for several reasons.  For one, many people never see a doctor or the illness may be misdiagnosed.  Even the CDC often counts related deaths as flu.  Just in one article I read 37,000 deaths last year were due to influenza with a normal average of 27,000-70,000.  That’s quite a staggering range.  In the same article I saw a range of 30,000-100,000 deaths annually.

Biologically COVID-19 takes from 5-14 days to develop symptoms compared to 2 days for the flu thereby giving it more time to spread through greater social interaction.  And then too, as of now and the near future, unlike seasonal influenza, there is no vaccine.  Initially it was thought that coronavirus was spread by droplets released from sneezing, exhaling, and coughing but now other methods are potentially being added to the list.  United States data on influenza deaths are misleading.  The CDC acknowledges a difference between flu death and flu associated death, yet the terms are used interchangeably.  David Rosenthal, director of Harvard University Health Services said “People don’t necessarily die of the flu virus. . ..  What they die of is a secondary pneumonia”.

The 25.000 to 69,000  number that Trump originally cited doesn’t represent counted flu deaths annually but are estimates the CDC uses by applying complex equations.  Surprised?  Fooled me too.  But in all fairness COVID-19 deaths totals are probably misleading too.  Rumor has it that hospitals receive federal funds for each coronavirus death at their facility and so the natural tendency is to attribute unconfirmed deaths to COVID-19 especially when they are swamped. 

So, for the  the doubters out there who either contest that this is no worse than the flu or that it’s a big hoax, please don’t say that to the thousands of families who have lost loved ones and think about questions like:

• When was the last time the flu closed schools around the globe?
• When was the flu last responsible for closing businesses by the millions around the world?
• When was the last time the flu interrupted sporting events including the Olympics?
• When did the flu cause stock markets to fall to depression levels?
• When was the last time the flu caused unemployment levels and food lines, not seen since the 1930’s? And finally
• When in any of our lives were we “required” to wear masks in public places?

                    Effect of COVID-19 on the Environment

Like most everyone else, I liked the gas prices reminiscent of the late sixties and early seventies.  But when did I have reason to burn that cheap gas? Air pollution dropped significantly because of fewer vehicles on the road and fewer factories in operation.  Here ae a few sample of cleaner air:

• Nitrogen dioxide pollution in Northeastern US down 30%
• Rome air pollution down 49% from a year ago

Compared to previous five years, air pollution was down

• 46% in Paris
• 35% in Bengal, India
• 38% in Sydney
• 29% in Los ‘Angeles
• 20% in Rio de Janeiro

Add those to the list above of differences between COVID 9 and the flu.

However, scientists caution that this is only a temporary decrease and levels will rise again as some sense of normalcy returns.

There is also a downside to this.  Plastic shopping bags that many people previously recycled are now being included in trash or carelessly ending up on beaches, in waterways, etc.  The same is true for disinfectant bottles.

One final thought to ponder.  I am becoming more and more convinced that coronavirus-COVID-19, whatever you want to call it is the product of artificial selection, not the result of natural selection! If so what a shame!

References

Center for Disease Control, COVID-219, 2020                                                                        

Major League Baseball, What are coronavirus and COVID-19? May 10, 2020

Statista (German internet company), What are coronaviruses ?  Feb. 20, 2020

Thanos, K., Founder and CEO, Viruses Lumen Learning, 2012

World Health Organization  COVID-19, March 14, 2020

As I begin to write my third series of Essays on Science for the Common Good in the third week of March 2020, We-the entire human race are right in the midst of disastrous cataclysmic events that none of us has ever witnessed before. Schools are closing, entire businesses and industries are failing, stock markets are crashing, and the word pandemic is taking on a personal meaning to us. More and more cases of COVID-19 are burgeoning and the death rate too keeps rising. Social distancing has become a household word as many of us are beginning to feel not only physical isolation but psychological separation as well. The world has changed faster than the human brain can comprehend amid social disorder; it’s hard to make some sense out of chaos. Many of us turn to one of two magisterium, religion or science for comfort. Since both have been very influential in my life I turn to both. After all with no sports of any kind at any level what other choices are there. And I’m talking not only spectator sports, but participant sports as well. The last week of bowling, was canceled and a spokesperson for two local golf courses today could not confirm whether golf courses are considered “essential businesses” and, therefore, will be able to open… Oh well, such is life.

Sunday, March 22, 2020  Listened to part of a Lutheran sermon to an empty church building and viewed a Methodist sermon streaming on my PC also of an empty church, spent half an hour listening  to a favorite website that not only has awesome spiritual music but also excellent secular music. It is 12: 30 CDT and I should soon be turning on a Cubs spring training game-maybe in a couple months. Just to catch my past readers up a little, we had very little snow in our locale in North-central Illinois this past winter; I cross country skied (Nordic to you European skiers) only about four times this winter and zero times downhill (Alpine). At seventy seven (just 8 days ago and yes I often say I share a birthday with another genius) I think my downhill days are over. I have done several labs (Vernier) and in non-Vernier labs I just recently did a lab on the effect of stimulants (e. g. caffeine, and sucrose) on the motility of planaria (flatworms in phylum Platyhelminthes) and just finished doing a lab on the effect of NaCl concentration, temperature, and pH level (a lab on natural selection) in Artemia (brine shrimp) in which eggs were placed in different environments and hatching viability percentages were calculated. In the first base (no baseball pun intended) experiment, salinity was the independent variable. In two extensions that I designed, temperature and pH were the independent variables. In all three experiments the dependent variable was, of course, the percentage of hatching eggs. And in an ongoing lab I have a colony of mealworms to study the effect of temperature (independent variable) on metamorphosis from eggs to larvae, to pupae, to adult. Eggs are very small and thus hard to find. Both larvae and adults were placed in the growth chamber (pan) and kept warm at about 30°C (86°F) One group of pupae were incubated in an incubator set at 30°C while the other group developed at room temperature (approximately 20°C (68°F))

I have an electrophoresis and Simulated Genetic Screen lab to do. I still have some yearly (winter) tasks to do, shredding, recycling / tossing) documents, receipts, etc. and probably will not get around to converting old photos to digital images. In other news our beautiful 10 year 9 month old collie, Brandie really suffers from arthritis in both hips and hind legs and often needs help getting up. She has almost as many meds to take as my wife and I have. We’re hoping some of last year’s foxes will return to raise their young even though they, along with dropped bird seed hulls, wreak havoc on our perennial garden.

Before I conclude this introduction to my third series of essays I would like to make a few offerings to our present situation worldwide. In all the gloom and doom of the present there are some silver linings. I am going to use a trite cliché that I detest. People are “reaching out to connect.” Maybe a temporary hiatus in youth sports will mean more family dinners here in the United States, more phone conversations with family and friends near and far, more family games. (I have talked to all of my sisters at great length in the last few days). Perhaps more people will agree to agree rather than agree to disagree and perhaps-just perhaps politicians and lawmakers will rediscover bipartisan politics and put their constituents first before their own selfish personal agendas. Specifically here in Illinois maybe fairly drawn districts and term limits will replace corrupt government. A few weeks ago when the last corrupt Illinois politician was pardoned from prison it marked the first time since 2007 that no Illinois politician was in a prison.  Wow!

At the risk of sounding preachy, in these troubled times find solace and hope in something/someone.  I go back to an inspirational song that went to my very heart, core, and soul that kept me going in 2013, a song that brings tears to my eyes yet: “You’ll Never Walk Alone”  (Elvis’s rendition especially) It ranks up there with “It is Well With My Soul”, now perhaps my favorite hymn.

I will have an outline coming soon but be looking for some essays on the two magesteria mentioned above and, of course, more on global warming. (That’s still there).

The following essay was adapted from an article by Crystal Jeter

1. One set of alleles is responsible^–for determining each trait, and there are only 2 different alleles (dominant and recessive) for each gene. By way of explanation, alleles are different forms of a gene (and usually expressed by, say A & a). After learning about simple Mendelian inheritance,   alleles (dominant and recessive) and sex-llnked traits, students often think that it is possible to predict results easily..  In humans at least three different genes are associated with eye color. Coat color in cats is controlled by at least six genes Furthermore, the number of particular alleles inherited masks the expression of some characteristics.   For example, the number of alleles that you inherit from each parent that code for production of melanin may partially determine your hair color. Inheritance of more of the alleles may lead to darker hair while inheritance of fewer may lead to lighter hair. For traits that show a Mendelian pattern of inheritance, students often assume that there are only 2 possible alleles for a trait. This is true in some cases. But in many cases, there are more alleles for a trait.  Human height, weight, skin color, and intelligence are all polygenic traits (having many genes ).

2. Your genes determine all of your characteristics, and cloned organisms are exact copies of the original. While genes play a  huge role in how an organism develops, environmental factors also play a role. Epigenetics is the study of heritable changes that occur without changes in the genome.  The gene expression in identical twins has shown changes from factors such as diet and exposure to a different environment. Further studies with identical twins have suggested that these changes can accumulate over the life of the organism. The cloning of Rainbow, a domestic cat demonstrated one striking example of epigenetics. Rainbow’s coat revealed calico coloration while the coat of the clone named Copycat, is a tabby pattern. Because Copycat and Rainbow had identical genomes, the differences must be due to epigenetic factors.

3. All mutations are harmful.  A mutation is a change in the genetic code of an organism. Many mutations are harmful and cause organisms not to develop properly. However, many mutations are silent and some prove beneficial. In the case of a silent mutant, change in the genome does not change the production of the amino add sequence and subsequent protein (remember that multiple codons may code for the same amino acid, so a change in one nucleotide does not necessarily change the gene product). If an organism does live with a mutation, then often the environment will determine whether the mutation is beneficial or harmful. Production of one protein vs. another may confer a characteristic such as a difference in coloration or in the ability to digest a resource (e.g. the ability to digest lactose or maltose instead of sucrose). The phenotypic outcome may be selected, for or against depending on environmental factors

4. A dominant trait is the most likely to be found in the population. The term dominant allele^.sometimes conveys to students the impression that the dominant form of a trail is the one that exists in the greatest proportion in a population.   However, dominant refers only to the allele’s expression over another allele. Human genetics includes examples of dominant traits that do not affect the majority of a population. In fact, acnoridroplasia, a type of dwarfism caused by the presence of a dominant allele is found in fewer than 1 in 10,000 live births. Huntington’s disease, a degenerative disease caused by the presence of a dominant allele occurs at a rate of about 3 to 7 cases per 100,000 people of European descent. And polydactyly (having extra fingers and dwarfism) is a dominant trait. But how many of us have six digits ?

5. While the fifth point is not necessarily a misconception Genetics terms are often confused. Many students understand the basic ideas of genetics but need more familiarity with the terms.  For example, students often struggle with the difference between a chromosome, a gene and an allele.  Chromosomes are structures containing proteins and a single coiled strand of DNA; chromosomes are visible with a microscope only during part of the cell cycle. Genes are units of heredity—specific sequences of DNA or RNA that create proteins with particular functions in an organism. Alleles are variants of a gene. Making sure that students have a strong foundation in the terminology can greatly improve their understanding of genetics and prevent misconceptions.

Dispelling these 5 misconceptions will help students better understand genetics and activities that you plan for both the classroom and the lab. They will also realize there are many influences on the way living things develop genetically over time.

As you have probably found out from the early essays, I usually introduced a new topic in my biology classes with a question like “what is science?” In this case I asked the question “In its simplest form, what does evolution mean?” Upon hearing no answers I would suggest a three word answer “change through Time”. Then we would progress to a discussion of evolution of, say, music, hair styles, or cars, soliciting different kinds of cars that have appeared over time. If talking about music invariably Rock ‘n roll would enter the discussion and I would ask “what was considered to be the first Rock ‘n roll song”? So I ask the reader now that question. Bonus: Name the performer. (Hint # one; it was a group: hint # 2, it was the theme song of a popular ’80’s (I think) sit com. Still don’t know— . As usual, find the answer at the end.

        When most people hear the word evolution, they immediately think of man from ape and “close their ears”. Again I say that’s not true. However, I don’t plan to get into human evolution anyway. Many people say “that’s just a theory”. Well, yes and no-and that depends on what you mean by a theory. I would recommend you review the scientific definition of a theory in essay II. Evolution, at least in some forms and some levels is a fact. Let me show you what I mean. Do you believe that last year’s flu shot won’t work for this year’s flu strain? Do you believe that viruses and bacteria change in form and function? Do you believe that antibiotics that worked well years ago aren’t so effective now? If you answered yes to one or more of these questions, then you acknowledge that evolution occurs. And in each case an organism changed through time (evolved) and is responsible for, say, a new flu shot or new antibiotics all the time. Penicillin was serendipitously discovered in the late 1920’s by Sir Alexander Fleming, but because he had no method of mass producing it, the world had to wait until the early 1940’s during World War II to use it. Fortunately, mass production saved countless numbers of lives in the war. The years following the war witnessed a period of rapid development of antibiotics. I remember as an early primary grade student taking three kinds of antibiotics to fight yearly bouts of pneumonia, bronchitis, or bronchial pneumonia. Penicillin and its derivatives were hailed as “miracle drugs”. But by the late 1950’s those drugs were rendered relatively useless against bacterial infections. Any ideas why? If you said that they evolved and became resistant to the drugs, you are right. And how did they do that? Well, the usual explanation which, by the way, still holds up today, is that some of the bacteria were just naturally resistant to the drug’s effects. By “naturally” I mean that they were genetically immune, that is, they were genetically endowed. Bacteria, like all living organisms have individual differences (different gene pools). To finish the story, these genetically endowed bacteria proliferated in great numbers while their genetically inferior cousins rapidly died from the drugs. Voila, I just took you through the extremely important concepts of survival of the fittest and natural selection, two cornerstones of genetics and evolution.

         Let’s back up a little and quote a paragraph from essay II. “Allow me to comment briefly on direct vs. indirect evidence or observations. Most of what we learn about present conditions results from direct observations. Virtually everything we know about past conditions is derived from indirect evidence. The fossil record and (Earth’s crust) core samples are two examples of indirect evidence.”

         James Hutton (1726-1797) proposed that the earth had been sculptured by slow, gradual processes, the constructive and destructive processes described in essay III. This idea became known as uniformitarianism which also suggested that the oldest rock layers were at the bottom and subsequent layer formed on top.  This set the stage for the idea of determining the “relative” age of rocks.  

         William Smith, (1769 – 1839) an English surveyor, was one of the first to scientifically study the distribution of fossils. He studied the geological strata (order of rock layers) and noted that each strata contained characteristic kinds of fossils.

         Charles Lyell (1797 – 1875) who influenced Darwin the most, furthered the concept that Hutton had established. Since these forces were extrem-m-m-mely (my word for emphasis) slow, the earth must be very old, much older than previously thought.

Charles Darwin was certainly not the first person to suggest that things change over time, which included “living things” The Frenchman Jean Baptiste Lamarck (1744 – 1829) believed in what he called “acquired characteristics”; his classic example was that giraffe’s necks became long because of many generations of stretching higher and higher to reach leaves in trees. Actually some form of evolutionary thought goes back to the Greeks and Romans. And there were many prominent scientists of Darwin’s day that opposed the idea. (Curtis & Barnes)

         Darwin was born in 1809 the son of an English gentleman. As a child, he loved collecting living things and rocks and loved horseback riding. He was encouraged to become a doctor but was horrified at the sight of seeing surgery on a child without using anesthetics. He then was a candidate for the clergy but that didn’t satisfy him. He was assigned to be the naturalist on the ship the HMS Beagle which left England on December 27, 1831 and returned home on October 2, 1836. (Robert McNamara) 

The map of the journey follows.

He sketched and collected hundreds of plants and animals along the way, especially from the Galapagos Islands. Upon arriving back in England he spent the next 25 years going over notes and observations and formulating his theories. After returning to England, Darwin read a treatise by Thomas Malthus in which he warned that the human population was increasing so fast that it would soon be impossible to feed everyone. Darwin applied this to all species and that food and other factors hold populations in check. (Curtis & Barnes) I am omitting a lot of important information to summarize nine postulates that Darwin used to explain how organisms evolve.

1.    A population of organisms has the tendency and potential to increase at a geometric rate.

2.    In the short run the number of individuals in a population remains fairly constant.

3.    The conditions of life are limited.  Limiting factors include food, water, living space, etc.) (my words)

4.    The environments of most organisms have been in constant change throughout geologic time.

5.    Only a fraction of the offspring in a population will live to produce offspring.

6.    Individuals in a population are not all the sane. Some have heritable variations (variable traits).

7.    Life activities (“struggle for existence”) determine which traits are favorable or unfavorable in determining the reproductive success of the individual who possesses the traits.

8.    Individuals having favorable traits (variations) will, on average, produce more offspring and those without favorable traits will produce fewer offspring.  Remember the viruses and bacteria from the last essay.

9.    Natural selection caused the accumulation of new variations and the loss of unfavorable variations to the extent that a new species may arise. (Gibbs, A., A. Lawson)

      I used to demonstrate artificial selection (human caused) by reaching into a jar (usually beaker) and pulling out M & M’s and if I pulled out a brown one (my favorite color), I would put it back and try until I withdrew a different color. I also had a small plastic bag with three candy corn kernels, two with a yellow tip and one with a white tip and asked what process was represented. You can find the answer at the end of the essay (below the references).   

Note to readers. This is the end of volume I of Essays on Science for the Common Good. This is January 24, 2019(original date of publication ) and with nearly 10 inches of snow on the ground and more forecast for this weekend I am in ski mode (as much as my body will allow) and spending spare time in my biology/chemistry lab at home. I welcome comments good, bad, or indifferent and suggestions on how to improve my blog. Some possible topics for volume II may include:

·       The Great Debate: Was it protein or DNA?

·       The structure and physical properties of water that make it so important.

·       Volume vs. surface area as they apply to physical and life sciences.

·       A short treatise on such topics as the inverse square law, chill factor, heat index, dew point, humidity, relative humidity, (with definitions, energy conversions, and cause & effect relationships) 

·       Revisiting classification with power point notes (converted to essay format)

·       A look into the State of Illinois RiverWatch program that I was a part of for many years. I am also toying with the idea of sharing some of my

·       Favorite classroom jokes; I was famous (infamous?) for puns and groaners. On nonscientific subjects, I may offer an

·       11th year anniversary tribute to tragedy at my alma mater and share a

·       Bitter-sweet tribute to a past pet as submitted several years ago to the Editors of Chicken Soup for the Soul (as yet unpublished).

References

Curtis, H. N. Sue Barness, (1989). Biology. New York: Worth Publishers Inc.

Gibbs, A. A. Lawson (1992) The Nature of Scientific Thinking As Reflected by the Work of    Biologists & by Biology Textbooks, The American Biology Teacher, Vol. 54, NO. 3 

McNamara, Robert Charles Darwin and His Voyage aboard H.M.S. Beagle Updated         December 28, 2018

Answer: “Rock Around the Clock” by Bill Haley and the Comets

(Mutation)

Published by: Larry Baumer

I graduated from Northern Illinois University in 1966 with a Bachelor of Science degree in Education and earned a Master of Science degree in Education also from NIU in 1973.   I taught in the Harlem School District (5 years), a Chicago suburb (1 year), and the Rockford, IL School District for 27 years (26 at East High School). I culminated my teaching career  at Kishwaukee College (8 years) Two important events occurred  in 1988: I married my wife Angie and I received a summer teacher’s research fellowship through  the University of Illinois School of Medicine at Rockford.  My primary responsibility was light microscopy and Scanning electron miscroscopy of rabbit renal arteries (effect of high cholesterol diet).  For 14 years I was a citizen scientist for the Illinois Department of Natural Resources in their RiverWatch program (monitoring water quality) My hobbies and activities include gardening, golfing, bowling, downhill and cross country skiing, photography, including photomicroscopy and time lapse photography, spending time with my wife and our dog, and in the winter playing around in my small home biology & chemistry lab.

Beyond what I have written in past profiles, in the early 1980’s I was an EMT with the Boone Volunteer Ambulance & Rescue Squad (BVARS) which fit in nicely with my science training and teaching. I also enjoy public speaking and made frequent scholarship presentations to graduating seniors and outstanding middle school students through the former Belvidere Y’ Men’s Club.  I also made power point presentations of the RiverWatch program. But I most enjoyed making presentations at my high school reunions.  Thanks guys for allowing me to do this. 

Part XX Water: What Makes it so Unique and so Important 

“Water, water everywhere and all the boards did shrink,

Water, water everywhere, nor any drop to drink”

Those words learned so long ago from “The Rime of the Ancient Mariner” by Samuel Coleridge still ring in my ears like the day I memorized them in Miss Bennett’s 4^th hour English IV class.  I learned more from her about English grammar and literature than perhaps subject matter in any other high school class.

          Water is the subject of this essay.  I chose it because it (water) is so important in so many ways.  It covers 75 percent of the earth’s surface, comprises 55-75 percent of our body depending on age and gender.   It is necessary for life, and thus is one of the first considerations when looking for signs of life on other planets.  But what makes it so important, what gives it its unique properties? Very few compounds have such an expansive temperature range in its liquid state.  Very few compounds contract as they cool but then expand as they approach their freezing point as water does when it reaches 4  ͦC.

          To find out the answers to those questions, we have to look at the structure of the water molecule in a way that some of you may never have done before.  And, in the process we will visit chemistry and physics again.

          Let’s start with some basic concepts of how chemical compounds are formed but first, a review of the three basic parts of an atom.  Atoms have a nucleus in which are found one or more protons (+ charge) and one or more neutrons (except for hydrogen which has none and, therefore, is the lightest element) Neutrons have no net charge and, therefore, for our purpose are insignificant.  Surrounding the nucleus are one or more energy levels containing electrons which have a negative charge.  In terms of compound formation electros are the star players and everything else plays just a supporting role.  The first energy level can hold a maximum of two electrons and the second level a maximum of eight.  In some compounds like table salt (NaCl) sodium has 11 electrons (2, 8, 1) and chlorine has 17 electrons (2, 8, 7).  Now since the goal is always to have the outer energy level filled it is much easier for the sodium atom to lose its one outer level electron than for chlorine to lose seven and so that is just what happens and sodium chloride (salt) is formed with totally new chemical and physical properties.  But if you dissolve that salt in water it will dissociate into Na⁺ (ions) + Cl^– (ions) and because it lost its negatively charged electron, it now still has 11 plus charges (protons) but only 10 negative charges.  Chlorine, on the other hand, gained a – charge and now has 18 negative charges.  A chemical bond was formed and we call such a bond resulting from a transfer of election(s) an ionic bond.  Atoms that have gained or lost one or more electrons are called ions.

Water, on the other hand forms from a sharing of electrons.  Written as H₂O or H-O-H (the lines indicate chemical bonds). An important word about chemical bonds: they store energy, when bonds are formed energy is stored, when bonds are broken energy is released.  Remember from essays VII and VIII, the former is an example of anabolism and the latter is an example of catabolism.                                                  

Hydrogen has one outer energy electron and oxygen has 6 but could hold 8.  With two hydrogen atoms, each of which has one electron and the six from the oxygen atom we have the desired eight.  But as I used to tell my students, the big bully oxygen atom agrees to share its six electrons but keeps the two hydrogen electrons most of the time thereby creating four areas of charges on the overall water molecule, 2 negatives around itself from the extra hydrogen atom’s electrons, plus the 6 from own atom,   Meanwhile having partially lost their electrons the hydrogen atoms have a slightly + charge on their end. This unequal sharing of electrons is a covalent bond. Thus the water molecule is slightly polar which is super important. That is responsible for many of its physical properties.  For instance, that creates an attraction to four other water molecules and is responsible for a high surface tension which enables some insects like water striders to walk on the surface, and kids (adults too) to “skip” stones on water.  There is even a certain lizard (which I won’t give you the common name of) that can even do the same.

                                                Credit to:  Rutgers

          That is also part of the reason water and drinks made from water as the solvean be sucked up in a straw and can rise to the top of very tall trees through microscopic tubes (xylem, the wood).  There are, of course, other reasons for this too.  But to catch up on terms here, the attraction of water molecules to each other is called cohesion, the attraction of water molecules to the sides of the straw, xylem tubes , or to glass, for that matter, is called adhesion, and the two forces together is called capillarity.  If you’ve ever had two wet water glasses one inside the other get stuck, you know what I mean.  And finally, the bond between water molecules is called a hydrogen bond (between a hydrogen atom of one molecule and an oxygen atom of another).  During a review after we had studied this I would ask for the named of a fourth bond and, of course, no one knew.  Then I would say “you mean you’ve never heard of James Bond”?

          Water has a high heat of vaporization which means that it has a high boiling point.  A calorie is defined as the amount of heat energy needed to raise the temperature of 1 gram of water 1 ֯ C.  That’s a lot of energy compared to many other compounds.  Why is this?  It takes a lot of heat to break all those hydrogen bonds.  Thus the saying “a watched pot never boils”.  Not true, of course, it just seems that way.  Changing 1 gram of liquid water to a gas requires an input of 540 calories.  That’s huge and is called the heat of vaporization.  So what does this mean and why is it significant?  It means that water loses its heat very slowly, gains heat very slowly and freezes very slowly and at a very low temperature.  The ramifications for living organisms internally and externally are almost endless. It also means that large bodies of water are the great equalizers of air temperature over solid land.  Thus Seattle, Washington even through at a higher latitude than Omaha, Nebraska has  more  moderate temperatures year round and Chicago lakefront temperatures change less that the suburbs.  This also allows animals to cool off by dunking themselves in bodies of water.  It is also the reason why we feel cool when we step out of a pool or shower.  We lose body heat as evaporation takes place on the surface of the skin.  Note that it takes an input of 80 calories of heat to melt 1 gram of water which is also a lot of energy.  Incidentally, the freezing and thawing of water has some serious implications for all drivers who have often experienced potholes in the temperate climate zones.

          Water is called the universal solvent which means so many substances dissolve in it.  That’s good since virtually all of the thousands of chemical reactions that must occur in our bodies need to be in solution.   Exceptions include all lipids (fats, oils, etc.) which as you night guess are monopolar compounds. Finally unlike most substances, ice is less dense than liquid water which means that ice floats on water.  Otherwise, bodies of water would freeze from the bottom up.  Think about the consequences, especially in nature if it weren’t less dense.  That happens because water unlike other liquids begins to expand at 4 ͦC. just before it freezes.  Ever had to deal with frozen pipes?       

          Let’s review the important properties of water:

1. Water expands as it freezes
2. Ice is less dense than liquid water
3. Water is the universal solvent

You may think I’m all wet for writing this essay but it is good scientific knowledge based on principles of physics and chemistry.

References

Mader, S. Biology, (2004 eighth edition), McGraw Hill, Boston, MA

I graduated from Northern Illinois University in 1966 with a Bachelor of Science degree in Education and earned a Master of Science degree in Education also from NIU in 1973.   I taught in the Harlem School District (5 years), a Chicago suburb (1 year), and the Rockford, IL School District for 27 years (26 at East High School). I culminated my teaching career  at Kishwaukee College (8 years) Two important events occurred  in 1988: I married my wife Angie and I received a summer teacher’s research fellowship through  the University of Illinois School of Medicine at Rockford.  My primary responsibility was light microscopy and Scanning electron miscroscopy of rabbit renal arteries (effect of high cholesterol diet).  For 14 years I was a citizen scientist for the Illinois Department of Natural Resources in their RiverWatch program (monitoring water quality) My hobbies and activities include gardening, golfing, bowling, downhill and cross country skiing, photography, including photomicroscopy and time lapse photography, spending time with my wife and our dog, and in the winter playing around in my small home biology & chemistry lab.

Beyond what I have written in past profiles, in the early 1980’s I was an EMT with the Boone Volunteer Ambulance & Rescue Squad (BVARS) which fit in nicely with my science training and teaching. I also enjoy public speaking and made frequent scholarship presentations to graduating seniors and outstanding middle school students through the former Belvidere Y’ Men’s Club.  I also made power point presentations of the RiverWatch program. But I most enjoyed making presentations at my high school reunions.  Thanks guys for allowing me to do this. 

The story of the true carrier of genetic information from generation to generation is an interesting tale which followed a winding path from the late 1800’s up to 1953 and even that historic discovery, while one of the most sought after and important discoveries of human kind, was really just a new chapter in the book of life as we know it that continues today and undoubtable will as long as human civilization exists.

The story really begins in 1869 when a German physician Fredrich Miescher discovered a white, sugary, slightly acidic substance that contained phosphorus.  He named it “nuclein” based on its presence only in the nucleus of cells.  Fast forward to 1914the year that Prince Ferdinand of Austria was assassinated thus beginning “The Great War” (World War I) Robert Fuelgen, another German, found that DNA was strongly attracted to fuchsin, a red dye.  Just a small step but helpful one.  Later it was discovered that DNA was present in all cells and was associated with the chromosomes which had only recently been discovered.  Let’s take a small “aside” now and delve a little further into the world of the chromosome.  Oscar Hertwig, yet another German (an embryologist) observed sea urchin fertilization and realized that only one sperm cell was necessary to fertilize an egg and further noted that when the sperm cell penetrated egg the nuclei from the sperm and egg fuse.  This established that the nucleus, or something in it, is the carrier of genetic information from generation to generation, another small step.  At about the same time, Walther Flemming observed the “dance of the chromosomes” during cell reproduction, “steps” of mitosis (cell division), and the events of each step. Of course, in reality, the process is continuous and people devised the “steps” to understand the process better.  To learn more including the phases such as prophase, metaphase, anaphase, telophase, etc., simple Google “mitosis” or “cell division” or consult any high school biology textbook.    In one experiment Flemming removed the nucleus of an ameba (amoeba for our British friends) and watched the cell die. 

P.A. Levene, a biochemist proved in the 1920’s that DNA was composed of a 5- carbon sugar (a pentose); a phosphate group, and four nitrogenous bases, adenine and guanine (purines) and thymine and cytosine (pyrimidines).  He concluded that each nitrogenous base is connected to a sugar molecule which is attached to a phosphate group which makes up a nucleotide.  (See essay IX Majors)

In 1928, Frederich Griffith, an English bacteriologist public health official was trying to develop a vaccine against Streptococcus pneumonia which causes a form of pneumonia.  This bacterium comes in two forms, one a virulent (disease causing) form with a polysaccharide (simple sugar capsule and a nonvirulent (harmless) none capsulated form.  Griffith wanted to know if injections of heat killed virulent pneumoiae could be used to immunize against pneumonia.  At one point he injected mice simultaneously with heat kicked virulent bacteria and living non-virulent bacteria expecting the ice to live but all the mice died—a complete surprise.  Autopsies on the mice revealed that their bodies were filled with living encapsulated virulent bacteria.  Years later it was shown that extracts from heat killed virulent bacteria when added to harmless bacteria could transform them into harmful bacteria complete with protective capsules.  Thus an extremely important phenomenon called transformation was discovered and the yet unknown substance responsible for this transformation was called a transforming factor. (“Factor” is still used to refer to an unknown substance).  Later this transforming factor was identified as—you guessed it—DNA.  When I presented this in class I usually describe the heat killed bacteria as never-say-die KILLER BACTERIA for dramatic effect.  It was an American scientist, O. T. Avery that identified DNA as the transforming factor.

At this point it must seem like          DNA was the overwhelming candidate for carrying the genetic information from generation to generation—but, hold on, don’t count the other contender out yet.  Max Delbruck and Salvador Luria two scientists who emigrated from Europe during the intellectual mass exodus of the 1930’s along with Albert Einstein,       

                          And other mathematicians and physicists prior to the Third Reich takeover of 1939performed some Nobel Prize experiments in 1940 with a special group of viruses called bacteriophages or simply phages because they infect bacteria.  Yes, even bacteria have enemies.  The particular viruses of interest in their research ae called coliphage and they attach Escherichia coli.  They were numbered T1 through t7 (“T” means “type”). In a personal note here I very recently inoculated E. coli bacteria with T4 coliphage in my home lab attempting to do a T4 assay, See the photo below.

Skipping the details of the experiments, chemical analysis of fragments of phages after infection revealed what we all know now – that viruses are composed of just two organic compounds, a DNA core and  a protein coat. Later RNA was also discovered in the core but if so DNA is absent (see essay IX).  So now the great debate ha had been brewing for years suddenly intensified.  What carried the all-important genetic code, DNA or protein?  Scientists were divided into two camps.  The protein backers had a very simple philosophy:  DNA is composed of just 4 nucleotides but proteins are composed of 20 amino acids (see essay IX).  They reasoned that like an alphabet composed of 20 letters could spell more words than one with 4 letters, so proteins could account for greater genetic variability (diversity).

The stage was now set for the most compelling evidence yet.  In 1952 two researchers Alfred Hershey and Martha Chase performed a brilliant set of experiments based on two simple differences in DNA and proteins.  But first I always made a point of emphasizing that like Rosiland Franklin, Martha Chase was a pioneer in that here was a woman that rose to prominence in a field dominated by men and they could do the same much to their delight.  OK, another personal aside here.  

A few years ago (2013), I ran into a former student in a local Kohl’s Department Store.  She also became a lab assistant and a very good one who earned her degree at the University of Iowa and now was doing scientific research at Marquette University. She told me that she got her start after being my student and lab assistant.  Talk about delight!  I was on cloud 9 at a time I was going through a long, tough, tough time medically.  Then she topped it off by saying that I looked the same as I did when I was her teacher in the mid ‘80’s.  This was at a time when I looked terrible and felt much worse.

Back to Hershey and Chase:  DNA as we know, contain phosphorus but proteins don’t.  Proteins contain sulfur but DNA doesn’t.  They prepared two groups of viruses, one which was labeled with radioactive phosphorus (³²P)and one labeled with radioactive sulfur (³⁵S) and inoculated then into an E. coli host with the appropriate radioactive isotope.  Again skipping some of the details one culture of bacteria was infected with ³²P and another infected with ³⁵Sphage and later were tested for radioactivity.  Their brilliantly conceived experiments revealed that the ³⁵S phages had remained outside the bacterial cells but the ³²P (DNA) had entered the cells, infected the bacteria and produced new viruses.  The great debate was essentially over; DNA was proclaimed the winner.

Conclusion

Aftermath

 Erwin Chargaff of Columbia University analyzed the purine and pyrimidines content from many different species of organisms.  Here is a sample of his results showing percentages of the four bases.

                                           Purines                                            Pyrimidines
source                   adenine                 guanine                 cytosine                thymine

Human                  30.4%                   19.6%                   19.9%                   30.1%
Ox                        29.0                      21.2                      21.1                      28.7

Wheat germ          28.1                      21.8                      22.7                      27.4

after examining the data what can you conclude?  Answer as usual at the end of the essay.

It is almost anticlimactic to now talk about James Watson and Francis Crick’s famous discovery in 1953.  Watson, a former Whiz Kid from Chicago was going to become an ornithologist but thankfully changed careers.  Francis Crick, a trained physicist were an unlikely fil for one of the most important discoveries in the history of science.  Rather than swell on their work which would extend this very long essay much longer I would recommend reading a form of Watson’s famous book “The Double Helix” and again read the last p [art of essay IX (majors).  I have read his book at least three times and learned more each time.  It’s written so that most ordinary people can understand it with just a little science background.  If you can/t or don’t want to read the book (a short one in terms of book length, I would suggest Googling “The Double Helix”.

I briefly described protein synthasis in essay IX but now direct you to a “code of life
chart”.  One of the main mysteries to be delved was “breaking the code”, that is, to learn how

DNA directs:

1. its own replication
2.  protein synthesis

Now that we know DNA directs protein synthesis let’s look in more detail at the overall process.  According to “central dogma”, a term that Crick himself coined, during protein synthesis the double stranded DNA molecule splits down the middle (hydrogen bonds break releasing emery) and each side serves as a template for a strand of messenger RNA (mRNA with the cytocine of DNA coding for a guanine of mRNA and adenine of DNA coding for uracil of mRNA.     Remember that thymine in DNA is replaced by uracil in RNA. However, thymine of DNA still codes for adenine of RNA.  This whole process is called transcription, a process that occurs in the nucleus.  The single stranded mRNA leaves the nucleus and pairs with a transfer RNA (tRNA) which contains an amino acid (the building block of proteins) on one end and an attachment on the other end to enter a ribosome (ribosomal RNA or rRNA).  As stated in an earlier essay, it’s as if the mRNA molecule says to the tRNA, “let’ meet at the ribosome (more correctly let’s go to the ribosome) and make a protein”, a process called translation. The long strand of mRNA can be thought of as individual units of codons (three nitrogenous bases per codon) that like transcription from DNA, pairs with the corresponding anticodon on the tRNA molecule. That is, a u from mRNA pairs with an a of tRNA, c with g,  g with c, etc.  Remember though an a pairs with a u of tRNA. Why? The individual tRNA subunits join together inside the ribosome (rRNA) and exit out in long polypeptide  chains which when long enough and exhibit secondary structures and perhaps tertiary and quaternary structures are called proteins.  But remember, and this is huge, it all began with DNA.

Let’s pause for a moment and reflect on some important principles.

1. DNA is composed of 4 nucleotides, a four letter alphabet (the four nitrogenous bases)
2. There are 20 amino acids commonly found in living organisms
3. Codons (and, therefore, anticodons) occur in triplets

Now the question arises of why groups of 3 bases in a codon?  Why not 1 or 2?

Answer:

• Individual codons could code for only 4 amino acids. (4¹) 4 bases raised to fist power if just one individual base
• Pairs of codons could produce only 16 amino acids (4²)
• Triplets could produce 64 amino acids (4³) 4x4x4= 64 which is more than enough for the 20 amino acids  In fact, this means that there must be more than one codon that can code for each amino acid, right? Right.

Now we are ready for the ultimate task and the climax of this entire essay and perhaps all of my essays except for perhaps those on climate change.  Identifying the correct structure of the DNA molecule is one thing but to apply it to genetics and understand how I works in specifying the production of the thousands of chemical compounds and chemical reaction each with its own enzyme in our bodies is a totally different set of circumstances.  But let’ proceed.  Here is the “code of life” chart that summarizes (I didn’t say explains) all of the previous sentences.

The letters along the left side, top, and right side represent the 4 bases. You know their names by now.  The letters (in triplet) represent the codons and the abbreviation of individual amino acids. To select amino acids:

1. choose a letter on the left side
2. choose a letter on top
3. choose a letter on the right side
4. write them down and identify the amino acid using the listing below using the abbreviations.

Credit to: RearchGate

I’ll do two examples for you.

Q.  Find the code(s) for cysteine (cys)

A.  UGU, UGC

Q.  Find codes for serine (ser)

A.  AGU, AGC

Let’s reverse the process. 

Q.  What does the codon CCU code for?

A.     Arginine

Now for a real problem.

Find the code for

          Alanine(ala)                   plus glycine(gly)            plus valine (val)

Feeling pretty good? Try another code for them.

As promised in Essay XII. I am now ready to offer my opinion concerning climate change, commonly called global warming and the effects of the human imprint on the environment. The first part of this essay consists of another letter to the Rockford Register Star now called “My View”

A few years ago I wrote a “Letter to the Editor” in response to a letter by a skeptic. That letter inspired a series of essays which this year became a blog. My website is called lessonsonscience.com but a better way to access it is simply to Google Essays on Science for the Common Good. I encourage you to read all of the first eleven essays plus the preface and outline but a few of them do go into some detail on some of the topics which now are aimed primarily at high school or college biology students.

         I have converted my major points to bold print. Concerning the human imprint on the environment, let us turn to essay XIII. I would ask any doubter, ”Do you believe that temperatures on a world-wide basis are increasing and if so what are the factors (causes) if not from anthropogenic (human) effects of increased greenhouse gases?” To this I suggest reading essay XIV, especially paragraphs 1 and 4. A basic premise is that photosynthesis removes CO2 from the atmosphere and any process that returns CO2 to the air such as cellular respiration, decay, and burning fossil fuels at a faster rate than what photosynthesis removes is a bad thing since it offsets the normal ecological balance of the two processes. See essays VII and VIII.

         It is essential that we understand some terms before proceeding further.

Greenhouse effect: light and heat from the sun enters the atmosphere striking the earth’s surface where some is absorbed by surface features and converted into other forms of energy such as chemical energy of food. Some is radiated back into space, and some is trapped in the atmosphere by clouds and various pollutants thereby raising the temperature similar to a hothouse or greenhouse, thus the term “greenhouse effect”.

·        Global warming: the cumulative result of the greenhouse effect on a worldwide basis

·         “The transfer rate of carbon from the atmosphere by photosynthesis just about equals the rate at which respiration and decay return carbon to the atmosphere. However, when fossil fuel burning is added to the equation, the rate of CO2 returned to the atmosphere is greatly favored.”

         In 1991 the National Association of Biology Teachers (NABT) adopted the following position. 

Causes of Climate Change

1.   Increased use of fossil fuels

2.   Increased rate of deforestation, resulting in less carbon “locked up” in the forest

3.   Increased amount of “greenhouse gases” (CO2,CH4 (methane), N2O (nitrous oxide), CFCs (chlorofluorocarbons)) causing the atmosphere to absorb radiant heat

4.   Growth of the human population as it affects all of the above

Consequences of Global Warming .                                                                                             

1.   Shifting of agriculture zones

2.   Desertification and local mass extinction

3.   Changes in animal migration patterns

4.   Sea levels rise as a result of melting polar ice and thermal expansion in the oceans, which can cause destruction of human structures and natural habitats along sea coasts

And finally: This experiment (global warming) essentially began at the beginning of the Industrial Revolution. Since then we have increased the atmospheric content of carbon dioxide by about 25 percent by burning oil, coal, and other fossil fuels

         The October 19, 2008 issue of the Rockford Register Star article “On thin ice” says “the Arctic Ocean is recording record temperatures as the ocean is getting warmer and less salty as ice melts”. Also from essay XIV:  The graph below shows ice core data charting average temperature from the past thousand years in the Northern Hemisphere. The line at 0.0 represents average temperature from 1961 to1990. Any year with an average temperature below the 0.0 line was colder than average and is shown in blue; any year with an average temperature above the 0.0 line was warmer than average and is shown in red”. I’ll let the reader draw your own conclusions.

Remember, more people on the planet means more greenhouse gases and more tipping of the photosynthesis / carbon dioxide returned balance.

      If the past six essays haven’t opened your eyes to the reality of global warming and the role humans play, nothing that I write here will change your mind. You certainly can’t claim ignorance, only stubbornness to accept the truth. Years and years of tough honest research have produced the undeniable evidence that we now have. Science isn’t political; it doesn’t exist to serve political ambitions of some power hungry individuals. It seeks truth wherever that leads. It doesn’t seek to make headlines. Re-read essay II if necessary

      Another cornerstone of physics, chemistry and biology comes to mind, the second law of thermodynamics which states that in all energy conversions, if no energy enters or leaves a system, the potential energy of the final state (products) will always be less than the identical energy of the initial state (reactants). Specifically I am referring to entropy which is a measurement of the disorder or randomness of a system.

Thus, molecules move from an area of high pressure to an area of low pressure and your desk, closet, or room go from order to disorder (organized to messy]. The universe and our world slowly wind down. The photosynthesis /respiration / decay balance favors the reverse direction-and disorder ensues.

     I could write more, especially a synopsis of past agreements such as the 1997 Kyoto Protocol, the Paris Agreement of 2015 and the recent talks in Katowice, Poland, but most of the agreements that rely less on fossil fuels, although well intended, have been a dismal failure.. Let’s face it, a world that has seen countless wars including two World Wars and can’t solve other problems will be hard pressed to resolve this one, especially if left to governments such as our own (we are one of the two largest contributors of greenhouse gases) and to leaders who also refuse to “see the truth” (also our own). Controlling global warming has to be a grassroots effort. We all leave a carbon “footprint” every day of our lives. Changes must come from a cooperative effort of the scientific community, inventors, businessman, governments, and, most of all a will to leave a better world for future generations. As I said in an earlier essay “God gave us a mind to ask the right questions.” In closing I leave you with a collage of newspaper article titles

Coal question looms large as climate talks begin in Poland

Nations reach deal on gases

UN chief says climate change is the most important issue we face

Coal question looms large as climate talks begin in Poland

          GOP victory: Game over for the climate?

Obama to plead U. S. case at global  war summit

Historic conference opens with 197 nations: big news

Climate change is here and getting worse

U. S. China reach landmark climate dealReport this

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Let me throw a few more terms at you.

• Biodiversity – usually defined as the variety of living organisms in a given area or in a particular habitat ecosystem. That area can be as small as a drop of water or as larger as the world.

• Habitat – the place where an organism lives. It can be described generally such as a forest or specifically such as a certain kind of a host cell or cell part such as the fatty coating of a nerve cell (myelin sheath).

•. Ecosystem – a biological community of organisms interacting with each other and their physical environment; again it can be very small such as a rotting log or leaf pack or large, for example, a lake.        

         Loss of biodiversity can be devastating. For example, in 2016 up to 50 percent of the northern portion of the Great Barrier Reef off the coast of Australia was killed by a heat wave, triggered by global warming. This, the world’s largest reef, is home to a myriad of species of plants and animals, many of them unique; a popular diving and tourist area which generates over $3 billion annually was threatened.

         It is not unusual for organisms to become extinct. It happens all the time; check the geologic table in essay VI for examples of past extinctions. In fact, it is estimated that perhaps 99 percent of all species that have ever existed are now extinct. However, the current rate extinction is perhaps 1,000 times that of pre-human rates. 

         As suggested in earlier essays, the Earth depends upon a delicate balance of forces to remain a healthy place to live.  We humans consume more resources than what the Earth can supply by a ratio of about 1.7:1. 

How does climate change affect our health?

         June of 2018 was the hottest month ever recorded throughout much of the Northern Hemisphere.  According to J. Maichle Bacon a former Winnebago County (IL.) Health Department Administrator, “the evidence connecting greenhouse gas emissions with increasing extremes in global climate is overwhelming, threatening both current and future ecological systems’ sustainability upon which health and well-being depend.” According to Bacon, health consequences are classified into three categories by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC). They are primary, secondary, and tertiary. Primary considerations include injuries, physical and psychological disabilities and loss of life from temperature extremes, increasing ultraviolet radiation, floods, (frequency and severity) high winds, hurricanes (again frequency of and severity), and increased wildfires. Consequences result from the trauma of separation from loved ones, disruption of health services, disease, dehydration, lack of proper nutrition, post-traumatic stress, depression, and adjustment disorders.

         Secondary health consequences result from changing biological systems in a negative way upon which our health and wellbeing depend. Climate change influences the interaction of plant, animal, and microbial viability and geographic range. This in turn affects human activities such as commerce, land use, agricultural yields, air and water quality, etc.

         In this country alone 40 percent of the counties report periods of poor air quality which adds up to 55,000 premature deaths, heart disease, cancer, and chronic respiratory diseases. 

         Tertiary health effects result from current climate trends affecting the sustainability of water systems, agricultural production, and biodiversity which all lead to famine, social disruption, displacement, increased violence, and increased global stability.

         The good news is most or all of the consequences can be reduced if we (all human inhabitants) work to:

·      Reduce greenhouse gas emissions by decreasing our reliance on gas, oil, and coal

·      Increase energy conservation

·      Decrease energy waste

·      Increase renewable energy resources such as wind solar, and nuclear (Bacon, M. Rockford Register Star, 7/15/2018)

         Eugene Johnson writes in a column recently that Hurricane Florence dumped more than 30 inches of rain, an all-time record on North Carolina. Last year Hurricane Harvey drenched Houston with more than 60 inches of rain. Climate scientists predict that global warming should make such storms wetter, slower and more intense. We know from direct evidence that:

·      The concentration of carbon dioxide, {CO2} has increased by 40 percent since the beginning of the Industrial Revolution

·      Carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases trap heat

·      Warmer water takes up more space than cooler water which is the main reason why ocean levels are rising

·      Warmer water evaporates faster than cooler water thereby adding more moisture available to fuel storms                                                                                                                                                                The current administration has already proposed weakening restrictions on carbon emissions from automobiles and coal-fired power plants.

         As a final anecdote, recently a cargo ship is currently making the journey from Vladivostok, Russia to Bremerhaven, Germany via the Arctic Ocean instead of the usual southern route through the Suez Canal and the Strait of Gibraltar. Until now the northern route has been impassible, a great savings, no doubt for the ship company but at what a price!

         In the last essay I wrote about the death of algae during the bleaching of coral reefs. On the flip side of the coin, warmer waters can lead to bloom that results in so called “dead zones” which is caused by an explosion of algae and aided by pollution from human activities on land.

         As I write this essay a friend who just returned from Florida told us that the “red tide “ is back with vengeance  The Florida red tide is caused by Karenia brevis (division Dinoflagellata), a single celled alga with two flagella (long whip-like “hairs”, one of which encircles the cell horizontally and the other perpendicular to the first). They function like a gyroscope to spin the cell like a top (Curtis, Barnes 1989).  Another division is Rhodophyta, (rhodo- meaning red and –phyta meaning plant) which is a throwback to an earlier time when algae were classified as plants (see essay XI)). The red color is due to the predominance of the pigment phycerythrin which absorbs blue light. This gets into the physics of light that my students never seemed to understand. For example, a blue wall appears blue because the paint absorbs all the other color frequencies of the visible spectrum and reflects blue back to your eyes. Sunlight (white light) is composed of all seven colors (now apparently divided into eight colors of the rainbow). And, of course, the absence of light results in black. Back to the red tide; the toxins they produce are ingested by algae eaters and pass through the food chain eventually reaching humans. Thus a severe red tide invasion can have serious economic consequences,

         As the climate gets warmer, disease carrying species move into new places. Living organisms that carry infectious diseases include:

        • Algae

        • Mosquitoes

        •. Tsetse flies

        • Ticks

        • Lice

        • Fleas

        • Snails

        • Bats

        • Rodents

This is certainly not an all-inclusive list.

           Most people would agree that colder winter days and nights help to check the spread of disease. For example mosquitoes breed in warmer moist climates. Malaria, encephalitis, West Nile virus, and yellow fever are common diseases in which various species of mosquitoes are the vector. West Nile virus entered the United States in 1999 and within four years had covered the entire North American Continental (Gore, A. 2006).

               Here is another consideration. Colder winters in western states previously slowed down the spread of pine beetles which bore into tree trunks to lay their eggs. With fewer days of frost, they are ramping up their destruction of pine trees.  Other species are being threatened with extinction due to environmental change which may favor other new species that can adapt. This is a classic example of natural selection and survival of the fittest. Rain forest destruction, as one example destroys habitats and is a major player in species extinction. Even building roads, dams, bridges, etc. can separate species and cause geographic isolation. More on that and related phenomena will come in the next major topic. Stay tuned.

References

Rockford Register Star (July 15, 2018) “How climate change affects our health”

Curtis,  H.  N. Sue  Barness, (1989). Biology. New York: Worth Publishers Inc.

Gore, A. (2006) an inconvenient truth Viking, Rodale New York, NYReport this

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n a recent essay (XIV) we looked at the effects of global warming on glaciers and ice sheets and the resulting effect on ocean levels and coastal cities. Now let’s broaden our scope and include the ripple effect of climate warming on the inhabitants of not only frigid climates but also warmer areas as well. First, let’s look at polar bear population changes and the reasons for their decline.                                                                                              

         From cartoons to Coca-Cola commercials to zoos, no animal is quite as majestic as those beautiful lumbering polar bears. These massive animals, the largest of the Ursines may accomplish what years of environmental activism hasn’t done: convince people that global warming is real and happening now. This “puts a face upon it, a polar bear face” according to Bob Corell, director of the global change program at the Heinz center for Science, Economics, and the Environment. But it may be too late for the 25,000 polar bears that inhabit the wild from Alaska to Greenland. There’s so much climate change inertia built into the system already” he says. (rrrstar, May 18, 2008) Polar bears depend on’ sea ice for hunting seals, which is their favorite food. They rarely catch seals on land or in water and if they do they usually expend a lot of energy (rrstar September 8, 2007 as the following example illustrates. Some polar bears in the arctic are shedding pounds at a time when they should be gaining weight Scientists blame global warming for the shrinking ice cover on the Arctic Ocean. Scientists attached tracking collars to nine female bears (males tend to shed the collars from their narrower necks and smaller heads) in a recent study. Also equipped with video cameras, everything they saw the researchers saw too. They periodically were weighed and had their blood monitored for ten days. Five bears lost weight and four of them lost 2.9 to 5.5 pounds per day. One bear lost 51 pounds in nine days in April when they would later be raising cubs. But because the ice is shrinking they were having a harder time catching seals. With less ice, which is also broken up, they have to travel farther and at times swim to catch their prey which increases the risk of hypothermia and expends more energy just when they need more reserve. Some of the bears traveled more than 155 miles in 10 days along the northern coast of Alaska in the Beaufort Sea. The average bear burned 13,200 calories a day-six times more than an active human female. As stated in an earlier essay the ice cover grows in winter and shrinks in summer but in the last several years the shrinking is far greater than the growth (rrstar February/2, 2018.).

              However, some scientists believe that if the world dramatically changed its increasing emission of greenhouse gases, a total loss of summer sea ice could be averted

         Let’s now turn our attention to a much different aquatic environment–to tropical waters and the effect of ocean warming on coral reefs. Coral are beautiful animals (even though they look like plants) of the phylum Cnidaria, (formerly Coelenterata) that live within stone-like “tubes” that build up into the familiar reefs. These reefs provide food and shelter for countless varieties of

sea creatures. Many corals have a mutualistic symbiotic relationship with algae in which the algae make food (photosynthesis) for the coral and the coral provide a home for the algae.   Coral reefs form the basis for a multibillion-dollar tourism and commercial fishing economy in tropical marine areas around the globe. Reefs also limit damage from hurricanes and tsunamis. They also have recently been shown to be possible sources for new medicines.

         However, bleaching of the coral from record hot water has made world headlines over the last several years. Bleaching occurs when the heated water kills the algae thereby causing loss of color. If coral remains bleached for more than a week, the odds for death increases significantly. Bleached coral are more susceptible to disease. Recently a chunk of brain coral 3 feet in diameter was found that was about 90 percent dead (rrstar November 12, 2017) near St. Thomas in the Caribbean. Zooxanthellae, commonly called “gooks” is the algae found in coral. (Gore, A 2006)

         Let’s examine the effects of human activities on a terrestrial ecosystem, or more correctly, biome–tropical rainforests. From the editors of the Environmental Magazine in the Belvidere Daily Republican October, 2009), 80, 000 acres of tropical rainforests are being lost daily and an equal amount are being degraded.

         Rainforests are extraordinarily rich in nutrients and biodiversity. They help maintain climate by sequestering carbon dioxide and are home to perhaps 50 percent of the world’s species. Twenty five percent of our pharmaceuticals are derived from rainforest ingredients. Why are rainforests being destroyed? Mainly they have fallen (literally) to logging, farming crops and cattle ranching) but also to dam- building and mining.

         Let’s consider the effects of climate change on weather patterns such as storms, including hurricanes, tornadoes, and snowstorms from the viewpoint of their frequency and intensity. In February, 210, Washington D. C. received over two feet of snow followed by a six day cold spell.  Undoubtedly many peoples were saying “where is global warming now?” That doesn’t refute a trend of

rising global temperatures. At the same time snow had to be trucked in to Vancouver, British Columbia, so that the winter Olympics could go on as scheduled. A one- time weather event is still a one-time weather event. (Belvidere Daily Republican February 25, 2010). Also from the Belvidere Daily Republican issue of September 22, 2005, scientists state that warmer ocean temperatures in the tropics between June and November cause instability

in the lower atmosphere which then ‘fuels” developing hurricanes. Following that line of reasoning, it followers that even further warming temperatures will add more strength. The data seems to back that up. Tropical storms in both the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans have increased in duration and intensity by 50 percent since the 19770’sThe hottest years in recorded history up to the date the article was written were the years 1990-2004 which coincided with the greatest worldwide emissions of CO2. That the intensity of hurricanes has increased is borne out by that fact that there was an average of about 11 Category 4, or 5 storms per year in the 1970’s compared to an annual average of 18 in the 1990’s. This increase coincides with a nearly one degree Fahrenheit sea temperature rise. Warmer ocean temperatures increases the water vapor content of the atmosphere resulting from greater evaporation and cloud formation. Remember from essay IV (hydrologic cycle) that water vapor can also be a greenhouse gas since clouds help trap heat. At least one meteorologist questioned the above data saying that wind speed estimates of storms in the 1970’s were based on older technology they may not have been as accurate. However, another scientist countered that increases have been steady over the years. “It didn’t just kick in when the new technology measurement methods kicked in” (rrstar, September 18, 2005).

    References

Rockford Register Star (May 18, 2008) “Polar bear’s impact on people is felt”

Rockford Register Star (September 8. 2007) Report: Massive polar bear deaths predicted”

Rockford Register Star (February 2, 2018) Climate change diet: As ice thins, so do polar bears”

Rockford Register Star (November 12, 2017) “Caribbean coral suffers record bleaching death”

Belvidere Daily Republican (February 25, 2010) “Strange snow patterns are consistent with climate change”

Belvidere Daily Republican (September 22, 2005) “Earth Talk: Does global warming affect tropical storms?”

Rockford Register Star (September 18, 2005) “Study: More hur4icanes growing to strongest categories”

Published By

Larry Baumer

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I now include a little known but conflicting argument for (temporary at least) global cooling. Everyone knows that there have been several ice ages in our planet’s past. The earth is now on the brink of entering another ice age, according to a large and compelling body of evidence that could last for the next 100,000 years. Ice cores, ocean sediment cores, the geologic record, and studies of ancient plant and animal populations all indicate a regular cyclic pattern of Ice age glacial maximums of about 100,000 years each separated by periods of warmer climates lasting about 12,000 years. Enter now the Milankovich Cycles, which include three astronomical phenomena.

They include:

·       the tilt of the earth (23.5°) (see Essay XII)  which varies over a period of 41, 000 years

·       the shape of the Earth’s orbit (elliptical) which changes over a 100,000 year period

·        Precession of the Equinoxes (Earth’s “wobble”) which rotates the direction of the earth’s axis over a 26,000 year period.

         According to this theory, these three astronomical cycles all affect the amount of solar radiation the earth receives and work together to produce the “Ice Age maximums and warm interglacials.” Now for the downside: the original proponents of the above theory, Imbue, Hays, and Schacklton wrote in a 1976 paper that it (Milankovich Cycles) must be qualified in two ways. First, they apply only to the natural component of future climate trends and not to the anthropogenic (human) effects such as those due to the burning of fossil fuels. Second, they describe only the long-term trends since they are linked to periods of 20,000 years or longer.

         Carl Sagan during the 1970’s and later promoted the “anthropogenic global warming” (AGW) theory. This is based largely on the ‘hockey stick” graph presented by Al Gore in the 2008 film “An Inconvenient Truth.” The graph shows an acute spike in global temperatures beginning in the 1970’s and continuing to the present with an exception of the 2006-2007 winter. The main flaw with the AGW theory is that it focuses on the past l, 000 years while ignoring the past million years.

             The British journal “Nature” in 1999 published the Vostok ice core data collected at the Vostok Station in Antarctica. The report written by Columbia University researchers includes a record of global atmosphere temperature, atmosphere CO2 levels and two greenhouse gases from 420,000 years ago to the present.  

         It validates the previously held idea of regular cyclic patterns of ice age maximums and warm interglacials. The data graph also shows that changes in global CO2 levels lag behind global temperature changes by about eight hundred years. That indicates that global temperatures precede or cause global CO2 changes and not the reverse. In other words, the natural cyclic increase in global temperature is causing global CO2 to rise. Global CO2 rise or fall in response to global temperatures occurs because cold water can hold more CO2 than warm water. That’s why warm carbonated beverages lose their fizz and cold ones don’t.      

The earth is warming because of the normal Ice age cycle with the resulting CO2 rise. Ultimately the Milankovich cycles described above drive the over-all process, and not anthropogenic effects.

References

Pravada December 1, 2009 Earth on the Brink of an IceAge

Published By

Larry Baumer

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Scientists have been concerned about climate change for decades. As early as 1965 a science advisory panel to then President Johnson warned that “increasing atmospheric CO2 could lead to marked changes in climate by the year 2000.”  The United Nations formed the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change in 1988 which relies on input from hundreds of scientists including well known skeptics. Since 1990 the IPCC has issued an updated report every 5 or 6 years.  According to the first report, the Earth’s average temperature had risen by 0.5 to l degree Fahrenheit in the past 100 years. It concluded, however, that the increase could be due mainly to “natural variability”.  However, by 1995 that possibility had disappeared. The new evidence suggested a “discernable human influence, increased melting in the Greenland and Antarctic ice caps, and the virtual collapse of mountain glaciers around the world. Globally the planet is the warmest it has been in thousands of years, if not more.” “In 2001 the IPCC estimated that global temperatures could rise as much as 5.8ͦ° Celsius by 2100. (Rockford Register Star 1/28 /2007) 

         Russian researchers returned from western Siberia in 2005 and reported the world’s largest frozen peat bog was quickly melting into ‘”shallow lakes” and was probably irreversible and probably connected to climatic warming. Thus, as much as a billion tons of methane gas (formula weight 16), 20 times more potent than carbon dioxide could be released into the atmosphere. Similar patterns are developing in Eastern Siberia and across parts of northern Alaska. If it continues to thaw scientists think it could produce a “tipping point” of no return in the Earth’s ability to self-regulate (Belvidere Daily Republican 7/23/2006)                                    

      According to an article in the Rockford Register Star, (3/5/206) the Antarcticis now showing an ice deficit. The world’s largest reservoir of fresh water is shrinking faster than new snow can fall. Between 2002 and 2005 it lost ice at arate of 36 cubic miles a year. Artic glaciers of Greenland according to researchers at the University of Colorado were melting at a rate twice as fast as five years ago (2001). This amounts to 38 cubic miles of fresh water added to the Atlantic Ocean each year. This suggests that increased global temperatures have altered the seasonal balance of the world’s water cycle (see essay IV). Virtually all measurements are the result of using satellites.  Ice shelves are thick plates of ice that float on the ocean around Antarctica.  Snow, glaciers, and ice flows feed the plates during “winter” and melt during “summer” in a cycle as old as Antarctica itself. Large icebergs calve off on a regular basis. Most scientists believe that recent increases in calving are linked to warming surface air temperatures resulting from human activities. If this continues, sea level rise would make some densely populated coastal areas uninhabitable.  Some 200 million people-in low-lying areas of Vietnam, china, India, and other countries could be displaced. (Belvidere Daily Republican 12/9/2005)

        From the October 19, 2008 issue of the Rockford Register Star in an article titled “On thin ice”, the Arctic Ocean is recording record temperatures as the ocean is getting warmer and less salty as ice melts. “Obviously, the planet is interconnected so what happens in the arctic does matter to the rest of the world” said Jackie Richrter-Menge of the Cold Regions Research and Engineering Laboratory in Hanover, N. H. The report involved scientists from 10 countries. The intergovernmental Panel on Climate Control blames human activity for adding carbon dioxide and other global warming gases to the atmosphere. Rising temperatures help melt the ice which in a vicious cycle allows more solar heating of the ocean. The warmed air affects land and marine life and reduces the amount of sea ice that remains into the following summer.  Arctic land increases in greenness as shrubs move north into areas that were formerly permanently frozen. Other findings included an unprecedented rate of sea level rise of nearly O.1 inch per year. Also reindeer herds that had been increasing in numbers for years are leveling off or beginning to decline.

            The Belvidere Daily Republican’s Earth Talk section of the February 17, 2010 edition contained the following discussion of the world’s oceans changing salinity as polar icecaps continue to melt. Global warming adds fresh water into the oceans. The concern here is that if this continues to happen fast enough, the influx of fresh water could disturb ocean currents enough to change weather patterns on land as well. The Gulf Stream that keeps northeastern U.S. and northwestern Europe warm could stall and shut off some of the worlds highly populated areas natural heating source. This could plunge those areas of two continents in a cold snap that could last for decades or longer. Think of the domino effect that would have on crop and tourism economies. If the salinity of the ocean changes drastically, the water in the warm water stream could instead of getting heavier (which sinks and normally then flows back southward from whence it came completing the cycle) would stall.

         The following pictures represent the same exact area of Boulder Glacier, Glacier National Park, Montana from 1932 (left) and 1988 (right) (Gore, A. 2006). Note the difference.

The graph below shows ice core data charting average temperature from the past thousand years.in the Northern Hemisphere. The line at 0.0 represents average temperature from 1961 to 1990.  Any year with an average temperature below the 0.0 line was colder than average and is shown in blue; any year with an average temperature above the 0.0 line was warmer than average and is shown in red. I’ll let the reader draw your own conclusions.  

At the risk of sending my readers into data overload, I will show you what may be the most important graph of the essay. It compares atmospheric CO2 concentration (blue line) and the Earth’s temperature (gray line) over the past 650,000 years. Do you remember if…then hypotheses from Essay II? Here’s the perfect example of one that can be made? If higher amounts of CO2 are related to higher temperatures, then the blue line and the gray lineshould follow the same pattern. Do they?

The July, 2017 issue of Science Magazine contained this article:A Delaware-sized Antarctic Iceberg Has Broken Into the Ocean

I quote selected paragraphs.

“After months of dangling on by a miles-thin thread of ice, an iceberg roughly the size of Delaware just calved off Antarctica’s Larsen C ice shelf and began drifting out into the ocean.”

“But this trillion ton iceberg, likely to be named A68, was already floating, so it won’t contribute to sea level rise.”

“This ice shelf – a floating patch of ice pushed from a land glacier – is the largest along the Antarctic Peninsula’s coast. The narrow and mountainous peninsula sticks out some 800 miles north from the continent toward Chile. And that location means the region has warmed at least twice as fast as Earth’s overall average.”

“Scientists worry that after this iceberg drifts into the ocean, the shelf behind it might collapse.”

“If the floating Larsen C does collapse, it won’t raise sea levels directly. But once an ice shelf is gone, the glacier feeding it flows faster to the sea. And that will speed up sea level rise.”

Sometime ago in a science class you probably learned that light colored objects reflect light and heat and dark colored objects absorb them. That’s why we wear light colored clothing in the summer and wear light colored clothing at night (unless we don’t want to be seen). I recall a classic demonstration where I would focus a magnifying lens on white paper and then on black construction paper and watch students faces when the black paper smoldered and then burst into flames. Remember as a kid frying ants on the sidewalk with a hand lens? Anyway, my point is that glaciers, because they are light colored, reflect heat back into space but as they melt because of rising temperatures, the darker water or dry earth absorb the heat and speed up the melting thus accelerating climate warning.

            Here are some “shorts” on sea ice and glacier melting:

·       From 2006, Greenland glacier runoff doubles over past decade.

·       The EPA says the sea level along the U. S. coasts are expected to rise 2 feet by 2100.  

·       In 2005 the glaciers discharged twice as much fresh water as in 1996–enough fresh water to supply Las Angeles for 220 years. (Rockford Register Star)

·       From 2007, Artic Sea ice Melting Faster.  Newer satellite measurements compared to older model simulations indicate the ice may actually may be shrinking at an annual rate of 7.8 % instead of the original 5.4% which puts it 30 years ahead of the previous predictions. (yahoo News)

References

Rockford Register Star (January 28, 2007) “Washington wakes up to     global          warming”

Belvidere Daily Republican (July23, 2006) Earth Talk: “How will

         Siberia’s thawing affect the world?”

Rockford Register Star (March 5, 206) “Antarctica now showing ice deficit”

Rockford Register Star (October 19, 2008) “On thin ice”

Belvidere Daily Republican (December 9, 2005) Earth Talk: “What are the effects of broken ice shelves”

Belvidere Daily Republican February 17, 2010 Viewpoint, Boyer, G.

Gore, A. (2006) an inconvenient truth Viking, Rodale New York, NY

Science Magazine (July, 2017) “A Delaware-sized Antarctic Iceberg        Has Broken Into the Ocean”

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Published By

Larry Baumer

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Al Gore in his book “an inconvenient truth” begins his book with this picture and the statement “This is the first picture most of us ever saw of the Earth from space. It was taken on Christmas Eve, 1968 by one of the astronauts aboard the Apollo 8 spacecraft.” Thus, this is the way I begin this essay.

It is essential that that we understand some terms before proceeding further.

• Greenhouse effect: light and heat from the sun enters the atmosphere striking the earth’s surface where some is absorbed by surface features and converted into other forms of energy such as chemical energy of food. QUIZ TIME: What Is the process called? Answer at end of essay. Some is radiated back into space, and some is trapped in the atmosphere by clouds and various pollutants thereby raising the temperature similar to a hothouse or greenhouse; thus the term “greenhouse effect”.
• Global warming: the cumulative result of the greenhouse effect on a worldwide basis

The greenhouse effect exists all the time, maintaining the average climate of the world at about 60 ͦ F. The earth’s atmosphere is what keeps us at an “average temperature”. Global warming and the greenhouse effect are phrases that appear regularly in the mass media. Quoting from an earlier essay, “The transfer rate of carbon from the atmosphere by photosynthesis just about equals the rate at which respiration and decay return carbon to the atmosphere. However, when fossil fuel burning is added to the equation, the rate of CO2 returned to the atmosphere is greatly favored.”

In 1991 the National Association of Biology Teachers (NABT) adopted the following position.

Causes of Climate Change

1. Increased use of fossil fuels
2. Increased rate of deforestation, resulting in less carbon “locked up” in the forest
3. Increased amount of “greenhouse gases” (CO2,CH4 (methane), N2O (nitrous oxide), CFCs (chlorofluorocarbons)) causing the atmosphere to absorb radiant heat
4. Growth of the human population as it affects all of the above

Consequences of Global Warming    .

1. Shifting of agriculture zones
2. Desertification and local mass extinction
3. Changes in animal migration patterns
4. Sea levels rise as a result of melting polar ice and thermal expansion in the oceans, which can cause destruction of human structures and natural habitats along sea coasts

Possible Actions to Reduce Climate Change

1. Reduce fossil fuel consumption by increasing efficient use of energy
2. Decrease deforestation and encourage reforestation
3. Use education to increase public awareness
4. Control human population growth, possible reversing it
5. Use alternative energy resources and recycle
6. Promote education, awareness, political priorities and international efforts and cooperation

Stephen Schneider writing in the Scientific American (September 1989) recalls that in 1957 Roger Revelle and Hans E. Suess of the Scripts Institution of Oceanography noted that “humanity is performing a great geophysical experiment” not in a laboratory or on a computer, but on our own planet. Al Gore in his book “an inconvenient truth” includes a graph of Revelle’s work. It indicates a steadily increasing CO2 in the atmosphere which continues today. Revelle also explains why the CO2 level varies from one hemisphere to the other and why it changes seasonally. As stated in an earlier essay, the majority of land masses lies north of the equator which contains the most vegetation. The levels decrease in summer when photosynthesis is rapidly occurring and increases in fall and winter when deciduous trees drop their leaves

This experiment essentially began at the beginning of the Industrial Revolution. Since then we have increased the atmospheric content of carbon dioxide by about 25 percent by burning oil, coal, and other fossil fuels. This along with clearing forests and decomposition of dead organic matter removes a source of CO2 sequestration from the atmosphere. Carbon dioxide makes only about 0.03% of the atmosphere but along with water vapor and other greenhouse gases such as methane (CH4) greatly affects the earth’s climate. Even as early as the early 1800’s people knew that like a greenhouse which allows sunlight to enter but traps the heat inside, such gases absorb the longer wavelength infrared rays thereby trapping the heat and gradually raising the temperature, Think about which nights trap the heat the most and keep the temperature warmer, cloudy nights or clear?

The following graphs compares the levels of carbon dioxide equivalent in megatonnes in 2005 and 2013 and the worst culprit.

The following diagram indicates how some of the solar radiation strikes the earth and is absorbed, some is radiated back into space, and some is trapped in the atmosphere and the role of greenhouse gasses including water (vapor in the form of clouds). In a later essay I will compare the absorption and reflectivity rates of soil, blacktopped and paved areas, and glaciers including glaciers that have disappeared leaving brown areas

Answer to quiz question: photosynthesi

References

National Association of Biology Teachers (NABT)  1991

Schneider, S. (1996) Laboratory Earth   Weidenfeld & Nicolson   London

Gore, A. (2006) an inconvenient truth Viking, Rodale New York, NY

Published By

Larry Baumer

 In the last essay (Part IX: Organic Molecules), we left off with the question “Did RNA predate DNA. . .?”  The problem with an RNA first scenario is that protein enzymes are required for RNA to be copied from DNA. These proteins should not have been present in an RNA world by itself. For a long time it was thought that RNA could not copy itself. However T. C. Cech at the University of Colorado performed an experiment that indicated that RNA has an enzyme like catalytic activity which theoretically could catalyze its own replication. Finding an organic molecule or group of molecules that can self-replicate gets to the heart of the very origin of life from nonlife. (Curtis, 1989) How could any RNA arise from a nonliving environment? Some believe, in all likelihood, that RNA was not the first self-replicating system.

    Regardless of what nucleic acid molecule came first, it would have to have come from a simpler inorganic molecule. The simpler inorganic molecule to more complex organic molecule sequence would have needed an energy source. Furthermore, the larger biomolecules once assembled would have to be protected from extreme environmental conditions. All of these present difficult issues.

    There is also great debate over where all of these prebiotic and early biotic materials came from.  Darwin liked the “warm little pond” scenario (Darwin, 1859). Stanley Miller and Harold Urey in 1953 performed an experiment in which they added gases that at the time were thought to comprise the early atmosphere (carbon dioxide, ammonia, hydrogen, and methane) in some elaborate flasks and tubes and used an electric spark to simulate lightning as an energy source and succeeded in making some amino acids. The implication here is that the “building blocks” of life might have originated in the atmosphere and supported Darwin’s pond hypothesis (Miller, 1993). Later the composition of the early gas atmosphere came into question and thus Miller and Urey’s hypothesis fell into disfavor. Other scientists have offered deep ocean hydrothermal vents that are warm and nutrient rich as the place where life originated. It has also been shown that some meteorites and comets contain amino acids such as glycine, glutamine acid, valine, and proline. In fact, in 1969 a large meteorite fell to earth in Australia which contained lipids and all five nitrogenous bases found in DNA and RNA (Miller, 1993). As you can see, there are many more questions than answers, or shall we say, more unanswered questions than answered ones.

    Let’s take a closer look at the “prebiotic soup” or “warm little pond” hypothesis, also known as the Oparin-Haldane hypothesis model.

• Assemble simple molecules such as water (H2O), carbon dioxide (CO2),  Hydrogen (H2), and ammonia (NH3) into complex polymers
• Assemble these polymers (i.e. nucleotides and amino acids) that can store information and catalyze reactions
• Add membranes and an energy source to make a living organism

    However, the Oparin-Haldane model is not without its own problems. One is the question of whether liquid water was present on the earth at the time of life’s beginning and another one is that each building block along the way needs to be chemically charged (activated) before it can work in a polymer. Something like a cell membrane would be necessary to concentrate this energy but this step in the process precedes the existence of a cell membrane. Another problem associated with the water issue is that although virtually all biological reactions require an aqueous solution, water also hydrolyzes the products almost as soon as they are made. Could polymers have been made that were long enough to be self -replicating?

    This is a good place to pause and remind ourselves that all life forms use proteins (from the same 20 amino acids), DNA, and other important biomolecules such as ATP (adenosine triphosphate for energy storage). The incorporation of cellular contents by a cell membrane and internal membranes surrounding the organelles was a significant step. Cells exhibit compartmentalization allowing chemicals to be localized where they are needed. Chemical reactions can occur in small steps, waste products can be concentrated, chemicals can he pumped outside, and the internal parts and chemicals can be protected. However, compartmentalization and small step chemical reactions means that every step in a biochemical pathway such as photosynthesis, cellular respiration, or even something as simple as digestion requires its own enzyme. The entire pathway may require dozens of enzymes and if only one enzyme is missing, the overall reaction stops. Something as simple as lactose intolerance or as complex as Tay-Sachs Syndrome results from such failures,

    In the next essay we shall look at some early life forms such as prokaryotes (ie archaea and bacteria) and eukaryotes and ways of classifying living organisms.

References

Curtis, H. N. (1989). Biology. New York: Worth Publishers Inc.

Darwin, C. (1859). “The Origin of Species”.

Miller, K. J. (1993). Biology. Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice Hall.

Published By

Larry Baumer

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Carbohydrates are composed entirely of atoms of carbon, hydrogen, and oxygen. All four of these classes of molecules are composed of basic units of structure. The basic unit of structure of carbohydrates is the monosaccharide or simple sugar. Simple sugars combine in a condensation reaction to produce a disaccharide or double sugar. Since one water molecule is extracted during this process, it is also known as dehydration synthesis. Glucose (blood sugar) and fructose (sugar in many fruits) are examples of simple sugars and sucrose (cane sugar) is an example of a double sugar. Complex carbohydrates such as starch and cellulose (found in plant cell walls) result from many simple sugars that link together like a chain. Carbohydrates are quick energy sources and the simpler the form, the faster the energy is provided since less digestion is required. The following diagrams represent structural formulas that show the geometry (shape) of the molecules and the kinds of atoms that make up the molecule as well as the number of each kind of atom. Where lines of the hexagon or pentagon meet, if no element is shown, assume that it is a carbon atom. Note that where three or more monosaccharides are joined together, the generic name is a polysaccharide and an example is starch. (No one ever said that biology lacked a large vocabulary!)

 In the above condensation reaction also called dehydration synthesis reaction because a molecule of water is removed (see the HOH above), two simple sugars (monosaccharides) join to form a double sugar (disaccharide). The following three diagrams represent condensation reactions of glucose + glucose, glucose + galactose, and glucose + fructose respectively.

Note from the diagram below that glucose, fructose, and galactose all have the same chemical formula but are different sugars with slightly different but unique characteristics. Thus, they are known as isomers (of each other).

Question: What then accounts for their individual differences?

Answer:  at the end of the essay

         Remember that all of the above reactions are anabolic and endergonic reactions and are formed by plants; the reverse reactions occur when disaccharides or polysaccharides are broken down during digestion in animals bodies to the monosaccharides that comprised them with the addition of one molecule of water. Each reaction requires a particular enzyme to makethereaction occur. The enzyme that catalyzes the formation of sucrose is sucrase, the one for the formation of lactose is lactase and the one for maltose is maltase. As you can guess these reactions are both catabolic and exergonic.

Question: Why?

Question: What suffix probably indicates a sugar? An enzyme?

Proteins are called the “stuff of life” since they are necessary for growth and repair of the body. They are formed by long chains of amino acids (the basic unit of structure) which again results from a dehydration synthesis reaction. Ribosomes in the cell assemble the amino acids into polypeptides on the longer chained proteins. Proteins are grouped according to their function. For example, there are those that protect the body (antibodies), those for support and movement (i.e. ligaments, tendons, and muscles), those for speeding up chemical reactions (enzymes), and more. Below is a diagram of the four levels of protein structure and below that some examples of the 20 common amino acids that make up proteins.

             Credit to: proteopedia

 Credit to: biosiva.50webs.org

Credit to: Study.com

Note that this is again a condensation reaction where, in this case, the amino (NH2+) group of the glycine molecule on the right joins the carboxyl (COOH-) group on the left with the removal of one water molecule.

The third group, lipids, includes fats, oils, and wax. Since they are impervious to water, they are often used in waterproofing. Fat is, of course, long term energy storage material and also provides thermal insulation and cushions and protects vital body organs such as the eyes and kidneys. The basic unit of structure of lipids includes a glycerol molecule and three fatty acids. The typical fat or oil molecule consists of a long hydrocarbon chain which is hydrophobic (water fearing) and hydrophilic (water loving) head. This means that the head end dissolves in water and the hydrophobic tail doesn’t. Cell membranes are primarily composed of two layers of lipid. Likewise, lipids are formed by dehydration synthesis in which three water molecules are removed.

Credit to: dic.dcccd.edu

Credit to Columbia University

         The fourth group of organic molecules discussed here are nucleic acids which include DNA and the many RNA’s. We all are aware of one of DNA’s central roles-it contains the hereditary code of life and transmits that code from generation to generation. However, its other function is less well known. It directs the synthesis (in most cases) of that other class of compounds, proteins. Those two functions put DNA right at the head of the class. By the way, the basic unit of structure of nucleic acids is a nucleotide. A nucleotide of DNA consists of a sugar (deoxyribose), a phosphate group, and a nitrogenous base (adenine, guanine, cytocine, or thymine). The DNA molecule is a long double stranded molecule that is twisted into a double helix. There are many kinds of RNA but they all differ from DNA in that the sugar is ribose (with one more oxygen atom), uracil is substituted for thymine, and it is a single stranded molecule that may fold over upon itself in various shapes. Messenger RNA (mRNA, transcribes DNA’s code from the cell’s nucleus to the cytoplasm and specifies which particular amino acid is to be assembly by rRNA (a ribosome). Each amino acid is attached to a particular tRNA (transfer RNA) molecule). I always told my students that it is as if the mRNA says to the tRNA “I’ll meet you at the ribosome and we’ll make a protein.”

Credit to: Aidan balbach

The three major types of RNA structures include:

                            Credit to:quora.com

rRNA, mRNA, and rRNA

Credit to: Lumen Learning

Now that we’ve learned a little bit about each class of biologically important compounds, let’s focus in on one of those groups, the nucleic acids. A hundred years ago no one knew what molecule carried the genetic material. During the first half of the twentieth century a great debate raged among biologists about whether DNA or proteins carried that information. Many biologists favored proteins and their reasoning went something like this. If you think of the code like letters in an alphabet, proteins with their twenty letter alphabet (20 amino acids) could spell more words (greater genetic variability) than could DNA with its four letter alphabet (four kinds of nucleotides based on the four kinds of nitrogen bases). Space limits further discussion here but a series of brilliant experiments that culminated in 1953 with the iconic Watson and Crick model verified that DNA, indeed, is the universal carrier of genetic traits. (I would recommend that for further investigation of the other brilliant experiments, consult any AP or college biology text book)

        The ramifications of this discovery are, of course, immense. As pointed out in a previous essay, virtually every scientific discovery raises more questions than it answers. One of those questions is a which came first the chicken or the egg question. Until 1982, all known enzymes were thought to be proteins. Rbonucleic acid (RNA) was thought to play a supporting role to DNA (deoxyribonucleic acid). It (RNA) simply passed genetic information from DNA to proteins, which carry out the work of the cell. A group lead by Sidney Altman and Thomas Cech discovered ”ribozymes”–RNA enzymes. This changed biologist’s view of the cell’s operations and their view of the origins of the first cells- how they view life’s origins.

 Which substance did life acquire first– DNA or proteins? Proteins can perform many biological functions but they can’t propagate themselves. DNA can propagate (replicate) itself but can’t perform any biological tasks. On the other hand, RNA can transmit and store genetic information and can perform biological work based on the discovery of catalytic RNA (ribozymes) Thus, it is entirely possible that it preceded both proteins and DNA. The RNA molecule has a genotype which is the linear sequence of nucleotides along the RNA molecule. The genotype can record and make small changes in heritable information. It also has a phenotype which results from the ribozyme having an active site that can catalyze a chemical reaction.

Did RNA predate DNA and should RNA be elevated to a higher status than DNA? We will take up that question in the next essay.

 Answers to questions

Their structural formulas (geometry)

Larger molecules are broken down into smaller ones (breaking down process with a release in energy). There is less energy in the products than in the reactants.

-ose

-ase

Published By

Larry Baumer

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For the more scientifically motivated reader I now submit an interesting corollary to the essay on photosynthesis and respiration. Most everyone knows that our bodies (all living organisms) are made up of one or more discrete units called cells and that inside these cells reside the working parts (cell organelles). I will focus on just two of those organelles here, chloroplasts and mitochondria. Chloroplasts make plants green and are responsible for photosynthesis. Mitochondria, called the “powerhouse” of the cell are responsible for cellular respiration. This is not the same as the mechanical process of breathing. As stated in the previous essay, respiration is a catabolic (breaking down) process in which food is converted into energy with release of CO2 and H2O but more important is the energy that is released. This is an exergonic chemical reaction which means there is less energy in the final state (the CO2 and H2O) than in the initial state because energy was released from the food. This energy can be used to build up molecules of adenosine triphosphate (ATP). Adenosine triphosphate is like money in the bank which can be used when needed. It should come as no surprise that the cells that need the most energy like muscle cells have the most mitochondria. The process of building ATP is an endergonic reaction (one in which the final state, or products, have more energy). It is also an anabolic (building up) process since a more complex molecule is made from simpler ones. So, an exergonic reaction (the breakdown of glucose) provides the energy to make the endergonic reaction (ATP synthesis) go. Then ATP is broken down to ADP (adenosine diphosphate) and energy is released.

I previously alluded to aerobic respiration (with oxygen) and anaerobic respiration (without oxygen). It is interesting to note that during aerobic respiration 36 molecules of ATP are produced for every molecule of food (i.e. glucose) that is oxidized. On the other hand, for every molecule of glucose oxidized in anaerobic respiration only 2 molecules of ATP are produced. Clearly aerobic respiration is more efficient. Now let’s tie this in with early primitive forms of life eons ago to most present day forms. Remember, when life was first formed the atmosphere lacked free oxygen. This means that the first forms of life must have used anaerobic respiration as a means of obtaining energy. That was sufficient for primitive forms of life then but not for most forms today which are more complex and highly specialized. To put it another way, anaerobic respiration yields only 14.6 kilocalories of energy per molecule of glucose whereas aerobic respiration yields 686 kilocalories of energy. Dividing 14.6 by 686 and converting to a percent means that anaerobic respiration (also called fermentation) is only 2.1% as efficient as aerobic respiration. Interestingly though, when we do strenuous exercise, because our body can’t bring in oxygen fast enough to meet demand, it switches over to anaerobic respiration until we rest. This activity produces lactic acid as a waste product which causes fatigue.

Immediately below is a diagram of a cutaway view of a chloroplast and below is a similar diagram of a mitochondrion and also a photomicrograph (Sylvia S. Mader, Biology eighth ed., 2004)

Finally, let’s compare and contrast the chloroplast and mitochondrion.

CHLOROPLAST                                        

• found in autotrophs only (i.e. plants, algae, etc.)
• associated with anabolism
• has its own DNA*
• associated with photosynthesis
• has double membrane
• endergonic Rx

Mitochondrion

• found in autotrophs & heterotrophs
• associated with catabolism
• has its own DNA*
• associated with cellular respiration
• has double membrane
• exergonic Rx

 Taken from Diagrams Of The ATP Cycle – Image Results

 Below is a photomicrograph provided by the author showing the upper epidermis (top layer of cells) and the photosynthetic palisade layer of cells below of a Syringa spp (lilac) leaf.

Virtually all the DNA of a cell is found in the nucleus. However, mitochondria have their own DNA which brings to mind an interesting hypothesis. From the above table we can see that chloroplasts in plants and mitochondria in all eukaryotes (organisms that have a membrane bound nucleus) have their own DNA and are the only cell organelles other than the nucleus supplied with DNA. This fact along with some other puzzling observations has led to an interesting hypothesis about their origin. As we learned in the last lesson, prokaryotes have a singular circular chromosome. This is also true of mitochondria. Furthermore, mitochondria contain ribosomes, which are responsible for protein synthesis that are about the same size as those found in bacteria. Also, mitochondria contain enzymes that are found in bacterial cell walls. Finally these bean shaped organelles, unlike other cell organelles, appear to be produced only by other mitochondria and not by cell division (mitosis and cytokinesis). But therein lies a problem: mitochondrial DNA cannot code for all the proteins found in them.

The Endosymbiont Hypothesis proposed by Lynn Margulis suggests that the first eukaryote cell was formed by a symbiosis among several prokaryotes. In pacman style one cell captured the other cell and both cells benefited. Both cells would have had DNA and ribosomes. In a similar fashion, chloroplasts may have formed when photosynthetic prokaryotes were ingested by larger nonphotosynthetic cells.

Biology is such a fascinating science and it truly builds upon the principles of chemistry, geology, and even physics.

Published By

Larry Baumer

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I graduated from Northern Illinois University in 1966 with a Bachelor of Science degree in Education and earned a Master of Science degree in Education also from NIU in 1973.   I taught in the Harlem School District (5 years), a Chicago suburb (1 year), and the Rockford, IL School District for 27 years (26 at East High School). I culminated my teaching career  at Kishwaukee College (8 years) Two important events occurred  in 1988: I married my wife Angie and I received a summer teacher’s research fellowship through  the University of Illinois School of Medicine at Rockford.  My primary responsibility was light microscopy and Scanning electron miscroscopy of rabbit renal arteries (effect of high cholesterol diet).  For 14 years I was a citizen scientist for the Illinois Department of Natural Resources in their RiverWatch program (monitoring water quality) My hobbies and activities include gardening, golfing, bowling, downhill and cross country skiing, photography, including photomicroscopy and time lapse photography, spending time with my wife and our dog, and in the winter playing around in my small home biology & chemistry lab.

Beyond what I have written in past profiles, in the early 1980’s I was an EMT with the Boone Volunteer Ambulance & Rescue Squad (BVARS) which fit in nicely with my science training and teaching. I also enjoy public speaking and made frequent scholarship presentations to graduating seniors and outstanding middle school students through the former Belvidere Y’ Men’s Club.  I also made power point presentations of the RiverWatch program. But I most enjoyed making presentations at my high school reunions.  Thanks guys for allowing me to do this. 

           Two of the most important chemical reactions on earth are photosynthesis and respiration (cellular respiration, not just breathing). During photosynthesis plants take CO2(from the atmosphere) and water from the soil and make food (i.e. simple sugars) and convert them into more complex molecules while also releasing free oxygen. In the process energy is stored in food molecules (an example of anabolism, a building up process). During cellular respiration all organisms oxidize organic molecules and produce CO2 with the release of water molecules and more importantly energy is released. This is catabolism (a breaking down process). Anabolism and catabolism together are called metabolism. Thus the two reactions are complementary, that is, the reactants of photosynthesis (CO2 & H2O) become the products of respiration, and the raw materials of respiration (O2 & food molecules) become the products of photosynthesis.   Inversely, the products of respiration (CO2 & H2O) become the raw materials for photosynthesis and the products of photosynthesis (O2 & food molecules) become the raw materials for respiration. Photosynthesis is represented by the forward reaction (left to right or green and respiration by the reverse reaction or blue)

                                   Credit to: khanacademy.org

As a preview to the next essay, the diagram below suggests that the two processes are intimately related and that there is an energy flow from the sun to plants (photosynthesis) to all organisms (cellular respiration) with the building up and breaking down of adenosine triphosphate (ATP) with the subsequent release of energy-energy for all life processes. That is why we say that the ultimate source of our energy is the sun.

         This is part of the “balance of nature”. Now let’s jump to rapid oxidation (burning) of –anything. Guess what? The products of burning are the same as those of cellular respiration, CO2 & H2O, and energy is released. Too much of one process or too little of the other and the “balance of nature” is upset. This is what is and has been happening for a long time. With increasingly more people on the planet, the rate of CO2 production is increasing at an alarming rate. 

Carbon dioxide is heavier than oxygen (formula weight = 44 vs 32 for O2). Thus CO2 will hover closer to the earth. It and the other greenhouse gases (water vapor, methane, etc.) trap some of the sun’s energy thus preventing some of the infrared radiation from escaping into space thereby warming the atmosphere. The same phenomenon occurs on a cloudy vs. clear night. On which type of night does the temperature drop the least? Why?

It is interesting that CO2 levels vary with the seasons. During the summer when the Northern Hemisphere is tilted toward the sun, the leaves are actively capturing more CO2 which decreases its levels worldwide. During the winter when the Northern Hemisphere is tilted away from the sun and deciduous trees have dropped their leaves, less CO2 is captured and worldwide levels go up. You might ask “why doesn’t the Southern Hemisphere counterbalance that?” Taking a quick look at a globe should reveal the answer. Hint: compare the amount of land mass in the two hemispheres. Remember that land and the air above the land heat up faster and cool down faster than water does. There are some physical and chemical properties of water that I won’t go into here that account for that. But think about the fact that the temperature of land near large masses of water tends to stay cooler in summer and warmer in winter than land far away from large bodies of water. For example, compare the average temperature of Seattle to Omaha or Chicago’s lakefront vs. O’Hare Airport.

Now let’s look at the facts. First, let me remind you that neither I nor scientists worldwide and over many years are making up what I have described above and discuss below. Observations are made, data collected, and inferences are drawn. Principles of physics, chemistry, and biology as well as earth science and meteorology are intricately at work.       

Average world temperature is and has been rising for years—no argument there, just recorded facts. That means that while some temperatures are normal or subnormal, many others are above normal. Don’t base your opinion on your microenvironment and say “no way, it’s just as cold here as it used to be”. I’m talking about average global temperature.   The result is ocean temperatures rise and weather patterns are disrupted resulting in more severe storms (hurricanes, tornadoes, and floods) which may also occur in greater frequency. Warmer ocean temperatures results in stronger El Nino patterns and warmer ocean currents such as the Gulf Stream. Droughts become more severe and last longer. If you get the idea that all these factors (see paragraph four above) are related, then you know why I used the word “intricately”. Coincidently, the rate of greenhouse gases has been rising too.

I hope I have shared some important concepts to think about. I haven’t even touched on the effects of climate change on glaciers, living things, and even the seasons. That will come later

 [LB1]

Published By

Larry Baumer

—

I graduated from Northern Illinois University in 1966 with a Bachelor of Science degree in Education and earned a Master of Science degree in Education also from NIU in 1973.   I taught in the Harlem School District (5 years), a Chicago suburb (1 year), and the Rockford, IL School District for 27 years (26 at East High School). I culminated my teaching career  at Kishwaukee College (8 years) Two important events occurred  in 1988: I married my wife Angie and I received a summer teacher’s research fellowship through  the University of Illinois School of Medicine at Rockford.  My primary responsibility was light microscopy and Scanning electron miscroscopy of rabbit renal arteries (effect of high cholesterol diet).  For 14 years I was a citizen scientist for the Illinois Department of Natural Resources in their RiverWatch program (monitoring water quality) My hobbies and activities include gardening, golfing, bowling, downhill and cross country skiing, photography, including photomicroscopy and time lapse photography, spending time with my wife and our dog, and in the winter playing around in my small home biology & chemistry lab.

Beyond what I have written in past profiles, in the early 1980’s I was an EMT with the Boone Volunteer Ambulance & Rescue Squad (BVARS) which fit in nicely with my science training and teaching. I also enjoy public speaking and made frequent scholarship presentations to graduating seniors and outstanding middle school students through the former Belvidere Y’ Men’s Club.  I also made power point presentations of the RiverWatch program. But I most enjoyed making presentations at my high school reunions.  Thanks guys for allowing me to do this. 

In the previous essay I discussed some possible scenarios for the formation of the earth and some of the possible features of the earth and its atmosphere. Now I would like to look at changing conditions of the atmosphere and the earth’s surface that allowed life to be created and survive.

Before life forms could survive, certain chemical changes had to take place. Simple organic molecules that could make copies of itself (replication) had to form. Whether this was DNA or RNA is hotly debated yet today. The original atmosphere lacked the most important gas necessary for present day life forms. Probably sometime between 3.4–3.3 billion years ago, the first form of life arose. This would undoubtedly have been an anaerobic form since there was no free oxygen in the atmosphere. In fact, oxygen probably would have been toxic to obligate anaerobes. (Believe it or not, there are anaerobic conditions on earth now and thus, anaerobic forms of life (a group of bacteria like organisms called Archaea). They may have been the first forms of life. To find anaerobic conditions you have to look no further than your cupboard where you might find a can of vegetables or a swamp where methane gas is being produced by methanogen bacteria. Viruses, which are so simple that scientists still are not sure if they are alive, are composed of either a DNA or RNA core surrounded by a protein cover. They exhibit most of life’s characteristics but may also be crystallized and stored for an indefinite period of time without any need for energy or exhibiting other life functions such as respiration (anaerobic or aerobic), responding to stimuli, adapting to changes in environment, etc. There is much debate on the next point but most scientists believe that the first forms of life were also heterotrophic meaning that they could not make their own food. The following geologic time scale taken from deviantart.com will perhaps put things in proper prospective

Other scientists believe that autotrophic (auto; self and trophic; food) (photosynthetic or chemosynthetic) forms of life evolved first. Chemosynthetic bacteria (chemoautotrophs) use inorganic chemicals such as hydrogen sulfide (H2S), ammonia, and hydrogen gas to obtain energy. But the prize for being the first photosynthetic (oxygen producing) organisms probably goes to the cyanobacteria, formerly called blue-green algae but relegated down from eukaryotes to prokaryotes based on transmission electron microscope (TEM) and scanning electron microscope (SEM) micrograpths. The terms prokaryote and eukaryote require some attention since they are cornerstone concepts in biology. Prokaryotes (bacteria and Archaea) are single celled organisms that lack a true membrane bound nucleus. The DNA which may be circular floats freely in the cytoplasm of the cell (pro; before and karyote; nucleus). Eukaryotes obviously have a nucleus. They may be unicellular, colonial, or multicellular. At any rate, the cyanobacteria probably introduced oxygen into the atmosphere which caused the demise of anaerobic forms of life and paved the way for aerobic forms. This probably occurred around 2.5 billion years ago. Again there is some question here as the next sentence will show.

 Perhaps around 3.3 billion years ago oxygen producing organisms called stromatolites, which are still alive today, began the vitally important process that we know as photosynthesis. These autotophs paved the way for all of the food producers alive today. For the next 2 billion years oxygen was pumped into the atmosphere that we know today.  Of course, many other changes were taking place on the surface of the earth during this time. Continental drift was constantly at work changing surface features and affecting the distribution of life forms. One collision about 1.5 billion years ago produced a supercontinent, Rodenia. Somewhere around 700 million years ago, the Cambrium Explosion resulted in a tremendous increase in not only the sheer number of organisms but also the diversity of life. Before then life was pretty well limited to the sea because of intense radiation from the sun. Once the ozone layer formed, terrestrial forms began to appear. From about 400 million years ago to about 300 million years ago, land was gradually conquered as both flora and fauna (plants & animals) flourished. During the ensuing Carboniferous Period, dense tropical swamplands over virtually all of the earth produced coal and oil in places like the Middle East. Coal was produced from plants and oil and gas from animals. Here is an interesting side story. Did you ever wonder how that region of the world which is desert today could be so rich in oil fields? Remember, the earth has gone through many climate changes including temperature and rainfall fluctuations. These are the two most important climate factors that determine the type of flora that inhabit an area which in turn, determines the type of fauna. Also at this time arthropods including huge insects dominated the scene and later amphibians followed when reptiles appeared and flourished. It appears from the story told in the rocks and ice that at about this time numerous eruptions in present day Siberia for millions of years produced poisonous gases that covered the globe killing 95% of life. A new supercontinent, Pangea, appeared. Soon dinosaurs dominated the earth. 

About 200 million years ago Pangea split thus gradually producing the continents we know today. And, of course, the date that everyone is familiar with, about 65 million years ago, some cataclysmic event resulted in mass extinction of the great dinosaurs. This time probably about 75% of all life disappeared. Louis and Walter Alverez several years ago verified the date using radioactive isotopes (14C dating). A thin layer of Eridium found in various places on earth all date to that date. Below that line dinosaur remains were commonplace; above that line virtually no remains are found. Whether it was a gigantic meteor or an asteroid or some other event is still questionable. But one thing is for sure; something really big happened. About 50 million years ago, the African and European plates collided. This collision produced the Alps including the Matterhorn, of which the northern half is from the European plate and the southern half is from the African plate. About 2 million years ago the first of many ice ages began to occur. Also, overflowing volcanoes in present day Panama probably created the land bridge (Central America) that connected North and South America.

The earth has had a long and varied history and it is still changing. In so many ways mankind has changed it and, unfortunately, not usually for the good. It is time for us to be better stewards of the earth and leave it a better place for our children and grandchildren.

In a previous essay I discussed constructive and destructive geologic forces that continue to shape and reshape the earth. Today I would like to concentrate on the planet’s birth and early (prebiotic) conditions. My purpose here is to provide facts where facts are known and discuss various theories (possible explanations). 

There have been and still continues to be many theories formed to try to explain the formation of the earth. One popular theory held that all the planets in our solar system were formed from hot gasses thrown off by the sun as it formed. An American geologist, P. C. Chamberlain proposed the Planetisimal hypothesis which says that the earth formed from coalescing solid particles. In 1788, Lord Kelvin (Kelvin temperature scale) proposed that the earth was much older than originally thought and believed the core was a molten liquid but he completely missed the (approximately) true age because he believed there was no source of continuing heat supply. A radioactive core consisting mainly of lead and nickel eventually provided the answer to the heat problem and now the scientific community estimates the earth’s age to be about 4.5 billion years. Robert Holmes in 1911 discovered radioactive dating and subsequent use of uranium (U235) in rocks is the primary basis for this. James Hutton, a Scottish geologist, had already predicted that the earth had a long history with many many gradual changes and based his predictions on fossil rock examination. However, the earth was not yet hospitable for life–not for about another billion years. First the earth’s core had to cool for about 100 million years which allowed the crust of volcanic rock to form. But there was no life supporting atmosphere. The primitive atmosphere probably consisted of water vapor, nitrogen, carbon dioxide, sulfur dioxide, and hydrogen by out gassing over millions of years of volcanic activity. Eventually the atmosphere probably became saturated with water vapor and the continued cooling of the earth would have allowed rain to fall (for millions of years) to form the oceans. By 4.0 billion years ago as much as 40% of the earth’s surface was probably oceans with a CO2 filled atmosphere. Eventually a rock hard enough (granite) formed to become the continents. As noted in an earlier essay, Alfred Wegner, a German meteorologist first proposed the Continental Drift hypothesis in 1912. He noted like fossils on separate continents and assumed they once were much closer together. He also noted, as many of you have, that continents such as South America and Africa seem to fit together like pieces of a jigsaw puzzle.  Since then the concept of plate tectonics (with ridges where new lava rises pushing continents apart and seduction zones where volcanic faults occur) has been substantiated. 

Credit to: pompeiiplates.weebly.com

The Continents move approximately 1 inch per year. The original source of earth’s water and, therefore, its oceans has been a subject of much debate. Some scientists have proposed comets provided at least some of the water while others believe that water frozen in meteors provided most of it over millions of years. Other scientists favor the idea that some of the coalescing “mini planets” might have collided to form the earth and might have already contained water in them. Perhaps several sources provided the water that was to become necessary for life.

I know there are many gaps and holes here but remember from an earlier essay it was pointed out that this is a part of the nature of science which makes it both challenging and interesting. I know there are skeptics reading this that, no doubt, will reject all of this and simply say that God created it and I firmly agree. But how did God create it? What methods did He use? The Bible doesn’t give many details. God also gave us a mind, the desire to learn about our world and beyond, an imagination to ask the important questions, and the capacity to dream dreams. He also gave us science and the “laws of nature” to study it. I have always said that knowledge of science will help reveal the mind of God. Science tries to answer the question of “how” and religion tries to answer the ultimate question of “why”

Biogeochemical cycles, as the name implies, are perfect examples of the fusion of concepts from various science disciplines. Principles of biology, geology, and chemistry are combined in these cycles. Each has important implications to all living inhabitants of earth. 

        The hydrologic cycle, also known as the water cycle, is the simplest of the cycles I will discuss here. The water cycle consists of three phases; evaporation, condensation, and precipitation. All are examples of physical changes. Heat from the sun constantly evaporates water from the earth’s surface. This includes sources as small as mud puddles to as large as oceans. As the water vapor rises into the upper atmosphere it cools and condenses. This condensation, also called cloud formation, requires microscopic dust particles that serve as nuclei which are necessary for raindrop formation. Under the right conditions, precipitation in the form or rain, sleet, hail, freezing rain, or snow will return the water to the earth to begin the process again. Since most of our weather in this part of the world originates far to our west, I often told my students that the rain we got last night might have come from as far away as Hawaii several days ago. The fact that our weather originates over vast quantities of ocean has far reaching consequences when we consider the effects that warmer ocean temperatures resulting from global warming and other phenomena have on weather patterns. I also made a special effort to point out that the amount of water that we have today is the same as what we have always had and presumably always will have. The basis for this lies in the Law of Conservation of Matter which essentially says that matter is neither created nor destroyed (with some exceptions like Einstein’s theories of relativity) but simply changed in form (chemical or physical). So why are we so concerned about having enough water if the amount never changes. I will answer that questing at the end of the essay. The following diagrams taken from the internet illustrates the water cycle, carbon cycle, and nitrogen cycle

 Credit to: nj.gov 

The carbon cycle is of great interest and concern since one of its principle components, carbon dioxide (CO2) has been identified as a major greenhouse gas and a contributor to global warming. All living organisms contain carbon atoms and, therefore, when they die and decay or are burned (after being converted to fossils fuels), CO2 is released as the carbon atoms combine chemically with oxygen atoms. Even waste products release CO2 as does cellular respiration. I will discuss the photosynthesis/cellular respiration cycle in a later essay but let me just say that plants remove CO2 from the air. The transfer rate of carbon from the atmosphere by photosynthesis just about equals the rate at which respiration and decay return carbon to the atmosphere. However, when fossil fuel burning is added to the equation, the rate of CO2 returned to the atmosphere is greatly favored. That is bad. In 1850, atmospheric CO2 was about 280 parts per million (ppm) and today it is about 350 ppm and climbing. Destruction of vegetation for any reason reduces the amount of CO2 sequestration from the atmosphere. Just think for a moment about the many ways that we remove vegetation from the earth’s surface. We can’t blame all of it on rainforest destruction

Credit to: slideshare.org

     Most of us know that nitrogen makes up about 80% of the atmosphere and that nitrogen is necessary for plant growth. But plants can’t just take nitrogen out of the air in its elemental form. It has to be “fixed” or changed into a form that they can use. That’s similar to us changing our food into forms our bodies can use. Certain kinds of bacteria in water and soil can fix nitrogen into ammonium (NH3+) or nitrate (NO3-) compounds so that plants can make amino acids, DNA, and RNA. Nitrogen fixation also occurs when organic matter decomposes. This includes animal waste. It should be noted that fertilizer use results in the release of nitrogen oxide (NO2), a greenhouse gas. Fossil fuel burning also pumps sulfur dioxide (SO2) into the atmosphere. Both nitrogen oxides and sulfur dioxide are converted to acids which eventually return to earth. Carbon dioxide combines with water vapor in the atmosphere to form carbonic acid, another form of pollution. Normally rain has a pH of about 5.6(slightly acidic). In many parts of the heavily industrialized northeastern United States, the pH of the rain is between 5.0 and 4.0 which is more acidic. In fact, a pH of 4 is ten times more acidic as rain with a pH of 5.  Has anyone ever heard of acid rain?

Credit to: data.allenai.org

    Now let’s answer the question I posed above. The real water concern is twofold. Will we have enough useable (unpolluted) water and will that water be distributed adequately on a global basis? There have always been arid regions and high precipitation zones but human activities are now exaggerating those extremes.

       With the recent devastating volcano in Hawaii, I thought it would be appropriate to discuss some natural geologic forces.        

       Earthquakes and volcanoes are, in geologic terms, called constructive forces. They can cause great destruction but here’s the point: they bring new material (lava, magma, volcanic ash, etc.) to the surface. These fertile rich materials supply the depleted soil for growing things in addition to changing the appearance of the earth’s surface. These are building up processes similar to anabolism in living cells that I will discuss in another essay.

      On the other hand, weathering and erosion are destructive forces because they tear down surface features and wear them away. The major agents of weathering include wind, rain, and temperature changes (freezing & thawing). Potholes in the pavement in the spring are a good example of the effects of freezing & thawing. The major agents of erosion are running water, wave action, wind, gravity, and loss of ground cover. Weathering and erosion can be compared to catabolism (tearing down processes) in living cells. It is interesting that constructive and destructive forces in geology are complementary processes like photosynthesis and cellular respiration are in biology. 

Once again we find that we humans constantly leave our “footprint” on these processes and, therefore, on the face of the earth. Drilling, mining, construction, logging, and farming are just a few ways in which we have altered the face of the earth’s surface and subsurface. Moreover, the effects of underground bomb testing by the United States and Russia years ago are not fully understood.

Let’s back up a little. Most of you have probably heard of plate tectonics and continental drift. The continents are moving and this movement can even be measured. Alfred Wegener, a German meteorologist first proposed the idea of continental drift in the 1920’s. The Rocky Mountains were formed where the Pacific and Continental plates collided; the Alps were formed where the African and European plates collided. Interestingly, some of the tallest mountain ranges are found under the Pacific and Atlantic Oceans. Iceland sits on the Mid Atlantic Ridge and is volcanic in origin. These ridges are where faults and volcanoes often occur. If there are ridges where continents collide, there must be trenches where separation occurs. Indeed, the Marianas Trench, which at over 7 miles deep, is deeper than the tallest mountain. These trenches represent subduction zones where one layer sinks below another pushing solid rock down where it is heated by radioactive elements to a molten liquid state and recycled again. This all lends support to the Planetesimal Hypothesis which holds that the earth and other planets were formed by cohesion of particles about 4.567 billion years ago. The asteroid belt between Mars and Jupiter probably represent particles that never quite formed a planet or one that broke apart.

To learn more about this and other topics I have discussed or will discuss in the future, check the Science Channel, National Geographic Channel, or the History Channels. In particular I would recommend the following series: Naked Earth, The Universe, or Miracle Planet

           In the last essay we learned about some of the earliest “branches” of science that developed and why. I also discussed a loose chronological order of scientific disciplines and named a few of the more prominent early scientists. I left one very important question unanswered. What is science? Once again we find no single answer that everyone agrees upon. But as I would tell my students, the beauty of science rests in its complexity and its ever changing nature. Two components stand out: the content of science and the process of science. The content, often referred to as the body of knowledge, is the aspect that, for better or worse usually is emphasized in a science class (facts, memorization, etc.). The process is what we usually refer to as the scientific method (s). You may recall from your science classes the general scheme (problem, hypotheses, experiment, observation, and conclusion) with more or fewer steps. It’s often more complicated than that but we all probably use a simplified version of it every day as a part of our thought processes. First of all, and this what sets science apart from “belief fields” such as religion, ethics, morality, or political ideology, the realm of science includes anything that can be observed and is “testable”. Science gathers, processes, classifies, and analyzes information. There is nothing wrong with belief fields for they often deal with right and wrong or good and bad and they certainly play a big part in my life. They operate on a belief or faith system which sets them apart from science. With that aside taken care of, let me return to the main points. As a part of the process of science, experiments and research are carried out as controlled experiments, that is the experimenter manipulates or controls all the factors (variables) that may influence the results by keeping all the variables constant except one . That one is the factor that is the focus of the experiment. Generally speaking, there are two groups, the control group and the experimental group. The experimental group will have all of the factors the same as the control group except for the one variable that is being tested. The experimental variable (also call the independent variable) is the one factor being tested. No more than one factor (variable) can be tested at one time; otherwise, you wouldn’t know which factor is responsible for the outcome of the experiment. For example, let’s say you want to test whether fertilizer is good for growing a certain type of plant. You may want to state an hypothesis as an if…then prediction. For example, you may predict that if I use fertilizer on the experimental group, then I would expect that group to grow faster and produce healthier plants. You would select several plants of the same kind and divide them into two groups, the control group and the experimental one. Both groups receive the same amount of water and the same length and intensify of sunlight. Both groups are grown in the same soil and at the same temperature and humidity. This is what we mean by a controlled experiment; you control or manipulate the environment. The only thing that is different is the fertilizer. The control group receives no fertilizer but the experimental group does. Therefore, fertilizer is the experimental variable and difference in the growth between the two groups, as measured by you, can be attributed to the effects of fertilizer.

         Allow me to comment briefly on direct vs. indirect evidence or observations. Most of what we learn about present conditions results from direct observations. Virtually everything we know about past conditions is derived from indirect evidence. The fossil record and core samples are two examples of indirect evidence.

         Let’s consider a few definitions. You may think you already know what an hypothesis and theory are. You probably learned in a science class that an hypothesis is an “educated guess” and a theory is a hypothesis that has stood the test of time. Those definitions may work in everyday language but not in science and should not be taught in a science class. An hypothesis is a possible explanation for an observed phenomenon and a theory tries to explain a series of related phenomena. I will discuss examples of both in future essays. The last point I would like to make here is that in science there are no absolute truths. The best that can be done is to either refute or substantiate a prior or present conclusion

One of the first questions I liked to pose to a new class was “what is science?”  So I pose that question now.  Two other follow-up questions were “when did science begin and what was probably the first “branch” of science to develop?”  Let’s answer the last question first.  Although there is no single correct answer, many people agree that ever since mankind inhabited the earth, people have looked up into the heavens and observed the stars and planets and their motion in space.  Out of the pseudoscience of astrology, arose astronomy.  However, it could not advance to a technical level until mathematical principles were well formulated.  Some people would argue that chemistry was the first branch of science to develop citing the alchemists who tried to convert some metals to gold and silver.  However, that was much later. They never succeeded in making gold but they did further the study of matter and its changes.  Biology could not really develop until a very important tool, the microscope, was invented.

There is again no universal agreement on when science or scientific thinking began but most agree that a significant step to ending the Middle Ages was the rise of science and, yes, technology.  Many scholars would point to Francis Bacon (1561-1626) as one of the first true scientists because he used an experimental (and empirical) method to systematically investigate questions of a scientific nature.   Bacon was also a statesman, writer, and philosopher. Other noteworthy early scientists include Nicolas Copernicus (1473-1543) who refuted the ancient and universally accepted Ptolemaic theory which held that the earth was the center of not only the solar system but the entire universe.  Copernicus proposed the heliocentric idea that the sun was the center of our solar system and the earth and other planets revolve around it.  Later Galileo (1564-1642) contributed much to the fields of physics and, of course, astronomy.  The latter two would gradually change the worldview of not only science but of religion and of man’s place and importance on earth. At about the same time, Johannes Kepler, (1571-1630) a German astronomer, proposed a mathematical model to explain planetary motion. He postulated that, among other things, planets move in elliptical (egg shaped) orbits, not circles.

No discussion of early scientists would be complete without including Isaac Newton, an English scientist. In his Mathematical Principle of Natural Philosophy, he married the disciplines of mathematics, astronomy, and physics. He described three laws of motion:
1. Inertia– acceleration depends on force and mass

2. Action and reaction– for every action there is an opposite and equal reaction (e.g. a jet or rocket engine)

3. The force of gravity depends on distance

I have purposely not answered the first question for two reasons.  I want the reader to think about what science is for a while and that will be the topic of the second essay.  Stay tuned.

One of the first questions I liked to pose to a new class was “what is science?” So I pose that question now. Two other follow-up questions were “when did science begin and what was probably the first “branch” of science to develop?” Let’s answer the last question first. Although there is no single correct answer, many people agree that ever since mankind inhabited the earth, people have looked up into the heavens and observed the stars and planets and their motion in space. Out of the pseudoscience of astrology, arose astronomy. However, it could not advance to a technical level until mathematical principles were well formulated. Some people would argue that chemistry was the first branch of science to develop citing the alchemists who tried to convert some metals to gold and silver. However, that was much later. They never succeeded in making gold but they did further the study of matter and its changes. Biology could not really develop until a very important tool, the microscope, was invented.

There is again no universal agreement on when science or scientific thinking began but most agree that a significant step to ending the Middle Ages was the rise of science and, yes, technology. Many scholars would point to Francis Bacon (1561-1626) as one of the first true scientists because he used an experimental (and empirical) method to systematically investigate questions of a scientific nature.  Bacon was also a statesman, writer, and philosopher. Other noteworthy early scientists include Nicolas Copernicus (1473-1543) who refuted the ancient and universally accepted Ptolemaic theory which held that the earth was the center of not only the solar system but the entire universe. Copernicus proposed the heliocentric idea that the sun was the center of our solar system and the earth and other planets revolve around it. Later Galileo (1564-1642) contributed much to the fields of physics and, of course, astronomy. The latter two would gradually change the worldview of not only science but of religion and of man’s place and importance on earth. At about the same time, Johannes Kepler, (1571-1630) a German astronomer, proposed a mathematical model to explain planetary motion. He postulated that, among other things, planets move in elliptical (egg shaped) orbits, not circles.

No discussion of early scientists would be complete without including Isaac Newton, an English scientist. In his Mathematical Principle of Natural Philosophy, he married the disciplines of mathematics, astronomy, and physics. He described three laws of motion:

1. Inertia– acceleration depends on force and mass

2. Action and reaction– for every action there is an opposite and equal reaction (e.g. a jet or rocket engine)

3. The force of gravity depends on distance

I have purposely not answered the first question for two reasons. I want the reader to think about what science is for a while and that will be the topic of the second essay. Stay tuned

Hi!  I am Larry Baumer, a retired science teacher of 41 years.  I taught at the junior high, high school, and college level.  I taught general science, biology, AP biology, anatomy & physiology, chemistry, and environmental biology.  Since elementary school I have always loved to study science, especially biology.  I also love to write and have been a contributor to many letters to the editor articles over the years.  For one reason or another, many adults are somewhat weak in science literacy and are often confused by what they read in newspapers and hear on television. It is important to realize that all educated individuals, not just scientists, can benefit from gaining knowledge and, in this case, scientific knowledge.  Citizens in a democracy (republic in our case) have an obligation to be informed on the issues faced by their governments.   Environmental policy, social welfare programs, military planning, and economic policy, for example, have important scientific components.   For these reasons (beside the fact, as stated above, that I love to write), I am embarking on a series of science essays.  For my first essay, I decided to go all the way back to the beginning of scientific thought and even beyond.

In my everyday experiences I have found that many adults are not well versed in science or in science concepts. As a retired science teacher of 41 years this concerns me. I can’t help but wonder if I and other science teachers like me have failed–failed to sufficiently motivate and to impart the knowledge that we possess to our students.  Admittedly, most adults cite science and math as the two subjects in school they disliked the most.

Therefore, as explained in the first essay, I have written a series of essays to bridge the gap between uninformed bystander to active participant in conversations and news stories involving scientific topics. Although I am targeting adults, most high school and college students should benefit too. The content of these essays leans heavily toward the biological sciences but also touches on astronomy, chemistry, geology, and even physics.

Some areas touch on sensitive topics but that is good since that stimulates thinking which makes the reader an active participant as mentioned above. Let me state in the beginning that I am a committed Christian. Ever since I can remember I have never been anything else. I do believe that just because I have been trained in the concepts of science and in general accept its principles, I do not have to forsake my equally strong convictions in a higher being (God). Neither do you.

You may wonder how scientists can make inferences and draw conclusions about events that occurred millions and billions of years ago before anyone lived. Obviously, no one was around to witness them.  Let me remind you that we can’t see air or the atoms and molecules that make it up but we know air and its atoms exist. Much of our knowledge about the earth’s past is gained by indirect evidence such as fossils, ¹⁴C dating, ice and earth core samples, and more.

In the early essays, no references are cited.  However, unlike many essays, the concepts discussed here are based on scientific work that spans hundreds of years and yet use the latest scientific methods and technology.  Very little information that you find in these pages represent my opinion.  I have based these readings on scientific journals, textbooks and books by science authors, newspaper accounts, and videos.  I have an extensive video library consisting of programs from the History Channels, National Geographic Channel, and the Discovery Channel.