Why Two Ways?

For my talk i would like to go over the idea of metric over standard forms of measurement. The idea of having two ways to measure is a little ludicrous. I feel that as biologists we need to understand how to do simple conversions so that when we get asked a question we can give a better understood answer. Now the question would have to be based on some aspect that involves measurement. I will be going over simple was to explain conversions in a simple and rounded manner to answer qusestions simply and understandably.

Who needs a water treatment plant?

One class that is offered here at AU that not many people register to take but should is Limnology. I'll admit, having only 3 students in our class has been pretty nice this semester but it's a shame not more people are interested in such an important topic as H2O.

There is more to this class than learning about water however. Water affects our everyday lives. The world is about 75% water. Sad to say, a lot of our fresh water sources are being polluted through air pollution which produces acid rain, contamintated runoff from parking lots, agricultural runoff, etc. My presentation is going to be about the importance of wetlands and how they act as natural water treatment plants, cleaning up the water that we dirty.

Our biggies can be gold!

THIS COULD BE THE BEST RECYCLING IDEA YOU'VE EVER SEEN!!












For my presentation, I decided to focus on composition of human feces.
I know people will not like this idea much, but you will see how great it is to help the world!

Right now I'm taking Environmental Science class and we were discussing about composting. Eventually, I came to know that some people started to compost not only foods but also our excretion. This is why I thought about this topic for my presentation. I will talk about all the detail soon!

It's a shame!!

It's a shame to miss a question on insects since I'm taking Entomology RIGHT NOW:(
To show my apology to Dr. Stoffer, I would like to go over the question on malpighian tubules.

It was basically asking the organ of earthworm which has the same function as malpighian tubules of grasshopper.
First of all, we need to know what malpighian tubules are.
According to mondofacto, online medical dictionary, Malpighian tubules is "One of the tubular or hairlike excretory organs arising from the midgut-hindgut junction of many arthropods. Two to several hundred such tubules may be present. They collect waste from the body fluids and discharge them into the hindgut."
Here's some pictures...













So basically malpighian tubules are kidney-like organ, I can say. Now, we need to figure out what is the correct answer!
We had some possible answers; gizzard, crop, nephridia, esophagus, and ganglia.
At first sight, we can eliminate ganglia, because it is just a mass of nerve tissue and has no relation with excretory system. Esophagus can be also eliminated since it is just a tube which food passes.
Then which of these three answers is correct? Let's check all the definitions.

Gizzard: The second, or true, muscular stomach of birds, in which the food is crushed and ground, after being softened in the glandular stomach (crop), or lower part of the oesophagus; the gigerium.

Crop (obviously not the agricultural "crop"!): A crop (or croup) is a thin-walled expanded portion of the alimentary tract used for the storage of food prior to digestion that is found in many animals, including gastropods, earthworms, leeches, insects, and birds.

Nephridia: A segmental tubule; one of the tubules of the primitive urinogenital organs; a segmental organ.

Which is the closest to kidney? Yes, the answer is Nephridia.
Basically, this kind of question cannot be solved without knowledge, so I wanted to get a chance to educate myself. Hope this post will help you in the future at some point!

GRE

I did not find any part of the GRE to be to hard or out of place. Now don't think that i did a good job on it, but I feel that information asked for is what most well educated general biology students should know. The real issue is that it dose not take in to account people that are more focused in the specific fields of study. For myself I study more of the biological mechanisms of receptors and active sites. There was nor lot of questions related to this field so I did not do that well because I only one semester of general anatomy. If the test could be more keyed into the field of study of the student it would be better.

The World's Largest Sauna

Many people would agree that tropical rainforests have a higher level of species diversity than the North and South poles. Why does this phenomenon occur?

A simple answer to this is the availability of resources. At and near the equator there are continuous growing seasons unlike more temperate regions that have a growing season of just a few months out of the year. Because more sunlight and water are available in tropical areas this allows more species of vegetation to compete and grow. This steamy atmosphere decomposes biomass much more rapidly than temperate and arctic regions. Decomposition provides abundance of nutrients that positively influence the growth and diversity of vegetation. More vegetation diversity can support a larger diversity of animal species.

It has been estimated that half of the world's animal species live in rain forests. Although this estimate is astonishing, many species are categorized as endangered due to loss of habitat through clear-cutting of trees and agriculture. Some of the endangered and threatened animals include the Golden Lion Tamarind Monkey, Toucans and Parrots, Jaguar, Orangutan, Manatee, Bengal Tiger, some Poison Dart Frogs and Harpy Eagles.

One of the lesser known on this list is the Harpy Eagle. They are the largest and most powerful eagle known, with a wingspan of over 6 1/2 feet! Their habitat ranges in tropical lowland forests from southeastern Mexico to northern Argentina and southern Brazil. Harpies feed mostly on animals that live in trees such as sloths, monkeys, opossums, reptiles and other birds. Their enormous talons as big as bear claws, help them capture their prey while flying up to 50 mph through the forest. Because of deforestation the Harpy Eagle's prey populations have decreased and also their roosting sites. These eagles can weigh up to 20 pounds so they must consume large quantities of meat for flight energy, but if there are less things to eat some cannot survive.

Because the tropical rainforests are so abundant and species rich, we should help protect them from clear cutting operations. If they are not protected, lowered species diversity is inevitable and the loss of unique plants and animals only found in these areas could be lost forever.

So...it is found out that I'm a cheating vegetarian:P

Truly, this is the last post for my entire vegetarian chronicle! Thanks for keeping reading.

OK now, let’s look at the last topic; usage of the land.
I got an article called “livestock’s long shadow” which is published by Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO). This article has so much data about what I have been discussing, but also it has some detail on land usage. Here is a good figure that is easy to understand.











Can you find the rapid increase of pasture?

The problems of deforestation, fire agriculture, and desertification have been already discussed so long time in all over the world. We all know we should not lose any more of the trees. Then isn’t it out of sense to cut the trees and make some lands for livestock??

Many other studies have been done, but to be brief,
We can conserve water, slower the speed of global warming, and save lands and forests if we change our diet into vegetable based one which is energy efficient.


Though…you know…






















WE ALL WANT TO EAT MEATS, RIGHT!!!????
Mmm...looks yummy!

I want to introduce a great phrase to the people like you.

“Eat food. Not too much. Mostly plants.”-- Michael Pollan

Yes, the key word is “Mostly plants”.
We don’t have to remove 100% of meat from our dinner. I think all of you have been thinking like

“I shouldn’t waste any paper…”
“Let’s recycle all the plastic bottles!”
“Oh man, he’s wasting a lot of food…I shouldn’t be like that.”

or things like that. And I think we can do the exact same thing toward eating meat.

“I thought we’re gonna have steak tonight, but let’s be nice to earth. We can cook tofu steak”
“It should be good for environment. Let’s have some fish instead of beef.”

We might not be able to say “Mostly plants” with this, but better than nothing! To change our diet a little bit for environment is really easy to do.

Well, I think I came with this idea and became kind of cheating vegetarian about a year and half ago. I think I’m categorized as Pesco-vegetarian. Pesco-vegetarian is a person who's diet excludes all meat except fish. This can include or exclude eggs and/or dairy according to individual choice.
I wish I could avoid milk and eggs because those are also from livestock, but I didn’t have confidence to get enough protein without those. If I were in Japan, maybe I could avoid them since we have much more of soy products.
But in anyways, I’m not strictly avoiding meat. You know, I’m not doing this because of my religious view. Many of the case I eat meat is when someone cooked them for me, or when my sister brings back leftover chicken from her working place.

So don't be shocked like "oh gosh, she's not going to eat meat anymore! She is really weird!!" I'm just doing this in the same mindset of recycling the water bottle!

Where are your sunglasses?

Yesterday, President Obama made the biggest impact yet of his Presidency with the scribble of his pen. In the signing of the stimulus package, the President showed his awareness and concern for change in our energy resources and consumption. He signed a package that dictated billions of dollars to various different renewable energy research and projects. While some see this plan as the government regulating our free trade system and strangling the basic principles that run our market, I see it as progress.

The following provisions were reported in a New York Times article:

• * A large sum for energy efficiency, including $5 billion for low-income weatherization programs; over $6 billion in grants for state and local governments; and several billion to modernize federal buildings, with a particular emphasis on energy efficiency.

• * $11 billion for “smart grid” investments.

• * $3.4 billion for carbon capture and sequestration demonstration projects (otherwise known as “clean coal”).

• * $2 billion for research into batteries for electric cars.

• * $500 million to help workers train for “green jobs.”

• * The option, available to many developers, of turning their tax credits into direct cash, with the government underwriting 30 percent of a project’s cost.

Although I do not agree with the efficiency and environmental value of some of these technologies, I do think President Obama is giving researchers and environmentalists a chance to voice their opinion with his full attention recepting what they have to say.

Hopefully, this will be a big incentive to turn our economy and infrastructures from relying on non-renewable energy sources. The future of America is looking bright, possibly because we are looking up at our new energy source. I hope everyone has a pair of sunglasses.

Chupacabra Found

The chupacabra, or goat killer as the name means, was a first brought to the media attention in Porto Rico after multiple attacks on farm animals. These attacks were odd because what was killing the goats and chickens was not eating them; it would bite them and then “drink” the blood. This was thought because there was no blood in or around the bodies. The attacks caused such a public out cry that the government got involved and did an investigation into it.

At the time the descriptions of the creature made it out to be a hairless, gargoyle like beast with large glowing red eyes. Many people claimed to have seen this beast and one man claimed to have been stalked by it for a number of nights. A “nest” was eventually fond and hair samples were taken. At the time DNA fingerprinting was not as accurate as it is now so now real test were done on the hairs.

Recently though a new chupacabra has been found and documented. This one is here in the US and it is being found in different parts of Texas. Pictures of dead ones as well as bodies have been taken and examined. This time the creature is a dog/rat/kangaroo looking beast. It was very prominent canine teeth on both the top and bottom of its mouth. It seems to be hairless but in photos it has blue eyes.

This new creature had testing done on its DNA and different features to see where it could have come from or what it could be related to. The hairs that were found at the first “nest” were also tested to see if they were the same. The results showed that the hairs from Texas and Porto Rico were from the same species. They could not say what it was but the skull of the animal was able to say that it could be a cross between a large domesticated dog and a coyote.

These results seem like the truth to me. To me it seems more likely that this hybrid animal is the case rather than a gargoyle that drinks blood. This creature may bite the animal and then lap up the blood because it is unable to do eat the meat for some reason or another. Being a mix of the same family but not the same species could make it more susceptible to mange and other disorders giving it the hairless look.

While I will give most cryptic animals a fair chance at being real this is one case were I think science has found the “myth” and found the real explanation as to what it is; a mistake of nature that cannot find its place in the wild.

All data talked about here was gathered from Monster Quest on The History Chanel.

Old chupacabra picture thanks to: http://upsidedownhippo.com/archives/chupacabra-november1.jpg

Texas chupacabra picture thanks to: http://images.ibsys.com/2005/0825/4894992.jpg

Cow "Sorry, I drink a lot and fart tons..."

Welcome back! Here is my continuation of the previous post "I became Vegetarian!"

Some of you may think that water is unlimited source, but many scientists think that the water crisis will be really a big problem in near future. You can find a lot of articles and studies about water crisis.
Now I'd like to pick up some information from an article in Nature called "A fresh approach to water".

It is noted that the Earth is facing a water crisis, with more than a billion people in developing nations lack access to safe drinking water and more than 2 billion lack of proper sanitation. It is expected that global energy demand will increase 57% by 2030 and water demand for food production might easily double.

The point we should pay attention here is about “water demand for food production”. Since the population of the world is increasing, it is urgent task to gain food production. Under this situation, isn’t it going to against water conservation if we gain the meat production which is not energy efficient?? Actually, this article says that we need 15000 litters (3963 gallon) of water to produce 1kg (2.2pounds) of beef. If we grow wheat out of this much of water, we will get 10kg of wheat.

Well, I got a lot more things to discuss!!!

Here we have the problem of greenhouse gas.
As all you know, the most famous greenhouse gas is carbon dioxide. Dr. Eshel and Dr. Martin who I introduced to you in my last post had good research on CO2.
According to them, average Americans’ meat-based meal produce 1485kg more of CO2 compared to vegetable-based meal. If you want to understand easier, imagine general sedan and sports car. Dr Eshel and Dr. Martin say the difference of energy efficiency of the two types of meals is like that much.

There are some more problems on greenhouse gas.
Do you know that methane is worse greenhouse gas compared to CO2?? Actually, methane can hold 23 times more of heat than CO2 can hold. And livestock is known as the main methane producer.

According to the article “CLIMATEWATCH” from Geographical, one cow produce 100-200 litters of methane in one day. Moreover, according to the article of New Scientist, 20% of methane produce on the earth is by livestock.

So, the more of livestock we have, the more the earth will be heated.








No, it was you...


Sorry, I still have one more post to finish up this "I Became Vegetarian!" series. I'm so glad if you could come back again!

Bibliography: "A fresh approach to water." Nature 452.7185 (2008), 253-253.
"CLIMATEWATCH." Geographical 79.9 (2007), 12-12.

Leave No Trace

I am an avid hiker and enjoy spending time outdoors. Most people who have spent time camping or hiking, especially in a national or state park probably has heard park rangers give lectures or have seen signs posted about "Leave No Trace Behind" practices. The concept is simple, enjoy the outdoors without leaving your mark on them. However, some people do not take all of their actions into consideration and consequently do leave traces in natural areas.

Leave No Trace does not only mean picking up your trash and discard it once you are near a trashbin, there is a lot more to it than picking up trash. The main points listed from the LNTB website are as follows:

• Plan ahead and Prepare



• Travel and Camp on Durable surfaces



• Dispose of Waste Properly



• Leave what you find



• Minimize Campfire Impacts



• Respect Wildlife



• Be Considerate of Other Visitors

In my experience, the two most abused practices are: leaving what you find and respecting the wildlife. Leaving what you find means not picking wildflowers or any other natural substances. These are meant to be observed not taken home with you. Outdoorists should be considerate enough to leave things for others to observe in their natural state as well. This is what your camera is for.

Respecting the Wildlife is the number one priority in my book. (probably because I want to be a wildlife biologist, just a guess) Last summer I had the oppurtunity to take the summer course Ecology of the Great Smoky Mountains here at AU. At the end of the course we took a week long hiking trip in the Smokies. This was a great experience for me. I was fortunate enough to encounter black bears almost everyday and also saw elk in the wild for the first time. Down there, the animals are used to being left alone by visitors and therefore, dont shy away from the presence of people. This allows for up close encounters, like when two black bears were foraging along an edgeline of the woods about 20-30 yards away from us. Two professional photographers were beside us and said they had been there all day taking pictures of these two bears. As the bears headed into the woods a person ran after them to get a picture. One of the photographers stopped him and explained that chasing a black bear was not a good idea and that he should be happy just to get a picture from 20 yards. I was so happy the photographer had the audacity to stop that man. That is just one example of people not giving animals their space. I believe that it is when people cross that threshold of wild animals that they will react towards their antagonist.

So the next time you go on vacation or are just taking a walk in your local park, please remember that you are walking through someone else's home. I encourage you to check out the Leave no trace behind website and put its practices into use!

Is Nessi Dead?

So I was watch the TV over the weekend and there was a Monster Quest marathon on that i was watching for one episode. They think they have found that the Loch Ness Monster is dead and that is why in the last years no new sitings have been reported.

It is not so much the idea of if Nessi dose/dose not or did/did not exist but more of the way they are doing the research. They were using the sonar tec that was the latest available. What I found to be interesting is that the man that holds most of the patents on sonar tec originally developed it so that he could look for Nessi.

For those of you that may say Nessi is just a turtle or a log in the water be glad that not all of the people that see things in the loch think that way. With out this gentlemen seeing Nessi he would not have made all the discoveries that he did in sonar tec.

I became vegetarian!

NOOOOOOOOO!!! Please don't think like "Oh, oh. Here's another tree-hugger"
I know it is a little awkward to say “I became vegetarian”, but I’ve got good reasons. I will accept any kind of criticisms after you read this post, so please bear with me for a while.


Well, first of all, what is your image on vegetarian??

Someone so religious?










Well, there are many religions which prohibit eating certain kinds of meat…


Extreme zoophilists??









Sea Sheppard…though I don’t know they are vegetarian or not.


Celebrities for their beauty???












Natalie Portman is vegetarian because she loves animals, but I put her for her beauty!


I had the same images like these.
However, the reason I became vegetarian is none of them.














THIS ONE EITHER!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Wow…this is kind of shocking picture. I was just googling “vegetarian” and found this…

Anyways, I’m typical Japanese who lightly believes Shintoism and Buddhism. If you are not monk, this kind of people does not care eating meat.
I think meat diet is a part of human culture (personally I think whaling is fine as long as we don’t catch them too much and we should not blame Koreans for eating dogs. These are all cultures!)
Also I don’t have such a good face to care about maintaining beauty, so those are not the reasons to be vegetarian for me.

The reason I became vegetarian is because I wanted to do something good to the environment.

“well...OK. But what do you mean??”

If you thought like this, that’s fine. I’ll explain you why! Let’s pick up some articles and reports which are officially published.


1. Energetic Efficiencies
Which do you think more energy efficient; plant-based diet or animal-based diet? Gidon Eshel and Pamela A. Martin from University of Chicago had research on this. To determine which diet is more energy efficient, they provided a table of efficiency on each food item.
Take a look at the table below.

Food item	100 ×(kcal protein/ kcal input)	kcal total/kcal protein	100 ×(kcal output/ kcal input)
Chicken	6.3	2.9	18.1
Milk	5.3	3.9	20.6
Eggs	3.6	3.1	11.2
Beef	2.9	2.3	6.4
Pork	1.5	2.5	3.7
Lamb	0.5	2.3	1.2
Herring	50.0	2.2	110
Tuna	5.0	1.2	5.8
Salmon (farmed)	2.5	2.3	5.7
Shrimp	0.7	1.3	0.9
Corn			250
Soy			415
Apple			110
Potatoes			123

Eshel and Martin defined energy efficiency as the percentage of fossil fuel input energy that is retrieved as edible energy. Did you notice that the vegetables (fruit) in the last four are surprisingly high?
Please keep this fact in your mind. We’ll see the problems on water in the next post! Take care till then!


Bibliography: Eshel, G., & Martin, P. A. (2006). Diet, Energy, and Global Warming. Earth Interactions , 1-17.