Category: Science Communication

Categories
Final Project Interview Project Issues in Science Public Engagement Science Communication Science in the News

The Bottle-Neck Effect


 

Photo of Killer Whale courtesy of http://www.maniacworld.com/killer-whale.htm

 

Over 500 species of plants and animals are considered at risk in Canada. The 2003 Species At Risk Act (SARA) was implemented to protect these species. However, out of those 500 species that are currently listed, only 150 have recovery strategies and only four have implemented recovery action plans.  It is clear that this act must be improved if Canadian species are going to be protected. This was the motivation behind the November 2010 paper, “Science, Policy and Species at Risk in Canada” by Dr.Jeannette Whitton et al. This paper took an in-depth look into how SARA works and how to improve it.   (See video for an overview of the paper.)

 

 

Video: The Bottleneck Effect

 Issues with SARA:

Listing stage

 

  • Lack of expertise
When the Committee On the Status of Endangered Wildlife In Canada (COSEWIC, www.cosewic.gc.ca) prioritizes the species that are more likely to go extinct, the species for which there is less expertise ends up being classified as “data deficient,” and most likely do not get listed. The government has no obligation to conduct further research or assessment on them, so “data deficient” species remain unaccounted for. This may become a bigger problem in the future as the focus switches to listing invertebrates, where there is even less knowledge.
  • Timing is Everything

Status assessment by COSEWIC and legal listing by the federal government are currently two separate steps in SARA. Unfortunately, this structure gives the government “an opportunity to avoid or delay the costs and consequences of protecting imperiled wildlife species.” This may explain why the federal government chose not to list 23% of the species recommended by COSEWIC between 2003 and 2007. On the other hand, this separation “allows a time window for stakeholders and civil society to become more involved in the legal listing process” and “allows for a transparent separation of science and policy.” Researchers believe these benefits far outweigh the negative effect of separation.

  • Economics vs. Science

Governments have to take into account the financial impacts of their decisions, and Canada’s government is no exception. The government relies on economic impact analysis to decide which COSEWIC-recommended species should be labelled “at risk” but researchers see their analysis as “incomplete.” Economic concerns make up “50% of the cases in which listing has been denied outright [by the government].” For this reason, researchers question the effectiveness of the current structure, stating that the “economic analysis is not supplied as independent science advice but rather is embedded in a nonscientific policy-based framework.” They suggest that the analysis comes too early in SARA’s evaluation process and thus economic concerns end up outweighing scientific considerations and dominating the listing process.

 

 

Recovery strategies: Ineffective meshing of science and policy.

 

  • Lack of Clarity
Creating recovery strategies has been “slow and problematic.” Scientific assessments and socioeconomic considerations quite often end up contradicting each other and therefore it should be made clear which is considered the most important in each case.
  • Lack of Definitions
To help at risk species survive and recover, we need to explicitly define these terms. The Canadian government has suggested survival “would mean maintaining the current population in the ‘short term’.”  But it is open to interpretation what represents ‘short term’ in Canadian policy? Also if this was the case, for a species at risk of extinction, merely maintaining its population in the short term “would provide little assurance of continued survival.” Recovery has been defined as “long-term persistence” or when decline is “arrested or reversed.” The ‘or’ in this definition allows the government to choose the easier option of arresting decline rather than reversing it.  Do you think stopping decline is enough to be classified as recovery?
  • Defining Habitat Issues

Classifying the critical habitat of species has been highly controversial. The law to identify critical habitat “to the extent possible using the best available information” is not reflected in how many habitats have actually been identified; habitat has only been defined for 23 of the 104 species with finalized recovery strategies. However, researchers think this may improve in the future as a result of two court cases in 2009 that successfully challenged recovery strategies that omitted known critical habitat from the final strategy.

  • Conflicting Interests Overshadow Scientific Content
The biggest issue in preparing recovery strategies is that the government ministries that currently oversee the process “may have conflicting interests.”  To prevent this influence from distorting scientific assessments, researchers propose the science should be presented separately from governmental assessment in a new two-step listing process.  The proposed differences can be seen in figure 1 below.
Current and suggested structures of SARA "Science, Policy and Species at Risk in Canada"

 

 

Suggestions for Improving SARA
In conclusion, the current Species at Risk Act is leading to a bottleneck effect; only 4 species have recovery action plans even though over 500 species are listed as ‘at risk’.  SARA considers both scientific and economic concerns, but it is not always clear which of these two factors is viewed as the most important. To improve the number of action plans being finalised, the researchers make a number of suggestions.

 

The paper’s suggestions:

  1. creating a mandated framework with a two-step listing process to separate independent science and government policy decisions.
  2. incorporating timely independent, non-governmental peer review of decisions.
  3. defining important terms more clearly to avoid misinterpretation and taking shortcuts.
  4. making the whole process more transparent.

 

One of the researchers, Dr. Jeannette Whitton thinks the transparency of science is especially important during the creation of recovery strategies. It needs to be clear what the ideal situation for the recovery of a species is, what the most realistic scenario will be, and why these two assessments differ.  The taxpayers are funding this process and therefore they have a right to see what is happening.  The government is currently conducting a long overdue review of SARA and the researchers hope that their suggestions will be taken into account.

 

See the SARA website http://www.sararegistry.gc.ca/default_e.cfm for up to date information on the Species At Risk Act, new listings and recovery strategies.

 

Banff Spring Snail Photo © Mark and Leslie Degner
Podcast – Detailed information of specific species
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 A discussion with Dr. Whitton about specific species at risk
References
  • Movie by: Grace Jauristo
  • Script by: Grace, Maki, Matt and Junaid
  • Blog by: Maki Sumitani and Matt Wagstaff
  • Podcast by: Junaid Sargana
  • “Science, Policy, and Species at Risk in Canada” by Arne O. Mooers, Dan F. Doak C, Scott Findlay, David M. Green, Chris Grouios, Lisa L. Manne, Azadeh Rashvand, Murray A. Rudd, and Jeannette Whitton.  Published in BioScience, Vol.60 No.10, November 2010
Thank you!
  • We would like to thank Dr.Jeannette Whitton and Geoff Hoare for their contributions
  • Thank you to the Beaty Biodiversity Museum at UBC and the Vancouver Aquarium for allowing us to film and take photos
  • Thanks to the science 300 professors, Eric Jandciu and Jackie Stewart for all their help and advice.
  • Take a look at this link for some more information: endangered species in Canada
Categories
Environment Final Project Interview Project Issues in Science Science Communication

The Lower Fraser Valley Warms Up to Ozone – The Warning of the Global Warming

In Dr. Down Steyn’s research paper, “Impact of Climate Change on Ozone Pollution in the Lower Fraser Valley, Canada,” he analyzed climate patterns to determine which types led to elevated levels of ozone. His analysis allowed him to predict if there would be an increase in episodes of elevated ozone levels in the future (2046-2065). Dr. Steyn used different statistical techniques to capture the climate pattern, and applied these to forecast the future of air quality in the Lower Fraser Valley. According to Dr. Steyn, episodes of elevated ozone levels will increase to a dangerous amount due to global warming, and as such actions must be taken to address this problem. 

 

Environmental Canada: The image of Lower Fraser Valley

 

Air quality and Health affects

Ozone is a molecule consisting of three oxygen atoms. Despite its benefits in the upper atmosphere as a shield to harmful UV radiation, it is a pollutant in lower atmosphere. Addressing such a study is important because ozone is damaging to plants and poses certain health risks to humans. Such risks include lung inflammation, lung diseases, premature death, heart attack, and stunting the plant growth.

 

What affects the air quality?

There are three components to look at: temperature, wind, and pressure.

William M. Connolley: the image of atmosphere pressure pattern

1) Temperature has a significant relationship with the production of ozone. Ozone is generated by a chemical reaction and the rate of this reaction is temperature dependant. Thus, higher temperatures equate to abundance in ozone.

 2) The wind is what mixes the atmosphere. Mixing causes dilution and as a result, lowers the amount of pollution.

 3) In summer, a high pressure system develops in the Lower Fraser Valley. High pressure makes the atmosphere heavy, resulting in the sinking of the whole atmosphere. This sinking then causes the increase in temperature with its height and the vertical mixing is reduced.

 High Temperature + Light Wind + High Pressure System

= Pollution level ↑

 
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A7Y0juwbHcU

How was the study conducted?

In order to analyze the climate pattern, Dr. Steyn used different statistical techniques and the following podcast will explain the specific tools used to analyze the pressure patterns such as:

–       Canadian Climate Model

–       Program for atmospheric pressure pattern

–       Empirical orthogonal function (EOF) decomposition

–       Clustering (grouping of pressure patterns in six dimensions)

Audio clip: Adobe Flash Player (version 9 or above) is required to play this audio clip. Download the latest version here. You also need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser.

 

Dr. Steyn concluded that in the future, the weather types are going to be the same while the temperature will be warmer due to global warming. In other words, global warming is the main factor in increasing ozone level.

 We thank Dr. Steyn for giving us an interview and explaining his research. We also would like to thank our SCIE 300 instructors for designing the science outreach project.

 

Categories
Environment Issues in Science Public Engagement Science Communication Science in the News

So is it too late?! Just ask David Suzuki…

On November 3rd, I witnessed one of the greatest examples of communicating science that I have ever seen. That evening, the University of British Columbia (UBC) was the lucky host to one of the most influential Canadians of our time: David Suzuki. He presented a lecture entitled “The Global Eco-crisis: Is it too late?”

 

David Suzuki, with a grayling from the Hart River, 2011. Photo by peelwatershed.

Who is David Suzuki?

If you have been living under a rock for the past few decades, you wouldn’t know that David Suzuki is one of the most well-known activists for reversing climate change, writing many books and hosting several TV shows on the subject. Most notably, he hosted the Canadian TV series, “The Nature of Things.” In 1990, David Suzuki co-founded the “David Suzuki Foundation,” a non-profit organization, which focuses on sustainability and climate change.

 

As David Suzuki braced the speaking podium, I prepared myself to be changed.

 

Humans are unique

David Suzuki began to trace the origin of humans from our common ancestors in Africa to today. What made   humans unique, he claimed, was their foresight. That is, our innate ability to predict or plan the future. He   explained that humans moved from Africa to eventually cover the world. Using our foresight, we exploited the resources of every location, only to move on when those resources were depleted.

 

Laws that we CAN change

Dr. Suzuki went on to describe the so-called “laws” that we have imposed on society today, specifically, a “law” called capitalism. But, he said, “laws” like capitalism aren’t really laws at all but they are “nuts!” because we can change them. With capitalism, economists rule the world and they just don’t give a “shit” about our environment and what we do to it. It is time that we change these laws and take control back from the economists. To do so, we have to take back our government and make it more representative. Vote.

 

Stop the excuses!

Moving on to current efforts being made, David Suzuki claimed that our government is full of excuses. As an example, he discussed the carbon tax. In Canada, we claimed that our businesses couldn’t survive a $15/ton carbon tax. But in Sweden, their business are doing just fine with a $120/ton carbon tax. It is time that we stop making excuses and get to work.

 

Never too late

Drop in the bucket. Photo by theilr.

 

Inspiring us, David Suzuki concluded that it isn’t too late. We can save our environment but first, we have to take back our government and the only way to do that is to vote. You may just feel like a drop in a bucket but he reminded us, with enough drops, we can fill the bucket.

From this lecture, I didn’t just learn that we need to change our environment but I also learned how to connect with your audience. David Suzuki kept the science basic and used language that was not only fun (there were more than a few swear words…) but easy to understand.

David Suzuki left me stirred.

Categories
Biological Sciences Issues in Science Science Communication Science in the News

Are YOU a snake-lover or an ophidiophobia (snake-phobia)?

A picture of Burmese Python. Source: CBC News

Are snakes one of your favourite animals or are they your least? Although some may adore them, I am among the people who are terribly afraid of them, or what people call an ophidiophobia. Who would have known that, “pythons’ big heart [could] hold clues for human health[?]” (The Associated Press). Scientists now learned that when the pythons undergo digestion, their hearts expand to the size similar to that of an Olympic athlete. How is this relevant to human? Scientists now look for clues from the pythons’ powerful heart muscles that could potentially benefit human’s hearts. A molecular biologist at the University of Colorado in Boulder, Leslie Leinwand, found that the pythons’ hearts expand because they are building up more muscles.

There have also been studies done on the pythons’ digestion pattern. For instance, reptile biologists observed that Burmese pythons could survive for almost a year without food. Furthermore, once they resume the meals, their metabolism would increase up to more than 40-fold. After digestion, their organs, except the brain, would grow larger in size. Leinward notices this distinct observation and tries to make a connection to human heart diseases. For people with chronic high blood pressure, their hearts are not able to circulate the blood as well as normal hearts. However, vigorous exercise might be able to enhance the recovery and strengthen heart muscles just like those of the pythons.

Dr. Leinwand working with the Python. Credit: Thomas Cooper

How is the research being conducted? Dr. Leinwand and her team worked with baby pythons to study their internal organs in details. Dr. Leinwand came to a conclusion that for these pythons, the fatty acids increase up to as much as 50 times during digestion. Theirs cells grow bigger, thus resulting in a larger heart size. Python’s blood is also full of fat, mainly three specific fatty acids in a particular combination, that enables this capability. Do these fatty acids have negative impacts on their hearts’ conditions? No, instead, they act as the heart protection. The pythons can rapidly burn the fat, turning it into fuel for energy. In contrast, humans’ metabolisms are not that efficient so the cells would accumulate fat and the accumulation might contribute to various heart diseases. As for the pythons, they already have enzymes to protect their hearts from damages during digestion.

A video on Dr. Leinwand’s interview in her laboratory.

One of the main researchers, Cecilia Riquelme, studied the applications of this knowledge. First, she bathed a rat’s heart cells with the plasma, blood cell, from the snake. The result turned out that the content of the python’s blood made the heart cells grew bigger and stronger. Researchers now continue to study that if putting fatty acid from the pythons’ blood into the rats would lead to any beneficial growths.

This is relevant to us because if these rats could benefit from the fatty acids and have their heart muscles strengthen, it implies that the pythons could be the key in helping human with heart diseases. Pythons may after all become our heroes!

Further Resources:

http://www.newscientist.com/article/dn21099-a-shot-of-snake-blood-makes-the-heart-grow.html

References:

http://www.cbc.ca/news/technology/story/2011/10/28/python-heart.html

http://cen.acs.org/articles/89/i44/Fatty-Acids-Heart.html

http://www.voanews.com/english/news/health/132940113.html

Categories
Course Reflections Issues in Science Public Engagement Science Communication

“A tablet a day, and I was limitless.”

Source: Film O Filia

 

If someone approached you claiming their product would allow you to use 100% of your brain, would you buy it?

 

Source: National Institute of Mental Health

You are probably familiar with this scenario if you watched the thriller ‘Limitless’, released earlier this year, starring Bradley Cooper. The plot of ‘Limitless’ is based on one of the most commonly perpetuated ideas in society, that we use only 10% of our brains (this number varies depending on who you ask). But is this science fact or science fiction? Before you aspire to become an all-encompassing genius like Bradley Cooper in the film, let’s let science speak for itself.

 

The human brain is the most complex organ of the body and controls every aspect of our lives. It weighs roughly 1.4 kg, and uses a whopping 20% of all the food energy we take in. Scientists have divided the brain into many sections based on the functions they perform. These are some of the major brain lobes and their function:

-Frontal Lobe: reasoning, planning, parts of speech, movement, emotions, and problem solving.

-Parietal Lobe: associated with movement, orientation, recognition, and perception of stimuli.

-Occipital Lobe: associated with visual processing.

-Temporal Lobe: associated with perception and recognition of auditory stimuli, memory, and speech.

This is by no means an exhaustive list, as these lobes contain several sub-divisions, which are known to perform even specific tasks.

Source: Mysid

Evidently, these divisions compose the entire brain, not a mere 10% of it. What is true then, is that we may not use all parts of our brain at the same time, but every section of the brain is necessarily used at some point to perform certain tasks. We know this to be true by studies of brain damage. When almost any part of the brain is damaged, there is always a loss of abilities. Furthermore, brain-imaging technologies have shown several areas of the brain (more than 10%) to be active at the same time under many circumstances, such as during sleep. This fact alone is enough to debunk the notion of using 10% of our brains as a myth by default.

 

Source: Human Diseases and Conditions

So, despite how much science has progressed in studying the brain, most people still dwell in ignorant bliss. Perhaps because advertisers and the media prey on them by stating this phrase as scientific fact. Shockingly, even people who profess scientific background take part in spreading this misinformation. The truth is, this is a misquote that has gone viral, and is absolutely misleading people as science.

 

Let’s focus on the opening question.

 

There do exist substances, such as certain drugs or functional foods that can improve or enhance mental functions. One such substance that you may be familiar with is the caffeine in coffee or energy drinks, which improves memory and concentration. Nonetheless, based on the claims of the person, it would be wise to refuse their offer, because truly humans already use 100% of their brains.

 

 

Further reading:

http://faculty.washington.edu/chudler/tenper.html

 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/10%25_of_brain_myth

Categories
Fun! General Science Communication

Do dinosaurs go RAWR?

Chris Cook of NovusTV interviews Iain Fraser, Science Facilitator at Science World about Extreme Dinosaurs. Source: Youtube Channel (NovusTV)

Not everyone can truthfully say that they work amongst a collection of giant robotic dinosaurs. However, I actually can live up to that claim, as I work part-time as a Science Facilitator at Science World during the weekend.

The Extreme Dinosaurs exhibition currently at Science World hosts 18 species of dinosaurs in animatronic form (essentially robots that look and move in a very lifelike fashion), most of which are life-sized. All of these dinosaurs have strange characteristics that were used to help them survive during the Mesozoic Era; these range from horns, plates, and crests to even feathery down, bony tail clubs, and thick skulls.

Pachycephalosaurus skeleton on display at the Royal Ontario Museum. Source: Wikimedia Commons

The actual purpose of some of these adaptations is still up for debate. For example, some scientists hypothesize that Pachycephalosaurus may have butted heads like rams to show dominance while looking for mates due to their thick skulls. Others think that the skulls were too fragile for the dinosaurs to butt heads, and aimed for the side of their competitors’ bodies instead.

Even with fossil evidence, there are still many adaptations that paleontologists have not been able to come to a consensus as to what their purposes were. There are some characteristics that can’t be verified from the fossil record, like the colour of dinosaurs and the sounds that they make. These still remain a mystery, and the best that scientists can do is to make an educated guess.

With many new species of dinosaurs being discovered within the past few years, the scientific method of making and testing hypotheses is alive and well in the field of paleontology.

Categories
Issues in Science Science Communication Science in the News

Where Do Satellites go when they die? -Another Dead Satellite to Fall This Weekend

 

Illustration courtesy DLR: An artist’s impression of ROSAT in orbit.

Dead Satellites are being ‘unwelcome guests’ recently. The 6-ton Upper Atmosphere Research Satellite (UARS) satellite has entered the Earth’s atmosphere early morning of September 24th 2011, but where it has crashed remains unknown. According to NASA, debris would likely have fallen in Ocean, and it may never be found.

     Another defunct German satellite called ROSAT is headed straight for the earth this weekend and there is a higher chance(1 in 2,000 while UARS’ has been 1 in 3,200) that a piece of space debris could hit someone.
European Space Agency : The Earth

Usually satellites’ lifespan depends on their sizes; life span is determined by how much liquid fuel they carry aboard. A satellite that has exceeded its useful purpose has several final resting places. These depend on the amount of fuel available on the satellite, and whether ground control is still able to manoeuvre it. One method is to move the satellite into a ‘graveyard orbit’ (geostationary orbit), which is higher in orbital band and no other satellites are orbiting. Dying satellite can be left to degrade over time, but as it breaks up and potentially shifts in orbit, this could still prove dangerous to other satellites.

 

European Space Agency: Red dots= debris, White dots= operating satellites, Outer ring= satellites in geostationary orbit

    Some satellites are merely left in their current orbits if uncontrollable. Other satellites are purposely moved lower into the atmosphere so they burn up and hopefully disintegrate before reaching the Earth. While this is usually the case there have been some notable exceptions, including NASA’s Skylab station  in 1979, NASA’s UARS and ROSAT as mentioned earlier.

 According to the Federal Communications Commission, any satellite with altitude in geostationary orbit, meaning that satellites just below 36,000 km, must be moved farther away from the Earth at the end of its useful life.

    Satellites fall because of frictions and resistance of the atmosphere. In theory, if satellites’ centrifugal force and the Earth’s gravity balance, satellites can circulate the orbit without falling. Scientists probably have worked on different calculations on how satellites work; however, such recent events may appear as lack of preparation and carefulness. There are no clear back-up plans suggested if their expectations are not met. Our lives certainly have become more convenient with satellites, but if what we sent out in the past can come back to hurt us, how meaningful are those techniques? We have to look out for the safety of satellites rigorously.

European Space Agency: Computer-generated image of the Earth

    Not only that, there is a real danger. Concerning that we are sending the dead satellites to outer orbit and keep sending new satellites without proper disposal methods, our planet is turning into the largest dumping ground. Is this what you expect our planet to look like? Would this be what aliens expect the earth to be? They will have problems figuring out whether this Saturn-like planet is the earth!

 

Categories
Biological Sciences Environment Science Communication

True Heroes: African Pouched Rats Trained to Detect Landmines

All it takes is one more step, a resounding click for it to be your last. In Africa last year, 6000 people walked on landmines. Sadly, there was no way of knowing what was below the surface. A simple and sustainable solution for Africa’s real world problem has now been found. Bart Weetjens, a Buddhist monk, developed a program called APOPO (Anti-Personnel LandMines Detection Product Development). This program trains African Giant Pouched Rats, Cricetomys Gambianus, to detect landmines to save human lives.

Bart Weetjens holding an African Giant Pouched Rat. Source: APOPO's website

Why rats?

It is true that dogs have already been trained to detect landmines; but, it costs five times more to train demining dogs than rats. This significant difference allows APOPO to use the remaining money to expand training programs. Also, like dogs, these animals are highly sociable with humans. However, unlike dogs, rats have more genetic material allotted to olfaction (sense of smell). They have an amazing capability to map smells and communicate them to us. In addition, African Giant Pouched Rats are a native species to sub-Saharan Africa, which allows them to be easily caught and trained. Additionally, they are smaller in size, thus they do not activate the landmines; whereas large dogs may be at risk. Furthermore, rats differ from dogs because they do not get emotionally attached to a specific trainer. This is important because it allows for multiple trainers to handle the rats.

 

The Training Begins

Around four weeks of age, the rats are weaned, handled by trainers, and exposed to many different surroundings. The purpose of this is to reduce the rats’ easily startled instincts to run and hide.

Training then proceeds by teaching the rats to recognize a specific clicking sound followed by a food reward. This process is known as Classical Conditioning Methodology. Once the rat automatically associates the click sound with the food reward (a mixture of peanuts and mashed bananas) they move on to the next stage of training.

Next, the rat is placed into a cage with a  single hole in the bottom. Directly below this hole, a target sense is placed. The target sense consists of five drops of aqueous TNT, trinitrotoluene, solution. The rat’s goal is to learn to put its nose in the hole for five seconds until it can receive a food reward. Once this task is achieved, the rat moves on to the next level.

APOPO rats sniffing out the target sense in the cage's holes. Source: APOPO's website.

 

The subsequent step places the rat in a cage with ten holes, with only one containing the target sense. If the rat can continuously locate the target sense and hold its nose in the hole for five seconds, it can move on to conquer the next task.

As the undertakings get gradually more difficult, the rat usually accomplishes them more quickly. It must now face the job of learning to walk on a leash in the fields and find targets. They must learn to systematically move up and down on an axle and search the land. They are strapped to a harness and are gently directed in the correct direction by two trainers. Once this is accomplished they must discover real mines in real mine fields. The trainers know the rat has discovered a mine because they dig, bite and sniff at the ground for five consecutive seconds.

On average, it takes 252 days of training in the cages and fields to ready a rat for the final test.

 

The Test

Finally, once the rat has passed all its training stages, it is sent to The International Mine Action Standards. This test consists of 400 m² and 5-7 mines placed blindly under the surface. The team of trainer and rat must detect all the mines to get licensed and once this is accomplished the rat becomes an accreted animal to the operation in the field. If the rat fails this test, they must start their training again.

APOPO's rat detecting landmines in the field. Source: APOPO's website.
 Why is this important?

Currently, the rats are being trained in Morogoro and Tanzania. They are then shipped, along with their trainers, to Mozambique where more people are recruited to become trainers. For safety purposes, trainers are fully equipped with protective gear and two different rats always examine the same area to guarantee accuracy. Moreover, once the rats have indicated the same spot contains a mine, the area is further checked by a metal detector. The landmines are then disposed of by trained de-miners. In 2009 within nine months, APOPO’s team cleared 199,317 m² in Mozambique and discovered 75 landmines and 62 other explosive remnants of war. From this, 750 families were allowed to return to their land, to their home.

Already 11 African countries have adopted this skill. It allows them to be less dependent on foreign aid. In conclusion, these hero rats are saving many people’s lives. They empower vulnerable communities to tackle difficult and dangerous tasks at a feasible price.

Source: APOPO's website.

 Fun Fact:

Weetjens and APOPO have also trained rats to detect tuberculosis and they are in the process of training them to detect victims of earthquakes.

You Tube Video: HeroRAT being trained to sniff out landmines in Tanzania 

Further Reading:

 

 

 

Categories
Biological Sciences Issues in Science New and innovative science Public Engagement Science Communication Science in the News

Have some mercy, kill me!

Dr. Kevorkian dies at the age of 83 on June 3rd, 2011. (CNN blog-reports “Dr. Jack Kevorkian dead at 83”)
Dr. Death is the name given to a pathologist Jack Kevorkian. He made the headlines of national news in early 1990s for his legislation of a “right-to-die”. Is Dr. Death a murderer?

Early life

Jacob “Jack” Kevorkian, or Hagop Kevorkian, was born in Pontiac, Michigan, to a family of immigrants from Armenia. His mother Satenig and her family escaped Armenian genocide in 1915 and eventually immigrated to Pontiac where she met his father Levon. The couple had a daughter, Margaret, son Jacob, and lastly, daughter, Flora.
Kevorkian, who taught himself German and Japanese, graduated from Pontiac Central High School with honours in 1945, at the age of 17. In 1952, he graduated from the University of Michigan Medical School.

Career

Kevorkian’s career begins in 1980s with a series of articles written for the German journal Medicine and Law capturing his views on euthanasia. He started advertising in newspapers as a physician consultant for “death-counselling”. His first assisted suicide was of Janet Adkins who suffered from Alzheimer’s disease. He was charged of murder, but charges were dropped because of no law in Michigan regarding assisted suicides. However, a year later his medical licence was taken away and he was no longer allowed to work with patients. This did not stop Dr. Kevorkian from assistance of over 130 deaths from 1990 to 1998.

Methods

In each of the cases, when patient agreed to death, Kevorkian assisted by attaching them to a euthanasia device that he made. The individual then pressed a button that would end their own life. Two people were assisted by “Thanatron” (death machine), others with “Mercitron” that had a gas mask filler with carbon monoxide.

Later career, imprisonment

In 2010 interview with Sanjay Gupta, Kevorkian stated “what difference does it make if someone is terminal? We are all terminal”. He also mentioned that he declined four out of five requests, on the grounds of possible treatment.
On November 22, 1998 Kevorkian allowed videotaping Thomas Youk’s,52, voluntary euthanasia, who was in final stage of lateral sclerosis. In this act Kevorkian injected Youk. During the videotape, Kevorkian dared the authorities to try and stop him from carrying mercy killing. After that incident going on public, Kevorkian was charged with second-degree murder and sentenced to serve 10-25 year in prison. He spent eight years and 2.5 months in prison before he was paroled for good behaviour in 2007. He was paroled under the conditions that he cannot practice medicine or provide care to anyone older than 62 or disabled. He was also forbidden from making comments about his assisted suicides.

Death

Kevorkian suffered from kidney problems for years and had been diagnosed with liver cancer. He was hospitalized in May, 2011 and died in June of the same year.

Dr. Kevorkian was a jazz musician, composer and an oil painter. He sometimes painted with his own blood. Of his known works, six were made available in the 1990s for print release.

“You don’t know Jack” premiered on April 24th, 2010 with Al Pacino as Jack Kevorkian.

See also
– God bless you, Dr. Kevorkian

Categories
Communicator Profiles Issues in Science Public Engagement Science Communication

CoSTEP: Communicators in Science and Technology Education Program

There is a communications in science course that I would like to share. This past summer, I heard about a Japanese researcher named Dr. Gensei Ishimura, and I found through his website that he is one of the leading members of a program for training effective science communicators. This program is called CoSTEP, or Communicators in Science and Technology Education Program. This effort started out in Hokkaido University in northern Japan. It also received international attention through the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) held in Boston in 2008.

 

In an interview, Dr. Ishimura shared some methods of getting people involved in science communication.

  1. Sapporo Kanko Science Map (Sapporo Tourism Science Map)—This project explored how to use the web to communicate information, a similar aim to this SCIE300 course blog assignment. The CoSTEP teaching team preferred blogs as a blog format offers a simple method of updating information on the web. Dr. Ishimura reasoned that since there is so much information on the web, he must make his blog stand out by emphasizing the aspects unique to CoSTEP. Students enrolled in CoSTEP are mostly residents of Sapporo city with a science background, so they were asked to write feature articles on aspects of science found in various locations around Sapporo and to organize them into a map. As a final assessment, they compiled a manual for creating the science map and made it accessible to the public.

 

This shows that the content of the blogs as well as the method of creating it is important to learn about communication.

 

  1. Newspaper publication—In this component of the CoSTEP course, students learned how to write and publish newspaper articles. There were four workshops in total to understand and expand on the publishers’ ability to communicate to readers through newspapers. An example of the questions explored was “where do people pay attention to on a newspaper?” This type of data turned out to be a novel finding even for the publishers. Students also modeled a grocery store management group and presented on the advantages of posting an advertisement in a high school newspaper. This aimed to connect high school students and the publishers.

 

Newspapers are another popular mode of communication. This activity seems to address important ideas such as layout and targeting a specific audience.

 

Dr. Ishimura himself is a science communicator. His previous experience in the management of science museum exhibits shows a career where science communication skills directly apply to the aims of the institution.

 

References

Hokkaido University. (2008, January 29) Ishimura Gensei san ni kiku – Hokkaido Daigaku, AAAS e [Asking Mr. Ishimura Gensei – Hokkaido University, to AAAS]. Message posted to http://fox231.hucc.hokudai.ac.jp/AAAS2008/2008/01/post-6.html

 

IFES-GCOE Kankyo Kyoiku Kenkyu Koryu Suishin shitsu [Regioinal Education and Outreach Promotion Office. HokkaidoUniversity]. (2011). Ishimura Gensei san – “Watashi” no Kenkyuusha Zukan [Mr. Gensei Ishimura – “My” Researcher Encyclopedia]. Retrieved September 30, 2011, from http://gcoe.ees.hokudai.ac.jp/mfrs/?p=1160&page=2

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