Category Archives: Issues in Science

Video

Is it our Fault? Fracking leads to Seismic Activity

Underneath the surface, there are many fractured cracks in the Earth’s crust, called faults. Naturally, these cracks would cause instability but with the overlying rocks above and rocks side by side acting as opposing forces, frictional resistance is formed, preventing fault movement. If this friction is ever counteracted the fault will slip, leading to seismic movement and threatening populations on Earth.

Fault Movement

Fault Movement

Hydraulic fracturing (fracking) negates this necessary friction when a high pressurized liquid is injected into the surface causing rocks to fracture in order to extract petroleum and natural gas. Following fracking, all the waste fluid must be safely eliminated so the chemicals do not infiltrate the surface drinking water. To be cost-efficient oil companies created concrete covered disposal wells a few meters below the surface to drill the wastewater into for permanent storage. The drilling of this wastewater counteracts this natural friction and causes separation between fault lines, leading to further seismic movement. As long as fracking and the fracking waste disposal system continue the faults will grow more unsteady, so a new method for oil extraction is crucial. In the United States the majority of seismic movements are triggered by waste fluid drilling disposal, however, in Canada less water is used in the extraction of oil so more earthquakes are driven by fracking.

Hydraulic Fracturing Process

Hydraulic Fracturing Process

New research shows an undeniable correlation between fracking water disposal drilling and earthquakes recorded in Western Canada’s oil region, Alberta and British Columbia since 1985. The results showed that 90% of earthquakes over the magnitude of 3.0 on the Richter Scale (which measures the severity of earthquakes) were linked to nearby fracking operations, while only 5-10% of earthquakes were generated from natural causes. Although only 0.3% of fracking operations included in the study were associated with severe earthquakes, a large abundance of magnitude 1.0 – 2.0 earthquakes have occurred. These may seem harmless, but for every small earthquake there is a higher rate of seismic activity and a greater probability that a massive, extreme earthquake will be triggered.

Showing the proximity and correlation between earthquakes and hydraulic fracturing sites in Alberta

Showing the proximity and correlation between earthquakes and hydraulic fracturing sites.

Seismologists have been attempting to keep deep injection sites far away from fault lines. However, as the oil industry grows there will be a continuous struggle to find area that will not affect plate tectonics. Further studies and computer simulation are able to give us  insight into how injections affect fluid pressure and how this increase in pressure leads to destabilizing the fault line. Nevertheless, the best solution is a new method of oil extraction, because soon fracking and wastewater disposal drilling will lead to much bigger earthquakes and man-driven environmental disasters.

-Jenna Carpenter-Boesch

1 Comment

Posted on September 26, 2016 by in Issues in Science

Tagged , ,

Life Beyond Earth

Posted on September 25, 2016 by | Leave a comment

When looking at the starry sky, have you ever thought that the Earth may not be the only place in our solar system that sustains life? To find out this, people never stop exploring the outer space and life beyond Earth:

The first message that human sent to extraterrestrial creatures is known as Arecibo message, which was used to celebrate the re-establishment of the Arecibo radio telescope in 1974. In 2014, NASA outlined its plan of searching life outside of the Earth in the next decades. 

Arecibo_Message

Arecibo message. The first message that human sent to outer space. Image by Wikimedia Commons. Link: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Category:Arecibo_message#/media/File:Arecibo_message.png

However, the universe is bigger than we can imagine. To narrow down the searching range, we need to know what kinds of conditions that a planet or moon is required to sustain life. According to Dr. Dave Brain, there are three conditions of sustaining life in a planet or moon.

Three Conditions

Energy On the Earth, life can obtain energy directly from the sun and creatures live underground or deep in the ocean can get energy from their unique chemical reactions. In our solar system, it is easy to find planets and moons that provide energy sources to life.

Food All the nourishments that life on the Earth requires are formed by only six chemical elements: carbon, hydrogen, nitrogen, oxygen, phosphorus and sulphur. These elements can be found on most planets and moons.

Liquid Water Liquid water is the hardest condition to meet. Having liquid water is not simple as it seems to be for a planet or moon. It relates to many other factors of the planet or moon, such as atmosphere and magnetic field.

YouTube Preview Image

Ted Talk. What a planet needs to sustain life by Dave Brain. Link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9RTkZaX1cH0

Possible Planets and Moons

Dr. James Green, NASA’s director of planetary science, gave his guess on possible planets and moons in the solar system that possibly fit the three conditions above and they are Mars, Titan, Europa and Enceladus. Considering the distance from the Earth, Mars is the most appealing one.

Mars On September 28, 2015, NASA confirmed that there is liquid water exists on Mars. Adding with the pervious findings that scientists observed and Curiosity, NASA’s Mars Rover provided, Mars became the first planet beside the Earth that meets the three conditions of life. On October 11, 2016, current American President Barack Obama set the goal of sending people to Mars by 2030s. New searches on Mars are ongoing and maybe one day, we can find life beyond Earth on Mars.

YouTube Preview Image

Ted Talk. 3 moons and a planet that could have alien life by James Green. Link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P1sbSJK1LiI

-Yiwei Liu

Leave a comment

Posted in Issues in Science

Tagged , , , ,

Why haven’t we found HIV vaccine yet?

Posted on September 25, 2016 by | Leave a comment

In 1984, after the cause of AIDS was discovered, US Health and Human Services Secretary announced that a vaccine for HIV would be available in two years time. Three decades later, more than eighty clinical trials and over thirty prospective vaccines to date, the virus is still winning!

Why is it such an impossible task to create an effective vaccine against HIV? A task that seems to have disheartened many researchers from striving to find the solution to a persistent pandemic! Without a cure for AIDS, a vaccine is the only way to slow it down; it has wiped out over 30 million people world wide and has over 34 million people currently living with HIV. Therefore, with millions of dollars being allocated to HIV vaccine research annually, why is a breakthrough still lacking?

Image from Wikimedia Commons

Image from Wikimedia Commons

Normally, vaccines are composed of a harmless form of the virus or parts of it such as surface proteins; these stimulate immune cells to produce compounds known as antibodies that bind a small part of the virus component called an epitope; the attachment deactivates the virus preventing it from invading healthy tissues and causing disease. Vaccines also activate immune cells that kill infected cells.

However, this type of vaccine, successful in controlling more than 30 most contagious illnesses, is defective when it comes to HIV. This is because HIV, like the common cold virus, undergoes numerous errors when replicating it’s DNA. Therefore, HIV’s epitopes are very prone to changing. Due to the high specificity of antibodies and “killer” cells, viruses that have changed epitopes cannot be deactivated by the same antibodies and “killer” cells. This property of HIV makes it very challenging to create an effective vaccine. Despite being weakened, using live HIV as a vaccine is also gravely concerning; it could possibly evolve into a virulent form as the virus is constantly mutating (changing). HIV particles are also by nature very different despite being incredibly mutable. This is because they descend from numerous ancestors. For an effective vaccine to be created, its breadth should be large enough to account for all HIV variants.

Another setback in the development of HIV vaccine is the fact that AIDS recovery is rare; vaccines are usually geared to mimic the immune response generated by our bodies after infection and recovery from the subsequent disease. In the case of HIV, the body cannot develop this immunity as HIV attacks immune cells. Lastly, HIV integrates its DNA with ours and becomes a part of us! This gives “killer” cells a hard time detecting infected cells where virus assembly takes place. These factors among others are what have stalled HIV vaccine development. But that does not mean a vaccine is impossible.

Despite the difficulties, no need to worry! We all possess an intangible, non-medicinal vaccine that undoubtedly has the highest success rate in preventing HIV infections so far; the will to take preventative measures as HIV isn’t easily transmissible. Learn more on how to protect yourself here.

-Jane Wanjiru

Leave a comment

Posted in Biological Sciences, Issues in Science

Tagged , ,

Cutting too quick?

Posted on September 19, 2016 by | Leave a comment

In 2015 the number of cesarean sections (c-sections) were at a whopping 32% of all births- this is almost double the number of c-sections performed in the 90’s! It is important to note that the risk factors that warrant doctors to perform an emergency c-section are not also on the rise. C-sections are being more and more often performed on low risk pregnancies, inherently putting both baby and mom at a higher risk of complications. The graph below show’s the maternal morbidity rate of women by method of delivery. It is evident that c-sections have a much greater risk than vaginal births!

screen-shot-2016-10-11-at-7-00-52-pm

So if risk factors leading to c-sections are not on the rise and a c-section puts a mother at a higher risk of complications, why is the prevalence of c-sections so high? Lets take a look at some of the possible reasons:

Technology Electronic fetal monitoring begins once a pregnant woman enters the hospital. It tracks the babies vitals and can detect signs of distress. As the only way to really assess the babies safety, it’s a great tool. However, there isn’t extensive research on how to interpret the readings and there are many false positives, leading to more c-sections than probably necessary.

Decline in VBAC V-what? Vaginal Birth After Cesarean. Once a woman has her first cesarean birth- warranted or not-  there are complications involved in a subqequent vaginal birth. This means that a mother who delivers via cesarean will most likely have to deliver by c-section for all subsequent births. This is a positive feedback loop, definitely contributing to the rise in c-sections!

Control  Usually women have the choice of which birthing method they prefer. For some, it is as simple as wanting to choose the day and the doctor that delivers their baby- control only a c-section can give you. While this should still be taken into account, it probably isn’t a huge contributor to the rise in c-sections, as  a recent study found that only 10% of all c-sections were elected procedures.

Commercialization Is it possible that society is turning the most basic and beautiful reproductive right into a business? In a recent study – whose results are shown in the graph below-  it was found that the majority of c-sections occur from Monday to Friday between the hours of 8am and 5pm. Hmm… that’s convenient.  Could the number of c-sections be on the rise because the labor and delivery doc wants to get home in time to eat dinner?

screen-shot-2016-10-10-at-5-52-47-pm

Regardless, it is important that a woman knows her options when she is in the delivery room and it is equally as important that doctors are making the best choice on behalf of the mother, who is in arguably her most powerful and vulnerable state. Whatever factor, or more likely combination of factors, is responsible for the increase in c-sections, it is critical that we don’t lose sight of the most important thing: the safety of both mother and baby.

-Steph Schaupmeyer

Leave a comment

Posted in Biological Sciences, Issues in Science

Tagged , , ,

The Solution is Sugar!

Posted on September 19, 2016 by | 2 comments

The farming industry requires an immense amount of labor and money. However, there are many factors that come into play when producing a healthy crop. Focusing on rice agriculture, examples of harmful disease that cause loss of crops are blast and brown spot.

Blast disease is the most important disease that has been affecting rice crops worldwide. This disease infects rice crops by creating lesions on different parts of the plant, such as the leaves, seeds and even roots. The lesions lead to cell death and eventually cause death of the leaves and entire plants. The following video demonstrates the impact of the rice blast disease.

Credit: This Week in Louisiana Agriculture, YouTube.

So, what is being done to protect crops?

Since rice crops are a predominant food source for a vast population around the world, it is important to keep these crops healthy. One method of controlling disease in rice crops are fungicides, however, they sometimes have negative effects on the environment and human health. For example, the fungicide Mancozeb creates concerns in human metabolism and respiration.

Fungicides are not a long-term solution! Pathogens are able to become resistant to fungicides overtime and infect crops. The production and use of fungicides is costly and to have them become ineffective is a waste of both time and money. Due to these effects, research is being conducted in order to find substitutes for fungicides.

What have researchers found?

One solution is sugar! Chitosan specifically, is a sugar that can be found naturally in the shells of crustaceans and is renewable.

Could Chitosan be the solution to the long-lasting issue of using fungicides in agriculture?  The most important benefit of Chitosan is that it is naturally present in the environment and therefore is not as harmful as using chemicals. Secondly, Chitosan is abundant, accessible and not nearly as expensive as producing chemical fungicides — which are only short-term solutions.

How does Chitosan work?

Chitosan possesses properties that help protect plants and promote antifungal behaviour. A study proposed that Chitosan inhibits the access of fungi to essential nutrients of plants, preventing the growth of fungi.

Another study concluded that Chitosan modifies the outer membrane of pathogens, destroying their ability to attack plants and therefore making crops less susceptible to fungal virus and disease. Along with preventing fungal disease, Chitosan also activates defense mechanisms in plants. The dual action of Chitosan makes it an ideal substitute for fungicides.

Is Chitosan a long term solution?

I believe that the Chitosan solution definitely has benefits such as, being renewable and inexpensive but it should be tested extensively to prove success. Research has shown several qualities of Chitosan such as antimicrobial properties against viruses, bacteria, fungi and insects, which further confirm it as a good solution for protecting rice crops. Despite these findings, Chitosan should be tested thoroughly before being put into practice to avoid putting crops at risk of failure.

Pavneet Virk

2 Comments

Posted in Biological Sciences, Issues in Science

Tagged , ,