There are many interactions between fisheries, including aquaculture and capture fisheries as well as their intermediate forms in freshwater and marine environments, and other uses of the aquatic systems such as agriculture, flood control, power generation, tourism, mining, transportation, land development (e.g. housing), and urban and industrial effluent disposal.
Synergistic interactions between fisheries and agriculture are primarily derived from the recycling of livestock or farming wastes and nutrients and optimal use of scarce land and water resources. In aquaculture, the active search for synergies has led to a number of development and management concepts such as Integrated Agriculture-Aquaculture (IAA), Integrated Irrigation-Aquaculture (IIA), as well as to livestock-fish or rice- fish production systems. These synergies have been enhanced by improving the use of water and reducing agricultural impacts on aquatic systems, e.g. through the Integrated Pest Management concept (IPM). These improvements have been beneficial in improving water and fish quality and productivity. Unexpected synergies have also been detected in marine fisheries where the nutrients of continental origin (e.g. phosphates, nitrates), often a source of eutrophication and red tides, are believed to have increased productivity (e.g. in the Mediterranean and the North Sea).The development of reservoirs and other small-water bodies for agricultural and other purposes offers additional opportunities for both aquaculture, culture-based fisheries through stocking, and capture fisheries.
Antagonistic interactions between agriculture and fisheries occur where these two sectors compete for the same kinds of resources, especially land and water, where rising productivity in one production system leads to reducing productivity in the other. For example, bad farming practices and deforestation impact on aquatic habitats and water resources - and therefore on fishery resources productivity and quality - through erosion, siltation, pollution and eutrophication (and red tides) resulting from excessive use of pesticides and fertilisers. Similarly, extensive saltwater or brackish water culture on coastal land areas affects the quality of soils (salinization, water logging) and the quality and level of the water table. Dams established for the purpose of irrigation, flood control or energy production impair fish migration and reproduction routes and change the qualitative nature of the habit which in turn influences the aquatic communities, e.g. changing species composition from riverine to lacustrine species. Efficiency in the use of water, primarily fresh water, and land resources is becoming of central importance to sustain increases in fisheries so as to provide for rural village communities and supply urban areas with the needed quantity, quality and variety of food. In many areas where human activities have rapidly expanded during the last decade, there is increasing pressure on limited land and water resources.
There are also interactions between capture fisheries and aquaculture. Development of aquaculture may adversely impact capture fisheries through habitat change associated with farming systems or impacts of introduced species. There is competition for space between the production systems; for habitat and resources between wild and farmed species; for the market between respective harvests and products; for wild seeds. Pollution from aquaculture may also be a problem. On the other hand, aquaculture may provide alternative employment in overexploited areas or additional resources for fishing through enhancement, and may be an important alternative source of fish for rural communities thus reducing the fishing pressure and helping in the rehabilitation of wild fish stocks.
The negative sides of these numerous interactions is progressively being recognised by Governments and industry and integrated management of natural resources is the strategy of choice to improve efficiency despite obvious implementation difficulties. The integrated management of watersheds, river basins and coastal areas (and of productive ecosystems in general) aims at managing sectoral components as parts of a functional whole. The overall objective of better integration between fisheries and other sectors in policy development and management is to maximize synergistic interactions and minimize antagonistic ones.
Awareness of inter-sectoral dependencies, through the environment and the global economy, is rapidly rising, stimulated inter alia by growing media coverage of ecological catastrophes, advances in data processing and information technology, development of ecological economics, increased mobilisation of social forces through NGOs communications. The abilities of local communities to participate in information gathering, analysis, decision-making and enforcement is better recognised together with the need to involve them directly in decisions regarding common property resource use. All of this has created favourable conditions to fully realize the benefits of better integration between fisheries and agriculture as well as of these sectors with the rest of the economy.
Numerous difficulties remain on the way towards better integration. Among these:
- the technical difficulty of integrated development planning;
- the political and economic difficulty of an equitable allocation of resources;
- the organisation of a balanced leadership of the interaction between sectors;
- the decentralisation of rights and responsibilities;
- the development of the human resources necessary for effective decentralisation;
- the cost of better understanding of the ecosystems functioning and resilience;
- the application of the precautionary approach when information is lacking;
- the development of integrated indicators of sustainability.


From a hotel room in Vancouver, Krista and Diamond discuss education, cognitive neuroscience, the importance of play, and more
What Adele Diamond is learning about the brain challenges basic assumptions in modern education. Her work is scientifically illustrating the educational power of things like play, sports, music, memorization and reflection. What nourishes the human spirit, the whole person, it turns out, also hones our minds.
An improvisational storytelling class of 5th and 6th graders draw on Adele Diamond's educational philosophy and demonstrate three important executive functions.
Pertinent Posts from the On Being Blog
Previous "On Being" guest, Adele Diamond, tells a story about meeting the Dalai Lama in Dharamsala, India at a Mind and Life Institute dialogue. We highlight some of the passages Adele Diamond presented to the Dalai Lama in Dharamsala — including texts from Rabbi Heschel, Bashevis Singer, Rachel Naomi Remen, and Henri Nouwen.
A bit of the backdrop for producing a slideshow about executive function.
Karen Armstrong prefers Hillel's version; Adele Diamond prefers Jesus' variation. Both take away a call to action. Hear them both.
A New York Times article features Adele Diamond's work the weekend before our interview.
About the Image
Voices on the Radio
Host/Producer: Krista Tippett
Managing Producer: Kate Moos
Associate Producer: Nancy Rosenbaum
Associate Producer: Shubha Bala
Technical Director/Producer: Chris Heagle
Senior Editor: Trent Gilliss
Associate Web Developer: Anne Breckbill
A renowned Tibetan Buddhist teacher shares his thoughts on the meaning of happiness, and how he understands spirituality as "contemplative science."
Stuart Brown, a physician and director of the National Institute for Play, says that pleasurable, purposeless activity prevents violence and promotes trust, empathy, and adaptability to life's complication. He promotes cutting-edge science on human play, and draws on a rich universe of study of intelligent social animals.


Indigenous Websites:Information Networks
Indigenous Websites: Opinion
Aborigines Milton- Ulladulla region
Produced in consultation with the Kupa Piti Kungka Tjuta, the Senior Aboriginal
Women from Coober Pedy, South Australia. Documents their knowledge of atomic
tests in the 1950's and 60's and their continued struggle against the proposed
waste dump in their traditional lands.
for Native Title and Reconciliation; their site has some great information,
and things you can join in on, - the Sea of Hands etc.
Events, newsletters, competitions and more, organised by ANTaR and Lets
Talk, all for the purpose of reconciliation.
Australia National reconciliation
body with partners in each State - includes archives of the old Council
sign in if you still want to say sorry...
Native Title Another group doing things,
including the Sorry Books, Sea of Hands, and Fax Direct.
National Public Discussion - Native Title and Reconciliation .
Media Coverage of Indigenous Issues:
ABC Indigenous Online
NATIONS) RECENT PRESS RELEASES Committee on the Elimination of Racial
Discrimination - in particular covering UN
comments on Australia's racism.
The Koori Mail
Excellent coverage of current Indigenous issues. It is a newspaper,
so students needing published articles: this is for YOU!
Australian Native Title Documents
World Indigenous Links:
back to AAR Homepage
text marked up by Sarah
last updated 12th Feb 2006
Begun February 1996.


Over the top of the atomic stitch is the main song line, and these patterns are recognized holistically by the shaman as the main identifying characteristic of the corresponding icaro. When I observed the shamans singing a cloth, they would trace their index finger along this main song line pattern, the melody rising or descending in general accordance with the rise and fall of the line. Again we see the visual metaphor of the shamanic staircase, represented as a descending song line.
Along the main song line itself and at various points of intersection along its path, can be seen the beautiful geometric designs called the floras. These flowers represent turning points where the song may take a new direction, such as a new verse or chorus. According to Herlinda, it is also the point where new life is born into the cosmos.
The colors of these flowers have significance as well, and they are woven in eight colors; black and white as the base colors of the cloth and primary stitch patterns; red corresponding with blood, childbirth, and the historical conflict between the Amazonian tribes; yellow for sunlight; green for the jungle; and blue for the rivers and lakes. Other colors include purple and orange their significance is not yet known.
*Source: "Woven Songs Of The Amazon" (Icaros and Weavings of The Shipibo Shamans) by Barrett H. Martin
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Shipibo-Conibo, Village of San Francisco, Amazon, Peru
The Shipibo are one of 14 indigenous tribes living in the Amazon basin in Peru and at present consist of around 35,000 people living in over 300 villages in the Pucallpa area situated mainly along the Rio Ucayali. They believe that the universe was sung into being by a giant anaconda, and as she sang, the patterns of her skin covered the universe. The intricate weavings created for centuries by the Shipibo are an ornate representation of the serpent's skin and, at the same time, are the actual, written music for the songs (icaros). Traditionally, the knowledge of the weaving patterns and songs has been passed down through the women, but due to the recent presence of western influences on the younger generations of women, these traditions are rapidly being lost.
The textile you see here is from the family of the late Herlinda Augustine and other women of the village of San Francisco. Herlinda Fernandez Augustine was one of a few Shipibo-Conibo indigenous woman healers – onaya or auahuasca shaman, whose life work is a unique repertoire of ancient songs (called icaros) which she uses to affect healing of her people and change in the world around her. Her songs speak of the power of plants and the importance of harmony between Man and Nature. She was featured in the award winning documentary film by Anna Stevens and her icaros are featured in a CD by the same name. Herlinda is survived by her husband Enrique, mother Manuela, daughter Magdalena and son Henry.
View other products from Herlinda


Some folks laugh at the notion of Uncle Sam reaching his hand literally into our backyards and regulating almost every drop of water. But, a bill in Congress would do just that. And if it passes, not just farmers and ranchers would be affected, but all landowners.
The Clean Water Restoration Act, or S. 787, gives the government the right to extend its reach to any body of water from farm ponds, to storm water retention basins, to roadside ditches, to desert washes, even to streets and gutters. The legislation leaves no water unregulated and could even impact standing rainwater in a dry area.
Private property owners beware.
While it has "restoration" in its title, it does anything but. The Clean Water Restoration Act is not a restoration of the Clean Water Act at all. It is a means for activists to remove any bounds from the scope of Clean Water Act jurisdiction to extend the government's regulatory reach. But, what the activists won't tell you is that the Clean Water Act is working, and has been for the last 36 years.
Put simply, this legislation would replace the term "navigable waters" from the Clean Water Act with "all interstate and intrastate waters." Farm Bureau supports the protection of U.S. navigable waters, as well as rivers and streams that flow to navigable waters -- all of which are already protected under current law. But, if the Clean Water Act is applied to all waters, farmers and ranchers would be significantly impacted due the number of farming activities that would require permits.
Under this new law, areas that contain water only during a rain would be subject to full federal regulation. Further, not only would many areas not previously regulated require federal permits, those permits would be subject to challenge in federal court, delaying or halting these activities resulting in a huge impact on rural economies.
Farmers and ranchers do a good job taking care of the land. As I often say, they are America's first environmentalists. They use modern conservation practices to protect our nation's water supplies. Many times these efforts are put in place voluntarily because farmers are driven by a strong stewardship ethic.
However, the restoration bill largely disregards the positive conservation role farmers and ranchers are playing. It replaces good works with strict rules. Rather than restore the Clean Water Act, it just brings a new truckload of restrictions for the people who do most to protect our water.
The Clean Water Restoration Act is regulatory overkill. It is written to give the federal government control of structures such as drainage ditches, which are only wet after rainfall. Taking these changes one step further, it would likely give federal regulators the ability to control everyday farming activities in adjacent fields.
Hard-working farm families can't afford, nor do they deserve, Uncle Sam's hand reaching into their backyards, their fields or even their puddles of rainwater.
Bob Stallman is president of the American Farm Bureau Federation.


Encyclopedia of Southern Jewish Communities
History of Congregation B'nai Israel, Little Rock
B’nai Israel congregation was first organized at the close of the Civil War, as increasing numbes of Jewish merchants and businessmen settled in Little Rock. In the summer of 1866, residents raised money to purchase a Torah scroll and ram’s horn for the upcoming High Holy Day services. Originally called the Little Rock Congregation, the group formally incorporated as B’nai Israel in 1867 and elected Morris Navra as its first president. Samuel Peck joined the congregation as a spiritual leader the following year. Many early congregants were adherents to Reform Judaism, and in accordance with the practices of some Reform congregations at the time, they referred to their leader as Reverend Samuel Peck. B’nai Israel was one of the founding members of the Union of American Hebrew Congregations, now the Union for Reform Judaism.
The group met in a small room on East Markham Street during its early years. The single room was officially dedicated on July 13, 1867. Soon, the young congregation began to work toward to building a suitable synagogue. In 1869, they purchased land on Center Street. In 1871, they laid the cornerstone for their first building. The congregation hosted a benefit ball to raise funds for a temple at 304 Center Street, which was dedicated in September of 1872. That same year, the congregation acquired land for a cemetery. Congregants also established a Sabbath School called Talmud Yelodim. The school enrolled 69 students in the first six months and began holding confirmation classes the following year. B’nai Israel also offered other communal organizations, including a Temple choir and a Board of Relief established to care for Jewish burials and illnesses. Rabbi Jacob Block served B’nai Israel from 1872 to 1880.
Disagreements about religious observances and liturgy led to a rift in the 1870s as the Jewish community of Little Rock began to divine along denominational lines. After disagreements over religious observances and liturgy, a group of more traditional members left to establish a separate Orthodox service. In time, this group evolved into the congregation Agudat Achim.
During this same period, B’nai Israel was finding it hard to keep a rabbi in Little Rock. From 1881 to 1891, they had three different rabbis, and went over a year without a full-time rabbi. Rabbi Charles Rubenstein came in 1891, and stayed for six years, playing a leading role in convincing the congregation to build a new home.
The increasing arrivals of Jewish newcomers to Little Rock swelled the congregation’s ranks. By the close of the 1800s, B’nai Israel had nearly 200 members and had outgrown the Center Street Temple. In 1897 the congregation erected a large ornate structure on the corners of Broadway and Capitol Streets. The magnificent yellow-bricked edifice bore a Byzantine-inspired dome capping a Romanesque tower as well as tall Gothic windows and spires. The interior, designed to seat up to 700, incorporated elements of Grecian and Roman theater architecture.
Rabbi Isaac Mayer Wise, founder of the UAHC, dedicated the new temple on May 9, 1897. Rabbis from Memphis, Camden, Pine Bluff, and Fort Smith were also part of the dedication ceremony. The congregation continued to grow under a series of capable and popular rabbis trained at Hebrew Union College in Cincinnati. Under the leadership of Rabbi Louis Wolsey, who served from 1899 to 1907, the congregation was so successful that in 1907 the temple was enlarged to accommodate the new members. That same year, B’nai Israel had 220 member families, and an annual income of over $7000. They had 156 students in their weekly religious school. A Ladies Temple Aid Society had been founded in 1903, and boasted 170 members by 1907. B’nai Israel grew over the next decade, and by 1917 it had 300 members.
The pulpit at B’nai Israel continued to experience high turnover during the first quarter of the 20th century. Rabbi Louis Witt had the longest tenure, serving from 1907 to 1919. In 1926, Rabbi Ira Sanders assumed the pulpit at B’nai Israel. He had formerly served as associate Rabbi at a large, cosmopolitan synagogue in New York. On Decoration Day of that year (now called Memorial Day), Sanders gave a speech titled: “Why the North and the South Should Meet Together.” Members of the Little Rock community happened to be in the audience, and they were so impressed that they enticed Sanders to accept the rabbinate at B’nai Israel. Sanders agreed and served as the beloved rabbi of B’nai Israel for the next 37 years. The days of the revolving door rabbis were over, another sign in the development of B’nai Israel.
During the Civil Rights era, Sanders was an eloquent and vociferous advocate of integration, at a time when many of his congregants avoided the subject for fear of reprisals. The late 1950s saw a spate of synagogue bombings across the south, and in October of 1958 Sanders received a threat that B’nai Israel would be bombed the following Friday eve. Rabbi Groner of Agudat Achim received a similar threat. Sanders decided to proceed with services, and that Shabbat undoubtedly became one of great joy for the Jewish community when the appointed hour passed without incident.
The congregation flourished under Sanders inspired leadership. The physical structure continued to expand, adding an education wing in 1949, a memorial library and an art gallery. The Temple was remodeled in 1953 and 1954, and the congregation continued to see strong attendance even as the Jewish population dwindled in smaller Arkansas towns. Rabbi Sanders retired in 1963 and assumed the role of Rabbi Emeritus, a role he served until his passing in 1985. His replacement as the congregation leader, Rabbi Elijah E. Palnick, maintained Sanders legacy of supporting civil rights and facilitating dialogue between Little Rock residents of diverse religious and racial backgrounds. Palnick was followed by Rabbi Eugene Levy, who has led B’nai Israel since 1987.
In 1975, congregants made the difficult decision to leave their building and build a new temple in West Little Rock. Many of the furnishings and even edifice stones from the old temple were lovingly preserved. The spacious, modern structure better served the community’s needs, and today the congregation continues to offer a complete range of educational, religious and social programming.


Nestled in a quiet residential neighborhood in Long Beach, Calif., are 4.7 acres of Spanish, Mexican and American history, where families helped transform southern California from its ranching beginnings to a modern, urban society.
Rancho Los Cerritos includes an 1844 adobe building, formal gardens and landscaped grounds. It is a national, state and local landmark, owned and operated by the city as a public museum and historic site since 1955.
As the country’s economic crisis works its way to the regional and local municipal forefront, the Rancho has found itself on the list for possible budget cuts. It begs the question, “Can one put a price on historic culture?”
While the answer seems obvious, the reality from a fiscal viewpoint is that this rare community treasure does not sustain itself financially.
From The Start
The original Rancho site was 27,000 acres of pastures for cattle and sheep that, starting in the late 19th century, gave way to development of the cities of Long Beach, Lakewood, Signal Hill, Bellflower and Paramount.
The site boasts a two-story adobe building with 22 ground-floor rooms and a serene central courtyard. It possesses outstanding potential for an interpretation of historical themes, beginning with the period of Native American occupation and continuing through the romanticized Spanish Colonial Revival Period of the 1920s and 1930s. The rich artisan materials of the area are present throughout the building. The 2- to 3-foot thick walls tell the story of the Native Americans who made adobe blocks using mud from the site. The beams were hand-hewn redwood from the Monterey area, and a majority of the rooms in the east wing contained redwood planked floors.
The construction of the ranch house began in 1844 by then-owner John Temple. The building was one of the largest and most impressive domestic adobes of its time for colonial Southern California, and its extensive gardens were unique for the time period. Temple built the ranch house as a country home and headquarters for his cattle-ranching operation. Its second owners, Flint, Bixby & Co., stocked the land with sheep. During the 19th century, horses, carriages and buggies were saddled and prepared in the courtyard. There were troughs and hitching posts, and blacksmithing and cooking facilities.
The ”milk room” opened onto a second courtyard north of the house, and contained rows of shining pans filled with cream both for churning and for the table–“clotted cream, thick enough to spread with a knife upon hot baking-powder biscuits, or a steaming baked potato.” Other original buildings on the site were a barn, corn crib, adobe brick oven, wool barn, a dip for the sheep after they had been sheared, a sheep barn and a granary. The large, 2-acre garden planted by Temple appeared to be a mixture of New England and subtropical influences.
In 1930, the well-known landscape architect, Ralph Cornell, created a garden plan for the new owners of Rancho Los Cerritos. He incorporated native plants, preserved many of the trees and plants surviving from previous owners, and reintroduced some plant species from the 19th-century garden. Surviving landscape elements included an osage orange, three pomegranate, two citrus, two olive and three Italian cypress trees. Several black locust trees also survived, along with a large Moreton Bay fig.
Cornell’s overall plan called for a sweeping driveway for the southern entrance and western boundary, bordered by curving layers of trees and shrubs. Outside the south wing, he planted a grid of both familiar and exotic fruit trees. A central lawn surrounded the Moreton Bay fig, bordered by trees and shrubs along a walkway. Through his use of rich materials and plantings, Cornell created a pleasant garden atmosphere to surround the remodeled living quarters. Even today, over 80 years after he created the gardens, many of the historic plantings are still alive and well.
A Red-Carpet Reputation
In March 1934, a Historic American Building Survey was made of Rancho Los Cerritos. Three years later, it was designated by the Department of the Interior as possessing “Exceptional historic or architectural interest,” being “most worthy of careful preservation for the benefit of future generations.”
In 1943, the city began working to acquire the Rancho as a historic site. The city opened a museum, and completed the purchase in 1956 for use as a historical monument, park and library. Rancho Los Cerritos was designated as a National Historic Landmark in 1970.
Presently, the city administers the Rancho through the Department of Parks, Recreation and Marine. The city holds title to the site and provides the entire funding for its operations. The Friends of Rancho Los Cerritos is a volunteer support group, which assists the site with its programming, and supports the educational and preservation mission. The Rancho Los Cerritos Foundation, a non-profit arm of the organization, was established in 1994, and is tasked with fundraising and development for restoration, capital projects and educational enhancements.
As the city faces a looming $52-million budget deficit next year, policymakers will be faced with difficult decisions. What public programs and services can be eliminated with the least impact? With public health and safety as a priority, fire, police and health services should take precedence.
Libraries and parks are further down the list. How important are the cultural and historic resources to overall city operations and function? Many say these resources are “optional” and not core services.
In 2007 and 2008, Rancho Los Cerritos raised $37,700 in revenue from programs, donations and gift-shop sales. The operational cost has a $467,000 price tag, subsidized by the city. Can the city afford to keep the site open during a financial crisis?
These are extraordinary times. Numbers on a spreadsheet tell a very different story than the one that is tangible at the Rancho. Translation is lost between profit and loss statements and the general atmosphere of the site.
Gazing at the magnificence of the 130-year-old Moreton Bay fig that sits on the back lawn area of the Rancho, one wonders about the Native Americans, the families and visitors who have enjoyed its grandeur and elegance over the centuries. This place, which represents a lifestyle reminiscent of the earlier tranquil days of ranch living. This place, where the owners entertained guests and played bridge after Sunday dinner, lit the large, two-story Christmas tree with real candles, and was the site of the annual Easter-egg hunt.
These were real experiences, of real people. It is the story of many generations from all walks of life–entrepreneurial businessmen, close-knit families, people who helped shape the community and region. Theirs are stories about land and economic development, cultural diversity and the growth of the city. And if there remains no choice but to close down this historic landmark, what is in store for this tree and these buildings that have survived and been a part of so much?
Despite the engaging history of Rancho Los Cerritos, these modern times force us to deal with funding realities.
Rancho Los Cerritos will soon turn a new page in its history book. One can only hope that the vivid memories can be kept alive through continued education about this neighborhood jewel, and a bookmark will steadfastly remain in its place until we are again able to forge ahead in better times.
Sandra Gonzalez, FASLA, is the manager for the Planning & Development Bureau for the city of Long Beach’s Parks, Recreation and Marine Department. She can be reached via e-mail at email@example.com


OLMOS CREEK (UVALDE COUNTY)
OLMOS CREEK (Uvalde County). Olmos Creek rises (at 29°08' N, 100°04' W) in far southwestern Uvalde County two miles southeast of Dabney and runs south for twelve miles to its mouth (at 29°01' N, 100°04' W) on Muela Creek, fourteen miles northwest of La Pryor in northwestern Zavala County. The creek name is Spanish for "elm trees." The stream rises in flat to gently sloping terrain with local depressions or sinkholes; the land here is surfaced by very shallow to shallow and stony clays and loams that support scrub brush and grasses. The creek continues through low-rolling hills and prairie with deeper clayey and loamy soils that support chaparral, some mesquite, and grasses. Toward the mouth of Olmos Creek the terrain becomes low relief, surfaced by deep loams and clays that support pecans and other hardwoods and various grasses.
The following, adapted from the Chicago Manual of Style, 15th edition, is the preferred citation for this article."OLMOS CREEK (UVALDE COUNTY)," Handbook of Texas Online (http://www.tshaonline.org/handbook/online/articles/rbo19), accessed June 19, 2013. Published by the Texas State Historical Association.


Researchers at the EMBL-European Bioinformatics Institute (EMBL-EBI) have created a way to store data in the form of DNA a material that lasts for tens of thousands of years. The new method, published today in the journal Nature, makes it possible to store at least 100 million hours of high-definition video in about a cup of DNA.
There is a lot of digital information in the world about three zettabytes' worth (that's 3000 billion billion bytes) and the constant influx of new digital content poses a real challenge for archivists. Hard disks are expensive and require a constant supply of electricity, while even the best 'no-power' archiving materials such as magnetic tape degrade within a decade. This is a growing problem in the life sciences, where massive volumes of data including DNA sequences make up the fabric of the scientific record.
"We already know that DNA is a robust way to store information because we can extract it from bones of woolly mammoths, which date back tens of thousands of years, and make sense of it," explains Nick Goldman of EMBL-EBI. "It's also incredibly small, dense and does not need any power for storage, so shipping and keeping it is easy."
Reading DNA is fairly straightforward, but writing it has until now been a major hurdle to making DNA storage a reality. There are two challenges: first, using current methods it is only possible to manufacture DNA in short strings. Secondly, both writing and reading DNA are prone to errors, particularly when the same DNA letter is repeated. Nick Goldman and co-author Ewan Birney, Associate Director of EMBL-EBI, set out to create a code that overcomes both problems.
"We knew we needed to make a code using only short strings of DNA, and to do it in such a way that creating a run of the same letter would be impossible. So we figured, let's break up the code into lots of overlapping fragments going in both directions, with indexing information showing where each fragment be
|Contact: Mary Todd-Bergman|
European Molecular Biology Laboratory


In the above applet, there is a pull-down menu at the top to select which function you would like to explore.
The selected function is plotted in the left window and its derivative on the right.
1. Exponential function with a fixed base
The initial example shows an exponential function with a base of k, a constant (initially 5 in the example). What does the derivative look like? It sort of looks like the original exponential function, but rising more steeply. Move the k slider around and notice what happens to the shape of the derivative.
Are there some values of k for which the derivative rises less steeply than the original curve? What value of k makes the two curves look similar? You can get even closer to this magic value for k by setting x = 1 and then watching the value of f '(1) (shown in a box in the right hand graph) as you move the k slider. Since f (1) = k, when f ' (1) = k, the two curves are identical. Once you get close using the k slider, you can also fine tune the value of k using the left and right arrow keys on your keyboard. You should find that for k ≈ 2.718 the function and its derivative are the same. The exact answer is k = e. In fact, you can type "e" into the k input box to make the curves the same. So,
What about when the base is a number other than e? It appears that the derivative is like the original exponential, but stretched or squished. In fact, that is what happens, and the shortcut is
2. Exponential function with a base between 0 and 1
What about for 0 < k < 1? Select the second example from the drop down menu. This is the same function, but now the k slider will let you select values from 0 to 5 (instead of just from 1 to 5, as in the previous example). What happens to the derivative curve? Why? What is the sign of the logarithm of a number between 0 and 1? The rule given above still works in this case.


By 2003, plenty of data suggested that pesticide drift was harming communities, but the pesticide industry and regulators refused to act.
For 20 years, the California Air Resources Board had been conducting experiments, looking for pesticides in the air around fields sprayed with pesticides. They found them. In 2003, PAN pulled together and analyzed this information in a breakthrough report, Secondhand Pesticides. We found that many pesticides remained in the air near fields at high levels for hours, or even days after application. Anyone in the vicinity of such applications faced exposure.
Sept. 9, 2008 Drift Catcher selected as 2008 Tech Awards Laureate by the Tech Museum of Innovation
PAN's air monitoring device, invented by chemist and senior scientist Dr. Susan Kegley, was designated a 2008 Tech Awards Laureate, one of 25 global innovations recognized each year for applying technology to benefit humanity and spark global change.
The Tech Awards, a signature program of The Tech Museum of Innovation in San Jose, California, selected the Drift Catcher from among hundreds of nominations representing 68 countries, for "empowering communities for health and sustainability" to measure concentrations of hazardous pesticides as evidence to prevent exposure to pesticide drift.
In over 20 years of our own direct field work with agricultural communities, PAN's international network had heard countless stories about how drift-affected communities had come to expect illness, nausea, rashes, and worse in the hours and days after fields had been sprayed. So, with communities across the country asking us to do something about drift, we invented the an air monitoring system we call the "Drift Catcher." It's affordable, robust and based on the same technology used by the California Air Resources Board in its studies.
The big idea? Put the tools necessary to prove pesticide drift into the hands of people who live through it. Make sure those tools are reliable and useable - the rest is just science.
Since its 2003 launch, Drift Catchers have been used in 27 projects in nine states by scores of trained volunteers and community leaders. Below are two case studies.
South Woods Elementary School in St. Johns County, Florida, is bordered on three sides by a large seed farm that sprays pesticides throughout the school year. Motivated by concerns about the health of the children at the school, residents of the county have been using the Drift Catcher to monitor the air near the school since 2006.
Exposure to the chemicals we found by South Woods Elementary are associated with a wide range of adverse health effects: endosulfan interferes with hormones and is linked with autism, birth defects and delayed puberty; diazinon is neurotoxic; and trifluralin and chlorothalonil are suspected to cause cancer. All are particularly dangerous for children.
Maybe now the school board will recognize the pesticide problem & take more serious actions to prevent future drift.– Alex Lowe, student in Hastings
In addition to focusing local, regional, and national media attention on the issue of pesticide drift, the reports on the 2006 and 2007 sampling have led the formulation of state policy recommendations on school siting and have been used by PANNA it’s campaign for the phaseout of endosulfan.
Lindsay, CA, is a predominately Latino community in California’s fertile San Joaquin Valley. The town grew up around orange trees, and most of its homes and schools are situated right next to groves where neurotoxic organophosphates are routinely sprayed. Acute exposure to these insecticides can cause nausea and vomiting, tremors and seizures, and even death; studies link chronic exposure with asthma and learning disabilities.
A local group, El Quinto Sol de America, used Drift Catchers from 2004 to 2006 to document the movement of chlorpyrifos (a neurotoxic, organophosphate insecticide) out the groves and into their yards. Here's a map of the Lindsay project, and a 4-pg summary of the results.
Results from biomonitoring and drift catching in Lindsay have since become the bedrock of efforts to win no spray buffer zones around schools and residential areas. Local activists in Tulare, Kern, and other agricultural counties across California have used these result to successfully push their County Agriculture Commissioners for buffer zones around schools and other sensitive sites.


Man vs. Meltdown
Will Japan's nuclear crisis end in catastrophe?
When the unexpected happens, even at a nuclear power plant, don't freak out. All you have to do is cool the cores. Just add water. If you can't deliver it through a pump, you can spray it from a truck or dump it from a helicopter. If pressure builds up, you can vent it. Yes, that might entail releasing some radiation. But releasing radiation isn't the end of the world. It's better to go nuclear in small doses than in a catastrophic blast.
While the workers at Fukushima wage this fight, the rest of us should rethink power plant construction with the same innovative urgency. American plants built with a container design similar to Fukushima's have already been upgraded to relieve pressure in the event of overheating. The Japan crisis suggests other fixes as well. Put diesel generators on higher ground. Require longer-lasting batteries to power the cooling system when the electrical grid goes out. And for crying out loud, build some robots.
Nothing is more exasperating than reading reports about all the things that can't be done at Fukushima—fixing valves, pumping water, ascertaining damage, dousing spent-fuel pools—because of heat, radiation, or the risk of explosion. Last year, BP plugged an oil leak a mile under the Gulf of Mexico with the aid of remotely operated vehicles. Why doesn't Japan, the world's most robotically advanced country, have unmanned vehicles on hand to do simple but dangerous jobs at a radiation-contaminated nuclear power plant? Ten minutes ago, I got a newsletter from the unmanned-vehicles industry about all the cool things robots are doing to help Japan. It has not a word about the nuclear reactors. That's disgraceful.
To head off the next nuclear accident, we need to rethink the parameters of plant design. Why do we build backup cooling pumps for reactors but not for spent-fuel pools? And we need layers of protection that are truly independent. If some safety mechanisms require electricity, others should be functional without it. Store cooling water above the reactor so you can deliver it with plain old gravity if you lose power. And diversify the layers. At Fukushima, all the gizmos failed, but the containers have largely held firm. Build in different kinds of protection—barriers, gizmos, training, manual tools—so that if one kind fails, another can intercede.
If everything goes wrong, and your reactor melts down, don't give up. You still have evacuation and iodine. And even if Fukushima becomes another Chernobyl, nuclear energy still has a much better safety record than fossil fuels, just as stocks have a better track record than bonds over the long term, despite the occasional crash. But that safety record depends on us. We have to learn from Fukushima, just as we learned from Chernobyl. We have to diversify our means of managing disasters and averting meltdowns. We have to give ourselves a fighting chance when things go wrong, as they sometimes will. Fukushima's workers haven't surrendered. We shouldn't either.
Human Nature's latest short takes on the news, via Twitter:
Will Saletan covers science, technology, and politics for Slate and says a lot of things that get him in trouble.
Photograph by Jung Yeon-Je/AFP/Getty Images.


Harvard economist Andrei Shleifer has a new paper on The Age Of Milton Friedman that begins with:
The last quarter century has witnessed remarkable progress of mankind. The world’s per capita inflation-adjusted income rose from $5400 in 1980 to $8500 in 2005.Schooling and life expectancy grew rapidly, while infant mortality and poverty fell just asfast. Compared to 1980, many more countries in the world are democratic today.
The last quarter century also saw wide acceptance of free market policies in both rich and poor countries: from private ownership, to free trade, to responsible budgets, to lower taxes. Three important events mark the beginning of this period. In 1979, Deng Xiao Ping started market reforms in China, which over the quarter century lifted hundreds of millions of people out of poverty. In the same year, Margaret Thatcher was elected Prime Minister in Britain, and initiated her radical reforms and a long period of growth. A year later, Ronald Reagan was elected President of the United States, and also embraced free market policies. All three of these leaders professed inspiration from the work of Milton Friedman. It is natural, then, to refer to the last quarter century as the Age of Milton Friedman.


Cruisin' Comet (December 21, 2004)
Hi-res TIF (3.0M)
Casually arcing above the Sun (from right to left in these SOHO LASCO views) this
week, comet SOHO-884 was first
seen by SOHO on Dec. 16, 2004. For the first couple of days in the video clip the
comet's tail is clearly
discernible, but then due to our viewing angle it seems to fade.|
The comet was first spotted in four images taken by SOHO's ultraviolet, interstellar medium-viewing SWAN instrument by Michael Mattiazzo, but he was not certain about it. On Dec. 16th, a bright comet entered C3 and was first reported by John Sachs. Shortly after, Sebastian Hoenig pointed out that this comet had the very real possibility of being Michael's SWAN comet, a connection that was soon confirmed. So many hands were involved in making the discovery. The comet is not a member of any known group of comets, but instead one that does not appear on a regular schedule as some do. SOHO has now discovered over 160 comets this year alone and as can be seen in the name "SOHO-884", this is the 884th comet discovered by SOHO since its launch in December, 1995.
Comets are frozen balls of ice and dust that are believed to have been created when the universe was very young. In fact, scheduled for July 2005, NASA's Deep Impact's spacecraft will arrive at Comet Tempel 1 and become the first mission to impact the surface of a comet. You can learn about this mission at http://deepimpact.jpl.nasa.gov/.
SOHO began its Weekly Pick some time after sending a weekly image or video clip to the American Museum of Natural History (Rose Center) in New York City. There, the SOHO Weekly Pick is displayed with some annotations on a large plasma display.
If your institution would also like to receive the same Weekly Pick from us for display (usually in Photoshop or QuickTime format), please send your inquiry to email@example.com.


10 Tips for Parents of Prospective College Students
1. Choosing a Career/Choosing a Major
Ultimately, your son or daughter should make the choice. Of course, you may want to mention factors to consider, such as job market demand, salary ranges, long-range opportunities, skills required, etc. Just because an occupation is "hot" now does not mean it will be equally in demand in 10 years or that your child has the aptitude or motivation for it.
2. Choosing to Double Major/Choosing a Major and Minor
Most employers do not place a premium on a double major. It usually requires an extra one or two semesters to obtain a second major and does not particularly enhance a student's marketability. Exceptions would be a second major or a major and minor chosen for a specific career, such as English and chemistry for technical writing, or a health policy major and business minor for hospital administration.
3. Grade Point Average (GPA)
Some students who get off to a rocky start eventually pull up their grades; however, this can be very difficult to do. Many employers stress the student's overall background: work experience, number of hours worked during the school year to finance college, leadership activities, etc. Encourage your son or daughter to make academics a high priority beginning with his or her freshman year. It is important to remember that it may take him or her a while to adjust to the rigorous academic demands of college.
4. Obtaining Marketable Skills
Most employers today put more emphasis on graduates' skills than on their academic majors. Encourage your son or daughter to develop strengths in at least two or three of the following areas:
- Computer skills (e.g., programming, word processing, spreadsheets, data base management, e-mail, Internet);
- Quantitative skills (e.g., accounting, statistics, economics);
- Communication skills (e.g., written and oral);
- Marketing/selling skills (e.g., sales, publicity, fundraising);
- Scientific skills (e.g., lab skills, scientific research);
- Foreign language skills (e.g., especially Spanish, Portuguese, Chinese, or Russian);
- Leadership skills (e.g., supervisory, extracurricular leadership roles, teamwork/team leader).
5. Leadership Activities
Many employers rate leadership activities even more highly than GPA. Students who were very active in high school activities may be less involved in college extracurricular activities. However, employers regard high school as "ancient history" for a college senior. It is more valuable for a student to be involved in a few meaningful leadership roles on campus than to be in a "laundry list" of many campus clubs.
You may want your son or daughter to work in his or her hometown every summer. However, the experience gained as a lifeguard or ice cream shop counter clerk does not compare to that which comes from an internship (paid or unpaid) in the career field that he or she aspires to enter. Future employers will seek graduates with relevant, real-world work experience. Some students have little to write about on a resume if their summers were spent in school, traveling, or working at low-level jobs. We strongly suggest that students seek career-related experience for their sophomore and junior summers even if they must live away from home or accept an unpaid internship. Students needing financial support can combine an unpaid internship with a paid job such as waiter/waitress, etc.
7. Graduating Early, Graduating Late
Some students graduate early through advanced placement credits, heavy course loads, and summer school courses. The advantages are lower educational expenses and the ability to start employment or graduate school earlier. The disadvantages may include the sacrifice of academic honors, work experience, and extracurricular and volunteer activities that may contribute to a student's maturity level and qualifications. Other students graduate late due to light course loads, academic difficulties, changing majors, poor academic advising, lack of direction, or reluctance to leave the cocoon of the college environment. Advantages to late graduation include the ability to improve grades with light class loads, extra time to change majors, the ability to take additional electives to improve marketability, and extra time to gain more career-related or leadership experience. Disadvantages to late graduation are increased college costs and possible disapproval of employers and graduate schools.
8. Planning for Graduate/Professional School
About 88 percent of the nation's college freshmen indicated in a recent survey that they plan to go to graduate or professional school, yet only about 24 percent do so within a year of completing their bachelor's degree. Students aspiring to graduate or professional school should: Be clear about the reasons they want to go on for further education; research the qualifications required for admission and be realistic about their chances of acceptance; and always have a "Plan B" or back-up plan in case they are not accepted. Students should discuss their interest in graduate or professional school well before their senior year with their academic adviser; the college's graduate or professional school adviser (e.g., the pre-law or pre-med adviser); and a college career adviser to obtain advice and guidance from three different perspectives.
9. Taking Time Off
Many students want to take time off after college graduation from college before attending graduate school or taking a career-related job. Future employers will want to know how the student has spent the intervening time. Do activities during this period demonstrate relevance to future career goals and/or a good work ethic? While short-term travel may be personally broadening, it does not increase a student's marketability to employers unless it is seen as career related. Therefore, the time off may result in a longer job search. For example, management trainee programs, which often begin shortly after graduation and hire large numbers of new graduates, may be filled by the time your child is ready to begin a job search.
10. Using the College Career Services Office
Students should begin using their campus career office in their freshman year. Virtually all career offices provide individual career counseling/advising, career planning workshops, internship assistance, and career fairs and programs. Your son or daughter should seek help early with choosing a career and preparing for it. Competition for good jobs, particularly in certain fields, is stiff. The career office can advise students about how to become a strong candidate for their field of interest.
Source: Article by Marcia B. Harris and Sharon L. Jones


The Future of Salmon and Trout Stocking in Lake Michigan
Five species of salmon and trout support a world-class recreational fishery in Lake Michigan. Stocking has played an important role in maintaining the balance between predators and forage fish, such as the non-native alewife, since the late 1960s. If too many salmon and trout are in the lake, forage fish decline and salmon starve or fall prey to disease. If too few salmon and trout are in the lake, the non-native alewife could foul beaches and affect native species populations.
Ongoing research is being used to investigate the possibility that changes to stocking policy could improve fisheries and limit the risk of predator-prey imbalance. Fisheries managers in Michigan, Wisconsin, Illinois and Indiana will set a stocking policy for Lake Michigan salmon and trout by fall of 2012.
LAKE MICHIGAN SALMON STOCKING SURVEY RESULTS
Survey results are now available and are being considered along with biological data and other factors as managers move toward a decision on future stocking policy.
See: Survey Results
Lake Michigan Salmon Stocking Workshop
Lake Michigan College, Benton Harbor, Michigan
Saturday, April 14, 2012
This half-day workshop was free and open to the public. Participants learned more about specific options for stocking policy and had the opportunity to speak with fisheries managers about the future of Lake Michigan fisheries. Check out the recorded webinar for more details.
- Lake Michigan Salmon Stocking Strategies Briefing (PDF)
Includes overview of collaborative decision-making process, status of fishery and forage base, and stocking options under consideration.


Elementary School • Holidays
Encyclopedia of American Holidays and National Days: Volume 1 http://0-ebooks.abc-clio.com.ilsweb.lvccld.org/main.aspx?l=E&t=title
Encyclopedia of American Holidays and National Days: Volume 2 http://0-ebooks.abc-clio.com.ilsweb.lvccld.org/reader.aspx?isbn=9780313014918
Holidays - Kids InfoBits http://0-galenet.galegroup.com.ilsweb.lvccld.org/servlet/KidsInfoBits?subTopic=Social%2BStudies&locID=lvccld_main&failover=0&topic=History%252C%2BGovernment%2B%2526%2BSocial%2BStudies&c=1&searchTerm=Holidays&ste=5&tbst=tsrch&tab=1&bConts=55
More of the Best Holiday Crafts http://ebooks.lvccld.org/ContentDetails-Subject7.htm?ID=EADCA235-983B-45A5-916E-06827FD39655
A collection of 65 holiday-based craft projects. In addition to Valentine’s Day, Earth Day, Easter, Halloween, Thanksgiving, Hanukkah, Kwanza, and Christmas, a number of new holidays have been added, including Flag Day, Memorial Day, 4th of July, President’s Day, and St. Patrick’s Day. There are creative decorations, favors, cards, and gifts designed to enhance holiday celebrations throughout the year.
Hooray for Halloween! http://whyfiles.org/097halloween/index.html
This site examines "the science of Halloween: bats, brains and cemeteries" (THE WHY FILES). Learn about the biology of bats, the study of the human brain, and the archaeology of burials through this humorous, Halloween-themed article.
New Crafts for Thanksgiving http://ebooks.lvccld.org/ContentDetails-Subject7.htm?ID=F513FEF0-6D4C-4DE2-BF26-4E3A2E82016F
It features crafts such as gourd turkeys, pilgrim place cards, and a stick trivet.
Holidays, Festivals, and Celebrations of the World Dictionary http://0-go.galegroup.com.ilsweb.lvccld.org/ps/i.do?id=GALE|9780780809826&v=2.1&u=lvccld_main&it=etoc&p=GVRL&sw=w
Describes 2,500 holidays, festivals, commemorations, holy days, feasts and fasts, and other observances from all parts of the world. Entries cover popular, ethnic, religious, and historic events of international, national, regional, and local significance.
World Holidays: A Rosen Guide for Children http://0-go.galegroup.com.ilsweb.lvccld.org/ps/i.do?id=GALE|5QVJ&v=2.1&u=lvccld_main&it=aboutBook&p=GVRL&sw=w
A guide to celebrations and holidays around the world, including religious, civic, and cultural practices.


HAND-HELD computers have many uses -- but who would have thought they could take art home from a museum?
That is just what is happening at the current Biennial exhibition at the Whitney Museum of American Art in New York. At a special kiosk, visitors can download ''Tap,'' a digital artwork by James Buckhouse, into electronic organizers equipped with the Palm operating system, and with that download, receive their own digital dancer (male or female, the viewer picks). The dancer practices, learns from other dancers and gives recitals.
Technology in museums, especially the artistic kind, has traditionally meant audio guides. This was not a deliberate oversight; many museums began testing an array of Jetsons-style gadgetry a few years ago, but the dot-com bust and the economic downturn have delayed progress. Museums are now slowly recapturing their momentum. Many are experimenting with the latest technology, and soon their galleries may be wired (or go wireless) for the Internet, allowing visitors to use their hand-held computers to download information about an entire collection or a single object, to explore a museum's hidden archives or bookmark Web pages.
The Exploratorium, a science and art museum in San Francisco, is developing the Electronic Guidebook Project, which will not only allow visitors to download additional material on their hand-held computers, but also create a password-protected personal Web page, meaning people can revisit their own selection of the museum's collections from any computer.
The American Museum of the Moving Image in New York is testing eDocent, a wireless network in its galleries that will allow visitors to download information into their hand-held computers and bookmark Web pages. The network may also give audiences viewings of what they cannot see in the gallery. Like many museums, the Museum of the Moving Image can display only a small percentage of its collection, 1,200 of 90,000 objects. When eDocent becomes a reality, which is not expected until 2003, audiences could see much of this hidden collection.
''Because our collection is so extensive, we have a huge amount of material to link,'' said Rochelle Slovin, the museum's director. ''The ultimate goal of eDocent is for the information to be so rich and extensive that you could go deeper and deeper into the layers.''
The Walker Art Center in Minneapolis is preparing for a $90 million renovation and expansion project, which will break ground in 2003. Central to the renovation is a wireless network that will provide visitors with more information about objects in the museum, said Andrew Blauvelt, the museum's design director.
He thinks that hand-held computers will not be the only way to download material. Indeed, Mr. Blauvelt is interested in what he calls ''social computing,'' which is a shared or collaborative computer experience. This could involve a group sitting at a ''smart'' table, where touch screens embedded in the tabletop would allow many users to tap into Walker's collections and resources, and simultaneously interact and discuss the information with others. To explore other social computing possibilities, Mr. Blauvelt has invited more than 30 artists, designers and architects to submit ideas.
He is also interested in futuristic options, like wearable computer guides. ''Technically, the iPAQ is wearable,'' he said, referring to Compaq's hand-held device. ''This is more radical, where circuitry is stitched into a fabric or a scarf.''
Many museums hope that the new technology lures younger audiences. ''We have an entire generation coming up speaking digital as a first language,'' said Leonard Steinbach, a program creator at the Cleveland Museum of Art.


When you lose weight, you not only feel better, but your fat cells are much healthier.
So says endocrinologist Andrew Greenberg, director of the Obesity Metabolism Laboratory at Tufts University in Boston.
Your body needs fat cells to be healthy, but in obese individuals when fat cells get very big, those cells are at risk of dying, he says.
"A fat cell is 95% fat. If it dies, it leaves behind insoluble fat, and the body views it as a foreign body, much like it would splinter," Greenberg says.
That excess fat is scooped up by macrophages, scavenger cells that are part of the immune system. During this process, some of the fat and other inflammatory proteins get released into the blood stream, which can significantly increase a person’s risk of developing diabetes, he says.
However, there is evidence that if you lose weight, you have fewer dying fat cells and significantly fewer fat-engorged macrophages, Greenberg says.
Think fat just hangs around and does nothing? It doesn’t
By Nanci Hellmich, USA TODAY
PHOENIX â€” Most people think of fat as an inert blob, but fat cells release powerful chemicals.
In obese people, the fat tissue often produces too many bad hormones and too few good ones, says Susan Fried, director of the Clinical Nutrition Research Unit of Maryland at the University of Maryland School of Medicine in Baltimore.
BETTER LIFE: The skinny on losing weight
Fried and other scientists discussed the latest research on fat cells here at the annual meeting of the Obesity Society. Fried talks about the relationship between obesity and fat cells.
Q: Do people have different numbers of fat cells?
A: A person at a healthy weight might have 10 billion to 20 billion, and an obese person can have up to 100 billion. Babies are born with about 10 billion. You naturally increase the number of fat cells, like other kinds of cells, as you grow.
Q: Is everybody born with the same number of fat cells?
A: No. There is a genetic component to how many you have, but I would say less than 5% of obese people have a genetic tendency to have a greatly excess number. It appears in animal experiments that animals that are overnourished in the womb and shortly thereafter tend to have more fat cells.
The number can increase at any time if you overeat long enough and hard enough. When your fat cells get to a maximum size, they send a signal to (fat-precursor) cells to become full-fledged fat cells. It may be that having too many hungry fat cells somehow makes us eat more.
But overweight people (those who are not obese but are one to 30 pounds over a healthy weight) don’t generally have an excess number. You can gain 30 pounds easily by increasing the size of current fat cells and not adding new ones.
Q: What do white fat cells do?
A: White fat cells store energy and produce hormones that are secreted into the blood. In theory, if we overeat, our fat cells will produce a little more of the hormone leptin, which will go to our brain and tell us we have plenty of energy down here; not to eat any more. If it worked perfectly, no one would get fat, but it doesn’t work perfectly, so many of us do get fat.
When fat cells are small, they produce high amounts of some hormones such as adiponectin. It is a good guy because it keeps the liver and muscles very sensitive to insulin and fights diabetes, heart disease and other diseases. But in obese people, fat cells tend to shut down the production of adiponectin, and that has bad effects on health, and it’s one reason people develop diabetes and heart disease.
Q: Does losing weight shrink the size of your fat cells?
A: If you are eating less energy than you require, your cells release fat for fuel and then shrink. If you are obese and have 100 billion fat cells and you lose a lot of weight, your fat cells may go down to a normal size, but you still have 100 billion. So you may still be overly fat, but you will be healthier since small fat cells produce more of the good fat hormones like adiponectin.
Q: Can you explain the new discoveries about brown fat?
A: While a white fat cell stores energy, a brown fat cell’s job is basically to generate heat. We always thought brown fat was only in human babies and helped keep them warm. Now there is more evidence that there are more brown fat cells in adults than we originally thought. Brown and white are not really related because they don’t come from the same precursor cell or stem cell.
Brown fat cell comes from the same kind of precursor cell as a muscle cell. Even though there are very few brown fat cells in adult humans, it looks like there is a lot of variability between people. There is increasing evidence that some humans, particularly lean ones, tend to have brown fat cells mixed in with their white fat cells in some regions of their body. So if we can figure out how to persuade the body to make more brown fat cells, we may be able to fight the tendency to gain excess weight.


Next: My Tiles are Cracking in the Corners
My tiles are wearing out
Tiles are well known for their durability and wear resistance. But, we need to always remember that tiles are not indestructible. If mistreated, or subjected to harsh conditions, or wrongly selected for purpose, the glaze on a ceramic tile will scratch or it can wear.
There needs to be an understanding of the difference between 'wearing' and 'scratching.' Wearing is where the glazed surface is thinning and eventually actually work through. Scratching is damage to the surface from a harder substance that scratches the glaze. Heavy scratching can actually dull the surface of a glazed tile. It is damage to the surface, but it is not actually wearing through. Much like granite in a heavy traffic area will dull off from scratching, but is not worn.
The best way to avoid tiles becoming worn is to get good advice when selecting them. This way, tiles that are suited to the area can be chosen and that includes for reasons such as colour, ease of cleaning, durability, and resistance to wear.
The other way is to keep the floor clean and free from sand and abrasive dirt. This is especially important at doorways to the outside of a home or building. Abrasive grit is brought in under shoes and if there is a doormat, this grit is removed and left on the doormat. Even gravel (which can be equally as hard as granite) can be trapped under a shoe and then trodden onto the tiled surface.
What can cause the problem?
• Absense of doormats at doorways to the outside of a home. These remove grit and sand from shoes which can be very abrasive on tiled surfaces. Think of sandpaper, which can actually just be sand trapped on the paper, yet is highly abrasive.
• Incorrectly specified tiles that are not suited to the traffic conditions of an area. Always heed the advice of the Beaumont Tiles consultant and explain clearly the conditions to which the tiles will be subject.
• Keep your tiles clean. A clean tile won't have a film of accumulated grinding dirt on the surface.
• Avoid the use of unnecessary chemicals, especially acid based ones and the use of hard cleaning implements such as steel wool. These too will deteriorate the surface of a tile.
So what can I do now?
Once the glaze on tiles has worn, it can't be rejuvenated in any way.
Likewise, damage by harsh scratching cannot be reversed.
Scratched tiles will continue to perform as a tile should. But, once a tile surface has worn through, and the protective glazed surface is gone, the tile will need to be replaced.


Chronic diseases such as asthma, arthritis, cancer, heart disease and diabetes are ongoing, generally incurable illnesses. Collectively, chronic diseases are the number one cause of death and disability in the U.S. With a better understanding of the molecular basis of health and disease, biotech scientists are developing improved methods for diagnosing, treating and preventing chronic disease.
Diabetes is the seventh leading cause of death in the U.S., and the number of new cases continues to rise by epidemic proportions. Diabetes patients use insulin, a biotech therapy, to control their critically important glucose levels. Insulin use can also reduce the risk of diabetes complications like eye, kidney and nerve disease by 40 percent.
Scientists have been studying the cone snail since the 1970s to better understand our nervous system. Through this research, scientists were able to isolate the peptides in the venom of the cone snail, A synthetic version of one of those peptides, manufactured by Elan under the brand name PRIALT®, was approved by the FDA in 2004 as a treatment for adults with severe chronic pain.


Who's most likely to get Parkinson's disease?
In the U.S., the disease is more likely to affect men than women, more likely to affect white or Hispanic individuals than black or Asian people and much more likely to affect those over sixty than those younger, according to a study published in the American Journal of Epidemiology in 2003.
Other research suggests that globally, you're more likely to get Parkinson's if you live in an industrialized country like the U.S. than if you live in a less developed nation. However, there's no clear-cut data on the demographics.
"It's hard to believe that we don't have that data now," says Dr. J. William Langston, founder and director of the Parkinson's Institute, "but ... it's not available anywhere in the world." In part, this is because Parkinson's disease affects a relatively small population -- at most one to two percent in the United States -- and because of difficulties in consistently diagnosing the disorder.
Is the risk of getting this disease growing?
There's even less data on how the rate of Parkinson's cases have changed since it was first identified in 1817. The number of cases is rising as the global population ages, but it's not clear whether Parkinson's is affecting a larger percentage of the population than it has in the past. Some research has found that the risk of getting Parkinson's in the U.S. rose slightly between 1935 and 1985, but when it comes to tracing the history of the disease, major data holes remain.
"Certainly, there have been individuals described hundreds and hundreds of years ago that have what sounds very much like Parkinson's disease," says Dr. Michael Zigmond, a Parkinson's researcher at the University of Pittsburgh. However, he adds, "We can't easily evaluate people who are not here now, even through the eyes of a neurologist 50 or 100 years ago." What we call Parkinson's today, doctors might have diagnosed differently in the past. What doctors used to call Parkinson's we may now have identified as something else.
However, there are some new projects underway on the demographics of the disease. For example, the California Parkinson's Disease Registry will collect detailed information on every Parkinson's diagnosis in that state. Says Dr. Langston, "This will tell us for the first time, is the disease increasing, changing with time? Are there pockets or clusters of the disease? Are there differences in rural versus urban areas, socioeconomic differences, etc.?"
What causes Parkinson's?
Even though Parkinson's was formally identified almost 200 years ago, scientists are still trying to find out what causes it. "We still don't have a smoking gun, that's for sure," says Dr. Langston. "But that's what we're looking for."
The greatest obstacle to pinpointing what causes it is that there seems to be no single cause. In some cases, the disease appears to be a genetic defect, while in others, exposure to toxic substances or certain viruses seems to be a factor. Some scientists believe a mix of environmental exposures and underlying genetic sensitivities may ultimately explain what triggers the disease.
What about environmental factors?
Sorting out the possible environmental influences on Parkinson's disease is a big challenge.
In the early 1980s, after discovering the toxin MPTP -- very similar to a compound found in a common pesticide -- could induce Parkinson's virtually overnight, scientists expected to track down the chemicals responsible for causing the disease in a matter of a few years. Nearly three decades later, "Very few individual specific compounds have been identified," says Dr. Langston. "Most of these are modest risk factors, two to threefold increase in risk."
Scientists have tracked disparate leads in search of an environmental explanation. They've researched Parkinson's-like symptoms in an individual who ingested petroleum products, in Taiwanese women who'd contracted a herpes virus and in people from Guam who eat a type of seed known to contain a neurotoxin. While finding a common thread among these scenarios has proved nearly impossible, much of the research has led back to pesticide exposure as the leading suspect in causing a large number of Parkinson's cases.
How clear is the link between pesticide exposure and Parkinson's?
According to Dr. William Langston, "I don't think we're yet at the point of being able to say unequivocally that if you live in an area where there's more pesticides than other areas, you're at a higher risk." But new research may illuminate the link.
One study is mapping Parkinson's cases in California against areas known to have high pesticide use. Another is collecting data from over 50,000 licensed pesticide applicators in two states to track whether these individuals face an increased risk of getting Parkinson's. "This, I think, may really answer the question of not only whether pesticides are an increased risk, but also, specifically, which pesticides," Dr. Langston hopes. "Because it's their profession, they know what they use, as opposed to, I couldn't tell you what I sprayed with in the garage last week."
Is there a gene, or genes, that causes Parkinson's?
So far scientists have identified six forms of genetic Parkinson's and are searching for more. However, the number of cases with a genetic link is a tiny portion of the overall number of cases. Still, doctors hope that better understanding the genetic form of the disease could help unravel the mysteries about other forms of Parkinson's.
But the genetic component of Parkinson's has also proved more complicated than once thought. Scientists have determined there's no single gene for Parkinson's -- one gene may trigger the disease in one family, while a different gene triggers it in another family.
Scientists also suspect that in some cases, developing genetic Parkinson's may require having multiple trigger genes, because studies of families with a high incidence of the disorder have shown that some individuals can carry the main gene identified as causing Parkinson's yet never develop symptoms.
How far along are scientists in figuring out the interaction -- the connection -- between genes and the environment?
A large study of over 20,000 identical twins -- who share the same genetic code -- is underway to trace when different environmental exposures can trigger Parkinson's in one twin but not the other and under what circumstances both twins develop Parkinson's.
Why is Parkinson's so hard to diagnose?
Diagnosing Parkinson's can be a challenge in part because some mild Parkinson's symptoms at first just seem like the universal effects of aging -- a tremor in the hand, difficulty balancing and shuffling the feet.
"I think everybody gets a little Parkinsonian as you get older," says Dr. Clive Svendsen, who is studying stem cell therapies for Parkinson's at the University of Wisconsin. "And in fact, most of the literature points out a gradual reduction in dopamine neurons" -- the neurons whose death causes Parkinson's best-known physical symptoms -- "over time in everybody."
What are the hallmark symptoms? Do all patients have the same symptoms?
There's no clear epidemiological record of whether the specific symptoms doctors look for and patients express have evolved over time, but the hallmark of Parkinson's has always been tremors throughout the body. Making a definitive diagnosis has often proved difficult, however, because the exact nature of the symptoms can vary widely from patient to patient. Recent studies show that even members of the same family who share a single genetic form of Parkinson's may display very different symptoms. One patient may have foot tremors accompanied by difficulty sleeping, while another may have hand tremors and difficulty keeping his balance.
What are the new discoveries about Parkinson's symptoms?
In recent years scientists have found that Parkinson's is much more than a disease of shaking limbs.
"When I started my residency, this was a very simple disease," recalls Dr. William Langston. "A number of cells die in a small area of the brain that made a chemical called dopamine. When they died, you had no more dopamine. Without dopamine, it's difficult to move. ... And that's the way we diagnosed it. When dopamine's down, you got rigid, you developed a tremor, gait became slowed and shuffling, etc. Any neurologist can diagnose that."
But now, says Langston, "At this point in time, we know that Parkinson's is a much more complicated disorder. Many different areas of the brain can be affected. It probably evolves in a very specific order, starting in the low brain stem and then eventually affecting other areas, including the nigra, which causes Parkinsonism [the tremors]. But all of these other areas of the brain that are affected can also cause symptoms."
These newly-recognized symptoms range from loss of the sense of smell to digestive problems to depression.
Why has it taken doctors so long to recognize the wide array of symptoms now connected to Parkinson's? "Because [patients] don't come to neurologists if they have, say, sleep disorders or loss of sense of smell or even constipation, which is a very bothersome symptom in Parkinson's," says Langston.
How close are we to having an earlier, more accurate diagnosis of Parkinson's?
The National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke, part of the National Institutes of Health, is working on improving its guidelines for diagnosing Parkinson's to reflect the latest science. Other researchers are focusing on finding new ways of identifying the disease altogether. Some are searching for a Parkinson's biomarker -- a biological trait displayed only in people who have or are at risk of developing the disease.
And now that sense of smell has been tied to Parkinson's, a study led by the Institute for Neurodegenerative Disorders and the University of Pennsylvania is seeking to determine if how well a person performs on a test to identify 40 common odors can predict the individual's likelihood of developing Parkinson's. So far, they've found the average person can identify 35 of the odors, while the average diagnosed Parkinson's patient can only correctly name 20.
How close are scientists to finding a cure?
As scientists learn more about the great complexity of Parkinson's disease, hopes for finding a cure within the next few years is fading. But all the new information is paving the way for inventing better treatments that won't cure Parkinson's completely but will minimize the disease's effects.
"What we have to think about is whether the patient would be happy with still having constipation, still having other side effects of the disease, but being able to maintain a movement without arresting tremor and being able to initiate their own movement," says Dr. Clive Svendsen. "We're looking for a treatment that ... isn't curing it, but it's making the quality of life better."
If there's no cure in sight in the near future, what are the treatment options?
Since the 1960s, the leading treatment for Parkinson's has been the drug Levodopa, or L-dopa, a compound that can counteract the loss of dopamine neurons that causes the tremor symptoms of the disease. In the past couple of decades, deep brain stimulation -- a treatment that involves implanting a pacemaker-like device to deliver electric shocks to the parts of the brain that are damaged in Parkinson's patients -- has become another widely-employed treatment that generally produces positive results.
But the effectiveness of L-dopa decreases the longer a patient uses it, and deep brain stimulation requires a highly invasive operation, so scientists continue to look for better Parkinson's treatments.
As explored in My Father, My Brother and Me, doctors have recently started studying the power of exercise as a therapy to not only keep Parkinson's patients physically healthy but beneficially alter their brain chemistry.
What are some of the newer treatments being pursued?
Another area that offers great promise is neuroprotection, explained by Dr. Langston as "the idea of protecting nerve cells from dying or damage, ... another great Holy Grail in the field of neurology."
Scientists studying neuroprotection are looking for chemical substances that, when introduced into the brain, could either blunt the effects of Parkinson's disease on a patient after he is diagnosed or, better yet, prevent Parkinson's altogether. "The problem is," according to Dr. Langston, "I think it's a laboratory concept that jumped into the clinical all too quickly. In a laboratory animal, you can actually measure nerve cells after an experiment. We can't do that in humans. We have no way to really show we've slowed down the progress of cell death in living humans."
With thousands of potentially helpful chemicals to test, and without the scientific ability to widely screen substances for their ability to protect human brains against damage, Langston suggests researchers focus less on the effects of these substances on the brain itself and more on their effects on the patient as a whole.
"For the moment, where I think we need to focus in clinical trials is delaying disability. We clinicians can measure that. So start a patient on your neuroprotective agent. We can't prove [the neuroprotection], but if disability is really delayed or completely stopped, I think that would be very compelling."
Other scientists are working on refining the mode of delivery for a known neuroprotective substance. "There are some very powerful drugs for Parkinson's disease that are very difficult to get into the brain," says Dr. Svendsen. "GDNF [glial cell derived neurotrophic factor] is one of those drugs. ... Even at late stage Parkinson's, you have lots of neurons left, they just don't have any dopamine left in them, and they're very shrunken. And in that sense, [growth factors like GDNF] might again be like the fertilizer. Put it onto those cells, and even though they've practically disappeared, the growth factor will make them rejuvenate and start to produce dopamine again."
The problem, says Svendsen, is, "You can give [GDNF] peripherally in the blood, but it doesn't penetrate the blood-brain barrier [to get into the brain]. The idea is to design stem cells that make this drug, put the stem cells in the brain, and then they'll deliver it -- rather like a Trojan Horse. The brain accepts the stem cell because it's [a brain cell] and it's going to integrate and migrate and get into the brain tissue. ... And that's how we can sneak drugs into the brain, [overcoming] this powerful blood-brain barrier, which usually blocks this process."
The major obstacle Svendsen needs to solve to implement this type of therapy is creating an off switch of sorts for the cells that will produce GDNF. "It does remind me of the Walt Disney Fantasia movie and 'The Sorcerer's Apprentice,'" he says, "when Mickey Mouse is in the basement with the sorcerer and he gets a great way to make the broomsticks carry the water up and down. And, of course, it goes horribly wrong because [they] carry too much water, and it's overflowing, [so he] chops the broomsticks in half [but] they just keep carrying the water up and down.
"I wake up at night with that dream in my head, thinking, boy, if we put cells in the brain that produce [GDNF] that we think it's great and then it has a toxic effect, we can't switch it off. ... But on the other hand, we need to move forward in these diseases. ... It's a difficult one."
Could Parkinson's be a "gateway disease?" Could solving it clear the way to understanding -- even curing -- other neurological conditions?
"I think there's a general sense in the scientific and medical community that solving any of these major diseases -- Parkinson's, Lou Gehrig Disease, Alzheimer's -- could have an enormous impact on the others," says Dr. William Langston. But for many years, Parkinson's received special attention.
"For many years, the thought was Parkinson's was the perfect disease to lead the way in terms of solving these diseases," Langston explains. "The main reason for that is we were totally focused on one small area of the brain known as substantia nigra -- literally, black stuff -- [a] small pigmented dark area in the brain that sits atop the brain stem. Now, that looked like a pretty easy target, not a big nucleus. We fix that, we get more of the normal chemistry restored in the brain, and we fix the disease. To some degree, I think, that's still true. But we're now learning that Parkinson's is actually much more complex."
As scientists have learned that the symptoms of Parkinson's go far beyond the movement problems linked to the decay of the substantia nigra, they've realized that the simplicity that once made this seem like an easy neurological disorder to crack -- the best candidate for a cure -- was an illusion.
Does that mean what's learned about Parkinson's will have no effect on our ability to solve neurological diseases?
No. The complex nature of Parkinson's doesn't rule out the ability of breakthroughs studying this disease to have an impact on the understanding and treatment of other disorders.
"I think you're going to see most surgical therapies carried out first in Parkinson's disease," says Langston, citing the disease's pronounced effect on a small area of the brain. "And that's already happening with gene therapy, where genes are inserted in the brain to try to make cells healthier. ... If we get to the point of stem cells going in, all of that will probably be done with Parkinson's first."
Dr. Clive Svendsen is studying how to use stem cells to deliver growth factor -- a chemical that can regenerate important nerve cells in the brain -- as a treatment for Parkinson's. He points out that, "The Department of Defense has funded work in Parkinson's disease for a number of years. ... I think some of this comes through lobbying of people like Muhammad Ali and Michael J. Fox, and certain senators, to try and get funds appropriated specifically for Parkinson's disease. A number of veterans get Parkinson's disease. [With] Gulf War syndrome, there's an increased performance of ALS [another neurodegenerative disease]. And just neuro injury in wartime conditions is important to the Army. They're looking to stem cells releasing growth factors as a potential treatment for their troops on the field and for their veterans." Solving even a part of Parkinson's could still help solve parts of other brain disorders.
Are stem cells key to finding a cure?
Theoretically, stem cells should be able to replace the damaged brain cells whose degeneration leads to Parkinson's symptoms.
"We have shown very clearly that our basic science work in the laboratory ... proved that we can restore ... brain function in patients," says Dr. Ole Isacson of the Parkinson's Research Center at Harvard Medical School. "But we do need a lot of work to overcome the obstacles of making this happen [in] every case and in a reliable way."
"When we started with neurotransplants -- and we started with fetal cells first, and eventually the hope was stem cells would replace those -- we thought this was gonna be easy," Dr. William Langston explains. "We just put the cells in, fix this one small area of the brain, and we cure the disease. And we were very disappointed when that didn't happen. I think now with our evolving concept of Parkinson's disease, treating this one small area of the brain that we can already treat pretty well with surgical therapies, [stem cell therapy is] important but I think it is no longer the Holy Grail."
Some patients who've received experimental cell transplants have seen their symptoms improve, while others have experienced no change or even gotten worse.
"Some more extreme critics of this field," says Dr. Clive Svendsen, "would say that we now have two types of Parkinson's. We have Parkinson's disease and Parkinson's plus transplant disease."
[Editors' Note: Researchers at MIT's Whitehead Institute for Biomedical Research have developed a new method of reprogramming the skin cells of Parkinson's patients into "an embryonic-stem-cell-like state," using "the resulting cells to derive dopamine-producing neurons, the cell type that degenerates in Parkinson’s disease patients." According to The New York Times, this method, "would in principle allow the brain cells that are lost in Parkinson's to be replaced with cells that carried no risk of immune rejection."]
Why haven't stem cell transplants worked so far?
There are many reasons scientists have encountered obstacles in engineering successful stem cell treatments for Parkinson's.
"The comparison I always use is, imagine trying to wire your house after it was built," says Langston. "I mean, when you build a house, all the wiring goes in very early. When the house is built, if you had to do all the wiring afterwards, that would be pretty tricky. Now imagine you're trying to do that in a living brain with 4 billion neurons."
Some stem cells revert from the type of cells they've been cultivated to become -- generally dopamine neurons when dealing with Parkinson's -- back into generic stem cells when they're placed in the brain. And an adult brain seems to have ways of recognizing embryonic stem cells as not belonging. "We're learning there're all types of signals in the adult brain that tell these little guys to go away," says Langston.
Furthermore, a stem cell's inherent ability to develop into any kind of cell -- the property that makes them useful -- can also be a hazard. Says Isaacson, "While we know that we can generate the dopamine neuron, it also tends to generate other cell types, including skin, and maybe even bone. So the challenge is, even though we can get the cell we want, [we need] to eliminate the other unwanted cells, lest they would grow into tissues that would be very problematic and even dangerous to the patient."
In some cases, says Langston, "We don't even understand the reasons why the attempts we've already done have failed."
The risk of stem cell procedures compared to the safety of other relatively effective Parkinson's treatments gives some scientists pause. "The patients will have [to] think about this," says Svendsen. "Am I gonna risk a new procedure that hasn't been tried or go with the steady state procedures which we know work?"
Two perspectives on the promise of stem cells...
Because of the practical difficulties surrounding stem cell procedures, some scientists no longer think of them as a potential wonder cure-all.
"It's not popular to say that stem cells aren't the answer, but I now believe they are not," says Langston. "I don't think we should give up with them. I think they're gonna help other diseases, and eventually they may really help Parkinson's. But I don't think that should be our major focus. The brain is not a pincushion. We can't keep plucking cells in all over the place."
Others are more optimistic, although they point out it may take many years to fix the current problems with stem cell transplant technologies.
"What we're facing is the same kind of problems that you see almost in engineering. If you think of the early development of airplanes, or flight, the first airplane crashed very quickly," says Ole Isacson.
"But many years, in a way, is still a short time in my world, because if you think about the kind of discoveries that are necessary to make a medical treatment available to a large group of patients, decades is the norm rather than the exception."
"We're looking at this through the Parkinson's window," says Clive Svendsen, "but if you look outside the Parkinson's window and go to the rest of the world, [there are] lots of places that this technology will be used, I'm sure."


Dermatology is the a branch of medical science dealing with the skin, its structure, functions, and diseases.
Dermatologists specialize in diagnosing and treating conditions related to the skin, hair, and nails, including concerns related to cosmetic issues, such as sun damage and aging, as well as skin cancer, and other medical skin conditions.
Dermatologists who have additional interest and skill in performing surgical procedures are referred to as dermatologic surgeons or dermasurgeons.
Specialty terms like "dermatologist" and "dermatologic surgeon" are often unregulated and may be used in some states by any doctor, regardless of their training and credentials.
So, for instance, a doctor who has an active medical license and is board certified in Internal Medicine but who has not undergone any specialty training in dermatology may refer to him or herself as a dermatologist or dermasurgeon, despite the fact that their training and credentials may not reflect specialization in this area of medical practice.
The skin is the largest organ of the human body, and as a result, dermatologists typically offer a wide variety of treatments for it.
Whether you wish to correct wrinkles, crepey skin, or razor bumps, a board certified dermatologist or dermasurgeon may help you by offering a single treatment or any combination of the following:
Cosmetic dermatology - Non-surgical procedures
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Cosmetic dermatology - Surgical procedures
Most dermatologists and dermasurgeons also offer treatments for a variety of medical skin conditions, in addition to cosmetic treatments. Although most skin problems can create aesthetic concerns, the following conditions are usually considered medical issues, and treatment may be covered by insurance.
Medical dermatology - Conditions treated
- Skin cancer