Llareta in the Andes, Corn in Kaua'i, and GMOs: Slow Versus Fast Growth

     Llareta is the extremely slow-growing evergreen plant featured on yesterday's NPR Science Friday blog:

     Yes, llareta is real. The photo above is not a poorly photoshopped creation (for you bloggers resizing and reshaping your images ;-)). Azorella compacta is a perennial evergreen and grows close to rocks or soil in order to conserve heat at elevations of 14,000 to over 17,000 feet. Llareta is related to parsley and is quite slow-growing, adding only 1-1.5 centimeters per year. Some of these dense mats of llareta in the Andes Mountains of Chile, Peru, and Argentina have been carbon-dated as being over 3,000 years old. [Alternate carbon-dating definition: chemists getting together for dinner and a movie.]

     The complete article about these dense mats that have, unfortunately, been used in South America as non-renewable fuel is linked here:

               LLARETA OR YARETA


     In comparison, the fast-growing, 3-crop-per-year corn crop in Kaua'i, Hawaii, takes a mere 3-4 months for the entire life cycle. The genetically modified organisms (or GMOs) are pushed to a level of ever-faster change in growth so that modifications to the corn seeds can be made in just 3 years (or, by some accounts, 7 years) instead of at least 13 years in a one-crop-per-year acrigulture. In any case, it's rapid, push it out to market food. In between every corn cycle, the fields are sprayed with Roundup herbicide which kills every broadleaf. Seed agriculture is now Hawaii's number one agricultural business, ahead of cane sugar, pineapples, and other native plants.

     

     More on GMOs here from earlier this month (the photo credit is in the link below):

GMO Seed Agriculture Growth in Hawaii

     Slow-growing, ancient organisms that have been around for thousands of years or fast-growing corn that has been genetically modified every few months, treated with three rounds a year of Roundup? Which seems safer for animals, including humans, to be around or, in the case of the corn, to actually eat?

       This week's blog honors my mom, June, who has been active in getting people to understand what corporations like Monsanto and its product, Roundup, in their GMO research, are doing with our food. (Over 90 % of U.S. corn is now a GMO product).

        Her best suggestion for us? Plant our own gardens!

         And a final, favorite photo of another very old friend, the bristlecone pine (nearly 5,000 years of very slow growth in CA and other high elevations):

Looking forward to hearing your thoughts on the slow and the fast, the unchanged and the modified, llareta and GMOs (I can wait...),

Word Woman (aka Scientific Steph)






     

   

Tortoises, Putnisite, John Cleese, and Better Creativity Tools, According to SCIENCE!

     This week I'd like to start with an article about creativity and writing which is, according to the Fast Company title, backed up by science! It includes tortoises and John Cleese video (With this Monty Python crowd, I imagine "according to Cleese!" may have the same effect as according to Science!)

Here's the link to the full article based on SCIENCE:

          Creativity according to SCIENCE

     Science was the top word Googled, ahem, researched, on the Merriam Webster website last year:

             Top word of 2013 is science

       I imagine editors are happy to see science thrown into a title whenever possible. A quick scan of the Fast Company homepage shows 4 articles containing "according to Science" on the main page. Do not get me wrong, I am happy to see science getting so much press. Although, at times, it seems thrown in a bit gratuitously.(Gratuitous throwing is a real thing in Ultimate Frisbee, a favorite sport for my son, his friends, and dogs):

[The frisbee player and dog in the photo are not related to me though;-)]

      Back to the article...The usual things that help creativity like exercise, sleep, moving on to something else and coming back after a percolation period are well-known, even not according to science. Writing with pen and paper has always been a creative juicer for me...There is something about the physical act of making the letters that a keyboard does not do. And now, I know, according to science, it works. . .

      Mr. Cleese notes that creativity is like a tortoise in that it pokes its head out gingerly to see if it is safe to stay out.

      He speaks of writing a funny sketch, losing the paper it was written on, and then recreating it from memory. When Mr. Cleese found the old sketch, he realized the newer one was much funnier.

      I am going to set this post aside for awhile and see how that percolating works.

      Percolating results:

     Popular Science is an oxymoron these days.

     Gilda Radnor's quote about creativity percolated through: "I can always be distracted by love, but eventually I get horny for my creativity."

      Hope you are having a wonderful Earth Day enjoying science and creativity.

Scientifically!,

Word Woman (Scientific Steph)

Newsflash: Putnisite, a new, soft mineral with an interesting composition has been discovered in Western Australia

Here's the source article from Science News:

                        PUTNISITE
     

Blood Oranges, Crustaceans, and the Moon

 
     Wow! The lunar eclipse last night was amazing. The moon was the color of a blood orange for quite awhile after the eclipse:

     It was worth awakening for, except I am pretty tired today. I hope you were able to look up from your phone, computer, or tablet to see it:

     So, this segue to a 520-million-year-old crustacean with preserved cardiovascular, nervous, and digestive systems found in China may not be the smoothest, but it will be color-coordinated ;-). 

      [One of my favorite memories is of shopping with my four-year-old son. He noticed that everything in our grocery cart was orange when we started shopping.  He suggested we only buy orange things that day. Totally impractical but totally fun! We came home with orange popsicles, pumpkins, carrots, yams, oranges, and other assorted orange things. It was worth needing to go back the next day to get other essentials ;-)].

     In what researchers from the University of Arizona, UK, and China are calling an "invertebrate version of Pompeii," evidence of an especially well-developed cardiovascular system in a three-inch crustacean named Fuxianhuia was discovered in Yunnan Province, China. The system is outlined in carbon and surrounded by mineralized deposits.

         The computer generated model above shows the heart and blood vessels in red, brain and nervous system in dark blue, and digestive system in teal. (Image credit: Nicholas Strausfeld). Eyes and antennae were also preserved.

           The depositional environment is a bit unclear in these half-billion-year-old deposits. The fine dust-like particles are referred to as mudstone with a possible connection to a tsunami (so the volcanic Pompeii analogy doesn't quite work for me.)

             The article was published on April 7, 2014 in Nature Communications:

       Three-inch crustacean preserved

             And, yes, one more orange-red thing, for geologic-times sake (This is a crawdad, not a lobstah. . .)

      Looking forward to your lunar eclipse, crusty crustacean, and other comments this April Tuesday.

Orangely,

Word Woman (Scientific Steph)

Updated P.S.: Natural dyes for eggs made with turmeric, beets, and red cabbage. Kindergarteners and I had a colorful day.

     Look what I found this morning at our grocery store, prominently featured in a large display at the front of the store! They do have a wonderful blend of sweet and tart, jan. Someone had placed a shinier, less wrinkled, similar-shaped orange variety on top of the Sumos. I was not swayed. Thanks for the recommendation.

M & M: Mercury & Mars: Erupting and Aligning

      Mercury, the smallest planet in our solar system (sorry, Pluto), is the site for numerous pyroclastic or volcanic eruptions:

      Volcanos need volatiles (with their low boiling points) like water and carbon dioxide. (Remember: V's need V's.) Thus, this finding was a bit of a shock to some researchers who published research in late March of this year looking at the ages of craters on the planet:


MESSENGER VOLCANIC DATA FROM MERCURY


       These eruptions occurred from 3.0 to 1.5 billion years ago, relatively recently compared to the 4.5 billion year old planet. Investigators had thought Mercury was dry as a fossilized bone (I never liked the expression dry as a bone since living bone has all that smooth, relatively juicy marrow in the middle). Plus, it's a good excuse, IMHO, to post a photo of fossilized bone on this April Tuesday:

      The relatively large iron core of Mercury has also puzzled investigators. Some thought this large core may have been the result of an outer layer of Mercury being burned up so close to the Sun or blasted away by a meteorite hitting the planet. But, the presence of volatiles tends to negate these ideas. Back to the drawing board.

       And, it is back to the drawing board of the night sky this Tuesday evening to see the brilliant burnt orange Mars rising in the eastern sky at sunset:

  

      Mars will be in opposition (aligning) to the Earth in its orbit so will rise in the eastern sky at only 57 million miles away, move through that night drawing board and set in the western sky as our Sun rises tomorrow morning. Definitely worth a look with binoculars tonight!

       How to tie together fleet-footed Mercury which shares its name with the fast-moving element mercury (Hg) and Mars, named after the fiery god of War? A birthday party for the Sun: they had to planet of course. ;-)

      Here's hoping that pun got you right in your solar plexus (plexus being from the Latin for braid--see triple braid below) 

and that it will make you laugh to your non-iron core. 

     I created today's PEOTS as a bit of a haven of wonder at things happening elsewhere ;-) Oh, the third M of the braid to go with Mercury and Mars? I will leave that up to you creative, fellow bloggers. What do you suggest?

       Look up tonight! 

Non volatile-ly,

Word Woman (Scientific Steph)

P.S. And remember: My Very Excellent Mother Just Served Us Nothing (Oh, Pluto, we miss those Nine Pizzas!)      

     

Happy April Fuels Day or There's no Fuel like an Old Fuel

    Yeah, everyone talks about April Fools today but no one talks about April Fuels. 

     To you, Garamond font-savvy crew, I imagine you won't fall for new research about a flat earth:

      Or act like Florida residents who were upset about reports of dihydrogen monoxide leaking from local faucets:

      But, some beautiful fossil ferns in coal might rev your April jets:

   
 Or perhaps some petrified wood:

         Because, of course, there's no fuel like an old fuel:

     
      Unless it's a new way to use April fuel:

     Happy April Fool's Day to our energetic, epic bunch.

      Bonus: Enjoy this map from 1877 as my April Fuels Day gift to you. Here's hoping it will keep you octo-pied for at least (8)(3.14) seconds:

     Hope you were privvy to some great April fuels and fools. Love to hear about any pranks, jokes, etc. from today.

April-ly,

Word Woman (Scientific Steph)

Fossilized Swedish Ferns: Don't Step on My Toe, Sis!

       The beauty of this 180 million-year-old fossilized fern from southern Sweden shows cells in various stages of mitosis. It combines both rocks and plant organelles frozen in a volcanic flow.

      The study was published last week in by Benjamin Bomfleur, Vivi Vajda, et al:


             FOSSIL FERN CHROMOSOMES


      The fossil had been languishing in a Swedish Museum drawer since the 1960's. The amazing thing about the specimen is the degree of cell detail shown with nuclei intact, distinct cytoplasm, and cells dividing, preserved as a hot brine of minerals replaced the cell structures. What a mitosis show!

     The fossilized fern in the family Osmundaceae is essentially identical to the modern day Royal Fern, with little change in genome or DNA content. Like the classic horsetail fern, this Royal Fern is the same today as during the Jurassic Era. It is quite comparable to the cinnamon fern of the eastern U.S. and Canada.

     This living fossil cinnamon fern reminds me, on a different scale, of mudcracks and other features seen on aerial images and segues to this amazing view of Moab, Utah, just published this week by the U. S. Geological Survey:

     
    The wind deposited and eroded features includes numerous fins and arches show in the southwest and northeast portions of the image around the central city of Moab. These features on the ground in the Jurassic Entrada Sandstone look amazing and represent such change:

   So, on one hand, here's a Jurassic fossil fern that hasn't changed in 180 million years, and a Jurassic-deposited landscape that is being eroded and changed every day. Recent collapses of arches in nearby Arches National Park allude to this change.

    Isn't geology grand in all the contrasts and similarities? Have you been to these places? Were you in awe, wonder, happy and rich in fossils?

A fossil and Utah fan,

Word Woman (Scientific Steph)

Shamrock Shake, Waverly Person, and the Moment Magnitude Scale

     Next week marks the 1/2 year anniversary of Partial Ellipsis of the Sun. Thanks for your support, humor, questions, and blog ideas. I've enjoyed reading every single comment.

     Yesterday's 4.4 magnitude earthquake in the Los Angeles area and a 5.0 magnitude earthquake in Iquique, Chile, prompted today's topic. I thought I would shake things up a bit after the "Shamrock Shake" and the quake in Chile that prompted the evacuation of 100,000 people.

   
      I am curious about whether you realize the U.S. Geological Survey, as well as most countries except Russia, no longer uses the Richter Scale as a measure of magnitude. The Moment Magnitude Scale, abbreviated MMS or Mw was developed in 1979 and more accurately reflects differences in energy released, particularly those above 7.0 on the old Richter Scale. Yet, the Richter Scale is more accurate for quakes of magnitude 3.5 and less.

       Both the Richter Scale and the Moment Magnitude Scale are calibrated similarly for medium sized quakes (3.5 - 7.0). The numbers for quakes higher than 7.0 are generally revised upward. The March 27, 1964, Alaskan earthquake is now a 9.2 (It was 8.4 on the Richter Scale.) Note the 33 foot scarp with dessicated, white marine organisms along the newly created flat portion:

     This 4 minute video about the Alaska quake was just released by the USGS to honor the big L anniversary:

         50Th Anniversary of 1964 Alaska Quake: USGS Video

     The May 22, 1960, Chilean earthquake, the largest seismic event recorded, has been recalibrated to a 9.5.

      Both scales take into account a logarithmic scale such that the increase from one step to the next is a 32 fold increase in energy and the increase from two steps apart is 1000 fold for those medium earthquakes. The MMS moves off much higher for quakes in the upper ranges. (See video at the end of this blog for more detail).

      Dr. Waverly Person, (yes, that's his real name) former Director of the USGS Earthquake Information Center here in CO, was responsible for converting quakes to the new scale, the one that hardly anyone knows. Just like our petrography friend, Dr. Nicol, that first name of Richter sticks. All the reports I read today included the Richter Scale.

      If you are interested in a spaghetti-based video explaining the differences between the scales, watch here:

               What happened to the Richter Scale?

         The moral of this tale: get in there early in the name game!

         And be safe in a shake!

         Looking forward to p and s waves coming from you this week.

Seismically,

Word Woman (Scientific Steph)

     

      

Even If It's Greek to You, It's Greek to You: An Early Analog Computer

      I have been dreaming of Greek mathematicians, blue waters, and green islands this week in our swirling March snowstorm. And, especially of things that have been described, by Dr. Michael Edmunds of Cardiff University as "more valuable than the Mona Lisa." Though that comparison doesn't work all that well for me, I am intrigued.

     The Antikythera Mechanism, discovered in a shipwreck off the coast of Antikythera, Greece, in 1900 is an early analog computer from the first century B.C. (A 2013 dive to the shipwreck site found many sephoras with DNA samples and other artwork.)The 30 or more bronze gears, including the largest one with 223 teeth, was used to predict eclipses, celestial events, and lunar cycles. The discovery and subsequent analysis via x-rays is described in this 7 minute video:

                     ANTIKYTHERA MECHANISM


     The original mechanism of a very intricate, integrated collection of gears is kept in Athens, Greece. The device could mechanically replicate the irregular motions of the moon, caused by its elliptical orbit around the Earth, using an extremely clever design involving two superimposed gear-wheels, one slightly off-center, that are connected by a pin-and-slot device: 

     Replicas in the U.S. are at the Children's Museum in New York and the Computer Museum in Bozeman, MT. This degree of complicated gear meshing in clock- like fashion was not again replicated until the 14th century. Hmmmm, why not?!

      

     The writing around the gears is in Koine Greek, also known as the Alexandrian dialect, common Attic, or Hellenistic Greek.

     

     Well, yes, it's all Greek to me (and likely to you). And even if it isn't Greek to you, it's Greek to you ;-).

Clockwork green? ;-)

Happy early Pi Day on Friday everyone! 

Looking forward to your timely thoughts, 

Word Woman (Scientific Steph)

PP1: An Enzyme that Really Gets Around

        My bogarted zircon article was explored in the comments last week so let's radically switch gears and party on...to the human enzyme PP1, an enzyme I had not even heard of until yesterday.

        [To review from high school biology and chemistry: An enzyme is a substance produced by a living organism that acts as a catalyst to bring about a specific biochemical reaction (such as the generic enzyme shown above).] Enzymes are a complicated-looking group of structures (see above). The Wikipedia introduction to the specific enzyme PP1 is:

         Phosphoprotein phosphatase 1 (PP1) belongs to a certain class of phosphatases known as protein serine/ threonine phosphatases. This type of phosphatase includes metal-dependent protein phosphatases (PPMs) and aspartate-based phosphatases. PP1 has been found to be important in the:

1. control of glycogen metabolism
2. muscle contraction
3. cell progression
4. neuronal activities 
5. splicing of RNA
6. mitosis 
7. cell division
8. apoptosis
9. protein synthesis,
10. and regulation of membrane receptors and channels.

        In other words, this complex, New Year's Eve party-looking enzyme is part of so many processes in the human body that changing one part of PP1 for one disease (such as a cure for cancer) can radically affect the PP1 which is involved in other processes in the body (such as a cure for Alzheimer's disease):

         Brown University researchers yesterday published this press release about PP1 advances yesterday:

PP1 Brown University Research 3-3-14 

         From the photo and gif of enzymes above you'll note these are wildly complicated, interactive human structures. Below is the illustration that accompanies the Brown University article: (The main researcher is Dr. Rebecca Page, though the team includes several Brown scientists).

                                               Credit: Page lab / Brown University

             The enzyme PP1, the tan mass above, is everywhere in the body and has a role in nearly every biological process. That function is shaped by more than 200 regulatory proteins that bind to PP1, including one called PNUTS, the blue/purple and pink structures above. And, certainly learning more about PNUTS will cost significantly more than peanuts. And, note my great restraint in making no PNUTS or PP (1 or otherwise) jokes. I will leave that up to you.


              Unravelling how regulatory proteins bind to PP1 is a large part of understanding and possibly curing diseases like cancer and Alzheimer's. And, yes, it is a very long and winding road from this Brown University research to cures for these human diseases.

 

              This topic is quite new to me. I would appreciate your insights, thoughts, suggestions on this newly developing area of research.


Catalystically,

Word Woman (Scientific Steph)
Agent for Change
    

Barite or Baryte: A View from Cobachi, Sonora, Mexico

          Barite (spelled baryte everywhere besides the U.S) is a heavy, non-magnetic mineral with very high specific gravity of up to 4.5. It is one dense, soft rock. Barite (BaSO4) is useful in the manufacture of paper and rubber, as a tracking agent in medical tests in  the human body, and as the weighting material put into drilling fluid to keep the sides of petroleum drilling casings from collapsing and to prevent blowouts. It is readily used down boreholes as it does not interfere with any magnetic tests associated with drilling. The pinkish crystals pictured below are barite. The darker, smaller mineral is cerussite. The radiating form of barite crystals is sometimes referred to as Bologna Stone (for the town in Italy, not the lunch meat):

 

              The most useful variety for petroleum geologists occurs as thick sedimentary beds of pure barite with little to no silica impurities. Barite often occurs interbedded or interfingering with chert, so pure beds of thick (a meter or more) barite are highly prized:

            Pure barite needs little jigging (essentially shaking the rock in an aqueous solution), washing, heavy media separation, tabling, or flotation to be used down well bores. The barite is merely crushed to a uniform size and put in the drilling mud. 77 percent of barite is used for this purpose. And even though it is a heavy mineral, it is considered non-toxic due to its high insolubility. Deep oceanic BaSO4 deposits are useful in constraining the temperatures of oceanic crust in paleoenvironments.

            Barite in the form of desert roses is also coveted by rock hounds:

             My remarkable six-month, first adventure out of college included mapping a barite deposit in Cobachi, Sonora, Mexico. I lived with two British geologists, Rod and Kevin, and a geologist from North Carolina, Phyllis, in the little white house in the left of the photograph:

           The house had no windows, doors, or running water...but it was just $100 a month to rent. :-) Cobachi is so small (about 300-350 people) that it often does not show up on maps, even in our GPS age (though it does here):

                Mapping the barite deposit including making a grid through the desert (with the help of a local crew of ten men with machetes), scaring cows off the runway so the small plane could land, performing specific density tests, stratigraphy and paleontology including late Paleozoic fusulinids, and learning Spanish. We also hiked to the top of Sierra Cobachi with our friends from the community. They carried thick, heavy Coke bottles up and down the mountain to this stunning cave:

          

          This image of the people in Cobachi reminds me of how warm and kind they were to us very foreign-looking and sounding geologists. We would be treated to tomatoes on our burritos when they could afford none for their own families. They taught us to make tortillas and goat cheese and withstood us asking the same questions countless times as we learned Spanish. We took part in dances, loud wailing funerals, and evening talks about our day's adventures.

           Anaconda Barite just announced they will be upgrading the jigging plant in Cobachi early this year. So the heavy mineral barite (named from the Greek word heavy) will provide more years of economic opportunities to Cobachians. Here's hoping the heavy Coke-bottle carrying is no longer going on, though :-).

           Cobachi surely holds a heavy place in my heart...in a good way.

           Any early career adventures you'd like to share? Or your own favorite barite story?


Sedimentally yours,

Word Woman (Scientific Steph)