The Media's Civil War

Out of Town News,Cambridge, Mass. from Stephanie McPherson on Vimeo.

The Future of News
With the newspaper industry in a desperate search for a business model that
pays, many critics have begun to brainstorm what the new face of media will be.
As early as March of 1993, Michael Crichton wrote a piece for a fledgling
magazine called Wired. The article, titled “Mediasaurus“, predicted the Web
would mean a diversity of one topic news websites, artificial intelligence
systems that could find stories he was interested in, and a host of other ideas.
He also suggested newspapers, that in the far off year of 2008, would be gone
for good.

After the Globe’s month long standoff with the New York Times, the debate over
the future of the media has reached a frenzied pitch. As Crichton’s essay
prophesied, the Internet is brimming with possibilities, but not certainties.

One of the main reasons for the newspaper industries’ decline has been the
drop-off in both advertising and classifieds. Due to the rise of the internet,
advertisers have found different venues and classifieds have become free . While
touring the Boston Globe offices, long tine photographer George Rizer pointed to
a group of desks covered in old papers and unused equipment. “See those?” he
said, “Those desks used to have tons of people taking classifieds, at all times
of the day. Now, they’re gone.” Rizer went on to predict that in the next five
years, one third of all newspapers will fold.

Veterans of the newspaper industry have their own ideas for how to keep the
presses running. Jim Foudy, editor of the Daily Hampshire Gazette in
Northampton, enjoys his system for keeping the Gazette in print. “The newspapers
shot themselves in the foot by providing free content, and Craigslist has done a
number on our wanted ads and classifieds,” he said. To stay afloat, the Gazette
requires a subscription to view its web content.

The Gazette model is a rarity in the online newspaper circuit because it
requires cash to use. Foudy admits that needing a subscription probably keeps
readership from reaching its full potential This roadblock has led other editors
take a different approach. Boston.com, the site on which the Boston Globe posts
all of its material, is free for anyone who chooses to use it. Bennie DiNardo,
one of the deputy of managers of multimedia content at the Globe, has a
different philosophy. “Our business is to deliver the news, no matter what the
format,” he said. “To quote Arthur Sulzberger, head of the New York Times, we
need to be agnostic about how people get their news.”

While newspapers continue to experiment with possible business models that will
allow them to put content on the web while making a profit, other groups in the
media are trying different methods.

One development occurring in the media sphere is the rise of citizen
journalists. Often unpaid, these men and women report on issues that affect
their communities. Opinions on the future of citizen journalists are mixed.
Critics of the current media feel that citizen journalists offer news without
agendas, a fault that the mass media is often accused of having. Critics of the
current media feel that citizen journalists, like Rizer, say that amateur
journalists practice an exercise in egomania that will lead to news without
substance.

This video should give you a better idea of both sides of the argument.

The Future of Journalism in Massachusetts from Lucas Correia on Vimeo.

Some branches of the media are working overtime to fill in the gaps left by the
newspapers‘ decline. Cambridge Community Television, a public television station
set up in Boston, is starting to use citizen journalists for a project called
Neighbor Media, with the eventual goal of putting a journalist in every zip code
in Cambridge. Colin Rhinesmith, director of the project said, “to have residents
see people they know reporting is inspiring. Seeing them produce stories that
effect them is truly media by the people, for the people.”

CCTV may be a good place to start when looking for the new face of the media.
It presents itself as a merchant of information newsworthy to those in the local
community, users of nonprofessional talent, and is endlessly inventive. A
project using the program GoogleMaps, called MediaMap shows how the new media is
shaping up. One can zoom into a map of Boston, choose a location, and watch,
listen, or read a news story that happened the spot. Rhinesmith says that this
is an especially exciting development for those with mobile devices.

MediaMap is interesting for an additional reason. Another attempt at divining
the future of the media, titled EPIC video, predicted a hypothetical, hyperlocal
media program that used GoogleMaps. Called EPIC, it would become the ultimate
answer in media. In an interesting turn, it was predicted that this program
would be made only after the almighty New York Times folded.

Foudy said, “the newspaper business is in flux, but the principles of
journalism are here to stay.” Some parts of the media are gloating at a bigger
role in making the news, other parts are doing scrambling to hold the newspaper
above the water. One suspects that when the dust finally clears in the media’s
civil war, the winner will be something both very similar -yet very different-
from the models already predicted.

Globe Reader Reactions

By: Kevin Koczwara

The New York Times Co. hasn’t closed down Boston’s largest daily newspaper, for now. The Boston Globe remains open with a certain feeling of dread. The dread comes from not knowing how long the Times Co. can keep financing a product that loses $20 million a day, and the uncertainty hung over the paper for the month of April and into May.

An open rally for readers and workers to show their support was organized at Faneuil Hall on Friday, April 24, early afternoon. The time frame allowed workers in the area to show their support. Although many would not comment on their feelings on the situation because they were skipping work, some did speak about how the loss of the paper would affect them.

“I think it would be a tremendous loss,” said Jerry Lewis, an Electrician on lunch break. “It’s a nationally recognized institution.”

The Globe’s closure would have been seen as a huge loss to the Boston community. “The Boston Globe is the leading voice of New England and if it were to go silent, we’d lose an institution that has become part of our regional identity,” said Meredith O’Brien, a columnist and author living in the MetroWest area.

“The Globe leads the charge in covering state government and holding the Commonwealth’s leaders accountable,” she said. “And, as a former reporter for the Boston Herald, I’d be tremendously saddened to see the city lose its coveted status as a two-newspaper town. Having journalistic competition keeps reporters on their toes, keeps ‘em sharp and, whatever stories one paper doesn’t have, the other likely does, a yin and yang, particularly when it comes to their editorial leanings.”

Founded in 1872, the Globe has been a staple in newsstands since the turn of the century. “Every day Globe readers wake up and learn about each other, about the places we live, what’s important to us, about the events, the institutions, the forces that affect our lives,” said Brian Mooney, Globe reporter.

Printed seven days a week, the paper has evolved over the years alongside technology. Boston.com was started in 1995, giving users and readers up-to-date information for free. The Web site brings in revenue, however minimal, from ad space. The innovations have saved the company some money as its distribution numbers have slumped over the years.

City Council President Michael Ross added his voice to the Faneuil Hall rally. Even if the paper may not always be on his side, he said, he stands by it. “Newspapers serve as a touchstone for our community, which ultimately makes our country, city and government better,” Ross said.

The rally showed its diversity in voices by bringing in Neiman Fellow and Pulitzer Prize winning reporter David Jackson of the Chicago Tribune, a Boston native. He sees the paper as a necessary piece of government.

“Every day Globe reporters comb the corridors of power and the public alleyways, and they shed light. They bring forth vested facts, and they spark the conversation on which our democracy depends,” Jackson said to the crowds.

O’Brien feels the same. “Without the Globe, I shudder to think of the number of stories that would go uncovered and the things with which the folks at the State House would be able to do knowing there aren’t many reporters keeping tabs on them,” she said.

Dan Totten, president of the Boston Newspaper Guild, sees the paper as a landmark for the Boston area. “The Boston Globe is far too important to the life of New England to ever be placed in jeopardy,” says Totten, whose Guild will need to ratify the new contact that has been negotiated between the Guild and The New York Times Co.

The 190 guaranteed jobs and more than $10 million in pay cuts have been agreed upon, now The Boston Newspaper Guild must vote ratify the new terms of their contacts at the June 8 meeting. This must surely be done or the New York Times Co. will have to close shop to one of the nations oldest and largest daily papers, and make Boston a one paper city.

Cultural Evolution Through Cooking

Cultural evolution is one of those subjects I really haven’t touched on. This is partially because I’m not an anthropologist- it makes me likely to have BS called on my writing. The unprofessional layperson’s definition of cultural evolution would be; those who do stupid things, die.

Stupidity, I’m sure you are aware, comes in many different colors and flavors. Since I’m talking about cultural evolution and cooking, this entry will give you a better idea of why people cook their pork well done (or don’t eat it at all)

• Why don’t Jewish people and Muslims eat pork?

There are a couple possibilities for this. As you may know, holy books are full of laws constraining diet, sexual behavior, and much more. As it turns out, there are often good reasons for this, albeit ones that are somewhat obsolete in the year 2009.

As to the “just say no to pork” rule, there are two main theories. The one that has the most credence is that pigs often carry the deadly parasite Trichinosis. It would stand to reason that a holy book would ban food that could possibly kill the diner. This was way before people understood that you need to cook pork thoroughly before eating it.

The other possibility is that pigs eat anything, and too much of it. Although pigs will happily consume garbage, they also have a distinct appetite for human food. The ban on pork throughout middle east regions could have to do with the lack of enough arable land to feed both humans and piggies.

• Why do people in hot places like India, Mexico, and Thailand eat such spicy food? Isn’t it hot enough there already?

You have probably taken a bite of authentic Mexican mole, a hot curry, or a dash of Sriracha sauce and wondered this yourself. The truth behind this is that some spices are thought to contain anti-microbial properties. In hot areas where meat spoils quickly, it makes sense that people would drench their food in spicy goodness.

Before refrigeration, many other cultures used equally creative, if not quite as tasty preparations. These preservation techniques are thought to be responsible for the horrors of Scandinavian cuisine.

I am lutefisk, destroyer of worlds. Courtesy of Adam Drew

Bork Appetite!

Out of the world, into the fire

The image that wet a thousand astronomer's pants, Gliese 877. Courtesy of Trent Schindler

I know I usually focus on things on this earth, but I have to report on this. An exoplanet (out of this solar system) has been discovered that possibly has liquid water.

Imagine you were on this planet. An inhabitant, much like us, congratulates you on reaching such a distant place, some twenty odd light-years without liquid water to sustain you. You talk about his planet’s politics, a little about how his nine to five is. Then, he offers you a baloney sandwich. You take a bite, and promptly die.

What just happened? Copper poisoning.

See, planets are attributed different amounts of resources. Mars has an abundance of Iron, and Venus has too much sulfur. The point is, we are evolved to life on this planet, but no where else- Unless the planet is exactly like ours, Earth.

You don’t need to look far to find it. Cows, they do better in iron rich environments, like the American Midwest , the southern part of South America, and the plains of Europe. Sheep live better in mountainous habitats like Colorado and Greece. Why doesn’t it follow to reason that we should thrive only in the confines of planet Earth?

Sadly, although astronomers have the habit of wetting their pants every time liquid water is found outside of Earth, that may not be enough to support life as we know it. A major problem with many scientists and researchers is that they’re extensively trained in one subject, but often confused about another. (Some wags say that researchers and scientists are also not trained on how to communicate with people, but that’s neither here nor there.)

A side note- a lot has been made over the recent plagiarism spate at the Umass Daily Collegian. Being a journalist, I’m deeply disappointed that someone didn’t bother to accept that cardinal rule of journalism- Do Your Own Writing. As a biologist, I’m happy to tell you that the article in question is a pile of BS.

If you’ll recall a post I made on bacterial evolution, germs that occur naturally on piggies are probably a lot less harmful than germs that occur naturally on pigs that have also gained antibiotic resistance.

There are a few real lessons to learn here. Avoid taking other’s work and passing it off as your own, and if you eat pork, consider going free range, and cook your bacon well. You’ll thank me later on all counts.

Some fun with the movies

If you're around my age, you may remember a childhood movie called The Land Before Time. It's a cute movie about cute singing dinosaurs. It is also full of filthy lies.

Since I'm quickly getting to the end of my school year, I'd like to take the fun and easy route of talking about dinosaurs and their portrayal in the movies.

What you learned from Godzilla: Dinosaurs were slow moving, stupid killing machines.
Verdict: False
In an act that I find funny for several reasons, Toho studios designed everyone's favorite monster in a rubber suit after what people thought dinosaurs were like in the 1950s. As such, one of Japan's most favorite citizens was shown as a slow walking, tail dragging beast with nothing on the mind but death.
At the time, Paleontologists thought that dinosaurs were probably just oversized lizards. With the finding of transitional fossils and dino DNA, we now think that dinosaurs were something of a mix between crocodiles and birds. Behaviorists think that dinos behaved more like birds in terms of intelligence and being warm blooded.

What you learned from Jurassic Park: If Velociraptors were reintroduced to this world, we would all be dead.
Verdict? False
The raptors from the movie never really existed. The was a dinosaur about the same size and build, but it was called Utah Raptor. Apparently, velociraptor sounds scarier. The truth is, if you ran into a velocirator, you'd be able to punt it.
These raptors were around the size of a big turkey. Interestingly enough, the might have looked like one too. Many raptor fossils show feather imprints.
Jeff Goldblum was afraid of this guy? Credit goes to Marmelad

What you learned from The Land Before Time: Long necked dinosaurs could lift their heads up to pick leaves off of trees (obstensively to give to their children)
Verdict: False
When you raise your arm, your heart needs to pump at a greater rate. If your arm was 30 feet long and required hundreds of gallons of blood in it at all times, well, that could raise blood pressure by...a lot. A brontosaur lifting its head to tree level would lead to it immediately passing out, or possibly a dino anurysim.


What you learned from The Land Before Time: Dinosaurs could sing
Verdict: absolutely, unbelievablely... True.

What have I been saying all this post? Courtesy of Soto Ayam.

Convergent Evolution

Time for a confession. Those American Cheetahs I was talking about in the last post? They weren't really cheetahs.

They had a build like a cheetah and probably behaved like cheetahs, but DNA evidence taken fro fossils suggest that they were much more closely related to Mountain Lions.

How does a mountain lion come to look like a cheetah? Through something called convergent evolution.

The theory of convergent evolution basically proposes that given enough time to adapt to their surroundings, a species will exist in the form that best suits its habitat.

If a big, predatory mammal lives in an environment with a bunch of small, fast moving prey, you can bet that you will see a few common changes:

• To deal with getting enough oxygen to conduct a high speed chase, a fast predator needs a giant chest cavity. Huge lungs are needed to take in the air, and a big, strong heart is needed to pump blood throughout the body. Animals with big hearts and lungs will be able to chase down more prey, allowing them to have more offspring with barrel chests. The process continues until you start seeing the deep chest characteristic of greyhounds and cheetahs
• Another thing often associated with a high speed lifestyle, a short, flat face with wide nostrils, also appears in both cheetahs and miracinonyx. This is another adaption for increasing oxygen uptake.

Something interesting about convergent evolution is that it shows there is a general body type that goes best with a lifestyle.

Take two radically different animals- hippos and alligators- that live in the same environment. Due to the need to know what is going on above the waterline, both animals have eyes positioned on top of their heads.
Hippos and crocodiles both have eyes on top of their heads, despite being from two different classes. Courtesy of Paul Williams


Or think about three other groups- seals tuna, and the now extinct ichthyosaurs- Even though mammals, fish and reptiles have little in common, all three of these animals share a bullet shaped body. This is an adaption for swimming, as the shape is perfectly hydrodynamic. Natural selection showing us that there is a "perfect" adaption for a lifestyle.

Where the antelope play

If you will be so kind as to look back in my blog a month ago, you will see something I did on vestigial traits- The odds and ends of your body that serve no good today, but may have been useful in your deep past.

Today, I think I'll show how these traits can be more than just extra teeth or a misplaced bone. Take the Antelope that live on the plains of America, for example. These little powerhouses may look a little like a midget deer, but they can run like the dickens. Where most animals living on the North American plains can't run more than about 25 mph, an antelope can almost reach highway speeds.

Why is this?

As it turns out, the antelope's ability to run like a Kenyan triathlete on crack is rooted in their species' birth, a mere 3 million years ago. During this period of American History, cheetahs stalked the plains of Kansas.

Well, they weren't cheetahs, exactly, they were a relative of pumas called Miracinonyx, (that's a post for later) but a cat that is perfectly engineered for running is still a major threat to an antelope's survival. What happened? Only the fastest antelopes would survive. After the Miracinonyx's still unknown demise, the antelope retained it's running speed.

The more things change, the more they stay the same. You might have seen this situation 3 million years ago in Kansas. Picture courtesy of Jerry Friedman

Because the antelope can outrun any predator alive today by a healthy margin, it is thought that their top speed will eventually be lower. Evolution works on a "just good enough" function, and the amount of muscle needed to run at highway speeds simply takes too much energy to grow.

Richard Clarke Talk

April second saw one of the first archetypal spring days in Amherst Massachusetts. With temperatures in the mid-sixties and a cloudless sky, one would expect the students of the University of Massachusetts to be outside, enjoying the sun. And yet, last Thursday saw over two hundred students of various majors and backgrounds crowd into a stuffy auditorium on the southeast side of campus to watch a giant in the world of American foreign policy- Richard Clarke.

Clarke was there to give a talk titled, "Thee missing pieces of the three 21st century wars: Iraq, Afghanistan, and cyberspace." For 45 minutes, Clarke outlined the significance each had in foreign policy and gave his critiques on the fading memories of George W. Bush’s America. A short question and answer session followed.

It is impossible to review America’s recent battles with terrorists across the globe without Clarke coming up. He began working for the State department during the Reagan administration and continued the job under George H.W. Bush. He gained a positive reputation due to his work in negotiating diplomatic ties during Desert Storm, and was selected for counter-terrorism operations during the Clinton years.

The second Bush administration saw Clarke’s influence start to decay. A change up in the Whitehouse staff demoted Clarke to the capacity of special advisor, where he claims that he was ignored. Clarke resigned from the administration after the invasion of Iraq, something that Clarke maintains had pushed the US away from the goal of capturing Osama bin Laden.

Clarke’s problems with the former Bush administration were apparent in his hour-long talk, which went over the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq, as well as the new threat of cyber warfare. Starting with the war in Iraq, Clarke made a point by point summary of how the war had allowed bin Laden to escape and escalated the likelihood of further terror attacks.

Furthermore, he argued, despite recent gains in stability throughout Iraq, it was not in the United State’s best interests to go there in the first place. “Do not allow the creeping revisionism to set in,” he stated. “Do not let people say that (invading Iraq) was a good idea. The truth is that George Bush lied to us.”

Clarke went on to describe foreign policy problems arising from the now-faltering war in Afghanistan, as well as unprotected computer networks- something that he says allows everyone with an internet connection access to the most vital parts of society. Clark gave step by step instructions on how to topple a power grid using nothing but a desktop, demonstrating how easy it could be. Once again, he accused the Bush presidency of sweeping these problems under the rug.

The feud between Clarke and the Bush administration is both bitter and well documented, with highly partisan viewpoints on who was in the right. The dispute began soon after Clarke’s demotion, and continues to the present.

Clarke maintains that he forewarned Condoleezza Rice of possible attacks by bin Laden’s terror group, al-Qaeda, while those in the Bush administration claim that he was, “out of the loop” for terror briefings. After the attacks, Clarke claims that president Bush asked him for any proof that now-deposed Iraqi President Saddam Hussein could have been involved, something that the former administration has denied.

There appears to be little bad blood between Clarke and the Obama administration, with Clarke mentioning on Thursday’s talk that the he appreciated “Obama isn’t waging a war against an abstract word like terror- he’s concentrating on al-Qaeda, the perpetrators of the September 11th attacks.” Clark also proved invaluable to the Obama transition team.

There’s a saying that goes, “History is written by the victors.” By the looks of it, the battle over who was right on the War against Terror is still being fought.

For more on Clarke's views of cyber-warfare, please check out this video

Up in Arms

The Rough Skinned Newt- one of the most poisonous animals on the planet. Courtesy of the USGS

Last week, I mentioned that evolution is an ongoing process. In the case of germs and humans, bacteria may develop a more lethal strain, and humans develop genes more adept at avoiding this type of infection. This type of co-evolution is called the evolutionary arms race, and has been seen in many, many examples in nature.

For my first example, I would like to visit the rough-skinned newt. This amphibian is a smallish lizard like animal that lives around fresh water bodies in the Northwest coast. An interesting side note to them is that they are one of the most poisonous animals on earth.

A somewhat dubious story says that three men whom had gone camping were found dead, huddled around a coffee pot with one newt inside of it. What is known is that the poison produced by the newt’s skin is called a tetrodotoxin. This nasty toxin has no known antidote, and kills by stopping the heart’s muscles from contracting. It is 100 percent fatal.

Only one animal can eat this newt with few side effects; the garter snakes that live in the area. It is thought that both the newt’s extreme toxicity and the garter snake’s immunity are due to the evolutionary arms race.

The concept is quite similar to the cold war arms race of the 20th century. The snakes gain a gene that allows it an immunity to the poison of the newt . The newt’s offspring that have the most toxins are the least likely to be eaten by snakes- and pass those high toxicity genes to their offspring. The garter snake’s most successful offspring are subsequently the ones that are more likely to resist the tetrodotoxin.

The arms race keeps going until the newt is the most poisonous animal on earth, and the snake can consume enough tetrodotoxin to kill 20 full grown people. And then, it keeps going.

The concept of the evolutionary arms race has also been dubbed, “The Red Queen Hypothesis.” It is called this because of a line the Red Queen character has in the famous tale Alice in Wonderland, “You need to keep running just to keep up.”

This theory states that evolution is a constantly moving battle between those who need lunch and those that would be lunch. As long as both species survive, you will keep seeing camouflage getting better, teeth getting sharper, and running speeds going up. But that is a subject for next time.

Looking at Evolution through Germs part: I

Or, screwed, screwed, we are all screwed.

When it comes to talking about evolution, I like to go big and old. I mostly base my research on whales with legs, giant snakes, and dinosaurs because , well, I geek out over big animals that lived a while ago. If I could figure out why, I probably wouldn’t have this blog.

Today I’d like to switch things up and talk about evolution that’s happening in modern times, sometimes under our own noses.

Bacteria. The word itself sounds kind of icky. Bacteria themselves are one celled organisms so tiny that more than 100,000 of them could fit on the period at the end of this sentence. Something really interesting about them is exactly how they reproduce and how fast they reproduce.

Bacteria make more of themselves through a neat trick called binary fission. That is, they split (fission) into two (binary). Both copies have they exact same DNA, which I am required by science writer code to call, “the building blocks of life.” Some species of bacteria can double their population in 20 minutes by way of binary fission.


Bacteria reproduction.

What brings us to the subject of evolution is mutation in bacterial reproduction. Evolution itself is tiny genetic mutations spread out through many, many generations. Since generations in bacteria last hours instead of years, these creatures make excellent subjects for evolution.

Mutations are generally a bad thing. Downs syndrome is a mutation. Sickle cell anemia is another one. Sometimes mutations can be neutral, like blue eyes or pointer toes that are longer than big toes. Every once in a great while, something beneficial comes out of a mutation. For many organisms, beneficial mutations typically come in the form of eating or reproducing more efficiently. For bacteria, it’s most often antibiotic resistance.

We live in a world covered in germs, and a world covered in antibiotics. We put antibiotics in ourselves when we get sick, we put antibiotics in the animals we eat, we put antibiotics in our soap. It’s little wonder that when one of these fast-mutating “bugs” gets a gene promoting antibiotic resistance, the new type spreads like wildfire. As you will see in the next post, this can lead to some very hairy situations.

Looking at Evolution through Germs part: II

Or, screwed, screwed, we are all screwed… Part II



Pretty scary, huh? A bacterial infection spread through dirty gyms that is totally resistant to antibiotic treatment. Oddly enough, most people think that this strain of Staph infection came into being at a hospital.

This is sort of counter-intuitive. Hospitals are supposed to be clean, right? The problem is that hospitals may be too clean for their own good. Anti-bacterial cleaning solutions are put down on the hospital floors, everything in use is constantly sterilized, et cetera.

Normally, this is all well and good. After all, who wants to go to a 19th century hospital? But as I stated earlier, all these sterile techniques run into the problem of rapid bacterial evolution. If one bacterium gains a mutation allowing it to survive a dose of antibiotics, in 20 minutes, there will be two of them, in 40 minutes there will be four of them, and in a day, there could be 2 to the 72nd power of them, which is more than all the people in the world, times a billion. Insert explicative of choice here.

The sad part is, there’s little middle ground on this subject. If we were to stop using antibiotics altogether, a particularly bad ear infection (which I am quite familiar with) could equal a death sentence. The best chance we have against these hospital borne “super bugs” becoming antibiotic resistant is to have doctors make educated decisions on when to administer drugs. This may be easier said than done, as many people clamor for antibiotics at the first sign of the sniffles.

Unfortunately, that’s not the only place we can find antibiotics, due to pharmaceutical companies’ large presence in American business, we can find antibacterial in our hand soaps, in the feed we give to farm animals, and even in our G&$d@*n drinking water.

What can you personally do to cut down on antibiotic use? (And perhaps stop some kind of 28 Days Later s___ from going down?)

• Buy Organic meat- being certified organic means that your chicken patty wasn’t pumped full of antibiotics at a factory farm. (plus, some say organic meat is rich in self-righteous flavors, with delicate undertones of smugness)

• Use regular hand soap, not the antibacterial kind. Bacteria will cover your hands within the next hour anyways, so you might as well skip the whole I-created-a-super bug-that-destroyed-mankind deal. If you’re a real Mysophobe, use alcohol based sanitizers instead

• When you get sick, ask the doctor if you actually need antibiotics to cure your ills. If you wind up with an antibiotic, do not stop taking them until you are done with the course.

Well, that’s all for this entry. I was only planning on doing these two, but I’m having fun with this, so I’ll do another on bacteria.

Next stop: 1347 AD- The Black Plague.

Looking at Evolution through Germs part: III

Or, screwed, screwed, we are all screwed…Part III

For a second, imagine you’re living in 14th century Southern France, around 1349 AD. This is not only a world without lolcats and gangsta rap, but also one without cotton clothing, chocolate, and a knowledge of how germs are spread.

The last one is particularly important, as a plague called the Black Death is currently sweeping through your town, killing, using the best evidence, about every one in three people. Named because of the blackish color the lymph nodes take when infected with the disease, it spread when rats infected with the disease were bitten by fleas, which then carried it to humans. This was a nasty, nasty way to go.

"Doctor Beak of Rome" an 1656 engraving by Paul Furst. This was the typical uniform of a plague doctor at the time, a sort of medieval hazmat suit. The bird mask holds sweet smelling herbs in the bill in order to keep the smell of death at bay. Seeing as these men were unsuccessful at stopping the plague, it is thought the mask is what gives us the word "quack" to describe unprofessional doctors.

The real question is, why didn’t all of Europe succumb to the plague? The answer again lies in evolutionary biology. Some Europeans had a genetic mutation that made them less likely to get the plague. It is thought that the Yersinia pestis bacterium latched on to a protein found on some people’s cells. Those who had a mutation deleting this protein were much more likely to survive. Six and a half centuries later, a good ten percent of European ancestored people still lack this protein. A cool side effect of this is that HIV uses the same protein, making those with the mutation more adept at resisting AIDS.*

Interestingly enough, evolution and epidemics go hand in hand.

Diseases like smallpox nearly wiped out the Indian tribes when Europeans first set foot on the New World. The reason for this (as well as the reason why the Europeans weren’t wiped out as well) has to do with natural selection. Smallpox had been common to the old world for millennia. Europeans who had genes adept at avoiding smallpox infections were more likely to survive and have children with the same genes. Those who didn’t, died.

Across the pond, the genes responsible for smallpox immunity would have been useless, and therefore not as common. When Smallpox first hit America, as many as 50 million lives were lost. The few Indians that survived were likely carriers of a resistance gene.A scene describing the Smallpox virus racing through the Aztec population. This comes from the Florentine Codex, a story written by unknown native students of Bernardino de Sahagún.

It is thought that germs, not guns or better technology are why we aren’t speaking Aztec.

So the bad news is that germs have been around forever, and some are waiting for a good time to kill millions of us. The good news is that germs aren’t the only things evolving. Humans’ immune systems are constantly evolving new ways to protect us from all sorts of nasty things. This is called the evolutionary arms race, and is a topic for next time.

*The author is saying this is a cool legacy of a long gone epidemic event, not condoning sharing needles or unsafe sex. Don’t be stupid, people.

Weather Story

story by Ted Rogers

There is an old Yankee saying that New England weather is, “Nine months of Winter followed by three months of damned poor sledding.” And while how warm this spring is going to be is still up for debate, the two snowstorms that walloped central Massachusetts in January and March are still being remembered. These blizzards shut down the University of Massachusetts Amherst for a day each; a situation that pleased nearly all students, but only some of the faculty.

The first storm hit the county area in the early hours of Wednesday, January 28th. About five to eight inches of wet, heavy snow fell from 4 am to the early afternoon. In the Amherst area, the worst effects of the weather were limited to slick roads and closed schools- with some public schools and colleges receiving an extra half-day for clean up.

Elsewhere in Massachusetts, problems included a few power outages in Suffolk and Worcester counties and several car accidents in the Westfield area of the Massachusetts turnpike. State Police report that they lowered the speed limit on the turnpike to 40 miles per hours as a response.
Nationally, the storm took a far heavier toll. Before heading north, the snowstorm went through the southern and eastern states, laying down a sheet of ice across roads and causing power failures for up to 1 million customers. The blizzard is said to have caused more than 23 deaths nationwide.

The second snowstorm to hit Massachusetts went down on Monday, March 2nd, dumping six to 12 inches of snow throughout the region. This was a classic example of a nor’easter system- a storm named after the trade winds bringing the tempest in. The snow delayed flights and buses in the New England area for most of the day. Other then a few icy roads and closed schools, however, the day was fairly uneventful.

After the snowstorm ended, the mercury plunged into the low 10s, creating icy roads. By Wednesday, the air temperature at Westover Air Reserve Base had reached an all-time low of three degrees Fahrenheit, beating a previous 1943 record by a degree.

This storm also had far reaching effects, with snow being seen as far down south as South Carolina. Pictures were captured of snow blanketing the US Capitol Building. As snowy conditions are rarely seen south of Pennsylvania, car accidents and a 15 mile long traffic jam were reported in North Carolina. More than 900 flights on the eastern seaboard were canceled.

These storms have also taken a toll on the already weak US economy. New Jersey Gov. Jon S. Corzine reported that the storm could cost his state 2.5 to 7 million dollars. Closer to home, Chicopee Mayor Michael D. Bissonnette said, "At $12,000 an inch, we are expecting to reach $1 million in costs," for this season alone.

On the brighter side of things, the old saying that March, “comes in like a lion, out like a lamb,” is expected to hold true. Daytime temperatures are predicted to be in the mid to upper 50s for the next week, with a likely high of 62 degrees and sunny weather on Friday.

For more on how the snow affected Students at UMass, please check this audio slide show out, with photography by Emily Grund and narration by Alyssa Montalbano

Given that this is an evolution/paleontology blog, I get disproportionately excited any time some group of people finds a few bones in a hole that they've been digging for years.

It's one of those days.

After three years of digging in the freezing cold, polar bear-infested island of Spitsbergen, scientists have unearthed an absolutely gigantic Pliosaur. This monster was as big as a humpback whale, and a whole lot meaner.

Large Pliosaur skeleton with person for scale. Courtesy of Sarah Katzenell

Today, I think it would be interesting to use this discovery to show a core principle of evolution- Body structures are related to the animal‘s environment and behavior.

Take a look at this creature’s flippers- there are four of them. All other fully aquatic animals have eventually lost their hind limbs, in what is thought to be a response to better hydrodynamics. Flippers tend to create drag when traveling through open water, which means more energy is spent swimming and less spent on eating and reproducing.

So, why would four massive flippers exist on an animal? To know this, we need to look at the Pliosaur’s environment.A world map of the Jurassic Period. Notice the continents are partially fused together. Courtesy of Dr. Ron Blakey

As you can see on the map, there is one giant ocean, a few shallow seas, and thousands of miles of coastland. The coasts and shallow waters make excellent habitats for reefs- and creatures that like to hide in reefs. Now, animals hide for two reasons; to avoid becoming prey, or to wait until your next dinner comes close enough to be convenient. As the Spitsbergen monster was quite possibly the largest animal in the ocean at that point, it can be assumed that its behavior was the latter.

Tests done with robots show some interesting benefits that come with swimming with four flippers. This style allows the animal more maneuverability, and short bursts of speed, something associated with an ambush method of hunting.

Fossils are nothing short of amazing. When looking at the case of the four-flippered pliosaur, one can not only learn about how this creature may have behaved, but also get a better glimpse of what kind of environment this animal lived in.

Fun with Fossils

I have to admit something- talking about evolution can get old in a sense. 3.8 billion years old, to be somewhat precise. But every so often, I get to talk about some recent discovery that shocks scientists the world over. Without further ado, I would like to show you the newly uncovered Maiacetus (mother whale in Latin), the whale that lived like a sea lion.

Mother Whale
It’s not just the discovery of a new species of whale that has science in a uproar- it’s also the fact that this fossil whale was extremely pregnant. As it turns out, a fossilized pregnant whale can give a wealth of information about how the creature lived.
The mother Maiacetus’ fetus was so developed that it already had a set of tiny teeth, something that suggests the baby was equipped to hunt and defend itself soon after birth. What is really amazing is that the baby whale was positioned for a head first birth. Since modern whales give birth tail first, (to prevent the newborn from drowning) this suggests that Maiacetus hauled its bulky body onto shore to give birth, just like modern day sea lions.



What else can fossils tell us?
It depends on what is being fossilized. An egg or a pregnant mother can tell paleontologists about what early life was like for that specific species. Teeth can tell us what the species ate, and sometimes, where they lived. Fossilized foot prints show how an extinct animal walked.

It may come as a surprise to my readers at UMass, but the nearby Holyoke Range is covered with dinosaur footprints from the late Triassic. 190 million years ago, the Pioneer Valley was a vast swampy region with a decent amount of volcanic activity going on nearby. Something interesting about these tracks- they show that theropod dinosaurs walked on two legs without dragging their tails. Believe it or not, this was a lively field of debate a few decades ago.

Notice how this early exhibit of T. Rex had the animals standing with a tripod tail? We now think they had an upright walking position, like a bird.
Public Domain

Fun German word of the day-
Lagerstätten- Means, “place of storage.” This are entire environments that have been flash frozen in stone. These are generally due to a catastrophic event that buries all life in the area and preserves it. The formation of Lagerstätten are associated with events like eruptions, landslides, and flash floods.

Vestigial structures

Ouch. You can see the impacted wisdom teeth on the right. Why do we have them? Read on.
Courtesy of Ka-ho Chu

Today I’d like to have some fun showing you how you can trace your long, seamy ancestry through your own body. In the far distant past, your grandparents to the umpteenth power may have swam through murky swamps, warmed up on rocks, or jumped from tree to tree in the search of leaves. How can we figure this out? Through vestigial structures.

Vestigial structures are parts of you that have lost their function in your body, but have retained their function in many other animals.

What are some of your vestigial organs?
Everybody’s favorite example is the human appendix. It’s a little, worm shaped organ that hangs off of your large intestine. In humans, the appendix is famous for doing nothing- except for occasionally getting infected and necessitating it’s immediate removal. Some scientists claim that the appendix actually plays the small but important part of reintroducing beneficial bacteria back to your intestines after a bout of Montezuma’s Revenge.

In other animals, however, it plays a huge role. Animals that eat a lot of cellulose (an extremely starchy product of some plants) or toxic materials have huge appendixes. The Koala, the Australian marsupial famous for eating (highly poisonous) eucalyptus leaves, has an appendix over two meters long. Rats also have a large appendix, allowing them to eat pretty much anything.

Other good examples of vestigial traits in humans are: The coccyx- a remnant of the tails our distant relatives used to swing around on trees. The muscles attached to our ears- most small mammals use these muscles for directional hearing. Wisdom teeth- these teeth used to pushed others forward as people got older and started to lose their teeth. Thanks to better dentistry, present day wisdom teeth usually just impact and snaggle the jaw-line.

Do other animals have vestigial organs?
Yes, Virginia, other animals have vestigial organs. To show you one famous example, I’d like to go back to the whales. As I already discussed, the early ancestors of whales had legs and hips. Interestingly enough, they still do- they’re just embedded under layers of fat and muscle. Every so often, a little genetic accident occurs, and something amazing happens.

The letter "C" in this picture shows you a modern whale's hips and legs. Courtesy of Stefan Kühn

Multimedia and the Budget

The story in question can be viewed here

I find this bundle of media to be very effective in showing the viewer what the impact and legislation of the enormous ten year budget is going to be. I’ll break the package into it’s component parts.

The Printed Story:
The printed story goes over several key areas of the story behind the budget. The first part focuses on the budgets aims are and how much it will cost. The second portion looks at President Obama’s efforts in creating the budget, examining the sectors where he wants the money to go and which the sectors where he is planning to cut funding. The story than switches to the methods that will be used in paying for the budget, focusing on the taxation of wealthy individuals and business. Finally, the story ends with the fears expressed by some legislators over the colossal amount of money proposed to be spent. I found the story to be informative and diligent in answering the major questions of the deal behind the budget.

The Graphic:
There are two parts to the graphic. The graph gives detailed information of government spending, earning, and the related deficit issues over an 80 year period. Under it, you have some bullet points as to where the money will come from and where it will go. I liked this graphic because it gives a more thorough look at the money issues of the budget and gives the reader a little look at the history of budgets.

The Pod cast:
This was my favorite part of the news package. The writer of the story, 25 year Washington reporter Jackie Calmes, gives the lowdown on the authorship of the budget, where she thinks the money is going, and some insider information on who she thinks will oppose some of Obama’s budget cuts. It was very cool to hear the journalist talk about what she learned while working on this story.

The Video:
The video was interesting too. It goes over Obama’s announcement of the budget and outlines where the money is going as well as where funding is going to be cut. This was a basic rundown of what is talked about in the article, condensed into a few minutes.

Take a good, long look at this fossilized skeleton:Courtesy of Northeast Ohio University.

Now, take a look at this (more current) skeleton:Courtesy of The New Bedford Whaling Museum.

What do they have in common? They’re both whales. Separated by 50,000,000 years, these two animals are evolutionary cousins. For the next few weeks, I’d like to explore the core fundamentals of evolution by covering how whales transformed from small, hoofed, dog-like animals into the sea going behemoths we know today.

The explanation of how such transformations can occur boils down to one core tenant of evolution: Adaptive Radiation.

To answer what adaptive radiation is in less words than this sentence: nature abhors a vacuum. If a biological niche (lifestyle) is suddenly gone, you can bet money that new creatures will fill it up. There are tons of examples of this. The perennial favorite has always been Darwin’s Finches (these finches, whose lifestyles go from sipping nectar to pecking out holes in wood famously led Darwin to conclude that adaptive radiation does exist.) However, there are also the cases of Australia’s myriad of marsupials and Hawaii’s Honey Creepers.

In short, a small group of animals put into a new environment will probably diversify and evolve to fill the various niches of said environment.

So, how does our dog-like Pakicetus relate to adaptive radiation? According to various fossil dating techniques, Pakicetus came onto the scene about 10 million years after the giant, sea going reptiles (think Nessie) had vanished from the earth. Since the Cretaceous extinction, only a few sharks and crocodilians made the ocean their home.

This is the perfection environment for adaptive radiation because there is an open niche, no dangerous competitors (Nessie), and plenty of food (fish stocks rebound in the face of few predators). Pakicetus and it’s later descendants took to the water essentially because the opportunity presented itself.

How do people know that Pakicetus is a whale? It may seem a bit far-fetched to suppose a coyote like creature to be a distant ancestor of the humpbacks, especially since Pakicetus has, you know, legs. The key is to look at the skull.

Skull of Pakicetus:Courtesy of University of California, Berkeley

Skull of modern day Orca:
Courtesy of skullsunlimited.com

In addition to the similar dental plan, you may also notice that there are no holes for ears at the side of either skull. It is thought that Pakicetus had internal ears, much like today’s whale.

Last week, I talked about how cold blooded animals could grow huge in hot environments. Today, I think it would be interesting to talk a bit more about what it means to have, “cold blood.”

What does it mean to be cold blooded?
It has nothing to do with Rick James. Having cold blood basically means that the animal depends on ambient temperature to power its metabolism. Outside heat does everything from getting enzymes running to warming up muscles. While some animals do use geothermal vents for this, heat from the sun is the most common source.

What kind of animals are cold blooded?
The simple answer is most fish, and all present day reptiles and amphibians. Birds and mammals are, by design, endotherms. (There is exactly one mammal that doesn’t apply to this rule-read more about God’s mistake; the naked mole rat.)

Any exceptions?
You bet. Tuna actually produce their own body heat through working their muscles. This allows them to be fast, powerful swimmers even in colder waters. This phenomenon is called poikilothermy. Other cold blooded animals manage to keep a more or less constant body temperature simply by merit of being huge. Because of a greater mass and proportionally less surface area, animals that exhibit gigantothermy stay warm in colder areas. Everyone’s favorite gigantotherm is the Great White Shark, but bigger sea turtles, and perhaps dinosaurs had this trait too. It was unlikely that last week’s Titanoboa was a gigantotherm, because a slender, long shape has a comparatively high surface area.

Despite being cold blooded, Great Whites are capable of sustained, acrobatic activity through their size alone. Courtesy of Charles Luyt

What are the pluses of being cold blooded?
To sum it up in a sentence; being cold blooded means you don’t need to spend a lot of energy to get energy. To keep your body temperature up at a constant 98.6 degrees, which allows our enzymes, muscles, and brains in tip top shape 24/7 takes a lot of energy. We eat tons more food per year compared to a similar sized ectotherm. Even giant reptiles like Nile Crocodiles and Anacondas only need one to two big meals per year. Since less energy is being spent finding another meal, more energy can be spent on reproduction.

This guy weighs about 1200 pounds and eats about one or two 500 pound wildebeest per year. For comparison, if you weigh about 180 pounds, you eat nearly a ton of food per year. Picture courtesy of Marco Schmidt.

What are the dangers of being an ectotherm?
For one thing, cold blooded creature don’t have nearly as much stamina as warm blooded ones. This is because a fast metabolism quickly regenerates ATP and gets rid of harmful acids that build up during sustained activity. The second danger, which I went over last week, is that warming up each day can be dangerous; time spent absorbing the sun’s rays is not time spent avoiding predators.

The Economic Stimulus Package

How much is the total cost of the economic stimulus package?
Congress has voted on a package totaling 787 billion USD after several
contentious days on Capitol Hill.
Read about the package here

Who is in favor of the package?
Senate Democrats, House Democrats, the White House, and a trio of moderate
senate Republicans hailing from Maine and Pennsylvania. Polls show a slim majority of the public (53%) are in favor of the package.
More on the Moderate Republican rebellion

Who is opposed to the stimulus bill?
Senate Republicans excluding Snowe, Specter, and Collins, all House Republicans, and
many economic conservatives oppose the bill on the magnitude of money being
spent, as well as some social conservative elements debating on whether spending
money on birth control and education counts as economic stimulus
Read an economic conservative’s opinion on the package here

Where is the money going?
A variety of places. A tax cut for 400 to 800 USD is going out for all working tax payers. In addition, billions of dollars have been set aside for infrastructure and tech development, two of the stimulus package’s biggest winners.
Learn more

What role has President Obama taken with the stimulus package?
President Obama has aggressively pushed for the package since coming in to office. Despite his requests for bipartisan legislation, voting was almost completely along party lines. Some are saying his decision to cut some spending and give out tax cuts, while barely getting republican votes are signs that Obama buckled too fast with no gain.
Obama's victory called "Pyrrhic"

Giant Boa Remains Found in Columbia

Rendition of Titanoboa- Art by Jason Bourque, University of Florida

Forget the movie with J-Lo, this snake is real thing. The fossilized vertebrae of a giant (43-45 foot) serpent has been discovered in Columbia. Rightfully named Titanoboa cerrejonensis (meaning titanic boa from Cerrejon, the region where it was found), this snake lived a scant five million years after the dinosaurs made their exit. Discovered in 2007 in a Colombian coal pit, this substantial serpent’s bones are making its rounds through the scientific circles now. To answer a couple pertinent questions:


How big was this snake, really?
Enormous. If you can imagine a normal yellow school bus next to it, you would still see the snake’s head poking past the bumper. If you could bring yourself to stand next to it at its widest point, Titanoboa would come up to your waist.
As for its weight? 2,500 pounds- in today’s world, there are only 8 terrestrial species that have a higher average weight.
When compared to today’s snakes, the differences are downright disturbing. A curator at the Florida Museum of Natural History at the University of Florida, Jonathan Bloch said of a 17 foot Anaconda, “A backbone from that creature is about the size of a silver dollar, while a backbone from Titanoboa is the size of a large Florida grapefruit."

Vertebrae of Titanoboa contrasted with modern day Anaconda, courtesy of Florida Museum of Natural History

How could it get so big?
Fun answer: global warming. More specifically, something called the Paleocene-Eocene Thermal Maximum (called that because it took place at the cusp of those geological eras) happened. While no one knows for sure, many geologists think that CO2 from volcanoes helped to trigger massive global warming about 55.8 million years ago. The result? Super-sized reptiles.
Reptiles are what the science crowd likes to call “ectothermic” or cold-blooded to you and me. While the exact definition is a little hard to explain, it basically means that animals with “cold blood” need warmth to get their metabolism going. It’s why you see most reptiles basking in the sun as a start to the day, and why pet stores sell heat lamps.
This morning ritual can be dangerous. Predators will pick up a frigid snake faster than a policeman on a barfing frat boy. That’s why you don‘t see alligators in the arctic.
Now, when the world is hot enough to warm a big-boned boa quickly, less time is spent warming up, and more time and energy is spent snapping up prehistoric critters, and consequently growing huge.

Giving you another reason to think about Al Gore,
Ted Rogers

Links:
Video on Titanoboa
Huffington post story
University of Minnesota biology professor's take on the subject
More from the London Times
A quite readable explanation of the Paleocene-Eocene Thermal Maximum

Primordial Ooze

Hello, everyone.

I'm Ted. I've started this blog because...well, my professor made me. I'm not very knowledgeable when it comes to posting on the web, so I intend to use this as a learning experience.

A little about me: I'm 21. I misspent most of my youth on the charming town of Falmouth, Cape Cod. As of now, I'm a journalism student at the University of Massachusetts, Amherst. I'm currently getting a minor in both biology and history. After school is over, I'd like to write guides for museums or zoos... but in the current economic climate, I'll be happy to have a job, period.

A little about this blog: I'd like to explore the large, messy, and sometimes confusing subject of evolutionary biology. It's something that many people don't understand, and I'd wager it's because the subject seems so complex. I'm writing about it because I'm pretty sure it doesn't have to be that way. My mission is to make the subject interesting and hopefully, a little fun. You should read this blog if you're at all curious about why biological life is like it is. As for people with a grounding in evolutionary biology, you should read this too. I'm always up for learning new things.