Even though I am no longer taking Senior Seminar, I have decided to continue posting to our blog. As an avid scientist-in-training, I feel the need to share things about science that I find interesting. As usual, my aim is to try to amuse the average web surfer while teaching a little bit too.
I was sifting through my e-mail when I noticed the link my brother sent me about new pictures NASA obtained of the sun. Four different cameras allow the satellite to look at the sun’s surface, layer by layer.
These pictures, which are 10x better than HD, should help scientists better understand the link between the sun’s activity and the atmosphere (or, more specifically, climate change).
Here is the link. I would have posted this sooner, but I had Finals to take. You will have to watch a stupid ad first. I tried to use my mad coding skillset to get around this, but I’m still feeling the effects of partying with my graduating friends so I didn’t try too hard:
At 5:00 a.m., I was hanging out in the parking lot with my Marine Biology lab notebook and camping gear. I stood there waiting for the rest of my BIO 412 classmates to show up, trying not to move too much because it made the spinning in my head worse. (I knew I would probably be sleeping most of the van ride to North Carolina, so I had gone out and gotten my drink on.) I shivered, wondering vaguely how long it would take for AU Safety Services to investigate a report of a drunkard camping out in the parking lot, when other students began to arrive, yawning and lugging camping gear. Once all the gear was loaded in the vans, Doctors Posner and Saunders, two of the AU Biology department faculty, began the drive. We were on our way!
Between being subjected to Tom’s awful taste in music approximately seven thousand fifty six times, I managed to take some awesome pictures of our trip. Enjoy!
Camp Awesome: We came here for taxon identification, sleep, and snackage.
At 11:00 p.m. the last night, 30mph gusts came out of nowhere and ripped our tents down. The poles of two tents were left snapped and useless.
Even 15-foot tall sand dunes are futile attempts to prevent the erosion that barrier islands experience naturally.
We went kayaking in a salt marsh and I spotted a duck. I was able to get close enough to take this sweet pic right as it took off.
The Cape Hatteras Light Station. It is 198 feet tall, and you must climb 257 steps to reach the top!
The view from the top was insane! It took me three minutes just to stop hugging the wall and stand by the edge to take this picture.
The entire climb up, I had a deathgrip on the railing while trying to look like I wasn’t having a claustrophobic / heights freakout.
The Littoraria snails will climb the Spartina marsh grass to escape predation by crabs below. They can hold on even as they sleep by secreting a sticky substance onto the spot and just hang there, sleeping.
We came across this huge fish skeleton in the salt marsh. I took a picture with my hand next to it to set the scale for how huge this thing was.
We wanted such a complete specimen for our lab back in Ohio, so we wrapped it in trash bags and stored it in our lunchmeat cooler.
Once you get the chance, go check out the Outer Banks! But whatever you do, don’t feed the Laughing gulls! They will stalk you forever if you do.
For anyone that has taken a microbiology course, especially here at Ashland you feel completely dirty after finishing up experiments in lab. So what better way of cleansing yourself from a hard days work in the lab, experimenting with bacteria that you are trying to identify for your 25 page lab report. Who doesn’t like waking up and taking a hot shower before school or work to feel clean throughout the day? What people don’t know is that the showerhead is a perfect environment for microbes. It’s moist, warm, dark and frequently replenished with low amounts of nutrients for these microbes to feed on. Who could have thought that these microbes can lead to pulmonary disease and other health risks such as asthma and bronchitis? Believe it or not it is true and studies have proven that microbes do exist.
The common microbe that was found in high levels was Mycobacteriumavium, a pathogen that is linked to pulmonary disease. M. avium and related pathogens were seen clumped together on showerheads in slimy biofilms. Studies shown that the showerheads were more than 100 times the background levels of municipal water when compared to the showerhead when they were taken off. "If you are getting a face full of water when you first turn your shower on, that means you are probably getting a particularly high load of Mycobacterium avium, which may not be too healthy," said study leader Norman Pace.
These biofilms were swabbed on interior surfaces of 45 showerheads from nine cities in the United States. Researchers found that nearly a third of the showerheads tested were harboring these pathogens. While it is rarely a problem for most healthy people, those with weakened immune systems, like the elderly, pregnant women or those who are fighting off other diseases, can be susceptible to infection.
One showerhead in the study was found with high loads of the pathogen Mycobacterium gordonae. The showerhead was cleaned with a bleach solution, but later tests on the showerhead showed the bleach treatment had actually caused a three-fold increase in M. gordonae, indicating a general resistance of mycobacteria species to chlorine. Research at National Jewish Hospital in Denver indicates that increases in lung infections in the United States in recent decades from so-called “non-tuberculosis” mycobacteria species like M. avium may be linked to people taking more showers and few¬er baths, said Pace. Water spurting from showerheads can distribute pathogen-filled droplets that float in the air and can easily be inhaled into the deepest parts of the lungs.
So what should I do about taking showers? I really don’t want to be the smelly kid in class that everyone talks about. Well, fellow readers you can always replace the showerhead. Research shows that that plastic showerheads allow for more bacteria to clump together when compared to the metal showerhead counterpart. You can also allow the water to run at the hottest level for a couple of minutes and then turn the water to a tolerable level. Not welling to give up that 1980’s showerhead? Solution, take a bath.
Falkinham III, Joseph, and Michael Iseman. "Mycobacterium avium in a shower linked to pulmonary disease." Journal of Water and Health. 6.2 (2008): 209-11. Print.
Feazel, Leah, Laura Baumgartner, and Kristin Peterson. "Opportunistic pathogens enriched in showerhead biofilms." Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America 12.2 (2009): n. pag. Web. 28 Apr 2010.
