DDT- right or wrong?

Rachel Carson's book, Silent Spring, certainly has caused the public to develop concern over the harmful effects of chemicals, including pesticides, on human health and the environment. DDT certainly has pros and cons. Unfortunately, DDT harms wildlife, including birds; therefore, it was banned in 1969. However, this chemical is the only successful pesticide in eradicating mosquitoes, vectors of disease that carry malaria. Other pesticides are available, but mosquitoes have developed resistance to them. Some people argue that DDT is the only chemical strong enough to eradicate malaria. I can understand both sides of the argument.

I read an interesting article at http://www.americanthinker.com/2007/05/rachel_carson_and_the_deaths_o.html . The author of this article believes that DDT should definitely be used and that Carson does not use legitimate scientific evidence in her book.

Also, this YouTube video is pretty cool. An economist, Richard Tren, and a researcher, Donald Roberts, wrote a book called The Excellent Powder. They advocate using DDT because of its beneficial effects in eradicating malaria. By 2017, there is supposed to be a total ban on DDT production. However, the authors argue that the benefits of DDT outweigh the harm. I am not sure who is right, the DDT advocates or the DDT opponents. It is an interesting thought though...if DDT could eradicate malaria worldwide, is it worth using it again? http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SXQePTscn5c

Statistics

So here are some interesting statistics...

1. The average life span for a person in the United States is 77.9 years. (from the CDC)

2. "Aside from non-melanoma skin cancer, breast cancer is the most common form of cancer in women. Breast cancer is the number one cause of cancer death in Hispanic women. It is the second most common cause of cancer death in white, black, Asian/Pacific Islander, and American Indian/Alaska Native women." (from CDC)

3. "In the United States, an estimated 24.8 million men (23.1 percent) and 21.1 million women (18.3 percent) are smokers. These people are at higher risk of heart attack and stroke." (american heart association)

4. In 2009, 27.2% of the people living in GA were obese. (CDC) Obesity is defined as having a BMI of 30 or higher.

5. "In 2009, 43.6 million people (14.3 percent) were in poverty." This is based on poverty in America. (http://feedingamerica.org/)

6.
"The CDC estimates that by the end of 2007 there were 470,902 people living with an AIDS diagnoses in the United States, around 20,000 more than 2006. Since 2000 the annual numbers of new AIDS diagnoses have been relatively constant, with an estimated 37,991 in 2008. In total, an estimated 1,077,972 people have been diagnosed with AIDS in America since the beginning of the epidemic." (http://www.avert.org/usa-statistics.htm)

2009 State Obesity Rates
State	%	State	%	State	%	State	%
Alabama	31.0	Illinois	26.5	Montana	23.2	Rhode Island	24.6
Alaska	24.8	Indiana	29.5	Nebraska	27.2	South Carolina	29.4
Arizona	25.5	Iowa	27.9	Nevada	25.8	South Dakota	29.6
Arkansas	30.5	Kansas	28.1	New Hampshire	25.7	Tennessee	32.3
California	24.8	Kentucky	31.5	New Jersey	23.3	Texas	28.7
Colorado	18.6	Louisiana	33.0	New Mexico	25.1	Utah	23.5
Connecticut	20.6	Maine	25.8	New York	24.2	Vermont	22.8
Delaware	27.0	Maryland	26.2	North Carolina	29.3	Virginia	25.0
Washington DC	19.7	Massachusetts	21.4	North Dakota	27.9	Washington	26.4
Florida	25.2	Michigan	29.6	Ohio	28.8	West Virginia	31.1
Georgia	27.2	Minnesota	24.6	Oklahoma	31.4	Wisconsin	28.7
Hawaii	22.3	Mississippi	34.4	Oregon	23.0	Wyoming	24.6
Idaho	24.5	Missouri	30.0	Pennsylvania	27.4

Mitochondrial Eve

Mitochondrial Eve, the most recent common ancestor (maternal lineage) of modern day humans, lived in Africa, probably about 200,000 years ago. This theory supports the Out of Africa Theory. A team at the University of CA at Berkely studied mitochondrial DNA and realized that they could create a family tree based on the rate of mutations acquired in the mtDNA. Mitochondrial DNA is passed only from the mother to her children. Here are some pictures of people from different ethnic groups, representing different lineages that diverged from Eve:

Neur tribe / Malakal, Southern Sudan


Zulu tribe / Africa

Asian/ Korean


 Hispanic/ Ecuador

Greek


Irish

Australian


Spain

Genetic diversity results from independent assortment of chromosomes, random union of sperm and egg, mutations, and crossing over during meiosis.

In 1,000 years, I think we will see even more phenotypes and diversity since people are able to travel so much and genes are able to flow between populations.

Amphioxus

An amphioxus is also called a lancelet, and it is one member of the phylum Chordata. Lancelets are a member of subphylum Cephalochordata. Evidence points out that they once shared a common ancestor with vertebrates. Although they did not possess a brain, research has shown that the vertebrate brain may have evolved from the lancelet nerve cord. The lancelets live in warm coastal waters and exhibit filter feeding. They are only about 3 inches long and spend much of their time burrowing in the mud. Amphioxus show the three characteristics of Chordata: gill splits, a notochord, and a dorsal nerve cord.
http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/21580/amphioxus

Here is a picture:

http://www.google.com/imgres?imgurl=http://cas.bellarmine.edu/tietjen/Laboratories/Bio%2520Pix%25204%2520U/Image4.gif&imgrefurl=http://cas.bellarmine.edu/tietjen/images/cephalochordates.htm&usg=__e-e6Ft0hKvq62hPoehxiBL5p6E0=&h=588&w=1013&sz=37&hl=en&start=0&zoom=1&tbnid=Q1HvPNZPs53IvM:&tbnh=105&tbnw=181&prev=/images%3Fq%3Damphioxus%26um%3D1%26hl%3Den%26sa%3DN%26biw%3D1276%26bih%3D604%26tbs%3Disch:1&um=1&itbs=1&iact=rc&dur=639&ei=Y0ypTLipJsH68AaTsam0DA&oei=Y0ypTLipJsH68AaTsam0DA&esq=1&page=1&ndsp=18&ved=1t:429,r:4,s:0&tx=103&ty=76

Polywater

http://www.cs.cmu.edu/~dst/ATG/polywater.html

http://itotd.com/articles/588/polywater/

http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,944149,00.html

From these websites, I found out that a Russian scientist named Boris Deryagin discovered what he thought to be polymerized water, or "polywater." He "created" this new substance by condensing water in small capillary tubes. Supposedly, the polywater had characteristics very different from normal liquid water- higher viscocity, lower freezing point, higher boiling point, and stronger hydrogen bonds. United States officials conducted tests on the polywater; it was deemed as a potential health risk / terrorist threat since the Soviet Union and the United States were in the midst of the cold war. Theoretically, addition of the polywater to natural reservoirs of water could cause a lot of harm. Drinking water would be obsolete.

Finally, researchers concluded that polywater was a myth. The polywater really consisted of normal liquid water with impurities suspended in it. For example, phospholipids from human sweat contributed to the contamination of the water. It really is amazing how impurities can cause misleading results in the laboratory setting, causing unintented results. Fortunately, polywater was fiction, not fact.

Raybun

Spoof Websites

http://www.bandersnatch.com/guide.htm

Hello Scientific Inquiry Class,

Check this website out. It is clearly a hoax. The site says you can earn an online diploma here. It is called the Genuine Diploma Mill. The online university is definitely fake and pokes fun of education.

Happy Blogging, Raybun