Ryan+Rutledge

=Week 3= Earlier this week we were discussing an ethical question, "Should governments fund cures for genetic, or contagious diseases?". This got me thinking about how most contagious disease has been eliminated from the First World as a threat to the average person's life, but how his was not true in the third-world despite the medical and technological advancements made in the 20th and 21st century. I was also completely blown away from all the antibiotics I had to take due to my wisdom teeth surgery. I was really struck by the fact that I was taking this medication that could be potentially life saving for someone in need on the OFF-CHANCE that I MIGHT get an infection. I was prescribed medication for an infection that COULD get. While my antibiotic was only broad spectrum it remained me of other bacterial diseases that plague the underdeveloped world. One contagious disease that still causes millions to die is Tuberculosis, which accounts for 1.8 million deaths a year and is behind AIDs as the second leading cause of death from infection. But even with these staggering figures, only 5% of TB related deaths occur in upper income areas. This is because of a great distinction between AIDs and TB, Turberculosis is curable. In fact, since 1941 TB is cured with one of a variety of a single pill taken over a short period of time. ==

While there is a vaccine, it is largely unavailable for most of the world's population. The average cost of treating a TB case is about one hundred and fifty US Dollars. While this may seem as a low cost for life saving medication, in most TB cases (most of which arise from low income parts of China, India, Russia, and Africa) this cost represents 48 to 119% of the annual income of the patients according to BioMedCentral. Despite United Nation attempts to pressure world super powers like Russia and China to provide a subsidy for the much needed drug have largely failed (Like most UN actions but that's for a different day). While 90% of TB cases are curable, close to 20% of those infected with the disease die from it. Without treatment, there is less then a 50% chance of survival.

This is also a cause of social problems, particularly international inequality. This is because 95% of TB cases occur in Developing Countries and the rampant bacteria is part of what keeps the nations productivity now. This is because Tuberculosis mostly effects young adults (late teens and twenties), which are not only near the top of the age bell-curve of many of these countries but also the most productive years of human life. This is debilitating for many nations, particularly in Africa, that are trying to crawl out of anarchy and poverty.

And this is not a problem that will go away either as an estimated 30% of the world's population already has what's called "latent TB" which means they have the TB bacteria inside of them but those bacteria are in a stasis waiting to break out. At some point in the lives of these latently affected individuals (as I said probably in their twenties) the bacteria will become active and begin launching themselves through the coughing traditionally caused by TB, to infect others ensuring that the disease lives on

TB is also getting stronger. Drug resistant strands(called MDR TB) are now threatening even the wealthy countries with good and affordable healthcare. Because of the fact that it is now reaching the lives of more Europeans and Americans, it is now getting the attention that many scientist have been calling for for decades.

=media type="custom" key="26173342"= = = = = =Week 2= == With all the macro invertebrate hunting we did in class this week I began thinking about all the invertebrates that we can't see with the unaided eye. In particular, I was reminded of a video I watched from the popular YouTube channel SciShow about a very strange micro invertebrate, earlier this year. The video focuses on the micro-animal, Tardigrades also know as the 'Water Bear' or 'Moss Piglet' (Equally fierce names). The thing that makes this animal, which lays at a truly colossal half a millimeter, so extraordinary is its ability to survive in very extreme conditions. In fact, some of the conditions it can survive are so extreme that many scientist have begun to wonder how it may have evolved to deal with climates that have and probably will never exist on earth. media type="custom" key="26110044"

The Death and Resurrection of the Tardigrade
Basically, they can, when th e situation demands, just kind of die. In a process called Cryptobiosis or Animal Dormancy.A regularly functioning Moss Piglet is made up of about 85% water, while one in stasis is down to just 3% water with what is believed to be exactly zero metabolism. In a way similar to dormant seeds, once it can re-hydrate it restarts metabolic process.

Tardigrade Superpowers Include:

 * Temperature
 * Able to be heated to up to 151 C for several minutes
 * Able to be cooled down to -272 C, which is roughly ZERO DEGREES KELVIN
 * Able to remain in -200 C for DAYS
 * Dehydration
 * Despite water being necessary for all living things, the water bear can live out of water for up to TEN YEARS
 * Radiation
 * Radiation becomes lethal to Moss Piglets at about 5,000 Grays of gamma rays.
 * For humans, it becomes lethal at 5
 * Pressure
 * Can survive high pressures equivalent to 6,000 atmospheres. This is six times greater then the worlds deepest ocean, The Mariana Trench
 * Can survive EXTREMELY low pressures found in a vacuum

Tardigrade in Space!
Perhaps the most fantastic aspect of the Water Bear is its title as the only animal to have ever survived in space. In 2007 a group were brought into low orbit in a cryptobiotic state and were exposed to space for TEN DAYS. Apon arrival, 68% of them were able to continue living just as they did before and 100% of those that survived were able to produce viable offspring. This is seen by some as evidence that perhaps the Water Bear, or at least a closely related ancestor, did not evolve on Earth and may have been brought by other means, such as an asteroid from a distant environment to earth where even a very small population could quickly populate the world. This hypothesis is being heavily tested through use of Genome Research to see if it shares DNA with its neighbors on the tree of life. Another possibility is called the Panspermia Hypothesis which states that Tardigrades could have been launched into space from earth and landed on other planets beginning the evolution of life on that planet. But like all other 'life on distant planets' hypothesis, this one won't be testable for a very, very long time.



=Week 1=



This trash covered skyline seen in the intro of Wall-E may seem very comical but is actually an all to real possibility with the way humanity tends to deal with its waste. On Wall-E's Earth, mankind had drowned itself in its own garbage to the point that Earth was no longer able to support life and while green plants may still cover our planet, our current waste management does not differ much from that of the insensibly optimistic CEO of the Buy-n-Large Corporation.

Landfills
Just dumping human junk on the ground has been the go to for humanity since early civilization and is the earliest, and still the most practiced form of waste management. In essences, you just dig a hole, throw in all the stuff you've accumulated that you don't want, and bury it. While this barebones waste management did have some pretty huge eco-destroying potential, more modern adaptations have made it much safer for the environment. For instance, all the materials are pressed into an extremely dense and concentrated form, not at all unlike the cubes from Wall-E, so that they can take up as little space as possible

A landfill will also typically add new layers of soil daily to minimize the damage.

But most of the 'solutions' listed above are really more like an "out of sight, out of mind" philosophy. Much of the pollution done by landfills is done underground, particularly with regard to groundwater. One report I found that I thought was particularly interesting was in regard to sinkholes that form underneath landfills. I was also shocked that this happens fairly frequently, which is very bad because just have several tons of garbage falling a couple hundred feet before splashing into precious aquifers. Most recently in the US (which maintains fairly high standards for their landfills) occurred just three years ago, in a suburban community in Florida called Hillsborough County. This local landfill experienced a sinkhole that, although it luckily didn't reach the Florida Aquifer, did raise serious concerns for several months as sinkholes can expand at anytime before proper engineering is complete. Many local environmentalist and highly educated Environmental Scientist saw this sinkhole coming for a long while stating that it, like many other local landfills, are located very close to a variety of swamps. media type="custom" key="26026416"

Possible Solutions/Alternative Waste Management
Anaerobic Digestion- This treatment allows for major portions of the waste to be broken down by microorganisms. The important distinction that makes this possible is the use of Anaerobic organisms, who can do this without any oxygen, meaning the waste can still remain contained. As some of us may remember, Anaerobic digestion's primary role is to break sugars down to either an acid of some sort or ethanol/alcohol while gaining energy. One other byproduct of anaerobic respiration that our muscle cells don't produce however, is methane gas, which is a greenhouse gas many times more powerful then CO2. This of course prevents a problem when trying to minimize environmental impact, but can still provide a future possibilities.

Plasma Gasification- This is a process that, through the use of a Plasma Torch (its like a small lightsaber. see video) can turn organic waste into more manageable forms such as gas, slag, and even electricity. It is also great for turning hazardous waste to not as hazardous waste which is of course a huge benefit. The only real downside is it cost a ton of money, many times that of a landfill, and also takes a lot of education to operate as well as taking a long time... so all in all no business can really fiscally handle it. However, as the technology improves, it could be in the near future that the materials recovered from gasification outweigh the investment. media type="custom" key="26027288"