KOYAANISQATSI - (from the Hopi language), 1. Crazy life. 2. Life in turmoil 3. Life out of balance

Winter break is about to end, and we are about to get another snow storm. It has been a winter characterized by periods of extreme cold and lots of snow. Lots. My driveway plowing bill documents that for me in a quantitative manner.

All of this snow has also allowed a friend to play that perennial favorite game, "Gotcha!" with me. Summarizing our discussion, it went something like this: Al Gore and An Inconvenient Truth, heh? Where's the global warming? Just a couple of years ago you showed me an article from the New York Times that discussed the lack of old time winters - they talked about warmer weather and decreasing amounts of snow. Look at our weather these past two months! What do you have to say about that? I mean, as a biology teacher? Do you still believe in global warming? (You can insert the "gotch" after any one of those sentences).

Taking a deep breath, I assured my friend that, unfortunately, I do continue to have major concerns about global warming, or as I prefer to say climate change. Weather patterns are extremely complex system and need to be observed at a variety of geographic and geologic locations over long periods of time to observe the potential changes scientists are discussing. Vermont's seasonal snowfall may change from year to year, but it's the long term (i.e., 50-100 year) change in regional climate that is of greatest concern to scientists. As well as the red flag alerts that are appearing in critically sensitive areas, like the poles.

Behold the picture at the heading of this post. A quick glance at the image, may suggest that some polar explorers are keeping warm around a campfire, but that is not what's happening. I took this screen shot from a news video about climate change at the poles. The image is far more ominous than it initially appears.

The frozen tundra just south of the circumpolar region is melting at an alarming rate. Aside from the obvious risks to migratory animals (ie caribou) that are having a harder time traveling in the watery mosquito infested muck, this melting land is also releasing the dead organic mulch-like material to bacterial decomposers. This is a newly released organic banquet for these critters. They're chowing down. And their excreting carbon based gases into our atmosphere at an accelerating rate.

In the picture at the top, a scientist lit a torch above the melting tundra and ignited the natural gas (methane) being released by the newly thawed land. As more of this carbon based gas is released into the atmosphere, the atmosphere will - hypothetically - retain more heat. This is turn will cause more permafrost to melt, releasing more carbon based gas, causing greater warming, causing more melting, etc. etc. etc. This is called a positive feedback loop. An increase in variable "A" leads to an increase in variable "B", which in turn leads to a further increase in variable "A" - and on and on it goes.

A couple of years ago, I attended a presentation at Dartmouth given by Aqaluk Lynge, the President of the Inuit Circumpolar Council (ICC). The ICC represants the people who have lived around the north pole for centuries, eking out a survival - in fact thriving - without a designated country, or government. Lynge remarked that climate change is only being debated by the western countries. "My people" he said "have observed the effects of climate change, caused by your western nations, for decades". Migratory paths are altering. Animals hunted for survival are disappearing. Insects are increasing. Glaciers are cleaving. A way of life that has existed for thousands of years is disappearing in our lifetimes.

Koyaanisqatsi. The hopi word that refers to the disintegration of a life in turmoil, also has another clarion call in its definition: "a state of life that calls for another way of living". Indeed. It's time to return to lives that are more in tune with nature; lives in balance.

One Last Darwin Birthday Wish Before Vacation Week

As we celebrate Darwin's 200th birthday this week, just before we begin our winter break, it seems appropriate to quote his autobiography Recollections of the Development of My Mind and Character.


Darwin offers us good advice for the coming week:

"My mind seems to have become a kind of machine for grinding general laws out of large collections of facts, but why this should have caused the atrophy of that part of the brain alone, on which the higher tastes depend, I cannot conceive. A man with a mind more highly organized or better constituted than mine, would not I suppose have thus suffered; & if I had to live my life again I would have made a rule to read some poetry & to listen to some music at least once every week; for perhaps the parts of my brain now atrophied could thus have been kept active through use."

While I would like to remind you all to read pages 116-147 in Your Inner Fish, I would also urge you to make some time to read some poetry and listen to some music. More often than once next week!

Or, perhaps, ski....snowshow.....hike.............and update any missing blog posts!

Have a great week! - Mr. E

Have A Heart

For years, I have been teaching biology students that individual cardiac (heart) cells beat. When placed on a petri dish, cardiac cells will seek each other out; actually slithering over to each other, seeking connection. Once they touch, they communicate. The cells begin to form cardiac tissue; beating together, in a primitive re-enactment of the complete, functional organ responsible for the circulation of life's most precious fluid.

As amazing as this is, the construction of tissue - cells operating together providing a single function - is a long way from the construction of a truly complete organ.

Recently, however, science has taken a giant step closer to achieving this goal.

Researchers at the University of Minnesota have constructed synthetic hearts from living tissue. Check out this 1 1/2 minute news clip: (if the link doesn't appear, it's www.wimp.com/beatingheart/

As the scientists note in the clip, pigs hearts are amazingly similar to the human heart, and even now, are used as temporary replacements, or bridges, for patients awaiting hearts for transplantation. Its a question of size, functionality, structure, and similar proteins that allows acceptance by human immune systems.

Transplanting a synthetic heart, or a pig's heart into a person is a stupendous and genuinely valuable addition to cardiac medicine. Still - it does beg questions. I mean, for centuries the heart has been thought of as the seat of emotion, the source of love, and the essence of human soulfulness. When you miss someone you feel heartbroken. When you are wild about someone, you say that he or she "makes your heart beat faster". Despite the Wizard of Oz's admonishment to the Tin Man that he had "no idea how much better off he (was) without one", we measure our lives by the heartfelt joys and sorrows we all experience.

So, what happens when it's a synthetic pig's heart that's inside of us? Do we gain life, yet lose some essence of what it means to be human?

Or perhaps we just give our beloved bacon instead of chocolate on Valentine's Day?

Seriously - it's both amazing and valuable - but how do you feel about this development on an emotional level?

How would YOU feel about having a porcine pumper in your thoracic cavity?

SIGNS OF SPRING (?!?)

I was going to note the appearance of cedar waxwings on my crabapple trees this weekend, as well as two american robins. The first, the waxwing, is a migratory bird, a true harbinger of spring. (Though being migratory, they may well make a hasty retreat after snacking on the sweet fruit) (Carbs = energy, chapter 3!) The cedar waxwing is a heavy duty frugivorous bird - a real fruit hog. A principle benefit derived from the waxwings appearance is seed dispersion. Berries in, seeds out.

The American Robin, our cheerful little friend, alas, is not a true harbinger of spring. Robins don't winter far from their breeding grounds. Instead, they congregate in large flocks in deeper wooded areas where we typically do not see them. The early bird may get the annelid, but with two feet of snow on the ground, Robins too seek small berries to get them through the winter, but tend to drop the berries' seeds within their breeding grounds. Not that there's anything wrong with that........

It was nice to see these two species. Especially with this evenings prediction of -15 degree below zero temperatures. (I'm still awaiting a pair of cardinals that have appeared for several years now. I've heard that they have been making some local appearances)

Needless to say, the picture that accompanies this week's post is not a bird. (I really hope I didn't need to point that out!) Although this little fella was a big story this week too. Indeed until very recently Tapetails (top), Whalefish (middle) and Bignoses (bottom) were thought to be three different species of fish. Tapetails, named after their long streamer-like tail, live in shallow water while the latter two fish have only been found in deep water. Whalefish lack scales, and have those large bulbous jaws, while Bignoses have, well, big noses, and have immobile jaws. (If their jaws are immobile, how do they eat? Apparently, they don't. They live off of the fat stored in their very large livers. This does not sound like an attractive lifestyle)

(Edit 2/2- My hypothesis is that the smaller adult fish with the immobile jaw is the male. There are other deep water fish that fit this model. The male attaches to the female as a parasite, providing his genetic material and living off of his stored energy until he withers away like a spent vestigial organ. Remember, most animals release only a few eggs as opposed to millions of sperm. As much as I hate to say it, males seem to be somewhat dispensable in the Kingdom Animalia. With exceptions of course!)

Studies then showed remarkable similarities between mitochondrial DNA between tapetails and whalefish. Virtually identical. (mitochondrial DNA is a much smaller subset of code passed from mother to offspring). More DNA studies ensued, and as a result, scientists at the Smithsonian discovered preserved specimens of fish that appeared to be in transition from one form to another.

What we have here folks, are three stages in the life of a single fish, representing the larval stage and the fully mature adult male and female of the species. It's a remarkable metamorphosis, and one that helps us look anew at the lifecycles of organisms and cycles of life on the planet.

As for me, I'm still awaiting the metamorphosis that occurs with each spring. Until then, I watch for the arrival of my cardinals, I rejoice in the sun arcing higher into each day's afternoon sky, and prepare for the festive celebration we call Founders Day.

Each day brings its own beauty.