In the News: Canadian Government Wants to De-list Humpback Whales

This is a hot topic circulating the internets today. The Toronto Star reported by the recommendation of the Minister of Environment, Canada could be stripping the once endangered Humpback whale (Megaptera novaeangliae) of it's governmental protections. This comes at the same time the Canadian government is also approving the construction of an oil pipeline which will supply shipping routes with half a billion barrels of oil a year but the catch is it will overlap with crucial humpback territory. An population assessment conducted by a third party committee - The COSEWIC or Committee on the Status of Endangered Wildlife in Canada - has concluded that the humpback population is on the rise and therefore it is appropriate to remove their protection status. Unfortunately, this oil pipeline would be built through whale feeding and rearing grounds which are important for the preservation of this rebounding species. 

Research done on noise pollution and whales has been on going for the last decade or so and all findings have conclusively shown negative results to whales in the presence of noise pollution. Some of these negative effects include: whales moving away from feeding grounds, strandings, and decrease in calf birth rate. Other well known threats to humpbacks include collisions with ships and fishing net entanglements.

Does our need for oil outweigh our guardianship of these gentle ocean giants? 

You decide.

Get Involved By Getting Informed.

The Wild Wanderlass & Student Life

Hey all! I'm fighting to keep up with my posts lately but student life is rough! 

Here is what my day looks like...

early mornings at the gym (the only time I can get there)...or sometimes late night...which looks exactly the same.

white boards covered in this junk! 

3 hr labs ending around 10pm - Atleast I get to wear this nerdy lab coat

oh and more o chem...tonight we were doing distillations...kinda fun actually but when I've been up for 12+ hrs already, nothing is really that fun

plus 2 jobs!! one of them is heavy on data entry (yaaawn) but pays my bills so I always find time to get it done. The other requires me to lesson plan and teach 200-level biology and mentor my peers which I'm really growing to love...but most of the day I'm on my computer doing one thing or the other and it's windows on windows on windows and looks a lot like this...

I love being a supplemental instructor. I never thought I'd want to teach because people are annoying! hahah but it is a beautiful thing getting to see the *click* when someone finally gets a concept and the pride and accomplishment they feel is evident. It's also really fun seeing my peers just as excited about science as I am! I've learned a lot about how people think and learn and communicate and how I do those same things as well. 

But by Friday morning....I'm like

......ya....... 

Over it!!

Thankfully, the semester is almost over because I need a long break to adventure and photograph and share the amazing outdoor world with all of you!

I've starting training with Project Wildlife in San Diego to get back into wildlife rehabilitation and I'm really excited to get back into it and learn about the beautifully diverse animals native to that area.

Coming soon - How to attract birds to your yard with bird houses and our trip to the US-Mexico Border. I'm also come across some super interesting articles lately and we'll get to discussing those in the next week :) 

Stick around folks! Summer is almost here and it's going to get really fun!!

Goodnight!

Backyard Birding - Western Kingbird

I've loved moving around so much the past couple years because I get the opportunity to see such a variety of wildlife. Southern California, while it is very desert-y has quite the abundance of life and because it's finally spring we've seen an influx of so many cool new species and it's been so much fun. Trevor and I often spend time at his father's house on the weekends where we have access to a wildlife preserve and the opportunity to observe some really beautiful animals from the backyard. Just a couple weeks ago he spotted one that I had never seen before and all we could figure out was that it was some kind of flycatcher. He spotted it sitting on a fence by the open field and diving down to catch bugs (typical flycatcher behavior) and all we could make out was a yellow splash on its belly. I grabbed the binoculars while Trevor snuck down to lower yard to get a better look with his long lens. (All photos provided by Trevor Adler)

What are you little bird?!

It seemed very skittish so we had to ninja down there and try to get close enough to get pictures of it from all angles if possible. 

Finally, we got got close and captured these few beautiful shots.

I'd never worked with this bird before so it took a little research to find out it was called the Western Kingbird (Tyrannus verticalis). If you know any Latin or Spanish, you can probably get an idea of this bird's personality. It's name translates to vertical tyrant which holds to natural history information I found on AllAboutBirds.org about the Kingbird being feisty and territorial. They will aggressively fend off predators as big as Red-tailed hawks and will raise their red crowns in response to attacks. 

Looks something like this...

[Source]

This illusive bird is known to spend it's winters in Central America and then migrates through Mexico to Western Northern America for the summer breeding season. Sometimes they will wander into Florida or Alabama during their fall migration but not usually their spring migration.

 You'll be able to find these little flycatchers near open fields, especially rural areas posted up on fence posts and wires. Look for it dipping down into the grass to catch bugs and a flash of yellow from it's brightly colored belly. 

I'm looking forward to seeing more of this bird in action now that I know what to look for :) 

Happy Birding everyone!!

In the News: Stem cell scientist found guilty of misconduct

Happy Tuesday Readers!

This week is kind of slow at work and school and so I find myself perusing the news much more often between tasks. I came across this article about scientific integrity last night between Organic Chem lecture and lab.

The long and short of it is that this committee was formed to review stem cell research done by Haruko Obokata on stem cell research where stress was applied to a cell that had already specialized for a particular function and the stress triggered it to revert to an unspecialized form called a stem cell. The ability to force cells to revert to a stem cell form would take medicine to the next level and the implications are endless. The reason why I wanted to bring this to your attention is to show you how the scientific method and process of publishing research actually works. I feel this is important for the public to understand so they realize that true science is completely without bias or subjectivity.

First let me break down how papers are publish:

1.) You have a question based on an observation you've made

2.) You form a hypothesis that you think will explain what you have witnessed and you go about testing it. (Note: Hypotheses need to be testable and falisifiable. The scientific process is more about the process of elimination than setting out to "prove" something is true. The mindset is that nothing can be proved absolutely true but by limiting variables down to a single one then you can prove something false.)

3.) An experiment is devised and conducted with thorough documentation. This part is the most important part of any research. There are certain rules about how field note books should be kept and errors in this note keeping will assume bias when review time comes. Below are some examples of how notes should be kept - note uniformity, observations (even pictures are included), and endless details on temperatures/pressures etc. You even need to number each page and put your name and date and you only write on one side of the page.

[Source: instruct.uwo.ca]

[Source: Australian National Botanic Gardens]

[Source: flshorebirdalliance.org]

4.) Conclusions are drawn from results of your experiment that falsify or fail to falsify the one variable you were trying to test. This usually brings up more questions to be tested and that is all recorded, as well as, how you would modify the experiment or what went wrong. The level of detail that goes into these papers is for other researchers who are doing similar work or want to run the same experiment. Being able to reproduce results is key to turning your hypothesis into a widely accepted theory or law.

5.) So you did all this work now you need to submit it to a committee of your peers who will review your notes and look for holes or errors. In the above researchers case, she had modified graphs to make them look more presentable and that was enough to cast doubt. She was also missing pages from her notebooks which is a huge no-no. The review board must see all the good and bad that happened and being willing to show this gives you scientific integrity. So this board will so yes or no to your paper and then it will or won't be published in a scientific journal. 

This process takes years often and is long and tiresome but it is crucial to the progress of science and also why innovation sometimes takes longer than we'd expect to be available to the public. But who wants to be taking medicines or using technology that wasn't thoroughly tested, right? 

For myself, I love the simplicity and objectivity that is true science. It reminds me of this quote from Neil deGrasse Tyson that I heard the other week...

[Source]

Anyways that's it for me today, if you see something in the news that's stirring up questions, message me here and we'll get to the bottom of it! Have a great week everyone!

Get Involved by Getting Informed!

In the News: Cloud Seeding in Santa Barbara

Hey Readers!

I came across this article from KEYT Channel 3 out of Santa Barbara about the possibility of cloud seeding tonight as temperatures and cloud conditions are perfect for this process.

And I asked...what is cloud seeding?! The only thing I've heard of this was more along the lines of conspiracy theories and so I paid it little attention. So I did a little research that I thought I'd share and let you decide for yourself!

First of all...to make clouds you need a few things:

1. Air saturated with moisture (water vapor)
2. Air lifting (this is caused by differences in air temperature and pressure)
3. Cloud nuclei (particulates such as dust that will provide a surface for water to accumulate on)

So the whole thought around cloud seeding is using optimal cloud conditions and then adding more particles to the equation to increase possible rainfall. Particles include salt, dry ice (frozen carbon dioxide) or silver iodide. They use this with cold clouds which result in the formation of snow and ice and warm clouds which will result in rainfall. 

What are the Pros and Cons?? That's still up for debate. With the drought California has been dealing with this year we can all agree increased rainfall sounds awesome. Check out this You Tube video about cloud seeding as a way to combat climate change. (The first 3 minutes will give you a good enough idea).

The biggest con is that the silver in silver iodide is known to be highly insoluble (doesn't break down in water) and can be toxic in large amounts. As of yet there are not many studies into what environmental effects this silver has on plants, animals and human health. There are also questions of its overall effectiveness as results have varied for different countries who have given it a try. Alongside that is the fact that acquiring enough silver to effectively control weather can be extremely expensive. This HowStuffWorks article goes more into cloud seeding and China's quest to control the weather in their region. 

Other questions raised are: what are the long term effects of this procedure? Is this causing droughts in areas that would normally get rainfall? 

That's it for me tonight - hope you enjoyed the little weather lesson and remember...

Get Involved by Getting Informed :)