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Hammerhead Flatworms Are Creepy and Spreading Up the East Coast

SimaJuly 27, 2023July 28, 2023Leave a comment

Hammerhead worm Credit: Wikimedia Commons

Another creepy creature is making its way up the eastern seaboard. Invasive hammerhead worms that are about 22 inches long and contain a neurotoxin (poison) are spreading up the southeastern coast (e.g., Florida, Georgia) north to Washington DC, Virginia, Maryland, Pennsylvania, NJ and elsewhere. Yikes!

The flatworms (Bipalium) originally came from Asia. They contain tetrodoxin (TTX), which causes paralysis of the muscle tissue. It's the same toxin found in puffer fish! But what makes the worms ultra-creepy is that if one gets broken up into mutiple pieces, each piece can regenerate to become a fully functioning worm!

Biologists say they are not a danger to humans unless handled (can cause skin irritation) or eaten (many of them). They can be killed by pouring some salt on them, and then dispose by placing into a plastic bag. Don't handle with bare hands - use a stick or wear gloves.

Excerpts from Washington Post: Toxin-secreting hammerhead worms are invading the D.C. area. How to stop them.

The hammerhead worm immediately stops you in your tracks. The striped flatworm slithers like a snake and resembles a piece of whole-wheat spaghetti, led by its mushroom-shaped head. And it also secretes tetrodotoxin, the same debilitating neurotoxin found in puffer fish.

...continue reading "Hammerhead Flatworms Are Creepy and Spreading Up the East Coast"

We’re On Track For Each Summer to Be Hotter Than Ever

SimaJuly 5, 2023July 6, 2023Leave a comment

This past Monday (July 3) the average temperature on Earth was the hottest day ever recorded. But then...Tuesday broke Monday's records for hottest day for Earth. It hit 62.92 degrees Fahrenheit (17.18 degrees Celsius)

Welcome to the new normal. In fact, this summer could be the coolest summer of the rest of your life! Get ready for more and longer heat waves. For summer to start earlier, last longer, and be hotter.

Why is this occurring? Climate change. All the scientific predictions are coming true. And yet the US government, politicians, big business, and all of us are refusing to take real action. We need a huge reduction of fossil fuel emissions and new technologies to pull carbon dioxide out of the air to stop extreme climate changes from occurring.

Several good articles about what is going on: 1) From The Guardian: Tuesday was world’s hottest day on record – breaking Monday’s record

World temperature records have been broken for a second day in a row, data suggests, as experts issued a warning that this year’s warmest days are still to come – and with them the warmest days ever recorded.

2) From the Washington Post: This July 4 was hot. Earth’s hottest day on record, in fact.

... some scientists believe July 4 may have been one of the hottest days on Earth in about 125,000 years, due to a dangerous combination of climate change causing global temperatures to soar, the return of the El Niño pattern and the start of summer in the Northern Hemisphere. ...continue reading "We’re On Track For Each Summer to Be Hotter Than Ever"

Genetic Risk Factors For Dupuytren’s Contracture Are Inherited From Neanderthals

SimaJune 23, 2023June 23, 2023Leave a comment

It turns out that many people of northern European descent have inherited some Neanderthal genes. A study found that these are contributing to a higher risk for Dupuytren's contracture (also called Dupuytren's disease). One study estimated that about 30% of Norwegian males over the age of 60 have Dupuytren's disease, but studies find that it is rare in African populations.

The researchers of the study looking at Dupuytren's disease noted that the average Neanderthal ancestry among Europeans is about 2%. [Note: Neanderthals are also referred to as Neandertals.]

Dupuytren's disease is a gradual thickening and tightening of tissue under the skin in the hand, which eventually can cause one or more fingers to stay bent toward the palm. It usually occurs in men over the age of 60.

Neanderthals and Denisovans (referred to as “archaic humans”) are now extinct. They lived in Western (Neanderthals) and Eastern Eurasia (Denisovans) until approximately ∼42,000 years ago. There was interbreeding (sex) with modern humans (Homo sapiens), which is how some of their genes have been passed down through the years.

From Science Daily: The Viking disease can be due to gene variants inherited from Neanderthals

Many men in northern Europe over the age of 60 suffer from the so-called Viking disease, which means that the fingers lock in a bent position. Now researchers at Karolinska Institutet, together with colleagues, have used data from over 7,000 affected individuals to look for genetic risk factors for the disease. The findings, which have been published in Molecular Biology and Evolution, show that three of the strongest risk factors are inherited from Neanderthals. ...continue reading "Genetic Risk Factors For Dupuytren’s Contracture Are Inherited From Neanderthals"

Enjoy the Day!

SimaJune 21, 2023June 21, 2023Leave a comment

Today is the summer solstice. It's the first day of summer in the Northern Hemisphere. Enjoy!

The summer solstice occurs when one of the Earth's poles has its maximum tilt towards the sun. It's the day with the longest period of daylight and shortest night of the year.

After today, the length of daylight in the Northern Hemisphere will start shortening until the winter solstice in December.

Great Resource For Learning About Your Air Quality

SimaJune 15, 2023June 16, 2023Leave a comment

Hazardous air quality Credit: Mara Silgailis

Meteorologists are predicting that we (in the US and Canada) will be experiencing more hazardous air quality days in the coming months and years due to wildfire smoke. An excellent resource for monitoring the air quality where you live is AirNow.gov. It has both current air quality and forecasts.

The NY Times currently has interactive air quality maps, which are tracking the wildfires from Canada.

Smoke is air pollution, whether it's from wildfires, cigarettes, or vehicles. It's not just our lungs and internal organs that suffer from smoke with particles smaller than 2.5 microns. (For comparison: A human hair is at least about 20 microns in diameter.) The particles travel from the lungs through our bloodstream to the organs. But our skin also suffers. It causes flares of inflammatory skin diseases such as eczema, atopic dermatitis, and psoriasis, and increases wrinkles and age spots.

Air pollution is dangerous to everyone!

Some health effects of air pollution: Harm to the lung and airways, damage to most organ systems of the body, lung cancer, COPD deaths, heart disease deaths, stroke deaths, bladder cancer, childhood leukemia, poorer lung development in children, lung impairment in adults, reduced cognitive function, increased risk of dementia, diabetes, effects on immune system, allergic rhinitis, structural changes in the brain, inflammation, and with high levels of smaller than 2.5 μm particles can have delayed psychomotor development and lower child intelligence. And the list goes on!

Do go and check out AirNow.gov and all the links on the site, including an interactive fire and smoke map. Stay indoors (as much as possible) with the windows shut on "unhealthy, very unhealthy, or hazardous" air quality days. Consider wearing masks outdoors and using an air purifier indoors on those days.

Serious Problems With Spray Foam Insulation Used In Homes

SimaMay 28, 2023May 29, 2023Leave a comment

Spray foam insulation being applied Credit: Wikipedia

For years I've been concerned about spray foam insulation that is blown into attics and walls. Yes, it is promoted on popular home renovation shows. But what is not discussed is that the chemicals in the foam would be outgassing for years and the occupants of the home would be breathing it in.

Finally, I'm starting to see concerns raised by others - not just harmful health effects from the chemicals, including flame retardants, but also harms to the house itself. It turns out the industry is hiding the harms.... (why doesn't that surprise me?)

Excerpts from an article by Alden Wicker from VTDigger (an independent Vermont news website that publishes watchdog reports): 'I wanted to cry': Devastating risks of spray foam insulation hidden from Vermont homeowners

Londonderry contractor Abe Crossman was keeping busy with small projects at his family’s home in June 2020 during the newly arrived coronavirus pandemic. He was working outside when he noticed that the paint was peeling off the trim at the peak of the gable end of his roof.

With 25 years of building experience, he knew that peeling paint indicated the presence of moisture. But the location was odd — that trim underneath the overhang should stay dry. So he grabbed a ladder and a pry bar to take a closer look.

His stomach dropped as he sank the pry bar into the soft wood sheathing underneath the trim and peeled away the vinyl siding down to four feet below the roof line. What had been wood disintegrated into dust in front of his eyes, he later recalled, leaving behind nothing but spray polyurethane foam insulation. ...continue reading "Serious Problems With Spray Foam Insulation Used In Homes"

Record High Temperatures Predicted For Next Five Years

SimaMay 21, 2023May 21, 2023Leave a comment

Are you ready for the world getting hotter over the next 5 years? And along the way setting record highs?

The World Meteorological Organization (WMO) predicts that the next 5 years are likely to have temperatures soaring to record highs. The causes are climate change (from heat-trapping greenhouse gasses) plus a naturally occurring El Nino (which is expected to start this summer).

Thus WMO Secretary-General Professor Petteri Taalas warns us:

“A warming El Niño is expected to develop in the coming months and this will combine with human-induced climate change to push global temperatures into uncharted territory,” he said. “This will have far-reaching repercussions for health, food security, water management and the environment. We need to be prepared.”

Why isn't everyone in the US government (including Senate and House of Representatives) taking serious steps about climate change? Our climate is changing!

From the World Meteorological Organization: Global temperatures set to reach new records in next five years

Global temperatures are likely to surge to record levels in the next five years, fuelled by heat-trapping greenhouse gases and a naturally occurring El Niño event, according to a new update issued by the World Meteorological Organization (WMO). ...continue reading "Record High Temperatures Predicted For Next Five Years"

We Leave DNA Everywhere We Go

SimaMay 20, 2023May 21, 2023Leave a comment

Our DNA is everywhere. A recent study reports that everywhere we've been, we leave traces of DNA - even in the air, soil, and water. And this DNA (called environmental DNA or eDNA) is easy to sample.

This could be a privacy issue someday. Since it's so easy to collect a person's DNA in the air, soil, or water, does this mean we give consent to having someone or a company analyze and trace it to us? Will ethical guidelines be implemented about how this information can be used? Who will enforce them?

This issue is not an exaggeration. Researcher D.J. Duffy said: "We've been consistently surprised throughout this project at how much human DNA we find and the quality of that DNA," Duffy said. "In most cases the quality is almost equivalent to if you took a sample from a person."

From Science Daily: Human DNA is everywhere. That's a boon for science -- and an ethical quagmire

On the beach. In the ocean. Traveling along riverways. In muggy Florida and chilly Ireland. Even floating through the air.

We cough, spit, shed and flush our DNA into all of these places and countless more. Signs of human life can be found nearly everywhere, short of isolated islands and remote mountaintops, according to a new University of Florida study. ...continue reading "We Leave DNA Everywhere We Go"

It’s Almost That Time of Year Again

SimaApril 28, 2023Leave a comment

It's almost time for deer babies (fawns) to be born. Once again I'm seeing adult female deer just resting and hanging out in the yard.

Where will the newborn deer hide this year?

Seven States and Europe Had Record Warm January

SimaFebruary 17, 2023Leave a comment

Seven northeastern states in the US had a record warm month in January 2023. Europe had its warmest January. In fact, it looks like all of Earth had a warm January - it was Earth's seventh warmest January since record-keeping began in 1880.

Just keep in mind - whenever records are set, it moves the baseline for all further records higher. Temperatures are inching up! Climate change!

Excerpts from Dr. Jeff Masters (meteorologist, co-founder of Weather Underground) article in Yale Climate Connections: January 2023: Earth’s seventh-warmest January on record

January 2023 was Earth’s seventh-warmest January since global record-keeping began in 1880. It was 0.87 degree Celsius (1.57°F) above the 20th-century average, NOAA’s National Centers for Environmental Information, NCEI, reported Feb. 14. ...continue reading "Seven States and Europe Had Record Warm January"