In the movie Jurassic Park, a tale of genetic engineering gone bad, scientists arrive on an island to find that an all-female population of resurrected dinosaurs may have found a way to breed.   The following conversation ensues:

Henry Wu: You’re implying that a group composed entirely of female animals will… breed?

Dr. Ian Malcom: No, I’m simply saying that life, uh… finds a way.

As we find out later in the movie, the dinosaurs have indeed been breeding.

Salmon farmers tell us that a proposed population of genetically modified “super salmon“ will be composed entirely of sterile females, making it impossible for them to mate, should they escape to the wild.  Some consumers are fighting FDA approval of the fish as food and say consumers should be alerted to the fact that they are purchasing the genetically engineered fish (by way of labeling.)

Advocates of the super salmon claim the meat from the new super salmon is indistinguishable from that of their natural cousins.  However, critics fear that the new “frankinfish” may pose danger to both consumers and to the environment.

Super salmon are Atlantic salmon that have had a gene (DNA) for a growth hormone normally made by Chinook salmon  inserted into their genetic map.   In addition, scientists have put some DNA from another ocean fish, called a pout, in front of the growth hormone gene to keep the fish’s body pumping out growth hormone all of the time.

The don’t get bigger than natural salmon, but they grow much faster.  This creates a potential threat to wild salmon, should the modified salmon escape from fish farms.  (They would potentially out-compete and out-breed their natural counterparts in the wild.)

Despite claims that super salmon will all be sterile females, one article I read mentioned that ” a small percentage might be able to breed. They would be bred in confined pools where the potential for escape would be low.”  Another stated that the FDA says that up to 5% of the eggs may be fertile.

Genetic engineering has resulted in many products that make people’s lives better, but we have to be aware of the danger it poses.  Microbes, plants and animals can swap DNA and genetically modified organisms are already finding ways to invade the natural world.

Life finds a way, whether we want it to or not.  It is not something to be taken lightly.

Last night, one of my nursing students brought this cute little E.coli bacteria in to be our microbiology class mascot.

Bacteria are classified, or grouped, by shape, and this little guy is rod-shaped just like all of his close relatives.  E.coli are called gram-negative bacteria because their cell walls are put together with special building blocks that can’t be stained with certain dyes they use to tell bacteria apart from one another.

See the little ropes coming out of our mascot’s body?  Some E.coli have whip-like filaments called flagella protruding from their body that can help them move around, making them “motile.”

Many E.coli are normal occupants in animal and human intestines and don’t make people sick, but there are some strains of E.coli that can make people very sick.  E.coli 0157:H7 is probably the most famous of these and can be contracted from eating undercooked hamburger that has been contaminated with the bacteria.

And no, bacteria don’t have eyes.  But they sure look cute on our mascot.

On August 8, the kids and I became consumer detectives as we buried a Sun Chips bag to see if it would break down.  We don’t have a compost heap, since our neighborhood has organic compost collection, so we buried it about a foot down with some vegetable waste and melon rinds and watered it to kick the decomposing microbes into full gear.  The hot August sun added heat to the brew and we imagined the bag slowly breaking down, like it does in the commercials.

Yesterday, after about 7 weeks, we unearthed the bag to see how the experiment was going.  All of the organic compost we’d buried with the bag was gone-turned to black dirt, but to our eyes the Sun Chips bag looked almost as good as new, except where the shovel had torn it.  It may be breaking down, but it’s hard to tell.  We reburied it.  It’s supposed to take 13 weeks to completely break down under ideal conditions, but we thought we’d see more progress.

I’ll admit, we didn’t have ideal conditions (a hot compost heap),  but I wonder how many garbage dumps have ideal conditions?  I don’t know.  We’ll see what happens when we dig it up again next summer.

At least Frito Lay is making an effort.  (I’m sure the bag will eventually break down.)

I think it’s good to teach kids to question companies’ claims.  After all, you can’t believe everything you read.

“Infectious agents — whether viruses or microbes — are constantly testing their environment for new host species to survive.”  Beatrice Hahn, University of Alabama

Tiny organisms that can make us sick, known as microbes, are magicians at both changing and exchanging ways to survive in animal (and human) bodies.  We have get new flu shots each year because H. influenzae, the  flu virus, is constantly mutating.  Salmonella enteriditis bacteria, which can infect eggs have received “injections” of genetic information from other bacterial species, which  makes them more toxic to humans.  Bacteria mutate often and trade antibiotic resistance like kids trade Pokemon cards.

One trick that makes microbes especially dangerous to us is their ability to occasionally jump from animal to animal, or animal to human.  Our immune systems can often fight off infections that have been circulating through the human population over time, because we “recognize” the microbes trying to infect us.  However, when a microbe jumps from animal to human, our bodies often don’t have the ability to recognize it or fight it off. (Researchers speculate that the 1918 Flu virus that killed over 40 million people may have been passed from birds to pigs, and then to humans.)

It is often even easier for a microbe to jump to a closely related species, like from chimpanzee to human, since we are so similar.  To illustrate this idea, imagine a bacteria that usually infects circles.  Chances are, it would be more likely to recognize and infect an oval than to infect a square.  For a microbe to go from a chimpanzee to a human would be like going from circle to oval, while a jump from bird to human would be more like jumping from circle to square.

In the news this week, I learned that researchers have been racing to be the first to discover which of our primate relatives passed the parasite Plasmodium falciparum, which causes malaria,  to the human population. This race comes on the heels of a paper showing that H.I.V. probably originated in monkeys over 32,000 years ago before being passed to chimpanzees, and then on to humans. A scientist named Beatrice Hahn, from the University of Alabama, along with many collaborators, won the race and demonstrated that the malaria parasite jumped from western gorillas to humans in a single leap, probably between 5,000 and 300,000 years ago.

We don’t worry much about malaria in the United States, but P. falciparum is a killer.  According to the World Health Organization, or WHO ,”In 2008, there were 247 million cases of malaria and nearly one million deaths – mostly among children living in Africa. In Africa a child dies every 45 seconds of Malaria, the disease accounts for 20% of all childhood deaths.”   If malaria has been around for over 5,000 years, we can only imaging how many people it has killed.

Hopefully, these findings will allow researchers to compare the original parasite, found in gorillas, to the modified one, found in humans and discover new avenues for preventing and curing the disease it causes.  Maybe researchers will also gain more insight into how microbes jump from one animal to another, allowing us to prevent, or quickly halt diseases like malaria, H.I.V., or the 1928 flu before they become pandemics and kill millions of people.

My uncle told me one day that he wasn’t interested in learning anything new.  I didn’t believe him.

Every nugget of information you glean in life, no matter how small, is a puzzle piece.  When the puzzle pieces fit together, however unexpectedly, it can make your life a richer, happier experience.  Maybe there’s a reference in a movie to something you’ve read, and you get the joke.  Maybe you know from past cooking trials that what your sauce needs is a splash of vinegar to transport it to the next level.  Everyone has their own puzzles and everyone chooses which pieces to keep in the front of their minds, while other pieces are allowed to recede into the background.  (I’ve found that when you’re a parent of young children, many, many puzzle pieces recede into the background, but every once in a while they still pop out and surprise you.)

I recently jumped at an opportunity to teach microbiology to nursing students.  Teaching microbiology, I learned, also involves teaching biochemistry, genetics and immunology.  Consequently, I’m pulling out lots of old puzzle pieces and frantically dusting them off in my mind.  It’s amazing how complicated some of them are, and how hard I have to struggle to make them fit together, but it’s satisfying to rebuild things you’d forgotten about and see patterns reemerge.

While scanning the textbook I’m lecturing from,  I read about some new insights into Lupus, an autoimmune disease that causes people’s immune systems to attack their own bodies.  It’s a mysterious disease, whose treatment is often almost as bad as the symptoms.  Two of my friends suffer from it.

Since I last read a microbiology textbook, (more years ago than I care to admit) researchers have come up with some evidence that suggests that individuals susceptible to the disease have some pieces of DNA that are missing a chemical “cap” that tells the immune system that it’s human DNA.   Imagine a bunch of kids in baseball caps that identify them as being on the same team.  Now imagine that one kid shows up without a cap.  No one knows he’s on the team.  In fact, he may be on the other team, since he’s missing a cap. The “imperfect” DNA appears to the immune system to be DNA from a bacterial or viral invader.  This may cause the human body to attack the very thing it is trying to defend: itself.

Researchers finally have enough results, enough puzzle pieces, to start to understand this devastating diseases (and I had put enough pieces of my own scientific education back together to understand that my friends with Lupus might have a better treatment someday soon.)  I can’t wait until the final pieces of the Lupus puzzle fall into place.

What puzzle pieces could use some dusting off in your mind?  What new puzzle pieces can you add?  You’re never too old to do puzzles.

Fall and spring are great times to plant.  The weather is cool and rainy, allowing small sprouts to take root and thrive.  If you’re headed up to the cabin this weekend, why not survey your shoreline and think seriously about naturalizing it? It’s easier than it sounds, you’ll love how it looks, and best of all, you’ll be taking a step to make sure your kids and future generations will be able to enjoy the lake in years to come.

Until this summer, my husband’s parents had a grassy, green lawn running from where their cabin stood down to the rocks which had been placed at the water’s edge many years ago.  Many of the rocks were slipping into the lake, and the shoreline was beginning to tumble into the water too.  Their lake, like many, is susceptible to potentially dangerous blue/green algae blooms, and lawns like theirs contribute to the problem, as fertilizer can flow easily from the lawn into the water.

Last year at the state fair, they spoke with someone who told them they might be able to get a grant through the Atkin County Soil and Water District and the Big Sandy Lakes’ watershed project (originating from the Department of Natural Resources) to help them naturalize their lake shoreline, if they were willing to contribute the labor.  They applied and were able to get a grant, work with a landscaper, and replant their shoreline with plants that will slow runoff, reduce erosion, and filter nutrients that can cause algal blooms in the lake.  The plantings are filling in after being planted in July, and they look beautiful!  Many of the plants have lovely flowers (Lupine, Flox, Columbine) and plants like Swamp Milkweed, which grows close to the water, will be butterfly magnets next summer.

photo taken right after planting

A shoreland buffer strip (also called a filter strip or buffer zone) separates your lawn from the lake. It typically includes taller grasses, blooming plants, shrubs and trees, as well as aquatic plants such as cattails, rushes, and lilies.  The work we did involved killing a strip of grass along the lake shore, cutting pieces of wild willow to bind together and stake at the water’s edge, putting natural mesh along the sloped land next to the lake and planting native plants in the prepared area.  The dead grass served as mulch and my in-laws had a planting party for friends and other residents of the lake who were interested in learning about what they were doing.  I think with 12 people, it took about 3 hours to do all the planting.  Not bad for a day’s work.

If that sounds to intense, according to the  University of Minnesota’s Shoreland Management Resource Guide, “The easiest approach to establishing a buffer strip is simply to do nothing. If you stop mowing, weeding, and raking your shoreland area, many native plants will likely reestablish.”  The link above also lists local nurseries where you can buy native plants and suggests who you can talk to about what to plant on your lake.  Or, get in contact with your local lake association to find out whether they have grant money available to help you naturalize your shoreline.

Our cabin still has a mowed green lawn behind the shoreland buffer strip, but we don’t fertilize it and it’s nice to know that someday our grandchildren may swim in cleaner, safer water and catch butterflies in the swamp milkweed by the lake’s edge.

We tried to make a Mentos geyser again-and it worked! (Last time we tried it with 7-UP and had less-than-spectacular results.)  Here’s the (very short) video of our experiment and how to make your own Mentos geyser.  I can see why this is many people’s favorite science experiment ever!

If you want to try this experiment, you’ll need a two liter bottle of Diet Coke, a roll of  Mentos mints and a piece of paper.  Remove the lid from the soda and set it on a flat surface (outside!)  Roll the paper so it will fit into the mouth of the bottle and fill it with the Mentos.  Quickly dump the mints into the bottle and stand back.  Hopefully, you’ll see a huge gyser of soda shoot up from the mouth of the bottle!

Scientists aren’t sure exactly why the Mentos cause such an explosive reaction, but they think it has to do with chemicals in the Mentos breaking the surface tension at the same time that carbon dioxide (CO2) bubbles form on the surface of the mints, causing a huge, very fast release of carbon dioxide bubbles.

Here’s a funny video you won’t want to miss of a car running on the power of the Diet Coke/Mentos reaction.

This morning, a friend and I  headed for the Science Museum of Minnesota to see the “greatest archeological find of the 20th century”, the Dead Sea Scrolls.   A Bedouin goat herder stumbled on the first of the ancient scrolls  in a cave near the Dead Sea in 1947.   Eventually, 10 more caves containing scrolls were discovered near the first cave, and near the ancient ruins of a settlement known as Khirbet Qumran.  Later, more scrolls were found in caves around the Dead sea and the Judean Desert.  Altogether, more than 900 scrolls were discovered.

The scrolls were often contained in pottery jars, and though many of the scrolls are damaged, it is astonishing that so many of them are in good enough condition to read, or piece together.  Two thousand years is a long time for a piece of parchment (animal skin) or papyrus (made from plants) to survive.  Scientists attribute the miraculous preservation to the dry conditions in the caves.  After all, you need moisture for microbe growth and decomposition.

Using radiocarbon testing, which takes advantage of the fact that all living things incorporate Carbon 14 when they are alive, scientists were able to determine that the scrolls dated from the centuries between 250 BCE and 68 CE. One of the first things I noticed in the exhibit was the use of the term BCE (before common era) and CE (common era), which correspond to B.C. and A.D., but are terms used by scientists.

On the scrolls were mostly words of Hebrew scripture, law and even poetry.  Not all of the writing on the scrolls is religious, but the scrolls we viewed were copied from scripts  that would one day appear in the Hebrew Bible and included an Apocryphal Psalm, attributed to King Solomon and to David.  One scroll we saw was a passage from Genesis and all of the scrolls were copied down before the Hebrew Bible had been set in stone.

What fascinated me most about the exhibit was that the scrolls were copied down during such a tumultuous, pivotal time in the heart of a culture experiencing an uprising of the common people and the birth of Christianity.   Archeaologists believe that even as scribes copied the some of the sacred texts onto the scrolls, Jesus was walking through the Holy Land with his disciples.  Rome was gaining power in the region, and the Pharisees, representing the common people of Judea, were beginning to rise up against the Priests, or Sadducees, who tended to come from aristocratic families.  The Pharisees believed in maintaining an oral tradition so that common people, many of whom could not read, had access to “God’s Word”, while the Sadducees believed in a written tradition, which they interpreted very strictly.

Archeologists and Biblical scholars tell us that Jesus was crucified and Christianity was born as modern Judaism was being shaped, the Judeans rose up against the Romans, and the Temple fell, for the second time, in 70 CE, shattering a way of life for many.  Scholars don’t know for sure who hid the scrolls in the caves, or why.  It’s a mystery, but there the ancient manuscripts sat, right before my twentieth century eyes, words marching across the page.  They stared at me from the Minnesota Science Museum, a world away from where they were penned, a testament to a people who would not be forgotten and a time that changed the world.

More than half a billion eggs were recalled after Salmonella sickened over 1600 people (according to the Center for Disease Control, or CDC  in September.)  That’s a lot of eggs, and a lot of sick people.

What is this nasty bacteria that makes us wonder whether we should let our kids eat raw chocolate chip cookie dough, even as we sneak several spoonfuls when they’re not looking?

Salmonella enterocolitis is one of the most common types of food poisoning and is caused by the bacteria Salmonella Enteriditis. You can get a Salmonella infection by swallowing  food or water that is contaminated with the salmonella bacteria.  Often, the culprit is surface contamination from raw chicken and raw or undercooked eggs.  In most people, it causes diarrhea, fever and abdominal cramping, but young children and those with weakened immune systems are at greater risk of dehydration and more serious infections.

Why don’t they just wash the eggs better?  Salmonella bacteria live in the intestinal tracts of animals and birds and can infect the ovaries of healthy-looking chickens.  This allows bacteria to infect the eggs even before the shell is formed and voila- you have a pathogen that can’t be washed off of the egg because it’s inside.  Salmonella bacteria are often found in the “white” of an egg, although they can migrate to the yolk as the raw egg sits in your refrigerator.  Organic and free range chickens have less disease than factory-“farm” raised chickens, partly because of healthier diets and less crowding.  Cooking eggs until the yolk is solid kills Salmonella bacteria.

How can you make your cookie dough and eat it too?  Buy pasteurized eggs (you can find them at most grocery stores) that have been heat-treated to kill bacteria, but are still essentially raw for all cooking and baking purposes.

Also, remember to wash cutting boards you’ve cut meat on with soap and water before cutting anything else on them, or just have separate cutting boards for meat.  Don’t forget to wash your hands after handling raw eggs!  Pet food and reptiles can also harbor salmonella bacteria, so have your kids wash their hand after handling either!

Bacteria are everywhere.  Some keep you healthy and some make you sick, but making good decisions in the kitchen can keep you and your family from being affected by food-born illness!

The facts speak for themselves:

• Every 20 seconds, a child in a developing country dies of a water-related illness (World Health Organization)
• Waterborne diseases remain the leading cause of illness and death in the developing world. (World Health Organization)
• 46 percent of people on Earth do not have water piped to their homes (National Geographic)
• Women in developing countries walk an average of 3.7 miles to get water (National Geographic)

Shocking, isn’t it?  It should at least give you pause as you fill up your child’s glass with clean tap water, or maybe even filtered tap water.  Now, try to imaging walking 3.7 miles in the dark or the hot sun to bring home water that may or may not make your child sick, or even kill them.  What choice would you have though?  Water is life.

I recently signed up to participate in the Clean Water Blogivation campaign.  If my blog receives the most votes, I could win an opportunity to be a change agent and join Dr. Greg Allgood on a clean water expedition to Africa and a $15,000 donation to my favorite charity tackling water issues.  Much more importantly, each time someone votes for my blog post, P&G will donate a day’s worth of clean drinking water (2L) to a person in need in a developing country. Click on the “vote for this blogger” button above and clean drinking water for a day will be donated each time you vote! (You can vote once a day.)

The task of fetching water defines life for many people on this planet.  National Geographic tells the story of an Ethiopian woman named Aylito who dropped out of school when she was eight to help her mother carry water from a dirty river.  She spends eight hours a day walking to and from the river, up and down a mountain, three times to carry 50 pounds of water on her back.  It is a life almost beyond imagining for most of us who live in developed countries.  However, one can imagine that people who work so hard to get so little water have very little water to spare for sanitation, like hand-washing, or washing clothes.  According to National Geographic, proper hand washing alone can reduce diarrheal disease by 45%.  Many people cannot afford soap though.

What diseases are carried by dirty water?  You name it:  bacterial diseases like E.coli and Vibrio Cholerea, parasites like Guinea Worm,  viruses and protozoa.  Some of these pathogens can be killed by boiling, but for many, firewood is scarce. Sometimes, it’s too much water from flooding that causes drinking water to be unsafe.  (The floods in Pakistan are causing problems right now.)

There’s a fairly comprehensive list of water-born microbes on Wikipedia, and if you’d like to learn more, the World Health Organization and the Center for Disease Control are great resources.

The obvious question is, “what can I do to help?”   Many aid organizations and churches have programs to help people get access to clean water and proper sanitation, whether it’s by helping dig wells or sending bars of soap.  WaterAid is a U.K.-based international non-profit organization that is helping bring not only clean water, but sanitation and hygiene programs to many villages desperate for clean water.  The organization makes local women an integral part of the process.  Proctor and Gamble, who is running the Clean Water Blogivation campaign, make a PUR powder which can be mixed with contaminated water to make it safe to drink.  They have a Children’s Safe Drinking Water program and have been working with a number of organizations to distribute the PUR powder around the world to those who don’t have access to clean water.