STEAM (STEM + ARTS) News in Review: 4/22/2022
Our STEAM (STEM + Arts) News in Review for this week. Below are the articles we read and wanted to share. Enjoy!
Earth Day Activism Reminding ourselves how Earth Day began seems an appropriate moment of history to look back on. Read this article to trace a timeline back to even before the origins of modern Earth Day as we celebrate it today, to the 14th - 16th centuries when cultures were concerned about pollution that caused epidemics and soil conservation. To more modern movements in the 1960s America, when it was a time of environmental awakening. In 1962, naturalist and former marine biologist Rachel Carson published her influential book Silent Spring which introduced most Americans to the effects of air pollution. Carson chronicled how DDT, a then-widespread pesticide, entered the food chain and caused cancer and genetic damage in humans and animals, causing people to question modern technology’s impact on the environment. It also set the stage for the environmental movement to accelerate. One of the original influential members of the environmental movement was former Democratic Senator Gaylord Nelson from Wisconsin. A wilderness lover, Nelson prioritized passing environmental legislation like the 1964 Wilderness Act protecting land and rivers. He led the charge, and public support for environmental legislation swelled; people cared and wanted to show it. The momentum of the first Earth Day protest carried throughout the year—and amounted to some of the strongest environmental legislation to date. The common thread that has stood the test of time is the need for humans to gather and advocate for our home planet Earth. Earth Day has become a global phenomenon paving the way not only for protests and legislation but also for volunteering and habitat clean-up. Today, youth, in particular, are leading the charge through prominent voices like Greta Thunberg urging public interest and action. What will you and your families be advocating for earth day, or how will show your appreciation for our planet and how to protect it?
National Geographic: How the first Earth Day ushered in a golden age of activism
Genetically modified mosquitos and trojan trout How can we as humans responsibly control populations of wildlife that may be harmful to us by spreading a disease or other protect native species when invasive species start dominating? Is it even our role to interfere at this level with nature? These bioethics debates continue to surge around how genetics and modifying animals makeup can be used for good. Two articles this week from different areas of the animal kingdom are studying breeding and using males in the population to curb mosquito and trout populations. First, scientists reported positive results in a study with the ultimate goal of suppressing a wild population of potentially virus-carrying mosquitoes. How did they do it? Biotech firm Oxitec engineered male mosquitos to carry a gene that is lethal to female offspring. The plan is when released into the environment, the engineered males should mate with wild females, and their female offspring will die before they can reproduce. Male offspring will carry the gene and pass it on to half of their progeny. As each generation mates, more females die, and the population should dwindle. While this round of the research has been deemed successful, the team needs to continue the work to understand more, so new studies are planned. Second, in a study aiming to save a native species of the the Rio Grande cutthroat trout from the dominating brook trout. These invasive and voracious “brookies” are out-competing native species – but a modified variant could tip the scales. Since 2018, scientists have been releasing a lab-produced variety known as “Trojan” brook trout, a unique male in that they carry not one but two copies of the Y chromosome that codes maleness; they have no X chromosome to pass on. Therefore, tilt the brook trout sex ratio so far male that eventually the population will stop breeding and die out on its own. Despite the method’s promise, it raises questions about ethics and unforeseen outcomes. “No matter what people say, the long-term effects of these things are just unknown,” says Marc Bekoff, an emeritus biology professor at the University of Colorado-Boulder and a prominent behavioral biologist. This is a reminder that humans have a unique position in the animal kingdom to influence the environments around us, and we must take that responsibility extremely seriously.
Nature: Biotech firm announces results from first US trial of genetically modified mosquitoes
Alien Farming Coming? This article shares more about a breakthrough in telescopes that could be used to identify places farming may be possible. Farming is one of the oldest forms of technology in human history. A recent study accepted for publication in The Astrophysical Journal Letters showed that the byproducts of farming could be detectable with space telescopes and suggested that the combination of ammonia and nitrous oxide would be evidence of technology if seen on another planet.The idea that ammonia and nitrous oxide is connected with farming on Earth suggests that this combination of pollutants could be remotely detectable evidence of technology—known as a technosignature. The Haber-Bosch process is a technological innovation on Earth that has allowed people to harness the nitrogen in our air and convert it into food, with pollution as a byproduct. Detecting these pollutants in the atmosphere of a distant planet similar to Earth would thus be compelling evidence of extraterrestrial technology. Scientists are currently developing telescope designs that could be able to search for evidence of ammonia or nitrous oxide in the atmospheres of planets around other stars. It may be several decades before such telescopes are built, but studies like this help to show the kind of science that could be done with future advanced telescopes.
PSciWorthy: Future telescopes could search for alien farms
AI for Wildlife. Check out this new app that aims to identify illicit tortoise shells to combat the illegal wildlife trade. Did you know, Tortoiseshell does not come from tortoises? It almost exclusively comes from the critically endangered hawksbill turtle. Today, fewer than 25,000 breeding females remain globally, and its international commercial trade is banned. Tortoiseshell is widely and accurately replicated with resin, making it difficult to tell real from fake. A new app called SEE Turtles, with partners at the Smithsonian OCIO Data Science Lab, uses machine learning to identify with 94 percent accuracy whether a photo of something with a tortoiseshell pattern is real or fake. It’s the first mobile app to use computer vision to combat the illegal wildlife trade. The app can be downloaded in the Apple App Store and Google Play. If tourists use SEE Shell, it’s like equipping “an army of conservationists to make life difficult for people selling [tortoiseshell] under the table.” says Now that people can identify the real thing right away, vendors may think twice about carrying it, he says Brad Nahill of SEE Turtles. This visual learning technology has immense potential to be adapted for other wildlife materials and help apply machine learning to other conservation issues.
National Geographic: A new app aims to help save critically endangered sea turtles
A closer look at Oreos. Have you ever wondered why the Oreo cookie’s cream sticks to just one wafer when twisted apart? Mechanical engineers from MIT wanted to look at the dynamics of the Oreo filling when you twist the cookies apart. When you twist open an Oreo cookie to get to the creamy center, you’re mimicking a standard test in rheology — the study of how a non-Newtonian material flows when twisted, pressed or otherwise stressed found that no matter the flavor or amount of stuffing, the cream at the center of an Oreo almost always sticks to one wafer when twisted open. Only for older boxes of cookies does the cream sometimes separate more evenly between both wafers. The engineers created what they term the “Oreometer” a 3D printable device that uses pennies and rubber bands to control the twisting force that progressively twists the cookie open. Instructions for the tabletop device can be found here.