Schroedinger’s kitties

A fractal is self-similar but on a different scale:

more cat pictures

Schrödinger’s LOLcats

Books: Teh Edj of Evilushun

Blake Stacey of Science After Sunclipse, has collected the links reviewing Michael Behe’s book, Teh Edj of Evilushun.

Teh Edj of Evilushun

“Lonesome George” may be lonesome no more”

'Lonesome George' at the breeding centre Fausto Llerena on the Galapagos' Santa Cruz Island. Photograph: AFP/Getty Images

A Galapagos tortoise of the Pinta subspecies may be a father after 36 years of refusing to mate with females of other subspecies. For 35 years he was the only known Pinta tortoise. In 2007, another male was found on a nearby island. Could it have been the whiff of competition? George was seen to b acting a little differently and then two weeks ago, one of the females was noticed digging. Nine eggs were found. Three have been transferred to an incubator. It will take four months for the eggs to hatch — if indeed they are fertilized at all. (Turtles sometimes lay unfertilized eggs.) George, at sixty to ninety years old, is still in his prime.

Schroedinger’s sample

Here’s another Schrödinger’s LOLcats:

more cat pictures

Schroedinger’s experiment

Schrödinger’s LOLcat:

more funny cat pictures

This image macro comes with a comment quoting a poem by Cecil Adams, presumably of The Straight Dope fame.

There were other explanations:

• the bonsai kitty
• the cat of the month

Note: Schrödinger can also be rendered Schroedinger.

Don’t touch that sand-castle! Take the tykes swimming instead

E. coli bacteria are generally taken as an indicator of recent fecal contamination.

Although for the most part E. coli is not pathogenic, its presence in recreational water, especially at elevated levels, has been taken to indicate fecal contamination and the likelihood that pathogens such as Salmonella, Streptococci, Cryptosporidium, Giardia, Enterovirus, etc. could be present. Numerous epidemiological studies have shown the higher the level of indicator bacteria such as E. coli, in recreational water, the greater the level of fecal contamination, the greater the chance that pathogens may be present, and the greater the heath risk to swimmers.

Many places allow swimming if the measured levels of E. coli bacteria are less than 400 or perhaps 200 per 100 ml of water. Ontario does not allow swimming unless the E. coli are less than 100 per 100 ml of water.

Ontario has the world’s most strict recreational water quality guidelines for posting beaches due to elevated levels of E. coli; beach postings occur when the geometric mean of the five sampling results exceeds 100 E. coli per 100 mL of lake water (but see Report on Council - page 12). Health Canada‘s recreational water quality standard is is a geometric mean of five sampling results exceeding 200 E. coli per 100 mL of lake water; this guideline has been adopted by all other provinces. The US Environmental Protection Agency’s guideline for postings is 236 E. coli per 100 mL of lake-water. And the European Union classifies fresh water beaches as having poor quality water if levels of E. coli exceed 900 E. coli per 100 mL. Imagine how many fewer beach closures we would have if Ontario adopted the US or EU guideline!

Beaches are pretty clean where they are dry. The lakes clear up in a few days after being contaminated by run-off from rainwater and storm sewers.

Studies at various beaches throughout the Great Lakes indicate that E. coli in the lake water originates from a variety of sources, with the primary sources being birds (especially geese and gulls at the beach), humans (faulty septic systems and sewage treatment plants along the shoreline), urban runoff (storm sewers and road discharges to the lake), and agriculture (manure spills and runoff from fields reaching the shoreline via rivers).

But the area of damp sand between the lake and the dry area—that’s dangerous!

…scientists have discovered recently that greatly elevated levels of E. coli may also exist in the shallow groundwater below the beach adjacent to the shoreline, the area where children build their sand castles! The sand protects the E. coli from the harmful effects of UV radiation in sunlight, provides sand grains on which the E. coli can attach themselves, and is a stable source of nutrients. Levels of E. coli in such areas can exceed 150,000 E. coli per 100 mL, or many, many times higher than a bad day in the lake water! And levels of E. coli in the sand adjacent to the shoreline remain consistently high regardless of the E. coli levels in the adjacent lake water. These extremely high levels of E. coli are restricted to within several metres of the shoreline, and correspond to the area, known as the swash zone, where waves run up the beach during a storm. Once past this area of wave runup, E. coli levels in the groundwater below the beach rapidly fall to 0 or less than 100 E. coli per 100 mL. The E. coli in the swash zone sand survives much longer than in lake water — months vs. days — and in fact even frozen beaches sampled in February still may exhibit high levels of E. coli in the groundwater!

E. coli from the lake are washed onto the sand and soak in along with the water. They are protected from sun and wind and they survive much longer than the free-floating ones. The damp area, right where lovers walk and children play, is the most contaminated part of the lake. And it’s making itself at home there:

It appears that the beach itself may in fact be the primary source of E. coli found in the ankle to knee depth lake water at the beaches of the Great lakes. The sand along the shoreline is susceptible to erosion from waves and currents. The E. coli that enter the groundwater at the swash zone during wave run up and are able to adapt and replicate there are released into the lake-water and transported along the shoreline. Thus, beach sand acts as both a reservoir that accumulates and stores E. coli and a source of E. coli when released into the lake water.

We haven’t started looking for actual pathogens yet. But I’m enjoying a quiet chuckle at someone I know who won’t take her kids swimming because “the lake is dirty.” But she lets them play in the sand.

Schroedinger’s LOLcat

Schroedinger’s LOLcat says…

more funny cat pictures

Glacial Lake Missoula

I watched a nature program tonight, which made a great mystery of the “scablands” of the Columbia River in the U.S. This giant and mysterious landscape has deep, vertical pits called potholes; a huge, dry waterfall; and, most impressive of all, giant ripple marks 13 metres high. It’s scattered with huge erratic boulders of granite.

The consensus is that the landscape was carved by a huge glacial lake that formed behind a glacier perhaps a kilometer wide. When the dam collapsed, the lake flooded the river valley and carved the features. The flow would at times be 250 metres high. Within a hours or a day, the water would pass by on its way to the Pacific ocean at about 60 km an hour.

Volcanic ash between the layers made people realize that there were repeated floods. Closer dating methods showed that there were 20,000 years between the top layer and the bottom layer. The glacier had re-formed and collapsed again and again. The flood was repeated about 60 times.

It took scientists about 100 years to accept the fact that the history of this valley included catastrophic, rapid events and then to tease out the details.

You can get a virtual tour here.

The gloves come off!

Chris Comer, the former director of science curriculum for the state of Texas, has sued the Texas Education Agency for firing her. Her offence? Forwarding an e-mail that discussed the use of Intelligent Design as a stalking horse for creationism. Chris Comer sues Texas Education Agency. Hat tip: Darwin Central.

Brain fitness programs

The aging population will be looking to hang on to their marbles as long as possible. Read about brain fitness programs.

On this day in evolutionary history

It’s July 20th:

• On this date in 1804, Richard Owen was born in Lancaster, England.
• On this date in 1817, the eight-year-old Charles Darwin attended his mother’s funeral.
• On this date in 1858, while staying at The King’s Head Hotel in Sandown on the Isle of Wight, Darwin began an ‘abstract’ of his planned major work on evolution—this abstract was to become On the Origin of Species.

For more about Charles Darwin and the history of evolutionary thought, visit The Friends of Charles Darwin.

Now here’s a good book!

I’d like to read this one.

The Giant’s Shoulders #1

Bora Zivkovic introduces the first history of science carnival: The Giant’s Shoulders 1.

Bacteria respond to stress with more mutation

I’d like to see Mike Behe and Bill Dembski explain this solid research finding.

Carl Zimmer’s new book, Microcosm, has a chapter on E. coli in hostile environments. The bacterium has a precise DNA-repair chemistry (enzyme?) that it uses in normal times. But when it suffers a lot of damage, a fast but sloppy chemistry takes over (different enzyme?). It makes more mistakes but it might keep more bacteria alive.

The result is that in a really hostile environment, e.g. flooded with antibiotics, the bacteria begin to mutate at a rate a hundred times faster than their usual rate. If I read your definition correctly, they increased their evolvability by the same factor. As a result, they evolve at startling rates. That’s probably what happened when bacteria were sent into space and came back with an unexpectedly high number of mutations to help them survive.

When the environment settles down, they go back to using the more precise repair chemistry and the mutation rate falls back to its usual level.

Simply put, it seems to be the bacterial equivalent of panic: When you’re going to die, do something - anything! Maybe it will work.

Abstinence-only sex education fails

Old news: Abstinence-only sex education fails.

By Rob Stein

Washington Post Staff Writer
Thursday, June 5, 2008; Page A01

The nation’s campaign to get more teenagers to delay sex and to use condoms is faltering, threatening to undermine the highly successful effort to reduce teen pregnancy and protect young people from sexually transmitted diseases, federal officials reported yesterday.

New data from a large government survey show that by every measure, a decade-long decline in sexual activity among high school students leveled off between 2001 and 2007, and that the rise in condom use by teens flattened out in 2003.

Read more.

Bottom line:

The new figures renewed the heated debate about sex-education classes that focus on abstinence until marriage, which began receiving federal funding during the period covered by the latest survey and have come under increasing criticism that they are ineffective.