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Too Few Salmon is Far Worse Than Too Many Boats for Killer Whales

By Guest PostJune 7, 2012Environment, Natureblack labrador, boats, canada, candice emmons, chinook salmon, columbia river, elwha river, factor, food source, fraser river, fraser river chinook, glucocorticoids, haro, hormone level, juan de fuca, katherine ayres, killer whales, klamath river, marine mammals, pacific northwest, puget sound, rebecca booth, resident killer whales, salish sea, salmon, samuel wasser, sandra hines, scat detection dogs, southern resident, straits of georgia, toxins, transient orcas, tucker, university of washington, US, west coast

Not having enough Chinook salmon to eat stresses out southern resident killer whales in the Pacific Northwest more than having boatloads of whale watchers nearby, according to hormone levels of whales summering in the Salish Sea.

In lean times, however, the stress level normally associated with boats becomes more pronounced, further underscoring the importance of having enough prey, according to Katherine Ayres, an environmental and pet-behavior consultant who led the research while a University of Washington doctoral student in biology. Ayres is lead author of a paper appearing online June 6, in the journal PLoS ONE.

In a surprise finding, hormone levels show that southern resident killer whales are best fed when they come into the Salish Sea in the late spring, Ayres said. The Salish Sea includes Puget Sound and the straits of Georgia, Haro and Juan de Fuca. Once there they get a necessary boost later in the summer while eating Chinook salmon at the height of the Fraser River run. (more…)

Close Up Look at a Microbial Vaccination Program

By Guest PostOctober 3, 2011Health, Sciencebacterium, berkeley lab, blake wiedenheft, casa, casb, case, cells, clustered regularly interspaced short palindromic repea, complex of proteins, crispr, cryo electron microscopy, e coli, escherichia coli, eva nogales, gabriel lander, human pathogens, immune system, infections by bacteria, invading pathogens, jennifer doudna, john van der oost, kaihong zhou, microbe, microbial, microbial immune systems, microbiome, perturbations, protein complex called cascade, seahorse, short interfering rnas, sirnas, symbioses, toxins, unit of dna, viruses

*Berkeley Lab Researchers Resolve Sub-nanometer Structure of Cascade, an Ally for Human Immune System*

A complex of proteins in the bacterium E.coli that plays a critical role in defending the microbe from viruses and other invaders has been discovered to have the shape of a seahorse by researchers with the U.S Department of Energy’s Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (Berkeley Lab). This discovery holds far more implications for your own health than you might think.

In its never-ending battle to protect you from infections by bacteria, viruses, toxins and other invasive elements, your immune system has an important ally – many allies in fact. By the time you reach adulthood, some 90-percent of the cells in your body are microbial. These microbes – collectively known as the microbiome – play a critical role in preserving the health of their human host. (more…)

Tiny Protozoa May Hold Key to World Water Safety

By Guest PostDecember 11, 2010Environment, Sciencebarometers, better world, biologist, bob curtis, camera, car, climate change, department of defense, digital camera, dod, gasoline, groundbreaking technique, microscopic plankton, one celled protozoa, pesticides, plastic containers, protozoa, sbs, scott gallager, software, swimming behavioral spectrophotometer, Technology, toxins, underwater environment, wade mcgillis, water

Right now, it looks a little like one of those plastic containers you might fill with gasoline when your car has run dry. But Scott Gallager is not headed to the nearest Mobil station. The Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution (WHOI) biologist has other, grander plans for his revolutionary Swimming Behavioral Spectrophotometer (SBS), which employs one-celled protozoa to detect toxins in water sources.

Not only is he working on streamlining the boxy-looking contraption—eventually even evolving it into a computer chip—but he sees it as a tool to potentially “monitor all the drinking water in the world.

“It has a unique utility.” (more…)

‘Bing’ still far behind Google

By ShamsJuly 9, 20093 commentsTechnologybing, dzantor e. kudjo, Google, king, maryland cooperative extension, metals, phytoremediation, search engine, soil, toxins, university of maryland, Yahoo

Microsoft’s new search engine ‘Bing’ is by far standing robustly against Omnipresent Google.

But, still there’s a ‘but’.

(more…)

Tag Archives: toxins

Too Few Salmon is Far Worse Than Too Many Boats for Killer Whales

Close Up Look at a Microbial Vaccination Program

Tiny Protozoa May Hold Key to World Water Safety

‘Bing’ still far behind Google