All posts by medical

Cell Biology

UCSF Team of Scientists Produces, Distributes Hand Sanitizer for Bay Area’s Incarcerated, Most Vulnerable Populations – UCSF News Services

The UCSF group plans to make and distribute 15,000 bottles of hand sanitizer. Photo credit: Amir Aziz

Its been repeated continuously as one of the first preventive measures during the COVID-19 pandemic: wash your hands for at least 20 seconds. But what if soap and water arent readily available?

Alcohol-based hand sanitizer is an effective alternative, and the Science Policy Group at UCSF (SPG) has initiated a project to provide sanitizer to incarcerated populations, as well as people living in public or transitional housing or experiencing homelessness.The group launched a GoFundMe campaign on April 12, 2020, to procure supplies, manufacture and distribute the sanitizer and also received funding from the California Wellness Foundation and San Francisco Democratic Socialists of America for the initial phase.

While some correctional facilities have reduced their inmate population, COVID-19 outbreaks continue to be of growing concern. As social distancing is not an option, inmates must rely on secondary measures like hand sanitizer use to prevent COVID-19 spread.

Elina Kostyanovskaya, a graduate student in developmental and stem cell biology at UCSF and an SPG leader, was especially concerned by the humanitarian and public health crisis associated with a potential COVID-19 outbreak among incarcerated people. In response, she and other SPG members have manufactured hand sanitizer in accordance with World Health Organization protocol. The group not only manufactures but also bottles, labels, affixes education pamphlets and distributes.

People tend to dehumanize people who are incarcerated, so the focus, for the most part, has not really been on serving these communities, Kostyanovskaya said. But jails and prisons are actually a relatively unique congregate setting in that not only are people unable to socially distance but these facilities also are not closed systems. You have hundreds or thousands of staff moving in and out of them every day, and any one of them could be an asymptomatic carrier of COVID-19. As weve already seen around the country, outbreaks in jails spread quickly, can be deadly and have the potential to overload nearby hospitals.

The SPG has manufactured and delivered 30 gallons of hand sanitizer refills to more than 900 inmates at the San Francisco County Jail and will continue refilling the jail until the pandemic ends. The group also produced and distributed 4,000 four-ounce bottles (125 gallons) of sanitizer to San Quentin State Prison and 1,000 bottles (31.25 gallons) to San Mateo County jails this week.

Because SPG is committed to serving undeserved communities in congregate settings, members manufactured and distributed 612 bottles to Sunnydale and Oakdale housing projects, as well as San Francisco-Marin food bank at Bessie Carmichael Elementary School.

The next batch of 5,688 bottles of hand sanitizer should be distributed in the next week to 4,000 people incarcerated in two jails in Bay Area counties, the remaining public housing complexes and shelters. In partnership with actor ("Last Black Man in San Francisco") and community organizer Jamal Trulove, the group will continue to supply sanitizer and educational materials to historically underserved public housing complexes.

Overall, the group will manufacture and distribute about 15,000 bottles (500 gallons) in the next two weeks.

Hand sanitizer and information are both powerful tools to help at-risk communities stop the spread of COVID-19, Kostyanovskaya said. As scientists, we have the ability to provide both. In the midst of a pandemic and uneven resource distribution, we have to provide both. We all do what we can.

About UCSF: The University of California, San Francisco (UCSF) is exclusively focused on the health sciences and is dedicated to promoting health worldwide through advanced biomedical research, graduate-level education in the life sciences and health professions, and excellence in patient care. UCSF Health, which serves as UCSF's primary academic medical center, includes top-ranked specialty hospitals and other clinical programs, and has affiliations throughout the Bay Area.

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UCSF Team of Scientists Produces, Distributes Hand Sanitizer for Bay Area's Incarcerated, Most Vulnerable Populations - UCSF News Services

Cell Biology

Of Science and Squid Emojis – UConn Today

Molecular and cell biology assistant research professor Sarah McAnulty made a splash in December 2018 when she was quoted in various national media outlets calling out Apples squid emoji for being anatomically incorrect. The placement of the squids siphon, McAnulty said, would be like having a butt on your forehead.

That type of candid comment is par for the course for squid expert McAnulty, who earned her Ph.D. at UConn in 2019 and has made a name for herself by breaking down barriers between scientists and everybody else.

A wildly successful effort to crowdfund a research project in 2014 showed McAnulty how much she enjoyed science communication and how important it was. Three years later, she foundedSkype a Scientist, a nonprofit organization that connects students in classrooms around the country with real live scientists.

McAnulty recently stopped by the UConn 360 podcast studios to discuss her research on the adorable Hawaiian bobtail squid, the latest Skype a Scientist initiatives, and why showing the public that scientists are human is vital, now more than ever.

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Read the fall 2017UConn Magazinefeature on Skype a Scientist.

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Of Science and Squid Emojis - UConn Today

Cell Biology

Decoy Proteins That Bind and Trap the Coronavirus in Development – Technology Networks

Decoy proteins that bind and trap the coronavirus to stop it infecting cells in our bodies are being developed by the University of Leicester.

Using pioneering techniques in molecular evolution, a method used in protein engineering to evolve a protein to optimise its use, the research team led by Professor Nick Brindle at Leicester, and with Dr Julian Sale at the MRC Laboratory of Molecular Biology (LMB), are working on the creation of a new soluble protein that binds to the SARS-CoV-2 virus, thereby preventing it from being able to bind to and infect our cells.

The COVID-19 virus normally infects lungs and tissues by binding to a receptor called ACE2 on the surface of our cells. The decoy mimics these receptors, but it is engineered to be more attractive to the virus, so it will bind to the decoy and not ACE2, preventing the virus from hijacking and reproducing within our cells.

Nick Brindle, Professor of Cell Signalling at the University of Leicesters Departments of Molecular & Cell Biology and Cardiovascular Sciences, said:

This is an innovative approach in the ongoing fight against the SARS-CoV-2 virus. By hijacking the receptors on cells in our lungs and other tissues the virus can grow and spread throughout the body and lead to disease.

By creating an attractive decoy protein for the virus to bind to, we are aiming to block the ability of this virus to infect cells and protect the function of the cell surface receptors.

If this approach is successful, it could have the potential to prevent new cases of this deadly disease across the globe.

The initial set of results will be available in two to three months.

To facilitate their research, Professor Brindles team is using a technique called Cryo-Electron Microscopy (Cryo-EM), which enables scientists to image whole virus or parts of the virus in a native environment. The biological sample is frozen rapidly and then imaged by targeting a beam of high energy particles called electrons, which have a wavelength much smaller than the biological molecules being imaged.

As part of its world-leading efforts to support research into COVID-19 and diagnostic testing, the University of Leicester has been working on a number of research projects including the development of adiagnostic maskthat could potentially detect the presence of coronavirus before symptoms appear.

This article has been republished from the following materials. Note: material may have been edited for length and content. For further information, please contact the cited source.

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Decoy Proteins That Bind and Trap the Coronavirus in Development - Technology Networks

Cell Biology

University honors professors with Distinguished Research Achievement Awards – The Brown Daily Herald

Courtesy of Brown University

John Sedivy (right) has been working on understanding the basic mechanisms of aging and cell death, in particular a form known as cellular senescence, since he came to the University in 1995.

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Courtesy of Brown University

Michael Littman focuses on reinforcement learning, a technique used to teach machines through positive and negative feedback.

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Courtesy of Brown University

Peter Monti (right) and Dr. Jennifer Tidey (left) working on their COBRE application last year.

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As part of its 2020 Research Achievement Awards, the University recognized the exemplary research of three accomplished professors in biology, computer science and alcohol and addiction studies with the Distinguished Research Achievement Awards.

These recipients add to the four Early Career Research Achievement awardees, The Herald previously reported. This installment of a two-part series features the work of University professors who have been recognized for their contributions not only at the University level, but also in the nation and across the globe, according to the University website.

Michael Littman codes for humanity

Inventor Danny Hillis once said, I just want to make a machine that will be proud of me. Referencing this quote, Professor of Computer Science Michael Littman PhD96 related his work in machine learning and artificial intelligence to a similar goal. He focuses on reinforcement learning, a technique used to teach machines through positive and negative feedback.

Computer science has always appealed to Littman, who began working in the field when he was 13. I like the idea that you can take very abstract things that float around your head and turn them into something real, he said. The contributions he has made to computer science have ranged from developing theorems that show facts about computations, to empirical work, such as building systems that run these computations. He builds on these two common aspects of computer science research through his studies with human participants and human-computer interaction.

Through his research in machine learning, Littman aims to find innovative ways of teaching machines to carry out intended tasks. One set of projects is about trying to reimagine machine learning from the perspective of people teaching machines, as opposed to machines learning from data, Littman said.

In conjunction with these projects, Littman co-directs the Humanity Centered Robotics Initiative, whose goal is to make robots directly beneficial to people. The emphasis from the very beginning was not to think of robots as a technological entity, but as the interaction between people and the machines, Littman said. Understanding people is a really important part of it.

Through his work with artificial intelligence, Littman experiences the process of making another entity, putting it out in the world, teaching it things and seeing the world through its eyes. Despite the highly technical and artificial nature of his work, Littman is motivated by understanding the natural world better. Its fun to do that especially because these systems are themselves simpler than people, so if we can get a sense of the inner lives of these machines, maybe we can understand people better as well, Littman said.

Peter Monti continues research on alcohol, HIV

Distinguished Professor of Alcohol and Addiction Studies Peter Monti has been researching substance use for over 30 years. For around the last 15 years, his research has focused on the biological and social aspects of the relationship between alcohol and HIV. I fell in love with that area because I was always intrigued with the interaction between psychology and biology, Monti said.

Monti runs Browns Center for Alcohol and Addiction Studies, which focuses on the psychosocial aspects of substance use and increasingly on its neurobiological underpinnings. A grant from the Centers of Biomedical Research Excellence that Monti received in 2019, which connected his interest in addiction with the long-term sequel of disease, enabled him to investigate questions like how alcohol affects dementia, or how alcohol and other substances affect HIV.

The grant provided Monti with infrastructure for his lab and studies, as well as facilitated the development of junior investigators. As the leader of the Center for Addiction and Disease Risk Exacerbation grant, Monti funds and mentors junior faculty members interested in addiction and disease risk studies until they are prepared to apply for their own grants. The CADRE grant has funded studies that involve human subjects and simulations, as well as studies that tap into the biology of substance use and HIV.

We do a lot of neuroimaging in those studies and weve begun to see some links in level of alcohol use and brain function, added Monti.

Montis studies have also demonstrated the effectiveness of motivational interviewing, an intervention technique that he and colleagues have developed over the past two decades. A lot of it is giving people feedback in regards to their substance use. What we have found is that we can work with individuals to get them to drink less, Monti said, adding that this impacts both substance- and HIV-related and general health.

The COVID-19 pandemic has limited participants ability to come to his lab for his research, but therapy interventions for other studies are still delivered by video conference.

Monti looks forward to continuing his work on the CADRE grant and in expanding his work in alcohol and HIV to clinics across the country.

John Sedivy advances aging research

John Sedivy, professor of biology and director of the Brown Center on the Biology of Aging, has been working on understanding the basic mechanisms of aging and cell death, in particular a form known as cellular senescence, since he came to the University in 1995.

I started working in cancer research. What got me going into aging was the discovery of telomeres, the ends of genetic material, which promote aging and cellular senescence, said Sedivy. I got very interested in understanding the mechanisms of how that actually works.

Cellular senescence affects all tissues and is a phenomenon that becomes pronounced with aging and promotes age-associated diseases. Through research with long-lived mice and studies with cell cultures, Sedivy is able to study the intersection of cellular senescence and retrotransposable elements, which are responsible for creating virus-like entities in all of our genomes. The most exciting thing that we discovered recently is that some drugs that have been used to treat HIV are also effective against these retrotransposable elements, Sedivy said. He added that these drugs have been effective in treating age-associated diseases in mice.

Sedivy has also received a grant for a clinical trial to test these drugs efficacy in treating neurodegenerative disorders, specifically, Alzheimers, The Herald previously reported.

This study could have a profound impact in the clinic. I think it is something that is very exciting and we have indications that this may apply to many different diseases. Those are the kind of results that are almost too good to be true, Sedivy said.

Although the recognition ceremony for all seven awardees was postponed due to COVID-19, we will find a way to celebrate the award in the future, Vice President of Research Jill Pipher wrote in an email to The Herald.

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University honors professors with Distinguished Research Achievement Awards - The Brown Daily Herald

Cell Biology

Precigen Announces Clearance of IND to Initiate Phase I/II Study for First-in-Class PRGN-2009 AdenoVerse Immunotherapy to Treat HPV-positive (HPV+)…

GERMANTOWN, Md., April 20, 2020 /PRNewswire/ --Precigen, Inc.(Nasdaq: PGEN), a biopharmaceutical company specializing in the development of innovative gene and cell therapies to improve the lives of patients, today announced that the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has cleared the Investigational New Drug (IND) application to initiate a Phase I/II trial for Precigen's PRGN-2009, a first-in-class,off-the-shelf (OTS) investigational immunotherapy utilizing the AdenoVerse platform designed to activate the immune system to recognize and target HPV+ solid tumors. HPV+ cancers represent a significant health burden in indications such as head and neck, cervical, vaginal and anal cancer.

ThePhase I portion of the study will follow 3+3 dose escalation to evaluate the safety of PRGN-2009 administered as a monotherapy and to determine the recommended Phase II dose (R2PD) followed by an evaluation of the safety of the combination of PRGN-2009 at the R2PD and an investigational bifunctional fusion protein in patients with recurrent or metastatic HPV-associated cancers. The Phase II portion of the study will evaluate PRGN-2009 as a monotherapy or in combination with the bifunctional fusion protein in patients with newly-diagnosed stage II/III HPV16-positive oropharyngeal cancer.

PRGN-2009 leverages Precigen's UltraVector and AdenoVerse platforms to optimize HPV antigen design in combination with its gorilla adenovector with a large payload capacity and the ability for repeat administration due to very low to non-existent seroprevalence in the human population.

PRGN-2009 is under development through a Cooperative Research and Development Agreement, or CRADA, within the laboratory of Dr. Jeffrey Schlom, Chief oftheLaboratory of Tumor Immunology and Biology (LTIB), Center for Cancer Research (CCR),National Cancer Institute (NCI). This CRADA has allowed Precigen to rapidly and cost-effectively advance PRGN-2009 to the clinic.The Phase I/II clinical trial of PRGN-2009 will be conducted at the NIH Clinical Center and will be led by Dr. Julius Strauss, Co-Director of the LTIB's Clinical Trials Group, and Dr. James Gulley, Chief of the Genitourinary Malignancies Branch, CCR, NCI.

"Globally, high-risk HPVs cause nearly 5% of all cancers, with about 570,000 women and 60,000 men diagnosed with HPV-related cancers each year," said Helen Sabzevari, PhD, President and CEO of Precigen. "We are incredibly proud of our continued relationship with NCI and the tremendous progress in bringing forward this novel asset class in such a short period of time. Advancements are critically needed to better target HPV+ tumors across multiple patient groups, and we have been encouraged by the promising preclinical data for PRGN-2009 in potentially targeting this patient population."

About HPV+ CancersHPV infects the squamous cells that line the inner surfaces of certain organs and, consequently, most HPV-related cancers are a type of cancer called squamous cell carcinoma. Some cervical cancers come from HPV infection of gland cells in the cervix and are referred to as adenocarcinomas.1 HPV-related cancers include cervical, oropharyngeal, anal, penile, vaginal, and vulvar.1 Nearly 44,000 HPV-associated cancers occur in the United States each year. Of these, approximately 25,000 occur in women and 19,000 occur in men.2HPV is considered responsible for more than 90% of analand cervicalcancers, about 70% of vaginal and vulvar cancers, and more than 60% of penile cancers.2 Recent studies indicate that about 70% of cancers of the oropharynxalso may be related to HPV.2

Precigen: Advancing Medicine with PrecisionPrecigen (Nasdaq: PGEN) is a dedicated discovery and clinical stage biopharmaceutical company advancing the next generation of gene and cell therapies using precision technology to target the most urgent and intractable diseases in our core therapeutic areas of immuno-oncology, autoimmune disorders, and infectious diseases. Our technologies enable us to find innovative solutions for affordable biotherapeutics in a controlled manner. Precigen operates as an innovation engine progressing a preclinical and clinical pipeline of well-differentiated unique therapies toward clinical proof-of-concept and commercialization.

For more information about Precigen, visit http://www.precigen.com or follow us on Twitter @Precigen and LinkedIn.

References1HPV and Cancer, National Institutes of Health. Accessed in April 20202HPV-Associated Cancer Statistics, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Accessed in April 2020

TrademarksPrecigen, AdenoVerse, UltraVector, and Advancing Medicine with Precision are trademarks of Precigen and/or its affiliates. Other names may be trademarks of their respective owners.

Safe Harbor StatementSome of the statements made in this press release are forward-looking statements. These forward-looking statements are based upon the Company's current expectations and projections about future events and generally relate to plans, objectives, and expectations for the development of the Company's business, including the timing and progress of preclinical and clinical trials and discovery programs, the promise of the Company's portfolio of therapies, the Company's refocus to a healthcare-oriented business, and its continuing evaluation of options for the Company's non-healthcare businesses. Although management believes that the plans and objectives reflected in or suggested by these forward-looking statements are reasonable, all forward-looking statements involve risks and uncertainties, including the possibility that the timeline for the Company's clinical trial might be impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic, and actual future results may be materially different from the plans, objectives and expectations expressed in this press release. The Company has no obligation to provide any updates to these forward-looking statements even if its expectations change. All forward-looking statements are expressly qualified in their entirety by this cautionary statement. For further information on potential risks and uncertainties, and other important factors, any of which could cause the Company's actual results to differ from those contained in the forward-looking statements, see the section entitled "Risk Factors" in the Company's most recent Annual Report on Form 10-K and subsequent reports filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

Investor Contact:

Steven Harasym

Vice President, Investor Relations

Tel: +1 (301) 556-9850

investors@precigen.com

Media Contact:

Marie Rossi, PhD

Vice President, Communications

Tel: +1 (301) 556-9850

press@precigen.com

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Precigen Announces Clearance of IND to Initiate Phase I/II Study for First-in-Class PRGN-2009 AdenoVerse Immunotherapy to Treat HPV-positive (HPV+)...

Human Behavior

Preserving biodiversity to contain viral outbreaks – Geospatial World

Biodiversity is a natural repository for more than half of the medicines that we develop. A large number of disease outbreaks are zoonotic, primarily caused by ecological damage. By changing human behavior, we can make a big difference in terms of handling future pandemics, emphasizes Dr. Carlos Zambrana-Torrelio Associated Vice-President for Conservation and Health at EcoHealth Alliance and a Research Associate at the Bolivian National Herbarium, in a discussion with Dr. Sean OBrien President & CEO at NatureServe

Ecological destruction and loss of habitats of many species causes a lot of problems. Is this also associated with the transmission of viruses from animals to humans?

Most of the diseases in humans come from animals from domestic and from wildlife. These are called zoonosis, and there are around 435 diseases that jumped from animals over the past 60 years into humans. Over 60% of these spillover events are really related to some form of change for example, deforestation or increases in agricultural activities. What happens is when these human activities occur, the contact with wildlife increases. So, we have more encounters with these animals and therefore we get more viruses coming from these animals to us.

Just to be clear, biodiversity itself doesnt represent a threat to humanity its that we humans are getting more comfortable with destroying the habitat of these animals and we are having more encounters with them.

Diseases like AIDS and Ebola also originated from animals. Do you think other than deforestation and rampant ecological destruction, poaching and smuggling of exotic wild animals also plays a role in the spread of these contagions?

HIV jumped from primates to humans. Ebola is linked to deforestation and jumped from bats to humans. In Latin America, we have several different examples of hemorrhagic fevers like hantavirus. Recently, in Bolivia we witnessed the Machupa virus that jumped from rodents into humans, leading to very high mortality rate.

But its not just that. There are also human activities and practices that cause diseases. In the case of COVID-19, there is strong evidence that it jumped from bats into humans in a wildlife market in Wuhan, China. What happens in these places is that we get wildlife from different regions in China and then people go and buy meat. There are several species of animals in the same place.

So, if you can imagine, we have bats, pangolins, sometimes dogs, cats, civets all different species of domestic and wild animals mixed together. Since they dont have necessarily good refrigeration systems, all animals are kept alive there until the moment they are sold to humans. So, when they are sold, theres the moment when the people kill the animal and all the blood gets mixed into other animals, and then there is the opportunity for spillover of viruses. Thats what we believe has happened this time. There are two hypotheses that have been discussed: one is jumping from a bat directly to a human, and then the other idea is that it jumped from a bat to a pangolin, which changed the virus a little bit, and then it jumped to a human.

As per estimates by the World Economic Forum (WEF), over 50% of modern drugs are developed from natural plant extracts. So, clearly, biodiversity is essential not only for the ecosphere, but also for human health and medicine. What do you think needs to be done to preserve biodiversity in a holistic manner and enhance its role in developing new vaccines?

Several treatments for health come from plants. Recently, it has been discussed that chloroquine medicine that has been used for years to treat malaria, can be used in combination with other medication to cure or to treat COVID-19. But this quinine comes from a plant from the Amazon, so its important to keep all this biodiversity, but also work to explore all the active principles that are in these plants and can potentially be used for human health.

What do you think should be done for the realization to hit home that preserving biodiversity is intrinsically connected with human health?

We talk all the time about the risk of emerging infectious diseases and its important to clarify that there are three components of risk. One is what we call hazard in this case, its biodiversity, but especially mammal biodiversity, because these mammals are hosts for all these different pathogens. By itself, biodiversity doesnt represent a risk to humans its when we disturb the biodiversity that we get into trouble.

Also Read: Open data is the future: Sean T. OBrien

The second component is the exposure. Exposure is extremely important, and its related to human behavior. We are already in trouble because of human behavior and our ideas. For Instance, there is a widespread belief in China that traditional medicines and particular types of meat make people healthy; its putting us in danger. But China is not the only place; this happens all around the world bushmeat consumption happens in Africa, Latin America; it happens everywhere. By changing human behavior, we will make a big difference in how we handle future pandemics.

Finally, theres a third component, which is vulnerability. We can understand it as vaccination. Thats why we have been telling people that in this case, people older than 60 years of age are more at risk because they are more vulnerable to this disease. But in other cases, like Zika virus, we also said children that are young, like 5 years or younger, are at risk as well because they are developing the immune system. So, vaccination is important not just for COVID-19 but also for the regular influenza that happens every year.

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Preserving biodiversity to contain viral outbreaks - Geospatial World

Human Behavior

Are Concerts Really Not Coming Back Until 2021? – Dallas Observer

If theres one lesson we should have learned over the last four years, its that human behavior is unpredictable, and even our most formidable experts are capable of flawed analysis.

So when The New York Times reports that concerts and other large-scale events are likely to be absent from our lives until fall 2021, the proper response is to take it into consideration along with other possibilities.

But in fairness, the expert who made this prediction is oncologist and Center for American Progress senior fellow Dr. Zeke Emanuel, who is no Cassandra and even less a fool. You may know Emanuel as the older brother of former Chicago mayor and White House chief of staff Rahm Emanuel, but his youngest brother, Ari Emanuel, is the CEO of William Morris-Endeavor, one of the largest talent agencies in the film and music industries.

So, yknow, he knows a lot about the human body and has secondhand perspective on how governments and concerts are run.

Larger gatherings conferences, concerts, sporting events when people say theyre going to reschedule this conference or graduation event for October 2020, I have no idea how they think thats a plausible possibility, Emanuel said to the Times. I think those things will be the last to return. Realistically were talking fall 2021 at the earliest.

It wasnt long after that this prediction made the rounds on social media. Fall 2021 became a trending Twitter search after MetalSucks ran a story under the headline Healthcare Expert Says Concerts Wont Return Until Fall 2021 At the Earliest. " Perhaps inadvertently, the story quickly became an indisputable fact:

Its possible that we will go a year-and-a-half without concerts, as Dr. Emanuel predicts, but its also possible that we experience some miraculous breakthrough in the form of a vaccine. Theres a small chance that the coronavirus will wane as temperatures rise over the summer. Conversely, Americas death toll could reach six-digits, and the outbreak could escalate to a point where fall 2021 seems like wishful thinking. Not to bum you out or anything.

The point is, nobody knows for certain whats going to happen, so perhaps people on social media are being myopic when they settle into one view alone in Emanuels prediction.

The big takeaway from the physician's assessment isnt that we may go a year-and-a-half without concerts (although we shouldnt rule it out) its that concerts and other mass gatherings will be the last things to come back once things go back to normal.

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Are Concerts Really Not Coming Back Until 2021? - Dallas Observer

Human Behavior

Earth Day Musings – The RoundTable is Evanston’s newspaper – Evanston RoundTable

Prior to the first Earth Day celebration in 1970, most landmark environmental regulations and laws were yet to be passed. It was completely legal for a factory to emit massive black clouds of toxic smoke into the air or dump tons of toxic waste into nearby waterways. Air pollution was commonly accepted as the sight and smell of a prospering nation, leaving mainstream America oblivious to environmental concerns.

In 1962, the publication of Rachel Carson'sSilent Springmarked apowerful impact on the growth of environmental consciousness. With more than 500,000 copies sold in 24 countries, the bestseller became a rallying point for the new social movement in the 1960s, focusing on the indissoluble links between pollution and public health. Earth Day 1970 provided a voice to the emerging movement.

Wisconsin Senator Gaylord Nelson came up with the idea for a national day to focus on the environment as a result of a massive oil spill in Santa Barbara, California, in 1969. Noticing the power behind the student anti-war movement of the time, Senator Nelson sought to harness the energy behind the anti-war protests and merge it with the growing public concern for air and water pollution in order to force environmental protection onto the national political agenda.

April 22 was selected as the date and in 1970, massive coast-to-coast rallies comprising of 10 percent of the total United States population at the time took to streets, parks, and campuses in order to demonstrate for a healthy and sustainable environment. Earth Day united groups across political and socioeconomic boundaries that had been fighting individually against oil spills, polluting factories and power plants, raw sewage, toxic dumps, pesticides, freeways, the loss of wilderness, and the extinction of wildlife. The first Earth Day led to the formation of the United States Environmental Protection Agency as well as the passage of the Clean Air, Clean Water, and Endangered Species Acts.

Twenty years after the first Earth Day celebration, in 1990, Earth Day became a global celebration, mobilizing 200 million people in 141 countries. Today, Earth Day is widely recognized as the largest secular observance in the world, marked by more than a billion people every year as a day of action to change human behavior and provoke policy changes.

On its 50thAnniversary, Earth Day will return to its roots from 1970, placing environmental progress among the best ways to improve our world.

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Earth Day Musings - The RoundTable is Evanston's newspaper - Evanston RoundTable

Human Behavior

NATURE NOTES: Right Now We All Need To Be Oystercatchers – Brazosport Facts

These are tough times, folks. I hope this finds you and your family well and safe at home. For those who must go out to work an essential job thank you! Ive been reflecting on how the birds are doing their thing without any notice of how the human population is in turmoil.

Migrant birds are arriving on the coast right on time and passing through our area as normal. The bluebirds at the Gulf Coast Bird Observatory have built a nest and have probably laid eggs by now. The northern parulas are singing their hearts out along the bayou.

But maybe saying the birds are doing their thing without notice is incorrect.

Turkey vultures and other scavengers have probably noticed a lack of roadkill for feasting because there arent as many vehicles on the roads as usual. Wilsons plovers have arrived to nest on beaches that are devoid of humans. Least terns, too. They must be in heaven.

Ive also been comparing and contrasting human behavior with bird behavior, especially with respect to two species that nest here in Texas and are often confused with each other. They look a lot alike. From a distance both appear as dark birds with orange on their bill. Both nest on the ground in shelly substrates on bay islands and are subject to the same threats of nest overwash, predation of eggs and chicks by gulls and mammals, and human disturbance. But they could not be more different in their social behavior.

We humans are most like the black skimmer, a black and white waterbird, somewhat like a tern. They have a unique orange and black bill in which the lower mandible is longer than the upper mandible. They use that lower mandible to snag fish while they skim the water.

Black skimmers are colonial, which means they nest in a colony very close to each other. They like being together, just like us humans. Once their chicks can fly, the adults leave them to their devices and they must learn to survive on their own, but they are almost always found in social groups not related to their first family. I love black skimmers ,but right now, dont be like the black skimmer.

Contrast that with the American oystercatcher, a large black, brown and white shorebird with an orange bill. American oystercatchers are not colonial. They are territorial. They will not let another oystercatcher, even another pairs chick, enter their territory. They are fiercely protective of what they consider their piece of property and are pretty darn antisocial during the breeding season.

It takes 28 days for the eggs to hatch and another 35 days before the young birds can fly. Even after the young birds can fly, though, the family stays together as a group for many months while the young birds learn to feed efficiently. So maybe right now, just for a while, become one with the oystercatchers and stay safe.

Just as the oystercatchers become more social when the breeding season is over (usually July or August), so will we become more social when the threat from COVID-19 is past. Stay safe, everyone, and we will get through this together while 6 feet apart.

Susan Heath, Ph.D., is an avian conservation biologist for the Gulf Coast Bird Observatory, 299 Highway 332 W. in Lake Jackson. Contact the observatory at 979-480-0999 or visit gcbo.org.

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NATURE NOTES: Right Now We All Need To Be Oystercatchers - Brazosport Facts

Physiology

Study: Wind turbine noise not the cause of health symptoms – YLE News

A wind farm in Simo, Finnish Lapland.Image: Antti Ullakko / Yle

Claims of adverse health effects of the low frequency or infrasound vibrations caused by wind power stations are not supported by the newest, most long-ranging findings on the subject.

A long-term government-commissioned study conducted by the Technical Research Centre of Finland (VTT) and others found that waves of infrasound cause no measurable changes in human physiology, and could not be detected by the human ear in rigorous testing.

Project leader Panu Maijala from VTT said that the wind power industry can now breathe a sigh of relief, after years of unsubstantiated public sentiment criticising wind turbine construction.

The chair of the managerial research team, Vesa Pekkola from the Ministry of Social Affairs and Health, predicted the results of the study will be significant in assuaging public misgivings.

"We were quick to make sure that the research must be utterly airtight in terms of scientific reliability," Pekkola said.

Maijala also emphasised the high quality of the research, which he said was conducted by "the best researchers in the country".

The VTT study used long-term measurements, listening tests and questionnaires to investigate the properties of infrasound a sound vibration whose frequency is below the range of human hearing.

Measurements showed that the infrasound levels in rural areas with wind power parks were about the same as levels in a regular urban environment.

Maijala did say he was surprised to see occasional spikes in the volume of the frequency, going up to 102 decibels.

The main frequencies of the infrasound were between 0.1 and 1.0 hertz (Hz), which is well below the hearing range of the human ear (16-20 Hz). The lower the frequency, the louder the sound must be for it to be audible.

Maijala said he considers it theoretically possible that some individuals might be able to hear the loudest infrasounds caused by the wind turbines. He emphasised that no changes in physiology were discovered in the VTT study.

In the study, people who claimed their symptoms were caused by infrasound were not found to be able to hear the low frequencies any better than people who did not claim it as a cause. Their autonomous nervous systems were not found to be any more activated by the waves than those of asymptomatic test subjects.

The research took note of prior international studies on infrasound and health, but new long-term measurements were also taken at two wind power parks. Both the Kurikka wind farm and the Kopsa area in Raahe contain 17 wind turbines.

Researchers took measurements both indoors and outside, inside the wind power plant and beyond it, for 308 days.

"Usually measurements take a day or two to produce. The data we collected is rare, because we were able to measure the frequencies in people's homes for an extended period," Maijala said.

Maijala pointed out that the study was conducted on apartments and houses whose residents had moved away due to perceived wind-power related health symptoms. Maijala said he spent several days in another house near the Kopsa wind farm.

"The countryside is so quiet you can hear your own thoughts, but still the frequency didn't affect my sleep at all. Granted, I was there only a short while."

The study points out that for some sufferers, symptoms may be brought on by the so-called nocebo effect, where strong belief in negative effects can bring some of them about. People may also assign blame for their real, underlying ailments to the wind turbines in error or bad faith.

The unusually broad study was conducted by VTT, the University of Helsinki, the Finnish Institute of Occupational Health and the Finnish Institute for Health and Welfare (THL).

Pekkola said that no national or international criteria for the evaluation of infrasound effects existed prior to the study, published in late 2019. Concrete results have been in high demand around the globe.

"There have been a lot of people claiming that infrasound is a health risk. Now we have the evidence with which to approach those claims," Pekkola said.

As a world first, the study is piquing interest internationally, too.

"Similar research is underway in Germany and Australia, but their results aren't in yet," said Maijala. "I await them eagerly. I believe this study of ours will become a major reference point."

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Study: Wind turbine noise not the cause of health symptoms - YLE News