I found this picture on the Internet after yesterday's full moon which looks like a plane is cutting the moon in half. That was actually a vapour trail from a plane captured by some lucky photographer. The moon yesterday night seemed brighter and yellower than usually, and was beatuful to look at. I found it was the first time since January 19, 1992, that the moon has been so close to the Earth. It is a natural phenomenon that happens when the full Moon coincides with when it travels closest to Earth on its orbit.

Some people believe super moon can cause natural disasters, and point to Japan's tsunami just days ago, and to cyclon Tracy wich distroyed Darwin city in Australia in 1974. They claim full moons cause an outbreak of strange behaviour among people and animals, and can trigger labour in pregnant women. Even the term lunacy, they say, is derived from the name of Luna, the Roman moon goddess.

Scientists, however, say there is little fear of a full moon triggering a natural disaster - pointing to the 'super moon' from March 1983 that passed without incident. The studies I've seen, did not find anything tieing lunar phases to violence, suicides, seizures, admissions to psychiatric hospitals, or anything else that could be considered abnormal.

I was glad I did this little research as I was able to enjoy the full moon safe in the knowledge it was unlikely to provoke any bizarre behaviour from my friends and family.

My chocolate addiction

I love chocolate. I can’t get enough of it. The only thing stopping me from eating enormous quantities of it is my fear of getting fat and developing diabetes. Someone said: “Anything is good in moderation”. I don’t think I totally agree with the “anything” part, but chocolate, in my opinion, definitely applies. Chocolate has some very good qualities and has a long history going back to Aztec and Mayan. It is made from cocoa beans, and components in cocoa beans such as antioxidants may help protect against illnesses like heart disease and cancer. Chocolate also contains protein, fat, iron and other substances. It also contains caffeine. I think caffeine is the part which helps me to stay alert, and adds energy. I understand that a small portion of dark chocolate contains more caffeine, than a cup of coffee. Or maybe I am just trying to come up with excuses to suppress my sense of guilt:-)

NATURE VERSUS NURTURE

I was always wondering how someone's genes can affect his or her behaviour and health. On one hand you often see the same desease affecting generations in the same family, or you often notice children resembling their parents not only in looks but in behaviour as well. On the other hand you often see the opposite results. When I was in school, had a classmate whose both parents were alcoholics but who would never drink even at the party even when everyone around him would derink and have fun. He was always an A student even though he often was unable to study or to even simply stay at home. He would sometimes come to my place, would do his homework and would help me to do mine too. Later, he went on to study at a university, graduated, got married and became very successful in both his personal and his professional life. Judging from his background I don't think anyone would ever predicted it.

I recently did some reading and just as I thought, there are 2 theories on what affects human behaviour; nurture and nature. Nurture means that behavior depends on our experiences in life. Nature means that we are born with traits that later form our behavior. For example, many scientists believe that an extra Y chromosome causes aggressive behavior. Science also shows that genetics plays a role in things like obesity and addiction to smoking. A gene correlated with depression has also been discovered. Not that long ago, a Princeton molecular biologist published research in which he inserted a gene in brain cells associated with memory. After that, the experimental animals performed better in learning, and the press called this gene "the smart gene" and the "IQ gene," as if better memory was the best thing for defining intelligence. What the press didn't mention was that the learning improvements seen in this study were only lasting a few hours or a few days in some cases.

I am of course not a scientist, but I don't believe genes can always predict future health. Genes and behavior may both be needed for a person to be overweight, or to be addictive to smoking. From what I've read, there is no single gene that determines a particular behavior. Behaviors are complex traits involving multiple genes that are affected by many other factors. This fact is often overlooked in the press selebrating achievments in gene science, and, unfortunately, this can be very misleading. I think with deseases, behaviors, or any physical traits, genes are just a part of the picture, because many genetic and environmental factors involved in development of any trait. And having a particular genetic variant doesn't necessarily mean that a particular trait will develop. In fact, other factors may be keeping a gene from being turned "on".

The relationship between genes and behaviour is a more complicated issue than the connection between genes and diseases. Can our genes really make us act in a certain way? It looks like many ethical, and legal implications can be raised by this question. I think this relationship can be well summarized by a someone's statement I saw while doing this research: “all of our behaviours (and those of animals) are gene-dependent, but no behaviour is gene-determined”

English (or Common) Ivy

I visited a friend yesterday and she gave me an idea for today’s blog – Common Ivy (or, as I just found -Hedera Helix). She has been fighting it for the last three years since she moved to this place, but as far as I can see, the victory is not in sight yet.

It is a very invasive plant, and if you let it grow unchecked, it can take over and choke even the strongest trees. I’ve read it can climb into the canopy of trees in such density that the trees will fall from the weight. Ivy can grow to create the whole "ivy deserts" and, because of it, in some places it is illegal to sell or import it.

It looks like it can stick to, or climb on almost anything. I found it interesting that it is actually being dispersed by birds eating the berries. I see ivy growing everywhere here in Washington – people’s yards, parks, trails, many many different places. I wonder if there were ever any serious efforts to get rid of it locally. I was also wondering if there is anything positive or useful about ivy and found that it can actually be quite good for honey producing as the ivy flowers are very rich in nectar, and are an important late fall food source for bees. I’ve also read that in the past, the leaves and berries were used to treat cough and bronchitis.

However, when I described all this ivy goodness to my friend, she was not convinced. She said she was not giving up. To her, she said, it’s a holy war. She hates ivy with a passion, and she won’t rest until she eradicates it completely from at least her own back (and front) yard.

Growing straight trees.

I was always wondering how to make trees grow straight and tall. I know commertially trees are planted together so they will just grow straight up to reach for the maximum amount of sunlight. But I wanted to find out how can I do it myself and if there are any special tricks. It seems every time I try they are growing out at an awkward angle. I wanted to see if there is any way to train a tree to grow straight up, like a classic tree...

I went on a bunch of different Internet forums but did not really find any good advices except recommendations to insert a stake right next to the tree and tie in several places to straighten it up. I was hoping for something better, as sometimes they look real funny staked, not very straight at all with large gaps between where it's tied. But I guess, if you adjust the ties every so often to different spots, in time it will straighten.

That was what I ended up doing when I got my fig tree from a nursery in Morton, Wa. We will see how it does after a couple of years:-)

Biological Processes in Nature

As an example of biological process I will talk about frying an egg. Since every biological process is a chemical reaction which results in transformation this would be a great example. In its natural state an egg has yellow middle part called yolk and clear, white substance around the yolk called albumen. Both of these parts are composed of protein. As soon as an egg is placed on a frying pan and temperature becomes more than the protein can withstand, albumen of an egg becomes solid white and yolk becomes hard, and of a different consistency. This process is called denaturation, and once denaturation of protein happens it is irreversible. This example is an example of biological process since once substance was transformed to another.

Clouds

One of the most interesting things I saw when I first came here were the clouds. Never before I've seen them so close. I almost felt I could touch them. I remember driving over Snoqualmie Pass on my way to Eastern Washington and the clouds were so low I was actually driving through them when I got high enough. I still find it beautiful when I see white clouds in blue skies.

I remember from my early school days that you can tell a lot from the color or the cloud. If the cloud is dark, it means it is thick, but a thin cloud will let much more light through and as a result will be much lighter. I found on Wikipedia that a green color may indicate heavy rain, hail, strong winds and possible tornadoes. Yellowish clouds may signal forest fire season due to the presence of pollutants in the smoke. Yellowish clouds are sometimes seen in urban areas with high air pollution levels.

Clouds also participate in regulating weather and climate but the complexity of how they are being created cases uncertainty in projections of global warming. On the one hand, white colored clouds promote cooling of the Earth by reflecting radiation from the Sun. However radiation that makes it to the ground is reflected back and easily absorbed by water in the clouds resulting in a net warming at surface level. (I took this phrase almost entirely from Wikipedia)

Another interesting new research relevant to the clouds, indicates a global brightening trend.[*] I found it interesting that there is a cyclical brightening and dimming in the skies as time goes by that is relevant to climate changes.

====================================
*Martin Wild, Hans Gilgen, Andreas Roesch, Atsumu Ohmura, Charles N. Long, Ellsworth G. Dutton, Bruce Forgan, Ain Kallis, Viivi Russak, and Anatoly Tsvetkov. From dimming to brightening: Decadal changes in solar radiation at Earth’s surface. Science, 308(5723):847–850, 5 2005. URL http://www.sciencemag.org/cgi/content/abstract/308/5723/847.

My best friend

Today I'd like to talk about my best friend - she is 6 years old and her name is Vanda.  She is an American Staffordshire Terrier, a breed considered to be one of a fighting type but never in my life have I met a sweeter and more loving creature.  When I still lived in Russia, my daughter brought her home when she was a little puppy and she immediately started chewing everyone's shoes and marking her territory.  But the little thing had so much personality and was so affectionate that it was hard to be mad at her.  She turned out to be very smart and was quickly house trained.  Later, when I brought her here to US with me, she again adapted quickly, became bi-lingual, and can respond now to many commands in both Russian and English.

What always amazed me is a stark difference between her gentle, loving, and cheerful personality and reputation her breed has.  Her early ancestors came from England, where they were used for guarding and dog fighting. The breed is a mix between the bulldog and the terrier and was known for its ability to fight.  Maybe it is true with the other dogs, though she is usually pays very little attention to the other dogs when we walk, but I never saw her showing anything but love to any human even to complete strangers.

She recently got very sick, started loosing weight, and lost desire to even get up and walk with was very unusual.  We took her to a hospital and the doctor found that she had a life threatening uterus infection.  They had to do a surgery and remove the uterus.  It was sad. We were hoping for her to have children and some point but it will be impossible now.  We are still very glad that she was saved and is now back to being a happy and playful herself.

Reforestation

We have a beautiful natural park near the place I live. I often go there for a walk with my dog and both of us enjoy it a lot.  A few days ago I saw a beautiful young conifer tree growing out of an old dead stump, and thought about resilience of nature and how you can maintain its beauty with a little care and preservation.  Some trees in this area are extremely old and may be a few hundred years old.  Some of them die natural death and sometimes fall during one of the rain storms.  Some of them are young and strong and grow replacing the old ones.  No one is clearing the fallen dead trees unless they fall on one of the trails.  I was thinking it would probably be a fire hazard if it was somewhere in California, but here in WA we should probably be more concerned with floods that with fire.  So I am glad it is the way it is - natural and wild beauty.  When you walk just a short distance inside, you forget you are in a city and feel like you are on a middle of wilderness far away from civilization...

Giving life to a twig (Botanical observations from a personal experience)

I remember helping a friend to organize her back yard, and to clean it from dead trees and bushes last year.  We were cutting mostly dead dry branches, but every time we had to cut a live and a green one, I would feel bad even when it was clearly necessary.  I took one little twig from a nicely flowering shrub we were pruning (I am not even sure what kind it was, but I really liked it), and brought it home.  I removed the leaves from the lower one-third of the twig and put it in a glass of water.   For a long time it looked neither dead nor alive.  After about a week, the remaining leaves turned kind or yellowish color, and I was worried it was going to die.  However, after about a month, I’ve  noticed first little roots coming out on the bottom of the twig.  I was very excited.  I waited for a little more until the roots became bigger, and planted it into a small pot I had at home.  After another couple of months I planted it into a soil outside.  It was covered with bark and I am very hopeful it survives this cold winter (which is not over yet).  If it does, it should leave a long and a happy life:-)

My Homemade Buttermilk

I really like old-fashioned homemade buttermilk and often make it at home.  Because it is more natural, I believe it is also healthier. When I was thinking what I should write about in my first biology blog, I remembered buttermilk and thought of how it is being made.  The manufacturing process at production plants is probably much more complicated and includes things like pasteurization and homogenization, but at home I simply take a gallon of cow milk, add a little of lactic acid bacteria (Streptococcus lactis), and let it sit for a day and night at room temperature.  During this time, the milk is being fermented by the naturally occurring lactic acid-producing bacteria in the milk. This starts the butter churning process and fat from cream with a lower pH will coalesce more readily than that from fresh cream. The acidic environment also helps to prevent potentially harmful microorganisms from growing, increasing shelf-life (which I am not too worried about since it does not last long in our family).

Now, going back to the purpose of this blog, I'd like to mention a couple more things about the lactic acid bacteria (LAB).   These bacteria, usually found in decomposing plants and lactic products, produce lactic acid as the major metabolic end-product of carbohydrate fermentation.  It is also a probiotic, which is believed to be beneficial to the gut ecosystem of humans and other animals.

Buttermilk has also a lot of culinary benefits, and can act as leaven in baking, and can even tenderize meat but this is probably beyond the scope of this article.  After all this is a biology, not a culinary blog.

I should think of something more interesting next time:-)

=========================================


Some details for this article are taken from here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lactic_acid_bacteria