The swine flu virus, up close (and colorized!)
Credit: C. S. Goldsmith and A. Balish, CDC

Swine Flu has been blanketing the news as of late. On April 29th, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) reported the first US fatality occurring in Texas. The CDC has determined that this swine influenza A(H1N1) virus is contagious and spreading from human to human. Yet at this time, they do not know how easily the virus spreads between people. At our museum, we have taken this very seriously and staff has been asked to stay home if symptoms arise.

CDC is recommending that those who come down with flu-like symptoms stay home from work in order to decrease the rate of infection. The Swine Flu is a viral infection rather than a bacterial infection, which makes it harder to treat. Much of the care for viruses is preventive; viruses are hard to treat after they have entered a living host.

Many people do not know the difference between a viral infection and a bacterial one and consider them interchangeable. Yet they are quite different. Viruses are sub-microscopic particles ranging in size from 20 to 300 nanometers (about 1000 times smaller than the width of a human hair). Viruses must have a living host to function. They remain dormant until they infect a living cell. Within a cell, they then change the genetic material of the cell to replicate the virus. AIDS and Influenza are both created by this process of taking over the normal function of a cell in order to replicate viral cells.

Bacteria do not take over cells. Bacteria are much larger than viruses, usually 10 to 100 times bigger than a virus. Their shapes include curved rods, spheres, rods and spirals. They are known as intercellular organisms because they live between cells. All viruses are harmful to the host because they alter cells, but bacteria can be beneficial (like the species that live in our guts and help us digest our food).

Harmful bacteria in the body create infections like Strep throat or Small Pox. Bacteria can grow and reproduce in both living and non-living environments. Antibiotics are used to treat harmful bacterial growth and infection in the body. Antibiotics; however, are ineffectual against treating viruses.

Because the Swine Flu is a virally spread disease, it is even more important to practice prevention. The CDC sees this disease being spread like a common flu – mainly from person to person through coughing or sneezing by people with influenza. People can also become infected by touching something with flu viruses on it and then touching their mouth or nose. Taking simple precautions like washing your hands and covering your mouth when sneezing is effective prevention. Working in a museum,we take this extra seriously considering how often we come in contact with lots of people and their germs. Many of my co-workers, myself included, have hand sanitizer at our desks, wash our hands often, and carry tissues. It is a simple way to combat an evasive illness.

For more about how to protect yourself from swine flu, check out this podcast from the CDC.

Applications are due May 15 for the 2009-2010 QUEST Science Education Institute.

After working with such talented, motivated teachers at our QUEST Science Education Institute last year, we figured we'd better do it again! The QUEST Science Education Institute is KQED Education Network's year-long professional development program for Bay Area school districts. Over the course of the year-long Institute, we will work with teams of science educators and educational technologists from school district offices and school sites to provide training and resources on using QUEST multimedia to enhance science education. Our aim is to help districts develop a broad-based technology implementation plan that leverages QUEST media and aligns with their current technology integration goals.

Here is a quick overview of the year-long Institute:

Who should apply?

The QUEST education team is committed to building capacity for sustainable integration of technology into the science classroom. We seek to work directly with six school districts dedicated to enhancing 21st century skills through the use of local, relevant, informative high-quality media about science. We are asking districts to form teams of 6-8 members composed of district office staff, educational technologists, librarians, and science education leaders. By connecting with districts in this way, we aim to support existing district learning plans and align our resources with the expectations districts and schools have set for teachers and students in science teaching and learning.

Is your district ready for QUEST? Do you have:

Then you are ready to apply!

Visit our KQED Science Education Workshop Website to find out about benefits to participating, see a schedule of activities, and to apply online.

A magnet is suspended over a liquid nitrogen cooled
high-temperature superconductor (-200°C). Image source:
Wikimedia
Take a familiar metal, such as the aluminum foil from the bottom drawer of a kitchen, the mercury you might find in a household thermometer, or the titanium used to build an expensive road bike. Cool it enough, and you will find almost miraculously that electricity can be sent though the metal without losing any of its energy.

This effect, known as superconductivity, has tantalized physicists with theoretical weirdness and seduced futurists with potential applications since its discovery in 1911. Some of the applications, particularly in magnetism, have already been realized. A typical MRI machine works because, hidden within its outer casing, electricity is pumped through a superconducting wire maintained 10 times colder than the average temperature of Pluto. The soon-to-be-running Large Hadron Collider at CERN in Geneva would not have been possible without the aid of giant superconducting magnets. Scientists at the High Field Magnet Laboratory in the Netherlands have even used superconducting magnets to suspend a living frog.

Even more exotic and exciting ideas have been dreamed up, such as large-scale lossless power transmission networks or commercially-viable magnetically levitated trains. Many of these have remained elusively beyond the cusp of practicality. This is because most materials become superconductors only in the frigid neighborhood of absolute zero (0-10 Kelvin). A few do have higher transition temperatures. For example, the cuprates, a class of material based on copper and oxygen, become superconductors as high as 133 Kelvin. Unfortunately, these are also brittle, difficult to work with, and bear limited current loads. However, times may be changing.

In February of last year scientists discovered a new candidate in their quest for a better superconductor, a material based on iron and arsenic. That's right– it is possible that one of the most promising candidates for next-generation energy technology is at least partly the same stuff Aunt Abby used to poison Mr. Witherspoon. The new class of material, collectively known as the iron pnictides (pronounced "NICK-tides"), has taken the physics community by storm, inspired more than a thousand research publications and stolen the show last month at the world's largest annual gathering of materials scientists, the American Physical Society March Meeting.

Is all the hype really merited? Maybe.

Much of the excitement surrounding the iron pnictides is becuase they turn superconducting at anomalously high temperatures, to date at least as high as 56 Kelvin. To be fair, this is still not exactly a high temperature compared to normal everyday experience. Room temperature is about 300 Kelvin. At 273 Kelvin you can get frostbite. At 56 Kelvin the air you breathe liquefies and your lung cavities fill with dry ice.

In the world of superconductors, however, a material with a transition temperature of 56 Kelvin is a rock star. This is the second warmest class of superconductor we know about, overshadowed only by the cuprates.

A few scientists feel optimistic that the pnictide family's transition temperatures may yet surpass even those of the cuprates. This would be a tremendous scientific and technological discovery, not simply because it would set a new record, but because it would mean that we now have two families of materials that become superconducting above the boiling temperature of liquid nitrogen (77 Kelvin). This would be fantastic because cooling materials with liquid nitrogen is both technically easier and less expensive than using the current standard of liquid helium.

Additionally, there may be reason to believe that the new iron pnictides may not have some of the problems that plague other high temperature superconductors. The cuprates have an annoying habit of spawning tiny electrical whirlpools in the presence of a magnetic field. Unless these whirlpools, or vortices (as they are technically called), can be pinned in place, lossless power transmission is impossible. While vortices still occur in the pnictides, pinning may prove to be easier than it is in the cuprates.

Even if we never are able to capitalize on the pnictides, they may have intrinsic scientific value. Scientists are baffled at the underlying mechanism that allows a material to be a superconductor above 40 Kelvin. Figuring this out may not ultimately satiate a desire for new technologies, but the simple desire to know is exactly the sort of thing that would make Darwin or Einstein proud.

Shows like CSI can increase the public's awareness of geneticsOne of the most fun parts about my job is answering people's genetics questions at our Understanding Genetics website.  We get around 200 questions each month from all over the world and they definitely keep me on my toes.

They also give me a feel for what is going on with science in popular culture.  I can tell this by looking at Google Analytics data and seeing which of our previous answers has had an upsurge in visits.  (We post around one new answer online per week.)

For example, whenever PBS airs a show on how a mutation called CCR5-delta 32 may have made people resistant to the plague, I get an uptick in the hits on the answer that deals with that topic.  When House (a show on Fox) had a character say that of course someone was adopted because he had a cleft chin and his parents didn't, I got an uptick on the Chimeras start out as fraternal twins that fuse together at a very early stage.  What this means is that chimeras have two sets of DNA.  Some of their cells have the DNA from one twin and the rest of their cells have DNA from the other twin.

As you can imagine, these folks can wreak havoc with a police investigation!  What happened in the CSI episode was that the DNA from the crime scene did not match the DNA from the most likely suspect.  In the end we find out that the suspect is a chimera and that the evidence left behind at the crime scene had one set of DNA and that the blood they tested had a different set of DNA.  From the same person!

It is great that there is so much science starting to seep into popular culture.  If the science is accurate, it is a great way to get people involved in science.  I just wish it was accurate more often.

Since people seem to nod off a bit when I say I'm working on a story about energy efficiency, I've had to re-tool my pitch. "It's a story about how installing solar panels or a wind turbine is the last thing you should do to green your house," I say, perhaps a little over-dramatically.

I have nothing against solar panels, but they do seem to illustrate our collective love of gadgetry. Why else would we leap (or at least dream of leaping) to spend $5,000-$10,000 on solar panels when many of us could make a significant dent in our utility bills with a trip to Home Depot? Small things, like weather-stripping your doors, or making sure you have a well-insulated attic, can make a big difference in how much heat or AC your house consumes.

If you qualify as low-income (in this case, that's less than $44,000 for a family of four) you can get help with this project. If you live in California, you'll find your local participating agency here (or by calling 1-866-675-6623). Elsewhere, begin by contacting your state agency, found here. The Weatherization Assistance Program has received a 10-fold budget increase under the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act, so now's a great time to apply.

WAP won't replace your TV, but you might consider doing so yourself. Televisions tend to be the third biggest electricity user in the house (after heating/AC and refrigerators). But they don't have to be. All the new features — plasma screens, HD, widescreen — can be (and are, in some models) achieved using less electricity. The California Energy Commission is proposing new TV standards that would cut electricity use by a third.

James Sweeney, who heads the Stanford University Precourt Energy Efficiency Center, calculates that collectively – with current, affordable technologies, and without sacrificing our quality of life – Americans could cut our energy use by 30 percent.

Here's the kicker: To produce that same amount of electricity, we'd have to increase solar and wind by 60-fold. That means, for every solar panel and wind turbine in the country, we'd have to build 59 new ones, plus all the power lines and roads they'd entail. Or, to consider another non-fossil fuels alternative, that's four new nuclear power plants for every existing one.

Listen to the Let's Weatherize! radio report online, and watch our Weatherization Slideshow.

NASA/Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter; Fans of dark dust on Mars'
southern ice cap, apparently blasted from beneath the ice
by thawing carbon dioxide."

It's spring again, that time of year when my thoughts return to…blasts of carbon dioxide gas jetting up from beneath the frigid layer of dry ice below, carrying rusty red dust in plumes that jet toward the pale skies….

At least, that's what happens at the polar ice cap on the planet Mars. I'd sure love to be there to see it, even if there are no flowers in bloom. Still, there seems to be plenty of "blossoming" going on….

NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter—the spacecraft with that high powered camera that could spot a beach ball on Mars' surface—has captured images of the aftermath of some of Mars' springtime polar action. Appearing as dark fan-shaped bursts strewn across the thinning springtime polar ice, these features are explained as plumes of Martian dust that have settled after being blasted into the air by releases of gas pressure from under the surface of the ice.

To describe what's going on, let me paint a picture of the Martian polar region as it emerges from the deep freeze of winter into spring.

Mars' year is almost twice as long as Earth's—and so too are its seasons. Winter at the southern pole of Mars lasts almost six months. In that time, the normally freezing temperatures on the Red Planet plummet to as low as -225 degrees Fahrenheit at the pole. During this time, Mars' permanent water ice cap acquires a layer of frozen carbon dioxide (dry ice) on top, formed from carbon dioxide freezing directly out of the atmosphere.

This seasonal dry ice cap also forms around the edges of the water ice cap, covering adjacent ice-free surfaces as well. The carbon dioxide ice cap may grow to as much as a meter thick.

Then, as spring approaches and the ice cap gradually comes out of the dark and receives more and more sunlight, it begins to warm up (though don't get the impression that it is ever "warm" anywhere on Mars' surface! Air temperatures recorded by the Viking landers in Mars' more temperate latitudes was barely ever higher than 1 degree Fahrenheit). Spring Equinox in Mars' southern hemisphere was on December 26th.

As the layer of solid carbon dioxide heats up, its ices turn to gas, both at the top of the layer and beneath it as well. The gases forming underneath build up pressure, which seeks a path to escape. Evidently the pressurized carbon dioxide gas can actually carve channels in the Martian soils under the ice as it flows—said channels have been seen in the past after the seasonal ice cap dissipates entirely.

When the gases find a weak point in the ice, they can erupt upward, bursting into the air, sometimes carrying dust with it. The dust rockets skyward and is blown by prevailing winds, settling out on the ice in great dark fans—which is what Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter has shown us.

Ah, to be on Mars in springtime….

Recent articles in USA Today and California's Flex Your Power e-Newswire discussed the phenomenon known in energy efficiency circles as "take back" or the "Snackwell Effect" (see "Consumers Can Sabotage Energy-Saving Efforts," and "The Snackwell Effect: Consumers Sabotage Energy-Saving Efforts").

Stanley Jevons first described the take back effect in 1865, so this is nothing new. Jevons observed that new efficient steam engines decreased coal consumption, which led to a drop in coal prices. But the lower prices meant that more people could afford to use coal, and so coal consumption increased.

The "Snackwell Effect" takes it's meaning from the habit of people on diets who eat lots of low-cal snacks that add up to many times the calories of a regular snack. The example given in both articles mentioned above is a West Virginia couple that bought an energy efficient washing machine to replace their old inefficient one. Their energy bills were no different after the conversion. Turns out they were doing more loads of laundry, even washing one piece of clothing in one load, because they were lulled into complacency by their energy efficient purchase.

I asked Jim McMahon, the head of the Energy Analysis Program at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (LBNL), about the Snackwell Effect and appliance energy use. I recently heard him speak about the great efficiency gains made between the first energy crisis brought on by the Arab oil embargo in 1973, and today. Those gains are significant; refrigerators today use about half the energy on average than they did in the 1970s. "This effect [Snackwell Effect] has been studied for a long time, [it was] formerly called the rebound or take back effect," he says. One 2001 study concluded that for every gain in energy efficiency, about 10% is taken back by an increase in energy use. Greater air conditioner efficiency, for example, may mean that people lower their thermostats, since they expect their energy bills to be lower, and this eats into the efficiency savings. "I think that there are a number of energy-using devices where consumers do not exhibit the Snackwell effect, such as refrigerators or televisions. In those cases, in my view, the usage behaviors are unrelated to the cost of energy, at least for most households in the United States," says McMahon. He does admit that more study is needed in this area. A 10% take back effect is significant, but certainly not a barrier to serious energy efficiency improvements.

Karen Ehrhardt-Martinez, a sociologist, studies human behavior and energy use for the American Council for an Energy Efficient Economy (ACEEE). "The relationship between energy efficiency and energy consumption is not as straightforward as it may initially appear and as some people like to portray it."

The trends show that: 1) residential energy consumption increased by roughly 57% between 1970 and 2005; and 2) residential energy consumption per capita increased by only 7%".

According to Ehrhardt-Martinez, a bigger problem than the 10% of energy lost due to the take-back effect-or the Snackwell Effect-is the proliferation of energy using, albeit more efficient, devices in American homes; lifestyle choices, such as the dramatic increase in the size of homes while families got smaller; population increase; and the "invisible" energy, such as standby power or phantom loads, that is hidden from consumers. "However," says Erhardt-Martinez "if we were able to combine efficiency improvements with better lifestyle choices (i.e. smaller, more energy efficient houses), smart purchasing behaviors, and improved information mechanisms that allowed consumer to actively manage their energy consumption, then we could have a much more dramatic impact on both household level consumption as well as state and national level consumption."

Inside the Bevatron. Credit: Lawrence Berkeley National Lab.

Much as I tried to get Stewart Loken to wax poetic about the demise of the Bevatron, the truth is that he – and, I'll bet, a lot of scientists – just don't think that way.

As Loken put it, "science never stands still." However many Nobel prizes the Bevatron produced, this old, defunct particle accelerator is really just taking up space; its demolition, and replacement with a new, up-to-the-minute research facility, is, Loken feels, the best way to honor the work done here. Plans aren't finalized, but it's likely the facility to replace the Bevatron will forward work done at Lawrence Berkeley National Lab's Advanced Light Source (which, by the way, produces light a billion times brighter than the sun).

The new facility – described here – would allow scientists to watch "electrons joining forces, atoms snapping together within millionths of a billionth of a second, the real time of chemical reactions."

But that's a long way off. First, demolition workers must contend with a major disposal challenge, including getting rid of radioactive waste produced during experiments at the Bevatron. Some neighbors are concerned about the prospect of hauling the stuff through Berkeley's residential areas. Others have called for the Bevatron to be preserved as a national landmark.

But demolition is already underway, and picking up speed, thanks in part to $1.2 billion recently bestowed on federal research labs across the country under the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act. The Lab describes the environmental impacts of the Bevatron demolition project here.

See the Bevatron today and in its heyday – watch the "Goodbye to the Bevatron" slideshow online.

Go Bears! is more than a cheer, but a mantra to live life by…as long as you're a Berkeley alum like myself. On Saturday April 18^th, the University opens up to the public…lectures, interactive events, tours, all of the campus museums (most of which aren't usually open to the public)… and it's all free.

Many programs are geared for incoming students and their families. However, there are a few gems designed for everyone. This year's highlights feature hands on physics, discussions on energy & environmental issues, with the search for extra terrestrial life sprinkled in. For a complete listing of events, check out the Cal Day website. Here are my picks:

Darwin, Dover, and Intelligent Design: What's Next for Anti-Evolutionists?

10-11 am, 2050 Valley Life Sciences Building

Hear a national expert on evolution discuss the conflicts between evolution and creationism, and where this debate is headed.

Mobile Millennium: The System That Keeps Traffic Moving

10-11 am, Sibley Auditorium

This traffic-monitoring system collects data and sends it to your cell phone to help you take the best routes. Be an early adopter of this developing technology; learn how following the lecture or from 1:30 to 3 pm outside McCone Hall.

Are We Wired for Good?

11 am-noon, 145 Dwinelle Hall

Is the capacity for compassion, gratitude, and other positive emotions built into our nervous systems? Are such emotions the path to happiness? The founder of Berkeley's Greater Good Science Center has some answers.

What Is the Large Hadron Collider?

11 am-noon, 4 LeConte Hall

It's the world's largest and most powerful particle accelerator. Hear how it works and discover the exciting things it might reveal about our amazing universe.

Will Water Be the Oil of the 21st Century? A Quest for Sustainable Water Management

11 am-noon, 502 Davis Hall

Water is a limited natural resource, and its importance can be compared to that of oil. Examine the parallels between these two resources, and the future of water sustainability.

How Global Climate Change Will Affect the Oceans

Noon-1 pm, 141 McCone Hall

Warmer surface waters, rising sea levels, more storms, and increased carbon dioxide – all will have an impact on marine ecosystems, coasts, islands, estuaries, and wetlands.

The Dark Side of the Universe

Noon-1 pm, 100 Genetics & Plant Biology Building

The universe is mostly made up of "dark matter" – what evidence do we have that it exists? Hear how we're searching for this mysterious component of the universe.

Genes in a Bottle

Noon-2 pm, Latimer Hall

Learn how DNA is chemically extracted from organisms for research applications. Then extract DNA from your own cheek cells, and take it home in a fashionable necklace!

How Do Cars Fit Into a Clean-Energy Future?

1-2 pm, 105 Stanley Hall

Can car lovers also be planet lovers? How will our favorite vehicle evolve as the need to manage global warming intensifies? Energy and Resources Group Professor Dan Kammen

Is Anybody Out There?

1-2 pm, 3 LeConte Hall

Hear about Berkeley's SETI (Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence) program at the world's largest telescope, the Allen array. Volunteers have a small but captivating chance that their computer will detect the first signal from a civilization beyond Earth.

Yuri Alexyevich Gagarin, "Columbus of the Cosmos" Last Thursday evening, over 3500 people came to the California Academy of Sciences to help celebrate Yuri. This gathering was not the only celebration of its kind. Two-hundred and eight parties in forty-six countries on eight continents celebrated Yuri's Night between April 6 and 12th of this year.  So who is Yuri and why does he deserve such accolades?

Yuri Alexyevich Gagarin was a Soviet cosmonaut.  He was the first human in space and is often referred to as "the Columbus of the Cosmos".   His spacecraft Vostok-1 orbited the Earth on April 12, 1961 for the duration of 108 minutes.   Yuri's Night, usually celebrated on April 12^th celebrates this historic first flight.

Yuri's Night also celebrates another April 12^th anniversary notable in the annals of space travel.  Twenty years after Yuri Gagarin's historic flight, the first NASA space shuttle flight, STS-1 was launched into space.  STS is short for Space Transportation System.  NASA names each flight STS with the chronological number after it.  STS-1 was launched on April 12, 1981; the shuttle orbited the earth 37 times during a 54.5 hour mission.

Since 1961, our interest in space and the exploration of its depths has magnified.  Recently NASA launched the Kepler mission.  On March 7^th, 2009, the Kepler Mission successfully launched from Cape Canaveral, Florida.  Kepler, which is a specialized telescope, was designed to find the first Earth-size planets orbiting stars within a "habitable zone". A habitable zone is an orbit around a star that would enable a planet to formulate and upkeep an atmosphere and the ability for water to form in pools on the planet's surface.  Liquid water is believed to be essential for the formation of life.  Thus from the nascent flight of orbiting our own Earth, space travels has evolved to look amongst other start.  This progress is certainly something worthy of celebration!

An exhibit on the Kepler Mission along with other NASA initiatives like SOFIA, LCROSS and NLSI fascinated guests last Thursday night.  For one guest, meeting Buzz Aldrin in person was the highlight of his night.   My favorite aspect of the evening was a 3-D rendered tour of the moon and neighboring space.  I am anxious to see what will be the new annal of space exploration when April 12^th and Yuri's Night comes around again in 2010.