A-Z Challenge. N. What are 'Names.'

What is a name? What is 'in' a name? It's a Human thing :)

Lizard walked ungracefully into the café front room carrying a carafe of coffee, “Hey, my back legs get tired of holding up all my weight all day in here. But will ya look at these thigh muscles! The chicks are going to really like me.”

“You’re just lazy, Lizard. I see your brothers and sisters running around on their hind legs all the time,” Burro chimed in and quickly changed the subject. “So, I heard one of Juanita’s javelina babies got run over last night by one of those big metal things you humans hide in all the time. She and her family tried to cross River Road again in pitch dark. I keep telling her not to do that.”

Coyote briefly looked up from his bowl on the table and muttered, “Yup. Victoria and Hector were cleaning it up early this morning when I trotted by.”

She shook her head while pouring herself another cup of hot coffee. “What?” asked Lizard looking at She. 

“I’m still trying to get used to a pair of vultures named ‘Victoria’ and ‘Hector’.” 

Coyote put his front paws on the table, uttering a sound that could have been mistaken for a sarcastic laugh. “We only use names for you Humans. We really don’t have names; we have smells.” Lizard and Burro nodded. 

“You mean, each one of you has your own smell? And you name each other by smell?”

Burro chimed in with a bray, “I smell good!”

“No, you don’t, Burro. You stink!” Coyote uttered that sound again, more like a snicker, and proceeded to explain. “We don’t name smells. We just…..smell. And our smells change.”

Lizard nodded, swirling his long blue tail in between his front foot pads. “That’s right. We all smell, and you all smell. Your smell changes, too. I can tell when you are mad by smelling you."

“Right. You Humans stink, too. Now would you please fill my bowl? I’d like more cream this time.” Coyote pushed his bowl towards She.

“Only if you don’t splatter it all over the table while slurping it.” She picked up the brightly colored bowl with 'Coyote’s' painted on it in brown and filled it part way with water, adding a dash of cream.

- Excerpt from Green Lizard Cafe. Episode 1. Morning Cafe Chat.

Written by Myself. Her. She. It. Human. Call me whatever you like. :)

A-Z Challenge: M is Message and Meme.

What is a meme? What is a message? What is a gene? What is the basic denominator of life?

If you consider on a broad scale, information is what is conveyed or represented by a particular arrangement or sequence of things. That covers all scales, from a phone call, to nanoparticles and electrons, to sound, to firing neurons, to light traveling the universe. Any thing conveyed from one point to another, the 'message', is a transfer of information.

A unit containing information can be thought of as a message. For example, the well-known and greatest significance for the gene is its information transfer in living material. The content of this message carries instructions; it is what determines the structure and function of life. The exchange between a hormone and an organic tissue is an active and dynamic process of information transfer. 

The same can be said of any interaction at any scale and reduced to the laws of physics: for every action there is a reaction. The degree and direction of both action and reaction are dependent upon the information that is exchanged between the two points. Our attempts to understand that information is analogous to decoding the 'message'.

To add another related word to the 'M' box for the day, the information transfer in human social life contains messages that we may or may not be aware of, and which propagates through the social hierarchy like a gene. It is called the 'meme'. A meme is an idea, behavior, style, or usage that spreads from person to person within a culture.

In the 1980's, evolutionary biologist Richard Dawkins likened our social information transfer to genes in that our ideas can replicate, mutate, and evolve. It was Dawkins that coined the use of the term, 'meme'. Just like in physical and biological systems, information is actively communicated in a network, transmitted and received, coded and decoded. Messages that we receive are processed in our brains and then transmitted into the same or another network where it exponentially mutates, evolves and replicates. 

Dawkins wrote:

“Memes propagate themselves in the meme pool by leaping from brain to brain via a process which, in the broad sense, can be called imitation. They compete with one another for limited resources: brain time or bandwidth. They compete most of all for attention." (The Selfish Gene)

Messages, memes.....They all transmit, replicate, and evolve information. “All life evolves by the differential survival of replicating entities.” (R. Dawkins)

It's a meme life out there.

A-Z Challenge: L. Life is a strange thing.....

One door closes and another opens.

Deja vu from 18 years ago. 

"Life is a strange thing
Just when you think you learnt how to use it
It's gone."
- Shakespears Sister - Hello

A-Z Challenge. K is for Karma

Karma is the mad hatter of a hater's world. – Amy Wynne Whatley

Now as a man is like this or like that,
according as he acts and according as he behaves, so will he be;
a man of good acts will become good, a man of bad acts, bad;
he becomes pure by pure deeds, bad by bad deeds;

And here they say that a person consists of desires,
and as is his desire, so is his will;
and as is his will, so is his deed;
and whatever deed he does,
that he will reap.
—Brihadaranyaka Upanishad, 7th Century BC 

A-Z Clallenge. J is for Jaguarundi.

A mysterious small and elusive wild cat

A small wild cat, not much larger than the average house cat, the jaguarundi eludes us humans in many ways. Unbeknownst to this wild creature, our species can't seem to decide who and what it really is. So we have created many names for the animal, changing its label depending on place and time. All the while, the jaguarundi smiles and eludes us. 

This member of the feline family is one of the smallest and oddest looking. The size of a large house cat, it has the face of a miniature cougar (aka puma, panther, mountain lion) topped with little rounded nice-kitty ears. Its slender long body (22-31") and tail (14-24") is supported by short legs (stands at ~11" at the shoulder). Indeed, the mammal resembles an odd hybridized version of a house cat and dwarfed cougar whose ear and leg development was arrested within a  week after birth. In fact, the species has many times been mistaken for a large weasel. One wonders what circumstances selected for such odd paired combinations. Unless the other cats are the odd ones. 

The jaguarundi is a New World cat, native to forested and brushy regions, especially those near water, from South America to the southwestern United States. Rare north of Mexico, it is considered endangered in Texas, although sightings have been documented in SW Texas, Alabama and part of Florida. It is also known as the 'otter-cat' because of its otter-like appearance and swimming ability. In fact, early German zoologists mistook the animal for a cousin of the weasel, referring to it as the 'weasel cat'.

The name jaguarundi is interesting for several reasons. Many people recognize the root name, jaguar, which is one of the largest New World members of the feline family. This cat once roamed from the  U.S.-Mexican border southward to Patagonia, Argentina. It is now almost extinct in the northern part of its original range and survives in reduced numbers in remote areas of Central and South America. Similar to the jaguarundi, the largest known population exists in the Amazon rainforest.

The names jaguarundi and jaguar have similar origins. Not surprisingly, because the two species inhabit the same region in South America. Before the arrival of the Portuguese to Brazil in the mid-1500's, the two principal indigenous groups were the Tupí and the Guaraní. The former mainly lived along the coast of Brazil and in the Amazon rainforest. The Guaraní lived further inland, inhabiting what is now Paraguay, southern Brazil, and parts of Uraguay, Bolivia and Argentina. The Tupi-Guaraní language is the most widely distributed traditional language of South America and is a hybrid of the older Guaraní and Old Tupí. In fact, it is the official language of Paraguay.

A fusion of the languages of the Spanish-speaking conquerors of South and Central America and of the indigenous peoples has given rise to an interesting evolutionary tree of name etymology. Many names of flora and fauna are often attributed to Spanish origin. However, the earlier conquerors merely adopted and adapted native names to their own language to try and make sense of them, and probably because they were easier to pronounce. For example,  words like jaguar, tapioca, jacaranda, anhinga, carioca, and capoeira are of Tupí–Guaraní origin. An exploration of plant name origins will commonly end up with root words of the Tupí and/or Guarní language.

The first known use of the name jaguar was 1604. It probably originated with the Portuguese and was derived from from Old Tupí, jawára. Similarly, jaguarundi is American Spanish, first used in 1885, and derived from from Old Guarani yaguarund-i and akin to the Tupi jawarund or Old Tupi, yawaum'di. The jaguarundi is commonly known in Spanish as leoncillo, gato colorado, gato moro, león brenero, onza, and yaguarundí. It is also called gato-mourisco, eirá, gato-preto, and maracajá-preto in Portuguese.

The jaguarundi wears coats of several colors, and several scientific names. With two color morphs, light (black and brownish gray) and light (reddish brown), they were thought to be two different species. Local villagers often refer to these cats based on their color: “jaguarundi” for the darker coat and “eyra” for the reddish coat. (The Tupi name was eirara or irara; 'eyra' is an American Spanish and Portuguese name.) Thus early taxonomists separated them, assigning Felis eyra (1814) or Herpailurus eyra (1858) to the reddish morphs. However, these are the same species and both color morphs may be found in the same litter.

Likewise, the taxonomical nomenclature assigned to this wildcat have gone through several renditions, some concurrently. Various authorities have placed the jaguarundi in their own genus (Herpailurus) or with the other cats (Felis). A French naturalist, Étienne Geoffroy Saint-Hilaire (1772-1844), assigned the small cat the genus and species names Puma yagouaroundi in 1803. A follower of Lamarckian evolutionary theory, Saint-Hilaire's assignment was based on comparative anatomy, paleontology, and embryology.

Use of Felis yagouaroundi has been attributed to two different authorities. However, the earliest attribution was given to Bernard Germain de Lacépède (1756-1825), a French naturalist, in 1809. Attributes to assigning the jauguarundi to the genus Herpailurus vary from Lacépède (again, 1809) to Nikolai Severtzov (1827-1885), a Russian explorer and naturalist (attributed to year 1858). Which of these men originally used this genus name might be lost to historical confusion, but this genus was still in use in 1919. Why Lacépède would use two genus names concurrently is beyond me.

Sometimes things come full circle, even if it takes a few centuries. Depending on the source of reference and information, anyone searching for the scientific name of the jaguarundi will  see all three genus names in use today. Interestingly, modern nomenclature again placed in the genus Puma by Johnson et al. (in 2006) and Eizirik et al. (in 2008). Recent genetic studies (mitochondrial DNA analysis) suggests that the puma (aka the cougar/mountain lion) and the jaguarundi are more closely related to each other and other felines in the genus Puma than the domestic cat, which shared the genus Felis. Additional research shows that the jaguarundi is closely related to the much larger and heavier cougar as evident by its similar genetic structure and chromosome count.

For those interested in the paleobiology of the New World felines, according to the 2006 genomic study of Felidae an ancestor(s) of today's leopard, lynx, puma, and Felis lineages migrated across the Bering land bridge into the Americas approximately 8-8.5 million years ago. It is proposed that those lineages subsequently diverged in that order. This and other recent studies have indicated that the cougar and jaguarundi are next most closely related to the modern cheetah of Africa and western Asia, but that relationship is still debated. It has been suggested that ancestors of the cheetah diverged from the Puma lineage in the Americas and migrated back to Asia and Africa, while other research suggests the cheetah diverged in the Old World itself. Consequently, feline migration to the Americas remains unclear.

So, what's in a Name? Well, that is the subject for another post. As readers can infer, names can be very complex and more confusing than not. Regardless, the jaguarundi, or the leoncillo - the little lion- remains elusive in name and reality. Perhaps that is best for it's survival.

A-Z Challenge. I is for Intuition.

"A healthy woman is much like a wolf - strong life force, life-giving, territorially aware, intuitive and loyal. Yet separation from her wildish nature causes a woman to become meager, anxious, and fearful.

With the wild nature as ally and teacher, we see not through two eyes only, but through the many eyes of intuition. With intuition we are like the starry night, we gaze at the world through a thousand eyes. The wild nature carries the medicine for all things.

She carries stories, dreams, words and songs. She carries everything a woman needs to be and know. She is the essence of the female soul...

Where can you find her? She walks in the deserts, cities, woods, oceans, and in the mountain of solitude. She lives in women everywhere; in castles with queens, in the boardrooms, in the penthouse, and on the night bus to Brownsville.

Whether you are possessed of a simple heart or the ambitious, whether you are trying to make it to the top or just make it through tomorrow, the wild nature belongs to you.

She lives in a faraway place that breaks through to our world. She lives in the past and is summoned by us. She is in the present. She is in the future and walks backward in time to find us now.

Without us, Wild Woman dies. Without Wild Woman, we die. Para Vida, for true life, both must live."

- Clarissa Pinkola Estés, Women Who Run With the Wolves.

And we cannot be tamed or domesticated. It would destroy us.

A-Z Challenge: H is for Heart.

How many times have you asked yourself, "Why am I doing this?", "What am I doing?", "Am I on the right path?"

We've all been there at one time or another. Perhaps several times. For many decades I have always asked myself this: 'Does this path I am on, or about to embark on, have heart?' 

What does that mean?  Our heart is the organ that pumps our life's blood to all of our internal tissues. When it stops pumping, the body dies. Metaphorically, heart is also our inner-most truth-sayer; it tells us the truth. It is the source of our compassion, love, determination, our weaknesses and strength. It is being 'whole' instead of being lost in strewn bits and pieces. It is also the source of our 'knowing', despite our awareness or lack of. When we lose 'heart', we lose our direction, motivation, commitment, our strength, and our happiness. We lose ourselves and we are not whole.

The heart knows the way home; it knows the truth. It knows when we are off-course. It also knows when we are betrayed; by others or by ourselves. A path with no heart can suck all our self-esteem and self-worth from us. Or it can instill false hopes. Losing heart will leave us empty, angry, and unbalanced, leaving us blundering blind on a heartless path.

Embarking on a path may be full of uncertainties. But if we have heart, and we know that our direction is true; if we accept that we may have to change course along the way, and if we learn from all the obstacles along our path, then that path has heart. And as we journey forward, we become stronger and whole; and more happy.

"You must always keep in mind that a path is only a path. Each path is only one of a million paths. If you feel that you must now follow it, you need not stay with it under any circumstances. Any path is only a path. There is no affront to yourself or others in dropping a path if that is what your heart tells you to do. But your decision to keep on a path or to leave it must be free of fear and ambition. 

I caution you: look at every path closely and deliberately. Try it as many times as you think necessary. Then ask yourself and yourself alone this one question. Does this path have a heart? All paths are the same. They lead nowhere. They are paths going through the brush or into the brush or under the brush of the Universe. The only question is: Does this path have a heart? If it does, then it is a good path. If it doesn’t, then it is of no use." - from The Teachings of Don Juan, by Carlos Castaneda

I look forward to my new Path with Heart. I hope you all do the same.

A-Z Challenge: G is for 'Government'.

To attack the 'government' per se and blame it for all our ills is like sticking a Band-aid on a giant festering abscess.  - Yours Truly

A-Z Clallenge. F is for Forgiving.

"Forgiving does not erase the bitter past. A healed memory is not a deleted memory. Instead, forgiving what we cannot forget creates a new way to remember. We change the memory of our past into a hope for our future."
 - Lewis B. Smedes

This includes forgiving yourself.

A-Z Challenge: E. Environmentalist

“But they are harder to find now, those spirits. I look out across the moonlit Lake District ranges, and it’s as clear as the night air that what used to come in regular waves, pounding like the sea, comes now only in flashes, out of the corner of my eyes, like a lighthouse in a storm. Perhaps it’s the way the world has changed. There are more cars on the roads now, more satellites in the sky. The footpaths up the fells are like stone motorways, there are turbines on the moors, and the farmers are being edged out by south-country refugees like me, trying to escape but bringing with us the things we flee from. The new world is online and loving it, the virtual happily edging out the actual. The darkness is shut out and the night grows lighter and nobody is there to see it.” - Paul Kingsnorth, Confessions of a Recovering Environmentalist

I’m not sure when I realized I was an ‘environmentalist.’ I always scorned being classified or grouped into labels, such as a feminist, liberal/democrat/conservative/republican. To me they were just names of boxes which we crawl in or are shoved into with labels on the covers. Once labeled, all personal thought and individual ideas are ignored. You don’t own yourself anymore.

I realized decades ago that my attachment; actually, my very sense of identity and place, with the non-human environment was an inherent part of me that can’t be ignored or pretended. I am a product of my environment. It’s a symbiotic relationship. Even as a scientist, a biologist, I am constantly reminded of the world around me and how it affects me. I wither and fade in cities. In the forests, the desert, near lakes and rivers, surrounded by a variety of flora and fauna, I am a child and wizened adult, a creative and loving force.

An environmentalist to me is to listen and care for the surrounding environment. To speak for them in a language humans can understand. To learn their stories and nourish their growth. To respect their inherent values and places in our complicated web of life. And to find a way to re-establish connections between people and their wild partners on this planet. Before we destroy it all, and in this way, destroy ourselves. I want to give back what it gives to me: life.

Yet it seems that 'environmentalism' has evolved into something else. Like those labeled boxes we are hide in, even the environmentalists are trading that early set of values for trendy and compromising chips, like playing at an environmental casino. It’s all about trading species in one place for another million hours of air conditioning in an overpopulated desert city. Or the sacrificial lamb in the name of ‘conservation’. Conservation of what? And for whom? This is not the ‘environmentalist’ that I am today, nor was before.

I’ve been called a ‘tree hugger’. So be it. Sometimes I’d rather hug a tree than many of my own species.

“We are environmentalists now in order to promote something called “sustainability.” What does this curious, plastic word mean? It does not mean defending the nonhuman world from the ever-expanding empire of Homo sapiens sapiens, though some of its adherents like to pretend it does, even to themselves. It means sustaining human civilization at the comfort level that the world’s rich people—us—feel is their right, without destroying the “natural capital” or the “resource base” that is needed to do so.” - Paul Kingsnorth

A-Z Callenge: D is for Dervish (dancing dust)

Circling

Dervish wind

Dust in your eyes

and nose.

Pushing sideways

uplifting.

Calm

Duplicity wind.

Swirling around us

everywhere.

Dance your dance

Dervish wind.

A-Z Challenge: C is for Culture

What is culture? Is culture dead? Or is it just running on autopilot in chaotic traffic on a busy highway immersed in a plethora of signage which no one reads or cares?

“We seldom realize, for example that our most private thoughts and emotions are not actually our own. For we think in terms of languages and images which we did not invent, but which were given to us by our society.”  ― Alan Wilson Watts

“The decay and disintegration of this culture is astonishingly amusing if you are emotionally detached from it. I have always viewed it from a safe distance, knowing I don't belong; it doesn't include me, and it never has. no matter how you care to define it, I do not identify with the local group. Planet, species, race, nation, state, religion, party, union, club, association, neighborhood improvement committee; I have no interest in any of it. I love and treasure individuals as I meet them, I loathe and despise the groups they identify with and belong to.”  ― George Carlin

“While much psychology emphasizes the familial causes of angst in humans, the cultural component carries as much weight, for culture is the family of the family. If the family of the family has various sicknesses, then all families within that culture will have to struggle with the same malaises. There is a saying cultura cura, culture cures. If the culture is a healer, the families learn how to heal; they will struggle less, be more reparative, far less wounding, far more graceful and loving. In a culture where the predator rules, all new life needing to be born, all old life needing to be gone, is unable to move and the soul-lives of its citizenry are frozen with both fear and spiritual famine.”- Clarissa Pinkola Estés

Culture, cultura, is the cultivation of an integrated system of learned behavior patterns which are characteristic of the members of a society and which are not a result of biological inheritance. It is our ideas, beliefs, our morals and our self-identity as a collection of individuals. It is a collective 'Us.' And a collective 'Them'. It was once the fabric of our civilization. Now it is becoming our collapse. 

Perhaps our redemption lies in the following words:

“What sets worlds in motion is the interplay of differences, their attractions and repulsions. Life is plurality, death is uniformity. By suppressing differences and pecularities, by eliminating different civilizations and cultures, progress weakens life and favors death. The ideal of a single civilization for everyone, implicit in the cult of progress and technique, impoverishes and mutilates us. Every view of the world that becomes extinct, every culture that disappears, diminishes a possibility of life." 
-  Octavio Paz  (Mexican poet, writer, and diplomat, 1914-1998)

“Culture is not your friend. Culture is for other people’s convenience and the convenience of various institutions, churches, companies, tax collection schemes, what have you. It is not your friend. It insults you. It disempowers you. It uses and abuses you. None of us are well treated by culture.” - See more at: http://www.endalldisease.com/73-mindblowing-terence-mckenna-quotes/#sthash.bPR5UuXg.dpuf

“Culture is not your friend. Culture is for other people’s convenience and the convenience of various institutions, churches, companies, tax collection schemes, what have you. It is not your friend. It insults you. It disempowers you. It uses and abuses you. None of us are well treated by culture.”
– Terence McKenna - See more at: http://www.endalldisease.com/73-mindblowing-terence-mckenna-quotes/#sthash.bPR5UuXg.dpuf

“Culture is not your friend. Culture is for other people’s convenience and the convenience of various institutions, churches, companies, tax collection schemes, what have you. It is not your friend. It insults you. It disempowers you. It uses and abuses you. None of us are well treated by culture.”
– Terence McKenna

“Personal empowerment means deconditioning yourself from the values and the programs of the society and putting your own values and programs in place.”
– Terence McKenna
- See more at: http://www.endalldisease.com/73-mindblowing-terence-mckenna-quotes/#sthash.bPR5UuXg.dp

A-Z Challenge: B is for Bobcat

I'm cheating today for this letter. I write weekly posts for the FaceBook page of Terlingua Ranch (Terlingua, Texas), and today's post happened to be about the bobcat. This secretive animal deserves some special attention, so it will be the subject for today's letter 'B'.

The Bobcat (Lynx rufus) is found throughout the North American continent and their habitat ranges from forests to deserts. This wild cat is closely related to the larger Canadian lynx (Lynx canadensis). Both of these wild cats evolved from a common ancestor, the Eurasian lynx, which crossed the Bering Land Bridge into northern Canada from Asia approximately 2.6 million years ago. The first wave of the Eurasian lynx migrated into southern North America, which was soon cut off from the north by glaciers. This population evolved into modern bobcats around 20,000 years ago. Later migrations from Asia settled in the northern areas and developed into the Canadian lynx.

Most taxonomists do not readily accept the proposed 12 subspecies of the bobcat because their division is roughly based on geographical regions that do not have clear breaks. The only cited differences between the subspecies are general size and coloration, and even these features have blurred boundaries. The larger species members range in eastern Canada and New England, and the smaller are often found in the southeast states, such as Florida. Bobcats inhabiting the forests tend to be darker than those found in the deserts. Then again, a wide divergence exists between sizes of the sexes depending on their location. So it appears that the bobcat is readily adaptable to their immediate environment and habitat.

The bobcat is roughly twice as big as the average housecat. The adult varies from 19 to 49 inch long from the head to the base of the tail, averaging 33 in.  The stubby ‘bobbed’ tail, from which the animal derives its name, adds another 3.5 to 8 inches. An adult measures about 12 to 24 inches tall at the shoulders. The male weighs an average of 21 lbs, but have been reported up to 40 lb. The female averages about 15 lbs with a few weighing in at 34 lb.

Movement of the bobcat depends on the habits of their prey. Typically they hunt during dusk until midnight and dawn hours. An animal’s range size can vary from 8-126 square miles, dictated by season, food and mate availability. They tend to follow alongside roads and in trails, moving 2-7 miles within their habitual route and are usually secretive.

Bobcats are solitary hunters. In southern regions, rabbits, hares and small rodents are the primary food source. Like the coyote, the bobcat is an opportunistic predator that, unlike the more specialized Canadian lynx, will readily vary its prey selection. They will also scavenge kill from other animals. Coyotes also compete with bobcats for food, since they both eat the same prey species.

Here in Texas, bobcat breeding season usually begins in February and the young are born about fifty days later in dens located in caves and crevices. Litter size varies from two to seven, but two is most common. Kittens are weaned when they are about two months old and remain with their mother until early fall, when they move out on their own.

Tracks of the bobcat resemble the cougar, but can easily be extinguished based on size. Like all felines, bobcat tracks show four toes without claw marks. They range in size from 1 to 3 inches wide with the average about 1.8 inches. Additionally, their tracks are larger (by ½ to 1”) than those of house and feral cats. Like most wild cats, the bobcat 'directly registers', meaning its hind tracks usually fall exactly on top of its fore tracks. Also, their front feet are larger than their hind feet.

If you see a bobcat, they are probably more scared of you than you of it. Regardless, leave them alone and feel lucky that you spotted one.

A-Z Blogging: A is for Adaptation

Adapt or.... do what? That's a good question. We know that one of the primary drivers of success and evolution in biology is adaptation. A living cell or organism that is able to change due to altered external conditions, such as pH, moisture levels, temperature, or to change their shape, has a better chance of surviving a wider range of conditions than ones that do not. This ability is often called 'plasticity' in the science community. Organisms that have greater plasticity within a range of conditions adapt easier and quicker. Those that can't adapt may die.

Extending this to cognition and learning, there's more bang per buck in the 'A' department. Think of a Triple-A Club: Assimilation, Accommodation and Adaptation. A Swiss biologist and psychologist, Jean Piaget, developed a fundamental theory for cognitive development in children, and which has then served as a general theory for learning, cognitive function and psychology. After all, we don't stop learning after reaching adulthood, although many adults are less adaptive to change.

Briefly, assimilation of new information into previously existing structures or schema coincides with accommodation, the formation of new mental structures when new information does not fit into existing structures in the mind. The mind's natural tendency then is to organize information into related, interconnected structures, where the most basic structure is the scheme.

For example, a person encounters a geco for the first time and incorporates that into his or her existing schema for "lizards". When the adult meets a rattlesnake  for the first time and learns that it is different from "lizards," he or she must create new representation for "snakes."

Thus, the internal world has to accommodate itself to the external evidence that it confronts and adjust to it. Or, in our principle 'A' word, it has to adapt. And we know that for adults, that can sometimes be a difficult and painful process.

For children, this process is much less painful because they are somewhat 'blank slates'. Assimilation and accommodation in young children is similar to writing new sentences on a brand new chalkboard. On the other hand, adults have dirty and cluttered blackboards on which information is often etched or imprinted with thick crayons and all of which complicates accommodation of new information. Adults take in new information or experiences and incorporate them into existing ideas, or change existing ideas based on their assimilation and accommodation of new information.

Unfortunately, most adults tend to modify new experience or information somewhat to fit in with their preexisting beliefs. Many times, if new information doesn't pigeonhole with preexisting beliefs, that information is discarded. That adult will not likely adapt to changing information and experiences.

Through adaptation, we are able to adopt new behaviors that allow us to cope with change. Apparently, lately in our social and physical worlds modern humans have lost their ability to adapt to new ideas and changes in our worlds. Perhaps that is why our behavior has degenerated to worse than children. Perhaps we can use the excuse of domesticated dogs, for which some biologists claim as the 'arrested juvenile state' of their ancestors, the wolf.

Perhaps that is why we humans have such a fear and hatred of wolves. We and they are less likely to adapt to changing environments and social upheaval like the coyote, who are very adaptable.

The coyote are the Tricksters; we can learn from them. ;)

Voracious Worm Evolves to Eat Biotech Corn Engineered to Kill It

Voracious Worm Evolves to Eat Biotech Corn Engineered to Kill It - Wired Science

Any scientist that pays attention to evolution should know this would happen. But I suppose that this isn't well accepted by industry and/or farmers.

"After years of predicting it would happen — and after years of having their suggestions largely ignored by companies, farmers and regulators — scientists have documented the rapid evolution of corn rootworms that are resistant to Bt corn."

As one evolutionary ecologist commented, "this is yet further confirmation of Malcolm’s Law." (great video clip ;) )

A friend asked me in response to this, “Evolve or adapt? Is this a new species? Has its DNA changed?”

My response was as follows:

Very good question! The short answer is: Yes to both evolve and adapt. No, these resistant insects are not a new species.  To explain in detail would require a long discussion because it is a complex subject. But I'll see if I can adequately summarize.

Evolution and adaptation are not mutually exclusive. Not all adaptations result in one species evolving into a new species. On the other hand, the first and foremost driver of evolution, and therefore part of the process of evolution, is adaptation. The important factor is the degree and expanse of adaptation.

Resistance may be defined as “a heritable change in the sensitivity of a pest population that is reflected in the repeated failure of a product [including GMO plants] to achieve the expected level of control when used according to the label recommendation for that pest species.” Cross-resistance occurs when resistance to one insecticide confers resistance to another insecticide, even where the insect has not been exposed to a different insecticide.

Because insect populations are usually large in size and they breed quickly, there is always a risk that insecticide resistance may evolve, especially when insecticides are misused or overused. In reference to the scenario of the corn rootworm, these animals have evolved the ability to resist mortality from the toxins that are genetically incorporated into the corn plants and which confers the plants’ abilities to repel insects that feed on them, or have potential to feed on them.

Resistance can be acquired in several ways, depending on the interacting organisms. You may have heard about the increased and widespread resistance of bacteria to antibiotics, especially Staphylococcus and the mycobacteria that cause tuberculosis.  Bacteria acquire resistance very quickly because they are single-celled organisms, increase rapidly in population, and they readily evolve, including changes in their DNA via horizontal gene transmission (whereby genes from one organism are laterally transferred to another without traditional reproduction). This is a very basic tool in most biologicaland molecular labs. However, with higher organisms, this all becomes more complicated.

Insects are the second most rapidly evolving organisms, especially in their resistance to pesticides and other toxins. And they have evolved several mechanisms of acquiring that resistance.

1. Metabolic resistance: This is when resistant insects alter or destroy the toxin faster than susceptible insects, or quickly rid their bodies of the toxic molecules before it can reach its site of action (humans possess many of these same enzymes for the same purpose, such as cytochrome p450). Resistant insects may have higher levels or more efficient forms of such enzymes. Additionally, these enzymes may have broader spectrum of activity conferring detoxification of many different insecticides. Metabolic resistance is the most common mechanism and often presents the greatest challenge.
   
   
2. Target-site resistance: In this form of resistance the insect accommodates the chemical by altering one or more physiological functions. This may involve reduced neuronal sensitivity to insecticides, altered sensitivity by other enzymes and systems, even decreased penetration of the insecticide through the body wall, and increased excretion or sequestration of insecticide preventing it from reaching the site of action.
   
   
3. Behavioral resistance: This involves changes in behavior by which insects avoid insecticides. Resistant insects may detect or recognize a danger and avoid the toxin. Changes in behavior and subsequent resistance have been reported for several classes of insecticides. Insects may simply stop feeding if they come across certain insecticides, or leave the area where the toxin is present.

Two events greatly influence pesticide resistance: dosage and time. Continued applications over time can induce resistance to the insecticide and the resistant pests become increasingly difficult to control at the labeled rate and frequency. This in turn often leads to more frequent applications of the insecticide. The intensity of the resistance and the frequency of insecticide-resistant individuals in the population both increase further and problems of control continue to worsen as yet more product is applied. This can also equate with monoculture of a genetically modified crop containing a gene for toxins targeted at a pest, especially when the same GMO crop is plantedrepeatedly in successive years.

What the researchers in this study with the corn rootworm discovered is that the dosage of the toxin in the GMO plants (aka the expression of the gene that enables production of the toxin in the corn) was below the level where a large percentage of the population is killed. This is called a ‘low-dose event’. Consequently, the surviving population was able to exponentially increase their progeny that carry resistance. A resistant population was at high levels within three generations of these insects.

Another discovery was that in the resistant population, the genes that confer their resistance were not recessive. What that means is that even if many of the resistant insects mated with others outside of the range of the GMO crop, aka non-resistant insects, their progeny would still inherit the resistance from their resistant parents. (I won’t go into pre-adaptation resistance)

When resistance begins to show in crops, managers often switch to another pesticide if one is available.  To reduce acquisition of resistance by insects, another gene from Bt bacteria (which is the original source bacteria for all these Bt GMO transgenics) was inserted into another strain of corn. This strain of corn carries a gene for higher expression of the toxin (‘high-dose event’), to which the insects are more susceptible with higher mortality rate. However, those insects that already had resistance to the low-dose event strain of GMO corn were also more resistant to the high-dose strain of corn, which then compounded their total resistance.

The genetics of the heritable resistance traits and the intensive and repeated presence of the GMO crop containing the Bt toxin together are responsible for
the rapid build-up of resistance in the insects. I cannot answer your last question asking if the DNA of the insects has changed. The authors of this study on the corn rootworm did not (from my initial perusal of the published paper) examine changes in their DNA. They did, however, discover that the transcription of several genes has changed. What this means is that there are changes in how the DNA is expressed, resulting in increased levels of enzymes or other proteins that are coded by DNA. This could suggest changes in some of their DNA, including epigenetics, for genes that control how other genes are expressed. Also, horizontal gene transfer from plant chemicals and insecticides has been documented (published in 2013) in predatory mites (feeding on plants), but apparently the authors did not investigate this.

Speciation and taxonomical classification of species is considerably dependent on morphological differentiation and changes between closely related organisms. These resistant rootworms have not changed their appearances and bodily structures; only their metabolism (and possibly their target sites) and, less so, their behavior. This is why the answer to your question regarding a new species is negative.

I hope this answers your questions.

Science blogging community makes contact with the outside world | The Science Web

Science blogging community makes contact with the outside world | The Science Web


Satire, but there is some truth in this.

"From what we know so far, it appears that this group have been writing and commenting on blogs that are only read by other science bloggers. It is believed that around 80% of science blogs are actually blogs about other blogs."

Why Scientists Should Read Non-science Literature

Excellent blog post (10 Reasons Why Young Scientists Should Read (non-scientific) Literature) written by student Amy Wray in a research lab (Josh Drew -Ecology, Evolution and Conservation of Coral Reefs) at Columbia University on why scientists should read non-science literature. I wholly agree and approve. Except for one statement:

"There are many reasons why everyone should read literature, but I believe that young scientists in particular can benefit greatly from engaging with literary texts."

 Her suggestions apply to ALL scientists, young and old(er).

Remember this:

 “The best thing about being a scientist is you never have to grow up.” -Neil deGrasse Tyson

Who are we really?

Alan Watts wrote in 1966 (1):

..the prevalent sensation of oneself as a separate ego enclosed in a bag of skin is a hallucination which accords neither with Western science nor with the experimental philosophy-religions of the East..

Here is a source of confrontation I (and some others) have had with modern science since beginning my studies:

"....our attention — which has been aptly called “an intentional, unapologetic discriminator” — works by dividing the world up into processable parts, then stringing those together into a pixelated collage of separates which we then accept as a realistic representation of the whole that was there in the first place." (2)

Alan Watts wrote:

Attention is narrowed perception. It is a way of looking at life bit by bit, using memory to string the bits together — as when examining a dark room with a flashlight having a very narrow beam. Perception thus narrowed has the advantage of being sharp and bright, but it has to focus on one area of the world after another, and one feature after another. And where there are no features, only space or uniform surfaces, it somehow gets bored and searches about for more features. Attention is therefore something like a scanning mechanism in radar or television. . . . But a scanning process that observes the world bit by bit soon persuades its user that the world is a great collection of bits, and these he calls separate things or events. We often say that you can only think of one thing at a time. The truth is that in looking at the world bit by bit we convince ourselves that it consists of separate things, and so give ourselves the problem of how these things are connected and how they cause and effect each other. The problem would never have arisen if we had been aware that it was just our way of looking at the world which had chopped it up into separate bits, things, events, causes, and effects. (1)

But this is the way we are trained from birth. Dissect, tear apart, and stuff all the pieces in boxes, unable to see and grasp all that ties everything together. I remember experiencing how hard this is to unlearn when I was taught tracking in my early 20's by a Native American. Who always shook his head and wondered aloud how Europeans and their descendents ever survived, and only so because of technological invention. For which we pay the price of losing our ability to 'see' and thus continue falling down into our own holes that we dig ourselves into.

"....And therein lies the crux of our human struggle" (3):

The real reason why human life can be so utterly exasperating and frustrating is not because there are facts called death, pain, fear, or hunger. The madness of the thing is that when such facts are present, we circle, buzz, writhe, and whirl, trying to get the “I” out of the experience. We pretend that we are amoebas, and try to protect ourselves from life by splitting in two. Sanity, wholeness, and integration lie in the realization that we are not divided, that man and his present experience are one, and that no separate “I” or mind can be found.

To understand music, you must listen to it. But so long as you are thinking, “I am listening to this music,” you are not listening.

The last, I was taught by my father.

These are the foundations of Zen, of meditation, of phenomenology, of tracking, of being present in the world. Of really being alive.


(1) Excerpt from The Ego and the Universe: Alan Watts on Becoming Who You Really Are, by Maria Popova and the website, "brainpickings". 
(2) Quote from: The Book: On the Taboo Against Knowing Who You Are (1966), by Alan Watts.
(3) Excerpt from An Antidote to the Age of Anxiety: Alan Watts on Happiness and How to Live with Presence, by Maria Popova. Quote by Alan Watts, The Wisdom of Insecurity: A Message for an Age of Anxiety (1951).

Push, pull and grin

After nearly a six year hiatus I hit the weights. And I found myself as my own client. "Slow, and with purpose."  "Concentrate on every millimeter of movement." "Push/pull equally; don't get sloppy."

As a personal trainer with a background in physiology and kinesiology, most of my clients were older or with 'special needs' (post-physical therapy, athletes, etc). I provided instruction, demonstration, supervision, education, and discipline. Although I was a powerlifter, I did not train my clients as one, except for one client that was also a competitive powerlifter. Each person is different and requires their own tailored program. Now I am my own client; older and with special needs.

With an accumulation of broken bones (both ankles and pelvis), permanently dislocated collar bone, herniated disks, arthritis, old sprains, and muscle loss, my younger trainer self stands in front of me reminding me how to move with purpose and concentration, with focus, and with cues. "Place finger on your left abdominal muscles to feel recruitment." ( a form of biofeedback) "Push evenly with both legs, slower on the descent, concentrate on that left quad." (Old nerve impingement) "Arms and hands level with shoulders and keep those shoulders back against that pad!" (Avoid pronation of shoulders) "Yes, ma'am'" I found myself saying. 

I can feel the stress and stimulation in my muscles and joints. 'Remember this, you tissues?' I can also feel increased circulation in my low back joints. The chronic pain has been subdued. But I know what is coming tomorrow: DOMS (delayed-onset muscle soreness). And I'll do a light whole body set, stretch to reduce the soreness (repeated bout effect). And repeat in days to come. I'm on a roll, one I should never have stopped.

It feels good to be home inside me again.

Bears in wolf clothing

Reported in May 23' 2013' issue of Nature journal:

Hot topic, scalding hot, is the observed decrease in elk population in Yellowstone Nation Park. "It's those damned wolves!!!" Wolves, the ancient scapegoat for everything. Let's look underneath the wolf clothing.

In an attempt to 'reclaim' the trout population in the park lakes, 'humans' (clarification of which humans are not mentioned in the report) restocked the lakes with lake trout. Instead of the native trout. A detail missing from the original ecological assessment was that the lake trout spawn on the bottom of the lakes, unlike the natives, which do not. The introduced non-native fish are unable to be harvested by grizzly bears. Since fish are a major dietary source for grizzlies, the bears look for alternative food sources. Elk calves.

A research team in Wyoming estimated that this dietary shift accounts for as much as 11 percent reduction in the elk population, even elk that winter outside the park. "The decline of these elk is often blamed, perhaps erroneously, on the reintroduction of wolves."

But we do so love our scapegoats, don't we?

Which came first: obese chicken or its obese microflora?

Which came first: The obese chicken or its obese microbiota? « Nothing in Biology Makes Sense!

Good summary of a recently published paper on how our gut microflora influences metabolism of the entire organism. Most people tend to think of the gut simply as a container to periodically fill and empty. Only until recent years has science demonstrated that our gut is an organ actively involved in our entire physiology, including communication with the brain and immune system. In fact, just as our body fat is an endocrine organ, the gut is also involved in our endocrine system, including inflammation.

While we consciously or subconsciously interact with thousands of environment components on a daily basis, our gut contains another environment, the microflora, which interacts in ways we are unaware of. Part of that is comprised of what we swallow, sometimes microbes that hitch a ride on food we eat or drink. But that is why we have such a complex environment inside our gut. Hordes of 'good' bacteria often battle with 'bad' bacteria, and sometimes the latter may win. We usually become aware of those battle victories. Others are minor skirmishes that go unnoticed.

It is the chronic battles that alert the big army of our defenses, the immune system. And when the balance is continually upset, the rest of the body responds and other systems may malfunction.

Although epidemiological studies have suggested that some enteric bacteria are associated with obesity and chronic inflammation, the authors of this study demonstrated that a specific bacteria strain causes obesity. (Remember that association is not proof of causation.) However, a limitation of this study is the model: gnotobiotic (aka germ-free) mice. Regardless, it is a logical progression from in vitro models to study interactions of the gut microflora and metabolism. But we have more work to do on this.

My comments submitted on the website's post:

Gnotobiotic studies have their limitations despite that they are a logical progression from in vitro studies and isolate otherwise complex immune and intestinal interactions. Gnotobiotic animals typically have immune systems and intestinal walls that are under-developed. Also, all the food must be antigen free, which is difficult to achieve. Often, secondary infections can rapidly kill off an entire gnotobiotic colony or mask effects of controlled dietary variables. In our experience with gnotobiotic pigs (which are more relevant to human nutrition and gut microflora), administered probiotics had no effect on morbidity when challenged by a single-strain pathogen, whereas pigs in conventional state (non-gnotobiotic conditions) fared significantly better. Animals in a germ-free environment do not fully represent their counterparts in a conventional environment, and variables in studies with gnotobiotic animals must be strictly controlled (and are very expensive).

I found it interesting that in neither the paper or the supplementary information was provided the specific ingredients of the ‘WTP’ diet except for the major nutrient composition. ‘Chinese medicinal medicine’? ‘Prebiotics’? As a reviewer, I would have requested this information be more specific.

Academic Assholiness

"As we talked we started to wonder: do you get further in academia if you are a jerk?"

A recent blog post, Academic assholes and the circle of niceness, on the Thesis Whisperer examines the increasing trend of academic snobbery, arrogance, and, aptly termed, 'assholiness'.

Some people ask me why I retired early from academia. Depending on the inquirer, my responses range from "It was just time to do so," to a rant on the trend of academic assholiness.

During the last nine years at a large self-inflated university that trend has increased, and, in fact, has been selected for, intentionally or not. After being recruited for a research position there, I was genuinely excited and passionate about my work. Over the next nine years of experience and observations in two departments, that dwindled to waking up every weekday morning and forcing myself to go through the motions. The last two years were simply a job while I prepared to walk away from the Academic Empire.

This is not the only university in which I have observed and experienced Academic Assholiness. Nor have I been close-mouthed about specific examples like many others that endure it and trudge on. My grievances were nodded at, checked off and ignored. I watched with anger as a research lab manager fought for her job with a lawsuit because a department head covertly attempted to have her fired. In this case, it was a prompted by an illness resulting from unhealthy environmental conditions in the department. This was an ongoing complaint by several staff and researchers over several years, but was repeatedly ignored.

Another example was a research scientist that continuously discriminated against gender and race of staff and graduate students in his laboratory. Grievances related to this individual were overtly ignored. Additionally, an academic scientist nearly destroyed the career of a young and brilliant scientist because of a personal dislike for her national affiliation and origin. And another scientist who intentionally recruited foreign graduate students to demand unreasonably long working hours, even threatening their educational and visa status if they complained. Then there's the junior scientist who feels that unrelenting humiliation of graduate and undergraduate students during their seminars or presentations elevates his own academic standing. And, lastly, the arrogant yelling at janitorial and service staff as if they were kicking a dog, or, mostly, their prevalent treatment of them as the Invisibles and Untouchables.

Finally, there is the Nobel Prize researchers recruited and installed in university departments at the expense -their research space and equipment- of other well-established and equally successful (without the NP recognition) academics, and whose snobbery and academic arrogance is overlooked and even smiled upon by university administration.

These are members of the increasing species of Academia assholiata that I see rapidly evolving in our social environment. I could continue with examples from 28 years in academic halls and three universities. Only one of these institutions, a small university, had a credible and effective process for grievances. The other two institutions had sham committees. Speaking openly meant being blacklisted. In the past four years I have seen too many young and bright scientists leave academia, and am now seeing a flood of older scientists flee, some jaded and bitter.I left last year without looking back.

I am heartened and pleased to see more public discourse like this post on these issues, and I encourage others in all levels of academia to be more outspoken.

KcD Studios: senior thesis

KcD Studios: senior thesis

 A brilliant idea and wonderful artistic imaginative renditions. A great idea to incorporate into teaching chemistry!

Visit Kacie's website and blog to see more artistic renditions of the periodic elements.

Treat obesity as physiology, not physics : Nature News & Comment

I find it sadly amusing that we still strive to reduce the obesity/diabetes problem down to one cause. As if reality and the world were binary: either/or. Instead of a very complex and dynamic network of factors involved with obesity and associated diseases. Until a human being is viewed holistically as a dynamic organism that responds to its intrinsic and extrinsic environment, and that the process to a state of obesity and diabetes is multifactorial, we will continue to blunder along as if blindfolded.


Treat obesity as physiology, not physics : Nature News & Comment

Precious Proteins

There I was; leading a small team of scientists to save these precious proteins for the world. For the future. Ice cream proteins. We had two of these rare proteins that expressed smooth, creamy, flavorful ice cream. And recovered another from an evil group of industrial men. It had been stolen from a collaborator; this one expressed rich butterscotch ice cream.

I had hidden these proteins in a house. But as the private industry group of men were surrounding us, I distributed the three precious proteins to three individuals in our small group (one looked like Albert Einstein). And told them to run. Run, hide; don't let ourselves, and the proteins be caught. Faint, punt, divert those bad men away from each of us. Don't listen to their pleas and lies.

We must preserve and keep these proteins safe. Safe for all to access in the future. Without modifications, without capitalization; free for all mankind. 'Run, and protect them with your lives.' For these are the keys to the Perfect Ice Cream. RUN!!!!

Then there was a small party outside, a gathering of friends to share food and music. Graeme playing guitar (I didn't think he had a music bone in his body), a girl with short blond hair and fine voice, and I thank John and Tracy for coming all the way from Indiana to play bass and share in the celebration. Of ice cream.

Full moon triggers wild and vivid dreams at night.

To mouse, or not to mouse. What is the question?

After many years in medical and veterinary biology and pathology, I always questioned the (rather blind) reliance on the mouse model by modern science. I was glad to see I am not the only one.

Sometimes, there is a 800-pound silverback gorilla in the room and he is 'invisible'. This article exposes the gorilla and shows that the problem animal is not the gorilla but in fact a big fat rodent! An often overlooked aspect of research studies using rodents is that these animals tend to be sedentary, mentally stagnant and overfed. This life style results in obesity and a range of consequent pathologies, including cardiovascular disease, cancer, diabetes, accelerated neurodegeneration and renal failure. This article details the fact that animals in such an unhealthy state do not qualify as appropriate research models for anything other than the study of 'couch potatoes'. 

This is a major wake-up call for the research community and easily addressed by portioned feeding of laboratory rodents and by putting a running wheel in their cages.

Citation: Shelley C, Marshansky V: "Sometimes, there is a 800-pound silverback gorilla in the room and he is..."  Evaluation of: [Martin B et al. "Control" laboratory rodents are metabolically morbid: why it matters. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A. 2010 Apr 6; 107(14):6127-33; 

doi: 10.1073/pnas.0912955107]. 

Faculty of 1000, 22 Jul 2010. F1000.com/3078978

Climate Changes: Interactive River Flow Map

Climate change cometh. This year (so far) has been one of extreme weather nationwide. Rivers are either flooding or drying up (exemplified here in Texas). The interactive map below is borrowed from Climate Central, a website with reliable information on global climate changes.

Word for Today: June 21, 2011.

Word for Today: thingification. The consideration of an abstraction or an object as if it had living existence and abilities; objectivication in social relations; modern Cartesian science. Reification.

Domestication Experiment with Silver Fox

I've known about Dr. Belyaev's experiment for many years, but this is the first (current) video of the foxes.


The incredible fox domestication experiment in Novosibirsk, Russia from Tyler Cole on Vimeo.

You can read more about Cole's visit to Russia and the Institute by following this link.

An article about domestication of animals, in which the Novosibirsk foxes were featured, appeared in a recent issue National Geographic.

The Zeitgeist Movement

I have no words that can express the relevance and importance of this movie and it's content.

“What You Think, You Become.” Wow! Really? | Secret Life of Scientists & Engineers | PBS

“What You Think, You Become.” Wow! Really? | Secret Life of Scientists & Engineers | PBS

Are we there now?

In The Demon-Haunted World, Carl Sagan wrote:

Science is more than a body of knowledge; it is a way of thinking. I have a foreboding of an America in my children's or grandchildren's time -- when the United States is a service and information economy; when nearly all the key manufacturing industries have slipped away to other countries; when awesome technological powers are in the hands of a very few, and no one representing the public interest can even grasp the issues; when the people have lost the ability to set their own agendas or knowledgeably question those in authority; when, clutching our crystals and nervously consulting our horoscopes, our critical faculties in decline, unable to distinguish between what feels good and what's true, we slide, almost without noticing, back into superstition and darkness.

Pronghorn Declines in Texas

The Pronghorn is one of the iconic mammals of the West in North America. Often referred to as 'antelope,' Antilocapra americana is the sole survivor of twelve species that roamed the North American continent before one of the Great Extinctions (Pleistocene) 10,000-12,000 years ago. (Unlike the pronghorn, true antelopes are a member of the cattle family and are not native to North America. Pronghorns have forked horns; antelopes have unforked horns.) Early observations recounted pronghorns covering the grassy plains. Their traditional range was documented reaching from south-central Canada down into Texas and northern Mexico, and west to Baja, California.

Observations of declines in pronghorn populations were noted in the early 1900's; hunting pressure reduced their population to 13,000 in the 1920's. Disease, especially Blue Tongue, also contributed to reductions. Luckily, conservation efforts helped to restore populations: 500,000 to 1,000,000 across the continent. However, local populations that rebounded have recently declined again. West Texas is one of those areas.

Similar to nationwide trends, overall declines in Texas have paralleled loss of habitat. Only two regions now support pronghorns: the Panhandle and Trans-Pecos areas. The latter has declined faster over the last 150 years, and has recently accelerated. Population fluctuations usually follow changes in water and forage availability, so decreases during years of drought are not surprising. Herds typically rebound by improved reproduction and survival with more favorable weather and food availability, as they did after the drought of the 1990's. However, population estimates of pronghorns in the Trans-Pecos region have continued to decline despite more favorable forage availability during the last three years. In fact, these populations are the lowest since the 1970's. The question is: why?

In 2007, state parks and wildlife officials, hunters, and landowners that profit from hunting licenses began to sit up and take notice of pronghorn populations. Based on preliminary studies and data collection, two hypotheses predominate: internal parasites and predation. The Borderlands Research Institute (BRI) at Sul Ross State University collected a few hundred samples since 2009. They discovered a high load of a common internal stomach parasite, the roundworm, in both hunter-harvested and regional habitat-dwelling animals. A high parasite burden can cause anemia (low red blood cell count), weakening an animal and increasing susceptibility to disease, predation and other stresses. Reproduction can also be affected contributing to decreases on populations. 

Predation is always the favored target of declining populations involving any mammalian species valued by human economics, especially livestock and hunting-target species. Although predators occupy a practical and valuable niche in mammalian ecosystems, large predators have historically served as an easy scapegoat for unexplained deaths. Regardless, considering the overall increasing urban and rural populations of coyotes, investigation into the role of predation on the Texas pronghorn is valid. Although the adult pronghorn can outrun a coyote and cougar, even a cheetah, fawns are more susceptible to predation.

The recruitment into a herd of pronghorn by growing fawns, called 'fawn recruitment,' is commonly a preferred determinant of populations than mortality of adults. This measure more realistically reflects the reproductive capacity of does as well as predation pressure, since they are the typical target by predators: mostly coyotes, cougars, eagles. The major predator of adult pronghorns is Man. 

A 1948-1977 summary of fawn recruitment rates in Canada and the U.S. varied from 43 (fawns per 100 does) in Texas to highs of 105 in South Dakota. More recent pooled data - 1978-2008 - revealed that despite fluctuations in numbers, fawn recruitment continued to decline in most of the same areas as the previous study. The data also revealed differences in fawn recruitment associated with vegetation communities. An independent study of fawn recruitment and forage availability in Arizona showed an increase in fawn recruitment parallel with forage conditions. Their findings strongly suggested that a diversity of plant species is optimal pronghorn habitat and maintenance of habitat diversity is important. This, along with supporting evidence from other independent studies, demonstrates differences in fawn survival may depend on the diets of adults as well as offspring. 

Despite increases in rainfall over the past three years and subsequent increases in forage availability, an important component may be missing: accessibility. The pronghorn display an unusual behavior apart all other wild ungulates: they are not good jumpers. They are disinclined to jump even a low brush fence over three feet high. Small bands of pronghorn have been known to almost starve within a fenced enclosure while plenty of food is available on the outside. When hardpressed, they can jump over moderately high obstructions, but fences will alter their ranges and access to forage. They have been observed to crawl under or between wires of barbed-wire fences, prompting many conservation cooperatives to remove the bottom wire or replace it with a barbless wire. 

The major factor in determining animal populations across the continent during modern times is habitat changes. Land use patterns, including development, resource extraction, and traffic, have changed not only the topographical features but also water and food availability and accessibility. Entire ecosystems are changing. As habitats shrink, many species are competing for the same food and water resources. Migration routes are cut off or severely restricted across the country. Along with habitat changes are subsequent down-stream pressures: increased density of animals and parasite loads, disease exposure, local vegetation exhaustion, decreased vegetation to hide from predators, traffic mortality increases, reductions in reproduction and subsequent offspring survival. Whether these factors have been taken into account in Texas pronghorn performance and survivability is unknown.

Last September the Texas Parks and Wildlife Department (TPWD) awarded a 3 year $111,210 grant to the BRI at Sul Ross State University in Alpine, TX. Their research aims to evaluate the two competing hypotheses described above, regarding pronghorn survival and productivity in the Trans-Pecos area. Meanwhile, the Trans-Pecos Pronghorn Working Group, a group of West Texas landowners, outfitters, TPWD biologists, BRI personnel and wildlife veterinarians, decided to transfer several hundred pronghorn adults from the Texas Panhandle area to West Texas. My objection to this move is that moving healthy animals to locations where populations are inexplicably and rapidly declining is premature and possibly deleterious to the health of the transplanted animals.

Because the decline of the Panhandle pronghorn population appears to be less than that in the Trans-Pecos area, I hope that those involved in this move have considered using the Panhandle population, and others living in similar habitats as those in the Trans-Pecos region, as controls. I also hope that those involved in this research expand their consideration of factors that govern population performance, including population displacement and decline. Rather than address the Trans-Pecos problem from a 'Band-aid' approach, and jeopardizing the lives of transplanted animals at the expense of another population, a thoroughly planned investigation based on scientific principles should precede premature and possibly detrimental short-term fixes.

Other regions have and continue to study and address pronghorn population declines. Several organizations -local, state and federal- are cooperatively working to facilitate habitat preservation. Even migration corridors are being preserved and maintained in several states, such as Montana and southern Canada. Many ranches in Oregon and Arizona are removing unnecessary fence lines and installing barbless wire, especially on bottom lines. Natural gas companies in Wyoming are cooperatively working with organizations to alter gas pads and traffic in order to preserve migration corridors and habitat. Underpasses are being constructed across major highways to divert migration routes away from fences and traffic. Ranches in the upper Great Plains are cooperatively restoring overgrazed ranges for pronghorn forage.

Maybe it is time for Texas to rejoin the Union to help explore and solve its problems. At the very least, they can expand their considerations from a few trees and to the entire forest. Animal populations exist in an interconnected community and system, and problems should be considering holistically. Let's all focus on finding answers to the questions and then examining long-term solutions. 

Pronghorn benefit a huge success; release set for late February

Climate Change Cometh

Loosely following the debate, discourse and arguments surrounding climate change, sometimes I just have to look away. Like watching a bad wreck. A very complex subject, where there are no accurate and reliable models and predictions. The projections fit into a very wide area under the curve and outliers will probably be shifting that range more than not. More than regional, even global, this is a solar system-dependent phenomenon.

Anyone denying climate change during our lifetime is more than ignorant; it is stupidity. I understand that humans do not like change, but to base ignorance in a belief system that climate change is not eminent is truly stupidity. The evidence is not only a well-documented scientific observation, it is an experience at our personal level. The real issues are not if climate change is real, but how much of that change is attributable to anthropogenic causes. 

With any knowledge of geological and geographical history at a middle school level, we know that global and regional climate and weather change. To disbelieve and/or deny that is unacceptable. Supplementing that knowledge with how regional and global climate is influenced by long-term subtle and traumatic events - volcanic explosions, rampant wildfires, asteroid collisions, sunspots, changes in ecosystems, etc - will aid understanding the connections between systems on and above this planet. Now add centuries of human intervention and technological contributions, sometimes rapid, to changes in regional and global-wide systems. To deny anthropogenic impact on our planetary systems is inexcusable.

The question that remains, and which may remain unanswerable, is the degree of human impact. At this point in time, the question may remain moot. The question requiring attention is how we can reduce our impact.

Weather and climate have a long history of cyclic changes, as long as the life of this planet and our solar system. We cannot deny our current climate change. Unfortunately, the politically hot term that is mistakenly embroiled world-wide, 'global warming,' has been misconceived. But the damage is done. Now we must move beyond that and accept that climate change, with possible accompanying extremes of hot and cold weather, is here. We are feeling the impact. Now.

Yet, like little ants, we continue to embroil ourselves in useless arguments and self-serving blame and flame throwing. This gets us nowhere. It's time to discard the disbelief, bottle the self-serving useless tirades, promote more accurate and constructive discourse; it is time to act and prepare ourselves for cooperation and adaptation. Reduce our contributions to climate change and learn to adapt to the global-changing weather patterns as a global community.

I was somewhat encouraged to read on a more-than-useless forum  debate the following intelligent post:

I know many weather and climate factors are the product of non-man based cycles. We cannot stop major long-run Global and Solar cycles, but the sudden changes we are seeing the last 50 years seem to be producing a lot more energy due to how quick the changes are occurring. (aka more instability)

However we do need to recognize that warming is a serious issue -- and one that Man likely cannot stop. But instead of trying to prepare and do what we can to slow it --- We are accelerating it now, and have a whole contingent of Americans that believe we should just ignore it --- which just seems foolish.

Man didn't cause all the European Glaciers to severely melt 4000 years ago. (see what's happened in Africa and the Middle East as all the Glacial-melt-fed Rivers dried up --- It's amazing to try to think of Iraq and Egypt as fertile plains, not dust-bowls.)

So we know climate change is a real threat regardless of Man -- but exacerbating it, certainly seems to be ignorant and foolish, just as much as thinking we can fully control it.

 Let's put aside our ignorance, our self-serving demonstrations, and join as a community to reduce human impact and adapt to the coming changes.

When immune systems run amok

"...epidemiologist Thomas Reichert of the Entropy Research Institute in Lincoln, Massachusetts, finds Polack's hypothesis completely plausible. There's not much that could cause this kind of lung damage except an invasion of T lymphocytes (the immune system's "warrior cells"), he says, and Polack found no evidence of that. The immune system's overreaction, says Reichert, is "kind of a last-ditch way of handling something. ... If we can't identify you specifically enough, but we know there's a lot of you, we're just going to blow the whole damn place up."

How Swine Flu Killed the Healthy - ScienceNOW