AudreyPodrey.com

I found this link fascinating.  If you have any interest in astronomy, or any interest in being completely awed by universe, please click through.

Our world really is tiny, compared to what’s out there.  I can’t help but think, wow.  One of my favorite comments on this subject is from the movie Contact, when a child asks Jodie Foster’s character if there is life on other planets.  She responds “If it’s just us, it seems like an awful waste of space.”  The images in the link make that seem so, so true.

Lance & I are in the middle of watching a fascinating new series from National Geographic called Strange Days on Planet Earth.  Edward Norton (whom i absolutely love from Rounders, American History X & Fight Club) is the host/narrator.  He is excellent, and i love that he is doing this series.

This series is about strange events happening all around the globe and how they are connected.  A lot of the conclusions are related to how humans have interfered with the natural world, and how/if we can fix these things.  Below is one example of the issues they discuss.

Problem: Trees are dying in Yellowstone National Park.  In particular, Aspen trees.  No new trees have grown since the 1930s, and the old ones are slowly dying off.  Also in Yellowstone, there is increased soil erosion on riverbanks, and the beaver and songbird populations are way down and still decreasing.

Solution: Reintroduce wolves into the park.

I know, WTF?  Wolves?  What do wolves have to do with trees and birds and soil erosion?

The clue was that the only significant event in the 1930s in Yellowstone was the death of the last wolf.  And here’s how the progression goes.

1. Wolves kill and eat Elk.
2. Elk carcasses sustain life for scavengers & certain types of insects.
3. Songbirds eat those insects, and their population grows.
4. The Elk population is under control, so they don’t eat all the riverbank plants and Aspen trees.
5. As a result, the Aspens are recovering.
6. The river plants are also recovering, and soil erosion is decreasing because the plant roots hold it in place.
7. The beaver population is making a comeback because they needed the river plants in order to make their lodges.

This chain of events blew my mind!  How you get from Aspen trees to wolves is just amazing.  And that is how this entire series is presented.  Here’s a strange mystery happening in the natural world.  What could have caused it?  How is it related to other things that are happening?  It’s fascinating.

If you like science and nature shows, give this one a try.

Beetlejuice is 13 years old. I guess i should say was, because he was put to sleep last week.

Beetlejuice was my cat. My cow cat, i liked to call him, b/c he was black and white calico. He was a gift from my then-boyfriend John at the end of my junior year of high school. Beetlejuice had a brother, too - Tigger, who died several years ago. I loved those kitties.

Tigger was orange, and it seemed the only appropriate name for him. Beetlejuice was named after the red star in the Orion constellation, Betelgeuse. Alas, the vet spelled it the more obvious way so Beetlejuice he became.

They were only “mine” for a little over a year. And then i went to college, and pets were not allowed in the dorms. And then i had a series of apartments, and all of my roommates were allergic to cats. It seemed that i would never get to claim those cats as “mine” again.

But they were always mine, in a way. It was one of the joys of going home to visit my parents, to get to see my kitties. To hold them, and have them purr appreciatively at my throat.

Beetlejuice was a scared-y cat. When new people came into the house, you wouldn’t see him for an hour, until he was sure everything was alright. But, when he was sure, he’d come out, and climb onto your lap whether you wanted him to or not.

My favorite story about Beetlejuice occured when i was away at school. My brother Adam wanted Beetlejuice to sleep in his room, so he brought the cat inside and shut the doors, away from his litter box. In the early morning, Beetlejuice was saying “meow! meow! meow!” but Adam did not want to wake up. Adam finally awoke to the feeling of heavy body on his chest (Beetle was no lithe kitty - he was a fat cat). And he was thinking “aww how sweet” and opened his eyes. As soon as he did, Beetle looked right at him, and then Adam felt something very warm all around him. Yes, Beetlejuice peed on him. Gross. But funny! (if it wasn’t you.)

Despite this incident, Adam took Beetlejuice in a few years ago, and then Beetlejuice was only 30 miles away instead of 230. I enjoyed seeing him when i could visit. A few months ago, Adam & Nora moved to Chicago, and couldn’t take Beetlejuice with them. He stayed with their roommate Lizzie, who took great care of him.

About a month ago, Beetlejuice stopped eating suddenly. Lizzie took him to the vet, and we found out he had cancer. After a biopsy, they determined there wasn’t anything they could do. It was very sad. He was kept on medication and out of pain until Wednesday of last week.

It’s awful, losing pets. They add so much joy to your life. I will miss Beetlejuice. But i am glad i got to know him.

I recently read this article about how scientists were able to clone mice that had been frozen for 16 years. Apparently, cloning is difficult using frozen tissue, unless it has been injected with chemicals to prevent the cells from bursting.

Wakayama’s team dug out some mice that had been kept frozen for years and whose cells were indisputably damaged. Freezing causes cells to burst and can damage the DNA inside. Chemicals called cryoprotectants can prevent this but they must be used before the cells are frozen.

They tried using cells from several places and discovered that the brains worked best. This is a bit of a mystery, as no one has yet cloned any living mouse from a brain cell.

However, now that they have successfully cloned some frozen mice, the scientists have set their sights on possibly cloning woolly mammoths.

Mammoths may be the extinct animals that scientists would be most likely to try to clone, as many of the animals have been found preserved in ice.

In July 2007 Russian scientists discovered the body of a baby mammoth frozen in the Arctic Yamalo-Nenetsk region for as long as 40,000 years.

“It remains to be shown whether nuclei can be collected from whole bodies frozen without cryoprotectants and whether they will be viable for use in generating offspring following nuclear transfer,” Wakayama’s team wrote.

OK, so obviously it is not yet known if this is even possible. But it sounds like they’re going to try.

I’m not sure i think that is a good idea! Cloning is already a very touchy topic, so i won’t go into that. But even if you agree with cloning, natural selection chose to eliminate the woolly mammoth. Who are we to play God and bring back an extinct species? And where do you draw the line? I can easily see a Jurassic Park scenario taking place if, for example, they could figure out how to clone dinosaurs. It would be a huge moneymaking opportunity. Are the woolly mammoths any different? What would be the purpose in cloning them - would they be put in a zoo and exist only for people to gawk at?

I’m all in favor of science and experiments, but for some reason, this just seems wrong to me.