Cell Biology

Two of the links didn't work for me. I couldn't get them to open. Checking out the ones that did open made it easier for me to grasp the functions of the cells. I really liked the animations of the meiosis vs. mitosis. The side by side comparison really emphasised the similarities and differences.

Mitosis vs. Meiosis

The website with the flash thingie was cool. It was interesting to be able to see the comparison side by side for the different kinds of cell division. I also thought it was interesting that it described how meiosis in female sex cells result in one large cell and a small one that just disintegrates. That's weird and I wish they would have shown that in the animation. It said that the majority of the cell plasma goes into the large cell and the small one just fades away. That's very interesting.

Cells and TCM

What connections do I make between cell biology and my TCM studies? Hmmm . . . The first thing that pops into my head is the yin/yang relationship. That feels like a gimme. There is an underlying feeling regarding the relation between TCM and the quantum aspects of cellular biology. It's the function for which the form was created that relates most intimately to the study of TCM, in my opinion.

Spike's Gallery

I think this one was my favorite. I love seeing all the little internal organs and networks. All of the pictures are really beautiful. I would like to have several of them displayed in my home. Because the subjects are so small that we don't see them on a regular basis, it makes them very abstract. You could spend a huge amount of time looking at the images and see new things in them all the time. Some of the pictures easily show creatures that are obviously alive. They are very animal in form. Others, you know that they have life, but it's harder to connect that with what you are looking at.

CELLS!

Cells are so cool. They are so complex, so simple. Reflections of us and of our surroundings. I love looking at the different kinds of cells and seeing in them elements of the macrocosm. Like the virus cell that looks like space shuttle, or the plant cells that are like little buildings. It reminds me of fractals, how they can be similar the smaller and smaller you see them. The aspects of the cell contributing to the aspects of that which they make up. All very interesting.

Diversity

Let's see. The most obvious species in my environment are humans. There are two in my house. We share the house with a dog and two cats. Those animals are hosts for the occasional fleas and once in a blue moon, tapeworms. I'm sure there are lots of mites around, living off of shed skin. In the kitchen, towards the end of the week, fruit flies can be seen hovering above the compost container. Larger house flies can sometimes be seen about the house. We have bamboo, chenille plant, avocado tree, citrus tree, apricot tree, plum trees, a group of random succulents, a china doll tree, honeysuckle, palm tree, olive tree, strawberry plant, rosemary, mint . . . . grass . . . and all sorts of ants and slugs, snails, worms . . . molds and fungi live in and around the compost . . . sometimes those huge, um, potato bugs can be found when digging in the dirt, or worse . . .half a potato bug eewwwww!

Animations?

I guess there are some people who are very excited about that website. All those twirling molecules. It didn't mean much to me, so I just watched the little dots and lines swirling, swirling, swirling . . .

Biochemistry

So, I chose the link that said "Biochemistry is an established science and it seems strait forward to write a textbook that covers the essence of the field." I chose that one because I couldn't imagine that the description, or even a whole book, could accurately describe what biochemistry is. What does it entail? A whole helluva lot, that's for sure. Especially because there are new discoveries all the time, and new discoveries that tell us that old discoveries are wrong.

The website was a review of a book, which pretty much said that. It did say, however that the book being reviewed did a good job of being current, accurate and well rounded. Me? I just figure that everything I learn is like the tip of an iceberg. There's always more waiting silently beneath the surface.

Growing Brains . . .

My first thoughts are of the amazing possibilities. There are many degenerative brain diseases, not to mention brain damage, that I would think that those affected by such things would greatly benefit from having that option available to them.

After that I start thinking about what that means. I know that in Chinese medicine we know that the brain is not the location of the mind. I can't help but associate the mind with the brain. Because of that, I wonder if there is any mind that comes with these manufactured brain bits. If not, does the fact that it is not your brain alter you, the mind that is you? I think therefore I am? I don't really get how that works. Do we rewrite the program, like a blank disk?

And that leads me to start wondering if that would change who we are innately. Part and pieces. Bits that can easily be assembled and replaced. Do our spirits live in our flesh? Are our bodies irrelevant to what makes us unique and aware? I guess there's only one way to know for sure . . .

Hmmmm . . . Interesting!

This one was more difficult than the last. It took me a few minutes to get the hang of the format, but once I did, I had a really good time playing with it. I was entertained for an hour. Math is fun, hooray for math. I'm going to save this site so I can check it out again. Do not laugh, I am completely serious.

ChemBlancer Master!

Woohoo! I Rock! The first time through I got them all right, with the exception of one that I didn't have the most reduced formula, but the proportions were right. Hooray for math! I know it's geeky, but I have had the conversation with a small (very small) group of people about the lack of math in everyday life. There should be more math. July could be math month!

Germanium? Silicon? Why decide!

This is a glass fiber with a bundle of semiconductor wires emanating from it. Each wire is just 2 microns in diameter--20 times smaller than a human hair. The glass fiber is glowing from blue laser light. This image shows the wire-packed glass fiber passing through the eye of a needle.
Optical fiber helped bring us the Internet, and silicon/germanium devices brought us microelectronics. Optical fiber is an ideal medium for transmitting signals based on light, while crystalline semiconductors are one of the best ways to manipulate electrons. One of the current technological challenges is exchanging information between optics and electronics rapidly and efficiently. This new technique may provide the tools to cross the divide. Hooray for semiconductors!

SILICON

Silicon is rarely found in nature in its uncombined form. In fact it is amazing how rare native silicon is with 25.7% of the Earth's crust being silicon. Silicon, binds strongly with oxygen and is nearly always found as silicon dioxide, SiO2 (quartz), or as a silicate (SiO4-4). Silicon has been found as a native mineral only in volcanic exhalations and as tiny inclusions in gold.
Of growing interest in rock shops, however, are laboratory-grown silicon boules. Most such specimens are end fragments or flawed discards from the integrated circuit industry. Silicon boules are grown (pulled) from a molten state from a seed crystal, in such a way as to produce a single large crystal which must be completely without crystal defects, or the entire boule must be discarded. Modern techniques can create a single crystal several feet long and up to 10 inches in diameter. These large crystals are sliced into very thin wafers, upon which complex integrated circuits can be etched. The unused parts of the boule are often saved, and used as paperweights or sometimes cut into bookends or other decorative items.
The word silicon (which is taken from the latin word for flint) can be confused with other terms. Silicate (SiO4-4). Silicates are minerals whose primary cation is the SiO4-4 ion group. Another confusing term is silica. Silica is a term used by geologists for SiO2 or silicon dioxide in any form whether it is in the form of quartz, or any of the Quartz Group members, or as a segment of the chemistry of a silicate, or even as silicon dioxide dissolved in water. A geologist might use the phrase, "The magma was rather poor in silica." Indicating an SiO2 content that was lower than expected. Yet another term is silicone. Silicone is a synthetic polymer that is made of silicon, carbon and oxygen and has many medical and some industrial purposes.

GERMANIUM

This is a lustrous, hard, silver-white metalloid. Germanium forms a large number of organometallic compounds and is an important semiconductor material. Germanium has the same crystal structure as diamond. Being a semiconductor, it's electrical properties between those of a metal and an insulator. In its pure state, this metalloid is crystalline, brittle and retains its lustre in air at room temperature. It is one of the few substances that expands as it solidifies. The oxide form, Germanium dioxide, also has the unusual property of having a high refractive index for visible light, but transparent to infared light.

My Colorful Cupboard

So, I was checking out what's around. This is what I found.

Red: I have tomatoes, beets, red peppers.

Orange: Apricots, carrots, orange peppers, peaches

Yellow: Summer squash, turmeric

Green: Green peppers, cabbage, green & black tea, rosemary, mint, thyme, sage, collard greens, basil, carrot greens

White: Onions, garlic, mushrooms, white corn, potatoes

Blue: Blueberries, of course!

Luminescence

I had no idea that there were so many causes of luminescence. I figured it was some chemical reaction which caused it. It seems that there are quite a few causes, some chemical, some mechanical (imagine that!) and some just 'cause they wanna.

Fluorescence and Photoluminescence are luminescence where the energy is supplied by electromagnetic radiation.

Chemiluminescence is luminescence where the energy is supplied by chemical reactions. This one I knew about already.

Bioluminescence is luminescence caused by chemical reactions in living things; it is a form of chemiluminescence

Electroluminescence is luminescence caused by electric current.

Cathodoluminescence is electroluminescence caused by electron beams.

Radioluminescence is luminescence caused by nuclear radiation.

Phosphorescence is delayed luminescence or "afterglow".
Triboluminescence is phosphorescence that is triggered by mechanical action or electroluminescence excited by electricity generated by mechanical action.

Thermoluminescence is phosphorescence triggered by temperatures above a certain point. Optically stimulated luminescence is phosphorescence triggered by visible light or infrared.

Now I know all these causes of luminescence. Hooray!

Beryllium Sphere Activate!

I chose beryllium because it is an important story component in one of my favorite movies. In Galaxy Quest the crew goes in search of a beryllium sphere in order to replace the one they broke, crucial because of its function in their propulsion system. I've now demonstrated that I am a big geek, and yes, I like Star Trek too.

Beryllium is the chemical element that has the symbol Be and atomic number 4. Elemental beryllium is a steel grey, strong, light-weight yet brittle, alkaline earth metal. It is primarily used as a hardening agent in alloys. It has the highest melting point of the light metals. Precious forms of beryl are aquamarine and emerald. Beryllium and its salts are toxic substances and potentially carcinogenic.

Alchemy, yearning

Science? Magic? Art? Yes. Everything I've looked at has pointed to all three, and of course the important aspect of yearning. Science can tell us how and help us reproduce the magic that naturally occurs in our world and our ability to create and identify art is what makes us notice to begin with. But why? Why do these things happen to begin with, these reactions happen? That's yearning. That is why, we know how, and when we don't we use all our science and the art of our minds to imagine what it is and how it is. Why are these elements predisposed to act as they do? They yearn to be more than what they are. They yearn to be something different, something new. I can't say I've ever met anyone who was any different.

TOYS

It's so funny to me that while I am reading about these toys and concepts, I find that the more they explain, the less I feel I know. Like the floating ball. When I started to read the page, I totally got it. Then they compared it to sailing or flying. That, too, made so much sense. I've always thought of air and wind as a physical mass. I can feel it as I move, I see it lift and change direction and carry with it dust and debris. I can see it fill a sail and feel it push against me when I'm riding my bike. All these things I know. Of course, when they started explaining lift and drag, angles and measurements . . . . I started to feel like I was losing my grasp. Of course, taking a moment to consider it all, I completely understood what was being explained. Maybe it was the language that made me feel like the information was beyond me, or maybe I found it overwhelming. Who knows. I did leave the page understanding why a ball will twist into the air stream continuously and balance. That was good.

Iodine, my halogen of choice

I chose iodine because it was the halogen I'm most familiar with. I suppose I could have chosen the one I was least familiar with to learn new things, but I thought that increasing my knowledge about something that I know only a little about.

Iodine is a chemical element that has the symbol I and atomic number 53. Chemically, iodine is the least reactive of the halogens, and the most electropositive halogen after astatine. Iodine is primarily used in medicine, photography and dyes. It is required in trace amounts by most living organisms.

Iodine naturally occurs in the environment chiefly as dissolved iodide in seawater, although it is also found in some minerals and soils. Although the element is actually quite rare, kelp and certain other plants have the ability to concentrate iodine, which helps introduce the element into the food chain as well as keeping its cost down.

Iodine is used in pharmaceuticals, antiseptics, medicine, food supplements, dyes, catalysts, halogen lights, photography and water purifying.

In areas where there is little iodine in the diet—typically remote inland areas and semi-arid equatorial climates where no marine foods are eaten—iodine deficiency gives rise to hypothyroidism, symptoms of which are extreme fatigue, goitre, mental slowing, depression, weight gain, and low basal body temperatures. Iodine deficiency is also the leading cause of preventable mental retardation, an effect which happens primarily when babies and small children are made hypothyroid by lack of the element. The addition of iodine to table salt has largely eliminated this problem in the wealthier nations, but iodine deficiency remains a serious public health problem in the developing world.

A mole?

The mole is the amount of substance of a system which contains as many elementary entities as there are atoms in 0.012 kilograms of carbon 12.

Hmmmmmmmmm I read the article, I think. Then I read it again. It seems that they spent a lot of time trying to spell it out, but I must not know that alphabet because it didn't make a lot of sense to me. Darn it all . . . that's what happens when I miss out on class discussion. All these concepts and new terms don't make sense unless I can hear it, hear it in a different way, and then hear it again.

Avogadro's Hypothesis

Sad . . . I tried taking all the little quizzes and none of them worked. It was an interesting article, and it seems like you hear that story over and over. Brilliance, incredible brilliance that is misunderstood and ignored until many years later. Born before their time, that's what my Grandpa would say. After reading the article, I think I understood the gist, but deep understanding eludes me.

Helium, oh noble helium

This image of the active Sun was made using ultraviolet light emitted by ionized Helium atoms in the Solar chromosphere. Helium was first discovered in the Sun in 1868, its name fittingly derived from from the Greek word Helios, meaning Sun.

Out of the inert gases, I chose Helium because . . . because it's funnier than the other. Wikipedia says that helium and neon are the only true elemental inert gases, because they do not form any (known) true chemical compounds. That's very interesting. That means that helium is always helium, and neon is always neon. Helium is the second most abundant and second lightest element in the Universe and was one of the elements created in the Big Bang. In the modern Universe almost all new helium is created as a result of the nuclear fusion of hydrogen in stars. Because helium alone is less dense than atmospheric air, it will change the timbre (not pitch) of a person's voice when inhaled. However, inhaling it from a typical commercial source, such as that used to fill balloons, can be dangerous due to the number of contaminants that may be present. These could include trace amount of other gases, in addition to aerosolized lubricating oil. I wonder how many contaminants I've inhaled . . . lots, I'm sure.

Atom Economy

Wouldn't it be great if there could be an higher occurance of atom economy? That is, ending with the same amount of atoms that one began with when producing compounds and such. I've learned that there are several different classifications of reactions that can reveal their atom economy. Addition and rearrangement seem to have the best atom economy, both end with 100% of the atoms began with in the resulting product. Condensation probably comes after that, with slightly less than 100% of the atoms in the final product, and usually the waste is in the form of small molecules like amonia and water. Substitution was pretty vague. I suppose it varies in it's atom economy. Some very efficient, some not. Elimination seems to be the least efficient of them, since it always results in a byproduct.

Catalyst of the week! Palladium (Pd)

Palladium (Pd) has an atomic number of 46 and an atomic mass of 106.42. It's melting point is 1560 °C and it's boiling point is 2927 °C. Palladium, along with platinum, osmium, ruthenium, and rhodium form a group of elements referred to as the platinum group metals (PGM). Palladium is a lustrous silver-white metal. At ordinary temperatures it is strongly resistant to corrosion in air and to the action of acids. It forms many compounds and several complex salts. Palladium has a great ability to absorb hydrogen (up to 900 times its own volume).

When it is finely divided, palladium forms a good catalyst and is used to speed up hydrogenation and dehydrogenation reactions. Because of its corrosion resistance, a major use of palladium is in alloys used in low voltage electrical contacts. Palladium is used extensively in jewelry-making in certain alloys called “white gold.” It may be alloyed with platinum or substituted for it. It is used in watch bearings, springs, and balance wheels and also for mirrors in scientific instruments.

Palladium is now the main ingredient used in catalytic converters because this is even more efficient at removing unburnt and partially burnt hydrocarbons from the fuel than platinum.
Palladium is nowadays more and more used in electrical appliances such as wide screen televisions, computers and mobile phones, in the form of tiny multi-layer ceramic capacitors, of which more than 400 billion are made each year.
For use in dentistry it is alloyed with silver, gold, and copper. Palladium salts are used in electroplating.
Most palladium is extracted as a by-product form nickel refining. It is found as the free metal associated with platinum and other platinum group metals in Australia, Brazil, Russia, Ethiopia, and North and South America, as well as with nickel and copper deposits (from which it is recovered commercially) in Canada and South Africa.
Palladium is regarded as of low toxicity, being poorly adsorbed by the body when ingested.
Palladium compounds are encountered relatively rarely by most people. All palladium compounds should be regarded as highly toxic and as carcinogenic.
Palladium has little environmental impact. It is present at low levels in some soils, and the leaves of trees have been found to contain 0.4 ppm. Some plants, such as the water hyacinth, are killed by low levels of palladium salts but most plants tolerate it.

Water Concepts

It was neat to look at the site after having discussed many of the aspects of water in class. I think we did a good job of translating that 3D image into an understandable concept without having the 3D image to reinforce the idea. It was wonderful to have the opportunity to look at an image with a little more perspective. Showing the atoms lined up, with the polarity of the molecules turning them in a certain way.
I tried looking at the QuickTime shows on the chemical structures and atomic orbitals, but it kept trying to get me to buy a CD, so I didn't really see anything on that site.

Carbon Structures

Diamonds . . . carbon . . . The hardest material on earth made out of the most flexible element on earth. Carbon on carbon on carbon . . . The structure the carbon takes in a diamond is a crystalline structure. Each carbon has four bonded neighbors. These neighbors are corners of a tetrahedron. They make a 3D network that is oh, so pretty.

The same element can combine into a similar 2D structure. Viewed in a certain way, it looks very much like the structure of a diamond. Instead of making a 3D structure, the layers of 2D bonded carbon slides around and is graphite. It looks totally different from it's crystalline friend. From the looks of it, it seems that carbon and be stacked and twisted and manipulated to look and function in many, many different ways. Could this be the Lego equivalent of the elemental world?

Iridium

Iridium. Almost Platinum, not quite. 77 protons, 77 electrons, and 115 neutrons. Iridium rivals it's neighbor, Osmium, as the densest elements. It is the rarest non-radioactive, non-noble gas element in the Earth's crust. It is relatively common in meteorites, which has been used as evidence of a large meteor causing the extinction of the dinosaurs. A layer of Iridium was found in a concentration hundreds of times greater than naturally occurs on Earth.

The density of Iridium is probably the reason it doesn't occur often in the Earth's crust. During the formation of the planet, it sank down toward the core. It is found uncombined in nature with platinum and other platinum group metals in river deposits. Naturally occurring iridium alloys include osmiridian and iridiosmium, both of which are mixtures of iridium and osmium. It is recovered commercially as a by-product from nickle mining and processing.

Iridium is the most corrosion-resistant metal known. It's been known to be used for hardening platinum, since it is very brittle, hard, and difficult to work. It has also been used in a powdered form to paint porcelain.

Iridium . . . pretty cool.

Review if ATOMIC PROTERTIES MENU

So, starting off with this website, I quickly discovered that the first few links were EXACTLY what we covered in class. I felt pretty good about it. I reviewed the material and found that I still understood what they were talking about. That changed a little when I moved from the familiar to IONISATION ENERGY.

I think what shook me had to do with unfamiliar terms, like moles (not furry rodents) and kilojoules per mole (even less to do with rodents). My brain wanted to tuck tail and run from such thought twisting concepts. Certain things led me to feel like I was getting it. Like, the talk about electrons further from the nucleus being easier to pull away. That made sense because distance can decrease the pull of the energy. That made sense to me, especially since there are those orbits between the outer layer and the nucleus which are neutralizing some of that pull with their own negative charge. It also made sense that an outer layer with two electrons would be easier to pull away than one. Each of those two electrons is having to share that orbital with each other, they don't wanna share, and then they repel each other. So, repelling each other and having that distance and shielding from the nucleus, that makes sense that they would be easier to pull away than the one by itself.

Right after that it started getting fuzzy. The concepts were lost on my poor brain and questions like: Why the drop between groups 5 and 6 (N-O and P-S)? failed to have any meaning for me at all. I think it was just too much at once. These ideas are a lot to take in, and I think that I need time in between to absorb info. Class was good, we read, we discussed, had q&a, and then moved on. Reading it straight through doesn't seem to work well for me. I want it explained in several different ways with pictures and examples and cartoons and anything else I can get.

Ozone, what do folks know?

Okay, so the most common thing that everyone says first is "It's that layer with the hole in it, right?" Some other things I got were "We're wrecking it with pollution" "There's a hole from CFC's" and a whole string of thoughts revolving around that same concept. There's holes, holes that are getting bigger. It protects us from the sun's rays, but not if there are big holes in it. It doesn't seem as though there are a lot of people who think about ozone outside of the stratosphere, or in our troposphere.
Only one person talked about ozone outside of the stratosphere, and that was to discuss the strange sounding "ozone therapy". With a little investigation, I found that ozone therapy is being used in many different ways to handle many different ills. It is used to inject and infuse into people because it apparently increases the amount of antioxidants a person produces, it is also used as an antibacterial and anti fungal, an anti-a-lotta-stuff I guess. They are even selling ozone producing machines to have in your home so you can combat your many ills. That seems like a bad idea to me, people adding this unstable ozone, which we know to be toxic, into their homes for . . . ? It isn't clear EXACTLY what people are doing with all this ozone that they can make at home. Adding to the smog problem? Exposing themselves to a toxic gas? This whole idea is a little unsettling. None of the ads I saw said anything about ozone being toxic. It this incredibly irresponsible of the people creating and distributing these products?

Arsenic: My Element of the Week

Why Arsenic you ask? I dunno. It's got that whole romantic Victorian poison of choice thing going on. Arsenic and Lace. Always getting a bad rap by being the vehicle of murder most foul. And it sounds pretty. Arsenic . . . rolls off the tongue. So, what do we know?
As, having an atomic number of 33 and an atomic mass of 74.92160 . . . So that's 33 protons, 33 electrons and about 42-ish neutrons. Let's see if I can remember how to do this.

As = 1s22s22p63s23p63d104s24px14py14pz1
or
As = [Ar]3d104s24px14py14pz1

Okay, I think that's right.

So what else do we know about As? It's allotropic, which means that it can be the same molecules looking and maybe acting different depending on how those molecules are arranged. It can be yellow and soft, waxy, but only if the molecules are arranged as a tetrahedron. It can also be brittle and grey, metallic, when arranged another way, and much more dense. It's a little unstable and lends itself to converting and changing itself in many different ways. It is easily dissolved in water, and when dissolved becomes a powerful acid. It can be heated and turned into a gas, also easily. In addition to being used as a poison, it was also used as a stimulant and medicine. It resembles phosphorus, which is directly above As on the periodic table.

Over the years it has had a patchy reputation and has gone in and out of favor in it's different incarnations. Sometimes as a food additive, sometimes as a recreational drug or medicine. We all know of it as a poison, and it has been widely used as herbicides, pesticides, and insecticides. All in all, I can say that it seems to have many uses, and should be handled with respect and caution. After all, it is the Poison of Kings, and the King of Poisons.

Periodic Tables

Game
I checked out the game that has you trying to match the symbol for the element they list. You can choose hard, medium, and easy. Surprisingly enough I got 10 out of 10 for the easy. The medium blew me away and I struggled with a 5/10 and the hard wasn't too bad and I got out of that with a 6/10. I mostly guessed.

Quiz
I obviously have no idea how to calculate the atomic weight of something and what the protons and electrons have to do with it. I have the faintest of foggy memories in which an instructor from long ago told me and explained how these things could be determined. It didn't stick.

Interactive
I should have looked at this one first. I got a reminder of how to read the periodic table, at least.

Quiz

Okay, I think I did the right quiz

1. Classify the following as either a chemical or physical change.
Burning wood - would be a chemical change, since it changes the chemical compounds
Crushing a rock - would be a physical change, because even in small pieces, it's still a rock
Dissolving sugar in water - my intuition was correct. I thought it was a physical change because mixing sugar and water gives you sugar water, not something new or different.
The rusting of iron - is a chemical change. The interaction between iron and water or whatever gives you a whole new thing, rust!

2. Classify the following as to whether or not they are pure substances or mixtures.
milk is a mixture of several things, water, fat, and sugars mostly
table salt I thought was pure, but table salt is mostly iodized and has anti caking agents
sugar I figured pure
steel I thought pure, and the answer said a homogeneous mixture of iron and carbon. I guess because it is a mixture that cannot be separated.

3. A cup of black coffee is considered to be __?__ and a/an __?__ substance.
(b) homogeneous…..impure I guessed homogeneous and impure because is is a mixture of coffee and water that cannot be separated

4. The boiling of water is considered to be a __?__ change and the temperature at which water boils is considered to be a __?__ property.
(d) physical…..physical The change of boiling water is a physical change since chemically, it hasn't changed. The temp at which water boils is a physical property, since it is not a chemical.

The Cultural Influence of Chemistry: Week 1

How much do we really understand the effects of natural disasters and global warming?

The way it looks to me, we don't have a very good understanding of the effects of natural disasters and global warming. It may have something to do with the fact that no one seems to be concerned with those effects until they're right on top of us. I suppose our understanding is increasing every day as a direct result of the effects showing up and making themselves available for study. We are able to see the life cycle of our food crops interrupted and affected by global warming and increased carbon dioxide and ozone. We can observe that the sea level is rising due to the melting of large masses of ice and we can watch as land is swallowed by the rising sea. We can see the currents changing due to that same influx of fresh water into the sea and how the difference in salt levels and temperatures are redirecting those currents, in turn changing the way our weather works. We will understand the effects as they occur and change the way our planet operates.

How do we find a balance between the needs of agriculture and the impact on our planet?

That question seems like asking a cat how to get to the grocery store. There is no quick fix, at least not at this point. There are waaaay too many people living beyond what they "need". How can you force that many people to change the way they live? And in time to repair damage and restore the planet to a state of health that can sustain our vast numbers? No, the amount of land and ocean that can produce sustainable food is not large enough, nor strong and healthy enough to feed the number of people living today. That whole 5% thing needs to be increased. People's huge lawns need to turn into their gardens that will feed their families and neighbors. Communities need to start taking care of their own food needs. Everyone needs to pitch in, in order for us to increase the amount of food produced without hugely increasing the amount of fuel used and over-taxation of soil and sea.

Should there be more effective control of the pharmaceutical industry?

That feels like a loaded question. There should be an "ethical" force which can watch and monitor the chemicals that are being sold to us as "safe" to ingest and generally be exposed to. At the same time, these companies and this FDA can also use these control measures to start making rules and laws about herbs and natural medicines. Vitamins, herbs, food . . . they're already trying to take those away from us using doctors and "approved medical personnel" as excuses to take our health care out of our own hands. Soon, getting your vitamin C or herbal throat drops are going to be items that have to be prescribed for you or found on the black market. I would love to say that yes, of course there should be some control over the pharmaceutical industry to make them responsible for the products they put out and deem "safe". I believe that things are not that simple and that when you start exerting control and making rules and restrictions, freedoms can start becoming a vulnerable grey area that people aren't afraid to take advantage of.

This is me

What can I say? You gotta do what's right. I always have a rough time describing myself. I try not to judge, I try to be open and to accept what is with clarity and a sense of purpose. I try not to yuck any ones yum. I try to be a good person and I think that most of the time I get it right. I'm in school studying TCM because I feel like it's the right thing to do and the best way to contribute to my community, family and friends. I'm from around here, a little south. Things are generally very, very good and I'm glad I'm around during these extreme and volatile times.