Did you know that there’s a bird that’s considered to be a parasite? Sounds a little out there right? Well meet the brown-headed cowbird, a brood parasite. In layman’s terms this means that the female cowbird will find other species’ nests and damage one of the eggs to replace it with her own. The other species’ mother will raise the cowbird chick without ever even knowing, and these large cowbird hatchlings will often eat more of the resources even further harming the brood.
One question you might have then, is if these cowbirds are raised as a different species, how will they ever know what they truly are? It lies in a secret passcode that all cowbirds innately know! An adult cowbird’s “chatter call” will activate the song-learning portion of the baby cowbird’s brain and allow them to identify their own species and remember other important calls and songs. Chicks as young as six days old can recognize the call of an adult cowbird.
So here’s an ode to the Robin mother unknowingly raising a chick that was never hers only for him to leave once he’s hit with the secret cowbird password.
Could a team of Koalas be masterful drug lord criminals to put Breaking Bad Walter White and Jesse to shame? Well, no, that’s probably not in the cards for these daily 20 hour sleepers, but these animals could tamper with a real-life crime scene as koalas possess fingerprints similar to those of humans!
Just take a microscopic look at a koalas’ thumbprint and you’ll see similar loops, whorls, and arches to that of a human being’s. Scientists believe this is an example of convergent evolution (where unrelated species evolve similar abilities due to similar ecological pressures) and have used this case to investigate the true meaning behind why some animals might have detailed fingerprints in the first place.
It’s believed that rigid fingerprints provide a stronger grip on items by helping direct and control the moisture released by our hands’ sweat glands that provides different amounts of traction based on wet or dry conditions. Scientists also believe intricate fingerprints help increase the sensitivity of our touch by amplifying the vibrations our hands make when moving across different surfaces that are used to understand the texture of what we’re touching.
These two abilities give us humans an enhanced sense of touch and grip that few other animals possess, well a few including the koala! Koalas faced some similar ecological pressures of needing a good grip to climb eucalyptus trees and a sensitive touch to match their sensitive stomach that only eats eucalyptus leaves of a specific age. This is the believed reason why both koalas and humans evolved similar fingerprints even though we’re very very distantly related in the evolutionary world.
So while we sadly may never see the cursed Koala Walter White and Jesse in real life, just know that there’s an off chance that some Australian crime scene might have koala contamination and we’d never know!
Have you ever been to your grandparents’ house and looked in their kitchen cabinets? As you dove through the clutter, maybe you found an old pan or pot made by Dupont that totes itself on being non-stick. This seemingly inconspicuous kitchenware harbors a dark secret though.
See these ‘Teflon’ pans were part of the many products Dupont produced using Perfluorooctanoic acid (PFOA or C8). PFOA makes up only one of around 4,700 similar compounds known as Perfluoroalkyl and Polyfluoroalkyl Substances (PFAS) or forever chemicals. Starting in the 1950s, Dupont began leaking these chemicals into surrounding water basins across their factory locations in West Virginia and Ohio.
No one knew how serious the damage these chemicals could cause would be until the lawsuits from cattle farmers and local citizens revealed rotten teeth, removed colons, and a high level of cancer diagnosis from those most affected by the PFAS pollution.
What about PFAS chemicals’ structure makes them so dangerous though, and was this a case of Dupont not knowing better or was this a sinister cover-up years in the making?
Let’s dive in.
The Structure of Forever
PFAS chemicals have the special properties of being non-stick, oil-repellent, and water-repellent, which led to their use in a wide array of consumer products such as Teflon non-stick pans, rain jackets, furniture, cleaning liquids, makeup, cars, pesticides, etc.
These special properties stem from their chemical structure: long chains of carbon-fluorine bonds, one of the strongest chemical bonds in existence. C-F are polar covalent bonds, where due to the high electronegativity of fluorine, electrons are unevenly shared between the carbon and fluorine. This uneven electron sharing creates an electrical dipole moment that increases the force of attraction between the two atoms thereby also increasing the energy needed to break the chemical bond apart. Because of this, only extreme heats are able to remotely possess the chance of tearing apart a PFAS. For example, in their documentation, GHD Group recommended 1100 °C (or 2012°F) for 2 seconds to break down fluorinated organic compounds.
What happens when you mix a forever chemical with human beings?
Starting in 2005, the C8 Science Panel began a study of possible health effects Mid-Ohio Valley communities suffered from Dupont C8 pollution into the waters of Parkersburg, West Virginia. The study concluded strong probable links between high C8 exposure:
diagnosed high cholesterol
ulcerative colitis
thyroid disease
testicular cancer
kidney cancer
pregnancy-induced hypertension
Many workers from the Dupont factories suffered from multiple of these diseases, with many female workers also giving birth to children with multiple birth defects during their time with the company.
You don’t have to be directly exposed to these factories though to have PFAS in your system. Because of its incredible resistance to chemical breakdown, PFAS lasts in water for years and there are few treatment plants that can fully filter the chemical from their drinking water. And like many other toxins, PFAS chemicals also bioaccumulate (increase in concentration) in the body as individuals drink more contaminated water and eat more contaminated fish/animals. Once a PFAS is in the water, it stays in the water and bioaccumulates across seas, lakes, and rivers. Levels of PFAS have even been found in the breast milk samples of women from Indonesia, India, and the Philippines, showing just how widespread the issue is and how many people might one day be at a serious risk.
Just a Mistake or a Malicious Cover-Up?
In the 1960s, Dupont scientists ran multiple tests on the effect of PFOA on the health of mice, dogs, and monkeys and proved that PFOA was an animal carcinogen and a possible human carcinogen. However, these toxicology reports were never shown to the EPA until the class action lawsuits in the 2000s forced these documents out of the shadows.
Even more disturbing though is that additional internal reports were later discovered from the 1980s showing that Dupont had by then fully proved that PFOA was a human carcinogen that caused infant birth defects for their female workers and needed up to 1.5 years to clear up only half of the C8 built up in the body. Dupont executives knew without a doubt for over 20 years that they were sabotaging the health of their workers and the surrounding communities, yet it took them their victims fighting tooth and nail just to so much as release this sensitive data to the public.
Yet at the time of the initial lawsuits, many Dupont workers and nearby communities still supported Dupont and did not believe they could purposely ignore such ominous health warnings as they saw the company as benevolent bringing jobs and prosperity to their towns. Blindness to a company’s intent can hinder reality though. Big companies such as Dupont and 3M are out to make a profit first and can hide data if that might hinder it. Dupont stole the act of choice for the consumer when their scientists and businessmen actively refuse to acknowledge that content with the public.
What’s the first thing you notice about this photo? Maybe it’s the girl in the paper towel shirt with a tin foil backpack posing as Dora? Or maybe the girl with the construction paper boots or the girl with the Swiper paper mask? Or maybe you see me in the paper towel lab coat pretending to be a scientist character in the Dora cinematic universe.
Why are we dressed as 5-minute craft Dora characters, you might ask? Well, in the name of science, of course! Specifically, as part of our team’s Presentation of Action on our solution to a Biosecurity problem scenario set 20 years in the future. Ok woah, a lot of exposition. So let’s throw it back and break down one of the most useful organizations for youth interested in STEM, Future Problem Solving!
Alright, what’s Future Problem Solving?
Sounds like a bunch of buzzwords slapped together, but there is a reason for this I promise!
Future Problem Solving (FPS) is an international program for K-12 that teaches students critical and creative problem-solving by training them in a six-step problem-solving model. A quick run-down of the steps:
Identify Challenges – Given a complex, real-world scenario, what are some problems you can identify? Usually students will use a category list to try to identify problems of a diverse nature.
Select an Underlying Problem – Out of all the problems identified, which problem is the most impactful on the scenario? Think – if we solved this, other problems might also be solved and the users would be the most benefited. What action verb would possible solutions need to accomplish to solve this main problem?
Produce Solution Ideas – The fun part! Brainstorm creative yet realistic solutions to the underlying problem.
Generate and Select Criteria – Create criteria that help you decide which solution is the best at solving the underlying problem and addressing the needs of the original scenario.
Apply Criteria – Run each solution through the criteria you created and rank which one best meets all criteria overall.
Develop an Action Plan – Whichever solution ranked first in step 5 will be your final solution to the problem. You need to elaborate on the who, how, what, where, why of the solution to explain how it could be implemented in the scenario and why it solves your underlying problem. (At the state and international level, teams will create a skit that describes their action plan. The limit is that for skit props, teams can only build them out of household items – hence, our makeshift Dora fits above! We created a cute Dora the Explora skit for our Presentation of Action Plan where I was a scientist explaining the research behind our action plan.)
What makes this model unique though, is what problems are being solved (and here’s where the ‘Future’ of FPS comes in).
Each problem scenario is centered around a STEM-related topic, and the sky’s the limit with what areas of STEM these topics can derive from. Some of my favorites during my time included: Enhancing Human Potential, Biosecurity, Energy of the Future, Cloud Storage, Endangered Animals, and 3D Printing. Doing pre-competition research on the topic is highly encouraged, as students are given bonus points if they can describe current technology or solutions from corresponding STEM fields.
The program throws you for another loop though by setting all these topics in a scenario that takes place 10-20 years in the future, making students not only think about the current state of the topic, but how it and its corresponding technology might possibly evolve.
While the program expects you to be creative with solution ideas in this field, it also expects you to understand the feasibility of current tech and how it might realistically look in the future. There are no ‘magic pill’ solutions that solve the problem with the flick of a switch allowed. You can be creative, but it’s got to be something that has a basis in our modern day to get ya points.
So you got the basics of FPS down now. Just like with the Action Plan, let me hit ya with the WHY Future Problem Solving is an integral skill-builder for any primary school kids interested in a STEM career.
Why You Should Force Yourself (or Force Your Child) To Join FPS
I did FPS for 9 years before joining Georgia Tech as a Biomedical Engineering and then Computational Media major, so I speak from experience here that this six-step method of problem-solving is very similar to how both Engineers and Computer Scientists solve real-world problems in their respective fields.
Let’s pretend we’re Biomedical/Software Engineers for a moment, and we’ve been given a specific user base that we want to design a device for that solves an issue they’ve been struggling with:
To design a medical device or a computer program that’s meant to help a user base, first you need to identify what problem your users have.
Oftentimes, you’ll do user interviews and find users have MANY problems. One device can solve a few, but often due to restricted budgets and timelines, it’s not feasible to solve all the user’s problems, so you need to identify which ones are the highest priority (your underlying problem).
From then, research & design happens. You collaborate with your team on seeing what technology/systems currently exist and what are new methods/designs you can try to create that modify the current tech or are completely new from them (and you make simple prototypes of them).
Then you need to narrow down which design you want to move forward in with prototyping because there’s not enough time and money in the real-world to try to make every idea all the way from scratch to completion.
This is where you need to set up criteria to assist in deciding which device prototype you’ll choose as your action plan.
Finally, once you’ve built and tested your device, you need to explain to your stakeholders and users how the device works and solves the identified problems from before. Otherwise, what was this all for besides wasting money?
Did you see all the FPS steps in this engineering/computer science scenario? Granted, while this is a very simplified explanation, at the core, this scenario is what you do while working on projects in these fields. Even though I had no engineering or computer science experience before coming to Tech, it never felt unnatural to me when I was working on design projects because the process had already been ingrained into my being from FPS. I already knew how to critically think, so I could instead really dive into the technology I was working on and focus on coming up with solutions. Imagine starting with a leg-up at GT, and you never knew it!
FPS, My Old Friend
Beyond preparing me just for critical problem-solving in STEM, FPS also fostered my love for collaborating in teams. I loved the moments I shared with my teammates: Our countless recitations of topic-related vocabulary cards on the bus to the state competition in Athens, our nervous hands hovered above the face-down scenarios in a sea of international teams, the late nights of coloring absurd amounts of paper towels red, our screams when we won First Place at Internationals for our Dora skit. I wouldn’t change those moments for the world. Who thought something as educational as solving STEM problems for 2 hours could shape the best parts of my mind and life?
To make it part of your life, check out the FPSPI website to see if you can find an active division near you. And if there are no current divisions, Future Problem Solving always welcomes the start of new ones! Get out there and solve some problems my fellow STEM kids!
You find a funny meme on the Internet. You chuckle to yourself and decide to show your friend. They start giggling which makes you only laugh harder. Your friend picks up on this and their laughter dials up and now you two are in a symphony of hilarity and you wonder if the little meme was even that funny to begin with.
Why do we laugh, and why do we seem to laugh more around others? Well secret’s out, you’re wired to do so just like chimpanzees are wired to groom each other.
Are Laugh Tracks… actually useful?
Laughter plays a key role in social communication. It’s a human’s way of expressing they want to connect with others, and it can reveal how close those connections are. In a 2001 Psychological Science study, voiced laughter (think of your typical hahahaha) was reported to invoke a more positive reaction out of the listener and prompt them to be interested in meeting the speaker. We laugh to seem approachable and bond with others. That’s also why people are 30 times more likely to laugh in a group than to laugh alone regardless of how funny the actual joke is. The laugh track of older TV series mimics sitting in a social situation with other people watching the show to try to make the experience more enjoyable.
Not all laughter is the same though. People can pick up the subtle mannerisms of laughter and what those differences might mean. For example, a 2016 international study showed that 60% of the time people accurately can differentiate whether or not two individuals were good friends or strangers just by their laughs (So yes, you awkwardly strain laughing at a coworker’s joke does not always go unnoticed). Laughter can also distinguish power hierarchy between two individuals based on whether the person has a dominant or submissive laugh in the situations. Those with more power in a social situation will have a dominant laugh that is louder and possesses much more irregularities in pitch and tone than a submissive laugh, as the person in power feels more disinhibited during the situation.
Even though you might never mutter a word when you laugh, you’re still subtly communicating and bonding with others.
Laughter is the Best Medicine. No Really.
Is the social element of laughter not your cup of tea? There’s plenty of health-related benefits to laughing too. Laughing can:
Reduce stress by releasing tension in the body and helping blood to circulate and muscles to relax.
Improve mood through releasing endorphins
Increase your intake of oxygen
So not only are you improving your social status with laughter, but you’re strengthening your body too. Don’t feel afraid to laugh it up with someone next time! Even if it’s at some dumb meme on the Internet.
Citations
Mayo Foundation for Medical Education and Research. (2021, July 29). Stress relief from laughter? it’s no joke. Mayo Clinic. Retrieved April 26, 2022, from https://www.mayoclinic.org/healthy-lifestyle/stress-management/in-depth/stress-relief/art-20044456
Michel, A. (2017, March 31). The science of humor is no laughing matter. Association for Psychological Science – APS. https://www.psychologicalscience.org/observer/the-science-of-humor-is-no-laughing-matter
Stierwalt, S. (2020, February 9). Why do we laugh? Scientific American. https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/why-do-we-laugh/
Winerman, L. (2006, June). A laughing matter. Monitor on Psychology, 37(7). https://www.apa.org/monitor/jun06/laughing
You’ve probably eaten a banana before. You’ve probably even eaten one this week in a smoothie, in a baked good, or just by itself for a quick snack or breakfast. Bananas are a titan amongst the agricultural industry with a retail value between $20-25 billion dollars, making them a vital part of the economies of many Latin American countries like Panama and Ecuador.
What you probably don’t know is that pretty much every single banana you’ve ever eaten is from the same variant, the Cavendish. These delicious plants replaced the Gros Michel, or Big Mike, banana as the star of the banana industry back in the 1960s when the Big Mike went nearly extinct. However, history is repeating itself and now the Cavendish banana is on the chopping block all due to the same reason: Fusarium wilt, or Panama disease.
An Old Foe Returns for Revenge
Fusarium wilt is a fungi that completely ravishes the soil and plants it touches. When affecting a plant, the fungi goes around 10 feet deep into the soil making it so that just removing a single affected plant to stop the spread is nearly impossible. Large areas of soil become barren, and the fungi can be easily tracked to other places on the bottom of other workers’ shoes or car tires. Tropical Race 1 of this disease began killing Gros Michel in large quantities in the early 20th century, so the resistant Cavendish took its place in the industry; however, now the Tropical Race 4 variant (TR4) has crumbled the Cavendish’s resistance.
The deadliness of TR4 has only been heightened by the monoculture system of the banana industry. Since nearly every banana sold commercially is the Cavendish, a variant without seeds for easier consumption, Cavendish bananas must be propagated from existing growths causing them to be near genetic copies of one another. This small gene pool decreases the Cavendish’s resistance to diseases like TR4 and once one banana plant is affected, it can easily spread to other batches and destroy new ones.
Stop the Spread!
Can the Cavendish banana be saved or will it fall to the same fate as its predecessor, Big Mike? There have been a couple of attempts to solve the issue at hand with varying degrees of success:
Genetically Modified Cavendish: In 2019, Dr. James Dale successfully modified a batch of Cavendish bananas with a gene from a TR4-resistant banana. However, the fear and bans of GMOs in many countries has kept this from becoming an appealing solution.
Breeding Cavendish with resistant bananas: KeyGene has been attempting to traditionally breed a Cavendish with a resistant banana to try to get around the GMO dilemma. However, these resistant bananas tend to be inedible ones full of seeds, and through traditional breeding, it is difficult to get the exact results desired to produce a delicious yet TR4 disease-resistant banana.
Diversify the banana industry: Breaking free of monoculture to grow and sell multiple kinds of bananas would make it much more difficult for an entire breed to be fully wiped out like Big Mike was. However, the banana industry is completely modeled around monoculture and to change this would need a large sum of money and structural alterations that companies are not willing to make at this moment.
Biosecurity protocol: This is the one solution currently being used by most banana farms. Areas where an affected plant has been identified will be zoned off and destroyed. Workers must also walk along cement paths and utilize foot and car tire washing areas to try to diminish possible contaminated soil tracking to other locations. These measures have been working so far as to slow the spread of TR4.
There is still a lot of uncertainty with the Cavendish banana’s future, and one day, you might not be able to taste it again. Cherish each banana you eat because just like you, they’re surviving through a pandemic right now too!
Citations
Abby Narishkin, S. C. (2021, July 29). Why the world’s favorite banana may go extinct, and how scientists are trying to save it. Business Insider. https://www.businessinsider.com/cavendish-banana-may-go-extinct-disease-2021-6#:~:text=Similar%20to%20humans%2C%20bananas%20are,the%20%2425%20billion%20banana%20industry.
Kambhampaty, A. P. (2019, November 18). What we can learn from the near-extinction of bananas. Time. https://time.com/5730790/banana-panama-disease/
