This Saturday in Underwater Science

Photo stolen from NPR

The Blob Fish.
Yuck.

Well we had a choice as we prepared this week's science entry and Mercury Police Reporter Caroline Sweeney made the decision.

Caroline Sweeney

(She hates this photo)

Offered science news about space or about water, she chose water and so don't blame us if you find this post to be all wet, or you're grossed out by the picture posted above.

It's there to grab your attention.

And so we begin with something truly ugly -- so ugly in fact that it has actually been voted most ugly by the Ugly Animal Preservation Society.

There really is such a thing.

Who knew?

Anyway, for reasons clear only to them, the society decided to hold an on-line contest to determine the world's ugliest animal and the blob fish, a native of very deep waters off Australia, won for obvious reasons.

Our thanks(?) to National Public Radio's web site for bringing it to our attention.

Seriously, yuck.

Graphic stolen from the Washington Post

While we're spending time on things you may find in deep water, we bring you now to the world's largest volcano which is, you guessed it, deep underwater.

Called "Tamu Massif," it too lives in the deep waters of the Pacific Ocean and was only recently discovered, according to this article in The Washington Post.

And, in case you were wondering why the word "massif" is in its name, it's because its friggin MASSIVE.

Up until now, Mauna Loa, one of the five volcanoes that comprises the big island of Hawaii, was the world's largest.

But Tamu Massif has a footprint the size of New Mexico!

Tamu, by the way, is an abbreviation for Texas A. & M. University, the home school of the scientists who discovered it. Figures, its discovered by Texans, who are always bragging about how everything in Texas is big.

"The area covered by the newly discovered volcano rivals the biggest volcano in the solar system, Olympus Mons on Mars," the Post reported. (See how I snuck a little space reference in there anyway?)

"Olympus Mons is the 800-pound gorilla of the solar system," said geophysicist William W. Sager of the University of Houston, the study’s lead author. "We didn’t know these massive volcanoes were here on Earth."

However, before we get all braggy about it, turns out Tamu is broad, but short.

Although Tamu Massif has a gigantic footprint, it is relatively short compared with Olympus Mons. The newly discovered volcano rises only a few miles above the seafloor, while the Martian mountain rises 16 miles at its peak.

Most importantly, scientists say there is little chance it will erupt.

Having visited ugly fish, let's visit some dead fish, thousands of them.

A resident of Wuhan, China, cleared dead fish from the Fu River

They were killed in a river in China because they had the misfortune of being downstream of a chemical plant there.

"Environmental protection officials said tests on water taken from the Fu River upstream from the metropolis of Wuhan revealed that extremely high levels of ammonia in the water were caused by pollution from a plant owned by the Hubei Shuanghuan Science and Technology Company," The New York Times reported in this Sept. 4 article.

The plant produces sodium carbonate, used in making glass, and ammonium chloride for fertilizer, according to local news media reports. It has been cited for environmental violations four times since 2008, said Ma Jun, director of the Institute of Public and Environmental Affairs, a Chinese nongovernmental organization that tracks air and water pollution.

The Fu River flows into the Yangtze, China’s longest river and the source of drinking water for millions. Spills into the Yangtze and its tributaries remain a continuing problem despite huge investments in reducing pollution, Mr. Ma said.

China’s Ministry of Environmental Protection said water pollution was a serious concern, with industrial spills, farm runoff and untreated sewage all factors in degrading water quality. As of last year, nearly a third of the sections of major rivers it monitored were so degraded that the water was unfit for human contact, the ministry said in its annual State of Environmental Quality report, released in June.

Now, just in case you're shaking your head thinking that China needs to get its act together  before it pollutes all its drinking water, we would warn you to look in the mirror first.

A drilling rig used to extract natural gas from the Marcellus Shale in Washington County, Pa. (The Associated Press)

Two years ago, The New York Times revealed that conventional wastewater treatment plants are poorly equipped to deal with the often toxic outflow from Marcellus shale drilling operations.

But in June, as reported by NPR's State Impact team, the state’s Independent Regulatory Review Commission, approved new water quality standards for pollutants like strontium. But chloride and sulfates were not included in the more than 100-page revision.

Prepare to be shocked, but apparently the industries that would have been affected by the regulation didn't want it. And so, it didn't happen.

Pennsylvania’s Department of Environmental Protection had originally proposed adding

chloride, sulfates, and a chemical known as molybdenum, to the state’s water quality standards.

But opposition came from miners of molybdenum, the coal industry, and the natural gas industry. Coal mining, along with other industries, generates sulfate discharges. Molybdenum is a heavy metal mined for use in steel and cast iron.

Despite efforts by environmental groups concerned about increased natural gas drilling activity, and resulting discharges of chloride, the DEP withdrew the chloride from the original proposal.

In 2011, the gas drilling industry agreed to stop sending its wastewater to the plants, but apparently (who knows how....) some of the pollutants are ending up in rivers and streams in Pennsylvania anyway.

Most conventional sewage treatment plants, like this one in
McKeesport, cannot handle wastewater from
natural gas 'fracking.'

And even though the gas industry in Pennsylvania says it operates in "zero discharge mode," it nonetheless opposed the regulations that should have had no effect on its operations. Hmmmmm.

As State Impact's Susan Phillips reported, "that wastewater has a high salt content. In it’s original proposal, DEP pointed to increased oil and gas production as a reason to establish standards for chloride, describing its potential impacts on aquatic life."

The Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection wrote "freshwater fish and aquatic communities cannot survive in elevated concentrations of chlorides. Maintaining a proper salt-to-water balance in a fresh water environment challenges most aquatic life and, in particular, aquatic insects."

But maybe there's hope still in Pennsylvania.

The on-line version of the Harrisburg Patriot-News reported Thursday that: "Attorney General Kathleen Kane on Tuesday afternoon filed criminal charges against a Pennsylvania subsidiary of ExxonMobil for illegally discharging more than 50,000 gallons of toxic wastewater from a Marcellus Shale gas well site in Penn Township, Lycoming County.
"

One can't help but wonder if former attorney general Tom Corbett, who has received thousands in campaign contributions from this industry, would have made that case.... 


But before we get all conspiracy theory on you, let's not forget that sometimes we are a danger to aquatic life just because we're stupid.

Hawaii News Now - KGMB and KHNL

Case in point, NPR reported Thursday that 233,000 gallons of molasses that were spilled into Honolulu harbor on Monday, literally killing everything.

KGMB TV sent diver Roger White into the water to see what's happened to sea creatures there. He shot video and came back to say that:

"It was shocking because the entire bottom is covered with dead fish. Small fish, crabs, mole crabs, eels. Every type of fish that you don't usually see, but now they're dead. Now they're just laying there. Every single thing is dead. We're talking in the hundreds, thousands. I didn't see one single living thing underwater."

Why is the molasses causing so much damage? In an earlier report, Hawaii News Now:

A crab suffocated from a massive molasses spill in
Honolulu harbor.

"... did an experiment to see why molasses is so hazardous to fish. When we poured store bought Molasses into a vase of water we collected from Keehi Lagoon, the concentrated sugary substance went straight to the bottom.

"Unlike an oil spill, which can be cleaned by skimming the surface, the molasses quickly disperses to the deepest points. 'It's sucking up all the oxygen,' explained [state reef biologist Dave] Gulko. 'There's no oxygen at depth so the animals that need it can't get it and are suffocating.' "

You can see why its called a "Snakehead."

And, because no scientific post involving water on this blog is complete without news of our favorite "Frankenfish," we bring you now the latest news of the Snakehead, an invasive fish from China that, according to some stories, can do everything but advanced algebra.

In addition to being a voracious predator that can crowd out indigenous species, now, it turns out, it can also carry diseases that will kill its competitors but leave the Snakehead feeling dandy.

Last month, the Washington Post reported on an announcement from "the U.S. Geological Survey that Northern snakeheads in the Potomac River have apparently contracted a virus that is known to cause massive kills among largemouth bass."

It is possible that snakeheads could be reservoirs of the virus and pass it to bass throughout the Chesapeake Bay watershed.

So far, the virus has been detected in bass, sunfish and other species, the USGS said, but only largemouth bass have developed a disease as a result. Most bass who contract it are otherwise fine, but some have trouble submerging and are forced to float on the surface.

Mirror Mirror on the Mountain

"What's this?" you scream as you read the headline.

"Where is my beloved This Saturday in Science? It's Saturday!"

Relax oh excitable reader, it's right here in front of your nose.

We begin this week's session with a Norwegian town where placing mirrors on mountains has more to do with human mental and physiological health than with vainglorious mountains.

According to this July 19 article in Time, the mirrors are necessary to give the people of Rjukan access to sunlight, which, for five months each year, refuses to shine into the deep valley where their city is located.

A solar-powered sensor tracks the path of the sun and ensures the town is always soaked in natural light. Helicopters installed the mirrors earlier this month, and the first tests will begin in September.

In case you're wondering why we need sunlight, allow the folks at Scientific American to explain it:

The association between darkness and depression is well established. Now a March study in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences reveals for the first time the profound changes that light deprivation causes in the brain.

25

Neuroscientists at the University of Pennsylvania kept rats in the dark for six weeks. The animals not only exhibited depressive behavior but also suffered damage in brain regions known to be underactive in humans during depression. The researchers observed neurons that produce norepi­nephrine, dopamine and serotonin—common neurotransmitters involved in emotion, pleasure and cognition—in the process of dying. This neuronal death, which was accompanied in some areas by compromised synaptic connections, may be the mechanism underlying the darkness-related blues of seasonal affective disorder.

We move on now to another chapter in the sunlight department, all the way over to China in fact.

There, we find, that unlike in the (Drill Baby Drill!) United States, China is taking advantage of low prices in the solar equipment market to go on a buying spree.

This, thanks to Grist and Reuters:

The government has announced plans to add 10 gigawatts of solar capacity each year for three years. That would take advantage of cheap prices and help the country’s manufacturers move product in a difficult market. From Reuters:

China aims to more than quadruple solar power generating capacity to 35 gigawatts by 2015 in an apparent bid to ease a massive glut in the domestic solar panel industry.

Speaking of energy policy, we all know (or at least we hope you know) that the use of fossil fuels is doing nothing good for the environment.

In addition to being a driver of climate change, the oil and gas industry is now the target of a lawsuit that charges the drilling and dredging the industry requires has left New Orleans less protected from natural disasters.

(Can you say "Katrina?")

According to the on-line Louisiana publication called The Lens, the Southeast Louisiana Flood Protection Authority has filed a suit against more than 100 oil and gas companies for contributing to the disappearance of Louisiana’s wetlands. The lawsuit argues that decades of drilling, dredging and extracting has destroyed wetlands that once provided a cushion against hurricane storm surge.

The area in red shows the wetlands that have been lost.

Three New Orleans-area law firms spent thousands of hours researching how to do something that many have talked about, but never tried — hold oil and gas companies accountable for increasing the flood risk to the metro area by destroying coastal wetlands.

The Flood Protection Authority claims that decades of drilling, dredging and extraction destroyed wetlands that once provided a cushion against hurricane storm surge. With that cushion reduced, storm surge has increased in the parishes under its jurisdiction, leading to a higher risk of flooding.

As a result, the Flood Protection Authority says it has to spend more to protect people and property in the metro area.

Good luck on that one fellas.

Is he using sound waves?

And finally, everyone knows that sound can move objects -- like when you get up out of your chair to tell your teenager to "TURN THAT DOWN!" even though you swore you would never do that....

Well know, instead of just knocking that half-empty beer off the stereo speaker, sound may be used to move objects on a more constructive way.

As The Washington Post reported in July, scientists in Switzerland have managed to perform a number of controlled operations using only soundwaves as the energy source.

The breakthrough in acoustic levitation will allow scientists to unlock “a huge amount of applications for this very powerful method,” including in pharmaceutical and electronics manufacturing, said author and mechanical engineer Dimos Poulikakos of ETH Zurich, a science and technology university in Switzerland.

Poulikakos’s team performed a number of midair experiments, such as combining water droplets or chemical solutions, inserting DNA into cells and even making a tiny portion of instant coffee. They also levitated a wooden toothpick — something that had never been done before — while rotating it and moving it forward and backward.

Sound waves exert pressure when they hit a surface, but the effects are usually too small to notice. But if the intensity is cranked up high enough, sound has the ability to counteract the effects of gravity.

Poulikakos and his colleagues used levels of about 160 decibels; that’s louder than

standing near a rocket launch and is enough to rupture a human eardrum. But they were able to work without ear protection.

They took advantage of the fact that the frequency of sound — the physical property that gives it a pitch — also matters. Using 24,000 hertz (Hz), a level comparable to a dog whistle, they were unaffected by the noise. The upper range of human hearing is about 20,000 Hz.

Their levitation device looks something like a chessboard, with each penny-size square emitting its own sound. A large, clear plastic plate is placed a small distance above the chessboard to reflect the sound; if the sounds waves are strong enough, objects can hover and move around within the space.

We've all heard about "mag-lev" trains, levitating trains through magnetism and allowing them to move friction free. Now, it SOUNDS like there may be another method....

(Did you get it? "Sounds like.." I crack myself up....)

Chinese Prostitutes?!? Let the Dirty Campaign Tricks Begin

Chinese prostitutes, soliciting votes ... or something else?!?

Understand, Jim Gerlach and I have our differences, but I feel confident in saying he's not taking money from Chinese prostitutes.


The 6th District Republican, who has battled through three tough reelection races by the slimmest margins in the country to keep his seat, is a regular target of the folks over at the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee.

After all, it's their job is to unseat him and replace him with one of their own.

As a result, I get at least one e-mail a week from them, tying Jim to every reprehensible thing that every House Republican has ever done since the dawn of time.

But the one that arrived July 2 was so far over the line, I couldn't believe it. I thought maybe in came from The Onion.

I mean we've just come off one of the most patriotic holidays on the calendar, feeling good about our country when -- WHAM! -- the DCCC comes out with something so slimy, I feel like I need another shower before I can say the word "democracy" in mixed company.

Sheldon Adelson

It all starts here, where the DCCC extrapolates to the nth degree on a couple of news reports about a rich guy you've never heard of named Sheldon Adelson.

To be sure, he's rich. Really rich.

He's a big business magnate type, casino billionaire, and, according to Wikipedia, the "chairman and chief executive officer of the Las Vegas Sands Corporation, the parent company of Venetian Macao Limited which operates The Venetian Resort Hotel Casino and the Sands Expo and Convention Center. He also owns the Israeli daily newspaper Israel HaYom. He is listed in the Forbes 400 as the eighth wealthiest American. His personal wealth is estimated to be $24.9 billion as of March 2012."

Venetian Macao is the largest single structure hotel building in Asia.
There was no information available about how many Chinese
prostitutes it can hold, but I'm guessing a lot. It could also hold a lot of
DCCC staffers. Right now, I'm not seeing much difference.

And, according to CBS News, he and his wife "are the single largest donors - $25 million and counting - to what are known as "super PACs," which disclose all of their donations to the Federal Election Commission.

Adelson also reportedly gave $10 million in the last few weeks to Restore Our Future, the super PAC supporting presumptive Republican presidential nominee Mitt Romney." He's also in tight with the Koch brothers.

So you get the picture. He's a right-wing poster boy for the DCCC to take pot shots at.

Well, apparently, according to the Wall Street Journal, one of his ex-executives, in a wrongful termination suit, says Adelson is OK with prostitutes operating in his casino in Macao, China.

I know, you're shocked that prostitutes could be found in casinos. Me too. I'd write my Congressman, but the DCCC tells me he's in on the deal!

Please.

Well all the folks over at the DCCC needed to hear were the phrases "Chinese prostitutes" and "major Republican fund-raiser" and they were off to the races, painting every Congressional Republican as the happy beneficiaries of allowing Chinese ladies of the evening to wander free in the casinos of Macao.


"It’s past time for House Republicans to reject the support of these groups funded by foreign money from a Chinese prostitution strategy," Jesse Ferguson of the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee thundered on the DCCC web site ... presumably with a straight face.

How is this different from half the stuff
Rush Limbaugh says? It isn't.

Me? I would rather have a Rush Limbaugh tweet attributed to me than be quoted saying this garbage.

I guess Jesse Ferguson is made of ... let's just say sterner stuff.

This pablum is then adapted and sent out to the local press corps with the name of the local congressman inserted into the text and headline in the hopes that someone lazy and stupid will run it in their paper.

In some places, maybe it will, which may be the saddest part of this story and an even sadder commentary on my profession.

I briefly contemplated calling Gerlach's office to give them an opportunity to refute this absurd charge, until I realized what an insult it was to even ask them the question.

I might as well ask them where they buried Jimmy Hoffa's body.

People who want to know what's wrong with American democracy, why American voters are so apathetic, need look no further than this.

Want to unseat Jim Gerlach? Try this: Find a better candidate, make a smart case against his votes and positions and convince enough people your candidate is better.

I know it's old fashioned, but hey, we just celebrated Independence Day, a day recognizing the people who gambled their lives and fortunes -- and often lost them -- by signing their name to a document that declared to all the world that a people can determine for themselves how they should be governed.

The DCCC said what?

Throwing scut like this around and calling it political discourse is just reprehensible and, frankly, makes the DCCC look like a ridiculous joke, not a huge leap these days.

Consider their chain of logic:

One person, who was fired, said in a lawsuit against this mega-billionaire who fired him, that the mega-billionaire approved having prostitutes in his casinos; therefore when the mega-billionaire contributes to House Speaker John Boehner's campaign fund and Eric Cantor's campaign fund, he must be using prostitute money; therefore, since that money is going to Republicans, it must be going to all Republicans; therefore, since Jim Gerlach is a Republican, he must be benefiting from Chinese prostitution money.

But just to make sure they don't get sued, the DCCC throws a question mark at the end of the headline, shrugs its proverbial shoulders and says, in essence: "hey, we're just asking the question..."

"What will Congressman Jim Gerlach do when his Chinese prostitution money comes from billionaire Sheldon Adelson?" Ferguson said in the release.

My question is what will Jesse Ferguson do when history uses this as an example of  everything that's wrong with Washington?

Happy freakin' Independence Day everybody.