what should you doo? Just poop.

Poop is what you should doo.

In other parts of the world, biosolids (human waste) from sewage treatment plants are treated and used as sustainable agricultural fertilizer. Research the pros and cons of this method and take a stand as to whether this can be a realistic alternative to our current agricultural practices. Who are the potential stakeholders in this issue? Are we influenced by the western view of human waste as an unsanitary and disgusting nuisance?



Biosolids?! What is it? Well it all starts off when we go to the washroom, if every in the world goes at least once a day that would be A LOT of poop. Where does it go? Well people who have toilets have their move travel to treatment centers where the waste is treated. Although 1.1 billion still have to relieve themselves outside 8 out of ten of them in ten countries have sanitary issues and contaminated water according to UN children’s fund (UNICEF) and World Health Organization (WHO).



There are so many different ways to solve this situation, for example we use cow manure as fertilizer, and we can also use our own poop for fertilizer with a product called PeePoo. The product is a bag that is extremely cheap and feasible even for the poorest countries. The Product works by using it as a toilet and then burying it into the ground. Not only does it keep your water sources from becoming contaminated but the bag is made from recycled material and is biodegradable.

That is only one of the ways we can use Biosolids to our advantage. Another ways to recycle Biosolids is by making pots :). As crazy as it sounds even Mike Rowe from dirty jobs has investigated it. He went to a dairy farm where the cow poop is recycled and made into dry pots that can be used for indoor plants or outdoor plants. Why pots you ask? Well know that cow poop is biodegradable when you plant it outside it acts as a fertilizer that gives the plant enriched nutrients. These pots are being sold for 50 cents each, and the common plastic pot is 25 cents each, the Poo Pot provides nutrients which increases speed of growth. To me that is an extra 25 cents well spent.



These are happening in many different countries what is Canada doing? More specifically what is Toronto doing? Well Toronto Zoo is actually installing a large scale anaerobic digester on their ground. They will use waste to power a methane generator. What is anaerobic digestion? Well it work by putting organic waste, our case, you would put poop into a container with no oxygen along with bacteria that love the absence of oxygen. Then a bacterium then feasts on the waste and the metabolic by product is methane gas which can be treated as natural gas to power a generator. To run a 4 Megawatt digester it would take 80000 tonnes of waste but this is 4 times the energy to power the zoo, so essentially only 20000 tonnes will be needed to power the zoo every year. Currently the Zoo produces 2500 to 3000 tonnes of organic waste; this is 12.5 – 15% of the amount of energy the zoo uses. Although this project is still in process, it has been done in India, China, Sri Lanka, Netherlands and Germany. Germany seems to have the most success because 17% of their electricity is generated through anaerobic digestion.



When you have poop what do you do anaerobic digest it CHYEAH!



I now conclude that there are so many ways to recycle and reuse Biosolids, instead of doing the usual cleans we can actually harvest energy, keep the environments of even developing countries a lot cleaner and even poo pots in our own gardens ( just don’t tell your mom it’s made out of poo :P). I have learned a lot from this research and I am sure you will all enjoy doing so yourselves. Our world is developing so much and if we take advantage of our environmentally friendly way we can ultimately make a better earth. When even feces can make a difference, that is even more encouragement to make a cleaner environment. The stakeholders would the people who make the poo pots, peepoo, and the owners of the methane generators. Ultimately the world is benefiting from this and its getting the most out of our resourcefulness.





http://www.irinnews.org/report.aspx?ReportID=88504

http://www.peepoople.com/showpage.php?page=3_0

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3QvUBkVfHZM

http://network.nationalpost.com/np/blogs/toronto/archive/2008/11/19/the-power-of-toronto-zoo-poo.aspx

Frankenstein did it too!!!

Frankenstein did it too!!!


Yes sir Frankenstein did it too, he came to life when they shocked back through his artificial neck bolts xD. But actually, everyday technology is getting more advanced and our lives benefit from them, from the things we want to the things we need. Our world is becoming more dependent on wants then needs from our expensive iPods to our fast food habits to our laziness and non active lifestyle. What do we need most? (No, the answer isn’t love) realistically, it is our bodies and for them to be healthy.

One of the most important parts of our body is our circulatory system, it regulates the blood flow throughout our body and it is pretty much the engine of our body. Canada reduced deaths from 584 per 100,000 population in 1960 to an estimated 149 in 2006.

What can possibly go wrong with your circulatory system? You could be the healthiest person in the world, you could be eating right and exercising on the regular but if you’re not the hygienic type then, you could be in serious danger if you simply don’t brush your teeth. Sure you may think brushing your teeth is simply cleaning your teeth but it also prevents you from getting plaque build up in your arteries, and slows your blood flow. Add stress and high blood pressure to the equation and you got yourself fatal heart attack. Although people only realize they have a clogged artery after a heart attack, they also soon realize there are ways to treat it. Thanks to technology we have developed an operation that opens the artery through angioplasty. The first balloon angioplasty was performed interpretatively during bypass surgery in May, 1977 in St. Mary's Hospital in San Francisco, California. On September 16, 1977 German surgeon Andreas Gruentzig (1939-85) performed the operation on an unsedated 37-year-old insurance salesman in Zurich, Switzerland.

My father had the exact same situation, during the operation the sedated him and inserted a tube in my father’s leg with a little balloon on the end with a stent (kind of like a metal fence) around it. This tube then travels the vein in his leg into his artery. The balloon is then placed between the clogged arteries and then it inflates and the stent is fits to the walls opening the artery. The tube is then removed and over time cells will grow over the stent which makes it perfectly normal.

Now how ‘bout them digestive systems?!?
Biotechnology is probably not as pretty in the digestive system but it is definitely needed. Let’s move onto our next topic the endoscope.

Endoscopy is a procedure that is used to examine the inside of a person's body using a device known as an endoscope. It is a medical device consisting of a long, thin, flexible tube which has a light and a video camera at the end. Doctors use an endoscope to examine the interior surfaces of an organ or tissues. The images of the inside of the patient's body can be seen on a screen, and the entire procedure is usually recorded so that doctors can check it again.

The first endoscope, of a kind, was developed in 1806 by Philip Bozzini with his introduction of a "Lichtleiter" for the examinations of the canals and cavities of the human body. But the endoscope was only introduced into a human in 1822 by William Beaumont.
The endoscope later evolved into the commonly used endoscopes of today that can even be fitted with certain mechanisms enabling biopsies and the retrieval of foreign objects. Many different types of endoscopes have been developed that are used to examine everything from the colon to the inside of the nose and even the lungs and other structures in the chest cavity. The endoscope is a non-invasive alternative to surgery and is a useful medical tool to help us see and thus better understand the interior cavities of the body.

If tubes aren’t your thing then giant pills are!


A capsule endoscopy involves swallowing a pill about the same size as a multi-vitamin that has a camera attached to it. The patient swallows this pill which wirelessly sends images of inside their digestive system. Of course then you have to make it exit your system which will be pretty disgusting!

Basically Biotechnology is the reason many people can still live today and with further research continuing we will have a lot less worries to think about. Thanks to angioplasty my dad’s life was saved and if I could I would thank Andreas Gruentzig personally, but that is physically impossible. Biotechnology is working wonders on people and we should be grateful for it.


PEACE!






http://www.conferenceboard.ca/hcp/details/health/mortality-circulatory-diseases.aspx
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Angioplasty
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Endoscope#History
http://laparoscopy.blogs.com/endoscopyhistory/chapter_6/index.html
http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/153737.php

Which ones should we save for the future?

Artificial selection has resulted in plants that are more disease-resistant, cows that produce more milk, and race horses that run faster. One must wonder what will come next. In the blog entry answer the following question- under what circumstances should humans be artificially selecting plants or animals, if any?


What is artificial selection?

Artificial selection , also known as selective breeding is when humans intervene and intentionally breed differential organisms so when combined together with their variation of traits , they can produce a new generation that can survive better in their environment.

Charles Darwin was the man who began study on natural selection and that organisms reproduce and pass on certain traits in order to improve or become successive in their survivability. There for the next generation will survive and the species will continue to evolve.
Say if there was a deer that could run fast a one could run slow, the survivability of the fast running deer would be higher because it can out run its predators. If they didn’t adapt the deer would die eventually and ruin the food chain and without one of the main organisms in the food chain then , food chain would collapse. So these two deer were to mate , and give birth to a number a deer the slow deer would eventually be hunted off and the fast deer would continue to reproduce and evolve to a faster species that will adapt better to the environment and SURVIVE!

Beneficial aspects

There are many beneficial aspects. Firstly relate to the topic of endangered animals.
Animals that can’t survive well due to being over powered by the food chain or the environment can be saved and re-grow in numbers if artificial selection intervened. Then they can have stronger immune systems and continue to evolve. Secondly if it we need the species for medical reasons, it can save many lives and will provide more resources.

Artificial selection in our society.

Bovine spongiform encephalopathy (BSE), commonly known as mad-cow disease (MCD) was a disease that was spread immensely in the 80’s and it still takes lives today. People were told to avoid all beef products and restaurants we could have stopped it earlier on when there was only a few cattle with the disease , now there are so many that are infected that it is close to impossible to get eliminate them completely. Mad cow disease took nearly 200,000 lives which could have been prevented. We COULD have given them traits to resist the disease and slowed the spreading process.



Why should we save plants that we have no use for?



We may not have uses for them now but as many diseases and outbreaks come up, we need more cures and these plants may be the resources for such cures that is why it is important we save these plants especially if it is earliest ancestor for several other species of plants.

Is it moral? Is it right?



This could be seen in many possible perspectives, the beneficial view is that species can survive and evolve and the negative view is it going against Mother Nature and also for personal benefit.
It is only right to save animals and plants from becoming extinct because they are important in the development of our earth.
When we use artificial selection to make our horses run faster to bet in races and our pigs that grow to massive sizes and chickens that produce eggs faster, it is wrong because we use it to mass produce and sell more products. I believe that there should be a balance and a limit. We should only breed animals and plants for beneficial purposes and to provide for us and sustain life of the wild. Good things can come from nothing such as the mustard plant that evolved into many vegetables we eat today.



How will this affect the future?

What will happen? As I asked in my designer baby bio blog , I asked how far will this go. Will we make hybrids in order to save an essential species? In that case is it right? And would we push it to make human hybrids? HOW FAR WILL YOU GO ?

Conclusion

In conclusion I believe artificial selection is needed because it can save species, from their environment, the food chain, medical reasons and essentially survival. BUT it must be done in moderation because we can’t just use it for commercial success like in sport animals and restaurants that you artificially selected animals. My final opinion is that Artificial selection is needed and that is helpful to our society but ONLY if we control the use of it. So in the future how far are we willing to push our morals to benefit ourselves.



Sources:
http://images.google.ca/imgres?imgurl=http://campus.udayton.edu/~INSS/Dillon230/WebUNIT-III/2ArtificialSelection-cabbage_files/image002.gif&imgrefurl=http://campus.udayton.edu/~INSS/Dillon230/WebUNIT-III/2ArtificialSelection-cabbage.htm&usg=__KjtJ8f30pjGTTCpk1OkKcoe0HtA=&h=333&w=466&sz=59&hl=en&start=5&um=1&itbs=1&tbnid=ZvOR0Je7OO9ZdM:&tbnh=91&tbnw=128&prev=/images%3Fq%3Dartificial%2Bselection%26um%3D1%26hl%3Den%26safe%3Dactive%26sa%3DN%26rlz%3D1R2SKPB_enCA360%26tbs%3Disch:1

- http://www2.visalia.k12.ca.us/eldiamante/science/biology/taters/taters_images/horse.gif |

- http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Artificial_selection

- http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Charles_Darwin

- http://www.thefreedictionary.com/artificial+selection

- http://www.treehugger.com/blue-agave-tequila-plant.jpg

- http://www.3dartspace.com/images/stories/Galleries/main/downloads/600_mother_nature.jpg

- http://dogownership.org/myPictures/MadCowMomentCommentary.jpg

- http://students.ou.edu/Y/Jason.S.Yousif-1/MedicineSymbol_Image2.jpg

-http://www.strangescience.net/pics/ev_pigeons.jpg

Designer Babies

Can we have a perfect baby? Maybe even a new generation of Einstein’s?






“designer babies” is the term being used by the media to describe the future of modifying or selecting our children’s genes for desirable characteristics(medical and cosmetics).Are things getting out of hand with research into genetics processes? In this blog investigate social and ethnical implications of this research and technologies that have been developed form it.


What is a designer baby? It’s what the media names this futuristic technology we call genetic modification. What exactly does this mean? This mean we can choose the traits of our child we can choose their gender and pick certain traits we want and don’t want from their parents. Also we can enhance their genes by adding traits.

PGD
A process called Pre-implantation Genetic Diagnosis is done to screen embryos for diseases and defects. This allows doctors to choose embryos that do not have anything wrong with them and choose the cosmetic expectations of the parents and implant them back into the mother’s womb, resulting in a healthy desired baby. Gene therapy is a procedure which allows defective genes to be replaced by those that are healthier so that genetic disorders can be cured. It is only legal to do this on grown children and adults. Germ line therapy is another procedure where DNA of an egg, sperm or embryo that is defective is replaced by healthy DNA. At the moment, germ line therapy has only been tested out on animals but is illegal to have this done on humans.

Requirements:
The requirements to make such baby will take two parents to produce eggs and sperm and scientist will examine the embryos and will determine whether which baby is a boy or girl, which will have blue eyes or green eyes. You then pick out the traits you also don’t want in your child, say if one side of the family had skitzo or genetic obesity. Now on financial terms to modify your baby, it will cost roughly around 20,000 dollars. WOW! That is expensive but that is also what some parents would have to pay yearly for that child’s university, so why not pay 20,000 more to ensure that your child had an advantage. Obviously this is according to parents who can afford to pay for such procedures and so dividing the rich and poor rather the naturals and the biologically enhanced. I doubt even Canada’s free medical plan will cover that.

Is it fair?


All the more fortunate people with money can afford to pay for these big operations and have their child at a greater advantage over other children. What about all the kids that were natural born will they have to rely on pure to talent just to compete with the rest of the kids. Or will there be a divide between genetically modified children and natural born children. Will the standards change in school for your grades? How much will the government have to pay to make adjustments to this new generation of modified children? Will this be the future of our kind.

That these children with greater knowledge had advantage over everyone, or a strength far greater than any other, and what about the glory of having talent?. Will we have a generation filled with hockey players like Wayne Gretzky, basketball players like Lebron James, and runners like usain bolt. This seems more relevant to guys but this will effect girls significantly too, there will be too many pretty girls ( OH NO :p ) so they will have a lot more competition in high school and professionally as well ,such as someone who wanted to become an actress or a model.


Is it moral?


Religions all around the world would be disturbed by these operations of modifying your baby. Many believe that we humans should not tamper with god’s work and that tampering with babies will make things uneven.

Media
The media will look target all the pros to this situation, because your child will never have a disease that has been in the family and it will have the advantages medically, cosmetically, and maybe even intellectually. This is will result in further research development into designer babies and maybe we will go beyond that. We might even become hybrids.
This has been displayed in the new movie AVATAR. Where humans find a new planet and they combine human and alien DNA to create an avatar, who will interact the similar looking savage beasts.



This kind of technology is possible, with further years of research, we may be an entirely different species, and why? Because we started it with these designer babies.

In Conclusion
Designer babies, will be definitely a consideration, for many parents that have diseases and malformalities that they could pass on to their child, they might take the risk to follow through with the procedure. Although other parents with perfectly fine history might not risk it do to the risk of birth defects. Since we have information on what will happen during the child’s life , we will have to wait till there is more research put into “Designer Babies”, if there is a designer baby that lives a long life and doesn’t have and malformalities, then we will know if it is safe or not, but until then you got two options save up or forget it.


sources:

http://thetalentcode.com/wp-content/uploads/einstein_baby.jpg
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Preimplantation_genetic_diagnosis
http://news-libraries.mit.edu/blog/wp-content/uploads/2008/01/money.jpg
http://www.obgyn.net/Frontiers_In_Reproductive_Medicine/images/PGD.gif
http://www.mindcipher.net/puzzle_pictures/0000/0002/ist2_366762-balanced-brass-scale.jpg
http://branthansen.typepad.com/.a/6a00d8341cae3d53ef0120a6443877970b-500wi
http://www.indiemoviesonline.com/files/editorspics/avatar-jake.jpg
http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,989987,00.html
https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjjd728muduczNgDq_r-p31AwAUB0ODjm7y3_TXFnMkcIaU-YsZBzdCncInwNhcO4nmVdbUkq4Gk42xyLe8qn0l0wSi6rRRlQJ18z-2XjOf7UTpzPgUJ0bBfxr6qUZ2eZ5u0t8K1C_9_tVb/s400/Sepia.jpg