7/29/2019 Yesterday Evening Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton Was Hospitalized for Treatment and Monitoring of a

1/14

esterday evening Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton was hospitalized for treatment and monitoring of a blood clot. Earlier this mont

5 year old Secretary collapsed and hit her head while suffering from a stomach virus. At that point, she sustained a concussion. This may hav

ntributed to the new problem, according toState Departmentnotices. The location of her blood clot, in terms of what body part is affected,

ot been disclosed.

his is the Secretary and former First Ladys second reported blood clot, orthrombosis. In a previous interview with theNew York Daily News

rs. Clinton related an episode in 1998 when her foot became swollen and painful. It was a time when she was campaigning and frequently

aveling on airplanes. Her doctors diagnosed a blood clot. That is the most significant health scare Ive ever had, she told the Daily News in

ctober, 2007.

he most common kind of blood clot, adeep venous thrombosis, or DVT, tends to arise when flow slows down within a vein, typically in a per

g. Clots arise when platelets and fibrous proteins clump and stick to a vessel wall. This can be a normal, healthy response to trauma wheth

ats a nick upon shaving or surgical incision. In people disposed to DVT, the small clots dont dissolve properly or may form in the absence o

auma. If a clot expands and propagates from below the knee, for example, to a more central position in the body, thats called an embolism.

e most dangerous when and if they spread to arteries in the lungs, causingpulmonary embolism, or to vessels in the brain.

heCDC estimatesthat between 300,000 and 600,000 individuals sustain DVTs and pulmonary embolism in the United States each year, an

at between 60, 000 and 100,000 of those are events are lethal. Some people inherit a disposition to clotting that can be evaluated by blood t

ots are most common in people whove been immobilized, such as after surgery, or are bed-bound with illness. Dehydration compounds the

oach class syndrome refers to the proclivity of some to develop clots upon long-distance travel in a cramped position.

ther risk factors for DVT include some malignancies. Cancer, depending on its position, can impede blood flow from the lower body, promot

asis in the leg veins, or otherwise interfere with clot-dissolving proteins. Some women with autoimmune conditions, like lupus and other

ndromes, may be disposed to clotting in veins or arteries. Some medications pose a risk, too. Those include estrogen-containing oral

ntraceptives and hormone replacement therapy. In general, high-estrogen states dispose to pathologic blood clots. In younger women, the

sposition to blood clotting can manifest during pregnancy.

s far as we know, the cause of Mrs. Clintons blood clot is uncertain. She is in the hospital being treated with blood thinners. Usually people w

ave significant blood clots in a deep vein or artery take an anti-coagulant for a period of months. Until recent years, the standard treatment

volved injections of heparin, or similar blood thinners, followed by Coumadin, an oral anticoagulant that requires frequent blood checks. No

ere are more options for therapy, including heparin-like agents that can be injected at home.

n November 2 of this year, theFDA approvedXarelto (rivaroxaban) for treatment of deep venous thrombosis. This new drug, a pill, works b

hibiting a clotting factor calledXa. While several oral anticoagulants have received approval for prevention of clots in people undergoing su

nd for prevention of strokes in people with disposing heart problems, Xarelto is the first in this new class of drugs that might be prescribed f

eatment of DVT or pulmonary embolism.

efore her recent admission to the hospital, the Secretary of State hadnt said much about what shell do when she exits her official office.Pop

ewsinclude that shell get more rest, exercise, spend time with her family, write a book and, possibly, run for President in 2016. Today, shes

esumably resting and, together with her doctors, sorting out the factors that led to her developing a significant blood clot. Good to know tha

ke any other informed patient, has several treatment options to consider.

pdate: The U.S. State Department issued an update on Mrs. Clintons condition, clarifying that the Secretary of State has a blood clot in a v

ear the inside of the skull, on the right side. According to theirstatement, she has not suffered a stroke or neurological damage.

Will the Pill Mess Up My Ability to Detect My One True Love?

s vacation time for Team Family, as my daughter calls us. While were skating and skiing, enjoy thisrepostfrom my old blog on hormona

ntraceptives and mate choice.

magine you are a single, heterosexual woman. You meet a nice man at the driving range, or on a blind date. You like him and he likes you. Yo

ate, you get engaged, you get married. You decide to have a child together, so you go off the pill. One morning you wake up and look at your

usband, and its like seeing him through new eyes. Who is this stranger you married, and what did you ever see in him?

http://www.state.gov/r/pa/prs/ps/2012/12/202406.htmhttp://www.state.gov/r/pa/prs/ps/2012/12/202406.htmhttp://www.state.gov/r/pa/prs/ps/2012/12/202406.htmhttp://www.nhlbi.nih.gov/health/health-topics/topics/dvt/http://www.nhlbi.nih.gov/health/health-topics/topics/dvt/http://www.nhlbi.nih.gov/health/health-topics/topics/dvt/http://www.nydailynews.com/news/full-transcript-hillary-clinton-interview-article-1.227873http://www.nydailynews.com/news/full-transcript-hillary-clinton-interview-article-1.227873http://www.nhlbi.nih.gov/health/health-topics/topics/dvt/http://www.nhlbi.nih.gov/health/health-topics/topics/dvt/http://www.nhlbi.nih.gov/health/health-topics/topics/dvt/http://www.nlm.nih.gov/medlineplus/pulmonaryembolism.htmlhttp://www.nlm.nih.gov/medlineplus/pulmonaryembolism.htmlhttp://www.nlm.nih.gov/medlineplus/pulmonaryembolism.htmlhttp://www.cdc.gov/ncbddd/dvt/data.htmlhttp://www.cdc.gov/ncbddd/dvt/data.htmlhttp://www.cdc.gov/ncbddd/dvt/data.htmlhttp://www.fda.gov/NewsEvents/Newsroom/PressAnnouncements/ucm326654.htmhttp://www.fda.gov/NewsEvents/Newsroom/PressAnnouncements/ucm326654.htmhttp://www.fda.gov/NewsEvents/Newsroom/PressAnnouncements/ucm326654.htmhttp://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmedhealth/PMHT0012021/?report=detailshttp://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmedhealth/PMHT0012021/?report=detailshttp://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmedhealth/PMHT0012021/?report=detailshttp://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/21250873http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/21250873http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/21250873http://minnesota.publicradio.org/collections/special/columns/todays-question/archive/2012/12/what-should-hillary-clinton-do-next.shtmlhttp://minnesota.publicradio.org/collections/special/columns/todays-question/archive/2012/12/what-should-hillary-clinton-do-next.shtmlhttp://minnesota.publicradio.org/collections/special/columns/todays-question/archive/2012/12/what-should-hillary-clinton-do-next.shtmlhttp://minnesota.publicradio.org/collections/special/columns/todays-question/archive/2012/12/what-should-hillary-clinton-do-next.shtmlhttp://www.state.gov/r/pa/prs/ps/2012/12/202419.htmhttp://www.state.gov/r/pa/prs/ps/2012/12/202419.htmhttp://www.state.gov/r/pa/prs/ps/2012/12/202419.htmhttp://blogs.scientificamerican.com/context-and-variation/2012/12/31/will-the-pill-mess-up-my-ability-to-detect-my-one-true-love/http://blogs.scientificamerican.com/context-and-variation/2012/12/31/will-the-pill-mess-up-my-ability-to-detect-my-one-true-love/http://professorkateclancy.blogspot.com/2011/07/summer-of-pill-will-pill-mess-up-my.htmlhttp://professorkateclancy.blogspot.com/2011/07/summer-of-pill-will-pill-mess-up-my.htmlhttp://professorkateclancy.blogspot.com/2011/07/summer-of-pill-will-pill-mess-up-my.htmlhttp://professorkateclancy.blogspot.com/2011/07/summer-of-pill-will-pill-mess-up-my.htmlhttp://blogs.scientificamerican.com/context-and-variation/2012/12/31/will-the-pill-mess-up-my-ability-to-detect-my-one-true-love/http://www.state.gov/r/pa/prs/ps/2012/12/202419.htmhttp://minnesota.publicradio.org/collections/special/columns/todays-question/archive/2012/12/what-should-hillary-clinton-do-next.shtmlhttp://minnesota.publicradio.org/collections/special/columns/todays-question/archive/2012/12/what-should-hillary-clinton-do-next.shtmlhttp://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/21250873http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmedhealth/PMHT0012021/?report=detailshttp://www.fda.gov/NewsEvents/Newsroom/PressAnnouncements/ucm326654.htmhttp://www.cdc.gov/ncbddd/dvt/data.htmlhttp://www.nlm.nih.gov/medlineplus/pulmonaryembolism.htmlhttp://www.nhlbi.nih.gov/health/health-topics/topics/dvt/http://www.nydailynews.com/news/full-transcript-hillary-clinton-interview-article-1.227873http://www.nhlbi.nih.gov/health/health-topics/topics/dvt/http://www.state.gov/r/pa/prs/ps/2012/12/202406.htm

7/29/2019 Yesterday Evening Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton Was Hospitalized for Treatment and Monitoring of a

2/14

fter an article made the news when it suggested mate preferences change on hormonal contraception, this seemed to be the scenario in the h

many women. Is my pill deceiving me? What if my birth control is making me date the wrong man?

everal articles over the years have demonstrated that women prefer men with more masculine features at midcycle, or ovulation, and more

minine features in less fertile periods. Based on body odor, women and men also often prefer individuals with MHC (major histocompatibil

mplex) that are different from theirs, which may be a way for them to select mates that will give their offspring an immunological advantage

hese findings have been replicated a few times, looking at a few different gendered traits. And as I suggested above, other work has suggested

e birth control pill, which in some ways mimics pregnancy, may mask our natural tendency to make these distinctions and preferences,

garding both masculinity and MHC (Little et al. 2002; Roberts et al. 2008; Wedekind et al. 1995).

n the one hand, I think its both interesting and important to consider the implications of the birth control pill beyond just contraception.

ormones are messages, so any cells that have receptors for these messages, like specialized mailboxes, can receive them. The pill is made of

nthetic versions of estradiol and progesterone, and there are estradiol and progesterone receptors in your brain. And yes, these hormones d

hange your brain, both during the natural cycle and on hormonal contraception;Scicurious has written well on this in the past.

n the other hand, I have a lot of questions: First and most important to me, how does any of this translate to non-straight women? I find the

nstant focus on mate choice between men and women a bit exhausting, and am not sure we can assume non-straight relationships to work

me way. Next, how well do preferences over the cycle map on to actual choices for mates, short term or long term? If we happen to find Brad

ore attractive than Justin Bieber at midcycle, does that mean no one will do but Brad Pitt? And finally, what are all the factors that we need

nsider in mate choice besides a deep voice or square jawline (again, especially if you try to expand your thinking beyond straight relationshi

l start with the last two questions that deal with mate preference versus ultimate mate selection. As you all might expect, women and men ch

ates for lots of reasons, not just masculinity or complementary immune systems. Bereczkei et al (1997) looked at singles ads and found wom

ten sought mates with high parental care. In a separate singles ad evaluation, Pawlowski and Dunbar (1999) found that women mostly selec

en of high resource potential who were interested in long-term relationships (either unlikely to divorce or unlikely to die within twenty year

here men selected women by markers of fecundity (ability to have babies). In a sample of 18-24 year old straight people in the US, Buston an

mlen (2003) found that most people selected mates who had similar characteristics to themselves. And a speed dating sample showed that p

nder those conditions selected dates based on easily observable traits, like physical attractiveness (Kurzban and Weeden 2005).

ow on to the fact that all of this research is on straight people. I found very little on lesbianwomen and the menstrual cycle but what I foun

as very cool! Brinsmead-Stockham et al (2008) found that, like heterosexual women, lesbian women are quicker to identify unknown faces a

idcycle, as long as they were the faces of the sex they preferred. So straight women were good at identifying male faces, lesbian women good

entifying female faces. Burleson et al (2002) found that sexual behavior in lesbian and straight women was mostly similar through the men

cle, with both peaking at midcycle.

o, mate preference may be about telling a research assistant who is the hottest to you at a particular point in your cycle. And it is a fairly robu

nd consistent finding. However, when it comes to ultimate mate selection the most important thing to consider is a great point made by

awlowski and Dunbar: finding a mate is about advertising what you have to offer while making known what you want in a mate. Then its all

bout finding some kind of compromise through a series of trade-offs based on what the individual wants, what they can offer, and whats ava

the dating pool. (So, since neither Brad Pitt nor Justin Bieber are currently in the dating pool, my previous comparison was pointless.)

hose of you who met your mate while on the pill: not to fear. I dont think that the possibility that you may have some suppression of

asculinized preferences at one point in your cycle means youve chosen the wrong person.

ont Talk About Your NewYears Resolutions

s I read the funny pages this morning in the paper, I noticed a running joke: no one keeps their New Years resolutions. There are a million

fferent personal and psychological reasons for thisbut you can use SCIENCE to better understand why you fail, and how to get better at

hieving your goals.

he tip Ive learn thats helped me the most is to NOT TELL ANYONE about what you want to do, at least not point-blank. The act of announc

hat you aim to do to friends and familyand hearing their approvalprovides similar satisfaction to achieving the goal, giving you a premat

http://scientopia.org/blogs/scicurious/2010/10/04/womens-brains-on-steroids-wut/http://scientopia.org/blogs/scicurious/2010/10/04/womens-brains-on-steroids-wut/http://scientopia.org/blogs/scicurious/2010/10/04/womens-brains-on-steroids-wut/http://blogs.scientificamerican.com/culturing-science/2012/12/30/new-years-resolution/http://blogs.scientificamerican.com/culturing-science/2012/12/30/new-years-resolution/http://blogs.scientificamerican.com/culturing-science/2012/12/30/new-years-resolution/http://blogs.scientificamerican.com/culturing-science/2012/12/30/new-years-resolution/http://blogs.scientificamerican.com/culturing-science/2012/12/30/new-years-resolution/http://blogs.scientificamerican.com/culturing-science/2012/12/30/new-years-resolution/http://scientopia.org/blogs/scicurious/2010/10/04/womens-brains-on-steroids-wut/

7/29/2019 Yesterday Evening Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton Was Hospitalized for Treatment and Monitoring of a

3/14

nse of completeness, as noted in a2009 study(PDF). And with your self-satisfaction meter already half-full before you start, the motivation

ork hard is sapped. Essentially, proclaiming your goals at a New Years party can undermine your own efforts from the get-go.

s this tip that actually brought me back from the blogging dead. Over and over I told my friends, family, and editor that I was going to get ba

to blogging, all to no avail. It wasnt until I laid out a plan for myselfstart organizing papers, planning themes, taking notesand told it to B

rd of the blogs, that I was able to actually start blogging again. I didnt share the goal explicitly: instead I shared the steps I would take, thus

elaying my own sense of achievement.

o on December 31st, hold back from sharing your endgoals. If you have to talk, talk about the steps youll take to achieve it.

his, of course, isnt the only insight from psychology that you can use to set and achieve goals, break bad habits, or instill good ones.Eric

arkerof the blogBarking up the Wrong Treehas a great summary of science-based tips for self-improvement.

Moving On

s has been obvious over the latter half of 2012, Im not very active online in blogging anymore. I moved my occupation into real life and

nducted a few training workshops in science communication. As Im crawling over into 2013, I will be yet again taking a new direction in m

ne of many over the last 20 years). The last couple months have been a whirlwind of talking and meetings and Ive been veryfocused on sta

p a new business. A local microbrewery in my new home of Sweden.

ve been brewing many many batches of beer to much great reviews from the locals, who are very supportive and many of whom are well-

nnected to the greater community. Things are moving forward and Im confident in securing in the necessary capital for starting up so I am

e process of shedding off responsibilities and transitioning to life as a brewmaster. There are way too many people to thank for all the help t

ied to give me and the opportunities that I have been given. Obviously Bora and the Scientific American staff and blog community are great

iends and I wish them all well. There is much introspection I could give, it is no secret that Ive struggled with science as a career choice and

uite bitter about many things that have happened to me. But I am too worn out to go into this sort of detail and most people lack the interest

atience to follow along in my story. So, for now I will just say good bye and thanks for reading what Ive written here. I hope it was interestin

ntertaining and worth your time.

Meaning on the Brain: How Your Mind Organizes Reality

hey called him Diogenes the Cynic, because cynic meant dog-like, and he had a habit ofbasking naked on the lawn while his fellow

hilosophers talked on the porch. While they debated the mysteries of the cosmos, Diogenes preferred to soak up some rays some have calle

m theJimmy Buffettof ancient Greece.

nyway, one morning, the great philosopher Plato had a stroke of insight. He caught everyones attention, gathered a crowd around him, and

nnounced his deduction: Man is defined as a hairless, featherless, two-legged animal! Whereupon Diogenes abruptly leaped up from the la

ashed off to the marketplace, and burst back onto the porch carrying a plucked chicken which he held aloft andshouted, Behold: I give yo

an!

m sure Plato was less than thrilled at this stunt, but the story reminds us that these early philosophers were still hammering out the most ba

nets of the science we now know astaxonomy: The grouping of objects from the world into abstract categories. This technique of chopping u

ality wasnt invented in ancient Greece, though. In fact, as a recent study shows, its fundamental to the way our brains work.hunks of reality

t the most basic level, we dont really perceive separate objects at all we perceive our nervous systems responses to a boundless flow of

ectromagnetic waves and biochemical reactions. Our brains slot certain neural response patterns into sensory pathways we call sight, sm

nd so on but abilities likesynesthesiaandecholocationshow that even the boundaries between our senses can be blurry.

ill, our brains are talented at picking out certain chunks of sensory experience and associating those chunks with other stimuli. For instance

ou hear purring and feel fur rubbing against your leg, your brain knows to associate that sound and feeling with the fluffy four-legged object

e at your feet and to group that whole multisensory chunk under the heading of cat.

http://pss.sagepub.com/content/20/5/612.abstracthttp://pss.sagepub.com/content/20/5/612.abstracthttp://pss.sagepub.com/content/20/5/612.abstracthttp://www.psych.nyu.edu/gollwitzer/09_Gollwitzer_Sheeran_Seifert_Michalski_When_Intentions_.pdfhttp://www.psych.nyu.edu/gollwitzer/09_Gollwitzer_Sheeran_Seifert_Michalski_When_Intentions_.pdfhttp://www.psych.nyu.edu/gollwitzer/09_Gollwitzer_Sheeran_Seifert_Michalski_When_Intentions_.pdfhttps://twitter.com/bakadesuyohttps://twitter.com/bakadesuyohttps://twitter.com/bakadesuyohttps://twitter.com/bakadesuyohttp://www.bakadesuyo.com/2012/12/last-damn-thing-new-years-resolutions/http://www.bakadesuyo.com/2012/12/last-damn-thing-new-years-resolutions/http://www.bakadesuyo.com/2012/12/last-damn-thing-new-years-resolutions/http://blogs.scientificamerican.com/evo-eco-lab/2012/12/30/moving-on/http://blogs.scientificamerican.com/evo-eco-lab/2012/12/30/moving-on/http://blogs.scientificamerican.com/guest-blog/2012/12/26/meaning-on-the-brain-how-your-mind-organizes-reality/http://blogs.scientificamerican.com/guest-blog/2012/12/26/meaning-on-the-brain-how-your-mind-organizes-reality/http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Diogenes_of_Sinopehttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Diogenes_of_Sinopehttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Diogenes_of_Sinopehttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jimmy_Buffetthttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jimmy_Buffetthttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jimmy_Buffetthttp://penelope.uchicago.edu/~grout/encyclopaedia_romana/greece/hetairai/diogenes.htmlhttp://penelope.uchicago.edu/~grout/encyclopaedia_romana/greece/hetairai/diogenes.htmlhttp://penelope.uchicago.edu/~grout/encyclopaedia_romana/greece/hetairai/diogenes.htmlhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Taxonomyhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Taxonomyhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Taxonomyhttp://faculty.washington.edu/chudler/syne.htmlhttp://faculty.washington.edu/chudler/syne.htmlhttp://faculty.washington.edu/chudler/syne.htmlhttp://scienceblogs.com/neurophilosophy/2011/05/25/human-echolocation-activates-visual-parts-of-the-brain/http://scienceblogs.com/neurophilosophy/2011/05/25/human-echolocation-activates-visual-parts-of-the-brain/http://scienceblogs.com/neurophilosophy/2011/05/25/human-echolocation-activates-visual-parts-of-the-brain/http://faculty.washington.edu/chudler/syne.htmlhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Taxonomyhttp://penelope.uchicago.edu/~grout/encyclopaedia_romana/greece/hetairai/diogenes.htmlhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jimmy_Buffetthttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Diogenes_of_Sinopehttp://blogs.scientificamerican.com/guest-blog/2012/12/26/meaning-on-the-brain-how-your-mind-organizes-reality/http://blogs.scientificamerican.com/evo-eco-lab/2012/12/30/moving-on/http://www.bakadesuyo.com/2012/12/last-damn-thing-new-years-resolutions/https://twitter.com/bakadesuyohttps://twitter.com/bakadesuyohttp://www.psych.nyu.edu/gollwitzer/09_Gollwitzer_Sheeran_Seifert_Michalski_When_Intentions_.pdfhttp://pss.sagepub.com/content/20/5/612.abstract

7/29/2019 Yesterday Evening Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton Was Hospitalized for Treatment and Monitoring of a

4/14

Whats more, years of cat experience have taught you that it makes no sense to think of a cat as if it were a piece of furniture, or a truck, or a

eather balloon. In other words, an encounter with a cat carries a particular set of meanings for you and those meanings determine which a

your brain will perk up in the presence of a feline.

ut wheres the category cat in the brain? And wheres it situated in relation to, say, dog or giraffe or just mammal? A team of

euroscientists led by Alexander Huth at UC BerkeleysGallant labdecided theyd answer these questions in the most thorough way possible:

pturing brain responses to every kind of object they could dig up.

hunks in the brain

hose Gallant lab folks are no slouches you mightremember themas the lab that constructed mind videos of entire scenes fromneural

tivityin the visual cortex. This time, though, the labs ambitions were even broader.

research team led by Alex Huth showed volunteers hours of video footage of thousands of everyday objects and scenes from cats and bird

rs and thunderstorms as the subjects sat in an fMRI scanner. Then the researchers matched up the volunteers brain activity not only to e

bject they saw, but also to a whole tree of nested object categories: A taxonomy of the brains taxonomy. A vision of a continuous semantic

ace, where thousands of objects and actions are represented in terms of others.

uths team collected volunteers reactions to more than 1,300 objects and categories, and arranged these brain responses not only into a tree

bject and action categories, but into a map of response gradients across the whole surface of the brain.

nd as you can see from the color gradients in that tree diagram to the right (which is also available as aninteractive online app), the relation

mong our brains categories are multidimensional. Objects may be more or less animal-like, more or less man-made, and so on and in

e researchers say they expect to find more subtle response dimensions that gauge an objects size and speed.

ssociation and meaning

l this talk of dimensions of association points back to a far more profound idea about how our brains work: We understand the meaning o

bject in terms of the meanings of other objects other chunks of reality to which our brains have assigned certain characteristics. In the brai

xonomy, there are no discrete entries or files just associations that are more strongly or more weakly correlated with other associations.

nd that idea itself raises deeper quandaries: If associations define what an object or action is, assome neuroscientistshave argued, then w

oes the concept of meaning semantic representation need to enter the picture at all? Instead of being a special type of mental function, m

meaning itself simply be another word for association?

he answer to that question wont be a simple one to find, at least for the foreseeable future. I dont think its possible to make a conclusive cl

bout that from fMRI data, saysJack Gallant, the labs director; and anyone who tells you otherwise is mistaken.

single three-dimensional pixel an fMRIvoxel represents the activity of around one million neurons, Gallant explains; and at that resolu

s impossible to say what exactly the neural activity is encoding. Meaning could depend on association, association might depend on semant

ding, or the relationship between the two might be more nuanced than we can conceive right now.

Whatever that relationship turns out to be, the implication remains: In our brains, meaning and association go hand-in-hand. In the brain, ev

ur most abstract concepts depend on our own real-world experiences. Thats an idea thatsinfuriatedPlato and his followers far more than

iogenes plucked chicken but as Diogenes demonstrated on that long-ago morning, real-world evidence trumps speculation in the end.

limate Model Coverage: Far from Model Journalism

With a less-than-stellar end to the Qatar climate talks, and withall eyes onthe US for more ambitious commitments ahead of the next round,

ore important than ever for the American public to be better educated on the dire implications of a rapidly warming world.

espite a recent shifttoward greater beliefin anthropogenic climate change, perception of its risksremains lowamong the US public.

studypublished in the September issue ofNature Climate Change may help explain why. After analyzing climate coverage in major newspa

nd radio and television shows, the authors find a disproportionately large focus on op-ed and editorial topics in favor of actual explanations

ience. The article concludes that the media not only provides insufficient scientific coverage, but also significantly undermines the reliability

imate models (in all news sources analyzed, almost two times the coverage of climate models was negative vs. positive).

https://sites.google.com/site/gallantlabucb/pictureshttps://sites.google.com/site/gallantlabucb/pictureshttps://sites.google.com/site/gallantlabucb/pictureshttp://www.huffingtonpost.com/ben-thomas/your-mind-on-film_b_1687749.htmlhttp://www.huffingtonpost.com/ben-thomas/your-mind-on-film_b_1687749.htmlhttp://www.huffingtonpost.com/ben-thomas/your-mind-on-film_b_1687749.htmlhttp://www.youtube.com/watch?v=daY7uO0eftAhttp://www.youtube.com/watch?v=daY7uO0eftAhttp://www.youtube.com/watch?v=daY7uO0eftAhttp://www.cell.com/current-biology/abstract/S0960-9822%2811%2900937-7http://www.cell.com/current-biology/abstract/S0960-9822%2811%2900937-7http://www.cell.com/current-biology/abstract/S0960-9822%2811%2900937-7http://www.cell.com/current-biology/abstract/S0960-9822%2811%2900937-7http://gallantlab.org/semanticmovieshttp://gallantlab.org/semanticmovieshttp://gallantlab.org/semanticmovieshttp://blogs.scientificamerican.com/guest-blog/2012/12/26/2012/11/06/whats-so-special-about-mirror-neurons/http://blogs.scientificamerican.com/guest-blog/2012/12/26/2012/11/06/whats-so-special-about-mirror-neurons/http://blogs.scientificamerican.com/guest-blog/2012/12/26/2012/11/06/whats-so-special-about-mirror-neurons/http://neuroscience.berkeley.edu/users/users_profile.php?id=12http://neuroscience.berkeley.edu/users/users_profile.php?id=12http://neuroscience.berkeley.edu/users/users_profile.php?id=12http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Voxelhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Voxelhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Voxelhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Platonic_realismhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Platonic_realismhttp://blogs.scientificamerican.com/guest-blog/2012/12/27/climate-model-coverage-far-from-model-journalism/http://blogs.scientificamerican.com/guest-blog/2012/12/27/climate-model-coverage-far-from-model-journalism/http://news.yahoo.com/climate-talks-achieve-little-countries-watch-us-ahead-235023240.html;_ylt=A2KJ3CbJbM9QvjUA4YrQtDMDhttp://news.yahoo.com/climate-talks-achieve-little-countries-watch-us-ahead-235023240.html;_ylt=A2KJ3CbJbM9QvjUA4YrQtDMDhttp://news.yahoo.com/climate-talks-achieve-little-countries-watch-us-ahead-235023240.html;_ylt=A2KJ3CbJbM9QvjUA4YrQtDMDhttp://www.businessweek.com/news/2012-07-18/record-heat-wave-pushes-u-dot-s-dot-belief-in-climate-change-to-70-percenthttp://www.businessweek.com/news/2012-07-18/record-heat-wave-pushes-u-dot-s-dot-belief-in-climate-change-to-70-percenthttp://www.businessweek.com/news/2012-07-18/record-heat-wave-pushes-u-dot-s-dot-belief-in-climate-change-to-70-percenthttp://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2012/sep/23/america-miasma-misinformation-climate-changehttp://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2012/sep/23/america-miasma-misinformation-climate-changehttp://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2012/sep/23/america-miasma-misinformation-climate-changehttp://www.nature.com/nclimate/journal/v2/n9/full/nclimate1542.htmlhttp://www.nature.com/nclimate/journal/v2/n9/full/nclimate1542.htmlhttp://www.nature.com/nclimate/journal/v2/n9/full/nclimate1542.htmlhttp://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2012/sep/23/america-miasma-misinformation-climate-changehttp://www.businessweek.com/news/2012-07-18/record-heat-wave-pushes-u-dot-s-dot-belief-in-climate-change-to-70-percenthttp://news.yahoo.com/climate-talks-achieve-little-countries-watch-us-ahead-235023240.html;_ylt=A2KJ3CbJbM9QvjUA4YrQtDMDhttp://blogs.scientificamerican.com/guest-blog/2012/12/27/climate-model-coverage-far-from-model-journalism/http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Platonic_realismhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Voxelhttp://neuroscience.berkeley.edu/users/users_profile.php?id=12http://blogs.scientificamerican.com/guest-blog/2012/12/26/2012/11/06/whats-so-special-about-mirror-neurons/http://gallantlab.org/semanticmovieshttp://www.cell.com/current-biology/abstract/S0960-9822%2811%2900937-7http://www.cell.com/current-biology/abstract/S0960-9822%2811%2900937-7http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=daY7uO0eftAhttp://www.huffingtonpost.com/ben-thomas/your-mind-on-film_b_1687749.htmlhttps://sites.google.com/site/gallantlabucb/pictures

7/29/2019 Yesterday Evening Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton Was Hospitalized for Treatment and Monitoring of a

5/14

ather than merely focus on their imprecise nature, the media should take some time to elaborate on the complexity of computer models and

ght on whythey are imprecise, describing what we know along with what we dont know.

eporting should emphasize that simulating the forces that drive climate, such as, ocean circulation and heat exchanges between land, air and

nd their interactions with living ecosystems requires very sophisticated mathematical analysis. Systems of differential equations based on th

ws of physics, fluid movement, and atmospheric chemistry take data from satellite observations, ocean buoys and other environmental

onitoring equipment, which are then solved on supercomputers.

ore importantly, thesemodels entaildividing the Earths atmosphere into hundreds of thousands of grid points and predicting values for va

hysical factors, such as temperature, heat transfer, moisture content, and radiation at each grid point. The temperature at a given grid point

edicted five to 20 minutes at a time, until a projection far in the future, say the year 2100, is reached. Because of the short time-step of just a

inutes (which enables greater accuracy), even a one-year simulation would need to process this calculation tens of thousands of times;accor

the World Meteorological Organization, for just one year, this would require processing 27,000 times for each of the 2.5 million grid points

arth.

imate models areby no means precise. Given their complexity, assumptions and simplifications have to be made to allow even supercompu

generate projections in a reasonable amount of time. Nonetheless, they are rigorously mathematically tested, and data from past years have

liably been able to recreate the Ice Age and volcanic eruptions from past decades.

the general public is given an intricate look at the processes that drive climate and the methods used to predict it, anyone with the ability to

ven a basic problem from middle school physics should begin to comprehend the sheer complexity of these projections. This will, perhaps, d

e notion of climate scientists sitting in their labs and spewing conspiracy theories about a rapidly warming world.

the aftermath of a political campaign where Republican candidates made a mockery of science, outrightly denying evolution, stem cell rese

nd human-induced climate change, it is even more important for the media to step up and defend science instead continuing to insist that th

e two sides to this issue.

he fact that theNature study found that The Rush Limbaugh Showprovided the most explanation of climate models among major news

ublications and programs should be disconcerting enough. More than a third of articles and shows explaining models were also seen to be in

olitical commentary outlets.

revious studies have called for greater transparency on the part of computer modelers in order to increase public trust in modeling.A paper

gues this in theCommunications of the ACMaptly quotes the reasonable person doctrine: information givers should provide enough

formation to takers for reasonable people to make decisions.

ny less information is unacceptable, the authors state, since it does not give users the ability to make informed decisions, and instead forces

place blind faith in the black box that is computer modeling. The general public are users of information with regard to global warming, n

oubt, because they make decisions everyday on energy consumption and carbon footprints: reusable vs. paper vs. plastic bags, energy-efficie

gular bulbs, cars vs. public transportation, and so on and so forth.

While all scientific issues suffer from perfunctory reporting due to lack of time, resources and expertise of journalists, climate change particul

nds itself well to the two sides to every issue narrative, since so much of the research is still preliminary. And when the media encounters a

vent whose conclusion is unknown, it plays a guessing game, trying to predict a possible conclusion and argue for or against it, often based o

tle factual evidence (think presidential elections).

While this kind of coverage is corrosive anywhere, its even more so in the case of scientific stories, where it is important toreport on the

ncertaintyitself rather than using it as a launching pad for pet theories.

nother reason the media gets it wrong is its endless thirst for the sensational, the controversial and the dramatic. Which is why controversie

imate Gate or Rick Perrys belief that global warming is a hoax make it to the front pages time and again.

Want dramatic?

onsiderthis reportingfromBloomberg Businessweek, accompanied by this very explicitcover pagein the aftermath of Superstorm Sandy, w

ok nearly 200 lives and left millions without power on the East Coast:

http://www.research.noaa.gov/climate/t_modeling.htmlhttp://www.research.noaa.gov/climate/t_modeling.htmlhttp://www.research.noaa.gov/climate/t_modeling.htmlhttp://www.wmo.int/pages/themes/climate/climate_models.phphttp://www.wmo.int/pages/themes/climate/climate_models.phphttp://www.wmo.int/pages/themes/climate/climate_models.phphttp://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/04/05/AR2010040503722.htmlhttp://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/04/05/AR2010040503722.htmlhttp://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/04/05/AR2010040503722.htmlhttp://dl.acm.org/citation.cfm?id=1060715http://dl.acm.org/citation.cfm?id=1060715http://dl.acm.org/citation.cfm?id=1060715http://www.scientificamerican.com/article.cfm?id=can-candid-climate-modeler-convince-contrarianshttp://www.scientificamerican.com/article.cfm?id=can-candid-climate-modeler-convince-contrarianshttp://www.scientificamerican.com/article.cfm?id=can-candid-climate-modeler-convince-contrarianshttp://www.scientificamerican.com/article.cfm?id=can-candid-climate-modeler-convince-contrarianshttp://www.businessweek.com/articles/2012-11-01/its-global-warming-stupidhttp://www.businessweek.com/articles/2012-11-01/its-global-warming-stupidhttp://www.businessweek.com/articles/2012-11-01/its-global-warming-stupidhttp://thinkprogress.org/climate/2012/11/01/1122241/bloomberg-businessweek-its-global-warming-stupid/http://thinkprogress.org/climate/2012/11/01/1122241/bloomberg-businessweek-its-global-warming-stupid/http://thinkprogress.org/climate/2012/11/01/1122241/bloomberg-businessweek-its-global-warming-stupid/http://thinkprogress.org/climate/2012/11/01/1122241/bloomberg-businessweek-its-global-warming-stupid/http://www.businessweek.com/articles/2012-11-01/its-global-warming-stupidhttp://www.scientificamerican.com/article.cfm?id=can-candid-climate-modeler-convince-contrarianshttp://www.scientificamerican.com/article.cfm?id=can-candid-climate-modeler-convince-contrarianshttp://dl.acm.org/citation.cfm?id=1060715http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/04/05/AR2010040503722.htmlhttp://www.wmo.int/pages/themes/climate/climate_models.phphttp://www.wmo.int/pages/themes/climate/climate_models.phphttp://www.research.noaa.gov/climate/t_modeling.html

7/29/2019 Yesterday Evening Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton Was Hospitalized for Treatment and Monitoring of a

6/14

andy featured a scary extra twist implicating climate change. An Atlantic hurricane moving up the East Coast crashed into cold air dipping s

om Canada. The collision supercharged the storms energy level and extended its geographical reach. Pushing that cold air south was an

mospheric pattern, known as a blocking high, above the Arctic Ocean. Climate scientists Charles Greene and Bruce Monger of Cornell Unive

riting earlier this year in Oceanography, provided evidence that Arctic icemelts linked to global warming contribute to the very atmospheric

attern that sent the frigid burst down across Canada and the eastern U.S.

nce long-form journalism with context and background is now pass in mainstream media, the media should at least take advantage of high

iority events like Sandy to shed light on the big picture. Unfortunately, these types of stories are exceedingly rare, but this is one way to edu

udiences on the fact that computer models draw on the same logic that lies behind weather models, which most people rely on for their daily

tivities, and which areunreliable-weatherman jokes asidevery close to accurate on a day-to-day basis.

eporters could also make use of immersive multimedia technology to explain how models work,says Larry Pryor. Video games that allow pe

play with real simulations can give them firsthand experience in working with computer models.

ames could be specifically designed to allow users to see causes and effects, and to analyze the impact of various factors that affect global

arming. The video game, SimCity, has anew versionwith an additional climate change component to be released next year.

tizen science and crowdsourcing projects to model and predict climate change can also be great ways to enable the public to not only acquir

formation, but to also take part in the research.Old Weather, for example, is acrowdsourced effortaimed at gathering meteorological data f

aval logs of US ships from as far back as the mid-19th century, which can be used in climate models.

itiatives like theYale Project on Climate Change Communicationare also great approaches to get citizens interested and involved in the clim

ebate. By tracking public awareness of climate change, including American attitudes, risk perceptions, and views on policies, the project test

nd effective ways to involve the public in climate science research.

ecent efforts to push for theteaching of climate sciencein schools, where children could learn the nuances, complexities and multidisciplina

pects of climate research would make the job of the media easier, even while preparing the next generation of scientists and engineers who

kely address these challenges head on.

eanwhile, the media should do its job. Its the peoples right to know. If there were an impending terrorist attack or dangerous epidemic tha

uld affect millions of people, surely the media would use every channel to communicate that to the public? What about global warminga

henomenon that may cause entire coastlines to go under water and whole countries to disappeardoesnt warrant communication?

ancer ImmunotherapyWhere Are We Going?

he compelling concept of utilizing the patients own immune system for a stronger and more effective way to attack cancer cells is not a new

William Coley observed in 1891 that infections produced in patients with inoperable cancer following an injection of streptococcal organisms

Gram-positive bacteria) led to tumor shrinkage especially when the patients developed fever and other signs of a full-blown infection.1Since t

search has embraced approaches to train the patients own immune system to recognize certain biomarkers or proteins that are mainly fo

n cancer cells and to destroy the cells.

fter several setbacks the first cellular immunotherapy, Dendreons Sipuleucel-T (Provenge), was approved for the treatment of prostate can

2010. Today, new promising cancer immunotherapy approaches are in clinical trials. Most recently, researchers at the 54 thAmerican Socie

ematology (ASH) meeting reported early success with a developmental-stage cell-based cancer vaccine for the treatment of leukemia and ha

hown remission in several patients 2,3, including a 7-year old girl who relapsed twice after chemotherapy.

ancer immunotherapy can be thought of as either active or passive immunotherapy. The most prominent passive immunotherapies, which h

volutionized cancer therapy, are monoclonal antibodies that either target tumor-specific antigens and receptors or block important pathway

ntral to tumor growth and survival. Therapeutic monoclonal antibodies are the market leader in the targeted cancer therapy space and inclu

ockbusters such as trastuzumab (Herceptin) or rituximab (Rituxan).

general, antibodies are significant elements of the bodys adaptive immune system. They play a dominant role in the recognition of foreign

ntigens and the stimulation of the immune response. Therapeutic antibodies target and bind to antigens, usually proteins that are mainly

http://www.ojr.org/ojr/people/lpryor/201211/2095/http://www.ojr.org/ojr/people/lpryor/201211/2095/http://www.ojr.org/ojr/people/lpryor/201211/2095/http://mashable.com/2012/03/07/simcity-5-2013-launch/http://mashable.com/2012/03/07/simcity-5-2013-launch/http://mashable.com/2012/03/07/simcity-5-2013-launch/http://www.oldweather.org/http://www.oldweather.org/http://www.oldweather.org/http://www.economist.com/blogs/babbage/2010/11/crowdsourced_sciencehttp://www.economist.com/blogs/babbage/2010/11/crowdsourced_sciencehttp://www.economist.com/blogs/babbage/2010/11/crowdsourced_sciencehttp://environment.yale.edu/climate/http://environment.yale.edu/climate/http://environment.yale.edu/climate/http://www.scientificamerican.com/article.cfm?id=climate-education-graduates-to-next-levelhttp://www.scientificamerican.com/article.cfm?id=climate-education-graduates-to-next-levelhttp://www.scientificamerican.com/article.cfm?id=climate-education-graduates-to-next-levelhttp://blogs.scientificamerican.com/guest-blog/2012/12/23/cancer-immunotherapy-where-are-we-going/http://blogs.scientificamerican.com/guest-blog/2012/12/23/cancer-immunotherapy-where-are-we-going/http://blogs.scientificamerican.com/guest-blog/2012/12/23/cancer-immunotherapy-where-are-we-going/http://blogs.scientificamerican.com/guest-blog/2012/12/23/cancer-immunotherapy-where-are-we-going/http://blogs.scientificamerican.com/guest-blog/2012/12/23/cancer-immunotherapy-where-are-we-going/http://www.scientificamerican.com/article.cfm?id=climate-education-graduates-to-next-levelhttp://environment.yale.edu/climate/http://www.economist.com/blogs/babbage/2010/11/crowdsourced_sciencehttp://www.oldweather.org/http://mashable.com/2012/03/07/simcity-5-2013-launch/http://www.ojr.org/ojr/people/lpryor/201211/2095/

7/29/2019 Yesterday Evening Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton Was Hospitalized for Treatment and Monitoring of a

7/14

pressed on diseased cells such as cancer cells. After binding, cancer cells can be destroyed by different mechanisms such as antibody-depen

llular cytotoxicity, the activation of the complement system an important part of the immune system and triggering cell death.

though very successful, especially in oncology, therapeutic antibodies have a significant limitation: they dont generate a memory response

mmune system, and thus, repeated antibody infusions are required. Further, monoclonal antibodies are only able to recognize specific protei

esent of the cell surface. Monoclonal antibodies are mostly produced in cell culture systems which are often costly. Humanization of murine

onoclonal antibodies by replacing of certain parts of the antibody with human sequences has improved the tolerability of antibodies and ma

em less immunogenic, but even fully human sequence-derived antibodies can carry some immunological risk.

ovel approaches in the passive immunization strategy include antibody drug conjugates, a combination of targeting antibody with a very pot

ug such as the recently approved brentuximab vedotin (ADCETRIS) for Hodgkin lymphoma and anaplastic large cell lymphoma (ALCL).

DCETRIS comprises an anti-CD30 monoclonal antibodyanti-CD30 monoclonal antibody and a cytotoxic (cell-killing) agent that is released

ternalization into CD30-expressing tumor cells. Currently, the development of next generations of ADCs is underway.

ternatively, specific and durable cancer immunotherapies designed to actively train or stimulate the patients intrinsic immune response h

een more problematic; however, recent success stories, such as the cell-based immunotherapy Provenge, have revitalized this field. Dendreo

pproach modifies the patients own dendritic cells to present a protein specific to prostate cancer cells.

endritic cells are the most potent, professional antigen-presenting cells. They process the antigen material and present it on their surface t

her cells of the immune system. Once activated, the dendritic cells migrate to the lymphoid tissues where they interact with T-cells and B-ce

hite blood cells and important components of the immune system to initiate and shape the adaptive immune response. To develop Proven

ch patients own dendritic cells are harvested and then loadedex vivo with the tumor-associated antigen. Now presenting the antigen, the

endritic cells are administered back into the patient to induce a potent, cell-mediated anticancer immune response resulting in tumor shrink

nd clinical benefit.

another experimental approach for the treatment of leukemia, patients own modified T-cells were infused back into the patients. Prior to t

e T-cells were transduced with a lentivirus to express the CD19-specific chimeric antigen receptor. CD19 is an antigen which is found on B-c

eoplasms, cancerous B-cells, and the lentivirus was the vehicle to transfer the genetic material for CD19 into the cells. A case report publishe

eNew England Journal of Medicine stated that a patient with chronic lymphocytic leukemia (CLL) was in ongoing remission 10 months aft

eatment.3

hese promising results have spurred continued research for new and safe ways to achieve effective tumor vaccination, and drug developers h

plored many cancer immunotherapy strategies. To generate an effective antitumor immunity, therapeutic intervention should drive several

nctions; specifically, it should promote the antigen presentation functions of dendritic cells, promote the production of protective T-cell

sponses, stimulate B-cells and overcome immunosuppression characteristics that are common to tumor cells.4

ell-based therapeutic vaccines are most frequently produced outside the patients body and involve isolation of the specific cells, such as den

lls, and the introduction of preselected antigens, often with the use of specific vehicle, into the cells. The antigens can be encoded in viral ve

requently DNA) or administered as peptides or proteins in a suitable adjuvant and carrier through a long and cumbersome process.

uring my doctoral thesis, I conducted immunization experiments using RNA as a negative control, assuming that the RNA would be degrade

uring the experiment thus making it impossible to use as a vaccine. The physiological role of messenger (m) RNA is to transfer genetic

formation from the nucleus to the cytoplasm where this information is translated into the corresponding protein. mRNA is known to be ver

nstable and has a relatively short half-life. But astonishingly, we were able to measure a solid T-cell immune response. We repeated the

periment and confirmed that the RNA we had produced had the potential to be used as a vaccine. Importantly, we didnt need to isolate the

atients cells: mRNA-based vaccines can be injected directly into the skin (intradermal). The mRNA-based vaccines are then taken up by ant

esenting cells, such as dendritic cells, and are then able to induce an immune response. Importantly, mRNA-vaccines can also be synthesize

uickly for any antigen sequence identified.5

he first mRNA-based vaccines (RNActive) are now in the clinic for the treatment of prostate cancer and lung cancer and have demonstrate

at they do what they are supposed to do induce a balanced humoral, as well as T cell-mediated, immune response that is entirely HLA

7/29/2019 Yesterday Evening Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton Was Hospitalized for Treatment and Monitoring of a

8/14

dependent. The HLA (human leukocyte antigen) system is used to differentiate the bodys own cells (self) and non-self cells. Additionally, R

accines do not need a vehicle such as a virus for delivery to the cells, nor do they contain virus-derived elements that are often found in DNA

accines. These attributes make RNActive a very safe therapeutic.

he risk of integration of the RNA into the host-genome is minimized (RNA would have been transcribed first to DNA, and then it has to be

ansported to the nucleus), as is the residual risk of DNA-based vaccines for inactivating or activating genes or affecting cellular regulatory

ements, which can induce oncogenesis. Thus, the favorable safety profile of mRNA-based therapies broadens their potential use not only for

eatment of diseases but for use as prophylactic vaccinations. A recent proof-of-concept study using mRNA-based vaccines (RNActive) in ani

odels for influenza was published inNature Biotechnology.6

herapeutic cancer immunotherapies and vaccines have come a long way, and novel, promising approaches give hope for safe and effective

eatment options. This may one day lead to the treatment of all cancers as chronic diseases.

ecember 28, 1908: The Tsunami of Messina

the early morning of December 28, 1908 a 30 to 42 seconds long earthquake with a reconstructed magnitude of 6.7-7.2 hit the Italian

Messina andReggio Calabria. The earthquake damaged 90% of the buildings and broken pipes fuelled a firestorm, an aftereffect known

any other earthquakes; however one of the most unusual effects of this earthquake was an 8 meter high tsunami which killed almost 2

eople.

he earthquake killed estimated 40.000 people in the two cities alone, 27.000 people along the shores of the Strait of Messina - some hi

ocuments claim 100.000 to 200.000 victims one of the deadliest natural disasters recorded during historic times in Europe.

ig.1. A historical representation a Vue de lOptiquecomposition(a hand-coloured copper engraving used in a Laterna magica) s

ips on the Strait of Messina during a series earthquake in 1783 with more than 35.000 victims.

outh Italy is located between the borders of the two major continental plates of Europe and Africa and several microplates of the Mediterra

ea. This geometry formsbelts with intense tectonic activity, recognized already in 1862.

he origin of the tsunami of Messina is still today an unsolved geological problem. The entire region is dominated by the large rift-z

e Calabrian Arc, formed by the slow rollback of the oceanic crust of the Ionian Sea.

ig.2.Simplified tectonic settings of South Italy and the intensity of the December 1908 earthquake after the modified Mercalli scale

omINGV site). In this model the earthquakes of Calabria and Sicily are mostly associated with a rift valley formed by the rollback

nian Sea.

his tectonic setting is characterized by faults with downwards movements, unusual to produce the upward push needed to generate a tsu

so no prominent fault or escarpment was until today discovered in the Strait of Messina or along the coasts of Sicily. Finally it is strange th

unami hit the shores 8 to 10 minutes after the quake, too late according to some researchers to be associated directly to the quake. A

ypothesis proposes that the tsunami of 1908 was therefore the result of a large underwater landslide, triggered by the earthquake.

he bottom of the sea revealed also that tsunami are frequent (in geologic time) catastrophes in the Mediterranean Sea. In sediments of th

Augusta(Sicily) researches discovered twelve layers, dated to 4.500 years, with microorganisms, especially foraminifers, living along the s

the island. These layers were probably formed during past tsunami, when sediments were eroded from the beach and then transported b

ackwash currents into the bay.

What I learned about science blogging/writing this year

experimented with topics, lengths, forms, and voices, quite a lot this year, trying this and that to see what works for me, what works with the

aders, etc. This is what I learned:

can still write a standard ResearchBlogging post of reasonable length, yet covering all the context it needs.

nd I can post it at the time embargo lifts. And I can get quite nice traffic for it:

ow barley domesticated its clock

can blog a conference, even if the topic is not my narrowest area of expertise.

http://blogs.scientificamerican.com/history-of-geology/2012/12/28/december-28-1908-the-tsunami-of-messina/http://blogs.scientificamerican.com/history-of-geology/2012/12/28/december-28-1908-the-tsunami-of-messina/http://maps.google.at/?ll=38.177211,15.645905&spn=0.375141,0.727158&t=h&z=11http://maps.google.at/?ll=38.177211,15.645905&spn=0.375141,0.727158&t=h&z=11http://maps.google.at/?ll=38.177211,15.645905&spn=0.375141,0.727158&t=h&z=11http://maps.google.at/?ll=38.177211,15.645905&spn=0.375141,0.727158&t=h&z=11http://maps.google.at/?ll=38.177211,15.645905&spn=0.375141,0.727158&t=h&z=11http://blogs.scientificamerican.com/history-of-geology/2012/04/06/april-6-2009-the-laquila-earthquake/http://blogs.scientificamerican.com/history-of-geology/2012/04/06/april-6-2009-the-laquila-earthquake/http://blogs.scientificamerican.com/history-of-geology/2012/04/06/april-6-2009-the-laquila-earthquake/http://blogs.scientificamerican.com/history-of-geology/2012/04/06/april-6-2009-the-laquila-earthquake/http://blogs.scientificamerican.com/history-of-geology/2012/04/06/april-6-2009-the-laquila-earthquake/http://blogs.scientificamerican.com/history-of-geology/2012/04/06/april-6-2009-the-laquila-earthquake/http://blogs.scientificamerican.com/history-of-geology/2012/07/15/travels-in-geology-africa/http://blogs.scientificamerican.com/history-of-geology/2012/07/15/travels-in-geology-africa/http://emidius.mi.ingv.it/DBMI04/query_eq/external_call.htm?eq_id=2320http://emidius.mi.ingv.it/DBMI04/query_eq/external_call.htm?eq_id=2320http://emidius.mi.ingv.it/DBMI04/query_eq/external_call.htm?eq_id=2320http://maps.google.at/?ll=37.189314,15.276489&spn=0.195283,0.363579&t=h&z=12&vpsrc=6http://maps.google.at/?ll=37.189314,15.276489&spn=0.195283,0.363579&t=h&z=12&vpsrc=6http://maps.google.at/?ll=37.189314,15.276489&spn=0.195283,0.363579&t=h&z=12&vpsrc=6http://blogs.scientificamerican.com/history-of-geology/2012/12/26/tsunami-in-the-geological-record/http://blogs.scientificamerican.com/history-of-geology/2012/12/26/tsunami-in-the-geological-record/http://blogs.scientificamerican.com/history-of-geology/2012/12/26/tsunami-in-the-geological-record/http://blogs.scientificamerican.com/history-of-geology/2012/12/26/tsunami-in-the-geological-record/http://blogs.scientificamerican.com/a-blog-around-the-clock/2012/12/27/what-i-learned-about-science-bloggingwriting-this-year/http://blogs.scientificamerican.com/a-blog-around-the-clock/2012/12/27/what-i-learned-about-science-bloggingwriting-this-year/http://blogs.scientificamerican.com/a-blog-around-the-clock/2012/05/14/how-barley-domesticated-its-clock/http://blogs.scientificamerican.com/a-blog-around-the-clock/2012/05/14/how-barley-domesticated-its-clock/http://blogs.scientificamerican.com/a-blog-around-the-clock/2012/05/14/how-barley-domesticated-its-clock/http://blogs.scientificamerican.com/a-blog-around-the-clock/2012/12/27/what-i-learned-about-science-bloggingwriting-this-year/http://blogs.scientificamerican.com/history-of-geology/2012/12/26/tsunami-in-the-geological-record/http://blogs.scientificamerican.com/history-of-geology/2012/12/26/tsunami-in-the-geological-record/http://maps.google.at/?ll=37.189314,15.276489&spn=0.195283,0.363579&t=h&z=12&vpsrc=6http://emidius.mi.ingv.it/DBMI04/query_eq/external_call.htm?eq_id=2320http://blogs.scientificamerican.com/history-of-geology/2012/07/15/travels-in-geology-africa/http://blogs.scientificamerican.com/history-of-geology/2012/04/06/april-6-2009-the-laquila-earthquake/http://maps.google.at/?ll=38.177211,15.645905&spn=0.375141,0.727158&t=h&z=11http://blogs.scientificamerican.com/history-of-geology/2012/12/28/december-28-1908-the-tsunami-of-messina/

7/29/2019 Yesterday Evening Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton Was Hospitalized for Treatment and Monitoring of a

9/14

wanted to learn how to cover a meeting like a journalistic pro. Instead, Editor-in-Chief told me No, you should blog it. So I did. And I had f

dded my own photos, and people in the field liked it:

2012SVP what do Vertebrate Paleontologists talk about?

can get outside of my area of expertise when the news cycle requires it, learn about it fast, and become atemporary expe

.

nd then get interviewed and quoted by the other new outlets as if I really am an expert on the topic:

id NYC rats survive hurricane Sandy?

ut my personalized follow-up on the Big News story, does not work as well as the original.

ut heck, at least I finally got to publish some old photos:

o rats in Ryder Alley

can write on deadline, with word-limit, and I like getting my stuff edited.

When all the editors started nominating stories for our Top Ten 2012 Stories list, I suggested ENCODE, so I was assigned to write about it. I w

orried about having to re-write everything from scratch, so I turned it in two days ahead of deadline. When I got the piece back, edited by Ph

am, it looked very, very red on my screen. But as I started checking all the edits, I realized that each edit was small a punctuation here, a w

der there, a small change in wording, etc. No huge changes, but LOTS of tiny changes. And each little thing made my article a little bit bette

e changes together made my article much better. So I am quite happy how it turned out:

ublication of the ENCODE Encyclopedia: A Milestone in Genome Research

ong posts with strange structure can work well.

experimented with coverage of several papers in a single post. I covered each one briefly, had subheadings (e.g., What is it about, What is ne

ake-home message, Some more thoughts, Good coverage elsewhere, etc), finishing with my own summary of how all of the papers fit togethe

ow they move the field as a whole forward. And it got quite decent traffic:

ocks, metabolism, evolution toward an integrative chronobiology

can write fast, publish as embargo lifts, and STILL manage to get a lot of context and lot of my own thoughts.

helps that I have written, few years before, a very involved post on a related topic, so I could draw from that pool of information, build up on

any people told me they really loved this post:

umped by bed nets, mosquitoes turn midnight snack into breakfast

otally quirky stuff has its own fans.

started with a bet that I could seriously use the word callipygous in a science article. That led me on a search for topics in which I could

otentially use it. That brought me to spiders (yes, it could have been sheep instead). So I wrote a completely stream-of-consciousness post

nnecting all sorts of seemingly unconnected things about spiders. I wrote about spiders before. I talked about spiders very recently. I saw th

pider exhibit at the AMNH just before it. I included bits and pieces of all of that somewhere in the post. And I timed the post to show up on t

nniversary of Charlottes Web. All of that combined into a quirky post with surprising twists and turns, cool scientific information, fun video

ersonal stuff, and more. And people just loved it:

harlottes Web: what was she smoking?

can write REALLY fast! And lack of time for over-thinking makes it better.

heard about the study at 8am. I published my post at 11am. While multitasking other stuff I had to do at the time. Yes, I carefully read the pa

rst. And the paper got lots of media coverage elsewhere, yet the author contacted me to tell me specifically how well I did it. And the PIO in

harge of the paper bought me a beer a few months later for giving the paper so much visibility and good coverage. And the post even resulted

comic strip, the original of which is now hanging on the wall of the institution where the research was done. My favorite post of the entire ye

gers take to the night for peaceful coexistence with humans

ext year, Ill try some new approaches, do new experiments, try to make it fun for me and you. Well see how it works out in the end.

eed a NewYears Resolution? Choose to Believe In Free Will!

http://blogs.scientificamerican.com/a-blog-around-the-clock/2012/10/21/2012svp-what-do-vertebrate-paleontologists-talk-about/http://blogs.scientificamerican.com/a-blog-around-the-clock/2012/10/21/2012svp-what-do-vertebrate-paleontologists-talk-about/http://blogs.scientificamerican.com/a-blog-around-the-clock/2012/10/21/2012svp-what-do-vertebrate-paleontologists-talk-about/http://blogs.scientificamerican.com/a-blog-around-the-clock/2012/10/21/2012svp-what-do-vertebrate-paleontologists-talk-about/http://blogs.scientificamerican.com/a-blog-around-the-clock/2012/11/21/the-other-kinds-of-expertise/http://blogs.scientificamerican.com/a-blog-around-the-clock/2012/11/21/the-other-kinds-of-expertise/http://blogs.scientificamerican.com/a-blog-around-the-clock/2012/10/31/did-nyc-rats-survive-hurricane-sandy/http://blogs.scientificamerican.com/a-blog-around-the-clock/2012/10/31/did-nyc-rats-survive-hurricane-sandy/http://blogs.scientificamerican.com/a-blog-around-the-clock/2012/11/05/no-rats-in-ryder-alley/http://blogs.scientificamerican.com/a-blog-around-the-clock/2012/11/05/no-rats-in-ryder-alley/http://www.scientificamerican.com/article.cfm?id=top-10-science-stories-2012&page=8http://www.scientificamerican.com/article.cfm?id=top-10-science-stories-2012&page=8http://blogs.scientificamerican.com/a-blog-around-the-clock/2012/05/30/clocks-metabolism-evolution-toward-an-integrative-chronobiology/http://blogs.scientificamerican.com/a-blog-around-the-clock/2012/05/30/clocks-metabolism-evolution-toward-an-integrative-chronobiology/http://blogs.scientificamerican.com/a-blog-around-the-clock/2012/05/30/clocks-metabolism-evolution-toward-an-integrative-chronobiology/http://blogs.scientificamerican.com/a-blog-around-the-clock/2012/05/30/clocks-metabolism-evolution-toward-an-integrative-chronobiology/http://blogs.scientificamerican.com/a-blog-around-the-clock/2012/10/03/stumped-by-bed-nets-mosquitoes-turn-midnight-snack-into-breakfast/http://blogs.scientificamerican.com/a-blog-around-the-clock/2012/10/03/stumped-by-bed-nets-mosquitoes-turn-midnight-snack-into-breakfast/http://blogs.scientificamerican.com/a-blog-around-the-clock/2012/10/15/charlottes-web-what-was-she-smoking/http://blogs.scientificamerican.com/a-blog-around-the-clock/2012/10/15/charlottes-web-what-was-she-smoking/http://blogs.scientificamerican.com/a-blog-around-the-clock/2012/10/15/charlottes-web-what-was-she-smoking/http://sci-ence.org/night-growl/http://sci-ence.org/night-growl/http://blogs.scientificamerican.com/a-blog-around-the-clock/2012/09/04/tigers-take-to-the-night-for-peaceful-coexistence-with-humans/http://blogs.scientificamerican.com/a-blog-around-the-clock/2012/09/04/tigers-take-to-the-night-for-peaceful-coexistence-with-humans/http://blogs.scientificamerican.com/a-blog-around-the-clock/2012/09/04/tigers-take-to-the-night-for-peaceful-coexistence-with-humans/http://blogs.scientificamerican.com/a-blog-around-the-clock/2012/09/04/tigers-take-to-the-night-for-peaceful-coexistence-with-humans/http://blogs.scientificamerican.com/cross-check/2012/12/28/need-a-new-years-resolution-choose-to-believe-in-free-will/http://blogs.scientificamerican.com/cross-check/2012/12/28/need-a-new-years-resolution-choose-to-believe-in-free-will/http://blogs.scientificamerican.com/cross-check/2012/12/28/need-a-new-years-resolution-choose-to-believe-in-free-will/http://blogs.scientificamerican.com/cross-check/2012/12/28/need-a-new-years-resolution-choose-to-believe-in-free-will/http://blogs.scientificamerican.com/cross-check/2012/12/28/need-a-new-years-resolution-choose-to-believe-in-free-will/http://blogs.scientificamerican.com/a-blog-around-the-clock/2012/09/04/tigers-take-to-the-night-for-peaceful-coexistence-with-humans/http://sci-ence.org/night-growl/http://blogs.scientificamerican.com/a-blog-around-the-clock/2012/10/15/charlottes-web-what-was-she-smoking/http://blogs.scientificamerican.com/a-blog-around-the-clock/2012/10/03/stumped-by-bed-nets-mosquitoes-turn-midnight-snack-into-breakfast/http://blogs.scientificamerican.com/a-blog-around-the-clock/2012/05/30/clocks-metabolism-evolution-toward-an-integrative-chronobiology/http://www.scientificamerican.com/article.cfm?id=top-10-science-stories-2012&page=8http://blogs.scientificamerican.com/a-blog-around-the-clock/2012/11/05/no-rats-in-ryder-alley/http://blogs.scientificamerican.com/a-blog-around-the-clock/2012/10/31/did-nyc-rats-survive-hurricane-sandy/http://blogs.scientificamerican.com/a-blog-around-the-clock/2012/11/21/the-other-kinds-of-expertise/http://blogs.scientificamerican.com/a-blog-around-the-clock/2012/10/21/2012svp-what-do-vertebrate-paleontologists-talk-about/

7/29/2019 Yesterday Evening Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton Was Hospitalized for Treatment and Monitoring of a

10/14

Were approaching the end of one year and the beginning of another, when people resolve to quit smoking, swill less booze, gobble less ice cre

g every day, or every other day, work harder, or less hard, be nicer to kids, spouses, ex-spouses, co-workers, read more books, watch less TV

ceptHomeland, which is awesome. In other words, its a time when people seek to alter their life trajectoriesby exercising their free will.

omemean-spirited materialistsdeny that free will exists, and this specious claimnotmere physiological processes in my brainmotivates m

print a defense of free will that I wrote for The New York Times 10 years ago:

When I woke this morning, I stared at the ceiling above my bed and wondered: To what extent will my rising really be an exercise of my free w

ets say I got up right . . . now. Would my subjective decision be the cause? Or would computations unfolding in a subconsci ous neural

etherworld actually set off the muscular twitches that slide me out of the bed, quietly, so as not to wake my wife (not a morning person), and

opel me toward the door?

ne of the risks of science journalism is that occasionally you encounter research that threatens something you cherish. Free will is something

herish. I can live with the idea of science killing off God. But free will? Thats going too far. And yet a couple of books Ive been reading lately

ft me brooding over the possibility that free will is as much a myth as divine justice.

he chief offender is The Illusion of Conscious Will(MIT Press, 2002), by Daniel M. Wegner, a psychologist at Harvard. What makes Wegner

itique more effective than others Ive read over the years is that it is less philosophical than empirical, drawing heavilyupon recent research

gnitive science and neurology. Wegner also carries out his vivisection of free will with a disturbing cheerfulness, like a neurosurgeon joking

uts a patients brain.

We think of will as a force, but actually, Wegner says, it is a feeling merely a feeling, as he puts it of control over our actions. I think, I

oing to get up now, and when I do a moment later, I credit that feeling with having been the instigating cause. But as we all know, correlatio

oes not equal causation.

When neurologists make patients limbs jerk by electrically zapping certain regions of their brains, the patients often insist they meant to mov

at arm, and they even invent reasons why. Neurologists call these erroneous, post hoc explanations confabulations, but Wegner prefers th

tchier intention inventions. He suggests that whenever we explain our acts as the outcome of our conscious choice, we are engaging in

tention invention, because our actions actually stem from countless causes of which we are completely unaware.

e cites experiments by psychologist Benjamin Libet in which subjects pushed a button whenever they chose while noting the time of their

ecision as displayed on a clock. The subjects took 0.2 seconds on average to push the button after they decided to do so. But an

ectroencephalograph monitoring their brain waves revealed that the subjects brains generated a spike of brain activity 0.3 seconds before th

ecided to push the button. The meaning of these widely debated findings, Wegner says, is that our conscious willing is an afterthought, which

icks in at some point after the brain has already started preparing for the action.

ther research has indicated that the neural circuits underlying our conscious sensations of intention are distinct from the circuits that actual

ake our muscles move. This disconnect may explain why we so often fail to carry out our most adamant decisions. This morning, I may reso

ink only one cup of coffee instead of two, or to take a long run through the woods. But I may do neither of these things (and chances are I w

ometimes our intentions seem to be self-thwarting. The more I tell myself to go back to sleep instead of obsessing over free will, the wider aw

el. Wegner attributes these situations to ironic processes of mental control. I prefer Edgar Allan Poes phrase the imp of the perverse, wh

ore vividly evokes that mischievous other we sense lurking within us.

rain disorders can exacerbate experiences of this kind. Schizophrenics perceive their very thoughts as coming from malevolent external sour

hose who have lasting damage to the corpus callosum, a neural cable that transmits signals between the brains hemispheres, may be afflicte

ith alien-hand syndrome. They may end up, Wegner says, like Dr. Strangelove, whose left hand frantically tried to keep his right from jutting

Nazi salutes.

erfectly healthy people may lose their sense of control over actions their brains have clearly initiated. When we are hypnotized, playing with

oards, or speaking in tongues, we may feel as though someone or something else is acting through us, whether a muse, ghost, devil, or deity.

l these examples imply is that the concept of a unified self, which is a necessary precondition for free will, may be an illusion.

http://blogs.scientificamerican.com/cross-check/2012/04/09/will-this-post-make-sam-harris-change-his-mind-about-free-will/http://blogs.scientificamerican.com/cross-check/2012/04/09/will-this-post-make-sam-harris-change-his-mind-about-free-will/http://blogs.scientificamerican.com/cross-check/2012/04/09/will-this-post-make-sam-harris-change-his-mind-about-free-will/http://blogs.scientificamerican.com/cross-check/2012/04/09/will-this-post-make-sam-harris-change-his-mind-about-free-will/

7/29/2019 Yesterday Evening Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton Was Hospitalized for Treatment and Monitoring of a

11/14

Wegner quotes Arthur C. Clarkes remark that any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic. Becausewe cannot pos

nderstand how the fantastically complex machines in our skulls really work, Wegner says, we explain our behavior in terms of such silly, occ

ncepts as the self and free will. Our belief in our personal identity and self-control does have its uses, Wegner grants; without it, we mig

on be wearing each others underclothing.

aybe I should lighten up and embrace my lack of free will and a self. Thats what Susan Blackmore, a British psychologist and a practitioner

en, advises. In her bookThe Meme Machine (Oxford University Press, 1999), she contends that our minds are really just bundles of memes, t

eliefs and habits and predilections that we catch from one another like viruses. Take all of the memes out of a mind, and there is no self left t

ee.

nce you realize you have no control over your destiny, says Blackmore, you will expend less energy regretting past decisions and fretting ove

ture ones, and you will be more appreciative of the vital present. Be here now, and so on. In other words, true freedom comes from acceptin

ere is no freedom.

ackmores reasoning strikes me as less spiritual than Orwellian. To me, choices, freely made, are what make life meaningful. Moreover, our

free will has social value. It provides us with the metaphysical justification for ethics and morality. It forces us to take responsibility for our

ther than consigning our fate to our genes or God. Free will works better than any other single criterion for gauging the vitality of a life, or a

ciety.

heologians have proposed that science still allows faith in a God of the gaps, who dwells within those shadowy realms into which science h

lly penetrated, such as the imaginary time before the Big Bang banged. In the same way, maybe we can have a free will of the gaps. No scien

ore riddled with gaps, after all, than the science of human consciousness.

s I lay in bed this morning, however, my faith in free will wavered. Scanning my mind for something resembling will, I found a welter of roil

oughts and anti-thoughts, a few of which transcended virtuality long enough for closer inspection. One thought was that, no matter what m

tellect decides, Im compelled to believe in free will.

uest Post: The Value of Short-term Energy Storage for Renewable Energy

his is a guest post by Robert Fares, a graduate student at The University of Texas at Austin researching the benefits of grid energy storage

art ofPecan Street Inc.songoingsmart grid demonstration project. Robert is contributing a series of guest posts discussing grid storage

chnologies, and how storage could benefit the electric grid. You can read the first post in his serieshere.

lot of the time, grid energy storage is discussed in the context of renewable energy. Storage is cited as a necessary solution to the diurnal nat

solar andwind energy. We need storage because the sun doesnt shine at night. Wind energy is greatest at night, so we need storage to sh

ind energy to the daytime. While there is some truth to these statements, they dont reflect the real need for energy storage on our present g

ven intermittent sources of renewable energy like wind and solar tend to adhere to a predictable output schedule. The availability of wind, fo

ample, naturally conforms to a probabilisticRayleigh distribution. Using statistical analysis and other prediction tools, Texas grid operator

een able to integrate more wind energy with the grid than ever before, setting an instantaneous wind record of8,521 megawattsin Novembe

urthermore, the temporal nature of wind energy varies based on where a wind farm is located. Experience in Texas has shown that wind farm

e West Texas plains output most at night, whilecoastal wind farms output most on summer afternoons.At the same time,researchhas show

at west-facing rooftop solar panels can produce more energy in the late afternoon than south-facing solar panels. The varying characteristic

fferent renewable energy sources and configurations permit grid planners to build a mix of renewables that loosely lines up with our deman

ectricity.

ifferent intermittent renewable energy sources can be combined to loosely line up with electric load, so long-term storage is not a necessity.

owever, fast-ramping technologies like energy storage are required to compensate for the short-term volatility of wind and solar power

oduction.

o why do we need storage then? As I discussed in mylast post, our present electric grid operates totally on demand. The amount of electric e

nerated must match the demand for electricity at every moment in time. Because of this fact, intermittent forms of renewable energy can ha

http://blogs.scientificamerican.com/plugged-in/2012/12/26/guest-post-the-value-of-short-term-energy-storage-for-renewable-energy/http://blogs.scientificamerican.com/plugged-in/2012/12/26/guest-post-the-value-of-short-term-energy-storage-for-renewable-energy/http://www.pecanstreet.org/http://www.pecanstreet.org/http://www.pecanstreet.org/http://www.pecanstreet.org/projects/smart-grid-demonstration/http://www.pecanstreet.org/projects/smart-grid-demonstration/http://www.pecanstreet.org/projects/smart-grid-demonstration/http://blogs.scientificamerican.com/plugged-in/2012/12/19/guest-post-can-we-store-electricity-to-transform-the-grid/http://blogs.scientificamerican.com/plugged-in/2012/12/19/guest-post-can-we-store-electricity-to-transform-the-grid/http://blogs.scientificamerican.com/plugged-in/2012/12/19/guest-post-can-we-store-electricity-to-transform-the-grid/http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rayleigh_distributionhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rayleigh_distributionhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rayleigh_distributionhttp://www.ercot.com/news/press_releases/show/26342http://www.ercot.com/news/press_releases/show/26342http://www.ercot.com/news/press_releases/show/26342http://www.texastribune.org/texas-energy/energy/texas-wind-power-grows-along-the-gulf-coast/http://www.texastribune.org/texas-energy/energy/texas-wind-power-grows-along-the-gulf-coast/http://www.texastribune.org/texas-energy/energy/texas-wind-power-grows-along-the-gulf-coast/http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0306261911006805http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0306261911006805http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0306261911006805http://blogs.scientificamerican.com/plugged-in/2012/12/19/guest-post-can-we-store-electricity-to-transform-the-grid/http://blogs.scientificamerican.com/plugged-in/2012/12/19/guest-post-can-we-store-electricity-to-transform-the-grid/http://blogs.scientificamerican.com/plugged-in/2012/12/19/guest-post-can-we-store-electricity-to-transform-the-grid/http://blogs.scientificamerican.com/plugged-in/2012/12/19/guest-post-can-we-store-electricity-to-transform-the-grid/http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0306261911006805http://www.texastribune.org/texas-energy/energy/texas-wind-power-grows-along-the-gulf-coast/http://www.ercot.com/news/press_releases/show/26342http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rayleigh_distributionhttp://blogs.scientificamerican.com/plugged-in/2012/12/19/guest-post-can-we-store-electricity-to-transform-the-grid/http://www.pecanstreet.org/projects/smart-grid-demonstration/http://www.pecanstreet.org/http://blogs.scientificamerican.com/plugged-in/2012/12/26/guest-post-the-value-of-short-term-energy-storage-for-renewable-energy/

7/29/2019 Yesterday Evening Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton Was Hospitalized for Treatment and Monitoring of a

12/14

estabilizing effect on the grid. Presently, renewables make up just a small part of our generation mix, so other generators can usually compen

r the intermittent nature of renewable energy to balance electric supply and demand. However, there are times when the volatility of renewa

nergy outpaces present electric generators. Because conventional generators rely on slow thermal and mechanical processes, they sometimes

nnot match the pace of renewable energy fluctuations. A number of such destabilizing events have occurred onTexas wind-heavy grid.For

ason, the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) issuedorder 755, which prompts organized electricity markets to enable the

tegration of novel, fast-acting resources capable of tightly regulating the balance between electric supply and demand.

maller-scale storage technologies like flywheels and batteries fill the niche opened by FERC order 755. Becausea flywheel storage deviceope

y continuously spinning the shaft of an electric generator, it can compensate for renewable shortfalls almost instantaneously. A flywheel syst

anufactured by Beacon Powerhas been deployed in Californiato demonstrate the fast-ramping capabilities of flywheel storage devices.

ke a flywheel, a battery can rapidly produce electricity to compensate for shortfalls in renewable energy. A battery operates through chemica

actions, so it can adjust its power output in milliseconds to seconds, compared with minutes to hours for electric generators. Furthermore,

attery only needs a small amount of storage capacity to effectively back up renewables. For example, a purpose-built battery recentlyunveile

treme Power holds just enough energy to discharge for fifteen minutes. What does this mean? Smaller, less-expensive battery systems can fi

che on our present electric grid.

y complementing renewable energy at this early stage of our transforming grid, storage establishes its role as a key grid technology going for

or highly scalable technologies like redox flow batteries, the space opened by order 755 could pave the way to large-scale electricity storage i

ture. This development could fundamentally decouple electric supply and demand in time, making the grid more robust and enabling the

idespread use of renewable energy.

hoto credit: the figure in this post comes from the U.S. Department of Energy Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energys Solar Ene

echnologies Program. It can be found inthis document, which explains the ideas behind this post in more detail.

ont Believe Everything You See on YouTube: Parcutin Edition

d like to conduct an experiment someday. Id like to gather together a group of experts in a particular field and show them a few popular scie

deo clips relevant to their areas of expertise. Would they groan, howl and laugh as much as I did during these three short clips?

he sad fact is, even august purveyors of information can get things hysterically wrong. And I use the word hysterically advisedly I mean t

em to be pining for disaster. Theyre like the poor Angahuan tourist guide who, gazing upon the serene, extinct edifice ofParcutin, said wis

t would be nice if the volcano would erupt again just a little bit.

feel you, amigo. Ive said the same thing gazing into Mount St. Helenss caldera.

ritannica and Discovery seem to have the same yearning. Watch these two clips, and youll see. You should watch them because they are of a

nder cone being born, and they are awesome, despite the bit o wrong.

he key term here is defunct. Parcutin is defunct. It is definitely deceased. It is an ex-active volcano. Its amonogenetic volcano it shot its

harge and is now resting in peace. So all of those announcers warning of possible future mayhem in dolorous tones theyre wrong. I hope th

oem helps them remember this fact.

ut I have good news for them theTrans-Mexican Volcanic BeltParcutin is located in is definitelynotdefunct. We may not see it in our

etimes, but a new cinder cone could pop up there at any moment. And it has plenty of volcanoes that go boom. There areseveral just aroun

exico City alone, plus theres the possibility that a cinder cone could rise up in a Mexico City suburb somewhere, bursting through someone

ving room floor in a fissure of fire, spewing molten rock all over the sofa and teevee, making life quite exciting for the residents and causing t

eighborhood to undergo a rather drastic rezoning from residential to volcano. Is that not enough potential mayhem, pop sci program writers

ust you invent entirely fictitious possible future eruptions of Parcutin in order to frighten viewers into watching?

adly, I suspect the answer is yes. Well probably never convince them otherwise fear sells, and well they know it. This is why I try to keepa

ock of salthandy when watching science programming on the teevee or, in this case, on YouT